This I Believe

  

            I believe that sports can help you make friends. When you play on a sports team you are almost guaranteed to make friends because you go through happy and sad emotions together. You may not have much else in common but sports can bring different kinds of people together. I remember when I first joined my soccer travel team. I didn't know anyone on the team and I thought everyone was better than I was. Even though I wasn't as good as some of the players they still tried to be my friend because they knew that at one point we were going to have to become friends because we were both staying with the club. Even now I'm still friends with the players on that team. This shows that sports can help you make and keep lifelong friends.

            I think that if you aren't that good at sports but you’re on a sports team you can still make friends. I can prove this because when I started playing soccer at age 7, I wasn’t experienced and didn’t know how to play. I liked to pick the ball up with my hands which is illegal. Thank God I wasn't the only one. Three other of my teammates did the same. All of us were afraid of the ball and stayed in a little pack. We began to make friends with each other because we were together most of the time during games. With the group I felt more confident and I became less scared of the ball. When my confidence grew, I was able to learn and teach myself how to play because I now wanted to play and was no longer afraid. I became friends with the people who actually knew how to play soccer.

            In conclusion, it doesn’t matter if you’re good at a sport or bad at a sport. You can still make friends with people who play the same sport even if you’re nothing alike in other ways.

Book Report on Hunger Games

   This week I read the first book of the Hunger Games series. In the book, Katniss (the main character) was sent to an arena with 23 other people to kill each other until there is only one person left. She is really good with the bow and arrows and might be able to win the Hunger Games. I believe that Katniss tried to win the Hunger Games for her friends and family and not only for herself.
    I believe this because when she was being sent to the capitol to fight, her sister said to try to win it for her. Then during the Hunger Games she was always thinking of winning for Prim (her sister)because without Katniss, Prim wouldn't get food unless she learned how to hunt. Katniss also admitted that she would try to win it for Prim. This is why I believe Katniss tried to win for her friends and family.
    Katniss also tried to win the Hunger Games for Gale (a friend). This is because when Katniss got to the final eight in the Hunger Games, all she thought about was Gale and how she was going to see him again. Also when the last person (besides Katniss and Peeta) was being chewed up by wolf dogs, Katniss was thinking "YESSS,  I get to go back and see my family and Gale!" This is why I think that Katniss tried to win it for her friends and family.
    In conclusion, the Hunger Games was a great book and very exciting. It shows that teamwork can help you win or accomplish something. Katniss also needed more than teamwork to win the Hunger Games and that was her friends and family which motivated her even more to win the Hunger Games. If it wasn't for her family and friends, then she might have died in the Hunger Games.

Revolt of the evil fairies

    Three weeks ago my class read a short story called “Revolt of the Evil fairies.” The story was about a school for African Americans and even within the school there is discrimination and unfairness in the school because the yallers (aren’t dark skinned but are considered African Americans) think that they are better than the people who have dark skin and that makes discrimination and unfairness through the school. That is why I think that the theme of this book is unfairness.

     The main idea of “Revolt of the Evil Fairies” short story is unfairness because in the text the narrator and other African Americans are treated unfairly because of their skin color. One example of this is in the first paragraph the narrator says, “the first two rows of the orchestra were always reserved for our white friends.” This shows that lighter colored skinned people got the better of things. Another example is when it said, “And strangely enough most of good fairies usually turned out to be extremely light in complexion, with straight hair and white folks’ features.” This also proves that lighter skinned people got the better of things which is unfair.

    The theme of the short story is unfairness. One example of unfairness is when the narrator is talking about the play.”There was never any doubt about Prince Charming and Sleeping Beauty. They were always light skinned.” Another example is, “I made the best grades in my class, I was leading debater, and a scion of a respected family in the community. But I could never be Prince Charming, because I was black.” These pieces of evidence prove that lighter colored skin people had advantages and that there was unfairness to darker skinned African American people.

    The main idea of the short story is unfairness and the text shows us a lot of evidence. One example is when they picked Roger Jackson, “Roger was not only dumb; he stuttered. But he was light enough to pass for white.” Another example is when it says, “The yallers had the best of everything. They held most of the teaching jobs in Booker T. Washington colored Grammar school. They were the negro doctors, lawyers, the insurance men.” This proves that the lighter colored skinned people got treated better and got better things like jobs and lead roles in plays. This proves that dark colored skinned people were treated unfairly.

In conclusion, this short story is about unfairness and discrimination throughout the same race. It also shows how racism and discrimination is still going on. It shows us many examples of how darker skinned African Americans were treated like they weren’t as good as lighter skinned people. People even within the same race will try to be better than other people because of skin color. Why would people judge each other because of their skin color even if they are really nice or really smart? I wonder when racism is going to stop, or will it ever stop?

Book Report on No Limit

 

  This week I read No Limit by Pete Hautman. The book was about a boy named Dennis Doyle who wanted money so he could get a car. One day some of his peers asked him to play poker and he did. That game he won and got a lot of money so he got a book to make him get better at poker.  Soon he was playing at a casino and winning. The only problem was that he didn’t care for anything but poker. In the end he was rich and owned a fancy restaurant he didn’t have any friends. The point of the book is to show you that friends are more important than money.
    Your friends are more important than your money because in the book Dennis wasn’t happy after he was rich and he didn’t have any friends. Also, another example is when he was winning in poker he tried to call his friend because they haven’t talked in a while, but his friend would talk to him. This proves that you will probably always be happy with friends but without you will not be happy. This shows that friends are more important than money.
    Friends are more important than money because in the book everyone thought that he was a jerk because he never hung around with his friends and he only played poker. When he went to a fancy restaurant with his girlfriend she dumped him because he wasn’t socially interacting with anyone and was being a jerk. He could make friends with money. This proves that friends are more important than money.
    In conclusion, Dennis was a jerk after he got a lot of money. Before that though he had friends and a girlfriend, but he thought money was more important than friends. He was rich and and was an amazing poker player, but without any friends he was a jerk to all of his ex-friends. If I was him I would just keep my friends and occasionally play poker.