Thanksgiving

When a lot of people think of Thanksgiving, they think of turkey, stuffing themselves, getting together with family, etc. Do people really think about what they're thankful for? That's what I've tried to do this year, since I know I'm not always as grateful as I should be. Here are a few things that I'm grateful for:

My Family
This one seems kind of obvious, but what would I do without them? Living alone would depress me to no end. No siblings to fight with and occasionally have fun with, and no parents to get advice from. Mostly, they're the people that you can always count on to love you and be there for you. When everyone's together and just having a great time, it's a great feeling.

My Friends
This is another obvious one, but I absolutely love my friends. I have some of the best friends in the world. I can talk to them about anything, and I know that they'll always stick up for me. I know that they'll always be on my side. And when we laugh at each other, we're laughing together. Basically, I love my friends to death.

My Dog
Yes, I am really going to put him on my list. Even if he can be one of the meanest dogs I know, he's always excited to see me when I get home. He's cute, playful, and cuddly. I love him!

Music
Music is a big part of my life. I sing, play the piano, and listen to my iPod all the time. If I'm stressed, I cool off with music. When I sing, I'm just automatically happy.

I think the list of things I'm grateful for could just keep going. I'm sometimes grateful for school and teachers, I'm grateful for books, food (most importantly chocolate), and the fact that I get to live. As I go into the Christmas season, I want to make it more about giving to others. I don't want to act like it's all about me. I think that holidays like Thanksgiving and Christmas were made for a reason, and sometimes things detract from that. When they started Christmas, it wasn't supposed to be about a fat old man in a red suit sliding down chimneys to bring presents. It was to celebrate something a lot more meaningful. Thanksgiving can be meaningful if we really use it as an opportunity to think about how much we have. In our world it seems like all people think about is what they want, and what they already have doesn't mean anything to them.

Don't get me wrong, I love presents, but I also want to get more personal things out of this season. When my youth group does service projects, I feel good because I know that I just did something to help someone else. Because of me, someone else can have a better holiday. I think food drives like what our school just did are great. People get food that they wouldn't have without our food drive. One year my family made scarves and hats to bring to a homeless shelter for people who didn't have things like that.

Anyways...... 25 days until Christmas!

Dinner Theater!!!

So this week I was in our school's Shakespeare Dinner Theater. My scene was Act IV Scene V from Hamlet and I played the part of Ophelia. It was a lot of fun-even if it was tons of work. My scene is basically where Ophelia goes completely insane because Hamlet killed her father. I had to walk around and hand boiled chicken bones to people in the audience because I thought they were flowers. By the next scene I was in, I had drowned myself and was being buried by some grave diggers. Being a dead body was hard beccause a) I was afraid of them dropping me, b) I don't like breathing underneath a sheet, and c) One night they set me down so my neck was hanging off the riser thing which was really uncomfortable!

The weird thing about my scene was that I was supposed to be really creepy. For each line I was supposed to put on my most insane look and look one person right in the eye. Afterwards people kept coming up to me and telling me how creepy I was, which was good, but weird at the same time. The bones kind of grossed people out, I know that they grossed me out a lot. Some people just gave them to the servers when they came by.

I should probably explain exactly what Dinner Theater is. Basically, everyone is in at least one scene where they're a main part. We arrange a bunch of tables in a circle and put up a big tent and perform while everyone eats. Mrs. Loureiro stops us in between scenes and we do things like betrothals, I'm a Little Teapot, the Hokay Pokay, muscle contests, etc. Some of the scenes are funny, like the Wall scene from Midsummers Night Dream and our version of Romeo and Juliet. Others can be scary or sad. In Othello, Othello strangers Desdemona to death because he thinks she loved Casio. That scene was amazing, because everyone is so shocked when she dies. In a scene from King Henry the Sixth (? fourth? I'm not sure) Clifford kills the young prince because his father killed Clifford's father.

I really liked doing dinner theater, but I am really worn out now. We had late practices everyday for the last week to make sure everyone was ready. We had three performances. Friday night, Saturday afternoon, and Saturday night. It was really hard keeping your energy and character going through all of them. Getting into character was one of the hardest things for me. What I started doing was, a couple minutes before my scene, I pretended like my betrothed really did kill my father and I was so upset that I really just got pushed over the edge to insanity. Just doing that helped me get so much more in character and feel like I understood it better.

