How To Glow Up-Gaby

How To Glow Up:
Glowing up should be about being the best version of yourself. Glowing up isn't just something physical, but also emotional and spiritual. I known that many of us have seen those glow up challenges on social media including the most recent one the ten year challenge but that is just a portion to what glowing up means . A lot of times people focus only on the physical aspect of glowing up which is just a part of it but there is lots more to understand. Therefore here are ten easy tips that can be incorporated in your life, within these steps everyone can interpret them differently because they may speak to us individually. These tips are not the definite steps that must be followed to glow up rather they can be personalized to our needs, there is many others ways to glow up but these are some I find important to spread positivity. Tips :
Tip 1 : Hold yourself high
(This means you shouldn't feel less than others because it's the foundation of your confidence.) 

Source fanaticsexposed.tumblr
Tip 2: Don't compare yourself to others
(everyone is unique and you shouldn't feel the need to feel do the things they are doing.) 

Source laurengleisberg.com
Tip 3: Distance yourself from negative people

( one of the most important tips is to surround yourself with positive encouraging people because those people can influence how you feel, sometimes you have to cut out people.) 

Source funnybeaver.com
Tip 4: Your happiness matter
( If worrying about your physical appearance does create happiness and confidence you should go ahead and be yourself.)
Tip 5: Manifestation
( manifestation is important because believing in your goals is crucial, seeing is believing.) 

Source selfmadeladies.com
Tip 6: Promote healthy habits
( this can be very versatile such as anything you consider healthy for you to continue doing ex: exercise,hobby,mediating. )
Tip 7: Don't seek revenge
(focus the energy on yourself not on getting even, this will encourage more positivity.) 

Source twitter.com
Tip 8: Failure is part of your success
( you shouldn't be so hard on yourself because you can't live a perfect life you have to accept the bumps on the road.)
Tip 9: Accept yourself, love yourself
( This may seem Cliché but there is nothing better then not caring what others think.) 

Source livepurposefullynow.com
Tip 10: Don't dim others shine
( someone's else success should encourage you rather than making you upset because there is room for everyone,that being said no one is you and that is your superpower.)

Calling For Change And Being A Better Ally--Diana

In my now 18 years of life, I’ve seen a lot. I’ve seen Scooby, Shaggy, Daphne, Velma, and Fred solve countless mysteries, I’ve seen Dora and Boots go on adventures, I’ve seen Hannah take off her wig and reveal her identity, I’ve seen Raven’s visions. I’ve also seen Michael Brown in his cap and gown, I’ve seen Eric Garner yelling “I can’t breathe” while a cop shoved his knee into his chest, I’ve seen Sandra Bland slammed onto the floor during a traffic stop, I’ve seen Alton Sterling get shot while being pinned to the floor, I’ve seen the pictures of the Las Vegas shooting, I’ve seen the 49 victims of the Pulse Nightclub shooting, I’ve seen myself in the 17 Parkland shooting Victims. I’ve seen countless of injustices and no change. I’ve seen white people run and fake out cops and not get shot and I wondered why they didn’t shoot them. I don’t wonder anymore because I know. Black people are more likely to die for a traffic stop than a white person is when they point a gun at officers. Black people live with that fear. No, I’m not discrediting everyone’s experiences with cops, I’m recognizing the dangers black people face when they simply exist. I’m not going to say I know what it feels like, because yes, while I do feel fear when I see a cop, I know it doesn’t come close to the fear black people feel when they go out. I’m not going to act like I know what it feels like, and it’d be stupid if I did. Instead, I ask that you listen to your black peers and listen to them. Do not try to pick up their burdens, do not try to say “well, actually,” just listen to them. Listen to marginalized people when they speak. If you ever wonder or think about what marginalized people experience, start listening to them. If you’re white, recognize the power you have. People are more likely to listen when white people agree. When I say I see myself in shooting victims, it’s because school shootings are becoming more and more common. I’m horrified when I hear the doors in the J building slam, I’m horrified when someone reaches into their bag for an extended period of time, I’m horrified when I hear any loud noise at any given time during the school day. Even if you try to say that the likelihood of a school shooting is low, you can’t deny the deafening silence you hear when someone pops a bag of chips or there’s a loud bang during lunch or one of your classes. We can all be victims when there’s nothing stopping us from becoming another mass shooting on the news. We need change, simply put. As grateful as I am that I haven’t experienced a school shooting in my 4+ years of attending school, I have 3 months left. I am not out of the woods. My friends who have 1, 2, or 3 years left aren’t out of the woods. The countless number of kids barely going into school aren’t out of the woods. Circling back around, if you want to be a good ally for anything, listen. If you’re not sure about something, ask someone. There’s nothing wrong in wanting to better understand something and wanting clarification. And most importantly, ask yourself: Are you speaking with them or over them?

