This weeks AoW focused on the BP oil spill and how scientist have found sea creatures born with deformities just 2 years after the spill. BP Has been denying accusations that this was caused by the oil spill from 2 years ago however no one is believing them. There is a significant amount of research and proof to show that these mass numbers of animal deformities are caused by this horrific spill from 2 years ago.

I think that the fact that BP isn’t taking responsibility is horrible. I understand why they wouldn’t want to, but at the same time there is so much evidence that proves that it is there fault. As human beings in this day and age there are so many weapons and substances that we have created that are having major impacts on our environment and the beauty in it. This isn’t just going on with sea creatures either I mean look at agent orange and the birth defects it has had on children from the viet nam war.

In the article it stated that most full on after effects from oil spills such as this one don’t take full affect until about 4 years after the incident. If that is true then can you even being to IMAGINE what is going to happen within the next 2 years? We are already seeing HORRIBLE defects on sea life, I can’t imagine how much worse it can get.

If we keep this up and don’t do anything to help solve this issue NOW there may not be much sea life and beauty left in the world for future generations. This is a HUGE violation on the environment.

You can’t simply ask somone to kill themselves. You don’t get to walk up to someone you and say ‘Hey I was just wondering if you could go kill yourself for me. It doesn’t work like that. Every single person has a reason to live and you ask someone to take their own life. Think about it, how would you feel if your friend said to you “Hey! How are you? I was just wondering, if you could go shoot yourself for me. Thanks.” I don’t know about you but I know that I would feel absolutly horrible.

You are probably thinking why the heck is this girl ranting about this topic? Who would be thinking about this? The reason why I am talking about this is because I was in the very same position that I am talking about.

2 years ago the the boy that I used to call my best friend asked me this exact same question that I’m talking about right now. He and I had been best friends since the day I was born. We had been through everything together. I was there for him when he went through a horrible break up and he was there for me when I went through the same. We were always eachothers shoulder to lean on and we could always make eachother smile when no one else could. So for him to ask me to take my own life on day? I was borken. I didn’t know how to respond, I locked myself myself in my room and cried for days, I barley ate and I didn’t want to talk to anyone. I mean my best friend had just asked me to kill myself, how was I supposed to respond? I was a wrek. But throughout that entire time by myself I started thinking “What did I do to make him ask me this question?” My answer? “nothing.” I didn’t do anything to deserve being asked that question. I wasn’t going to kill myself for this boy. He wasn’t my best friend after all and I was done with all of the drama…. and him.

No one should ever take their life because they are asked to. They didn’t do anything to deserve it and they shouldn’t feel like they did.

This weeks article of the week was about girls in Sudan being sold by their OWN FAMILIES to solve family disputes. When I read this article I was blown away at how, messed up things are in a number of contries. Selling your child, the child that you carried for 9 months and gave birth to? The child that you would do anything for to see him or her safe That is just crazy to me. I mean we are all humans, and we all have the same rights, where you live shouldn’t affect how you are treated and the way of things where you live. But it does.
If I were put in to the position where I had to give my own daughter to another family, were she was going to be abused, I wouldn’t do it. No matter how bad the situation got, I couldn’t give my own child up, I would rather die then put my shild through that tourcher. What really messes with my mind is how someone can take another person’s daughter and abuse her, and basically make her your slave and feel no pity. It’s people like this that make me sick. They are so heartless, they don’t stop for second to think how they would feel if it was them, because trust me if they did none of this would be going on.
I’m the type of person that if I see someone who is homeless or hurt I get this horrible feeling in my heart and I hate it. I want to help ebery single person I see, I can’t see someone in that state of poverity or pain. It hurts me so much to see how hard of a life a majority of people in this world have, and then here we are, living in homes where we have blankets, clothes, food and so many electronics and we’re still complaining about our lives being hard, boring, horrible? Throwing fits or getting mad when we don’t get something we want? That just isn’t right. I don’t think some people realise how lucky they are. There are girls in Sudan being abused, and taken advantage of and we are complaing about not getting a pair of shoes that we wanted? It makes me so angry. The people that go through things like these girls in Sudan are so strong. They deserve SO MUCH better then what they are going through.

For this weeks AOW I chose to write about Treyvon Martin. I read a various numbers of articles but one of the articles that helped me out the most was http://abcn.ws/Hq4rOA this article by Mat Gutman. This article really stood out to me, and really caught my attention. I first heard about Treyvon Martin when I was waiting in line at the airport and it came on TV, immediately I wanted to know so much more, so when Mrs.Richert brought this subject up in class there was no question at all that this was going to be my article of the week.

