Happiness♥

Susie Salmon (like the fish) was killed during the 70's and had been murdered by her neighbor. Although she was murdered a part of her did not want to leave to Heaven. Susie wanted to revenge her death and knew everything about what was going in the real world. Susie was stuck in the middle. Not making it completely dead or alive she wondered around seeing little pieces of other little girls who went through the same thing she had gone through. Susie since still had some connection to the real world, gives clues to her father who was the one who killed her. Susie wants to leave the world but a part of her wants the truth to be revealed about her killer. Susie sees her killer everyday and goes about seeing what others are doing since she's been gone. One day her killer gets the urge to kill another since his memory of killing Susie was fading. Susie realizes that who he now wants to kill is her younger sister. Her younger sister senses the killer around her , stocking her, staring at her. One day her younger sisters decides to look for evidence that this neighbor was the one who killed Susie. She finds a book with his plan of killing Susie and clipped news papers with photos of her to. In the end Susie leaves to go to Heaven finally revealing who her murder was and their family were also at peace living their lives, still loving their unforgotten daughter. This movie was awesome and it made me open my eyes to allot of things in my life. Susie died at a young age and that is what bothered me the most. She did not get to experience, or make more memories. I on the other hand have lived longer than her and I love my life, because I've experience many happy things. Well Heaven is the maximum to me and at least she was gone to a better and lovelier place.

http://movies.nytimes.com/2009/12/11/movies/11lovelybones.html

It is said that the last remaining large high schools in the Bronx will be closed. Christopher Columbus High school will be shut down because of its lack of success with New York students. Furthermore, its poor performances and low demands for students has effected the progress of graduating. It is said that smaller schools are better for students. Big schools have more controversy. Although some students defend Christopher Columbus High School, the school had to be closed because it was not working for students. Since more larger schools had been closed and new smaller schools had been open about 15 percent more students are graduating in New York. I believe this a great idea. Teachers would be able to communicate with each student. As a future wanna be teacher I believe it would be easier for me to teach my students and create a relationship with them if I had less students. Rather than 40 students in each class. I remember my HSPA class was only 4 students and I learned so much faster. I understood everything and I could be able to ask questions without the teacher stressing because all the other students who wanted answers. Smaller is definitely better when it comes to teaching and learning espcially since I want to be a teacher.

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/26/nyregion/26closings.html

Friday, Sasha and I came home and noticed our friend Jessica had came to visit us. Jessica had just givin birth to a baby and came to show us her adorable little girl. She was beautiful of course, but Jessica did not seem completely happy. Jessica confessed to us that she no longer was going to school anymore. We asked her why and she replied that it was to difficult when her boyfriend did not want to take responsibility for the baby and her mother advised Jessica she had to take full responsibility of the baby since she decided to me a mother. Therefore, Jessica did not graduate, had no support, was jobless, and had a baby to take care of. I never thought that Jessica would ever be in a situation like the one she's in. I had no idea either that Jessica would have to be worrying about rent, money, and diapers at the age of 17.
I ran into one of my old friends at a near by store. To my surprise this Ludy(18) was having another child from a different guy. I thought one was enought since she couldn't even take care of herself. When I was a freshman, Lundy(15) was a sophomore. I loved playing with her. She was the goofy kind of friend that made everyone laugh all the time. Well that same year she came up to me and told me she was no longer going to play soccer anymore because she was pregnant. Tears rolled from her eyes seeing she was no longer going to be able to chill with us at practice or go to school anymore. I did not understand much about being a mother or a clue how they felt. The stuff she was going through was something I knew nothing about. Lundy tried to come back to school before, but was way behind and her mother had ditched her and her siblings because her mother was frustrated with the amount of children she already had. Their stories and life experiences as being teenage mothers at a young age terrifies me. There are few teens who become successful when they have kids to take care of.
I had a cousin who had a "Quince", which is a party your parents make for you with a huge cake, candy, a crown for the princess, a thrown, and a swing that symbolizes their childhood. That same year she revealed to her parents that she was pregnant. My uncle was really disappointed by her news and he was mostly angry with her so he did not want to help my cousin with the baby. Her boyfriend was there for a while, but soon left her and she was no longer going to school. My cousin dropped out and began to work to take care of the baby. She explained to me she was nowhere close to being ready to have children and wishes that she should have waited to have sex. I was also dissapointed at the with my cousin and my friends. They had good lives and they were smart in school. I did not understand why it was they decided to be parents if they new what risks they were taking. I realized that these were kids who were having kids. I'm not ready for what they're going through or the responsibilities of a baby. I have much to learn and I wish all the luck to teen age mothers.

