T is for The End

I jump out of my car, super excited for the day ahead of me. It's the first day of school. I look over to the door, and see everyone is pushing and shoving their way through to see their class list. I sprint towards the wave of people, hoping I'll get through in one piece. As I squeeze through every little space I see, I hear a familiar voice calling my name behind me. I turn my head back to see one of my friends. Before I can get a sound out of my mouth, I'm suddenly pushed out of crowded doorway. I run as fast as I can until I reach the Grade 7 classroom. I scan through the class list, and spot many of my friend's names. I have a pretty decent class this year. I look behind me, and find lots of my other classmates desperate to see the names on the flimsy piece of paper, hanging helplessly by a thin strip of tape. I smile, thinking of the exciting year ahead of me. I step into the class, drop my new textbooks on my desk, and explore the room I will spend the next year in. As the bell rings, I take my seat. I look around and see familiar faces, along with new ones. I can already tell it's going to be a great school year.

The beginning of something is always wonderful, whether it’s the beginning of a new friendship or the beginning of a new school year. The beginning gives a little introduction to what the core thing really is. It's just the small spark that will eventually start the big fire.

But what is the end exactly? To me, I don’t think anything has an end. The end is just a new beginning. The end is the fire starting to die down to just some warm pieces of coal. But right as the little spark gets it started, the fire will grow back, and start all over again. We're nearing the end of Grade 7 right now. It has been a great year filled with fun activities like the camp out for Haiti, the math t-shirts, and many more still to come. The fire has grown bigger and bigger the closer we come to the end of the year. Everyone is super excited for the Pond Study and the trip to Sudbury. The fire will be at its biggest when we’re all together at Sudbury. But after that, a giant wind will suddenly come by and blow the fire right out when we separate for summer vacation. The school year has gone by so fast. It seems like just yesterday we were thrilled to bits to start our first class. And now, the last day of school is approaching us. We've learned so much throughout the year, and we've made so many new friends. It's so hard to forget the wonderful memories we all have of Grade 7.

This year, we've learned so many new things. I think all of us have improved so much since last year, academically and socially. We’ve made new friends, learned new things, and it’s going to be hard for all of us to leave each other behind when summer comes around.

Grade 7 has been a fun year. All of us feel so much more different now that we’ve become teenagers. More responsible, more mature, and we feel grown up. Grade 7 is like the middle of the middle. We’re in Middle School, and we’re the middle of Middle School. But all of that will change next year. Our school program is changing and there won’t be a Middle School anymore. We’ll feel even more grown up because we’re being combined with Upper School now. It’s kind of exciting going into Upper School. We’ll have some new teachers and a different Student Council system. It’s going to be very different being thought of as Upper Schoolers.

One of the things I definitely want to remember from this year is the Camp out for Haiti. Recently, Haiti had a terrible earthquake. SJK Middle School wanted to raise money for Haiti, so we decided to do a camp out at the school. It was very successful. We raised over $9000! It was a lot of fun, and everyone enjoyed it.

In math class, we made a design, a tessellation I should say, on the computer. Then, we printed it on iron-on paper and ironed it onto a t-shirt. It was a great way to express our creativity and math skills. I think a lot of my classmates will agree with me that the tessellations were the most fun math project we have done this year.

We have come so far in Language Arts. We started blogging this year, which has been a lot of fun. It was a really creative idea to have everyone blogging about something about themselves, but applying writing skills they have learned. In blogging this year, we did the first few blogs on the same thing, like on the Breadwinner, or guest speakers, or field trips. But then Ms. Weldon made it more interesting and had everyone do an alpha biography on a topic about his or her life. Every once in a while, Ms. Weldon taught us something new to make our writing even better, and then gave us some people who applied that lesson in their writing so we had an idea of what she was looking for. First, we started off with using the recipe we learned from last year. Then, we learned about diction, using big words. After that, we were encouraged to use imagery, being descriptive. None of us were very good at re-tell, we just listed things, but Ms. Weldon showed us an excellent example of re-tell, and I think we all needed some help on better re-tell. Finally, we learned about insight, and all of us improved in our writing. Insight is writing to make your reader wonder and imagine. A method a lot of people do to create insight was to ask questions. Right now in Language Arts, we are working on an Identity project. It’s going to explain who we think we are. I think that’s a great way or us to understand who we are as people better. All of us have been working so hard in Language Arts this year. The improvement from last year is truly unbelievable. I can’t wait until we get back into Language Arts next year and learn so much more.

The fire is gradually growing to its largest, but when the summer arrives, the fire will be nothing but a warm pile of coal. But then on the first day of school, the fire will come back alive again. It will have a new beginning.

LIFE LESSON: Nothing has an end. There is no such thing as the end. The end is just a new beginning.

I commented on Lyndsey's post: Lori.

G is for Goals

The gentle breeze flows through your hair, which is drenched in sweat. It cools you down as you slowly jog your way along the track. You’re in your own world, focused on nothing else but to win. The crowd chants your name, but all you can hear are your short breaths. You start to feel a strong pain in your side, and feel like giving up, but you keep a steady pace. You glance behind your back, and see the other competitors determined to pass you by. Suddenly, a burst of energy encourages you to keep going. Your mouth is incredibly dry, but you think about how much you want this. You close your eyes, and focus on what you want most. As your eyes open, your mind thinks about nothing else, but to just keep going. You’re zoned out of the world, and can hardly hear anything. Your heart pounds hard against your chest, trying to escape the agony. The finish line is in your sight. Your coach is screaming at you to keep running. The crowd roars as you step over the finish line. You can’t help, but to keep smiling. Your coach helps you up, and you two embrace as the stadium celebrates your win, a gold medal. You are a gold medallist. You have waited your whole life for this moment. You step onto the platform, and they gently place the gold medal onto your neck. You’ve never felt so proud. You take the shining piece of gold in your hands and raise it up to the crowd. They cheer, and you think of what you have just accomplished. You’ve never felt happier in your life.

Goals are something that make life interesting. They give someone a thought. A thought that will last forever. But what exactly is a goal? I think a goal is whatever the person wants it to be. To me, goals are like thoughts that don't have an end. They just keep going on and on. If you think about your goal, you imagine so many different things that would be different if you accomplished that goal. Goals can be as little as acing a test, or they can be as big as winning a gold medal at the Olympics. But whatever the goal is, big or small, they are goals.

I told you goals are like never-ending thoughts. That's true if you really think about it. For instance, if your goal was to ace a test, your life would change. Your parents would be proud of you, your teachers would be impressed with you, even your siblings may congratulate you. See how these things keep going on and on? This is what I mean by never-ending. Any goal can change your life in so many different ways.

Accomplishing a goal always feels so good. You feel happy all over, and you can't stop smiling. It's hard to explain, but I'm sure you know what I mean. One of my goals in life is to be accepted into Harvard University one day. Harvard is a very good university, and pretty hard to get into. My goal probably may not come true, but I still keep hoping it will happen one day. Many goals may not come true, but the fun part about it is that you can still dream about it happening. You can still think about what it would be like if it did happen. Like I said before, goals last forever. Even if they don't come true, they can still be a goal.

LIFE LESSON: In life, some of your goals may not come true. But you can still hope that some day it will happen. If your goal has not happened, keep imagining what it would be like if it happened. Then it shows you how much you want it, and how hard you'll work to get it. If you work hard enough, you never know, maybe it will happen.

I commented on Wilks' blog, K is for Ketchup.