It's all in what you make of it.

It's all in what you make it.

In where it takes you.

It's all in what you want to make of it.

In which you make it.

Sometimes you can tell when things are bad,

But most of the time you can not.

Even though you thought you knew what was happening

Most of the time you are left in the dark.

From where you are right now,

To where you want to be.

Are very far,

long off places

that may or may not

be reached. 

Revolutionary War Essay

“It was a new world.” They said. “It’s a new start.” They claimed. “It’s a chance to do things on our own.” They said. It wasn’t. It was dark and cold and there was nothing. No homes, no schools, no businesses, no towns… nothing. It was a time where people turned against each other, and a time where people stood together. It was a time where sometimes you couldn’t tell left from right, and up from down. It was a time where you were either for “your” king or against him, and it was time to choose a side.  Patriots and Rebels were together, in one town, but stood at two completely opposite ends. Patriots were for the “king” and thought if you stood against him it was treason. Rebels were against the king and thought that his rules of taxation without representation where unfair, and that they came to America to start their new life, and that the king was taking that away from them. Jane was of royal descent, coming to America on a boat with her caretaker at her side. She was a loyal Patriot but sometimes standing for what you know and standing for what is right is a hard decision for a fourteen year old to make. Benjamin was a rebel, a widowed father of seven, and standing up for what he believes is right. This “new world” the people were speaking of, they were standing in it, but it wasn’t what they had all dreamed it would be. So why do two totally different people have so much in common? Is it because they are both standing for what is right? Is it because they both know that sometimes the right thing to do can hurt many people? Or is it because they both have lost a lot of things that someone should never have to lose. Her parents, his wife. Her finance, his sons. Her caretaker, his “help.”

Sometimes though standing alone is your best chance of surviving. Even though it may not be the thing you want to do, it’s the thing you have to do. Jane lost a lot before coming to America, for a new life with her aunt and uncle. Her dad had just died a couple of months before, and her mother died when she was a little kid. A new orphaned child, her caretaker Mrs. Morley was all she had left. She was going to the new world to live with her aunt and uncle; her dads brother. She was excited about the whole thing, not knowing about all the problems it could in tale.  Losing her parents was one of the hardest things she had to go through. On the other had Benjamin lost his wife a few months earlier as well. He was having a hard time raising his seven kids on his own. With no mother his youngest daughter wasn’t talking. His sons were trying to stay strong for their sisters. But with no mother in your life it is kind of hard to do so. Even though they both lost pretty significant people in their lives, you would think it could only get better from there. But for Jane and Benjamin that wasn’t the case, from here it was only going to get worse.

No one was expecting what was coming next, for both of them it wasn’t something they would want to face… ever. Have you ever thought what it would be like to lose your kids? What about your finance? They were supposed to grow up and live a happy life, you were supposed to spend the rest of your life with them. Now where do you turn? What do you do next? I wouldn’t know which way to turn. Well Jane lost her finance from internal bleeding that couldn’t be stopped. She was crying and didn’t know whether to run away or yell, or scream. She handled it a lot better than most people could. Benjamin on the other hand  lost two of his sons.  They wanted to go to war and fight and help take a stand for what they thought, was right. But Benjamin wouldn’t have anything to do with it. Gabriel the oldest son, signed up for the army without his father’s permission. While in the army his dad was at home with his six younger siblings. He got stabbed. His brother was shot, and his dad didn’t know what to do once they both died. Would you? Most people wouldn’t know what to do. Do you run, do you yell, do you scream. Neither of them knew what to do, it was too much of a shock to be able to do anything about it. They both handled it a lot better than I think anyone ever thought they were going to. But loosing something that big in your life wasn’t something they ever wanted to happen.

