Death and Tragedy

Author's Note:  I decided to write about Charlie St. Cloud  because I thought it would be a good book to write a theme essay on. Make sure to pay attention to the main theme in this book. 

Sadness is something that most people have in their life. In the book Charlie St. Cloud sadness is something that happens to the St. Cloud family. Everyone has to deal with sadness once in their life at least. A family member dying, finding out that your someone in your family has cancer, or worst of all one of your siblings or parents dying. In Charlie St. Cloud Sam, one of the main characters dies, therefore making a tragedy strike in the St. Cloud family. 

If someone close to you dies, you got to be brave and fight through it. Charlie St. Cloud, Sam's brother, has to do just that. Sam was one of Charlie's best friends, I can feel Charlie's pain. I lost my grandpa, he was really close to me; we would always make jokes. When he died, I knew I had to be brave and not let the fact that one of my best friends was gone. I knew that he was in a better place though. 

A lot of people just feel like giving up on their lives when someone important dies in their life. I can say that I was more like Charlie in this case because I was brave and was only upset about his death for 2 or 3 days. Charlie in this case was brave but, he could still be with his brother. In the book it says that Charlie would meet Sam in the woods around sunrise to help him get better with his baseball throwing. When Sam dies, he doesn't fully leave Charlie's presents. During the funeral for Sam, Charlie decides to run away to the spot where he swore he would meet him. When running through the woods Charlie tripped and fell, when he looked up he saw Sam. You could tell that Charlie was shocked to see him standing there in front of him. Sam looked at him and said you 

didn't forget about our deal did you? From then on Sam and Charlie met there until Charlie met a girl. Of course the guy choose the girl over a guy. My point that I am trying to make is that you got to be brave because even when people pass on, they will always be with you, if you can see them or if they are just watching over you. 

If you think about it, Charlie St. Cloud  and The Last Song are similar in ways. For instance in Charlie St. Cloud Charlie's little brother dies, in The Last Song Ronny; the main character, her father dies yet she is brave and fights on with her life. Both books have a death occur in them, also in both of the books the main characters both get involved in a relationship. A lot of things can happen in books that are the same in other books. 

In conclusion I think that there can be many themes in a book, but the main theme in Charlie St. Cloud is bravery and courage. The reason I think that bravery is the main theme is because that happens a lot in the book. I guarantee that there are more than one theme in every book, but there is one dominate theme. 

A New Ending

Author's Note: I chose this as my predicting piece because I thought it was pretty well detailed. Also because I liked this story a lot, and thought that I would bring this story back up.

When he made his way out into the world, he had just realized that the women who he had tried to steel her purse, just gave him 10 bucks. He was deciding what to do with the 10 dollars he had just gotten. He wanted to get the suede shoes he wanted, but when he realized that Mrs. Jones just changed his point of view on life, on people. As the days went by Roger thought about the 10 dollars more and more, he kept wondering why she had given him the ten bucks. Was it because she felt bad for me? Was it because she didn't want me to get in any more trouble? Or was it because she wanted him to be a successful. We will never know for sure.

He felt bad for taking the 10 dollars from the women, he wanted to repay her by getting her gift. He decided to go to the store and get her a bracelet. It was maybe 3 weeks later when he finally returned the favor. He walked up to her house, knocked on the door and when she opened it he said hi, remember me? She replied with a faint answer of yes. Well if you remember the time when you gave me the 10 dollars, this is to repay you for this. She asked why are you giving me this bracelet? His response was you changed my point of view on life, and you have changed my life, I am not steeling anything anymore. This is just my way of saying thank you. He started walking away, as he was, Mrs. Jones just kept staring at him. And they never saw each other again. 

There's A First For Everything

Author's Note: I decided to write this story because it was actually one of the better days of my basketball career, I'm saying this because I usually get yelled at during basketball. It was one of the days I will never forget. Make sure to pay attention to how me and Haylie became closer just by basketball. 

It was the first day of basketball try-outs. There was a lot of people trying out, a lot of which I knew. There was this one girl who stood out, at least to me. It was the first time I was seeing this girl. Everyone seemed like they knew her. I was really confused, so I went up to Kenzie; one of my friends and asked her if she knew who she was. Kenzie replied with a yea, thats the new girl from Arrowhead that our coach was talking about. Just as I was going to reply the coaches blew their whistles and said that the try-outs were going to begin. We were in line getting our numbers, when I said my very first words to Haylie. I remember saying Hi, my name is Becca, I hope we get to play together.

