speak.

In every school, no matter what school it is, there is always an outcast. Most districts start having an outcast in either 6th grade or 7th grade. Those people sometimes try to do whatever they would have to do, just to not be an outcast. What really inspires me is how Laurie Halse Anderson, the author of Speak, put Melinda in the book. Melinda might care a little, but its not like she changes what she thinks or how/what she wears her cloths. She luckily found a better way to deal with the depression: with drawing.

Art can help with many emotions: depression, anger, sadness, etc. But in the case of Melinda it helps her with fear and a feeling inside that eats her up each and every day. During the summer she went to party just like any teenager would do in a normal life. A guy that thought he could get some that night, went to Melinda because she was easy to get. So he went to Melinda, started acting like he was her boyfriend but really he was just trying to get, what every guy is thinking about. As they go outside, they lay down on the grass under a tree. He started asking her if she wanted to do "it" but she didn’t answer. So he went for it. He raped her, and now because of that, every time she's looking at a tree she has the flashbacks that eats her up. She tries to forget the about it but for some reason that memory over laps the good ones. As she goes to school, in her art class, the teacher told her to pick a piece of paper out of the jar/world. She, all of a sudden got a tree. She asks if she could another one because it was really childish for her to draw a tree. The teacher said no, she has to draw the tree. So she started on her tree. She tought that by getting a better view of a tree. She laid down outside under a tree. As she was staring at the tree the flashbacks started coming. She freaked out but she went to draw the tree. And as she kept drawing and drawing the trees even more, she got comfortable with the trees, but she still got the flashbacks. No matter what she tries to keep going and just keeps on drawing, as much as she can.

I know how Melinda feels. My old school, Greendale Middle School, made me feel like I was a complete outcast. Everyone gave me looks as if I was an alien that was disgusting to look at. If you don't know how it feels... well, it feels like burning hell. You feel like everyone in the whole entire world is against you. Of course you, not knowing what to do but just deal with it and keep going on with what you can. Maybe there is one or two friends along the road, but they turn out to be fake. If they are real then it feels like its just a fairytale, that is going to end soon. And there it happens. It ends right before your eyes.

No matter if you are an outcast, the most popular person in the whole entire world, alien, Scooby doo, it doesn’t matter. You always need to be yourself. Don’t let other people influence you. Sure sometimes you don’t have control over what people make you do, but somehow you could always be yourself. If you are by yourself in school.. Then be by yourself. Prove to everyone that you can think, be, believe the saying, " ME, MYSELF, AND I". Prove that you don’t need anyone by your side, and you can fight your battles and be strong and stand up for yourself. Of course at one point your going to feel overwhelmed. You'll know when that moment is because that feeling is like you cant take it anymore and you just brake down crying. And that's alright. When that happens, make sure that you don’t end up being stupid, with committing suicide, and go to a grown up that you can trust, and tell them what's going on. You don’t have to tell them everything, just what your feeling (at the moment). That would be the best choice to do.

Catherine (:

C- can me make me laugh.
A- Amazing at being a really good friend.
T- the person to trust with a secret.
H- my Hunnybunch ;)
E- Excellent at helping me when i need help.
R- likes to Run.
I- Intellegent...
N- Never can disapoint someone.
E- Excellent, Amazing, Super, Best friend. :)

:) I LOVE YOU HUNNYBUNCH! (:

hemmingway

Hemmingway Paper.
 
In the story “ A Clean well Lighted Place”, there are three characters. The Old man, Young waiter, and the Old waiter. The old man is the main character but the other two characters have a big part in it. If you would read this story, you will find it very interesting how the writer, Hemmingway, will introduce all the characters that I am about to talk about.
 
The Old Man is a very interesting man. In my prespective the old man is lonely, without anyone to talk to and to be with when he is trouble. In the story it explains a lot about the old man, but with what hemming way is trying to get through is the old man is him. The old man went to a bar almost every night. Sometimes he would get so drunk that he would not know when the bartender would be poring his drink. Or he would be so drunk that he wouldn't be able to pay his own bill.
 