Pretty much, it was a great experience, and I had a lot of fun with my friends, but I'm glad it's over. Memorizing lines, remembering how to say them, what to do, etc. can be really stressful and it's really nice to just relax-before musical tryouts!

You Are Your Worst Critic

Today at my church we had a lesson on keeping our bodies healthy. One of my teachers read us some statistics which I looked up after I got home. They were things like this:

• 5-10 million girls and women and 1 million boys and men have eating disorders (anorexia, bulimia, etc.)
• 80% of 10-year olds are worried about getting fat
• From a study of 8-10 year olds, about 50% said that they weren't happy about their size
• 1 in 2 American women are on a weight loss diet
• 40% of 1, 2, and 3rd grade girls want to lose weight
• 10-15% of anorexics and bulimics are men
• 15% of young girls have eating disorders
• The average model 25 years ago had 8% less fat than the average American women. Now it is 23%
  

Okay, so I thought that this was all pretty scary. I think it is just beyond sad that millions of people are unhappy because of their weight. They think that if they look a certain way then they will be happy. Even if it isn't really possible, they're all trying to look just like a model. I couldn't believe how many statistics there were about elementary girls who were worried about their weight. When I was their age, that was the last thing I worried about.

In today's society, people don't think they can be accepted unless they starve themselves. It happens with boys too. It said that 10-15% of anorexics and bulimics are guys. Plenty of men in our country feel the exact same way. They also don't feel like they can be accepted until they get the macho muscley look.

We've all heard about how if Barbie were a real person, then she would be 5'9" and 110 lbs. She would probably have health problems because of being underweight. What many people haven't heard is that GI Joe Extreme would have a 55 inch chest and a 27 inch bicep. That means his bicep would be almost as big as his waist, and he would be more muscular than most body builders.

It just makes me sad that this is what people want to live up to. They all want to look like Barbie or GI Joe. They think, Well once I reach 110 lbs I'll finally be happy. They don't realize that models do a lot of unhealthy and stupid things to look the way they do. Some people think that by skipping breakfast in the morning they will lose some weight. What they don't know is that skipping breakfast can actually make you gain weight. Also, they'll feel sick and cranky during the day without the nutrition they need in the morning.

Another thing I think is sad is addictions. Instead of the If I look like this then I'll be happy idea, it's If I do this then I'll fit in. I met a girl this summer at a camp. She was from California, 14 years old, and getting over a weed addiction. After she realized how bad her life was getting because of the weed, she got help. She said that now she's a completely different person.

Another dangerous addiction is alcohol. Even if they've heard about how bad it is for your body, tons of people do it anyway. Even if they might ruin their liver, it doesn't matter if it means that they fit in. The teacher who taught today told us about how her brother is an alcoholic. He thinks that it only affects himself, but he doesn't realize that his angry, bad mood the alcohol gives him affects his entire family.

She also told us about a man who died of lung cancer. He had smoked most of his life, and it pretty much ruined his lungs. Three years later, his wife died of it too. The difference was that she had never smoked in her life. Just by living with him and breathing in the smoke, she died pretty soon after he did. Once again, he thought that whatever he did could only affect him. He didn't think that second-hand smoking would kill his wife, but it did anyway.

Basically, I think our world would be a much better place if people could be happy with the way they are. If people just ate healthy food and took care of their bodies, then they could really be happy. If people didn't feel like they had to lower to everyone else's standards to fit in, they would be happier, healthier, and more beautiful than if they went on a diet. It would really make our world a better place.

Books That Mean Something

As everyone in Honors English this year knows, one of second term's assignments is to enter a writing contest. One of the options is a contest called Letters About Literature. What you have to do is write a letter to an author (dead or alive) and tell them why you're glad that they wrote that book and what it means to you. I read through a few of the winning essays and thought that their choices of books and what they said was very interesting. One essay was by a girl named Erikka Potts who chose "A Child Called It" by David Pelzer. I haven't read this book, but apparently it's an autobiography about how its author was abused as a child. In this girl's essay, she relates to the story because of experiences she went through with her sister. The Pottses sisters were both abused by their alcoholic mother. After reading this story, the girls realized that they could do something to get out of their situation. The Pottses' aunt helped them and they were both sent to foster homes. Because of this book, they completely turned their life around.

Wow. This definitely made me think about how a book can change someone's life. When you read something, you unconsciously think, What if I were the one in that situation? How would I react? I've felt that way reading a lot of books, so I used that feeling to think about which books would be good to write about.

