response to Vy and things she hates.

I noticed that Vy wrote about the things she hates and I've decided to copy her in my post.

Going to School in the Rain - I actually don't really mind the rain. In fact I like when it rains... that is when I can just stay at home and don't have to go outside. It has been raining a lot this week and i am not enjoying it because i've had to go to school. This means that by the time I leave my house and arrive at school my hair is already frizzy and just gets worse as the day goes on. Also, since I was outside during PE for two hours, my feet and hands were frozen and my nose was cold. I was so relieved when I finally got home and was able to turn on the heater.

Certain Teachers and Their Weighing of Finals- So I just looked on SchoolLoop and I noticed that this one teacher (I won't say names) put in the grades for her finals. Yesterday I had about a 78% and I received a 97% on her final. This would be a good thing if my grade had risen more than one percent. I want at least a B in my classes, but now my grade is only a 79%. I really hope that this is a mistake because if it isn't... well that's just ridiculous that a big final that we stressed over effected my grade by one percent.

My Stupid Cell Phone- My cell phone sucks. I barely get service anywhere now and it's just dumb. I don't even care when I drop it. A few scratches doesn't really bother me anymore, my phone already sucks.

My Geomerty Final - I thought that I did so well on my final exam for geometry. I felt so confident while taking it and I thought that I would get a great grade on in. However, I didn't so as well as I thought. Ms. Mccoy said my score wasn't too bad, but I was really disappointed because I felt so confident in myself that I would get  really high score and I got a very mediocre score. I just know that next semester I will work a lot harder i n all of my classes.

Anyways... to end on a positive note, I am so glad that we have three weeks off for winter break (that's like a month, kinda) ! And we don't have any homework!  Now I can completely relax and de stress from school !

A Child Called "It" Final Response

So, I have finally finished reading The Child Called "It" and it was definitely a lot to handle.  I've read part of this book before, but I just didn't realize how hard and sad it was to read about these traumatizing events that happeed in Dave Pelzer's life.

During our discussion on Thursday our group discussed the possible reasons why David's mother treated him so bad and only picked on him instead of his other brothers. Meriam had done some extra research on Roerva Pelzer and found out that she was also abused as a child. We also looked up some information during class and learned that she was an alcoholic since the age of 13 and was frequently locked in a closet and denied food. I don't remember there being information on if she had any siblings or not. However, on David Pelzer's website it did say that his other brother got abused my his mom after Dave left for foster care, but she never abused her oldest son.

Meriam also mentioned that Mother suffered from a multiple personality disorder. The main direction where our discussion was going was trying to uncover the unknown mystery of why mother specifically singled out David in her horrible acts of abuse and most importantly, what caused her to so suddenly change from a perfect sweet, Brady Bunch mom to a wicked witch. I suggested that it may have been caused because of the alcohol and depression, but this doesn't seem like the correct answer considering she'd been an alcoholic since she was 13. Whatever the reason, i feel like it will always be a mystery, but it does make me want to read other books written by Dave Pelzer. 

Also, Mr. Sutherland brought an interesting observation to our discussion. As someone who had never read this book before, he brought up how he noticed that when his students read this book and have discussions on it, he is constantly, mainly hearing them just talk about the horrendous acts of abuse that goes on in this book. He said something like, "This book can't possibly just be horrible event after horrible event." However, the truth is, this is pretty much exactly what this book is. The author is telling his memories of being a very young boy and receiving numerous amounts of beatings and severe "punishments" from his mom. I know they other books Pelzer's written are more about him over coming his struggles and becoming a great person.

After reading this book it made me highly appreciate my parents and family members and it made me realize that i have it very easy. I may get mad at my mom and dad sometimes but after reading about David's experiences it makes me thankful that they aren't beating and starving me.

A Child Called "It" Response #2

In The Child Called "It" by David Pelzer, the author/main character describes his "fight for food". While reading this book, i noticed that Mother constantly taunts David with food. She gives him  unmeetable time limits to complete his chores and if he doesn't finish on time, he won't get any food. On "good days" he would sometimes be given the leftover scraps of his brother's cereal for breakfast. However, more often than  not, David goes to school hungry. Because of this, he begins stealing food from school. He starts off taking little snacks from his classmate's lunch boxes during recess. Unfortunately, teachers eventually find out and notify Mother. David was severely punished and beaten for his actions, but he felt like stealing was his only way of getting food in order to survive. Once, he takes a frozen lunch from his school and eats every morsel of it in the bathroom. He is very proud of feeding himself, but Mother finds out at has him perform a horrible task. She makes Dave puke into the toilet, scoops the contents into a bowl, and makes him re-eat his digested meal.

What was discussed during our disscussion was if Davids mom didn't want him to steal, why doesn't she feed him? I think the answer to this is because she likes to feel like she has ultimate control over everything. She probably enjoys feeling like she decides when and what David eats and when he goes against her will by getting food for herself, she decides he "deserves" to be punished. However, this is no excuse for the way this horrible woman treats her son. What she does is horrible and disgusting.

Another topic we discussed this week is how much of a coward David's dad is. One part in this book that really stuck out to me was in the chapter titled "The Accident". One night Mother is drunk and she has a knife in her hand. Her youngest son, Russle is also swinging on her leg. On "accident" (according to David) mother throws the knife at him and it strikes him in the stomach. When David wakes up, he is in the bathroom and his mom is gently placing gauze around his wound. However, she doesn't take him to the hospital and when she is done wrapping his cut, she tells him that he has 10 more minutes to finish the dishes. When David tells his dad that his mother stabbed him, the only thing he says is "Just finish the dishes before you irritated her even more!"

I think the mother has control on pretty much everyone in her house, including her husband. However, Davids dad is a firefighter. there is no excuse on why he couldn't get help to save his child. I talked about this in my last blog post and my view on his still hasn't changed. David's dad is a whimp and a loser.

A Child Called "It" Response #1

A Child Called "It" is a really sad story about one of the worst child abuses cases in the nation. This book is kind of hard for me to read because the author's descriptions of the events that happens to him are so in depth and specific. One question that came to me while reading this book is if Dave Pelzer's father was at fault just as much as his mother was for the abuse that happened to him. 

In this story, Dave's mom beats, starves, and tortures him as a young child. She rarely ever feeds him, constantly beats him, and performs terrible acts of torture to him. In one part of this book, Dave's mother forces him to take of his clothes and almost makes him lay on the stove so she can burn him. She doesn't take it this far, but she does hold his arm over the burning fire for a while. Luckily Pelzer's father and brothers come home in time before she can take it any further. For some reason only Dave gets abused while his other brothers are treated completely fine.

