The most significant event I have experienced in the last 4 years

                Moving to Ohio was a big change for me. I was told I would be staying with my dad for the summer. I didn't even know i was going to have to live here, until my mom called me up one night and told me that I was going to have to stay. I was devastated. I couldn't believe that she was making me stay in Ohio with my dad, knowing how much I disliked him and my step mom. At first she said I would only have to stay for my junior year, but she eventually said I should just finish out school here. I really didn't want to stay here and it wasn't just because I missed my mom.

           After living with my dad for a while things went down hill for me. I was so unhappy, but when i expressed how I felt, someone, usually my step mom would say that I was pretending to feel that way for attention. She even once said that i was coughing for attention and tried to make me go to bed. She would talk about me to my siblings and say things like "Anna doesn't do the dishes right," and I only know this because my little sister would repeat these things back to me. Living with this for the last to years taught me to avoid conflict whenever possible and to not take things too personally. Because now I can see that if someone feels the need to constantly put someone else down, they obviously have some issues of their own that they need to work through. Moving to Ohio changed my how I view other people and how I deal with unkind people.

Theme in Sweat

              One of the themes in sweat by Zora Neale Hurston is what goes around comes around. Sykes, which is Delia's husband has been abusing her for 15 years. he emotionally and physically abused her. Towards the beginning of the story Delia said,"'Sykes, what you throw dat whip on me like dat? You know it would skeer me--looks just like a snake, an' you knows how skeered ah is of snakes'"(1). Sykes replied to her, '"Course I knowed it! That's how come Ah done it"(1). This is proof of his intimidation of his wife. He even went so far as to bring a rattlesnake home in a box and refuses to remove it. And one day she has enough of his mistreatment and makes him leave, but he refuses to take the snake with him. One day wile Delia is away from the house, Sykes comes back and puts the rattle snake in the laundry basket, knowing she would wash clothes later. this is done as an attempt to kill her. When she comes home she sees it and runs. Sykes goes back to the house and is bitten by the snake and dies. he calls out for Delia but she doesn't go inside the house. Sykes was abusive to Delia and tries to kill her with a rattlesnake, but he ends up dying instead.

This I belive essay

      I believe in individuality. Since I was in middle school, I decided to be different. I didn’t want to become a carbon copy. I have always believed that everyone should be different. I used to go to every day and see almost everyone wearing practically the same thing, the same colors, and the same hair, -everything the same. Most people follow trends, but I prefer to stat them. In my mind starting trends in individuality and following trends is conformity.
      Society is set up in a way in which conformity seems to be the only option. To get a job you have to conform, to get into a good school you have to conform. Our society seems to be all about conformity. But if you look at the people who have changed this country and even the world, they refused to conform. I you look at people like Martin Luther King Jr. or Jackie Robinson, who went against the status quo, they were individuals. Fancy clothes, cute hair, and trends, won’t get you anywhere in, life. At first glance it looks like conformity is what gets you places but in reality its individuality.

      I strive to be an individual because; Individuality is what I believe in. I believe that people should be themselves instead of trying to be like others, because honestly who is going to care about who wore what in 10 years.

this i believe

race
 Seeing with the heart

addiction
I will take my voice back

responsibility
 A duty to Family, Heritage and Country

birth
 considering adoption

 change
The true value of life

      The essay, The True Value of Life, made the biggest impact on me. I can't imagine myself empathizing with anyone who was in jail for drunk driving, especially if I was injured because of what they did. If I had to live with chronic pain everyday, I could not even imagine myself forgiving the person who caused it. But after hearing and reading some of the reasons that helped her forgive him, I got a new perspective on forgiveness. I can kind of understand how she was able to forgive, but I don't think I would ever be able to forgive him, if I had been put in her situation.

I believe in...

I believe in second chances because everyone makes mistakes.
I believe in individuality because no two people are alike, no matter how much they try to be.
I believe in hope because we all need something to believe in.

My First Self Piercing

        I have always had an obsession with piercings, since starting high school. So when I was fifteen I asked my mom if I could get my belly button pierced. And of course being who she was, she said no.  For me no was not going to cut it. I had to have my navel pierced. One day while I was on the computer I was looking up belly rings and came across a site that also sold piercing needles. I decided to order some needles and a couple of belly rings.

