Author: Nezvith

The decision that changed my life

I was always scared of being alone or not having an adult with me to rely on. But in July of 2019 (I was twelve y/o), I decided to make my first trip alone and face my fear. I flew to Toronto for a summer camp for a month. I was the youngest student there. The next younger student before was fourteen y/o. But being the youngest one wasn’t a problem at all. Most of the students were aware of me, and they were sympathetic to me and did a lot to make me feel comfortable. At that moment, my English speaking skills weren’t as good, so it was a little hard for me to communicate with English speakers at the beginning. Still, days passed, and I started to feel more comfortable about my English performance, and my English got better every day.

Since I had no family around, I became more independent. I only had myself to rely on, so I started focusing on myself and my needs, and I learned to put myself first. This trip made me feel in love with travelling. That was the trip that—changed my life in too many ways. Now I wouldn’t say I like to stay in the same place the whole time because I seek the feeling of travelling. I enjoy travelling either alone or with people. I love it either way.

IRJE #8 – Until We Break

This book tells us the story of a teenager who struggles with many obstacles in her path. The story is about a dark skin girl who dreams of being a famous ballet dancer, but because of the stereotypes and controversy about darker skin, she has a hard time getting accepted by the girls and teachers of some ballet schools since she was young. The struggle got minor as she grew, but it was never over. After the years, she gets close to one of her classmates, Jessica, to the point that they become best friends, but not everything goes as planned. Jessica got into a car accident where she passed away, and Naomi witnessed the exact moment of the tragedy. After this traumatic event, she develops a trauma and some PTSD symptoms m

“The dusk of her hospital room contained only crumpled pillows stained with her bleeding dreams and a soaked floor where all her mourning had spilled from her eyes and onto the crisp white tiles.” (p. 94)

In this passage, Naomi is in a ballet performance. In the middle of the performance, she gets triggered by all the people watching them taking pictures and flashing lights at her, giving her flashbacks of the previous event. Making her panic and fall strongly and injuring her leg, not allowing her to finish the performance and taking her to the hospital.

Personal Response – Romeo & Juliet

Romeo and Juliet by William Shakespeare is considered one of the most romantic novels of centuries since 1595. This novel is not only about love but about how far hate and rage can damage. In this story, we see how the ancient grudge blinded the parent’s mindset that only the death of their children could open their eyes and realize all the damage their rancour caused. But it was too late to realize it. This was not the first time I read and watched this novel since I participated in a school play last year. So it was not that confusing for me. Still, I always get so confused and concerned about how Juliet didn’t think twice and killed herself because Romeo was gone. If I were in her position, I would just run away and live a new life. Because ending my life for someone I just met five days ago doesn’t sound too reasonable to me. But in the end, it’s just old fiction, so we don’t really need a “why” or “how.” We just need to enjoy the confusing novel.

IRJE #7

I have finished the book “Solitaire” by Alice Oceman. This book is about a teenager named Victoria Springs. In the book, we read about her perspective as an introverted girl that has struggled with mental illnesses since a young age. Because of this, she has a different way of socializing with others. People in modern society tend to call this type of people “weird” or “anti-socials” just because they don’t fit the profile of “a normal teen.” 

“You think you’ve met bad people, and then you meet people who are worse. They’re doing nothing – they’re not – we’re just as bad. We’re just as bad for doing nothing. We don’t care. We don’t care that they could kill him—.” (p. 232)

In this scene, there is a fight between two boys, but not an even fight, because other guys start to join and end up being one against four. People were gathered in a circle, cheering but doing nothing to stop it. The figure reached a point where the kid was on the floor, and blood was splattered on the concrete. Tori’s brother called the authorities. Tori was in total shock, thinking how no one could do something to stop it if it was getting that serious. She was angry and disappointed in humanity again. This passage catches my attention because Tori’s mindset is so easy to relate to. Because she’s right. The witness that doesn’t speak up is as guilty as the aggressor. And for me, I think it’s so unfair how people normalize this type of aggression to watch it as entertainment. And this made me rethink all the times I had kept quiet because I was scared of speaking up, but I think I’m mature enough to realize that I will never remain silent as Tori did.

