Author: Laura

PR – Romeo & Juliet: Seize the Preserved

The play Romeo and Juliet by William Shakespeare has been replicated, patented, filmed, recorded, memorized, and acted out dozens of times. So many times, that only the original, printed as a book, can be considered his preserved work of art. This is the only point to which a reader can experience Romeo and Juliet in its quintessence.

In the written play Juliet was more independent and sassier. I feel that if the directors of the film, Romeo and Juliet (1968), seized this aspect of her character Juliet would have had more flexibility and variety in her personality. Otherwise, she is simply a star-crossed lover with no path in life other than to love and care for Romeo. This conflicts with one of her reasons for rejecting consent to marry County Paris. For example, in the play when Juliet and Paris first meet in the church with Friar Lawrence, Paris is overjoyed to encounter her and proclaims his loyalty and happiness.

Paris

Happily met, my lady and my wife!

Juliet

That may be sir, when I may be a wife.

Paris

That ‘may be’ must be, love, on Thursday next.

Juliet

What must be shall be.

In the film, Paris only remarks the first line in the block quote above as a greeting. Juliet is very shy, conserved, and submissive as he talks to her. She does not even look him in the eye. She becomes small and then goes crying to Friar Lawrence. This may have been the objective of the directors, but I believe Shakespeare did not intend to create a character who played damsel in distress the entire time.  Friar Lawrence reflected a lot of what reminds me of the people of today. While every other character was intertwined and lost in the love story, Friar Lawrence was the realist and problem-solver. My thoughts while watching and reading Friar Lawrence’s role are that he was the kind of person who understands and supports Romeo and Juliet’s love because he once felt their love. However, he also rolls his eyes at them because he knows how it ends. He knows it always ends the same. Lastly, I appreciated that Shakespeare set the plot into reality by using characters with personalities and traits we would see today. The Nurse was a very outgoing, jolly, comforting and larger lady. Friar was an old, wise, man, who can solve any problem you bring. I believe Shakespeare did this because Romeo and Juliet’s love was too perfect, to heavenly. He needed to include something to bring the audience back to earth in order to make his play realistic and engaging. He did this by using characters we see in any society.

Additionally, I really enjoyed the repetitive musical theme of an orchestra playing “Nino Rota” in the background. This is something new to this unit because we were able to watch a film. The music made the film a millions times more impactful because the audience would know when an important scene was occurring. By the end of this movie, the theme song represented birth, love, and death all in one theatrical performance.

 

PW #7 – Seemingly Meaningless Connections

Old people wear glasses, need hearing aids, and walk with canes. However, old people also see clearest, do the most listening, and have no trouble supporting others. I have had a few special moments with some of our elders recently and wanted to share one of them here.

I was driving home from school one day, basking in the hot sun from what seems to be hotter after coming through the windshield. Enjoying the warmth of the leather seats on my legs, we stop at a traffic light. I look over to my right to see a bus drop off one, two, three and four people at the stop. The first three scurry and bustle off with their bags, phones, jackets and keys, while the older lady slowly makes her way off the bus. As the bus drives away she notices a majestic and fully bloomed cherry blossom. I myself have noticed the beauty of the cherry blossoms this time of year. She stops, and stares at its branches. Then its leaves. And finally, its flowers. She smiles. I smile too. I have never felt such radiating innocence before. She did not know I was watching her. She was able to enjoy this slow and peaceful moment, while I was blessed with admiring it.

Innocence is one of my favourite words. By definition, it is known (as a noun) as “a pure, guileless, or naive person”.  To me, innocence most comes to mind when you are experiencing a peaceful moment in which you feel a connection to something. A connection that seems so meaningless. Seemingly meaningless connections, this is innocence.

IRJE #6 – A Rope Leading to Different Paths

I have just begun reading The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood. I was delighted the brief plot summary from one of my friends, but other than that, I have no idea what this book is about, the author’s style, or the genre. It would be very easy to find the answers to these mysteries, but I also like the idea of going into the book unbiased and interpreting it in my own way. I’ll do that. Below is a quote I read three times over at the beginning of chapter two, page seven.

A chair, a table, a lamp. Above, on the white ceiling, a relief ornament in the shape of a wreath, and in the centre of it a blank space, plastered over, like the place in a face where the eye has been taken out. There must have been a chandelier once. They’ve removed anything you could tie a rope to.

