Our high school girls varsity basketball team got into the state finals this weekend. Amy who normally plays junior varsity was invited to go along and helped them get to the final championship game. Unfortunately they lost, but it was a good game, and Amy played more than half of it which is insane considering she hardly played with the varsity team during the regular season. This picture is of her recieving her medal for second place (in the state!!) along with her teammates! GO KNIGHTS! Okay, this picture takes some explaining. My friends (who are totally awesome) arranged a surprise 17th birthday party for me and DeAnna, our birthdays are six days apart... for my present they designed and ordered a pair of ORANGE AND BLUE CONVERSES WITH MY INITIALS ON THE HEEL!!! *falls over with excitement* This completed my birthday celebrations and I will probably sleep with them under my pillow tonight, haha. Just because I can :P
In history class we read the book Night by Wiesel. It is his personal account of his experiences in World War 2.
Review Coming Soon. The following is a short essay I wrote as an assignment. The prompt was to write your reactions, feelings, and thoughts after reading this book.
Night by Elie Wiesel
All alone, darkness, death, unfairness; these are words we as human beings in the twenty-first century shrink away from and prefer not to experience or use. These words are triggers for unpleasant feelings and locked up memories. Wiesel, in his book Night writes about his experiences as a prisoner in World War 2. His thoughts blast open these words and creates new meaning to them. He redefines what it is to be afraid and how it is to feel alone. When I read this book, I was inspired because of the strength it took to survive this kind of ordeal is incredible, but the pure courage and faithfulness that was abundant in the author is indescribable.
Night is a very intense and powerful read. The characters are as real as can be possible and the events are exact truths. This stuff is not made up and it is not fake or pretend, like some think or to a certain extent want to think. The question is, what makes this particular book stand out with descriptions pertaining to being powerful, life changing, intense? The reason is, Wiesel writes his story to us, the reader. At one point, Wiesel begins to describe how he feels, “Through the blue-tinged skylights I could see the darkness gradually fading. I had ceased to feel fear. And then I was overcome by an inhuman weariness”. (.p. 33) He had “ceased to feel fear”. He is saying bluntly and matter-of-factly what happened and how he is feeling. He's not adding fluff, additional characters, or other plots to make it more interesting, because it is his story. The story, the pure raw truth. The truth is powerful and that is what makes this book powerful.
One of my hobbies is reviewing books for publishing companies. I read a lot of books based for teens and young adults. One of the pros to this is the knowledge received is irreplaceable and completely filling and satisfying. One of the cons is that it is common to read a teen book written at an average teen level, which is pretty pathetic nowadays. With Night, the writing is mature and it is written to those who will understand and get the full rewards, which are first account knowledge of the conditions and actions during World War 2. While running between camps, Wiesel states,“We were masters of nature, masters of the world…Stronger than cold or hunger, stronger than the hosts and desire to die, condemned and wandering, mere numbers, we were the only men on earth”. (.p.83) This type of writing is just incredible and when I read this and think about what he means when he says “desire to die” or “masters of the world” it helps me begin the process of understanding how he felt when all this was happening to him. The way this quote is presented also makes a person rise above what they are capable of and think, instead of degrading themselves as readers.
To conclude, this book made me feel thankful for the way my life is right now and opened my eyes to some situations and circumstances that I was unaware of happening around World War 2. The writing was powerful and told the truth which is one of the main reasons this book will stick with me hopefully for the rest of my life. Those were dark and horrible times and one can only hope and pray that times like those will never happen again.
You wanna play a game and possibly win an ARC of Lisa Mantchev's Eyes like Stars? Good, then listen up! :) Tomorrow go to Lisa's website here and get instructions on how to play this "Collect the Shakespearean Quotes" Multi-blog Scavenger Hunt. I am apart of this hunt and so if you participate you will find yourself back here tomorrow searching... :) Good Luck!
~Edit The Rules: 1) Contest limited to those in the USA. Apologies to our friends abroad, but these ARCs are being mailed out by the generous souls on the blogroll, and there will be other contests which will be eligible to readers overseas. 2) All entrants must be the age of 13 or older. Entrants 12 and under (if any) can be entered by their parents. 3) No family members of anyone connected with the Scavenger Hunt, please.
How To Play: 1) Players should start at Lisa's Blog (lisamantchev.livejournal.com) to get the Official Blogroll and List of Clues 2) Players then need to visit the blogs, collect the quotes, AND leave a comment (like a trail of bread crumbs... we want to know you actually did the leg work!) 3) E-mail Lisa with your list of quotes: lisa@lisamantchev.com 4) Prizes will awarded thusly: to those who collect the most quotes. Should more people remit the complete quote list than we have ARCs to give away, Lisa shall award the prizes by lottery/random drawing. She shall also retain the right to add extra ARCs to the prize pool at her discretion.
This last week was spirit week at our school. This means, every day has a theme and we get to dress up and compete in fun competitions at lunch time. At the end of the week, winners from the games at lunch and participation in dressing up will be added up and a grade wins. This year, the juniors won. Anyways, some of the days included, pajama day, spirit day, black out day, and siege weapon day. The above picture is of the siege weapon that some of the guys in my class made for the 1oth grade entry. It was truly amazing. They spent two weeks building it and they did it bascially by themselves. They didn't win (long long story, but we should have won, cause we were more consistent, etc. haha :))
Today at dinner, my dad was telling us a story and there was a bowl of cheerios sitting next to me. Next thing I knew, I had a one eyed smiley face..... +)
One of my sisters decided to randomly spill all my change out onto my bedroom floor yesterday. *coughamycough* :D Anyways, after I got over the initial shock I realized it had great photo possibilities!!
Our high school girls varsity basketball team got into the state finals this weekend. Amy who normally plays junior varsity was invited to go along and helped them get to the final championship game. Unfortunately they lost, but it was a good game, and Amy played more than half of it which is insane considering she hardly played with the varsity team during the regular season. This picture is of her recieving her medal for second place (in the state!!) along with her teammates! GO KNIGHTS!
Okay, this picture takes some explaining. My friends (who are totally awesome) arranged a surprise 17th birthday party for me and DeAnna, our birthdays are six days apart... for my present they designed and ordered a pair of ORANGE AND BLUE CONVERSES WITH MY INITIALS ON THE HEEL!!! *falls over with excitement* This completed my birthday celebrations and I will probably sleep with them under my pillow tonight, haha. Just because I can :P
