Submitted in response to Words Alive’s QuaranTEENS prompt, All the Feels
If happiness were a color,
it would be red, as red as the heart.
If happiness were a taste,
it would be just like pizza
If happiness were a smell,
it would be as sweet as perfume.
If happiness were tangible,
it would feel like cat’s fur.
If happiness were a sound,
it would be as joyful as the singing of a bird.
Submitted in response to Words Alive’s QuaranTEENS challenge,
Book Cover Double
original cover (left), recreation (right)
What’s your favorite book? Recreate the cover and share it with us here.
Submitted in response to Words Alive’s QuaranTEENS challenge,
Book Cover Double
What’s your favorite book? Recreate the cover and share it with us here.
Submitted in response to Words Alive’s QuaranTEENS challenge,
Book Cover Double
What’s your favorite book? Recreate the cover and share it with us here.
Submitted in response to Words Alive’s QuaranTEENS prompt, All the Feels
If happiness were a color,
it would be yellow, as yellow as the sun that wakes us up.
If happiness were a taste,
it would be just like sugar ́cause it makes everything feel better If happiness were a smell,
it would be as sweet as the spring.
If happiness were tangible,
it would feel like the softest blanket, that warms us in the winter.
If happiness were a sound,
it would be as melodious as the sound of nature.
drawing also by author, Carolina
Submitted in response to Words Alive’s QuaranTEENS prompt, All the Feels
drawing also by the author, Allana
Euphoria
If euphoria were a color,
it would be orange
as orange as the heat of adrenaline surging strongly and quickly in a small and sensitive space.
If euphoria were a taste,
it would be just like sparkling wine that bubbles in a pleasant way and takes away the sense of a harsh reality and leaves us feeling lighter.
If euphoria were a smell,
it would be as citrusy as something acidic that gives us convenient chills.
If euphoria were tangible,
it would feel like a hot body coming into contact with cold water, causing relief and rapture.
If euphoria were a sound,
it would be as soft as the sound of the laughter we provoke in the people we love.
On the 21st of February, 2019, I was able to go to Hawaii with one of my best friends, Kayla. We’ve known each other for 9 years, and we’re basically like sisters. In fact, we’re even both Russian. The reason we traveled to Hawaii was because we had a cheer competition there. Unfortunately, my family couldn’t go because my Grandpa had cancer, and he was living with us. My family had to stay home to take care of him. Honestly, I’m glad they didn’t go, because otherwise, I wouldn’t have been able to go with my best friend, her mom and sister. They are pretty much my second mom and sister. Anyways, I’m going to get on with the trip now, so enjoy!
Day 1:
*Beep, Beep, Beep*. Oh my goodness, it's 5:30 in the morning, and I never wake up this early! I think to myself. Wait, it's time to go to Hawaii? Hooray! I can’t wait to get there, and swim in the clear blue ocean. I’m also really nervous though, because I feel like I’m going to forget something, and I really don’t want to forget anything to do with my cheer stuff.
“Sasha, time to get up”, says my mother.
“I know mom, I had an alarm you didn’t need to tell me”, I replied.
“Well hurry up, were leaving in an hour.” I’m the happiest person alive right now, it doesn’t even feel real. I'm supposed to go to school today and tomorrow, but instead I’ll be in Hawaii with my best friend.
My mom pulls up next to the drop off spot at the airport, and Kayla, Megan, Kayla’s sister, and Jeanette, Kayla's mom, get out of the car, as I hug and say my goodbyes to my mom. I love airports so much, and flying. Sometimes I get bored, but it’s just so much fun for some reason.
Wow, look at that view. I’m sitting in my seat, looking out my window at the beautiful clear waters of Hawaii. Hawaii, wow I can’t believe I’m even here right now. That flight sucked though, because it was way too long. We get off the plane, and Kayla and I are bouncing around. We have so much energy, and can’t wait to get to the hotel, and go swimming.
As soon as we get to our hotel on Waikiki beach, Kayla and I go explore. We find a lagoon and some of our friends. For the rest of the night we take it easy, and just hang around the lagoon and beach.
Day 2:
“Come on guys get up, we have to be at Hanauma Bay soon”, Jennette tells Kayla and I, who are sleeping on the pull out couch. Today is our one free day in Hawaii. The only thing we have to do for cheer is practice, but that's later in the evening. We also have a team dinner.
We all ride in this van that picked us up at the hotel, and is taking us to the snorkeling place. I love driving in Hawaii, because it's so peaceful, and there's so many things to look at and see.
When we get down to the beach, Kayla and I see some of our friends, Sophia and Andrea, who are sisters. The rest of the time at the beach was spent on snorkeling and taking photos, like any other teenage girls would do.
“Hey you're not supposed to be on the coral”, some random lady tells us. Coral? That looks like rocks. My friends and I are standing on things that look like rocks. I guess it might be coral, but I mean we didn’t know that.
Right when we get back to the hotel, we get ready for practice. We’re going to be late, which is not good. Megan and I are on the same team, 3.2. We all start running and we can’t find how to get there. We see a shortcut, and all we have to do is jump over a fence, and we’ll be there.
“Guys, no, don’t go that way we should just go around”, Megan says.
“It’s fine, I can see everyone from our gym”, Kayla replies. Kayla and I go and jump over the fence, as Megan Goes around. We make it over just fine, get to practice right on time, and about 10 minutes later, we see Megan walking over.
“Told you so”, Kayla says to her.
We just finished practice, and now we’re headed back to the hotel to get ready for dinner. All we have is an hour before we go to dinner. The dinner is just for the athletes, so Kayla’s mom doesn’t go. After we’re all finished getting ready, we walk over to the hotel that we’re all meeting at, to walk over to the restaurant. Kayla and I walked with Andrea and Sophia. We were messing around, and I told Sophia to push Andrea in the bush, because Andrea pushed Sophia.