We got our numbers and the coaches told us to line up in number order, as we were finding out the order, I realized that I was 2 people away from Haylie. As usual they split us up into even teams. They didn't know what Haylie was like, whether she was one of the better players or one of the not so good ones, so Haylie and I got put on the same team. For me the tryouts were the same as they always were, for Haylie you could tell that at her old school she did something different then us. We got started right away and after a little bit of playing time with Haylie I could tell that we were going to be on the same team. 

When we were about to leave the tryouts one of the coaches told us that we would not find out the teams until the following week. So we all waited and waited and waited until, we finally got the packets we were all waiting for. The moment of truth was going to be revealed, would we be adding a new teammate and losing one, or will we be the same old team we are known for. I opened my packet and read Congratulations Becca Groer you have made the Pewaukee black team. As soon as I finished reading mine, I turned to Haylie to ask her what team she was on but I figured out the answer immediately, I could tell it was good because she was jumping up and down with excitement. 

It wasn't too long after finding out the teams that we had our first practice. The first time being together is always the worst and the best practice. It's the worst because its the first time being with your team and coaches; its the best because all you basically do is go over simple drills. Haylie caught onto the drills pretty quickly, not saying that the drills are like rocket science, but it took me a couple of times to perfected them. It only took Haylie 2 or 3 times to get them perfect. Once I saw what Haylie can do with a basketball, I knew that we were going to be even better then we were the previous year. 

It's a couple years later now and Haylie is still apart of our team, she still is one of the better players on our team. Haylie will have a good future playing basketball and I hope that I will be able to play with her in high school. Haylie and I can help each other out with more stuff and make each other better. I hope we will play basketball together for a while. 

The Voices

Author's Note: I wrote this prediction because we had to. Also because this is what I thought was going to happen in the end of the movie. 

What I think that will happen is that the kids will figure out a way to tell someone-- like another teacher or the principal, so that the teacher will get in trouble. I think that it is going to end like that because I have a gut feeling that the teacher will get in trouble for having such a creepy thing in his classroom. Cause I feel like the teacher always gets in trouble. 

My prediction was was incorrect, because the teacher didn't get in trouble. But I still do think that is going to happen, because as I said before I feel like the teacher always gets in trouble. 

Crazy, True, Sad and Happy

Conflict: The main conflict in Heaven is for Real is that there is a little boy name Colton who is going through a pretty rough time. This would have to be a person vs. self because it is him and something in HIS body there for making it be person vs. himSELF! He is not yet 4 years old and his appendix irrupted. There are many conflicts in this book such as the fact that his parents didn't know what was wrong with Colton, until after about 20 hours of miserable pain, they took him to the hospital. He was throwing up consistently, and he was like in a daze the whole time; it was caused because of all the "poison"   leaking out of his appendix into his body. 

Resolution: The resolution here is that his parents got him to the hospital just in time, to get the "poison" out of his little body. I guess you could say that he was one very lucky duck that he is still alive. He must have been very brave also because he had to go through surgery, if it was me I probably wouldn't have gone through with it, even though it means life or death. To me the real main resolution here is that the doctors got the "poison" out of him and was able to safe the kids life! 

My Founding Fathers

Author's Note: This piece is very important because it is about our world and basically who helped create it. Make sure to pay close attention to what a founding father is. 

There were seven major founding fathers of America. Webster defines a founding father as;  a leading figure in the founding of the United States. Only imagine if you could meet the founding fathers and tell them something that you have always wondered. I would tell them many things, like that they have changed the United States for forever.

Most of the founding fathers believed that slavery was wrong, but there was one father who actually owned slavery. If I could ask one question to Thomas Jefferson, it would be why did you think that owning slaves was okay? I honestly think that slavery is brutal and wrong. To me maids are a form of slaves, but they have a chose to be controlled, so they are but they aren’t.

Alexander Hamilton; one of the founding fathers is on the ten dollar bill. George Washington is on the 1 dollar bill. You might think wow what’s so special about being on money? Actually being on money doesn’t mean much, just that it helps us remember the people who founded the United states and our the founding fathers.

In conclusion the founding fathers have changed the United states for forever. To me the founding fathers have truly changed the United states in many different ways. Their honor is showed on money, and they proved that slavery is not right, even though Thomas Jefferson still owned them.

Conflict And Resolution

Author's Note: When you are reading this make sure to pay close attention to how it really is a person  vs. society and not person vs. person.