One that stands out to me is Scott Westerfield's series, "Uglies." At first, I wasn't interested in reading this because I thought it looked dumb. But when I finally did read it, I realized that there was a deeper level to it than I had expected. What if everyone could be made pretty? What if there was a universal standard on exactly what beauty was? And what if anyone who wasn't exactly like that was an ugly outcast? That was Tally Youngblood's world. I could really relate to Tally throughout this whole series. Sometimes you're forced to change against your will. I personally hate change and want everything to stay exactly the same. Like Tally, I've also felt like an outcast. Almost everyone has. His story shows that no matter what you still have your friends and yourself. Even when you go through things that you don't think you can make it out of, you can be stronger than you ever thought. Lots of Uglies's themes made a huge difference to me.

Another book that I read recently was, "A Great and Terrible Beauty" by Libba Bray. That book was definitely a page turner. An important theme I noticed in it was forgiveness. After a huge tragedy in India, Gemma Doyle has to go to a boarding school in London. Someone who she loved and trusted did some things that she can't seem to forgive or forget. I know I have that problem sometimes. I tend to hold on to my grudges and not let them go. Trying to forgive is a huge challenge for me. I'm known for remembering things someone did to me 5+ years after they happen. Watching Gemma learn to let it go made me think of how I could do the same thing in my life. Forgive people no matter what, and then forget it and don't mention it again.

There are a couple other books I'm considering too. "The Diary of Anne Frank," "Pride and Prejudice," "The Outsiders," and a lot of others. I think it's great that this contest makes you think about which of your favorite books means the most to you and why. I appreciate all these authors and their books that can completely change other people's lives. Reading means a lot to me, and I have no idea what people would do without it.

Term 1-It's over!

This term went by so fast. I can't believe half of first semester is gone. When you're in ninth grade, you feel like you're always waiting and getting ready for next year. The counselors are already telling you to set up appointments with them so you can make good decisions for high school. You want to do well in your classes because now they actually count towards your future. If you did well before, then it was because you were an overachiever. You worry about having enough time to be with your friends, because you know that you'll hardly ever see them again after this year when you're at different schools. By now, you have a pretty good idea of what you like and you vaguely know what you want to do when you grow up. It's all different from the earlier grades.

When you were in elementary school, or even seventh or eighth grade, high school seemed far away. It barely even seemed like it was going to happen. Now, everyone keeps asking each other which school they're going to. The conversation goes something like this: "Where are you going next year? ...... What? Why?!....... Well you should go to ... instead!" Even if you really like one school, do you really want to go there if your best friend is going somewhere else?

There's also something about being in ninth grade where you feel really mature....and really immature at the same time. More like you feel mature, but in reality you're actually pretty immature. Maybe it's because you're still in the same school as the seventh and eighth graders. At the moment you feel like the oldest and the most experienced, but you know that in just a year it will be like being a sevvie again. Once again you'll be in a totally new environment with tons of new people. Some of the people you've been with for 3+ years will be there with you, but others will be somewhere completely different having completely different experiences.

The counselors are always making you take those stupid quizzes to find out what jobs you would be good at, or what kind of a person you are. They keep saying that you should figure it out now. But when you hear them say that, all you're thinking is, "Now? Me? I'm still a kid! I can figure that out later! None of this effects me right now." What you don't think is, "In 3 or 4 years I'll be figuring out which classes I want to take in college so I can get the job I'll be doing for a few decades. Maybe I should start thinking about this...." You just haven't gotten used to the idea that what you do now effects the rest of your life.

Not that if you fail ninth grade you'll be a hobo living in a cardboard box with some newspapers for the rest of your life. But if you think about things now, then it will be a lot easier. You'll have more options sooner than if you just go through high school without worrying about anything. You can get where you want to be faster. Even if studying and doing your homework seems too hard and pointless now, it's easier than trying to go back and fix your mistakes ten years from now.

Anyways, there's a random sample of some of the things going through my head right now. Ninth grade really isn't a totally serious thing like this post. It's actually a lot of fun-even if it's a lot harder than seventh and eighth grade. These are just the things I worry about. I don't want to be split up with half my friends next year. It's just a little scary how fast first term went. One minute I'm trying to get used to all the new classes, and the next it's all a routine and I'm just worrying about trying to finish all those assignments the teachers throw at you at the end of the term. Overall, I just want to try and enjoy myself and do the best I can for the rest of junior high before everything changes.