Where does Bowling come From?

Author's Note: We wrote this in Language Arts to learn how to properly do a bibliography. 

It is unknown what year it was but a famous explorer, Finders Petrie, opened up a tomb and found “rocks” in the shape of what today are pins used in tenpin bowling. The game became so popular as royalty began to play it. The more it was played and the more popular it became, more adjustments were made to the rules and to the kind of materials they were using, boards became alleys and rocks became balls, but as it progressed into later years wood was then used and then actual “plastic” for the bowling balls. From all of this it is now a very popular game all over the world just from one guy opening up a tomb (History of Bowling ). 

Changing Lives

In the beginning of Elephant Run by Roland Smith, Nick the main character in the story is a thirteen year old, who is treated like he is an adult. Most teens feel like they are treated like either adults or three year-olds and are never treated the way they would like to be, but Nick really was treated as an adult. He lived with his mom in London, England and his dad owned a elephant plantation in the middle of a Burmese jungle, after the Japanese attacked London, his mom thought he would be safer with his dad... she was wrong. Nick was very different in the beginning of the book from the end, he didn't only change as an individual but he also changed the lives of everyone else on that plantation. 

Giving that everyone always said that he couldn't handle living on the plantation and actually working for what he got, was hard enough for him to take. But when he got there he was almost crushed by a large timber elephant, and didn't tell anyone. Until close to the end of the book I didn't understand quite why. He didn't want anyone to think that he couldn't handle it out in the middle of the jungle. This reminds me of a time when I was out on a four-wheeler with one of my cousin and got my leg cut on a tree, I had deep cuts in three places on my leg. I didn't want to tell anyone because I thought they were going to tell me that I was to hurt to continue to help with whatever we were doing that day, even though I knew I was hurt and that I shouldn't be helping. That was a bad mistake on my part but I was only seven how was I supposed to know my leg could get infected, and Nick even though he was thirteen didn't know that he had three broken ribs and that riding on the back of an elephant for three days afterwards would make him almost unable to move. His dad told him the first night he got to Burma to watch out for the elephants because they can kill you in many different ways. "...impale you with a tusk, stomp on you with their feet, throw you, bash you against a tree, crush your head in their mouths, do a headstand on your chest..." (40) Nick didn't know what to do, as children and as teens both make bad judgments on what you are and are not supposed to tell someone, when they tell you things not to do and you do them anyway.

Also in the beginning of Elephant Run Nick was just a kid, pale, chubby not much to him. Everyone could tell he wasn't going to last very long on the plantation if he didn't "man up." Japanese soldiers found him in the woods and were going to take over his fathers plantation. They dragged Nick back to the house. He was locked in a room with no food or water and was not aloud to talk to anyone. So he broke out, has any teenager ever not disobeyed their parents or guardians? I know I have and it's not a great feeling to feel on your own. Nick on the other hand was trying to save his father, when he broke out of the house and he also needed food and water. No one understood him and what he was going through in life, no one wanted to help him because they were to afraid but they still thought he wasn't going to survive in the wilderness on his own because he was still a "little kid."

Towards the end of the book Nick changed a lot, he was changing slowly throughout the book but towards the end he turned into a real man. As he was on a quest to save his dad he realized that to save him he would have to risk his own life to save his. He went into the "jail" that his father was in and found out they put him on burial duty because he was sick and if he died hopefully he would just die in one of the holes he was digging. He got help from Japanese soldiers who didn't want to be imprisoning these people who did nothing wrong. They buried his dad alive and left to give Nick just enough time to dig him up and get out of the "jail" before the other soldiers realized what was going on. He grew up a lot after that and figured out that family and friends is really all you need. I don't think a lot of people have realized that yet. Sometimes I think I haven't either and then I realize that people have it a lot worse than me, to the point were they don't even have family. I think every one takes that for granted because when it is just something you have always had once it's gone you realize sometimes you don't always get what you want, and that's what helped Nick grow up so much in the middle of that Burmese jungle.

Along the way to the end of the book he influenced a lot of people, more than I probably even remember. There was a girl, Mya, she was to afraid to live her own life after the Japanese came. She was treated like a puppet on strings, and it wasn't her fault but she let them. Nick helped her cut those strings he told her that she deserved more than this and that she should come with him and her great great grandfather to help save his dad and her brother. She cut those strings and disappeared with Hilltop (great great grandfather) and Nick to save her brother. Another person that he had a lot of influence on was his own father, who acted as if when you are working you can't have any fun. Which was okay with Nick because he got a lot of stuff done. But it was more like a chore to him than actually doing something fun because he made it that way. Nick got him to lighten up and have more fun when he was doing things so that it didn't seem like such a chore. Nick influenced a lot more people in this book in good ways and maybe sometimes bad but he always seemed to have an answer for everything they may not have been logical but they were still answers, and most importantly to the people on the plantation they were the right answers which they hadn't had many of.

