(Final Frame Photo & Final This I Believe Piece)

My Pursuit of Happiness

Going in the opposite direction of what most people say in order to achieve what really matters to you can be risky. It is shaky ground for a person only used to what they know. It reminds me of so many adults in my life who do their job because they were told they were good with numbers, or that they would make the most money here or there, or even that their only option was to take over the family business. It is a dismal moment when someone realizes they should have taken those chances and tried to succeed with what they love to do in life.

It is important that you know your aspiration truly does give you the joy you yearn for. I immediately connected to a man named Merce Cunningham as I read an article about him. He had it right when he talked about his passion for what he, himself, loved to do. He said, “You have to love dancing to stick to it. It gives you nothing back, no manuscripts to store away, no paintings to show on walls and maybe hang in museums, no poems to be printed and sold, nothing but that single fleeting moment when you feel alive.” He sure knew what he was talking about- he knew what he loved to do, and he knew he would do anything to be able to do it.

Dancing is a way for me to get away- this, Cunningham and I have in common. The world around me vanishes like flour being blown off the tip of a spoon, like a dandelion’s tendrils breaking free when wished upon. I don’t know what I would do without that escape. There are people I know, though, that think it is just a waste of time to dance. I’ve decided to ignore those people. Dancing is what I love, and I will undertake the necessary risks to successfully thrive in my pursuit.

Throughout my life I have been told to take risks when life throws you chances and opportunities to do what you love. My mom in particular has always been supportive in this realm of my future. She often makes reference to her favorite Robert Frost poem, The Road Not Taken. He wrote,

‘Two roads diverged in a wood, and I-

I took the one less traveled by,

And that has made all the difference.’

What purpose is there in life other than to do what you love? If it means going against the grain, then so be it. I will take the risks and chances, and I will strive to do what I love in life. I need to make the most in life. That means making myself happy, even if I have to work to get there.

This I Believe Project

-Project Description-

This is a writing project. It is inspired by This I believe, a writing entry contest held by National Public Radio. The assignment is to write a 400 to 500 word essay about something you believe. We also are creating black and white silhouette images of our side profiles. Once we are finished with both the writing piece and the profile image, they will both be displayed together in a frame.

-Process-

We started by making a list of 30 things we believe. They didn't necessarily have to be serious things we believe in, they could range from things like 'I believe in God' to 'I believe I could eat pizza every day for the rest of my life because I love it so much.'

After that brainstorm, we chose what belief we were going to each write about. The belief I wrote about is 'I believe in taking chances when life gives you opportunities to do what you love.'

-Reflection-

I learned a lot about myself and my beliefs during this project. I had never really put into words the things that I believed in, and actually writing them out taught me a lot more about myself than I had expected from this project.

My biggest challenge was deciding what belief to write about. There were already 30 ideas for me to choose from because of the brainstorm we did, but even still it was hard for me to choose which belief I would actually be able to back up in a writing piece.

If I had to change something I did during this project process, it would be the list of 30 things I believe in. I feel like I didn't spend enough time working on it, and maybe if I had spent more time on it I would have had less of a hard time choosing which belief to write about.

Knowing this will help me in future projects because I know now that even though it might be a pain to spend that extra amount of time on the brainstorming, I will benefit in the end because I will have less work to do later.

-Artifact-

To view a photo of my final frame and to read my final This I Believe piece, click HERE.

Humanities - Semester Goals

1.) Use more metaphors in my writing, and steer away from using so many similes.

2.) Become more comfortable with relinquishing complete control when I'm in a group setting.

3.) "This too shall pass." Be more tolerant and patient with reading assignments, and see that the project will in the end benefit my education.

TT Pillar Reflection

Project Description:

We had to design and paint a picture of our 'pillar' on the actual pillar in the 9th grade commons. My 'pillar' was religion and society.

