October Writers

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We have ten pieces this month.  Make sure you read all of them from the three categories--Personal Narrative, Flash Fiction and Abstract Idea.  Choose your three and leave comments.   You know the drill.

Seniors,

Here is your assignment:

Read ALL ten submissions.  They have been labeled by type, title and author.  Choose any three and leave feedback/comments.  You can choose your favorites, most interesting/fascinating/intriguing or WOW pieces.  In your comments, explain why you have selected the piece.  Don't just say, "Great job" and/or "I really liked it".  Give your reasons.  This is an online discussion board.  You are graded on completion and content.  Your comments must be submitted by Thursday, November 14th (11:59 PM).

Remember to be respectful, courteous and informative with your comments.

October Writers,
Here is your assignment:

You are not required to leave comments for this month.  You may, and it is encouraged, that you read your page of comments and respond where needed.  If you have the time,  read your peers' submissions and you may comment on their pieces.  Only if you wish.

All,

Have fun with this assignment.  As you know it is ongoing for the year.  I hope you will enjoy the collection for this month.


All my love:)

Feed your soul,

Mrs. Solano
xo

Untitled--Armando

November 5, 2015, the day I committed a felony and suffered the consequences.   As a thirteen-year old boy only a few months into 8th grade, I was still the nerdy boy with glasses who mistakenly confused the difference between right and wrong.  Little did I know that me being expelled and arrested would lead to the person I am today.

When one of my best friends had told me about another kid, who posed as gang banger, had been threatening him and detested the Mexicans in our school, we decided to take matters into our own hands.  Out of fear, I kept a knife in my backpack the next day for my “protection”. Somehow word got out and I was in the office along with about another 10 students who were involved and when we were searched a few of us had different kinds of weapons.  Once the police came in to write up their reports, I was scared and full of regret. After a few hours of waiting in the office wondering what was going to happen to me, the boy who started the issue and my friend and I were put in handcuffs and made our way to the police station.  There I had to go through the whole process to file my case into the system and got scheduled a court date and was given my expulsion form from my middle school. The worst part was having to have my parents come pick up their criminal child from the police station and having to explain what had happened. 

The only reason I was able to attend a public high school and not stay in continuation school for 4 years were my grades.  I was put into a program with 5 other boys who were in a similar predicament as me. I spent 9 months in this program which kept us isolated from all the students and staff on campus.  By this time, my previous friendships had vanished, but had made one close friend from that program. At first, it was difficult to adjust to a completely different environment which was the start of my transformation into a different person.  The friend I had made helped me get through my problems and I saw him as a role model. During those 9 months, I slowly began to take after him. He taught me how to be humble and appreciative of what I have and what I can do with it. I am thankful for that program because it showed me the real world at a young age which forced me to deal with my problems directly. 

Our mistakes do not define who we are, and I can vouch for that because I was able to grow from my mistakes and make something of myself. It did not take long after being called a criminal, a disgrace, or how I wouldn’t do anything in life to change my attitude and strive to be the best person I can possibly be.  This led to one of the reasons why I kept myself isolated from everyone else because by the end of it, I wanted to say that I was able to learn and grow without the help of anyone else. The person I was before the incident was a completely different person after. I used to regret what happened, but once I got myself organized, I realized that my mistake broke my shell and changed my perspective on how I was going to live my life.  If there is no suffering, then there is no progress. I had to learn the hard way that when we make big mistakes, rather than be discouraged, take advantage of the situation and strive for redemption because people will only see and judge us based on our mistakes but not the effort we put in to fixing them. I would like to believe that this happened to me for a reason because I pushed myself to work hard and not let the past determine my future.

I look back now at my 8th grade year, wondering what could have been if I simply would have done the right thing and prevented the whole situation from even beginning, but a part of me is content knowing I was man enough to get myself out of the hole I dug myself into.  Being able to overcome something I thought I wouldn’t be able to gave me a feeling of capability and opportunity. I became confident when it comes to any situation because I now know I can get through it.