“Ok do it now”, I say to Sophia. Sophia pushes Andrea into this tall bush with lots of leaves, and Andrea falls all the way into the bush. All you could see was her feet, and everyone started laughing.
When we get the restaurant, the four of us all sit together. We ordered lemonade, and as soon as we got them, Sophia knocked hers over.
“Oh my god Sophia”, Kayla said. We all started laughing again. During dinner, we just talked and laughed about stupid things. Once we were ready to go, Sophia put on her jacket, and then her hand hit her drink a second time, and it spilled everywhere.
Day 3:
“Girls time to get up!” Jenette tells us. It’s 8:30, and we have to be at the convention center in an hour and a half. So, it’s time to get a move on, and get ready for our competition. I’m excited, because I love competing, and it's my favorite part of cheer. It just feels so amazing to be on that stage smiling, tumbling, and stunting. My favorite part of our routine currently is the stunt where I’m the flyer. Two people throw me up as I hold on to a girl in the middle hands, do a front flip over her, and land in the other people’s hands.
After we’re done getting ready, we head over to the convention center to get our hair done there. Doing our hair for cheer is so difficult, so we usually just have someone else do it. Once we are done doing our hair, we head over to the warm ups, and start stretching and warming up all our tumbling and stunting.
“5, 6, 7, 8 hang ten”, everyone says as we’re on the stage. I hear people in the front of the stage cheering for us, and it’s the best feeling in the world. Here we go!
“Girls you all did amazing”, our coach tells us as we exit the stage to go see our parents. We really did do amazing.
“Hey, do you guys all want to go over to the mall?” someone from my team asks.
“Sure”, Megan and I say. About 9 of us head over to the mall, to get some food and relax.
When we get back to the hotel, Kayla and I change into our bathing suits, and put some shorts over them. As we head down to the lagoon, we see some of the little girls from our gym. They tag along, and we all go swimming, and do stunts. At one point, we got one of these big byclec things in the water, and we all got on it. It started sinking, since there were so many of us getting on.
We get back to the hotel from swimming, and just chill for the rest of the night. It was a tiring day, and Kayla has to compete tomorrow again. However, Megan and I’s team won’t.
Day 4:
This is our last full day in Hawaii, and I’m pretty sure Kayla and I are going to cry, when we have to leave. We love Hawaii so much, especially all the swimming we get to do. This morning, I helped Kayla do her hair, as she put on her makeup. I just threw on some shorts, and a t-shirt, with my bathing suit underneath. It’s pretty hot today.
As we drive over to the convention center, I look out the windows, and think about how much fun we’re going to have at the luau tonight.
“Here you guys are”, the Lyft driver says to us.
“Thank you”, we all say back to him as we get out of the car.
Once Kayla is done competing, we wait around for her awards. My awards were yesterday, and we got 1st place. I can’t wait to get back to the hotel, and go swimming again.
When we get back to the hotel, Kayla gets her bathing suit, and Megan and I are already in our bathing suits, so we don’t have to. Kayla’s team planned to go to the beach all together, and Megan and I’s team wanted to go to this cool pool at one of the hotels by Waikiki beach. At the hotel, we swim in the pool, and the water slide they have. Some point while we were in the hot tub, these two boys got in the hottub and we start talking to them. It was really funny, because my one friend Zoey and I kept laughing. At the end of it all, we all followed them on Tik Tok, and they followed us back (I still follow one of them to this day).
Megan and I head back to the hotel to get ready for the luau. On the way up, we run into Kayla, and so we walk up together. Once we get into the hotel room, we quickly take turns taking showers, and getting ready to go.
After we’re done, we hurry out to the spot we’re supposed to get picked up by this bus that takes us to the luau.
When we’re on the bus, the driver talks about all the food that will be at the luau, and mentions something that sounded like “boys.” Kayla and I start laughing, because it was really funny. It turns out it’s called “poy”, not “boys”.
At the luau, we take photos, because it’s right on the beach, and it’s sunset time. Once we are done doing that, we go get these really good drinks, and food. After we all finish our food, the real part starts. The people dance on stage, and at one point, when they offer the girls and women to come dance on stage, I drag Kayla with me, and hula dance there, showing us two. When the boys went on to dance, it was so funny, because they were messing around.
It’s now time to leave, and Kayla and I are so sad, because that means when we get to the hotel, we have to go to be, and our trip to Hawaii will be basically over.
Day 5:
Today is the day we have to leave, and I really don’t want to go. I just want to stay here forever, and go swimming, cliff diving, and more fun things. We only have about 2 hours before we have to leave, so Kayla, Megan, and I, all head down to the beach to get our last swim in. As we’re heading down, we see a rainbow, and a few minutes later, it turns into a double rainbow. I take a few pictures, as I’m in awe of it.
After we get back from our last swim in Hawaii waters, we take showers and pack everything up. We then head down to the gift shop, so I can get some presents for my family. For my dad, I get some Hawaii t-shirts, as if he doesn't have enough. For my mom, I choose a Hawaii smelling candle, and some lip gloss that has flowers inside. Lastly for my brother, I get him a few keychains, because he loves to put them on his backpack.
We’re now sitting on the plane, and taking in the last views of Hawaii, as we fly away back to our houses.
Due to the time change, it’s dark when we arrive home, which sucks.
“Oh my god, they got the bid”, Jenette says. In cheer, you can get bids to big competition, and for Kayla’s team they were trying to get a bid to get to Florida, and compete at Summit. Kayla starts crying in tears of joy as we tell the rest of the teammates that we’re on the plane.
