Predicting

Not everyone can have everything their own way. Your house, your car, your family, even your friends. They all have many flaws that you will come across. Nick from Elephant Run by Roland Smith, is a teenager with his life ahead of him. But he can't have anything the way he wants it-- his parents got a divorce when he was very young. He lived with his mom in England, which I have to say was not a place he really wanted to be. The worst part of all though, was he rarely ever got to talk to his dad, until the Japanese started to take over England, so his mom sent him away to live with his father on an elephant plantation in the middle of the Burmese jungle. In this book I think that Nick will eventually learn to fit in with the people on the plantation, I think this is going to happen because he truly knows the meaning of not being able to have everything your own way. 

Nick living in the Burmese jungle was his mother's first worry. Her second worry was that he was never going to be able to fit in with the people there. It would have been true in the beginning but as I read more Nick really did learn that having everything handed to you by your mom is not going to get you very far in life. He also realized that where he was, that wasn't going to change. The people he was with, they weren't going to change. The most important thing though is that how much freedom he had there, was not going to change. He was practically stranded, almost like a puppet on strings, if the people there said jump he was to respond with how high. His dad however wasn't around much while Nick was there but towards the end his dad started to shine around more. Nick was starting to figure out that the people who lived here, this was their home, this was their life, and he was just thrown in it. He came to realize that he was thrown into someone else's life and he couldn't make them change to fit what he wanted but he had to change to fit in with their lifestyle. 

Nick never had to do anything for himself in England. Of course being that he was 13 his mother pretty much did it all for him. Once he got to Burma he made some friends and became a somewhat "real kid." He was learning how to fit in not as a "normal" kid but as someone who has lived on this plantation his whole life. By the end of the book if you would have saw him on the street you would have never realized it was the same person. Nick was realizing that he didn't need his mother to do everything for him, and he didn't need his father to always be there. There were some things that he could do on his own but he didn't know that because he had never tried it. A lot of teens are like that, if everything is given to you why change that. I have two cousins who are 25 and 22 who still live at home with their parents, now I can understand why, their mom gives them money, their dad always makes sure there's gas in their cars, there is always food in the house, and all their bills get paid. I believe that anyone would stay at home if that happened for them. But Nick didn't want that, he wanted to be able to know that he could do things on his own without that extra help from his parents. Coming to the realization that he had to make sure he blended in with everyone else and also that he didn't want the extra help from his parents on some things helped him to eventually fit in with the people of the plantation. 

Since I thought that Nick was going to learn how to fit in with the people of the plantation, it reminds me of the book I'd Tell You I Love You But Then I'd Have to Kill You. In this book Cammie Morgan goes to a spy school, she meets a boy named Josh who she starts to like. Every day her friends make her go into town by herself were she isn't supposed to go. Just like in Elephant Run were Nick is learning how to fit into a new culture, Cammie is trying to fit in with normal teenagers because she is not a normal teenager. Learning how to fit in with normal people took the help of Macey who was a normal teenager before she started coming to spy school. With her help Cammie learns how to make it seem like she is just a regular person just like everybody else. 

Even though you cannot get everything the way you want it, or the way that you want everything to be done. It isn't as hard to learn to fit in with other people as it seems it should be. Sometimes everyone overlooks what the true meaning of having friends and family are. Just because you don't like the way they are doesn't mean they are bad people. Even though Nick and Cammie learned how to fit in with the people who were very different from them, they knew that even though they were different it didn't make them bad people in any way, shape or form. 

Crisis

Her mom marched through the room like a bull ready to attack. She sat in the corner on a stool just bracing herself for the hit. It was scary and thoughts rushed through her head of different things she could do.

She thought, mom is obviously drunk. There is no way to look past that, and at this point in time she's a raging bull. There is no one who is here to help me, there is no one who can fix this, and there is no one out there who can save her. I'll just take it as it comes and think about it later. 

As she hit, hard like a brick wall, the girl was propelled into the wall like a sack of potatoes. She was never treated like a human being not since the day she turned three, that morning her mother had turned into a completely different person. That day was like darkness had fallen and the sun would never shine again. 

Darkness, the girl thought, is a very frightening place. 

She couldn't even remember what her mom was like before this "darkness" had taken her over, she didn't know what happened, and she didn't know why no one could stop it. 

Sometimes I feel like no one even knows it's there, except when mom and I are home alone.That's the only time the "darkness" ever shows its face. Why can no one else see that she has a problem. Is it only me? Or does everyone know it is happening and just don't have the guts to help me, help her?

That same day it all got worse as she got chucked like a sack of potatoes against the wall, her mom left. She never came back. When her dad got home from work, the phone rang... but on the other end was just screaming and then a loud noise. As her dad quickly dialed 9-1-1, squad cars showed up at the house. The sirens were so loud that the house shook and her ears rang. As the police told them the news... she realized she was finally free from it all.