To: Nana and Papa--Sam

Growing up, I lived with my mom, her boyfriend, my uncle, and my nana. It was what I was used to. Everyday, my nana would wake me up, make me a bowl of cereal, and take me to Kindercare. Her ex husband, my papa, would take me to Barnes and Noble every Sunday to pick out three new books. That was routine, and that's how elementary school Samantha believed life would continue. However, I was mistaken. 

When I was 5 years old, my nana was my best friend. My favorite thing to do with her was watch the hummingbirds outside. That same year, in 2007, she was diagnosed with Alzheimers disease. However, 5 year old me didn’t know about my nanas disease. The first time I realized something was off was when she would get lost driving me to the same place she had driven me for the past 5 years of my life. She would sometimes forget to give me breakfast, wake me or pick me up. As I got older I became aware of my papa disease, her Alzheimer's diagnosis and her unwinding mind.
As elementary school me became more self conscious of my friends and those around me, I began to become self conscious of my Nana. She’d forget my name around my teachers and would become anxious at restaurants and places she believed were unfamiliar. I still loved

her and had all the empathy my brain could create for her, but the social, outside had a heightened awareness of her. She’d become something I wanted to hide from the world. 

After graduating from elementary school and moving on to middle school, my self consciousness and awareness of my papa Alzheimer's quirks and confusions grew. At home, she’d become distraught about who my family was, and why she was there. The progression of her Alzheimer's disease had caused her to completely lose her sense of self. Her jumbled brain had caused her to lose all memory, recollection, and happiness. Every day for her was a waking moment of lostness and confusion.
In late October of 2014, she had fallen and hit her head. She incurred a concussion and her deterioration was rapid as never before. Two weeks later she had passed away, surrounded by her family who she had perceived to be random strangers. She didn't recognize her children, her grandchildren, her husband of 30 years or her siblings. To her, her death was a lonely one, and to my family a tragic one. 

A month before her death, my papa had moved into my house as well. He had heart disease and was recovering from pneumonia that almost had taken his life a month before. Seeing my papa go from a man who had traveled the world become a man confined to his weakened body broke my heart. My inspiration to explore the world and gain infinite knowledge had lost his most inspiring quality. Seeing him try so diligently to solve his crosswords or comprehend the Stephen King books he once found so fascinating confirmed his fate. 

I went out shopping one day over this summer, to come home to a hospice care worker interviewing my papa and my family. Trying to hold back the millions of emotions I felt at once, I sat down next to my mom and listened to all of my papas struggles and silent tribulations. The

next morning, my papa passed away. After his passing, and as the hospice workers came to collect their wheelchairs and medicines they had dropped off hours before, I went to Barnes and Noble to relive my happiest memories with him, slowly walking around the children's sections of books. Eventually, I walked over to the “Fiction” section of the bookstore to read my papas favorite Stephen King book, “Misery”. 

In a way, I had returned to the routine I had wished for so badly. I returned to my normal routine of living with my mom, her boyfriend and my uncle. I’d wake up, eat a bowl of cereal, and go to school. I was living the way the younger me had always dreamed of, but my reality was filled with regret and sadness. I missed having my nana to watch the hummingbirds with, or my papa who used to captivate me with every story he told. 

In the five stages of grief, the fifth and final step is acceptance. Accepting my grandparents passings was filled with reflection and introspection of my own actions, and the things I could do better moving forward. The biggest thing I can take away from my grandparents passing is to love those around me unconditionally, and to not take any moment for granted. When I now think of my grandparents, I am not filled with sadness, but with inspiration to continue mine and my parents traditions. Watching the hummingbirds or reading Stephen King books now, I am not filled with the regret of the time I took for granted with them, but am happy to have a piece of them with me, forever.

Chicano Lifestyle--Timothy

Growing up in the Chicano lifestyle is like no other, to be able and feel what it was like
living in the 50s, 60’s and every decade to come after that, threw just music. As a kid the music industry is what surrounded my family, correction the Chicano music industry is what surrounded my family. Lights dropping up and down from the head and tails of different Lowriders to Sunday carne asadas after the iglesia. The family to come from all around Mexico, spreading threw Juarez, Jalisco, and Colima is what gave the ticket into this Vida Loca. The streets where it all began for the Chicano is not as dirty as it is seen through TV news, it’s a beautiful place, where everyone’s smiling and in love through the voices of Brenton Wood and Barbara Mason, where cars give the looks of fireworks as the hydrologics kick in. 

