Everyone has something special about them. They can balance a spoon on their nose, they are great at academics, or they can run a 400 in track in a remarkable time. Pageants, contrary to popular belief, are very beneficial to a girl’s self esteem. They are for all ages, from newborns to adults and even older. When I was about four years old until I was about eight, I entered a large number of pageants. I believed they were fun and I liked being on stage. School and other interests were so time consuming that I could not focus on pageants. I stopped altogether. However, last year I obtained a letter in the mail saying someone referred me to enter a pageant. I consulted with my parents and they agreed if I wanted to, I could enter the pageant. It was a wonderful, confidence boosting experience. My mother told me if I enjoyed them that much I could continue to partake in them. The pageants I have done so far have had the following categories: personal introduction, evening wear, interview, and community service. However, when you get older the categories are: swimsuit, evening wear, talent, and interview. I am involved with athletics and work out regularly, so I do not need to worry about the fitness portion. I do not have a talent, though, so I need to start developing one now. Hopefully over the summer I can get involved with guitar lessons. Music is one of my passions, so learning how to play an instrument will not only help me in pageants, but it will be a stress-relieving hobby I can partake in during free time. One problem with wanting to take these lessons is the financial aspect. I will have to pay for a guitar as well as weekly lessons. What if guitar interferes with basketball? That will be another problem will gaining a new hobby. At least throughout this experience, I will be able to learn time management much better than I had previously. I wonder how far you can progress learning guitar over the course of one summer? I will probably continue lessons throughout next school year because that way I can continue getting better so my talent scores will increase. Everyone always tells you to try something new, and you’re never too old to refrain from learning something!
Driving comes across to me as both a blessing and a curse. First, you have to study the driver’s manual book to get your first key to driving, which is your learners permit. When you turn 14 (in Arkansas), you go into your local DMV and sit down at a computer to take your “written test.” This test quizzes you on road knowledge and what to do in tricky situations. You are allowed to miss 4-5 questions out of 25. If you do not pass the first time you attempt it, you are allowed to take it again the next week. When you pass, you are allowed to drive with a licensed adult in the vehicle with you. Currently I have my learners permit, and it is extremely stressful because you must apply the knowledge that you know. I am constantly worrying that I will repeatedly fail my driving test when I turn sixteen, so I do not look to driving as something enjoyable. However, it emits a sense of freedom I have not experienced before. The majority of my friends already have their license, which puts even more pressure on me to learn how to drive as quickly as possible so I will not be left out of events that they can go to because they drive. Turning sixteen, if I have my license then, will be a very liberating day for me. However, I ought to be expecting many restrictions on where I can go from my parents. I shouldn’t get my “freedom” hopes up too high just to see them get shut down. Driving, to me, is another tedious chore that I must complete or else many consequences will occur. Hopefully you can see the light at the end of the tunnel when you go driving- if not, it may seem hard to stay in your lane! Humour always helps me pull through hard times, so if I want to have a chance with driving I may have to lighten up. Wish me luck on my journeys on the road! Music is the most positive influence in my life. I listen to a wide variety of people, from John Lennon to Taylor Swift. Although some music could be considered derogatory, most lyrics are uplifting and spread positive messages. During seventh grade I was going through some very challenging times. I took it upon myself to listen to more genres of music than generic pop. When I started to explore new music, I found many songs with positive lyrics and meanings.
