I created a blog where I wrote several posts about the basics of beauty and makeup. I figured this would be a good idea since not a lot of people know how to apply makeup, or how to choose the right kind of makeup. On this blog, I share my knowledge about makeup and also share beauty tips that will help girls know more about these topics. I also did different girls’ makeup. I used ninth graders as models and did different looks on them. 

This was an incredibly fun experience. I love writing about beauty and makeup, so it was really fun to write and share what I know with everyone else. I also enjoyed meeting new girls from the ninth-grade, doing their makeup, and connecting with them. 

Link to my blog

Link to my Bibliography 

Si naciera de nuevo, cambiaría mi forma de pensar. 

No pensaría tanto las cosas.

Aprendería de mis errores. 

No sería tan negativa. 

No me preocuparía por todo. 

No pensaría en el futuro. 

Viviría día a día tranquilamente. 

No me haría daño. 

No dejaría que me hicieran daño. 

Nada me importaría, solo mis seres queridos y yo. 

Sería feliz. A mi manera. 

​Me llamo Sarybel Meléndez. Nací el 11 de febrero de 1996. Nací y me crié en Hatillo, Puerto Rico. Hatillo es un pueblo muy pequeño de Puerto Rico. Es hermoso. Tengo una madre a quien amo mucho y su nombre es Carmen Carrión. También tengo un hermano cuyo nombre es Joshua Meléndez. Mi papá se llama John Meléndez. Mis padres escogieron mi nombre al ver que la ganadora de  un concurso de belleza se llamaba Sarybel. Les gustó mucho su nombre y decidieron ponermelo a mí.

Soy baja, mido 4 pies con 2 pulgadas. Tengo pelo marrón oscuro y ondulado. Mi piel es mediana, ni clara, ni oscura. Mis ojos son color café y son pequeños. Antes era super delgada, pero ahora no tanto. Estoy en mi peso ideal. Me considero bonita, pero no tanto. Estoy obsesionada con el chocolate y los dulces. Siempre estoy comiendo.  Si no como me siento mal y sin ánimos. Me encanta comer, bailar y maquillarme. Me gusta todo tipo de música, en especial la música alternativa (indie), el pop y música en español. Me encanta todo lo relacionado a maquillajes y belleza. Me fascinan los colores y el arte.  

Soy muy callada y tímida. Casi siempre hablo sólo con gente que conozco y me caen bien. Se me hace difícil hacer nuevos amigos, pero trato lo mas que pueda para hacerlos. Todo el mundo dice que soy muy inteligente, astuta y aprendo las cosas rápido.

Tengo diferentes tipos de relaciones con diferentes tipos de personas. Con mi mamá tengo una relación súper chévere. A ella le puedo contar todo lo que sea y ella no se enoja. Me gusta que ella sea así porque le tengo mucha confianza. Mi hermano no me habla casi, pero no es su culpa. El tiene una condición llamada autismo y el siempre está encerrado en su cuarto. Mi papá tampoco me habla. El nunca ha sido un buen padre, pero no importa. Mi mamá es la única que necesito.


Las relaciones académicas van mejor que el año pasado. Las clases son mucho más fáciles. Al principio, me daba miedo tomar la clase de matemáticas porque el año pasado me fue muy mal. Sin embargo, este año la clase está súper fácil y me gusta más. Estoy tomando una clase de Español 4 y es muy fácil. La maestra es súper amable y me gusta como da la clase y explica las cosas. No estoy tomando clase de Ciencia porque no la necesito. La clase de Inglés no me gusta porque es aburrida. Hasta ahora, todos los maestros son permisivos.

También están las relaciones con mis amigos, novios, etc. En Puerto Rico tengo muchos amigos y amigas. Hablo a veces con ellos por el internet. Los extraño mucho. Cuando estaba en Puerto Rico, éramos uña y carne. Ahora, no tanto como antes. Aquí en Filadelfia no tengo tantos amigos, sólo tengo una. También tenía un novio, pero rompí con él hace poco tiempo.  No tengo casi amigos porque hablar inglés se me hace un poco difícil, pero estoy practicando más y he mejorado mucho.

En fin, soy una chica muy carismática una vez me conoces bien. Mi máscara es de una caravela con muchos colores y diseños. Esta caravela representa lo introvertida y misteriosa que soy. Los colores y diseños representan mi pasión por los colores y el arte al igual que mi personalidad extrovertida una vez me conoces mejor. Uno de los diseños más grandes y llamativos será una mariposa. Escogí este diseño porque quiero ser como una oruga que pasa a ser una bella mariposa que vuela libremente.