As my dad drives us all back home, we tell him about all the fun adventures we had. I tell him how much I already miss it, and want to go back. I mean last night we were just at a luau enjoying Hawaii air.
Submitted in response to Words Alive’s prompt, Flip the Script in This Upside-Down New World
Ever since I was a child, I have been raised by my stepmother and been forced to work several hours a day to clean the palace and make it spotless. Whenever I cleaned down in the cellars, I would learn the art of healing from one of the prisoners in my step-mother’s cells. She taught me how to revive an unconscious person and how to make medicines on the spot, in case of an emergency.
Then one day, this Prince showed up at the castle while I was making a wish in the wishing well and we talked for a little while. He was a chivalrous young man. A few days later however, my step-mother’s favorite huntsman took me into a forest and told me that he was escorting me for a walk. However, things took an interesting turn when the huntsman raised his knife to kill me. I was petrified because no one had ever tried to kill me before. Before I screamed, he dropped his weapon and said:
“I’ll make sure no one finds out, run away as fast as you can!”
I nodded, breathlessly and made a run for it as fast as I could.
After facing horrors, I would have never imagined, I managed to find a small house with seven kind, friendly dwarves who I looked after as if they were my siblings. One of those days, that same Prince came over and dropped by the dwarves’ home while I was cleaning. After we talked for a while, an old woman came by and we brought a basket of apples from her. Unsuspectingly, the prince ate an apple, immediately falling to the floor, seemingly dead. When I checked his pulse, it convinced me otherwise. That moment, the dwarves came home and seeing the predicament gave a gasp of horror.
“Give him the kiss of life!” Dopey exclaimed.
I scoffed, effortlessly performing normal CPR, not mouth-to-mouth and revived him, dislodging the piece of apple in his throat.
That day, he had asked me to marry him, but I turned him down, saying I wanted to take care of the animals in the forest and the dwarves’ home. He stalked off, angry that a maiden in shining armor would have to save him, a bachelor in a bind. Heh, I mean after all, don’t judge a book by its cover and you obviously can’t marry a man you just met.
So here I am, Snow white and her seven dwarf brothers, the animals of the forest living happily ever after.
(Bet you didn’t see that one coming, am I right?)
Summers coming to a close in sunny San Diego. Down at the coast, the sun sets over the blue horizon, baking the landscape in a thick layer of heat. Its harsh rays reflect off the ocean's water, casting a pink-ish trail of freckles across my wonderstruck face. With a deep inhale, I breathe in the smell of saltwater and surf wax, their scents merging to create a strangely familiar and nostalgic smell. I shift back and forth on my board, my head and chest facing up to the sky, mesmerized by the world of color before me. Pinks, purples, blues, and even reds dance in a tango of light, painting a postcard-worthy sunset. I let my legs hang limply off the side of my board, allowing the natural rhythm of the water to carry me.
Down at the shore, few people pass by, mostly just locals enjoying the sunset. Around this time of year, the beaches stay strangely deserted. I find the mid-summer crowds tend to fall off around late August, most get bored and ready to move onto something new. Personally, I prefer the beaches during the later months of summer. Once we've passed the inevitable June gloom and the water warms to a nice 70°, making for the perfect evening swim or surf session. I stare off to the shoreline for a second before my gaze trails up to the sky. I watch as a lone seagull flies overhead, so engrossed in the world before me, I almost miss my dad's cries of excitement as he paddles towards me.
“Turn around, turn around!” He cries, eager to catch my attention. I snap out of my daze, turning my head to watch as a steadily growing wave approaches me. Slowly, realization dawns on me as I splash about, desperately moving at a sloth-like pace to turn my board around. Every second counts as I get in position, going through my mental checklist of steps to catching the perfect wave.
Weight even, toes barely hanging off the back of the board as I start to paddle. I keep my eyes up, facing forward as I await that familiar pull. Don't look back, if there's one thing I've learned it's never look back. There's no reason to, all it leads to is an unnecessary sense of fear and what-ifs. Careful, don't let your guard down, I warn myself. Are you still paddling? Don't stop, even when you feel the wave catch you, it's the only way you'll get the proper momentum to go anywhere. Now, I take one last deep breath as I feel the wave come on. Keeping my weight forward, I paddle hard, enjoying the last few moments of silence before I stand and the wave crashes into a storm of whitewash. I float for just a moment until I feel the inevitable pull as the wave sucks me into its fury. Without a second to spare I pop a leg up, steadily rising as I hover above the water. With a sudden drop, the wave crashes below me, pulling me with it as I ride it to shore. Shouts of excitement and laughter ring out behind me, my dad cheering me on as I go. A loud, enthusiastic laugh escapes my mouth, echoing over the rawr of the crashing waves.
Recently, I've found myself repeating this memory time after time in my head. Ever since I was young my dad has been taking me and my sister down to the beach to go surfing with him. That memory in specific I remember so vividly, the sweet late summer air, the calls of encouragement as I rode that last wave to shore. In these times of uncertainty and doubt, I find myself clinging onto this memory for support. It acts as a reminder to keep my head up, to keep paddling because no wave is too big, especially if you know how to take things one step at a time.
Submitted in response to Words Alive’s Writing Challenge from author Matt de la Peña: LOVE
I believe the family is wrong in this situation. To hide the girl from the world and block out all the pain is not the way to teach her; sometimes the fear of the unknown can be greater than the fear of the situation itself. Also, the imaginations of young children are powerful- whether they use it positively or negatively. For instance, in that girls mind, she rides unicorns through the yard, but zombies lurk under her bed. Just imagine the horrors that would form in the little girl’s mind at the thought of what this news might be about.
However, I do see that shielding the child was an act of love. To me, this picture presents a family who only wants to keep their little girl safe. They want her to be oblivious to the world. To stay free of pain, grief, and fear. But in reality, is this really the way for a child to learn? The way for their little girl to grow, and to face challenges that might be scary in her own life?
