Around the table happy birthday was sung as my little sister sat in front of her Minnie Mouse shaped cake. Once the song was over, she looked around as if asking if she could finally blow out the three lit candles on top of her cake. With everyone’s encouragement, she blew out the candles with all her might in one gust of wind. Deciding she wanted to get her own piece of cake, she excitedly grabbed a fistful to put on her plate, not without a bite of it beforehand. Ripping through each present, she would happily shout the toy she got. With each one she opened, her eyes grew bigger and bigger. 

The excited gleam seen in kid’s eyes is always contagious. Without realizing it, you get excited along with them. It is like they cast a spell over you, letting you join in on their emotions. Kids draw you in with the excitement and let you get caught up in their unimaginable world. Though adults soon find themselves back in the place they have stayed for awhile now, the world of competition. It seems as though they are all in on this secret. They have a secret way of being able to see the world in a light that adults can never imagine. The world is just a giant playground waiting for them to discover something new and be amazed by the things it can do.

As we get older we start to lose these superpowers. Every once in awhile, will get a little spurt of it back and can share our joy. For the most part, though, we don’t get as excited as when we were little kids, catching fireflies or staring up at the moon in wonderment. This is what separates adults from kids. We get consumed into the land of work and thinking that money will bring back the superpowers we lost. Kids make it look so simple, so easy to be happy. The older we get the more complicated the equation that equals happiness becomes. We interpret with our new set of eyes, the set that knows everything that is going on around us. We try to convince ourselves that we know more than those little kids poking around the garden, but are we really the ones that know more?

They retain the imagination, the wonderment to look at the world in a light of their own, not affected by outside influences. The older ones, we form our decisions around others and we only make inferences based on what other people have said. Even our thinking can be affected by what other people say. We get caught in the trap in a world of trying to up one another. Our thinking completely changes from our childhood, everything to us changes and everything seems less interesting. When we could be seeing what else the world has to offer us, people get stuck on what we already know. Adults see one thing and say same old same old whereas little kids look with amazement and try to figure as much as they can from it. 

When I was little I went to the aquarium. The school of different fish and different colors made me not want to leave. I watched as they swam inside the giant tank, my little hands pressed up against it. From tank to tank I ran ahead, with my parents trailing behind. “Woah, that is so cool!”, I ran over to the shark tank. It was shaped as a tunnel, with the fish and water surrounding you. I looked up the entire walk through the tunnel. The hippo area was next for me. From above I saw the tip of their heads poking out. Running to the bottom of the tall tank, I saw more hippos underneath swimming around. All I wanted to do was get even closer, to break down that simple glass that was the only thing separating me from these magical creatures. When kids see something new, they latch onto it, see what else it can do or see what else they can get from it. They take on all this information then move on to the next fascinating thing. 

Though it is quite often that kids lose their sense of imagination or way of looking at the world, there are some cases where they are able to keep it all the way to adulthood. There are adults out there that keep this frame of mind but others call them childish. That person keeps their head down and tries to fit everyone else’s ideal understanding in order to not be teased with things such as they are not prepared for the real world. Maybe it is the other way around, maybe the real world isn’t prepared for them. A person who is able to think in a different mind frame may be what this world needs to solve the problems we face. When thinking in another way, they come to solutions that no one could ever imagine. These type of people shouldn’t be shamed but brought more into the light because they are the ones who lead our world innovation.

A story sometimes begins with an ending. You see the result before knowing the cause. In ‘Their Eyes Were Watching God’, this a technique used to introduce the reader to the main character, Janie. Starting with the end leads into a flashback on Janie’s life. Flashbacks provide the cause for the effect.

Flashbacks are used to give a first person point of view on an event that has already happened to a character. An example of a flashback is the ballad, ‘A Cruel Mother. In this the mother looks back on her child’s birth, life, and death. The different about the flashback in ‘Their Eyes Were Watching God’ is that the flashbacks are in third person point of view. By having it this way, you don’t get to see one specific character’s point of view. This allows for an overview of the overall event.

