Poetry Out Loud Performances

I watched Branden Emanuel Wellington perform Facing It by Yusef Komunyakaa, his performance was one of a kind, his stage presence was perfect, his voice was clear and powerful, even though the poem is extremely difficult his drama and voice tone reflect what the poem really meant. The way he expressed his feelings and emotions with both the tone of his voice and the simple little pauses not only shows his deep understanding of the poem but also his feelings towards it.
The poem is sad, and every deep breath he drew in with the pauses and facial expressions enhanced the poems true meaning. His performance is the only one that proved he actually understood messages inside.

Mockingbird Motif

Reading TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD really enhanced my knowledge of "MOTIF" because in the beginning I had absolutely no clue what it meant and didn't really want to find out, reading Novel gave me a clear understanding of what it means and why some authors choose to put motif in their stories.
The Mockingbird motif is basically a meaning that its a sin to convict the innocent and blame your mistakes on them, just like its a sin to kill a mockingbird because they don't do anything bad, just good. This Motif really brings a symbolic meaning to other themes like prejudice and racism or justice vs injustice in this story because Tom Robinson, the main mockingbird in this story was convicted and sentenced to death, Tom was just like a Mockingbird, he was the only that actually treated Mayella like somebody but in turn she testified against him. It's a sin to kill a mockingbird, and Mayella killed the only Mockingbird had and ever will have.

Extra Credit

To me, I find that Mayella Ewell is like a sun in a solar system and her father is a black hole, the sun gives life to planets and does so much, Mayella gives so much to her family but gets nothing in return just like the sun, and gets sucked into a black hole to become something she doesn't want to be, just like how her father made her become during the trial

Life Lessons

to me a really big life lesson that kids really take likely is when your parents always nagg you about looking both ways before you cross the street, or double check everything I can personally relate to that because when I was younger my mom would always tell me to look both ways to make sure no cars came, surprisingly she still does it especially when I am in the car with her, everysingle time she would tell me " Always look both ways and make sure no car is near because most accidents happen when you rush" it gets really irritating but she is right as well. I finally realized the importance of that lesson when my dog died because it got ran over by a car, the dog was my favorite too and its really unfortunate that I had to loose something before I finally realized how important it was.

My Friend

My friend that I enjoy talking to and hanging out with doesn't go to this school anymore,but he is the most overconfident person I know. He is like the biggest egotist ever, he would brag about EVERYTHING and he is competitive and becomes even more competitive when it comes to me, last year he got an A in English, and I did too but his was 98 percent or something and mine was 96 and he still wouldn't let me forget about it. Even though he is an egotist he is also introverted as well, he is social, but when working in groups he prefers working with two or less people because he hogs everything, like a ball hog in basketball he is a hog in projects, to tell the truth I really like working with him, I rarely have to do much and he does everything which is really good because all my other classes I have to do everything and its good to take a break from doing that once in a while.
He can also be a egoist sometimes too,because he is really selfish as well, that is like the only thing that I find he has to work on, because he doesn't think about others thoughts on other things, and would only want the good things to himself, he is nice and smart( I have to admit)and it was really fun, but too bad he moved to go to a new school, it would have been fun if he were in this class as well.

Earliest Memories

The earliest memory that I can describe in detail, is when I was at Guangzhou, eight years ago, it was just a few hours before I was about to take the plane to Seattle, Washington where my cousins would be waiting. I was at this huge city that I have been to for the first time, everything was so loud, the cars were all backed up, teenagers just cross the streets on their skateboards or bikes and occasionally a driver would literally open the window and start cursing in Chinese and to what would be now flipping them off too with the middle finger, I personally found it extremely funny and would always laugh at the driver. My mom was doing some last minute shopping walking around the streets, checking out the shops and stalls, it was Autumn, close to Winter then, even though the city was fairly warm people would still wear their Winter coats and white gloves just to show off, from where i came from a little quiet town like Olympia almost and occasionally i would nag my mom to take me along to buy groceries, but at Guangzhou I was scared, I was grabbing onto my moms sweater as hard as I could, because if I let go I would be lost and my mom wouldn't hear me if i cried for help, but i couldn't help looking around, it was night and the streets signs were illuminating bright colors and cars horns were blaring.
I was finally able to leave the streets and go to the airport, it was quiet there and I was tired, I found a chair and slept on it, when my mom woke me up I was walking into the plane, I couldn't read then but I remember vividly it was a American Airlines plane, with its red white and blue strips.