mistie06’s Blog

I think that the whole idea of a day dedicated to families is amazing. Just the thought of getting closer to your family and getting to know your neighbor and their family is an excellent idea.

However, I think that when you say “celebrate”  you should really celebrate families. I think that there should be maybe a festival to bring together families from all over the city and maybe the festivals have certain games or activities designed to get closer to your family. Perhaps this would make people all around the world want to embrace others warmly and learn to appreciate their families a little bit more.

The thought of having a better, happier, more peaceful world sometimes just overcomes my thoughts and I think about all the wonderful opportunities that pass us by to be better people and we just let it slip by.

What makes a true hero? That is the underlining question. In my opinion, a true hero is someone who puts others before themselves in their everyday lives.

One day, I was out with a group of my friends when we saw a group of our peers picking on a younger kid in our school. I recognized him from one of my classes. He was one smart kid; a year younger than me, yet in the same math class as I and in all honors classes. So, why in the world were a group of guys who I had went to school with since 5th grade harassing this guy? I was flummoxed and said as much to my friend when I realized that she was stomping towards the group of guys.

“And just what do you think you’re doin’, Mr. Jacob Martin!? Does your momma know you’re out here beating up some guy? Don’t you have anything better to do than pick on people?!” Now, you need to loosen up if the thought of some short blond girl with her hands on her hips and steam coming out of her (by now) red ears hollering at a group of rather taller guys doesn’t amuse you to some extent. At this point, they were all, shockingly, looking at the ground in embarrassed shame. “James? That’s you’re name, right?” He nodded. “Well James, I want to introduce you to some of these here folks. This is Mistie. Next to her is Jacob, Travis, and Trevor. Guys, this is James.” she looked steadily at the three guys. “Well, now that we’re all acquainted, James, these gentlemen are now going to apologize to you. Guys?”

As I stared, in shock, at the scene before me, I couldn’t help but think that she was one of the bravest and fiercest people I had ever known. She stuck up for herself and others without a second thought. By stopping these guys from hurting James, she altered his life forever. She was a true hero.

**The names of every person in this story, save myself, has been changed for the others’ benefit.**

White is most commonly known as a color of innocence and purity, but is also peace and humility. This “color” has been so deeply imbedded into our society that we automatically see it this way. Like the pure white lily.

White is also often used as a “neutral” color throughout history. Like the white of a flag at the point of surrender.

The thought of sterility and cleanlinesss is what doctors try to achieve by the white walls, sheets, and lab coats.

And, suprisingly, white also symbolizes a cowardly act. At least in Victorian England times. Such as the old quote, “To show the white feather”.

Most surprising of all these things is the fact that, while it symbolizes many things, such as: reverence, purity, truth, snow, peace, innocence, cleanliness, simplicity, security to name a few, it isn’t really a color. It’s more like the total ABSENCE of color. It’s white, a color too great to be defined.

To be completely honest with you, I just found out what Earth Day was this year. Living in Texas for 5 years, I’m not exactly used to the whole recycling and “Save Our Earth” idea. As far as I got is Global Warming, which, I’m happy to tell you, is something I’m very passionate about. To really understand Earth Day is to understand the basic concept of global warming and, as it all ties together, to understand Global Warming, you’ve got to understand the “definition” of what being human is, or, rather, human nature.

To be human comes with a bunch of complex thoughts, ideas, and opinions. Some say being human means that you make mistakes. Some say that it means you’re selfish. Some say, as the word “human” comes from the original word “humane”, that to be human is the be righteous and sympathetic. To be truthful, I think that they’re all right. We, most of us, try to be kind and right, while at the same time, our choices may or may not be other than selfish. In general terms: we are full of fault and for the most part, self-centered.

With that in mind we can access the general information on Global Warming; we’re one step closer. Global Warming is the heating of the Earth by the increase in the Greenhouse effect, meaning, basically, that there is an increase of greenhouse gases being absorbed into the atmosphere. This is bad. Eventually, all of the glaciers are going to melt and the our food sources will eventually die out. In addition to all of this, as we can already tell, is that our weather is becoming more extreme. Snow in April here!!!

So, what can we do to stop it? I don’t think you can. You can, however, slow it down. Recycling is a way, as well as keeping our earth clean: no littering! Something else you can do to help is Carpool. I know, everyone’s absolute favorite thing to do, but it does have some advantages. Like, gas money and less stress. Those are very good things.

