summer......

K, so this is like the second week of summer and it's been okay so far. Went to my sis's graduation, gone to the movies a few times, slept in, and just 2 days ago I went to an Asian supermarket and got noodles, seaweed, and some DELICIOUS Asian candy- actually I’m eating it right now :p (it tastes like apples). Kind of gets boring during the day, but I definitely can't complain about not getting to watch as much TV as I want! I’ve been shopping a lot... I think it's my new hobby :D. so yeah, basically everything’s so-so with my daily "activities". Friends though have been... tough. So 3 of my best friends just totally made me super duper confused a few days ago, to where I thought they were all mad at me and ignoring me. I’d sent them some texts and I hadn't gotten replies at all, so I was like really worried, so, just as I was done sending that kind of text that goes "what did I do, why are you mad at me?!!!" texts I remembered something. Two of my friends were at a sleep away camp and were going to be gone for two weeks, and no cell phones could be brought. Then my other friend called finally and told me that she'd lost her phone privileges for a week. So yeah, just goes to show that things are definitely not always as they seem.

today was better, all of my classes were ok, and btw i love half days!!!!!!!!!!

sorry!

Ok, I haven’t really been keeping up w/this everyday blog/online diary thing like I wanted, but I’m really going to try so...this is what happened today (sorry if its pessimistic, I didn’t have that great of a day). Ok, so I woke up and I was tired, like still half asleep, I’m really never like this when I wake up, so I was already not looking forward for the day. When I got to school I had to go up all the stairs but I was incredibly stupid and carried my heavy binder and my heavy backpack on the same shoulder, lets just say that by the time I got to the third floor my shoulder looked like it had been spray painted red. GSG was ok, then I had choir...if you've never been in that room, I’m envious of you, it's like -10 degrees! Luckily I brought a blanket w/me, but we had to do a lot of standing and moving our arms so it didn’t stay on very well. I’d like to say that my day got better, but sadly everything after that went pretty much downhill. Then I had computer-my favorite class, and we had a substitute. She wasn’t mean exactly, but for some reason, every single time I said something she acted like I was being a smart-alec. Lunch was fine, study lab, boring, but good. The rest of my classes really weren’t that bad, but then I stayed after school for debate and things got sucky again. My leader mimicked me while I was talking, and I have this kid in my group who literally didn’t stop talking for 10 seconds. Hope tomorrow is better…

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intro

I’m going 2 start typing almost everyday, like a real blog, this was my computer teachers idea and I think...actually I don’t really know what I think right now, but I do know I want 2 do this, 2day will just be my info though, because 2day was my worst day in middle school yet. I like writing but right now I’m not in the mood 2 get even more depressed. I’ll be on 2morrow no matter how horrible my day goes, so until 2morrow, adios. I hope 2morrow is better.

School-overwhelming, but great!

the 1st day of school was definitely interesting, i think that i went 2 about 5 wrong classes, 3 of which that were on the 1st floor causing me 2 have 2 run up 3 flights of stairs and walk into my class late, needless 2 say that part of my day was not fun. lunch was ok, i sat w/my new friend keirra who i had met at pup camp, it was really cramped in the lunchroom though, the next day i loved it when we got 2 sit outside and enjoy the fresh air. the classes went by in a daze, i went 2 so many of them, but yesterday and today were a lot better, i still got a little lost, but i never walked into the wrong class, so that was definitely a thumbs up:). i like all of my teachers, even though they're definitely not what I'm used 2...i think it will take a little longer 4 me 2 adjust 2 all this, but i think thats ok, middle school isn't suppose 2 be easy after all. on the 1st day of school it took me about 5 tries-at least-2 open my locker, but now i usually only have 2 do it once, sometimes twice. though every day I've come home I've been exhausted, i cant wait and see what lies in store 4 me 2morrow. :)

oops

well the vacay in new mexico was great and we actually spent 2-3 more days mostly shopping, 1 day my dad and i went rafting actually-it was so much fun! :) sorry i didt keep up w/it...even though no ones probably reading this anyway. well pup camp was amazing and i'm really excited 4 the 1st day of school!

