The Cycle of Hamlet

    Mr. Burge had told us that as we continued to read Hamlet that we would begin to understand it more and that it would become easier for us to get the first time around. For most people it was becoming easier to grasp all the different meanings that Shakespeare had put into his writing. As Burge continuously tells us, Shakespeare doesn’t have just one meaning for anything that he writes.

    The double meaning to his work is something that’s hard for me to grasp a lot of the time. Reading Shakespeare confuses me greatly because I second guess myself on what I think something could possibly mean. I feel like if I begin to understand what is being said in the play that there is something that I am missing. As if I’m not fully understanding anything that’s going on, maybe I’m just thinking that I do.

   In all honesty, Shakespeare frustrates me. How could one person write so many successful plays in such a short period of time? Each being as successful as the last one that was written. How does someone come up with so many different play ideas, plots, characters and settings, while still being able to not repeat anything ever? It doesn’t make sense. Frankly, Shakespeare makes me feel inferior which makes me even angrier.

   Who would have known that one play like Hamlet could make me feel as though I was back in freshman year Algebra all over again? It’s ridiculous. I try to participate more during our class readings to have a better understanding, but I’ve been picked twice and not with as much willingness that I would have hoped or thought there would be.

   I don’t like this Hamlet cycle, I would like to stop the on going process.

Leadership is my life

   I've always been a strong child, ever since the day that I was born. With my strong headedness or as some would like to call it "stubbornness" comes leadership. One of my favorite things to be a part of. I've always been a leader, and have surrounded myself by those that follow, ever since I could remember having friends. Being a leader is in my blood I guess you could say.
   I enjoy the feeling of the authority that you gain when in a leadership role. Its a thrill that I get when I am able to head something important. For the past 6 years now, I have been involved in leadership and couldn't have asked to be a part of something better then it. I couldn't imagine being involved in anything else. As the years progress, so do my leadership skills. Going to my high school has really benefited me even more so, because it has given me many more opportunities to better and add on to those skills.
  I've grown and moved up on the totem pole these past 4 years in leadership positions. I went from being a freshmen representative to being secretary, to vice president and this year, I can happily announce that I am president. President of my academy I mean. Being a part of something where you know that you try your hardest and it prevails you, is a great feeling.
  Being a leader is what I have a passion for. When people judge me and use it against me as a leader it makes me upset. There's nothing I dislike more then negative people. Especially those that doubt me. When that happens there is no greater feeling, then metaphorically sticking up your middle finger and saying "What have you done, to have someone consider you as a leader? Not to mention, who are you to judge me?" I am not the person most people perceive me to be. I am me, and that person is a great leader that hopes to change the world, or at least make it an enjoyable place to be for others.
   As a leader, that's all that you can ask for. That at least some people benefit and appreciate all that you did.  Maybe one day they will. I'm not the most popular or the prettiest, but I care, and I hope those that have doubted me, will soon realize that I am human just like they are. We all have faults, but I ask as a leader that you don't just pick out the wrongs. find some good.

Hamlet Hath Ugh

   As Burge begins to tell us that we have to start reading Hamlet this weekend on our own, I proceed to groan inside of my head. This has to be the one of the worst plays by Shakespeare that I have read in all of high school. It's boring, and has to do with a lot of sex. I'm sorry, but that does not sound fun to me. 

    Tonight as I began to read the first scene in Act I my mind began to wander to other aspects of my life. Anything that could and would distract me sufficed. Those 18 pages were filled with pure jubberish to me. I mean don't get me wrong, I understand what was going on, but it was just so uninteresting and disappointing. I had high hopes for this play and am greatly disappointed. 

  To make matters worse, we have to actually do work for this play. We have summaries and titles to make for each scene. Even better, I'll have to memorize a speech that is over 25 lines long, along with all the rest that is going on with my life...  

   Let the count down begin for this play to end now. T-minus however many days we have left of it and 4 more acts. Wish me luck my friends, as I do the same for those of you that are in the same boat as I am! 

My best friends

Throughout my life, I have had many best friends in my life. My friends are my whole world to me. They are there for me when I'm down, they have my back when I need them the most. They are my rock and my whole world. Without them in my life I would be lost, I wouldn't be where I am today. 
    They brighten my day with our inside jokes and their big smiles! I can honestly say that coming to this school allowed me to gain friendships that I will have for a life time. 
    The people at this school are different, we aren't just regular high school students, we are kids that have a drive in life to follow the path that we want to in life. My friends and I have ambitions. They place a drive in me that pushes me to be better. 
   Without them in my life, I would be lost. I love them and am so grateful to have had them allow me into their life. 