So far, the text has ominous themes of the colour red, females, and order. From the details I have retained, this story is set in a land where, as in most, women are categorized by status and their value is acquired according to that status. The main character seems to be middle-classed This allows her to interact with higher classed women, and recognize the satisfactory wealth of herself by being close to the poor. The part that caught my eye about this quote is the second sentence. The way in which Atwood wrote this leaves the reader to question whether “they” have removed anything you could tie a rope to because the women could escape, or, because the women could hang themselves. Either of these options, and the possible more, leaves the reader with a thirst that only reading further could quench. Either of these options are terrifying and set the stage of this book to be filled with thematic, and hopefully courageous, events.

PW# 6 – Zen and The Art of Motorcycle Maintenance is Rubbing Off on Me…

Why are we here? How am I here, looking the way I do, talking the way I speak, dreaming the way I dream? What do Orca’s eat? Why do they prefer seals? How do seals know to run away? What makes a predator scary? Teeth? Why teeth? How do we know to run away? What did we wear as homo erectus? How long did it take to get how we are now? Why are we here? Ah, now this, THIS, is the circle of life.

A large splash of salty water prys me into consciousnesses. The first thing I see is my bright orange kayak. For a moment, I shock myself when I realize I am at the mercy of the water of the Gulf Islands. Right now, I can see she is calm. A few fun bumps every now and then, but mostly tame. I look around to see my group, broken land and rock, kelp, the odd otter, and trees. Lots, and lots, of trees. Beautiful, tall, old, and wise with the years it’s endured on these shores. The water’s attitude is not yet the most frightening thing out here. It’s the ferries. From them, we are named “speed bumps”. Something our guide so care-freely, matter-of-factly, remarked. For us, they are giant metal tanks driving at a fast pace on a route that does not change, kayakers, or no kayakers. Knowing this, we are in constant anxiety of the next ferry crossing. One comes up close. Upon starting it our guide makes a quick speech. Keep in mind, the six of us are fourteen to sixteen year-olds.

“Alright. I need y’all to paddle as fast as your little chicken arms can take you. When you feel like you can’t, keep going. It doesn’t matter because we have to cross anyways otherwise you’ll die. And I don’t want anyone dying because that is a lot of paperwork for me when I get home. Sound good?”

No, not good. We all line up and wait for the OK. He shouts go and it is literally a race for life and death. I feel the sweat building up underneath my jaw, behind my ears, under my legs. The constant splashes of extremely salty water demand entry into my kayak and, mouth. I can feel the build-up dragging me down, sloshing around inside the boat and mixing with the sand of our last stop. I choke on the water for a little while but it does not matter, keep paddling. Keep paddling I tell myself. It feels like I’ve been paddling for hours. It takes what feels like an eternity before he shouts “We’re halfway there!”. The only sign of support he’s shown since the start of the trip. I feel my arms burning and bruising and going lactic. No, no, no. That can’t happen. I take a three second break before my guide yells at me to keep paddling. Seeing the next island I get a burst of energy. Finding the stored energy within me, deep inside me, I paddle on and find the rest of the group at the end of the ferry crossing. Knowing I am in the middle of the ocean’s islands and have just defeated death, I feel free. Completely and utterly alive and free. I reached down and dip my fingertips to the water. It’s cold, really cold. Losing this enchanting feeling and connection I’m having with the ocean, our guide tells us to move on. I can tell he is also in a way, satisfied. Despite one’s love or hate, soft or hard attitude, the serene feeling of presence and zen within nature heals all and brings out our innate calling to not just be in nature, but to be natural. 

IRJE #5: Whizzing In and Out of Consciousness

I just began reading the philosophical novel Zen and The Art of Motorcycle Maintenance by Robert M. Pirsig. From raving reviews, this book is well written with its ability to weave in the beauty of riding and the author’s own philosophical ideas. This is my favourite quote right now.

On a motorcycle the frame is gone. You’re completely in contact with it all. You’re in the scene, not just watching it anymore, and the sense of presence is overwhelming. That concrete whizzing by five inches below your foot is the real thing, the same stuff you walk on, it’s right there, so blurred you can’t focus on it, yet you can put your foot down and touch it anytime, and the whole thing, the whole experience, is never removed from immediate consciousnesses.

