End Of 8th Grade Reflection

It is my last year at middle school and I'm really going to miss this place. This is where I grew up, found all my friends, and learned the most valuable lessons. It's been three years and I wish I could stay here longer. :( I know I have to but I don't wanna go to high school. It's a big change that I'm not sure I'm ready for. I'm going to miss the people, the teachers, and beneficial classes that meant so much to me. Being here for so long it's hard to imagine myself being anywhere else. After this it's all over, everybody goes their own ways to different high schools. I know I wasn't the closest with EVERYONE at this school but I'm still going to miss them so much. I know I have to move on eventually but it just takes time for me. I'm going to be crying my eyes out when graduation comes but I know for sure I'll come back to visit. I'll miss every detail of this school, I'll never forget my middle school experience.

Gratitude For My Teachers

In all my years of being at Heritage Middle School, I would want to write a gratitude post for my teachers.
My ELA Teachers 6th-8th Grade
To Ms.Cap, Ms.Raguso, and Ms.Belkov, Thank you for always making sure that you have the best interest at heart to teach me and the rest of your students. Thank You for correcting me with all grammar errors I've made and for always helping me get started on a project when I got stuck. I will take all the corrections you've ever given me to make my writing better. I appreciate everything you've done for me so thank you.

My Math Teachers 6th-8th Grade
To Mr.Lopez, Ms.Lipke and Mr.Jaworsky. I'm not going to lie math was always my worst subject. I hated it because I was never good at it. However I do know one thing for sure, whenever I felt like giving up you always were there to help me back up. Every obstacle I had you never gave up on me and always believed that I could do better. I'm not saying I'm a genius like Albert Einstein at math but I do know that I've made a huge improvement thanks to you guys. You helped me persevere and I'll never forget you for that, Thank You.

My Social Studies Teachers 6th-8th Grade
To Mr.Richards, Ms.Gardner, and Ms.Raguso. Social Studies was never my biggest interest. I never really liked learning about things that happened in the past. However with the teachers I had I knew that what I was learning was important. Every assignment you gave me I knew it would eventually somehow help me in the future and I;m truly grateful for that. Thank You for always wanting to teach me about social studies.

My Science Teachers 6th-8th Grade
To Mr.Larson and Mrs.Letizia
I've always like science, I was usually always good at it. Through every test and every sheet of homework I always knew I'd be learning something new. Thank You for making science fun and not just be in a boring classroom all day, you actually made kids engage into what they were learning. Thank You for always having the patience when classmates interrupted. I don't plan on having a career in science one day but I do know that what you taught me was important so Thank You.

My Exploratory Teachers 6th-8th Grade
To Mrs.Rodriguez, Mrs.Guel , and Ms.Suarez.  I loved every single class I had with you. Even though I didn't have you for the whole year I still enjoyed your classes everyday. I know Art, Italian, and Social Justice aren't official classes they all still meant a lot to me. Thank You for always keeping the class positive and never bringing us down.

My Gym Teachers 6th-8th Grade
To Mr.Miller, Mr.Calkins, and Ms. Sabatino.  Thank You for always making gym so fun every day. Thank You for always dealing with me when I wouldn't follow the rules and sit in my "squad line". I truly loved gym and I'm really gonna miss this class. I'll never forget you guys.

My Coaches 6th-8th Grade
To Mr.Dellacroce, Ms. Oconner, Ms. Sabatino and Mrs. Dowdle
Thank You for always believing in me through every basketball and every volleyball moment I had. You always brought positivism to each and every game even if we were loosing. Thank You for teaching me how to work hard to get better. I especially thank you for never giving up on me. Through every mistake I made you always cheered me up and reminded me that one mistake doesn't define what player I am. Thank You all so much.

To Mr. Miley, Mr. Norwich, Mrs.Larson and Ms.Suarez.
Even though you guys weren't my official teachers (except Ms.Suarez) I still wanted to thank you. You guys were always there for me when I needed you. Through every tear I shed you always taught me that it's okay to mess up once in a while, I'm not perfect. Thank You for always checking up on me and making every single one of my days better. I don't think I could ever thank you enough for not only helping me as a student but helping me emotionally as well.