There was a war between 24 tributes between life and death only 1 comes out on top It was person vs.society.(because they are all fighting against each other and they are all in the society) In district 12 theres two star crossed lovers. Will one give their life up for the other? The real conflict here is that the two star crossed lovers will be fighting against each other, for one will live and the other will die. This is such a sad thing that has to happen. Yet again, they both might die together. One of the other tributes from another district might win.

If only there was a way to let these two crossed lovers both live. It was becoming sudden death there was only 8 people left, the two from district 12 and the other 6 were from other districts. It was full on war. Suddenly an "announcement" came on, saying "there is a change of plans, there will be two survivors. In order for the two crossed lovers to be together forever, they would have to team up and go after the other last remainders. So they worked together to get it down to only 3 left, those two and one other from another district. They worked together and it worked one of them snuck up behind him and killed him. Just shortly after that happened another announcement came on, saying "change of plans again, there can only be one survivor. In the end they both decided to eat poison berries so that no one won. Just as they were about to eat them another annoucment came on, saying stop!! you both can survive, and that is the resolution.

Cause And Effect

Author's Note: Make sure to pay close attention to how this big incident happened.

The major event in this book is that this little boy went to heaven and back. This was caused because his appendix irrupted. This incident effected his parents also, because if say he were to die then his parents would have to make a funeral and do all this work for it (not saying that they wouldn't want to). It would still effect his parents even if he didn't die, because they would   still have him alive and there with them. 

This situation effected the little boy because he died and came back to life. I think that this will never leave him because it was a big part that happened in his life. Being the boys parents and all effected them because they had to pay for the bill to have the surgery done. Also it effected his parents because their son is still alive. 

The Hunger Games

There was a war between 24 tributes between life and death only 1 comes out on top. In district 12 theres two star crossed lovers. Will one give their life up for the other? The real conflict here is that the two star crossed lovers will be fighting against each other, for one will live and the other will die. This is such a sad thing that has to happen. Yet again, they both might die together. One of the other tributes from another district might win.

If only there was a way to let these two crossed lovers both live. It was becoming sudden death there was only 8 people left, the two from district 12 and the other 6 were from other districts. It was full on war. Suddenly an "announcement" came on, saying "there is a change of plans, there will be two survivors. In order for the two crossed lovers to be together forever, they would have to team up and go after the other last remainders. So they worked together to get it down to only 3 left, those two and one other from another district. They worked together and it worked one of them snuck up behind him and killed him. Just shortly after that happened another announcement came on, saying "change of plans again, there can only be one survivor. In the end they both decided to eat poison berries so that no one won. Just as they were about to eat them another annoucment came on, saying stop!! you both can survive, and that is the resolution.

The Best Game Ever

Author's Note: I decided to write this for my personal narrative because I think that it is such an amazing thing that happened to me and I just couldn't believe it.

"There is only one minute left on the court that we are playing on" said my coach. I could feel the butterflies coming. We walked up to the bench and set our bags down. "Start warming up" my coach said. I grabbed a ball and looked up at the scoreboard, we only had a minute and thirty seconds to warm up. My whole team was freaking out. My coach said "bring it in." He gave us a little pep talk before the game to help us boost up our confidence. As he was giving his pep talk I was thinking to myself, if we work together we can accomplish a lot. 

We started heading out onto the court. The game we have all been waiting for was just about to begin. We got into our spots, the girl I was jumping against was really tall. The ref threw the ball in the air; the other girl ended up winning the tip. The Sun Prairie Devils brought up the ball. We got matched up and made the other team turn the ball over, MacKenzie had a fast break, she sprinted down the court for a lap-up. Once we got the game started I could tell all of our stomachs had settled and we were playing like our regular selves. The score was 9 to 8; there was 6 seconds left of the first half. We had the ball, MacKenzie pushed the ball up the court, she passed me the ball for a three, everyone was yelling hurry shoot. I shot the ball and to my surprise I swooshed it. 

It was half time and we were up by 4. We had approximately 10 minutes for half time. My coach pulled us out into the hallway, of course he had to give a lecture about everything he saw us do wrong, but that is what a coach is supposed to do; it makes you better. He was just talking to us about how we have to keep the lead and we can't let them get back into the game. The buzzer went off and we jogged back into the gym onto the court. 

