Pony Express

Author's note: For this piece I was trying to reach my goal of getting an 8.5 or higher for word choice. 

Staring at his slender smooth face, as his big soft hands reach down to grab his old leather bag filled with thin tissue paper. They were letters from family members going to the men in California.  As he starts approaching the sturdy, fierce full, black horse he turns and takes a glance at me, our eyes meet it felt like I was just watching the stunning sun set for a moment. Our eyes said everything.  Suddenly his eyes drop from mine and I could tell he started to look at the unbreakable silver chain with a heart locket that he gave me.  As the horse draws his attention by kicking and neighing louder than a freight train, he decided to head off. Gently a breezed rolled by and made me notice that the sun was playing hide and seek with the clouds. As they faded in the distance, I decided I should go inside because I felt like a giant ice cube.

It’s been 15 days but feels like a hundred years. Every day I fear that he is going to get attacked by the Native Americans since they said most of the men that worked for the pony express would die from these surprising attacks (1). Even though most of the men were suppose to be 19 years old, John was only 18 years old (3). Typically the rides took 10 days, and the letters were mail from the East going to the West (4).  Supposedly I only had to wait 5 more days but it may take longer. In this time period of not seeing him I wonder if he became just skin and bones. The men that delivered the mail were usually under 120 pounds, and John just made it (3). Hopefully he returns on time and still healthy.

At last I see the black horse quickly trotting into our small village with John on his back. My heart was racing so quick that I felt like it was going to fall out of my chest. As he noticed that I was waiting patiently for him his eyes seemed to brighten. Finally, he hopped off his horse and hugged me. It felt so great to see him and I wanted to know all about his trip. He started off by showing me  the money that he made; the mail was $10 an ounce (2). Then he starting to go off about how he traveled a total of 100 miles but the average riders traveled between 60- 120 miles (5). Riding at an average of 7 miles per hour he was able to give the mail to the families in 10 days (4). Many things had went on when he was traveling but he said that he wouldn’t do it again if he had the choice. Also he stated that they were working on something called the telegram and that it should be completed around October 24, 1861 (1). I was delighted to have him come back safely and hopefully I won’t have to experience this much time away from him again. 

Kids Are Ready for Cell Phones

Author's note: I read over my piece out loud to make sure it made sense. I also added in a semi colon. 

If we were to take a survey on how many kids in Asa Clark Middle School that have cell phones, it would probably be a little more than three fourths. Some parents allow their kids to get cell phones at this age but others say they are too young and have to wait a certain age.  Personally I got my phone in 6^th grade and now it is so much easier to communicate with my friends and family. Although there may be some cons for kids around middle school having cell phones,  I think there are more positives.

There may be a lot of positives, but the most important one is emergency situations.  If a kid were ever to need help but no one was around,  they could call someone to make sure they receive assistance. Another good reason is for parents to keep track of where their children go. Many kids hang out after school, but they usually need permission from their parents. So with their cell phones, it is easy just to call and ask.Cell phones can be used for many other things such as; videos, texting friends, listening to music and many other. Therefore, phones are outstanding technology and nice for communication.

Since cell phones are used in so many ways, kids may get a little addicted to it. This may cause kids to waste their time. Kids will text rather than doing homework. In addition to it getting addicting , it could cause some health problems due to the bacteria on the screen from talking on the phone. It could create skin problems if the bacteria from the phone keeps rubbing against your face. Even the environment can get damaged. Some people don’t recycle their old phones so it will get destroyed and chemicals are released in the air.

There are ways that these cons could be easily taken care of. Therefore, the positives outweigh the negatives. This make kids safer because they can reach anyone if needed. Most kids in Middle School  have cell phones for these reasons, and parents that let their kids have a phone obviously felt that they were important to have.

Changing Point of View

Author’s Note:  I tried to work on my conclusion of just saying my last thoughts and summing it up.

In the song “Someone Like You” by Adele you can hear how confused, and lost she seems to be. The way Adele tells the story is that her and this guy were friends and they started to feel something for each other so they decided to date. Although it seems like it didn’t work out, she pushed him away. Eventually she figured that she missed him so she tried to see how he was doing and then she realized that he is doing just fine without her. The man was married seemed to have everything in place, and that is when she was disappointed. If this song would have been sang from the guys point of view it would have changed the point completely.

From Adele’s point of view she thought that once they would see each other maybe they would start to talk again. Once she arrived to talk to him he was speechless. Wanting to express her feelings about how she never got over him and how she wanted him back didn’t work. After she found out he was over her, she just wanted to tell him that she wished the best for him and hoped she wasn’t forgotten. At that point it was like her heart shattered in a million pieces. Trying to cheer herself up she thinks “I will find someone like you.” Everyone understands Adele’s point of view, but what about the guy that she was talking about what was he thinking?

The moment when I saw her face, my thoughts just seemed to stop. I was speechless I didn’t know why she was coming to my house. The door bell rang and I dropped the towel from my wet shaky hands.  Once I opened the door her face seemed so delighted, I sat there starring as she was saying something to me. I knew I had to tell her that I moved on, and that I was married. She was waiting for me to respond and I told her right away. Suddenly her face seemed to drop, and she seemed to get very sad within just seconds. At this moment I could tell she was the most confused she has ever been and she waited to leave. Before she left she told me not to forget her and sometime maybe we will see each other again.

Changing the point of view makes any song or story different because it shows what someone else is thinking about the situation. Therefore in this song if the man would have been singing it, the lyrics would have the feeling of surprised and shocked. Not slow, and sad like the way she sang it. 