Writing helps me connect to myself. I usually write for myself because it’s a way of  expressing my thoughts and emotions. When I feel really sad, upset or happy, I write. The way I feel influences a lot in the way I write. Writing helps me connect with myself because I let out all the feelings I have and that makes me feel better. Sometimes I even discover things I didn’t know about myself through writing. It helps me think things through and make the right decisions. When I write for a public, I try to express my opinions throughout the writings. That’s a way of connecting with both myself and the reader. 

One of Hamlet’s most famous soliloquies is his ‘’Tis now the very witching time of night’’, which falls in the Act 3, Scene 2 (pages 380-391).

This soliloquy is a really interesting and important one since it lets the reader know what Hamlet’s plans are.

        Prior to this monologue, Prince Hamlet’s mother, Queen Gertrude, sends an order for Hamlet to go to her chamber to have a talk with her. After the play, Hamlet asks for a short amount of time alone. Thrilled because his plan worked out, he experiences a surge of confidence and delivers this soliloquy in which he plans out the conversation with his mother and talks about how confident of himself he is.

''Tis now the very witching time of night,
When churchyards yawn, and hell itself breathes out
Contagion to this world: now could I drink hot blood,
And do such bitter business as the day
Would quake to look on. Soft! now to my mother. — 
O heart, lose not thy nature; let not ever
The soul of Nero enter this firm bosom:
Let me be cruel, not unnatural;
I will speak daggers to her, but use none;
My tongue and soul in this be hypocrites, — 
How in my words somever she be shent,
To give them seals never, my soul, consent!''

‘’Tis now the very witching time of night’’, Hamlet starts his monologue with a reference to the people who use the darkness (middle of the night) to do their dirty work.

‘’When churchyards yawn, and hell itself breathes out", refers to the middle Ages, where people used to bury the bodies at their local church graveyard. At the time during which Hamlet occurs, Europe was suffering from the ‘’Black Death Plague’’. Art during this period was very dark and often represented the Devil and demons.

 At this moment, Hamlet describes himself to be in a mood in which he could “drink hot blood, and do such bitter business as the day would quake to look on.” Hamlet is very upset that his mother has re-married in his father’s absence. In this mood, he could kill anyone (including his mother), but he would not do that. “Let me be cruel, not unnatural.”

 "Soft! Now to my mother.’’

At this point, he has been considering how to deal with the situation he’s currently facing. He wants to speak the truth to his mother without being too harsh. He knows that if he makes the wrong move at the wrong time, there could be a lot of trouble. That’s why he plans everything out, including his conversations with his mother.

"O heart, lose not thy nature; let not ever
The soul of Nero enter this firm bosom:
Let me be cruel, not unnatural;’’

These lines are hard to understand since a lot of people don’t know who ‘’Nero’’ was. Nero was a Roman Emperor who was quite famous for being crazy and murdering his mother. He was extremely cruel and executed people in awful ways.

" I will speak daggers to her, but use none;
My tongue and soul in this be hypocrites"

 Hamlet will be direct when speaking to her mother, yet he will try to be as gentle as possible. He does not want to hurt his mother although he knows his words will hurt her.

‘’How in my words somever she be shent,
To give them seals never, my soul, consent!’’

Seals were used during the Middle Ages like signatures are used today. Since Hamlet was the Prince of Denmark, he had his own seal and used it whenever he wanted to consent something. He is basically saying that he didn’t consent the actions his mom took when he married Hamlet’s own uncle. 

• What surprised you most about this information?
  The thing that surprised me the most was the fact that not all immigrants come to the United States because of the economic situation in the immigrant's countries. There are other factors such as health care, wars, etc. 
  
  
•  What seemed quite obvious about explaining this data set?
  That the immigration rates have gone up and down throughout history.
  
  
• Looking at the overall trend and incorporating what you know about the US presently, predict and defend the immigration trend for the next two decades.
  I think if till rise even more. Even though I really wish this didn't happen, it's gonna happen. The economic situation in the immigrant's countries is getting worse and worse, and this will force them to move. 
  
  
• Describe how you made a decision on how to visually represent the information.
  We thought dipity.com was a really nice website to represent our information. It looks really nice and it was really easy to work with. 
  
  
• What parts of group work were challenging?
  Doing the research. It was kind of hard to find factors for every decade. 
  