If I were in the states I think I would probably want to be one of those people out there, protesting, and wearing a hoodie. Would you? The reason that I know for a fact that I would be one of those people out there is because I don’t think it’s fair that George Zimmermann is not being arrested for this. Having said that I know that no one really knows what went on and it Zimmermann is really telling the truth but I don’t believe that Treyvon would just attack him. If Treyvon Martin did attack Zimmermann there would have to be a really good reason, Zimmermann may have provoked him. I mean think about it, the kid just went to the store, bought ice tea and a pack of skittles, I really don’t think it was his intention to hurt anyone, he was just hungry.

In all of the articles I have read on this case they talk about how Treyvon Martin was a good kid, his family was extremely important to him. I really don’t think that Treyvon would be walking around looking to get in to any trouble. I don’t know the whole story but despite what Zimmermann is saying I don’t think that he attacked him, I think he just wanted to get home. Honestly I think that Zimmermann was stereotyping Treyvon Martin and didn’t really give him a chance. It’s defiantly going to be really interesting to see how all of this plays out.

There always comes a time in every generation when it becomes essential for students to break ties with their parents and teachers, this may seem extreme but we all as human beings need the chance to be independent with our decisions in life, and not have other people make them for us. We understand that as students we are required to write our own Declaration of Independence so that the adults in our lives understand why we should and will be independent and equal to them.

We feel that it is obvious, that all us students are created equal and are given by our Creator the rights of life, liberty, and the pursuit of whatever makes them happy. Our parents and teachers obtain the power that they have from students. When we are denied of our right we are allowed to do anything in our power these rights. We are however being denied of these rights, because the adults in our lives are trying to control everything that we do, giving us no opportunity to have freedom and be happy.

- We have decided that our teachers are giving us an unfair amount of homework
As students we have 4 classes everyday and usually for each and every class we are expected to do a minimum of 45 minutes to an hour of homework, resulting in a total of 4 hours of homework at least. Most of us don’t get home until 4 and as much as we try to complete the homework assignments that we were given we also have other obligations that are just as important as homework. When teachers give us homework it seems to be that they don’t consider assignments from other classes, after school activities or even obligations we have at home.

- Break and lunchtimes are extremely short.
We are in school for 7 hours of our day and only for an hour of that time are we out of classes and with our friends. A students we are young and restless, how can we be expected to sit in chairs and stay focused and interested in the classes for 6 hours? As students if we are sitting for more than an fifty minutes to an hour at a time then we start to loose interest and stop fully listening.

-  Too many rules and decisions, not enough place for our say.
We feel as students that there are so many rules and decisions being made by teachers and administrators, about our school lives, without any of our input. When school events such as dances, blasts and movie nights are being planned it seems that, as hard as we try to give our opinions on times the events should be held, decorations, movies, ect. nothing we say or do is being heard and taken into account. We feel like even though these events are being planned for us to go to, they aren’t being planned with us and how we feel about the event in mind.
Even after everything that we have been put through, and all of the mistreatment that we have suffered, we have attempted time after time to explain how we feel to our teachers. Each and every time, we have appealed to our teachers on this matter it seems that our cries for freedom and have been ignored. We have appealed our thoughts and concerns to teachers, administrators and head masters yet we have still been ignored and nothing we do has seemed to work. After many attempts at our freedom and happiness the easy way, we are being forced to separate ourselves from our school and teachers.

We, the entire student body, present this case and data to the rest of this country and world as proof that we, the students deserve the same rights as adults in our lives have. In the name and by the permission of our fellow friends and students we declare our freedom and independence, and we give ourselves the same power as the adult have. For the support of this declaration, we pledge our reputation, lives and all the we have to give up.

Imagination is that pot of gold at the end of a rainbow. It’s that little piece of hope that you have, when you feel like nothing else is going right. Imagination sees the beautiful potential in the ugliest of times, and she loves to indulge in the illusion of what ‘could be’. She thinks outside of the box and for that, people mistaken her for a trouble maker. If you tell Imagination that she can’t do something then she will become determied to get it done and prove you wrong.

 
Her best friends in the entire world are Creativity and Hope. Imagination was born in the darkest of times, surrounded by war zones and soldiers. Until she was 6, Imagination lived in fear, running from battels and soldiers. She lost her parents in the war that she was born in to, and soon Hope became her best and only friend. The only way that imagination survived was the picture she had in her mind of what type of world she hoped to one day live in. Creativity met Imagination when they were 8. They met in an ally way that was full of graffiti when imagination saw all the color in the universe. She had finally started to see the amazing things that the world had to offer and her and creativity have grown a stronger bond then anyone can break, they are truly best friends.