As things started to look a little bit better. Benjamin’s caretakers and the people who help around the house were taken away from him. Jane’s caretaker Mrs. Morley went to live with her aunt’s elderly mother. Benjamin went to war, for revenge. So his kids went to live with their aunt. They were scared, and didn’t want to go. But they had no choice. He was scared too. But he knew they were in good hands now. Jane on the other hand didn’t know what to think about Mrs. Morley leaving. She hadn’t left Jane’s side since her mother passed away. Jane knew that it was time to do things on her own, and also knew that her aunt’s mother could really use someone to talk to. But Jane wasn’t ready to let go yet. Loosing so much, without getting anything in return, she didn’t like. But knowing that they would both be better off apart than together she was able to let go. Jane and Benjamin both knew exactly what to do, but they were both not ready to admit it was over, as much as they knew they had to.

“It was a new world.” They claimed. But it really wasn’t. Jane and Benjamin knew that. But other people in that town did not. They had lost so much, to know that what was happening, was not fair. They took stands for what they knew was right, whether if it was for revenge, or because they wanted to make their own decision. Sometimes letting go of everything and taking a stand for what is right, can help you. But sometimes it will stab you in the back, literally. 

Why?

As you think of him, he is gone, not just gone as in for now, but as in forever. He will not return, he will not be here ever again. You blame yourself for everything that happened. You accuse others of doing wrong because your life is not what it could be. You are mean and hurtful and wrong in all ways because you want what other people have. In a way you are jealous but not completely, you are just trying to claim what you deserve. As you think about it all everything goes from sad to sadder...

He is gone forever, she won't ever go away. I want him back and I want her gone. He was everything to me... my best friend, my mentor, he was everything I ever wanted to be. But now I'm stuck with her until she finally chooses to leave. I pray for the day when she finally leaves and never returns. I feel like I have nothing, no one loves or cares for me the way they should. No one understands what is going on in my head. But if I tell them it is sure to turn into something more, and there is no way I could ever want that. I feel terrible that I am mean and harsh and rude to everyone but I feel like that's the way I have been treated so why does it only have to be me? Why can't others endure the same thing as me. Feeling alone is like being in space, no one to turn to, no one who cares. 

Everyone is afraid of you. You got what you wanted, right? Everyone knows who you are. That what you wanted, right? Everyone doesn't know about your life. That's what you needed, right? Everything that has happened in your life you have wanted. But the one thing you wanted so desperately to disappear lingers around you everyday, and it seems like "it" will never go away. It's part of you now like it always has been, but it's not what you want to be. People strive to be just like someone when they get older, and you strive to be anything but. You feel like no one will get 

it, and it's true. If they understood they would be able to tell your not okay, but they can't.

As you think about your life you wonder why?

Why does everything have to happen to me.

Well it doesn't all happen to you, as alone as you feel you will never be, but it feels like it. By telling people what is going on you fear they are going to say you just want sympathy, but you know deep down you just want them to understand, to be there when things get rough. You just want someone to be there, to care about you, because no one else does. 

But why? Why won't they get it, why don't they get it! I try to tell them and they just look at me like it's nothing and shrug it off...

Is that how you take harsh situations?

Is that how you help your friends?

Are you really my friends?

Why is it so hard for you to understand?

It doesn't happen to you, so why does it happen to me?

Why does it feel like none of you are ever there?

Why does it feel like your always gone? In the times I need you most...

You're not there. You're distant. You're gone. I have told you. But now you don't care.

Why? Why can't you just care? Why? 

Nick/Jane

Author's Note: This is my compare and contrast piece, on two different characters from two different books. Nick is the main character from Elephant Run by Roland Smith, and Jane is the main character from Just Jane by William Lavender. 

Nick

- Modern times 

- "Normal life"

- Lives in the jungle 

- Divorced parents 

Same

- Taken away from parents 

- Both kids during a war 

- Have to choose between different things that can affect their lives (agreeing with the king, or disagreeing/

Jane

- Revolutionary War times 

- Royalty 

- Lives in a "normal" town 

- Parents are both dead

Women

Author's Note: Again I don't write these very often because I feel they are not necessary, and that your piece should be able to tell its own story. But, anyway I wrote this essay in Social Studies back in January, and decided that I liked it and would post it on my blog, so I hope you enjoy!