  
• What would you do differently if you had this project to do over?
  I would pick another website and do more research. 
  
  
  

           What is true love? What are you capable to do for true love? Can true love make you cross any boundaries? Carmen Carrion, a 45 yr old woman from Puerto Rico will tell us the story about when she found the love of her life, and even though it wasn’t exactly the perfect one, she decided to cross the boundaries in order to stay with him. 

Reflection: What different things did you learn or realize while doing this project?

I learned so many things. First, I learned more about my mom’s story. I knew some things about it, but not the whole story with details. I realized how much impact this had in my mom’s life. Also, I learned how to work with Garage Band, which is pretty cool.

As a deep understanding of this project, I learned that sometimes ‘’crossing the boundaries’’ is not bad, and that you should always follow your heart. My mom didn’t follow her's, and now she’s paying the consequences. Overall, this was a great project and I learned tons of things. The experience of doing my first interview ever was really fun. 

Setbacks of being bilingual.

“Hey Doctor…”

“Hey! Let’s see… How did you sprain your ankle?”

“Well I was walking and I, I like… Do you know when you are like…?’’

“When you are like what?”

              He remained quiet while I searched my mind as if it was a dictionary. I struggled trying to figure out the words that could’ve described how I sprained my ankle.

“Like walking… and then you feel like you’re about to fall? What’s another word for that?”

 “Stumble?”
“ Oh yes! That thing…”

            This happens to me almost everyday. When I’m supposed to explain something or even talk, I always struggle with some words. Considering the fact that I was born and raised in Puerto Rico, which is a Spanish-speaking country, I think it’s normal for me to have some difficulties with my English, but after a while, it has become annoying. Everybody says it’s good to speak two fluent languages, and that might be true. However, being bilingual also has its setbacks. When you are used to speak only one language and then you have to speak the other, it becomes confusing. It feels so different speaking a foreign language and personally, that creates frustration inside me.

“So how was your day?”

“ Oh, it was so…”

             I have it. I have the word right in my mind, but in Spanish. When this happens, all I can do is wait and check if there is any word in English that could mean the same thing as the word I am thinking about. If I can’t think of something, I just say the word in Spanish.

“It was so brutal!”

“Brutal? What does that mean?”

“Oh sorry, brutal means like… awesome or something like that.”

“Oh! That’s good!”

                Every time that happens, I sound like an uneducated girl who does not know what she is talking about. I look like I do not care about what we are talking about. This affects every single day of my life. I hate how a simple conversation can turn into a really awkward moment when someone asks me something and I do not know how to translate the words into English, so I end up saying the word in Spanish. I try my hardest to speak completely in English, but it is so difficult.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                         

               In an essay I read by Richard Rodriguez, he was telling a story similar to mine. He once said: ‘’my words could not stretch far enough to form complete thoughts.’’ This totally describes my daily struggles with English. Every time I try to say something in English, I think in Spanish. When that happens, I try to act like I forgot the word, and just give a brief description or some clues until the other person figures out what the exact word is, but I get tired of that. I am tired of the Spanish getting in the way on almost every conversation I have. I want to speak freely and fluently. Without searching my brain’s ''dictionary/translator'', without thinking that I have to be really careful on what I say and how I pronounce it, and without trying to fake my accent. All that so I can sound normal and seem like I know what I’m saying.

               There is a point where you feel that you shouldn’t even speak. I did not feel it until it was the time to speak in front of everyone. The moment when everyone is expecting you to say some words, and you just cannot find them. That’s what makes me want to run, and hide from everyone.

                  I am tired of sounding like an uneducated person in front of everyone. I hate the fact that I cannot express my self in English as well and as much as I can in Spanish. I feel like I am trapped. I do feel like I cannot express my self anymore. It is so frustrating.

                  Everyone says it is ''okay'' to struggle a little bit with another language. I am still getting used to this language, so I kind of understand my frustration. All I hope is that I can improve by the time, and speak as fluently, as fast, and as freely as I would like to.

                   “Here they come! Everyone hide! The police is here!” They screamed while I was recollecting all the junk from the tables of that restaurant. “¡Virgen santísima!” I screamed. I remember myself hiding under the table I was cleaning. I tried to hide as much as possible. Silent, I saw people getting arrested by the police officers. They were screaming, crying, begging. “¡No me lleves! ¡No me quiero ir!”  Those people who wanted the ‘’American Dream’’ like me, begged. Poor fellows. They cautioned me about this. I knew this was going to happen. The police would come one day looking for the immigrants. But thank God I practiced a little bit what to do when that situation came, and at least it helped me. I did not get caught.

