I have been playing soccer since I was almost eight, and it has all been for AYSO. In my second year of under 10 (U10), I started in a new program called YDP, youth development program. It was a special group of kids that wanted to be more serious about soccer than regular AYSO but didn’t want to move to a club team. I’ve bee in that program ever since. Also, in my first year of U10, I made it onto an all-star team. That is a team that you have to try out for and it goes on over the winter time during school soccer while club goes quiet. I have played on an all-star team ever since except in seventh and ninth grade. In seventh grade I just thought it would be to overwhelming to do school soccer and all-stars so I decided to join the team again for post-season tournaments and just play with the school team during the winter. This year, though, I was all ready to squish in time to do school soccer (JV), all-stars, and homework, but I found out that there are some CIF rules that say that you can’t play on a school sports team and still play on an outside team of the same sport. It seems like they would want you getting more practice for the sport outside school and inside, but it must be something about being committed to going to all of the school games and not getting the extra outside boost that some girls and some teams wouldn’t be receiving. I decided to play on JV this year instead of all-stars because, if I continued with soccer at Marlborough, I would be playing with these girls for the rest of the time. After JV season was over, Mr. Collicutt asked me to be an extra on Varsity. Emily and I traveled with them for their play-off games, and, since they were winning by four points by the end of the first half of the first game, Collicutt decide to let the people who normally sit on the bench a chance to play. After their last game, I was riding back to school with Coach Lloyd, and he told me that I had potential, but I would have to play on a club team if I wanted to play Varsity. It didn’t come as much of a surprise that he would want me to do that, but it is a decision that will be hard for me to make. When I practiced with the Varsity team, I didn’t really know them that well, and felt like an outsider or an invader, but not really included. I’m not sure if I really want to be with those girls again next year, especially since I’m not nearly as good as them. I also really enjoy playing with the girls in AYSO and have heard some pretty bad things about the club near my house that I would join. I don’t want to do something I regret. Playing on JV was a struggle for me because I felt like sometimes people wanted to be my friend and other times I was invisible and was just some little outsider who had to play on the team. It was hard for me to really accept that playing on JV was the better decision because I so much wanted to be on the field with my friends from soccer laughing and talking together without any hesitation. Maybe that is the problem. Maybe I’m too hesitant and need to put myself out there. My mom has said that to me many times but I don’t want to be an annoying pest like some people who are a little to out going. I don’t know. Maybe soccer will be my life. Maybe I’ll move on and forget I ever played. Who knows? Maybe one day I’ll be singing on stage in some Broadway musical. For now, though, I have to make a choice: pursue Varsity soccer whatever it takes, or keep soccer a laid back social time with friends. What ever it is, it better be worth it.
This one relates to a past blog with the prompt: Describe a time that you carried a grudge against someone. When we had our end of the season soccer party, we all went to one of my teammate’s house and had a potluck. There were a group of girls sitting on the trampoline and a group of girls sitting by the pool. Some of use on the team had been having a hard time with one of the other girls on the team, we’ll call her Suzie. Suzie’s sister was sitting on the trampoline with me and a few other girls, and Suzie was sitting with the girls at the pool and conversing with the parents. At one point, our conversation turned to a get together that we had at our friend’s house after one of our games. We had been going on a computer site where if you type some special symbol, you can trick someone into thinking that the computer knows everything about everyone. At first, Suzie didn’t get how it worked after we showed her, so my friends asked if she finally had figured it out, and I told them that after a few explanations, it had registered in her head. That was the end of our discussion on her, but later, she ended up crying and leaving the party to co sit in her car. None of us knew what had happened, so we didn’t know what to do about it. Later, she came back to get medals for the season, and she was refusing to sit with the rest of the team. The coach told her to “go sit with her friends” but she just looked like “Friends? Those aren’t my friends.” I didn’t know what was going on, but after our little awards ceremony, the coach asked me if anyone had called her bossy or mean, and I told him that we had talked about the incident and the previous party, but nothing more than that. Later another girl came and told me that her sister had used what we had said about the party and exaggerated it so that we were calling her mean, bossy, and stupid. It was so hard though, not knowing what was going on. She seemed to be having such a good time at the beginning and then suddenly she disappeared and then came back all red faced. We ended up not being able to talk to her because she left right afterwards, and there was nothing for us to do.