I took the ball out of bounds and passed it to MacKenzie. She started dribbling up the court, we were trying to stall so that the other team couldn't get the ball. After a while the other team finally took a foul. They had six fouls against us, so we were in bonus. I had to shoot two free-throws, I'm not the best at free-throws so I ended up missing both of them. They started bringing the ball up the court, we were only up by four with 1 minute left. You could tell the other team was desperate for points. One of girls from the other team chucked up a three and it banked in. Of course our luck ran out, when the girl was shooting one of our girls fouled her. She ended up tying the game. There was only about six seconds left when we were bringing the ball up the court. They fouled Claire. Claire was one of the better free-throw shooters, although this crowd was really annoying she couldn't focus enough. Lucky for us there was one girl from the other team who hit the ball out of bounds. There was one second left, our coach called a time-out. He made a play; I was freaking out though because the play was for me. It was called Dells. I ended up being wide open. Sky passed me the ball...

“Shoot the ball,” the crowd yelled. Swoosh, the ball went through the net. We just won the championship game! My team and I sprinted and huddled together. We were jumping up and down filled with excitement. Afterwards we went to Culver's to celebrate the big victory.  I guess it really is true, if you work together you can accomplish a lot. 

Heaven is for real

Author's Note: Make sure to pay attention to how old this boy is and had to go through such a difficult time. 

Heaven is for Real is about a 4 year old boy who has basically been to heaven and back. The little boy's appendix irrupted, when his parents found out they rushed him to the hospital to get the "poison" out of him. While they were operating on him; he was visiting heaven. They got the poison out of his little body and he was back from heaven.

The Best Day Ever

Author's Note: For my DWA I chose to write about a family trip to Six Flags Great America. I chose this because spending time with family is important to me.

It was a hot and sunny day. My family and I were on our way to Six Flags Great America. We were taking two cars; I was in the one with all my cousins and my aunts. On the way up we were jamming out to music, laughing, and having a good time. It was a long ride, you could tell my aunt’s were getting annoyed very easily. We were having such a good time that we didn’t even notice the two hour long drive. It felt like a thirty minute drive. I guess it’s true, when your having a good time; time flies by.

It was almost 9:50 a.m. when we arrived at the park. The park officially opened at 10:00 a.m. and everyone was so excited to be there and couldn’t wait to get on some rides. The other car pulled up next to us, they got out and we headed toward the entrance. As soon as we paid for the tickets and got in, we got a map and headed to the closest territory; which was the Southwest. Raging Bull -which by the way is one of my favorite rides- is in that part. We hit five rides by the time the clock struck 11:30. Usually we only get to two or three rides in that time. I could tell that it was going to be a good day, and we would get to a lot of rides.

As we were in line for the Raging Bull, we saw what I thought was really cool, a man was 221 feet in the air fixing the Giant Drop. He was just dangling there in a harness that I thought could break at any moment. Since the wait for the Bull was only fifteen minutes, I didn’t get to explore what had actually happened to the Giant Drop. After we hit the Raging Bull for the second time we headed to the food market to get some lunch. Everyone was so hungry, you could tell since our food was gone within ten minutes. As I looked at my phone to check the time, it said 1:30. I couldn’t wait to get on more rides and enjoy the cool breeze blowing against my face.

We started walking toward Superman, one of my favorite rides. As we approached the ride, I noticed something wrong with the it… the ride had been broken down, and the sign said RIDE BROKEN DOWN WILL BE BACK UP AND RUNNING IN 30 MINUTES. I was so angry that it was broken down, I should have guessed that it would have broken down at least once today; it is always breaking down. So we decided to head to a different roller coaster. The closest one to Superman was V2 also known as Vertical Velocity. After waiting in a huge line for about forty-five minutes, it was our turn to get on the ride. The ride is only about thirty seconds long, so we waited forty-five minutes for a thirty second long ride. That ride was pointless but the next ride we were going to hit was Batman, to me this is the coolest ride to wait in line for, because you go through an underground tunnel and you literally feel like you are Batman on your way to save someone. The ground even makes noises. Also there is a scene where there is a Police car that has crashed into a fire hydrant and there are bullet holes in the car, and it is like a investigation scene and then out of nowhere the rides goes right above the police. Three hours and ten minutes later, it was almost Six o’clock, since the park closes at Ten we had to get moving to more rides. X-FLIGHT is one of the new rides that came out this year, surprisingly there was only a fifteen minute wait. As we were in line we were getting situated. Mostly who was going to ride with who, and what wing were u going to ride on, the left or the right. We got everything in order just at the time where u get separated for the left or the right wing. We got comfy in our seats and we took off. I can honestly say that X-FLIGHT is now on my list for my favorite rides.

We got to ride a few more roller coaster but sadly it was time to leave after that. It was  time to go home and the ride home felt the exact same, except that everyone except my aunt was sleeping. Today to me felt like the time just flew by, well if you’re having a good time; time flies by.

