The future

With the AP test quickly approaching, I think that I am fairly prepared for it. We have written so many essays and done so many multiple choice practices that I should be ready. I am really happy that I decided to take this class because it has given me a stronger work ethic and it has prepared me for the work load that I expect college to give me. I hope that the AP test won't be too difficult and that I go into it prepared. I would really like to get this credit out of the way because I don't plan on majoring in English and I would get the required English class credit. Along with this AP test, I am also taking the AP Calculus test. The two tests are back to back within two days. I'm happy hat I will get them over with, but I expect that week to be a little stressful. I am happy that school is almost over with and I can't wait to move on with my life. I feel like most people get to a point where they just feel ready to move on and I am defiantly at that point right now. I am excited for graduation and summer vacation. I plan on going back to a Young Life camp to serve on work crew again and I could not be more excited. High school has taught me a lot and I think that I have grown a lot. I am excited to start with a fresh slate next year and to meet many new people.

Toddlers and Technology

As I walked in to babysit a four year old tonight I noticed that her focus was completely off. She was glued to her mom's Kindle fire watching Barney episodes one after another. She didn't greet me as I came into the room and she kept her eyes fixed on the screen as her dad was saying goodbye. I don't know what it is with children/people and technology, but it is as if that is all they are focused on nowadays. When I was a kid I spent most of my time playing outside with hula hoops and sidewalk chalk. I grew up alongside the growth of technology. So as I lay in my bed typing on my phone, I realize how consumed the world is with pieces of glass and metal called technology. If you really think about it, humans today would not be able to function without their I Phones and Kindles. With everyone stuck taping away on their screens, face to face confrontation has gone down the drain. People rely on speaking to each other via social networking where conversation flows more quickly and easily. I don't like this downward slope society is headed towards and witnessing a four year old glued to a screen doesn't give me much hope. I don't want the aspect of face to face communication to disappear completely just because of how convenient talking on phones is becoming.

Poetry Blues

Whenever I think of poetry I think of long boring passages or poems about something really random. Poetry has never really struck a chord with me because I don't really understand most poetry. I like the romantic side of poetry, but the literary side sounds like a chore. Reading 6-8 poems a night seems very daunting. It takes a while for the meaning behind a poem to register, so hopefully I will get better at analyzing poems. Poetry seems like it is very broad because I think of it as either being old and long or short and blatantly obvious. I didn't realize that poetry could just be a few lines of anything you want it to be. I always thought that poems have to follow a strict pattern and rhyme scheme but apparently that is not the case. I like that poetry can be beautiful when it is written in a simple way. I think that my writing skills are even worse than my writing skills. I want to get better at analyzing why the author chose the words they chose an why that is important. I want to learn the different type of rhyme patterns and what purpose they accomplish.

Adventure

My new outside reading book is "Into the Wild". It is about this man who goes by the name Alex. He graduated from college and came from a wealthy family, but he was very unsatisfied with his life. He ditched his life and belongings one day and set out for the west. He lived a lifestyle of adventure and curiosity. He lived off nature and whatever people offered along the way. He stretched his journey from Houston to California. His mindset along the way was very unique because he believed that in order to experience happiness and inner peace you have to abandon the commercial lifestyle that most people live. I think his lifestyle was very extreme, but to some extent you have to give up things that are holding you back from experience life to the fullest. I think an easy thing to give up would just be spending so much time on your phone or glued to a screen. There's so many beautiful things in the world and I think a lot of people miss them because they are preoccupied. Alex just didn't give up his phone, he gave up his car, family, and life savings to see the true beauty in the world which was the landscape surrounding him.