PW #6 – love for travelling

When I was about eleven years old, I made my first trip out of Mexico, which means it was my first time going on a plane, I was nervous at first, but then those nerves turned into the emotion of pure happiness and curiosity. Many people say that they love to travel. But, in my opinion, there are two types of “I love to travel” there are the people that like the idea of visiting many places around the world, but they hate the idea of the process of getting to places, like going on planes, ferries, or even on roads. And then there are the people who love travelling in general. I’m one of those, I love travelling a lot, but it doesn’t bother me the idea of being in airplanes or airports waiting or being on a seven-hour road trip. I enjoy it a lot. Making stops for gas in the middle of the way in different places, looking at all the beautiful landscapes on the road, or listening to music silently. Long trips will always be my favourite thing to do, and I’m grateful that I have the opportunity to travel quite a lot. I’m pretty sure my eleven-year-old self would be so surprised and proud of all the places I had travelled with just fifteen. Now I can’t wait to be sixteen to travel by myself even more.

PR – Brave New World

“Brave New World” by Aldous Huxley, this book caught my attention in too many ways. Since the first chapter, a lot has been going on. The author shows us his idea of a perfect society in the future, but he doesn’t forget about the cost humanity has to pay. as you go reading, he leaves you with questions about the world we live in now. Reading this book made me realize many things about the world we live in now and all the development in technology and sciences. It made me realize that we are not that far away from that imaginary society he tells us about. It is interesting to look at how people react to all the things that are normalized in that so-called “perfect society,” like giving sexual liberty to small children or creating humans in laboratories. When there are somewhat similar things nowadays in our society. Because in a certain way is disturbing the way they live in that society. Still, at the same time, it is even more disturbing to look around the world right now and notice that that imaginary society is becoming a reality little by little. For example, we have “In vitro fertilization,” to mention one aspect that I noticed in my surroundings. This book left many questions in my head and made me more curious about the different ideas of utopias and dystopias people have. Because If we think about it, our society could have been someone’s dystopia turn reality.

IRJE #6 “Solitaire”

I’m reading a book called “Solitaire” by Alice Oseman that tells us the perspective of “Tori,” she gives us the view of people who deal with mental illnesses that interfere with their way of seeing life. Still, they must continue life by hiding or treating it in their tracks because they will never disappear. It is the weight that will go with you until your last days. Tori’s brother, who also struggles with anxiety, just had an anxiety attack after a stressful day at school. Tori tries to calm him down so it doesn’t get worst, but as his brother refuses to accept Tori’s help, she takes him and her to a therapist because she knows that she doesn’t have the necessary resources that he needs to get out of this. At the therapy session, Tori gets frustrated with the fact that her brother has a soft personality and perspective about the world, and she says in a pretty frustrated tone, 

“I don’t understand why you can’t accept things like this. If you can’t accept things you don’t understand, then you’ll spend your life questioning everything. Then you’ll have to live out your life in your own head.”(p. 178)

This passage shows how she cares and loves her brother with all she has and that she doesn’t want him to get hurt by people like thy hurt her in the past. She gives us her point of view on things. This passage is important because she explains how she sees the world. I like this quote because I agree with her. To move on to the next page of your life, you need to accept the good and the bad things that happened in the past because you can not do anything to change the past, but you can always do better in the future by learning from your mistakes.

PW #5 –

Almost every summer, my family organized a trip to a random beach in Mexico, and we stayed there for about a week; my mom planned the schedule for that single week. My mom is active and curious; because of that, she always wants to explore every place or city we arrive at on vacation. Because I’m the oldest daughter, I have to keep her company every time, even if I do not want to, but I can’t complain; we always find cool places, but sometimes we also see some interesting-looking animals or bugs on our way. Last time we wanted to tour the town we were staying in. The next day, we went to the city with someone who would guide us. Everything was going great except for the burning feeling on my skin because of the hot weather there, one of the reasons I wouldn’t say I like spending summers on beaches. Besides that, the tour was going great until my mom told me to go with her to find a spot she saw on the internet. Still, we forgot to tell someone that we were going to separate from the group, and of course, we got lost because neither of us paid attention to the guide. Still, we made it to the hotel by ourselves and a GPS, but to our surprise, our family wasn’t there. They were still in the city, so we had to wait for them because they had our room keys. After that, we got dinner, and my mom and I were telling the strange-looking lizard we found.

