Six Word Memoir #3

Photo Credit: Jane R.

The neat thing about this memoir is the fact that I had created in years ago, without the intention of it ever being seen. I didn't know what a six word memoir was at the time, but simply doodled this out because the phrase was one I connected to. Stumbling upon it years later, I found that the message is still one I can relate to today. Sometimes when things are no longer in your hands, the only thing you can do is be patient - only time will tell how things will turn out.


Six Word Memoir #2

Photo Credit: Jordan M.

After seeing a bit of a serious and gloomy theme among my memoirs, I had decided that it was time to brighten things up. The best part: the memoir itself is still a real confession. Before the creation of the memoir, I stumbled upon this photo and reminisced about the situation. My workplace received plenty of new stock, which included an iPhone 4 case of a bejeweled camel head... that I enjoyed a little too much. Not being able to convince my sister to use it, I was daydreaming about how entertaining it would be to whip that thing out of your bag/pocket in the middle of a public place. Out of curiosity of how weird that would look, I modeled the case for a coworker who then used his iPhone to take the photo. This was the closest I've ever been to setting my mind on buying an iPhone, thank you fancy camel head. Finding this rather humorous, I decided to make a memoir out of it. Having a six word limit, I was forced to cut out the subject (I). I assumed this wouldn't be an issue since I'm in the photograph.

Six Word Memoir #1

Photo Credit: Paulo N.

 

There was a point when I truly started to doubt the existance of love. I assumed that people grew up, hit an age when it was no longer socially acceptable to be single and ready to mingle, and settled. The thought of this made me cringe. Growing up, you hear so many fairy tales about finding true love and the one person that means the world to you (among many other cheesy lines/cliches) that having reality hit you in the face is rather... hard. My negative view of this changed drastically in the last eight months, hence the message in this memoir. The image I chose to represent the six words is very meaningful to me, as it was the person that had sent it to me that completely changed my views on the subject of love. During (what we thought was) one of our last days together, him and I discovered that we both have a passion for jigsaw puzzles that goes back to our childhood. He had mentioned that his mother didn't get it and never bought them for him, so as a parting gift, I had given him this puzzle (I couldn't find one of NYC.) The photo above is the completed puzzle.

Bucket List - Final Project

Author’s Note:

As the average high school student, I’m living a life that is routine and simply… ordinary. There are days when repetition and a lack of inspiration make me forget why we’re here; why I’m here. We get stuck in our day-to-day lives. We look past the fact that the world is a vast and interesting place and there are so many things to try, to see, and to explore. We need to remind ourselves that there’s much more to life - we shouldn’t be wasting it away!

This is where the bucket list came in. Originally starting off as yet another school assignment, my bucket list grew and formed into something much bigger – an idea of where and who I want to be in life. Varying from silly things such as number 46. Learn to crack eggs with one hand, to something like number 25. Have a hanami (cherry blossom viewing) in Japan during the blooming season (which will require quite a bit more time and effort to accomplish,) my bucket list is a collection of (random) things I’d like to do before I die.

Project:

The actual (and much more time consuming) BL project of mine is in the form of a scrapbook. Since that is rather difficult to share through the internet, I have put together an Animoto version of it. Enjoy!

My Bucket List

Now What:

I am hoping that this bucket list can serve as every day inspiration for me. It can remind me to stay on track and to keep striving for what’s important - achieving my goals. Throughout the years, I am almost certain that my bucket list will change. Things will be modified, crossed off, and added, making my bucket list “never ending". I guess that's the beauty of it. As we grow up, we change and evolve, and the list will be able to evolve with me.

So far, only one item has officially been crossed off my bucket list - 3. Be reunited with the boy I love (01/01/13.) When the project started, this was one of the first things that came to mind, but it was extremely hazy and not probable. Over the course of a few months, things started to come together and eventually something that seemed so out of reach became real. To me, this has been proof not to underestimate the power of human will and capability. If you want something badly enough, you’ll have hope and will strive to get it.

