McCandless Project

My experiment was that I got my hair cut but I didn't tell anyone I was doing this. People reacted by telling me how much they loved my haircut and how cute it looked. I felt pretty good during the experiment and I loved all the complements I got. I was definently more surprised by my peers reaction more than mine. I didn't think that too many people would notice but so many did and I loved what they had to say. I would most definenly say that this experiment gave me a new perspective on how people see you.  Not just based on my experiment but on everyone else's as well.

Quote Paragraph

The quote I chose was, "Maybe you have to let go of who you were to become who you will be". I chose this quote beccasue I liked how it tells you that it's okay to let go of your past and start over to find yourself. This represnts me because I still haven't found who I am going to be yet and that's the journey of life. I have so many friends because I have tried new things to find myself. I keep those friends because they aren't like a peice of gum that you chew up and get rid of when it loses flavor. Friends never lose flavor, they always have something new to say everyday and you do too. It's okay to  let go of old things but make sure to keep your friends because who knows when you'll need them again in the near future. If I lived every second of my life acording to this quote my life would be so different. I would have been to more places than I could ever imagine and I wouldn't be where I am now. I also probably would have already found myself but that would mean not having a normal childhood experience. If you can't be a kid and enjoy life then technically you still wouldn't have found yourself.

Forever

Emma Williams

Mrs. Belden

Honors English I

15 October 2014

Forever

“Mason, Mason. Come on, wake up! It’s time for school.” Shouted Mason’s mom.

He didn’t answer. This is really odd. Thought his mom. She knocked on his door, then walked in when she didn’t hear anything. With her heart pounding, she walked over to Mason sleeping. She rolled him over to find him not breathing. She panicked.

“Ron! Call 9-1-1!” She screamed to her husband. He came running up the stairs to his room.

“What’s wrong?!” he asked. As soon as he saw his only son lying there, not breathing, he puked. He dialed 9-1-1. When they got to the hospital they got a hold of Lindsay, Mason’s girlfriend. She was in shock when she heard the news, she didn’t know what to do. Mason’s dad told her not to come down, but they thought she should know he will be alright.

“Will you call me when he comes to?” She asked

“Of course!” Answered Ron

“Tell him I miss him, and Ron, thanks!” Responded Lindsay

The next day Mason came home. Lindsay called and she asked if she could come over and see him. Mason said he needed some space.

“I love you more than the world itself!” he said.

“Are you okay?”

“I’ve been better, I just need to relax.”

“Okay, I love you too.”

As soon as Mason hung up the phone, his mom said he needed to tell her.

“I don’t know how.” Replied Mason, “I can’t just be like…. I have cancer. I have to time it correctly.”

“There is no right time.” Cried his mom

“Mom!” Yelled Mason, “Don’t do this!”

“Do what? Love you? I want you to be happy. You are the light of my world! I don’t know how to make you happy anymore. I want you to do what you…”

“What I, what? You want me to do what I want before I die? Is that what you were gonna say? Is it? God mom! You’re so…. just stop, stop worrying about me!” Argued Mason

“I can’t stop worrying about you, that’s like telling me not to love you. Is that what you want?” she asked.

“I’m getting out of here!”

“Where are you going?” asked his mom, “I need to know where you will be and who you will be with.”

“I will be with my friends, they won’t baby me like you do.”

Mason called up his friends Ryan, Brock, and Sal. He said he wanted to do something and he didn’t care what. They all were very worried that something was wrong and he told them he was fine. They decided to go to the mall.While they were there they ran into some of Lindsay's friends. Mason was relieved to see Lindsay wasn’t with them.

“Lindsay should be here soon!” One of them exclaimed

Oh, that’s just what I need. Thought Mason, I really don’t want to explain to her what happened yesterday. Mason and his friends walked away, as they got further away Mason looked back, when he looked back he saw Lindsay with her friends, they all were looking at him. Lindsay waved to him, he looked away like he didn’t see her.

“Dude what’s up?” asked Brock, “And I mean it, I need an answer, we all do. We’ve never seen you like this before.”

“Yeah!” They all agreed

“I can’t tell you, not here not now. Not before I tell Lindsay.” Mason protested

“Man you’ve got to tell us.” Declared Ryan “Now!”

“NO!” Shouted Mason, as he stormed away from his friends, right past Lindsay and her friends.

“Mason? Where are you going? Are you okay? Your mom called, she thought you were with me. Can we talk?” asked Lindsay

“NO!” shouted Mason a second time, this time at Lindsay. “Sorry, I mean now is not a good time. I’m fine. Don’t worry about my mom calling she’s just paranoid.”

“Paranoid? Paranoid about what? Mason? What’s going on? Should I be worried?”

“No, nothing is going on don’t worry everything’s gonna be alright.”

This went on for the next few days. Everytime Lindsay tried to call him, he didn’t answer. She would text him, asking if she could stop by, if he wanted to talk or hang out, but he never texted her or called her back. When he saw her at school he ignored her. He didn’t have any classes with her which made things a lot easier on him. All his teachers knew what was wrong but his friends and Lindsay still didn’t. This went on for a  week. Until Lindsay stopped by. Oh God! Thought Mason, this has got to be good.

