Cole's English Blog

Can dreams become plans? Yes in my opinion I think dreams can turn into plans if you apply yourself. Find something you wouldn’t mind doing for free and make that your career. Dreams can sometimes not be attainable if you have something blocking you from getting to that dreams like being handicapped or for example if your 5 feet tall you probably wouldn’t be very good in the NBA. I feel like a lot of Disney movies make it seem for young children that no matter who you are you can always achieve your dreams like the movie ratatouille. it’s a rat that becomes the best chef in Paris sometimes things like that are very unrealistic and people need to have goals they can actually do.

I read pages 25-40 today and I’m on the chapter where there are a bunch of letters being sent to harry and uncle Vernon just keeps tearing them up. I think the letters are just going to keep on coming because they have consistently been coming every mail day. I’m liking so much about my book so far its so interesting and I really don’t dislike anything so far. One way I can connect it with Lime town is how both of them are very secret Uncle Vernon is not telling Harry where these letters are coming from and Lime town was a big secret for a very long time.

When I think of what it means to belong I think of fitting in with the general public and be mass appealing to everybody. Not being to flashy with the way you dress and not being to flashy with the way you carry yourself a good medium. Not being different from anyone else is key you want to fit in as much as possible so people don’t think much of you almost like you wanna blend in so much they don’t even know your there. I feel like people try to blend in when there not confident in the way they look and they see people who are more popular than they are getting all of the attention they just want to copy it and it makes them feel better.

I think the N-word is the most offensive word in the history of words because of the awful history and the way it was used towards African Americans. It is truly heartbreaking to hear that word come up today in our society.

I think men very easily treat women as objects rather than equal human beings because men can feel more dominant than woman just because they may be bigger and stronger so I think some men don’t even see women as equal members of society.

My independent book is called “Make Your Bed” by Admiral William H. McRaven this book is pretty much just about 10 life lessons he learned during navy seal training. During each lesson he talks about how one small simple task like making your bed each morning hence the name of the book build confidence, discipline, and the ability to overcome challenges. Admiral McRaven looks at life every day like a task book and making your bed in the morning is the first task of the day. He says no matter how bad your day might have been, or how many people may have yelled at you, or how many times you messed up during the day. You will always come home to a bed that is made and that made bed is a reminder that tomorrow is a new day.

I genuinely loved this book so much since I am also going to be in the Navy its a really good look on the simple things the Navy expects of its sailors. This book made me 10 times more excited for bootcamp he makes serving your country seem like this great honor and it absolutely is. He talked about how difficult seal training was not just physically but mentally the seals live by the rule that when your body is telling you to stop you’ve really only reached 40% of your true potential. This rule gives me so much motivation and it drives me to want to work harder and push past failure. This book gives such a positive feel to everybody not just people who want to serve in the military also people who want to have at least a little bit of discipline or feel like they accomplished one thing. Studies show than only about 37% of people make their bed in the morning so if you make your bed in the morning your already 63% ahead of the world.

How far is too far when it comes to technology? I think it gets to be too far when we start giving up control and start giving up our jobs so because technology can do it. I think once we teach Technology to become self aware I think the movie I Robot is a very good representation of this.

Why do I think most of us are reliant on tech?

I think we are because it creates dopamine in our heads when we are on technology and it gives it a since of easy fun. Another reason is because it makes things so much easier for us and i think alot of people like that aspect.

I think two have been challenged which are the adventures of Huckleberry Finn and to kill a mockingbird

The reasons I think they have been challenged is because of racism I remember for sure that to kill a mockingbird has the n word on a page and its a book that you see in a lot of English classrooms so I think they challenged it so that kids aren’t exposed to words like that.

Flight

Flight could be controversial because of the amount of swearing and racist comments in the book. A lot of parents don’t want there children exposed to that amount of negativity in English class so i think the book is definitely controversial.

Link to Zits TIQAs

Similarities

Emotions

teen physical violence

“Your child’s emotional ups and downs might happen for many reasons – physical, psychological, social and emotional and not for any reason in particular. Often you won’t be able to work out why your child feels up or down, and neither will your child.”