The poetry in our Music

     While reading some of the headings on some of my fellow classmates blog, I begin to develop my own idea for my blog entry tonight.

    This past week has got to be one of the most stressful weeks of this year by far. I was in a horrible argument with one of my best friends and had our academy's elections on my mind. Its fair to say that my mind was else where for our classes last week.
 
   It was hard for me to concentrate knowing what was going on and that no matter what I tried to do, to stop it, that nothing would make it better. That all my attempts made it worse. I tried so hard to focus on school last week. I was so frustrated at my feeble attempts to finish my work last week. So, at the end of last week on Friday when Burge had told us that he was going to give us a break this weekend and give us an easy assignment, I sighed with great relief to know that my teachers still understood that we needed breaks.

  Our assignment was to find a song that we found to have deeper meaning and that held some sort of meaningful poetic value. Don't use Miley Cyrus' song, was all I heard replaying in my mind as I tried to find a song that would do this assignment justice. Especially now, that we are in our final year of high school, I would like to go out with a bang, and say that I actually tried this year. Being in Burge's class and always trying so hard to be in the head of the class and have him think that I am as smart as people like Parker and Delana who always seem to understand what's going on. I feel unskilled when I am around people like them.

  I hope that the song that I chose has meaning and could actually have a purpose tomorrow. I enjoy both poetry and music, so hopefully blending the two together tomorrow will resonant with me. Both poetry and music allow self expression, independence and authority over your own material. Its all up to the one that is behind that keyboard or pen writing and typing away.

English

   Yesterday in class we had the opportunity to take a part of a practice test for our AP exam that we take in May. It was a bit challenging to say the least. Usually in class when we are assigned a poem, we read it by ourselves for homework and then are able to discuss it when we get back to class. For our AP test we aren’t allowed to do discuss anything with anyone. Those tests require complete silence. So, you can imagine the difficulty that the practice test posed for me when I wasn’t able to discuss with my friends what they thought about a part of the poem or what they thought that the poem meant.

    The poem was a poem by Emily Dickinson, one of the most confusing poets that I have ever heard of. All of her poems always have more than one meaning or have a hidden meaning. It’s hard to understand for me what she is saying most of the time. Don’t get me wrong, she has great poems, with abstract thoughts and thought provoking words, but why couldn’t she have just made it a little easier to understand.

   Needless to say, when I took the practice part of the test in my AP English class yesterday in Burge’s cold room in a hard cold chair, I didn’t understand what was going on. I didn’t do so well on that test. I have confidence though, that with Mr. Burges help, that I will be able to pass the AP exam with great understanding and ease. I look forward to all that is to come this year and all the knowledge that I will gain in this class to use to further my future college career. I just hope that as our text gets closer I will still feel the same.

Senior Year (an Original Poem)

Senior year has begun, and boy is it overwhelming.

No matter how much someone warns you that life comes at you full speed when you reach senior year, you are never quite ready for it.

Senioritis starts to come into play,

the school work, the boring days at school,

wishing that you could be anywhere else but in that hard cold desk staring at the clock on the wall.

 

Hitting me like a ton of bricks, I begin to imagine my life after high school,

a life without my parent’s right by my side anymore, it’s scary.

I have to provide for myself, I need to pay my own way,

through school and the rest of my life.

 

Scholarships, grants, essays, tests and quizzes, SAT’s and ACT’s, when does it all stop.

Senior events, dances, football games, Prom, and graduation.

My last year of high school.

I want to keep all the friends that I have right now, for the rest of my life,

but who am I kidding; I know that will never happen.

 

It’s the beginning of September, the countdown begins,

276 days left until it’s all over.

Not knowing whether all this stress will be needed or worth it in the end.

Graduation day is surreal,

I just hope that I will remember it all and take it all in with my eyes wide open.

The day that I have to say goodbye to those that I have built my life with.

Please don’t forget me,

I won’t forget you.

 

College decisions are beginning to be made.

I don’t want to make the wrong decision.

How will I know when I made the right one?

Uncertainty kills me.

College scares me.

I’m still a kid, where’s my mom, where’s my dad?

