I didn't find this photo to be too challenging. For the most part, all I had to do was make sure everything blended together properly. Although this assignment wasn't much of a challenge, I really enjoyed it. 

I actually like drawing cats for some reason. They're my thing I suppose. To be honest I think I didn't do too bad on this one though I wish it was a bit more cartoonish. This didn't really take that long to draw.

I don't do great with dogs. They're the opposite of my cat thing. (lol) I don't like the detail i did at all and I couldn't get it right after a few tries so I kind of just let it flow out. This was the best I could do at the moment. I'm trying to see it in a better light, but I don't the light is helping at all.

This was an interesting nose thing. It didn't really have a face and it wasn't difficult to do as well. I was expecting it to be more relaxed then to be a GIANT nose. xD I guess we live and we learn.

This ball face thing wasn't hard either. Sometimes i think I get a little cocky with art and when the going gets tough, well I get going. I need to work on not to get intimidated as quickly as I do.

 It was a face symmetry! WOOT. More or less I think I have the hang of faces. Symmetry can still be a bit tricky but I can get past it. It was sort of cartoonish so it wasn't that hard to nail it. 

Hands, where it all started with me. Hands are MY THING. I'm a MASTER at hands. I drew them too much as a beginner. All I need is a real life picture or someone posing and it's done. Half the time I can just picture it in my brain, but that only works with some things.

 EYES! I love drawing eyes. You can make them into anything you want. They're the easy part of a face on anything. I've learned that from experience.

 Kim was a bit… stereotypical but yea. She wasn't difficult to draw at all. Just some circles in a way. I felt a bit uncomfortable drawing this but what's done is done. 

This dog… it was easier I guess than the other one. I still had some trouble with it. I think I need to practice more with dogs and their fur because those can be tiresome. 

The baby face. I didn't like drawing it at all. I think all my baby faces look demonic and scary. I'm not the best with people let alone a baby! >.< I was a bit sad that all the baby faces came out ugly.

THE OTHER BABY FACE. This one was uglier than the last. I can't draw babies. They aren't my thing. I don't think they ever will be. Give me an anime baby and I can put in some work. Give me a real baby, and you'll never talk to me again. 

 I don't agree with spiders, but this was pretty cool. I liked the shading part. Doing the highlights were also pretty neat-to. Gold star for a pretty awesome spider. 

This. I don't like blending in pencil so I can erase the outline of the real shape or drawing. Mines always look dumb and I just don't know why. I don't know what I need it for yet, but I got a feeling it's going to be a round for a minute. 

Just some different shades of pencils I guess. Darkest to lightest type. I don't really like doing this because it's boring. It also takes some time to get it the right shade. :/ Guess I should practice doing this more too. 

This dog nose was awesome! I can draw the nose, but the actual dog will never do. I don't get it. To each their own I suppose. 

This cartoon doggy was worth it. It was cute. Also it was simple and fast to draw. :3 Simple is the key, but it's not always the answer. 

THE LAST BABY FACE! This one was the worst of the worst. I really don't want to put this one up, but it has to be put up. I really don't enjoy this one but I guess I should study more with the whole structure of a baby… and it's face.

 I really need one of these model dolls. These are cool and they are so handy. They cost a bit though. This wasn't hard to do at all. It reminded me of anime for some reason. 

This lip was pretty cool as well. Though I don't think I did the shading right, I like the effort I put into it. I think this was the best lip I ever drew close to a real person's lip. 

The same thing with the dog eye as I said with the dog nose. I can draw the facial of a dog right but i can't draw the dog. Tis sad. I thought the eye looked nice. I honestly have a thing for drawing eyes.

 Now this took some time. This is one of my best realistic eyes I've ever done. I couldn't believe I drew it after I was done and I looked at it fully. I was proud of myself for achieving something so great!

This creature looked weird. I didn't really know what it was but it reminded my of thing from the Adams Family. I mean it's not like I hated drawing this, it was quite easy. I guess I was sort of bored drawing this in the end. 

Drawing detailed fur is pretty hard. You have to do a lot of unknown shading to make it look "live". I thought it was interesting for them to give me a spotted fur but I tried to work with it. I thought this was pretty intermediate for the most part to get the hang of. 

Another fur drawing. I'm not amazing with them but I try to do the best I can with them. Zebra stripes were the next step and I would give myself a 75 if it was a grade. It's something about fur I can't really grasp for some reason. It's only real life fur too. 

Feathers are so elegant and TIME CONSUMING! They look easy and simple, but a lot of work has to go into each and every single feather. I like the look of them, but drawing them is a lot of work. I wish it was a quicker way to draw them, but you just gotta force your way through it with feathers/wings.

BA-ba black sheep have you any wool? xD It was a sheep I had to draw and it wasn't hard. They brought back some lesson that were learned earlier in the first few lessons of a-f. I had to do the squirkles if I'm not mistaken which is always quick and easy to do. It also gives off this cool feel when you do it right. 

"I'm a snake!" Drawing a cartoon snake. Not bad if I do say so myself. It was really easy; cartoons are always easy. All I had to do was add some hatching lines to give it a shadow and bam! The snake was complete. No harm, no foul. 

SHADING! Blending isn't my favorite thing to do nor is it the easiest when it comes to big pictures but I tried to work with this to the best of my abilities. You have to make all the shading stuff and then blend it in and at times it gets messy if you don't have the right type of material. It came out pretty well but I'm not that happy with it.

 It was a pot. Or maybe it was a vase? Whatever it was, I drew it with ease and I had no trouble with it what so ever. It was simple and plane. I was actually expecting something more difficult.