Role Model

Author’s Note: My sister is like my best friend, she would do just about anything for me. I chose to write about her because she is my role model. When I grow up I want to be just like her. I love to play basketball and she was an amazing player. 

Janelle is my older sister, my role model, and my best friend. If anything were to happen to her, I would go bezerk. Honestly I love her so much if she were to get hurt really bad, I would want to be by her side every hour of everyday. I think to myself everyday what would’ve happened if Janelle was never born, I don’t think that I would have a very good role model. Even though Janelle is 9 years older than me, she treats me like we are the same age. She treats me as if I were her best friend. We do a lot of things together, and we love doing them together. Truthfully I have another sister, but she is nice to me only sometimes. 

This summer my sister is coaching my AAU (Amateur Athletic Union) basketball team. I like it because, first of all she is my sister, second of all she lets me have more playing time, and third of all she makes it a memory to remember. I would honestly not being doing CBA (coaches basketball association) if Janelle was not the coach. Here’s the catch though, there is another team (kinda like a A and B team) and the coach of that team is Taylor Jannsen. Taylor is one of Janelle’s best friends, and for some tournaments I have to play with Taylor’s team (not as fun as it might sound.) If you were in my position you wouldn’t be happy if your sister (favorite person in the world) wasn’t with you. Janelle has always been there for me though, through thick and thin.

Facts about Janelle:
Favorite color: blue
Favorite Foods: pizza, ice-cream and steak
Favorite Sport: basketball
Hair color: bleach blonde
Height: 5’ 9”
Eye Color: Hazel
Other interesting facts: wears glasses, never broken a bone and had stitches 3 times.

Not So Funny

Author’s Note: Today was Shelby’s choice for what we were going to write about. She was kind of panicking in a way...but she was able to pick one...at the end of class, so we had no class time to work on it.

I remember this one time when I was about 10 years old and I got into a car crash with my mom and grandma. It was the most scariest thing that ever happened to me. I honestly was more scared for my grandma than I was about me... my grandma is 75 years old and she was sitting in the front of the car. What happened was my mom, grandma and I were driving back from a cookie party in Illinois. It was during winter and it was really slippery and icy. The cars in front of us was slipping all over the place... I had a bad feeling about driving so fast on the highway with the weather being like that. There was this one patch of ice across all of the lanes, once we got up to that spot I knew we were going to end up somewhere but going straight. In the end we ended up facing the other way that we were supposed to be going... my mom’s car was totalled, and we had to get a ride home from airway (a van that takes people home who don’t have a car.)

Blueberry

Author’s Note: The topic chosen for today was Goldfish, we have a routine where someone picks a topic for the day and then the next someone else picks the topic... today was claire’s choose. I like the topic but I think that we need to take some time to think about what we pick.

Splish, Splash, the goldfish was taking a bath... Blueberry is my goldfish and she is a beta fish. I chose to name her blueberry because she looked like a blueberry (color wise.) Blueberry was the best fish I ever had... the sad thing is though... is that she only lived to be 2 years. The thing about beta fish is that if you have any other fish and you put the beta with say a guppy, there will be a little chance that the guppy will survive. I had many different fish in my lifetime so far and blueberry was the best. When she died I kind of flipped out. I really loved blueberry, she felt like she was my daughter...(just joking) Honestly I loved blueberry and that is that.

The Time Of Your Life

The time of your life

Author’s Note: The topic that we chose to write about was vacation...I never go on vacation unless we win the lottery (which never happened or will happen.) I liked this topic because I can dream about going on a nice vacation.

Kids at my school wait for this all year round. I know I do... the only vacations that I get are the ones
that the school gives to us. While my friends are going to Florida for no reason and are missing school... I have to sit in my class alone with no one to talk to. Vacation can be special or they can be horrific. It can be special if you are like on a honeymoon, or it can be horrific because you might have to be sent away somewhere that you don’t want to go. Although everyone thinks that vacation is awesome...is it really all that amazing?

Symbolism

Symbolism

Behind The Stripes

Author’s Note: This is a story about zebras. We chose a random topic and the chosen one was zebras. Today you will be reading about the interesting animal that has the name of a zebra. Be sure to pay attention to how their stripes mean something interesting.


Z is for Zebras. They are a type of animal that can be seen in a zoo or in the wild. If you are in the wild you will never see a zebra by itself, unless it got lost. Zebras live in family groups of more than a dozen with one stallion as head. Did you know that all the stripes on zebras are not the same... in fact they each have their own unique pattern that can be recognized by other family members. In fact when zebras run in a herd, the stripes help protect them by confusing predators with a dizzying display.