Process:

I went through many drafts and brainstorms to figure out what I was going to paint, and how I was going to paint it. I ended up deciding on painting a prayer circle around a fire wearing their symbolic turquoise rock beaded necklaces. Luckily, I was one of the first people to have their designs approved by Mele and Charlotte, so I got to choose where on the pillar I painted my design! :D Painting the pillar was the last part of our Time Traveler's project, and it may have been my favorite part of the project.

Reflection:

I learned that making a visual display of information is a lot different than writing it out for someone. It's like having to create this universal image that can be understood no matter what language you speak, so it was a little bit difficult for me at first to make a design without words.

It was a challenge to paint in my own area at the same time as working around other people painting their own pillars without making a mess and getting paint on other people.

I managed my time pretty well, so I wouldn't change that. I had finished my other assignment a little bit early, so I had a little bit of a jump start on the first draft of my pillar design. If I could change one of the things I did I would have started even earlier than I did, that was I wouldn't have to be painting over my friend and lean over her while she was painting her part of the pillar right beneath me.

This will help me later because being over prepared and going with the flow is much better than the alternative, not being prepared enough and not having enough leeway to make a good final product!!

Artifact:

TT Essay Reflection

Project Description:

One of the main parts of the Time Traveler's project was writing a professionally formatted research paper about our pillar and ancient civilization. I was assigned the 'Religion and Society' pillar, and the ancient civilization my group was doing our project on was the Anasazi Indians. My essay had to talk about religion on its own as well as the role it played in the Ancient Pueblo People's lives.

Process:

This was a very intricate writing piece, and it was revised and edited several times. We were given a few lessons on how to write bibliographies and add footnotes. At first it was really confusing to me, but then once I understood it it began to go more smoothly. We started by writing a rough draft at the start of our object building time. We went through about three or four drafts by the time we handed in our final essays. We had a 'cross cultural conference' as well as an 'intra team conference' to learn more in depth about our civilizations as well as others. They were a little bit stressful to prepare for, but they really helped me with being more confident in my essay's content.

Reflection:

I learned a ton of information about how ancient indian civilizations lived and what they did on a daily basis to survive. I really had no idea how intelligent of a society they were and how much teamwork it took to survive the harsh climates they lived in.

At first I had a lot of trouble correctly creating the body of my essay. The thing I was having the most trouble with was following the 'funnel' outline Charlotte taught us. It wasn't that it was hard for me to understand, it was just that I had already written in what I had thought was the correct format, and it threw me off when I had to rearrange the format of my writing to something I wasn't used to.

I think I managed my time very well with writing the essay, so I would not change how I did that. One thing I would change, however, would be the fact that I did not take advantage of Charlotte's provided office hours. There were a few things about the essay that I wasn't understanding, and I had to figure it all out on my own. What I should have done was gone to Charlotte's office hours and gotten help directly from her when she offered it to the team.

Acknowledging this will help me later on in life because I should really take advantage of the opportunities that I am given to get help with the things I know I need help with. Those opportunities are there for my benefit, and I should make sure I am using them to my advantage whenever I am presented with the chance.

Artifact:

Click HERE to take a look at my final essay.

Hero Project Reflection

In my opinion, a hero becomes a hero by serving as a role model or inspiration to another person- whether benefiting you was their direct intention or not.

For the Hero In My Eyes project, we had to create a character sketch about a person who we saw as a hero. It needed to be, however, someone who you had easy access to. For example, you couldn't choose to base your project on a celebrity, politician, or someone who has passed away. The character sketch was a deep description of your hero, and within the description needed to be the reason they were your hero. You needed to give lots of detail about the moment they became your hero, and why.

We started with brainstorming what being a hero meant to us. Once we were able to create all of our own definitions, we had to choose a hero of our own. I chose Christopher Stephens, my former summer camp counselor (to learn more about him, click HERE). Before I could start writing my character sketch, I had to interview Chris. I asked him a ton of questions pertaining to his opening and running his summer camp, and with his responses, I was able to create a writing piece describing him with even more precision because I could use his actual dialogue from the interview in the character sketch. Also, after the interview I took a few pictures of him to use for the project. I needed one displaying his heroism and another just showing his personality.