I will truly miss every single one of my teachers but I promise I'll come back and visit. :)

The Soundtrack of my Life

For the fourteen years that I've been alive I've had a lot of music in my life.  When I think back it can bring a lot of imagery. Music has always played a big role in my life. So when I think back the first song I can remember myself listening to was probably the theme song to Barney. Then later on I started to memorize more songs like Seasame Street and Mickey Mouse Clubhouse. Later on I grew up and I used to listen to a lot of Pink and Katy Perry. I still do but when I was in 5th grade I listened to a rapper named Kendrick Lamar. I instantly loved him, the first song I listened to was swimming pools. To this day he is still my favorite rapper. Once I started listening to him I discovered other rappers like J Cole. I also really loved his songs. Chance the Rapper is also one of my favorites, whenever I listen to his songs it reminds me of all the good times I had because I would listen to him when I would have a good time. So when I listen to him it just brings me back to those days. Some of my other favorite rappers are Childish Gambino and Kid Cudi. However like I said my favorite rapper will always be Kendrick Lamar. When you listen to his music you can tell that he's passionate in his writing and that he loves what he does. He doesn't rap about mainstream things he raps about the truth and oppression that he's been through. He and his music have helped me get through some rough times, he helped me persevere. In 30 years when I'm old, if I were to hear any song by any of the rappers I just named it would somehow take me back in time and I would remember all the good and bad times, the struggles, the excitement that I have been through throughout my whole life.

Giving People Hope

Ever since I was young my mother always told me that I was a kind hearted person. I knew that I've always wanted to help people I just never knew how or where to start. However I do know that sometimes people just need that one person to help them back up after life has knocked them down. So here goes to anyone who ever reads this I hope it helps.     You are an important person, your life will always matter. You are strong and independent, every time something happens to you whether it's good or bad, it makes you stronger. You are beautiful, you make peoples days just by simply smiling at them. You have a voice so get up and fight for what you believe in. You will never be inadequate you will always be good enough for anything that you do. If you have no one that believes in you I will be that person. I don't care if you're a stranger I have faith that you can do whatever you want to do as long as you set your mind to it. My goal is to give whoever is reading this hope. Hope that you can persevere through any tough challenge you face. I need you to know that even on your worst days it does not define who you are. If you're going through hell keep going because it always important to know that you tried your absolute best to conquer what you tried to accomplish. I am a stranger to you but I hope that this helped just a little through whatever it is you might be facing in your life.

My Favorite Shows on Netflix

When I'm not doing homework, sleeping, playing sports, or eating I'm watching TV. I absolutely love TV.  Now let me tell you, Netflix has some phenomenal shows. I think I'd say I watch almost every show on Netflix. Such as Glee, Pretty Little Liars, One Tree Hill, Gossip Girl, Friends, How I Met Your Mother, Daredevil, Shameless, Stranger Things, 13 Reasons Why, The Office, Jane The Virgin, Greys Anatomy and A LOT more. However my favorite show of all time isn't on Netflix and I think my favorite show would be Teen Wolf. It's not a popular show but personally I think it's underrated. Over the weekends if I'm not doing anything I binge watch my shows they're always so interesting to me. I know it's probably really unhealthy but I can't help it TV is just really interesting to me. Eventually I'll have to stop because I'll grow older and have a bunch of responsibilities but for now I'm enjoying my free time and I don't take and second for granted.

Social Justice

My school year is split into four quarters. In my third quarter I took a class called Social Justice. I spent ten weeks taking this class. After those ten weeks I knew I'd never forget anything I learned. This wasn't just your average class, it wasn't some boring math class that you forget over the summer. This class actually made me engage and understand what was happening around me everyday. It opened up my mind to new possibilities. We learned about classism, sexism, racism, discrimination, communism, resistance, women oppression, capitalism and a lot more. These were just some of the topics that stood out to me. This class made me realize that were not living in the world that I thought we were living in. It expanded my mind to think critically of the world and in every situation I'm put in. We took the ten weeks we had to break down real world situations and analyze them. I loved this class so much and I really wished that this was an all year round class but unfortunately you can on,y take the class once. There are many other classes/events that you can attend to fully get an understanding of social Justice and I encourage you to take one.

