Not What You Expect

    This weekend was a very exciting time for me. I've been swimming and training with the Episcopal swim team since June of this year and have been extra pumped for the season since day one. Last year, I managed to qualify for the state championship as a middle schooler, which was a really awesome achievement for myself. Going into the season this year, the state cut in my best event ( 100 freestyle ) had dropped by eight seconds. Knowing this, I was training my butt off all season, but in the back of my mind I was losing faith about qualifying for state a second time. After four regular meets, I was stuck at the 1.06.85, a time I managed to get four meets in a row. The state cut for the year was 1.06.05 (i hope you can see my frustration). I worked super hard all season and went to every practice possible, but I was pretty much set on the fact that I wasn't going to state.

   So this Saturday and Sunday the City Championships were held at Crawfish Aquatics. We had lots of fans (thanks to everyone who came) and everyone on the team was filled with energy for what was to come. Only four people could be entered in each event, so the stakes were raised even higher for the both our girls and guys teams. I swam the 50 freestyle and placed 20th in the state with a 29.66, only 2 tenths of a second away from the state cut in that event. Talking to my coach after that race, he basically looked me in the eye and said, "You've done great this season and should be proud, even if you don't go to state". That translates to "sorry you didn't make it kid" in my mind. I was crushed to be honest. I was scheduled to compete the next day in a time trials after the finals. Anyone who wants to have an extra race just to try one last time for a state cut could compete in the time trials. Coach Alex entered me in the 100 free, giving me one last chance in my favorite event.

   All of my teammates stayed after the finals the next day to see me swim. It was incredible and I can't thank them enough. We had just received the news that both our girls and boys teams had won second place in the meet. I was super happy and ready to go! I was put in a heat against five boys, and another girl with the same goal as myself. I was scared to go up against boys, but once I dove in the pool I realized it was probably a benefit. I raced those boys to the finish and when I looked up from the water the time read 1.05.71 I was ecstatic! It was a PR for myself and I had finally made it to state. My friends all hugged me and screamed in my ears until I was deaf.

   I can't wait to go to state!

The Return

   So this year my family got season tickets to the musicals being performed at the Mahalia Jackson theatre in New Orleans. The first of these shows brought to Louisiana is Les Miserables and a few days ago I attended the show with my parents and little sister. The show in itself was incredible, but it also reminded me of The Return. I had read the short story only a couple days before and had decided to do my thesis on that story. Therefore, the plot was still fresh in my mind and as I watched the story of Les Mis unfold before me, I realized just how similar the stories were.

  Both stories deal with a man returning home from a detention camp sort of environment in the midst of a war, and how his life will change completely due to the events that occurred while he was gone. In the Return, Kamau heads back to his village only to find that the location had changed, and no one from his previous life had expected him to return alive. This is the point I have chosen to focus on in my thesis. The author of The Return uses the physical, temporal, and psychological setting of the story to foreshadow these life changing events Kamau experiences. The point of view of the story contributes to this foreshadowing as well. The narrator knew things about the story and gives many clues as to where and how Kamau will end up. Overall, seeing the play was an amazing experience for me, and it helped me with my English work.

Snipers, Returns, and White Elephants

    I chose to read "Hills Like White Elephants", "The Sniper", and "The Return" as my choice short stories. I really enjoyed all three of them and was surprisingly able to follow the plot of each one. Hills Like White Elephants was probably the most confusing out of the three, and there were not too many elements that could be explained through a literary analysis.

 

    If I was to write my paper on "The Sniper", I would most likely focus on setting. Both physical and  temporal setting were key factors in telling the story. Psychological setting also came into play at the end of the story. I would most likely base my analysis on the way the author created an atmosphere in the story that would lead to the extremely unfortunate events that occurred. The fact that the snipers job had become so routine and so mandatory that he would continue to struggle with killing his enemy even when he was horribly wounded himself could lead to a good thesis and theme. I'm not entirely sure what I would do with the paper but those are some ideas. 