A lady's face. Not the whole face but part of it. This was a bit easy because I drew it like a cartoon and it wasn't that deep. I think I messed up with the detailed hatching for it. Though I think this, I also think it looks cool like this instead of the real thing. 

The bird wasn't hard at all. I liked this one it was relaxing and it was cute. Little animals are always nice to draw. I don't know how I really felt about this but it was nice to draw. It had no shading to really do so that was a plus for me. 

Remember when I said I was expecting something more difficult? Well here it is. This cat took about half and hour to an hour and I am satisfied with my work. For once, this cat looks as real as day! Though compared to online, mines doesn't look like a photo. I'm surprised myself I could pull of something like this and I'm proud of myself a bit to be honest. 

POINT OF VIEW! I love doing boxes in different points of views. They are the easiest to do and they are quick and simple! :3 They actually are the building block for drawing. It's always nice to go back and remember where things all started.

Another point of view but this time for a 3-D type of point of view. I thought it as boring. It was just an eclipse to be honest which took 15 seconds to even do. Sometimes I do like to draw more than just a circle. 

 A cylinder. We're getting there. (lol) It's better than an eclipse I guess. Still not that exciting to do but what are you going to do about it? I didn't really feel anything towards this, I just drew it to finish it.

A 3-D box with hatching to let you know what side the light is coming in at. Pretty relevant for a lot of reason to me.  Lighting is always a problem and at time I don't know where to put the shading and how much. So, this kinda helped me gather my confusion. 

Boxes again from 2 separate sides of the the paper. Meaning in short, two different view points. Nothing really big, you just need to know where things are coming from and how they are suppose to look when coming from that direction. 

HATCHING/SHADING. This was calming. Took some time though but it wasn't that bad. Going from light to dark I always worry I won't have to same shading the one online has. Though in the long run they never really turn out that bad so I'm content with this shading. 

Some more hatching. I have to apply my skills to different shading to make the picture look like an object. Kind of difficult for the most part but I got through it. It wasn't the funnest, but it wash;t that bad either. 

Different shades of hatching in 10 different boxes. Not that bad, though the box process surprisingly was a bit time consuming. Sounds strange for that to be the case but again, nothing too bad or out of my reach. 

A fur leg. I didn't do as well I wanted to which kind of made me feel a bit disappointed in myself. But I just have to pick myself up and try again. One day things will work out and I won't have as many problems as I do now. 

Remember when I said feathers were time consuming? WELL TRY DRAWING A WHOLE WING! Now that was my life. In the end I like the finish product but getting there had to be about an hour. That's not cool. When I start to draw, I have to finish it that day or it'll may look messed up in one way or another. 

This duck. (lol) It's not a duck. It was a swan and for the first few minutes, I was calling it a duck. xD Drawing the swan wasn't hard and adding the detail wasn't either. Though I say it wasn't hard, it does't mean it didn't take some time. Swans are deceiving in a way. xD I learned the hard way.

Outline the space of the duck wasn't hard at all. I found it effortlessly easy to do so with such a simple shape. It took me about 2-5 minutes to actually finish it and outline it with marker. I felt at ease when drawing this. 

After drawing the outline of the duck, I had to draw the duck. this was easy too, all it was was the same shape with some circles and a couple of lines. This made me realize how easy it is to draw when you know the shapes and components of the thing you want to draw.

Lines of symmetry! It was pretty fun doing. Though at times I dread doing it, it's something everyone needs to know how to do. How to draw the reflecting image so things are the same sizes on both halves is mandatory. That's kind is step 2 of art. 

This had me for a bit of time. It didn't take long, but it wasn't as short as I thought it should have been. I had to make sure both sides was the same size with everything. If it wasn't, it would have messed up the picture as a whole. Since it was symmetry and delusion, it had to be right to make you think, "Is it 2 faces, or a vase?" 

With this one I had to draw without looking at the paper. I had to focus on the object I was looking at only. I was surprise how close I was to having the bottle I drew right. I'm not good with not looking at the paper nor memorizing how something specific looks so this was a nice challenge for me to do. 

Lines and shading was the name of the game for this one. I had to see the comparison between shade and well, not shad. xD (The light parts) Also I had to draw straight lines without a ruler. Being able to draw lines free handedly is something that comes in handy for sure. This lesson was simple, but important. 

I had to draw a puppy. I wish they had me give the dog some eyeballs. He kind of looks weird. I mean, a dog without eyeballs? Anywho, drawing this wasn't hard either, I just didn't like the fact that the dog had to look like it was sick. 

NEGATIVE SPACE~. I had to not draw the actual chair, but the negative space around the chair. So I shaded everything around the chair instead of drawing the outline of the chair itself since, I mean that was what was asked of me. For me negative space is kind of difficult to wrap my head around, but I try to work with it. 

Everyone loves horses right? I liked drawing the horse, but I hate drawing animals. I should probably say that I don't like drawing real things(?). I enjoy drawing cartoons/anime so drawing things out of my comfort zone is a little bit more challenging in my perceptive. 

I had to draw myself. I didn't like it at all. I hate drawing people because I know I'm not good with it at all. The fact that it turned out pretty well made me a little proud of myself. I took my time with this one so I think my effort in it came out greatly. 

How to draw shapes and used them to our advantage was the name of the game. It was a simple drawling to do really. I mean, it was sort of the starter course of what the other lessons were going to be about. I guess it was trying to show me how often shapes and curvy lines are used in drawings. 

I had to draw a kola. I don't really like kolas so I thought this drawing looked ugly. I didn't like it at all. I mean it looked similar to a kola I guess but I just don't like how they look in general. It didn't take long to draw, but I didn't enjoy it as much as some other ones.

Leo the lion. This was more cartoonish than real so it was MUCH easier to draw it compared to the horse. I thought it was pretty cute as a picture. It was really simple to do, just some circles, ovals, triangles, and some straight lines and BAM! A leo the lion. 