David's father doesn't actually abuse him, but he doesn't do a thing to stop it either. He pathetically tries to talk his wife into not beating their son or to give him food, but after a few effortless tries, he just gives up. What sucks is that Dave looks up to his father and views him as a hero. His dad keeps telling him that he will get him away from his crazy mother, but it doesn't seem like he is doing anything to make such a thing come true. What really upsets me it that David's father is a fire fighter and he can't have any guts to stand up to his crazy wife to protect his son. She does seem pretty scary, but if he is that afraid of her he could easily contact the police. He IS a witness of all the horrible abuse that is going on in his house and if he hates it so much he could try to do something to stop it instead of just leaving to go to work. In my opinion I actually think Dave's dad is a very selfish person.  It's pretty obvious that he uses his job as an excuse to escape all the madness that goes on at his house, but if he stayed there he probably knows that Dave won't get abused as bad as if he wasn't home. Throughout this book Dave mentions a few times how he knows that his mom won't torture him so bad when his dad and brothers are home. However, more and more his father starts spending more time at work.

One part of this book that is still unclear to me is what made Dave's mother switch from being nice to be a completely horrible person? In the first chapter of this book (titled Good Times) Dave's mom seems completely normal, loving, and nice. She would take her family on trips to the lake, cook great meals for all of them and would treat each and every one of her sons equally. However, all of a sudden she just became a lazy bum and did nothing but get drunk, watch TV, and yell at Dave all day. It's kind of clear where the abuse towards Dave starts. At the beginning, she makes all of her kids search for things she lost, but pretty soon she begins to single out Dave.  Her crazy behavior is spontaneous. She's been an alcoholic since she was 13 so it isn't like her excessive drinking was anything new. What ever the reason her behavior is NOT okay what soever. Who the hell would ever treat there own child such a way. I hate this woman!

Basic Book Review: The Kite Runner

(2) For what audience(s) is this book intended, and how can you tell? (In other words, for whom would you recommend this book?); (5) Find out about the author. How did they end up writing this particular book? How is the author's life reflected in the book?; (8) Pick a character that interested you and write about them in depth. You can also analyze a relationship between two different characters.
The Kite Runner

From what I have read, I would say that the audience for this book is older teenagers and adults. One of the reasons why I say this is because some of the topics they discuss throughout this book are hard and a bit inappropriate for younger kids to understand. For example, when Assef talks about how he strongly supports Hitler and how great of a leader he was, this would probably be a bit confusing for a younger reader to comprehend. If someone is ten or eleven and they came across this part of the book, they might be confused as to what Hitler actually did and if he really was a good leader like Assef says he is, or if he was a horrible person as Amir says his father once told him. Since a person this age most likely hasn't gotten very far in depth with this part of history in school, they may not clearly understand this part of the book, which is an important part in shaping and describing Assefs character. Another part in The Kite Runner where some inappropriate content is discussed is when Hassan gets raped. When this action is actually happening in the book, the author doesn't specifically say the word "rape". Instead he just sort of describes what is going on, but it is pretty clear to the reader what is happening. However, if the reader of this book was, again very young, they most likely wouldn't be able to understand what was happening until the author actually states it, and even when the author does clearly state what went on when Assef and his friends attacked Hassan, this reader would most likely still be left with a lot of confusing questions. Even if a young reader did know what was happening, it is still a topic that is usually discussed amongst people above a certain age.

Khaled Hosseini, the author of The Kite Runner, was born in Kabul, Afghanistan in 1965. In 1976 Hosseini and his family moved to Paris, France due to his father's job. The family had moved before, and back to Afghanistan, but this time they moved to the United States "because PDPA had seized power through a bloody coup in April 1978" (Wiki). He and his family settled in San Jose, CA where Hosseini attended Independent High School. Once he graduated, he enrolled into Santa Clara University. The Kite Runner was published in 2003, just about a year and a half after Hosseini left medical school. This book became and international best seller and was published in forty countries. It seems to me that this book is somewhat a reflection of his life and his challenges with growing up in Afghanistan and later moving to the United States. In the book, Amir and his father end up leaving Afghanistan and moving to northern California, which is the same thing that Khaled did when he was younger, just he moved with his whole family. This book seems like it is somewhat a reflection of the authors life through his eyes.

One relationship that particularly intrigues me is the one between Amir and Baba. From the beginning of the book when Amir's father tells him to leave him and Rahim Khan in the smoking room alone, it kind of had me wondering what kind of relationship the two had. When Amir thinks , " He'd close the door, leave me to wonder why it was always grown ups time." My first question that immediately came up during this part of the book was if Baba tried to substitute his time spent with his son with material items. I've heard of this kind of situation happen quite often with privileged children and their parents. It sometimes will seem like the children's parents will be to busy and occupied with their jobs and their own friends that they will somewhat neglect their child. They will also try and replace this time missed actually spending time with their kid with material items. Also, when Amir begins to write short stories of his own, his father seems less than interested when he tries to share one of them with him. He also says that sometimes he wishes that Rahim Khan were his actual father because he feels like he acceptd him more than his real dad does. It seems that Baba is a little displeased with Amir because he isn't really following in his footsteps. He isn't going down the path of law and politics like his father. Instead he enjoys reading books and writing stories which seems to displease Baba. However, as the story progresses and Baba and Amir move to the United States, it seems like their relationship slowely, but surely improves. Baba seems to be a little more proud of Amir after he graduates college, even though it is only community college, and you can tell that the two grow a lot closer, especially during the time of the flea market and when Amir meets Saroya.

I really enjoyed reading The Kite Runner. It seemed so real and even though it was actually fiction, I feel that I learned a lot from reading it. I am interested in reading other books from Khaled Hosseini.

Some Parents Really Need to Let There Kids Have a Life!!!

So, it has been a while since I've seen my friends from middle school and i really really really miss them. On Friday nights, there is this thing called Teen Night in San Francisco and a lot of my friends from my old school have been going since about 7th grade...and this is how long I've been begging my mom to let me go. It has been 3 years and this lady still won't let me go. I don't know what to do in order to convince her to let me go, but today I asked her if  I could go and she was irritating me! I originally planed to go last Friday night, but I had family visiting and one of my best friends wasn't going. Because of these two reasons I decided to hold off and just go next week ( which is tonight).

One of the same excuses my mom has been giving me about the reason she won't let me go is because she doesn't have any information about it and doesn't know who runs it, where it is, blah blah blah. However, each time she says this, I give her more and more information. I told her that they meet at a rec center in San Francisco, I gave her the address of the rec center, I told her that I'll let her know where we go after that at least 2 days in advance, I told her all the people who are going, gave her the administrator's name, and even his phone number.  For some ridiculous reason, this isn't good enough for her and she keeps asking the same question. Seriously, WHAT MORE INFORMATION DOES SHE NEED?!?!?! My mom also says that it isn't safe, but I don't know what she's talking about. I lived in San Francsico almost all my life up until the summer of my 7th, transition to 8th grade year. I've caught the bus there myself to school for 2-3 years and nothing ever happened to me. I could understand if this was just a bunch of teens getting together, but this has adult supervision and is completely safe.

