Divergent by Veronica Roth

Veronica Roth expertly puts the characters to work in this book. Beatrice Prior is a sixteen year old girl, which means that it is almost time for the choosing ceremony. She starts out in the Abnegation faction. There are five factions, Abnegation, Amity, Candor, Dauntless, and Erudite. These are the factions that you can choose from. This is the choice that Beatrice has to make. Before you can choose which one you belong to, you have to take what is called the aptitude test. This test shows you which faction you are most like, only Beatrice didn't get one. Her results were marked as incomplete. She had aptitude for three factions. This is really unheard of. This makes her divergent. Only this is extremely dangerous, some one is trying to kill the divergent for some unknown reason. Beatrice chooses Dauntless where she starts her training for the initiate tests. The first part of the test? Jumping on and off a moving train. As she completes her training she begins to fall in love with one of her trainers, Four. Then things start to go wrong. The factions start falling apart. The erudite are injecting people with these serums that let the erudite control their actions, it puts them in a simulation. They are unwillingly becoming soldiers. But what can they do? This war has only just begun.

I absolutely loved divergent. It was so different, and I love books about dystopian societies. They are just so different. Veronica Roth masters the characters in this book. She gives them personality, and so much emotion that you begin to choose which characters are your favorite and you start to move with them. There are a bunch of characters in this book, but only a few main ones. There is Tris/Beatrice who is the focus of the book. She is sixteen and she is a divergent. There is Four, he is a Dauntless instructor, about eighteen years old. As the story progresses so does his relationship with Tris. We also have Caleb, he is Tris' brother and he is an abnegation that switches to erudite. We also have Peter, he is also a Dauntless initiate like Tris. He is very aggressive and is one of the top people in Dauntless training.

There are just so many things I liked about this book that I don't even know where to begin. I guess I'll start with some quotes. "That is death - shifting from 'is' to 'was'." I liked this quote because it is so true. That is really when death starts to set in. When you can no longer say, oh so and so IS great, you have to change it to so and so WAS great. That is just a really true quote in the book that I loved.

There is another quote that I really liked. "I believe in ordinary acts of bravery, in the courage that drives one person to stand up for another." I liked this because I also believe in that. It is helping some one out with the little things that really makes the difference in their life. It can make some ones life a whole lot better or easier if you take courage and help them.

I loved this book so freaking much. I've said that so many times now. I would recommend this book to all people. It is a great read that you will never want to put down, and will be so sad when it ends. This book is different from most; it talks about putting people in a certain area, fenced in by their personalities because there is "something else" on the outside. It is amazing.

Junior High is almost over

It's weird to think back to the end of eighth grade when I was trying out for rhapsody how nervous I was, and then helping out with the try outs this year and seeing how nervous they all were during their try outs. Is that how I was? Junior High has helped me realize who I am and who I want to become so much, I have found myself in these last three years, thank goodness the awkward stage is over. I have decided what I want to do with my life, and it has all happened because of my experiences in Junior High. Through out the past year I have been trying to decide what I want to be when I grow up, and in the middle of the year, I finally realized; I want to be a special needs teacher. There are so many things that inspired this decision, but mostly it was working with the special needs kids at my school and seeing their huge smiles when I encouraged them, or just how excited they were when we played board games. It is going to be sad going into high school and no longer seeing these kids. I have grown to love them so much. They are just the most sweet, adorable, hard working kids ever. Their smiles are the reason I want to help other kids like them.

Ugh. The thing I am so ready for it to end though? The homework. I am so tired of spending everyday of every weekend on homework! If it's not for one of my classes at school, then it is one of my online classes. I am sick of not having time to actually do things that are fun. It is just so ridiculous. I thought that as the school year ended you were supposed to have less homework, not more. The homework that is most stressful though is my online classes- Health, and Computer Tech. It's not like it is hard or anything, I just haven't had anytime to work on them! Which sucks because I have to finish the first quarter of both of them by JUNE 15th! Ahhhh!
I hope that I can get it done on time. I just have to stick to it and make sure that I do at least one assignment for each of them a weekend. Hopefully I can get health done. That is the one that I am most worried about. I have only done a few assignments, so I have a lot more to go. Computer Tech I'm not worried about though, I have like three assignments left until I take the proctored test. I am just waiting for my sister to finish so that we can take it together.

Well, now that I've said that, I've sadly got to do more homework and clean my house. My sister is celebrating a friends birthday tonight. Lot of stuff to do in not a lot of time. :P Well, see ya later!

Wow...