Finally speaking my language, ANIME. I actually didn't like drawing this one at all. It was ugly. Anime doesn't look as bad as they portrayed it which made me angry I had to draw this joke. I'd appreciated if they put some actual effort into the anime parts like they did everything else. If they could draw amazing irl things, why couldn't they draw a simple anime face correctly? (Just a little rant. #otaku)

16. 

Again. I hated that I had to draw part 2 of this "anime". It looked ugly. Even the old 1980 animes weren't as horrible or ugly as the ones they used. They need to improve greatly on these. >:( This was simple to draw as well and it wasn't exciting to do. 

17. 

I drew this fish sexy. (LOL) I know I messed it up, but I kept it the way I drew it anyway. I liked the way I drew my fish better so I didn't throw it away like I usually do with other drawings that come out wrong. I had to give myself a pat on the back with the attractive looking fish.

18.

UNDER THE SEA. The under water creatures continues with a starfish. To be honest, I rushed this one because I didn't really want to draw it. Also, the fact that it had all these extra little details made me rush through it even more. But hey, it got done~ and not to bad if I do say so myself. 

19.

It lives in the water…well, I'm pretty sure gators live in the water and crocs live on land. Anyway, I had to draw it. That as well looked dumb to be honest. -3- The lessons started to get a bit boring. Guess the theme was "Things that live in the water."

20. 

A little mer-boy. That was ugly too. Based on my comments it would seem I didn't enjoy drawing these things, and it's true I didn't. They were childish to do. I mean they;re just ugly to me. A lot of them are. I don't know how to describe it other than they are ugly little cartoons. They didn't really put effort into those either. Well to me they didn't. :/ But I guess it's to help others get better with drawing in general. 

21.

Flowers…or tulips. One of the two, I can't really remember. This was just knowing the different shades in pencils and what not. Like 2h is pretty light while 8B is the darkest type of pencil to use before you start using charcoal. (To me) it's literally the darkest pencil shade before they hop into charcoal sticks. 

22. 

SQUIRKLES!!! I like doing squirkles, well, I like saying it. They're pretty cool to do. It's another way of shading! I would have never thought of doing that. You learn something new every day it seems. 

23. 

Lightest to darkest squirrels. The light tones compared to the dark tones. I like the little ombre effect that is given when you do do the light to dark. And SQUIRKLES. Um, this wasn't like a "draw this" it was more of a secret to keep with you. A little mini lesson to go. I really liked learning about this. 

24.

I LOVE DOING EYES! And the fact that I could apply the squirkle rule with the dark to light ratio of shading made it even more interesting. I never knew I could do that. My eye looked so cool! They blended really well. 

25.

When actually applying squirkles to cartoon things again… it made me dislike it a bit. (xD) In all seriousness though, it wasn't that bad. I really did have a blast with these pictures. They didn't take as long as I thought they were. They seem like the were but the thing with squirkles is that you can go at a really fast pace and have it still look professional. 

26.

I had to apply squirkle shading to a cartoon face. I thought I would do bad with this one but again, it came out pretty good. I wasn't always good with drawing a character and making sure people knew it was black. (In other words, my shading always looked bad and the skin complexion was never right in my eye.) But doing this has showed me all it takes is a little practice. 

27.

Squirkling with trees. This was REALLY easy. I felt like I was just scribbling all over the place and it somehow made a tree. I can stress enough how much fun Iw as having with lesson D. :3

My blended in blob of squirkles. The blob looked dumb, but the shading looked pretty good. I didn't really like doing this one cause it sort of sucked the fun out of the other things but I got by. What can I say? I expect a lot of drawing. I like doing it but I don't like being forced to draw ugly things because then I most likely won't take it as seriously as other things. (This I know for a fact.)

29.

I had to make a 3-D effect of the fruit by using squirkles. I didn't like doing this because I think I did it wrong. It didn't come out right in my eye. :/ It doesn't look like it has a 3-D feel about it. So even though I did it, I feel like it's wrong… like a math problem. 

30. 

The view of PERCEPTION. I liked doing the little cute faces with the squiggly balls. It didn't take too long, but it felt like it did. I thought I did pretty good with this picture too. It looked like they were about to come right out of it. 

31. 

The vallies and the mountains. Sometimes, they are the most easiest things one can do and yet still not have mastered. This wasn't bad at all. All I had to do was draw some mountains and do the thing I like doing the most, SQUIRKLES! 

32.

The VANISHING point! All i had to do was put a vanishing point and then draw what ever I wanted to draw away from it. Then, I had to connect the pieces to from the vanishing point to the thing I wanted to draw. Since that sounds so complicated, I did the easiest thing possible. A box. 

33.

Vases and vases. 2 different vases to make them look more realistic. For this one all I had to do was…draw. This one was the easiest thing to draw. All it was was… vases. I don't know what else to really say about this one. 

Different shades of pencils. All I had to do was practice and see if I could master the light to dark ratio in general. Pretty simple for this one. Nothing really new in this lesson, at least not yet. 

More mountains! I had to draw them and then shade them if 4 different shades. This wasn't to hard to do either. Just more lessons on shading and the different kind pencils you can use to achieve the shades.

There were like 12 different pencils I needed to do this one and I didn't have 12 so I had to improvise. I mean it worked out in the long run but, I didn't like it. I took a lot of time out of my hands drawing then shading in everyone of them. I kind of rushed it cause I started to get bored with it after a while.

Light to dark in wavy lines. This was just like #23 in a way. Nothing really new with the light to dark. You can only do so many until it starts to get, well, boring.