For some people the beginning of the ‘Their Eyes Were Watching God’ might be a bit confusing. As George Stevens of The Saturday Review of Literature had stated, ‘....it begins awkwardly with a confusing and unnecessary preview of the end…..’. Some people might find it a bit confusing but it gives the reader a lead to the flashback. It is also a way to show what people thought of Janie’s decisions and the flashback gives the explanation.

Events form people’s opinion around a certain thing. When the neighbors see Janie walking back to her house in the first chapter, they start to criticize her because of her choices. Those choices are pulled out of context until we are given a look back into Janie’s life, “Naw, ‘tain’t nothin’ lak you might think. So ‘tain’t no use in me telling you somethin’ unless Ah give you de understandin’ to go ‘long wid it.” Janie’s choices and motivation are unknown to the reader when you first start to read. Flashback allows the motivation to slowly be shown and allows us to see what decisions Janie made in her life.

In ‘Their Eyes Were Watching God’ not even some of the characters knew the entire story. They just knew Janie off of the decisions she made while she was around them, but those decisions were influenced by events further in her past. “Ah know exactly what Ah git to tell yuh, but it’s hard to know where to start at.” When Janie tries to explain herself, she is not sure where to start for people  to be able to understand her basis for all decisions. She knew people didn’t understand and that they were judge  her for that and in order to explain there was a point in her life when she learned a lesson and used that lesson throughout her life.

Coming home, the only person who seems to want to understand Janie is her friend Pheoby. The other women in the town gossip about what she had down, running away with a younger man. On the other hand Pheoby knows that there are probably reasons and just because Janie isn’t telling anymore it doesn’t mean there aren’t any. “It’s hard for me to understand what you mean, de way you tell it. And then again Ah’m hard of understanding’ at times.” When Janie gives an explanation of why she is gone so long, it doesn’t make as much sense until Janie goes further back into her past.

Flashbacks give imagery to a book. Without them, we can only see the effects instead of the reasons. Sometimes a flashback not only helps the reader but the character as well. ‘Thier Eyes Were Watching God’ is a perfect example of that. We are shown characters in the first chapter who only saw the effects of Janie’s decisions and never the intentions. In order for them to fully see Janie and understand her, Janie has to go further in her life to give those intentions that they are missing from the overall full story. In explaining to the characters, she is also explaining through the reader. Thus the characters are discovering a new side to Janie at the same time that the reader is.

I stare at my blank computer screen in front of me. My entire dorm was completely dark except for the glow from the computer. I sit on the carpeted floor, maybe I can think better this way. I sit back on my green and white comforter. “Changing positions isn’t going to help you write the perfect speech.” I hear a little voice say to me. I write down a sentence. My hand is soon tapping backspace, erasing it away.

I am again staring at a blank screen. I can hear people outside in the hallway walking by. The voices carry under the locked door. I can hear the laughs and the joy laced in their voices. I want to be out there with them, but I don’t move a muscle. I won’t move a muscle ‘till I get this perfect. “You can’t even write a single sentence.” The voice persists to me. I try to prove it wrong, I start to write again. This time it will be perfect. This time it will be perfect, everyone will love it. Repeats over and over in my head, trying to drown out that voice. Finally having some words on the screen, I hear the clicking of the backspace key.

I am again staring at a blank screen. Perfect. Perfect. Perfect. Perfect. The word swirls around in my head as I try to find the perfect words for the perfect speech. It seems my world is defined by this one word, perfect. All I strive for is perfection, if it isn’t perfect I throw it away.

I try laying on my back, continuing my theory that changing positions will help me think. Staring up, I see the blank cream colored ceiling with the dark light in the middle.The ticking of the the clock engulfs the room, I see the seconds roll by, the minutes roll by, the hours roll by. As I sit there, there is still a blank screen. My dull, blank brain starts to light with the fire of an idea. The fire is brought to my hands as they start typing away quickly. There is a page of words in front of me and I’m burned out from the sudden surge of an idea. I read through what I have written, by the end of the page my hand is yet again wavering over the backspace key.