All of these things that he did remind me of a character in a different book. Someone whose parents died and moved over 8 times. Someone whose journey influenced a lot of people that maybe their life wasn't so bad. Someone whose journey changed her more than anyone could ever imagine. Violet Baudelaire, from A Series of Unfortunate Events is a character much like Nick. As in Elephant Run Violet got moved when her parents died even though Nick's mom didn't die it was kid of the same situation, it was better for them somewhere else. As Nick wanted to save his dad, Violet wanted to make sure her two younger siblings were safe throughout the whole thing. Also Nick was being chased and was also captured by the Japanese, Violet was being chased by an evil villain, Count Olaf, even though she was not captured they were close to being multiple times throughout their lives. In many ways Nick and Violet are similar and in many ways they are different, but they both shared their wisdom and bravery in life with many people who needed their help. 

Nick didn't only change from the beginning to the end of the book on his own, but he also changed many other people's lives along the way. He realized many things, and didn't care what others thought about him. He knew he could make it in the Burmese jungle and he was determined to, and he did once he grew up and recognized that he needed his family and friends to help him along the way. He needed their support and even though he changed their lives, I don't think he would ever admit that they changed his too. 

Friends

Author's Note: I wrote this essay on what I don't do in a friendship that are probably some of the most important things that hold a friendship together. I have realized why with the help of two of my best friends along the way, but you will hear more about that in the piece. Let me know what you think!

To find a real friend is to find someone who knows just about everything about you. Someone who actually cares about how you feel, and someone who is there through it all so that they know what is going on. This is hard to come by. Of course there are some things I do regret about some of my past friendships, and things that I would change about each of them. A lot of those different things happen to be stuff that all strong friendships should just have, but mine never seemed to. I would have opened up more about what was actually going on in my life. I would tell them different things they wanted to know, even though I may not have trusted them 100%. I would most importantly tell them why I was mad at them, if I ever was, but most of the time I would just leave it and not talk to them. I never understood why I did most of these things until I became best friends with two very important people. Yes, we may argue sometimes, but it never lasts long, one thing I know we will never do is hide things from each other. I don't know why I never did these important things in my past friendships, but going forward I know why I won't ever do them again. 

People turn on you, it's true as much as when we are little we don't believe that it is possible to loose any friends, but it is a lot easier to loose them than to gain them. I never liked to tell anyone about my home life. Frankly I thought it was none of their business. I was at school, not at home. Why should you care about what my parents are like, and how my household runs. I have realized that they only want to know so that it isn't awkward if they ever come over to your house. I still don't tell many people about my mom for reasons that no one really needs to know. Usually I like to tell my friends about my dad. Either way they would like my dad a lot better. But sometimes it just isn't the right time to ask someone about their family usually when I first meet someone my questions are a lot more like do you have any siblings, and are they younger or older. Then if your friendship grows you will find out more. My friends just get that about me, eventually I will tell you about my home life but right away the first day I meet you I feel is a bad time to ask. Plus, I never really could grasp the fact that people actually cared and wanted to care. So a lot of the time I would just be like no you don't need to know that. Until Kaitie came around. She just seemed like the kind of person who was laid back and not judge mental. My kind of person. Are friendship started instantly, but she still doesn't know about my "life". She gets everything else like the sports I play and things along those lines. But one of the reasons I haven't told her is that she just hasn't asked why I don't talk about it, which is perfectly fine with me. The whole thing is I would rather have someone ask about it than just be like well here it all is, and this is what I realized when I started being friends with Kaitie is that if they don't ask it really isn't something that has to be said. 

Even though I think a certain way about telling people about my family. One of the other things I have found myself doing is not telling people simple questions that they want to know? Some of them aren't even that hard to answer like, "what did you get on your science test" or "What did you do in science today?" Even though the questions are as simple as that I have strong views. Surprising right? I feel like people, even my friends need to know what I scored on any test that is something that is for my teacher and I to know and not the entire school. It is not a hard thing to live with but it annoys a lot of people because they would openly tell you anything you wanted to know, I am not that way. Also when people ask me what I did in certain classes a lot of times everyone is doing something different so I tell them what I did and then they yell at me when they had to do something different. I really don't have problems with answering my friends questions along these lines if they aren't going to tell everyone. Things that aren't your business or you are just going to complain about the answer later, I wouldn't ask me about it just for a fair warning.

Getting people to understand why you don't want to answer their somewhat "dumb" questions, is a task all in itself. Telling people why you are mad at them is just about the worst thing you could ever have to do. Sometimes friends and family don't understand why you bottle everything up; and sometimes I don't know the answer. Or at least I never really thought I did. Now that my best friend Chloe and I have gone through one of these arguments it is easier to comprehend. She didn't like the way I was treating her "I was acting like a best friend" she said. I can take that I can understand that, but why couldn't she just tell me. I understand now that it is harder to realize when you are truly mad at someone, or if you are holding a grudge over just about nothing. Which happened to be what this was about. Nothing major but we had some really awkward moments. Things that people do wrong to you, don't hold a grudge. Tell it to them to their face it is much nicer hearing about it straight from the person than from the people they have told.

Realizing why you never did the important things that hold a friendship together is one of the hardest things to do, but when you have friends there to help you along the way, it just makes your whole life a lot easier. I am still working on remembering not to hold grudges and also to not get so annoyed with peoples somewhat "dumb" questions. It is going to take some time and some effort, but it is nothing I can't handle with the help of some awesome best friends along the way.