Zebras sleep in shifts, so that some members of the herd are always awake and alert. The leader uses sounds to signal when all is safe or when a threat occurs. If the leader fails it’s job... all is not bad zebras can run 64 km (40 miles) per hour, even though they weigh 227 to 272 pounds. There are some bad things about the leader failing though... a cheetah is one of their predators, cheetahs are the fastest land mammals. They can run up to 70 miles per hour!

Semantic Devices

Semantic Devices

It's Not Worth It

Author's Note: Intially I wrote this paper for my Social Studies Class, but I then I thought, why can't I write it for Language Arts too? By reading this paper you will understand why drilling in Alaska will not help our country very much.

Animals dying, economy changing minamally:this is what can happen if the US drills for oil in ANWR. Everyone has their own opinions, like some people may think that it is a good idea for the US to drill for oil, and then there are the people who disagree with that and say that the US shouldn’t drill for oil. Drilling for oil isn’t a good thing but it isn’t a bad thing, the US should not drill for oil because it could do so many bad things to ANWR. 

Drilling for oil can do so much damage to the ANWR; it could kill all the wildlife and ruin the environment. If the US were to drill for oil it could kill all the animals and wildlife. If that was to happen we could ruin something that we don’t even own. Think about all those poor helpless animals that would get killed for no reason at all. We should not drill for oil it could wreck the homes of animals giving birth and their natural habitats.

Say we go ahead and we drill for oil, and something goes wrong. We would be the people who would have to clean up our mess, that we created and help clean up their environment. If we don’t decontaminate their environment fast enough, we could start to cause pollution and kill all the animals that live in the ocean or lake. Think about what that is doing to us… that is making us look like fools, embarrassing us, showing Alaska that we are not responsible enough to drill for oil safely. We do not want that happening.

Trees, grass, and bushes are all other things that we could kill if we have an oil spillage. If we don’t have trees we don’t have oxygen, if we don’t have air we can’t breathe if we can’t breathe we will all die. Now is that something that you guys want to happen? I for sure don’t. I am only 13 years old I have my whole life to live… hopefully. If we kill the grass and bushes with oil, what will some of the animals have to eat?

The US should not drill for oil because it could do so many bad things to ANWR. Many people thought that we should drill for oil and gave me many good reasons to think about changing my mind but I am going to keep my ground and fight for the no drilling for oil. There are more reasons to not drill for oil in Alaska than there are to drill.

A Hero From The Shadows

Author’s Note: Every Day someone is dying somewhere around the world. In this short story by Lynn Rosellini, a man saves his co-workers who were trapped underground that were nearly drowning. What you are going to be reading about is not a tragedy but a delightful story in the end.

Four men, a tunnel, and a lot of water. Doesn’t nearly sound as fun as some people may think. In the short story No Escape, four men were working underground just like any other work day. Then one of the workers heard an unfamiliar sound, sort of like a whoosh of air and a clatter of rocks and debris. A second later out of nowhere came all this water pouring into the tunnel. One of the workers tried to get a hold of someone by using his radio on his tool belt but then it suddenly died.  At that very moment what was going through all of their minds was we are going to die. After a while of being stuck down in the tunnel and the water rising at 10,000 gallons per minute, one of the workers who were working above ground, Mike Salvador came to their rescue when he heard someone yelling for help. The workers were finally saved from drowning. To me this short story was trying to make a point, and the point I thought it was trying to make was that anyone can be a hero, no matter what anyone says about you.

On a positive note, if things start out poorly that doesn’t mean they will necessarily end up bad. For instance if you start the first half of a basketball game with multiple turnovers, you can still end the game with no turnovers and a bunch of points in the second half. After all, not everything in life turns out bad in the end.

I feel like I can relate to this story because when I was younger my grandma had a pool and my brother was supposed to be watching me when my grandma called for lunch and my brother left me. Of course this was when I didn’t know how to swim and I started drowning. My mom was the one who noticed me and came to my rescue. I guess what I am trying to say is, that I could relate to the almost death experience.

Many people can’t relate to having almost death experiences, but being a hero is something everyone can relate to. Being a hero isn’t just putting on an act it’s about how you treat people and how you make the best of every situation.  I am trying to make a point that it doesn’t matter if you are short or tall or young or old it doesn’t matter, anyone can be a hero. For example if someone was drowning at a swim at your own risk lake/pool anyone can help save the life of that person. By doing that they can become a hero.

