Prompt 5: What have you learned from this text (about life, a topic, relationships, conflict, illness, etcetera) that you didn’t already know? In other words, what is your takeaway so far?

So far, my takeaway from the book “Then She Was Gone” is that at some point in time you need to move on and begin to trust others again. At this point in the book, Laurel has just discovered that her daughter Ellie has been found dead after she went missing for ten years. In those ten years, her children moved away and began a new chapter of their life, and the father of her children also moved away and he started a new family of his own. Laurel has never given up on her daughter, and because of this, it seems that her life went on pause. One day she meets a man named Floyd in a cafe, and she feels something that she has not felt in a very long time. She asks herself, “how has this happened? Of all the days, all the hundreds of dark days that have passed since Ellie went? Is this what closure does? Is this what happens when you finally bury your child?” (page 50). At some point in your life, you have to continue living life and making new memories. Although it is a terrible thing that happened, overall it just seems a little ridiculous to stop living life just because someone else can not. She feels guilty for enjoying herself and making new memories when her daughter can not, but it is important to learn from what happened to Ellie and share her happiness with others. It is also very important to trust others because you can miss out on many opportunities if you do not take risks. “She asks these silent internalized questions of everyone she meets. She was never a trusting person, even before her daughter vanished and then turned up dead ten years later,” (page 50). If you learn how to trust the people around you, you will be given the opportunity to form new relationships that may grow into something great. When Laurel meets Floyd, she begins to make up scenarios in her head. Although it is important to be cautious and be aware of your surroundings, once in a while you need to have a good time. Laurel ended up going on a date with Floyd and she had a very good time. If she had not trusted him, she would not have been able to feel as happy as she did with him. She also discovered that they have many similarities, and it was overall a good date. If she had not decided to move on, she would still feel empty inside.

Prompt 8: What indirect messages does this novel convey about love and relationships?

In “Then She was Gone,” Ellie Mack has been missing for over a decade, and her mother, Laurel, has not given up on her yet. Throughout the first part of the book, the chapters switch between the past and the present. As you read, you are able to piece together all the clues and make a prediction, while also understanding Laurel’s thinking ten years later. Losing a daughter can be an extremely heavy burden on a person, but Laurel kept looking for her even after the police told them she was most likely a runaway. The book conveys the idea that we should never give up on those who are worth fighting for. We specifically see this when the author writes “Laurel knew simultaneously that she was overreacting and also that she was not overreacting,” (page 14). This conveys the idea that when someone you love is missing, you can never care too much and you can never fight for them hard enough. Nothing is worse than undergoing the lose of a child, and Laurel had never given up on her within the ten years that she was missing. The book states that Laurel was a “glass-half-empty type of person,” (page 16) and then one day “her pride and joy had left the house and not come back,” (page 18). When you lose someone who means that much to you, you can begin to lose sight of yourself in trying to get them back. Ellie seemed to be the cause of happiness in Laurel’s life, and now that Ellie was gone her happiness went with it. Although the book conveys the message of never giving up on the ones you love, it also conveys the opposite. The author writes “the children meanwhile were shuffling along, like trains on a track, keeping to schedule. Hanna took her A levels. Jake graduated from university in the West Country where he’d been studying to be a chartered surveyor. And Paul was busy asking for promotions at work, buying himself new suits, talking about upgrading the car, showing her hotels and resorts on the Internet that had special deals that summer,” (page 34). This indirectly implies that although we care for those that we have lost, it is important to move on with our lives and leave the past in the past. We are all impacted differently in a situation like that, but it is necessary to have some type of routine in our lives so that we don’t go crazy. By having some type of normalcy we are able to move on with our lives and overcome all the pain.