“It isn’t perfect, it will never be. Everyone at graduation will hate it." The voice tells me. No! My hand quickly falls away from backspace. I don’t care if it isn’t ‘perfect’, I shouldn’t throw it all out. “It’s garbage, it should be thrown away.” The voice said to me. It isn’t garbage, it is exactly the way I want it. It is the way it’s going to stay. I shouldn’t have to care what other people think, it’s perfect to me. I turned back to my computer and clicked the button, the save button.

“Why do you never talk?”

“You’re always so quiet, are you always like this?”

These questions get thrown at me as I answer with a simple shrug and stay in the background of the conversation. The day carries on and this is the usual pattern. I stay quiet during class or table discussions and never draw attention to myself. Even within a small crowd, I don’t get the courage to speak, it takes enough just to introduce myself. The courage never does come and the nerves take over and they lock the idea away.

I had a group project that was to be presented to the class. As it got closer and closer to my group’s turn, I got even more nervous. I was scared that I would do something stupid and embarrass myself in front of the whole class. The presentation starts and I feel like I have lost all the words that I had prepared to say. Most of the speaking was done by my group members, except for one little slide that I spoke for. Most of the time my back was turned to the class. Whenever I turned to look at the eyes staring up at me, I would start to stutter. I walked back to my seat once we were done, relieved that I was able to make it through.

A mock debate was taking up two class periods. As everyone took their seats in the circle of desks, I tried rehearsing in my head what I was going to say. Everyone had their names labeled on the desk and the debate began. People discussed each of their opinions, once one person talked another person raised their hand. I listened to each point trying to figure how I would fit into the conversation. After each new argument, I would be too scared to add my own opinion. Would it be the right moment? I would wonder to myself. By the time I finally go through my entire thought process, someone else was picked to speak. Eventually the class period was over and we were moving on to the next class. My opportunity to maybe speak up a bit more had passed.

“You’re so loud.”

“I can’t help it.” I answer back

“You're probably making up for all the time you don’t talk during school .”

Once I get home, I become a new me. I am louder and can’t seem to stop talking. It’s as if I’m making up for not talking through the day. It’s the only place where I’m fine with the attention focused all on me. When I am at home, I feel more comfortable and feel as though I can speak whatever is on my mind. People I am closer to also see this change in the way I talk. The more comfortable I feel around the person, the more I talk to that person. When I am more comfortable, I feel safer to express my inner self. I share my opinions more and speak up more.

The class filled with raised hands as the teacher did yet another class discussion. Everyone is eager to share their opinion, everyone but me. I sit in my seat listening to everything people say about the topic. When someone raises an interesting argument, I suddenly have an idea to oppose or agree. Even with this idea floating around inside my mind, my hand stays down as others raise theirs. It’s as if my shyness holds my hand to the table, stopping me from sharing. As I get more comfortable, this grip slowly releases it’s strength.

“Whatchu guys up to?” I say walking over to my group of friends.

“Nothing much, just talking about Geometry.”

“I know. I can’t believe what we have to do for the last benchmark.” I comment

As the year carries on, I adjust a bit more into this new situation. I can talk to smaller groups more easily. My words flow out my mouth freely as I add more and more to the conversation. The words are no longer trapped in the back of my mind by my mouth. When talking in a class discussion, it still takes a great amount of courage to raise my hand and say what is on my mind. Once my hand is raised though and I get to say what I want to say, I feel as though I have made a little accomplishment. Presenting still makes me nervous with all eyes and attention on me, but once I start I can make it through even with a little eye contact. I feel as though I walk out of my quiet shell a little and show a bit of what I’m thinking.

Talking has always been a problem I have in public. For me nerves, take a big part of my limited speaking. I get nervous of all attention on me and in end don’t talk at all. I might try to be as close to talkative that I am at home, I can never fully be there. My quietness can sometimes cause my opinion to not be heard as loud and clear. My words are sometimes trapped in my mind as my mouth stays shout.

