The Conclusion

When I first found out that we were going to have to do a blog, I was not looking forward to it. However, after I looked through all of my posts, I think I have become a better writer just from typing up a paragraph each week on a late Friday night. When I read the first blog, I noticed that it was much longer than all of my other ones and that it sounded more like a book report than a blog. Over the past few months, I have realized that blogging is supposed to be a place where you can say what ever you want about the topic that is given to you.

Although I don’t always enjoy writing blogs at the end of the week, there were still some topics that interested me. One of those topics was reflecting on how the class had been so far (April). One of the things that I mentioned in this blog was that there was a lot of reading this year. I was expecting more reading than in middle school, but I was not expecting this much. I definitely did not think that we were going to be reading a new book on Finals week. Another blog that interested me more than others was how Romeo and Juliet relate to today’s society. I talked about a song called “Young Forever” by Jay-Z which had many similarities to Romeo and Juliet. One of the blogs that I spent more time on than others was my Animal Farm poem. It talked about the seven commandments and it was about the abuse of language in the story. This was one of the better poems I had wrote this year in Honors English.

This year has gone by very quickly and it’s hard to wrap the entire year and blog up in only one quote. So I’m going to try and wrap it up in two quote both by the famous former New York Yankees catcher Yogi Berra. The first quote is “ It ain’t over till it’s over”. I was looking forward to ending the blog a few weeks ago, like Word Power, but I knew that there was probably going to be a final blog that I was going to have to write. This year has gone by quickly and we are only single digits away from school being over but these last few days always seem to be a little slower. You are waiting for the last 2:37 bell of the year and when it comes your excited, but a little sad that freshmen year has just come to an end. The other quote is “The future ain’t what it used to be”. After this year in English I have definitely become a much better writer. Blogging has also helped me learn how to not always write the same way I always do when I am writing a book report or an essay. Overall, 9^th grade honors English was a great class and I will always remember walking into class the first day of school being very nervous because I knew that it was going to be a challenging class. However, now I know what is expected of me in an Honors English class and I’m not as worried as I was entering 9^th grade English and I’m ready to move onto 10^th grade honors all though I will have many memories to look back on from 2^nd period.

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.

Romeo and Juliet comes up a lot in todays society. One place where I think that it comes up the most is in music. I found a lot of songs that could be related to Romeo and Juliet but one song seemed to stand out more than others. The song is Young Forever by Jay-Z. Here are the lyrics from parts of the song that I think most resembles Romeo and Juliet. "Hoping for the best, but expecting the worst", "Let us die young or live forever", and "We dont have the power but we never say never". Not all of the song relates to Romeo and Juliet but I thought that those parts did.

The past seven months in Honors English have definitely been different then I expected. I was imagining a class that was going to be hard, strict, and have a lot of homework, however that wasnt what this year has come out to be. In class we get a lot done but it is a loose atmposphere which makes the class a lot more interesting. I have learned a lot this year in English. For example, motif. During the summer assignment when I was reading "Catcher and the Rye" I had absolutely no idea what motif was. Now, I still dont have a firm grasp on the meaning, but I have come to understand all of the vocabulary but I have a sense of what it means. Another thing that I was expecting but not this much of, was reading. This year reading has been like it has been during middle school, except for 8th Grade. I feel like this year it is more of an assignment than something you get to enjoy. However, I'm okay with it because we always have something to talk about in class the next day. This year in English has definitely been a suprise, however I think it has been a good one because I have learned a lot more compared to previous years in English classes.

Here are the three scenes that I would like to see get acted out in a skit:

1. When Pip goes to the graveyard and the convict first confronts him for food and the file. I think this would be good material because it would be interesting to see what people portray how the convict and Pip reacted in the situation.

2. When Pip gets in the fight with the large pale boy (Herbert) at the Satis House. This would be good material because it's a major part of the story and people could act it out creatively.

3. WHen the convict goes to Pip and Herbert's and frightens Pip and later tells Pip (in a way) that he is the secret benefactor. This would be good material because it is a major part of the book and it is one of my favorite parts of the book.