January Writers!!!!!

Welcome back to the blog.  Our January writers have been posted and there is quite the variety.  There is a total of 15 submissions for this month.  Please, make sure you read ALL of the entries.  Chose five from the list and leave your feedback and comments for the writer.  Your January comments are due by Tuesday, Feb. 7.

Writers,
Thank you for your pieces.  Keep an eye on your page, checking the comments as they post.  Respond to three comments left on your page AND leave comments on two other entries.  Your comments are due Thursday, Feb. 9.

Have a great weekend and enjoy the entries.

Happy Reading!!!!!

Mrs. Solano

How To Ice Skate--Sophia

Well it’s winter now, and there are several of you, who I am sure have gone ice
skating during this season. If you don’t know, I am here to teach you how to ice
skate. For 9 years now I have played ice hockey and know the game pretty well if
you ask me. I get asked by lots of people to teach them how to skate and let me tell
you it’s not easy at first. This is not a step because it’s common sense, but make
sure you wear warm clothes. It tends to get pretty cold inside an ice rink, especially
if you’re not moving a lot. Now onto the steps! Step 1: Make sure you get the
appropriate skate size. This is extremely important because if the skate is too big it
makes it harder to skate. You typically want to go down 1 or 1.5 shoe size(s). For
example, I am a 6 in womens shoes but a size 4 in men’s (make sure if you’re a girl
that you know your size in a men’s shoe) and I wear a size 3 skate. Step 2: Get a
feel for the ice when you first step on. If you aren’t comfortable hold onto the
boards if you have to. This part is important so you can get comfortable before you
actually start to move. Step 3: Bend your knees a little, widen your stance. This
helps you keep your balance so you don’t fall on your butt. Step 4: Now that you
have fixed your stance, start to push off one leg and then to the other to get going.
Be careful not to go too fast and if you do, stop moving your feet and just glide on
the ice. Step 5: Be safe! If you fall it’s no big deal just get up at your own pace, but
you also have to be courteous to the other skaters around you while getting up and
getting out of the way. Step 6: Have fun! Don’t get frustrated if you can’t perfect
skating right away. It definitely is hard and takes time to learn. It took me months
of lessons when I first started to actually be able to skate and compete on an actual
club team. To this day I still have to take skating lessons just to work on my form
and edges, which proves that you always have room for improvement. Next time
you go ice skating remember these steps and enjoy!

The Life You “Chose”--Vanessa

You’ve lived fifty years and your next editorial is due in an hour. You contemplate your topic,
and with such little time you settle on something that has intrigued you for as long as you can
remember; How much of your life is dictated by fate — a nd how much was free will? You’re
upper middle class, as you’ve always been, and married to that guy from university who always
reminded you of your Dad a little bit. Fate, the inevitable, the predetermined, could that be your
driving force? Considering your circumstances, maybe something was written in the stars for
you after all. You never really decided to marry someone as frugal or silly as your own father or
even pursue a writing career. As simple as it sounds you really believe the stars aligned just
right. Every ignored phone call, missed bus, wrongly extended nap and detour on the freeway
was inevitable — carefully calculated “mistakes” leading you on a one path route to where you
are today. Each and every one of your decisions have already been decided; perhaps by future
you who waits on you to perform. Nonetheless, unconvinced you are even special enough to
have a predetermined destiny, you might map each event down to a mere coincidence, and
resolve you do in fact, have free will. You determine you are your own driving force and you
have the power to make choices and even retract them as you please. To you, the future does
not exist. You prefer to be in control of your life and particularly like that you can change your
path tomorrow if you wished. But consider karma, does every action you execute cause a ripple
of consequent actions? Maybe it’s that blue shirt you dug out of the laundry, or late paper
submission that inescapably led you to meet your husband or have your first child. You’re fifty
and you’ve finally turned in your editorial a minute before it was due. You turn to your smiling
husband. You envision your life if you would’ve never “chosen” that college or taken that job
interview. You know something this perfect could’ve never been just by chance. Que sera, sera.

