What can I say? What can I possibly say that no one hasn’t already said or mentioned or talked about? Every year I’m asked to write one of these, every year I say the exactly same thing. Not because what we do every year is the same, but because what I get out of it is the same. Year after year after year. When we were in first grade, we all knew we were little kiddies, but because of some sort of magical force we all felt so old and mature. Now this is the end of my sophomore year in high school. We’re all still young in the long scheme of things, but guess what? We still feel old and mature in a special sort of way. We look back on all the years that we’ve lived; we look through all the pictures what we’ve taken. We think, wow, look at me when I was eight, I was so young! How many times will I do that in my life? Year after year after year.
In my introduction I write about taking the SAT’s in my freshman year. Well, in my sophomore year, I take them again. The scores have not been revealed yet, so who knows whether I’ve improved or gotten even stupider? This year I didn’t study for them so that might be the determining factor, or maybe Mr. Luizzi was such a wonderful teacher that I improved anyway! Just because I learned so much in his class…
Speaking of English class, believe it or not, I did learn a lot. In third grade when we read all the Roald Dahl, we whizzed through them quickly and we probably read every one of them. That was then, this is now. Apparently nothing has changed. We read an endless number of books, most of them which I’ve thoroughly enjoyed. To give you some light on the subject here’s a list: The Catcher in the Rye, The Crucible, Of Mice and Men, My Name is Asher Lev, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, Oedipus, Julius Caesar, and The Hobbit. Those were just the books we read as a class, here’s the list of independent reading books: The Great Gatsby, Pride and Prejudice, The Handmaid’s Tale, and A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man. If you haven’t heard of al least all of them, you better get to it fast. I’ve never read so many classics in one year before, and I’ve never read so many incomprehensible ones either! Thank god we spent enormous amounts of time talking about them, because if we didn’t, I still wouldn’t understand them. Also thanks to a magical creation called Cliffs Notes… those seem to give generous amounts of help. Along with those, I’ve also read some books on the side but they’re not worth mentioning. One of them includes an autobiography from the best singers in the world a.k.a. ‘N Sync. I admit this obsession is getting out of hand. It’s a form of mass hysteria, also something I’ve learned about in this English class. Others also include books that can be categorized as “junk” books, ones that can only be taken for face value and no more. Those are the books that will never be remembered 100 years from now, or even 2 years from now. They will never make it to a list of best 100 books in the 20th Century. The Great Gatsby and A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man are ranked numbers two and three respectively.
Reading has always been something I can do and not hate it. A lot of people hate sitting down to read if they don’t like what they are reading. There’s not much I don’t like reading except for non-fiction textbooks, so I can sit there with a book and just read. Most people, when bored will watch TV, go online, play on the computer, talk on the phone, or play a sport. Its not like I don’t enjoy doing those things except the sports part, but also include on that list is reading. I can seriously say I’m an avid (vocabulary word: synonyms: ardent, zealous) reader. I was at a friend’s house under unfortunate circumstances and I had nothing to do. I asked for a copy of Julius Caesar to finish reading (considering we’re not done) and they handed me a copy. They seemed very impressed and that added to my self-esteem. Though it’s a mandatory book to read, it was still a nice reaction. I’m sure you can empathize.
Myself as a speaker. We haven’t done much speaking in class except for my terse (also a vocabulary word: antonym: circuitous) responses. We did present our revised version of Oedipus to the class and then the presentations of our portfolios during the middle of the year. Needless to say I not afraid to talk in front of people. If I don’t feel like participating, I won’t, but it’s not because anyone intimidates me or that I’m shy. Shy is a word you label someone else with. A long time ago the other day I was shy, but then I learned it got me no where. People can’t read my mind if I can’t say it, so from then on I say whatever is on my mind, which also tends to get me in trouble a lot! In sixth grade we had to present a speech every single week on Friday, and that helped me a lot to rid me of my nervousness in front of large crowds. But that little bit will never go away, that’s why I like to go first when it comes to presentations. I have the need to get it over with ASAP.
