A Blog by Sarah

Well the end of the year has finally come. Tomorrow I will be leaving this school. I’m on my way to high school! Its a bittersweet fact. I don’t really want to leave the comfort of middle school, but I want to go into the unexpected world of high school. Having new experiences is just a way of life. You have to remember the good times, forget the bad and look forward to a great future.

Last night I went to my sister’s graduation. It was there that I finally realized that I’m not a little kid anymore. I’m going to be in high school next year. I’m going to 14 in less than a week. This is a very exciting, yet intimidating time for me. But, I’ll make it through.

Anyway,I guess I’m supposed to leave middle school with some kind of inspirational quote or something good to say. I’m sorry, but I don’t have either one of those. So, goodbye Edublogs. Goodbye Ms. Albanese’s class. Goodbye eighth grade. Goodbye Mariner Middle. I hope you have something to remember to me by. If not, use this post!

The definition of pride is the happy satisfied feeling somebody experiences when having or achieving something special that other people admire. There have been many times when I have felt this way. Alas, the moment when this emotion was the strongest was when I won the eighth grade science fair.

Our project was assigned before winter break and was due sometime at the end of the January. I thought about my topic for about 2 weeks before I knew what I was going to do.  I thought about my interests and things that would be relevant to the world. I finally settled on the winning question, “Which material prevents the transfer of sound waves the best?” It obviously worked.

I didn’t do my project completely solo. My dad, who helps me with everything, helped me with the “tough guy” parts of my project. This is where we met my first bump in the road. My dad came down with a nasty case of bronchitis about two weeks before my project was due. I wanted to start it so badly, but I needed my dad to help me cut the materials I was testing. I mean, can you imagine a thirteen year old girl cutting drywall? The problem was fixed quickly when the medication my dad’s doctor gave him started to work. I finished my project the weekend before it was due.

When I presented my project, I was super nervous. I’m not the best at presenting in front of people. It turns out that I had nothing to worry about, I did great. The only other time I got nervous was when they were announcing the winners at Science Night. I was just sitting on the floor with my friends and I saw my project up with the winners. I was so shocked. I knew it was a good project, but I didn’t expect to win. I knew my face was red because my cheeks were burning. They gave me my medal and I knew it wasn’t a daydream or something. It was a great moment. I felt like a champion. I got my paper in the newspaper, so I bought 4 copies. One is still hanging proudly in my room. Winning the science fair was one of the greatest moments in my life.

Working hard, being persistent and thinking positive are the three things that I had in my mind while I worked. It was a good life lesson. I was happier from then on because I had a place. This also gave me more confidence in the classroom. I’d experienced what it felt like to be a winner. It felt great. I will always remember Mariner Science Night as my proudest moment.

When we got assigned this essay, I was overwhelmed. I mean, I have so many memories of middle school. It’s hard to pick. Three years is a long time and I’ve had lots of memorable moments. Hmm…what to pick, what to pick?

Well, first off, there’s the very first day of middle school. Wow, that day seems so long ago. I was an extremely nervous 11-year-old girl. My cousin, Nichole and I had gone school shopping together, so we got matching outfits for the first day. We both had our hair straightened and our outfits were polka-dotted v-neck shirts with jean capris and brown flip flops. It was so funny. Just like every time we meet new people, we had to remind everyone that we weren’t sisters or twins; just cousins. I remember something was wrong with my foot because I specifically remember telling my friend Delaney about it. The first day of sixth grade was the scariest yet most exciting moment of middle school.

Seventh grade was full of good and bad times. There’s so many to pick from, but, my favorite memory would have to be the overnight trip to the state park. So many things came out of that trip. I was excited about going to the trip from the moment they first told us about it. It was like a big slumber party with everyone from my grade. Anyway, when we first got there, I was so excited. We were put in cabins alphabetically, so I had my friend Delaney, my cousin Nichole, and my soon to be friend Nora. That cabin was a lot of fun. We stayed up until two in the morning talking about music, people in school and just plain girl stuff. We also told some hilarious horror stories. I loved seeing people with morning hair syndrome. I mean, it’s not like I should be saying much. My hair was horrible! The state park trip was filled with fun and I made some new friends too.

We finally get to my third year of middle school and I’m more troubled than ever. Eighth grade has been the absolute best year of middle school. I’ve had so many good times and have made lots of  good friends, but the thing I will remember most from eighth grade (besides leaving, of course) is the semiformal. Now, this is a very interesting story. Going to the semiformal this year was the most spontaneous thing I have ever done. It is because I did it secretly. My parents are very strict, so I’m not allowed to go to dances, but I wanted to go to semi so badly that I had to at least try to sneak out. I explained this to my best friend Kayleigh and we made a plan. I would sleep over her house and then I would go to semi with her. I know what your thinking, where’s the dress? Lucky for me, my cousin’s getting married soon, so I had a dress for that. It took a lot of courage and sneakiness, but I made it! It was worth it too. Semi was one of the best nights ever. I’m glad Kayleigh and I came up with the plan, or I would’ve missed it.

So now, my middle school career is coming to an end. It’s a sad, yet happy fact. Middle school has been filled with lots or memorable experiences. I will always look back and think of the great times I had in middle school along with the bad. They have all helped me along and have prepared me for the road ahead.

When most people think of middle school, they think of the experiences they had, the bullies they had to deal with, the classes they took and the people they met. I, on the other hand, will always remember middle school as the time in my life that I discovered what it is to be an individual.

When I arrived at Mariner in sixth grade, I was a scared and vulnerable 11-year-old girl. My only care was to get good grades and get out as soon as possible. By the end of the year, I had realized that school is way more than just learning. I classified myself as a loser. It’s a sad but true fact. I was always afraid of talking to new people and having new experiences. Sixth grade was the starting point of my new take on life.

