Endings and Beginnings

     So, this is the end. But it's just the beginning. I feel weird. Next year is high school, and I'll have one year with my sister before she goes off to college, and then I'll be on my own. Again. I've been in this school district since I was in Kindergarten. Huh. Loooonng time ago. A lot has happened between then and now. And, now, it seems, my district career is coming to a rapid end.
   

Any time there is an end, there is always a beginning. If there's death, then  new life comes into the world. If a movie ends, there's a sequel( especially with Marvel). And if a good book ends, there are always others(like I, and probably you guys, too, have found out). When this year ends, something better will happen in my future in the next 4 years and beyond. I realize that I've had many starts, and many ends in my seemingly short life, but I can't seem to end any of my story ideas. * pounding head on table. What's wrong with that? I killed off one of my favorite characters(based off of a tricky person), and I had to make him come back afterwords 'reborn'. I just can't do it. Any ideas?...ugh. I just need to put a day aside to focus on my writing.....but enough about that.*

      Many people have entered and exited my life in big and small ways, and some of them made a lasting impact. Like my friends Aneena and Amor and Marika. Aneena came in 6th grade when I really needed a friend, like, badly. I really got to know her last year, and now she's one of my best friends. And Amor. She came in the middle of this year, and OMG. We're so close now. It's great. And thanks sooo much to Marika who always keeps me sane. I really don't know what I would do without you. We've had our ups and downs, but I am so glad and thankful that you're my friend. And along with them are their friends that I got to know as well. They're all awesome. And I want to thank them all so much, and I won't forget you guys. :-P...XD
 

 I can't wait for graduation. My mom is finally letting me wear heels. Thank goodness! So, I am sooooo excited because, at least for graduation, I'll be 5 ft. I'm still, as far as I know, 4'11.75''. And it stinks. Trust me. Try being a PG/Guard that isn't even 5 feet. It's laughable. Truly. :). sOOO... time for the end of the year. It will be full of fun activities and memorable moments, and some reallllyy awesome memories. Cheers, to the class of 2016. And, may the odds be ever in your favor ;).
     I've waited so long to read the Hunger Games and Divergent. In RTI, we have to read and annotate the Hunger Games, and my mom says that I can finish the series over the summer along with starting the Divergent series. Just like in Twilight, even though I haven't read it, I already have the guy that I'm backing up. In Twilight it's Jacob, and in the Hunger Games, it's Peeta. I go for the strong cute quiet guys. And it helps if they have dark hair and green eyes. OMG, DREAMY!!*shrug. That's just who I am, I guess. Maybe one of the reasons why I love Loki so much. Ya never know. It could be a 'contributing factor' (Harry Potter, year 6). Yeah. I know. I'm a nerd. Get over it.*
     At the end of the year- the last school day before we graduate, actually-, there'a an 8th grade dance. Kind of like a prom, but kind of not. People are already placing bets as to who's going with who. Boys are really loud when they try and whisper. Sorry, but it's true. OMG this totally connects to the Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire when they all try to get dates to the Yule Ball. Totally like that. I wonder who I'm going to end up dancing with. *makes a face*. There's no one really worthy in my grade, anyway. Oh, yeah. My mom is putting the whole thing together, and my parents and older sister are all chaperoning it along with my friends' parents. How in the world am I going to get in trouble? I'll have to think of something :p. Just kidding. Or am I?
     oKKKKK, back to the original topic. Just because it's the end doesn't mean that it all has to be over. This is just the beginning. Of a wonderful future.
     p.s. thanks so much to all of my family, friends, and teachers who have become important people in my life, and have helped me become the person that I am today. I'll never forget you.

p.p.s. I think I'm going to cry at Graduation. And maybe at the last band concert, too. WE'RE PLAYING JOHN WILLIAMS!!!!!!!! AAHHHHHHH!!! It's gonna be great!

Field Trip/Vocabulary Post

       So, this post is all about FIELD TRIPS......and I have to use vocabulary words in it, so I don't have to do the assignment. :-) I don't have that kind of time...I'm really busy...(sort of).
       Yeah. K. Lets do this. As I am listening to Fall Out Boy playlist (Starting with Immortals from Big Hero 6). sOOOO.......
     One hour-ish to go before my class goes to the Holocaust Museum. We've been studying the Holocaust in class for the past month or so, and now we are actually going to the museum, and are going to get firsthand(-or-secondhand, considering only a few survivors are left in Skokie) experience of what happened back then. The pictures below are true pictures from the Holocaust.One I know is definitely from Auschwitz.  I feel so sad just thinking about what happened during Hitler's reign.