Flipped

The book I read was called Flipped. This book is by Wendelin Van Draaned and it's Fiction. This book is about a boy named Bryce Loski and a girl named Julianna (Juli) Baker. Bryce had just moved in across the street from Juli. When Byrce first met Juli he ran but when Juli first met Byrce she fell in love. Bryce never really liked Juli, he'd always try to avoid her and make the least possible conversations with her. Juli always felt differently about that, she was in love with him. She'd always talk to him and be near him at all possible times. However in 8th grade their perspectives change. Bryce starts to realize that he actually does like Juli back and perseveres to try and win her back but unfortunately he's to late. Juli starts to realize what a jerk Bryce has been to her for the past six years and she realizes that she's through with Byrce Loski. Now it's up to them to see if they will end up together or not.

Personally I loved this book and I wish I would've read it sooner. I loved seeing both sides of the story because every chapter it switches off between Bryce and Juli. It was a really adorable love story and it's not like one of those cliche love stories this one is different. I really enjoyed seeing how badly Bryce was willing to go to win Juli back. I've always known that this was a popular book but I never really bothered to read it until now. There's was also a movie made based on the book and I recently watched it once I finished reading the book. The movie was amazing, I loved it even though it missed out on some parts I loved seeing the book on an actual movie screen. If you ever get the chance to watch or read the movie I really hope you do.

   

Here's the link to the movie trailer 

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=RDlXdujRSD8 

Milk and Honey

The book I read was called "Milk and Honey". The author and illustrator of the book is Rupi Kaur. Milk and Honey is a book about The hurting, The loving, The breaking, and The healing stages of a heartbreak and rape. The book is basically poems about Rupi Kaur's life. In the beginning of the book she explains that she was raped and the hurt she went through.  She wrote this book because she went through a bad heartbreak and was emotionally hurt. On the back of the book she writes that she wrote this book to help people who have been through what she has. Everyday she would still feel the hurt until one day she started writing and it relieved her.

Personally I really enjoyed reading this book. Even though the poems are really short they still have powerful meanings to it. I've never really been through a bad heartbreak but the book itself was still really relatable. It has a lot of good life lessons that can help you in the future. She touches briefly on loving yourself before being able to love anyone else, but she put a lot of emphasis on it. She teaches you that you should always make yourself the first priority because you are important. I recommend this book to anyone who has ever been though/struggling through a heartbreak. I loved this book and if anyone gets that chance I suggest they read it.

48 Hours of 13 Reasons Why over Spring Break

My Spring Break started on April 1st and ended on April 10th.  I didn't really do much over my spring break besides sleep, eat and binge watch shows on Netflix and Hulu. However one main thing that I did was watch a show called 13 reasons why.The show is based on the book by Jay Asher but it's not a true story, it's realistic fiction.  It's basically about a girl named Hannah who was bullied throughout her high school life and she reruns the idea of how she ended up like this. Eventually she grabs a pen and paper and draws out how her life went wrong, so she decides to make 13 tapes. These tapes are about people and reasons as to why she decided to kill her self. The show really identifies the idea of suicide and bullying, it really emphasizes how you can change a persons life with just a word. This show not only has a good lesson but it also changes people's perspectives on everyday things they see in their lives. Even though kids should already know that bullying is wrong and it hurts people feelings, this really proved what bullying can actually lead up to. I think Jay Asher (author) and Selena Gomez (director of tv show) an amazing job with portraying how you can affect a persons life, and I really hope there's a season two.

Life is Beautiful if you make it that way

In the movie Life is Beautiful and what we read articles on in class are similar. They both talked about the concentration camps and uniforms. They all had the same uniforms and they all had the same living conditions. The place they stayed in had bunkers and they basically slept on wood with blankets. All of them were in terrible living conditions, which is why most of them kind of looked the same. The movie also showed that they had the same tactics such as when a person in the movie got hurt they just pushed along told him to keep working and all they did was give him a band-aid. Another tactic that they used was with the kids and the gas chambers. They would tell the kids that they had to take a shower but in reality they would send them into a room and gas would drop from the top of the ceiling and they would die. Overall I think this movie had more similarities than differences with all of the articles that we read in class. However a huge difference was the point of view. In the movie he looked at everything so positively, but the majority of the articles that we read as a class pointed out all the negatives and talked about all the bad stuff that happened. The only part that was positive was when we read the resistance and upstander articles.