Seventh grade was the year that sparked the greatest change. I was happy to have good friends in my class, but I still felt like a reject. I started to realize that it’s a tough world out there, and to be noticed, you have to make yourself noticed. By the middle of the year, I had become a new person. All I wanted was to fit in. I was desperately clinging to every chance I got to try and make myself more normal. I became a completely different person. My only want was to be accepted. It was a complicated and confusing time for me.

This year was the absolute best. I started this year out with the mind-set that I was just gonna do what makes me happy, and if people don’t accept me for it, who cares? I really realized that people don’t like cookie-cutter-copies of other people and that it’s okay to be individual. I really just made this year the happiest it can be. I also realized that life isn’t about the things you have or the people you hang out with, it’s about the person you are. It doesn’t matter if you’re a loser or the most popular person in school. You just have to be yourself, and love the person you are.

These past three years have been full of meaningful experiences that I will remember my whole life. I think of middle school as life-training in disguise. It has taught me that life is a big competition, and you have to be a creative individual to succeed. Middle school is my greatest accomplishment because it was the time in my life when I learned what it is to be a unique person, and I will never forget it.

Angus, Thongs and Full-Frontal Snogging

Louise Rennison

If you thought the title was weird, wait until you read the book. This book takes you through hilarious everyday life of Georgia Nicolson, an average British teenager. Georgia is hopelessly lost in the world of boys and is presented with a new problem when her dad decides to move the family to New Zealand.  Whenever Georgia finds Robbie, aka Sex God, she will do anything to get him.

This book has a lot of different and interesting people. The main characters are Georgia, Robbie and Jas. Other minor characters include Mutti and Vatti, Libby, Angus, Ellen, Julia, Rosie, Tom, and Lindsay. While Jas, Ellen, Julia, and Rosie are Georgia’s closest friends, Lindsay is her sworn enemy. Throughout the book, Georgia finds ways to destroy Lindsay and try to steal Robbie from her.

This book is full of drama, love and everything else that goes on in a girl’s life. It really represents the struggles of a teen girl. There are many themes in this book; friendship, love, competition, and just being young.

My opinion of this book is that it is one of the greatest teen novels ever written. It really shows the reader how tough it is to be a teen girl. It was so funny, that with every page I had a mini seizure filled with laughter. It was a great book with its own sense of personality and style. This was a great book, double cool with knobs!

I would recommend this book to all girls my age. I would even recommend it to guys, because they need to see what goes on in a girl’s life. Parents should read this book too, so they can understand their teenagers and avoid being their worst enemies.

If i can’t do
what i want to do
then my job is to not
do what i don’t want
to do
It’s not the same thing
but it’s the best i can
do
If i can’t have
what i want . . . then
my job is to want
what i’ve got
and be satisfied
that at least there
is something more to want
Since i can’t go
where i need
to go . . . then i must . . . go
where the signs point
through always understanding
parallel movement
isn’t lateral
When i can’t express
what i really feel
i practice feeling
what i can express
and none of it is equal
I know
but that’s why mankind
alone among the animals
learns to cry

Reflection:

This poem is about how you don’t always get what you want. Life is hard. People have to learn to deal with life, and that’s why people learn to cry.

Haiku

Dreams are amazing

They help people to succeed

So just keep dreaming

Limerick

There’s always a war in the mind

To learn from the past or leave it behind

We feel the need to move ahead

But just stay back to remember instead

This will only leave us blind

Cinquain

Summer

Free, sweet

Laughing, running, swimming

Hair blowing with breeze

Summer

Free Verse

I stare at the flowers

And wonder

How life

Could be so beautiful

But so painful

All together

I stare at the robbers

And wonder

How life

Could be so cruel

But so loving

At the same time

All by Sarah!!

One day you finally knew
what you had to do, and began,
though the voices around you
kept shouting
their bad advice –
though the whole house
began to tremble
and you felt the old tug
at your ankles.
“Mend my life!”
each voice cried.
But you didn’t stop.
You knew what you had to do,
though the wind pried
with its stiff fingers
at the very foundations,
though their melancholy
was terrible.
It was already late
enough, and a wild night,
and the road full of fallen
branches and stones.
But little by little,
as you left their voices behind,
the stars began to burn
through the sheets of clouds,
and there was a new voice
which you slowly
recognized as your own,
that kept you company
as you strode deeper and deeper
into the world,
determined to do
the only thing you could do –
determined to save
the only life you could save.

Reflection:

This poem is about letting go of what other people want you to do and do things your own way to succeed in life. You have to leave what other people say behind in order to have your own happiness.

Success is counted sweetest
By those who ne’er succeed.
To comprehend a nectar
Requires sorest need.

Not one of all the purple host
Who took the flag to-day
Can tell the definition,
So clear, of victory!

As he, defeated, dying,
On whose forbidden ear
The distant strains of triumph
Burst agonized and clear!

Reflection:

This poem to me is about broken dreams. People that wanted something so bad, but never got it. They live with regret and they want to succeed.

I thought the earth remembered me,

she took me back so tenderly,

arranging her dark skirts, her pockets

full of lichens and seeds.

I slept as never before, a stone on the river bed,

nothing between me and the white fire of the stars

but my thoughts, and they floated light as moths

among the branches of the perfect trees.

All night I heard the small kingdoms

breathing around me, the insects,

and the birds who do their work in the darkness.

All night I rose and fell, as if in water,

grappling with a luminous doom. By morning

I had vanished at least a dozen times

into something better.

Reflection:

This poem is very calming. It sends a message of replenishment to the reader. It tells that nature can heal your wounds. Sometimes just laying back in the grass will mend your brokenness.