We Wish You A Merry Christmas

Every year before the holidays everyone seems to be scurrying around trying to find the perfect decorations, gifts, and food in order to have a wonderful Christmas with their families. In my eyes, simply having my family with me all together on that one day means the world to me. I mean of course the presents and food is great to have too, but when everyone gets together on Christmas day nothing else seems to matter. With Grandma and Aunt Shelly knitting in the living room, the little ones playing out in the snow, and the others playing Pictionary in the kitchen there is nowhere else in the world I would rather be. Every Christmas my family and I head up to Brainerd for the week until New Years comes around. Every other year my Cousins from Texas take a two-day trip to visit us up here in Minnesota.  The seven of them stay at my family’s guest cabin on Horseshoe Lake for the week that they are here. It is such a special treat for us to have them come up here because we all get along so well and we really have a great time together. On this side I have a total of 12 cousins including Lilyanna, a fairly new addition to our family. There is never a time where we feel bored when we are all together. This year, our Christmas is going to be very different considering my much-loved uncle passed away in the spring. It has been a rough 8 months for us all but he is always in our hearts and prayers and his joyful humorous spirit will stay with us forever.

When the big day finally comes we all head over to grandmas house for a dinner/lunch (linner) of prime rib and potatoes. At Night all of us go to a movie late at night as a Christmas tradition. Throughout the week we usually spend our time at the cabin snowmobiling, sledding, and snowboarding in the yard and because I only get to see my cousins twice every other year, I always stay up late with them every night. Even though it may not be the best idea, it is still worth it. I hope that this Christmas will be filled with joy for everyone and that everyone can get the chance to spend some time with his or her families. Merry Christmas Everyone!

Change

Narration
     The day after I failed my first Biology test, I promised myself that I would change. Change my study habits, change my grades, and change myself. Little did I know, it would be a lot harder than I thought. After a few days of changing my study habits I realized that this wasn't going to work. I was bending over back and staying up late for things that didn't even make a great impact on my grade. I knew that what I was doing was right, but I just couldn't keep it up.  "From now on," I told myself, "I am going to take it in moderation". I decided that changing that soon was not the best thing for me to do at the time. I feel that over the years, I have changed the way I study but still not to the point that I want.

Description
     The scrunchy, slimy green cattepillar scooted along the stick inch by inch wondering when he was going to be ready for mother nature to take his body and transform it into a magnificent winged creature. When the creature became full grown he cozied himself upside down on a branch and waited for the chrysalis to encase his body fully. About ten days did it take for the caterpillar to awake from his slumber. Breaking apart from the chrysalis emerged a magnificent creature, wings spread apart, long legs stretched out. Now its time to take flight.

Comparison/Contrast/Argumentative
    The difference between staying the same and changing is that when you change is simply that your different. The answer is in the question. Nancy Mairs once thought her life was over after she was diagnosed with multiple sclerocis, but one day she realized that if she didnt change she was going to live the rest of her shortened life very terribly.  Once she realized that she was going to die sooner than she thought, she decided to spice up her life and come into terms that she was going to die. She ended up being okay with the way she was and she now is living life to the fullest.
     
Process Analysis
     Asking someone to change is like asking someone to finish a 10 page paper in one night. Its nearly impossible. The process takes some time. First you have to make the person aware of the problem that has come up. Without them knowing the problem, there is no way that they can fix it. Often times venting to someone about your problems and issues helps a great deal. That way you can get advice as to what you need to do to fix it. This tends to come in handy with anyone. It is scientifically proven that the mind and body feels better after talking to someone when you are feeling down. It helps release stress. Next you need to do some self evaluation. This way you can contemplate what changing can do to make you feel better. Check to see what other goals you can achieve in life by changing. The last step in changing is making sure that you can make that change. It is necessary for you to believe in yourself in order to make the change needed. Once you have this process down, you will be one step closer to making your change.

Division of Analysis

     In order to change, one has to know the three different types of change. The three most known types of change are developmental, transitional, and transformational. In order to change, one has to know the different types of change. Developmental is when you recognize the need for change. Instead of starting from scratch, you are just refining yourself you make it better. Transitional is when you realize you need to take on a completely new course of action. Transformational change is something you cant control as much as the others. A new process creates itself as a result of the failure of another. It is usually not planned. 

Cause and Effect

       Many things, good or bad, can happen after you change. If you were once the nicest person in the school and something inside you snaps, this could be very bad. You then find yourself alone in the world wondering why you changed. If you were once the bitch of the class, then come back the next year as the sweetheart, you are going to end up making a lot of new friends and everyone is going to want to be with you. Depending on what you are changing from, you never know what the consequences are going to be. Good and bad things will always come from change. It also depends on the person whom you are talking to.