 I had a very good talk about this with one of my friends who goes there and she encouraged me to keep asking. She also agreed with me on the fact that if parents don't let their kids do anything, they'll most likely end up rebelling later on. Her mom even agreed with me. I told her i would keep asking if I could come with them  but I don't know what to do to change her mind. If you have any ideas let me know. ......maybe I'll ask my dad if I can go next week. He's a lot more reasonable...

Re: all the debates about religion...

I've noticed that there have been a lot of debates both online and at school about religion. There have been very deeply religious people going against people that aren't so religious and it kind of seems like a waste of time. I do think it is interesting to hear peoples opinions, but they should know that they won't be able to change peoples' opinions on such a deep topic just simply be arguing with them. I found a good quote from Ebone's blog about her opinion on the debate over religion. She says:

 ...you can't force someone to see the world from your point of view. You can't convince someone not to express their opinion without offending yours...now in present-day America, anyone is allowed to believe in any religion they want and can express it in whatever way they want.

I am not a very religious person at all, but I wouldn't exactly call myself an Atheist. I DO believe in God... most of the time, but sometimes I have my doubts over weather he's real or not. Ebone says that you can't force someone to automatically agree with your point of view and nowadays, anyone is allowed to believe whatever they want to about religion. Some people can't really understand this and this is one of the things that turns me off to being part of a specific religious group. I personally really do not like having to be in a room where someone is preaching to me about God or whatever religion they're part of. It quite frankly makes me feel a little weird and uncomfortable. I'm not sure why this is, but it might be because I don't completely agree or believe what these people are saying and I also feel like they're trying to force their religious beliefs on me. 

For example, me and my mom have this family of friends whom we've known for quite a while. They are very religious people and they like to share their beliefs with their friends, including us. My mom is accepting of the information they share with us, but I don't really enjoy having to listen to it. I remember one time there was a guest at one of the classes and she was saying how even though there isn't any proof that God is real, we can still believe in him, or something like that. Anyways, my friends mom immediately commented on what this lady said about how there isn't any proof that God is real. She began passionately arguing that he is real and that there is proof. She handed her a book that someone wrote about proving that God is real and pretty much forced her to read it in the middle of the discussion. This honestly made me pretty uncomfortable even though I wasn't the one who was being questioned. I felt kind of bad for this lady because she herself was a believer of the same religion my friend's mom was, but she sort of got attacked for one true comment she made. I understand that religion is something that people can get very passionate about, but i hate it when these people get so passionate that they keep on arguing with you and try to get you to change your mind and agree with them.This is a free country and anyone is allowed to believe whatever they want to, so sometimes it;s best to keep your religious ideas or beliefs to yourself if no one asks about them so you don't offend anyone or make them feel uncomfortable.

It's great that some people are so passionate about religion and are willing to fight and argue about what hey believe in, but I usually choose to stay out of these conversations because I know that if i tell a really religious person that I am kind of unsure about God being real, or that I'm not religious i might get attacked. I think it's best to let everyone have their own opinions and you don't have to agree with them, but you can at least accept them.

this dumb guy at the pizza place was pissing me off today!!!! >:(

Today my cousin Nasia came from Hawaii to visit the family for her birthday with her mom. They are staying until Tuesday and today we went shopping downtown in San Francisco. Our other cousin, Sophia came to meet us there and for dinner we went to Blondie's Pizza on Powell St. While we were waiting for our pizza to come, me and Nasia went across the street to Urban Outfitters. I really had to pee so after I bought clothes we rushed back to Blondie's. When we got there we asked the guy behind the counter for the key to the bathroom and he was being very rude.
In the beginning he said that he needed to see a receipt, which was understandable. So, we went to the table to get the receipt from Nasia's mom, Tina. When we went back to show the guy the receipt, he took it, but he still didn't let me go to the bathroom. We ended up just going back to the table. We told Tina that the guy didn't give us the receipt back and she wanted it so we went back up to get it for her. When we asked the guy for it back he said that he didn't have it and that he through it away. We told Tina, so she went to the guy and asked him for it. He told her that he through it away because he thought it was garbage and that we gave it to him to throw away. This was complete BS because he also said that when we gave it to him it was crumpled up, which is another lie because we did not give it to him like that. When we handed him the receipt it was perfectly straightened out. I have absolutely no idea what this guys deal was, but he was really getting on my nerves. What really irritated was that he had a smirk on his face almost the whole time we were talking to him.
Eventually I got to use the bathroom but that was only because some guy was waiting for his girlfriend and when she came out he asked her to let me in. This was really nice of them and Tina ended up getting her receipt because the guy printed out another one. She also made him come and apologize to us, but I think that Nasia was too nice to him after that. When he said sorry she just said , “Oh, it's okay.” I personally would have said something smart like “Yeah, that's what I thought,” but I didn't want to cause anymore of a scene. This guy just really pissed me off and I felt the need to share it with you all.

RE: Why with all the drama? By Stab Anderson

These past two weeks at school have been very... interesting. There has been a lot of rumors spread and drama that has happened this week and it seems like it is starting to get way out of hand. In Stan's post he says :

 I don't understand why everyone starts all this drama at school... Especially at this school, we came here to learn, we did the application and everything, not once did it say "There will be copious amounts of drama.". Rumors are stupid and are most commonly not true, they are usually made when a boy likes a girl and the friend of that girl likes that boy. I know it may sound a little confusing but from what I've noticed, that is always the main source of drama. ...Someone who starts drama is often outcasted and ignored. After a while no one pays attention to them. So nothing good can become of you if you start rumors.

I completely agree with what Stan says here. I remember when I came on my shadow visit and to the orientation at ASTI and the teachers and students all said that one of the best parts of this school was that everyone was like a family and that there was no drama so everyone could focus in school. Now it seems like this was all a lie. I do enjoy some parts of ASTI. I like all of the friends I've made and enjoy the teachers I have, but it seems like there is a lot of drama at this school because of its size. Since this school is so small, rumors spread around fast and it causes a lot of trouble and many people get their feelings hurt because of it. I'm not going to mention specific names, but I have a friend who was strongly impacted by a rumor that was spread that she was accused of starting, when she didn't. It really hurt her, and a lot of other peoples' feelings.



When I was deciding what schools I wanted to apply to, I was very against just applying to an all girls school. It always seems like girls have a lot more drama with each other than guys do. Boys normally just handle their arguments physically and, event though this isn't really any better, it's kind of not as bad as the way girls handle their arguments. Even though violence is never the answer, at least when guys do this they are confronting each other. Girls normally either talk about each other behind one anothers backs, or gain up on one person which can be very very hurtful. Some people may say that this is better than getting beat up, but having a group of girls talk bad about you and turning against you can be very hard to deal with.



