Last Blog Post of Freshman Year!!

You know when you go to the doctor and they ask you how your pain is on a scale of 1-10, 1 being the best and 10 being the worst? Well I am a level 5 towards reading. Or your parent asks you to do a thumbs up or down rating that new, gross food you just tried as toddler because they refuse to feed you pizza everyday. Well I am the kindergartener that puts her thumb up to the side and gets nagged that a side ways thumb "isn't a choice or feeling." Reading is something a person loves to do instead of binge watching Netflix or its something that a person argues and gets their phone token away for a week because of. Both dilemmas aren't my life. My relationship with reading is so, so. I like doing it when I find a engaging book but other times I don't like doing it because I have so much other things on my mind that I can't concentrate or I just don't feel like reading. It is so, so. I am a reader who will read five pages but then stop and question myself what did I just read? I'll answer to myself I have no idea. So ill have to go back to where I lost my brain and re read the five pages I some how didn't comprehend. I like when someone recommends a book to me because I am very bad at picking a book to read myself. This summer I am going to try to read at least 2 books that I actually will read and enjoy so reading can have the opportunity to change my perspective from a side ways thumb to a thumbs up.

Blog: "- noun 1. a website containing a writer's or group of writers' own experiences, observations, opinions, etc., and often having images and or links to other websites." This definition I found on my dictionary.com app is a perfect summary of Mrs. Leitsch's guidelines for our blog. But I don't believe it depicts the purpose of the blog. Over the course of this year I didn't mind blogging. I thought it was a fun mandatory way that I could try out new writing techniques, be creative and share my opinion about the books I read without it being right or wrong. It did take some time to write each one but I found this semester that if I put a reminder on my calendar app on my iPhone, I could keep track with each posts' due date and it held me accountable. The first semester I didn't feel like Mrs. Leitsch made the guidelines and due dates strict enough so there is a big difference between my first couple of posts to now the last few. But this semester I confidently think I put in a lot of effort into them all and will get a good grade because they are Honors English "worthy."



2014-2015 Freshman year at Mason High School that carries 4,000 students each preparing themselves for the next greatest four years of their lives has been eye opening. I have learned so many things about the world, my future in the making, and most importantly myself. In middle school I was transitioning into being independent and adjusting to a more rigorous school load. But throughout those two years there weren't many positive people in the school trying to nourish us and help us along the way. This year though I have stepped out of my comfort zone and made many really good friends but also realized how much most of the teachers care about us their students and want to do anything they can to help us achieve success. Because of these attitudes I have actually really enjoyed coming to school. I also have explored what I like and dislike in school on the matter of subjects or classes. I'm happy that I have made sort of a outline for myself for the next three years of high school that I can follow so I can be successful but also enjoy what I am learning. I am a high academic student who always over achieves on any homework project or test but I have recognized that it is a positive thing that I am characterized that way. Many of the new friends I have made are people who motivate me to do better and push myself. But probably the thing that has opened my eyes up the most is time. I have realized that it is going by so quickly and I need to do a better job of cherishing even the small moments and not wasting any of it, seizing every opportunity. Soon I will be off to college away from my family and where I have spent my whole childhood. That makes me sad. But I am excited for the future I have been envisioning this year and look forward to making decisions that will help shape it.

Second to Last Blog Post

Over the course of the dreaded PARCC testing I finished a book and I am in the middle of one right now. I am a pretty slow test taker. I finished the book called When You Reach Me by Rebecca Stead. When my mom brought me this book home I was really intrigued because it has a vibrant abstract cover with streets and objects that I was assuming may symbolize something in the book. I may have mentioned this in one of my other blog posts but I am totally a person who judges a book by its' cover: sometimes its good sometimes its bad but that's just how I categorize different books when I'm at the bookstore. In the first couple of chapters you meet the main character's, Miranda, mom, friend Sal and a mysterious laughing man.
At first when the main character started describing this laughing man I thought to myself what am I reading because the way she describes him is mysterious kind of sketchy but also quirky. Along with this unique stranger she continuously receives notes asking her to send the location of her spare apartment key. That was another red flag that someone or that laughing man may be stalking her. At that point in the book k was a little on the fence to continue reading but I did. I won't give away what happens at the end because it is something that any reader wouldn't probably expect. I liked the book so much that I typed the title into Google and it brought up a little blurb about how the author Stead wrote this book about a newspaper article published in New York about an old man with amnesia and it also said that she used inspiration from A Wrinkle in Time another high metal book that I remember reading in 5th grade. If you do read this book which I encourage you to do look at the way the author writes it and her techniques but also try to look for ties between that book and  A Wrinkle in Time. Here is a website that gives a detailed summary of the book so that would be easier to connect back: http://www.sparknotes.com/lit/wrinkle/