Describe an Emotion:
I am sitting on a dam watching the lake water sway back and forth in the wind. As my head swells up, I begin to contemplate everything that has happened. There is a numbness creeping over my body. I begin to stare, not at anything in particular, but just to stare. To be still, in this one single moment, to take one moment just to relax, just to breathe. No thoughts go through my mind while I’m in this state, just blankness. Soon enough a sound engages me, and I lift my head to answer. It is nothing more than a past memory, which is seen so vividly, as if happening before my eyes. The wind begins to blow vigorously and the water twists and turns. Suddenly the dam burst, letting out the pounds of salty water that is has held up in the lake for many years. Slowly my body looses sight of my mind, and all action is un-restrained. When I turn back into consciousness, and the dam walls begin to repair, the wind calms, but the lake still remains, with the potential to crash through the walls of the dam at any moment, causing more destruction. Soon, in the distance, I see a figure walking my way, briskly as if they have somewhere to be in a hurry. As they approach me, and take my hand, they lead me away from the lake, and back into the comfort of my own room, and my own bed. Tucking me in, and putting me to sleep, underneath the fluffy and warm comforter, where I am safe.

Describe: the White Board, the White Dry-Erase Board, the White Dry-Erase Board with no words on it, the White Dry-Erase Board with no words but the smudges of past brilliance which have been swept away:

The board is big. It is all white and rectangular. Things are hanging on the board and sitting on the ledge at the bottom of the board.

The dry-erase board is big. It is shiny and white, and is 16 feet tall and 4 feet wide. Their is a strand of snowflakes hanging at the top of the board. There is a figurine hanging on the right side of the board. On the bottom left there is a towl and the board cleaner. There are markers, dry-erase markers, and erasers scattered on the bottom ledge of the board.

The dry-erase board is big and white, with the light spoting off it in different places, creating a reflection of shine. There are no words written on the board. It is positioned 3 feet off the floor and is placed in the middle of the wall, with six feet on either side. Their are not any words written on the board. The snowflakes that run across the top of the board are positioned in the middle. The Edgar Allen Poe figurine is hanging from a string on a metal clip that is attatched to the top right of the board. There are 3 board erasers on the ledge at the bottom of the board. Their are two dry-erase markers on the ledge at the bottom of the board, and one normal this crayola marker. The greenish-gray towel accomponies the board cleaner on the bottom left ledge of the board.

The rectangular white dry-erase board at the front of the square room is placed 3/8^th of the way up the wall vertically, and in the center of the wall horizontally. The strand of white paper snowflakes is hanging at the top in the middle of the board, and is made up not only of snowflakes, but of reindeer. There is an Edgar Allen Poe figurine hanging by a white ribbon on the top right side of the board. The ribbon is wrapped around his neck, and he is clutching onto a raven. There is one green and one red dry-erase marker on the silver ledge that is at the bottom of the board. There is also one thin violet (purple) crayola marker sitting on the ledge at the bottom left side of the board. There are no full words written on the board, but only the remains. This array of smudges covers the entire board. Some smudged vertically, and some horizontally. These smudges may be absconded by the towel and cleaning solution at any time. These smudges are only the remains of the past thoughts of others. In the bottom right corner there is a sticker on the board.

8 Things I CAN do without:
1. Puking
2. cleaning my room
3. Tomatoes/squash/beans
4. Sprints
5. My Father/my "step"-mother/my "half"-brother
6. Homework
7. Monday Mornings
8. Washing my dog

8 Things I can not do without:
1. Friends
2. Food
3. Milk -- and preferably some cookies along with it.
4. Music
5. The beach
6. Family (only specific ones)
7. Gilmore Girls
8. My pillow/Teddy bear

SIR QUOTE ALOT

“It is easy in the world to live after the world’s opinion; it is easy in solitude to live after our own; but the great man is he who in the midst of the crowd keeps with perfect sweetness the independence of solitude.”