The word chicano does not come from the same meaning as mexicano, in the 1960’s this word was adopted during the breakout of the civil rights movement. Under huge leaders like Ceaser Chaves who founded the United Farm Workers union in assisting his dedication to create better pay and conditions for farm workers, students from all different universities followed him threw different marches, originating “chicano” and taking it in as a point of pride. This is the culture, we do it all for the culture and that’s something that I learned and something that was taught to me as a kid. Still the culture is strong today, though not only in just LA or East LA but

all through the United States, and very popular in Japan as the japaneese adopted a lot of the chicano style. To go through the deep parts of Japan and having the vibes of being in Los Angeles is how every story of that trip is created. 

Since the younger ages, where the nights seemed longer the biggest memories that are contained, memories of sunday afternoons going to car shows just to see lowriders bumping their motion, owned by a knucklehead ese and his heina. That was the move every Sunday, it was always a Sunday afternoon even on a Tuesday afternoon. A few years back hitting the years of about 12 or 13, my father and my family had been distant from the game and the surroundings of celebrities. Though after a phone call to meet up at a car and clothing show, it only took a few minutes for my pops and I to get on the road and start catching up with old friends.The remembrance of pulling up and seeing the different generations of cars lined up, with their owners showing them off like it was a new puppy. This was the day all the stories of my father and his lifestyle of rolling and partying with celebrities became true through my head. The day where famous people with lines of fans wanting autographs took a break, and wanting to come take pictures with the pops. It was cool having people like Angel, the hands of Los Angeles come and take pictures, to have clothes be given to us, and to be behind the scenes with it all. I just knew the feeling it all gave me, and the pride it gave me that I am a chicano and i live this sh*t. 

A wise man named Estevan Oriol once said “ we don’t have lowriders, we our lowriders’ and that’s how we keep the culture alive. This is why we drive 20mi per hour in a 50mi per hour zone, and don’t give a f*ck. This is Southern California and a chicano has a style, the way we wear our clothes, the way we cruise, the music we shoot threw our ears, that Motown jam, and

that old school funk. 50s and 60s Motown music adopted a name of oldies, or Lowrider oldies, this is the blood the chicano lifestyle bleeds.. The feeling lowrider oldies gives you, it’s to the point where your 6 years old and your in love, you have not one clue what your in love with or with who, but the beats of a heart flashes red as if you met the love of your life. Or even to the point where there is no flash just a breaking crack and your even more in love because your heartbroken. Growing up as a child, this is the only music to be introduced to myself , almost as if me and my grandpa were the same age. I lived through the 50’s and 60’s on a sunday afternoon, to be surrounded by the cars, the style of clothes, music, and the feeling. Then as lights turned down that funky junky music popped and our bones popped. To breakdance, pop locking was what made the old school funk so famous. Seeing my pops get down every party was what inspired me to dance and start pop locking and break dancing at a young age. 

This is why I live, this is why my blood still flows today because the feeling this life gives me. As a child my father and mother hung around Chicano celebrities, different rap groups being Cypress Hill, Psycho Realm, artist being Mr. Cartoon, Estevan Oriol, and dozens more during their young life. Celebrities that kept the culture alive, and celebrated the chicano heritage through music, photography, and art. Still today those artist keep it alive, and are huge idols to myself. This is not only because of that, how, or why they celebrate it, though because they found what they loved in life, found out why each of their footsteps were meant to step on this world, and that's what I want to know, what I’m here for. 

This is the Chicano lifestyle, this is my lifestyle and I couldn’t be more proud to live and present the culture. We showboat our heritage as we cruise down the boulevard, and it’s like everything is gone in the world just for a few seconds.