HOW TO MAKE YOUR OWN STUFFED ANIMAL--Celina

HOW TO MAKE YOUR OWN STUFFED ANIMAL
Ever since I created my first mole in AP Chemistry last year, it’s like I fell in love with sewing. It fit right into my niche and as a result I went a little crazy and made 2 more moles to create a mole family. Thus, now obviously I had to continue this little passion of mine and fabricated another little sewing project: a cute little teddy bear. Designing and making your little stuffed animal is a great way to practice your sewing skills or to have some fun for a couple of hours. *side note-If you decide to keep the shape simple for that stuffed animal, you don't have to necessarily make a bear. You can follow these steps and create anything you desire! However, these are the basic instructions for making the cute bear.
WHAT YOU WILL NEED:

• -  White and Brown fleece
  
• -  Black felt
  
• -  Paper
  
• -  Scissors
  
• -  Sewing pins and needle
  
• -  Brown, white, and black thread
  
• -  Stuffing
  
• -  Black sharpie
  
• -  Red ribbon
  
• -  Sewing needle 
  
  
  
  STEP 1: Create a template and cut out the fabric
  Decide on how large you want to make the bear and draw a simple outline of it. Lay your template on top of the fleece and secure it with sewing pins. This ensures that you will cut out an
  

accurate outline of the template. Cut out 2 pieces of white fleece for the front and back. You will also need to draw out the snout, stomach, and ear area as well. Cut out 1 piece of brown fleece for each part.
- Make sure the overall pattern is 1⁄2 inch bigger all the way around since it the fabric tends to cave in after you stitched it up. 

STEP 2: The Front
Once you have all your pieces, decide which of the 2 white fabric that’s going to be your front. Place the snout and stomach pieces in the center and the ear area close to the edge of the ears on the white fleece and secure it with sewing pins. This ensures that the fabric pieces will stay lined up correctly while you’re sewing. Before you begin sewing, thread a needle and tie a knot at the end. Start sewing a simple back and forth stitch with the brown thread. Start from the back and place your needle 1/16 inch inside the brown area and finish the stitch at the outline of the brown area. Repeat this process until you stitched up the entire part. 

STEP 3: The Face
Using your black felt, cut out 2 circles for the eyes and 1 nose.
- Optional: You can draw a template of the eyes and nose on a piece of paper or roughly
cut out the pieces just like me. 

STEP 4: The mouth
Take your eyes and nose, roughly place them where you want them to be and secure them with sewing pins. Sew using the back and forth stitch with black thread. To create the mouth, use your black sharpie, draw a rough sketch of the mouth and start sewing with a back stitch. 

STEP 5: Sew the pattern
Get your 2 pieces of white fleece with the pattern, place the front side facing the inside since we are going to flip it inside out to stuff the bear later and secure it with multiple sewing pins. Sew a simple running stitch all around the sides with white thread.

- Sometimes it takes too long to go back and forth one by one; thus, you can sew it partially back and forth multiple times and pull the string through to make the process faster. 

Step 6: Turn the stuffed animal inside out
Once you only have a few inches left, flip the animal inside out and start stuffing it.

