My Year in Photos

Self-Discovery

 This past year has really presented me with a lot of opportunities to discover who I really am as a person, and who I want to continue to be as I go out into the world. I've developed many new interests such as painting and films, and I'm really enjoying a lot more in life than just my old standby of music. I’ve also made up my own mind about a lot of issues and subjects related to family, their beliefs that stem from religion (and my dissent from those beliefs), as well as with myself. I’ve embraced my strong will and refusal to compromise what I believe and how I see things in order to placate my friends or family. I’m very content with the person that I’ve become, and I wouldn’t dream of changing myself at all.

Independence

I’ve also realized that I highly value my independence. That’s not to say that I won’t accept help from someone else, but I’ll accept it on my own terms. I’d rather get something done myself than have someone else come in and do half of the work for me. I’m ready to go out there and make my own way in the world. It’ll be tough but I’d rather do that than be utterly dependent upon other people for my entire life.

Friendship

 I’ve gained some amazing friends this year, and had some of the best times of my life. I wasn’t very optimistic about moving to Homedale last year, and I was a loner for the first year here. But now I’ve got a great group of people who I can hang with, and it makes me really happy. I also lost some friends, and distanced myself from people who made less than desirable company. It sucks to lose friends, sure, but I’m not going to keep people around who aren’t up to the standards of people I want to be close to.

Confidence

I am shy, and I am awkward around people most of the time. It’s no secret. A lot of people mistake that for me believing that I’m too good to socialize, when really I’m just an introvert. I’ve suffered through self-esteem issues, and depression, and it crippled how I dealt with people a lot. But this year I’ve managed to coax myself back out of the shell I’d created for myself. I don’t care what people think of me anymore, because people are going to judge me no matter what I do. I’ve come to terms with that. It doesn’t matter what anyone else thinks of me in the end, because I love myself.

No Time

 There has been no time for anything. Seriously, how did I manage to get anything done at all? There were so many things that I wanted to accomplish and now here I am in the homestretch of high school with very few of them actually finished. It’s a good thing I’ve got my entire life ahead of me, because apparently eighteen years isn’t enough time for much.

Fun

 Along with the new friends I’ve made, I’ve had tons of fun with them all. In years past I never got out much. I was content to sit in my room all day long throughout the summer months and just be alone. I still love my alone time, and there are days where I don’t talk to anyone and just spend my time off by myself. However, I’ve learned that going out and having fun with my friends is just as important and my own time to reflect upon things. Between going to the movies, dinner, and having Friday night get-togethers to watch Supernatural with my pals, it’s been a great year.

Family

Last but not least, my family. My last year at home before I move into my dorm at college has made me see how much I love them. Yes, even my obnoxious brother Dillon. They’ve done right by me, and my parents have raised me to be a wonderful person. I’m going to be a little sad when I leave for school because I won’t see them every single day (especially after next May when Dillon leaves to join the armed forces). I fully appreciate how important family is to me.

The End Is Extremely Nigh.

Moving on from high school. I still don’t know how I feel about this. Anxious? Yes. Relieved? Definitely. This last month of school has flown by, and now that we’re down to the wire, I suppose I need to get into the mindset that I’m ready to leave high school behind for good.

As far as academics go, I believe that I’m ready to go on to college. My high school education has been split evenly between Fruitland and Homedale, and I do feel like Fruitland did a better job in most respects at giving me knowledge to put towards my future. Obviously Fruitland has more money to put towards their education programs, which gives them the advantage over this school for academics. However, there are parts of HHS that have benefited me more. The math program here provides you with more one on one time with the instructor, which I really need because math is far from my strongest subject. I do wish that I could go back and be able to learn my mathematics, as my grasp of it is still rather weak. So I would say that between the combinations of the two schools, I’ve been fairly well-prepared to graduate.

I feel that I’m ready to take on the responsibilities of being out on my own in the world. I already take care of a lot of my own things and do what I’m supposed to do without being instructed constantly. If I could’ve done anything differently it would have been to perhaps get a part time job. Aside from smaller jobs and the babysitting that I did for a while, I don’t have very much experience with working. I’d also care more about getting my driver’s license, seeing as I still don’t have it. Honestly, I don’t see the big deal about being able to drive but whatever. I’ll work on.

Overall, I think I can handle going out into the real world. It’ll be tough, but I’m expecting that already. It helps a bit to know that if I ever need help with anything, I’ll have my family and friends around the area to give me a hand. After all, growing up doesn’t necessarily mean that you’re cut off one hundred percent from your youth.

Comedy of Manners

A comedy of manners is used to make fun of the social upper classes and their behavior which, at many times as we see in The Importance of Being Earnest, is outlandish and hypocritical.

Lady Bracknell's character and attitude towards others is a big part of why this play is a comedy of manners. She believes without doubt to be correct about things, and really doesn't leave room for anyone to make argument otherwise. When she is questioning Jack about his family and he admits to have lost his parents, rather than be sympathetic she says that he's careless. Obviously he can't control the fact that he's been an orphan since he was a baby, but Lady Bracknell overlooks that. She has a certain mindset on how things should be in life and holds very firmly to these beliefs. The stubborn, snobbish nature of the woman is bordering on unbelievable.