I seriously cannot believe that soon, one of my sisters will be graduating high school. Now, I know that this has happened twice already, but still! My sisters are just so responsible, mature, kind, and I don't like that fact that they are growing up! :P I just want us to go back to when we were little and the only worries we had was if we won the Melee match of Super Smash Bros. That is what we have been doing lately; we have been playing a lot of Super Smash Bros, I guess it is because we just love the game, but it is so happy. We never really all get to see each other any more so it is really fun when we all have time to do something together. This is hard to do because they have work, school, and our schedules never really match up. It is even more difficult because both of our parents work the night shift and usually don't get home til eleven or twelve. Although this is difficult, I think that all of our relationships are growing because of it. Because we don't get to see each other often, all at the same time, we cherish it more when we do. This is something that I absolutely love, spending time with my family, even if it is just sitting around the garden for a few hours before we all have to go to bed because we have work or school in the morning. Time with my family is something that I never take for granted, because we don't have it often. I see my parents every morning, but only until one, on the weekends, and til I have to go to school. On weekdays it is usually just a hug, bye, and I love you before I walk out the door. The great thing though? My parents have Wednesdays and Thursdays off. So I get to see them when I get home on Wednesdays and Thursdays too. Family is just so important to me, I don't know what I would do without them. I have probably posted about this before, but that's okay because that is just how important they are to me. Often when we are all together they will all say how much they missed each and every one of us; but what they don't know? We missed them a lot too. My sisters don't work far away from home, two of them work in farmington, and one works at target. I wish that I could just go visit them at their work sometimes, but I can't. I don't have my drivers license yet so I can't drive to see them. It is really hard to try to see your family if you can't drive to see them. I usually just end up stuck at home every weekend, not that that is a bad thing. I usually end up getting a lot done, and I love home, it's just a little quiet and lonely sometimes, that's all. Well I know this is just a kind of random post, but oh well, I needed to get this out :) See ya.

Mental Disorder Research Paper

There are over 250,000 to 350,000 families in the U.S. that are affected by Down syndrome (National Down Syndrome Congress). Varying in severity, Down syndrome is a disorder that causes lifelong mental retardation (MayoClinic). This disorder is important to know about because it is usually caused when women over forty have children. This causes a mess up in the genetic code causing what is Trisomy 21, or Down syndrome. I work personally with kids who have Down syndrome every day. They struggle with learning but are still very eager to learn even when they are difficult to deal with.

Down syndrome causes many symptoms; a lot of them actually affect their physical features making kids with Down syndrome easily recognizable. Most common are: flattened facial features, smaller head with shorter neck, protruding tongue, upward slanting eyes, unusually shaped ears, poor muscle tone, short hands with a single crease, shorter fingers, and excessive flexibility. These symptoms obviously lead to the fact that kids with Down syndrome will be abnormally small. Due to the abnormality of size the development of these children tends to be slower, their abilities such as crawling or walking may come slower and take more time to develop (MayoClinic). Other symptoms may also be sutures around the skull, excess skin at the neck, and white spots in the iris (Neil Kaneshiro). Because of the defects that this causes many of the children develop slowly mentally, socially and physically. They will usually have poor judgment, a shortened attention span, learning disabilities, and impulsive behavior. They also have many medical conditions that need to be taken care of, or watched carefully (Neil Kaneshiro).

 Working specifically with the children is important. They need more support than usual to keep going. Each child with Down syndrome has different needs, as the symptoms vary in severity. At my school we have a program to help these students. Since they need special care we give it to them. They are in a class room each day where they get their own attention. They work with their own teacher to develop the necessary skills they will need for life. To help develop social skills, a group of kids tutors them weekly and works on reading, money skills, and taking turns. We help them recognize how to sound out words, how to count out money, and play board games to learn team work and take turns. This is important if they are to live their own lives. Early intervention is important to help these kids along the way (MayoClinic).

 Down syndrome is most common in kids whose mother is over forty years old when they have the child. When the mother is forty or over the chances can go from 1 in 100, to 1 in 10; when you are twenty your chances are 1 in 2000 (National Down Syndrome Society). It can be diagnosed very early, often at birth based on the usual physical differences; there are also tests that can be done to diagnose Down syndrome.

 Currently there is no cure for Down syndrome, but there is treatment. Early intervention is often recommended to help these kids live almost normal lives. The cause of Down syndrome is a mess up in the genetic code called Trisomy 21. This causes the children to have social, mental, and physical problems. Down syndrome is a life time disorder, but with special care, the symptoms can be lessened. With help, these kids can lead their own normal, healthy lives.

34 Days... Is Not Enough Time

My Final year in Junior High, wow. I seriously can't believe how fast it is coming to an end; how fast I am growing up. It's crazy to think that I turn sixteen this fall, that I will have my license by October, and that I will be a Sophomore. Even though I've got thirty four days of Junior High left, I am already starting to prepare for my first year in High school, as a Sophomore.

As I look back on my years in Junior High there are many things I regret, like not being able to take all of the classes I wanted to. Not being as social as I would like, and most of all... not spending more time with my friends. They mean everything to me and because I was so worried about High School, I didn't free up any of my time to go hang out with them, or saying "Hey! Lets go get Ice Cream or something", you know? I'm doing my best to prepare for the future and not leaving any time in the present to do things with those I love. Although there are many things I regret, there are also many things that I am grateful for. I am grateful that my family has been there every step of the way, that my friends have been there every second with me laughing, that I've been able to get a 4.0 GPA every term this year. That is a big accomplishment for me. I'm grateful that I have friends that will stick with me, that will stay in touch even though we are all going to different high schools. That is a big accomplishment for me, I've always have a hard time keeping friends because I am different, and if I do have good friends they usually end up moving and then it is hard to stay in touch (especially when they move out of the country to Russia or Germany).