Some similarities and differences that the movie had were mood and and perspective. Guido had a more positive way to look at things throughout the movie. In every situation he was in he found a way to make it funny and happy. For example when he was on his way to the concentration camp he told his son Joshua that they were going on a trip. He told him that the camp was a game and each day you would earn points. He made up all these rules to the "game" and how you had to score one thousand points to win. Even on his worst days at the camp he still manged to stay positive. He had hope and by the way he would live his life you could automatically tell that he lived life to the fullest and never took anything for granted. He was different than everyone else, he was living in the worst time of his life along with others, and while everyone else was miserable he found the positives. I think he even cheered up a lot of other people as well. For example when he would talk to his son and explain to him how many points they had gotten that day, it put a smile on other people's faces. They knew that even though he was lying to his son he could still be grateful that his family was alive.

Life was shown as beautiful throughout the movie when Guido took any opportunity he could to talk to his wife (Dora). When he was supposed to be "working" he would go into the announcement room and play the song him and his wife first danced to. This way Dora would also have support and hope, she knew that he was still alive and she was always on his mind. Another way life was beautiful was when he knew that he was going to die he still had a smile on his face and was goofy about it. He had hope that his son and wife would live and be free and his hope turned into reality when the United States came to help everyone. Even though he didn't survive he manged to keep his family happy and I think that was goal. As long as he had his family nothing could upset him because just seeing his family happy brought joy his eyes. Life was Beautiful to him no matter what the scenario was he didn't care about his living conditions or that eventually he knew he was going to die, he persevered and in a way he brought his family back together even though he wasn't there to see it happen.

Butterfly

Fear

Today the ghetto knows a different fear,
Close in its grip, Death wields an icy scythe.
An evil sickness spreads a terror in its wake,
The victims of its shadow, weep and writhe.

Today a father's heartbeat tells his fright
And mothers bend their hands into their hands.
Now children choke and die with typhus here,
A bitter tax is taken from their bands.

My heart still beats inside my breast
While friends depart for other worlds.
Perhaps it's better-who can say?
Then watching this, die today?

No, no my God we want to live!
Not to watch our numbers melt away
We want to have a better world,
We want to work-we must not die!
 

Lockdown

The book I read was called Lockdown. This book is about a juvenile detention center and how each kid in the book got into Juvy.  The book mainly focuses on a boy named Reese and his friend Toon.  Reese wants to get out of juvy before he goes into the real jail but his best friend Toon is going to get jumped. So he has to make a decision, get out of Juvy early or heall out his friend. Later on Reese finds out that he actually has a chance to get out early. They assign him to a nursing home and the person he gets a assigned to gives him a hard time. They gave a second chance and he has to prove that they made the right choice.

Personally I really liked this book because it shows how Reese is really determined to have a better life. It shows how he really wants to get a second chance and it proves that people can turn their life around. It made me realize that everyone deserves a second chance and that people can actually learn from their mistakes. I really enjoyed this book and I would recommend it to people who are struggling to forgive themselves for things they've done and it helps you get closure on your past.

Nazi Propaganda

When I was looking at Nazi Propaganda in my ELA class I came across an interesting one. I think what this picture was try to show is they needed to brainwash the adults first so that it would be easier for new generations to get normalized. This picture demonstrates two kids and how they're so young and already used to what's happening. I think the intended audience would be the adults to teach their children their new lifestyle and beliefs. I think this does alter ones perspective because the children are young and they already know the new things their parents were brainwashed to learn, so I'd say this Propaganda was effective. Personally I think this is an explicit picture and I think it shows easy it was to follow the "herd" back then. It shows me that there was a lot of bystanders and there was a lot of things that were done that could've been stopped or never have even started to begin with.