• -  Now the raw stitching should be hidden and the front will be visible.
  
• -  If you have difficulty stuffing the animal, use the end of a wooden spoon, chopstick or a
  stick of some sort to help push the stuffing to places where it is hard to stuff like the ear, arm or leg section. 
  
  
  
  

STEP 7: Finish the bear
After you finished stuffing it, close the hole with a zig zag stitch using a white thread. - This should not take a lot of thread. 

STEP 8: Accessorize
Once the basic foundation of the bear is done, I decided to add a red ribbon to add some color and decorate the bear. At this point, feel free to use any available at home items such as a scarf, bow, marker to embellish your creation. 

Hope you had as much fun as I did making this. Enjoy!

Here is a link as a reference for all the stitches I used. https://www.mybluprint.com/article/top-10-must-know-hand-embroidery-stitches

Happy go lucky Hannah--Michaela

I was born into a family of six people. I have an amazing mom and dad, an older brother, and two older sisters all of which I don’t know what I would do without. One of my sisters, Hannah, was born special needs. For the longest time doctors said that she had cerebral palsy which is a disorder that messes with someone’s ability to move around. Although that diagnosis didn’t quite make sense because of the many other problems she had that were not a part of cerebral palsy. Eventually, about four years ago, doctors gave her the new diagnosis of “chromosome anomaly” which basically means there is no one else like her and they don’t know what to do. She can not talk, she has many disorders from epilepsy to osteopenia, she can no longer walk on her own and despite some days where she has an attitude like everyone in my family, she is one of the happiest people you will ever meet.
Eleven years ago in September 2007 due to a Hamburger recall that got to my family a little too late my sister Hannah got E. coli. It began with her throwing up and my mom taking her to the hospital knowing something was wrong but the doctors sent her home twice saying “it’s just the flu.” As things worsened, her eyes turned yellow and my mom went back, the doctors finally listened. I remember thinking that this was just another one of Hannah’s doctor appointments that happen all the time, accept this one she didn’t come home from right away. My grandparents came to stay with me and my other siblings who were only eight and eleven at the time, that is when I realized that there was something wrong. My mom and my dad would

trade “night shifts” at the hospital with Hannah. I remember my mom always putting on this brave face like everything was going to be okay, even though we all kind of knew that it wasn’t okay at all. My mom and dad would always just tell us to pray. The first time we went to go see her me and my sister Aly gathered all of Hannah’s favorite toys, her most favorite being her balloons, and prepared for our task of going to make Hannah happy. Though, as soon as we walked in the room and saw our sister with an NG tube in her nose, IVs in and in a hospital gown asleep, we did not know what to do. However, we watched as when she woke up Hannah was still the happy go lucky girl we love so much and she began to mess around and play with her balloon like she always did. The next visit me and my sister prepared to go and again do our task of making Hannah happy. However this time Hannah was not quite as happy go lucky as we knew her to be. The next visit after that, the Hannah in the bed didn’t even seem like our sister anymore. She was always sleeping and if she was actually awake she was whining and not happy at all. Visiting Hannah went from a fun task of going to make that hospital room bright, to trying not to let that now very quiet hospital room get to you. At this point doctors told all of us to say our goodbyes.
At the time this happened I couldn’t comprehend what that even meant. I knew that it was bad and Hannah was sick and mom and dad were sad and I knew that Hannah might not make it but I couldn’t imagine that happening. I remember crying and not really knowing why, I just knew everyone else was crying and I knew Hannah was not okay. For some reason when she was sick and I was sad I felt the need to hide but my brother found me and would just hug me and say it’s going to be okay. The day after doctors told us to say our goodbyes, miraculously, Hannah started improving. Doctors could not explain what was happening and did not understand it at all, but as we learned a while after this, Hannah has a gift for stumping doctors. Happy go lucky Hannah makes a full recovery and is sent home. When she was home

