entry, newspaper/editorial piece, song, etc). Happy
writing!
1. Follow the written instructions step-by-step.
2. All responses are due Friday at 4:00. Leave a response by clicking on add comment at the bottom or if others have already responded, it will state how many have done so already.
3. Ideas should be original. Please read other people's blog responses prior to your own. It's first come, first serve! No credit will be received if plagiarism appears to be evident.
Choose one of the topics within your heart map as your first writing piece. It should be something REALLY important to you. In a minimum of 300 words, share something about you. It can be written in first person or 3rd person and in any style of writing you wish to explore (poetry, diary entry, newspaper/editorial piece, song, etc). Happy writing!
22 Comments
Carter Strebeck
9/4/2013 06:22:08 am
I’m sitting on my ATV just outside the cabin my dad and my two brothers have to the cabin for another summer of fishing ATV riding and late night camp fires. My dad and Cooper start up there machines and I turn my key and rev the engine and speed down the trail. My family comes my on my tail as we continue down we come up a trail and to the top of a hill. I been told many times not to hot dog but at this point my dad was not in sight range of me. So I sped down the hill fast as that machine would carry me I did not crash. When I got down to the bottom and my rear wheel slipped down a cliff. I attempted to gas it and then the front wheels slipped down the hill as well. Then I realized my finger was still on the gas but at that point I was halfway down the hill. When I got to the bottom I hit a large stump that sent me up in the air at a 180 degree angle then my back tires hit the ground. A few seconds later it started to tilt backward at the last second I thrust all my weight forward. The front tires landed on the ground. I sat there for a few minutes and hoped off the ATV and pushed that sucker back to the cabin.
Reply
sara collum
9/4/2013 07:18:26 am
Warner camp is the most fun camp I have ever been to. I stayed in a cabin with all of my friends and we had the best family group ever. When we woke up the first morning we got to go to breakfast and then back to the cabin to change for paintball. All of us girls just wore shorts and t-shirts, which was a mistake but it was super fun anyways. Then after that we got to go swimming in the lake and then we went to the tabernacle for evening worship. That night my friends and I got to prank the boys cabin that were in our family group. The next day we got to play skism, have a huge marsh mellow gun fight, and that night we had the ooga booga tribe bon fire. The ooga booga tribe is a made up tribe that the Warner camp counselors came up with. They pick the new kids at them camp to help the “tribe”. It is a really funny thing to watch, also while we are at the fire and before all of that starts we get to sing tons of camp fire songs and dance to them. At the end of the week we have a big breakfast in the morning and go to the tabernacle for one last meeting time and worship. On that day we get to perform our skits that we were working on all week. Some if my friends that were not in my cabin did a dance to the a one direction song. The boys were dancing to it and everything. My group recreated a commercial and it was so much fun and we had everyone laughing too. After all of that we went back too out cabins and cleaned up all of our beds and trash. Soon after that our parents were there to get us. Saying bye to everyone we met was hard, but knowing we probably will get to see them next year just made it all better.
Reply
Kaleb Berry
9/4/2013 07:57:32 am
I have always had a love for rollercoasters. I find them so exhilarating and fun, and I’ve never been scared of one. When I lived in Cincinnati, Ohio we lived 15 minutes away from this amusement park called King’s Island and we had season passes. We went there every weekend we could and I never got tired of it. I have always been tall for my age, so not being able to ride anything was never a problem. My dad likes to ride coasters with me, but my mom would rather watch, she isn’t really the adventurous type. My dad and I will stay in a park from the minute it opens until the minute it closes, and we won’t get bored. We always try to go to at least one amusement park a year, but we don’t always make it.
Reply
Tatenda Rukunda
9/4/2013 08:22:27 am
Hi, my name is Tatenda Rukunda and I was born on March 21 1999 in Dayton Ohio. A little about myself, I lived in ohio for about six or seven years, then I moved here in 2007 because my dad got a job at Leco Corporation. Also my mom got a job at Purdue University, she's an accountant. Both of my parents are from Zimbabwe in Africa. I have four brothers and one sister my sister was just recently born, her name is Tafadzwa Victoria Rukunda. She came as 6 lbs 1 oz, 18.25 inches long, at 2:19 pm on June 19. That's a little about my family and how I grew up.