I don’t really know much about Earth Day, but I do know that it’s a good cause. Our earth has been here for us, providing for us. The least we can do is give back. Now, that’s not so hard, is it? Think about it this way… which definition of human are you?

Suzanne\’s Diary for Nicholas

He was the first guy that I could ever really call my own. He was the first guy that I ever really loved. Even when I left he was still mine, in my eyes, in my heart, and in my soul. And even though he’s in heaven now (cuz all dogs go to heaven) he is still there in every breath I take and every beat in my heart. It’s not fair that in order for him to be happy, that I had to leave him behind, and even worse still is that he was gone and in the ground before I could kiss his head, hug his giant body, and tell him goodbye one last time. I dont know who to blame, even though deep down inside I know that it couldn’t be helped. He lived longer than some Great Dane’s do, I suppose. I’m thrilled, however, that when he was here I could give him the love that he needed and recieve that same amount in return.

I can still feel his soft brown coat of fur on my hands, his cold wet nose on mine, his coarse dry tongue upon my cheek, his big rough paw on my thigh, and I can still see his beautiful brown eyes looking at me, still hazy from sleep. I can still feel him jump on my bed during an emotional part of a book or movie and laying his heavy head on my stomach, asking with his eyes for me to stop crying. I can still feel his subtle nudge when I was eating a piece of cheese. I can still hear his loud tail bang against the wooden cabinet when I asked him if he wanted some. I can still even hear his excited bark at the window when I shouted, “Riley, go get that squirrel!”, and the way he howled in the middle of the night when he wanted back inside. I still see him, feel him, smell him. He’s still here, inside my heart and my head, for now.

It hurts so bad. He was everything to me. Still is. Will always be. I have to believe that he left for a reason; he had to have. He was so special. He was beautiful. He touched my heart and soul; he mended me in places no one else could come near and he supported and believed in me when no one or even I believed in myself. He was my best friend. I loved him so much! And I just want this pain to go away. But no matter how hard I try to distract myself, he’s everywhere!

I wish I could have just said goodbye. Why couldn’t have his poor body waited just a little longer? I guess I’ll never know.

Rest In Peace, Riley D James. 2/14/2009

“At least I get to wear my own shorts instead of those X-Ray ones they always give me.” I say as my mom pushes me into the boring white room that’s almost overcrowded by the massive MRI machine. “Maybe next time I get to walk here instead of being pushed in the Death Chair.”
Sarah, the nurse, laughs from the other side of the room. “Yeah, good luck with that.”
“I thought so.” I say, crestfallen.
“Okay,” she says, rubbing her hands together, “Balto or Swan Princess?”
“You’re not serious.” I reply with an eyebrow raised.
“I know. I’m sorry. That’s all we have, unless you want to listen to the machine run; you’ll get a headache that way though.”
“Balto, I guess.” I sigh.
I don’t know how many times I had to get MRI’s last year but I never did get any interesting choices for movies. Let’s just say that I know the movie, Balto, better than I wish to admit.

It’s strange to think about the very first recession now. Before our economy crashed, when we learned about the recession in the 50’s we just kind of shrugged it off, not knowing what it was really like, because we had no idea and no desire to find out. It seemed like such a distant concept then, but now… it’s real; it’s happening again. We are really in a recession, our economy is really down, and our country really is in trouble. This is it. And it is bad.

It’s hard to not be angry about it, especially to teenager’s my age. We’re going to experience the hardship that people who lived in the 50’s have no desire to discuss. We’re going to watch as our parents stress about money even worse than before. And this is going to affect us when we want to get our first job, when we start to get bills, when we go off on our own. We are literally going to watch our ecomomy get worse, because there is no doubt that it will get worse way before it’s better.

On the other hand, this experience could be good for us. Afterall, this recession is our, America’s, own fault. Maybe, as a country, we will change for the better. Maybe, we’ll find the good in the bad and embrace it. And maybe, we’ll feel the need to be united again; a united country where everyone breaths together, eats together, laughs and cries together, like we were suppose to be in the beginning. We could be one, again. I hope that this happens and not the opposite. I hope that we could all look past our anger and instead of crossing the busy street quickly, we’ll look to our left and help the old lady with her shopping bags.

I’ve read President Obama’s plan and I think that he’s got it right. Hopefully, he can help us out of this mess we all created. Even if it takes a decade to resolve itself. This is our chance to make it right and I hope that with our new president, we take it. I’m excited to see how the world can be after we get past all this.