3rd day of my trip in new mexico...

today went 2 taos, the edrive their was really beautiful, there were so many mountains...it was really great. there was 1 problem w/the drive though, the roads were very narrow and we were up super high and were almost as tall as some of the mountains! now this would've been great (besides the fact that my ears were popping) but the side of the road did not have any rail at all, so if the car had gotten out of control or we accidently turned 2 much 2 the right, we would have basically fallen off a cliff and we'd all most likely be dead. later on in the drive they finally had rails, but they were really small and would only keep u from falling if u were going slow enough. needless 2 say i was scared the entire ride pretty much.

when we did get 2 taos it was really cute, their were tons of little shops and while my dad went 2 art galleries, my sister, mom, and i went 2 most of them. when we had been shopping 4 awhile we met back up w/my dad and went 2 this coffe cart and we all got something 2 hold us over until lunch (i got a mango smoothie and it was delicous!)while we sat on the bench there were 2 women who were singing and they had the cutest dog ever, 1 lady put the dog inside the guitar case and lets just say that got themalot more $! they were good singers but the dog was just so cute...my advice 2 them is 2 always bring their dog!

after that we wnt 2 a few more stores, this 1 we wnt 2 was really adorable, i tried on some sunglasses i wS thinking about getting and then brought them upstairs w/me, once i was up there i decided 2 try on this dress and put the sunglasses on the bench. while i was getting changed a little girl knocked them over and my mom said something along the lines of "its fine, their my daughters". soon after that we made our purchases and went on 2 the next store, it was a nicle little store 2, we each bought something, when my mom was getting out money, she found the sunglasses i had tried on at the other store! when we left the store my mom noticed that she still had on a bracelet that she had tried on, no harm done though, i was
able 2 slip inside and put it back w/out anyone noticing.then we rushed back over 2 the other store any explained 2 the women that we thought the little girl had put it in my moms purse, trying 2 be helpful, because my mom had said it was mine, the owner of the store was so nice about it, my mom and i were both relieved. so then we decided that it was about time 2 go home. so at the end of the day my mom and i had both accidently shoplifted.

2nd day of my trip in new mexico...

i really enjoyed our 2nd day here, right after we ate breakfast we got dressed 2 go on a 3 mile hike, it took awhile 2 get ready, but as soon as we were all dressed we drove 2 the trail. when we got there the st things we noticed were all of the streams, we loved the sound because it was so relaxing. the other thing we noticed was the mud-it had rained and it some places i walked it was so sticky that it was like, sticking 2 my shoes! along the way their was some hills and some bridges we had 2 cross but soon we met this woman who was super nice, she had 2 big, sweet, and apsolutely adorable dogs and she actually really helped us, in fact if we hadn't gotten her directions i have feeling we would have gotten lost. we did pretty well and followed the trail, until we took a wrong turn, we really didnt know which way 2 go, so my dad decided that we should go up, so we climbed (me hanging on 2 my dads walking stick 4 dear life) the very steep hill which was a little 2 difficult for all of us, finally we got back on track and the rest of the hike was pretty fun. sumhow though on our way back i had even more energythen when we started, so soon instead of being in the middle i was leading, now thati look back on it, i guess i was going pretty fast, mostly when i got bored and turned on my ipod (listening 2 music whil going on a hike is actually really motivating) of course i stopped looking back 2 check if i could c my parents behind me and since i was listening 2 my ipod i couldn't really hear anything, needless 2 say, when i finally thought 2 look back my parents were no where in sight, so i waited and it actually only took about a minute or 2 before i could c my dad, by the look on his face he was not very happy...thankfully they forgave and forgot though, so it all behind us now.
after we went hiking we went 2 eat lunch and afterward we went 2 this huge flea market, it was really fun, the people there were all super pushy though, so i was very uncomfortable...it was good bargain shopping though, i got a lower price on both of the things i got, 1 thing i didnt even end up getting had been lowered from $35 2 $10!!! it was really fun, i can't wait 4 tomorrow!!!

