Original Poems 3

1. Waste (Free poem)

The little oak sapling,
Chooses to hatch,
As it grows it strengthens,
From the enriched nutrients in the lawn,
The tree fell luckily into a landfill.


The other saplings laughed,
Exclaimed that it will never grow.
"Who could live in a waste land?"
The little Oak kept growing though,
 For the landfill holds secrets.


John the narcissist that he is,
Cares only about his money,
So when the doctor tells him,
"An apple a day keeps the doctors away."
He simply threw out the life saving apple.


And yes that apple was a lifesaver.
All garbage ends up in the landfill.
An apple decays.
When a sapling grows where that apple decayed,
Truley a life was saved.


The other trees that once lived,
Are long gone,
The only one left,
A tree at the edge of a landfill.
It takes only a miracle to save a life.


Life today,
Aren't we all living in a wasteland,
Failures everyday, born into a unsuccessful family,
Condemns you to failure.
It takes only a miracle to save a life.


A singer gets rejected from an audition,
They make it to Hollywood week on American Idol.
A scientists sees its experiment died,
They find a new element,
It takes only a miracle to save a life.


All over the world today miracles happen,
It can be small or large,
The world today is condemned to failure,
Fact is that the sun will burn the Earth,
Causing it to overheat,
But Life will survive,
Because it only takes a miracle to save a life.  
  


2.  Mailbox(Acrostic Poem)
Many surprises await the opening,
Although there are bills and junk,
Interesting things may come.
Letters from colleges accepting you,
Boxes full of posters which were,
Ordered from online sites. 
Xerothermic weather, lets me sit out and wait for these surprises. 




3. Lamp(Mundane) 


Different,
Modern, classical, wood, silver
Brings peace to my mind.
Light.


Attacks the darkness,
With effortless courage,
Always winning,
Even though darkness is everywhere.


It brings us help,
Homework at the late hours of night,
Can be completed,
Turn on. 


Even this helper needs a hand,
It needs a break from its war against dark,
From helping to bring light to the geometry question.
Turn off. 
   

Original Poems 2

1. Fingers(Pantoum)
The Independent flow of hinges,
Allow the fingers to grip.
Easily they slide down the plastic edge.
Letting go only after the work is done.

Allow the fingers to grip,
The mornings brew of coffee.
Letting go only when work is done.
Unwinding the grip to drop the cup.

The mornings brew of coffee.
Brings light to the morning.
Unwinding the grip to drop the cup.
Because they pick up the thrown pencil.

The Independent flow of hinges,
Brings light to the morning,
Because they pick up the thrown pencil.
Easily they slide down the plastic edge.

2. Antarctica(Rainbow Poem)
Red as in Peru,
Orange as in Namibia,
Yellow as in Australia,
Green as in Canada,
Blue as in Finland,
Indigo as in Argentina,
Purple as in America.

All of these rest in different places,
Yet they are all on my wall.
All part of a colorful map,
With all of the seven continents on it.
Each country a different color.
So do they take so long to get to,
If they are all hanging up in my wall?

3. The Odds(Ladder)- Inspired by the Huger Games by Susan Collins.
Dangerous,
Like poison,
Never meant harm,
It was their fault,
For choosing her sisters name.
Death in a card,
Now they pay,
With fire,
Catastrophe.

Original poems 1

1. William Carlos Williams Variation on "Poem" and "This is just to say"

Empty (Poem)

As it jumped,

The wire recoiled,

Sending the squirrel high in the sky.

Scared by the Debacle which just occurred,

It ran even faster to the fulfilling destination,

Deathly needing its nutrients

The seedling pot,

Where it should be,

A hole.

Ferociously digging,

It is useless,

No acorn resides in the pot.

A cracked heart (This is just to say)

I didn't mean to get the wrong thing, 

What?

You wanted them salted?

Well I didn't!

You say I always get my way,

So..."You will never get into collage"

The tears you wore so solemnly,

broke my heart.