Talking is the way that people can communicate. Communication is the one thing that connects everyone together. With me getting nervous speaking in public, I cannot communicate with others better. Over the years, I have tried to speak and open up faster. Though I try to adjust faster, there is still a time where new situations keep my opinions caged in. Opinion is a big part of who someone is and when they are unable to convey that, you can never truly understand that person.

Dissection Portfolio:

Inquiry- We were comparing the body ratio of organisms

Research- a frog and grasshopper were dissected to measure the different body systems to find the ratio.

Collaboration- I worked on the project with Isabel Medlock and Dejah Smith

Presentation- We presented the project in a slideshow and we used carp to organize everything.

Reflection- Some of the slides seemed a bit crowded so if I were to do it again I would put in a way on the slide so that it didn't seem so crowded.

Hi again, it has been awhile since my last blog posts. In my first post, I introduced information about the late effects of childhood cancer. Late effects are illnesses that can occur after chemotherapy. Some of these late effects include memory impairment, heart abnormalities, impaired lung function, and a secondary or original cancer occurring. In my second post, I conducted my own research on childhood cancer. For my own research, I created an online survey. From the responses I received, I learned more about the patient’s family and friend’s point of view on childhood cancer. Though I did not receive responses from people who experienced late effects.

The final portion of this You and the World project is Agent of Change. For Agent of Change, we set out into the world to help with the issue we chose. In my second post I stated that I was going to volunteer at the CureSearch walk but unfortunately the timing of the walk and the project timeline did not match. Even though those plans fell through, I was able to volunteer at the Ronald McDonald House of Philadelphia.

At the Ronald McDonald House located on Front & Erie in North Philadelphia, I was a Guest Chef. My parents and I came in and cooked dinner for the families on Memorial Day; I prepared everything in their kitchen and then set it out for families to get for themselves. When I was preparing the menu there were some guidelines provided by the Ronald McDonald House. I had to have a salad, at least one meat entree, a vegetarian dish, 2 dishes (a starch and a vegetable), and a dessert. I had decided that the menu would be a garden salad, roasted chicken, and ziti with yellow rice and broccoli as the sides. For desserts, it was chocolate ice cream and chocolate cookies.

We had to cook for 40 families even though only around 25 families came to dinner but some were in the hospital and would come in later. When buying for the menu we got 6 chickens, 5 boxes of family size yellow rice, 5 boxes of ziti pasta, 2 family size bottles of pasta sauce, 8 lbs of cheese, 4 heads of lettuce, assorted toppings for the salad, 2 large bags of broccoli, 2 large rolls of cookie dough, and a tub of ice cream. It may seem like a lot but at the end of the night, most of the food had been eaten.

                 

A. Negative space is the empty space around the subject of a drawing or photo. The negative space is just as important as the subject because the negative space can make the subject stand out more.

B. I found the negative space in the cutout with the base paper after I cut out the traced template that was in another color. I found the negative space in the still-life when I was drawing only the outside lines of the objects and shading in the empty spaces.

C. I helps an artist see in negative space because the negative space defines the subject of the drawing or photo. Without paying attention to negative space, the subject could just blend into the background.

D. Negative space is helpful in creating art because the negative space like explained in the previous question, makes the subject stand out and the negative space can make the drawing more interesting.

In this lab different types of organisms were looked at through a microscope, and with the microscope, pictures were taken of the organisms. The central question is: what are the characteristics of different types of organisms? By looking at organisms through microscope their physical characteristics were learned and by researching them other types of characteristics were learned. By doing this it became apparent that organisms are all pretty different but they all share the same building block, cells.

This is the link for the rest of our portfolio.

I have learned a lot of new things when working on one-point perspective. Though I think the most thing I learned is that lines have to be either be vertical, horizontal, or orthogonal. The lines have to be either of these choices are it will ruin the rest of the drawing. How this improved my drawing is that instead just setting a certain length and drawing diagonal lines. By knowing this, I created the right lines that went all the way to the vanishing point.  