Everyone gets a chance to be a hero. I think that is something that many people don’t take advantage of. In my perspective I think that being a hero can be life changing. Say someone is choking on a piece of food and you know how to do CPR, this could be your chance to show the world that you are a hero. Anyone and everyone has the chance to be a hero and save someone’s life.

Rain Rain Go Away

Author’s Note: Seven years; thousands upon thousands of days it has been raining nonstop. Every minute of every day it rains on planet Venus. A girl named Margot moved from Earth to Venus and she has lived on Venus for 5 years and still all these kids make fun of her, because she thinks that it will stop raining for a couple hours and then it will continue to rain for another couple years.

BOOM! ... BANG! The lightning struck as the class jumped from their seats. “Take your seats children class is about to start.” Said the teacher. It was a normal day at school for Margot sitting in the back of the room not talking to anyone. “Margot, it is your turn to read your poem.” Said the teacher. Margot began to read her poem, “I think the sun is a flower; that blooms for just one hour.” Then one of the boys yelled out Aw, you didn’t write that! “I did” yelled Margot from the back of the room. “William!” Said the teacher. This is just how the story begins.

In this book Margot has got a big situation; she has to move from Earth to Venus. I can relate to that because I have moved many many times in my life. In fact I just moved this summer and I am still kind of getting over the big change. Of course her move was bigger, but I can share my feelings with her. Having to get used to everything so fast and having to settle down in a place that you don’t want to be. Trust me, I’ve been there and many times. If I were in her position I would be doing the exact same thing that she is doing.

New school, new teachers, new friends, new everything. One day before the teacher came in the class room the class thought since they didn’t like Margot that it would be funny to lock her in a hall closet. Why? Because she said that today it was going to stop raining and they thought she was lying so the class locked her in the closet also because they thought it would be funny. Then suddenly something happened, just as the kids got back to the class room they didn’t hear anything. Which for them was very unusual, it actually stopped raining.  The class rain out into the fresh air and were so excited they started running around like it was the very first time they ever saw no rain. It wasn’t long though, before the rain came back and everyone had to resume their regular lives inside. Then they realized that Margot was telling the truth about it not raining and went to unlock the closet and set her free. Their lives would still remain the same though, not liking her and making fun of her.

Life in another world is not easy, I don’t know that for a fact but I do know that moving from your home planet to a planet that you thought didn’t even have life on, is ruff. On Venus it never stops raining, but on earth it doesn’t rain 24/7. That is something that Margot most definitely had to adjust to. Since Margot isn’t as tan as the other kids she always gets picked on because of how her skin is as white as snow and how she looks so pale. Life as the new kid isn’t as easy as you may think!

If you think about it Margot doesn’t live an easy life. Moving from one planet to another, always getting picked on for the color of her skin, and many more things. If you were living her life how would you deal with a situation like that? To me I wouldn’t want to go to school, I wouldn’t want to go to school because of all the nagging and being picked on every day for something that you believe in. Honestly to me I feel bad for Margot because she has a complex life.

Essays

A Tiger's Tale

Author's Note:  I had to find a topic to write about and it came to me, why don't I write about my favorite animal in the world.
Roar! Roar! That is the sound that a wild cat makes. One of the cats in the cat family is a tiger. Some people think differently, they think that all tigers are different; it doesn’t matter if the tigers are ugly or beautiful. Everyone has their favorite and so do I. All tigers are the same, but there are many different types of tigers, such as Bengal, Siberian, Indochinese, South Chinese, Sumatran, Malayan, Caspian, Javan and Bali.  Personally my two favorite types of tigers would have to be the Bengal and Siberian tigers because they are beautiful. Most tigers are beautiful but there’s just something about Bengal and Siberian tigers!

One really interesting fact to me is that of the tigers I named above, the last three are extinct, one is extinct in the wild, and the rest are endangered. Another interesting fact that I thought was weird but yet cool was that all tigers have a lifespan of 10-15 years. Also I thought this was a pretty cool fact that a male Siberian tiger and a male Sumatran tiger are way different in weight than each other. But yet the females for both of them are both very similar.

The Diet of all tigers is the same; they mainly eat ambar deer, wild pigs, water buffalo and antelope. Tigers are also known to hunt sloth bears, dogs, leopards, crocodiles and pythons as well as monkeys and hares. Old and injured tigers have been known to attack humans and domestic cattle.

Over all, tigers are alike in many different ways but then again tigers are different in many different ways. My point is is that no matter what type of tigers they are they are all the same in many different ways.