I usually try to be pretty nice to every one in the beginning because I don't like people talking crap about me behind my back. However, if someone upsets me or just really irritates me, I sometimes include myself when other people talk about them. I think the reason I do this is because it feels good to know that I'm not the only one who feels a certain way about the person. I don't start rumors about people, though because I just don't think it's worth it to make up stupid stuff about other people. Also, if you start rumors, people will end up hating you and eventually you will have no friends. It's kind of sad , but at the same time I find it difficult to sympathize with a person that talks about a while bunch of people behind their backs. I hope this drama will eventually stop.

Reflective Essay

This first quarter of school has been the first time I've ever had a blog. In the beginning I thought it would be difficult to write two of these each week, but it actually turned out to not be that challenging. Blogging has also made me think more about situations that I encounter during my day to day life than I have before. In addition, I enjoy how unlike most writing assignments we get in school, we get to write about pretty much anything we want to.

When we were first assigned to write two blogs a week, I predicted that I would have a pretty hard time doing this. I especially felt like this was going to be a challenge for me when I read the guidelines and saw how many words we were expected to write. I didn't think that I would be able to find a topic that I could write at least three hundred words on, let alone two. However, almost each time I worked on a new post for my blog it wasn't as hard to do as I had expected. Sometimes I would just take a simple, random idea that popped into my head and write a complete blog post about it. I didn't think that I would be able to fully go in depth to some of these topics I came up with, but I did. For example, once I did a blog post on how most teenage Disney Channel stars don't have successful, lasting careers. I got this idea just by watching a story on Lindsay Lohan on TV and about 6 people responded to it. It was interesting to see how some people had the same ideas and opinions that I did. I also surprised myself with how I was able to make sure I got at least one of my blog posts done before Friday night. When we first started this assignment I would usually have both of my blog posts done by at least Tuesday night. I was proud of myself because usually when I get work at school and I have a couple of days to do it, I'll just procrastinate at do it at the last minute. However, in the beginning of the year this would usually be one of the first things I finished. Unfortunately, now as we are getting more homework in our other classes I sometimes wait to do my blogs last. It doesn't take me very long, but I want to push myself to go back to my old habit of completing my work early.

Starting this blog has also made me think differently about things I see daily. Weather I'm on the bus or just walking down the street, I can usually find moments or situations that stand out to me and later inspire me to incorporate them into my blog. One time I was on the bus and I saw a couple get accused of stealing some mans wallet. I'm not positive, but I had a feeling that they were guilty. I heard the person next to me whisper that they saw the man slip something into the woman's sleeve when he got off the bus to talk to the police. They also had a daughter and this kind of affected me because I felt bad for her. I imagined what her life was like at home and how her parents probably struggle for money to pay for a place to live and food to eat. It seemed like I thought of this more in depth than I normally would have. However, I didn't put my thoughts on this situation on my blog because it was on one of the weeks when we were working on a different assignment. In my blogs, I really enjoy being able to express my opinion on certain things and generalize an idea from a specific situation I witness.

Another thing that I enjoy about these blog assignments is that we can write about pretty much anything we want to. There's such a wide variety of topics we could discuss and share that it is kind of hard not to find anything to write about. I've seen people write about their week at school, a movie they saw over the weekend, I've even seen some people write poems on their blogs. There's just so much to write about and sometimes it's nice to be able to share your thoughts with other people. In most of our other classes, whenever we write papers we don't really have as much freedom as we do in this class. For example, in writing when we have big papers and essays due there are usually a lot of guidelines we have to follow in order to get a good grade on it. We normally have to write about a topic that we get assigned by our teacher. Sometimes when I write these papers I have a hard time coming up with ideas to write about which is normally the complete opposite for when I am writing posts for my blog. Occasionally I will have a struggle with finding a topic or idea to write about for my blog since there is such a broad range of ideas, but when this does happens you can always just do two response post for the week which is also a good way to get yourself thinking. Also, having a requirement for students to have at least one response post a week is a good way to get students discussing certain topics with each other and sharing their opinions with one another. This could also contribute to starting online debates between students which is good practice for future debates we have in class.

All in all, I think writing blogs is a great way for me to practice my writing and express my ideas at the same time. In the beginning I expected to have some sort of challenge with this, but I have surprised myself with how I am able to turn simple ideas into 400 word blog posts. Writing these posts have also made me think and analyze situations more thoroughly. I enjoy having freedom to write about whatever comes to my mind and I believe that this assignment has been and will be successful in helping students practice their writing skills in an enjoyable way.

REAL FINAL DRAFT!! NOT THE OTHER ONE OF MICE &MEN!!

 Sutherland! this is my real final draft, not the other one .

John Stienbecks's novella Of Mice and Men tells the story of two migrant workers, George Milton and Lennie Small. After getting stranded by a bus, far away from the camp they intended to report to in California, the two travel to a nearby ranch in search of some sort of work. Once they get there, they both (especially Lennie) face many challenges. Later on in the book we learn that Lennie has a mental disability, and since he is a giant, this is a huge challenge for him. A lot of the times, he accidentally causes pain to someone or destroys something because he just really has no way to control it.

There are a few other conflicts that occur in this book, but the central problem is a self vs. self situation with Lennie. Since he has a mental illness, Lennie does things unintentionally that get him into trouble with other people on the ranch. He is also very big and strong, but unfortunately he doesn't realize the kind of strength he has and that if he isn't careful, it can be very dangerous.

For example, when the men on the ranch find Curley's wife dead in the barn, they are really mad at Lennie and want him killed. However, George tries to defend him and says:

“Lennie never done it in meanness. All the time he done bad things,

he never done one of 'em mean” (pg. 95)

This quote from George is a good explanation on Lennie's intentions. He is saying that even though Lennie does some “bad things” on occasion, he never does them on purpose. Whenever he makes mistakes or hurts someone, it is only on accident. In other words, Lennie is pretty much a gentle giant because he is very big and strong, but he never really wants to hurt anyone or cause them pain. For example, when he broke Curley's wife's neck, Lennie shouldn't have really been the one blamed for it because she was the one making him feel nervous and uncomfortable. She was a very promiscuous woman and towards the end of the book, her and Lennie are alone in the barn together and she starts coming on to him. He remembers George telling him to stay away from her, but when he tries to get away, she won't leave him alone. So, out of fear Lennie grabs Curley's wife by her hair and, because he is so strong, he accidentally snaps her neck and kills her.