I learned a lot about how before I can write an in depth writing piece about something or someone, it is really important to be knowledgeable when it comes to their past and background. I learned this mostly in the process of interviewing Chris. I found that there were a lot of things I didn't know about him in terms of his motivation to work with kids and open his own summer camp. Though those things may seem paltry, they are actually very important to creating an image of him and his personality in the reader's mind. The main challenge I faced during this project was that I was having a really difficult time tying his interview dialogue into the writing piece where I had to describe him, as well as his heroic moment. If I could go back and change one aspect of the way I did this project, I think I would spend more time defining what I hero really was to me. Chris would absolutely still be my hero, but at the beginning of the project, I had a really tough time coming up with who my hero really was. I think if I would have gone deeper into what a hero really was to me, I would have been able to decide much faster than I did. This would have helped because I could have started getting together the rest of my project much farther in advance than I did- I took a pretty long time choosing my hero when I could have been working on other parts of the project.

To me, perspective was a huge part of the Hero In My Eyes project. This is because every person has a different version or definition of what a hero is to them. In class, we spent a lot of time discussing the different ways a person might think of a person as a hero. It was important to understand and accept that each person has their own view, and you might disagree with someone else's view, but you need to step back and agree to disagree. Chances are you would not be able to convince them out of their opinion, because they are attached to their opinion just as much as you are to yours. It was also very interesting for me to see other peoples' perspectives because even though their viewpoints didn't change mine, I was able to have a much deeper understanding as to why they saw a person as a hero. Their reasonings made a lot more sense when they described their hero in their character sketches because it really took you deep into the impact that person had on them.

My Final Hero Character Sketch

“Why Salubrious?” I asked my old camp counselor, Christopher Stephens.

“I wanted a name that people wouldn’t know what it meant so it forced them to go to the dictionary- so it forced them to be educated,” he responded, matter-of-factly.

He had always been big on education. It was one of the most important things to him about people- kids especially. Respect from kids was essential behavior to him too.

“I’ve always said I would rather have a bunch of stupid kids who were nice to each other than a bunch of intelligent kids who were jerks to each other.” And he did always say that. He deprecated petulant kids. It was his number one rule for all of us kids at his summer camp. He engraved it in our minds. Respect. At the time, of course, being six years old, we did not have the depth to be able to comprehend just how valuable of an attribute it would be. Chris, however, taught us well. He wasn’t just a summer camp head counselor to us, he was the epitome of what to do with our summer days.

His 6”5, rounded like a fitter Humpty Dumpty, his body was topped with a head of fluffy sandy, short gold hair. He took life lightly; he even used to wear a paper sign saying ‘don’t feed the bear’ as a joke not to let him eat your food during lunch. He had a huge heart and an even bigger love for kids, and we loved him just as much.

Through the camp, he gave us more than the joy of learning to play sports and how to stay together on field trips. He gave us friendships that would last us our lifetime. Seven summers spent bonding with friends closer than we thought imaginable.

“I hated summer camp when I was a kid,” he slurped the last splash of water from his tall, sweating glass of water and rattled the ice cubes around with the tip of his straw, “but there was one camp that I went to, for one summer, and I loved it. Then it closed. It was like no other camp I had been to before. The camp was gone, but the memory of the joy I took away from it stuck with me.”

I smiled. There were so many irreplaceable memories and experiences with Camp Salubrious over the years. We were a big happy family- every single one of us. For seven years we would tediously deal with school, counting down the days until we could go back to camp and spend the hot summer days with our best friends.

“Did you take any precautions before opening Camp Salubrious? Weren’t there risks that needed to be acknowledged?” I always wondered if he had any apprehensions to opening an individual camp.

“I kind of just jumped in full force. It was a lot of money up front- you have to buy things before you know if any kids are coming to the camp. Liability of the kids is huge. I wasn’t just some counselor working for the local YMCA. I was the owner of the entire camp. I was responsible for every single kid. If anything happened, it was all on me,” he picked up his water glass again.