As I start preparing for high school I find myself looking back on these things. Hoping that I won't get lost in this high school that is so new to me. Believe it or not, in seventh grade I was the scared, shy (still am), and lonely seventh grader that got lost going to her classes. I got lost going to my English class, to my locker, then to my Science class; the funny part? My Science class and my English class were across the hall, and my locker was just in the next hall over. As I start high school I am hoping to discover more about myself, my interests, and what I want to do with my life. I have met many inspirational people over the years that have helped me when I struggled. They made me realize that I want to help people. I want to give kids that same smile that they gave to me when I accomplished something. Whether or not I can find a career in this I don't know, but I will always incorporate it into my life.

34 days. Let the count down begin.

Titanic Exhibit

Okay so if you have read my last post than you know that I went on a road trip over spring break. Well, we were heading back on Thursday; after staying in the Luxor in Las Vegas the previous night. Well, I started this wrong but, this post, obviously is about a Titanic Exhibit that we went to on our last day. Thursday morning. Well this certainly was an exciting day! We got to sleep in til nine! Can you believe it! Every other day we had been getting up at like seven, and packing up and we had to be out of the hotel at nine. So you can imagine our excitement when we could sleep for two more hours. After we had gotten up and checked out of the hotel we went to breakfast. This wasn't just any breakfast though. It was breakfast at a Las Vegas buffet. I don't know why but the buffets in Las Vegas are better than any buffet I have ever been too. Of course though the ones here in Utah suck so really isn't much of a comparison. Well I just have to say that that buffet was delicious! After the buffet we went back to the Luxor because we had found out that they were doing a really cool titanic exhibit wher there is a room that the temperature is the same as it would have been the night that the titanic crashed, and sank. We were sooo excited. When we finally got our tickets and were at the front of the line we got waved through and this lady had us stand in front of a green screen and took our picture.Then they gave us boarding passes and off we went. The super cool thing about these boarding passes was that they had the names of actual passengers that were on the titanic. So after you got the boarding pass you are told to hold on to it because at the very end of the exhibit you get to find out whether or not your passenger lived. My boarding pass was a Miss Kate Buss. She was born in England and was traveling to get married to her long time sweetheart. She had left the rest of her family behind in England. So as we are going through this exhibit we got to see artifacts that they had dug up from the remains of the Titanic. Peoples personal belongings. It was so breath taking, and they had quotes from people up on the walls, they even had the old time music. Once we got to the end there was this huge wall with a bunch of names on it and depending on where the name was told you whether or not your passenger, or you, lived or not. My twin, my mom, and I were all second class women on the ship and we lived. My step dad though, he was a third class man and he died. It was so sad. Well, this was just a brief explanation of the exhibit. I will do a more detailed post about it later, with pictures. :) See ya.

Day 1

This is day one of our spring break road trip. We left this morning at 10 am (Utah time) and are currently half way across Nevada. It has been way fun, but the weather isn't agreeing with us. This whole day the winds have just been getting worse and worse. It is seriously scary... At the beginning of our day we we driving west in Utah, our first stop was to the salt flats. It is so strange to think that the salt flats used to be at the bottom of lake Bonneville. After that we continued west and made it all the way to Wendover where we stopped to fill up our car, and buy snacks.  Then we continued through Nevada, where I decided to take an hour nap, while listening to Catching Fire, the second book in the Hunger Games series. Then at about 3:30 we made it to Winnemucca, this cute little town in the middle of no where, where we stopped to have lunch/get a soda/snack. Now we have left Winnemucca and  are going South West to Lake Tahoe where we will be staying for the night. This wind has gotten a lot worse, to the point where it is so loud that I could talk normally and no one in the car could hear me talking. We have about three and a half hours to our destination for the night. It is crazy. We have been in the car for six hours now, maybe seven. I did not know that like all of Nevada was just barren desert. Well, now we are listening to an Ellen Degeneres audiobook, it is hillarious! It is also very confusing. Well, I think for now I am going to take another nap and finish writing this blog post in a little while, until then (Which for you will be the next line I write, but it will for me be hours till I write it, probably)... Hey :) We made it to the hotel last night ('m writing this in the morning now) That last part that I wrote about with the wind? Well, that wasn't even the worst part. Once we got up into the mountains it started snowing, hard. This was like a few miles away from the Nevada/California border going South West. Once we got up in the mountains people were all pulled off the roads and out of their cars. We were like what the heck?!? Then we saw the sign that said snow chains and snow tires required. Luckily we already had snow tires on our Jeep Cherokee. it was so crazy though. I was so glad once we got out of the mountains. They scare me so bad. i hate even being able to see the side of the cliff even when we aren't close to it. Once we got out of the mountains there were a lot of wrecks. people were sliding  all over the place! Luckily no one hit us. That is how day 1 of our six day trip went. Day two here we come!