I would probably give more detail in the small things like the window blinds. Also with more practice I will be able to draw straight lines faster and won’t have to erase as much as I did during this project. My advice to them would be to make sure you draw your necessary lines to the vanishing point. Without them, it wouldn't be in one-point perspective. I think the slideshow that Mrs. Hull provided was the most helpful. It was really helped to show how to draw in one-point perspective. It showed us more of what to do in one-point perspective which really helped when working out home.

It's been awhile since I have posted a You and the World (YATW) blog. In  my first blog, I first presented my issue of childhood cancer. In the blog, I presented how many kids on average were diagnosed with childhood cancer and the late effects that could sometimes occur. Some late effects include the first cancer coming back, a second cancer occurring, heart damage, or lung damage. Most survivors do not realize these late effects can occur when they are much older, sometimes in their 30’s and 40’s. After using research I found online, I did my own research on childhood cancer.

In my original research, I conducted a survey about childhood cancer in order to get other people’s knowledge of the topic. With the survey I wanted to learn the occurrences of a second diagnosis, since that is one of the symptoms of late effects, but all of the people who took my survey and who were connected to childhood cancer said that it was a first diagnosis. The responses may show that perhaps there is more of a chance to fight childhood cancer and to have it gone for good.

The responses really helped to understand how the amount of childhood cancer survivors has increased significantly over the years. I feel like I now understand childhood cancer better since I got people’s personal opinions on childhood cancer and their personal connection instead of just statistics presented by medical professionals. Through the responses I was able to see the family and friends view on the topic.

Even though the responses I got were helpful, I still would have liked if some of the people who had second diagnosis had taken the survey so that I could see their point of view. I wanted to know if their second diagnosis would be something that they could get past or if unfortunately they were unable to move past the diagnosis. While, having this survey information about second diagnosis would have related more to my first blog on late effects, the responses I did get showed how second diagnosis may not be as prevalent.

My next blog will be based on my Agent of Change project. An Agent of Change project is when we go out and try to help with the topic we chose to study. I originally wanted to volunteer at a hospital which deals with childhood cancer, such as CHOP or Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in New York however the requirements for high school volunteers were summer only or did not fit the project schedule. Instead I hope to volunteer at the Cure Search Walk in May. The Cure Search Walk is an event that Cure Search, a childhood cancer foundation, holds to raise money for childhood cancer research. I want to volunteer to help out at the event by either registering people or handing out water throughout the day. This way I am helping out instead of just researching.

Mi nombre es Imani. Tengo catorce años. Soy un estudiante de Science Leadership Academy. Esta en el centre de Filadelfia. Esta cerca de Trader Joe’s. Es pequeña, es una escuela pública, y es divertida. Hay cinco pisos. Tenemos una biblioteca y el centro de física. Hay quinientos estudiantes. Tenemos voleibol y beisbol. Participa en voleibol porque es divertida.

Mis clases favoritas son inglés, geometría, y español. Me encanta ingles porque es fácil y interesante. La Srta. Dunn enseña la clase de ingles. Materiales que necesitas para la clase son una pluma y el libro. En la clase de inglés tenemos pláticas, leemos libros, y escribimos. Para  tener éxito en esta clase es necesitamos que hacer la tarea y prestar atención. No me gusta nada de ingeniería porque es estresante y aburrido. El Sr. VK enseña la clase de ingeniería. En la clase de ingeniería tenemos pláticas y aprendemos mucho de ciencia.

El Sr. Reddy enseña geometría. El es mi consejero. El es divertido y interesante. La clase de Sr Reddy es más o menos difícil. La clase esta en el piso cinco. A veces la clase es aburrido. La Srta. Dunn enseña inglés. Ella es interesante. La clase de Srta Dunn está en el piso tres.

Me gusta SLA porque es pequeña. Lo que más gusta de SLA es algunos de la clases. No me gusta nada punto de referencia porque es horrible y estresante. SLA es más o menos difícil. SLA es un poquito estresante. SLA es muy divertida. 

You can watch my video here