The War

        Like every man who fought or are fighting in a war, they never come back the same person they once were entering the war. As shown in the movie The War, a father of 2 kids was in the war and has returned to the world in ruins. Violence appears in several scenes in the movie blaming the war for the disturbing images that will be forever a memory. Throughout the movie Stephen discovers everyday challenges in which includes renewing himself from the guilt he left behind, struggling to find a job, and lastly dealing with his post-traumatic stress disorder.
       Stephen has a great relationship with his entire family but the only thing that's stopping the family from loving him as much as he does is the violence that separates the family from him. The after life of war is painful and brutal after witnessing a friend's death or almost being shot to death. When Stephen was in the war his friend, Dodge was tragically shot. In the movie Stephen had lived with the guilt of leaving him behind as the helicopter flew away with Stephen in it. Years later Stephen goes through yet another incident similar like the one with Dodge but instead it's with his friend from work. After getting crushed with rocks in an underground tunnel Stephen made sure he got out alive. Eventually after getting him out safe another eruption of rocks came tumbling down and smashed Steven in the head. He had risked his life to safe his coworker and the outbreak of that was him getting hurt and ultimately dying from the incident. He didn't want to repeat the accident that happened to his friend so he made sure he got his other friend out and not repeating the same mistake that had already happened. It was his second chance to react his guilt into an accomplishment. When Stephen was in the war he was very selfish when it came to leaving Dodge behind. He chose himself over his friend and regretted when he returned to go home along with a lot of other stuff. But for him to reassure himself he saved his partner years after.
         Many veterans including Stephen that returned or are still returning from the war aren't getting the jobs that they want because of the side affects the war gave them. It's not a normal day to day image seeing dead bodies maybe a face that was recognizable to others laying on the ground surrounding oneself. Stephen lost several jobs because of the effects that the war gave him. He ended up in the mental hospital that lost him jobs. He ended up getting poor jobs working out on the fields effecting his plan in surprising his wife and family to a nice house. He had gone through stages of grief being confronted by his issues. He had lost his dignity from going to the war and he was lost in who he was was a person. Aside from Steven, his younger son Stu is a violent kid himself just like his father. He would get in several fights with these bullies that Elvadine his older sister would steal furnisher from their junk yard to build their treehouse. At the end of the movie after Stu and Elvadine had built their treehouse the bullies came and ruined their treehouse setting it on fire and creating their own type of "war".
           Hearing about veterans coming back from the war is devastating to hear and see what they go through everyday. The violence they put not only themselves into but their families as well is very hard to see when watching The War. Their everyday challenge that they overcome from losing their jobs to taking care of their problems from the war is a hardship. Stephen and millions of other veterans will never be the same from seeing abnormal things everyday serving in the war. War is hell and no one should ever go through these problems like veterans do today.

     

College...

College can be a scary thing when coming to think about it and eventually applying for it. Entering an unknown place knowing no one, living on your own, and creating a future for yourself is not a typical day to day challenge. It is said that college is suppose to be life changing, finding yourself as a person which leads to people you surround yourself with.
Thinking about college is exciting for me yet frightening entering a new chapter in my life feeling the uncomfortable feeling stepping out of my comfort zone. College will definitely be a challenge but a challenge in which I can learn from. I'll have my hardships like everyone else will have but I'm excited to see what the future brings and the experience that I will accept.

A Memoir...

What would the world be like without rapists? No one will ever know but I'll tell you this it would be a lot more harmless and careless. Our world today has developed into a scary place with all these "outsiders" that appear all around us. The memoir I'm reading, Lucky written by Alice Sebold expresses her experience throughout college and how it changed her life forever. Alice was raped as a freshman which led to a conclusion to not just her but everyone that you can't trust anyone these days.

As I approach college next fall it's a scary thing to imagine. As we have waited our whole lives for this moment. The excitement of living on our own, making our own decisions, and finding ourselves is a exciting but at the same time is a frightening thing as well. As we all hear, college is life changing and the best time of others' lives we tend to find out about students getting killed from alcohol poisoning or raping which eventually leads to suicide. I have yet to think about this stuff until I starting reading this book. But as I was starting to read this book my mom sitting in the same room as me told me something that recently happened to my cousin who is attending college as a freshman. When saying goodnight to her good guy friend one night he started walking in her room closed the door acting very suspicious. She knew something was up and started screaming. If it wasn't for her instant reaction she would of been in trouble. After my mom told me that I started getting very nervous about the whole college thing. I've learned that I shouldn't trust anyone because who knows what that person will do.

