4)writing prompts from chapters 1-14

It was a crisp Scottish day on the island of Wesley. I had been in Scotland for almost two weeks now and my cousin was competing on this island in a motorbike race. We started out on a boat from Orkney, where my family lived, traveling to Wesley. I was with my dad's cousin Barbra and he kids Lydia and George who were my second cousins.

While we were on the boat I ran around with Lydia. As we ran through the cabins I noticed a boy following us. He did not look but a year older than the two of us so I wasn't worried. After a while I noticed someone was almost stroking my hair I turned around and it was the boy. I quickly yelled at him for being a creep and then he gasped when he heard my accent. There are not many Americans who visit the island. I quickly reassured him that yeas I was American and so he continued to follow me around for the rest of the journey.

Once we got off the boat we quickly ran to the track where the racers gathered. We watched my cousin race and then Lydia and I decided to go explore the island. We  ran into a near by field towards a beach when all of a sudden we came upon an electric barbed wired fence. I wanted to turn back but Lydia quickly climber up the eight foot fence and down the other side. Like an idiot I started to climb the fence getting all cut up and shocked. I got to the top and proceeded to get caught on the barbed wire. Then I ripped my pants and fell to the bottom. We got to the beach and It was honestly the more beautiful thing I have ever seen. We searched the beach for hours looking for crabs. I had never been so happy and care free in my life. It has now been four year since I was there and I would have never traded that day for anything.

Writing prompt option from chapter 15

Acts of kindness I believe define your character. If you really try to be kind and treat others in the way they should be treated then the term act of kindness is irrelevant because you are just being yourself.

Over this Thanksgiving break we traveled up to London Ohio where my grandmother lives . She is this little Scottish women with a lot of energy. As I've grown up we have gone up to her house almost every month. These last couple of moths i have not gone with my family up to London. I know it is no excuse and I regret not doing so. Anyways, going up for Thanks giving we usually see more than just family there are two others that we spend time with Katie and Mr. Peter.

Katie is my grandmas best friend who has been in my life and my family's lives for as long as I can remember. she used to always take us to lunch at her country club and one time she traveled with my family to come see me row in Pittsburg. Mr. Peter is my dads best friends father who lives in London and who come to our Thanksgiving dinner. Both of these people have been a large pat of my life and this year they could not be with us.

So before dinner this year my parents decided that they were going to go see Katie and Mr.Peter at the retirement home. They are both very sick and live in the care unit. do on that day we went in first to talk to Mr. Peter and found him writing at his desk. we talked for maybe an hour about the retirement home and his grandson. I could tell he was really happy we came by and I am so glad I got to see him. Then we went to see Katie who had just had dinner with her son. When she saw us coming towards us she tilted her head and started screaming. She was so excited and I was so happy that she recognized us. She had lost so much weight since I had last saw her and could no longer walk. She asked me how old I was and when I said that I was sixteen she struggled to stand up and I held on to her as she said " Let me give you a big sixteen birthday hug."  I honestly could not have asked for a more blessed Thanksgiving than last Thursday.

You could say that going to the retirement home was my act of kindness but honestly I wanted to go and visit two individuals who have been there for me my whole life. It was so nice to see that they were getting taken care of and I can not wait to see them on Christmas.   

Prompt 16

Time is a funny thing, we all want much more than we actually have. yet we wish or lives away at the same time. We always are planning for the future but what about now? are you enjoying the present or just wishing the future would come quicker? I have always looked towards the future but i do not think i realized what a blessing the past was and how much the present is.

I remember a time when i just wanted time to stop. I wanted to wrap up this moment and never let go. Have you ever been so unbelievably happy, i mean truly happy, and you never want to know how life is with out that moment. Then the thought of life after scares you, all you want to do is live in that moment and never let go.

Well, I've experienced one of those moments. Actually high school is like one big moment. Sure i have those days when i hate school. I walk into the building and i instantly feel sick to my stomach because i wonder how i'm going to get through the day. Although school can stink sometimes i honestly wish it would never end.

I don't want to loose the stability i have had for the last sixteen years. I won't have my parents to catch me when i fall, in the real world you are responsible for yourself and no one else can protect you. Right now if i'm struggling my parents can help me get back up on my feet and even my teachers. You don't have that luxury after high school.

I want the people in my life to stay in my life. I always hear about my parents friends from high school and how close they were and now all they hear from them is "Merry Christmas" on a card during the holidays. I can't imagion having that awkward small talk in a supper market ten years from now asking about what they've done since i last saw them in eleventh grade English class. I'll miss having close friends to talk to when I'm happy or sad or even bored. Calling your best friend up at midnight saying you're bored and that you want to meet up at Ihop for pancakes, having my eighty year old grandparents live two doors down, fighting with my little brother, and winning gold medals at regattas. It's the little things that i want to hold on to so tightly.

I am afraid . That's honestly how i feel. I'm not even a little bit scared to admit it. I see all of these seniors year after year graduate and it terrifies me. i see how scared they are and what there first months of college are like alone. I only have a year and a half until graduation and it may seem like a while but i feel as if high school just started when i was this timid girl who didn't know that these next four years would change my life.  I wish i could wrap up my childhood and hold on forever but i know i can't. I look at my grandparents who have lived a full and happy life and i know i will be okay.