The awkwardness as we were forced to talk,

Why did I have to be so selfish,

I should support you and hope for the best.

I never knew siblings can break each others hearts. 

2. How Do I Feel A Noun?

Curious

The baby walks seamlessly around the house, 

The house which it has walked through many time before,

Looking for new machines to test.

The puppy smelling every centimeter,

Laying its nose on every blade of grass,

Finally resting only to start again when something moves.

The teenager who reads history books, 

Not homework.

But according to other kids..."Who reads for fun?"

The Dog who barks at every walking person,

Who never lets down it guard,

Friend? Enemy? Who can tell?

Old age brings the wisdom of the past,

Allowing for a life time of knowledge,

Thankful for the hours spent studying grass, books, machinery and people.  

3. The Holocaust(Historenga)

Hell was better,

No food, innocent killings, concentration camps,

All over an accusation that it was their fault,

Germany the center of the razing,

The people mutated into believing it was the Jewish who did it.

For Germany losing World War One.

Yet Falkenhayn was the one to pull the plug,

The "strong, wise" leader who was secretly making negotiations. 

When Germany could have won if he didn't stop the troops. 

Vocabulary On My Mind

The children were deemed narcissists, of course that is why they are here: Camp Egotistical. The kids are insolent, rhetorical and pretentious. That is why they have to go through the labyrinth. The Labyrinth is virulent. It is meant to test their altruistic side. While at the same time it is meant to castigate them. The kids have to be vigilant, because they are going to run into a debacle. There are two tasks. Very few make it past the raucous maze. This test consists of one single "cordial" bird. But the erudite animal thrives off of egotistical statements. When it hears one of these statements it makes a strident din. Which then it thrives into a bird double the size. The only way to mitigate this growing is by coalescing into one altruistic group whom jocularly need to exalt the others. Once the bird hears the children saying this, it charily sheds it's plethora of fat and feathers. It moves out of the way of two doors. The final test. This is the most cryptic test for the children. They have to chose one door. It is meant to raze the group, show which ones really altruistically changed and realized being a egotistical, epicurean little child is not good. Well who knows... lets see who's epicurean lifestyle will in the end be detrimental to their existence.








Dear Miss. Geurin I didn't know if what above is what you wanted or if you wanted one sentence with all/only vocab words. So if that is what you wanted, here it is!







Egotistic s avidly berate "submissive" indigent raconteurs! 

What I Need to Know about WRITING AND WRITERS to Become a Better Writer

"Why do People Read What Writers Write?"
1. The first presenter (Miss. Broderick) said that poetry is all about sound. So I think that people read because the way it sounds. I know that I read poetry because I love the way it sounds and I love the "Rythm" in it. Interview question- Does sound mean anything to you when you read?
2. Miss. Ringler made a great point as well. She said how a lot of people can relate to your stories. So maybe people will read your stories if they are interesting, relevant or relatable!
3. Unique. I think that another reason people read our writing is because of how interestingly different it is. Think about the haibuns. Although they wern't my favorite, they were extremely new to me. So I was interested in them. That could be another reason people like to read what writers write: because their writing technique, style, tone, format or whatever is appealing and different from other writers.
4. The last main example I can think of is that people read writer writing because of the facts in it.  Not literal facts but enough to know the truth. An exapmle of this would be Miss. Smith's story of her trip to Spain. In this piece she wrote how lovely Spain was and how much she loved it. Such as the food. In this Travel essay she wrote, itdid not include theoretical facts but meerly the opinion of the writer about the place they went to. So now after reading MIss. Smith's story on Spain, I learned that this place is very culturaly diverse, the food is good, and it is a great vaccation spot. So maybe people read writer's writing pieces because those essays include information of the culture of that place through the writers eyes/ point of view.