     (My teacher impressed on us the importance of not stealing pictures off of the internet. So, these pictures are credited to their rightful owners who posted them on google, that I am borrowing. Thank you.)
     My mother is Jewish, and my father is Catholic, and so I am in the perfect medium and celebrate everything from both religions. This-the trip- will most likely be really hard for me, because this is a huge part of my heritage. I will probably break down crying, and my classmates will say something like 'It's not that sad. What's wrong with you?'
     The Holocaust was one of the saddest times in the history, and you should be sad too, so shame on you!
     Their morale must have been so low that many of them must have committed suicide. It just seems so sad, that much death, and-I say this with scorn- only 23 Nazis went on trial at Nuremberg, and only-like- 3 of them were actually condemned, and they committed suicide in the jail before they could be brought to justice through the death penalty. It must be a vice with all of the Nazis. They all-or almost all- died or committed suicide. *sniff* At least they decided for themselves what they wanted to do with their lives- kill themselves or mass murder a bunch of Jews.

  OOOKKKK...enough of that horrid talk. Time for more fun stuff. I'll split it into the next post to make it easy. =)

This is me

Sunday March 13, 2016

     Summer is in the air. Around January, I get so excited that school is almost over and summer is almost here. I get a sort of summer fever that just won't go away. Ever. Until summer's almost over and I can't wait to go back to school. It's a cycle with me. AnyWAY, I love sunshine. It just seems to agree with me. The windows in my room face south, so it gets a lot of sunshine for most of the day. It's weird, definitely in the winter, when  the sun comes in and warms up my room, but the window itself is so cold.Yeah. I just wrote a paragraph about sun.  Uh-huh. Yeah.

      About that. Nature is one of the most beautiful things. If you just take time to consider how lucky you really are to be alive and on this planet at this time. It's a miracle. Truly. Now, another miracle is the New Frontier. Space. I've already checked the job requirements to be an astronaut for NASA... and if I follow my set field expertise (Computer Science), I can become an astronaut. How cool is that??? OMG, I can't wait. Just like Sally Ride, I can (myb) go up into space. But, it makes it better if you had 1,000+ hours of pilot-in-command in a jet aircraft (hello, Airforce)....or random college that I found at last year's College Fair that is a flight school. :-) I know everything has to die eventually. As for me, I want to die in space rather than on Earth. There's just something about space that I just absolutely love.  Here:

     In the two pictures that look similar above, a new star is being born. Stars are born from the gas and dust from another exploded star is space. A small part of each of us is from a star....it just makes me smile to think about that.  Some part of me being a little bit special in the whole scheme of the universe. Just look how gorgeous it is. Imagine how it would feel to look at Earth from the ISS(International Space Station) or even from Pluto. It takes 14 years to get to Pluto with the resources we have now. 14 years there and 14 years back. 28 years gone from a life if one decides to go there. Did you know that NASA found a few more dwarf planets on the other side of Pluto?  

Eris, Haumea, Makemake, and Ceres. Check out the chart below for more information (source from SPACE.com).

    

  Anyway, I can't stop thinking about space. Especially now so that I finally saw Jupiter Ascending on Friday. OMG-I can't stop thinking about that, and inter-space travel and life on other planets. It's incredible. The basis of the movie is that Jupiter Jones is 'destined for greatness', but lives a rough life. She is the (mild spoiler) genetic reincarnation of, basically, the Queen of the Universe. And, right 'now', her 3 children are using their inheritance to fight a war for the best possible planets for Harvest. OMGGGG- Channing Tatum (Caine, in the movie)...... I just found out he is in a movie I love and a really annoying 'everything is awesome' movie. HE'S JOAQUIN FROM BOOK OF LIFE AND SUPERMAN FROM THE LEGO MOVIE!!!! HOW DID I NOT KNOW THAT??????? K, sry, cooling

             d  

                o

                  w

                     n.

     I'm ok. I'm ok. Point is, Jupiter Ascending is a good movie. And it got me thinking of space, and now I can't stop. If I can make my mark on the world in any way, I would make it by making hyper-speed from nuclear waste. *shrug* Anything is possible if you put you mind to it. Here it is, on paper, that I say that I will dedicate my life to this- the study, research, and exploration of space. Even if NASA won't accept me, I have a telescope. and I will research on my own. This is really important to me, and I will not let this go, even if, in the future, I have to stargaze from the rooftop of my bookstore in Paris, France, I will do it. Oui,oui!

     Yeah, I want to move to Paris and own a bookstore, so I'm going to take French next year, instead of Spanish, and my teacher is really upset because I have 100% in her class. Sorry..... I'll still keep up with it, but learning French is more important to me. If I can't go up into space, I'd rather own a bookstore in Paris. That's just me....that's just who I am. A girl who loves books, words, space, crazy hairstyles, love stories, nature, sports, superheroes(as well as antiheroes and villains...*cough, cough* Deadpool and Loki), gaming devices, and of course, Harry Potter and Star Wars. =) And I wouldn't change myself for the entire world( or any, if you count the millions in the universe, because it's a pretty big SPACE...get it? I also have very bad humor, if you haven't noticed :-P)

     And if anyone has a problem with it, that's their problem- not mine! 'Cause I'm perfect just the way I am!