Ms. Banita M. Jacks, 35, was discovered with her 4 daughters dead bodies. Their bodies had been in the their home for 7 months and were revealed only because the mother was being given an eviction notice. When her trial came, Ms. Jacks’s lawyers had her plead not guilty because of her insanity. This tragedy was noticed by the federal court and so the local child welfare agency went into turmoil and accusations that more should have been done to prevent them from their deaths. The city inspector recognized a lack of visits and coordination through the city agencies as the reason the girls are not still alive. When the girls had dropped our of school, the education officials failed to follow through. The family was suppose to obtain visits every month because of where its housing placement was, but it never did. Therefore, the judge not convinced by her plead, therefore was sentenced to 120 years in prison for killing and obtaining her daughters decomposing bodies in her home for months. I believe that this is a horrible thing a mother could ever do. I do not understand why it is that people choose to have more children and know that they are not capable of taking care of them. These innocent children had no reason at all in the world to pay this type of cruelty. I hope this women will live with this in her conscious and will not make excuses for her actions and realize what she did was horrible.

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/12/19/us/19sentence.html?_r=1

Sasha is my little sister that I adore and "LOVE HER SO MUCH". I have always been her role model and I feel that she has always been my best friend. We both support each other and of course fight when we disagree. Now were growing up and I see changes in her and in me. I would give anything for her to be happy and seeing her smile makes me happy. I thought of so many things that made up my life and she was the first thing that came to my mind. Memories of playing "tag" and "hide and go seek" in our house just her and I alone. When she got hurt I took care of her, she needed advice I was there to offer it. We would laugh together about stupid things that we could only understand. Sasha is proud of me and she considers me her hero. I have always been strong to protect her and defend her, because she means everything to me. Sasha and of course my mother are my inspiration and I'm theirs as well. No one in the world will ever love me as much as they do and I know because we have been together forever. Over time I realized that your family is all you have and if you do not appreciate them or love them, they will be taken away. That is why I will take care of my family. I will give them everything they need and support them in their dreams. I know where ever it is I go they will following me and support me in anything. They love me and look up to me, because they know I care.

Vanidades is a Spanish language magazine that has everything to with life, hair, fashion, news and even horoscopes. As I was reading the "2010 Vanidades Libro Especial De Astrologia", it amazed me that it had to say a lot about my future. I was looking for my sign(ARIES) in the magazine and three full pages were about my sign, so I guess that's why there was only horoscopes included. A part of my horoscope said "Vida es solo una vez y si no lo conviertes en algo especial siempre cera nada mas de lo que otros an echo de su vida". This means that "Life is only once and if you do not create it into something special then it will forever be nothing but what others have done with there lives". I payed most of my attention to this quote because it reminded me of what I really want in my life. I want to be a teacher and I realized that this magazine had little to do with my project, but it was most significant to me. I was always told that you choose how to live your life. Horoscopes deal with elements, stars, position of planets and go blabbing about what color to wear on some days, and where to go. Although it is very scientific and spiritual there were days when I believed in some of the things it said. Some of the traits the magazine mentioned were somewhat correct, but also not completely. I consider myself a little bit of everything nice, mean, pretty, ugly, funny, and boring. If you'd ask me to describe myself it would be a long list, because I'm not even close to finishing creating and knowing myself. "How does an astrology magazine know who I am or where I'll be?" It's very difficult to agree with horoscopes, just like agreeing with myself about my future. I want to be a teacher, but not just a teacher I want to be more than that. I want to be an actress, book writer, fashion designer, artist, singer, mother, and a boxer. My life is way to short and yet so long. Education gives me this collection of all the things I want to do, but teaching sticks out more than the others. I feel that I must first learn how to be taught and then be the one teaching others about the material. Since teaching is something you have to be good at and created as an expert, I feel that this career is something that is for sure. An English teacher gets the opportunity to write,imagine, express which all have to do with English(education). Education is something that I positively know I want to do. There are times I have doubts, but who ever really knows where they belong, therefore, I will take this journey and see where it takes me and not completely follow a magazine. Yes, I'll listen on some parts of the horoscope, but I will not base my life on astrology.

