It's Kind of a Funny Story: Reflecting

     I am currently sitting in my bed starring at this page not knowing what to write about my book. I'm feeling overwhelmed and I would much rather forget about this and current events, get a zero, and go to sleep. To be honest I almost did. While reading It's Kind of a Funny Story -even though it is about a boy who does give up- I realized he is exactly the opposite of what I want to happen to me. Craig falls off the edge, he comes to a point in life where he thinks he can no longer manage it. Now, I've had days where I've been so stressed and told myself that I can't handle getting the work done. I'm too tired and too stressed to deal with it. But after reading this book I realized i shouldn't do that.
     I think if you tell yourself you can get your work done and finish everything no matter what you think you can. You have to push through and deal with it. It's all a learning experience. I probably have done the same thing for weeks, waiting till the very last minute to get everything done. And just like every other thursday here I am and 11:30 writing a reading response and knowing I'll be up late finishing the rest of my homework telling myself I shouldn't have put it off till now. Everyone I know has these things they wish they could change in their life. Whether it's the person they've become, bad habits they have about school like me or life in general. Yet everyone seems to not be able to break them. They are our safety points as much as they seem to be the opposite. They are the things we feel comfortable doing, going back to them day after day, week after week, year after year.
     I know people say to learn from your mistakes and most of the time i do try to. But there are some things in life you can't let go of. They may be bad but everyone has one thing that's bad for them that they always keep with them. I guess the difference between me and Craig is that he didn't try to bray these habits or change any of them. He let them sit there and build up before they got to overwhelming. You have to handle things as they come and have some sort if guide to how you want it to go, otherwise you will become completely lost.

It's Kind of a Funny Story by Ned Vizzini

     Reading this book has really made me realize how awful depression really is. I think overall the author really does a good job making everything seem realistic too. But everything that is going through Craig's mind all the time seems like something terrible i would never want to experience. It cycles through everything he thinks in his life he thinks is wrong like his grades, and the stress, and how he doesn't have a girlfriend, and no likes him, and he's pathetic. It's just sad. I know everyone has their ups and downs, but to feel like that every day would really suck. 

     The only thing i don't get about Craig is that he doesn't really try to fix these things. He just simply states he cannot do them. That they will never happen. I don't think this is the right outlook on life for him. I know when I'm not feeling my greatest and things seem plain awful i always try to find the best in something and it helps. I don't think everything is possible obviously it's not but you don't always have to be so down about everything. 

It's Kind of a Funny Story by Ned Vizzini

In my book I can really relate to Craig in some ways because i feel as if we both don't really know exactly what we want in our lives at the moment. 

    I know sometimes I feel very lost and confused about what and who I want to be or do with my friends, who I really am and it can make your brain a huge jumble of thoughts. I know I'm only 13 but i still can't help thinking about this kind of stuff. I feel like right now is when your actions really start to form you as a person. What high school you go to affects what college you go and what college you go to effects what you do in life. Which seems so far away but it can still be some what of a worry. 

     I know that Craig was very set at first. He knew where he was going to go to high school and focused on making sure he went there. But once he got there he started to question all the same things I've been questioning. Who he really was, what he wanted to be, if he could handle all the work and stress and the kind of person he wanted to become when he grew up. It is really starting to freak him out. 

     I think it's good for me to be reading this when I am because i was starting to really freak out. Seeing what is happening to Craig I realized I didn't have to be so stressed about everything. As long as I stay focused on everything that matters right now,  all the rest should play out just fine. I think if Craig just realized he needed to take one thing at a time instead of trying to do everything at once he might calm down a bit and be able to handle it all. 

2 Voice Poem Social Issue entry #3. (Option 6)

I always feel like people are looking at my body.
Because I'm disgusting.
Because I have the perfect body.
Sometimes I wish I was skinnier.
Because I'm obese. 
Because anorexia has made me think like this.
When I look at myself in the mirror
 I see a big ballon ready to pop.
I see skin and bones.
I wish I could fix all my problems. 
But nothing ever seems to work.
Then I wouldn't be the skinny perfect girl I want to be.
Nothing seems to be working.
I use food to comfort myself.
Because if I got help, I would be losing this battle. 
What should I do? 
I'm going to try my hardest to feel good about my body and change it.
I'm not going to give in, I'm fixed on keeping my body this way. 