Another scene that's funny but at the same time shows the two-faced nature of many upper class women is when Cecily and Gwendolen meet. From the jump they claim that they'll be the best of friends despite knowing nothing about one another. However, when the news comes out that they're both engaged to marry Ernest, they turn on each other immediately. Despite making claims that they knew not to trust each other from the start, even though they agreed to be friends, when Jack and Algernon arrive at the same time and reveal the true nature of their names, the girls become friends again. The flighty nature of how they behave, allowing their emotions to overrule common sense and simply going along with what's happening at that moment displays how fickle the ladies of the time period could be.

Lastly, we have Miss Prism. In the play she's very strict and proper, and has open disdain for Jack's brother Ernest and all of the stories about his distasteful behavior in the city. Miss Prism tries to impress upon Cecily how important it is to be a lady and never misbehave. At the same time though, she's encouraging this awkward, flirting relationship with Dr. Chausuble, a man who has sworn himself to celibacy and service of the church. Not only that, but we also find out that she misplaced a baby and then fled from her actions rather than own up to it. Miss Prism acts as if she can do no wrong, and always has the right opinions of others, when in fact she isn't a saint herself.

The Importance of Being Earnest quotes.

“Good Heavens! Is marriage so demoralizing as that?”

This was said by Algernon on page 116 in response to Lane making the remark that wine in a married household isn’t as good as the wine in the household of a single person. What Algernon meant by this was that once a person gets married, the quality of their life and belongings goes down dramatically. He believes that the only way to really be happy and to have nice things is to remain single. I don’t agree with his view on this. There’s no reason why getting married directly causes you to not be able to have nice things.

"Pardon me, you are not engaged to anyone. When you d become engaged to some one, I, or your father, should his health permit him, will inform you of the fact. An engagement should come on a young girl as surprise, pleasant or unpleasant, as the case may be. It is hardly a matter that she could be allowed to arrange for herself..."

This was said by Lady Bracknell on page 131. She says it to her daughter Gwendolen after she discovers that Gwen has agreed to marry Ernest without the consent of her family. Lady Bracknell believes that young women shouldn't be allowed to take charge of their engagement and marriage affairs, and that the parents have exclusive rights to take charge of everything. I disagree with her philosophy on the subject. If I was going to be married, I would want to be in charge of what was going on. Being allowed to choose who I'm going to spend the rest of my life with is something that I'd really like. Anyone else, even my parents, having the final say just doesn't sit well with me.

"My dear fellow, the truth isn't quite the sort of thing that one tells to a nice, sweet, refined girl. What extraordinary ideas you have about the way to behave to a woman!"

This quote is from Jack on page 137. It is in response to Algernon asking him when he planned to tell Gwendolen about the true nature of his identity. Jack thinks that exposing the whole matter of him really being named Jack, and that Ernest is merely a cover for him to escape his country duties, isn't necessary. Or rather he feels that any sort of truth that really should be known, especially one so pressing as his real name, isn't the type of thing that a young girl like Gwendolen could handle or understand. I don't agree with him on this. Keeping up the facade is just digging him deeper into a hole, and eventually Gwendolen will find out that he's been deceiving her for all of the time that they've known each other.

Modern Day vs. Victorian Era Dating Customs

It's not uncommon in this day and age for a guy to ask a girl out to the movies or dinner without any prior permission. The entire process of dating someone, getting to the stages of engagement, and then eventually marriage are still serious matters. However, compared to the complexity of courting and marriage proposals that were in practice during the Victorian Era, our style of becoming romantically involved with an individual are almost casual and even improper according to the old rules of romancing a woman.

A girl only became available to date someone at the age of seventeen or eighteen, and only after she had gone through a coming out ceremony. During this time she was given an entirely new wardrobe of more mature looking dresses, and her father would let out the news that his daughter was able to date and be married. Obviously in this day and age such grandeur isn't paid to the dating age of a girl. Many girls date at younger ages than this, and often times without consent of their parents.

The role that a man played in the courting process was just, if not more, important and complicated. There were many very specific rules that he had to follow in order to earn the approval of the father in order to court a young woman. If a man met a woman whom he liked at a party, he had to give her his card along with any other potential suitors. The lady would then pick which man she wanted to be in her company for the evening. However, once the party ended, the same man wasn't allowed to approach the lady again on the streets unless he was re-introduced by a mutual friend. This certainly doesn't apply today; men and women can choose to speak to each other whenever they feel like, no middle man involved.

If he suceeded in gaining approval from the woman's father and began the courting process, it was under the watchful eyes of the family. He could go visit the lady only in her home for the first little while, and he had to say goodbye to her at the door. If things went well then the couple could eventually move out onto the front porch of the house. They were never allowed to be truly alone together though, as a way of protecting the innocence of the lady. This is very different from this day and age, where couples go on dates by themselves without any sort of chaperone.

One custom that still remains in use today, though again nowhere near as important as it once was, is the man asking for permission to marry a lady from her father. This was usually done in person, but a man could also do it in writing. The news of an engagement was kept secret for a few days to give ample time for any problems to be sorted out and avoid damaging the reputation of the man if the deal fell through. If all was well, he would then give the woman a ring to bring the deal together. In modern times women don't have to wait to hear from both sides of the family to accept a marriage proposal. While it is nice to have inlaws who like you, it's not exactly a big deal nowadays.

The Vistorian Era made the entire process of courtship and engagement into a truly theatrical event. With all of the fanfare that it involved, it's a wonder that anyone ever got married at all.