“But how did you do it?” I asked, marveling at just how efficacious his camp ended up being and how significantly his impact was on my life and the person I am today, “How did you create the perfect summer milieu?”

“I just remembered what I hated about all those other summer camps when I was a kid, and made sure I omitted them from the way I ran mine,” he smiled, doubtlessly proud of himself, as he adjusted his tall, fuzzy, black and white Mickey Mouse hat.

The great pleasure his escape of a camp brought us was beyond anything we had experienced, and ever will experience. Now that the camp is closed, our memories and friendships are all we have left of what was the best summer camp in the world.

Literary Devices

Catching the signal from one of her friends, Bianca brushed her skirt, took a deep breath and walked towards where he was sitting. She hid a sneer with an over exaggerated smile as she skipped toward him.
"Hey, Jadon!" she exclaimed, taking a seat next to him on the cold as ice burgs cement steps. She couldn't believe she was actually doing this. She never thought she'd have the guts to pull such a mean trick on someone. It was okay, though. He deserved it for all those times he teased and tricked us teens. His pranks were so numerous she wasn't even able to keep count. It all started one day in second grade. They were eating lunch and he had replaced her sandwich with a bag of dirt- she would never forget that day.
"Hey, Bianca," he smiled at her, looking up from his book.
"So what did you think of my vignette?" she asked, desperate for ways to distract him enough to where he wouldn't look to his right where her devious friends were pranking him.
Confusion started to surface in his light brown, copper-toned, mud puddle eyes.
"Uh. It was good," he replied, "Did you like mine?"
I smiled, trying to look relaxed. Her hair danced across her shoulder, proceeding to tickle her cheek. She shivered, freezing in the icy weather, longing for her friends to speed up their devious act...

Kinetic Killers

Sweat dripped down the back of my neck. I adjusted my thin-chained necklace's clasp- ensuring its security during the greatest concert in the world. The noise and energy of thousands of people surrounded me in this concert arena. Screams echoed through the packed venue. One of my favorite bands in the world was in San Diego, and I was a teasing ten feet away from the microphone! My cousins and I were extremely lucky to be where we were at.

The lights dimmed and immediately the crowd went wild. I knew this would be a night I would never ever forget, but I never knew it would change the way I saw one of my already favorite bands! The moment the four members of the Killers walked onto the stage, the crowd went insane, crazy fans jumping up and down with their hands in the air, me of course one of them. It was so loud you could hardly hear your own shouts as they opened the concert with Mr. Brightside.

The picking of the electric guitar's strings for the introduction of the song rebounded off of the walls of the arena and back at the audience. Screams washed tsunamis over the stage. Insanely loud drumbeats boomed through my eardrums and vibrated through my skull. My heart felt like it was ricocheting like a little silver ball from a pinball machine inside my ribcage. Forgetting I had already been standing and jumping around in the pit for three and a half hours, I exploded with joy when they played All These Things That I've Done.

Their confidence and talent beamed from the smiles on their faces- who knew a rock band could serve as such an incredible inspiration? For me it was not just an invitation to join the music industry, but they were also enormous role models to me with such poise and such exuberant energy- it made me feel like I could do anything I set my mind to.

Sweat dripped down my forehead as I sang along with the Killers and the rest of the audience. The odd smell of pumpkin and flowers wafted off of the woman next to me. Strobe lights blinded me as I strained to see the stage and justify whether this insane performance was a dream or not. My hair was bouncing out of control and I could taste only the salty sweat on my tongue and on my lips- I attempted to wipe my cheek dry with my moist shirtsleeve but was only partly successful.

When they ended with my favorite song, When You Were Young, and clearly the audience’s favorite song as well, I screamed and cheered in spite of my soar throat when the confetti burst and rained over us, tickling my arms and cheeks as it added layers to my skin. This was a once in a lifetime experience, and it couldn't have been any better.