I imagine that on the screen in the photo, they are seeing the effects of Global Warming. Maybe on the news in the world Matt de la Pena has created, they want to remind everyone of the other perils our world is facing, not only COVID -19 (although I do agree it should be our main priority right now).
The family is watching stranded polar bears moaning desperately towards the vast ocean. They witness vibrant coral becoming bleached, white and dying, from the warming waters. The family sees walruses tumbling off cliffs to their deaths because there is hardly any land for them to live on with the rising sea levels.
The family doesn’t want the girl to hear this heartbreaking information. But how could she grow up to save the world if she doesn’t even know what’s out there?
Those are some of the views and opinions I have visualized about the family’s actions and what I imagine the screen in this picture is showing.
Submitted in response to Words Alive’s prompt, Stuck Inside but Writing Outside the Box
A colored pencil’s life is spectacular!! I’m telling you this because me and my buddies have professionalism. I live in a box with all my varicolored friends, it’s a fascinating world down here even though we are in a box and we all are tight and Incommodious together. Sometimes we do have our small debates on color rearranging but it’s the order we put back into. When we swoosh softly around making tracks of our magnificent color to design such wonderful images on paper makes us feel exuberant!! The feeling of a slick pathway on paper and creating a kid’s phenomenal imagination! We love our job of adding such magnificent vivid colors to your creations! When the time is over to color or you no longer feel the excitement to color with us we feel gloomy inside, also when some of our friends go missing under the couch. But looking on the bright side we love the feeling of being able to color with you!!
From this project, I felt like there was a new experience, by looking at a different way of cooking, and I really enjoyed my experience. There was a day where one of my teachers, Kyle, gave us an assignment to cook a meal for our family, and since I haven’t really been able to go out in the world, and see my friends, I have really liked that assignment. For the assignment, I made my family chicken ravioli. This is a dish I had never heard of, until my girlfriend, Alissa, told me about it. I ended up choosing that dish to use for the assignment. This assignment was a really good help for me to get an escape for reality, because cooking is a really fun hobby of mine. Cooking the ravioli was kind of a challenge, because my girlfriend recommended me to cook it from scratch, which I have never done before. All around, it was a fun experience to try a new way of cooking.
First of all, I had to go to the store with my mom, which took a long time, because she had to go to her office. I ended up waiting for her in the hot car, and I couldn't get out, because I didn't have a mask to go outside. But while I was waiting for my mom, my baby brother, who’s 3, was there with me in the car. The whole time, he was just watching my phone, so it was nice and calm. Then about 2 hours passed, and my phone ran out of battery. So he started crying, threw a tantrum, and I couldn't do anything to help him, since we couldn’t go outside, and I couldn't give him my phone. So I saw some of the toys he had on the floor of the car, so I handed him some, and he calmed down for a while but then started crying again. Luckily, my mom came back about 10 minutes later. So then, after my mom’s work, we went to the store to get ricotta cheese, because we needed it to use it as the filling for the ravioli. I also didn't go with my mom to the grocery store, because I had to stay and take care of my baby brother. This time my mom gave him her phone, so it was much calmer, but it was still really hot. Then she came back with some water bottles, and I felt so relieved to finally go home, and to be drinking cold water in the hot California sun.
The following day, I had finished school about an hour early, because I wanted to take a shower. Afterward, I went to the kitchen, only to find that my mom had all the ingredients out already. There were a lot of ingredients, because I made the dough for the ravioli from scratch. My mom walked me through making the dough, because I had never made dough before. That would be my first time. It was pretty easy to make, because you just roll the dough. I was about half way into rolling the dough, so I stopped for a little bit to make the filling, which was ricotta cheese, and spinach with some garlic. In the end, it was really good because I never thought of putting garlic in the filling, but it turned out really good. Then, after I let that cook, I started to make the alfredo sauce to put over the ravioli and chicken. For the alfredo sauce, I started off with butter at the bottom of a bowl, before I started adding in garlic, ricotta cheese, parmesan cheese, heavy cream, pepper, and garlic. It didn't have ricotta at first, and I liked it like that, because it was creamy. I like creamy food, but then my mom tried it, and suggested that I put ricotta cheese in it. I listened to her because I always do, and I just let it rest in the pot. After that, it started getting really hot in the kitchen, because the stove was on and my head started to hurt. I felt like taking a break, but I couldn’t because the grind never stops. I put the filling in the dough, and after that I started to boil the ravioli, which was the second-to-last step. It ended up taking some time, because I did a test, and it took some time to cook the dough. Then, finally as the raviolis finished up, I was putting them in a big wide pot, to share with my family. After I put the chicken, and the ravioli, in the pot, I topped it all off with the alfredo sauce. Once I was done, I served it to my mom, because she and I were the only ones home. It felt good talking to her normally, because I haven’t really talked to my parents. It was a joke, because of social distancing, but it just felt good to talk to her again.
Hey, so have you ever been bored and stuck home quarantined with nowhere to go, not even school? But then you get school back, but online school, not regular school, and then you have to do everything online? Well if not, I will tell you what that's kinda like for me.
In my city and all around the world, we are stuck at home in quarantine and have to do school online because of a virus called the Coronavirus. There are many things that we are having to do in distance learning/online school but, today I will only be talking about one. That one thing that we are having to do, is read a book and meet weekly with a group of other classmates that are reading the same book. But first, let’s start this off by talking about what book we are reading.
My book group and I are reading this really good and interesting book. It’s a mystery book called “Patron Saints of Nothing” and as I said earlier, it’s extremely interesting. I’ve really enjoyed this book since the first day that I started reading it, the book just caught my eye and I couldn't help but keep reading. Before I go any further, let me tell you a bit of a backstory of what I’ve read so far. I’ll make sure not to spoil just in case you want to read it.