            Another quote I found in the book was when George was talking to Slim about Lennie. He says:

 

“ 'Course he ain't mean. But he gets in trouble alla time because he's so God damn dumb. Like what happened in Weed... He seen this girl in a red dress. Dumb bastard like he is, he wants to touch ever'thing he likes. Just wants to feel it. So he reaches out to feel this red dress an' the girl lets out a squawk and that gets Lennie all mixed up, and he holds on 'cause that's the only thing he can think to do... I socked him over the head with a fence picket to make him let go.... He's so God damn strong, you know.” (pg. 41)

This second quote is another example of how Lennie's actions can get him into sticky situations. When him and George were in Weed, Lennie just saw a lady in a dress that he thought looked good. Because of his mental illness, he didn't realize that if he was to just go up and touch it that it would probably frighten the woman wearing the dress. Unfortunately, because this woman didn't know that Lennie's actions were completely innocent, she screamed and shrieked and later on, a couple of big tough guys came around looking for Lennie and George. This got both of them into a tough situation because for a couple of days, they had to stay in hiding to make sure that none of the guys hurt them.

            So, in my opinion, Lennie's struggle with his own mental illness causes a self vs. self conflict in Of Mice and Men. Even though he doesn't mean to, his own disability causes harm to both himself and other characters in the book. This is one of the central issues throughout the story and a lot of other issues that occur in the book are either caused or effected by Lennie's disability. It isn't his fault but it causes a lot of trouble. Lennie vs. Lennie is a huge conflict in Of Mice and Men.

Re: I miss UPA by Christy Nghe

After reading Christy's post about how she misses her old middle school, I decided to write about how I feel about leaving mine. In her blog she states:

  For the one's that when to UPA or Urban Promise Academy, at some point we all disliked that school. I wouldn't use hate because hate is a strong word. UPA is an okay school ... one thing I disliked about that school is the fact that they have Homework Detention. Homework Detention is pretty self explanatory, if you do not do your homework they simply mark you down and you would have to come after school and finish it... I really miss UPA though, I miss all my friends and teachers... Looking back at my times at UPA I wish I can go back.

Christy's school sounds a lot like the middle school I went to. They were very strict about students completing their homework and during my 6th, and part of 7th grade year, they would make us stay in at lunch if we didn't complete our work from the night before. Eventually they changed the rules and our grades would just be effected if we didn't turn in our work. This strategy worked for some students, but obviously you're going to have some kids that don't really care about their grades. However, when the teachers made us stay in for lunch if we didn't do our work, a lot of kids, including myself on occasion, would go into the bathroom before class started and finish it there. Since every single assignment we had from the night before was checked at the same time during homeroom, there would be large groups of girls in the bathroom finishing their work. When they were done, students would cautiously emerge from the bathroom so that they wouldn't be caught by any teachers. It was a very bad habit, but it was hard to break.

I can also relate to Christy when she says that at one point, she disliked her school. When I first began middle school I absolutely hated it. I begged my parents to let me transfer for about the first half of my 6th grade year. Unfortunately, they wouldn't change their mind, and surprisingly I'm kind of glad they didn't. I really liked my 7th grade year of middle school. Sure, there was drama that made me wish I went to a different school at times, but what made it bearable was having my friends with me. I made amazing friends in 7th grade who were honestly the main reason why I didn't really mind going to school because there wasn't anyone at home to talk to but my parents. :) There were definitely times when we would complain that we hated our school though. In our 8th grade year we kept on talking about how we couldn't wait to graduate and leave. We obviously didn't fully realize what we would be leaving behind until the day of graduation when we were all crying on stage, hugging each other, saying that we didn't want to leave one another. Some of us even admitted that we were going to miss some of our teachers.

Now, I still keep in contact with my old schoolmates over Facebook or text messaging, but we don't really get to see each other as much now that we all go to different schools. It is especially challenging for me to visit them since I go to school in Alameda and they all go to schools in San Francisco.  Now that I am actually gone, I miss my middle school sooo much. Don't get me wrong, I really enjoy ASTI and my new friends here, but I also miss my old ones from middle school. I guess this goes to show you, you don't know what you have until it's gone.

I Wish It was Christmas Time

I really wish that it was Christmas time. Christmas is one of my favorite times of the year because I just really like the atmosphere of everything.


The weather may not be what some people perfer, but I actually like the chilly temperature during winter time. In my opinion, I'd rather be cold than hot because when it blazing outside you just get all sweaty and gross and  there isn't much you can do about it. When it's cold you may have to wear a lot of layers, but at least you don't feel dirty. Anyways, the weather during Christmas makes me think of sitting in a coffee shop, with a sweater and scarf, with a cup of hot chocolate. It's just so relaxing and calming, especially when we're on break and don't have to go to school.


I also enjoy going downtown in San Francisco during Christmas time because there are so many people shopping there with their friends and family. There are also a lot of sales in stores and it's always fun to go shopping with your friends. I enjoy going to Union Square with friends as well because Macy's puts up a huge Christmas tree and a couple of weeks after they put it up they light it up at night. It may not sound that exciting, but it's just fun to be there with friends and people who are close to you. They also have puppies and kittens in their windows for adoption. I presonally don't agree with trapping animals in windows, but they are cute to look at.

It's also nice when you turn on the radio and they have holiday music playing, and even though you've heard these songs a million times from the years before, you don't seem to get sick of them. Christmas day is a highly anticipated event and I am always counting down the days of December until the 25th comes. I'm not going to lie, I do look foward to the acquisition of what was put under the Christmas tree the night before, but I also really look foward to getting to spend this day with my family. I have a lot of cousins and a very big family, but I only have one cousin who is pretty much the same age as me. However, her and her parents live all the way in Hawaii so there are only a few times out of the year when she comes to California to visit the rest of us. Christmas is one of the times where they come to visit, hence a reason why I look foward to vistiting my family. When we all come together we eat dinner, catch up, and hand out presents to one another. I always have fun when I'm with my family.

There is so much waiting and anticipation for Christmas day to come. There's so much preperation and shopping that goes into this one day and before you know it, it's over. This is pretty much the only thing I don't like about this time of the year. I always feel sad when Christmas day is over, but i know it will eventually come again.

These are just a few reasons why I wish it was christmas time. I really can't wait even though it isn't Haloween yet, but I know that soon enough it'll be here... and be gone just as quick.

RE:iloveyou, an 8 letter word for bulls**t

A quote i found from Karen Chavez' s blog about love really stuck out to me. She says:

All love basically is you give someone all the love you have until they decided to hurt you or end it...Love doesn't last forever!Love is just a word that someone made like all the other words.

I agree with Karen when she says that love is pretty much just an idea that someone came up with that a lot of people believe. Especially at our age, it is pretty rare to find someone that you will actually be with for the rest of your life. Of course, we all watch movies and read stories about two people finding each other, falling in love and living happily after and we all like to believe that this will happen to us one day, but i've finally realized that this is not what actually happens in real life. We're all only in high school and sure, you can have strong feelings towards someone and feel like you want to be with them forever, but chances are, this isn't going to happen. At this age especially, you can't really automatically believe somoeone you're with when they tell you that they love you, and (not that im judging) but this is normally the case for girls.