Myself as a viewer. I consider watching and viewing not to be strenuous at all. It takes absolutely no energy to just sit there and stare at the screen and let the information diffuse into your brain. If it’s at all interesting paying attention is not problem, if it’s at all important paying attention is also not a problem. We’ve watched the Crucible, and Julius Caesar, and we’ve looked at each other’s webpages. Viewing is not a problem, and definitely a strength considering how easy it is.
Myself as a listener. Along with viewing, listening is also not difficult to do. Your ears are always open and not able to be closed, therefore the sounds going in and being picked up my the brain constitutes as listening. Whether of not the information sticks or not is another story, but like I mentioned before, if it’s interesting or important, I will be all ears. That phrase was very banal. Like Antony said, “Friends, Romans, countrymen, lend me your ears.” I’ve lent all possible ears that I have and I’ve tried to remember everything that was said, which at times can become a difficult prospect because of all the information drilled into us each and every day.
More importantly is myself as a writer. I’ve never considered myself the best of writers, but only through practice will this craft become better. I always dread the words essays, writing assignments, and journals, but they never turn out to be nightmares. Surprisingly I’m actually enjoying writing this. It’s not difficult and I don’t have to do research for it because everything I have to say is about myself. To sample some of my writing you can go to my Homepage. Click on all the links and read what I have to say. It’s all the work we’ve done in English this year. I’ve also included on my webpage a research project for French class. So if you want to, you can read and judge my writing skills in French.
One of my favorite pieces to write was the personal narrative because it was about me. It wasn’t a fun experience at all, but through it all, I came out alive. Go here Don’t Say Anything at All to read it. I think you’ll enjoy it. It’s not difficult to read because of my use to colloquial language, and it’s not long either. I’ve also writing a short story called Sailing to Change. That should also prove to be interesting. Another creative writing piece was the play I wrote called The Accused. You might be able to find a running theme in my creative writing pieces. It’s a part of the culture that I’ve grown up in and a part of who I am, and definitely who my parents are. My writing hopes to not offend anyone, but I’ve tried to criticize what I believe is not right and not what this world should be made of.
Now I have to identify my strengths and weaknesses. I always believe that my weaknesses can become strengths, and my strengths can become stronger. Reading, viewing, and listening have always been strengths. Speaking and writing have been weaknesses that might have become strengths also, but definitely can become stranger. I feel like I grow every year and I hope through my writing examples it shows.
“This year I hope to do a lot of reading, which I've come to learn that it's going to come true. Then analyzing the literature isn't going to be as much fun, but if you do one, the other has to be done also otherwise we don't fully understand what we read. Since I don't enjoy writing, I hope we don't do a lot, but I know I'm going to have to, so I'll just have to deal with it. Research I don't mind doing because I learn so much during the process, and I had fun last year doing it with a great friend of mine. I hope it's going to be a wonderful year with everything turning out for the best.” That was an excerpt from my introduction. Boy have we done a lot of reading. We’ve analyzed every book from cover to cover and even more than that. Writing, guess what? I almost enjoy it now. It’s not as difficult as I always think it is, like I said inspiration is an important thing to have. My inspiration comes a lot from my parents, my future, and myself. The one major research project we did excreted a lot of energy from my system, but needless to say I learned a lot. And isn’t that what counts at the end?
All these webpage things we do I thoroughly enjoy. Using this medium has made English class so much more interesting. Many people complain that webpages have nothing to do with English, but in my opinion that doesn’t matter. Watching TV has nothing to do with English, but we watch videos, too don’t we? No one complains about that. Each subject needs other things to be incorporated in it to make it universal and interesting. My mother teaches Mass Communications, she speaks in English doesn’t she? So why can’t we use a form of Mass Communications in English?
To wrap this up, I’d like to say I’ve never done so much work in an English class before as I have this year. I don’t regret it now because I have learned a lot. Like I said, no matter how excruciating it was while doing it, all that matters at the end is that I’ve learned something. We’re still feeling old and mature and like we know everything, but next year, we’re going to be learning more.