I fell in love with this quote because it resonated with my feelings and thoughts when riding a motorcycle. My dad is really into motorcycles, and has been since he got his license, and so by default I am very familiar with riding. I cannot wait for the day I can ride alongside him. This quote pinpoints how it touches your soul to be one with the bike. Whether a passenger or the driver, being on the bike is to be completely free from anything holding you back. Especially with the addition of a helmet, you are in your own little world. I often find myself talking outloud to myself when I’m riding. In this space you can let your mind run wild. With the trees whizzing by you this serene heaven extends out past you into your entire surroundings. It is all too perfect until you’re pulled back into consciousness by the reve in the changing of gears.

The second aspect of this quote I noticed was his grammar. The fourth sentence has seven commas. I’d like to believe that Pirsig did this to give the reader a sense that he was so overwhelmed by the beauty of riding, that he can’t stop to take a breath.

Personal Response – “Amusing Ourselves to Death” & “Brave New World”

To reflect on the question “Is Postman’s argument relevant in the internet age?”, I feel it is even more relevant. The assertions he wrote about to which I found most relating to today’s internet is the attention span we are limited to and that everything on TV is created as entertainment. The attention spans that entertainment companies have to tend to when creating the guidelines of entertainment has not changed. For example, Tik Tok is an application that allows endless scrolling of videos with an average length of 34 seconds. This is similar to the argument Postman made in saying that television shows and advertisements have windows of 7-8 seconds to display a particular image or depiction before the camera switches angles. Anything longer and your viewer’s attention is lost. It scares me to know that our ability to change the channel or swipe to the next video is extremely and effortlessly easy. This makes me wonder what we will never be able to focus on in the future. The second assertion I found relevant was the argument that everything put on a screen is made for our entertainment. A comment that made me chuckle and immediately think of this book is when I judged my sister in saying “that’s entertaining for you?” when I saw her watching someone play with slime on YouTube. After thinking about this for a while, I realized that someone could say the same for me. And that someone could have the same thing said for them about what they choose to watch as entertainment. For me, I am genuinely entertained watching someone do their morning makeup and talking about an argument they had with a friend. Who is this women? Why do I care to spend my time watching her? These are questions I raised to myself after thinking about his assertion that anything can be used and everything is used, as entertainment. It also reminded me about how breaking the spell can minimally mean questioning our environments. These ideas provoke the thought that nothing we watch can be put under a different category of entertainment. Everything to do with TV or social apps is of the same value, stupidity, and extent of wasted precious time.

I believe that Postman’s critique of society in 1985 lines up with Huxley’s critique of society in the 1930s through their cooperating ideas of soma and the dramatic change in our understanding of relevance and applicability towards entertainment. I found a connection between Postman’s essay and Huxley’s novel in their formulation of describing how we deal with sadness or stress. In Brave New World the characters take a medicinal “soma” that has been made to immediately take away the emotional and physical effects of unpleasant human emotions. In Amusing Ourselves to Death, he describes our numbing of unpleasant emotions as watching TV. It has occured to me as a result of reading this book that when we feel something, or encounter something we don’t know how to deal with, we find comfort in distracting our brains with television. It is interesting to me that both Huxley and Postman comment on how society attempts to make uncomfortable feelings disappear. Well, disappear for long enough to forget about them. The second critique I correlated between the two was that everything we are presented is for the sole purpose of amusement and therefore leads to a lack in our emotional reactions. It is evident that Postman attempts to explain the different instances where serious matters become entertainment. These instances being religion, education, and politics. One of his example is that a person can watch the news on a massacre somewhere in the world and still sleep silently that night. His point led here is that by putting events and information on TV, it degrades the value and emotional response it should spark. From this, I have come to realize that this is similar to in BNW where Huxley writes about how the citizens laugh at any play put on for them. Whether the plot is a tragedy or comedy. In my opinion this connection can be related into our futures as, curiosity did not kill the cat, oblivion did.

PW #5 – In a room filled with everyone you have ever met in your life

Who would you run to first in a room filled with everyone you’ve ever met in your life? This is a question I was recently asked and now cannot stop thinking about.

If I was in a room filled with everyone I have ever met in my life I would run to my Grandma Hope first. I was a baby, just 2 years old, when she passed away. Although I am not able to remember her touch, she met me, she held me in her warm and loving embrace. My mother and father and everyone who met her says she was a beautiful woman, inside and out. She was an interior designer – a trait that I inherited. She loved indigenous art. Many of the pieces she bought are in my house right now. She also loved windchimes. We have 2 from her. One in my room, and one outside. A few years ago, I had asked my father about Grandma Hope and he told me many wonderful things about her; how much she loved me, how kind she was, her devotion, and her smile. Before my dad kissed me goodnight, the windchime in my room jingled softly. I do not know what happens after one passes away, or how much they are able to interact with the living, but I do know this was a message from her. A message saying that even though I never met her, she met me. And she loved me.