When you're a teenager and you are dating a guy, a lot of times they will just tell you what you want to hear, even if they don't mean it in order to get something out of it. For examle, about 2 weeks ago i was watching the Tyra Show and she had about 8 girls on that were around the ages of 13-17. They were discussing about how young they were when they lost their virginity and these girls were surprisingly very young. There was one girl who I think was about 14 and she said that she had very low self esteem. She wasn't the thinnest of girls and she said that she didn't feel like she was pretty enough. So, she turned to guys they would tell her that she was beautiful and that they loved her , but she said after she had sex with them she would never hear from them again.

It kind of shocked me that this girl would just believe all of these guys after having the same situation happen to her more than one. You would think that she would be a little smarter than to continue to believe guys when they said they loved her, but some girls aren't and guys know this. I'm not saying that all guys are cheaters and liers, it's just that at our age a lot of them aren't really looking for love so it's kind of hard to believe them when they tell you they love you.

Q's changing levels of self image and self confidence

In both stories, The Dinosaurs and The Aquatic Uncle, Q displays two different types of of views for himself. In "The Dinosaurs", Q has a pretty good level of self esteem. He seems to view himself as very strong and powerful even though he fears being exposed to the New Ones as a dinosaur. However, in "The Aquatic Uncle", Q seems to have a much lower image of himself. He is constantly feeling embarrassed or thinks that somebody is tying to make fun of him. He doesn’t feel strong or powerful, in fact he seems to be the complete opposite. For example, in "The Dinosaurs", Q thinks to himself:

" The terror of the Dinosaurs still continued in the New Ones...at a spring a New One,

a young female, was drinking...I should tear her limb from limb."

This quote shows that Q knows he is  has the strength and ability to kill this New
One drinking at the fountain. He debates with himself weather or not to attack her in order to bring authority back to the dinosaurs. He knows that he is capable of this because he is much bigger than these creatures. Also, when Zahn wanted to fight Q, he had no problem standing up and taking him down. It barely took him a second to debate if he should fight him or not. He seemed like he was already completely confident in himself that he would be able to win the fight with Zahn, and he did.

Whenever "the time had come for Lll to meet my family, I postponed it...

I suspected she was remaining silent in order to embarrass me later."

This quote from "The Aquatic Uncle" shows how Q is constantly feeling like someone is going to judge or make fun of him when really, he's just jumping to conclusions. He was terribly embarrassed by the fact that his uncle N'ba N'ga still lived in the water while most creatures of his kind adapted to living on land. He was ashamed of his family and didn't want to introduce his fiance to his uncle even though he had no idea of what her reaction would be. Also, after Uncle N'ba N'ga and Lll met and Lll told Q that she enjoyed the visit, he thought that he was joking and was making fun of him. He was completely shocked when she asked to visit N'ba N'ga again and thought that she was just trying to tease him. In these two stories Q portrays himself in to completely different ways.

On Monday night i was watching this show on MTV called The World of Jenks. It's about this guy who goes around different parts of the country and stays a few days with many different people to learn more about their life and where they come from. This week, Andrew Jenks goes to San Francisco to visit a homeless women and lives with her in the streets. Normally when I see homeless people on the street  I automatically judge them and assume that they are on some kind of drug or are addicted to alcohol. Even though this is commonly true, it isn't always true and I really shouldn't judge people just because of a stereotype given to them.
In this episode Jenks learns about how and why this women is living on the street. Her family actually has a house in Oregon but Daniell has been homeless since she was 13 years old. I'm not sure if she ever did do drugs or not but i completely understand why she decided to leave her parents house at such an early age. She said that one time she went back home to visit her mom and step-dad but when she got there, they were both intoxicated. For some reason her step father pinned her up against the wall and started yelling and saying really hurtful, disrespectful things to her. So, out of anger Daniell threatened that if she couldn't leave their house and if things weren't going to get better, she would kill herself. She said that her step dad then let her go, came back with a box cutter, handed it to her and said, "Well fine, go ahead and kill yourself". This was really shocking and upsetting for me to hear because i just could not imagine anyone saying than to someone else, especially to someone who was or was somewhat one if their family members.
After watching this it made me think that i should think twice before i immediately judge someone and where they come from no matter who they are. I usually just think that all homeless people are living on the streets because they became drug addicts and were to lazy to do anything with their lives but now I realize that some of them actually had to leave their homes because it was unsafe for them. I think that both I and other people should stop before they immediately judge other people that they don't know.

RE: I Hate Thieves by Rokhsor Yusufi

I really didn't know what to write about, but after reading through a few of my classmates blog posts I decided to do my first response of this week from Rokhsor's blog. In her post, she states :

I put it this way when people steal. No matter how rich or cool you are, when you steal; you seem like you are not even worth a penny or a second of anyone’s time. Having something stolen is the worst feeling ever...

I agree with Rokshor when she says that it doesn't feel good at all to have something stolen from you. I have experienced this happen to me and some of my friends. At my old school there was this girl and well, let's just say that she had sticky fingers. Pretty much everybody knew that she was stealing from people but it was kind of hard for anyone to prove it because either no one actually saw her in the act while stealing, or nobody wanted to let a teacher know and be called a "snitch". Anyways, either last year or when I was in seventh grade, i was in the gym at school with the whole grade because we were playing some game against each other. We had to leave our backpacks up in the bleachers and, unfortunately there weren't any teachers up there watching people's bags because they were busy monitoring the students playing the game. So, sometime during when i was playing with my classmates somebody went into my bag and stole twenty dollars from my backpack. I was really upset when this happened because it made me feel like i couldn't trust anyone at my school. Also, one of my friends from last year had his iPod stolen from his backpack at our school in the same gym. Students suspected this girl of stealing it but there was no way to actually prove that she was the thief and everybody knew that she would most likely deny the fact that she took it.

Fortunately, this girl who was stealing supposedly got caught taking something from the office. However, she was only suspended for a couple of days out of the week. I'm not sure if this was actually true but it sounded like a true story to me. I know that this particular student had a pretty close relationship with the principle and other people and teachers who worked in the office so i don't know if they let her off easy, but in my opinion i think she should have been punished a lot harder than that.