¶ – “Brave New World”

In the book “Brave New World” by Aldous Huxley, he tells us about his idea of a dystopia calling it “the perfect future society.” Still, as we read chapter by chapter, we see everything behind the so-called “perfect society” with free will but not ethically free. In this society, humans are hatched in laboratories like a farm. With this, they are also created, manipulated and raised differently depending on what they need to do. They are given roles to play since they are made. The higher the role, the more value they had as a person.

Not so much like drops of water, though water, it is true, can wear holes in the hardest granite; rather, drops of liquid sealing-wax, drops that adhere, incrust, incorporate themselves with what they fall on, till finally the rock is all one scarlet blob.

“Till at last the child’s mind is these suggestions, and the sum of the suggestions is the child’s mind. And not the child’s mind only. The adult’s mind too – all his life long. The mind that judges and desires and decides – made up of these suggestions. But all these suggestions are our suggestions!” (p. 23)

In this quotation, we can see and understand how all humans are made to serve a purpose in society and, with these methods, conserve the balance in society. In a certain way, one is made up of chest pieces in the controller’s game.

Book Reflection – Willingham’s Outsmart Your Brain

After reading “Outsmart your Brain” Chapter 5, I learned many things about reading and understanding difficult textbooks. I learned that textbook writers often organize the main ideas differently so the reader can affiliate them, making it challenging and boring for some. Meanwhile, most of the storybooks are written in a way that you can find and connect the ideas page by page, making it easy to understand. One of the most shocking things that I learned from this book is that highlighting is not the best option unless you know the topic well because, as the author says, “how can you be sure you are highlighting the most important information” (p. 93) it may be important for you but not for everyone. And this makes sense because everyone has different main ideas every time we have to highlight something in class on a textbook. A solution for this is taking notes while you are reading. 

I learned that taking notes while reading can help you memorize faster. By taking notes while reading, you are processing the necessary information and adapting it to your understanding, making it easy to learn and study later. Adding headings and subheadings with a small summary and about three statements may help organize your notes more, and adding questions to your notes may help. Asking a question such as “why…?” and answering them at the end can help to know if you took the notes needed. And lastly, read your notes after you finish reading to take refresh after all that new information. 

The book also mentions the other three methods to take good notes, “SQ3R, KWL, and SOAR” each of these methods can help me organize my notes better and get a better presentation and make them understandable. “KWL” will help me to ask the right questions and to look for the correct information. Meanwhile, “SQ3R” and “SOAR” will allow me to organize my notes.

PW #4 – Ski trip

last Wednesday, January 18th, the school offered a one-day trip to mount Washington for a ski trip; I was genuinely excited about this trip because it was my first time seeing actual snow and also my first time skiing. We left school at four in the morning to take a three-hour ride to get there and have around seven hours of skiing. We could already see the snow on the trees when there was half an hour left to get there. I felt it in a movie, looking at all the gorgeous landscapes; I thought I was dreaming it was too perfect to be accurate. We arrived, and we got our skies right away. Because it was my first time skiing, I took a lesson right when we arrived, and it was tricky for me. Still, I started to get the hang of it, but after half an hour of the lesson, I got exhausted, so I took a break in the cabin and ate some snacks because we didn’t eat breakfast it was too early for that after that the day just went on and the hours went flying. We came back to the school around four in the evening, and almost everyone was sleeping on the way around. We arrive at the campus around seven o’clock. We ate some pizza for dinner, and I went straight to bed. The next day I got cramps all over my legs. This was one of my favourite trips, and I can wait to go skiing again.