I am so relieved that my research paper is finished and submitted. It was much easier than I thought it would be, with the help of Mrs. Scally of course. Although most of it was easy, I hit many bumps and obstacles along the way. Some of these obstacles included not being able to find a good article that fits my topic. Many of the articles that had shown up in ProQuest were either not about volleyball players or they only talked about the healing process (which was not my focus). Although it required much work, I had eventually found the perfect articles for my paper. After that was finished, the biggest issue I had was with the in text citations. Some of the articles that I had quoted did not have a page number, which was necessary for giving the author credit. If I did not find the correct page number, I might have accidentally plagiarized without even realizing it. After I solved this problem, I was pretty much done with my paper. My class is done with the paper, and now we can spend Memorial Day weekend enjoying ourselves while the other classes have to type away. Mrs. Scally said that if we followed along with her, then it would not be a hard task at all, and she was one hundred percent right. There is only one bad thing now that I have finished my first research paper of high school: I have three more to write. However that’s a situation for another time, and for now I get to tan (more like burn) and have a good time with my family and friends.

There has been many problems with our moving process. We have been offered to NOT move in in exchange for a large amount of money, but I am concerned about the safety of my family. Walter decided (on his own might I add) that he is going to put on a little show for Mr. Linder and take his money for our own good. After much argument, Walter finally stood up for himself today and decided not to take the money and move in to the house. I am thrilled, yet nervous at the same time. In our old neighborhood we were in constant danger and I do not want my family to live a life like that. Ever since we moved, it has all been going pretty smoothly, and I have not suspected any of the threats that Mr. Linder was giving us. Everyone has been doing their part in terms of working. In the beginning, we had a few money problems, but we seemed to work things out pretty quickly and make a steady income. I started out with working a few jobs to help out, but as time went on I did not need to work all of them. I quit most of them, and now I’m only down to one job, which is extremely impressive for the house we are living in. I am looking forward to what the future holds for me and my family. Travis is working hard and doing what he can to be the “man of the house”. Beneatha is excelling in all of her studies and will hopefully be out of medical school soon. Mama is alive and well (and keeping an eye out for Walter). Walter is doing great things and thinking before he acts. Shocker, I know. As a family we are going to continue to do great things as a whole and focus on the future.

I think that my research paper is coming along slowly but steadily. I have hit some bumps in my research, reguarding the content that I am looking for. I am looking for how the sport (volleyball) is more dangerous than other sports and the injuries that make it dangerous. What I find in ProQuest is “dangers of …. closing down” (a volleyball program). I also find ways to prevent injuries and techniques on how to treat them. This is not what I am looking for, and one of the articles that I did find wasn’t all that helpful. It did talk about how a sport is more dangerous than people believe, but that sport was football. I’m the article they were comparing the two sports which I thought I could use to my advantage. I figured since they were comparing it, I could use the injuries that are “more dangerous” for football players than volleyball players. Although some people believe that these injuries are more common in football, volleyball players have the same risk to these injuries and other injuries. One article that helped a lot included statistics, but there was one problem. The article compared the percentage of risk during practice to during game time. Many of these articles were off topic to what I am researching. I have tried to search many things and all of them have similar results. It had taken me a long time to find the articles that I did, and truthfully I don’t think that they strongly support my argument.

The definition of the word dream is a cherished aspiration, ambition, or ideal. I dream that I become one of the greatest volleyball players of all time. I dream that summer will last forever. I dream that I will grow up to be a successful young woman that has the best of friends. Dreams do not just happen. You have to work for every single bit of it, and sometimes they do not work out. Most people will describe it as “your dream being crushed.” The reason they describe it like this is because something that you wanted so bad, suddenly isn’t even a possibility in your life anymore. The poem Harlem by Langston Hughes goes through a list of things that one may feel when their dreams are put off. Personally, I think that when a Dream is put off, whatever you feel inside depends on how committed you were to making that happen. For example, my team and I travelled to Washington DC for a volleyball tournament. It was the first time we were all playing together as one, rather than as separate individuals. The first two days we left the court undefeated. Knowing that we had the potential to win it all, we went into day three with confidence and determination. To our disappointment, we were eliminated in the first game we played, knowing that we had not played with the best version of us. Although we were took a hard loss, we decided to learn from it rather than to dwell on it. In this case, I can relate to line in Hughes poem that says “Or crust and sugar over—like a syrupy sweet?” This line means that the dream that you just delayed becomes even more desirable than it was in the first place.