Soundtrack To My Life

Hedwig’s Theme - John Williams

How do I even begin to describe how much I adore this song? It’s the theme for my entire childhood, starting from the first time I saw a Harry Potter film up to this moment in time. Every time I hear the first five notes of the song I instantly recognize it, and it never fails to cheer me up. At the same time it makes me feel a little nostalgic and sad, because this is my childhood embodied within a song. That childhood is rapidly coming to a close with both my departure from high school and the last Harry Potter film being released this summer. So this will always be number one for me, if for no other reason than it reminds me of what a great childhood I really had.

Carry On My Wayward Son - Kansas

Probably one of the most inspirational songs that I know of to date. I mean, come on, just listen to the lyrics:

Carry on my wayward son

There'll be peace when you are done

Lay your weary head to rest

Don't you cry no more

This song is basically a reminder that things in life are going to get tough. It isn’t going to be easy or even happy at all times. But you can’t throw in the towel and accept that everything sucks. You’ve got to keep your chin up and push on. Bad times aren’t everlasting.

There is another reason why this is my number two song. It’s the unofficial theme song for my favorite show of all time, Supernatural. Every single diehard lover of the show never fails to get ridiculously excited and sing along with this song when it comes on the radio or their iPod. It just keeps my hope alive that someday I'll find a guy who drives a '67 Chevy Impala and wears plaid button-down shirts. For this reason I have included a picture of the Winchester brothers from the show because they are fine and my blog needs something nice on it, hahaha.

 

I’m Not Okay (I Promise) - My Chemical Romance

The song that got me through the toughest time period of my life. I’m not going into detail about it because there are things that have happened in my past which I’m not proud of. posting them on a blog where my classmates can read them doesn’t seem like a good idea. All you need to know is that this song really helped me during a time when I didn’t think anything else could. Having the number three spot on my list should tell you just how important this song is to me.

Stupid Girls - P!nk

Say hello to everything that I aspire to be personified within a song. The entire thing is about girls being who they want to be instead of dumbing themselves down and going along with what society says an attractive girl should be. I’ve never felt like I fit in, even from a very young age. It used to bother me a little bit, and I could have very easily just gone along with the crowd and become one of these “stupid girls”. Thank god I didn’t, because I love being my own person with my own agenda. If that means I never have a big group of friends or I never have guys all over me, then that’s perfectly fine with me. As the song goes:

I’m so glad that I’ll never fit in

That will never be me

Outcasts and girls with ambition

That’s what I wanna see

James Bond Theme Song

Who doesn’t like James Bond movies? Seriously, you have problems if you dislike James Bond. The movies are classic. Bond is a B.A.M.F. if I say so myself. The reason I have the theme song on this list is not because of my undying love for all things related to covert operatives though. When I was growing up, every year around Christmas time Spike TV would run a James Bond movie marathon. Every single year I would sit down with my dad and we would watch the Bond films together. It didn’t matter that we knew how every single one was going to end, or that we knew who the evil guy was or which Bond Girl was going to wind up dead. That quality time with my father is something that’s very special to me, and I always think about it whenever I hear the Bond song.

Non, je ne regrette rien - Edith Piaf

Let me just start by saying that I don’t speak French. Well, I can speak a few words but Je ne sais pas isn’t going to get me very far in conversation with a French person, hah. However, the general message of this song is why it’s on this list. Non, je ne regretted rien means “No, I’m not sorry for anything”, and it talks about essentially having no regrets for anything you’ve done in life, good or bad, because tomorrow is a new day. I think that’s something that a lot of people could benefit from instead of worrying over every single thing that they do.

And you know, the song was also in Inception, and that movie was just bad ass. It’s easily in the top five best films I’ve ever seen. Your argument otherwise is invalid.

O Fortuna - Carmina Burana

So technically this was a poem before Carl Orff put it in to song form, but we can look over that detail. Yet again I have another song in a language, Latin this time, so you’ll have to look up the lyrics to know what it’s saying. It’s all about how things such as luck (or Fortuna, the Roman goddess and personification of luck) and fate control our lives and not always in ways that we desire. To listen to this song being performed is just astounding. It always gives me chills to hear it. This was probably one of the first orchestra style songs I ever heard that really caught my attention and made me realize just how awesome classical music is.

Bye, Bye, Bye - N’sync

This was my jam when I was seven years old, hands down. I lived and breathed N’sync right along with every other girl in the second grade. I remember that was some sort of messed up rivalry between the kind who liked N’sync and the kids who liked The Backstreet Boys. We were all insane when it came to this music. My best friend Shannon and I used to dance around at her house for hours just listening to this song, along with the rest of the album. Now that I’m older I just laugh at the thought of me going absolutely out of my head over this band. Still, this song is associated with many fond memories from my earlier days, and I’ll always cherish it.

Enter Sandman - Metallica

Say hello to the first song from the 80s that I have conscious memory of hearing. My dad introduced me to all of his music, which was thankfully what I took after rather than my mother’s taste in country. I remember sitting on the tailgate of our truck and listening to this on tape while my dad looked around in our garage for his fishing tackle. I really blame this song for my taste in music now, but I can’t say I’m complaining too much. This opened up a door to an entire decade of amazing music that it seems like a lot of people have forgotten about.