KOBRAAAAA. Pretty sure he's in G.I. Joe. I used to love that show. The remake of the cartoon, not the original one. :/ He literally never won but I still liked the remake more because that's what I grew up on(?) Anyway, this was kind of cool to draw. He had a lot of shading to do but, it was cool to do for the most part. 

Combo of squirkles and dashes. Different shading techniques to make something look more completed I guess. I didn't like how it looked but I liked that it switched up the shading stuff. 

Another 3-D with dashes/curves. I don't really like it because I think I did this one wrong too but, I think I did it better then the other one. It could have been better in my taste but 3-D is like on another level for me. (Cry)

Still light to dark ratio things. :/ It was no point to this one but I guess they thought it was needed after about 3 of them. It was there. That's it really about this drawing. 

A cool little scenery. I liked it a lot. It didn't take too much work to make it look cool. Even though this is true, I still drew it wrong. ( to me at least) 

I LOVED THIS ONE! I think this was the best one I drew in a long time. Well, not in a long time but out of all the drawings drew this one was the best to me. It wasn't a time consuming thing but it still came out great. 

An amazing looking tulip with great shading. (Being too cocky) I messed this one up too to be honest. It's pretty good. Not bad if I do say so myself. I liked drawing this little picture so it was pretty quick to do. 

I didn't like the seahorse. It was ugly to me. I know I didn't draw it correctly. It looks similar but I know where the flaws are.  

SPOONS SPOONS SPOONS. A cool looking spoon with some shade on it. It's pretty cool. I liked the little circles on the handle part. This was pretty fun to do. 

This one was weird. I got it done in the end and it wasn't hard but it looked funny. A bit intimidating but all well's that ends well. I did the lines and what not but I don't think it looks right. And that's the end of that chapter. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZxL5huuDAPM

Shakespeare is often forgotten or neglected by many people in today’s world. Though Shakespeare is dead, his words are still alive. A lot of people use Shakespeare’s most famous lines without even knowing it. Most people don’t even recognize that the quotes they may be using are Shakespeare’s. Not only does Shakespeare’s words teach people things about life, but they also have a deeper meaning to them.

       In one of Shakespeare’s books, Hamlet, he himself is speaking with friends about Denmark and states, “Why, then, ‘tis none to you, for there is”. (II.ii.) While still being upset about his father’s death and having an intuition on who killed him, Hamlet is having a hard time trying to come to terms with the true Denmark. When Hamlet says, “’tis none to you” He means that to his friends, Denmark is the same wonderful place they grew up in. In a way, Hamlet thinks he’s the only one who can see Denmark for what it is since his dad is gone.

Hamlet feels like everyone is in some type of delusional state of mind where they can’t see what he’s seeing. Hamlet’s father death took such a toll on him that he has to go crazy in order to stay sane. He has to keep on living without having to go through all of the pain he’s experiencing being in Denmark with his mother being remarried to his uncle. By doing so, Hamlet can drive himself to the point where he has to be the one to clean up Denmark because it’s not the same place it once was. It’s “dirty” and he feels as though it’s his duty to keep it clean, the way it was without all the unjustified acts.

Hamlet feels as though he’s supposed to take care of all the wrong that’s being done in Denmark because his father is dead. Denmark is Hamlet’s home and he doesn’t want anyone messing it up. It’s almost like policemen needing to clean the streets of criminals because they are messing up the good that once used to live there. “Nothing either good or bad but thinking makes it” (II.ii.). For criminals, they don’t think what they’re doing is wrong, they think it’s right in their mind sets just as much as we think what they are doing is wrong in our mind sets. These two quotes compliment each other so well that it helps people realize that we all have our different reasons on why we think our opinions are right.

In Hamlet, he states the line, “Nothing either good or bad but thinking makes it” because he realizes that arguing with his friends on whether Denmark is good or bad would get him nowhere. For Hamlet, Denmark was hell and for his friends, they thought Denmark was fine as it always has been. Even today people judge things based on if it’s good or bad. It’s what makes people for who they are. In reality, nothing is really bad nor is it good. Being able to tell the two apart is something, as humans the hardest thing to agree on, so it’s good to have opinion even if they’re not the best ones. Humans will never do anything good or bad because as long as they don’t think what they’re doing is good or bad, it won’t ever truly be.

“So. To me, it is a prison.“ (II.ii) The fact that Hamlet has no one to rely on anymore makes Denmark hell for him. Since his friends don’t see what’s wrong and since Hamlet thinks they’re delusional, Denmark is a prison to him. When Hamlet’s father was still alive he felt as though he was open and that Denmark was a place where he could be free. In a way his dad was his own personal sanctuary and with him gone, his sanctuary would be gone too.

This made Hamlet’s world slowly crash. The thought of him always having someone to go to was gone and so was reason. Having someone so close to you for so long just to leave you alone changes a person. Some people can handle the lost, while others can’t seem to shake it.

I guess I would say the advertisements that were put out on the T.V., radio, pretty much everywhere. 

No. I do not vote regularly in every election, but the important ones I try my best to be there and support who I think should win.

No, I do not know why we vote every Tuesday. 

I've seen more ads about campaigning on the T.V. 

I'm almost always sure who I am going to vote for when I walk into the booth. If I didn't, I'd be wasting a lot of people time trying to figure out who I want as president.

I learned a bit in school, but they never really focused on it so most of it I've forgotten.

C r e a t i v i t y helps mold your simple thoughts into an explosion of splattered art that runs from your mouth or your hands. When I first found out that Mr.Block was going to be my History/English teacher I didn’t know what to think. I’ve never really knew him, but I would see him teach classes when I used to walk by the class room as a freshman. He first wanted to get to know us better so the first thing he told us to do was to take down bullet points of a successful descriptive writing in our journals. I knew this was going somewhere, I just didn’t know where. I was determined to impress my new teacher even if my writing wasn’t good, I was going to not try my best, but do my best as well. 