6) Writing prompt option from Chapter 16

The water was still I could hear the murmur of others in the distance. I was calm and to my surprise I didn't have a worry in the world. I was alone or so that was how I felt. My oar lay flat in line on the water wading there waiting. It was only a matter of time but still I was prepared. I looked around at the vast lake that streamed for miles on end, there was a simple dock right in front of me. The dock represents so much more than you can see, it's hope or the thing that makes you give up hope.

Then without nothing more of a warning than a scream I slid right up to the catch and dropped my blade in the water thinking half stroke, three quarters, length in, length in, full.  It was as if  we were all of one body, as we were all in sync, all together pulling back with such grace but determination. There were things oblivious to the ear at that moment. We couldn't hear the motivational screams coming from the front. We couldn't hear the heavy breathing around, we couldn't hear the blade crashing into the water, and we couldn't hear the crack at the end of each painful second.

First 500 down and you feel it, the pain, it slowly but surly gets to you. You don't notice it at first. You're two minute high is over. You now face reality. The pain starts in your legs, your ankles crack and your knees ache. Slowly the pain starts moving towards your hips and the back and forth rotation kills. Then in your back you start to feel a sharp pain until it reaches your arms and then you can barely feel your hands. This is when you know that you have to win.

First 1000 down you are starting to lack motivation. You're in pain, you are having trouble breathing, and your brain is telling you to stop. Stop. You don't stop. You continue. You continue because you know that there are eight others counting on you to pull through. That person in front of you is in as much pain as you are and you too are the reason that they are not giving up. Everyone around has all different kinds of reasons why they continue but non of that matters more than why you keep going. I think about the weeks, month, and even years that lead up to this moment, who is watching on shore, and how this moment will define what happens in as little as 4 short minutes.

Before you know it you are at that last 500. This is where you make it count. push harder than you have ever pushed before. If you feel like you can't breathe then you know you're giving it all you can. Make every stroke count, last 68 strokes, takes some power tens. Block out the screams from the shore. Nothing matters more than these last two minutes. Push through. At the last 250 bring it up. Go as fast and as hard as you can feel the speed of the boat increase as you sneak up on that finish line. Last few strokes and then you past that buoy.

3) Writing Prompt from chapters 1-14

It’s a lonely place but there is still a lot of love, you just have to know where to go. The highland roads twist and turn through the mountains almost like they never end. It’s almost always below 40*F but you’re never cold there. It’s an island in isolation but that’s the way the locals like it. You’re free to come and go as you please, but why would you ever want to?

The place I’m talking about is a wonderful place in the Scottish islands, Orkney. This place is nothing like you’ve ever seen the streets are filled with Bagpipes, everyone all dressed up in Kilts, and local farmer selling their goods on the street.  It was honestly like nothing I’d ever seen but yet it felt like you were at home.

People think about Europe and think of exotic places and adventure. Orkney’s special though, its not going to be on your bucket list or anywhere near your dream destination but I wouldn’t want to go anywhere else in the world.

 I think about it all the time. I miss the rolling hills and the freedom of the sea. I miss my family, they’ve lived on that tiny island for centuries. I miss my adorable blue eyed four year old cousin who always asked me what was the metal on my teeth was for. I am counting down the years, months, days, Hours, minutes, seconds, until we go back.

Catcher in the Rye 2

Catcher in the Rye Vignette

One moment in catcher in the Rye that I can label as a powerful moment for Holden in the text was when he was standing outside the Museum. In this scene Holden just stood outside of the museum and all of a sudden he didn’t want to go in anymore. This confused me at first, why? Why wouldn’t Holden go in? The without directly saying it the audience knew when Holden said “If Phoebe’d been there, I probably would have,” that Holden missed his sister. This is a powerful point in the text because Holden is linking the Museum with his sister and revealing to the audience through not wanting to go in to the museum he really was referencing wanting to see his sister.  I thought  this was a very powerful moment because we don’t hear a lot about Holden’s family in the text.

Catcher in the Rye 9/10

When analyzing the characteristics of Holden throughout the chapters we have read so far we have seen that Holden specifically has many different sides to himself. At first we all see the pessimistic side of Holden when we are first introduced to his character. In chapter 1 when Holden introduces himself to us one of the first things he said was “You’ll probably want to know where I was born and what my lousy childhood was like.”  (Salinger 1). This starting off gives the audience the idea that Holden is more or less a grumpy teenage boy who complains a lot.

We see this side of Holden well into the novel until about chapter seven. In chapter nine was see a more violent but hurting side of Holden. In this chapter he gets into a fight with his roommate about what seems to be about a girl but if you look beneath that it seems to be almost a cry for help. The audience starts to get the sense that Holden does care about what happens to him but that he just feels trapped.

Soon after his fight Holden decides to leave. When he decides this we see a more sensitive side to him when he is packing up the skates that his mother bought him. Holden says “Only thing about packing depressed me a little, I had packed these practically brand new ice skates my mother had just bought me days before.” (Salinger 56)  This shows the more sensitive side of Holden as he thinks of his mother while packing to leave school.

Now in chapter 10 Holden is gone and living the high life in New York City. He is traveling all over town staying in a central hotel, dancing with girls, and ordering cocktails. Holden is completely different. The readers are now seeing a kind of “wild” side of Holden. We see this Thoreau mentality come into play “Go confidently in the direction of your dreams. Live the life you have imagined.” (Thoreau).