Different Lifestyles.

I think that people's parents play a large role in how their child turns out in life. My friends and I have a lot of different viewpoints on politics, things that are socially acceptable, things that we should or shouldn't be allowed to do, and many others. Most of these viewpoints we get from our parents. I enjoy the way that my parents raise me and sometimes it is hard for me to understand the things that my friends' families believe especially when they are so different from mine.
In my family my brother and I are very close and when I got to do something, my brother who is 18 months younger than me, also got to do it. Jon and I are allowed to do more things than most of my friends are able to do which I think keeps me from being 'rebellious'. My parents are both workaholics, yet my mom is able to balance her realtor career with being a mom very well. She is able to organize her work schedule around mine and my brother's schedules which is nice. My dad is a land developer and works an obscene amount yet we get to hang out a lot on the weekends at my cabin. We all enjoy classical rock and hamburgers from the grill. Overall we are capitalist and our dinner conversations are dominated by politics and business and the economy.
Sometimes I will eat dinner at my friend's house and it is so different from my own. Her family is very healthy and eats some really weird food. Her parents don't talk about politics because they disagree. They are very silent during dinner except for when they say grace which my friend always does because she is an only child. Her parents are protective of her yet she is far more rebellious than I would ever be. Her relationship with her parents is distant. I respect the differences between her family and mine yet sometimes it is hard not to critisize their ways of parenting. Sometimes I think that she thinks my parents are a little weird for the way they raise my brother and I as well.
At another friend's house they discuss politics (yet with the opposite viewpoints of my family) and the medical field since her dad works in it. They love orchestra hall and sometimes speak in french. They travel a lot and are a very intellectual family. Her mom is a stay at home mom and pushes her two children into doing every sport and academic club available. My friend would never do anything out of line and she always obeys her parents. I don't think that she has ever brought home anything less than an A on her report card. I admire her for everything she does yet sometimes I think she overworks herself and she is often stressed which I wish her parents would see.

poetry

Nothing Gold Can Stay by Robert Frost

Nature's first green is gold,
Her hardest hue to hold.
Her early leaf's a flower;
But only so an hour.
Then leaf subsides to leaf.
So Eden sank to grief,
So dawn goes down to day.
Nothing gold can stay.

Taken from http://famouspoetsandpoems.com/poets/robert_frost/poems/529

RESPONSES
1. I picked this poem because I like Robert Frost and this poem is calm. It is also short and simple with the theme that everything that is good only lasts for a little while. I like this theme because even though it is sort of sad, it also has the idea that you should enjoy things while they last. It also has a really nice rhythm and pattern and sounds wonderful.
2. The title is the last line of the poem. It's significance is that it underlines and strengthens the idea of the theme that I mentioned above.
3. This poem has personification because it turns nature into 'her' and gives nature actions such as "to hold"(2). Another example of personification is "Eden sank into grief"(6). The personification helps the reader relate to nature and adds to the theme. It also makes alliteration possible by using 'her'. The poem also uses alliteration: "Her hardest hue to hold"(2). I think the alliteration makes the poem sound clean and pretty. The rhyme scheme is AABBCCDD which helps the poem flow smoothly.
4. To me the tone seems calm. None of the words are harsh words and they all seem smooth and pretty to me. Some examples are 'gold', and 'leaf'. Also the poem gives a calming effect in line seven: "So dawn goes down to day"(7). The rhyme scheme adds to the tone as well.

Writing Territories

1. I like to read novels of all genres except for fantasy or science fiction. The only exception would be Harry Potter. My favorite is realistic fiction. Right now I am reading My Sister's Keeper and I absolutely love it! As for writing I find it hard to do outside of school but I think its really fun. Last summer, I wrote part of what was going to be a novel, but after a while I just got tired of it because I had thought of the whole story and didn't want to write it all out. I keep a journal that I write in once a week on average. Normally I just write about the highlights of the week.



2. It was regatta week. The best week of my summers at Camp Lake Hubert. Finally this year I got to skipper instead of crew. The girls camp would be racing five boats against Lincoln's, the boys camp's, five boats. "Annie Schoenwetter! You'll be sailing a C... Dock Holiday. Crew members will be Jane, Allie, and Kippy."

I couldn't believe it. A C-class boat! I always sailed them during free sailing but never in a regatta. Jane, Allie, and Kippy were good friends of mine who I had known forever but I only saw at camp. Right then and there I decided that it was our year to dominate and beat the boys, not to mention all of the other girls, most of who were my friends.

Regatta day came soon enough and after five days of training, we were ready. We raised our main sail and then the jib, letting the boom swing across the boat in the violent winds. The calm lake soon turned into whitecaps and the sky became dark. "Rolf!" I yelled. "Is the regatta stil on?"

"Yeah! Get on out there!" Splash! I turned around and saw Kippy had landed in the lake. She asked if we'd be okay with one less crew and I said yes. Truth be told, I wasn't so confident that we'd have enough weight to hold down the boat in the rough winds. But nontheless we headed out and joined the prestart flow and before I knew it we were off with a great start.

There was one boat in front of us, it was the final leg of the course. Challenge, with a crew full of boys, cut effortlessly through the waves, whereas we could have definitly used another person. We were slowly gaining on them and as we reached the final buoy, the leeward mark, I made a risky move and cut them off. We stole their wind and pulled out of the turn before them, flying towards the finish line.

We crossed the line and the whistle blew, declaring us the winners!! Allie was so excited that she stood up. Bad move. We ended up tipping and then turtling right after we had crossed the finish line. Surprisingly, this only made the victory even better.