How was I going to do my best? Easy! I was going to focus on work all day everyday! But that did not turn out well. I had friends that I barely saw all summer so it was kind of a hard start but I pulled through. 

My descriptive essay was surprisingly amazing! I didn’t think I could describe something in so much depth so that other people would get an understanding of it. I guess it was the C r e a t i v i t y I put into the whole paper. Though at first it wasn’t that good. I had to get help from my teacher’s assistant, Mr. Zelnick.

He was very nice and he explained everything that I did not understand in so much description, it was almost like he was telling me a story so that I had to pay attention.It would have been impossible for me not to get it after he talked with me. My descriptive  essay was my first starting point of having a creative flow in the way I wrote my papers. Being creative was, I guess in a way, one of the reasons for me to keep going and to aim for more success pieces of writing. Not only in Mr.Blocks class, but in every other one of my classes too.

Even with my play that I created. You at least needed some type of C r e a t i v i t y in order to have a successful Play. In the end, all of the plays from my class were going to be read by the highest people of the young playwrights organization.Therefore it was important to put a lot of your C r e a t i v i t y into not only your plays, but your mind as well. You had to open your mind up to different possibilities. And for me it wasn’t really hard. I already knew how to draw, and at that time I was learning how to play an instrument. My play was called Broken Idiotic Memories, and at the end of turning it in and all I would say,“It had to have been one of the creative things I’ve ever done”.  

Hard work makes one person preserve enough to not only reach for the sky, but touch the stars as well. Though I finally found a place to start at, things were still hard. You had to kind of struggle for “greatness” I would say. It takes hard work to persevere. A perfect example of persevering is when we had to write several different poems different things. It was labeled Poetry Wikispace  and everyone in my classes including my teacher had poems that were on there. Matter of fact it’s still on there now. For me that was probably the hardest thing to work on because I knew I wasn’t good at poems at all. 

I always had to have them rhyme and I knew that wasn’t a good thing to do. Though I did it all the time. I was scared to go out of my comfort zone. I didn’t want to stop, but I knew I had to. So on my 5th poem I just didn’t care anymore and I didn’t rhyme. Even on my 4th poem called All in a day it stated,“Okay, be that way / I learned something cool something cool today / 96, and you late / I cannot fit any more stuff on my plate / This is one boss library jawn / Marker holder jawn / And he just hits it off / So, are we all game characters or something / I’m gonna go home and write a song about you / Cause, you know he don’t care”.

I somehow started to make the founded words in my poem rhyme because I was too scared that my poem wouldn’t be as good as it was without rhyming. Though I put all of my attention into the poem wiki to be sure I could make an efficient poem that still sounded good without the rhyming scheme. It was hard, actually very hard to come up with something non-rhyming. I was even behind on about 2 poems because I was having such a problem with the poems. But I somehow got through it and I received an awesome score on it in the end too.

I was proud of myself that I could put all my hard work into something that I needed improvement on. It was a challenge, but I got it done like an overachiever would. 

Even with AiO (Art in the Open) I had a hard time really enjoying it. I hated it! When I say I hated it, I mean with a capital ‘H’. I disliked trying to make up my own dance. Though I’d challenge anyone in a game of Dance Dance Revolution or so Just Dance too, I just really did not like AiO at first. But because I got to see it more and more in the 2 weeks and because I was working with people that I knew and could sort of chat things over with, I started to get used to the silly movements and such. 

It was pretty cool and fun and I was happy that my group got done in time and that we actually pulled off some solid quality. At first it was difficult to play the stupid weird game but they taught me how to relax. Not only that but that there are a lot of things around that make sound and art in its own special way. The things we later turn out to notice always seem to be the best part that makes us unique.

English Journal Entry Part 3: #25

I wear a mask, but I’m no superhero

Because this mask is a lesson of being a zero

I work everyday and I work every night

But people depend on me to hold their might

I’m not considered as stupid, nor as average

But I try my hardest from not becoming a savage

I’m barely recognized for all that I’ve done

Because people’s reed blocks their minds from thinking they’ve won

But you see, I’m tired, I’m tired of being rung

I’m not a bell that you ring just for fun

English Journal Entry: #33

“I love anime”.

So, I don’t really know what to talk about…. Um:

In you and I, there’s a new land

(angels in flight)

My sanctuary, my sanctuary yeaa

Where fears and lies melt awayyyyyyyyyy

(Music will die)

What’s left of me, what’s left of me now

I watch you, fast asleep

All I fear means nothing

In you and I there’s a new land

(Angels in flight)

My sanctuary, My sanctuary yea

Where fears and lies melt away

(Music will die)

What’s left of me, what’s left of me now

…That’s all I can really remember right about now.

B is for Brain ‘cause I got brain damage, I’m deranged, insane got cerebrum like a cabbage.

English Journal Entry: #35

I wish I could freeze time. I just got over the stress with my math benchmark and now it’s back, and with more benchmarks in the third quarter. I need more time, it’s not even a choice right now. I wish I could get everything done so I can finally have free time. So I can draw in my spear time. It’s really sad when you can’t do something you love to do because every teacher is freaking punching and smacking you with benchmarks with no breaks in between. I thought I’d be able to get a better grade on this stupid stank benchmark but I don’t think I will. I always have more work than anyone else and I always have to be the leader. Sometimes I wish I wasn’t because people never really listen to me, or leave it to me. When I get stressed and people try to help after the fact I deny them. I need the help, but I don’t trust they’ll do it. It sucks, it really sucks. 