   As for "The Return", the story seemed to deal more with characterization and point of view in my opinion. The man returning from the detention camp is so excited and ready to greet his family and wife back in his village. Somehow the point of view and I guess the setting as well creates a dull, sad, and unfortunate atmosphere that sends the reader a message. The narrator foreshadows a depressing ending to the story throughout the entire return journey of the man. The fact that all the characters think he was dead also led me to believe that good things could not be in store for him. This would be my main focus  in a literary analysis if I were to do it on "The Return". 

Reading This Week

A Wrinkle In Time                   20 minutes (in class) 45 minutes (outside class)
Hills Like White Elephants       15 minutes
The Sniper                                20 minutes
The Return                                20 minutes

Reading this Week

This week I've spent about 1 hour and 30 min reading short stories.

• To Da-Duh took me about 30 minutes
• A & P took me around 20 minutes
• The Very Old Man With The Enormous Wings took me about 45 minutes only because I was so confused I had to read it twice.

I also finally finished Heaven is For Real which took me about 45 minutes

My writing

Last year left me pretty stunned as a writer. I honestly don't spend too much time worrying about my writing and I rarely write in my free time. To be blunt, I just don't enjoy writing that much. And yet, I somehow became a Penniman Scholar. Don't get me wrong... it's an honor and it was awesome to achieve such a status at this school, but I never expected that to happen. 

My writing is typically too long. As some of my classmates will say, I write 3 pages when everyone else writes 3 paragraphs. Sorry? I don't think it's always a bad thing, but too much writing can definitely be annoying depending on the assignment. I just overflow my brain with ideas when I write, and I feel like I need to do the absolute best I can whenever possible. Somehow that results in a novel every time we do a journal entry... 

Anyway, aside from the lengthy-ness, my writing tends to be fairly casual. I like to write using my voice, meaning the way I talk outside of the classroom and without a pen in my hand. My word choice is generally atrocious and my sentence fluency is crazy confusing. If I don't make sure to go back edit with a thesaurus in hand and the rules of grammer in my mind, I fail at writing. I have to read through my writing about a thousand times as well, before I can be certain that it's what I wanted. 

So overall, I'm a confusing writer who gets super lucky when it comes to ideas. 

Hmm ok then... I'll take that.

Most Eventful Plot Ever

So this summer I read Plague by Michael Grant as my choice book. I know it's kind of a long shot it terms of recent events, but I loved the book so much and remember the plot structure of it extremely clearly. This is mainly because the plot is like a roller coaster, up and down, scary and exciting, all over the place with plenty of unexpected twists and turns.

First of all, this is the fifth book in the series, so the main conflict of the story is carried from book to book. Basically, all of these kids are stuck in a giant dome that covers a small town in California, and anyone over the age of 15 has disappeared. Kids become violent, food is depleted, power is gone, disease and wounds cover most everyone, lights are fading, and some kids even begin to gain powers and use them for both good and evil. This dome which they begin to call the FAYZ, is impenetrable and has held the children of Perdido Beach, CA captive for about a year and a half now. Book five picks up right at this point and there is almost no time for rising action before the plot comes along and slaps the reader in the face.

Immediately we find out that Diana, one of the oldest and most well known members of the FAYZ, has become pregnant with a child that is already more powerful than the average human being. We also hear that the evil source that is disrupting the FAYZ and trying to gain control, the gaiaphage (or darkness) has sent a child who became evil as soon as the dome came down, Drake, after Diana. The gaiaphage plans to capture Diana's child and gain a source of life in the real world through the child's body, therefore throwing the whole world into chaos The highest point of the story in my opinion would be when we discover that the dome is slowing turning pitch black, and fast. Soon the whole FAYZ will be in an endless night.

The falling action is pretty simple compared to that, a couple kids die (same old same old) and the darkness slowly separates all the kids form their friends and everyone is suddenly on their own. The conclusion comes around when Drake runs off with Diana and everyone rushes out to save her.... And then it leaves me stranded.

Book six? Are you out there? I need you!

Reading Times:
To Build A Fire                         1hour and 30min (plus the annotations)
Heaven is For Real                    2 hours and 20min