The pain. The anger. The sadness. It was all finally gone.

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. 

Cause/Effect

Author's Note: This is an analysis we were told to do in the Reading Lab that focuses on the cause an effect of an event in a book. In these paragraphs you will find out what caused an event and made an effect on the story Elephant Run by Roland Smith.

In the book Elephant Run by Roland Smith Taung Bow and ancient Chinese monk leaves an elephant plantation to explore what else life has to offer. Well once he gets to Japan he can't expect that the Japanese are going to take over the plantation when he becomes close friends with the leaders of the Japanese army. He only wanted to become friends with these people, who else would expect them to bomb their country and take over their home?

First, Hilltop (Taung Bow) leaves the plantation because things are going wrong. His better choice was to leave and come back when everything was in its proper place. Who wouldn't have? On his journeys through the lands he meets some friends. Colonel Nagayoshi and Bukong, who were to become leaders of the Japanese army later in the book. He told them, once he had to leave to that they should come and visit him at the Freestone plantation in Burma, he drew them a map to were it was and left to continue his journey. 

Then, a few years later there was a war, World War II to be exact. The Japanese were starting to attack just about everyone. Once they hit Burma they had one thing to find and they knew exactly where it was, thanks to Hilltop. They sent away most of the people who lived there and took over what they called Hawk's Nest. Which is where the Freestone family lived. No one could have expected this but everything was starting to get better in the end once the war was over. The Freestones moved to Australia and Hilltop stayed in the forest with one of the timber elephants. All he wanted was for his friends to come and visit him once he left Japan. Not kick him out of his own home, send him into hiding, and almost make him go back to the country he was born in. He said to everyone that he was born in China and he was Burmese and he wanted to die on his own land. 

This is one of the most prominent cause/effect events in this book. Among others this was one of the ones that stuck out to me the most. I would have never expected that to happen to me just inviting my friends to come and visit me in my own country at my own home. But it teaches everyone a valuable lesson, which is to be careful of what you give out to people because it may not always turn out in your favor. 

Poland

Author's Note: I wrote this essay as an assignment in the Writing Lab. It's about my three cousins who were adopted from Poland last October. In this essay I worked on using regular words to make them less basic. Let me know what you think.

Poland burns a picture in the back of all their heads. They don't want to go back. They don't want to meet the people who sent them here in the first place. They don't want to even think about what happened before they ended up in the arms of Carla and Ron Dul. But why? What happened to these three kids. I realized something after thinking about my question several times. Life isn't fair, it's a quote we all grew up hearing, and throughout life we learn, that in some extreme cases, it's exactly that.

Meeting them was an experience all in itself. Having them show up at my house, get out of the car, with the look of fear in all of their eyes. They were beaten, abused, had alcoholic parents. But no one would believe them. All of them are just like me, we share the same passions, four-wheeling, being in the woods, and just being loud and goofy. But they couldn't do that where they were before not at all not ever. Being on the four-wheeler with the two youngest of the three was a day I will never forget. 

“Dzien dobry” (Good Afternoon) as we are on the four-wheeler and Michal and Ola look at me and say this meaning good afternoon in our language. They start to tell me their story, not just bits and pieces there life stories. They were thrown, not just thrown onto a bed, or into the coach jokingly. No, they were thrown. Into walls. Into the floor. Into their dining room table. Crying, screaming, shaking were not allowed. If you did one of these things it was done again and again and again until you stopped crying or screaming. Pretty much until you collapsed onto the floor and then they were kicked, hard like a dog who just bit a little kid. Again and again and again but this time harder. I would never be able to take this, let alone having it done to me at 5,7,8 years old. I couldn't even imagine having this done to anyone. Let alone living through it, and telling the story. It was scary to hear this and it was only part of it, I stopped and hugged them both for a long time all of us in tears. I whispered in their ears “Ciesze sie, ze tu wszyscy teraz twoj.” (I’m so glad you’re all here now) 

After we sat there for a little while longer I had a couple of questions not about their lives in Poland, but actually about them. Since they had gotten here maybe a couple hours before I knew their names that was it Sylwia, Michal and Ola. They were adopted from Poland, that was it, all I knew,  nothing else. So I asked them when their birthdays where, if they liked school, what grade they were in and they answered me in perfect English they had been in our country for no more than a couple of months. I was so proud of them and it was really cool to hear their accents on English words. 

Having family adopt kids from Poland has been an experience. It has had its ups and downs but we have made it through it all, together. I couldn’t have asked for more well behaved kids or more fun. The more I get to know them the more excited I am that I have new family and it almost feels like I have known them forever. Their lives before this still weren’t fair. I don’t think they could have ever been. But, it’s one of those things, everyone has heard it one time or another. As much as people can wish that life is fair, in some cases it never really can be. So we move on and learn that life isn't fair.