All The Bright Places

My book was a young adult novel called “All The Bright Places” by Jennifer Niven. This book is one of the best books I have read. The two main characters are Violet and Finch, both seventeen. Finch isn't very social while Violet is popular, meaning two very different people. Somehow they find eachother at the top of a bell tower, both ready to jump. Violets older sister died in a car accident and Finch is getting beat at home and bullied at school. They create an amazing bond during a school project involving lots of road trips and give each other a reason to live. They both risk almost anything to keep seeing each other after falling in love. Violet sneaks out and often disobeys her parents. Finch just gets worse and gets expelled from school. Then, Finch disappears. My favorite part of the book is the message, this novel has many themes but one in particular stood out the most to me. "Never Judge A Book By Its Cover", no matter how happy someone looks on the outside you never know what they are struggling with on the inside. Overall, I definitely recommend this book because it is very relatable at some point and it has a lot to teach.

Thirteen Reasons Why

I recently read this book called Thirteen Reasons Why. This book is about a girl who goes through a lot of situations through her high school years. She films 13 tapes and sends them off to the people who did something that led her to make the decision she made. In this book you basically get to see how she deals with her problems and Clay’s reaction to receiving the tapes. I personally really like this book, it has a different ending as the show and it has way more detail which is why it really pulls you in. This book can give you so many lessons and it shows you how many things can go wrong. One of the things this book showed me was that everyone is going through something at some point, even the “jocks” were going through things when no one even imagined. My favorite part is that it shows you how much words and actions can get to you. I definitely recommend this book and I hope you read it!

The Sun And Her Flowers

 The Sun Of Her Flowers is a poem book by Rapi Kaur. Just like Milk and Honey, this book also has chapters representing different stages in life. The only difference is that The Sun Of Her Flowers compares human life to Flowers. The five sections are the wilting, falling, rooting, rising, and the cold blooming. The theme of each section is care, self-abandonment, honoring  yourself, love, and entitleling yourself. My favorite part of the whole book is simply just the title on its own and the meaning behind it. In an Interview Rapi Kaur says "I was going through a difficult breakup at the time, and I was thinking about the way sunflowers rotate with the sun. When the sun rises, they also rise, but when the sun leaves, they bow their heads. I thought that sort of worship at  the time was just so stunning and so beautiful and so then I thought, 'We are all our own suns and flowers are the experiences and the people we go through in our entire lifetime, so the sun and her flowers.'" Therefore, I really recommend this book !

Milk and Honey

I recently read a poem book called Milk and Honey by Rupi Kaur. Milk and Honey is a very mature book but I definitely recommend it if you are mature enough to handle serious topics. These short poems are really deep and many are very relatable. You don’t necessarily have to relate to the same idea or topic but the way the author describes how she feels makes you have connections with any time you have felt that way. Rupi Kaur writes this poem book to describe the good and bad side of being a women. The author divides the book into 4 sections, the hurting, the loving, the breaking and the healing. The hurting talks about family problems and learning how to respect her body. The loving talks about falling in love with someone and with yourself. The breaking is about ending a relationship and falling out of love. Personally, I think the healing is the best section of the whole book and it is something that will always help to read, it is really inspiring and talks about how life goes on no matter what happens. I definitely would recommend this book because I think you can always relate to it at some point.

Herd Behavior and Outsiders Comparison

The second text is Herd Behavior by CommonLit Staff. This text compares people to animals that act like each other. The animals connect to the characters in the Outsiders because they also act like one another even if they don't want to, but since everyone is doing it they have to do the same.

“The term also applies to human behavior, and it usually describes large numbers of people acting the same way at the same time”. This is basically stating that even if people aren't at all alike, they act like each other because they see other people doing it even if they don't want to. This connects to The Outsiders because Ponyboy says, “I don't want to be hood.” This shows that Ponyboy doesn’t want to be a greaser but he sees the rest of them as greasers such as Dally, Ponyboy, Two bit, even his brothers so he feels pressured to go with the crowd.

In the second text it talks about not wanting to be like the rest but still having to. This connects to the outsiders because when Ponyboy asks himself a tough question and says why should he be proud of being marked lousy. This isn't said in the second text but it leads to it. Even if you don't want to be like the rest if you hang out with them, you are put a label. This is when Ponyboy realizes how hard it is to shed off a label you don't want.

Therefore, the second text, Herd Behavior connects to Ponyboys feelings in the outsiders. I think that Herd behavior is well put together. The writer doesnt tell us directly what they mean, and some topics expand to other ideas. Overall I think this connection between Herd Behavior and The Outsiders is very similar.

My Identity

There are many things that have made me be who I am today, Im hispanic, a niece to almost all of my family, I'm a granddaughter, an aunt of 2 and a cousin of many. Being Hispanic really does shape me as a person, all of the traditions, the sayingsthe and expectations we have. My mother and I have been through a lot, my mom got herself a boyfriend about four years ago who moved in with us about three years ago, ever since he moved in he slowly started to gain some kind of power over us. He changed our lives completely, not really in a good way but I think of it as a way to encourage me to do better. He started to get really jealous over everything and made my mom stop working meaning I had to quit the sport that meant a lot to me, he also separated us from our family and we rarely talked to them. My family has always been together through everything, specially after my grandma passed away. We always sticks together and we're inseparable, we find any little occasion to make a party out of. I'm an only child, even though my uncle, Migue, he's like a brother to me, and I look up to him because he always encourages me to do well in school. These are a few things that have shaped me to who I am today.

In ten years from now I want to have a positive mind. I have noticed that with a positive mind and effort anything can be accomplished. I for sure want to graduate with honors from high school because my uncle promised me that if I graduate with honors he would help my mom pay for my college so she wont struggle too much. I want to be studying or preparing for either a residential architect or a lawyer because I always try to make everything perfect and decorative, and just the honor of going through houses years later after designing them and remembering that I helped design those homes is such a great feeling. For a hobbie or a side job I want to be a nature photographer. While I save up money I want to live or rent in a small condo just for myself and my two shih-tzu's, one has to be named after my old dog, Cookie. I want to travel to Florida & to Hawaii since my uncle's girlfriend lives there and all of the pictures she has shown me are all very nice. Above everything in 10 years from now I want to make sure that I have already figured out my life and decided what I want to do for my future because there are so many people who are still completely lost at age 24.