Reply
Alek Valles
9/4/2013 08:44:41 am
Hawaii truly is paradise. It ranges from beautiful birds to beautiful skies. Everyday is the day to be at the beach. Between Maui and Oahu, Maui is more of a tropical paradise. A lot of nature is still in tact. You can observe nature from up close or afar. On every beach you will see snorkelers and surfers. Every spot on this island seems to be in perfect harmony. The reefs and rocks are crawling with organisms, everyone with a story of its own and its own type of beauty. The green sea turtles are quite the marvelous sight to behold. They are far larger than anything I had ever imagined. They move with grace of a dancer and the sluggishness of sloth. My personally favorite fish was the Humuhumunukunukuaupa'a. Even though the fish is very beautiful, I find the name a lot more fun to say. Among the other creatures of the reef are eels, turtles, starfish, octopi, blowfish, and lobsters. After snorkeling me and my sister both learned how to surf. Unfortunately while we were surfing, our instructor was poisoned by a black sea urchin near the end of the lesson. He ended up ok though. Also while in Maui, we traveled on the road to Hana, an adventurous road trip that takes almost a full day to fully experience. While on the road, we stopped at The Seven Pools, the grave of Charles Lindbergh , a beautiful waterfall, black sand beaches, volcanic caves, and many other lovely sights. Lastly, we went zip lining over the volcano that makes up most of Maui. When went to Oahu, we visited Pearl Harbor, an active naval with a tragic history. While there and learning the story of the fateful day, December 7th, 1941, I could feel for those soldiers who gave their lives. Finally, while in Oahu we visited Diamondhead, a volcanic crater in which you can climb up the inside wall and get to the top to view a view like no other. If I had to put this trip into two words, it would have to be mesmerizing and beautiful. It was truly sad to say our last Aloha to Hawaii but maybe again someday.
Reply
Grace Brackman
9/4/2013 09:58:39 am
I was just 2 when I started dance. Not take it seriously, I got sent to the corner a lot. Being so young, I did not really care for dance or the discipline that came with it. However, the people in that class were some of my best friends. They were the ones that got sent to the corner with me, giggled the entire class with me, and got into nothing but trouble with me. As we got older, some grew away from dance and some grew towards dance, looking at it as a passion. All of us that had stayed with dance developed a close-knit group.
Reply
Olivia Lancaster
9/4/2013 10:09:04 am
Ever since I was a young girl my family and I have always been athletic. We live about a mile away from Dairy Queen. When I was younger my mom and I walked to Dairy Queen every afternoon, and bought us kids cones. When my dad would get time off of work, he would take me mountain biking. He would take us out to Bend, Oregon. Till this day, that is still my favorite place to visit. It’s so beautiful there with Mountains and it has a nice environment. Actually I just got back from Oregon two days ago. I’m still jet legged, that was a three hour time change. My parents and I went hiking in Oregon. While we’re hiking my mom picked mushrooms and I helped her. She taught me a lot because I don’t know ever much about mushrooms. Since my mom grew up in Poland she knew all about them. For dinner one night my mom cooked up the mushrooms we picked, we joked how we were worried we might die because they could have been poisonous.
Reply
Megan Whitwam
9/4/2013 11:49:00 am
It is where I feel the most at home.
Reply
Cole Sing
9/4/2013 12:01:56 pm
I can name many things that I would choose to write about today for this blog out of my writing territories. Like my dog Dozer, or my brothers. But one thing sticks out from the rest, Notre Dame beating the Michigan Wolverines in football. I was at my cousin's house with all his family when this occurred.
Reply
Kelsey West
9/5/2013 08:55:55 am
My best friend is Jordan Dalton. He is also my boyfriend. And that makes it all the better. We both love talking to each other. So far it's been almost a year we have been speaking together. Everyday we text eachother and we FaceTime frequently, but we have never gotten to meet each other. That's one of the things I would like to change about our relationship. We are really good friends and there's nothing more we both want than to see each other. We have set up a few times for both of our parents to talk over Skype, but we just haven't gotten the time. If we weren't 3,500 miles away, everything would be great. But there's always a catch to everything. But it doesn't mean it has to keep us down, we have to keep our chins up. And hope for the best. And just recently both of our parents have happily agreed for us to meet. So next summer will be the time of our lives, he's coming here for two weeks and everything's going to be great. After all the waiting and time spent in this we get to meet each other. And him and I couldn't be happier. Even though we aren't close in distance we are close at heart. Just because someone isn't close to you doesn't mean you still can't have feelings for them. We are so far away and I feel like we have a better connection in more than any usual relationship. We are very good friends and i'd like to keep it like that. I don't want to lose him and he doesn't want to lose me. We are together and that's going to stay that way. And hopefully next summer comes quick because I can't wait, it's going to be the best thing that has ever happened to me.