1st day of my vacation in new mexico.....

we arrived in new mexico at about 3:00 after driving since about 9:00 in the morning. we had 2 stay at a hotel last night, we were in the car for almost 13 hours yesterday-it was basically torture. though it's different from what i expected, its really pretty here, i love seeing all the mountains! once we got 2 our condo i instantly loved it, it's super cute and has a indian/asian/mexican style, i feel right at home! thankfully i wont have 2 share a bed w/my sister because the owner seperated the queen sized bed into 2 twin beds, we spent enough time in the car together, having 2 sleep right next 2 each other would be really pushing it... once we got settled in we went around town 2 a bunch of shops and ate at this really yummy mexican place, they didnt have their liquors licence though, so after we ate we went shopping for awhile longer w/my parents until they went 2 find a margarita....that left my sister and i shopping alone, surprising enough, we didnt kill each other.hte stuff 2 buy here is really cool, mostly the jewelry!!! they have alot of people selling things in like tents, or on a blanket, when it come 2 those people u can really bargain, if something is 2 expensive for what it is, then u can just act like its 2 much and then start 2 leave and then they'll almost always tell u 2 wait because they'll lower the price. bargaining is definetly an up side, but the major downside is that people who r selling things r usually VERY pushy, some of them actually sort of scare me, they're so persistent...well, all in all, today was great, and even though it's only been one day, i can honesly say that i love new mexico!!!

My Trip to NY

I’ve been back from NY for a week or two now and just haven't had time to write about it until now. While I was there I saw so many amazing things and I really had a great time-for the most part... the only problem was, instead of going there for a family vacation, I had to go with HCC (Houston Children's Choir) and it was very...restricted. We were all in groups of 5-7 people and in my group were; Evelyn, Vivian, Valeria, Alice, and Jahnavi. They were all very friendly, other than Vivian that is, and I was very glad that I got to get to know them all.
If you ever go to NY, be prepared to spend almost 3x as much money on almost everything you buy! Everything is so overpriced, even when I split a meal it was still more money than what we would pay in Houston!!! We went to planet Hollywood (which was super cool!) and the food was hideously over-priced (in my opinion anyway), my chaperone said that we were paying for the décor and when the bill came; I definitely thought she was right! There were such cool things to see, but I only took 1 picture-the prom dress and tuxedo from twilight, I wanted to take a picture of all of the titanic stuff, but there were too many people in the way, so I decided not to. I also saw Robert Patterson’s hand print and compared it to mine, his hands are HUGE! The gift shop, like all of the other ones was very, very, VERY pricey! The t-shirts were all $20-$30 and all they had on them was “planet Hollywood”! I also found a tiny, metal replica of the empire state building and it was $20! So yeah, the prices were ridiculous.
We got to go to the top of the empire state building and let me tell you, the view was incredible! You could see miles and miles of NY, it was so cool! We were there around evening time and when the sun set it was one of the most beautiful things I’ve ever seen. I paid for one of those telescope looking things where you can see everything magnified/closer and was able to see things with so much more detail, it was definitely worth 50 cents and if you ever go there make sure you bring change because it is by far worth it.
We saw the Broadway play called “Mary Poppins” and I actually don’t really care for the movie, but I would see the play again in a millisecond! We weren’t allowed to take pictures while the play was going on (the flashes would probably distract the actors/actresses), but I was able to take a picture of the Broadway stage before the play started and it was magnificent. The embellishment and just all the details were so beautiful; I probably couldn’t describe it if I tried. It was such a great experience, the only down-side was that it lasted until very late and we weren’t able to be in bed until about 1:00-2:00 and we had to get up around 5:30 the next morning. Needless to say most people fell asleep during rehearsal, I almost did a couple of times, but I was able to keep myself awake (probably because I was right in front of the director…).
On the last day there we went to the statue of liberty! We got there on a ferry, and the ride was very enjoyable-it was fun to see NY from that view. Originally we were going to go up in the statue of liberty in the torch, but then we found out it would take a lot longer than we had expected so Mr. Steve/our director told us that we would have to do me back to NY with our parents and go up with them. It was really cool to see it, I knew it was huge, but the size of it still shocked me! It was amazing to see such a big part of our history and how it represented freedom-it was so old, when I looked into another one of those telescope looking things I was able to see the details of it and how long it had been there. After I looked at it for awhile and took some pictures I went to the gift shop and picked out a souvenir, but of course the line took forever and when I was about to pay, one of the older girls made me get out of line because the boat was loading so we had to run to get there in time-we made the boat, but I was not happy to have left my souvenir at the gift shop. We were going to go to Ellis Island now, again I enjoyed the trip and when we arrived at the island we went to this old museum. This was where immigrants came and tried to become citizens and where they were checked to make sure they had no contagious, foreign diseases (the hospital where they would go to be treated was across from the museum). My chaperone had to take care of something so my group had to join another one. The problem with this was that their chaperone insisted on telling about everything herself, instead of letting us quietly read the information for ourselves. This wouldn’t have been so bad if she hadn’t made everything sound as boring as possible, but sadly she was not the nicest chaperone, or one who ever showed any emotion (other than when she yelled and was mad…). She finally let us go to the gift shop because it was a unanimous vote towards that rather than learning more facts. In the gift shop I was able to get small gifts for my family, some homemade strawberry jam for my parents, and a really cute peace sign key chain that said Ellis island on the back of it for my sister (I also got a bag for myself that said different things about NY all over it).
Last but not least, my performance at Carnegie hall. Surprisingly, compared to Broadway the décor was very simple. It was huge though; there was enough seating area for thousands of people! I would say a little more than half of the seating area was full, so our outcome was pretty good! It was very stressful because Mr.Steve was giving us what he would consider a “pep talk”, but I would call it something entirely different. I say this because instead of making me feel ready and excited, it depressed me and made me scared to go on because he basically told us we weren’t living up to his INCREDIBLY high standards, it’s ridiculous how perfect he expects us to be sometimes, and I am NOT overreacting at all. The best compliment he’s ever given us was saying “great”!!! Let’s just say he’s very hard to please. Our performance did turn out very well though, and it made me feel proud.
I will be coming back to NY someday, that’s for sure!

