My Life Soundtrack

Throughout my life I have grown to love many songs, and attached them to many moments, both fun and hard. In my life soundtrack only a few of these songs will be represented, but they are some of my favorites. These songs are me. They start from my first house in Sandy, to where I am now in Layton. From the little things like goofing off with my sisters to family vacations. These songs help to represent me, and the times I have gone through. This is a musical representation of me.



“She Will Be Loved” by Maroon 5



            This song reminds me of going camping when I was little, specifically when I was going to the dunes. I remember I was about ten when we went down there with my dogs. We were four-wheeling around our camp and we found these really cool trails. It was so much fun! This song for me is just representing time camping with my family. This is because whenever we would go camping after the day was over we would just sit around the fire and play games or sing songs. It was a lot of fun.



“Hey There Delilah” by Plain White T’s



            Anytime we were on our way camping, we would sing. That is kind of what our family calls car-eoke. We would just belt it on the top of our lungs, all of our favorite songs. This song represents time spent with my sisters, not having to worry about school, homework, or anything. This is one of the songs that we would belt. It was one of our favorites then and still is now. Even when we all have changed, this song, and what it means to us never will.



“Had a Bad Day” by Daniel Powter



            I was about four when my parents got divorced. I remember the day that my dad was leaving and I asked my mom why he was leaving, and if he could stay. I remember when I would wake up in the middle of the night, after a bad dream, and I would walk downstairs to his “office”. Really, it was just our basement. I would go down there and sit with him, and just watch him working on his computer. For me this song represents getting through the hard times, and coming out of it stronger. I think that the lyrics are just so appropriate.

♫Sometimes the system goes on the blink

And the whole thing turns out wrong

You might not make it back and you know

That you could be well oh that strong

And I'm not wrong

So where is the passion when you need it the most

Oh you and I

You kick up the leaves and the magic is lost

This song got me through some really difficult times in my life, and even though it is telling about sad times, it always cheered me up. It still does.

“Yellow” by Coldplay

           

            When I was little I would sit up in my room doing nothing for hours. I would listen to the sounds around me, and sing to myself. The main reason I liked this song so much though, was because it was my favorite color at the time. This was also one of the songs that helped comfort me when I was down. It seemed… familiar and safe. This song made me happy. After I heard it, you could believe that I got the lyrics down pretty quick. I was constantly singing it. J This song just represents more of my childhood memories. Also, more times spent with my family, and the times spent by myself. I loved the lyrics in this song, they are just so mesmerizing.

♫Look at the stars

Look how they shine for you

And all the things that you do♫

“Up!” by Shania Twain



            We got a country song now! Growing up with all of my sisters, I was never really alone; no matter what I was doing I usually had someone there with me. This song reminds me of spring cleaning or random jam sessions in the middle of the day. It is like early mornings spent in the yard, or going on bike rides with my stepdad. There was that one bike ride where we were just going down the street, but my bike pedal ended up skimming the curb. I ended up skinning my elbows, yea, it wasn’t very fun after that…. This is what my mom listened to as I grew up so I came to love it. This song even more than the other songs is directly me. I have listened to this from the very beginning. Although Shania is not popular anymore, her songs are still my favorite country songs.



“Over My Head” by The Fray



            One of my first trips to Hawaii was in the fourth grade. We were staying in a condo on Maui, or maybe it was Oahu. I couldn’t sleep so I went over to my sister, who was sleeping on the bean bag chair thing, and I curled up next to her and we listened to her music. This song came on and soon after that I calmed down and I fell asleep. It was instant comfort. The music is so smooth and soft; I just couldn’t help but sleep. This song represents the calm, quiet, and peace in my life. That song that night was just so relaxing it really helped me, and I have never forgotten it.



“Waka Waka” by Shakira



            I honestly don’t know how my family came to love this song. It sort of just happened. This was more recent than my other stories, about a few months ago. We were driving to my grandmas and my mom had this song on her iPod. My sisters were driving either right in front of us or right behind us, who knows. My mom turned the volume way up and rolled down the windows at a stop light so that they could hear it too. They started dancing! It was the funniest thing ever, and since then it has just become our happy dance song. J







“We are young” by Fun.



            Whenever this is on the radio, or we play in on a computer, my sisters and I just start laughing, smiling, and singing. It is our favorite current pop song. We just goof off and sing.

♫ Tonight

We are young

So let’s set the world on fire

We can burn brighter

Than the sun ♫

We love this song because it is so true, kind of, just the chorus. :P We are young, and we want to just have fun.



