Where would people want to spend the rest of your life?

        Many people thought about that one place they want to live and grow a family; and many have marched through cement to try to get there. Working long hours to keep a paycheck coming so they can get what they want, or settle for what they have. Some people from the start knows- the day they turn eighteen that they are going to one place or another. They know that, just like a child, they have to take baby steps to get to that one thing they want... the grand prize. And some people are like Pocahontas wanna be's and go where ever the wind blows. They want to see what is around the riverbend. If someone asked me where i wanted to live, i would simply say... "I'm not sure. I haven't traveled or seen all my possibilities." I would say " just .5 percent of my choices would be Mountain view, CA; Cederville, OH; Pittsburg; or Thessaloniki, Greece. My number one choice out of those would have to be Thessaloniki, Greece. I have never been there but in about 3 years im planning to visit just to see how i like it. I have seen pictures of the houses and streets of this place, but there is nothing like seeking a new adventure.

Hands by Sarah Kay

Hands

 Sarah Kay

People used to tell me that I had beautiful hands. Told me so often in fact that one day I started to believe them, until I asked my photographer father ‘hey daddy could I be a hand model? To which he said ‘No way!’. I don’t remember the reason he gave me, and I would’ve been upset but there were far too many stuffed animals to hold, too many homework assignments to write, too many boys to wave at to, many years to grow.

We used to have a game, my dad and I, about holding hands. Cause we held hands everywhere. And every time either he or I would whisper a great big number to the other, pretending that we were keeping track of how many times we had held hands. That we were sure this one had to be
8,002, 753.

Hands learn more than minds do. Hands learn how to hold other hands. How to grip pencils and mould poetry. How to tickle pianos, and dribble a basketball and grip the handles of a bicycle. How to hold old people and touch babies. I love hands like I love people. They are the maps and compasses with which we navigate our way through life. Some people read palms to tell you your future, but I read hands to tell your past. Each scar makes a story worth telling. Each callused palm, each cracked knuckle is a missed punch or years in a factory.

Now I’ve seen middle eastern hands clenched in middle eastern fists, pounding against each other like war drums. Each country sees their fists as warriors and others as enemies. Even if fists alone are only hands. But this is not about politics, no hands are not about politics.

This is a poem about love, and fingers. Fingers interlock like a beautiful zipper of prayer. One time I grabbed my dad’s hand so that our fingers interlocked perfectly. But he changed position saying “No, that hand hold is for your mum!”
Kids high-five, but grown ups shake hands.
You need a firm handshake,
but don’t hold on too tight,
but don’t let go too soon,
but don’t hold them for too long.
But hands are not about politics. When did it become so complicated? I always thought it was so simple. The other day my Dad looked at my hands as if seeing them for the first time and with laughter behind his eyelids, and with all the seriousness a man of his humour could master he said “You know you’ve got nice hands, you could’ve been a hand model!” 

And before the laughter can escape me i shake my head at him and squeeze his hand 8,002,754.

What if money were no object?

Everyone has dreams and desires. They could be big or small, such as; president of the United States or overseer of a business, dictator of the universe or manager of a little corner store. What would people do if money were no object? Would they live their dream and own a business or travel the world in eighty-days? Would people make a difference in not just their life but in others that live thousands of miles across the ocean, or ten feet away from their own home? Robert Frost was a distinct artist. Not in music but in his writing. In Frost’s poem, “After Apple-Picking”, He uses symbolism and imagery, to convey a message of how the character has worked majority of his life and is looking back and noticing his regrets.

In the poem “After Apple-Picking”, Frost uses symbolism to explain sleep. Frost says, “One can see what would trouble/ this sleep on mine, whatever sleep it is” (l. 37-38). This makes the reader wonder: what other sleep is there other than what people does each night or day? In this poem Frost states that he does not know what sleep is coming upon him. Whether he will wake up, or deeper than that. Sleep that he will never wake from, ceasing his life. When the character analyzes his life he begins to notice what his life is full of, and everything he have left out. He notices that he have worked his body down to ruins. Just like Alan Watt’s very own lecture states “It’s better to have a short life that is full of something you like then a long life spent in a miserable way” (What if money were no object? 1:29-1:37). This quote is explaining how the character from “After Apple-Picking” is realizing that he wasted his young body with something he doesn’t enjoy, making cider. The character is noticing all of his regrets; instead of picking apples all day during the season and being bored after the harvest, he should have done something that he loved, like being able to do something fun with all of his friends.

Frost also uses Imagery in this poem. Frost state, “My long two-pointed ladder’s sticking through a tree/ Toward heaven still, / and there’s a barrel that I didn’t fill/ beside it, and there may be two or three/ apples I didn’t pick upon some bough” (l.1-5). Frost uses imagery to make the reader imagine what this may mean. To make them see what he is writing about instead of just making them read it just read. Frost makes you imagine a ladder still leaning on a tree and an empty bucket. Frost makes this clear that he have either been bored with picking apples or stopped because he was in pain from arthritis from his old age. Frost, metaphorically spoken, explains that the character has lived his life miserably.

The main reasoning for this poem is to realize and decide what you want to live like. Would you rather live a long miserable life or a short amazing life? Full of adventures, wonders, and curiosity? Do you want a box or a mansion? A rust bucket or a Mercedes? A bed or a concrete block? Live life the way your goals want too; the on thing that beggars want, live life that way that you dream, not picking apples all your life. 

