My life as a young Padawan

     Childhood, the simple times. Back when homework was coloring a pages and when i thought I'd never learn to read. I would run around everyday with my cousins who lived down stairs, I have one named Anakin who they call my twin because we are then same age and look alike. I know what you're thinking and yes his name is really Anakin, it says so on his birth certificate. That brings me to my next topic, Starwars. Everyone in my family is obsessed with starwars, therefore it was a big part of my childhood, as were, watching the movies, having pretend light saber fights, and quoting it on the daily. I'm no longer a starwars freak, but it was a big deal in my family. My cousin Julia and I did a lot of making tortillas with my grandma. Finally a normal name, first August and Anakin and now Julia. Anyways, we were inseparable as children. We played games together, colored together and even bugged Anakin together. In my grandmothers house, where we all lived together, we had a wall that contained a little window that looked like one you would find in a restaurant. The three of us would play restuarant and take turns serving each other food made from play-dough.  That's only a little part of my childhood, it got more complicated as i got older, but I like to remember the happier times.

Arizona, land of dry heat

 Me the best trip I ever took is when I went to Mesa, Arizona, I went this past summer. The reason I went was because I haven't been there in nine years, I used to live out there when I was younger. My family lives out there and they wanted to spend my 13th birthday with me. When I went the average temperature was 110°, but I like the dry heat better than the humidity I would get here in Chicago. Out there I went to visit a ghost town with my family. There they had built a zipline, that was the main reason they were attracted to the area, but I was interested in the other things they had. The ghost town was built right off of Superstition Mountain, many Native American tribes thought of the mountain as sacred. That fact drew me to be interested to the mountain. I also went to Castles an' Coaters, it's this Six Flags of Arizona. They only had one big roller coaster there and the other rides were smaller. It was fun to go to family and enjoy their company while doing something fun, even if it was just walking around for a while between rides. The trip was great overall because I was surrounded by family and old friends the entire time. It helped that I had access to a pool 24/7, but I'll just call that the icing on the cake.

The moral of the Beastkeeper

     The book I read for my summer reading project was Beastkeeper by Cat Hellisen. The book is about a girl named Sarah, all her life she lived with her mom and dad together. She had a sense that something was wrong with her family and she just accepted it. One night her mother leaves Sarah  and her father, the only reason she gives is that she "can't sit around and wait and watch him(Sarah's father) turn". Later Sarah finds out that her father's family has curse on them that turns them into beasts when they fall in love with someone who doesn't love them back.  Her father takes her to live with her grandparents, who she had never heard of prior to these events. There, Sarah meets her grandmother, Igna and grandfather, Edward. Edward is in the form of a beast and is kept caged in a shed by his wife. Also Sarah begins to fall in love with a boy named Alan. She needs to find away to break the curse before something horrific becomes of her.
     The message of the story to me don't think that beauty is all you have to offer people. Igna and Edward's relationship was based on good looks. It didn't end well for the two. Freya cursed them because she knew that it wouldn't last, because the only reason they were together was looks. Another example of this is, that shows beauty isn't the foundation of a relationship, is when Sarah was a beast Alan didn't leave her.  He didn't see her differently because her outside with different than before. He even cared for her as a human would be cared for even though than wasn't what she was depicted as. Even towards the end Sarah didn't leave Alan because he was blind and he would be able to appreciate her beauty. She didn't leave him because the scars on his face disfigured him. They both stayed together because they liked what was inside of eachother, their feelings and personalities.  Also the cover spoke to me, the cover shows a rose inside a cage. This has no relevance to the story itself. I think this is a reference to Sarah's grandfather, Edward. She saw him as a person, someone who had a soul and has feelings.  Sarah's grandmother, Igna, saw him as a beast. She saw him as what he was displayed us. But Sarah knew that he was a person inside so that's how she thought of him. I think that his soul, what's inside of him is the rose that's inside of the cage. Also the cage that holds the rose is the cage that Igna held Edward in because she couldn't what was inside.

"Where will you be in a decade?", I'll tell you...

My personal goals are to have an impact on the women and children of the world who are victims of domestic violence and emotional abuse. I say women and children not to be biased, but I say this because it is mostly what I can relate to. I am a child definitely didn't have a perfect childhood that you see in the movies. My dad left my mom with three year old, a two year old, and a newborn. He left to be with another woman who was pregnant and due in a few weeks. If you can infer what I'm saying, my dad wasn't the most loyal. I want to  help families who don't have someone to lean on and were mistreated by the ones who were supposed to be there for them. I want to open a shelter for these people and for people who have depression because of their past. I know what it's like to have a struggling mother, do you have a family that you think is broken, and I know what it's like to be unhappy. These are the reasons why I want to go to college to get a degree in sociology, this will enhance my chances of opening the shelter. I want to use my life to help people who are under these circumstances. I'm not saying I will have all of this accomplished in 10 years, but this is definitely the road I want to be on.