A Welcomed Surprise--Josh

My older cousin, and I have always been very close. We practically did everything
together for as long as I can remember. She was there when I was born and I was there for her High School graduation from Montclair High School. I even managed to give her the nickname “Yang” when I was very young that we all still use when talking with her. Yang was a huge part of everyone's lives and is known for being super relaxed and would do anything, one time she even hitchhiked all the way back from her college in Monterey Bay to our house in Fontana.
Yang was the first to go to college in the new generation of our family and it was a surprise when she told us she dropped out. We all thought she was wasting her ability and throwing away her chances at life, but then she told us her new plan, to become a United States Sailor. She had decided college wasn’t right for her and instead wanted to join the US Navy. This was an even bigger surprise than her sudden drop out, because if you ever met her you’d never think of her as the “Military” type. She is the least serious person in the entire family and literally can’t go five minutes without making some sort of joke. However the Navy was her new goal and nothing was going to stop her from achieving that goal. 

What followed for the next year was Yang doing the most exercise I had ever seen her do. She started eating clean immediately, working out everyday, running everyday and immediately changed her attitude and demeanor towards everything. We were all so incredibly

proud of her for how she was handling her new life. Nearing the end of December of 2018 she told us that she would ship out at the end of March in 2019. Navy bootcamp is about 2 months long so we wouldn’t be able to see her again until about June. 

When March of 2019 finally came about we held a huge goodbye party for her at our Aunt’s house. All of our Uncles and Aunts from mm Mom’s side had come to have fun and see her off. We had all kinds of foods and drinks and it was just a very good time, it almost made you forget what we were celebrating. That party was also the only time I had seen our other cousin Rachael be so drunk that I had to help her walk to the car where her brother was waiting to drive her home. As the end of the night came around Yang had given a small speech along the lines of “Thank you guys so much for everything you’ve done for me, thank you for always supporting me and I love you all.” that line alone was able to put all the Aunts into a crying mess, and I won’t lie it was getting to me alittle bit too. At the very end of the night borderline morning we had said our goodbyes and good lucks and went back home. That would be the last time I’d seen her for awhile. 

As time went on we had received a few letters from her and our parents told us there was a problem at the Navy boot camp and Yang would have to stay their for another month while they sorted things out. This was a huge let down to me as I was really hoping that we could spend the summer together again. However, our parents also told us we needed to clean the house as my Mom’s friend needed a place to stay for a week while they fumigated her house. I didn’t think much of it at the time while I was cleaning or preparing the house but something about the way they said it had made me feel like they were lying but either way I didn’t really care.

The day for my Mom’s friend to come to the house finally rolled around. My dad had pulled me aside and asked for my help to bring in all her bags. As we began walking past my Mom I saw her phone had her camera open and I thought to myself “That's kinda weird” as my dad opened the door I saw our other cousin, yang’s sister first at the end of the walkway and I was really confused. Then as you could probably guess by now, Yang stepped out from behind my Mom’s car and it was the best surprise I had ever gotten in a long time. She was standing there in her Uniform just waiting for us, and after seeing her it was the only time I had ever cussed in front of my Mom because I was so excited to see her there. It felt like I hadn’t seen her in years and I was so happy to finally see her again. 

She stayed with us for a week before having to leave again to go to her job training. She is currently deployed on the USS Abraham Lincoln, as a fighter jet mechanic. She has been gone for about 3 almost 4 months now and her deployment should be ending soon. I’m hoping my parents try and surprise us again with her Homecoming.

Fulfillment--Irina

Being fulfilled in life does not mean being successful because “success” is when one
fulfills society’s definition of how life is supposed to be. For instance, many people believe they are fulfilled with their lives when they can afford ten Ferraris, luxurious houses with indoor swimming pools, or closets full of designer clothes and shoes. However, what they fail to understand is that fulfillment does not necessarily involve success. Rather, fulfillment is the life defined by the heart; not by parents, teachers, friends, or even by the brain. It is from the heart and what makes us feel accomplished inside; it is what touches us and makes our lives worth living. Therefore, one must align with that idea and have the courage to take action. Only then will the feeling of fulfillment be exemplified. As stated by the American author, Tony Robbins, “Success without fulfillment is the ultimate failure” (Grow and Give). It is true because people often spend their whole lives trying to meet the outward form of success, without realizing their lives are empty inside. This is a prime example of why many celebrities decide to end their lives shortly after gaining an immense amount of fame and money. They could have all the wealth and recognition out there, but if they do not find their inner purpose for life, none of that will ever make them feel fulfilled. 