The first semester has been crazy with adjusting to a new school schedule, and having the thought that I’m actually in Highschool. The hardest challenge that I faced was time management. I’ve never understood the phrase “no, I’m busy” more than I do at this point in my life. I thought that playing for two different volleyball teams was a good idea at the time, taking the fact that the seasons would not overlap, but I am super stressed. A teenager should NOT have to deal with this much stress. On the positive side, I have made a daily routine that I am finally used to. I wake up, get changed, and by the time I get to school it’s 7:15. I also have made the best friends, or at least some really good ones. As I said before, the first semester was crazy, especially midterm week. Most of my friends don’t love me as much because I said I was going to fail, but ended up getting a good grade, although that’s a conversation for another time. I believe that now that the we finished the first half of the year, we can continue to keep good grades but be more relaxed. I was all about my work and my grades in the first semester, which isn’t bad but I wasn’t enjoying life. I think that this semester I could maintain the goals that I’ve set for myself and still manage to actually enjoy life. Xaverian has helped me grow and become more independent. I will continue to work hard, and continue to set goals for myself that I would have considered impossible this time last year.

Sorry I got a little carried away with the blog

George’s descision to kill Lennie was the ultimate act of friendship. George knew that Lennie was going to get killed, and that there was no way of escaping the hole that Lennie dug for himself. George decided to kill Lennie himself by shooting him in the back of the head so that it would be a quick and painless death. He also didn’t want Curley to kill him because he didn’t want Lennie to suffer. George said “Look across the river, Lennie, an’ I’ll tell you so you can almost see it.” Soon after Lennie begged “Le’s do it now. Le’s get that place now.” George put Lennie out of his misery and he let him go with a good thought rather than letting knowing that he was about to die. George always took care of Lennie and he made sure that in the event of a bad thing happening they would have a plan to go back to the brush. He made a very difficult descision by deciding to shoot kill Lennie. He had to take into consideration what would be best for Lennie but at the same time consider what would be better for him as well. George choosing to kill Lennie is similar to Candy and his dog. Candy said that he should have shot the dog himself instead of some random stranger. George did not want to have the same regret that Candy had with his dog, so he shot Lennie himself which was quick and painless rather than Curley shooting Lennie and having to watch Lennie suffer through the pain.

I’m surprised on how quick this quarter went. With entering a new environment and having to adjust to a new school. It has been a challenge having to manage my time with extracurricular acitivities such as sports and having screen time setup on my IPad. My parents have been extremely supportive throughout the first quarter and they just want me to do good in highschool. I just figured out that I have a higher level of expectations for myself than my parents have for me. I am constantly comparing myself to other people because in some people’s eyes that it was the ‘perfect student’ would be. Most of the time I manipulate myself into believing that I am not as smart as someone because they’re in honors classes. I’ve had a lot of motivation that has helped me throughout the first quarter such as my teachers, family, and sometimes my friends. Little compliments have made me feel better so easily and motivating quotes in the morning have helped me start off my day right. Since I came from a small school, all of us were constantly competing with each other even if we didn’t know what was happening. We were all expected to have the same grades and we always knew who they smart kids were. This opportunity that has been given to me to attend Xaverian is one of the greatest things that could have happened to me because I have been given the chance to start fresh and leave the bad things in the past.

Although I have not experienced a major life event, I’ve had many smaller challenges that have helped to shape who I am today. One of my biggest obstacles was that I was extremely shy. I didn’t even like when people sang happy birthday to me (not even my family) because it brought me to tears. I hated being the center of attention because I had always felt judged. For some reason, everyone always knew who I was, whether it was through my siblings or my parents. There was a general expectation that I would have a similar personality.

Sunju Lee’s family taught him and expected him to act a certain way. When he was faced with challenges he had to leave behind his expectations and learn to fit in. I also had to learn how to fit in and become more comfortable in social situations. Just as Sunju Lee joined a group that shared similar circumstances, I became apart of a team that shared a common goal. Through different sports that I have been part of, I have been able to become more outgoing and approachable.

Starting a new school was a scary thought for me, but I knew I could do it if I had something to look forward to, like volleyball. Volleyball has given me confidence, self -discipline, and dedication. It has helped my communication skills, and I no longer feel like I’m being judged. At times I am still shy, but I know I have the support of my friends, my teammates, and family. Being part of a team reguardless of what the goal is, brings out the best in everyone.