   

The Furry Animal From Down Under

Author's Note:  Everyone thinks that koala bears are the cutest and sweetest little animals in the world, I had to do something about that because koala bears are not the sweetest animals. I choice to write about this because koala bears are not the sweetest and cutest little animal in the world.
Soft, thick and pleasant to touch, what animal am I thinking of? If you said a Koala Bear you are absolutely correct. So many people think that Koala Bears are the sweetest little animals on earth, but I would have to disagree because they probably aren’t around humans that much unless they are in a zoo. So how do you know what a wild koala bear is going to do to a human?! Truth be told they are not the sweetest animals on the earth but they are not the meanest animal on earth.    

Koala Bears spend all day sleeping, they like sleeping in the fork of the tree. They start to move around just when the sun sets. Once the sun is down and it is nighttime you can hear the koalas “barking” aggressively at other koalas.

The population of koala bears is dropping as we are talking; presently up to 4,000 koalas are being killed each year by cats and dogs. You can find koala bears mostly in Eastern and Southern Australia. Also you can find them on coastal islands and tall eucalypt forests to low woodlands inland. You will never find a koala bear in a rainforest though.

Koala seldom drinks water obtaining it from the eucalyptus leaves, which are 50% consisting of water. Although, they can drink water if due to drought the leaves water content is reduced. Each koala eats 200 to 500 grams of leaves per day. Koalas have a slow metabolic rate due to their high-fiber, low nutrient diet. Because they store little or no fat, koalas must adopt strategies that conserve energy. Sleeping is one of them.
Koala Bears to me can seem like they are nice and you think that you can cuddle up with them. But honestly koala bears can be very aggressive and dangerous.



http://www.giftlog.com/pictures/koala_fact.htm

A bundle of joy

Author's Note: I chose to write about my cat because she really is a bundle of joy!

Kitten

Chunky, adorable

playing, cuddling, eating

My favorite cat

Bailey

By: Becca Groer

My shoes amazing adventure

Author’s Note: I got a really nice pair of boots for Christmas and now I want to write about them.

WHOOSH WHOOSH you could hear as I was sliding around in the back of the truck. I am a pair of shoes that just got ordered off of a catalog. I am so excited, this if my first time being out of the shoe factory, I haven’t been out of the factory ever… maybe because it is the fact that I just got made and I was just put up on the shelves.

I didn’t like how I had to be put in a box but I guess that’s how it had to be because if I wasn’t in the box I won’t be a surprise for her, after all I am one of her Christmas gifts. I can’t wait to get out of these boxes and get on her feet!

Right when I got there I was put under the tree with a lot of other gifts. I could tell because as I was sleeping during the middle of the night I could hear all the other gifts talking about who they are going to and who will be roommates and who will be seeing a lot of each other. Right when I heard all the people say Brittany I was like well I guess that I won’t be having a lot of roommates, maybe one or two at the most.

The night was over and it was Christmas morning no one was up yet except the other gifts, they were blabbing away. Finally someone woke up and opened their door. Then after a while more people came out I could feel the anticipation rising. I knew that I was going to get unwrapped soon.

Suddenly I hear someone say “ok everyone; take a seat we are going to unwrap gifts now. I was so excited mostly because I knew I was in the front and I was going to get picked first. I could feel someone lifting me up and set me down on something. As I heard the wrapping paper getting teared apart, I was so excited. She finally opened me up and screamed yes as loud as she could!! I was so happy that she liked me.

From this day on I have been loving life; I mean I have a lot of roommates since Brittany and Becca share a room. Also because she wears me like every day!! I wish that all of my friends could see me now and see that I am in a good environment.

Leonard

 Author's Note: Honestly I think that looking up old computers are so funny, what do you think about old computers?

Leonard year born: 1800’s A.D.

I love looking up old computers and making fun of all the different types that I see. If I were a owner of an old computer I would be so happy because every day I would come home and be smiling because I would be able to see my old computer. I don’t know about you but I love seeing old computers in fact here is my old computer Leonard. I love it because it is just so funny.

Dream Vacation

Author's Note: I was so excited for winter break so I decided to make a short story about how  I think that it would be like.
Beeeeeeep! The school bell finally rang; it was at last winter break. The best time of the winter because of three things:

1)    You get to spend time with friends and family.

2)    You don’t have to go to school for a week or so.

3)    You get presents and a 24 pound turkey.

I love when vacation comes around; vacation to me is like a diabetic person’s sugar, I need to have it. Vacation is a great chance to catch up on the things you missed or need to get done… such as for me it would be getting more sleep, playing more basketball and hanging out with friends and family more often. I know that’s why I love winter break and all vacations, but why do you?