Dare to be Different

Today like all Sundays I went to church, and I was sitting in my seat and at Communion I noticed a little girl that got up to receive. She had to be about 11 years old and I noticed what she was wearing. No, I wasn’t judging what a little girl had on, but I thought it was the best thing I ever saw. She had on these big white sunglasses, mismatched clothes, a huge sparkly bag and little heels and she looked like she owned the walkway. She looked like she had no care in the world and could have sold what she was wearing to a designer.
I sat there and I looked at her and just smiled. Now that I’m a “grown-up” people judge so much on what other people wear, that no one would even try to pull that off. I remembered the days when I was little and use to do the same thing as that little girl and I thought I was so cool. Sometimes I miss those days, when the biggest care in the world wasn’t about what to wear or who to be fake to next, you just did your own thing and if people didn’t like it, you didn’t care.

Creative Non-fiction

There are many different types of genres in the literary world, and each of theses genres bring its own unique characteristics to abide by. We have the mysteries, romance, drama, fiction and even creative non-fiction. All of these genres bring something different to “the table” making it easy to distinguish between the styles.
Although creative-nonfiction is a genre of writing it is kind of hard to define. I took it as a type of writing that uses facts and real occurrences, but tells it in a different way. It brings a sort of “storyline” to the real facts. In Bruce Dobler’s Creative Non-Fiction Compendium he describes it as "literary journalism" or "literature of fact”. He defines it as a branch of writing which employs literary techniques and artistic vision usually associated with fiction or poetry to report on actual persons and events. I also found a different definition (Barrie Jean Borich) that states it is a writing that can embody both personal and public history. It is a form that utilizes memory, experience, observation, opinion, and all kinds of research. Sometimes the form can do all of the above at the same time. Other times it is more selective and it can include the author’s perspective.
Over this semester we have read two examples of Creative Non-fiction, which was “All Around the Town” and The Curve of Binding Energy”. In these stories the authors use real facts and added interesting twists to make the facts grow into a story and make it come alive.
Lee Gutkind, the author of several books of creative nonfiction and the founder/editor of the journal Creative Nonfiction, mentioned in Bruce Dobler’s Creative Non-fiction Compendium that this genre strives to communicate real-life stories dramatically. He also mentions that “The most important quality that a creative nonfiction writer can have, is passion: ‘A passion for the written word; a passion for the search and discovery of knowledge; and a passion for ... understanding intimately how things in this world work.”’ I feel that passion makes anything better. If you have passion for what you are writing about, then people will want to read it and would be able to experience what you are feeling in your words. Having this type of passion in our writings as students is important, especially when using this genre, because we are able to use what we are taught and add our own imagination to it.

Happiness

I read an article in a magazine awhile ago that talked about how there are certain things to people that will always make them happy. The person who wrote it listed the five things and although I don't remember exactly what they were, I remember that it was as simple as taking a run for her. After I read the article, I thought about five things that will always do the trick for me. They didn't need to big, just simple things that were suppose to always without a doubt be a reason to put a smile on your face. I sat on my couch thinking about things and when I was trying to think about different choices, I noticed that my face would just smile at even the thought. My list was 1) taking a drive in my car with the radio on, 2) eating a bowl of ice cream, 3) going on swings, 4) watching a good movie 5) sitting outside til dark on a summer night. These things may sound kind of simple and even random, but doing any one of them makes me happy. This exercise really made me think that all the things we try to do in life to make oursleves happy is just an illusion. It doesn't have to be drastic to make you feel good, just simple.

It's Madness Baby!

Basketball has been a hot topic in the sports world lately. First there was the Rockets winning streak winning 22 games in a row, but it ended when they lost to the Celtics, and now yesterday was the start of college basketball's March Madness. March Madness occurrs around the same time every year, when 64 of the best colleges face off to go to the final four and then be crowned the winner. watching college basketball, especially this is so much better than the pros. The students who play in this tournament play with something that the pros forgot a long time ago, and that is heart. The teams that play in this tournement know that if you don't bring your A-game when you play then it's over, because it's a one game elimination. So the teams play like it's the last time they will ever play, because for some of the seniors that take part, it will be. This is what makes march madness so great. I use to play basketball, and now I just play for fun. I remember some of my games that ment so much to me, that I needed to win, I remember playing with passion and I remember playing that last game on a real court and going home and knowing that it was only a game and now it would be just a hobby to me. I remember feeling on the court, especially for the big games a sense that I didn't want to dissapoint people by losing, and during this tournement that is exactly what these players feel. Every year I watch this, and I see the Cinderella stories and the upsets and even the teams that are number one who actaully make it to the top, they all want the same thing, and that is to win!

Technology

I have never been good with new technologies. Everything that comes out new i am totally clueless on how it works, that is why creating a blog took like 2 hours the first time i tried. Not only that I'm not good with the new stuff, I firmly believe it all hates me.I have the worst luck with all of it and its proff because today for no apparent reason my cell phone doesn't work and iI probably have to get a new one now. It is said to say, but I don't know how to work an ipod, or even do anything to techincal on the computer. The best is whenever I tell people that I really don't know how to things, they laugh at me as if I was lying, because people today should know how to do this stuff. I was born in a technical age and now people are relying so much on technology that I feel like one day its going to be what ruins us. I don't feel like technology is reliable at all, because it never works when you need it most. I hope that one day I do get better with though because it's growing even more and more.

St. Patricks Day

Yesterday was St. Patricks a day when everybody is Irish no matter what. Honestly it is one of my favorite days of the year because everyone just gets a little cheerful probably do to the massive amounts of guiness (only when your legal of course hehe). Every March 17, a parade is held in New York City to celebrate this holiday. The first parade was held in 1776 and occurred on 5th ave and it has been held every March 17 at the same location. The only time it doesn't happen on the actual day is if falls on Sunday. Watching the parade, wearing grren, eating corn beef cabbage and red potatoes and drinking green milk for dessert has been a tradition in my house as well as many other houses every year. This year was alot of fun and i can't wait for next year!!

PICTURES

Pictures are worth a 1000 words. What you see in a picture may not be what other people see in the same picture. You can look at something for hours and never really get what is going on. Pictures can show all types of emotion. These things all define what a picture means. The other day I was looking at my blog and saw the pictures on the side of it that I had put up. When I thought about what I wanted my blog to be about, an array of different topics, I saw that the pictures I had put up were just right for it. All those pictures described apart of me that I wanted my blog to also display. Out of the pictures, my favorite one is the one of the girl taking a picture of herself. I thought this one really showed the meaning of it all. You look at the picture and you think its just a girl with a camera, but as you start thinking about it, it really boggles your mind. I took it as a simple girl just having enough with being ordinary, she wanted to be different and extreme. I had thought she looked sad at first, trying to get over something , but then I realized that now she wanted to be just her and she was trying to show that. You may be thinking how and why did I come up with these random thoughts on a picture, and the reason is that I wanted to prove my point that emotions are a very powerful thing and that every picture you see is really worth a thousand things.