Schools Out

Well, its official-I graduated 5th grade and I’m no longer in elementary school. It’s weird...every summer before this one I’ve been so happy that I have 3 months to do whatever I want, not worry about homework, grades, and not having to wake up at 6:30 every morning (Monday Friday anyway) but this one is different. It dawned on me that I’d never answer, "I go to mark twain" ever again. Next year, I won't be at the top of the food chain-I’ll be at the bottom. I know that I will visit mark twain to see everyone again, but whenever I walk into that school, instead of being a student there, I’ll be a visitor...I’ll never be a student at mark twain again, just a former student. I’m so excited for middle school, but honestly, I’m really scared too. Not many of my friends are attending Lanier with me and what if the ones that are, aren't in any of my classes? Or don't have the same lunchtime as I do? What if it takes ma a long time to make new friends? Or even worse, what if I don't make any new friends? These are the kind of questions keeping me a awake at night...I want to be grown up and even more so I want to do grown up things, but at the same time I’m still that 7 year old too afraid to go in the deep end of a swimming pool. Back then I loved swimming and I wanted to go deeper, but I didn't until I was ready and when I was, despite my fear of drowning I was able to tread water and I was ok. Maybe that's how it will be with middle school, but maybe not...I just can't help worrying about it, it's just how I am I guess.

Action Reflection

I think that even though our true no place for hate night had a few flaws, it all turned out great. What we were able to pull off was amazing. I think that we shouldn't have been serving snacks at dinner time though, because some people were really hungry and went through the line, like 5 times. I thought the raffle made it a lot more exciting and a good way to get peoples energy up. I agree with my teacher, today she said that we should have fed ourselves before the event. Everyone was very hungry and took breaks to come over to our table to get some food. We learned a few things through this experience, but if we did the night over, I’d honestly barely change anything.