I chose this question to ask and study for a specific reason. I truly think that it will help my writing. I think it will help my writing for a couple of reasons. First I can find out what people like to read so that I can make more people interested in my story. Rather than just what I like. Another reason is so that I can be more diverse. I can find out what type of writing people like. Such as a Haiku, Memoir, Travel etc. So that when I write something (In my free time) I can know what to write about rather than write in a style people dislike. So in my Doccumentary I would like to ask people what they like about writing. Weather they like sound, rythm, Haiku, informational essays, etc. In the long run this will help me, becasue everyday the world is changing and if I am writing a piece about my obsession with squirrels but people are interested in chipmunks, then no way can I ever be a successfull writer!

1/17 speaker- 5. I loved Miss. Ringler. I thought that she was an amazing writer and talker. I liked how she told her stories. * Connection *- I loved the way Miss. Ringler writes. So that is why I would read something she wrote. The emotions in her pieces were greatly present and I thought she told the story in great detail. (An answer to my doccumentary question!)

Round Four=Robyn Ringler

I read the three essays: "Dissection", "Letting Go" and "Hanging with Horses." I love the way Miss. Ringler writes. I love the description that she uses to explain objects. But then she doesn't use too many details so that it's a bombardment of textures, colors and shapes. "Dissection" was a great example of the description usage. "On the way to radiology, the breeze in the hallway blew through my hospital gown and the thin blanket covering me as I lay on a stretcher, the pain and noise in my head constant. Two male technicians wheeled me into a cold operating room where everything was stainless steel. They moved trays of utensils onto tables laid with white sheets. The table was hard, lights bright." I easily saw/ pictured this paragraph in my head. It is descriptive even on the edge of vague. But like I said before, I could picture this paragraph when I was reading it perfectly. I could picture this because the descriptions were descriptions of a simple hospital room which everyone knows. She doesn't over detail the room using words like polar (cold). This essay also relates to her real life. In Miss. Ringler's biography it said how Miss. Ringler graduated from medical school and became a nurse. "She graduated from Duke University's School of Nursing in 1979 and worked as a medical/surgical and cardiac nurse at the George Washington University Hospital." Miss. Ringler's personal experience in the medical field is portrayed in this piece. Miss. Ringler's use of medical terms in this piece shows that she knows what she is talking about. "...arteriogram...neuroradiologist...Vertebral artery dissection..." I think that over all Miss. Ringler's experience in the Medical department made her essay more medically descriptive. The second piece that I read was "Letting Go". This is a great story. I thought it was written beautifully. There was nothing that I liked particularly because I loved it so much. There were specific parts that I liked a lot though. One of the parts that I liked the best was the ending. "More than twenty years later, tears still well up when I remember Gloria’s dignity, poise, beauty, and grace.  Sharing the intimate and intense process of her death created a bond between us as strong as a relationship cultivated over decades.   That day in 1981, I not only lost a patient, but also, a beloved friend." I liked this part a lot because you can tell that Miss. Ringler really cared about Mrs. Gloria and that she wasn't just another patient in the eyes of Miss. Ringler. The second part that I like was the beginning. "Erect in a lavender suit, carrying a small tapestried valise, she was all elegance and poise.  Long slender legs advanced with the tapping of heels against linoleum.  Able to glimpse only the back of her, I thought for a moment she might be famous—a model, an actress.  I watched as she strode down the long hallway, dark wavy hair coursing over her shoulders....  A tumor, large enough to fit in the open grasp of a hand, formed of red granulation tissue--like the inside of someone’s mouth—protruded from her right cheek." I like this part because yes it portrays sadness but something else. I liked how in the beginning paragraph (Above) Miss. Ringler explained how beautiful Gloria was: long legs, small, wavy hair, a model. Then when they get into the room and Gloria turns her face the tumor makes her not pretty. But even though there was this ugly tumor on her face she was still a beautiful person without it. This essay again like the one I explained above relates to Miss. Ringler's medical experiences. This essay is made better because I usually   read stories in the perspective of the patient but in this case it is in the perspective of the nurse. So I think this essay was made better because it was told in a experienced nurse's point of view. It shows you that people can become friends under the saddest circumstances. The last essay I read "Hanging with Horses" was great. Yes it was a little inappropriate but like Miss. Geurin said on blackboard..."Hanging with Horses she notes is a little risque, but she thinks it teaches us to use humor in our writing when crazy things happen to us that we don't expect!" My favorite part of this essay was Lily's reaction to this whole situation. ". I looked for Lily to help. But, when she saw me dangling by my bra, she took a step back and scanned the ring to see if anybody was watching. No one was there. ‘Mom…stop it, get off the horse.’" I liked this because I couldn't believe this. I couldn't believe Lily's reaction because her mom could have died. Dan could have gotten frightened and ran away then trampled Miss. Ringler. I think that this writing piece is better because Miss Ringler knows about nature. In her biography Miss. Ringler said how she could be brush hogging and that she lives on thirty acres of land. "…30 acres of land…  When Robyn is not at the bookshop, you might find her brushhogging the fields at home." Although this essay doesn't exactly relate to nature, I still think the fact that she lives on a lot of land and that she brush hogs is important. It shows me that she isn't afraid of nature and that she at least likes to be outside. This connects to the essay because she found this situation at the barn funny rather than a nature hater would probably not have even gotten on the horse.  All three of these essays prove that writing an essay that relates to your everyday life can make your essay even better!