Relationships are two way things. Each person has to contribute to make things work. If you want a close nice relationship, you have to be willing to agree and support some of your friend’s, or the other person’s, ideas, but you can’t just follow EVERYTHING they say. The way you negotiate has to be constructive criticism, or expressing your like for their idea, but you think you have an even stronger one. If you are exactly like the other person, you can be good friends, but it might get kind of old always thinking the same way and wanting the same things. You might start to feel like the other person is copying you. In little women, the mother tells Joe that it wouldn’t be a good idea to marry Laurie, the boy who lives next door, because their personalities are too similar. In my group of friends, we all have slightly different personalities, but little things that we agree on that hold us together. Some of my friends are boy crazy while others really don’t care, or aren’t as interested. Some of us understand one class while others understand another, and we help each other with those classes that we don’t understand. Some people do drama some visual arts, some play an instrument, and some dance. Some of us do sports, some the same, some different. We all get along, because we are all willing to accept each other for who we are and don’t worry about little differences like knowledge on a subject or the wealth of our families. The kinds of things that destroy relationships are not being willing to have the person the way they are no matter what happens to them. If you are only willing to be in a relationship with specific types of people, then your relationships can be destroyed easily. I’ve been reading a book called Sisters by Danielle Steel and one of the girls, Annie, who is a painter, goes blind in a freak car accident. Her sister, Sabrina, calls the guy that she has been in a relationship with in Florence, Italy, where she was living to study art, and tells him that she has gone blind. The guy tells Sabrina that he is not willing to be in a relationship with her since she is blind now. Obviously, this guy only wanted to go out with some cute girl who could paint and take care of herself as well as him. His opinion of who he wants to be in a relationship can destroy any relationship that doesn’t provide everything he wants. In his case, he can’t be in a relationship with a blind person. It all depends on what you, and the other person are willing to deal with.
Why is it that People who are attracted to the same sex have a special name like gay or bi, but people that are attracted to the opposite sex are called straight? Why aren’t “gay” people called “normal” and “straight” people given some special name? Why are gay and bi people singled out?
I personally think that inter-racial dating is fine. Does it really matter what our ethnic background is? Does it matter whether we are gay, bi, or straight? Is that really that bad? I think that it is all your opinion of who you are attracted to. I’m the daughter of two parents of totally different races. I’m half Chinese (my mom), ¼ Armenian, 1/8 Russian, and 1/8 American (al on my dad’s side, the American part is because we can trace our history back to way before America was the USA) and if that isn’t a lot of inter-racial marriages, I don’t know what is. Being this type of child, I have never faced any major problems that I can think of, except that my parents think I might be able to pass for Hispanic (where did that come from??). The biggest problem I can think of is when people ask, “What ethnicity are you?” and I have to think of an abbreviated answer like “Asian Caucasian” which isn’t that big of a problem, and if the want to here the whole long thing, I tell them. I have a friend who has a dad who is part Korean and part African and a mom who is British, and she is doing great. It’s all a matter of your opinion of who you choose to date or marry. It’s your choice; don’t let anyone convince you otherwise.
1)“‘You are dancing with the only handsome girl in the room.’… he looked for a moment until catching her eye… [and] said, “She (Elizabeth) is tolerable; but not handsome enough to tempt me,” (Volume I, Chapter III, page 9).
2)“‘The country…can supply but few subjects for such a [character] study. In a country neighbourhood you move in a very confined and unvarying society,’” (Volume I, Chapter IX, page 37).
3)“‘Miss Eliza Bennet, let me persuade you to follow my example, and take a turn about the room…’ Elizabeth was surprised, but agreed to it immediately…Mr. Darcy looked up. He was much awakened to the novelty of attention in that quarter as Elizabeth herself could be, and unconsciously closed his book,” (Volume I, Chapter XI, page 49).
4)“‘Perhaps,’ said Darcy, ‘I should have judged better, had I sought an introduction, but I am ill qualified to recommend myself to strangers.’” (Volume II, Chapter VIII page 156).
5)“‘I certainly have not the talent which some people possess,’ sad Darcy, ‘of conversing easily with those I have ever seen before. E cannot catch their tone of conversation, or appear interested in their concerns as I often see done.’” (Volume II, Chapter VIII page 156).
6)“‘In vain I have struggled. It will not do. My feelings will nor be repressed. You must allow me to tell you how ardently I admire and love you,’” (Volume II, Chapter XI, page 169).
7)“[Mr. Darcy] had by that time reached [the gate] also, and holding out the letter, which she instinctively took, said with a look of haughty composure, ‘I have been walking through the grove some time in hope of meeting you. Will you do me the hounor of reading the letter?’–And then, with a slight bow, turned again into the plantation, and was soon out of sight.” (Volume II, Chapter XII, page 175).
8)“‘Will you allow me, or do I ask too much, to introduce my sister to your acquaintance during your stay at Lambton?’” (Volume III, Chapter I, page 227).