       A couple days later when it arrived I was so excited. From the moment that I opened up the package, I knew that I was going to do it. I decided to do it on a Friday. After doing some extensive research on placements and sanitation, I decided to use alcohol to sanitize the needles that I was going to use. After cleaning the needle with an alcohol prep pad that my mom used for nursing I marked where I was going to pierce myself. Then I started to insert the needle.

        It hurt more than I had thought. While I was piercing myself, my friend Alex called me on my phone. When he asked me what I was doing, I said, “I’m piercing my belly button.” Then he replied, “Oh, do you want me to call you back later.” I told him it was fine we could talk. At this time I was still trying to push the needle through. When the pain would get unbearable I would stop and take a break for a minute, and then keep going. It took me three hours to get the needle all the way through. It took so long mostly because I was talking on the phone the whole time and taking breaks. After getting it through, I was ecstatic. It looked great.

Boston Marathon Explosions

     When I first found out about the bombs in Boston, I wasn't sure what to think. The whole situation reminded me on 9/11. Once the images that I saw on TV started to sink in, I started to wonder why someone would want to set off bombs on am marathon route. Even now, a day later I still don't have a complete understanding of what really happened, and it bothers me. When things like this happen, I start to think is anyone really ever safe. As the injury count rises, I am sympathetic to the people who were injured and their families and friends. what happened in Boston is truly a tragedy.

From Wladyslaw's point of veiw

     I was starving as I tried to find a place to open my can of food. I walked around for what seemed like well over an hour. And then I came upon a ladder I climbed up it and each step was unbearable my stomach was screaming for food. When I got to the top I pulled the ladder up so no one would find me. But as I was trying to open my can of food, a German officer appeared. My mind started to think of the worst possible scenarios.

Mr. Pickleman (Vocab 4 blog)

   Mr. Pickleman was a malevolent old man, who hated everything and everyone. He would sit on his front porch all day to ascertain information on his neighbors. He would watch the sidewalk, and if anyone stepped on his yard, he would yell at them and force them to disperse quickly. in the afternoon if any teenagers dared to walk by his home, He watched them scrupulously. he wanted them to do something wrong. He thought to himself," Young people these days don't understand that is is not venial to believe you are invulnerable to everything." He would watch people skulk by his house as if they were affiliated with some spy organization. There was a time when Mr. Pickleman was like all the people who walked by his house thinking and believing that their lives were not finite. These people were too nonchalant. if only they knew what he use to be - before "it" happened.  And now all he could do was watch people, and wish for a panacea to his problems. But of course there wasn't one, after all he was dead.

man's inhumanity towards man

      In the film the theme man's inhumanity towards man is apparent throughout. People were shot for no reason. A woman was shot for asking where they were being taken to. Also an elderly man who was wheelchair bound, was thrown off a balcony because he could not stand up when the Nazi asked him.the inhumanity towards man was based entirely on antisemitism. it breaks away from the theme when Wladyslaw's friends from before the German occupation, helped to hide him after he escaped from the ghetto.

Elie vs Wladyslaw

       Wladyslaw Szpilman had two sisters and a brother. his brother always seemed to have something to argue about. Elie had three sisters. Both Wladyslaw and Elie had loving parents and their families wanted to stay together. They were both Jewish and both were clueless as to what to expect when the Germans came. Both Elie and Wladyslaw's families were forced to move to ghettos. Elie and his family were deported together, but Wladyslaw's family was deported without him.

Night Reflection

For me the hardest part to read was the part where babies were thrown into the fire. It’s hard to even picture someone doing that. Reading this memoir really opened my eyes to how bad it was for the people who were in concentration camps. And also how many people didn’t see it coming. I believe Elie survived because his father was there. Having his father there gave him something to live for. A theme that rally stuck out to me was the loss of faith. I noticed over the course of the book that Elie lost his faith over the time that he was in the concentration camp.

Blog for pages 66-84

Part I
The bond and relationship between Elie and his father is stronger than ever. Wiesel demonstrates that him and his father's relationship had grown stronger when he states "We had already suffered so much, endured so much together. This was not the moment to separate.

