Turns out that there is something you can go on for two plus hours and in one word it is: Disney. So the guest speaker in my freshman seminar was this awesome guy, who totally changed the way I will now and forever look at Disney. Who knew that Disney owned so many things, like ESPN or Lifetime and so on. If you can think of it Disney probably owns it. Did you know that the opening to Aladdin used to have different words in the first song. Apparently people were so offended that they complained and it wasn't until one relatively famous guy along with a newspaper spoke out about it that Disney finally decided to do something about it. Before then Disney's go-to saying was "It's just a cartoon" and our guest speaker made the point that when it comes to culture nothing is ever "just" anything. When you think about Disney, you think about your childhood, innocence, magic, princesses, a place where dreams come true. You never think of it as some place where they're trying to sell you something or get across a very subtle message, but it is. Like in all the princess movies  they're showing you that you have to look a certain way to get a "prince", that you can change someone with enough love, or that the damsel in distress always gets rescued in the end and everyone lives happily ever after, but that rarely happens in real life. Which is probably why we all love the stories with happy endings, with the guy getting the girl in the end, or about saving the world, because reality sucks, a lot of the time. Granted I'm still going to love the princesses and happily ever after's but I'm just going to think about them differently.

One More Class!

I'm so excited!! I only have one more class before I'm done for Labor Day Weekend. What was four relaxing days in high school, just became five! Five! I'm so happy. I really don't want to go to class, I mean four and a half hours and all we have planned is two readings (there not even that long) and a guest speaker ( I seriously hope he doesn't talk for 3 hours straight) that could end bad. Anyways, I surprising my little brother tomorrow when I pick him up from school, I don't think he knows that I'm coming home for a visit yet. I can't wait to see the look on his face. It's going to be priceless I can already tell. I also know that he will do his classic run at me and expect me to catch him, like we're dancers or something. So, another thing about this class is that it goes from before dinner starts until well after dinner ends, how rude, so because of this I've decided on having popcorn for dinner. It might not be the healthiest thing to eat, but as the saying goes work with what you got, and I got popcorn. And chocolate, so I'm covered. College is a lot more tiring than I expected. I think it's because you get to pick when your classes are and there's no set in stone school days, like how in high school it would go from 7:10 until 2:44 in the afternoon, and you knew that you couldn't stay up all hours of the night, doing whatever, but now in college you can and you also have to learn how to share your room and deal with roommates and all the other new people around. Especially in my building, well not so much this week, but last week random people would just show up in the hall and be creeping around, which was really wired. One good thing about my building is that it's substance free so I don't have to worry about dorm parties or people smoking and having to smell that. Thank goodness. People are really jealous of where me and my floor mates live because it's so close to the cafeteria, but the downside to this is that we're far away from everything else, which will probably be more of a problem in the winter time, but for right now it's not to bad.

Do you ever when you're all alone get the overwhelming feeling of sadness and just feel like laying on the floor, curling into a ball, and crying and not stopping? Or that no one knows how you're really feeling because you put on a brave face and smile and no one is of the wiser. Or that you could leave the room and no one would notice, because you're so quiet to begin with or that you just haven't left enough of an impression on them for them to notice when you're gone. Sometimes that everything is just so overwhelming that you feel like you're drowning and you can't tell which way is up anymore and there is no helping hand in sight because they have all disappeared, or they were never there in the first place. Or that your only real, true friend is the stuffed animal that you've had since you were a baby and that they are the only one who truly understands you even when people claim to know you better than you know yourself and we all know that that is total bs. And sometimes you wish your life was a movie and that at the end all the problems and heartache and obstacles would have been dealt with and you'd get to ride off into the sunset with your true love and not have an more worries. To bad that doesn't happen in real life. I mean don't get me wrong I am a diehard hopeless romantic, but no one's ever give me that look that all girls crave. The look a guy gives a girl when she's the only one on his mind, his whole world, the one he would do absolutely anything for. Maybe that's why I read so much, and write where I'm in complete control, because I have yet to have that experience.

College Day 3!

Holy Cow!! Third day of college down, one more to go until I go home for a visit. Granted tomorrow is my longest day three classes. My freshman seminar goes for 4:45 until 8:20 at night. I know it seems long and everyone I tell about it seems shocked by the time, and everyone else complains about how boring theirs is but I get to watch movies, so what's there not to like. Granted there is homework, but it's just about you reaction to what we did in class so it's not so bad. I'm so glad I made my schedule so that I don't have any classes on Fridays and only one class on Mondays and Wednesdays. I'm so excited about surprising my little brother on Friday when I pick him up from school, I don't think that he knows that I'm coming back this weekend. I'm so tired right now and it's barely 8 o'clock at night and I'm exhausted, even though I don't have any class earlier than 9:30. College, it really takes it out of you. I do have one complaint though, the teachers, "professors", need to be just a tad bit clearer with their syllabuses and about when to do the homework and what exactly the homework is. So I went to check my mail earlier today, and was surprised to find that I had a card from my Nana. Don't you just love it when you check the mail and there's something you totally weren't expecting and it makes your whole day. Last night I went to see the illusionist Brian Brushwood and his act was crazy and amazing and it totally blew my mind. Like when he put a nail in one eye and had it come out the other eye, or when he became a human crazy straw. I feel like this is going to be a really good year, just along as this heat doesn't last much longer, if it does I may have to reconsider this whole college thing, mostly the dorm situation. Just kidding, mostly.

First Two Days of College!!!

College classes started yesterday. I realized that I wasn't nervous like back in high school when you go into a class and hope that you know at least one person and are completely disappointed or excited when it either happens or not. Also, that when you're in high school and all your teachers make college out to be this super hard place and the teachers are going to go through their lectures super fast and you're barely going to have time to get down the notes. So far that hasn't  been the case. College isn't at all what I expected. I've done more social things and met more people in the last 7 days then all four years of high school. I can't wait to see what else this year has in store.

Discuss some of the hardships or conflicts your book's protagonist experiences. How do they handle these problems? How do these problems effect the characters in the book? Remember to include the name of your book in the answer.


In my book, This World We Live In, some of the hardships Miranda, the protagonist, experiences are feeling of love, the loss of people she loves, and surviving in the frozen landscape of the world she now lives in. Miranda handles the problems in just four short months. She handles the problems of love for the new comer Alex by at first she doesn't really like him but as the story goes on her feeling for him turn to love and they keep their love for each other a secret from everyone until they plan to leave. She handle the loss of people she loves by writing her feelings in her diary and by believing in tomorrow. She handles surviving in the world that has come to be a year after the moon was hit by an asteroid by eating just enough to get through the day and by doing things like breaking in to people's houses to get things they need to keep going. These problems effect Miranda by her having to make difficult decisions that changes all of their lives when the weather causes major problems for all of them.

How do characters change or evolve throughout the course of the story? What events trigger such changes? Remember to include the name of your book and your characters.


In my book , They Never Came Back, the characters Cathy and Murielle evolve through the story by at first Cathy is trying to keep the events for five years ago form coming back to her memory and Murielle is mad at her parents for leaving her behind when the fled the country five years ago. The events that trigger Cathy to remember the events from five years ago are when one of the kids at summer school mistakes her for his cousin, Murielle, who disappeared five years ago, this mistake of identity causes her carefully hidden secret to start to unravel and she realizes that she needs to stop hiding and just be herself. The events that trigger Murielle to change is when the FBI try to get her parents out of hiding so they can arrest them, and she realizes that her parents really do love her and that her parents love being free more then her so, she has to get over that and just be glad for the people that she already has that love her.