At the beginning of the year I wasnt confident when we had to write essays or long papers, but now I know more about how to write them. I've acquired quite a few essay skills that have made me much more successful when I've had to write an essay. One of those skills is understanding the stucture of an essay. I learned about chunks and also about how to properly embedd quotes. Another skill that I have learned is to constantly refer back to your thesis in order to back up what you are trying to get the reader to believe.
Although I have become much stronger at writing essays I still have a few weaknesses that I have had for a while. One of those is having a weak hook. In middle school we were able to write a question for a hook but now that we are in high school, we can't. It is very easy to write a hook in question form but hooks that are not in that form are usually better even though they take longer to think about/write. Another weakness that I have when I am writing a paper is that may conclusions are too general. I've always not been good at writing a conclusion. For example, I would always start a conclusion with "In conclusion, ..." and I still end up beginning my essays like that or using other words like "Overall". Conclusions are supposed to leave a strong feeling with the reader, however, I don't think my conclusion are like that.

If I get a chance to read this summer, I'm probably going to read two books that I have read before. The first book would be Beyond Belief(Josh Hamilton) which is about Josh Hamilton's life story and how he came back from doing drugs to playing in the MLB. The other book would be Playing With The Enemy(Gary Moore) which is about how american soldiers taught their prisoners how to play the game of baseball. It is probably my favorite book that I've read before.

Fate

Since I was born in August, I'm a Leo. In the research that I did, I found some characteristics that matched me and some that did not. Three of the characteristics that matched me were loyal, confident, and stubborn. I am loyal to my family, friends, and people who I trust. I am confident for the most part about things like sports and school. I'm not always confident though if I dont think I'm going to do well on a certain test or I start studying the night before. Whenever I want to go somewhere or get something that I want, I can be stubborn about it. Cannot resist showing off is one of the characteristics that does not always fit me. Sometimes I may like to show off but for most of the time I dont talk about new things I get or a trip that I get to go on.
In Romeo and Juliet, they believe what the stars say their fate is much more then people do today. I think that the majority of the characteristics were accurate to other Leo's that I know. Shakespeare also ties in foreshadowing by predetermining what will happen in the book next and I think he used astrology in the book also for foreshadowing. A quote that shows this is "Take him out and cut him out in little stars, And he will make the face of heaven so fine"(3-2,25-26) which is a reference to astrology and the stars.