Question #1= In the essay "Dissection" what did you mean at the end when you said there was a part of you missing?
Question #2= In "Dissection" did you ever/ have you ever recovered from your illness?

1/12 speaker = 3.9, I thought that our last speaker was ok. I loved how he taught us to be creative with writing haiku’s and how he taught us on the process of making haiku's!

Round Three- Stephen Leslie

Although I read all of Mr. Leslie's poems such as "Her Voice" and "Joe", the one that stuck out to me was "Red-Tailed Hawk". This particular poem stuck out to me because I thought it was unique and it ran so many questions through my head (Also I love nature.) The first question that I will ask Mr. Leslie tomorrow will be: "Is this a non-fiction poem?" I think to ask this because it is so strange." On a sudden impulse I pulled over...For the rest of the day I drove around with his body... I laid him in that shallow grave..." Never in my life have I heard of someone finding a dead animal (No less a hawk) then putting it in their car to burry the next day. But other things were running through my head trying to make sense. On a T.V show once I heard that there are always dead animals on the side of main highways. So when I read the part about the eighteen wheelers, I thought that it meant something else then just creating wind. "Eighteen-wheelers roared by, their backwash ruffling his feathers." I think that this part of the poem (Who knows if this is even right?) represents the danger these roads have on the birds. The danger is that there is so many eighteen wheelers drive by and accidentally kill the birds. I also loved how Mr. Leslie put part of his cultural legacy in this poem. “...of my Native ancestors ...I lit a bundle of desert sage and approached the hole I had dug earlier. I laid him in that shallow grave, chanting a sacred mantra … as the nearly full moon rose directly overhead in the clear starlit sky. As faint wisps of sage smoke lingered, I played the wooden flute softly, then with my bare hands buried this beautiful creature." See I find this interesting. It seems as if he performed a type of spiritual ritual on the dead hawk! Now the actual haiku I thought was a bit confusing. I didn't understand the second line. "...A hand dappled with age spots..." Is this referencing the old decaying bird in his hand? or is he himself old? 
 1. How do you get the inspiration to these poems? …Daily life? 
2. How do you write a Haibun? Is there a specific format to the beginning paragraphs?
3. Why do you write these poems? 
4. Are they considered poems sense they have paragraphs of writing? 
1/10 Speaker- 4.0 (Again), Nothing was really wrong with her but I just don't see the interest in writing about travel.
My Haibun
I see the woods she goes hunting in every day. Not knowing about her destiny, soon to show up at the front door. The last place anyone would want to live…North America especially after the last civil war. The girl with skin as chard as a burning log. Who defies the nature everyone came accustom to know.
The battle just begins with me as the twenty fifth competitor. I follow her around in the woods she thought she knew well, until the action comes. I just climb a tree and wait until the danger is over, for her to rescue me. She never comes. A sting in my hard as if a spear was throne at me.  
 I will never end up seeing the girl that has done the impossible. She has killed and saved the same amount of people from this evil place
But little does she know...Now it's not just a game.*