So, the main character is a boy named Jay, he is Filipino but lives in America, and is a senior. Something happens and he tries to figure it out. In my opinion, I say that everything just gets suspicious. But, that’s all I’ll say and I hope that you have the courage to go read this great book on your own. Now I’ll get into what my book group and I are doing with the book and our book clubs.
As I said before, we are reading “Patron Saints of Nothing” and it is kinda hard to read when you are in a group. I say this because we read at different paces and it is hard to be on the same page when we only meet once a week for our book club meetings.
In our book club meetings, we meet up as a group and talk about our book. Now, you may be wondering how do we meet since we are having to do everything over the computer? Well, we have a book club meeting once a week on an app called Zoom for about 30 minutes.
I personally don't like that we have to do online school because of Corona being all around the world. I also don't like being stuck at home quarantined and not being able to go anywhere.
There is one more thing that I would actually like to touch on before I end this. I want to talk about how I have experienced something that I never thought that I would do while being stuck at home. The thing that I have been doing is reading a lot and it’s really surprising to me because I usually only read when I have to. Now, I have been reading books a lot more. At the moment I am just reading “Patron Saints of Nothing” with my group and I am having fun with it.
I also enjoy having our book club meetings. At our first meeting, we just decided how we were going to work out how many pages we should have done by our next meeting so we can't spoil the book.
Now that you heard about my short story about what we have to do during online school, I now want to ask you if this has ever happened to you, what did you do during online school? Or, even just what you have been doing while being stuck at home?
I love playing video games. When I am done doing chores, I just play for an hour and 30 minutes a day. My favorite game is Ark, but I do like other games like Battlefront II, Need for Speed Payback, Minecraft, Rocket League, Jurassic World Evolution, and Battlefront II. Occasionally, I like to play games like Minecraft but I mostly play Ark and Super Smash Bros. That's the game that I mostly play. When I first found out about it, I thought that it was just a survival game with different maps. Later I found out that it has a storyline in it. That's when I became interested in playing it. I started to do research about the storyline, and that is when it got more interesting to me.
The storyline is that something is going on on Earth and humans are building these ARKs that go to space to save lives. But, there is a catch, giant monsters destroy half the world using this stuff called corruption. Corruption ends up infecting all wildlife around it. Later, survivors go on the ARKs to fight the guardians, and one of the guardians used to be human. That guardian is named Rockwell.
There is another game that I enjoy playing, and that is Battlefront II. Sometimes my friends and I play. I think the last time we played was when we did a game night. Mostly I played Super Smash Bros. That was pretty fun. Need for Speed got old for me and even though I do not play it anymore, I still like it. Battlefront II is a Star Wars game that you can play with your friends for fun. There is a story about this game too but it is kinda boring. In Battlefront you can play as different Star Wars characters and play against other people.
Rocket League is soccer but with cars. It is kinda fun but boring at the same time. Need for Speed Payback is a car game where you just race and run from the cops. After completing the stories to those games, I stopped playing. Jurassic World Evolution is a game where you can unlock different islands and build parks and create dinos. Super Smash Bros is a game on Nintendo Switch where you can pick different characters and fight your friends. Those are the games that I like and enjoy playing. What are yours?
“In the depth of winter, I finally learned that there was in me an invincible summer.”
— Albert Camus, Nobel Prize-winning philosopher
During this quarantine, with all this COVID-19 I have been a little worried, bored and I feel like I should try to do something new, so here I am, writing my first summary about a book, and the book I am going to talk about is 57 Bus. But before this I want to make something clear, I know that people everywhere say that you have to be productive, do new things, take care of yourself, among other things and I'm trying, but also I know that for many other people it hasn't been easy at all, and it's okay, if you can't do new things or just don't want to, it’s fine, we are all experiencing it in different ways.
As you know, for all the students, the school is closed and we started doing online classes. Personally, it helped me a lot to see the importance of school in general. For my humanities class, they made a book club, each one decided which book they and I want to read and after each week I will meet the same people who are reading the same book as me. And for the same class we had another job, which is this one you are reading, is to write for two weeks for 30 minutes a day and then read everything we write and choose one or more to make a big piece of writing, during this difficult time I realized how much I like to write and read, and having this possibility is something very special for me.
Today I am going to talk about the book 57 bus by Dashka Slater, a story based on real events. To me, it’s very impressive. Check out the news clip of the real-life story.
This book tells the story of Sasha who is white teenager, agender and neutral meaning they do not feel like neither woman nor man. This book is made for the teenage audience, and the author's purpose was for teenagers to understand each of the characters and see some problems in the society in which they live.
“It seemed clear to me that teenagers would find the characters compelling and I wanted them to have a chance to grapple with the complex issues the story raises: issues about either/or narratives, about race, gender, class, justice and forgiveness.”
— Dashka Slater, author
The truth is that I have not finished reading it, but what I have read I liked very much because the book makes me feel different emotions and has taught me different things. In the first pages we can see a bit of Sasha's history, before the problem will unravel. There is one detail that we have to understand: Sasha used the pronoun they and before that Sasha was called Luke. At first I asked myself: “Who is Luke,?” I was super confused but as I continued reading I realized that they were the same person. I thought that Sasha was a girl which I know is wrong because it is a stereotype in names and I think that the author herself wants us to learn from her book to stop using stereotypes and stop believing that there is only the binary gender: male and female.
The other very important character is Richard, a black male teenager who is surrounded by people who loved him or at one point hurt him. He went through many deaths of loved ones, this was something that marked him a lot. His friends and the book describe him as a good person, very funny, kind, but sometimes he was influenced by his friends, leading him to do things that maybe they are not the best.
