Thinking on the Future Past

I am about to finish my first semester at college. Imagine that! A few short months ago, I was just beginning to pack for the move and now I'm getting ready to pack up my things to go home for Thanksgiving break and then shortly after for Christmas break! The time has most definitely flown by. I've always thought of me moving to college as a fresh start. Someplace new where no one knows me and I can just be me. And honestly, It seems that I'm still waiting for that. My past, the first semester of college where the starting over was supposed to take place, still seems like the future. Like I still need to start over. But what am I really wanting to happen? Do I want a complete new person to just suddenly take my place? Or am I just waiting for me to finally get my head on straight and be that successful person who has everything figured out like I've always imagined I would be? Because the second has definitely not happened thus far. I guess what I'm trying to say is that it seems that we're always wanting to be someone different when shouldn't we just want to be ourselves? We can't be anything else anyways.

The Never Ending Night

HOLOCAUST

The term holocaust basically means a complete devastation or destruction. This is how the killing of over 6 million Jews received the name The Holocaust. This was a horrible time in the history of the world where a group of people was massacred just because of what they believed in and how they lived their everyday lives, it was a devastation and destruction of an innocent people. Whenever I think about The Holocaust, my heart breaks. To think of all of the families that were torn apart and the friendships that were destroyed sends a shock of sadness throughout my entire body. My mind races to think of ways that I could sugar-coat this time, to make it as if this tragedy was not nearly as bad as it was, and that people were just over exaggerating. However, this is not possible. The Holocaust did happen and is just as bad as everyone has been telling me. All of the innocent children and adults did die when it was not their time to go. All of the Jews were exploited and looked down on. All of the families did get torn apart and separated from all of their friends.

History repeats itself. Every time this phrase comes up, I hope and pray that The Holocaust would not repeat itself. Everyday we live with the chance of this tragedy happening again. I hope that the leaders of other countries will see the mistake in what happened and will realize that never again should such an event take place. Never again innocent lives should be taken.

What I think about the Holocaust, is basically shown in the picture above. In this photo, it shows mounds of dead bodies, starving people, and dead (sometimes alive) bodies going into the crematoria to be burned. This picture has different images showing all parts of this abhorrent time. Photos are a way to portray what the past weather good or bad. And in this case it was extremely bad.

Elie Wiesel

The author of Night, Elie Wiesel, had a first hand encounter with many hardships. For one, he was a victim of The Holocaust. Elle was only a young boy when he and his family got taken away from their home to be taken to a concentration camp. He is then separated from his mother and sister forever, but luckily, he and his father remain together. Elle describes this time as "an unimaginable nightmare." From there, they are sent to many different camps where they are forced to work with barely any food or water and even occasionally received beatings from the authorities. To endure this sort of torture and to be able to live through it shows a massive amount of strength for a young boy. In my eyes, Elle and the others that survived this horrible time are some of the strongest people around.

Darkness

Throughout the entire novel, you can sense darkness. You can feel the cruelty radiating from the book's pages as you read about the poor beings who used to call themselves human. Night was appropriately named because to the people that suffered through this event, were in what felt as continual darkness and night. "The night was growing longer, never ending" Wiesel said in his book. The darkness was cruel and heartless leaving all the prisoners feeling hopeless, lost, and soul less. From all of the tortuous and heinous acts, the captives remained deeply scared for life. I will never be able to imagine what these people went through.

Courage- Taking Responsibility As We Make Choices

I think that through this entire novel, courage is being shown from the Jews who went through this prison. They lived every single day as best as they could and some of them even survived. It shows a tremendous amount of courage for them. However, I also think that the Nazi's were not showing courage. They were killing innocent people because someone told them to or else they would perish right along with the Jews. If only a small group of people had stood up to the bully's, threats, and violence and had shown some courage, then perhaps today instead of writing about the tragic Holocaust, I would be writing about the strong people who realized that their leader was wrong and millions of lived would have been saved. But in reality, I am writing about the lost lives and friendships, the beaten and dead humans, and the lack of courage.

Book Review for Just Listen

Just Listen is a compelling book by Sarah Dessen. It is about a young girl who after a tragic split with her best friend lost all of her social standing and her courage to speak out. As if dealing with school and friends wasn't enough, Anabelle had to put up with her sister's eating disorder which threatened to tear her whole family apart. But whenever Anabelle met the always truthful Owen, he began to teach her how to find the courage to tell what really happened the night that tore a friendship apart.

Living in the 1920's

I would not like to have lived in the 1920's. I enjoy all of the modern touches in my everyday life and I would definitely feel the sting if they ever got taken away from me. However, it would be nice to go back for a few days just to see all the ways it got it's name as the "Roarin' 20's". To be able to listen to all of the jazz music, to see all of the different hair styles and fashion choices, to witness the flappers dancing, and to just get an over all everyday feel of how their lives used to be.

Prom Night

Prom night, for me, did not consist of fancy dresses, manicures, or false eye lashes. My night was spent helping a friend move him and his family to a wonderful new house. :) With us being such good friends, the whole night was spent telling jokes and laughing. At first, I was a little sad about not going to prom, however once we all got to working and having a good time, I'm sure that I couldn't have had a better night. One of the biggest events of the night was when we had to go go pick up my boyfriend's brother from his house. Since all of the other cars were still waiting to be unpacked and the moving van was completely empty except for one chair in the very back corner, we were forced to take the van. When we were about to shut the back of the van, I got a wonderful idea. We would ride in the back of the moving van! So we piled in the chair and the whole ride was spend sliding from side to side while sitting on a very comfortable chair in the back of the van. It was definitely a trip to remember. :)

Gold

Finding gold in the colors of spring, at first, seemed like a huge challenge because whenever I think about spring I think about greens, pinks, purples, and a variety of different colors. However, the search turned out to be a very rewarding experience. While on this great search I was able to admire all of the beautiful scenery around me. In the busy events of everyday life, it's easy for one to forget and just rush by the gorgeous landscaping around us.
One morning while in English class, Mrs. Gilmore allowed me and Madeline go outside and have a super quick last look for something gold. And.. We found some! A cute little gold flower. At last all of our searching and looking had finally come to an end and Mrs. Gilmore had received her very first flower of the year.

St. Patty's Day- What does it mean to me.

St. Patrick's Day for me means that spring is on it's way! With green being such a dominant color for this day, it makes me very excited for all of the green trees and the flowers that will soon be all around us. A few St. Patrick's day memories would be in elementary school, I went to school all dressed in green to find out our teacher had a whole day of St. Patty's Day fun filled for us. We had scavenger hunts, great coloring sheets, and tons of green colored food. Another memory would be a few years ago, me and my sister went and bought everything green we could find. Green hair spray, shirts, necklaces, fake tattoos, and green face paint. When we went home, we got everything ready for what was to be the best St. Patrick's Day ever. :)