What Is Success--Landon

Gucci Mane wisely said “ If a man does not have the sauce, then he is lost. But the
same man can be lost in the sauce”. When I was younger I used to fear the dark but, as
I got older that fear reemerged as a fear of the unknown. How will my life turn out and
will I be successful. But, what is success? Success is most easily defined as the
accomplishment of an aim or purpose. However, the media portray success as the
attainment of popularity and profit. Successful people are characterized as having
money, cars, a cushy office job, and a big house. People then use those characteristics
to determine their personal value based on how much money they have, how big their
house is,or is their car the newest model. So how do we achieve this so called
“success”? From a young age we are told that we can achieve success through hard
work. So allow me to provide you with this visual. A single mother with three kids works
two jobs to provide for her family. Yet, she can barely provide enough to live in the small
apartment she rents. Most people wouldn't define this as success but rather a struggle.
She’s working as hard as she can but, she’s still not seen as successful. Now let's say
we have a 20 year old male doesn't have a job but, somehow drives a Ferrari, goes
clubbing every weekend, and even owns a mansion. All thanks to his trust fund. Most
people envy this lifestyle and hate him out of sheer jealousy. Nonetheless we still
consider him successful. Hard work does not necessarily equal success. In fact working
too hard for what society perceives as success can leave you feeling extremely empty.
Contrary to popular belief, the acquisition of materialistic items will not make you feel
successful. When most people say that, “I just want to be successful” what they are
really saying is “I just want to be happy”. Success is just happiness in what you are
doing. We’ve been lead to believe that you cannot have success without wealth. That
belief is going to lead us into a life of unhappiness. If you were the CEO of a large
company, had a fat paycheck, a brand new whip but, hated your job. On the outside it
may appear that you were successful. However, you personally would never feel
successful. Money and material things should never be confused for happiness. If you
were a garbage man but, you loved going to work every day not only would you would
feel successful, it would feel like you were hardly working. I'm not telling you to throw
away your plans to be a biochemist and get a job as a sanitation worker. I 'm just saying
to be happy with whatever you do. Albert Schweitzer said it best, “Success is not the
key to happiness. Happiness is the key to success. If you love what you are doing, you
will be successful.” so as we grow older and we set off on career paths don't forget to be
happy in whatever you're doing. Never get lost in your pursuit of the sauce.

A Whole New Life--Celeste

      May 15, 2015: It was the day where I, myself was still in shock. I never knew this day would come, but I mean I at least hoped it will, just not so soon. Just waking up in a nicely cooled hotel and seeing your own mom being pampered for her big day was a lot to take on. Just to think that your hero who has been a single mom for sixteen years is finally getting married! I remember walking down the aisle with my sister throwing flower petals and seeing everyone’s eyes on us and how awkward it felt. As we see our mom exchanging vows my sister starts to cry and I laughed because the camera man was pointing the camera towards her. It was a fun day and I thought from then on out, my life was going to get better. Not to mention, I knew all of our lives were going to be different now that there is a man in the household.

      About a month or two later, we move in with him and it was hard too. He always had work some could not help us out and for three girls it is very hard to carry out a refrigerator and a whole couch. His place was small and the room my sister and I shared before was smaller and I did not like that at all. Ever since the move, my mood changed and instead of being happy I was just negative. I always closed my door in my room and would hardly come out of it. The only times I ever came out was when the food was ready. I have moved before like about 2-3 times, so moving to another school has also made me become very sad. The only good thing I thought about the school was the band since I thought they were phenomenal. Each day was the same in my mom and step-dad asking me how my day was and I would always reply “it was whatever”. I did not like my lifestyle and just wanted to move back to how it was, especially since now there were so many rules that I thought were unnecessary. It took me awhile to open up to my step-dad, I mean I have never lived with a man in the house or had a father figure in my life. I also was very picky with the food, he grew up in Texas and I grew up, well let’s just say in a Mexican home. He did not like certain foods that my mom made, while I love it! He also cooked some of the food my mom made in a totally different way and I just missed her cooking so much. Not only was the food changed, but my sister and I had to change the way we act around the house such as her not farting all the time or me with my burping at the table. Sorry! I can’t help myself if the food was good. If a guest came over, I knew they can sense the negativity in the room between the tension of my sister and I with my step-dad. My mom had to always talk to me about opening up to him and to give him a chance since I was more of the “not being opened” type. He is a cool guy for my mom, it just felt weird.