Bad Romance - Lady Gaga

I will be the first person to tell you that I think high school relationships where the couple think they’re absolutely in love and are going to be together for the rest of their lives are a bunch of crap. Maybe that’s just me being bitter because the only relationship I’ve had drove me absolutely crazy in all of the wrong ways and I’ve refused to date since then. But really, I see kids my age who act like they need to be these perfect beings to impress the person they’re dating or the person that they want to date.

Dude, seriously? You’re in high school! Stop acting like you’re going to be alone forever if that guy or that girl doesn’t think you’re the greatest thing they’ve ever seen. There’s no reason for you to try and turn yourself into something that you aren’t just to impress someone.

In the song, Gaga says:

I want your ugly

I want your disease

I want your everything

As long as it’s free

Personally I take those lyrics to heart. That’s the kind of relationship that I’m waiting for; one where I’m going to be accepted for me. Not some façade of myself that I put out there for people to see. You should be accepted for you, including all of your faults and all of the bad things that you think no one else wants. I don’t want one of these perfect romances because those are lies. There’s no such thing as a perfect relationship. I’d rather have a Bad Romance.

Film vs. Novel

It was pretty obvious that the movie adaptation of Frankenstein was vastly different from the novel. There were some aspects that stayed the same, but many more were changed around into something far more theatric than what actually happened. These changes were somewhat ridiculous and also changed how someone who has never read the story perceived certain characters.

The most interesting change that was made as far as a character went was Elizabeth. In the novel she was more of a passive person who never tried to improve her own situation. Victor went off and did whatever he felt like and although she would write him letters and tell him to come home, Elizabeth never tried harder than that to make Victor listen to her and consider her feelings.

However, in the film Elizabeth is a much more strong willed woman. When Victor becomes obsessed with his project and never tries to contact her, Elizabeth doesn’t just let it go. She travels to the city where Victor is living and speaks to him in person in attempts to get him back. After he comes home and refuses to tell her what’s going on, she attempts to leave him. This really changed how I viewed Elizabeth. Beforehand I thought she was just another useless side character, but in the film I respected her a lot more.

Another change was the manner in which the monster behaved towards Victor. In the novel the creature hated his master and wanted to cause him as much suffering as possible. He didn’t hold any feelings of affection for Frankenstein once he’d decided to get back at him.

In the film the creature still had a lot of animosity towards Victor, but he seemed much more mellow. At the end of the movie he called Victor his father and seemed to be extremely bereft that he was dead. Rather than going off on his own to die as he said he would in the novel, he killed himself with the fire intended to cremate his creator.

Finally we have how strong willed and brave the movie made Victor seem. He went off on his own to face off with the monster in the mountains and chased him all over the place. The film made him appear valiant in the face of adversity, and the type of character that you should admire.

This was obviously not so in the book. Victor was whiny and cowardly, and never made a move to help anyone but himself. People were dying all over the place because of him, and the whole time he sat by and just complained about his own misfortunes. Victor was a much less likeable person in the story than in the movie.

While the films was decent in it’s own right, it didn’t do the book justice in my opinion. It changed the true story around way too much for the sake of Hollywood theatrics.

Nature vs. Nurture

I believe that the majority of how a person develops and how they act is a product of nurture. Nature does have some place in it, but not nearly as much.

When Frankenstein created the monster, in a sense it was like someone having his or her own child. He was supposed to be responsible and teach the monster how to function and behave to fit in with the rest of society. The creature was brand new to life so he really didn’t understand how to act or have any preconceived notions of how he should behave. He hadn’t yet been taught how to hate someone or how to become violent to the point of killing innocent people. He was essentially a massive child who needed a caretaker to make sure that he took the right path in life. Obviously, Victor failed quite miserably with this task.

While I do believe that Nurture has more of an affect on how someone turns out, Nature has its own role. People who have parents and grandparents who have suffered from alcoholism are more likely to become alcoholics themselves. Genetics do ingrain certain habits and personality traits within an individual. However, I also think that it’s possible to avoid falling victim to these more dangerous habits that you receive from your relatives.

The monster was not an inherently evil creature. There were moments within the book, such as when he gathered firewood for the cottagers and saved the girl who fell into the river, where he displays the characteristics of a truly good person. But as the story progressed and more bad things happened to him such as being rejected from society and in one case being shot for simply doing a good deed, he became bitter. Nurture took precedence over how the monster viewed the world around him and it turned him into an angry, murderous individual with little control over his emotions and no concept on how to properly deal with things that upset him.

Victor's Responsibility.

I do believe that Victor is responsible for the actions of the monster. It’s true that he isn’t the one directly telling the monster to do terrible things, but he nevertheless created it. By default he’s the one who should have to answer for this newborn creature.

To me it’s the same as if you were the parent of a young child. Someone that’s really young doesn’t understand why his or her actions may be right or wrong. Therefore, until they learn to take responsibility for themselves, it’s the parent who is responsible for them. You are the one who brought the kid into this world so you’re the one who needs to answer for it when they cannot. Until the thing you are taking care of is capable of making responsible decisions and can take care of itself, you are the one who has to watch over it.

Victor spent years of hard work obsessing over bringing the monster to life. It completely consumed him and cut him off from reality to the point of not speaking to his own family and even his beloved Elizabeth for years. You would think that if he were that excited to have his experiment be a success, then he’d be more than ready to take on the role of being the owner of his creature. Obviously that wasn’t the case, as he reacted with horror and shame rather than happiness at his triumph. Now he’s paying the price for flaking out and abandoning this thing that was depending upon him for guidance in the world.