Definition

    Instead of having many different meanings like any other normal word, change is the exception with really only one meaning. Change simply is to become different. You could be giving a completely different form or appearance to something or you could be changing on the inside instead of out. 

Depression Takes Over

       Ever since my mom was a teenager she has been under constant stress from depression. Depression runs in the family on my moms side and almost every family member out of seven has it. Throughout the years, we have good days and bad days. I don't know if many people know this but when you put many people with clinical depression in the same room with the same situation, it is not pretty. When your in your worst mood, you need others to help you and support you. You need them to be there for you. So when the whole family is like this, everyone needs help and no one can give it so things start to get worse. 

       I remember this one specific moment with my mom when I was about 14 when she was in a very bad state. It was the winter, and as you know, in the winter we do not get very much sun (when you are depressed you need the sun to be out to keep you warm and to give you nutrients to be happy) and my mom was going through a lot. My parents were fighting, my brother was not doing very well in school, and my mom and I were fighting a great deal also. My mom was lying in her bed after a fight with my dad over something ridiculous like it always is and I was upset with something else in my room. I was in desperate need of my mother at that time so I went in to go talk to her. Little did I know, she was in her room upset about the fight, so we were both in there crying to each other knowing that we couldn't help each other. Once my brother heard me and my mom crying he came upstairs to see what was up. (My brother has always been the one to settle the fights and make people feel better in our family and I really look up to him and admire him for that). Once I was done sharing why I was upset it was my moms turn. This is when I realized that something was extremely wrong. I had never seen my mom so upset before. I didn't know what was wrong and why she was acting that way. Then I heard them, the stabbing words that cut deep into my heart pouring out of her mouth. 

      "The only reason why I am still alive, is because of you guys, my children." 

       Those words really hit me hard. After that sentence came out I realized that I really needed to step up in this family and help out a lot more. My brother was leaving for college soon and I was the only one who understood my mom at the time. I needed to take control and help my mom out as much as possible. 

My mom has been getting help everyday from many people and she is slowly making progress and I always try to be there for her when I can. It does get tough at some times but we are strong enough to get through this and we have so many people that are willing to help us out. Being in this situation for a large part of my life has really taught me many things. I feel as if I am an independent strong person and it has made me realize that I need to put others before myself and make sacrifices for others. 

No More wasting food Video

Here is a link to my video about wasting food...

 

 

Process Analysis

I wanted to show how much food we get in America compared to Africa first then show all of the good food that we waste in America that could go to the kids in Africa. If you cant eat that much food, then don't put that much on your plate. Next I show a bunch of starving children from Africa to make people feel bad. I was thinking about adding something about the organization Feed My Starving Children but I thought that might be too much to put into my video and people would start to get confused. The message that would go along with Feed My Starving Children is that If you are not going to eat all of your food and you are going to waste it, go to this organization to help feed millions of kids around the world that don't get much to eat.

While thinking about what I wanted to do my project on I knew that I wanted to send the students a good message. Instead of showing them information, I wanted to make an argument that would make the students see the bad side of my topic so that they would take my side. The pictures that I used have negative connotation so that the bad side can be projected more. I feel like my video is easy to understand and will help my audience see it from my perspective so that they can take my side.

Passion

Everyone has passion, whether or not it lasts a long time or not, it always takes over a part of us somehow. Passion is taking that first bite into the rich double chocolate cake, its taking your first step onto that baseball field. Passion is falling in love, unfortunately, it doesn't last. When passion takes over your life, you would do anything, you would give up everything for your emotions. Its the best feeling you will ever experience. Once its gone, you don't think you could ever go through the same thing again. Passion can bring joy, happiness, pain, confusion, and even fear. In Ancient Greek terms passion [(πάσχω) (paskho)] means to suffer, and we find that passion can make us suffer at times too. Why is it that whenever we find something we love, we always have to lose it? Well the truth is, if you have passion for something, the passion will die down and things will start to go down hill. Little do we know, this is the beauty of passion. Once the passion dies down and things start to go wrong, we should know that it will pass and the real love will start to take toll. As passion goes down, love begins to get stronger.
Now there is a tricky side to passion. It can fool you into thinking your in love, and once you start to lose it, all you want to do is give up. Overcoming this is the hardest part. Because passion is so strong it causes us to think in ways we never have. This is why we find ourselves changing over time. Or are we not changing? Maybe we are going back to the way we were before, Maybe the passion was changing us and now that its gone, we go back to the normal person we were once before it took over. We will never fully understand what passion does to us or what we are capable of but we will always be put under its spell, whether we like it or not.