       Fast forward to the summer of 2016, the time where we get a new house and I have my first bedroom ever. The house was way bigger and we actually have a backyard and a recreation center with a pool. I always told my mom, “we don’t look poor anymore,” she would always get upset and said we were not before but I guess I'm not used to the whole “American dream” lifestyle. Two months later, we get our very first puppy and he is the most adorable thing ever! His name is Gunner and I call him our therapy dog since he always cheers us up when we are down. It is also crazy because we all get along now too and are actually looking like a “family.” Living with my step-dad for about a year and a half now has opened me up to talking to him more and being nice. I also started to get in contact with my father. Every now and then my step-dad likes to scare me in the dark which I do not enjoy at all, but i have grown to laugh it up. I also appreciate him more for what he has done and giving us a better lifestyle with this new home and a better school. He has been there most of the time financially and has opened up to me about loving me as his own daughter. Even though I call him by his name, I truly do appreciate everything he has done for my sister and I, it will just take some time to fully open up to him and not be quick to fight back. Each day I am seeing him as a father until I am off to college and I hope my sister will also become closer to him since she has a longer stay with him.

The Moment I Lost My Dad --Safa

 It was Wednesday October 12, 2016 - two days after my parents had just come back from a two week trip to Turkey. Without a doubt my parents are the two most important individuals in my life and so their return was incredibly comforting for me. Thrilled and filled with a feeling of content, I rushed out of school racing to my house as fast as my legs could take me, enthusiastic to greet my parents with hugs and kisses the second they walk into the front door. I was certainly delighted that I would no longer be left alone with my brother who wasn’t as helpful around the house when my parents were gone. That Wednesday I went to school just like all the other days, the everlasting routine of my stressful student life. I fell asleep halfway through my last period of the day and once the bell rang at 2:55, I left the classroom walking to the front of the school. I then, slowly realized that I had forgotten that I was obliged to tutor in the library that day. Fatigued and completely lethargic I called my mother to pick me up, having no intention or desire to tutor that day. Shortly after calling my mother, she picked me up and in the car. I asked her the daily repetitive questions of what she had done that day and what would be for dinner, and in return she responded with the same usual answers. Arriving home I hurriedly left the car and joyously opened the door connecting the garage to the laundry room, and ran up the stairs to my room realizing how quiet and peaceful the house was while both my dad and brother were in their rooms sleeping. Opening the door to my room, I glanced at my cozy, soft, and neat bed, excited for my daily after school nap. I quickly changed into my pajamas, washed up, and then prayed my daily prayers. After I had performed my prayers, I jumped into my bed, burying myself under my snuggly, flower scented blanket. Placing my head on my tempurpedic pillow was my dream come true that I’d been daydreaming all day about at school, and within a instant I fell into a deep sleep. After a while, I suddenly heard a loud BANG! BANG! BANG! in the distance, being abruptly woken up from my loving nap by the harsh noise. Someone was brutally and vigorously pounding on the front door, and being in a deep sleep I wasn’t responsive in action to the reality happening downstairs, so instead I speculated it to be only a part of my dreams. BANG! BANG! BANG! The harsh pounding continued and slowly I started to unravel the covers from above my head, enraged by the idiot who was stupidly disturbing the silence of the house. Moments later I heard footsteps in the house stomping and scurrying down the stairs as they finally opened the front door and the pounding came to an end. Within a matter of seconds my eyes shot open staring at the ceiling of my room and before I could take my next breath I heard the strongest most powerful crash/thud on the floor. While undergoing excessive tachycardia my brother started yelling…OH MY GOD! BABAAA! BABAAA! BABAAA! I lunged out of bed thinking it was either gunfire or someone had kidnapped my Dad. Yanking my room door open, a panic attack overtook me as I observed my brother running down the main staircase and my mother running down the other staircase. I understood something bad happened yet, not knowing what had exactly occurred, I ran to the edge of the stairs, bending down to observe the scene. Chills ran up my spine and the pulse in my head started throbbing. This was the moment I lost it a ll! Witnessing the worst scene of my life, was the sight of my beloved father laid faced downward on the tile with blood gushing from his head at the foot of the sharp edged granite counsel. Promptly my mind shut down, and a feeling of numbness took over my entire body, rendering me motionless at the very top of the stairs. Eyes blurry, throat clogged, breathing being difficult, time had stopped for me and I could barely process the weeping noises in the background. The only question that I kept asking myself while everything transpired quickly was “HOW AM I GOING TO LIVE MY LIFE FROM THIS DAY ON WITHOUT MY FATHER?” Everything suddenly fell into place and I snapped back to reality, as I shot down the stairs screaming from the top of my lungs, crying “DAD, DAD WHAT’S WRONG, DON’T LEAVE US!” While my mother and brother were around him on the floor, I sprinted to the front door that was left wide open, relentlessly weeping while insanely believing that someone had killed my father and ran away. “CALL THE AMBULANCE!” my brother yelled out multiple times. Then I noticed a large, heavy box on the floor. I was then able to process and understand what had occurred: that no one had hurt my dad, and that actually the man at the door had been a delivery guy. Yet I couldn’t stop screaming, and turning around I recognized my dad’s eyes rolling while slowly muttering “Why is Safa screaming, What happened, There’s nothing wrong with me, I’m OK?” Immediately, I felt a vast sensation of relief as I walked over and started to wipe the blood from his forehead, knowing that my father hadn’t left me, and that after all I haven’t lost it all. And upon hearing the loud sirens and ambulance provided me with even greater relief knowing that my Dad was going to be saved. Opening the door, four men ran in and began their operations on my Dad, as I observed in the background waiting to help them out with anything possible. Being told to go get my Dad’s medications, my eyes were filled with tears as I thought of the terrifying things that could happen next. As the men rolled my Dad to the ambulance, my brother followed behind. I ran to my mom as she was still frightened and told her to hurry up and get dressed to follow them to the hospital. She hugged me tightly and comforted me by saying, “your father is fine we need to stay here and wait for your brother to call.” After that incident, I was absolutely sure that nothing is far more valuable in my life than my parents, because I had found out that my life can change so rapidly and so unexpectedly within a blink of an eye. I thank God everyday and night for showering me with unexpected blessings and protecting my Dad from any real harm. Clearly, I never knew how much I honor and love him until the very day I witnessed the shocking scene that will always be engraved in my memory for the rest of my life. I love you Dad!!!