 
The next person I want to talk about is the Old waiter. The old waiter is a lot like the old man. He is also lonely, likes the morning, and a lot more reasons that they are a lot alike. Like you see they get each other. In my opinion the old waiter works at a bar because it closes in the morning. In the story it says “ The old waiter fell a sleep at the crack of dawn”. That told me that he only sleeps in when there is light, just like the old man as well. So the old waiter and the old man have a lot in common like I said before. So what I what I see is Hemmingway trying to put himself in this two very well described characters.
 
The other person I was going to talk to you about is the Young Waiter. This man is young of course. He has a wife, that he can’t get really get to at night because he works at the bar. So obviously he is really rude to the old man when he didn’t want to stay any longer in the bar waiter for some old man that is so drunk that he can’t even pay for his own bill. So what the young waiter did just so that he could go home he kicked the old man out of the bar. And then that’s when the old waiter stepped in and said that was a really wrong thing to do. But still after that the young waiter still didn’t lean his lesson. He was still rude to the old man after that. So you see the old waiter was not the best person to be working at a bar that stays open that that late.
 
So as you can see, the old man did drink a lot. He was lonely and so was the old waiter. But because the young waiter knew that he had a woman waiting for him at home he was selfish and didn’t think about anyone else but himself. But the other thing that I’m trying to point out is that the old man is a part of Hemmingway, and what he was trying to point out is loneliness can lead to some bad things. The old man and the old waiter knew what this felt like, but the young waiter obviously didn’t. so what I think Hemmingway was trying to say is that sometimes young people don’t know what they really have, until you are grown up and you what you it is that you actually have.
 
 

Jessica (:

J-  Just beautiful.
E- Excelent dancer.
S- Stonning.
S- Super good Friend.
I- Intellegent.
C- Creative.
A- Absolutely Gorgeous.

:) i love you Jessi (:

Everything happens for a reason.

           That night when you were saying “bye” I knew something was going to go wrong.  we all waited for you for years…. But you never came through that door saying “ hello I’m home”.  I might of been young but I knew that you were not going to come back.  We all knew.

Your exact words that night were, “you two are my little princesses. You three mean the world to me”. You kissed my sister and I on the forehead and gave my mother a kiss.   “I love you guys so much.  While I’m gone I am going to miss you a lot.  Make sure you will stay strong, and pray, for me to come back.”  And BOOM there it was. The clues that, you were not going to come back. “Ever”.  I was only five when all of this happened. But I can remember like it was just yesterday. 

That morning you woke up at 6:40 AM just like every morning, then  took a shower at 7:00 AM.  Then you came in our room and said “I love you girls ill miss you” and kissed us on our foreheads and then went out the door.  Two days passed, And nothing.  Four days passed, and still you didn’t come back.  Then a month.  Whenever anybody rang the doorbell my sister and I ran to the door to see if it was you.  And no it never was.  Then it became almost a year.  And you still never came back. 

Then two years past.  And some things started to arrive at my house.  My mom being all alone not being able to turn to someone for help she panicked and we had to pack our bags, get our plane tickets, and say "bye" to our family and our beautiful country Bogota, Colombia. Without knowing anyone but one person, we came to Milwaukee, Wisconsin. When I got here it was December 24^th.  Being form a country that’s always warm it felt like it was an ice box.  Of course I didn’t like it, neither did my mother or my sister.  But it was a dead that had to be done. We coudln't just go back... so we had to stay in Milwaukee.

Now it has been 7 years without my father, 6 years in Wisconsin, and 4 years of being hardcore American.  So as you can see, I haven’t had one birthday, Christmas, thanksgiving, or any kind of celebration with my father since I was five years old.  But over the years I have learned one big thing.  “Everything happens for a reason”.  If nothing would have happened in Colombia, I would not be here today.  Not in Pewaukee, neither alive.  So when someone tells you that everything happens for a reason believe it because whoever said it, sure knows what they are talking about.

                                                P.S.  I love and miss you daddy.