Reply
Rylee Przybylinski
9/5/2013 10:51:48 am
I can't even remember when I started to beg my parents for a second dog. I am a big dog lover and I just love puppies. This summer was the start of an adventure! At the beginning of the summer I kept begging my parents to get another dog. They just would not budge. My parents heard about a golden retriever breeder close by us. Of course I begged them to call! A few weeks later they called us and said the puppies were ready to be looked at. I was very shocked to know that we were going to vistit! When we first got there, I saw a few puppies outside. The first one I picked up was a cute and fluffy girl. I fell in love at that second, but my parents wanted to see more. My dad showed me a boy that was very cute. In fact he was the brother of the girl I fell in love with. It took sometime, but we all agreed on the boy. He rode on my lap the whole car ride and fell asleep. In the car we decided to call him Max! When we got home my other dog Mollie wasn't to happy. To this day she still is waiting for him to leave! He is getting big and still cute! We have started training with him, but he is still a puppy. Which means he still likes to bite..everything! I am glad we got him and that was the best summer yet!
Reply
Brielle Mensinger
9/5/2013 11:15:39 am
For awhile now I've been wanting to leave Michigan and move to the beautiful state of California. I feel like there are so many opportunities out in California. Don't get me wrong I love Michigan but, I want to experience new things. I know I may be kind of young saying this stuff but, I really would love to go into acting. Isn't that what California's known for? Another thing is I'm acting you don't need to be a genus. Look at Ellen Degeneres did not go to college and look at her now. She's saving people's life's, has her own tv show, and has endless amounts of money. I'm my opinion I would say she's doing pretty well for someone that didn't go to college. Really I have never been a 4.0 student. The grades I get are probably b's and c's. Yeah not great grades for the job I first wanted. Which was a vet. I have a couple more reasons why I love and want to move to California. The weather is amazing! From what I've heard it's around the 60-70's and even higher depending in the season. That weather to me is great. I love the warmth. Now the beaches. In California they have stunning beaches with great board walks that you can longboard on, which is awesome for me because we don't have those here. Lets not forget all the award shows that are hosted in the wonderful wast coast. The video music awards, Oscars, Grammys and many more. I would love to go to an award show sometime! Oh the malls, never forget the malls! Cali is a great place for shopping. I love shopping! When and if I move to California I want to be in the acting/movie business. I may change my mind in the future, I may not change it, but what I know for right now I'm California dreamin'.
Reply
Sam Peters
9/5/2013 11:59:39 am
I started soccer when I was 4, and I have not stopped. My soccer career started in Granger, Indiana. I remember being tiny and the uniform being huge, I didn’t know if soccer was right for me. I decided to keep with it and developed a passion along the way. Now it’s my favorite thing to do in the world.
Reply
Meredith Ellis
9/5/2013 12:04:21 pm
This summer I went to the best camp ever, Warner Camp. I go every summer and I hope to be a counselor there next year. I think this summer was definitely one of the best times I have had there. Sadly not all of my friends could come, but we’ll all be able to go next summer. We got one of the big cabins, and we had a ton of food on the table in the middle. I had 4 amazing counselors; two CITs (counselor in training) and two on the core staff. We had a great family group and most of us got along with each other. At camp you do so many fun and entertaining things, but you have serious worship times so that’s nice. I believe there were 6 family groups, and we had a huge physical challenge series one day. It got pretty rough sometimes; three of my friends and I got ran over when we were playing soccer with the giant, blow up soccer ball. My favorite time at camp was when we did the color powder and shaving cream war. The powder is the stuff they use in the Color Run 5K, we were so bright and colorful after. We went for a swim in the lake to clean off, and everyone was just wrestling, throwing, and taking each other down. On one of the last nights we had a huge party with blaring music, lights like the ones in the club, and glow sticks. On the last day we finally got to use the ice burg, the best water toy in the world, and go tubing. I had a bet with one of my counselors that I wouldn’t fall off and I won! I cannot wait for next year, I hope everyone can make it this time, it will be the best!
