If I Stay (Week 16)

January 22, 2016

"People believe what the want you to believe." -Kim

When I saw this quote in the text, it got me thinking for a while because this concept that could easily have been said by an 11 year-old (at that specific time) was a concept that I could not comprehend throughout my entire childhood, as I had to withstand the ridiculous rumors that would spread about me in elementary school. I was clearly a very quiet girl at the time, and people would often ignore me when I spoke to them so I kept to myself, yet I would always hear people saying that I was "loud" and "obnoxious" and "annoying", straight from stereotypes of the average African American. I could never understand why people would constantly lie about my personality and behavior. Now it's simple. People truly believe what they what to believe, so they ignore any type of evidence that could obviously disprove their belief and continue to believe their stupidity. Although I was (and still am, frankly) a direct contrast of the stereotypical African American girl of 9 or 10, these upper middle class, ignorant white children wanted to keep the belief that I was lesser than they were and created believable rumors so that everyone else could do the same. And I felt isolated most of the time. Thankfully for me, as I entered middle school, I was introduced to a whole new set of people, where I created a lot more friends and felt more comfortable. Stereotypes hurt.

If I Stay (Week 15)

January 15, 2016

As I was read more and more into Mia's story, I really took a look at how Mia and Kim became best friends. Though they are the best of friends now, they started out hating each other's guts, and this was only in 6th grade. They were always paired together because of their similar personalities, thinking that they would get along well. But they did not get along at all at first. They'd never talk to each other for longer than they'd have to and they'd cast each other dirty looks. It's interesting to look at though because sometimes your own enemy is your best friend in actuality. One day, they got so fed up with the sight of each other and just got right into a fight. A physical one, at that. And there were a plethora of minor injuries like a busted lip if cut on the thigh, nothing noteworthy. Once the teachers pulled them away from each other, they laughed and became best friends, just like that. You don't always need a reason to hate someone, especially when the feeling is mutual. Sometimes you just have to fight it out and see what happens. Your enemy might actually turn out to be your closest friend.

Literary Analysis of 1984

January 14, 2016

Although Cass Sunstein and Robin West, cited in the article, state that George Orwell was wrong to think that there is a connection with political repression and the sexual repression rather than the repression of women, I don't think that was so off track. No matter how you look at it, the qualities that this utilitarian society prohibits are simple, natural actions of human beings. It was a crime to have your own thoughts about anything outside what Big Brother expected of you. There's not a lot of leeway there. Showing any type of emotion was considered suspicious. Taking different paths to your home suddenly is suspicious. You can't trust anyone because literally ANYONE could be thought police. That simple man that was thought to just own an abandoned shop was an undercover cop the entire time. Condemning sexual practices out of pleasure works the same way. Assigning sex to only one purpose, which would be to have children, makes it seem mechanical. As much as parents and even people my age complain about how centralized sex is in our culture and the premature exposure to it as children, sex is a very important thing. A necessity, if you may. Aside from the fact that it allows procreation, it is simply a human desire. Humans are inclined to make deeper connections with one another through it. And not to mention the numerous benefits physically and mentally that come from it. Repressing sexual desire through love or whatever in a nation removes the feelings of being in control, feeling confident, and being happy in general. In addition, sex is usually done in private, but in this world, you have no privacy. Your every move is seen, recorded and probably able to be calculated from constant surveillance. Each person loses a part of their natural nature. You become less human. And once you're less than human, you're a lot easier to control.

If I Stay (Week 14)

January 8, 2016

Wow... I didn't have much time to actually read this book during the break because I was too busy creating my own stories in my dreams LOL. Sleep was my best friend throughout the entireeee break.

Anyhow, back to the grind. As I got a little farther into this book, I took the structure into account. I really like the way the characterization is done. Often times authors will easily provide a description of a new character right as they are introduced to the story, really simple. And I don't have a problem with that. Here, each new character gets a pause from the story line. In the actual plot of the story, the main character Mia (the one that "survived", I guess?) mentions someone that she wants to see and then pauses the plot to tell a story involving how she met the character, what she thought of them, what they thought of her, and how they kept the relationship. It's a great way to do it because it makes it seem like she's talking to me. If I were talking to a friend about someone she knew that I didn't know, I'd really appreciate a nice background story to create some context, you know what I mean? Since Mia is also 17, rather close to my own age, she speaks and thinks like a teenager and that allows me to relate to her more easily. If I want to sound pretentious, I would even go to say that it allows the reader, especially the reader of high school age, to engage with the text in a casual way. But I'm not pretentious, so I'll let it be. ;)