Teens today are similar to Zits situation because there are so many reasons as to why he is so violent but the true answer is we don’t really know why he is like that. Our main guess as to why he is so violent right now is his parents being gone but he is a teen who has a lot of other stuff going on also. Another contributing factor to why he is so violent is him having trust issues especially because he’s been in and out of foster care. The last one is because he’s been around violence his whole life so he might not know any better.

Mental health in adolescents

depression in teens

“About 1 in 5 adolescents have a current, diagnosed mental or behavioral health condition.”

Zits isn’t officially diagnosed with a mental disorder it is very clear that something isn’t right with him mentally. He has a lot of post trauma coming from the abandonment of his father and the loss of his mother. There are also very strong signs of depression and he express multiple times how he thinks he is very ugly or unwanted and even useless. It also seems like he has an anger management disorder he has no tolerance for anything he doesn’t like and he is very brutally honest when it comes to how he thinks of a person. Most of the time what he has to say about somebody isn’t nice at all.

Loneliness in teens

“While loneliness can strike at any age, adolescence appears to be a particularly vulnerable time. More than 50% of adolescents report experiencing loneliness repeatedly, a stark contrast to the less than 20% of children who report similar experiences.”

Loneliness in teens is similar to Zits in many ways one of the main ways being the feeling of unwantedness Zits has expressed many times that he feels unwanted and like he doesn’t belong and many teens feel the same way either by there peers or rejection and even bullying. A lot of this comes from lack of emotional support from parents exactly like Zits. He also struggles with identity he does not know who he is especially culturally because he is half white and half native. For teens in general adolescence is a time of figuring out who you are as a person and if your feeling really lonly it can make identity confusion way worse. in conclusion Zits story is very extreme and not might be exactly how other teens stories go but his loneliness comes from the same place that many teenagers know.

Differences

Risk taking

Science of teens and risk taking

“It’s not only normal for adolescents to take risks and try new things, it’s an essential part of learning during these years. Being able and willing to take risks is a part of our natural tendency to explore new things in adolescence—in ways that help us discover who we are, expand our skills, and ultimately leave the safe nest of home.”

Many teens take risks and it is a normal part of development risk taking can involve things like peer pressure or being curious or just wanting to have a fun time. A lot of the time its about finding yourself and really seeing how far you can push the limits. Zits takes much bigger risks then the average teen like doing a mass shooting it seems like his risks are not coming from the same place the average teens are and its coming from something much more than that like the loss of his parents. Zits is not just testing the limits like most other teens who participate in risks he is trying to either hurt himself or others. Many teens who take risks typically have support systems like parents or schools or their work but for Zits he doesn’t really have any support systems and it makes it seem like he has nothing to loose.

Violence is my theme for Flight chapters 9-12 because we see so much of it throughout those chapters.

“I could feel the anger in my chest like a burning coal, ready to explode.”

“I saw the gun in his hand, and I knew someone was going to get hurt.”

“He slapped her hard across the face, and she cried out.”

I honestly think the book we are reading right now “Flight” is not appropriate to children and or teens. Reason being the vast amount of swearing used is a little bit excessive for children and teenage ears to be exposed to. I also think that all of the gore in the book is really gross to think about and that’s not good for younger people. Lastly all of the racist stuff is honestly just gross and kids might find it to be a joke so i think this book is meant for as more mature audience that understands that racism is not okay and that and excess amount of swearing is to get the authors point across better and not meant in a funny joking way which is how a kid might take it.

I know some Christian adults have problems with the book series “Harry Potter because it portrays witch craft and evil spirits. I think I can understand where there coming from but they shouldn’t be forcing their kids not to read it and the kids should get to choose that on there own. I think people who bring religion into books kind of ruin the mood I know this because I’ve had first hand experience with it and it really sucks not being able to read what you want to. Even though there is nothing bad in the book at all and its a very family friendly book. I think its very unfair to not let your children read the books they want to because it goes against there beliefs.