Opened the first page,

Twenty fifth, district fourteen,

 Only one can win.*



* My Haibun was referencing "The Hunger Games" by Suzanne Collins and my experience reading it as the twenty fifth (out of twenty four) contestant in the Hunger Games!

I read "Tales of the beach", and article by Deborah J. Smith. In this article she infused the vacation she had with her family with the cultural experiences she faced. From the article I learned come culture from Nerja, Spain. One of the first things that I learned was that Spain has a part of Britain  inside of it. Nerja had shops that were full of British goods and Miss. Smith said how many  British tourists went to vacation in Spain. "Inside were all the British sweets I can’t find unless I visit our relatives in Belfast." Another thing that I learned and some what knew was that paella is a famous spanish dish. It is popular amungst many people. Miss. Smith even said how she walked all the way down the beach when they were in Nerja just so she could reach the last restaurant(Ayo), which serves the spiced rice, chicken and shrimp dish. "But I had come all the way to Nerja for Ayo’s paella. Ayo’s is the last restaurant at the end of Burriana Beach." Finally I have learned a bit about the scenery in Nerja and what is custom in Spain. Miss Smith shared in this piece how most beaches in Europe have pebbles instead of sand, as well as a strong undercurrent. "We unrolled our towels at Calahonda Beach for a swim. Like many European beaches it’s pebbles instead of sand; the ocean undertow quickly fills your sandals with dime-sized stones and buries your feet in gravel." This is strange for me because I'm used to sitting on sand at a Lake George beach with just waves from the passing boats to worry about (And of course Lake George wouldn't have a undercurrent, becasue it's a lake niot an ocean.) But the thing is that scence I'm used to the lovely sand at Lake George, it's hard to think about relaxing on hard pebbles. Then once your done on the hard sand you get carried away on the undercurrent!  

I listened to the "audio essay" "Bun Day." I really didn't like the audio essay. I mean yes there was some advantages but I would recommend that someone read an essay rather than listen to it. But, as I said there were a few advantages I thought to audio essays. The only advantage I thought was that you get to feel the emotion of the writer and what they felt. When I read essays I might think the author was saying or portraying a different emotion. In this essay Miss Smith said how much she loved and wanted to try the pineapple cream puffs."...They're pineapple cream puffs, my god, give me one of those please!" When I heard this in the audio I knew right away that Miss. Smith was happy and ex-tactic to try this new pastry that she found and that this pineapple cream puff would be a dominant memory looking back in years to come. But in an essay I could have thought that Miss. Smith was happy to try this cream puff and that it was just another fun thing she did. Another example of this emotion was when Miss. Smith was talking about the pop tarts. "these bars of dense pastry sandwiched with berry or rub-barb jam were crowned with pink frosting and had pastel sugar strands down the center. I still wonder why I didn't buy one. every time I look at the photo now I salivate, imagining what it must taste like." In this I can feel the remorse of not buying one of these pop-tarts. I mean who wouldn't want a pop-tart from another country? 

1. Why do you write about traveling?

2. How do you convey people into reading your essays/ what makes them interesting?

1/6 Speaker = 3.7 stars -My opinion- I loved her view on poetry and the connection with sound/ voice. But she seemed a tad bland. I want to here poems about more exotic and creative things rather than a soccer game. But again she did teach me good skills which help me understand poetry better.  