But what is the conflict in this book? Everything is based on a day that Sasha was riding quietly on bus number 57. They were asleep while their friend was with them too, so three teenagers around 16-17 years old approached Sasha playing and they began to talk to them and annoy them, but they did not listen and they were still asleep. One of the three teenagers began to see that they were ignoring him and got mad and said to another of his friends "do it, do it now.” And one of them set Sasha's skirt on fire. What they didn't think was that the fire would spread so fast in their clothes that they would cause third degree burns on 25 percent of Sasha’s body. They were hospitalized. The other teen went to trial, but since they wanted to give him a trial treating him as an adult, it caused many more problems on social media since some agreed and others did not, apart from that people were giving that teenager a lot of hate.
But maybe you’re asking who can do that thing and why?? Well The person who set Sasha on fire is ………. I can't tell you who it is because the magic of the story would be lost. You will have to read the book to know it, and also to know other things like, what happened to the other two boys? What happened to the person who set them on fire? How is Sasha and what consequences did this accident have?
But what I can tell you is that things I liked during the book, what I liked from the pages is that they teach you many things. The pages not only have the story, but they leave you some teaching — for example as we know that all people are different, different tastes in music, different sexual preferences and each have their own gender, and that's why “we always have to adopt the language that people use to call themselves” as the book says. Among the beautiful pages of this book you can find many definitions:
¨Terms for Gender and Sex¨:
Agender:¨Doesn't identify as any gender.¨
Androgynous:¨Identifies as third gender that blends male female characteristics¨
Bigender:¨Sometimes identifies as male and sometimes as female.¨
Cisgender:¨The opposite of transgender; gender matches their birth sex.¨
Gender Questioning:¨Is unsure about where they belong on the gender spectrum.¨
Genderqueer:¨Gender identity doesn’t fit neatly into male/female categories.¨
Intersex:¨Born with sexual anatomy, organs, or chromosomes that don’t seem to fit the typical definitions of female or male. Replaces the outdated and offensive term hermaphrodite.¨
Transgender:¨Feels their gender is different from their birth sex, whether or not they have physically changed their body or outward presentation. A transgender man is someone who currently identifies as male. A transgender woman is someone who currently identifies as female.¨
¨Terms for Sexuality¨
Asexual:¨Not physically attracted to anyone.¨
Bisexual:¨Physically attracted to both men and women.¨
Cupiosexual:¨Doesn’t feel sexual attraction, but is still interested in sex.¨
Graysexual:¨Mostly doesn’t feel sexual attraction but does occasionally.¨
Heterosexual:¨Physically attracted to people of the opposite gender.¨
Homosexual:¨Physically attracted to people of the same gender.¨
Pansexual:¨Physically attracted to people across the gender spectrum.¨
¨Terms for Romantic Inclination¨
Aromantic:¨Not romantically attracted to anyone.¨
Biromantic:¨Romantically attracted to both men and women.¨
Cupioromantic:¨Doesn’t feel romantic attraction, but is still interested in romance.¨
Heteroromantic:¨Romantically attracted to people of the opposite gender.¨
Homoromantic: Romantically attracted to people of the same gender.¨
Panromantic:¨Romantically attracted to people across the gender spectrum.¨
Quoiromantic:¨Doesn’t understand the difference between romantic and Platonic love.¨
Among other definitions that make you understand the book perfectly, the pages make you fall in love with reading, wanting to read more and more every time
¨Reading is like breathing in; writing is like breathing out¨
—Pam Allyn
So a piece of advice that I give you is that in this difficult time when we have so much free time and sometimes we are only thinking about things that don’t clear your mind, become active, not only physically but mentally allowing your mind to imagine. I invite you to write your ideas, comments and questions you have about the books that you read every time and I promise it’s going to be the best thing ever. The last thing I want to say is, as the book 57 bus says is each person in this world is so different from each other and it doesn't matter, because every little thing that we have makes us who we are now and we always have to respect each other no matter what.
I feel like when we listen to music normally we only half listen to it. It helps us to feel, and to hear the catchy sounds, as we have a conversation or study. But when you literally have nothing else to do, but plug in your headphones, and ignore your other senses to hear the music intimately, it's different. There’s a deeper understanding, and it sparks conversation in your head. You feel things that felt just present before, such as major details that are incredibly important. You also get a chance to understand what the repetitive words in the song mean, and I think people overlook lyrics more than they should. Most people feel content listening to a fun song, rather than hearing how much passion and meaning is being put into them by the person singing the songs.
A song with a deep meaning could easily be misinterpreted, or just not fully understood. Maybe you understand most of what's being said, but there are references to situations, or what is being said, that are metaphors for something else. When you pay attention to certain songs, you can hear a bigger message than what you originally thought was there.
Song’s meanings can be manipulated through the key they’re written in. For example, some songs sound happy, where others sound sad, and a song could easily use this to mislead someone. Additionally, It might be in a high upbeat song but have dark lyrics. There can be many hidden meanings behind songs that you may not have realized before.
Breaking Bad is an “American Neo-Western Crime Drama” television series created and produced by Vince Gilligan. The show ran from 2008-2013 for five seasons and 62 episodes, and it was filmed, as well as set, in Albuquerque, New Mexico. The series is about the story of Walter White, played by Bryan Cranston, a depressed high school chemistry teacher who is struggling with a recent diagnosis of lung cancer. Walt turns to crime, partnering with his former student Jesse Pinkman, played by Aaron Paul. They produce and sell crystal meth to secure Walt’s family financial future before he dies, all while navigating the dangers of the criminal underworld.