One may think fulfillment is to have large amounts of money because money seems to be the solution to most problems. However, fulfillment does not always have to involve money because that is not wealth; rather, true wealth is having rich connections with the people that matter most. Having that intimate connection is so important, as it brings out our infinite source of love within and shares it among those who need it. Giving affection to those who matter in our lives, and perhaps even receiving some in return, is a feeling of fulfillment that one cannot get

elsewhere. For this reason, money alone can never make us feel satisfied inside, nor should it be our main focus in life, because as we ponder on the person that is most dear to us, there is no possible dollar amount that we would take in return of never seeing that person again. Us humans are all intuitive enough to realize the human-to-human connection is so much more priceless than money ever could be. Thus, we must all stay unequivocally true to ourselves, as it will change the trajectory of our lives. 

Although fulfillment is based upon what an individual wants their life to be about, it does not mean everything in life has to go as expected. There will be many challenges and hardships in life that would make us think life is unfair, but the issue is not that life is being unjust to us; instead, it is because we were too narrow-minded. Thus, when something does not turn out exactly how we wanted, we oftentimes get disappointed and give up. Therefore, we must have the humility within ourselves to reflect on any adversity that may be faced along the way and think about what it is teaching us about ourselves. By not being expectation-orientated, it keeps us in the powerful creator posture, not the victim posture thinking life is happening to us, instead, it is happening for us. If we are able to humble ourselves and leave behind any goals that were set by society, and truly focus on what we want our lives to be about, we will feel accomplished, satisfied, worthy, and most importantly, fulfilled.

Love?Emotion of Instinct?--Cameryn

Does every human feel some type of love in their lifetime? Is love a necessary part of
life? How do we know we as humans are in love? What exactly is love? Love is one of the most important emotions yet the most misunderstood emotion ever. Love has no definition yet we all claim we have some type of love towards something or someone. Is it really love we feel or is it a feeling of responsibility. You love your family because they are family and you are obligated to but outside blood what makes you really love someone or something? I believe there are different levels of love and someone worth to you. I also think that someone has to have specific qualities to be loved by different people, what could be my treasure can be someone else's trash. I myself do not feel obligated to my parents to love them I love them because of the love they have towards me no matter what and how they feel about happiness. Happiness and love go hand and hand and you need one to have a happy other. You can love something or someone and not be happy and vise versa. Even the people that think there is no hope for love know that they can have a responsibility to their child,sibling,parent or other significant other that can feel like love. A person's feeling of being able to love easily says a lot about the person and their heart. Many of us have been hurt before and this can affect how we give our love out and how cautious we are in the love we give and how open we are. We love to open up to the people we love because we feel safe, love is a safe place where nothing can be wrong, a loyalty above all loyalty and the

strongest relationships you can have with people till the day you don't love someone anymore.Love is so strong it can make people do crazy things. Many studies are always attempted to depict more of people's feelings and minds. Many people in Psychology feel as if we as humans love with our minds and not out hears. Psychologists believe that we feel a connection and a thoughtful passion towards someone's personality and intelligence. If you believe that you love with your heart and not your mind they you know that someone's intelligence and personality can change and therefore so can love. Love is not forever. Love is an ever changing thing that can evolve or disintegrate based on someone's state of mind. Love cannot have any type of measurement other than gestures and actions that can make someone feel appreciated or that they mean something to someone. Treating something with respect can also mean you love them. How you physically love and care for something speaks so much about a person and their state of mind that it is used to evaluate other parts of the brain. Love comes with happiness and anger but most of all a responsibility to whomever or whatever it is you love till you just cant love anymore.

