McCandless Project

The experiment I chose to do for my McCandless project was dress up in funny clothes and walk through Kroger and Chipotle. I did this experiment with a couple of my friends. We were only planing on going to Kroger, but we thought it would be a good idea to go to one more place to get more reactions. I wore a Tinkerbell onesie, pink tutu, polka dot rain boots, a tiara and a lei. While we were walking through Kroger we got a lot of laughs, stares and funny looks. The cashier said with a smirk on his face, "Sleepover?" We replied, "Nope, just casual." While we were walking to Chipotle almost everyone in their cars looked at us. We also got a couple of people to wave at us. All the workers at Chipotle laughed as soon as we walked in. The cashier asked us what we were doing and we kind of just looked at each other and laughed, but then she said we looked cute anyway. I felt a little weird during the project, but I knew that it was only for a project so it wasn't too big of a deal. It was nice to do something out of the ordinary for once. I enjoyed seeing everyone's reactions I thought it was funny. I expected more people to say things to us, maybe they were just confused. It was expected that people were going to look, laugh, and make funny faces. I thought it was funny to see little kids point and laugh. I wasn't really surprised with the reactions I got. I was "free" to conform based on the results. No one stopped me and said I couldn't walk through Kroger or go to Chipotle, they all just looked at us weird and occasionally said something. I think that his was a great project! I really enjoyed doing something that I wouldn't normally do, it was a lot of fun.

Life Quote

I choose the quote "lean from yesterday, live for today, hope for tomorrow" because all of these mean something to me. If someone made a mistake yesterday then they should learn from it. You can't go back and change what you did wrong. I also believe you should never stress over something you messed up on or regret, it will heal over time. Everyone needs to live in the moment. Have fun and don't worry about what is going to happen in the future or what happened in the past. If you mess up today hope that tomorrow will bring you something great. There will always be better days in the future. This quote represents me, because I have made mistakes in the past, not been thankful for something I had or was doing in the moment, and I have been worried about what was going to happen the next day and if it was going to be better. I know not to make mistakes I have made before and I have learned great lessons from them. I have learned that if I am having fun with my family and friends then I need to relax and enjoy it, they might not be around forever. Hoping and praying for tomorrow has helped me get through though moments in my life. If I lived every second of my life according to my quote I think life would go pretty smoothly. The only thing that might be a little crazy is live for today. It could make you think you could do anything you wanted to do. Other than that you would learn a lot of lessons and you would hope and pray a lot.

Julia Kyle

Mrs. Belden

Honors English I

5 October 2014

                    A New Beginning

    Payton Kelly never admitted that she had a problem until she was dying on her bedroom floor. Payton is anorexic and is living a very rough life. Not many people at Tampa Joe High School like her, or even talk to her. She thought that if she was skinny then the popular girls would talk to her and the boys would like her. She found out that, that was not the case, but she couldn’t find the strength to gain the weight back so she just stayed the way she was.

    It was a normal Monday morning for Payton, she woke up, got ready and went to school. By the time it was lunch time things started to get a little strange for Payton. She normally didn’t eat much for lunch, if anything, and people were used to that, but today she felt and saw people staring. She didn’t know why this was happening, nothing out of the ordinary had happened that she knew about. Then she saw two girls walk by. “Did you hear she almost died again this weekend?” one whispered to the other. “How can she do that to herself for the second time, there must be something wrong with her,” the other replied in disgust. Payton was beyond confused and upset. Nothing bad had happened to her that weekend, she went to support group just like every other weekend. “This is just a rumor! I didn’t do anything bad this weekend!” Payton thought to herself with anger and confusion. “Why do people make this kind of stuff up, and why do they even think about this?” She didn’t eat anything for lunch, she just sat in the bathroom for the rest of the day. No one even cared that she was gone. All that Payton needed was a friend to support her through times like these.

    Payton finally got the courage to get out of the bathroom and go home, she didn’t make eye contact with anyone as she walked right out. She stayed at home for the rest of the week and didn’t eat anything. Her anorexia was getting worse and worse, all she could think about were the rumors people have been saying about her. “Is she dead?” “What did she do to herself? She is as unhealthy as a diseased animal! She really needs help.” Payton’s mom and dad were getting really concerned and didn’t know what to do. They finally took her to the doctor hoping that Payton would listen to to them. They told her that she needed a lot of support and that she had to keep active so she would keep her mind off of the bad things.

Payton went back to school. She felt the stares and heard the whispers. There was nothing that she was going to do about it. She didn’t have the strength to stand up for herself. She noticed that there was a new girl in almost all her classes. She couldn’t figure out her name, all she knew was that she was overweight and Payton could tell she wasn’t fitting in so well. The new girl  finally came up to Payton and asked, “I don’t mean to sound rude or anything but do you have an eating disorder? I can’t help but listen to all the horrible things people have been saying about you!” Payton looked shocked, no one ever talked to her, no one ever cared about what she thought or what her feelings were. “I’m sorry, I don’t mean to be rude, my name is Charlotte, Charlotte Adams I have only been coming to Tampa Joe High School for a week now. I moved from Chicago, Illinois, and I know what it feels like to get harassed and bullied by people.” There was an awkward silence for a couple of seconds. You could tell that neither of them really knew what to say next. “Yes I do, I am anorexic.”  Payton finally said after she realized that Charlotte wasn’t a bad person, she was only trying to help and be a friend. She didn’t really know what to say for even think for that matter. Payton had never been in a situation like this.