You Don't Predict the Future

Life's not going to go the way you want it to go. As I learned the hard way and never considered anything to go another way than what I planned it. It's the truth, I would want something certain to happen and came to which it was just a fantasy. One of them is when I didn't make the top team for basketball and I thought me not making the team was unquestionable. Throughout this whole eperience I realized that everything is not going to go the way I want it to go. And the same goes for everyone around me, which in the long run is probably good for everyone because it definitely was for me.

A Memoir I Wish to Read

The world is a scary place when it comes to people. Yes, there are a lot of nice people out there but at the same time there are a lot of bad people including robbers, murders, kidnappers, etc. This book, A Stolen Life written by Jaycee Dugard is simply about a typical young girl who gets kidnapped. Who knows what this creepy stranger has been doing to this innocent girl for the past decade but the only thing I know is that whatever he's doing isn't good. To me, this book looks very appealing and interesting. Although the whole aspect of a young girl getting kidnapped isn't the definition of a good book in some eyes I tend to find books like these engaging to read.

When we got assigned to read a memoir as a project I knew what type of book I wanted to read. I was very excited to read A Stolen Life when my La teacher recommended it to me. Unfortunately, when it was time to sign up for a memoir to read I saw that multiple students in my class had already signed up to read it which was very aggravating. When talking to my teacher again about memoirs she recommended and another book caught my eye and that book was Lucky by Alice Sebold. Which is very similar to A Stolen Life. I'm really excited to read this book and in the future I will definitely be reading A Stolen Life.

Life's a roller coaster, strap in

All about me...

I've lived in many states growing up and it all started in San Jose, California where I was born 17 years ago. My older sister Regan who is 20 years of age also was born in San Jose.  I lived in San Jose for about a year when we decided to move to Boston, Massachusetts and moved quickly to Austin, Texas where eventually my mom got pregnant with my younger brother Aidan who is now 13. We lived in Austin for about 3 years when the heat became too much but mostly because my dad found a job out in Colorado. Ever since we moved here 12 years ago I've loved every part of it. I love going skiing in the winter and camping in the summer. Colorado is an all around great state to live in and I love it here.

I've played a lot of sports throughout my childhood from swimming and softball to soccer and basketball. When I was about 12 years old I started playing competitive soccer and realized 4 years into it that I was done being a benchwarmer. Although I was very good at keeping seats warm for all the starters I eventually decided that I was ready to move on to something else that I could help and contribute to and that was basketball. I love basketball and have enjoyed it since the day I stepped onto the court. For the past 5 years I have been playing competitive on a club team. Instead if being a cheerleader on the sidelines on the soccer fields I've actually developed a lot of skills throughout the years and can finally consider myself a part of the team. Along with playing basketball I also love watching NBA on TV and always rooting for my ultimate favorite team Golden State Warriors! And if I had to choose a number one best player it would be Steph Curry. Steph is such a great leader on the Golden State Warriors and I look up to him because he has a great attitude toward things.

This picture represents a part of me because throughout middle school was a time especially for me and  probably others to fit in. The whole goal in middle school was to look alike and that's what I fell into  throughout my middle school experience. I would try and look like and even try and act like my friends just so I could fit in. I would text my friends or they would text me the night before asking what we were going to wear the next day so we didn't feel like other students were going to judge us. As I look back now I've noticed that middle school is all about popularity in my opinion. Girls try and interact with boys and vise versa, which I'm not saying is a bad thing. I've realized when I looked back that I fell under all of those categories and was very aware who I hung out with, what I wore, and mostly if I fit in. I'd painted a picture of what I wanted to be as a person and realized that people don't care about that. That the background of the picture is maybe more important then the actual picture itself. I recognized that none of it mattered. In my mind what even is "popularity" anymore because to me it's just a word.