At first I didn’t think the project would be difficult to do. But as soon as I started to get into the paper I realized that it’d be harder then I thought. How was I supposed to write something about language when most people atomically assume that I’ll speak once I open my mouth? This often made me think about how when I’m at home the way I speak, but when planning for interviews I like speaking over the phone first so they can at least give me a chance to impress them without them judging me by my looks or race. But during this project I learned that if your courageous and optimistic then things might not always be the same. In other words, people will start thinking more highly of you, and depend on you more because of it. I was always kind of afraid of what people would think of me because of my race. And most times I would shun the fact of speaking “black”. But now I realized that it’s fine that I can code switch. While when I do talk “black” it isn’t a ghetto way. I’ve realized that no one will ever be able to be his or her selves because the world as one expects too much from one person to be like everyone else.

Language is a funny thing. It either helps you be accepted into a group of friends or a job, while other times it can make people deny your existence or just deny yourself. To me, language is a beautiful thing. And it’s even better when you know a lot of them. Language is like trying to perfect an old family recipe, it takes time, but it’s fun experimenting with the thing you love the most. It’s what defines you for you and not how others would group you into the same stereotype because of the way you look.  

There are 6,500 languages being spoken right now as we speak.

What most people don’t know is that language is actually a beautiful song that a lot of people can sing, it’s very heard to learn for people who want to understand other languages. There are years of practice that others have to go through that’s behind the secret of singing the song of language, but not all languages take years. Some languages are just slang that can be picked up anywhere in any continent, in any state, and in any language when you’re around a certain type of dialogue for a long period of time.

When your around a language for a long time, you eventually start speaking and sounding the same way as the people you were around. In my situation, my language is slang. I don’t always speak slang, but I do understand it. As my brother likes to say, “All coons should know how to translate Ebonics.” When needed I can be as proper as the world wants me to be, but when alone, with friends, or with family I can speak freely as much as I want because I won’t be judged or looked at funny for it.  Either properly or with slang or mixed with a little bit of both. An example of this is when I was in my room trying to sketch out a design on my bed “por Español mañana” (For Spanish Tomorrow).

It was comfortable and I had my laptop right in front of me listening to music. My legs were crossed as if I were a pretzel and that’s when my brother walked in. “Can you help me with my Spanish?” he asked with confidence. I looked at him with a strange lift of my eyebrow.

“But you’re in Spanish 2 just like me. Why do you need my help?” I stated.
He protested me with jokes and small talk more and more until he finally got a “yes” out of me. He explained what his task was for the Spanish project he had to do where he stood in front of the side of my bed.

He began to ask me how I would say simple sentences in Spanish. I started to slowly tell him because I was new at it too but he quickly cut me off saying, “Look dawg, and just type it into Google so I can just get this over with.” I grew angry.

I thought “why would you ask me for help if you were only going to cheat?” Why even bother explaining things to me?  I sat there quietly while he typed his directions into Google translate and mumbled from time to time, “Oh, I should have knew that” or “I’d learned that already.” He began to try to start small talk and I just kept answering him with a couple of, “I don’t know” and “The translator is right there”.

My brother began to stopped smiling and eventually stopped trying to make attempts to cheer me up with the method he was using. He looked up at me from re-writing the Spanish translation onto his notebook and said, “Why you always gotta do me like this? You drawlin cuz, all I asked was to help me and you want to make it all complicated. You’re a kill joy yo.” I stared at him for a minute before I said, “I tried to help you and you denied my help. You went to a translator when I warned you it wasn’t going to come out right. So when you fail, don’t blame it on me.”

He finished taking his cheated notes and left angrily because he knew he was wrong and because I was angry with him. After a little while I heard my mom scream, “YO! Done or raw.” And I quickly got up quickly and told my angry brother that it was time to eat. He then seemed to have settled down because he was using my Spanish dictionary and playing NFL on Xbox 360 sitting in his big spiney chair that has 2 arms and feels like fluffy clouds. I waited until he turned around and told him again. He looked at me with calm eyes and said: “okay.”

              During this time in life, “YO”, “DAWG”, and other phrases that could be seen as a “code”, was mostly understood by Black people. I’ve notice that as a black culture there is always a new word or an update on a previous slang going around. “Bye Qurl” means in today’s world “End of discussion” or a more known word “Period”, after something important has just been stated. These words are a special connection between blacks since we don’t really have our own language. It represent us. But Blacks don’t have their own language because we were forced to speak, some what “Standard English” during slavery time because Whites wanted to understand what Blacks were saying.

Even though others don’t understand Blacks all the time, we can instantly switch from “hood” talk to proper English when we need to. But because most people stereotype Blacks as “Ghetto” it’s a little hard to be taken seriously by some people. Not all black people are rude,  ghetto, or can’t speak “correctly”. And if there are, then maybe they just can’t receive the same education as other races can. There are a whole bunch of blacks that can speak well and speak in “our” code without a second thought and can still be a business man, a writer, or even an artist. Just because Blacks pronounce or use a different word to describe something doesn’t mean they’re not “well educated”. Blacks are perceived of this because Black slang is not the easiest thing to catch onto or understand quickly.

Also, a lot of people who speak “hard” Black slang are usually from the projects and those people are usually uneducated as well. But it doesn’t go that way all the time. You can be from the projects and still become something better and more. So because of this, it’s hard for other races to understand Black slang terms that a majority of Blacks do speak because it’s shorter and easier for Blacks. It matters for Blacks more because there is still some racism going on, and because of that Blacks are getting shot down jobs and being accused of other things because of their accents, or the way they speak.

And because of that, a majority of Blacks are stereotyped of speaking the exact way.