Erika's Quote from Daniel's Story by Carol Matas

                 "We must live, and when this is all over, we must work to make the world a better place.  And if we die, we will die knowing that it was not our fault, that we did our best, and we can go to our deaths in dignity… I want you both to live…And to remember...You must choose love.  Always choose love.”  

(from Daniel’s Story by Carol Matas, page 70)

So, it's coming time for the end of the year (12 weeks from last Tuesday, the 1st), and we are doing our Holocaust unit in English/ Lit and Social Studies. In SS, we are learning about Hitler and the world leaders during WWII, like Mussolini, Hirohito, etc. In English/ Lit, we are reading Daniel's Story. It's a book that was written in accordance with the US Holocaust Museum in DC. Everything in that book happened to someone. I finished it, and the ending is the best part. Everything else is just so saaaaddddd. I was crying when I read it, and I don't do that very often. The last time I cried while reading a book was in the Outsiders and in Rowan Academy: The Fiend and the Forge. In the Outsiders, they killed off an important character, and in The Fiend and the Forge, they killed off my favorite character (mild spoiler...Nick the lymrill). AND HE WASN'T EVEN THE MAIN CHARACTER!!!!! HE WAS HIS CHARGE!!! That made me so mad, and I was bawling when I read that. Truly, it was so sad. But, sorry, again, I digress. More than once. OK, back to the Holocaust.
     I actually know a Holocaust survivor (he lives next to my aunt and uncle). He is really nice, and is full of wisdom and insight and ways to make other lives better. My great-aunt who lives in California (maybe I'll move there too, after college. I love the sun, but I would miss the snow) has a friend who survived because of Schindler's list. He made an autobiography the Boy on the Wooden Box. She ( my aunt) sent me the book, and I started reading it, but I lost it....I'll let you know when I find it again and keep reading it.
     But, this quote means a lot to me. For all of those refugees and survivors, it must have been so hard for them to survive. It links back in to why we are alive.We are alive because we each have a specific purpose to fulfill. We all have a choice about everything in our lives- even being alive. Do you know how many people commit suicide every single day? Or how many people kill others just for the sake of it or because they got in a fight with them? Too many.Life is a miracle, and we should love and cherish it, because we all are alive for a reason.We are here to make the world better, at least that's what I'm striving for. My science teacher says that the main purpose of life is to survive and reproduce, to pass on our genetic traits. But I don't really agree with her. I believe that our purpose is to love. The world, each other, ourselves. Love and kindness can't spread unless it comes from us first- we need to love ourselves to be able to love others. The world would be a better place if we all just had a little love and a little kindness. Just one small act can change someone's life, and then they, too, will spread a little kindness, and so on and so forth, until, everyone can say that they experienced an act of kindness.
     During the Holocaust, Hitler was nothing but a coward. All he did was hide behind his Nazi regime and thought that he could rule the world. He set about killing people on a whim. He cared little (benefit of the doubt....probably not even at all) for the well-being of his countrymen, or the Jews that he killed in those horrible concentration camps. He even committed suicide before the end of the war and ordered a 'friend' to burn his body and his wife-Eva Braun's- so that they couldn't be used for propaganda. What a coward. He didn't want to face prosecution so he took his own life after killing his wife. There are so many people out in our world like that, and I pity them. If anyone showed them a little kindness, perhaps there wouldn't be so much crime and loss.
     I know, now, why Erika wanted Daniel and Rosa to live for love. Because love overcomes boundaries, it crosses borders, it heals the wounded, and frees the soul. Although I am not very religious, this, I think, is my favorite quote:


                                   
     And that is true. For me, for you, and for the entire world. Love is stronger than anything on earth. I guess that I'm a bit of a romantic, but aren't there enough stories out there that tell us so?

   "Don't pity the dead, Harry, pity the living. And above all, those who live without love"

        ~Albus Dumbledore, Harry Potter Series, written by J.K. Rowling
Love makes the world go around, and I guess that's what I've been trying to say this entire time. I just used many words to get there, but the simplest words to say are the words that are inside all of us. We say them to our family, close friends, the people that we feel we want to spend the rest of our lives with. Three simple words that hold a whole lot of meaning, and can be transferred into every language there is:
Te amo  -Spanish

Jeg elsker dig   -Danish
Ich liebe dich  -German
Ti amo    -Italian
Je t'aime   -French
أحبك  - Arabic
من تو را دوست دارم   -Persian
당신을 사랑합니다 - Korean
ik hou van je  -Dutch
jag älskar dig -Swedish
நான் உன்னை காதலிக்குறேன் - Tamil
seni seviyorum -Turkish
我爱你 -Chinese
I love you -English

     I leave you with a bit of parting advice: Don't forget to tell your parents, your siblings,your grandparents, aunts, uncles, cousins, step-siblings, anyone in your family that you love them. It will mean the world to them, and to you, and you might not get that chance to let them know how you feel, because life happens, and some people that you love the most can leave, and you might never get to tell them even though you really want to. So take this chance, and tell them how you feel, because it makes the world better. Starting with you.
     Love, friendship, mistakes (really anything that proves that we have a heart and care) are what make us human. And we should be proud of that. That's what makes us unique as a species. We're all different, and we should love ourselves for it- not discriminate against it.