Reply
Max Gaishin
9/5/2013 12:12:18 pm
Sports have been in my life ever sense I can remember. I have played just about every basic sport, basketball, baseball, soccer, football, and tennis, but only two sports have stuck baseball and basketball. Baseball and basketball are my passion thats what I have been doing ever sense I can remember. I went to my first basketball camp when I was about five, but I really havent started really focusing on basketball till my eighth grade season, all I really remember before that is in seventh grade season and I sucked and my coach Mr. Magrane hated me, but eighth grade season was diffrent I had hit my big growth spurt and I had more self confidince. I felt like the team relied on me and I was the captin of the team. After the eighth grade season I really started focusing on baskebtall, and I have been working at it every day. Baseball started when I was six and my earliest memory of that was sliding head first into home plate and gashing my finger open about one half an inch. When I really started focusing on baseball was when I was 12 and I was invited to go play on the Diamond Jaxx travel baseball team, but before that it all I was doing was the wreck leauge season than the three week all star tournments. The Diamond Jaxx was a team made up of 13 kids from 6 diffrent communities in Berrien County. I realized that now I was getting into some seriouis baseball the first two years were a litlle shaky and I probally wasent the best player on the team. The third season on the team was the best season I have pitched in years by far. I had a no hitter, led the team in era and strikeouts so it was a great seaon for me, so now baseball is a big deal for me. So as you can see baseball and basketball are my passion and thats what I love to do.
Reply
Megan Montgomery
9/5/2013 12:16:55 pm
Strawberry, chocolate, birthday cake, California tart and so many more fantastic flavors. First, I gracefully pile up my Fro Yo. In a circiling motion I create the best swirl I can make to the best of my abilities. Alaska-Moose Tracks is calling my name. I know that if I make my mountain any bigger, the more valuable it will get. I just can't resist, though. Once again, I add to my mountain of Fro Yo, stacking up globs of creamy deliciousness. I imagine it as Mount Everest. If I were an ant, it would probably take me take to get up it. Then, I come up to the toppings table. There's so much to choose from! Usually, I will go with chocolate syrup and cookie dough bites, but this time, I was feeling rebellious. I quickly tossed on as many toppings as I could. Not knowing about the price, I walk up to the scale. It's the heaviest Fro Yo cup I've ever made in my life! The woman very excitedly blurts out, "Ten dollars, please," I carefully opened my wallet sad to see i only had a five dollar bill. Walking slowly back to the trash can, with a long face, I dumnped out half of my beautiful creation so I could pay the right amount. I guess I should pay attention to what I'm doing next time!
Reply
Bradley Keppler
9/5/2013 12:22:21 pm
One of my greatest experiences was when I lived in Mexico for 3 years. I moved there when I was 5 because of my dads work. We moved there from Toledo, Ohio. When I first moved there all I knew was hello and goodbye in Spanish. I went to a private school where we were in English class for half of the day and then Spanish class the other half. I started off in kindergarden and I stayed there until I was in 2nd grade. The first couple of days were pretty hard, but once I began to know Spanish better, it got a lot easier. By the second grade, I was the second smartest in my grade and got an award for it. The English teachers weren't very good though. My teachers asked me a lot of the answers because they didn't know what it was. The worst part about being there was that we had to wear uniforms every day. On certain days we would have gym days and then we had to wear our gym uniforms to school. The other days we had to wear collared shirts and long pants.
Reply
Kate Woodward
9/5/2013 12:28:37 pm
I am a STAR TREK nerd of sorts. I can tell you almost anything about the Original STAR TREK from 1968 (which can take several hours depending on how interested you are). I have seen every episode at least once at one point or another. I can quote a line out of almost all of them. If you asked me what my favorite episode was I wouldn't be able to tell you because there are so many that I love; but it would be either Amok Time, The City on the Edge of Forever, or The Trouble With Tribbles. An interesting fact about tribbles are that they were originally created by an author by the name of Robert A. Heinlein in his book The Rolling Stones but they were not called tribbles but Martian flat cats! Martian flat cats came first if you were wondering. I was curious so I went and did some research on how STAR TREK got away with having Martin flat cats renamed as tribbles and found this "David Gerrold, the author of the Star Trek episode, claims that he had read the Heinlein book years before writing his screenplay, and was not consciously aware of the similarities, until Desilu/Paramount conducted a routine studio clearances review following an inquiry by Kellam de Forest...", (Not to be confused with DeForest Kelley who played Dr. McCoy, Kellam de Forest was the primary in-house researcher for STAR TREK), "... which prompted a contact with Heinlein who, graciously, admitted the similarities but also waived all rights." (This is direct from Wikipedia). And while I may not be able to tell what my favorite episode is I can tell you without hesitation my favorite character is Spock played by Leonard Nimoy. I think he is my favorite because of his wit and charm. But I'm not only interested in the original series I also like The Next Generation which would be the first spin off of the original. There are four spin offs in total and in the following order Star Trek: The Next Generation, Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, Star Trek: Voyager and Star Trek: Enterprise. The final three I know nothing about but hope to find out more about in the future. At some point I would like to try seeing the new STAR TREK remakes but I am not sure about them. I hope to continue to explore and enjoy the world of STAR TREK.