Regrets

One day during the summer break to 7th grade I was hungry. So I went into my kitchen and looked in the pantry and I saw an express macaroni and cheese bowl. Basically you can pour water into the bowl and you heat it up in the microwave and you eat it. So I grabbed that I opened the packaging and I put it in the microwave for 3 minutes. I was patiently waiting for the microwave to beep when it was done but then I smelled something burning. I turned around to see what it was and I hear this popping noise along with a lot of smoking filling up the room. I immediately pressed the stop button on the microwave and I took out the bowl. I was really discombobulated because I didn't know why the bowl was burning but then I realized that I forgot to put water in the bowl. At this moment I felt mortified because the instructions are really easy and I forgot the most important part. Then the kitchen was still really filled with smoke and the smoke alarm was going off and I didn't know what to do. So I yelled for my sister to come downstairs and she was really mad and confused but she helped me anyway. We both grabbed mini towels that we keep in the kitchen and I waved it to the smoke alarm and she waved it around the room and she opened the windows. Eventually all the smoke cleared out but it took a while. If I could go back to redo this day I would probably choose something else to eat because that way I would avoid the whole situation and nothing would have burned in the first place.

Famous Person

If I were to meet any famous person it would definitely be Dylan O'Brien. I've loved him since I was 10 years old. He's a big star he started off on YouTube and made his way to a tv show called Teen wolf (my favorite show). Then he starred in other movies such as The Maze Runner, Deepwater Horizon, American Assasin and much more. I would interact with him and ask him things like why did he decide to become and actor and what his life is like with his busy schedule. I would want to go to laser tagging with him because it'd be really fun and I think it'd be cool because I've only been laser tagging once. It would mean so much to me to meet him because I've loved him for such a long time and he's a really big inspiration in my life. I would cry if I ever met him because I'd be so happy and I would want more than just a day to be with him. I would be so happy to meet him because He's been my idol for a really long time and I'd never wanna regret the chance to not meet him.

The Burn Journals

The nonfiction book that I decided to read was The Burn Journals and it's a memoir. This book is about a 14 year old boy named Brent who's in 8th grade. He has a pretty good life at school but he's depressed, he's tried killing him self before but it never worked. So one day he was in a locker room and he had matches with him and he accidentally lit a shirt on fire. The gym teacher found out and he got into trouble. That really set him off so he came home into his bathroom lit a match and set himself on fire. He then realized that the pain was to much and he didn't want to die so he turned on the shower and stayed there. His brother Craig called the ambulance and he was in intensive care for about 6 months and after that he had to go to a mental hospital and a rehab/support group center. Unfortunately Brent was away for so long that when he goes back to school it's High school. The rest is a mystery.

Personally I really enjoyed reading this book because I like how it showed Brent's perspective in everything. It taught me a great lesson to appreciate life more and don't take it for granted
I really liked how it showed when he was in the hospital and the rehab center because he was really specific on what happened to him. Even though it was a long book overall I really enjoyed it and I wish there was a sequel to it because it left off on a cliffhanger.

What Makes Me Happy

-Family makes me happy

-My Friends reliability make me happy 

-Food makes me happy (pizza) 

-Netflix makes me happy 

-My religious beliefs makes me happy

-Being kind to other makes me happy 

-Basketball makes me happy 

-Volleyball makes me happy 

-Being athletic makes me happy 

-Music makes me happy 

-Animals make me happy 

-Social Justice makes me happy 

-Laughing makes me happy 

-Amazon makes me happy 

-City night lights makes me happy 

-Photography makes me happy 

-Tatoos make me happy 

-Memories make me happy 

-Singing/Dancing makes me happy

-Holidays make me happy (4th of July) 

-Cooking makes me happy 

-Weather makes me happy

Super Bowl Commercial

The super bowl commercial I chose to elaborate on was the "Audi #driveprogress Big Game Commercial- "Daughter". I think the message of this commercial as that men and women should get equal pay because it talks about how men and women to this day still don't get equal pay. That men still get payed more than women do in some jobs. This commercial was important because this problem should have been fixed by now. Men and women should get paid equally for the equal amount of work they do because it's not fair if they don't. I think what they were trying to reach is that they believe that everyone is worth the same and we should all be treated the same. Also that we should be able to tell our future kids that everyone gets paid equally for the amount of work they do. The response I think they wanted to get from the audience was that we should all be fighting for equal pay and we should all be raising awareness towards this topic instead of forgetting that this problem still exists.