Eventually I think that Victor is going to have to answer for what he’s done. His negligence and fear caused the abomination that he brought into this world to escape, and people are dying because of it. Victor truly is the one who is to blame for all of the troubles that the monster is causing. If he hadn’t been so determined to mess with things that he should have been, the monster never would have come into existence so yes, I think that all of the blame should be placed upon Victor.

Passion vs. Obsession

I would define passion as an intense enjoyment or love of something. It can be applied to a lot of things in life. Some people have passions for sports, hobbies, or learning, and other people apply it to relationships. However, to me a passion is not something that constantly takes up your times and is always in your thoughts throughout your day. You can control how much time you spend on whatever hobby or subject it is.

Obsession is similar to passion in that you really enjoy a particular thing or person. However, it’s more extreme and to the point that you’re unable to stop thinking about that thing or person. People with obsessions tend to care less about everything else in their life that isn’t somehow related to the object of their obsession.

I don’t think that having a passion for something is a very dangerous idea. People can usually control their passions and focus on other things when they need to. I do believe that certain obsessions can end badly for someone who has them. Individuals who have obsessions with learning and traveling, like Robert Walton for example, may end up learning things that they never really wanted to know and end up in places that they never wanted to be. People who have obsessions with other people are technically called stalkers, and that’s just no good at all. So yes, I’d say that obsessions are not always healthy.

I have what’s probably borderline passion and obsession about the television show Supernatural. I really enjoy it, and sometimes I do have a hard time not talking about it with other people who may not necessarily care. Of course I can stop thinking about it in order to focus on schoolwork and other things that I need to get done, but I can go off on it in conversation for a really long time if given the chance. It’s not the worst thing I could be obsessed with, but sometimes people think I’m weird because of it.

Semester Plans.

Out of everything that I did last semester, I am most proud of getting a 3.8 GPA. That’s the best GPA I’ve ever had, and I’m going to try and get a 4.0 before the end of this school year. Having a good grade point average will look excellent on my college applications.

I do wish that I'd been able to get an A in Psychology, and it's my fault that I didn't because I didn't put forth the effort to study as much as I should have for the quizzes. I also wish I’d paid more attention in Government class. Not because it’s a hard class, but because all the things we discuss in there are relevant to life, especially considering I’m going to be out in the real world very soon. 

When I graduate the thing I'm looking forward to the most is just getting out of high school. I'm ready to go on to college and start getting my own life going. I’m excited to finally be independent from my family, even though I appreciate them a lot. Moving out into the world is something that I’m excited for.

I’m not worried about much as far as graduating goes. I suppose having to be financially independent for once in my life is going to be difficult. Achieving a balance between having a job and keeping up with my classes is going to be a challenge.

This semester I’m going to try and really buckle down to get everything done. Not only that, but produce a high quality of work in order to maintain the best GPA that I can. I’ve really got to watch out for classes like Economics and Government, since I tend to slack off a little in those subjects. It’s not that I don’t try; I just pay so much more attention in classes that I enjoy because they interest me.

It may be the final semester in my last year of high school, but I don’t plan on coming down with “Senioritis” any time soon. It’s not over until I have my diploma, after all.

Quote Responses

Quote One: "Frailty, thy name is woman." Hamlet said this in a soliloquy about his mother. He means that women are weak minded and depend upon a man to protect them. I do not think that this quote applies in the modern age. Women nowadays are much more intelligent thanks to being allowed to attend school, and are capable of being independent from men.They can take care of themselves when the need arises.

Quote Two: "Brevity is the soul of wit." Polonius says this to Claudius and Gertrude. It means that being well spoken and having knowledge of how to use words in conversation makes you intelligent. I think that this is very applicable to life today. It's important to be well learned and know how to speak well and with at least an air of intelligence about you.

The Line Between Caring and Overbearing.

I believe that parents do have the right to know what is going on in the lives of their children. It’s only natural to be protective of your kids. However, there are boundaries that parents should respect. I imagine that adults wouldn’t like having their privacy constantly invaded and being treated as if they were untrustworthy, so expecting teenagers to put up with that sort of treatment isn’t exactly fair. I can’t see any teen that I know going along with the agenda of nosy parents either.

At younger ages, such as fourteen, parents should pay close attention to what’s going on with their kid. There’s a lot of changes that go on during that time and sometimes kids don’t deal with it as well as others might. Having enough insight into how a teenager is feeling and what they may be dealing with can really save a lot of trouble from happening down the road. Kids that are that young aren’t mentally mature enough to make the right choices in some situations, so I think parents need to be there to give them guidance and support. Rules like where they go, who they see outside of school and how late they’re allowed to be out may seem unfair and I know they make most teenagers angry, but those are only set in place for our own good.

For example, when I was growing up my parents told me I had to be home before the streetlights came on (which in my opinion was ridiculously early, but alas). Sure, I whined about it because come on, it was a stupid rule, and I always pushed the rule to the limit. Nevertheless, I look back on it now and I know they only made that rule for my own safety. They just didn’t want their thirteen year old daughter running around the neighborhood in the dark alone.