Part II
Name: Aushwitz
Location: Oswiecim, Poland
size/population: 3 main camps, and 45 sub-camps
conditions: Barracks had rodents, and 700 people and even more would be forced to live in one. Prisoners had to work a minimum of eleven hours a day. Labor was used as a way to kill.

Blog for pages 23-65

Mrs. Schacter symbolizes the crematoriums and the fate of the Jews. On the train she was screaming, "Fire! I see fire!" But in reality there was no fire, until they got to Aushwitz and saw the chimneys from the crematoriums.

 Elie said he was ill when he was sent to the dentist, so that he doesn't have to get his golden crown taken out. The dentist ends up getting arrested, for taking gold teeth and crowns for his own gain. Later Elie allows his crown to be taken out with a rusty spoon.

What I know about the Holocaust

Part I

       The Holocaust was a result  of " the final solution", that the Nazis had come up with to eliminate all the Jews. They killed about 6 million Jews and some other people that they didn't like. Jews were forced to move into ghettos, and when the ghettos were emptied, the people who had lived there were either killed or sent to concentration camps, and more people were moved in. The Nazis but these people in concentration  camps, in which horrible things took place. Their heads were shaved, a number was tattooed into their arm, they were forced to work until they died or were killed, and some were even subjected to inhuman medical experiments. When they were being moved from place to place, they were often forced to ride in cattle cars.

Part II

Image 1: children behind a fence, wearing striped uniforms, everyone has a hat or scarf on their head, clothes are too big and worn looking

   keyword: children

Image 2 : all men, emaciated, boney, crowded together on wooden bunks

  keyword: emaciated

Image 3: lots of glasses, stolen belongings, death, men/women/children

  keyword: men, women, children

video clip 1: candles, smoke, scared children, fear, man shot and bleeding in the snow, people shot, children hiding

keyword: constant fear

Part III

Men, women, and children were emaciated, from lack of food, and lived in constant fear, during the Holocaust.

Refelction

       I can improve on remembering due dates and keeping track of how much time I have left to compete an assignment. I probably should start using my planner too. I did really well on the narrative and pretty well on my scholarship essay too. But with the scholarship assignment I only did two scholarships instead of three. But as a whole my grade was good. I don't find the class blog helpful, unless I am in class. I do not have a twitter so i can't follow Ms. Spriggs on Twitter.

Vocabulary #2 Blog

            Grimace was a purple dude, in a non-purple world. For years he had moved though life, having never met any of his relatives. One day as he walked by an amicable family, at hamburger park, he wished that he had what they had. He had a strong feeling of nostalgia.Grimace decided to call up his friend Barney, who was adroit at finding lost things. An hour later Barney and Grimace met up at McDonald's for a milkshake. "Grimace, what exactly do you want me to do," asked Barney."I want you to find my family," said Grimace."In theory this task is feasible ," said Barney. Grimace extolled Barney for accepting the task.
            A day later Barney and Grimace met up again, only this time Barney had documents with him. Barney scrutinized the documents."I want you to read this Grimace," said Barney. Grimace gave a cursory attempt to read them. "I can't do this," he said in a belligerent tone. "Just read this one line," said Barney benevolently. Grimace read the line, Barney had pointed to. "Oh my goodness," said Grimace as he grimaced. "I am your father." "Before you get too excited, I have to tell you something," said Barney.
"What."
"I forged these documents."

Writing Ideas

• my mom
• Insane Clown Posse (ICP)
• Twiztid
• my trip to the Dominican Republic
• Family in Canada
• Trips to Canada
• Theatre
• first open audition
• my sister Maya
• my sister Olivia
• my sister Arielle
• Juggalo lifestyle
• my dog
• Laurel, Maryland
• My old high school
• my best friend in Maryland
• my best friend here
• first self piercing
• My brother Aaron
• Hatred for math

Introduction

         My name is Anna Davis, and I am from Laurel, Maryland. I have only been living in Ohio since the summer of 2011. I lived in Maryland for 16 years, and as far as I am concerned It is still my home. I am an aspiring artist. I love painting, drawing, and scratchboard. On most days, I am the kind of person that would rather stay inside and do nothing than go out. I hate math and people who try and push their ideas on me. I am a huge fan of Insane Clown Posse, Twiztid, Boondox, and Eminem. I strive to be different from everyone else. I could care less what people think of me.