8th Blog (Purple Day or It Gets Better Part 2)

Aloha my fellow bloggers! Tomorrow on October 20th, lots of people around the world will be supporting the LGBTQ youth (Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Trans-Gendered and Questioning) by wearing purple. Click here for more information! It's really important that we all make a difference to the world and show people that it's not okay that people are bullying other people because they are different from us. Like I said before on my first part of the blog, it's not just gays or lesbians who are facing this terrible crisis, people with disabilities, for example someone who rides a wheelchair or someone with an artificial leg are facing this terrible crisis. Think of Terry Fox or Rick Hansen, they are one of many notable Canadians, and people go around bullying people with the exact same disabilities and differences, not knowing that they could make a change in the world. Even gay people, like actor Neil Patrick Harris, comedienne Ellen DeGeneres and singer Adam Lambert are notable American celebrities. Being different is good, I guess some people don't really see that, because people are bullying every single day. We can start making that change tomorrow. Please, if you have a shirt, pair of pants, hat, scarf, shoes, etc. anything that's purple, please have the courage and make a stand for the LGBTQ youth and all the other people that are facing this terrible teasing and bullying. If you go to Hannah's blog, you can help support The Trevor Project for free! Remember, for people who feel like committing suicide DON'T DO IT! There are people who love and care about you and happiness is just around the corner. Trust me, it gets better!  PLEASE wear purple tomorrow! PLEASE show that you care! Have a great day!

7th Blog (Island Man: Work With It)

Bonjour bloggers! Today, my class got a poem, and we had to do a little response to it. Click here for more info! Here is the poem and my response. ENJOY!

Island Man (for a Caribbean island man in London who still wakes up to the sound of the sea)

by Grace Nichols

.

Morning

and island man wakes up                                                                        

to the sound of blue surf

in his head

the steady breaking and wombing                         

wild seabirds

and fishermen pushing out to sea

the sun surfacing defiantly

from the east

of his small emerald island

.

He always comes back

groggily groggily

comes back to sands                                                                     

of a grey metallic soar

to a surge of wheels

to dull North Circular roar

muffling muffling

his crumpled pillow waves

island man heaves himself

another London day

I would most likely want to wake up lying on a hammock at the beach, because I would get more sleep there, and it would feel so relaxing. You would hear the sound of waves splashing continuously, and you would feel the palm trees slowly swaying in the breeze, so the temperature won't be too hot, or won't be too cold, but just right. Also, you wouldn't have to worry about school or work, and you would just enjoy yourself. That's the best part!

There's my response, hope you enjoyed it! As you could see, I highlighted most of the poem in Italics, because to me, when I first read this poem (I didn't see the title then), it seemed a bit like a mystery that you had to figure out. So you had all these clues in the poem, like "the island man wakes up to the sound of blue surf in his head". So then you could put all the pieces together and realize that even though the Caribbean island man was thinking about the Caribbean, the Caribbean island man wasn't in the Caribbean, he was in London. Thanks again for visiting, and I hope you enjoyed the poem. Please feel free to comment. Have an excellent day! 

5th Blog (Behind my Name: Melissa)

Welcome back bloggers! My class has been asked to do another assignment. This time, our class had to go to this website, behind the name, and find out the history of your name. 

Before I started this assignment, I thought my name Melissa meant honeybee, because I checked on Wikipedia to get ready for my "flair" presentation, and also that's what my parents told me  that my name meant. I think my parents chose this name for me because, here's the thing,  my family had different names that they wanted to give me. One, for example being "Gabrielle", but other family members thought it was so weak, because my sister's name is "Abigail" and our nicknames would be "Abby" and "Gabby" and that would've been cheesy, so they had to come up with a name that everyone would like, and so "Melissa" came up and everyone liked it, so that's what they named me. After searching on behind the name, what I thought my name meant was the correct meaning. According to that website, my name, "Melissa" means bee or honeybee in Greek. In Greek mythology, it was the name of one of the nymphs, which in mythology is a nature goddess, who took care of baby Zeus by feeding him honey. When I first found that out, I thought it was SO cute! I also found out that my name was the name of a fairy in a 1516 Italian poem called, "Orlando Furioso" and the fairy helps someone escape from an evil witch. When I found that out, I thought I should find a copy of that poem and check it out, and when I do, I will blog about it. I also checked out baby names, and one thing I found out that I thought was cool was that in America, my name was really big in 1970's and 1980's and was the #2 name from 1977-1979. I think my name suits me, because I like the colours, yellow and black and my family thinks that I'm "sweet as honey". If I could give myself a new name, it would be "Melody", because most of you guys know that I'm very musical, I love to sing, etc, and since that name is music-related, that would be so cool to have for a name. I don't think I would want to change my name though, because I love "Melissa", it's a beautiful name.

There you have it, you have just discovered things you didn't know about my name. Try finding out some history about your name. Thank you again for visiting my blog. I hope you had a great Thanksgiving! Please feel free to comment. Have an outstanding day!    

4th Blog (It Gets Better)

Hi Bloggers! Yesterday, my class had a very important discussion about people from the United States being bullied and committing suicide, because they were gay. How terrible and devastating is that? Please be careful of the words you say to other people. They may seem like a joke to you, but it really hurts and is mean. And it's not just gays that are in this crisis, people who have disabilities also are facing this terrible bullying, being called lame, because they can't walk or dumb, because they can't speak, etc. I'm here to talk to you about Autism, because I know about Autism and it came up in the class discussion today. Autism is a disorder a person has that causes issues with non-verbal communication and social skills, which means that they process the information slower than other people. Even though they get the information slower, they still know it in their brains and they're very intelligent, just like everyone else. So please, my message for everyone is to treat others the way you want to be treated. If you see someone that's different from you, be kind to that person. Besides, being different is good, we don't want everyone to be the same, that would make this world boring. Keep this message in mind everywhere you go, and for the people who are having trouble and want to take their lives, DON'T DO IT! There are people who love and care about you. You're not alone, and trust me, it gets better. Thank you, and Happy Thanksgiving this Monday. 

P.S. If you have any time to see another example, please visit my friend Hannah's powerful and meaningful blog about "It Gets Better". She definately makes a point about this terrible cause, and also wrote two raps of her own about it. She is really standing up for herself about this, and I truly recommend that you check it out. <- (Click on this to get to blog.)