 
She has a gypsy soul, and she loves wearing bright colors espcially blue and purple. Imagination has long, blonde, hair with loose curls. She has tanned, sun kissed skin and piercing blue eyes that metsmerizes people every time they see her. Imagination takes risks and doesn’t care what people think about her. She knows that life is precious and she just wants to live it, to it’s fullest and wildest potential. She loves running miles on the beach at sun rise just freeing her mind and feeling like nothing can stop her. For Imagination there is nothing to far out of reach, anything in your wildest dreams are possible for her.

This weeks article “Bully Documentary: Weinstein Company Loses Appeal Over R-Rating” By: Gary Susman was really an article I could relate too. I have been bullied a lot by people in the past and I know how horrible and useless it can make you feel. It never go to the point that I even THOUGHT about killing myself but it did get to the point where I would get home and just cry.

This movie will defiantly affect a ton of people and hopefully open peoples eyes to the harsh truth. Millions of kids are being bullied at school, on the internet, everywhere, it’s not something that they can run away from or hide from for long. By rating this movie (Bully) R, MPAA has restricted this movie from being played in schools for kids to see, and allowing kids to go to the movies on their own to watch it. Now if they want to watch this movie they would have to go with an adult or wait the long period of time for this movie to come out on DVD, and that will defiantly  limit the amount of people that see it.

These kids that are being bullied are truly some of the strongest people in the world. They go through so much stuff, feel so alone, put up with some of the most brutal, painful things, mentally and physically in the world. The fact that a someone can bully another person to the extent that they take their life is just heart breaking, and mind blowing to me. I don’t understand how someone can take a life or damage a lives but feel no guilt about it. If I could I would talk to every single person that is being bullied and I would let them know that everything is going to be okay, and it will get better. I would let them know that I am there for them to talk to whenever they needed it. I know how much it sucks being bullied and having people absolutly hate you for no reason at all and I wouldn’t wish that feeling upon anyone. If it was up to me no one would feel that way. But the harsh reality is, tons of people do and all that we can do is be there for them and let them know that it will get better.

Treat others the way you want to be treated. Those are words to live by.

We got to choose this week between two articles. I read both of them and I decided that I was going to have a  little bit more fun with this weeks article, instead of talking about some really horrifying things that are going on in Syria. The article that I chose to do a blog post on was What Do You Say to an Alien? By: Sam Roberts. You are probably thinking the same thing that I was when I read the article, aliens? really? are you crazy? Now some of you may believe in aliens and some of you may not. I however and not so sure, I am 50-50 with this whole thing.

People have sent things up in to space with the hope that aliens will find it. Eventually they are hoping that the aliens will send us something from them. I don’t think that if aliens do exist and they found the things that we sent up to space, that they would be able to play the record or anything. I doubt that aliens have the same technology as us on earth.

This article really got me thinking though, it made me think, what if aliens really do exist? Have they found the disc? If they do exist what is life like for them? I also thought, well if aliens do exist wouldn’t we have already discovered them? There are so many people and space ships in space. We have visited so many planets, wouldn’t we have been able to see if there was another form of life up there?

What do scientist think aliens look like? We all know that little kids think of them as green lizard like things with big black eyes. But what do they really look like? They don’t need air to survive, and little food or water. I mean do they even eat? If they do exist what do they eat? There are so many questions that I honestly wish we could have the answers too.

Episode 1
Family Bonding
aunts, uncles, cousins and me
water fights and fun

Episode 2

Bordem took over
sleep deprived teens and music
dancing and singing

Episode 3

Screaming and shouting
getting lost in car with aunt
trying to find store

In math class we have been talking about stress levels and the connection they have with how hard you work. Before I saw this graph I always thought, if you have no pressure you were going to work better because you didn’t have people constantly nagging you, but that’s definitely not the case. You do need a certain amount of stress to put a good effort in. Everyone works at an “optimal” stress level but optimal can mean so many different things for everyone. Optimal can mean a tight timeline with the minimum of getting an A- or it can be having a little bit more time and aiming for a B. It all depends on who you are and how you like to work. If I had to say what stress level I work best at it would probably be on the higher end of stress. My optimal level is usually when I have a bit more stress then normal, I am aiming for a higher goal then what I got before and I am just feeling a ton of pressure. That is usually when I work my best. I have to feel a certain amount of pressure otherwise i’m not going to feel like I have to try my 110%.