Mr. Darcy believes his words and actions will not alter the way people view him. When he is introduced at the ball, he is portrayed as tall and handsome with a noble air, and had ten thousand a year. He has a quiet manner and is not very sociable. When he comments on Elizabeth at their first ball, he had already fallen in love with her, but does not want to admit so he claims that she is not pretty enough for him, in attempt to avoid having to talk to her. He is shy, so when he is talking, he is merely trying to avoid her, but he doesn’t know how to say it without sounding arrogant.
Mr. Darcy is a shy unsociable man in love with a girl who has a bad impression of him. He is tall, handsome, and of a noble air, but he does not know how to act at a social event. Although Darcy is trying to prevent it, he falls in love with Elizabeth Bennet, but tries to avoid her as to not embarrass himself in front of a girl he likes. In his attempt, he gives other a bad impression of himself when he dismisses Elizabeth as not good enough for him. Mr. Darcy is not a proud arrogant man, but a man who has not been taught how to act in a social situation, and needs guidance which he is to shy to ask for.
I didn’t read the blog after Friday night, so did not get the assignment until today. My apologies. Here is my essay.
When Mr. Darcy is first introduced into the book and brought to Elizabeth’s attention, he is an arrogant man saying that “‘[Mr. Bingley] is dancing with the only handsome girl in the room,’” (Volume I, Chapter III, page 9) and claims that Elizabeth is “‘tolerable; but not handsome enough to tempt [him].” He acts cold towards Elizabeth even though at the same time he complements her older sister, Jane. He is prideful and shows that he is higher and better than the Bennets. After a while of knowing Elizabeth, though, he treats her in a different manner with different views. While she is tending to Jane at Netherfield because she is sick, she catches his eye and draws some attention from him while in the sitting room. Miss Caroline Bingley suggests that she “‘take a turn about the room,” (Volume I, Chapter XI, page 49). Elizabeth does so and in doing so causes Mr. Darcy to “‘look up. He was much awakened to the novelty of attention in that quarter as Elizabeth herself could be, and unconsciously closed his book.’” Darcy starts to soften on Elizabeth after he converses with her at Netherfield. He is still not on friendly terms with her, but is not so arrogant towards her. The reason is revealed when he tells her, “‘you must allow me to tell you how ardently I admire and love you,’” (Volume II, Chapter XI, page 169). His proposal is a shock to her after the way he had treated her and she is quite astonished and outraged by her proposing to her after his actions towards her. After finding out about Jane and Bingley, and what happened between him and Mr. Wickham, she starts to soften on him. He also, after being harshly rejected, is much more civil and polite in his actions towards her treats her much nicer. Her reputation in his family is grow so much that in his politeness he asks, Will you allow me, or do I ask too much, to introduce my sister to your acquaintance during tour stay at Lambton?’” (Volume III, Chapter I, page 227). Mr. Darcy goes from being an arrogant haughty man, to a polite sincere and loving gentleman.
1) Does Mr. Collins still like Elizabeth? (answer: yes, found in book)
2)What are Elizabeths feelings for Mr. Darcy and Mr. Wickham after reading the letter? Do how do they change as she reads the letter again and again?
3)After Mr. Darcy and Elizabeth’s talk, will Mr. Darcy tell Mr. Bingley Jane’s feelings as he heard through Elizabeth?
When someone tells you that you have disappointed them, the first thing you think is, ‘boy I did something really wrong and they don’t like it,’ or you think, ‘I thought it was a good thing, what did I do that was wrong?’ It’s hard when someone tells you that you did something they didn’t like. People that usually tell you that you have/had disappointed them are your parents, and the things that they are disappointed in are actions that you made when you could have chosen to do something else. Once you disappoint someone, it is hard to gain their trust back, because once you disappoint them, they are careful to prevent it from happening again. Gaining trust is a hard thing especially since you can lose it is a heartbeat. The best things to do is admit you were wrong, promise you won’t do it again, and slowly gain their trust the way you did at the beginning. One thing I remember happening quite recently is that I was at someone’s house for a sleepover, and their sibling, let’s name them Bob, wasn’t allowed to have his cell phone because of something he had done before. We were watching a movie before going to bed, and when he left to go to bed, he grabbed the cell phone and casually tried to walk off with it. My friend told him to leave the cell phone, and he eventually did, but if he had gotten caught that would have been two things behind his parents’ back. The first one he got punished for, and the second one would have been cheating out of the punishment. When I saw that happen, I was shocked. Why would anyone want to lose their parents trust, and then, while trying to gain it back, do something again behind their back that could lose their trust again? I don’t quite understand.