Round One=Broderick

After reading Miss. Broderick's biography, I learned how good of a writer she is. I could tell this because of how many different resources and places her writings have been in. "My poems, etc., have appeared in assorted journals, webzines, anthologies, radio broadcasts, chapbooks, and art galleries." The first poem that I read ("On the Wall of Children's Drawings") was different. The thing that I liked the most was that the poem had a couple sudden shifts. "...yellow earth even softer cupping those bellies. Peace: the theme of all these drawings..." I think that this represents the shift because it is describing mushrooms and things under them then it suddenly goes to talk about drawings. The second poem I read (" Ceiling Lamp, Kitchen") is all about the descriptions. She describes an ordinary object (Inside of a lamp) and uses multiple adjectives and metaphors etc. to explain it with great detail. "  (its inner cape pearl-white, one bulb glowing edge less as the moon I saw last night partially hazed...)" The final poem that I read (" Lune of the Tsatsawassa Creek") was very good. This poem was all sound words.The second time I read  this I loved it. I loved it because it got me thinking about a creek, then all of the things around a creek. Like the forest or the animals etc. It reminded me of the fly swatter story I did in my storytelling project."(www www www swat www www)" This reminded me of a fly being swatted. Miss. Broderick's poems told me a lot about her a well as the biography. They showed me that she uses a lot of literary elements in her poems. Everyone that I read had details that pondered me, because the poems were very concise yet very detailed.


1. How do you write poems that are short yet extremley descriptive? 
2. Why did you start writing poetry?

How does Outliers connect to MY life?

When I initially stated the book Outliers by Malcolm Gladwell I thought nothing of it. I thought that it was just another book that we had to read for English class. But because of this assignment I think that there is more to this book then I had originally thought. This book actually is relevant to my everyday life. I realize that Outliers is a book about everyday occurrences. This is why the book Outliers connects to my life. This book connects to my life in multiple ways. I never thought that the way I was raised by my parents would affect the way I act in society. Could my stress induced headaches really be from school? Finally someone who thinks it's actually smart to read in the summer and that accepts the fact that I work from the time I get home until the time I go to bed on homework.

The book Outliers showed to me that the way I am raised can affect how I act in society. Throughout my whole life my parents have told me to ask questions if I want answers. I was always raised to never be shy and I was taught the philosophy being shy gets you nowhere. I use this act daily. During school I ask questions in every one of my classes every day. An example is last week during Biology my class started a new topic. The new topic was on genetics and the structure of DNA. I must have asked at least fifteen questions that day during class. When I graduated kindergarten my teachers put on my graduation certificate that I was the one with a million questions. I love to ask questions because it adds to my intelligence. But other times I hate asking questions because I feel like they annoy my teacher. Outliers told me that I am so quick to ask a question because that is how I was raised. This method which parents teach their children is called concerted cultivation. (104) "Lareau calls the middle-class parenting style 'concerted cultivation.' It's an attempt to actively "foster and assess a child's talents, opinions and skills." My parents are raising me so that I can get the most that I could out of school. So this is normal for me and it should be for everyone. Right? Wrong. Gladwell shares another type of parenting in the book. (104) "Poor Parents tend to follow, by contrast, a strategy of 'accomplishment of natural growth." I have seen this type of parenting through my dad. When my dad was a young boy his parents (My grandparents) didn't have a lot of money. My grandmother taught and raised my dad through discipline and order. But my dad never listened. My dad also never did good in school. All of these factors added together, and I think that I get an example of the "poor (as in money)" way of parenting. My dad never did well in school because his parents never taught him to express his opinions. So when he went to school why would he think that a teacher would care about what he had to say? But what way is the correct way to raise a child? Because I have been raised my whole life to ask questions I think that asking questions is the right thing to do. But in school, why do kids who are obviously not poor sit in the back and never share their opinions or ask any questions? Is asking questions really the right way to learn? Even though Gladwell neglects to share his opinion on which parenting style in his opinion is better, I think that again asking questions is the best way to gain intelligence. Concerted Cultivation is the only way to not become subordinate to other students and to society. Anyway, what is so bad about asking so many questions?