     I wrote my poem about body issues. I just finished reading winter girls which dealt with anorexia. I think it something i would really like to explore and learn more about because it is such terrible thing but it is a huge issue among teenage girls.

2 Social Action Articles on the Issue of: Sexual Orientation(Option #1)

2 Social Articles on 1 Social Issue and Reading Response:
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/11/13/opinion/sunday/a-long-winding-road-to-marriage-equality.html?scp=18&sq=homosexuality/gay%20rights&st=cse
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/15/us/15lawsuit.html?scp=3&sq=Youth%20Pleads%20Guilty%20to%20Killing%20Gay%20Classmate&st=cse


     The two articles I read were quite different but on the same topic. One was on how states are really trying to accept gay marriage and the other was on how just because a boy told another boy he had feelings for him but the boy thought that it was "wrong" so he shot him. Now to me that is one of the most disgusting, sick things that you could ever do. I don't know what was going through this kids mind when he thought that just because someone had a feeling he didn't feel was correct so he shot someone. I can't express how angry it makes me to think about it. 


     But on a better note, I think the amount of action the government is taking to prevent things like this from happening and really taking a stand against homophobia and having a zero tolerance for hate crimes is great. I also think that most states saying that gay marriage is fine, it would be great if it was all which one thing that is also sad to me. That why it might bother someone that a girl might like a girl and a boy might like a boy or wanna marry a boy. To me the fact that this was ever a problem is absurd. Everyone should have the right to love who they wanna love. After all, it is a free country. 

WIntergirls Reflection

      I finished Wintergirls on this past Tuesday. Overall it is probably one of my favorite books. Now that I have read it for a second time I spent a lot of time focusing in on the little descriptions in the book. I think for me and a lot of people i know who have read it, I didn't quite understand what happened towards the end of the book. Everything got very hazy and mystical. You couldn't tell whether or not Lia was alive or dead or what was going on at all. When I got to this point I read it very slowly and carefully. It's quite scary but at the same time it's absolutely beautiful. The way she describes Lia while she's dying is amazing. You never know exactly what's going on or how she got there which I think is what really confused me the first time. But after reading it again that's how I think the author wanted you to feel. She wanted you to be able to be on the same page as Lia in what was going on because she (Lia) didn't know either.
      I think that the way Anderson ended the book really fell into context with all the characters. Lia needed to be fixed and realize what was going on with her. She needed to prove to Emma that she would be fine. She also needed to find a way tog et rid of Cassie's ghost. The way she put all these things in one mix at the end of the book was very interesting seeing as Lia's thoughts always seemed to be mixed and jumbled. I think the plot,writing style and characters of the book really make it worth reading.

Social Issues Post #1

Observe your surroundings (school, home, neighborhood, media). Write a list about all the scenes or situations you come across on a daily basis that you think are unfair and/or not right in some way. Pick one of the ideas from your list and write a longer entry about it - 2-3 paragraphs. Describe the problem, what's wrong with it, cause and effect, and possible solutions.

1. The man on the corner of a street begging for money.

2. A man yelling at what seemed to be his girlfriend then hitting her and no one doing anything about it. 

3. A mother yelling and screaming at her son who looked to be about 3 for spilling his juice box.

I picked situation #2. This is something i feel i see way too often. But yesterday it was especially wrong. I was sitting on the train and a man and a woman were standing near the doors arguing about something. I remember hearing her say she was done with him. And it sounded like he hit her. Now as horrible as that is no one did anything about it. And I didn't do anything about it either. I didn't know what i was supposed to do I'm only 13. Everyone on the train sat and pretended not to notice.

This to me is crazy. In a train car maybe full of 50-60 people not a single person on the car had the courage to come out and stop this from happening. To me that’s insane. I guess people were scared of what might happen if they did. Who can blame them? I didn’t speak up either which I felt bad about after. But I was scared too.

Abuse is a terrible thing but a lot of the time the problem is that people are too scared of what might happen to them to say anything. On trains they always say “If you see something, say something.” Now, there they are referring to suspicious items and actions but it could also apply to this too if you think about it, it’s another thing that we see a lot that isn’t talked about or reported and people elt it slide way too often.