“This is me” by Demi Lovato



            I first listened to this song maybe a week or two before my Rhapsody In Blue try out last year. I wanted to pick a song that represented how I felt. I chose this song because I was sick of being so shy that I missed out on such great opportunities. I wanted to give myself a chance and let people see the real me (cheesy right?). I am so glad that I took that chance because I made Rhapsody. This new experience has helped me discover who I am, and what I want to do with my life. I wanted to show that I was changing. I was going to let people see my personality, I didn’t want to be shy anymore. Because of this choice, it has helped me over come many challenges that I have faced, and be more true to myself.



“Spirit of Adventure” from Up – the movie



            Any vacation or trip you’ve gone on is a new adventure right? It’s always exciting. Everyone is having a good time, and doing new things. One trip kind of stood out for me, it was different. It was a road trip. Over spring break I went to California, but not the way that one might expect. Our first stop was in Tahoe, Nevada. It was snowing. We took this big loop then from Nevada to California, then back to Nevada, south this time, and back into Utah. Most of the time was spent in the car. Not. Even. Kidding. It was still fun though. It was cramped, but really fun. Vacations are like adventures. I’d never been on a road trip before, or really to California at all. We went and saw the Golden Gate Bridge, and many other things that I will never forget. Some parts were rough, talk about some suspicious looking hotels, but we got through them and we laughed about it. That’s an adventure.



“This One’s For The Girls” by Martina McBride



            This is another one of those songs that we would sing in the car, or the house, a lot. It is different though. This song has more meaning to me than any other song I have mentioned. This song brings back memories of holidays and family gatherings. When we listened to this with my mom she would sing it, but she would change the lyrics. Instead of saying This one’s for the girls, she would sing, This one’s for MY girls. It made us smile and giggle every time. It made us really happy. This reminded us of all of the things that she has done for us, and how she never gives up on us. She was making this song memorable, it has come to represent her. When I think of this song, I think of my mom. Well it worked, this song is definitely memorable.



            So you see? Music is my life. It is in every second in everyday. It is in my singing, my orchestra music, and constantly on my mind. These songs are just a few that have great meaning to me. I only wish that I had time to go through and think about all of the songs that have some significant meaning to me. I wish I had more time for music in my life, but you see, it has always been there. Whether I have realized it or not. Well, I hope you’ve had fun reading this and learning a little bit more about me, because I sure had fun writing it.

CRT's

So last week in my Honors English class we were asked to evaluate CRT's, or EOL's. Well, since I have such a big opinion on this subject, I thought I'd share it with you.

Ugh, don't even get me started on the subject of EOL's. These tests don't actually test any knowledge that a student knows. Most of the time it just tests their guessing abilities. Most of the things that are on CRT's or EOL's we never learn about, or they are test questions that have just been stuck in the test this year and don't actually count. CRT's don't test anything. If you really want to figure out how much a student knows then you should let them create their own assignment on a topic that they want to learn about. I think that tests, or assignments would be much more effective if they made them more relate-able. Almost every student dreads the CRT's when that day, or days, come. I think that grades are a little more accurate, but not by much. The assignments, like in English, are a little more relate-able. No test or assignment though will ever really show you how smart a student is, or how much they know. It will really only ever show you how much effort they put into it. These days it is becoming easier and easier for students to cheat on tests. With all of this technology that is available at the touch of a finger. You can find almost any answer to any question online, whether or not it is true is a different matter. Multiple choice tests are crap. Most students just guess on them, if they don't know the answer they are not going to try and reason it out. They will take that 25% chance that if they guess they will get it right. I think that essay tests, although harder, are a better test of knowledge. Unlike multiple choice, they actually make the student think and reason through the problem. Although they aren't favorable, they also won't be affective unless a student wants to write it. Honestly no test will ever truly measure some ones knowledge or how smart they are. Not test will work unless they want to do it, including CRT's, and believe me, no one will ever want to take the CRT's. They suck. I mean, it's not like they are always really hard, everybody just is so strung out at the end of the year and they don't really care any more. That's how I am now. This year has been challenging, all of my weekends have gone to homework, online or not. I wake up every Saturday to start on homework, so yea, I'm going to be strung out in the end of the year. I'm not going to be able to fully care about the CRT's, I'm just too exhausted.

The only CRT that might be affective is the math CRT, but even then not really. I mean seriously, do these people expect us to do our best? Do they expect us to want to take these stupid tests? The only reason we endure them is because we have to, and it means a day in class without assignments or homework. I seriously hate these tests. They are pointless. As I have said countless times in this blog already, it won't matter what the student knows if they don't want to take the test. It's all about motivation, and no student is going to have ANY motivation at the end of the year for a stupid, long test that they don't want to take. A test that is filled with random questions that relate to nothing. I'm just so sick of it. Ha, so yea... this post was kinda, angry I guess. Ah vel. 

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.