                                                                  

Don’t forget to look for scholarships, my counselor advises me,

apply for them all she said.

Fear fills my body as I think of what I’ll have to do by myself.

Will I make it in college?

I’m afraid to put myself out there anymore then I have to.

I need to begin my life I think to myself.

I’m ready for what the world has to bring

New adventures await us, just past the doors of our oh too familiar high school.

Life awaits us.

 

Senior year, don’t fail me now is all I can think of.

Our lives have just begun.

I prepare myself by looking ahead.

I will not look back, I promise myself.

My decision

    This post today will be more personal and not so boring, at least I hope not... So stay with me if you can.
    Summer of my eighth grade year, a week before school began was one of the hardest weeks of my life. With that, came a decision that I had to make that would then change the course of the rest of my life. It was a decision that set me up for success and allowed me to grow into the young adult that I am today.
     This decision that I had to make was one that all my very close friends now had to make as well. That decision was, to leave our zoned high schools and venture out, for most of us without our friends that we grew up with for most of our lives, on our own. None of us knowing, that by far that was going to be the best decision that we would make in our lives to date. The school that we go to now, is by far one of the best schools that I have ever heard of. It allows you to be yourself, and always has allowed us to be ourselves. It has allowed us to grow, change, and mature as a tight knit family.
   I'm sure everyone here can relate when I say, that the decision to change high schools was not an easy one. It came with a lot of anxiety, tears, anticipation, and any other emotion that you could possibly think of. And yet, my friends we made that decision, and we made that decision with pride and positivity. Going into a new situation with open eyes, and open minds.  
   Sure our school may not have sports, or huge pep rallies like "normal" high schools do, we have something even better. Something that takes much more brains then just kicking a ball around and trying to score a goal. We compete in what's called SkillsUSA, which is ten times better than any sport that I know. Competing in SkillsUSA has allowed me to have the opportunity to make friends with people from all over the country, have more confidence in myself as well as my leadership skills, and better me as a person. Without this competition, I would not carry the friendships that I have right now with me, for the rest of my life.
   I honestly couldn't imagine what my life would be like if I had not decided to go to this school and had just chosen to go to my zoned high school instead. I would have been lost in the crowd, forgotten by all those around me, and never in a million years, turned into the human being that I am right this very moment. I have had the most amazing high school experience that anyone could have ever dreamed of, thanks to all the people that I have around to support me.
   I wonder at times, what would have become of me if I hadn't made this brave decision. Sometimes I think that it would have been fun to go to a normal high school, and then I just think of all that I have done in these short three years, and think to myself that no other decision would have better suited me than this one.
   I couldn't be more grateful for all the opportunities that I was given by attending school here. Thank you for letting me spread my wings and fly. I am now an eagle in a sky full of pigeons.

Chapter One- Poetry

    I began my senior year in AP Lit with a summer assignment that was required for our class to read called, Catch 22, by Joseph Heller. After getting the ball rolling with all of the work we had to do with that book, next came poetry. Ever since I was a young child, I have enjoyed reading poetry. It was one of my favorite things to do. I liked to create my own poems when I was younger. It made me feel as if I was creative, and allowed me to have my own outlet to let my feelings out.
    When given the assignment of reading our giant textbooks first chapter on poetry, I groaned. I have to be honest, sometimes I don't quite grasp the concept of something right away when reading poems and passages.
    Last night, I opened the text book to begin the chapter. As I was reading our first poem, "Shall I compare thee to a summers day?" the poem was the farthest thing from my thoughts. As I re-read the poem for what felt like the tenth time, it all started to make sense. The words began to take on new meanings.
   Today in class, we were able to have a class discussion and dissection of what this poem really meant. Being able to get to the point faster as a group, was an enjoyable change to be able to actually start to understand what was going on. As our teacher was reading the poem to us, I heard more voice behind the lines of the poem. I was able to grasp the "hidden" meanings behind what was being said. 
    Dissecting this poem in class today, allowed me to hear this poem word for word through new ears. Grasping that Shakespeare's main purpose was not to describe a woman's beauty, but in reality describing the beauty of his poem and how his poems' beauty would live forever instead of the woman's beauty. Reading the poem again, I understand how self centered of a man that Shakespeare really was.
    Its unfortunate that no woman was actually beautiful enough for Shakespeare to write about in his poems.