IRJE #4

I’m currently reading a book called “Every Single Lie” by Rachel vincent which tells us the story of a teenage girl that is in her last year of high school, but little she knew that this was going to be one of the weirdest, mysterious and concern year of her life. She tells us that her boyfriend is a cheater and that’s why she had broken up whit him, but she doesn’t have proof of it. So the year start in a negative way. But her life changed after the first day of school. She had a pretty normal day for a high school student, busy and boring. She wanted to take a break from people and went to the girl’s gym changing rooms that were closed because of renovations, she wanted to have a peace full lunch, but she got caught by surprise with an unalive body inside of a gym bag which had the same yellow painting stain that her ex-boyfriend’s gym bag.

A smear of red catches my eye on the floor of the left-hand shower. Paint dripped on the tile.

No, wait. It’s thin and watery, and entirely the wrong shade of red.

I head down the aisle, and when I squat in front of the empty shower stall, I realize the paint isn’t paint at all. It looks like blood, diluted when someone tried to wash it down the drain.

Which is still dripping …

This quotation tells us in detail how she notices the perturbing scene that now she has to deal with because she is now a witness. This book is about how she is solving this case to find the truth behind it. during her life, she never had anyone to trust and when she found someone he betrayed her.

PW #3 – Bowling Night

This Friday the school offered the dorm students a bowling night at Langford lanes, it sounded fun so I talked about it with my friends and we decided to sign in together so we had the same table. We left school at seven, the moment we arrived we were surprised by all the Christmas decorations they had put up, they were beautiful. We got inside after some pictures, the bowling place and it was nice. Because we were not too many people we could fit in 3 or 4 seating places. We had a good time even tho most of my friends weren’t good at it including me. That’s my favourite part of bowling that you don’t have to be good at it to have a good time. After two rounds we head back to school and I had some noodles with my friends because we got hungry.

IRJE #3 “loveless”

I’m currently reading a book called “loveless” by Alice Oceman. This book is about a teenage girl who hasn’t experienced being in love with someone and that makes her feel different from the other teenagers. The book tells us what she is been through to discover who she is and why she feels that way.

Aromantic 

Asexual 

I came back to the words until they felt real in my mind, at least. Maybe they wouldn’t be real in most people’s minds. But I could make them real in mine, I could do whatever I wanted.

I’m not sure when I realized that I was no longer feeling melancholic distress about my sexuality. The woe is me, I’m loveless. (p. 297)

This quotation is important because here is where she fouds out why she felt that way. The moment of realization is important because now she can focus on discovering more about herself and know she is not alone.

PW #2 – Basketball Game

Last weekend the school offered a ticket for a basketball game at Camosun University, so I decided to go with my friends. We arrived half an hour early, so we enjoyed the sight of the female basketball team playing their best. but unfortunately, they lose the game, after the female basketball game there was a break, and in the midtime, the male basketball team started to warm up. When we saw them warming up we thought that they seem passionate and willing to win that game, and after the 30 minutes break the game began. At the beginning of the game, the home team was taking the lead, we got excited about it and they won the first term. But we got our expectations too high because in the second term it seems that they gave, up the were losing it was disappointing because we had our expectations high, they ended up losing the second term, then we had a halftime break, and we went to buy some snacks. The second term began and the home team end up losing again so I lose interest by the middle of the term. We left disappointed. We came back to the campus late and tired.

IRJE #2

I have been reading a book called “loveless”, by Alice Oseman. for me it’s a really good book because it has a lot of realistic scenarios that I can relate to. this book is about a teenager trying to figure out how she feels about feeling true love from someone and why she feels that way.

I loved Jason and Pip. I loved them because I didn’t have to think around them. I loved that we could sit in silence together. I loved that they knew all my favourite foods and they could instantly tell when I was in a bad mood. I loved Pip’s stupid sense of humour and how she immediately made every room she entered a happier place. I loved how Jason knew exactly what to say when you were upset and could always calm you down. I loved Jason and Pip. And now they were gone. I had been so desperate for my idea of true love that I couldn’t in see it when it was right in front of my face.

this quote is one that I like because  I can relate to it because is a relatable feeling that you have when your know that you have to make a good friendship. it’s awesome to feel comfortable with new friends, that makes you feel safe and loved.