people would come to see her. My parents one day were talking to one of our family friends about a prayer they prayed the night the doctors said to say our goodbyes. They both said they prayed and ask God either heal her now or take her to be with you because we can’t watch her suffer like this anymore. My mom was at the hospital that night and my dad was at home. They were in completely separate places praying the same thing. The day after this is when Hannah started improving.
This whole situation didn’t affect me as much in the moment as it does now. After this hospital stay Hannah has had way more and as I get older it becomes more and more real to me what could happen. This affects me now because I realize what all those little things I noticed when I was younger meant. My mom and dad being sad was because they thought they were going to lose their child, my mom saying pray was because doctors couldn’t even help at that point, and all those tubes that Hannah was connected to were literally keeping her alive, and all of this happened because of some burgers we wanted to try. This made the value of life real to me and it made the value of family real to me. Every time Hannah gets sick now I see how everyone takes kind of the same role as they did that first time. My mom and dad take care of Hannah, me and my sister try to make sure that everyone is happy and try to keep the mood light. My brother is there when someone starts to fall apart. It also taught me that no matter how dark and horrible things look they can turn around in the blink of an eye.

The serene ship--Jacob

The bow of the ship silently skidded along the soft sand. The pine planks creaked as the ship halted to a stop, the intricate carvings adorning the bow were discolored from years of weathering do to the Scandinavian sea, and the harsh waters it was known for. This was routine for most of the Warriors on the ship, as war was a prominent part of their culture, this could be seen by a sense of calmness and serenity through the ship. One boy, or young man as he preferred to be called, did not share this same sense of serenity, but was instead petrified.
This young man was not like the other burley warriors, with broad frames who had been training for this moments since they were kids, instead he was different. He grew up in a small coastal village, the offspring of a fisherman, and instead of growing up learning the skills of a warrior like his comrades, he instead was adorned with skills of a fisherman, tying knots, making nets, skills that did not seem very practical on the battlefield. Though this young man, given the name Wade by his parents would find himself in the midst of battle very shortly. Sadly Wade grew up in a time of war, and his town, being a prominent coastal city was one of the first to be attacked, Wade was one of the few that were able to survive, his family was not so lucky. At that very moment Wade decided to help fight this war, to not only avenge the death of his parents, but prevent others from going through the same pain he felt. Though Wade was undersized, his hard work and effort made him formidable comrade in the battlefield.
The ship he was currently on was not like the ships he had grown up on, the fishing ships he was accustomed to were small, and rarely ventured out farther than the bay. This new ship was grand, and relied on both the power of oars and winds, making it war more versatile. Though Wade had spent his whole life on boats, this one was different, this one wasn’t to provide food for the family, but instead was used for war, something that Wade did not now if he truly agreed with, something he was still struggling with the idea of.
The warriors on board looked around, making sure they had not been seen by any of the members of the town, and when the coast was clear the ship's captain began to count down. 3... sweat begin to slowly drip down wades face, he knew he needed to find a way to calm down. 2.. his heart rapidly beated. 1... he took a deep breath, he was ready. After that, the captain yelled something that Wade did not quite understand, the roar of the warriors was so loud that Wade couldn’t comprehend what the captain said, but he knew that this is the moment he had been waiting for, he leaped of the edge of the boat, landing sharply in the soft sand.

What is Forgiveness--Abrianna

“The weak can never forgive, forgiveness is the attitude of the strong.” Psychologists typically define forgiveness as a conscious, deliberate decision to release feelings of resentment or vengeance toward those who have harmed you, regardless of whether they actually deserve your forgiveness. As humans we are hardwired to retaliate when we have have been hurt by someone or something. Forgiveness has huge impact on our own health and emotional well being, the act of forgiving is less about the other person as it is about our own hearts. Forgiveness is for our own growth and happiness. When we hold on to hurt, pain, resentment, anger etc. it harms us more than it harms the offender. Forgiveness frees us to live in the present, reliving the wrong that has been done keeps us living in the past and missing the present. Forgiveness also lets us regain our own personal power, which was given to the other person through our anger hatred and regret. Resentment can cloud our thoughts and perspective of other people, but forgiveness can clear that up so we are able to see the good again.