All music genres help me relax and simply make me happy. In health we are discussing positive ways to cope with emotions. One example is physical exercise. Another is what our teacher refers to as “being creative.” Listening to music would fall under this category. It calms me down because of the familiarity of knowing the song and realizing that nothing can go wrong when you listen to it. If I don’t know the song, I will listen to the lyrics and see if they are relatable. I went through many hard times in seventh grade and music helped me through it. The encouraging lyrics of thousands of songs that constantly told me to “keep my head up,” echoed day and night. It cancelled out the negativity of people in my life. Also, back then, I had nobody to talk to and I felt as though I had nothing to do. The next year, in eighth grade, my life got significantly better because of basketball and new friendships. However, I enjoyed the pleasure of listening to music the whole time. Sometimes it was the beats and guitar riffs, and other times it was the singer’s voice impressing me. Whatever I found in a song, if I liked it, I kept it with me. Now I associate songs with people and places. My favourite memory associated with a song is “Payphone” by Maroon 5. I went to Australia with my mother last summer, where we saw functional payphones. During that vacation, there were no bad times and my mother and I bonded a lot. Whenever I hear Payphone on the radio, I sing along and think of the wonderful times in my life that music has been there for me. I also reflect on the fact that music pulled me out of a dark, downward spiral I had begun to travel. Any artist in my music library I am able to look to as an inspiration because I see the good in everyone now, instead of the negative. Recently there has been a whopping amount of snow gifted to our community from the skies.Since I am not allowed to drive when conditions are this miserable, I had to find a way to pass the time. I did something I haven't in a long while, which is picking up a book. It took me a few days to get into my book, Shiver by Maggie Steifvater. It was approximately 400 pages. The first half of the book was mundane and dry to me. The story follows a girl named Grace. She is a normal teenage girl with an extreme fascination with wolves. The story also follows a second character, a wolf named Sam. Everything in their town seems normal until Jack Culpepper, a resident of the town, is attacked by wolves and killed. The city officials decide the wolves must be killed. Grace does everything in her power to stop this. Things start to get back to normal when suddenly, Sam reveals himself to Grace as he explains that he can change between a man and a wolf. A certain event (spoiler) happens which turns the tables of the changing wolves. The tone throughout the book is sad, because Grace and her friends dwell on the negatives of life. One of the interesting qualities of the book is the fact that it switches between Grace's point of view and Sam's point of view. I would have liked some of the chapters to be written by someone else, like Isabel Culpepper, who is an antagonist. Out of ten stars, I would give the book a six. It came across as very average to me and I only became interested near the end. The author has written two sequels. I have not read them, and I do not see myself reading them anytime in the immediate future. I heard that the author was working on creating a movie based off of Shiver.I looked into it more and the author commented that movie production has been halted because directors and herself could not see eye-to-eye. I believe a different spin on the book would keep the story line more interesting for the first half of the book. Hopefully this review has helped you gain insight on this unique book.
“Get up kids,” a guard in front of the city gates whispered. “They’re watching. Especially you, Tasha.” The guard prodded them with his spear and he assumed his position. Tasha, the shorter blonde girl, looked at her friends with curious eyes and hustled to get up. They snarled crude remarks as they passed the guards. The remainder of the city seemed relatively normal. However, they failed to notice that on top of every building there were cameras installed on the side of every weaponry shop.
The teenagers woke up and traveled to the Mission Center to describe why they had left the city for a week. Tasha wanted to tell the Mayor about what the guard had said, but she decided against it and kept her mouth shut. The Mayor appeared very focused on her, however, instead of the kids that wove tales of what happened. “Tasha,” he croaked. "Yes, Mayor?” “Did they treat you differently than your comrade Gordon here?” Tasha looked to the ceiling for a moment. She felt her cheeks turning a shade of pink, feeling embarrassed about not telling the Mayor what the guard had said. She bit her lip as she fought to remember any special treatment the kidnappers had conducted on her, but did not recall any differences. She shook her head and stared into the eyes of the Mayor, wanting to know why she was the special one. There was nothing significant about her, after all. “Ah,” he sighed, “for they do not know that you are the Messenger.” “This job is bestowed upon someone every ten years. The Gods pick a lucky baby to send special powers too, but with these powers come great danger. The Messenger will not be able to control where his or her body goes. It must wander until your thought or message that the Gods assign has been delivered. Tasha, we attempted to keep this from you for as long as we could, but it seems we cannot hold it back any longer.” The bottle of green tea Tasha was holding shattered into thousands of transparent shards cutting into her feet. “It was my fault,” she cried.” “What, Tasha? What was your fault?” Gordon pushed. “That is the simple reason why we were kidnapped. I told the other villagers that our town was safer than theirs and that they needed better protection. I am a threat to those around me. I do not want these powers; this makes me a Monster.” When I listen to this song, I picture young kids, about twelve years old, who are sprinting through the forest attempting to flee. They had just escaped from being held captive and are trying to become free. At certain points, they are in danger of becoming caught by the soldiers of the village they escaped from. At times they ran and were able to get away, and at other times they took a stand and fought. Since the kids are so young, they had to persevere through the harsh blows that the soldiers struck them with. These kids used their brains to outsmart the soldiers. After winning a small battle, they had to go back to running before they got caught and had to endure an even more severe punishment than why they left in the first place. After fighting and winning, they come to a point where they knew they were approximately twenty minutes from their home village. They stop for a fleeting moment to rest. One detects an ambush approaching. They are aware that they don’t have time to run so they dive, sprint, and duck to hide from the enemy as they prey to their savior that they aren’t detectable. The suspense for the kids builds as the bulky men with guns look around. After what felt like an eternity, the kids were able to breathe a sigh of relief as the ambushers left. They were paralyzed for a moment, then collapsed onto the soft, safe ground.