When you are alone and by yourself your thoughts flourish with your true identity and self. In solitude, we are comfortable enough with ourselves that we may explore the bounds of our minds and our inner individualism. However if put into a public setting, in which many people come together, the human being starts to worry about what other might think, how others might react, and whether or not they will be accepted for who they really are. You know inside yourself what you truly believe to be true. "To believe your own thought, to believe that what is true for you in your private heart is true for all me--that is genius". However, some people put on a mask, in which they are able to withdraw and hide their true self. This is just the easy way out, just agreeing with something that you may not truly consider to be true, but act as you do because of the fear of rejection of the ideas that you hold so dearly to be true. This is the easiest way of “fitting in”. The key is bringing the ideas and thoughts that you keep so graciously in solitude out for the world to see. By doing this, you are presenting your true self to people, which if they take the time to do so, can learn to appreciate for its own uniqueness. You must be able to put yourself out there, and not care what others will think. "What I must do is all the concerns me, not what the people think". However, sometimes this does not happen. Usually a person whom everyone believes to be smart, and who has influence and power over many different people will express an idea, and you maybe forced by society to agree with it. This can happen just because of the fact that you don’t want to say something, and have an entire mob of people disagree with you. However, if you do not take the time and energy to express who you truly are, then how can you live a fulfilled life, knowing that you have left a big part of yourself out, and not given others that change to experience your true self? Emerson puts it perfectly when he says that we must combine our own ideology with that of the world surrounding us. However you do also want to consider the ideas that other people put out, because they have exhibited the courage to present their ideas that they have kept in solitude and put out for the world to perceive as they will. When you get the proper balance of recognition of good ideas, and the presentation of good ideas from your own monopoly, then you will achieve perfect sweetness and independence.

Quotes from Ralph Waldo Emerson's Self Reliance.

An apple a day you say?

It is a common misconception that an apple a day will keep the doctor away. Despite the fact that fruit is indeed good for you, just because you eat an apple a day, does not mean that you will not get sick. Apples grow on trees outside, and are sprayed with pesticides in order for bugs to not eat them. Because of this, you could either get sick from the numerous amount of bacteria that is outside, and could therefore be on the apple, or by the pesticides that they would have sprayed on it. Also, you can buy apples at a grocery store, in which many people have previously handled the apples, and could have transfered bacteria to them. These are only the ways that you could get sick from coming in direct contact with the apple. There are endless amounts of ways that you could become ill just in everyday life; someone sneezes on you, you eat rotten food, or even that you shake someones hand. Going to the doctor does not only have to be if you are sick. If you break your arm, you will need to go to the doctor, and an apple can not protect you from a broken arm, or other physical injuries. Ashley Ann faithfully eats an apple a day, and yet she has a knee injury :( . Also, throughout life it is important that you go to the doctor whether or not you are sick or physically hurt. You need to go to the doctor in order to receive immunizations that will prevent you from being sick. So unless you eat an apple everyday, that comes with a protective shield and a cleaning system, it will not keep the doctor away.

What is an american?

Playing with fridge magnets:
Do whats right, and you shall survive!
From hence it appears plainly that no man is made more honorable than another or more wealthy etc., out of any particular and singular respect to himself, but for the glory of his Creator and the common good of the Creature, Man (1). There was a proud and very profane young man, one of the seamen, [...] he would always be contemning the poor people in their sickness and cursing them daily with grievous execrations; [...] but if it pleased God before they came half seas over, to smite this young man with a grievous disease, of which he died [...] and so was himself the first that was thrown overboard (2). As if near to hell, Amongst the devils to dwell (3). Whence my father I do love (4). Being thus arrived in a good harbor, and brought safe to land, they fell upon their knees and blessed the God of Heaven who had brought them over the vast and furious ocean, and delivered them from all the peril and miseries thereof (2). So is it in all the labor of love among Christians. The party loving, reaps love again, as was showed before, which the soul covets more than all the wealth in the world. This love is a divine, spiritual nature, free, active, strong, courageous, permanent; undervaluing al things beneath its proper object; and of all the graces. this makes us nearer to resemble the virtues of our heavenly father. (1).

1. John Winthrop - A Model of Christian Charity
2. William Bradford - Of Plymouth Plantation
3. John Smith - The General History of Virginia, New England, and the Summer Isles
4. Anne Bradstreet - The Flesh and the Spirit