Not only does forgiveness benefit us emotionally, but physically and mentally as well. It can boost your immune system, forgiveness has been known to enhance the production of antibodies. Strengthen relationships, research has shown that forgiveness works in many ways to promote healthier and happier relationships. It can improve sleep, improved sleep quality has been linked to forgiveness. It can lighten your load physically, studies have shown that forgiveness can change your physical perceptions and abilities. Supports heart health, an attitude of forgiveness has been shown to reduce blood pressure and heart rate. And lastly it can improve cognitive function, when someone is feeling forgiving brain scans revealed higher activity in the frontal lobes.
Forgiveness is a courageous act. It symbolizes maturity, realization, and strength. It’s an act that does not come easy to anyone and is differently defined by everyone. Although it is important to know what forgiveness is , it is just as important to know what it is not . Forgiveness does not mean easily forgetting, nor does it mean excusing wrongdoings. Though forgiveness can help repair damaged circumstances, it does not obligate reconciliation. So is the phrase “forgive and forget” a good motto to live by or does it just allow those to get away with the actions that needed to be forgiven in the first place? There are many outlooks and perspectives on what it means to forgive, and although there are many associations of forgiveness, there is a common identification of what it is not. Forgiveness is not forgetting or pretending it didn’t happen, it is not excusing, it is not giving permission or condong to continue hurtful behaviors, and it is not reconciliation. Forgiveness may not right the wrongs of the past, but it will prevent the wrongs of the future.
Quote 1 - Mahatma Gandhi

Special Olympics--Serina

On July 27, 2018 I volunteered as I do every year with my family for the special

olympics which is held at Cal State Long Beach. The Special Olympics is an event for those with mental, physical, and learning disabilities to participate in different sporting events. My family and I have been going ever since 2010 with my dad’s job, Frito Lay. On this Friday morning I remember when my family and I arrived there was a slight overcast and it was very humid. As we started to unload the car we grabbed the boxes of chips as well as the mascot costume ,Chester the Cheetah, as we were unloading the car we saw all of the competitors arriving with big similes on all of their faces and waving to us. When I saw all of these young adults excited to be there to compete i could not help but get be just as excited as they were to be there. After we unloaded the car my family and I made our way to the Frito Lay booth which was surrounded by many others and started to set up the beanbag game toss station as well as the facepaint area. While I was doing that, my older brother, Matt, got into the Chester the Cheetah costume and got ready to walk around and take pictures with all that came to the event. At around 8:00 pm the sun was shining bright and it was warming up and tons of people were arriving and going to all the different booths and having fun gaining prizes, taking pictures, playing games, but most importantly going supporting the athletes. As I was walking around Chester the Cheetah many of the competitors were ecstatic to see “the Cheeto guy.” They would come up to him with big smiles and my

brother would give them hugs and high fives as they came up to him. Seeing how everyone was reacting to him gave me a feeling of happiness and I felt so fortunate to be there. And, after awhile of walking we would take a break and go to a sporting event and cheer on everyone competing. This past year particularly was even more special to me because my uncle,who has down syndrome, was participating in the basketball event. Seeing him and his teammates compete and show off their skills was so amazing to watch and it gave me such a great feeling that knowing everyone in the audience was there supporting all of them. It almost was a shock for me seeing all these people there in support for them because I have seen many people look down upon those who have a disability. Growing up with a special needs uncle many people do not understand what discrimination they go through and how people want to limit them because they think they can not comprehend anything. However, they are some of the most smartest and strongest people I know. From these events it also taught me how a community of people can come together and support everyone and teach us that we should not limit anyone because everyone is capable of anything. This event also has steered me to my path of wanting to give back to these wonderful people who have disabilities and become a special needs teacher to teach them that no matter what disability they have they can do amazing things.