Stealing is a horrible thing to do to somebody. Just because they may have something that you want it is not, by any means okay for you to take it from them. Either they themselves or somebody else close to them may have worked hard to get that from them and you are taking it away by doing something totally unfair. So, my main point is that stealing is both not right and unfair and should never be done.

words I kind of know

• acquisition
• analysis
• proportion
• compensation
• fundamental
• mechanism
• emerge
• hence
• administration
• consent

ACTUAL FINAL DRAFT -Response to Melissa & Yen's Pro legal abortion debate

I agree with Melissa and Yen's arguement that abortion should be legal. In their rebuttle they state that :

... abortion cannot be called murder because a fetus is not yet an infant until born....Having an abortion is a mothers choice. They should be able to decide the options in which can benefit the incoming child

I think that one reason why some people are so against abortion is because they feel like it is "murder" to a child. This is especially the case with those that are religious. However, people's religious views should not tie in with the law. Just because one person feels a certain way doesn't mean they speak for everyone. Also, abortion actually isn't even murder. The actual definition of an abortion is to terminate a pregnancy, not a baby. Doing this is just stopping a baby from forming inside a woman's body, not killing anything that has already began to grow or develop. Another reason why some people may think that abortion should be illegal is because they feel it is unsafe for the woman. However, many more woman die from giving birth than from getting an abortion.

In addition, abortion should be legal because some parents may not be fit to raise or take care of a child either emotionally or financially. For example, when a teenage girl gets pregnant, she is most likely not in a position to be taking care of a baby. She is either still in school or is just finishing which means she has no sense of what she is going to do for financial income in order to support another human being let alone herself. Also, sometimes when a woman gets pregnant she may not recieve support from her partner and will end up having to raise the child on her own which will most likely be very difficult. If her boyfriend or partner has the choice to leave her she should be able to decide if she wants to terminate the pregnacy both for her sake and for the child's. It is very difficult for a child to grow up in a family that is not financially stable or does not have both parents present in their life.

Disney Channel: A path to failure

      So, I was thinking and i realized that out of pretty much all of the actors and actresses that started on Disney Channel there are very few of them that actually have a good, continuing acting career. When I was little I used to love watching Lizzie McGuire, That's So Raven and Lindsay Lohan movies. I remember when Hilary Duff was like the Miley Cyrus today. However, now we barely hear anything about her or Raven Simone and the only reason that Lindsay Lohan is still talked about is because she's a mess and is on all kinds of drugs. I guess my point in writing this is to state my opinion that most acting careers that start on TV stations like the Disney Channel don't tend to last too long.
      Also, from what I've seen from watching TV, once you've been on the Disney Channel or some other teeny bopper TV channel it seems like it is very hard to break away from the little kid image that you begin with. For example, Miley Cyrus started acting in Hannah Montana when she was about only 13 or 14. Now, I think she is almost 18 and is trying to perform for a different aged group audience. In my opinion, I think that their are plenty other performers with much more talent than this girl that puts on a wig and goes undercover as a pop star but, I do think that people shouldn't freak out on her for trying to grow up and perform for people closer to her age. If you were almost about to be an adult I doubt that you would want to continue singing songs about ice cream for 10 year olds.What she did in her latest music video wasn't nearly as bad as what some other artists are doing these days.
      If you really think about it, you never hear anything anymore about Raven, Hilary Duff, those twin brothers that live in a hotel, or the kids who were in that show Phil of the Future. The only one Disney Channel star that actually had a really successful career is Shai Labuff. His first real acting career was in that show Even Stevens when he was about 12 or 13. Now, he has unexpectedly starred in many good movies and has become a well - respected actor. Although he has progressed in his acting career and has achieved many great things in his career, he is the rare exception out of many.
      If you ask me, if you are looking to start your performing career, you should not start on a teeny bopper station. It seems like the only thing it'll help you do is have a one hit wonder.

Pro Prostitution Rebuttle

In my opponent's opening statement, they state:

If its legalized the pimps will just go online or continue what they were doing and the prostitute would not report them

      If prostitution was to become legal, this would probably be the complete opposite of what would happen. This is what is currently happening now. Prostitutes are being beat up and mistreated by both their pimps and their "customers". Even though these abusive men should be reported and put into jail, they aren't because the prostitutes are afraid that they themselves will also be put behind bars. In most states in the US, prostitution is illegal. This means that if any prostitute was to get caught working, they would be punished. Since this is the case, women that work in the sex industry are afraid to report the abuse that goes on while they are working because they know that they will also be put into jail for just being a prostitute in the first place.
      Prostitution should not be a crime. These people deserve the exact same rights as anyone else in another profession. A quote by Melissa Ditmore states:

"Decriminalization would better protect people in the sex industry from violence and abuse."

This is exactly the point that i am trying to make. Prostitution is illegal right now but we all know that it is still going on. If not, why else would this debate be going on?  Obviously the law against prostitution is not working so the government should look at this issue from a different perspective and try to make some changes to help protect the rights of sex workers. Continuing to keep prostitution illegal is not helping address the issue of safety. Also, another reason why prostitution should be legal is to control the age in which workers start. Some girls start working in this business from as young as ages 12-14. If prostitution was to be made legal, the government could have better control over the minimum age that they can start working

Our Opening Statement
Quote Sources :
ProCon.org

First Classmate Respnse

      I found a quote from Peter Chen's blog on his response to "Odd Girl Out" and I think his experience can be used to figure out ways to use the ASTI constitution to make other students feel more comfortable in school.

 I saw many times that people bully others. I did not help the one who gets bully on, how could you help a guy that is against to few people? Authority? Power? Evidence? No! None of them above I had. I just know do not make others feel bad or mad, do the way I think it should be. Luckily, in Lincoln, I remember I only have once that others tried to bully me, not really bully, but it really make be feel bad. The second day of the school, there is a guy who lanugh on my English-speaking skill very loudly(that was my first year! How would I speak English like an ABC!?)

       From Peter's experience, I think we should learn to accept others for who they are. He had just moved to the United States that year and people were already making fun of him because of the way he talked. I agree with his statement when he mentions how other people didn't even care to think that he needed time to adjust to speaking English. How could they expect him to know the language of a country he had only been in for a year? I think we should try to help people who are having difficulties with something instead of just pointing fingers and making fun of them. We should also learn to acknowledge different people and their situations and accept them for it even if it may seem weird or different to us. Thankfully no one is the same, so we should try to embrace this and accept others just the way they are.
       We should also learn to find the courage to stand up for, not just ourselves, but also other people that we see being bullied or harassed. This is easier said than done but, if we do it can really help others feel more comfortable with what they're dealing with. Just like Peter said, sometimes we feel like we don't really have the authority or power to step up to a larger group of people and tell them that what they are doing is wrong. Most likely, if we did do this the only thing that would happen is that we would just cause more attention to ourselves and even if the larger group of people stop being mean to that one person, they will probably start bullying you. I know this from experience because when I was in elementary school, the group of girls that I hung out with started being really rude to another one of my friends. I decided to be on my other friends side so she wouldn't feel as sad but then, they started excluding me just because i was trying help out someone else.
       Lastly, it is always a strong thing to do when you take responsibility for your own words and actions. I know that I tend to talk about the good things i did to help other people out but, i have to admit that sometimes, i was part of the bullying. When these girls would start making fun of another girl in our class who wasn't really a close friend of mine, I would sometimes join in with them. It kind of felt good to have the attention turned away from me so  I didn't really care that I was making somebody else feel bad, I was just glad that they weren't bullying me. However, I now know that what i did was wrong and I really tried to change that about myself. I've attempted to make sure that  I don't make others feel bad intentionally and to pick friends that do the same. Or, even if my friends to make fun of  others, i try to have ones that won't get mad at me if I tell them that the are being mean. I think I've become pretty successful with this but what I could work on is trying not to join in and talk about people that I don't like. Even if it may feel like we are all on the same side, i know that if the other person somehow found out about what we were saying, it would really hurt them.
       The ASTI constitution has very good rules about how we should all treat each other so that everyone will feel safe and comfortable when they are at school.