“We’re almost home. We can make it,” a small blonde girl whispered. At that moment, all of the kids slowly got to their feet and trudged on for a bit. One stopped dead in his tracks. They inwardly groaned as they got ready to hide. He laughed and then sprinted past all three of the other tweens. They giggled to catch up as they smiled and laughed to the top of their lungs, eventually collapsing in the safety of their own home. Many teenagers complain about the numerous amount of problems they face from day to day. They say they have nobody that cares and nowhere to turn. Keeping emotions bundled up inside is unhealthy and can negatively impact your life. Teenagers need to realize that maybe they don’t have a parent or best friend to tell all of their worldly troubles to. However, there are coping methods that help you release all built up stress. Being in good health can benefit your ability to deal with stress as well because you will know how to react to specific situations. I have found two ways to positively get out my stress and feel much better about myself. The first way that is therapeutic for me but does nothing for other people is listening to music for about thirty minutes to an hour. Create yourself a playlist with all types of music to where you can sit down and zone out the rest of the world. Putting your phone away and not answering it also helps me to cool off because I can focus on my own problems and not worry about anything else. I also tell my parents what I will be doing so they won’t come in while I’m trying to destress and relax. Doing this about once a week has helped me immensely and be a calmer person altogether. I highly recommend either listening to a select playlist or getting on Pandora so you can discover new things.
Another great coping method is running. I started using the Couch to 5K program, which helps you go from not running at all to running marathons. I knew this would also be beneficial for me because I play basketball. It helped me bring my three-mile time down by about four minutes, and this was without me finishing the training. If I got mad at something I could effectively release my emotions by jogging instead of taking out stress negatively. Even if you do not like to exercise, I believe you would enjoy doing this slowly. One method that doesn’t do much good for me, but seems to work well for other people, is talking to other people about your problems. This doesn’t work for me because I can get upset very easily, and I believe if someone simply told me that they didn't want to deal with my problem I would become even more upset. Christmas day was my favorite day over the break. I even woke up at nine o' clock! Normally I wake up around seven thirty, so sleeping in was a huge treat for me. I wanted to open my presents, or at least my stocking. However, my dad rushed me to the My grandmother spent the night on Christmas eve, so she was there when I woke up. That was a great surprise! She lives very close, however, so she did not travel very far. We played and then ate "breakfast casserole." It wasn't very good though, because my mother made it. She has trouble cooking, but she can bake extremely well! At about 10 that morning, it was time to open presents. I put on a Santa hat and passed out presents about two at a time. We opened bundles of joy, or presents, until about noon that day. We ate lunch at about three that afternoon. We had a feast of corn casserole, honey baked ham, green bean casserole, and other delicious foods. My boyfriend came over until approximately eleven at night. He gave a speech to my family about how he is grateful for them allowing him to date me. It was a perfect day in every aspect. After he left, my parents admitted to me that they appreciate all of the changes and progress I have made in the previous year. Although I am not a big fan of sentimental moments, I treasured what they said and went to sleep with a whole heart that night. I was anticipating a wonderful new year!
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