The show's co-stars include Anna Gunn as Walt’s wife Skyler, and RJ Mitte as Walt’s son, Walter Jr. Dean Norris plays Walt’s brother in law, DEA agent Hank Schrader. Hank spends a great deal of time investigating the methamphetamine trade in Albuquerque, which complicates things for Walt. For example, Hank has Walt place a tracking device on the vehicle of a suspected drug kingpins car. Unbeknownst to Hank is that Walt is cooking meth for the drug kingpin Gustavo Fring (John Carlo Esposito).
Breaking Bad is widely regarded as one of the greatest television shows of all time, and not without reason. The acting of the whole cast, especially Bryan Cranston and Aaron Paul, is top-notch. I struggle to find a single performance that is not strong. The actors truly disappear into their roles. The show has been nominated for, and won the most awards of any television show in history! The show focuses on Walt White’s transformation from an unremarkable schoolteacher to the infamous drug lord, Heisenberg. As Walt, Bryan Cranston manages to be simultaneously loathsome and sympathetic. It's like a magic trick. Walt is the average middle-class underachiever who decides to “break bad” and start cooking meth to support his family. Eventually, he comes to enjoy what he does, becoming addicted to the lifestyle, not unlike the addiction caused by the meth he cooks. We see Walt's transition from sympathetic to an unsympathetic egotistical megalomaniac. We see evidence of the change when Walt's reason for cooking meth shifts from doing it for his family to doing it for himself and for his pride. After the transition is complete Jesse asks Walt in Season 5, “Are you in the meth business or the money business?” Walt replies, “Neither, I’m in the empire business!”
We see this shift start in a scene in which Hank, who is investigating Heisenberg (Walt), shares with him that he has discovered Heisenberg’s true identity. Hank incorrectly suspects another man, who in reality had assisted Walt in the meth lab. Hank has been a continuous threat to Walt’s business, so Walt should now be in the clear. Except his pride gets in the way. Walt, the chemistry expert, reviews Hank's evidence and says he believes the man identified could not Heisenberg. So Hank continues his hunt for the elusive Heisenberg. Walt was so prideful that he could not allow somebody else to receive credit for his work, even though Hank's investigation threatens Walt and his family.
Another reason why Breaking Bad is such a good TV show is because the writing is smart and moving. Skyler, Walt’s wife, comes across as a normal person who has completely normal reactions to the situations she must deal with, and so she should be likable. However, she is one of the most unlikable characters, in order to help us better understand Walt. For example, many times in the first season, Walt is away from home a lot and then lies to Skyler about what he is doing. When she reacts angrily, we viewers feel frustrated by her doubting and judgment of Walt. We are more sympathetic towards Walt, even though she is completely justified to be angry with him.
Lastly, there are so many amazing moments in this show that stick with you. The cinematography is immaculate, and every color and angle has something to say and convey. Each detail is meticulously set into place, and even details as small as the decoration on a cowboy boot have devastating consequences. Interactions between minor characters have big payoffs anywhere from a couple of episodes to whole seasons down the line. While the plot lines can be predictable, the characters are what make the show exhilarating. Breaking Bad has amazing parts, and still manages to be more than the sum of those parts. I give Breaking Bad a 10/10.
Creative Writing Piece
It was December 2nd and Angie Lila was getting ready for her first day of school. She was dreading going to school and tears streamed down her face at the thought of entering the classroom. “Angie are you almost ready?” her mother yelled from the living room.
“Almost,” Angie replied stifling a sob. Slowly she pulled out a yellow dress and a pink shawl. Quickly she got dressed and tied a ribbon around her bald head. When Angie was 2 years old she had developed a rare disease which caused dark spots on her body and made her hair fall out. Angie knew that if she went to school she would be bullied and teased. She had never had any friends because of her condition.
“Angie let’s go your going to be late and it’s the first day of school. Remember, first impressions,” her mother said lecturing her.
“But mom I don’t want to go,” Angie complained her face turning red.
“Oh baby, everything’s going to be fine, it’s a new school year,” her mother reassured. Angie dabbed her eyes with a handkerchief and stood up. She grabbed her bag and walked out the door hand in hand with her mother. The front lawn was shrubby and the sun was so bright Angie had to shield her eyes. They walked to the bus stop and sat down on the bench for a brief moment. A bus drove to the curb and made a quick stop letting the tires brush against the hard cement. Gripping her mom’s hand, Angie pulled herself up onto the bus and clambered to the row of seats. The ride to school was an unpleasant 30 minutes. The bus driver kept curving to the wrong side and every 5 minutes rode over a bump forcing Angie forward.
By the time they had arrived at school Angie was sick to her stomach and was already wishing she were back on the bus instead of at school. “Remember it’s a new year so there are many chances to make friends. And your very smart, so if you find it hard to make friends at least you’ll do great in school,” her mother encouraged noticing the grumpy look on Angie’s face. Angie forced a smile knowing that her mother was only trying to cheer her up. Maybe things wouldn’t be so bad…
She kissed her mom goodbye and walked into the school and up the stairs to the 5th floor. After 5 enduring minutes the door swung open to reveal Angie’s teacher, Mrs. Pallof. Mrs. Pallof was a pretty woman in her 30s. She was wearing a blue coat dress, pearl earrings, and her hair was curled. “Hello class please put your things in the lockers and come to the rug,” Mrs. Pallof explained. Quickly she handed Angie a slip of paper and a lock, then ushered her towards the lockers.
Angie strolled over to locker 74 in bank 3 and opened the door. Then she took out her supplies and shoved her bag and coat inside of the ajar locker. “Look who it is, Angie Lila the mud spot. I bet you can’t even open your lock,” came a slimy voice. Angie turned around and stared into the soulless eyes of the girl she hated most, Yavalia Harrington. Yavalia had bullied Angie ever since Kindergarten because of her disease. She believed that since Angie didn’t have any hair she had no brain.