However, as teenagers get older parents should learn to ease up on how controlling and prying they are with their kids. Nineteen years old, for example, is a bit old for a parent to be telling them what time to come home and who they can’t hang out with. Eventually all teenagers have to grow up and move out, essentially becoming independent from mom and dad. Keeping too close of a watch on someone who just wants to grow up makes them feel stifled and quite frankly irritated with their parents. Of course we know that adults mean well, and they only want to protect us from at least part of the bad things in life, but they can’t do that constantly. Restricting us in too many ways keeps up from experiencing life and learning valuable lessons first-hand.

Revenge

I think that the act of getting revenge on someone for wronging you is a more common thing than people think. It doesn't necessarily have to be something extreme like in a Shakespeare play. Getting revenge on someone can be doing something simple to him or her as payback. I don’t think that many people really realize that they’re getting revenge whenever they decide to take defensive actions against someone. We just see it as “getting even”.

A lot of crimes that people commit are fueled by the desire to get revenge. If someone has a loved one who is murdered, they may feel like killing the person who did it will make them feel better. Still, something as serious as death doesn’t need to be involved. People who are stolen from may take something back from the thief, or might try to give a disrespectful person a little grief in their life.

An example that I can think of is something that I witnessed a long time ago. I won’t mention any names, but an individual that was my friend during middle school did not get along with another student. It was pretty much a hate/hate relationship. They were always fighting and making life tough for one another. One day the other kid took this person’s books from their bag and hid them around the classroom before class could begin. When my friend discovered what had happened, and who was behind the disappearance of their reading materials, they told me that they were going to get them back.

This final act of revenge didn’t occur until about a week later. The middle school served breakfast every morning. On this particular morning, a cold December day, the tile flooring had become slick due to snow being tracked inside on people’s shoes. The “enemy” of this scenario was walking to one of the tables with their juice and toast, and as they moved past our own table my friend quickly stuck out their foot and tripped them. Of course the person went flying and their breakfast wound up all over the floor in a giant mess. As if this embarrassment was not enough, the entire lunchroom burst into laughter at their misfortune. My friend was able to conveniently blame the slick flooring on it, but the other person knew what had really happened. So, the battle between them continued on for the rest of the year.

I learned from this experience that revenge is a common thing that people do without really thinking about it. I also realized that while cathartic at the time, revenge scarcely solves the problem entirely.

Joanne Rowling

Dear Joanne Rowling,

I was in fourth grade, and perhaps nine or ten years old at the time, when I got my hands on Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone. I remember being excited and just as equally terrified as I opened that book and began to read. All of my friends had been reading the book and absolutely loved it, while my parents had told me that it was not something I would ever be allowed to read due to it clashing with their religious beliefs. You can then imagine my apprehension with sneaking a copy home from the school library, hidden behind my math folder inside my book bag, and reading it under cover of night in my room.

For as long as I can remember, I have loved to read. In elementary school I would get my books taken away in class because I’d rather be lost in a story than paying attention to the lesson plan. However, as often as I would make trips to the library to check out another book, I never found a novel or book series that really grabbed my attention for longer than a few weeks at most. That’s why, when I finished the very first chapter of Sorcerer’s Stone all those years ago and kept going until I was nodding off with my face in the book, I knew that the story of this orphaned boy with messy hair and a scar was special. However, I don’t think I quite realized at the time how much the Harry Potter series would grow to be a part of my life for years to come.

When you put aside the magic aspect of the series, there are still a lot of valuable lessons to be learned (the importance of love and friendship and honesty, to name a few). I think many people miss out on these due to focusing on the fact that it is labeled a book series meant for children about wizards and such. There’s no rule written down that says kid stories aren’t capable of encompassing life guidelines, after all.

The importance of doing what is right rather than what is easy, even when others push you to side with them is the biggest thing that I’ve taken away from Harry’s story. If Harry had simply given up and stopped fighting, stopped caring for his friends and the fate of everyone else to join the evil side just because it was easier, the story would have ended far differently and not in a good way either. I’ve learned through all of the trials the characters go through during the course of the series that life is hard, it is not always fair, and good may not always prevail over bad but you can’t just give up. I credit my will to keep fighting and never quit to these books. I’m a much stronger person today because of this.

I am now seventeen years old, and a senior in high school. In less than one month I will be going to see Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows part one on opening night at the movie theater with my friends and family, all of whom are avid Potter lovers (yes, my parents came around to Team Potter as well, much to my relief). I own every single Harry Potter book and have read them multiple times, the spines of them well bent with use and a few pages now slightly dog-eared or stained with occasional inky fingerprints. Of course I am teased by my other more “serious” peers for admitting that Harry Potter is my favorite book series. Nevertheless, I wouldn’t dare change it. I’ve grown up right alongside the small boy who lived in a cupboard under the stairs for eleven years of his life, and in a way I can relate to Harry, Ron and Hermione better than I can people my own age.

The story of Harry Potter has essentially been my entire childhood, contained within the pages of seven wonderful books. Your incredibly, magical story has made me very happy for many years, and will continue to do so until I’m old and in my rocker. There are things in life you never forget, and this story is one of them. I can only hope that the future generations of children will read your story and gain as much as I have from it.

Sincerely,

Kaitlyn Graves

Learning Independence.

I should probably start this off by saying that I’m really not a complete social hermit. I enjoy talking to people just as much as anyone else does, probably more if you ask anyone who‘s seen me outside of school. I just have trouble with getting a conversation going and letting people in to see the real me behind the stupid shy shell that I have. I truly do enjoy having friends and being able to count on someone when I need it.