Sensory Detail: Sound

My eyes widened in confusion. I could hear my muscles cringing at the gasps and short unbearable breaths. It was like people struggling to have their voices heard- like they were trying desperately to speak but they simply were unable to. The shrill wheeze of a hardly successful inhale was suddenly halted by the forced partial cough of an incomplete exhale. An unexpected murmur of a language I never knew existed bubbled for a mere moment in the audio, and then vanished. Following a paltry, practically nonexistent moment of calm hums, a storm of tongues clicking, lips smacking and puckering up to make grandmother-like smooches echoed continually. A surprising gust of air being sucked hopelessly down their throats haunted me again and were cut short by a far away, hearty cackle, drawing my attention to its clearly sinful intentions. Displaying the features of a broken record, the ululating branding into my memory. As if trying to choke me in the middle of listening, distressed hiccuping sounds pierced my eardrums and spiraled down my throat breaking through the narrow opening to my quickly condensing lungs. Loud grunts shadowed mystifying howls as it hauled my unwilling mind closer and closer with each deepening caterwaul. Short snippets of baby coo-like noises bounced off of the edges of the sharp spikes of the slow wails. My ears vibrated with the pressure of the consistent backward smooches from their puckered lips. The tongues were still smacking away in rhythm with the snaps of hundreds of fingers. I grimaced in pain with the suffering of those hundreds of people reluctantly snapping along to the tempo of the pulsing discomfort. With a mutter of perfunctory jumbled words, it all stopped. Leaving me stunned and lost in silence.

Click here to experience it for yourself...

M.W.B. Character - What I Did This Weekend

I gripped the bat, clenching my fingertips tightly around the neck. I watched Uno as he spat onto the dirt mound he was pitching on.

"You ready?"

I nodded.

I turned around to where all the neighborhood kids were watching. Liberty was there. Wearing a white shirt and jeans, she seemed to look pretty in anything, with her long silky black hair running down her back. She made eye contact with me, and I immediately turned away. A ball came whizzing past me.

"Yo, Danny, you gonna hit or what?"

I nodded again and shifted my feet over the home plate. As if in slow motion, I watched the first ball come flying toward me. I locked my eyes on it and then, SMASH. Crushed it with the bat. I watched as it soared over the two houses behind Mr. Rodrigez's house, like it did the first day I hit in this cul de sac.

I looked down at my arms. There were scars from yesterday morning.
Sofia's pop was telling him he should go to the fair again and see how fast he could pitch, this time without being drunk. When all Danny could think to do was lower his head in discomfiture, Uncle Tommy lifts up his head.

"It's all right D," he said, "there will be other Saturdays to go to the fair. Besides, it's not your fault you're half white and not wantin' to be around all them full crazy Mexican kids partyin' all the time." Danny dug his nails into his arm. Hard. He'd love to be one of 'them full crazy Mexicans.' He cringed as Uncle Tommy took another gulp of his 'Pepsi' and snorted, "But don't sweat it, D, you still familia." He tripped over the carpet and shut the bedroom door behind him, still laughing as if what he said was hilarious.

I dug my nails even harder. My arm was numb and bleeding now. Digging was the only thing that stopped me from shouting my lungs out at Uncle Tommy.

Focusing back on the baseball game, I wiped the sweat off my forehead with my t-shirt sleeve. I knew I caved under pressure at the pitching mound, and it was my turn to pitch for Uno. Uno jogged towards me.

"You sure you wanna do this?"

I nodded again.

"Alright, man," he said, tossing the ball to me, "You can do this, man. Just don't freeze up and you'll be good." He smiled, pat my shoulder, and jogged to the home plate.

He picked up the bat, and nodded.

Favorite Fictional Heroes

My favorite fictional character is Ando Masahashi from the science fiction television show, and comic, Heroes.
The series is telling the tale of multiple people with special abilities. Some people can fly, some can read minds, some stop time, some can control other people, and the list goes on and on. Ando is a unique character though. He starts out as simply the best friend of Hiro Nakamura. Early on, Hiro discovers he has the ability to bend time and space. Ando does not have a power, but just serves as a trustworthy, strong willed, and loyal friend to him. There are many times when Hiro and Ando lose their way with each other and try to work alone, but they always end up realizing how much they really need each other.