Free Post (Winter Break)

So my break was pretty awesome. I was asleep for 60% of it, but it was great nonetheless. It was spent preparing for parties, engaging in those parties, working on homework and a history project, and hanging out with friends... Etc. My best friend turned 17 on Saturday too! It was pretty funny actually, because I was chilling at home when I received a call from him asking if I wanted to go to lunch with him. I said sure, of course, as I really only see him a few times each year, despite the short distance he is from me. It's a long story, but in short, my parents and his parents both have busy schedules so we rarely have time to get rides to each other's houses. Since he doesn't go to Cherokee, I can't see him every day either. :/ As soon as I agreed, though, he immediately asked where I want to go. Like um? It's your birthday... lol. But I had a lot of fun as we drove around a little and decided to go to the Promenade (don't worry, his mom was in the car!). We then ventured on to Barnes and noble, the Burlington coat factory, and Let's Yo!. We hung out for a good 4ish hours before he had to leave and go to dinner with his family. Hopefully, now that he'll have his license soon, we'll be able to hang out more often. At least, that's what he promised me.

Before Saturday, I had been working on my history project with my friend Lauren, as the project was pretty involved. We had to buy a scrapbook, age the pages, print out pictures and newspaper clippings, write descriptions/explanations and make it look "authentic". I mean, I suppose I could have made the actual book itself to make it look more authentic but I was just trying to enjoy my break and relax a bit so I put my overachieving self aside and bought one instead haha. I finally finished it in its entirety last night, as I only had a little left to do. I'm really proud of the product.

And best of all, I got to sleep. Pure, uninterrupted sleep. Without any worries about a next project, a precalc packet, or a presentation.

Ugh... It's only first period and I'm already tired of school... Take me home :(

If I Stay (Week 13)

December 18, 2015

On to a new book once again! I literally just began the first few pages of this book, so bear with me. I am actually liking it thus far. The introduction to what I believe to be the basis of the story was well developed, in my opinion. On a regular snow day, away from school, Mia and her family had simply been on their way to her grandparents' house. Mia had been planning to see her boyfriend Adam's band play at a concert later that day. The beauty of life lies in the fact that a course of events can be permanently changed within a matter of seconds. While on the road, I believe that a truck came on full force (not exactly sure of which direction) and hit the car, instantly sending everyone in that car flying. Mia thought to have come right out of the accident unscathed, except when she looked up, she saw her own body on the ground, bleeding profusely with closed eyes. This form of her, without scratches and impervious to pain... what is it? Is she a ghost? Is she a simple spirit? Is this because she is officially dead? She has no idea. But as she is carried off to the hospital and sees herself in the bed, she doesn't seem to be doing so well. Mia has no idea what to think of this.

I think the whole scene of it being just a regular day in a family's home was an excellent set up for the  unexpected because it is realistic. You go into this book blindsided by the car accident, just as anyone goes on with life and is blindsided by a devastating situation. You can't prepare yourself for life; you can only go with the motions and tackle all issues face to face and learn from them to try to PREVENT the situation from recurring or even just to protect yourself if it were to happen again. At the end of the day, you can't always prevent the unexpected. Something will always hit you unannounced and you will just have to consider your options from there. Hopefully, you'll be strong enough to handle it/ get through it. Unfortunately, some people don't even receive the opportunity.

1984 (Week 12)

December 11, 2015

Orwell has really had me thinking about the simple everyday activities that humans participate in. Something as simple as an enlightening conversation with a friend can be easily controlled by changing the dynamics of a language. People come and go, exchanging different strings of sounds and letters in order to portray thoughts to others to understand. That is an extremely complex concept if you think about. And rather fascinating. As Syme was describing to Winston about how Newspeak would remove the possibilities of describing certain thoughts and feelings by simplifying ideas to black and white concepts (like simply adding an -un prefix to a positive word to create only one negative), I realized how much power the government can truly have over its people. Honestly, that scares me. Especially because the government does have that kind of power today. Also mentioned in the novel, the government is engaging in constant surveillance of civilians and silently following those who seem like a 'threat' to society. And I have no idea what terms would exactly classify someone as a 'threat' either, so the thought is unsettling.