However, at the same time I’ve learned to never depend on someone entirely. It’s okay to trust people, because you’ll be miserable if you don’t. At the same time though, you have to be a little independent. It’s okay to be able to function by yourself and not depend on constant attention and reassurances like a little kid. This is something that I have, unfortunately, learned through a lot of trial and error.

Maybe this is a little bit pessimistic of me…okay, more than a little. But the experience of having someone who you always thought would love you and care about you flat out say that you mean nothing to them anymore can change you a lot. It happened to me after all.

As cliché and barf-worthy, teenage romance as this is going to sound, I let a boy with too long blond hair and big brown eyes get an emotional hold on me and I thought it was all good. Scott was his name, and yes, he was my boyfriend for six months but before that he had been one of my best friends since middle school. I’ve told him things that no one else has ever heard about me, and he will be the only person alive to ever have heard those things. In retrospect, it was probably unwise to place that much trust in him but what can you do?

Anyway, as with most teenage relationships it just fizzled out on my end so I broke it off. Of course there was all the usual moping from him for a while, but we still hung out and talked all the time. We were great friends despite everything, and when I told him I was moving away to Homedale he assured me about a hundred different times that nothing was going to change.

Yeah, because things always seem to work out just as someone says they will, right? Life is never that simple.

Now, fast forward about a year and imagine how it felt, stomach sinking as if I’d eaten a handful of lead, when I was informed by him that he no longer knew if I meant anything to him because he’d “changed a lot”. Really, dude? You’re going to pull that crap now, after all the other fights and break ups and things we’ve gone through? I’ve changed like you wouldn’t believe since I left Fruitland, but I’m not going to be a jerk and stop being your friend over it! Ugh!

In turn, this all got me to thinking that maybe I had been too insensitive during the whole breakup. Maybe it had hurt him worse than it had me somehow. I brooded over it for a ridiculous amount of time, and thinking back on it I kind of want to kick myself for doing so. I can’t imagine myself doing that now, and I’m really glad for it.

For a long time I was absolutely crushed over this revelation. As I said, it’s difficult for me to let people in and trust them entirely, especially people my own age. I felt like someone had literally stolen a piece of me. Not in the heartbroken girl sense, but in the sense that I had lost someone I could truly trust no matter what. It was as if I no longer had a port in the storm or a place to confide when my thoughts grew too cumbersome to be dealt with alone.

Then, like the epiphany of a lifetime or something, I realized that I do not need to always have someone to lean on. Sure, it’s nice to have support when times are tough and life wears me down, but I’m independent. I’m a very strong willed young woman and I’m not going to waste my time pining for the loss of him. I’m going to keep my head up and go on with life. Looking to the past only keeps me blind to the future and potentially better things that will come along.

It was the ending of a good friendship, I will admit. Perhaps someday it will be mended, and perhaps it won’t. Either way, it really helped me change and develop into the person that I am now. I suppose in a really messed up way I owe him a word of thanks. Not that he’ll ever get it, hah. It’s the thought that counts in this case, I believe.

Disney, what are you doing?

The Disney version of the book Huckleberry Finn is a…laughable example of a book-turned-film. There are a few points in the movie that kept true to events in the novel, such as Pap kidnapping Huck and Huck running off with Jim, but the way that the movie carries these things out ruins the overall effect that it’s supposed to have upon the audience.

One major change, and one that ultimately ruined the ending for me, was the absence of Tom Sawyer. Sure, maybe we were spared from his annoying antics and all that jazz, but at the same time Tom was a vital part to not only wrapping the story up but revealing a little more about Huck’s character. In the book, Huckleberry seems to be an independent young man until he’s around Tom. Whenever he does get together with his friend, he becomes soft spoken and easy to manipulate. The movie totally misses this character trait for Huck, instead making him out to be a strong willed kid who does as he pleases. Don’t even get me started on how the film ended versus the book. It was rushed and seemed as if it had been slapped together at the last minute. It was terribly overdone with dramatics, to be honest. That’s Disney for you though, I suppose.

Another difference was the relationship between Huck and Jim. Twain had not put his story together to portray the two of them as best buddies from the very beginning. At the start of everything Huck and Jim were acquaintances at best, and slowly grew closer and trusted one another more as the story progressed and they went through a lot of troubles together. Once again, Disney took the cheery side of things and made it so Huck and Jim got along perfectly from the very start. That really did take away from the character development of Huck and Jim, because watching their trust for each other get stronger was an interesting part of the novel.

Then, of course, the overall tone of the movie was sheer corniness with how there seemed to be a constant undertone of comedy in even the “serious” scenes (such as Peter Wilks’ mouth randomly being open as he's laying there dead in his casket). Twain intended for his book to be humorous, true, but to also have serious situations and to show people how dangerous it was for Huck to be helping Jim escape to freedom. Not surprisingly, Disney pushed the serious side of the story to the back burner in favor of laughs. Really, the epic slow motion “BILLY!” thing? I don’t know how anyone could have possibly taken that seriously. I sure didn’t, even though it was, admittedly, hilarious.

My issue with society.

I’ll be the first person to admit that I value intelligence amongst other people that I associate with before how they look or dress. I don’t think that being smart is anything to be ashamed of, and being called a nerd on a regular basis doesn’t bug me one bit. Brains before beauty, people.