Although Ando does not start out with any abnormal ability, towards the end of the third season of the television series he gets a hold of a syringe filled with a drug created by Dr. Mohinder Suresh (a scientist struggling to find a cure to the Shanti virus and many other side effects concerning people with powers), designed to give a normal person a power. He, without any supervision and without taking any precautions, injected himself with it. His powers as far as we know are still untamed and are simply the ability to absorb and accelerate another person's power for his own temporary use.

Throughout the ups and downs of being Hiro's best friend he always stays true to him, and never lets Hiro give up on himself or his mission to save the world. This is the main reason Ando is my favorite character. He never fails to be there for his best friend, even though at one point Hiro shuns him, stops listening to all of his advice, and even accuses him of being a traitor- though he ended up not being one. To me, he is truly a great example of what a friend should be. He serves as a fantastic role model for Hiro when he needs someone to look up to, and he is perfect as someone to be the base of Hiro's support and encouragement when he needs it.

I also really like his character because even though he doesn't seem like too much of an important character in the beginning, he proves himself many times, and you learn just how important he is in the big picture. This is really important to me, because even though someone may seem like they have no purpose in the real world, there is no such thing as a useless person. Everyone has an influence, and everyone has a purpose.

30 Things You Didn't Know About Me!

1. I play piano

2. I love leeks too!! But only the white part in the center!

3. I surf.

4. I'm a Jew.

5. I dance.

6. My favorite number is six.

7. I spoke Spanish before I spoke English :D. But I hardly remember anything..

8. I'm a vegetarian.

9. My birthday is 7/11- like the store! And I was born at 12:23am!!!

10. My life consists of goldfish, chewing ice, burritos (especially BREAKFAST BURRITOS OMG!) , Matchbox Twenty, Costco cheese pizza, uhmmm... Oh my favorite food by a long shot is Mexican food.....

11. I made it possible to have negative points in Halo!

12. My favorite books are Three Weeks With My Brother by Nicholas Sparks and Flowers For Algernon by Daniel Keyes.

13. I LOVE John Mayer!!! And jazz (and blues) may just be my favorite type of music..

14. I have a brother.

15. I'm pretty sure my cats think they are dogs.

16. The converse I am wearing are five years old and they still fit perfectly!

17. I'm a Windiblaxican. Hehe.

18. My left knee has some serious issues. Besides all the injuries, it also gives way when I walk pretty often. I have to really work hard to not look like a penguin when I'm walking even though it hurts and is always super painful to walk on. :P

19. I LOVE going to baseball games!!!!!!!

20. I'm reeeally into the NFL... My favorite team is the Pittsburgh Steelers, and my favorite player is Troy Polamalu. (He has left leg issues too!! :D :D :D)

21. Jonny Lang and Matt Wertz are awesome!

22. The Ultimate Gift and Empire of the Sun are two of my favorite movies...both starring Christian Bale... but I know there are other movies that are in my favorites list, I just cant think of them right now.

23. Christopher Walken is awesome! WOW! That's Crazy! ... Guess what! I've Got a Fever! And the only prescription is MORE COWBELL!!!!!!!

24. The first song I ever learned how to play on the piano was Lullabye by Billy Joel.

25. Hi, I'm Emily, and I'm a Mac. (I love me some Justin Long!)

26. The Lord Of The Rings series is amazing! My favorite characters are Pippin and Mary.

27. I'm Snape, the Potions Master. (My favorite Harry Potter character.) .......Snape, Snape, Severous Snape, DUMBLEDORE! heh

28. I love playing hacky sack with my hacky sack buddies! Here's to you, Evil Pancake Man, Kawamoto Dragon, and jAAAke.

29. My cats steal my hair ties and try to hide them from me in their water bowl.

30. I took Africuban drumming classes over the summer.

Voila.

Oh and I love quotes.

:]

'Carpe Diem'