For example, my brother has amazing writing skills, though if you’re talking to him and your a close friend it wouldn’t seem like he would know great grammar. However, he gets A’s in English all the time and recently received an amazing score on his PSAT’s in writing. This shows you that we as black people speak a certain way to describe how we feel or to describe ourselves in our a chill, comfortable way. It’s apart of us. But because of the stereotypes most blacks just threw away the whole “code” to begin with to fit in. In a short story called, “Tongue Tied” by Maxine Hong Kingston her mother cut her daughter’s frenum which is under her tongue so she would be able to speak any language. At first, she was afraid to speak in class because no one else had their tongue like that from her family and she thought others would view her differently. But later on in the story, she learns to build her confidence and starts to talk in class more because she realized that even her sister was afraid to talk and she didn’t even have hers cut.

It has come to a point that more and more blacks have been acting ghetto, which I dislike to the fullest extent. Trying to show how rude or disrespectful they can be by following the stereotype gives other races reasons to think that a lot of Blacks aren’t educated. Even I have stopped using a lot Black slang. But, I can still fully understand new terms and black dialogue. I guess you can say I’m taking a break from the “Black Code” and learning more of a Japanese one. It’s always good to learn something new I suppose after so many years of the same thing. It’s the way of language to absorb, and migrate once you’ve learned everything there is to be learned.

 Who am I? That has always been an essential question for incoming freshman to SLA. I never really understood why we had to answer that question along the way, but I’m now a sophomore and I still have no idea who I am. It really bothers me that for 15 years I still haven’t figured out “who I am”. Constantly going from class to class and making new friends I still can’t pin point who the “real” me is.

Which takes me here, to Mr. Block’s class, writing a 3-page essay about our memories. Sadly, the ones that I can be really descriptive on are the sad ones. Leading up to this were 2 scenes, a revise, and “hot words” is what Mr. Block likes to call them. While I was writing, I couldn’t really think on what to write until he announced, “ Everyone put ‘Free Write’ on top of your Google document. You have ten minutes.” I had no idea what so ever to put on my Google doc. I sat in class, during last period for about 4 minutes pondering on what to jot down. Words of any kind, non-stop about anything that my two scenes reminded me about a larger part in life.

I stared and stared until I finally thought of a good idea. “Who am I really?” That was a question that I was trying to answer. While trying to haul all my thoughts and words on the blank page quickly I finally knew what to say and how to say it. For some reason, I’ve always felt sad, the little things I picked out, and sometimes I even felt as though I was not confident enough in myself.

I know that not everyone is going to like or approve of you but sometimes I just feel this way.  Other times, I feel empty, just as hallow as a log. I feel like I’m hiding behind a mask most of the time. Who am I really? The darker thoughts reminded me of how it all started like a punch to the face. I remembered how I first felt like. I was lost, trapped inside myself trying to lure my true self out. It all started when my friend had called my name in technology class during the 6^th grade, “Briana?” he asked.

That’s all I could hear through the thundering of noise of voices echoing off the technology walls. My best friend David had showed me a picture of this fallen angel with it’s back facing the screen and her left wing broken and crippled but the right wing folded in. The picture was very alluring and it drew me in like the smell of a fresh homemade apple pie. I couldn’t help but understand the picture so well. With constant friends leaving, and broken promises, I understood the pain and sorrow that screamed through the picture.

With my speechless eyes I stared at the picture. I couldn’t take my eyes off it. It was if my eyes hungered for the understanding of the photo. It felt as if I needed the reassuring judgment that the photo brought to it self. The power in the photo was so overpowering that everything I was supposed to hear, was closed and pushed out.

After being suck into the vibe of the photo I soon heard, “It’s time to go. Everyone line up.” I then realized that it was time to go back to class with my homeroom teacher. And with that, I pushed in my chair with aching noises of yelling and got in line. We then, as a class, left the technology room. Having this whole flashback moment I realized how many bad things must have happened when I was little.

I’ve always had friends leaving me from my side. And I’ve always been so trustworthy, believing everyone that was nice to me. Always being lied to and having to chose over friends, I’ve never really knew who was telling me the truth and who wasn’t. The constant “I’ll always be your friend” or “You can tell me anything” had always been a lie to me. Now I don’t know who’s really being truthful, and who’s not.

I guess you can say I kind of just gave up on people? I still have things to strive for, but now people are just an obstacle for me. I sound like a horrible person to others when they read this, but I’ve always learned that there's a story behind every person. There's a reason why that they’re the way they are. They aren’t just like that because they want to, something in the past created that.

But knowing that, I still feel as though I would be hated for being the “me” that I think is my true self. Sometimes not caring is the only thing that saves you. But if you think about it, I’m not the one completely at fault. Because others didn’t like the way I was, I changed. I learned how to control my tears. I molded myself into the person that everyone wanted me to be and still do.

To them, I was the backup. The one everyone looks for in time of need. But what if the backup needs a backup? I remembered one time when I tried to pour out all my thoughts, my feelings onto paper. “Why” was the only word on the page of my spiral notebook.

 Somehow I couldn’t think of anything to say. I somehow wanted to get all the pain out. Sitting there on the farthest of my couch I thought about the happy times that used to be fun and made everyday seemed as though the sun was out and smiling down on my “friends” and me. That’s when I quickly snapped back into reality. I didn’t notice at first, but I soon felt a small marble like tear jump from my cheek and onto the pants of my leg.

I wiped my face with the quickness. I was angry with myself. How could I possibly cry over something that happened so many times already? With my thoughts filled with rage I finally begin to write. When I was done, I still didn’t feel any different.

I was confused with how my coping skills had failed me like my 5th grade teacher tried to do. How could I still be feeling upset if I just poured out all of my feelings on the paper that was trying to keep it hostage? After a while I just sat, and pondered on what to do next. I then noticed that all I could do was just accept all of it. Accept the pain, happiness, sorrow, everything.