The Pact

       When I was in middle school I had many friends who were all academically at different levels. Some of my friends were extremely motivated to do well in school while others didn’t really care at all. There was also a group that was right in the middle. I think I was part of this group when I was in 6th and 7th grade. I wouldn’t say I was a terrible student but I was only getting B’s and C’s. I also didn’t have the best study habits. Very often I would procrastinate with finishing assignments or studying for tests and unfortunately, all I was doing was hurting myself.
       I remember on the first day of 8th grade my school had a few students from the class that had just graduated come and talk to us about how important it was that we try as hard as we can in 8th grade. They had students in all different situations speak – some were going to their first choice high schools while others were stuck going to schools that they got assigned to. It really helped hearing advice from people that I knew and who were the same age as me because it made me think about what position I wanted to be in by the end of the year.
       I knew I could do a lot better than I did the years before so in 8th grade I began working much harder. A lot of my motivation came from wanting to get into a high school of my choice but another part of it was because of support from my friends.
        That year I really started pushing myself to do well in school. When I got my first progress report of the year I was so proud of myself because I’d gotten almost all A’s and B’s. My friends were just as happy for me. They were also very supportive and congratulated me when I received an award at school for improving my grades. This really helped me motivate myself because it felt great to have people feel proud of me, especially my parents. It was really good for me to know that I had the support from my friends as well as from my family because it helped me make myself work a lot harder.
       When I begin school at ASTI I know it will be just as important for me to have these same academically supportive relationships with my friends. It really makes a difference when your peers are the ones telling you to do better in class compared to when your parents or teachers are. In order to make sure this happens I will surround myself with positive influences that work hard in school and are motivated to do well. It is also good to have friends who have goals they want to accomplish because, just like this passage stated, maybe we can help each other achieve them along the way.

Survival of the Fittest

        I think that having strong competition amongst your classmates can be a bad thing but mostly a good thing. If you are competing against your friends and become so obsessed with trying to do better than them, you may ruin some of your friendships. Everyone needs friends to lean on for support during tough times but I think that when you are determined to be one of the top students in your class, you work a lot harder to get to where you want to be academically. It is also a good thing that students are aware of the tough competition that is out there to get into top universities. This means that they will most likely go above and beyond in their school work and do more extra-curricular activities in order to make sure that they stand out from their peers.
        Even though we know it's wrong, I think some students cheat because they begin to feel overwhelmed by the pressure to succeed in school. They may think that if cheating is what it takes to get an A , then why not do it? Also, some students may not feel confident that they have studied enough for a test and cheating may make them feel reassured that they are getting the answers right. Some students may even feel that this is a part of making sure that they are one of the top students in their class.
       However, you can receive big consequences if you get caught cheating. I know that in college, if you are caught cheating or plagiarizing someone else's work, you will automatically get kicked out. In high school or middle school, I know that you will usually get an F on the assignment that you cheated on. There are also some emotional consequences you may have to deal with if no matter if you get caught or not. You could end up feeling really guilty for lying and cheating and become really stressed out about the situation. You will feel like you didn't really deserve the grade you got if it was a good one because it wasn't earned by you working hard and studying the material that you needed to. You succeeded, but in a dishonest way.
       I think that students who get caught cheating should have different consequences given to them. If they are c heating on a test they should have to retake the test but one with different questions on them so that they won't already know what to expect. Or, they should just be given an F on the test or assignment so that their bad choice will reflect in their grade. Another punishment that can be given to a student who cheats on another piece of work is that they can be told to redo it, but they should also be that their grade will be marked a couple of points down. This way they won't be failing completely but they still won't get the full score they would have if they didn't cheat.
        I know that it is never right to cheat in school. It is dishonest and there will be major consequences if you get caught. It might also end up on your high school records and then you may not get into any college at all because no university wants to let a cheater into their school. It is better to just try the best you can to get good grades so that when you achieve your goal of getting into college, you'll know that you did it honestly and on your own.

"Just Kidding" and "Gaining Up"

           A time that I was picked on by a larger group of people was when I was in the fifth grade. I remember on the first day of school, there was a new girl and she didn't really know anyone or have any friends. My mom told me that i should try to become friends with her so, even though nobody else wanted to, i did. Unfortunately, i began to regret that later on.
             Eventually, the rest of my friends and some other girls in our grade began to really like her. They all became friends with her and once that happened, she began to to be really mean. Sometimes a lot of girls describe one another as being "two faced" and this girl was exactly that. Some days she would be really nice to me and then another day she would be really mean and make me wish that I hadn't come to school that day.
             After that most of my friends, except for about two of them, started acting like her. Whenever she was mean to another girl, they would do the same thing. Sometimes i wouldn't hang out with them and I'd just talk to my other friends, but then they would get mad at me for "ignoring" them. It was like they didn't even understand that they could be really mean sometimes. When this happened i kind of felt like I shouldn't have been the nice one and befriended her. It seemed like i was the only one who actually tried to be this girls' friend and then she just turns all of my friends into these mean girls.
             I had about three options in this situation. I could have either confronted all of them and told them that i didn't like how they were acting, just stopped being friends with them, or i could've just kept on pretending that nothing was wrong. I knew that if i did the first two, I would probably have a group of girls hating me and not wanting to talk to me because of an issue that didn't really involve them. So, unfortunately i stuck with the third option and continued to pretend like nothing was wrong.
              I think the reason that some people are bullies is because they may have low self esteem and want to take it out on someone else. They could end up not really caring if they hurt other peoples' feelings, just that they feel good about themselves. Bullies probably get other people to gang up on others because it may make them feel like they're in control or like everyone is on their side. They also might feel better because they know that they are no longer the victim.
             I don't think girls realize that sometimes, just talking about another person behind their back can be really hurtful. Instead of being mean to each other we should just try to work out our problems with one another without getting other people involved. It'll most likely make situations a lot better and a lot easier.