 

IRJE #4 – Opposing Femme Fatale

I have just started reading the classic novel Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen. I love it so far. When I asked my mom if she had ever read it she paused, looked me dead in the eyes, and said she wanted to jump off a bridge when she was reading it in high school. It was too olden day for her. Personally, I love the olden day ambiance. If I could live in any time period I’d love to live in the 1800s. I also believe that the old English style will help my writing skills.

On page 23, Elizabeth, who is a Bennet daughter, is at a ball when a Mr. Darcy asks her to dance. She responds with,

Indeed, sir, I have not the least intention of dancing. – I entreat you not to suppose that I moved this way in order to beg for a partner.

This comment from Miss Elizabeth was beyond surprising to not only the reader but also Mr. Darcy. This rejection is unexpected considering it is a social norm for a women to leap at the attention of a possible suitor. But she did not. The author also mentioned that Elizabeth scrutinized Mr. Darcy for only asking for her hand because of the way she was moving. I perceived this in the sense that she was dancing in a more intimate way than women usually do at balls. Moving forward, the author has made it clear that Elizabeth, the eldest of the Bennet children, is not looking for a suitor and has a strong sense of independence.

PW #4 – In A Few Years…

“Write about a time you failed, and learned”, my father said. I have been pondering what to write about for my application to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology university (MIT). As I sit at my desk with Auggie (my dog), the Personal Project I did in grade 10 two years ago, comes to my mind. I think to myself, “Damn you Laura, why’d you have to pick neuroscience? I mean, it’s fascinating, but now I have to write this 10,000 word report on why I want to be accepted”. I’ve written a few paragraphs so far, but still have a long way to go. I decide to take a break. As I slump to the kitchen for the left-over salmon pasta, my sister Simona, who is 14, gives me a glare. I remark with a, “What?”, “You promised to drive me to Olivia’s but you’re still in your pajamas.” she says with a sad tone. “Oh, shoot, sorry. Let me get dressed and we’ll go”, “Thank you Laura! You are the best sister in the whole wide world!” she states with enthusiasm. We drive to Olivia’s.

IRJE#3 – The Chrysalids

I have just started the Sci-Fi novel The Chrysalids by John Wyndham. It was bought and recommended to me by my father. He was in grade 10 when he read it and still stands that it is the best book he has ever read. Coming from a boy who was not academically inclined as he was, this means a lot. So, I have also decided to read it.

David, the protagonist, is sliding along a sandhill when he sees some rustling in the bushes beside him. He looks closer and sees a small girl with her head peaking out from the branches. As soon as she asses the situation  with the sliding and all, she asks him if it’s fun what he is doing. He says yes and so she tries it. The fearful look in her eyes immediately turn to wistful. A few moments later David finds her laying at the bottom of the hill with her foot stuck and tears in her eyes. He thinks to himself,

For almost the first time in my life I found myself in charge of a situation which needed a decision. I made it.

The first thing I thought of when I read this is how I feel when I babysit. For all my life I have been the one being taken care of and without responsibility. If ever something was to go wrong someone older, stronger and more mature would deal with it. Now, while babysitting I am taking care of children and the responsibility falls on me. It is a scary feeling when you realize this. It is like an automatic “grown-up” moment. In the end, I relate to how David feels and while I read the book I will take into consideration that he has a mature mind.

 

 