                     While waiting for the police to leave… I felt like all my dreams got broken in one minute. After that horrible moment, I realized I do not want to live another moment like this one ever again. This whole situation about hiding from the government it’s not as easy as it may seem. Now the confusion starts. I don’t know what to do. I remember I was born in the deserts of México, where my dad had to wake up every single morning, put his clothes on, and go to the farm to start working. After hours of hard work, he came home to eat some Tamales and that was it. Saw my family suffering from economical problems my entire life. They had to work every day for long hours to get some money to feed five kids for two days approximately. I remember when my mom gave me her food because it was not enough. Oh dad, I remember you coming home all sweaty, dirty, and tired. While other people in other places without working and without moving one finger, had more money and food than what we had in three weeks. I was the oldest of my other four siblings. Even though I do not have an education because my family never had the resources to send me to school, I consider myself more educated and smarter than a lot of people who attend school. That’s why I decided to move on and do something for my family. I remember that Saturday. When I packed all my things up and finally did it. Crossed the border from Mexico to United States without finding death. I guess I was so lucky no one caught me.

                  Now I am here, without anyone beside me. Trying to find myself in this unknown place. Seeing a lot of different people dressing up, talking and acting in a very weird way. Women dress up almost showing her body, and men decorate their bodies with piercings almost everywhere. The funniest thing is that no one seems like caring about that. “Where are you from?” some ask me. “¿Qué?” I answer. Then I realize they are speaking English. I do not know the language. How will I survive like this? I remember when I used to say: “Nothing will stop me. I will look for a job. That is how I will start. It will not be easy, but I will do it”. “Maybe I will have to hide from the police, but not for my entire life because I will become a citizen. Some people have come here and now they have money and the life they dreamed of. So I guess I will be pretty good…”

                    Who am I trying to fool? Right now I feel so lonely, sad, and depressed. When I remember those hard times at México, I get weaker instead of getting stronger. I miss my Mexican culture. I never thought living here would be like this. Here everything is just so different. I am not used to this. It’s hard surviving in here. I can’t communicate with anyone. This is not what I expected. Where is ‘’The American Dream’’ I was looking for? Where is the money I want? It was just a fantasy, rumors people say. What am I supposed to do now? Go back to México, or stay here? This is so confusing. They all say love is louder than pressure. But, is it louder than the pressure of trying to help your family with their economical problems? A pressure you had since you were a kid. Is it louder than having no food, clothes, or money?

                     It’s hard being in this situation right now. Where all you know is that your body is in Los Ángeles, California… but your heart is in a little farm at Zacatecas, México.

   I am a person that thinks that everyone should make goals for themselves. I always had some goals I wanted to achieve. My past goal was to enter into Puerto Rico's most advanced high school called Centro Residencal de Oportunidades Educativas de Mayagüez (C.R.O.E.M). This school is specialized in mathematics and sciences. It is a residential school; a school where you actually sleep in.

   Since I heard of it, I fell in love with the idea of being there, even though I knew I was not good at mathematics. After thinking about it, I decided to ask my parents. At first they were surprised at, but then they supported me, so I decided to go ahead and submit my request. A couple of weeks after, they told me that I was accepted! That was the greatest thing that ever happened to me. I was so happy, I could die.

   Finally that day came, my first day of school. I went to the school, unpacked my things and got to the main school office. The building and the area were very beautiful; everything was so clean and put together. People were studying at every corner. Everything seemed so perfect! It was like a dream come true. I met a lot of people, some of those ones who right now I consider my siblings. The teachers were so nice to my roommates and me too. I felt very welcomed.

  Through the year sometimes I felt like it was too hard for me, but suddenly, I said to myself, ”If I got the opportunity to be here, I can not waste it”. So I decided to go ahead, study and put a lot more effort to what I was supposed to do and I did it, hoping for the best. At the end of the year I graduated with one of the highest grades and with honors! That raised my confidence so much.

   This situation taught me a couple of lessons that now I consider them as fundamental for a better life. It taught me that if you have a goal, you have to go for it, and that when an opportunity arrives, you should not waste it. It also taught me that if you have confidence in yourself, you could go through any tough situation. You have to go ahead, follow your dreams, and beat the obstacles. If did it, I am sure you can.