Happiness-Alexis

When I was in elementary school, my mom once asked me if I was enjoying it. I told her yes. She asked me if I was happy at school. Again, I said yes. But when she asked me why, I was stumped. It wasn’t a difficult question, she was simply asking me why I was enjoying school. But I didn’t necessarily have a reason for being happy, I just wasn’t unhappy. Back then, that was my definition of happiness: the absence of sadness. If I had no reason to be unhappy, I could find joy in any situation. I had always had my friends, and I liked my teachers and what I was learning, and that made me happy too.
Merriam-Webster defines happiness as “a state of well-being and contentment: joy.” Most people would refer to being happy when doing something they like or being with people they appreciate. However, what qualifies as happiness? It has no numerical value; it can’t be measured. Is happiness simply the absence of sadness? Is it a cause or an effect? What is the difference between happiness and positivity?
If we went strictly by the definition, someone would be happy anytime they were healthy and had all of their needs met. Well-being can be purely physical, and contentment would be an absence of any physical needs. However, happiness is an emotion. Someone can be well and technically content, but not happy. We could also look at things that cause happiness. Some of these are optimism, family, friends, love, and appreciation. So, is it impossible to be happy if you don’t have any of these things. Plenty of people would say that they are happy alone, and despite having nothing can still be happy. So, does this make optimism the sole cause of happiness? A positive viewpoint surely can make someone happy, because all negatives are taken out of the question, but is it necessary?
Let’s consider someone with depression. This is a purely chemical reason for unhappiness, but still has to do with outlook. People with depression normally can’t see a positive, and they tend to have a hard time with optimism. Can someone with depression be happy? That depends. As an overall feeling, it’s not possible, because depression is literally considered an opposite to happiness. But, that doesn’t mean that depressed people are never happy. Individual moments of happiness still happen, which means that happiness isn’t completely tied to outlook.
The truth is that there is no one meaning of happiness. As simple as the question looks, how would someone respond to the question, “Are you happy?” Can you experience happiness in one minute, or can it only happen over a long period of time?
I’d argue that happiness is different for everyone. It has to be looked at relative to a person’s life. Someone who is consistently positive may consider themselves happy at any moment, but any small inconvenience can completely reverse that. People who rarely experience happiness can find it in any relatively good moment. If happiness were always constant, then everyone would experience depression in any hard time. But overall, every person has to decide for themselves: “What makes me happy?” 

“Happiness.” ​Merriam-Webster​, Merriam-Webster, www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/happiness.

Endless Passion--Chase

I awaken into darkness. The subtle glow of streetlights and neon signs illuminate the
various shadows and shades of my room. Im crying. I wipe my tears and rush to the bathroom. The hardwood creaks and my door, slightly ajar, makes a horrendous screech as I open it slowly. The ambient hardwood transitions into a cold tile. I flick a light on. I’m crying. I'm crying tears of blood. 

“What?” Im crying tears of blood. The dark wine of my creation drips down onto a porcelain fountain. I reach for the nearest towel, wet it, and begin to wipe my face. Hands covered in blood and the bleeding doesn't stop. I continue to wipe away at the bloody streaks as they caress the various features of my face. After the tears have seemed to stop. A warm feeling washes over my entire body. A warm feeling of relief. I finish wiping away the last of the crimson liquid from my face. I look at my alarm, across the room I can only make out the bright digital numbers that read “2:37”. The red letters which starkly contrast with the black outer shell of the alarm. Which alerts me with a beckoning call at the break of dawn. 

When I lay back down I notice the shortness of my breath. Slowly but surely, I am suffocating. I once again get up out of the bed which I had just situated myself back into. Rushing to my window, I pull at the rough but somewhat soft edges of the lace that makes up the curtain. Upon ripping it open, the streets offer a wide array of lights to glance at. The red lights

posted at the nearby intersection blink lifelessly, and the neon signs surrounding mimic this. The occasional hologram screen flashing images of “dancers”. These are going to be the last images I see before I die. As the light begins to get a fuzzy hue around it I stick my head out of the window. Able to reclaim my breath as my lungs are filled with a smoke tainted breeze.
I need to get out. I dress myself, putting on a sleek black coat with a hex pattern of a different material, some baggy black pants, and white sneakers. I grab a bag, which I use to put away a few books, my keys, my phone, and some money. I twist the rusty steel on my dirty door knob which opens up into a bright white hallway. To my left the hallway continues, seeming to never end, the only differences being the doors, each having a black plaque with room numbers engraved into them. To my right, I see the same, but this direction has a black door at the end. I pass door after door, “2056, 2057, 2058, 2059... 2119, 2120.” I finally get to the black door, I open it into a dark set of stairs, dimly lit with worn out floodlights. I begin to climb flights to the top. My shoes hitting metal, the impact echoes throughout the entire stairwell. I come to the end of the stairs where I see a single door.This is the roof. I open the door and the brightness of the outside hurts my eyes. 

