Overcoming Struggles

I enjoy reading. Even though I like playing sports and being active, if I find a good book I will end up not being able to put it down. In order for me to be interested in a book, it has to be interesting from the start. I tend to like books that challenge me to think, or that have some sort of problem that needs to be solved.

My interest in these types of books started towards the end of fifth grade.It started with a book called Out of the Dark by Betty Ren Wright. After that book I started to read more and more ghost mystery stories. Whenever I would read mysteries, I would want to be the main character because i enjoyed trying to figure out all the clues before the characters would. In real life, being in a situation such as the ones i read in the stories, I would absolutely hate it, but I guess in the world I make inside my head when I would read these stories, I think it is so much fun.

Recently i have been more interested in books with themes focusing on a hero that has to overcome a struggle of some kind. I read The Hunger Games, Catching Fire, and Mocking Jay, by Suzanne Collins all in one week! I got sucked into the stories right away and couldn’t put them down. I just read Divergent, by Veronica Roth. The adventure kept me interested with all the challenges that Tris, the main character, had to get through. Now I’m reading I am Number Four, by Pittacus Lore, with another great story about a character fighting his way through. These books still challenge me to think, I like them because they keep me trying to figure out how the characters are going to make it to the end.

Boom!

Author’s Note: This is a short story using symbolism. When reading this piece, look for descriptive word choice that will help you visualize the story.

BOOM! A loud thunderclap made Victoria jump out of her seat. She pulled out one of her ear buds and looked out the window. It was pouring outside, and the wind was a howling monster. The sky was quickly darkening, like a spilled bottle ink covering a blank paper. “I’ve got a bad feeling about this,” Victoria mumbled. “No!” she yelled, “I don’t want to walk home in this.”

Other people on the bus shouted their agreements. A horrible sound snapped them out of their complaints, and they noticed that they were sliding across the road. “Everybody take cover!” the bus driver yelled.

All of the kids obeyed and crouched into the small areas where you put your feet and in the isles. For the longest time they spun and slid, until finally everyone was thrown to the front of the bus on impact.

When Victoria finally came out of shock,  all she could hear was screaming.  “Be quiet!!!” screamed the bus driver.

Everyone froze and stopped talking. “First we need to close these windows and try and move the bags to one side of the bus,” he ordered.

Everyone grabbed their bags and put them where the bus driver had shown. “Now, we all need to remember to keep calm. I know that it is scary, but it will be a lot easier to figure this out if we have everyone on the same page,” he continued. “Okay, now first let me take attendance to make sure I know where everybody is.”  

While he was taking the attendance, the rain continued to beat against the windows. Thunder and lightning were continuously going off and the wind was howling like crazy. Victoria’s thoughts wandered while the bus driver continued to call out the names of other students. Finally nearing the end of the list, the bus driver called out Victoria’s name.

“I’m here,” she called from one of the back seats.

“Well that’s a start. Everyone is accounted for,” the bus driver said with obvious relief in his voice. “Let’s try to call for help. Who here has a phone?” he questioned.

While most of the kids were trying to call 911 or their parents, Victoria was in the back of the bus having a panic attack. “I need fresh air,” she said to the group. Victoria opened the emergency exit and started running out into the rain.  

“Wait! You shouldn’t leave the bus!” someone yelled. Then Victoria’s friend Maria ran out after her.

“Wait! Victoria, come back!!!” she called. Victoria stopped and tried to make out her friend, but the distance between them and the rain was making it nearly impossible. Maria walked a little closer. Victoria saw that the bus was slipping farther towards the tree, and was taking Maria with it.

“Maria!!!” Victoria screamed. Maria didn’t move. Victoria began blindly running as fast as she could towards the bus. When she finally got to Maria, she started yelling for help, while attempting to free her friend. No one was coming, so she ran back into the bus and started yelling for help.

A group of people came out to help, including the bus driver. “What happened?” someone asked.

“Maria came out to tell me to come back,” Victoria responded without making eye contact with the person who asked.

“We need to get her out from under the bus!” she shouted as she started trying to pull her friend out from under the big yellow trap.

“Okay we’ll help, but after we get her on the bus we need to know what happened,” the drivers’ voice boomed over the loud rain. Victoria understood. Once everyone was back on the bus, and Maria was lying on a bus seat, the bus driver looked at Victoria and told her to explain what happened.

“I ran out into the rain, and she followed me,” Victoria started. “Then she called my name and I was trying to see her through the sheets of rain when I noticed the bus was slowly moving. I tried to tell her to move out of the way, but I guess it all happened too fast. So then the bus swung and hit Maria. I guess it knocked her unconscious. After I saw that she had been hit, I was struggling to run as fast as I could without falling. When I got to the bus, she wasn’t moving, so I yelled for help. No one came,” she finished with a shaky breath.