What I can’t seem to understand is why society seems to place all of these Hollywood stars and starlets up on special little pedestals when they haven’t got enough brains, nor common sense, to function like a normal human being. True, not every single person in the entertainment business is a total moron. Quite a few of them are actually very intelligent and do a lot of good for the world. However, when you turn on the news or go to the homepage for MSN.com, what always seems to be there? Something about some moron who got caught smoking dope or doing something else idiotic. You know, all those people who can't seem to stay out of trouble for more than a month at a time.

Is this what our society truly values? Are these men and women the types that mothers want their children to look up to as role models? Do we all want the teenager girls of this generation to grow up to be clones of Paris Hilton and Lindsay Lohan? Are we all supposed to be tanned to the point of looking like we’re covered in the powered cheese from a Mac n’ Cheese box? Why is it that someone who walks around with their perfect clothes and perfect hair and one-dimensional personality gets more recognition than something else that’s more important?

Are we really all so shallow that beauty comes before brains in this day and age? Really? This country is obsessed with the idea of celebrity, for crying out loud!

To be fair, I realize that not everyone thinks this way. I know a lot of people who hate all those Hollywood types because of how they are. I, along with those people, look up to folks with skills and smarts instead of a size four waist or a car that's worth more than my house. Still, it's rare to see someone who’s doing so much good for this world getting a ten minute slot on the news broadcasts like Lindsay Lohan does whenever she gets her coke-head self tossed back into rehab. It’s sad, really, to think that this country is more interested in hearing about her drug usage than about the three teenagers who killed themselves in the past month alone after being bullied at school over their sexualities (yes, this really happened: http://www.aolnews.com/surge-desk/article/seth-walsh-dies-after-suicide-attempt-another-teen-bullied-over-perceived-sexuality/19653569).

It just shows how the minds of the general public work, I guess. We want to hear all of the dirty little secrets of the actors and personalities that we like instead of the serious issues going on in society. It's easier for people to handle hearing LiLo going to jail for drugs for the umpteenth time than to hear about stories like the teens mentioned above.

I really do think that this needs to change. I think the media needs to stop presenting us with these images that these "stars" are what we need to center our attention around. There are more serious issues out there to take notice of than what the stars are eating for lunch today, who's getting a divorce from who, and where they bought their newest pair of jeans at.

All I know is that people would be a lot better off if they spent less time reading rubbish like this

and more time doing something productive.

Huck's "crisis of conscience".

There are many times in the book Huck Finn prior to the scenario of Jim being captured by the Phelps family where Huck argues with himself over what he’s going to do concerning the runaway slave. A part of him knows that it’s wrong for him to be helping Jim escape, not only because he feels guilty for betraying the widow Douglas but because it’s highly illegal. At the same time, however, he has gradually grown to see Jim as not just another black man but as someone he can trust and count on in tough situations. Huck views Jim as more of a friend than as someone who’s lesser than him as a person. This bond that they've developed helps Huck make his decision.

When Huck realizes that he can’t just let Jim be sold off down the river and decides that, wrong or not, he’s going to steal Jim back, I thought it was a really brave thing for him to do. Not only because he could potentially be caught and punished severely, but also because Huck is essentially ignoring his own conscious for the benefit of his friend. This seems, to me, like a very noble thing for Huck to do because he always appears to be struggling with internal conflicts concerning Jim’s freedom. When he essentially says that he might as well go to hell for what he’s going to do, but he’ll do it anyway because he cares about Jim, it really sends home the entire idea that Huck respects Jim a lot despite him being a runaway.

Considering that this book was released in a time period where common white people wouldn’t dare think about stealing a slave to help them gain freedom, I think that Twain expected the people reading his novel to be shocked and perhaps even outraged at Huck’s decision. However, I think that the other reaction Twain was hoping to get was realization from his readers as to how morally unjust slavery really was. I think he wanted to make people see that just because they were white, they didn’t have to agree with the practice of owning slaves or looking down upon African Americans.

Jim in Huckleberry Finn.

Up until this point in Huckleberry Finn, Huck has had this view of Jim as being a little bit simple minded and happy go lucky about things. There hadn’t really been any indications that Jim had problems like many of the other characters we meet or that he was suffering from any internal battles. However, when Jim finally reveals to Huck that he worries for his family every night it makes Huck realize that there’s a lot more to his friend than meets the eye. This little conversation between them drastically changes how Huck perceives Jim as a person. It makes Huck see Jim as more of a human being rather than just another slave who doesn’t have feelings and fears and worries.

Jim is a unique sort of character in the book in comparison to some of the others that we’ve met. He’s selfless and a little naive about how the world works, which shows in how he doesn‘t believe certain things that Huck tells him (like how French people speak a different language). I honestly don’t think he has a mean bone in his body. Some characters, like the dauphin and the duke, are vile and take advantage of the kindness that they're shown by townspeople. Jim is always kind and somewhat even tempered about things, and he treats people well. Despite this people still look down on him and treat him as if he’s less than human simply because he’s African American.

There aren’t many things that Jim seems to be truly concerned with. However, the things that he does worry about are very important to him. Gaining his freedom by fleeing with Huck and worrying about how his family is going to fare now that he’s gone seem to be the two main things that he thinks about. Jim is also concerned with doing the right thing morally, which is why he doesn’t like being around the dauphin and the duke.

Overall, it seems like Jim’s slowly becoming a more complex person, and Huck is starting to see that Jim isn’t his inferior but his equal. I think that this will only continue to strengthen their friendship as the book goes on.