My personal response to this video was that I completely agree with it. When I first watched this commercial I was wondering why the dad was saying all of those negative things about his grandparents and his wife and daughter. However by the end of the commercial it captioned that the commercial was about equal pay and how it's subjective then it made sense. I chose this commercial because I liked the fact that they are still trying to bring awareness towards the topic. Most people still believe that the problem is cliche because they think that the problem no longer exists. They're right the problem has decreased but that does not mean that the problem no longer exists.

 

Here is the link to the commercial https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=G6u10YPk_34

My advice to Donald Trump

I know being the president is a really hard job but if I had to give Donald Trump advice it'd be this. Put yourself in shoes of those that you are hurting and reconsider what you're doing to them. Imagine as if you were an illegal immigrant in the United States, and your new president wants to deport you. How would you feel,  probably how most illegal immigrant are feeling right now, scared. Most of these immigrants came here for a better life and for their kids to have a better future. All of their hard work to get here and it's all being thrown away. You are representing the entire United States however you can't do that if you don't like half of the people living here. You have to be a reliable president for EVERYONE living here not just the people you WANT living here. If you send all these immigrants away it won't cause peace it will cause war. If you want to be a good president you need to be considerate and objective with your decisions. This would be the advice I would give Donald Trump.

My Worst Argument

I've had a lot of arguments in my life but I have to say the worst one I've ever had was with my sister. So one night my mom brought home dinner because she had to go somewhere and she couldn't cook for us. My sister asked for chocolate chip cookies and my mom go them for her. So I asked my sister if I could have one and she said no. However I was really determined to get that Cookie, so when my sister left the dining room and I decided to grab a cookie hoping she wouldn't notice. Unfortunately she noticed, so I ran into my room and she was furious with me. She unlocked the door and she grabbed the cookie out of my hand. Then she started hitting me she punched my stomach and she puounded my head against the wall so many times. Then she grabbed chocolate from the cookie and smeared it all over my face. I was really mad about that because I thought it was really uncalled for, I understand that I shouldn't have taken the cookie in the first place but that didn't mean she had to do all of that. So then I ran out of my room trying to comprehend why she just did that and punched her arm really hard, I was so tired that 30 minutes later I fell asleep. The next morning I woke up with a gigantic bruise on my stomach and it hurt so bad. Something that I learned from this argument is probably that I shouldn't take things without permission, so from now on I won't especially from my sister.

Fake it until you Become it

There's not really a lot that I can say I'm confident about which is something that I'd really like to work on. I have a lot of insecurities that I would want to overcome, and I could fake it until I become it to help me. I tend to have a really low self esteem so one thing I could do to make it better is have a better posture because I tend to slouch. I also dont really participate in class that often because I'm scared that my answers will always be inadequate so that's something I'd like to fix. I could raise my hand in class to questions that I do know the answer to and eventually participate more. There are a lot of things I wish I could fix and I reall am gonna try faking it because one day I really wish to become it, I think it would be a really important thing to fix in my life.

Winter Break

Over winter break something kind and thoughtful that I did was help my mom cook for Christmas and help her clean afterwards. Over the break my mom decided to go all out and cook for my family, and I decided to help her. I think it was really kind that I helped her because there was this one specific thing that we cooked and those are tamales. However these were different types of tamales, they were Guatemalan styled tamales. Those take forever to cook because it's cooked differently then regular tamales. They take about 3-4 hours to cook but in the end it's worth it because they taste really good. Since my mom cooked a lot so it was obvious that the kitchen was gonna be a mess. So once my mom was done cooking everything my sisters and I helped clean up the kitchen. We were able to clean it up in about 45 minutes. Then once everything was done we all enjoyed the food that my mom made and overall we had a really good Christmas dinner.