Attitude

Author's Note: This is my themes piece and I tried to work on my AB transitions again this time I watched the lesson on school fusion. 



As the weak people watch the body of a friend get thrown off the train. Tears run down everyone’s faces thinking of how that could be them, and how they were lucky to still be alive on the train. In the book Different Shades of Grey by Ruta Sepetys families were put on a train then sent to work for only a ratio of food. Treated awfully people still had strong attitudes and knew this wasn’t the end. Within in this novel it really shows that love is never forgotten and when you loss someone it motivates you more to survive through the pain.   

Therefore love was throughout the entire story. Every day she would think of her home and memoirs of her family. Once the war ended she knew she had to get together with her family and Andrius to figure out the rest of their lives Lina loved her family a ton, and once her mother got sick she tried her best to make her feel better. While the mother was fighting through a disease of scurvy, Jonas and Lina would lay on top of the mother to try to heat her cold body up. Love had a huge impact on this story because she wanted to survive because of the love that she had with her family and Andrius. Even though they were put through so much stress of the fear of death Lina knew she had to survive with her family.  

Everyday Lina was thinking of her family but she was also thinking of how she will get out of the camps living. The moment where her mother’s last breathe was taken Lina knew that it was only her and her little brother Jonas. Lina had to become very responsible because she had to take the role of being his mother. As she says to herself “I will survive” after her mother passes away. Survival seemed really hard because the guards would kill anyone and you would have and it was so easy to catch a disease or cold. Although it meant everything to all the people that were put through this.

Survival was important in this book, but it was important to other characters in other books too. For example the book Hunger Games by Suzanna Collins was a great example of these two themes because she volunteered herself instead of her sister going because she knew her little sister wouldn’t make it to the end. Since Katniss’s father died, she had to gain the role of being a responsible, mature teenager like Lina after her mother passed away. To survive and live happily with their family again meant everything to Lina and Katniss. Both of these characters had a strong attitude, they feared that someone was going to kill them every day.   

Katniss was a strong, independent person that is why she survive and the themes of survival and love helped both of the characters throughout the story. These two themes had a big impact on the end of the story because love made her want to survive to with her family. If their wasn’t this connection of love and survival, Lina could have just shut down and been depressed about the situation.

Survival

Author's note: This is my predicting piece, I tried to work on AB transitions. Also I worked more on my body paragraphs like more support.

People quickly try to put their cold blistering hands in to the rock hard soil to dig down dip in the Earth’s ground for a hole 6 feet deep. A young 16 year old girl, Lina taken away from home, put to work with her mother and brother but her father sent to prison. While she is in the cart of a train to depart from her home town she meets a boy Andrius were she started to really like him. This happened in the book Between Shades of Gray by Ruta Sepety. I believe that in the end of this book Lina will have to work for years  and eventually her family and her will be let free in America and Lina will meet up with Andrius. Her survival will be because of her honor and love of her family.

The only thing that is keeping Lina alive is her family and her determination of surviving and going to live her life normally again. Every day she thinks of her father and tries to find a way to send something to him messaging that she is still alive. Through the drawings she makes of what she sees,  she sends them to the prison trying to let him know they are alright. Her only motivation she tells her self is “I will survive.” Every day would get harder and she would still be thinking of father and how she will see Andrius again.

Both Lina and Andrius loved each other, and right before she had to leave to work somewhere new Andrius gave a book to Lina the same one that she had earlier but ruined because it was used for smoking. Right after she got the book in her hand she had to leave and Andruis said to her “I’ll see you.”  It ran through her head a million times,  she knew she couldn’t wait to see his face.  Therefore she began to read the book even though it was Russian. Some pages Andrius would write things that made her wish she would be with him like “I am thinking of you, are you thinking of me?” Many people have been separated from who they loved and were put through torture like the holocaust and to come through just to fight for their own life.

 A girl, Ellie a little younger then Lina had to go through the holocaust which was just kind of like what Lina had to go through. Ellie liked a boy from school but he wasn’t Jewish so he wasn’t taken away from his home.  Once Ellie had to start to work and was separated from her father and brother she started to think that she had to survive because she wanted to get back with her family and wanted to see her crush again. These two characters remind me of each other because they both had to go through the same thing which was some bossing them around and had the fear of dying. The two girls both had the same attitude which was to survive and live the rest of their life with their family.

Overall I think that since Ellie had to go through almost the same thing and she survived so Lina will survive too. Along with that Lina’s family should survive too because Lina would do almost anything to save them. Also I think that Andrius will find Lina too because they were truly in love and he had access to send her letters and pictures. 

He Didn't Leave

Author's Note: This was my prediction for the story Thank You Ma'am. 

After the woman shut the door on  Rodger, instead of them never seeing each other again, he stayed outside of her house because he didn’t want to go home to his parents yelling at him or being alone. Therefore from then on he started to visit her more often, and they became closer it was like she was his mother. The reason I say this is because it seems like he didn’t have a very good home life, it seemed like his parents were never home but if they were it seemed like they would yell at him for not having a job so he could pay for himself. Also I think that he would hang around Mrs. Jones because she had a big impact on him changing his attitude so he enjoys to be around someone that trusts him. 

Haunted

Author's note: I forgot the people's name in the stories names and couldn't find the story but this is my predicting piece. 

In the story The Buried, I think that in the end the man that took the gold rings will be haunted by the man that died and I think he may scare or kill him. The reason I say this is because the man that passed away told him that he wanted his treasures to be buried with him, but the man just took them. Although he was died his spirit was still on the earth grounds that’s why I think he is able to haunt him.