“Why did I run out there? This is all my fault,” Victoria whispered. It was completely silent except for the rain and thunder, until the bus driver broke the silence.

“Well, right now we need to focus on getting help,” he said.

“We couldn’t get enough signal, the phone kept breaking up,” one girl said.

“Can’t texts go through with low signal?” Victoria asked.

“We’re not coming up with any other ideas, so why don’t we try it,” another girl suggested.

Victoria and a few others pulled out their phones and texted a parent to see if they would respond. “Here! My mom responded to my text!” Victoria shouted. “I’ll tell her to call for help!” she added while texting.

Just in case that text didn’t send right, the other students who had gotten through to a parent also told them to get help. After the last text was sent out, all they had to do was wait. The rain still didn’t let up, and the wind got worse. It felt like forever before the angry storm was fought back by red and blue flashing lights. Everyone on the bus breathed a sigh of relief.

The medics gave out blankets, checked everyone over, and treated the injured. Everyone was then directed onto another bus. Victoria watched as Maria was loaded into an ambulance that was on its way to the hospital.

Thinking back on the afternoon, Victoria wondered why she ran out of the bus. If only I had stayed. Maria would be fine if it wasn’t for me. Other people were scared too, but they didn’t run. That should’ve been me! Victoria was overwhelmed with guilt. I can’t believe I was so careless.  

The Birthday Mystery

Author’s Note: This piece is a story analysis on the book Colin Fischer by: Ashley Edward Miller and Zack Stentz.

Reading isn’t at the top of the list for most teens, but I think that if you find a good book, that you can transfer yourself to another world very easily. Many teenagers might enjoy this book because unlike reading about a boring school like our own, there are many different interesting events that occur at this school. In Colin Fischer by Ashley Edward Miller and Zack Stentz, you get to live the life of a student with Aspergers and see what life is like from their point of view.

Asperger syndrome is often considered as a more intense version of autism. It can lead to difficulty interacting socially, repeated behaviors, and clumsiness. Can you even imagine what it would be like to have Aspergers in school? Miller and Stentz wrote this book about a high school student named Colin Fischer. Colin doesn’t like the color blue, can’t stand to be touched, and uses index cards to recognize facial expressions. It can’t be easy to deal with that at a public high school; his fears would be tested every day. So like most students, as it is for Colin, school was just a place he dreaded. That was until the daily routine changed and something exciting happened.

At Colin’s school, lunch time was just a time to eat and socialize with friends, until a gun went off one day during a birthday celebration for a classmate. What followed this incident was plenty of excitement and chaos. Every student and their parents had to attend a seminar after school about the shooting.You can probably relate to everyday being the same. So imagine something out of the ordinary happening. My school isn’t extremely interesting either, so reading about a school that did have something going on that doesn’t happen every day was entertaining.

I found this book very hard to put down, and I think that other teens would enjoy it too. It was interesting to read about what school would be like for someone with Aspergers . Though I would be fine without some of the events that happened in the book, it would be refreshing to have changes every now and then.

Seasons

Author's Note: This is a creative piece about season's. When you read this piece, look for imagery and similes.

Summer is an amazing time of year. I know there are the bad sides like sunburn, bugs, and sometimes unbearable heat. But then you have the good days. Those are the days we want to remember and look forward to the next year. For all of those winter fans out there you might need some more convincing.

Let’s start off with winter. In winter there are some good sides, for example: the snow that clumps together and falls to the ground like cotton, or the many cups of hot chocolate, and of course who could forget the snowmen and angels that decorate the yards. Although there is the bad side to winter too. After the snow melts you have the gray and brown slush. Now your white wonderland is ruined. Then You have the below zero temperatures and wind that hits you like a brick wall, a very cold brick wall. When you finally get used to all of that, the flu and colds come and you’re miserable and sick. If you are anything like me, then a couple months into winter you get tired of it and all you can wish for is summer and warmth.

I know I prefer summer to winter, but there still are some cons to this wonderful season too. One thing that drives me crazy are the bugs. I don’t care what the bug repellent says, I swear it does absolutely nothing! Those little killers are everywhere! Something else you see a lot of in summer is sunburn. It really hurts so just use sun screen people! On good days though, you can go swimming, or camping, or even just relaxing. That is one of my favorite things about summer, nothing is due, there isn’t a schedule, you aren’t rushing to get that essay in by Thursday. Personally, I also enjoy the ice cream, you can have it pretty much anytime you want and it always tastes good.

Really there are good and bad things about every season, so I understand why some people don’t like summer. If I had to choose I would rather live in a place that was warm and sunny all year. Though I can understand why people like winter, there are a lot of things to do in the snow too. Overall there are people that will like one more than the other, but there are also people that like them equally. Both seasons have their ups and downs, but everyone has their favorite for one reason or another.

The Mission

Author's Note: This is a short story for the creative writing assignment. When reading this piece you should look for symbolism.