The Role of A Father --Ariyan

When I was younger, I used to be happy the few times you did come around. I was blind to
the fact that you didn’t act how a real dad is supposed to act. As I got older and more critical
about your whereabouts you started saying that you loved me in that really dramatic way
to try to emphasize your love or whatever. But there was one instance where I just couldn’t
say it back. The words were stuck behind my teeth and my small forced grin. While I hoped
that my reluctance didn’t stand out to you, I finally took a deep breath and rushed out an
Iloveyoutoo, knowing I didn’t mean it.
Then your visits became more spaced out and you stopped returning my calls. When I was
in your area and tried to make an effort to hangout, not because I wanted to but because I
thought it would be the nice thing to do, you were suddenly nowhere to be found. The
unreciprocated effort soon lead me to not only me giving up to trying to see you but also a
myriad of negative thoughts about you.
Sadness- I look around me and see many of my peers with fathers that care enough about
them to protect them in any situation. Why have I felt the most unsafe around you?
Anger- How do you wake up each day knowing your daughter is hours away from you
struggling not only financially but mentally because of all of the weight that is on her
during this time? Why aren't you there to support me?
Confusion- I wondered what it was that was so much more invigorating and fascinating
that you couldn’t take time to see your one and only daughter. Was I truly that insignificant
to you?
Despite all of the problems I encountered with you that are too hard to even think about,
and the despite the many emotions you’ve made me feel, I still thank you.
Thank you for shaping my perspective on how much single mothers can accomplish.
Thank you for exposing me to the truth of how men can be.
Thank you for teaching me that just because you start life off in a good place doesn't mean
you end up in one.
From you I know how to navigate my life so I can live the best life that I can, and I’m not
sorry that you won't be apart of it.