The Revolutionary War was a time of great change in the world, people, and how things were done. One of the biggest impacts on the revolutionary war was women. They were the voices that everyone didn’t want to here but they knew what to say and when to say it. A lot of people didn’t think women where very good at anything, and didn’t know what they were talking about. Women were treated more like “things” than actually human beings. But why was that? They don’t deserve that. So why were women treated so differently than women now, they weren’t much different.

Women in the Revolutionary War were treated with respect but they didn’t have a voice in anything. This is because women were considered too simple to understand complex military strategy during the American Revolution, me spoke freely around them. Thus, the made great spies, providing food and peddling wares to enemy camps while listening for important information (Pavao and Pavao). Women knew what they were doing during the revolutionary war, and no one understood that they were smarter than they gave them credit for.

For recreational purposes in the Revolutionary War women didn’t get to do a lot of things for fun. They found fun in cleaning and doing housework because that was all they knew. Women in this time period work, and have great times with their lives, but some just stay at home with their kids. This is kind of like the people of this time period the men worked and the women didn’t. Women were too busy cleaning and being housewives to truly do anything for fun (Women in the Revolutionary War ). Women in these times do have the time to have a good time and do not spend the bulk of their time at home. But this was just the way that women and their families did things.

Even though they didn’t get out of the house much. Most women during the Revolutionary War period got married at a young age. People in this time period get married before they turn 35 (Trunk). While in the Revolutionary War it was anywhere between 10-18 (Lavender).  A lot of people would find this strange, because most of them wouldn’t even consider getting married that young. A lot of the reasons would be being that they still have to go to school, they’re not ready, and a lot of them have a life beyond a housewife they are looking forward to. Not saying being a housewife is a bad thing to be but a lot of women have dreams after high school and college they would like to achieve before marriage.

Even though women weren’t treated with a lot of respect, didn’t have the time to do many things for fun, and got married at a young age. They did have a lot of roles in the Revolutionary War. Women marry, raise a family, manage their households efficiently, and, above all else, obey their husbands (Zeinert). Sounds like an interesting life to live. Most people in this time don’t do anything to strict guidelines, they live their lives more free with less rules. But back in this time women were treated strictly because no one thought they were able to handle a lot of harsh situations. Most women in this period lived either just as long as people now or died early from disease.

They lives they lived were very different but also a little similar to the way American women live now. Even though it is hard to understand why we are so different it is easy to see the similarities also. It is hard to realize how much we do have because we just have it. Whereas when you think about the women of the revolutionary war they didn’t have what we had. So it makes you stop and think about how much you actually have, and how little they had, and makes you actually want to be thankful for everything you have in life that they helped you get. 

Alone

Author's Note: This was are creative piece I wrote in the Writing Lab. It is about a boy who just moved north from down south and is standing in a field while it was snowing. But he feels alone, and it is not because he just feels sad about leaving he just truly is on his own. Let me know what you think:)

As the world spun around him, and the cold air blew, he was lost in a sea of white.

What in the world is this? He thought. 

Being as he had just moved north from the south, he had never seen snow in this sort of situation. There was no way out... he felt lost with no where to go. Like he was alone in the world, with no one around. In the dark there was nothing, no one, not anything at all. Just him in a wonderful world of white

As he stood in that field thinking, he thought about a lot of different things... about his life, about his family, about his new friends he made a couple of weeks ago, and about his old friends he had just left.

I feel alone he thought... like there is no one here to help me. No one understands anything at all, about me or about anything. Why do my parents treat me like i'm three years old with no where to go in life? Why do my friends new and old not treat me with the respect I deserve? Why is my life so complicated? These just must be one of those many different things we all must face... alone.

As he was standing in his winter wonderland. Almost like he was in a snow globe, a beautiful snow globe that contained everything about him. He was alone and not just because no one was there with him. But truly because no one understood him. This new place he was calling home was just as scary as he thought it was going to be.