Here's what I'm trying to understand: does the power and amount of control of the government change as technology changes? I understand that terrorist attacks on the United States would obviously cause some shifts in the government's behavior with the people (as our own citizens can potentially be terrorists), but what if technology hadn't been as advanced as it is now? Would we still be watched in other ways, or would it not happen at all? If 9/11 hadn't occurred at all, with this same type of technology, would the government still feel compelled to watch over us as much as they do today? Maybe so, as Orwell had foreseen a society like this back in 1948, way before any of these things had shown signs of occurring...

Just a little food for thought.

A Week In My Life

January 19, 2016

I regret to inform you that a week in my life is utterly boring and rather scholarly. At the ripe hour of 2:27, I quickly stride along to my locker to collect and exchange my precious books and belongings to go on a beautiful journey back home to get started on my beloved homework. From a bright 3:30 pm to a fabulous 11:45 pm, usually later, I am cheerfully running those motors in my head, with occasionally breaks for food, social media, and sometimes (rarely) exercise! I repeat this stunning cycle usually 5 days each week, or only 4 if I'm lucky. I mean this all with full honesty. Allow me to expound upon the one day that I may have to myself.

If I am not bombarded with projects, essays, readings and packets, I usually have a few options that I create for myself. These would include:

a) read
b) go on youtube and watch interesting stuff
c) go on Netflix
d) sleep
e) waste time on social media
f) exercise

More often times than not, I wind up doing a combination of the above options, like reading before I sleep to wake up and exercise and use social media during breaks and so on. I also receive numerous text messages throughout the day, so now you can add in the time spent having long, thought-out conversations with my close friends, short,  usually school-related conversations with classmates, and calls from my mother to check on me while she's at work. And eating. Wow, I'm surprised that I didn't include that in my list... then again, I don't spend a lot of time actually eating, more so thinking about what exactly I want to eat and being too lazy to actually get the food.

My weekends typically look the same as my free days during the school week, especially if my parents are working. I'm home alone most of the time, and I don't have any younger siblings to look after, so I actually have time to do these things in excess. And then I try to not procrastinate my homework until Sunday night because I know that procrastination bothers me, yet my lack of motivation to even do the homework (that I always complete nonetheless) usually brings me to my desk at 9:00 pm Sunday night. Thankfully for me, I'll be getting a gorgeous Study Hall period next semester, where I will be able to do that irritating homework during a FULL class period without the fear of getting yelled at!!! How exciting!!!!!!

To add to my previous point, sometimes my friends ask to hang out during the weekends, like going to the mall, going out to lunch, going to some other specified place or just hanging out with them at their own house. I love getting out of the house, but because of the studious student I am, I usually wind up taking my homework with me because I don't want to forget about it either. My friends call me a "nerd", but I just call it "trying to maintain my good grades".

And that, my friends, was A Week In My Life with your host, Bianca Pierre! Tune back next week for A Day in My School! Love you guys!! xx

Free Post (DBQs)

December 14, 2015

The worst possible way to start your day is with a glistening history test with a full DBQ. Don't believe me? Try doing a full analysis of documents you've never seen before and base an entire essay around it at 8:30 am. I know, I know... this is just the start of it. Thank you, Ellis!!!!!

I don't hate essays necessarily. I am a critical thinker naturally. Analyzing documents and developing an argument isn't the challenge here. I am always ready to stand my ground, point out when people are ignoring evidence, and qualify arguments that fully understand all positions on. The challenge is doing this effectively; with a solid thesis, background knowledge, and using information from the documents to only support your thesis (NOT DESCRIBING THE INFORMATION IN THE DOCUMENTS TO PROVE A POINT!) in a limited amount of time, directly after 25-30 multiple choice questions and sometimes term descriptions. I hate being under stress, I hate feeling like I don't have enough time, I hate hastily reading documents I've never seen before. Guess what? The DBQ beautifully encompasses all three of these things, and more so! You can practically see all the happiness that is flowing out of me right now! :))))))))))))

Don't see this as saltiness towards Ellis, because I love that guy. Truly, I do. I may give him some "'tude" in class at times, but it's all good!!!!!!!! I promise. I am definitely annoyed for him giving me a DBQ so early in the morning ( aka next period ), but he's only doing what he's supposed to do, preparing me for the AP test... blah blah blah et cetera. I just love to complain :))))))))))))

WHOO! It felt so good to rant.