It's Over

Our action is done! We just had our No Place for Hate Night about 30 minutes ago, and I can honestly say it went pretty well. A good amount of people came, so that made me feel very relieved and happy. All of our groups/stations did a great job and I was able to take a quick peek at each one. All of hard work paid off, all of the planning, memorizing, arranging, and (for me anyway) worrying was all worth it. Earlier our teacher brought up that the 4^th graders were planning field day, they were able to do that with every class in 4^th grade’s help. We made this whole event that was probably just as big (some people in my class even think bigger) with just our class of 23 people. How we all came together and united as a community helped us make this happen and if we had never done that, I guarantee that what we did tonight would not have happened. All in all, I’m proud of us.  

The Big Day Is TOMORROW!!!!!!!!!!!!

I am scared, excited, and relieved all at the same time. Setting up this event has been SUPER stressful, but I’m pretty sure it will be worth it. Through this experience I have wanted to die, thanks to not so great cooperation, being rejected by about a dozen different companies, and most of all being scared that no one will come  and that all of our hard work will be for absolutely nothing. As you can tell, and my teacher has pointed out earlier this year, I’m a worrier. I now know that we’ll have enough food, that at least 10 people are coming not including our class or family (this is not very reassuring) and that we’ve gotten through disagreements and disliking group members enough to where we can fulfill our jobs at the event tomorrow. I am still scared and worried, but not as much as I was before. I will be doing A LOT of praying tonight. Let’s hope our hard work pays off. 

Three Cheers for Central Market!

Wow! I still can't believe it! Central Market was kind and generous enough to donate $250!!!!! We went to the store after school and stocked up on all kinds of healthy food, including; cheese, meat (ham), crackers, fruit juice (fizzy), wheat bread-that tastes like white, a bunch of fruit, and a lot of veggies (peanut butter and ranch dip to add flavor). We spent a total of about $200, so we have $50 left. We’re going to ask Mrs. Gilboa what we should do with the extra money tomorrow. We did an awesome job, but made one huge mistake-even though we went to Hamish’s house before we went to the store to get his mom’s camera, we still forgot to take pictures…oops. We’ll make sure to take a BUNCH of pictures when we set up and during the event to make up for it though!

Donations

Well, being in the food/nutrition group is fun, but very stressful. Today we called at least a dozen different companies and let’s just say we got to practice rejection. We have one company (island grill) that is a definite; they’ll be providing about 70 mini smoothies for us, so at least that’s covered. Then we have to call HEB tomorrow and talk to Oscar, I’m praying that Oscar likes kids and enjoys donating! For Central Market we filled out a form and have faxed it over and we’re anxiously waiting for them to reply. The problem is, they usually only do donations 6 WEEKS ahead of time, we’re giving them about 6 DAYS. Sellers brothers is also a maybe, we have faxed over all of the information and are waiting to hear back from them. If none of these groceries stores donate to us I am going to cry!!! We have already put posters up and have given the pamphlets out, so if they don’t donate we will only have smoothies. Worse case scenario and they don’t agree
to donating I guess we will have to get $5 from each person in our class and buy what we can. I AM SCARED!

PS who knew planning a party/night could be so hard?! 

Who's Calling Who

Anthony-smoothie king

Hamish- jamba juice

Mustafa- krogers

Yaeeun- does not want to call

Madeline- whoever (no preferences)

"Sayings"

 My favorite for exhibition:
Life is like an onion: You peel it off one layer at a time, and sometimes you weep.

One that relates to most of the boys in my class:
Life throws you curve balls every now and then; the thing is you got to know when to swing to get far.

    * Always laugh when you can, it's the cheapest medicine.
    * If you tell the truth you don't have to remember anything. (Mark twain)
    * A break up is like a broken mirror. It is better to leave it broken than hurt yourself to fix it.
    * You only live once, but if you work it right, once is enough.
    * If you love somebody, set him or her free. If they return, they were always yours. If they don't, they never were
    * Life is like a hot bath. It feels good while you’re in it, but the longer you stay in, the more wrinkled you get.
    * Where there is love there is life.
    * Love me not. Love me never. But when you love me love me forever!
    * Great minds discuss ideas. Average minds discuss events. Small minds discuss people. (Eleanor Roosevelt)
    * Anyone who has never made a mistake has never tried anything new. (Albert Einstein)
    * And in the end it's not the years in your life that count. It is the life in your years. (Abraham Lincoln)

 ALL FOR NOW, BUT I WILL BE ADDING MORE!