~Rey Black

Wright Way Animal Rescue

     Hey, guys. So, it's 15:51 military standard time. I just came back from my first visit to the new Wright Way Rescue Clinic in Morton Grove. OMG, I totally fell in love with all of the dogs there. This past summer, my family and I won a basket of goods from the local farmer's market, and some of the stuff in the basket was dog and cat food. Since we have neither, we decided to donate it to Wright Way. So, we were passing by it today and we decided to stop in. OMG, it was incredible how they went from the previous place( as shown in the picture below with the school bus) to the brand-new and scaled-up facility. I felt so bad about 'teasing' the dogs, because I knew that I couldn't take anyone home! I seriously dislike doing that. It feels....immoral...somehow. 

     While we were there, I noticed some paper taped on the wall. When I read it, I realized that these were the new dogs and cats that were coming in. I loved one of them straightaway. The picture below looks a little like it. I also fell in love with another one or two in the facility. One of the dogs' names was Gabrielle. It's a beautiful name. Reminds me of Xena. I actually said that I wouldn't mind having a dog named Gabrielle, or Xena. Sorry, but if you didn't know by now, I am a HUGE fangirl. Like, seriously. And one of my favorite TV shows is from 1995- Xena: Warrior Princess. But, I digress.             The dogs were soooo adoorrrable! If I could adopt one today, I would have. But, really. I love pets, but my mom is allergic to cats, so we're not allowed one....so a dog will have to do (who can resist them, though?)! I want to volunteer at Wright Way over the summer, so I can spend more time there, but anyone under 18 needs an adult to volunteer with them. Let's see if I can, since my mom is the one that's home because my dad works during the day. =) There's always hope.....

SOOOO....well. That's it for me, then. Hopefully I can volunteer with my mom and my sister. 

Back to finishing homework and watching movies, or something. Speaking of movies, I just saw the Martian with Matt Damon. Oh well, no time now. I'll tell you about it next time, or something.

     Ciao!

~Rey Black

 

Loki Fans

Ok, this is for all of you Loki fans.....like me =)...c'mon!  These are punny! Siriusly. Enjoy, guys!

Pictures are Worth 1000 Words

     SO, this assignment is to write about a picture on the internet, as a person in the photo, taking the photo, news reporting the photo, etc., etc. So, here goes nothing folks...

 

BREAKING NEWS!!!!!

     Droid hero from the newly-released Star Wars film, The Force Awakens, has just been introduced to a brother from another mother in his Disney family. And what a brother! Stitch (from Lilo and Stitch) and BB-8( Star Wars) have finally, after a long wait, been introduced. Shortly before, BB-8 was introduced to the star of Big Hero 6 Baymax, and the two of them had a wonderful time playing tag and other fun games.

      But, I digress. Back to the new reunion.  Doesn't it look like they're having so much fun?? And, OOOHHH!!!!!, they are sooo cute together. Piggy back rides galore! They are totally compatible!
     Hold on. Greg? What was that? They have been like that for 4 hours? Well, how the time flies! It looks like BB-8 is reeaally patient. And a good thing, too. I guess Stitch just wanted a 4-hour hug. Who doesn't when they're hugging some really cute character, right? Oh, Lilo's just arrived to take Stitch back home to Hawaii.
     Stitch, do you have a minute? Thanks. So, how do you think it went? Were you excited to meet BB-8?
     " Oha-na."
     Can you repeat that?
     "Oha-na means family. And family means no one gets left behind or forgotten."
     Oh.Thank you Stitch, and Lilo. I'm sure that we will meet again soon, and that BB-8 might visit. I think he needs a break from all of the fighting up on the other side of the universe. Have a nice trip, guys, and thanks for the interview!!
   So, BB-8, how was your time with your new friend?
   " Beep-beep-beep-boop. Bee-beep?"
    Come again?

    Well, that answers that question. Thank you so much for your time today, BB-8. See you soon. Say hi to Rey and Fin for me the next time you see them. 

    "Beep-boop."

    Thanks, you too. And to all of you who tuned in to this exciting interview with BB-8 and Stitch, thank you and good night. And tune in next time for more exciting behind the scenes interviews with your favorite movie characters. 

    This is Padfoot, signing off until next time.