Reply
Bailey Groat
9/5/2013 12:35:36 pm
Leaves falling, trees becoming different colors, Thanksgiving meals, home football games and even haunted houses. Those are only just some of the reasons my favorite season is fall. I just love how the temperature outside is not to hot or to cold. I like watching the leaves fall down. Well, I don’t like raking them in to big piles so the wind can just blow them away. One of the main reasons I like fall is because of Thanksgiving. I love the time of year where you can give thanks for everything good you have in your life. Let’s not forget about the huge meals we have on Thanksgiving. Such as corn, mashed potatoes and gravy, turkey, pumpkin pie you name it. Every year we used to go to Pennsylvania to visit my great grandma for the holiday. We have not been there for a couple years though. All I remember was all the pretty mountains and it was just so pretty there. Another reason I like fall is because of Halloween. I like to go around my neighbor hood and get free candy. I mean who doesn’t like to do that. I am extremely terrified of haunted houses, but I still go in them. I have not walked through the Niles haunted house yet but I really want to go to it this year. Last but not least, the biggest reason I like fall is because that is when basketball season starts. Not just my basketball season but college basketball. I am the biggest Purdue boiler maker fan. I watch all of there basketball games, I don’t miss one of them. My dad and I get so in to the game. There are so many more reasons why I like fall, but if I wrote all of them I would probably write a novel. Lets just say that fall is my favorite season of the year.
Reply
Tim Boyle
9/6/2013 05:13:31 am
Hi I'm Tim Boyle I just wanted to start by telling you a little about myself, I'm 14 I was born November 26, 1998 in West Palm beach Florida. When we moved from Florida we moved to Arizona that's when I started to play football. That's when the love for the game took off! Even though I didn't really like playing football there because it was really hot, like in the 90's every practice! I lived in Arizona for about 4-5 years then I moved to Michigan. I can tell you that football here is a lot better here then it was out there in Arizona. I found out about rocket football from a friend when I was in elementary school. It was a lot different here, back in Arizona we had one team with 25-30 players but here we have like 12 teams with 20-30 kids. I guess football is popular here. I played rocket until 7th grade that's when I played middle school football which was awesome! I didn't play my freshmen year which I really regret not doing but I plan on going to all the home games and showing my support. The only reason I didn't play freshmen football was because I would have missed our first game. I'll be sure to play junior varsity and varsity because Lakeshore has one of the best football programs I've ever seen! I think playing a team sport like football can teach you a lot like how to be a team player, and giving everyone a chance. Even if people aren't friends in school everyone comes to a compromise on the field. That's what makes a team a team.
Reply
Will Elmore
9/6/2013 05:59:22 am
This summer I went on a trip to Moore, Oklahoma with my church. Bradley and Kaleb went on the trip too. We went to help clean up after the tornadoes that hit this summer. Our job was to clear out the inside of and pull down houses that had been hit by the tornadoes. It was fun in a way but it was also kind of sad to see how bad the damage had actually been. I know we’ve probably all been told about what had happened but you don’t really understand how devastating it actually is to the people affected by it. The experience helps me to view things a little differently and it makes me realize how blessed I am to have the things I have.
Reply
Kyle VanderWeide
9/6/2013 08:08:30 am
Last night, I had a JV soccer game up in Kalmazoo. We were playing against Kalmazoo Central. I usually play as a defensive wing, but last night I unfortunately didn’t get the chance to. Also, I usually play more than I did, but I didn’t get to play much last night. In the first half, I played defensive midfielder for about ten minuets, but I didn’t really understand the position as well as D wing, so I looked, and felt, pretty awkward. Also, it is a tiring place to play, so by the time I came out, I was a little tired. While I was in, they scored the only goal of the game. When the defense had dropped back to cover some other players, and I was outside attacking the ball, the got a pass past meto their center and he kicked a long ball into the goal. In the second half, we didn’t let them score again, but unfortunately our offence couldn’t score on them either. I was put in on offence for the last twelve minutes of the game. I didn’t get the ball much, and I didn’t score, but I felt less awkward than defensive mid. In about the last two minuets we almost scored. The ball got crossed over to Austin, and I was open for a pass if he needed it, but he had a good shot. Sadly, his shot went about a foot to the right of the goal. We lost to Kalmazoo 1-0. Even though we lost, it was a good game. We were still in it at the end, and I think we all played well. I think I even did pretty well, considering I haven’t played those positions for a while, and never on JV. Considering that they are a pretty good team, I think the game was good, and showed us what we needed to work on to beat St. Joe on Monday.
Reply
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. Archives
February 2014
Categories |