Phone Numbers and Procedure

Phone numbers:
HEB- (713) 662-0570
Randall’s- (713) 349-2150
Kroger’s- (713) 661-7175
Seller’s Brothers- (713) 666-4417
Jamba Juice- 713.529.3225
Smoothie King- (713) 661-1663

Procedure:
I) Say hello
II) Introduce my self (first name only)
III) Say where I’m calling from
IV) Tell him about our project
V) Ask him about donating food
VI) Say we will advertise for them
VII) Politely except what ever his response may be (if he says yes, go through next steps)
VIII) Thank him
IX) Give him the SCHOOL’S info
X) Thank him again
XI) Go and tell the office we are expecting calls from _________
XII) Smile!!!!!!!!!!!!

I Am In The Food Group!

For the activities night (it is yet to be named, we are suppose to vote tomorrow) I am in the food/nutrition group. For the night we are going to set up a table and have a bunch of healthy snacks, that way kids can try different things and find out what they do and don't like! Maybe some kids will eat apples for snack instead of chips now! I have to admit being in this group is a little stressful because we're still trying to come up with a perfect way to actually get food...it's very hard to get people to bring their own food because we'd have to decide if it was mandatory for them to bring something, or just a suggestion. There’s also a time problem, we would have to go to every classroom and explain everything to them and we really just don't have that kind of time! Right now we are thinking of calling grocery stores and smoothie place to ask if they would donate food, we are trying to be very optimistic. We think they will say yes if we offer to do advertising for them (ex. "Here’s a very healthy smoothie that tastes great even though it is mad of all natural fruits and if you like it make sure to visit the place that provided all of these smoothies for us, smoothie king!"). I will be looking up the phone numbers tonight so we can make the calls tomorrow. Wish us luck!!!!!!

check this out!

go to this web site and watch a video about a super cool way to clean up oil spills with human hair!!!!!!!:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EwQOD_Ir2vQ

Research

Many people think that gangs are the main people responsible for graffiti, but they’re actually responsible for less than 10%.

There are four types of graffiti:
Tagging-hip hop (78%)
Satanic/hate (7%)
Gangs (7%)
Generic (5%)

The average age of people arrested for graffiti vandalizing is 17-18.

It costs America more than $8 billion per year clean up graffiti.

The main four motives for graffiti are; fame, people want their graffiti to end up in the papers or the news, or at least for a lot of people to see it. Rebellion, people want to get back at people or hurt them by damaging their property or writing something offensive. Self-expression, people express their selves through this type of art. Power, people feel that if they can show their art everywhere it give them power.

Some places in the us spend millions of dollars per year just trying to stop graffiti

Out of all of the vandalism in the world, 35% is graffiti.

Both men and women vandalize through graffiti, 15% are young females.

About 28% of the people who do graffiti are arrested.

Between 2001 and 20-08 72,169 vandalism incidents were reported and 9% of them were graffiti.

The majority of people view graffiti negatively.

Many people think that graffiti makes an area look trashy and not a nice place to live.

The word graffiti comes from the Greek word “graphein” which means to write.

Spray cans are what are most often used for writings graffiti; they have
different nozzles for different coverage.

Graffiti artists who are inexperienced are known as “toys”.

What I Think Our Action Should Be

My group’s topic is graffiti vandalism; so I think we really need to show that there’s more to graffiti than vandalizing public/private property. If you've ever really looked at or studied graffiti you can tell that it's actual art and in a way...beautiful. The way some people are able to express their feelings so well through graffiti is mesmerizing. I’m definitely FOR graffiti, but I don't think that people should do it on property. Graffiti is an art. Art needs to be done on a canvas or even just a piece of paper, but not a building. I think our action should be to show the difference between graffiti on a canvas and on a wall. Using your talents of art that way is hating yourself and abusing your skills. You have a gift that you can share with the world, but instead your doing it in an illegal way. I think we need to make sure people know to put their talent to good use.