June 13^th, 3843

Dear Diary,

Today is the day I leave this world forever. I can’t turn back, but I will miss my past. Since this is my first entry, I will fill you in, but first I will introduce myself. My name is Katrina Devereaux: I have brown hair, I am extremely intelligent, I love sports, and I have been alive for over 3756 years; My eyes are my story.

I am the only one left with blue eyes. The guards checked every planet, every moon, and every star cold enough for life, and there is no one but me. Every other living thing has dark brown eyes. So, you could say I stick out a bit. They also don’t know that I am the only person to live past the toxic chemical flood on May 22^nd, 2821.

 I haven’t told anyone about my plan on leaving, because I know that if the guards find out, they will deny access to the port and I don’t have enough time for that. Two days: I have two days before the three men come to find me.  You are probably getting kind of confused now, because you don’t know who the three men are. They are three men from a group that was developed in 2814. This group was sent to test every kid on every continent, and take a blood sample. Six years after the testing, they did the round again. You can probably guess how confused they were when they got down to the lab and found that they now had two of one sample.

So they made a machine, and this machine was inserted into their coffin when they died. If their tests were right, and the machine works as it should, then those three men are supposed to be coming back on June 15^th, 3843. It is their plan to see if I am still alive, and looking like a 14 year old. Fortunately for them, I am. My plan is to leave my planet, and reset time. I am writing this because I am hoping that I will be able to reset the clock and make time start over. If I do hopefully someone will find this and tell my story. 

Inspiration

Author’s Note: This Is a Point of View Piece for the song This Girl is on Fire by Alicia Keys, Jeff Bhasker, Salaam Remi, and Billy Squier.

In the song This Girl Is On Fire, Alicia Keys is singing about herself in the third person. The song shows her point of view when she was struggling. These lyrics are a perfect example. “She's just a girl, and she's on fire. Hotter than a fantasy, lonely like a highway. She's living in a world, and it's on fire. Feeling the catastrophe, but she knows she can fly away.” Though in the song you hear about how strong she becomes, and how others are influenced by her personality.

One way that Alicia’s point of view influences the reader’s interpretation of this song is how her perspective shows strength. Even though she is going through hard times, she is still able to prove to everyone she is capable of feeling happiness. “Everybody stands, as she goes by. Cause they can see the flame that's in her eyes. Watch her when she's lighting up the night. Nobody knows that she's a lonely girl, and it's a lonely world.” This song’s story is about a girl who refused to give up, and in the end gained lots of respect from others.

However, if the song was about a girl who gave up and never tried, I don’t think that people would like it as much. The story of someone being strong and powering through their troubles, is more inspiring and influential than a story about someone who threw in the towel too early.

As you can see, the point of view of a song  forces people to see just one side of an event. In This Girl Is On Fire, Alicia uses the lyrics to show others point of view, and her strength. This song is a favorite to many people, and I think the reason it’s so popular, is because of the message it sends.                                                                                                          

Letters

Authors Note: This is a Theme Analysis about the book “Found” by Margaret Peterson Haddix.  

If you were to receive a letter saying something along the lines of “You are one of the survivors.” what would you do? Would you think it was a joke and ignore it, or would you take it seriously? “Found” is the first book in The Missing Series, by Margaret Peterson Haddix. The story begins with two boys, Jonah and Chip, who both receive identical  letters from an anonymous person. When they get the letters, the boys felt they needed to really find where they were from. The main theme of this story is the perseverance the boys show as they try to find the answers to their past.

Once the boys got the letters, they wanted to find answers. They started their search by breaking into Chip’s father’s safe. In it they found a copy of Chip’s birth certificate, along with a post-it with a phone number. The phone number led them to James Reardon, an FBI agent. After a meeting with Reardon, they found a file. The file from Reardon’s office included a list of survivors and witnesses of something. Chip and Jonah were both on the list of survivors.   Now they have more questions, and they start calling people on the lists hoping to find answers. This is another good example of the theme, because even though most refused to talk or completely ignored them, some of the people had answers and the boys kept going.

Perseverance can be found in other stories. In the book “Legend”, by Mary Lu, Day and June both persevered in different ways. June was determined to earn the Commander’s respect, while Day was determined to get the vaccine for his sick brother.

In “The Lighting Thief”, by Rick Riordan, Percy Jackson perseveres through his journey to find Zeus’ lightning bolt. Percy has to overcome many challenges in order to prove himself to Zeus, and prevent a war between the gods.  Percy, like Chip and Jonah, didn't give up, even when things are at their worst.

Though it is sometimes hard to continue with something when it seems impossible to finish, Chip and Jonah never give up on trying to find the secrets to their past. They keep digging up more clues, and hunting down the information they need. Perseverance is when you continue on even when something gets hard, and that’s exactly what the boys did. The boys’ perseverance made the story more interesting, because a story about someone giving up wouldn't be as engaging to read.