I step in to the familiar sanitized smelling office and I check in for my appointment. After thirty minutes of waiting I get sent to my room for my check up. After another thirty minutes the underpaid doctor steps into the room. Sticking a nasal microscope up my nasal passageway he looks to see if my sinuses are clear or if again I need to go under the knife to remove the unwanted visitors that stay in my nose. I am at a checkup with my ENT. These check ups happens twice a year. The ENT is short for ears, nose and throat doctor. My ENT has to check to see if my allergies are acting up. When I was in seventh grade, they found a mass in my sinuses which was caused by overactive allergies. So I had to go and get it surgically removed. I had known something was wrong because I was getting and have gotten severe headaches my whole life. The ENT determined my headaches were due to allergies such as tree pollen, moss, dust, dog hair exc. But was this really the only thing causing these headaches? (253) "...Tremendously concerned that children not get too much schooling. In 1871 for example, the US commissioner of education published a report by Edward Jarvis on the 'Relation of Education to Insanity.' Jarvis had studied 1,741 cases of insanity and concluded that 'over-study' was responsible for 205 of them." So was Alec James Lee going crazy? No but, I was "over-studying". The ENT had also concluded that I was over stressed. This stress was the other reason I was getting headaches. In school I always stressed out about things like studying and finishing homework. Even right now while writing this essay I have a headache. So reading Outliers made me understand that I need to focus on my studies and that I should do good in school. But I should do it in moderation because really, who wants to go crazy because of school?

A kid who doesn't have time to eat dinner because of school work. Who has heard of that one before? I have because I do this practically every weekday. Here is an example of an extremely busy day... a typical Thursday. I get up at 5:00 every morning, catch the bus at 6:40, go to school (not that bad!). Straight from school I go to my bowling match which if it is home ends at 5:30 and if it is away I usually get home around 6:00- 6:30. When I get home I eat (If I have time), change out of my bowling outfit then I'm right out of the door again. From 6:30 to 8:00 I have Chamber choir practice (Chamber choir is the top singing group at GHS.) Then from 8:00 to whenever I do all of my homework. Sometimes I am done with it at 10:00 (I prefer to go to bed at this time) and other times I am up until 11:00. I have a cram packed schedule so like the students at the KIPP middle schools, I have had to cut out leisure time and activities. (266) "... (At a friend's house) So I would be at her house and I would be doing my homework...And she was so discouraged because we stayed until five and we had a lot of homework, and I told her that us having a lot of homework helps us do better in class. And she told me she didn't want to hear the whole speech. All my friends are know from KIPP." I can relate to this girl named Marita. I mean I have friends that aren't from GHS and I don't do my homework at their house. Instead though I have given up my time. I don't have time anymore to relax and watch TV with my family. I'm too busy to watch TV by myself even. I used to love to watch all of my shows like American idol, national geographic, man vs. wild and more, but like Marita I have given up my personal time in order to become a successful person. (266) "...To become a success at what they did, they had to shed some part of their own identity." My identity was family and the wildlife channel but now it is an overachiever who doesn't stop until the work is done.

Stress, concerted cultivation and a packed schedule. All part of my life as Alec lee and a part of the lives of the people in the book Outliers by Malcolm Gladwell. This book is not like others. Although I have said to other people that this book is horrible, it is all a lie. I love this book. Outliers made me feel like I was not so strange. That I'm not the only one that thinks too much school can become overwhelming. I'm not the only one courageous enough to ask twenty questions in one eighty minute class. It allowed me to realize that I'm not the only person who gives up part of their identity for the reward of intelligence and success. And who knows...Maybe I'm not overachieving but everyone else is underachieving.