Lindsay didn’t knock. She knew he was home alone. She had already called his parents to make sure. They said it would be fine if she stopped by.

“Mason what’s going on?” Lindsay demanded an answer, when Mason didn’t give one she went up to his room. She knew what ever he was hiding would be up there. Mason followed her, she tried to open his door but he got there before she could twist the doorknob.

“What are you hiding from me?” Lindsay asked in a very stern voice.

“Nothing.” Said Mason.

“Okay. Then let me in your room.” Argued Lindsay.

“NO!” Shouted Mason.

“Why not? What are you hiding in there? I need to know if I should worry.” Lindsay asked scared.

“No, you shouldn’t worry.” Mason said.

“Okay then let me in.” Lindsay demanded.

“NO!” Shouted Mason again.

“FINE!” Then,Lindsay pushed open the door. At first she was really confused, she didn’t see anything wrong. Then she saw his dresser. He had a lot of medicine containers.

“Oh God! Mason! You aren’t doing drugs, are you?!”

“WHAT?! NO! Of course not!” Exclaimed Mason.

“Then what are those?” Asked Lindsay pointing to the dresser.

“ Nothing. Don’t worry?!” Relied Mason.

“I can’t do this. You can’t do this to yourself.” Lindsay stormed out of his room in shock, darted down the stairs, but before she could leave Mason shouted, “I have cancer!”

Lindsay ran out of the house to her car and drove away. Mason tried to call her to say he was sorry, he left a bunch of voicemails till he couldn’t anymore. He also texted her, she never replied this made him feel really bad. He went to bed sick to his stomach hoping she would call him back in the morning.

All night Lindsay couldn’t sleep. She couldn’t stop thinking about their fight and what he said, about what she accused him of. She decided in the morning she will go over and see him. Maybe I will take him flowers that are as beautiful as him! She thought. She knows his parents leave at noon every saturday to go shopping, so she thought she would go over then. She called him and said she needed to talk to him

“Okay, that’s fine.” He said “I love you!”

“I love you too!” Lindsay said back in the happiest voice ever!

On her way to his house all she could think about is what a nice fall day it was and how there was nothing that could possibly go wrong! Today is the perfect day! She thought. I love the fall, it’s so peaceful and beautiful! I love watching the leaves fall off the tree. Someone said that it shows the end of something great. I thought that was beautiful but now I know what they meant. When she got to his house she knocked then walked in. He knew she was coming so he left the door unlocked.

“Mason, I’m here!” She said, “Where are you?” She ran all over the house looking for him. Finally she checked the kitchen. When she walked in she saw Mason on the floor. He’s gone she thought.

And Then There Were None

From my first draft and my last And Then There Were None Essay, I changed some spelling and added punctuation. I also took away and added sentences. What helped me the most on my And Then There Were None Essay was sharing the essay with and adult. I shared my essay with my mom and she helped me realize that I had some sentences that I didn't need. She also gave me some really good feed back that really helped improve my essay. I think what will improve my writing this year is having my peers critique my writing so I know what's wrong and I will be able to fix it, then in the future I will be able to look back and see what was said and look for that on my new papers. I think I have room to grow with my spelling and using the write punctuation. My goal this year is to write a paper that has less than 5 errors on my first draft.

My Sister's Keeper

The theme of My Sister’s Keeper is family is always there for you. One example of this is when Kate has to have surgeries her family is always there. That goes the same for Anna when she has surgeries for Kate. This supports the thesis because it shows that family is always by your side even when you don’t know it. When you go through something as bad as cancer, family is very important to support you and help you through it. Another example is when Anna is suing her parents and she feels that no one is listening to her and what she wants. Her dad basically steps up and shows her he’s always there for her when she needs him the most. He shows her how much he loves her and how great she is. This example shows how much your family loves you and how that’s all you need in life. Anna is Kate’s sister. Kate has cancer and Anna is her “perfect match”. Anna was born because their brother, Jesse, was not a match to be donor for Kate. It would be too risky for Kate to have a donor not related to her so the best choice was having another kid. Kate’s parents, Sarah and Brian, met with some doctors to make sure Sarah had a child that is a perfect match for Kate. Some people called Anna a designer baby. Anna goes to a lawyer to sue her parents for the “rights of her body”. By this Anna doesn’t want to go through anymore surgeries. All Anna wants is a normal life that she hasn’t had so far. When Anna goes to the lawyer at first he says no but now he realizes that it will give him more publicity so he says yes. Anna’s life really starts to change when Campel her lawyer gets involved and her parents find out what’s happening. Now Anna’s life becomes even less normal. She has to face her parents every day and pretend nothing is happening. This becomes very hard when Kate suddenly needs a kidney transplant and Anna can’t give it to her. This is because when Anna decided to sue her parents and the judge got involved they made deal saying for the given time Anna is not allowed to donate anything and her parents can’t bring up anything about the lawsuit.