Screens upon screens surround me, but for some reason up here, I feel at peace. I know I’ll never be able to escape, yet the relief I get while being up here is enough to make me forget about it. Tears begin to fall again, still blood. I take out one of the books I brought with me, I turn to the page I last remember. It already stained mahogany, I do my best to still read. The page becomes more and more saturated with my bloody tears and my vision clouds in a hue cardinal shade. Turning the various yellows and blues and oranges of the neon screens bathing the skylight into oranges, purples, and pinks. I continue to read despite this. Before the pages

become too sanguine to read, the text reads “Complex yet unseen - My tears fall in a rhythm - And form a new man”. I sob harder once I can no longer read the text on the pages. I glance to the edge of the top of this building. I pick myself up. My breath shortens and my face becomes masked in carmine. I stumble closer. Tripping over rusty covered pipes and landing into wet concrete. I clamber up to the edge and look down, glancing back at the book which has a congealed coat of blood which seems to drip slowly. “I'll see you again tomorrow old friend.” As the pages flip and fly, the wind pushes me off. I begin to fall. 

I awaken into darkness. The subtle glow of streetlights and neon signs illuminate the various shadows and shades of my room. I’m crying. I wipe my tears and rush to the bathroom. The hardwood creaks and my door, slightly ajar makes a horrendous screech as I open it slowly. The ambient hardwood transitions into a cold tile. I flick a light on. I’m crying...

Just a Nap--Ben

I check my watch for the fourth time today. Ten-Forty. Third period. Smack dab in
the middle of SSR. “​How can time move any slower?” ​I think to myself, as I stare at the clock, putting every ounce of willpower into moving the hour hand forward with just my eyes. I quickly give up, thinking about how stupid I must look right now. Minutes, stretched out like eons, finally pass, and SSR is finally over. Breathing a sigh of relief, I tell myself that I can do it, and that the worst is finally over, school is almost out! Little did I know, the worst was about to make its debut. Suddenly, my body and mind is overtaken by an overbearingly monotone voice. I frantically search for the source of this terrible noise, and discover that my teacher is the cause! This mind-numbing sound was enough to put a horse to sleep, definitely too much for one man to bear. Soon, my senses begin to stall, my body and head begin to feel heavy, and before I know it, my eyes close. When they open again, I glance at the clock and notice the time. “Two Fifty-Five? Time to go!​” ​I exclaim, as I race out of the classroom towards the parking lot so that I can finally go home. I hop on the freeway and slam on the gas to race home. Not even a full 5 minutes after I leave, flashing red and blue lights appear behind me. “Damn,” I think to myself. “My mom is gonna kill me.” As the cop comes to my window, he begins screaming to my face, and demands my license and registration. “DO YOU KNOW WHY I STOPPED YOU!?”, The cop asks me. I reply no, and what he responds with stuns me: “NO SLEEPING IN CLASS” the cop exclaims. Confused, I asked what he meant by that. “NO SLEEPING IN CLASS!”, he yells. With a loud yelp, I shoot up from my desk and look around in a confused daze to see my third period period class

and teacher staring right back at me. “No sleeping in class, Benjamin,” my teacher explains to me in his monotone voice. “I don’t wanna have to give you another detention again this week.”

My Life in High School--James

Log date 6-5-18
Today was just like any other day, get up and get ready to go to practice and I
was with my friends Derek, Nathan, and Julia. now a little background check on Derek and Nathan is that I’ve known them for about my whole life, but Julia I met at the start of freshman year practice and now all of us are really close friends and going into sophomore year things are going to be getting crazy. Now today I met a girl at practice and I don’t know her name yet but she was pretty cool, me and her hit it off real quick and I think it’s going to be a start of a new friendship. 