    Payton and Charlotte had become very close. They never really talked about their eating problems.. They connected on a level that didn’t have to do with their eating disorders. They were interested in the same things and just enjoyed being around each other. Every time they hung out they found out more and more about each other. Payton thought she was ready to talk about her problems with Charlotte. This was a big deal because she never talked to anyone about it. She was very hesitant though, because she didn’t know if Charlotte was going to open up to her about it or not. Payton finally realized that she was only going to get better if she talked about it and Charlotte was her only friend and the only person Payton wanted to talk about it with.

Charlotte thought about the exact same thing, she didn’t want it to be too much for Payton to handle and she didn’t know how Payton was going to react. They were both hanging out one day and all of a sudden Charlotte just had to say something. “I don’t mean for things to be awkward or anything but how did you become anorexic?” Payton sighed in relief, “Im glad you asked that, I never really had any friends and I thought that if I lost weight then I would look prettier and people would talk to me. I found out that, that was not the way to get people to talk to you...It was a way to get people to talk about you.” Charlotte looked at Payton in disbelief. Charlotte went through something just like that. No one would talk to her and the only way she would feel better is if she ate. She never thought that she would get so overweight. People described Charlotte as a large pig, she would always wear old pink clothes to school, because that was her favorite color and she had naturally blonde crazy curly hair. She got taken out of her school the bullying got so bad. The only people she had by her side were her parents. They argued to the principle that the bullying was getting way out of hand and it was driving them crazy.

Charlotte and Payton talked about their lives for hours and hours. It brought them closer than they ever thought they would be. This is just what both of them needed, their lives couldn't get any worse from where they were now. The only thing they needed to work on was there weight and then they were going to show everyone who they really were. “We can make a change for ourselves and live a happy more healthy life.” Charlotte said when they agreed to start over and try and get healthy again. “This is going to be hard for both of us but we can do it together!” Payton answered with the biggest smile on her face, it lite up the whole sky.

*                *                *

A year later Charlotte had lost weight and she was becoming in shape. Payton had gained weight and enjoys healthy foods. Both of them are enjoying school and have friends. Payton and Charlotte are best friends and they are so grateful to have each other. Everyone at school is so sorry for all the mean things they said about both of them. Everyone is helping to keep Payton and Charlotte healthy and safe.

Metacognitive Blog: And Then There Were None

From my first draft to my final copy I changed the commentary the most. I probably need to work on that the most too. I wrote my essay then had to read through it again and add the commentary I need. I understand that commentary explains the detail, but I don't really understand how to put it in an essay and have it still flow. I had to add and change my commentary, therefor I had to make sure my essay made sense and flowed correctly. The form of support that helped me the most was sharing my essay with a parent. That  helped me a lot, because my parents didn't know what the book was about and they didn't read it. They helped me add more description and make sure it made sense. Having a peer look over mine helped, but they read the book so they knew what was going on and could infer if I didn't explain something enough. The written feed back on my timed writing helped me a lot with that essay, but I think that it was kind of hard to use it in this essay, because they were different. I think that maybe if you looked at my essay or some of it, then that would help me. I would know a little more of what you wanted my essay to be like. I think that would help at least until I felt more comfortable with writing essays. 

Choice Summer Reading

Julia Kyle

Mrs. Belden

Honors English I

10 September 2014

                Summer Reading Choice Book

I read the book The Fault in Our Stars by John Green. The theme of this book is, live life at the fullest. John Green shows this through the two main characters, Hazel Lancaster and Augustus Waters. The theme also is shown with their relationship.

The first detail that was shown in the book was when Hazel just sat around her house and didn’t do anything with her life. The only thing she did was watch TV and go to support group. Hazel knew she wasn’t going to live for a long time, so she didn’t want to go out and interact with other people. She didn’t want to hurt the people she loved once she died. Hazel thought it would be easier to sit at home and be alone. This relates back to the theme because, if someone is going to die then they need to get out and have fun. There is no reason why they shouldn’t be doing the things they have always wanted to do. They should make an impact on people while they are here. They should make themselves remembered.

Another detail shown for the theme is once Hazel meet Augustus then she wasn’t afraid to do things as much anymore. They traveled together to meet the author or Hazels’ dreams. They threw eggs at someones car with their other friend. They went on dates and just hung out and had fun. They also fell in love with each other. This relates back to the theme because, doing all those things is what living life is all about. Everyone wants to fall in love and have someone love them back. Going on vacation and meeting someone they have always wanted to meet is really great. Everyone should do these things in their lives. It’s always good to have people there that will distract others of the bad things in life, and have them bring out the good things and make memories. That is exactly what Augustus did with Hazel.

These details from the book explains why the theme of The Fault in Our Stars is live life at the fullest. The book teaches a lesson of how people need to get out there and have no regrets and have fun. It also teaches people that they should impact people's lives no matter how they feel themselves. Live life at the fullest, it’s the best way to live and happy life.