The small things-thick or thin?

       When you make a peanut butter and jelly sandwich, do you prefer to have your toppings spread thick or thin?  Do you like it with crust or without crust?  This may be a little preference, but I find that the little things that happen during the week can either make it or break it in terms of having a good or a bad week.  When I think of my weeks, I think of the usual routine contentment: getting up early, going to school, stressing over how much homework I have, hang out with my friends, and coming home with still more work that has to be done.  It seems that every day I never have enough time. 
       Besides for my routine, something very exciting happened.  It was a little thing, but it made the week all that much better.  On Wednesday Courtney Thomson attended OHS volleyball practice and helped work with the varsity players with the exception of the setters from each team.  You may be thinking..."Who?"  Well...Courtney Thomson is a volleyball player who was the 3 year starting setter at UW, including in 2005 when they won the NCAA title and even back in high school she led Kentlake into three straight state titles!  She is now is training with the USA Women's National Team in hopes of a spot on the next Olympic team!  So as a volleyball player...this was a big deal to me!  I didn't get to practice, but just sitting in the gym and watching was enough for me.  I did not want anything more than just to sit and listen to what she said... I tried to take it all in, but I just keep on thinking..."COURTNEY THOMSON!"  One of the aspects that I learned is that you can achieve almost anything with the right mind set, and that you don't fully know how much you are capable of achieving until you do. 
      Well... that was the highlight of my week.  It was a small thing...just like how much peanut butter and jelly is spread on your sandwich, but if you focus on the little things, it makes it that much better!

Pride and Prejudice

       When you are reading Pride and Prejudice it is almost like you are walking through the world of literature.  Pride and Prejudice has been dearly loved ever since its publication in 1813 by Jan Austen.  I think that once I get into the novel's plot and conflict that it also will capture my heart.  Right at the moment, you are receiving bits and pieces of information about the different characters and their personality's.  The novel is very good in the respect of its detailed description and the authors writing style.  Even describing some of the flat characters you get a sense that they are real people living in the that time period. (20) "Mary had neither genius nor taste; and though vanity had given her application, it had given her likewise a pedantic air and conceited manner..."  I also love that the author chose to write the novel in the third person, so that you could find the different characters perspective and know what is happening when the main characters are not involved.  
     When you are reading a novel, each individual always looks at the novels facade and the title.  You start thinking of allusions and what they may be referring to.  The title "Pride and Prejudice" was not the initial title of the novel, but it was changed a few years subsequent to its publication.  The original title was "First Impressions."  The novel, from the very beginning has started to elaborated on the point of the different characters pride and how each one makes a differed "first impression."  I think for my project that I would go into detail about the characters.  They are truly the main focus of the novel and have intrigued me to continue my reading.  Elizabeth Bennet, the second oldest, shows a cleverness that her sisters are lacking.  Mr. Darcy started to notice her, "uncommonly intelligent by the beautiful expression of her dark eyes." (18)            
     This novel reminds me of Romeo and Juliet because of the love story that is following.  In both of the novels, the characters are described slowly, but once you get into the novel you love it.  The writing is somewhat similar. 
     At this point, I have little idea on what my project will be because we haven't gotten far enough in the novel for me to formulate a big enough perspective to think of such a major project.  Maybe, a drawing of some sort?  We haven't had a chance to really think of all the possibility that await. 

The NOVEL and YOU

    When you are reading a novel, do you put sticky notes all over to mark "important sections" in the book; are you listening to music, texting, and reading; or are you one who sits in your room and dives into the novel?  Just as there are different ways to read a novel, there are many different themes or connections that each individual has in order to form their perspective of the novel.  Pertaining to To Kill a Mockingbird specifically, I felt that my connection was strong.

    No, my father isn't a lawyer, but the concept of the hypocrisy that Scout experience’s really was what grasped me. 

     On page 267 Scout talks about why she prefers her tom boyish ways, "But I was more at home in my  father's world.  People like Mr. Heck Tate did not trap you with innocent questions to make fun of you; even Jem was not highly critical unless you said something stupid.  Ladies seemed to live in faint horror of men, seemed unwilling to approve wholeheartedly of them.  But I think them.  There was something about them...there was something about them that I instinctively liked...they weren't 'Hypocrites, Mrs. Perkins, born hypocrites,' Mrs. Merriweather was saying.  'At least we don't have that sin on our shoulders down here.  People up there set' em free, but you don't see 'em settin' at the table with 'em.  At least we don't have the deceit to say to 'em yes you're as good as we are but stay away from us." 

    Scout saw that a lot of the women in Maycomb were as hypocritical as the people "up there".  They were saying how others were hypocrites when really they were doing the same thing.  They were thinking that they were "higher in the society" than they were, but that they weren't "better than them" just more privileged.  They wanted no part with them.  Just like they discriminated against Tom Robinson’s and the injustice they wanted no part in it. 

    I know that we, as humans, are all hypocrites at some point and time, but when you are standing, witnessing the hypocrisy it makes you cringe a little to see what's happening around you.  Hypocrisy is one of my pet peeves, even though it happens all around you; you wouldn't want to have the label "hypocrite".  I sympathies with Scout because when I hear myself or someone say something hypocritical I always wish I could get away from it.  As Scout grew up throughout the novel, so are we.  With each day, it changes a new chapter of our lives, and we want it to be the best life story one has ever had.  You want others reading it to connect in some way and feel that your story impacted them.  I know that even though To Kill a Mockingbird wasn't a really story, it impacted me and my way of thinking.