PW #1 – How we celebrate Christmas in my family

In my family is almost tradition that every holiday all of the family gets together in the house of a relative for dinner. On Christmas we celebrated with a dinner with all the family on a house of a relative almost ever years is on my house, so we decorate a lot. Every Christmas we decorate the same just in different colours, the best one was when the theme of the tree decoration was candies, but because the theme was candies there where lots of glitter and it was really messy when we started decorate it, but it was worth it. 

My mom, dad and grandma made some of the food like turkey, spaghetti, and the main dishes. Other family members brought sweet desserts to cooperate. We have a game that is tradition between my family, the game is about you get a random name of any family member that is going to be present and you have to buy a gif for that person, but without let it them know, then the night of Christmas you have say things to describe the person you got to give the gift and the other have to guess for who is it, but we have another game that you make prank gift and you put it on a table full of others prank gifts at the end of the night you have to grab one that you like, but someone can stole it from you if they want, when the game is over you can open the gifts that you stole or you got and sometimes may be good things like valuables things and others can be just a empty can of beens.

“All Quiet In The Western Front”, “Soldier’s Home” and “They Shall Not Grow Up” comparison 

All quiet in the western front, soldiers home and they all not grow up have to many things in common but they still have their differences. The three of them describe their own story of how bad the situation was, they describe how bad was life in those days, and all the disturbing thing they witness. They had to much social pressure on them to join the army, too much that some of them lied about their age to make them look “good”. Time passes and all of them regret joining, because of different reasons but the most common is that they were tired they didn’t care if they won or lose they just wanted it ti stop. They also describe us the empty feeling when they came back from war, nobody acknowledge their suffering, their tramas, neither their losses. People acted as if nothing had happened. They had any special treatment they didn’t felt as heroes. These novels had too much in common and also differences if you see them in different perspectives.

IRJE #1

In loveless by Alice Oseman, it was prom night, Georgia and pip were sitting on a couch in the after party of the actual prom, they were lots of couples passing by, so they start talking about how they want to be proposed to be in a serious relationship.

‘You know what I want?’, Pip said, as we stumbled into Hattie’s conservatory and collapsed on to a sofa.

‘What?’ I said.

‘I want someone to spontaneously perform a song to the clear their love for me’ 

‘What song?’

She gave this some thought.

‘“Your song” from moulin rouge’. She sighed.

I rolled my eyes.

This quote stands out because it gives me a better idea of the personality of the characters. How pip has more romantics interest than Georgia that she sounds tiered of seeing all the couples and all the romance around the room.(p. 6)

 

My personal response “All Quiet On The Western Front”

“All quiet in the western front”

My personal response 

All quiet in the western front is a novel that make me feel lots of different emotions, but it also help me to understand and realise all the mental damage that almost every soldier had been through. I liked this novel because it gives you a clear view of what exactly is happening, it give you the details that you need to make clear images in your mind to get a better understandings of what is happening. “the rats have become much numerous lately because the trenches are no longer in good condition.”(p. 102) it tells sabot the unhygienic conditions they were.” “Almost every man has had his bread gnawed” (p.102).

Paul Bäumer,                                                                                                                    for me was really concerning that the novel is based on something that could happened in reality. Just imagining all the pain, all the suffer that all soldiers and families had suffered in that time, make me feel sad, confused, and even nervous or anxious. Paul’s story made feel sympathy for him, he had lost every thing and everyone all motivation of living had almost gone, after war he found war as a non sense.

He  started to realise what had he done and question himself “why?” Without real motivation in life.  “But our commanders are dead, we cannot help them, they have the rest-and who knows what is waiting for us? We will make ourselves comfortable and sleep, and eat as much as we can stuff into our bellies, and drink it and smoke so that hours are another wasted. Life is short.”(p. 139) all this paragraph made me see the emocional emptiness that they could felt.                                                                                                                           This made me realise how hard thing ge when war ends, all survivors soldiers are destroyed, I’m not talking about the physical damages im talking about the mental damages that war left of them, the traumas, the new fears. Most of can’t live their normal life because of all the traumas war had left.

That was the most concerning thing that the novel left in me.

This novels make you realise all the real conditions that the soldiers lived in. It’s really shocking seeing how difficult the things were, compare to now days.