There are numerous items that I'm currently in the process of accomplishing. One that is extremely meaningful to me – 1. Visit my family in Russia after 10 years of not seeing them – is actually going to happen… in July! My mom and I just booked the flight tickets a few days ago, and what's also really neat about this trip is the fact that we'll be stopping in Amsterdam for four nights. This means that I get to see a new part of Europe, which is close to another item on my list (23. Euro trip.) There are also many little things that I have been thinking about doing. For example, number 61. Become a red head. is only the perfect hair dye away! (I've been looking for a red-orange dye that's ammonia free and comes out after 28 washes, but haven't had much luck so far.) I also have my eye on a new workplace... Now all I have to do is charm them with no help from my extremely dull resume, get the new job, and I'll be able to cross off 21. Quit my part-time retail job.

Reading and Writing Reflection #3

Book: Water For Elephants

Author: Sara Gruen

Pages Read: 1-13 (part 1)

 The book threw me right into a moment of action – the Disaster March. Right away I had numerous questions going through my mind… What’s going on? What exactly is the Disaster March and why is everyone panicking and fleeting? What exactly went wrong? None of these questions were answered, but I’m hoping that they’ll be cleared up later in the book.

 When the main character, Jacob, was paying special attention to Rosie the elephant and Marlena, the girl who performs with and rides Rosie at the circus (or so I assumed), I couldn’t help but wonder of what significance they were to him. As a result of Jacob’s description of them, I decided that he’s in love with Marlena and that Rosie has a special place in his heart. I later found out that Jacob was a vet, and worked with elephants, which put a few of the puzzle pieces together in my mind.

 There was a sudden murder performed by Marlena. (Why?) Though Jacob was in shock and tried to stop her, it seemed like he was generally okay with it. He had referred to the man who was murdered as a “son of a b*tch” right before it happened, which made me wonder what this man had done to get such a title. The strange thing is that despite this murder, I was already taking Jacob and Marlena’s side. I understand that this was the author’s intention, but it still seemed so odd to me considering the terrible thing Marlena had done. Jacob said that he kept this a secret for the rest of his life. He said, “In seventy years, I’ve never told a blessed soul.” It really made me curious as to why he had taken it upon himself to protect Marlena like that. Seventy years is a long time, especially to stay quiet and keep something so big to yourself.

Six Word Memoirs:

As you may know, I joined the class a month late, so this was one of the projects I missed and have been putting together on my own time. Despite thinking that the project was a really neat idea and enjoying the examples of other students and those found on the internet, I have been putting it off… and I don’t know why. Maybe it’s because of the personal aspect of the memoirs, or it could be the fact that we’re supposed to post all of them at once (ahh, a lot of reflecting and writing for one day!) Either way, I think that a weight will be lifted off my shoulders once I do complete all of them (2/6 to go!) and that it’ll be really cool to see all of the memoirs side by side… the finished project!

 Blogging:

 Oh blogging… just a few months ago the idea of blogging made me so uncomfortable, but look at me now! It was difficult to get myself out there, post thoughts, opinions, and just about anything that came to my mind and share it with the public. It was a bit of a burden and time consuming to turn on the laptop, sign in, and type everything out. I found myself putting other things ahead of blogging on the importance scale (sorry.) However, once the blog started to come together, I started to enjoy it more and more. I got to open myself up to something new, and am now at ease with writing about things that are not just facts. My blogging goal for the next week is to get fully caught up with all of my assignments and add some more personal additions (maybe 2 or 3.) I will accomplish this by setting some time aside just for creative writing and by using my mom’s iPad Blogger app when I’m just much too lazy to pull out the chunky laptop.

Personal Addition #14 - Love and Death

At the end of the day, these are the things that have the greatest impact on us. They're both drastic enough to completely change the course of our lives - flip everything upside down - and they have the power to get us to do things we never planned or imagined doing.

http://goo.gl/c4HcM

Personal Addition #13 - Cork Board

Newest addition to the bedroom! Hopefully this will help keep me organized and on task... Once in a while. Either way, the room is starting to look like someone actually lives in it! (I'm slowly tackling the "bare wall issue" as my mom likes to call it.) Hmm... What's next?