And after my friendship of 8 years ended with one of my closest friends, I told my self to shut down completely. Now I can’t tell if my feelings are real or fake. I just go with the flow of my life. I follow what people want from me. I smile when I feel it’s a need to, and I try to be sad when everyone else is too.

I’m numb, and I don’t know how to fix myself yet. Maybe it’s better to leave the broken pieces of glass where they are instead of trying to put them back together. So I continue to find out who I really am. Searching for the chance when that one faint light shines to lead me out of the surrounding darkness of my own shell. But until then I still look for the answer to my question, “Who am I?”

Which takes me here, to Mr. Block’s class, writing a 3-page essay about our memories. Sadly, the ones that I can be really descriptive on are the sad ones. Leading up to this was 2 scenes, a revise, and a “hot words” is what Mr. Block likes to call them. While I was writing I couldn’t really think on what to write until he announced, “ Everyone put ‘Free Write’ on top of your Google document. You have ten minutes.” I had no idea what so ever to put on my Google doc. I sat in class, during last period for about 4 minutes pondering on what to jot down. Words of any kind, non-stop about anything that my two scenes reminded me about a larger part in life.

I stared and stared until I finally thought of a good idea. “Who am I really?” That was a question that I was trying to answer. While trying to haul all my thoughts and words on this page quickly I finally knew what to say and how to say it. For some reason, I’ve always felt sad, the little things I picked out, and sometimes I even feel as though I’m not confident enough in myself.

I know that not everyone is going to like or approve of you but sometimes I just feel this way.  Other times, I feel empty, just as hallow as a log. I feel like I’m hiding behind a mask most of the time. Who am I really? The darker thoughts reminded me of how it all started like a punch to the face. I remembered how I first felt like I was lost in myself trying to find my true self out. It all started when my friend had called my name in technology class during the 6^th grade, “Briana?” he asked.

That’s all I could hear through the thundering of noise of voices echoing off the technology walls. My best friend David had showed me a picture of this fallen angel with it’s back facing the screen and her left wing broken and crippled but the right wing folded in. The picture was very alluring and it drew me in like the smell of a fresh homemade apple pie. I couldn’t help but understand the picture so well. With constant friends leaving, and promises broken, I understood the pain and sorrow that screamed through the picture.

With my speechless eyes I stared at the picture. I couldn’t take my eyes off it. It was if my eyes hunger for the understanding of the photo. It felt as if I needed the reassuring judgment that the photo brought to it self. The power in the photo was overpowering that everything I was supposed to hear, was closed and pushed out.

After being suck into the vibe of the photo I soon heard, “It’s time to go. Everyone line up.” I soon realized that it was time to go back to class with my homeroom teacher. And with that, I pushed in my chair with aching noises of yelling and got in line. We then as a class, left the technology room. Having this whole flashback moment I realized how many bad things must have happened when I was little.

I’ve always had friends leaving me from my side. And I’ve always been so trustworthy, believing everyone that was nice to me. Always being lied to and having to chose over friends, I’ve never really knew who was telling me the truth and who wasn’t. The constants “I’ll always be your friend” or “You can tell me anything” had always been a lie for me. Now I don’t know who’s really being truthful, and who’s not.

I guess you can say I kind of just gave up on people? I still have things to strive for, but now people are just an obstacle for me. I sound like a horrible person to others when they read this, but I’ve always learned that there's a story behind every person. There's a reason why that they’re the way they are. They aren’t just like that because they want to, something in the past created that.

But knowing that I still feel as though I would be hated for being the me that I think is my true self. Sometimes not caring is the only thing that saves you. But if you think about it, I’m not the one completely at fault. Because others didn’t like the way I was, I changed. I learned how to control my tears. I mold myself into the person that everyone wants me to be.

To them, I was the backup. The one everyone looks to in time of need. But what if the backup needs a backup? I remembered one time when I tried to pour out all my thoughts, my feelings onto paper. “Why” was the only word on the page of my spiral notebook.

 Somehow I couldn’t think of anything to say. I somehow wanted to get all the pain out. Sitting there on the farthest of my couch I thought about the happy times that used to be fun and made everyday seemed as though the sun was out and smiling down on us. That’s when I quickly snapped back into reality. I didn’t notice at first, but I soon felt a small marble like tear jump from my cheek and onto the pants of my leg.

I wiped my face with the quickness. I was angry with myself. How could I possibly cry over something that happened so many times already? With my thoughts filled with rage I finally begin to write. When I was done, I still didn’t feel any different.

I was confused with how my coping skills had failed me like my 5th grade teacher tried to do. How could I still be feeling upset if I just poured out all of my feelings on the paper that was trying to keep it hostage? After a while I just sat, and pondered on what to do next. I then noticed that all I could do was just accept all of it. Accept the pain, happiness, sorrow, everything.

And after my friendship of 8 years ended with one of my closest friends, I told my self to shut down completely. Now I can’t tell my feelings from real to fake. I just go with the flow of my life. I follow what people want from me. I smile when I feel it’s a need to, and I try to be sad when everyone else is too.

I’m numb, and I don’t know how to fix myself yet. Maybe it’s better to leave the broken pieces of glass where they are instead of trying to put them back together. So I continue to find out who I really am. Searching for the chance when that one faint light shines to lead me out of the surrounding darkness of my own shell. But until then I still look for the answer to my question, “Who am I?” 

¡Hola! Me llamo Briana. Me encanta leer y comer todos los días. Por lo tanto, odio correr.  No es divertida para nada. También soy comíca.Por lo tanto me gusta ser boba. Jaja. ¡Adíos Amigos!