Yesterday my adopted grandmother came to visit my sister and I at my house. My grandmother had a talk with my little sister about patience. She gave my little sister a book called "Stay in the Castle". Sasha asked what the book was about and my grandmother replied, "It's about how people who do not have the patience to grow up and think things through, end up in a path that was not for them". In the book "Stay in the Castle," there is a princess and a King. The King loves his daughter very much and wants only the best for her, but she wants to go to parties outside the castle and hang around with the town villagers. The princess does not listen to her father and leaves the castle secretly every night. Her father warned her that living outside the castle would be totally different and things are not always what they seem. The King adds that he had been preparing a plan for his daughter, where she could be happy only if she could be patient enough to wait for it. This plan included a Prince that would respect and love her endlessly and a Kingdom of her own. The father says " This castle has never been a prison. This castle is a decision. If you leave here things will never be the same. My love for you will never change, but everything else will."

The Princess chose to leave the castle and was convinced that the exciting life of the villagers was worth leaving the Castle for. Years go by and the Princess is pregnant and is married to a Villager. Her husband leaves her every day on her own to drink with his friends. One day the princess notices a handsome prince riding his steed heading for the castle. She sees her father from a distance open the door to the prince. Her father pats him on the shoulder and points to the village letting him know that his daughter was no longer in the Castle, but in the Village. The Prince turns his head to his feet and walks back slowing back to his horse full of disappointment. As the Prince departs, the Princess starts to cry, realizing the handsome Prince was suppose to be for her. She came to the conclusion that if she would've been patience things would have been different for her.

The point that my grandmother wanted to get across to Sasha was that my mother, like God has this plan already created for Sasha and I. She explains that we have the privilege to choose which path it is we want to follow. My grandmother believes that if we do not follow in God's path then we will not be able to see the things that were already planed for us. She adds that temptation is a hard thing to ignore but we must keep strong and not let others or yourself get sidetracked from the path we were meant to follow.

Abby is my long time buddy. She has been my friend for 13 years, and she has never betrayed me, given bad advice, or taken me for granted. She has always been a perfect friend. I did not realize this, until this weekend, because I never really took notice of her loyalty. Every single friend I've had over the years has either stabbed me in the back, lied to me,or used me. This weekend she called me and asked me if I had taken my placement test, or applied to college, decided to move and if I wanted to go to the gym with her. In my mind I said to myself , "why does she care so much?" I came to the conclusion that this long time pal has been more of a friend then any other person over my experience with my so called friends. Abby is successful, caring, and trustworthy. "How come I never took her for consideration? " I believe maybe it was because when it came to who real friends were, I could only come up with how many people actually were not true friends.

I acknowledged over the past years that Abby and Sindy( another one of my best friends) have been my only friends who actually talk to me about things that make sense. Other past friends have only talked to me about boys, dumb drama, stupid ideas that should not even be asked if they should be done. I learned that Abby has always been more than any other friend and should be more appreciated. She cares about me and has never let me down before. I admire her for her success, her kindness, and her beautiful way of looking at life. She motivated me positively and made me realize that sometimes people get caught up in the bad things about people or life and forget about the good things. Therefore, I should take more appreciation of the wonderful things rather neglect them.