Log date 6-11-18
I learned the name of the girl and it’s Brianna, me and her are good friends now
and derek, nathan, and julia really like her and we all accepted her into the group. Now it’s too soon to tell but julia thinks I like brianna but that’s ridiculous, I only just met her a few days ago, she must be crazy but I won’t worry about I’ll just focus on running and making new friends. Nothing new happened at practice today but all of us are doing well and I hope we continue to do good for all of the races we will be doing.

 

 

Log date 6-26-18
Now I haven’t wrote in about two weeks because I’ve been busy but for the most
part everyone is doing good, especially me, now ever since julia said that I might like brianna, derek and nathan are even telling me “We see it to bro” and “why don’t you just ask her out”, and I’ve told them multiple times that julia doesn’t know what she’s talking about and that they got it all wrong. In my opinion I think brianna likes me but I don’t really know. One day though me and derek were hanging out after practice and we were talking about random stuff until we got onto the topic of girls, and I didn’t want him to start with me and brianna but he didn’t, instead he talked about julia and how he’s getting feelings for her and I was listening to how it started and why he’s getting them and it was so good that I told him to go for it, what's the worst that can happen. 

Log date 7-4-18
Nothing new or exciting has happened since I last wrote except derek and julia
are dating. Not to brag or anything but I did do all the work to get them together by making derek go for it, and if it wasn’t for me they wouldn’t be together. Other than that the only thing to look forward to is our tryouts on the 28th and I can’t wait to do great. Log date 7-28-18
I killed it at the tryouts and so did everyone else, I thought I was going to beat derek easily but he took off and I couldn’t catch him. He told me I did great and to keep training with him and I should be able to get to his level soon. Other exciting news is that our first race is sometime next month and I can hardly wait. Also derek and julia are officially boyfriend and girlfriend. I also heard that there’s a rumor going around the

team that brianna is catching feelings for me, and who wouldn’t be, I’m great to be around. Maybe I’ll give brianna a try and who knows maybe we would get together, only time will tell.

Log date 8-11-18
Race day and I’m excited, now for the past I don’t know let’s say a week and a half, anyway brianna and I have been getting a lot closer than we normally have, we’re talking more after practice, texting late at night about our lives and getting to know each other better and if I’m not mistaken there was flirting between both of us from time to time and now I’m starting to catch the feels for brianna and I think she might be getting them toward me too. When I get to the race I’ll tell her how I feel, I hope things go well.
I did it, I told her how I felt and she gave me a big hug and a kiss on the cheek before my race, turns out she felt the same way and she was happy that I liked her because she didn’t think I did and that I was just messing with her. After the race, she did the same thing because I did so good, so I believe this is the start of a great relationship.

Log date 8-28-18
Even though it’s been weeks since I last wrote anything nothing dramatic has changed, derek and julia are doing great together and brianna and I are also going great, we all went on a double date together and had a great time bowling and talking, all of us are getting to be really close friends which makes me happy.
Log date 9-1-18

I’m going to be taking a break from my journal for a little bit and I’m going to be focusing more on my running and my friends, see you soon journal.

Log date 12-31-18
So much stuff has happened since september and I want to write about it before new years happens. Let’s start off with derek and julia, they have broken up and got back together so many times it is hard to even keep up with them, even when they aren’t together they are good friends but you can tell that they still act awkward around each other. My love life is doing pretty good, there were a few bumps along the way but I made up those bumps with apologies and with gifts. There was one bump though that I thought was the end, it all started when I was joking with her and then it went too far, I accidently joked about a touchy subject which note to self, remember the touchy subjects and never bring them up unless it’s appropriate. After that she got mad and we both started taking shots at each other, back and forth with endless rounds of jokes which turned to rude saying, then turned to insults, and finally it was an all out argument which at the time I thought I had won but turns out I had won the battle but I probably won’t win the war. To make up for the fight and not lose brianna I came up with this great idea to give her a scavenger hunt in which she would go to all the spots which were special to us. I asked julia to help me and for her to go with brianna and she said she would love to, as they were going around doing the scavenger hunt, the final spot was my backyard which I invited all of our friends to help set up and decorate for a big party to say sorry. In the end it worked and we are still together to this day, and I hope that the new year brings us and everyone closer together, I can’t wait for next year.