Speak

The school bus drove around the block on the first day of school. Kids excitedly run towards their stops. For most kids the first day of school is an exhilarating day, the day of a new beginning, a time to see all of your friends. However, this was not the case for Melinda. She was a depressed girl whose life was a mess. All of her friends hated her. This kind of life makes a day feel like a week and a year like an eternity. A life where everything is boring and nothing changes. The story "Speak" written by Laurie Halse Anderson is a book that illustrates if you do nothing to change your life or what people think about you, nothing will change.

How would you feel going to your first day of high school knowing that not one student would like you or talk to you? You know that you are a outcast. You are not with a group of outcasts, you are a lone outcast. This is Melinda's reality since the party incident.

All people make mistakes in life; people will judge you on the mistake and how you deal with it. One mistake as big as Melinda's, was an umpire in baseball called a guy safe and that one hit on the 9th inning with 2 outs stop Galarraga from getting a perfect game. The umpire after the game told Galarraga that he made a mistake and he was forgiven. Melinda kept what happened to her a secret from all the people at the party. If she would have told them what happened they probably would have forgiven her.

Everyone hates the mistake you make right a way but the will forgive you over time. It is drastically worse to be depressed. When you are depressed there is nothing wrong with you it is just how you view your self. When you are depressed no one can help you, you need to change how you think of life. It is a proven fact that happy people live 10% longer than sad.

The book speak is a moving book with one of most annoying character that you want to hit but it show a point of how nothing will change unless you make people change what they think of you. Now what are you going to do to change how people think of you.

Golf

Most golfers that spend hours practicing with their hundred dollar clubs have a dream of going pro. One tournament you have to finish in the top 10 is the Wisconsin amateur. This event was held at Merrill Hills Country Club in Waukesha. If you ever played at Merrill Hills you would agree that due to the narrow fairways, with extremely fast greens, it is one of the hardest courses in Wisconsin.
Every golfer thinks the course they play is hard until they play Merrill Hill Country Club. One problem you’ll notice if you miss the fairway is the trees. To make this shot worst, the rough hides the ball. If you are lucky enough to find your ball you will be stuck with a shot you have to keep under ten yards unless you want to attempt to go through the trees. At Merrill it doesn’t matter how far you hit it Wisconsin Golfer explained it at trying to hit a golf ball in a hallway.
If you get stuck with a downhill putt, you’ll be lucky to keep the ball on the green. Most of the greens have a back to front slant. With a back to front slant will make a downhill chip or putt that will not stop by the hole. The hardest chip to land on target is uphill chips. Even if you land it near the hole the ball won’t be going fast enough into the green to stay there. If there is too much backspin on the ball thanks to the back to front slant it could end up of the green.
None of the 300 Amateurs that golfed Merrill Hills shoot under par. To be invited to this tournament you would have to one of the best 300 golfers in Wisconsin one of these golfers shoot a 97 my dad can beat that. The winner of this tournament stared his round with a three putt triple bogey. When winner finished his fourth round he was four over par.
You would agree that due to the narrow fairway, with fast greens, Merrill Hill Country Club is one of the hardest courses you ever seen but if you don’t believe me you are in for the hardest round of your life.

A Day No Pigs Die

A Day no Pigs Would Die is a short novel with some sad but true messages from the way that Robert Newton Peck wrote. This story brought up some points of how sometimes the right thing to do is not the fun thing. One of these is how they had to kill Rob’s pet pig for meat so they would not starve. Death is a big event, when someone dies you have to take their work and they don’t give you any warning. At the end of this novel Rob’s dad died, he knew he was going to die some of the last words he got from his dad was 12 is a boy and 13 is a man.

All Summer in a Day

On a planet where it rains 365 days a year and the only school was built underground, in this kind of world everyone is sad. It is hear a bully has a choice if he wants to make it a depressing place for nerds but he’s really digging his own grave. The short story “All Summer in a Day” by Ray Bradbury made a point on the fact that the loser ,the one who is bullied, now may become the winner at the end.
Every year you get new classes and teachers in school. Some years you will get lucky by getting the nicest, smartest teachers but the year you get a bad teacher could change how a kid acts for his entire life. In this story there is a child named Margot and on the first day that the sun came out she missed it because the teacher didn’t think of checking to see if all of the kids where there. When I was in 5th grade my teacher had favorites and most of them were teacher pets. She let them do less work than other kids.
Teachers can ruin a year but a bully can ruin multiple years and they never go away. A bully is an aggressive person who threaten or mistreats weaker people. Margot was not faster or stronger than the bully but she was never sad because of it. William tried harder to torment Margot the more he lost, because less and less people liked him. My cousin went to school with 700 kids per grade. Their high school had three school buildings one for freshmens and sophomores, another school for juniors and seniors, they also had a school just for trouble makers so they would not affect anyone else.
Life is like marathon, you can be in first place in the beginning but you may end up in last place by the end. Next time you are making fun of someone think about how you may end up working for them.

The Clearing

While two young kids work under the shade of a tall plam tree new neighbors move into the open lot next to there farm. New neighbors moving in can cause a change in a small town’s personality. During the time when one family owns one farm, a new neighbor may take some of your land or they may help you harvest your crops. In the short story “The Clearing’ by Jesse Stuart, makes a point that of how the worst brings out our best.
The best athletes are competitive; they never want to lose even if it’s just a game of Ping-pong. New neighbors have a choice if they want to be friend or if they want to try to outdo each other. When a family moves it is normally to get a better life or they need more space. After my uncle sold his company, he moved to Florida for a more relaxing life. In this short story the Hinton family moved due to the fact that Mrs. Hinton was pregnant. There used to be a farm field right next to my house, five years ago they changed the field into 11 houses. One of the neighbors that moved in says that he throws rocks at my dog. These new neighbor was saying he would kill there guinea hens if he saw them on his land.
There are worst things that can happen to you than a bad neighbor, one of these bad events is a fire. When you start a fire you only can chose how big it starts and where it begins, you will need help to put the fire out when it gets out of control. Right after Finn and Pa lit the dried branches on fire a small gust of wind came up and the fire went out of control, there was no way to stop the fire by them self but the Hinton boys came to help them. With the help of the Hinton boys their house and the orchard was saved. In a competition you never talk to the opposite team while you are playing them but after the game you will talk to the friends that you have on the team. After the fire all of the boys where talking to each other like they were always friends.
Haiti was hit by an earth quake that destroyed the capital city, now some people I know in my church are an adopting kid’s farm Haiti. It just shows how a tragedy in one place can bring the rest of the world closer to them. People in general are caring, the strong help the weak. Don’t be the strong person that only helps yourself because when you need help they won’t help you.