PR #2 – All Quiet on the Western Front – A Change of Soul

The book All Quiet On The Western Front by Erich Maria Remarque is a World War I novel. It is narrated by a German soldier named Paul Baumer. The text expresses the experiences a soldier in WWl endured. In this Personal Response, I am going to reflect on the change of tone in Paul’s narration in the beginning compared to the end. I have noticed that the book starts in a playful and amateur manner, and by the end it displays a defeated, solemn and poetic one. These choices by the author allow the reader to at most fathom, the traumatizing exposures that the soldiers were thrusted into. During Paul’s training his experiences are recorded as blissful. Each day they get up, eat breakfast, shoot some bullets, exercise, smoke, then go to bed. Him and his comrades even play pranks on their non-commissioners. Paul has some idea of what the actual war will be like but not entirely. This is evident on page 26, when Paul says “We became hard, suspicious, pitiless, vicious, tough – and that was good; for these attributes were just what we lacked. Had we gone into the trenches without this period of training most of us would have gone mad. Only thus were we prepared for what awaited us”. He recognizes that the extensive training was not for nothing and had shaped them into strong men. Even so, Paul was not able to read forward in the book like we as readers have, and see that no amount of training could have prepared them for the war. This, is why Paul’s tone was amateurly blissful in the beginning of the book. Towards the end, Paul’s tone seems to sadden. The narration sounds more mature and confident. After weeks in the trenches he knows there is no positive outcome in his situation. The author has made clear of this. In the last paragraph of the book, Paul writes, “Let the months and years come, they can take nothing more from me, they can take nothing more” (pg. 295). This tone of emptiness and isolation brings the reader to at the minimum understand the perspective of how war has made these soldiers feel. It intrigues me how Paul says he “has nothing”. It is not true. He has clothes and food and his sister. He has people and things that could fulfil him superficially. But what the author means, is that the trauma this war has insidiously gifted to him, overcomes any tangible belongings. In the end, Paul’s soul and personality makes him who he is, and that was taken from him. Leaving him, and all the other fallen soldiers, with nothing.

PW #3 – If Only I Would Have Listened…

If only I would have listened

to my mother, when she told me not to go.

I wouldn’t have had to feel the sand

slipping through my fingers below.

My father would not have had to come running

to save me from the undertow.

If only I would have listened

to the manager of the shoe store

my shoes could have glistened

before they became christened.

If only I would have listened

to myself when I said stop.

Was that eighteenth piece of chocolate worth the future blood clot?

I think not.

IRJE #2 – Laura – Interpretation Makes All the Difference

On page 23 of the Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger, the protagonist Holden Caufield, describes how he interpreted an interaction he had with his “friend”, Stradlater.

” ‘Hi’, he said. He always said it like he was terrifically bored or terrifically tiered. He didn’t want you to think he was trying to visit you or anything. He wanted you to think he’d come in by mistake, for God’s sake.”

I have chosen this excerpt because of the realizations I made about the character while reading it. A formulation of ideas about Holden’s character have dawned on me at this point. The first is that he is someone who has a heightened awareness regarding his surroundings. He calculates and judges every little detail of the actions of the people around him. He is constantly making conclusions for why people act the way they do, and these conclusions are mostly negative. Holden Caulfield is an overthinker. He even goes as far as making justifications up. In order to give himself an explanation for why people did things he does not agree with. It is near impossible for Holden to think, ‘he simply said ‘hi” because he wanted to say hi’, because there must be a reason.

The last thing I realized about Holden is that he doesn’t really like people. I do not relate to the character in this way, but I understand why he does not prefer to be around people, sometimes. While reading, one can see that he always has something to say about someone. There is always something he doesn’t agree with or thinks is annoying. Knowing this, I must read this book with the understanding that it might not be the other characters that are irritating and arrogant, but instead it is Holden’s interpretation of the other characters that makes them appear this way.

PW #2 – Read this if you have travelled before

This past long weekend my dad, sister and I hopped on a plane, and flew to Toronto. We went because it was my grandfather’s, brother’s 60th wedding anniversary. Personally, flying on planes and travelling is a love/hate relationship, let’s go through a few prominent moments one might experience. Starting from the beginning, the very beginning. You wake up, giddy with excitement to wear a specially picked-out airport outfit, fitted to the “travel aesthetic” you once saw on TikTok. You put it on, and may I add, you look gorgeous. You walk downstairs to meet your dad making breakfast, the smell of fresh eggs paired with the still-dark morning sky gives you a warm but refreshing feeling, that feeling you get when you have a big journey ahead. You eat breakfast, brush your teeth, do your final packing of toiletries and chargers and then you and your family are in the car driving to the airport. Not suddenly or surprisingly, you get the feeling you’ve forgotten something. Oh goodness what could it be? Underwear? No… Face wash? No… Book you packed to read for Mr. MacKnight? No… definitely have that. Ahah! It’s that “cute” shirt your parents would never let you wear anyways! Ok perfect, its fine, not too big of a deal. Now we are at the airport. Bags unloaded and walking to security. This part gets your nerves up for some reason. Knowing that these people are trained to find dangerous goods makes you question your own innocence! And plus, you didn’t even bring anything dangerous. Right?! Wrong. You brought your pencil case for homework and forgot that scissors were a hard no when going through security.  So, the security guard measures the scissors, and they are waaay bigger than they allow. So now what? You are still wearing that not-so-innocent innocent face when they throw, them, out. Dang, you’ve had those since you were eight years old! After you spend a few seconds mourning the loss of those scissors you spent so many years cutting out Halloween decoration skeletons with, you and your family move on to the stressful wandering around gates to find gate A47. There we go, dad found it. Now, we wait. Wait for the children and family (which you just didn’t make the cut because your sibling is too old) section to go, then the elderly and disabled, and finally, the majority. A mix of funky travelers, businesspeople, and very talkative middle-aged women going on their adventure retreats to Greece. Alright, you are on the plane! Finally, the flight attendant that speaks over the speaker says “May I have your attention ladies and gentlemen. We are about to take off so please fasten your seatbelts and listen to the very long presentation for safety precaution, and then listen to it again in French because we have to, enjoy your flight”.