Hobbies

        Hobbies; Everyone has at least one, weather it is reading, writing, Camping, or rock climbing, everyone has that one activity that brings a smile to their face. That activity for me, is playing volleyball. Some may thing that being an ex-volleyball player and still loving it enough that she does it everyday is weird. But ever since my accident, my knee has not been strong enough to play one single game. So as an alternative, me and my friend Jordyn plays volleyball in front of our houses. If it ends up being too cold to play outside we ply either in her or my basement. Everyday at exactly 6:30pm we call one another to see if we have time to practice. If we do not one day, the next, we play twice as hard. It is disappointing that I may never be able to play ever again. But at least I have a chance of my knee getting stronger and healing so that I can get back on a team again. I dread the day were the doctor say to me and my family that I cant play anything at all. That I have to end volleyball, basketball, and gymnastics. That my whole life will be done for just because of my stupid knee. Hopefully, that day will never come to pass or existence.

Music

    
There is music all around us. Weather people can hear it or not, music is the building block of all lyrics. Music might as well be like a math equation. One wrong calculation and the whole outcome are incorrect. People read palms to tell the future, I read lyrics to tell the past. Every combination of words that is put into a piece makes some type of story worth telling. This is how I feel about Cold Play. My all time favorite song by them has to be Clocks. I love this song simply because the meaning of the song. In this song, Chris Martin sings not necessarily him, but the whole world being in a state of "helplessness".
The ending line of the second verse proves contradicting emotion:
"Come out upon my seas
Cursed missed opportunities
Am I a part of the cure
Or am I part of the disease?”
The song's title also "metaphorically alludes" to its lyrics, forcing one to wonder about the world’s obsession with time while connecting it to the moral: Make the best of it when we’re here, present and alive.


                                                          


The Awesome 2011 concert my brother took me to in Toranto.

Chris Martin

The Crew

There was all type of thing falling from the ceiling. Fake Butterflies, Bouncy balls, Fake leaves.

If I Should Have A Daughter- Sarah Kay

If I should have a daughter

Sarah Kay

           If I should have a daughter, instead of "Mom," she's going to call me "Point B," because that way she knows that no matter what happens, at least she can always find her way to me.

            And I'm going to paint solar systems on the backs of her hands so she has to learn the entire universe before she can say, "Oh, I know that like the back of my hand."
            And she's going to learn that this life will hit you hard in the face, wait for you to get back up just so it can kick you in the stomach. But getting the wind knocked out of you is the only way to remind your lungs how much they like the taste of air.

           There is hurt, here, that cannot be fixed by Band-Aids or poetry. So the first time she realizes that Wonder Woman isn't coming, I'll make sure she knows she doesn't have to wear the cape all by herself because no matter how wide you stretch your fingers, your hands will always be too small to catch all the pain you want to heal. Believe me, I've tried.

"And, baby," I'll tell her, "don't keep your nose up in the air like that. I know that trick; I've done it a million times.  You just smell for smoke so you can follow the trail back to a burning house, so you can find the boy who lost everything in the fire to see if you can save him. Or else find the boy who lit the fire in the first place, to see if you can change him."

But I know she will anyway, so instead I'll always keep an extra supply of chocolate and rain boots nearby, because there is no heartbreak that chocolate can't fix. Okay, there are a few heartbreaks that chocolate can't fix.

But that's what the rain boots are for, because rain will wash away everything, if you let it. I want her to look at the world through the underside of a glass-bottom boat, to look through a microscope at the galaxies that exist on the pinpoint of a human mind, because that's the way my mom taught me. That there'll be days like this. ♫ There’ll be days like this, my momma said. ♫

When you open your hands to catch and wind up with only blisters and bruises; when you step out of the phone booth and try to fly and the very people you want to save are the ones standing on your cape; when your boots will fill with rain, and you'll be up to your knees in disappointment. And those are the very days you have all the more reason to say thank you. Because there's nothing more beautiful than the way the ocean refuses to stop kissing the shoreline, no matter how many times it's sent away.

You will put the wind in winsome, lose some. You will put the star in starting over, and over. And no matter how many land mines erupt in a minute, be sure your mind lands on the beauty of this funny place called life.

And yes, on a scale from one to over-trusting, I am pretty naive. But I want her to know that this world is made out of sugar. It can crumble so easily, but don't be afraid to stick your tongue out and taste it.

"Baby," I'll tell her, "remember, your momma is a worrier, and your poppa is a warrior, and you are the girl with small hands and big eyes who never stops asking for more."

Remember that good things come in threes and so do bad things. And always apologize when you've done something wrong, but don't you ever apologize for the way your eyes refuse to stop shining.

Your voice is small, but don't ever stop singing. And when they finally hand you heartache, when they slip war and hatred under your door and offer you handouts on street-corners of cynicism and defeat, you tell them that they really ought to meet your mother. 

Day Care

The Government has many problems. Many of which, people 18 and over have a say. Then again, on the other hand, there are a hand full of situations that we as people, have no way of changing. So instead of not making a difference, we can speak what we, as people believe. One issue that a hand full of parents has is the fact that some parents are parents for a reason. They have children, and at the beginning of a child’s life, they need to be taken care of. If parents have jobs, they need money so that they can support the family, individually. The mom needs more clothes that will fit her newly shaped body; the dad needs money to buy his wife jewelry to try to alter her moods, and the baby needs; Diapers and baby-wipes; baby lotion, body wash, baby shampoo; cloths, and a crib. If the parents cannot work, they cannot get money; if they cannot get money they cannot support the baby. Have day care can be a crucial element especially if there are no other family to help out. Day care can supply the parents’ time to work, while the baby is safe. Even though there are lots of day cares that can work around whatever schedule that you and your partner has, there should be some qualifications. The child should be at least 3 weeks old and any child that is five years or older should be put into kindergarten. Any hours that they are not in school and their parents are still working; the day care should pick the child up and take them directly to the center. I believe that the government should provide this only for working parent(s). The government does help out with people that need it but this will make a huge difference to families’ all around