Even though I feel alone... and I am alone... sometimes you may just have to do things on your own, right? 

Even though he never did find out that answer, he knew it was true, and he knew that he was going to have to learn to make it on his own. This is because he knew one day, he would be on his own, with out anyone there to guide him in the right direction.

Even though I am alone now. I won't be alone forever. He thought.

And this was held out to be true. He would not be alone forever.

But for now. At this point in time... he was alone. In his own little winter wonderland. 

Courage and Bravery

In the book Just Jane by William Lavender, Jane is a little kid who has moved from England to the American colonies, leaving part of her family behind to live with her aunt and uncle in the new world. She is hesitant about it all being that, her mother died when she was very young and her father had just died recently. So all she had left was her care taker Mrs. Morley, who eventually leaves her to help out an aunt's mother. Throughout this book Jane faces many moments when she needs either courage and/or bravery. Sometimes you just need a little courage and bravery to make it through life, and that's what Jane shows in this book. 

Have you ever moved? Either to a new house or school? Even a new state? Even if you haven't the feeling of just maybe having to move can be a little scary and sad. Imagine if you had to move across an ocean to a new home with people who you are related to, but have never met. I know I would not take that as just a new adventure, I would be very scared. Jane on the other hand was not, with her care taker Mrs. Morley by her side she felt as if it was just a new start after a rough year. Sometimes she was sad and sometimes she was happy about meeting the other members of her family, but on the other hand she also missed her father who had just passed away a couple of months before. It took a lot of courage for her to get on a boat for a long trip to a new land; she wasn't thrilled about it but she never showed that on the outside. Mrs. Morley was nervous about the whole situation so helping her stay calm and staying calm herself Jane realized that this might not be so bad after all.

Even though she went on this trip with Mrs. Morley saying she was never going to leave her side, it wasn't quite like that, once they actually got to the colonies. Mrs. Morley met a new friend, Jane's Aunt Harriet's mother, and they were the same age and had a lot in common. They loved each other’s company so much that Mrs. Morley decided she couldn't let the elderly lady live on her own. For Jane being alone in a big house with her aunt and uncle, who she was currently living with, was a little scary. But the bravery she showed when Mrs. Morley packed her bags and left was amazing. I would have never been able to just let go of someone that had never left my side since I was a little kid. Even though this was sad for Jane it helped her realized she wasn't really as alone as she felt. 

One of the books that shows the same theme in it, of courage and bravery, is The Series of Unfortunate Events by Lemony Snicket. Violet, Klaus, and Sunny have their parents killed in a fire. They moved in with several family members who all either left them or got murdered by the person who was after their family fortune. They showed a lot of courage through out these books by not backing down to Count Olaf, the murder after their fortune. They also showed bravery by taking on many challenges in all of the different places they had ended up. They showed bravery throughout this series because they were doing all of these things without someone who really cared about them. Their parents died and their family members were just taking them in so that they would have somewhere to live. But throughout these books they learn that they are truly on their own and the only things they really have are each other.

Another book that has the same theme as, Just Jane and The Series of Unfortunate Events, is Elephant Run by Roland Smith. Nick is a teenager who lives with his mother in London England. He gets sent away to his dad's elephant plantation when the Japanese start to take over England.  After a couple months at the plantation, the Japanese take the plantation over and hold him captive, and the Japanese take his dad to a prison camp. He had a lot of courage in this entire book because he has to sneak away from the Japanese soldiers and save his dad from dying in the prison camp without getting caught. Nick has a lot of bravery in this book because moving away from the person you have spent your entire life with to live with a parent you have meet once is really scary, not only for him but it could be for anyone.

Sometimes you don't need a lot of courage and bravery to do things in life, and sometimes it's not you who needs it. It's the people around you who need to know that you're not afraid. In all of these books, all of the people learned a lot about themselves. Their courage and bravery not only saved their lives, but made some situations less freighting for others. Even though sometimes you may be scared, having courage and bravery not only helps you, but showing it sometimes can help the people around you.