English IRJE#2 – Naloxone

This is the first page of the book, Roxy, by Neal and Jarrod Shusterman that I have been reading as my Personal Reading book. In this excerpt of the book, the opioid overdose reversing medication, Naloxone, introduces itself.

“I am no superhero. But I can save you from the one who claims to be.”

“I am no wizard. But I cast a spell that can bring back the dead”

“Almost”

“And never often enough”

“I am, if nothing else, your final defense – your last hope when hope itself has spiraled into that singularity that crushes not just you, but everyone around you.” (p.1)

This book has a very powerful metaphor entwined in each chapter. This excerpt made me imagine Naloxone as a strong, fearless, and brave person, and drugs in general as dark and deathly things who do not take responsibility for their actions. Naloxone is not mentioned at all for the rest of the book other than one section where characters express despise from the anti-overdose medication. This does not surprise me because the book is narration of dangerous drugs, anthropomorphized, with hate towards the character Naloxone.

PR – They Shall Not grow Old – Laura

I felt a connection to this movie when the British soldiers jumped out of their trenches for the first time. These soldiers simultaneously knew exactly what they had to do while also knowing nothing about the situation. The goal of killing Germans is all they needed to know to push through. As they endure chaos and trauma they are numb. Nothing else to feel or see because they’ve felt and seen it all. As the veterans said, in no-mans-land you start to think about your past. You do this because in moments of fear, reminiscing of simpler times is easier than processing the present. They might start to remember playing outside on the streets as a schoolboy, or how much they cherished a special toy. As a soldier, you start to wonder, “Am I going to become just like the others? Lying dead in the dirt, with such a rich past shot into nothing”. I understand how the soldiers felt as here they describe how weeks of training and years of living amount to this small but crucial point in their lives. I connect with the soldiers to the extent that your whole life is resting on one event. For them, this event is being killed, for me, this event determines the rest of my childhood. Until I am 18, I’ll be forced into change. Tell me, and the soldiers, how are we supposed to live stagnant with the fact that our lives will never be the same?

Laura

Hello! My name is Laura Francesca MacKenzie. I was born in Winnipeg, Manitoba. Go Blue Bombers! The Saskatchewan Rough Riders do not stand a chance. My family is from Italy and I have visited 4 times, during the summer. I have been attending Brookes Westshore for 3 years. My biggest interests are soccer, science, reading books that interest me, and spending time with my family. I’ve played soccer since I was 5 years old. I am also a very extroverted person.

When it comes to personal reading, I am the type of reader who needs to be truly and entirely engulfed in a book to be able to keep reading. I love books that have a deeper meaning, books that your brain gets to chew and reflect on. I’m not sure what genre I am into yet but I’m sure I’ll find out one day. I like to read before bed. I used to only read the Geronimo Stilton series. I still love them. But, by grade 8 it was time to move on. I really enjoyed The Selection by Kiera Cass as well as the first few books of the Throne of Glass series by Sarah J. Mass. Right now I am reading a book called Roxy by Jarrod and Neal Shusterman. I love this books so much right now.

For me, writing is a place to utilize new words I have learned and formulate clear sentences. I love being able to comprehensively organize my ideas. I will continuously change a sentence or paragraph if I feel it does not present my thoughts the way I want it to. I also talk out loud when I write complex ideas so that I may understand what I am trying to say and make sure it is digestible. I believe that it is okay to take longer to find an idea you like because you must be passionate about something in order to cultivate a piece of writing with quality.