Angie felt her eyes well up with tears but quickly blinked them back. She glanced at the slip in her hand and read the digits 7-24-14. Fingering the lock knob Angie spun it so that it stopped at the 7, then spun it to the left at the 24 and finally spun it to 14. She pulled at the lock and it opened smoothly making a gentle sound. Knowing Yavalia wasn’t exactly the smartest person, Angie said, “I can definitely open my lock but the question is can you open yours?”. Angie twirled around carrying her books, and walked off leaving Yavalia behind.
Once everyone had come back to the rug Mrs. Pallof introduced herself and explained the schedule. “Okay class, for the first 2 periods we have are math and writing. I will hand out an assessment that you will have both periods to complete. Don’t worry about it this is just for me to see what you know. Now go your time starts now,” Mrs. Pallof instructed. Angie rushed to a table and urgently began her test.
School had always been easy for her so 15 minutes later she had finished the math and started the ELA. Angie had great reading comprehension so she sped through the passages and when she read the questions, the answers came to her easily. She flipped over the page and read the essay prompt “Write about what you think it feels like being bullied“. She wrote about all the times Yavalia had bullied her and how each day she would run to her room and cry into her pillow. She wrote about how she used to cover her face in a brown paper bag and the smug face of Yavalia filled with pride. Before she knew it the periods were over and she was handing in her work to the teacher.
For third period, the class read for the whole 30 minutes and talked about what was interesting in our book. When that was over 6th and 7th grade had lunch. Angie walked over to a table filled with girls and confidently sat down smiling at them. The girls looked at her weirdly and one whispered “Ewww she looks weird, we should move.“ The girls got up and walked to another table laughing as they saw the hurt expression on Angie’s face. Angie spooned down her mashed potatoes gooey and salty from the butter mixed into it. The bell rang and Angie rushed up the stairs to class aware of the people looking at her.
As soon as Mrs. Pallof had gotten everyone seated, she started handing out the assessments from earlier so that they could see what they had gotten wrong. Angie smiled as she saw the familiar 100 on her paper and laughed out loud when she heard that Yavalia had gotten a pathetic 0. “Now class head up to the gym for your double period of PE,” interrupted Mrs. Pallof. As soon as PE was mentioned, Angie’s smile faded into a grimace. The gym teacher hated Angie because to him she wasn’t normal and used anything to make her do extra. Confidently Angie pushed away her thoughts and headed up to the gym. When she arrived she was surprised to see a strange man standing in the center of the gym. He was dressed in a short sleeved shirt, gray sweatpants, and a whistle was hanging from his neck.
“Hello class, I’m Mr. Hendricks your gym teacher for this year. Mr. Burks has quit. Now 5 laps around the gym all of you,” Mr. Henderson said.
Yavalia walked over to Angie and bluntly hissed “Just because Henderson is new means that I can turn him against you, okay mud spot?”
Angie nodded and after running her 5 laps she went to Henderson to tell him about what Yavalia had said. Unfortunately Yavalia had beat her to it and told Henderson “Sh… she pushed me and I slammed into the door.” Mr. Henderson nodded and signaled Angie towards them.
Angie walked over, a huge lump forming in her throat. “Liar she’s a liar Mr. Henderson.” Angie reasoned.
Mr. Henderson turned to face Yavalia and cursed “Yavalia you are full of it. Next time know in advance that I watch your every move and try to tell the truth. Angie if she ever tries to bully you again you tell me and Yavalia, two demerits.” For the rest of the periods they did push ups, half sit ups, and other exercises. When the lifelong PE periods had ended, Angie thanked Mr. Henderson for defending her and headed down to science her last period. For her science was fun because they always got to do labs.
Angie hurried into the classroom and sat down in her desk which was right behind Philip Johnson’s. Angie had had a massive crush on Philip since kindergarten. “Okay class today we will be mixing sodium peroxide with other chemicals and we will record our observations,” Mrs. Jerrol instructed, bringing Angie back to reality. Lucky for her, Angie was teamed up with Philip who was not only a nice boy but a smart and intelligent one. id, handing her some of the supplies. She nodded her head in gratitude and slipped on her lab goggles. First she poured in the peroxide, then the fluorine, and finally the other 3 chemicals. The liquid substances fizzed a bit and then exploded shooting chunks of orange fuzz into the air. This was one of her favorite experiments which was making elephant toothpaste. Philip and Angie looked into each others eyes for an intense moment, and then burst into laughter pulling each other into a tight hug. After science they walked down together and not to their surprise bumped heads with Yavalia.
“Hey Philip, did you know Angie has a huge crush on you?” Yavalia teased. Philip turned to face Angie his face full of confusion.
“Is this true Angie?” Philip asked slowly recovering from the shock. Angie nodded her head slightly to confirm his question. “Angie you know I can’t love you like that, we’re just friends. It’s not because of how you look because you look great, but I just can’t feel that way for my best friend.
Angie ran to the bathroom and collapsed into the stall crying unstoppably. “See mudspot, you have no friends and your own best friend doesn’t even like you. You’ll never have friends, your just a pathetic spot of mud,” Yavalia taunted. Angie pushed open the door as hard as she could so that the door slammed right into Yavalia forcing her to the ground. Quickly she ran out of the restroom, got her belongings from her locker, and ran out of the school before Yavalia could tattle on her. She jumped on the bus and sat down her heart pounding. “That’ll show you little miss perfect” Angie thought, pretending to say that to Yavalia. When she got home she ran to her room and started her homework right away ignoring her mom’s questions about her day. Once she had finished her homework, she told her mother she wasn’t hungry and went to sleep.
The next morning when she went to school, Yavalia and her friends were waiting for her. They cornered her and teased her pulling at her clothes.
To be continued …