Where Hate Starts and What Causes It

 I think hate simply starts with a difference of opinion. Everyone who discriminates discriminates because their opinion is that they don’t like black people, women aren’t as important as men, everyone should be a Christian, etc.  All of those things are because of someone’s opinion towards someone else. Some people hate because they want to be more popular, they think that the only way to do that is to make fun of someone and basically make their life miserable, but people should like you for who you are, not because you treat someone badly. Some people also hate because they want revenge.  If someone has bullied you in the past, you naturally want them to have to go through the same thing you did, the problem with this is, if you treat someone badly just because they treated you badly, even though they did it first, your just as bad as they are. If someone is envious of you, that might also cause hate.  They might want your life so badly that they hate you for having it, instead of them. A lot of people who are very stubborn hate, if you’re never willing to compromise or do something your even a little bit against, that’s being hateful. Hate is all around us; it’s just a fact of life that is close to impossible to change.

Central Idea

My favorite central idea is probably both ''to be human means to not hate, but to appreciate things while you can'' and ''to help our world become a better place, our generation needs to help stop hate''. I like them because I think they both really describe the central idea. They’re both slogans that really describe who we are today; I think that that was the most important thing the central idea needed. For the first one, it is important for us to appreciate what we have, we're all very fortunate to have loving families and homes and we need to remember that. Maybe when you start to feel hate toward someone you can think of every good thing they've done, that could probably help you cool down and not think such bad thoughts. For the second slogan our generation really is important because we can stop hate, but only if we work together. We’re the future and that's something we need to remember.

Since we can only have one central idea for exhibition I think the best way to combine them is, "to help our world become a better place, without hate, we need to appreciate all of the things we have". I think this combines them to where it still makes sense and gets both points across. Now it's talking about how important our generation is, that it's important to appreciate what we have, and it gets the main point across that we need to stop hate. I could really see this being our central idea and I hope it is.

Discrimination Against Gay Marriage

Today in the 21st century, both men and women have very strong opinions about very touchy subjects. Gay marriage is one of them. Many Christians believe that gay people marrying, or someone just being gay in general, is going against god. In the bible there are certain scriptures that do suggest this, but I am a Christian and I feel that there’s nothing wrong with people of the same gender getting married or having feelings toward one another. God wants us to be true to ourselves, people can't help it if they have feelings towards someone. I really don't understand why it's a bad thing; it's nature, just part of life. I don't think the law should be able to not allow people of the same gender to marry; it is a form of discrimination and is something that I think shouldn't be chosen for you. The law is basically trying to change the way people feel towards one another, but the thing is, if it's love, its love.

How Well I Cooperated With My Exhibition Group

For exhibition Brooke, Obadias, and Mustafa are in my group. Today we were researching our topic and I found out that I work very well with each one of them. We are all willing to compromise and I think every group needs to be able to do that to come out with a good product in the end. I’m excited to go through this journey with all three of them. Wish us luck!

What I Think We Should Do To Bring The Community Together

Today I was informed about a way another school tried to get their community together that I really liked. What they did was have one lunch period where you could sit anywhere, but by someone new who you’re not familiar with. I think this was great because it really got the students to interact with new people. I think that this would be a great thing to propose to Mr. baker as an exhibition project because it might allow your acquaintances to get to know you and maybe even become your good friend. In my case, the person who's been my best friend since 1st grade isn't going to the same middle school, we've been able to be fine not being in the same classes (I actually haven't been in her class since 1st grade), but it's going to be hard not being around her at school at all and never being able to look at her for support. This idea of sitting and interacting with different people might help people find future middle school friends.

My Top Issue = Respect

For exhibition I think I would really enjoy doing a project on respect. I would mostly like to delve into no place for hate (bullying). Out of all of our PYP values I think respect is the most important. Where would our world be today if we didn’t show respect towards one another? For me that would be a world I would not want to live in. sometimes it seems unfair, but elders do deserve our respect and I guarantee that if you show them respect they’ll respect you in return. No place for hate is very important to me because I am someone who gets bullied. Today my teacher said that our school has agreed to being a no place for hate school, but really all we’ve done is sign a piece of paper. I agree with her, it’s one thing to say you’ll make an improvement, but it’s another thing to actually do it.