Last reading response for the whole 8th grade to Girl in Translation (muhahahahahahaha)

   The main purpose for most Coming of Age Books are to express or
show how Coming of Age push us through the line from childhood to
adulthood. Many changes come with it gaining benefits and privileges
but also gaining problems. The line between childhood and adulthood
is thick as a brick wall. The book Girl in Translation, the move to the
United States for Kimberly was a physical and mental push from her
childhood to adulthood. The purpose of this essay is to show what is
gained through Coming of Age from a child to a adult. To see how
obvious the difference between being a child and being a adult is.

   Throughout the story Kimberly had not really described her childhood
when she was in China a lot. Most of the time she would talk about was
how something about her life in U.S and China are somehow related. So
unfortunately she had been shoved to be a adult due to being in America.
She had already taken a job to work as, A factory labor job(30) . Those
kinds are the most inhumane and worst but she as a adult had to work a
job so that she and her mom could survive. That is something different
from being a little child. Being able to know what you can do to help out
yourself or your family. You can't be ignorant and think that everyday
you'll have meals prepared to you cause you want, You have to earn
it.

   There is also more that a adult must understand. The ability to
understand people. Meaning like like the ability to tell if a person is
good or bad, or friendly or hostile, a smart or dumb person. What
the point is really you'll need people to be your allies when you grow
up to survive in this world and having this kind of eagle vision is
helpful to see who you think will help you out instead of dragging
you down through life. There is also another meaning to having
the ability to understand people, people are very complicated things.
in the book Aunt Paula"we have some very fine white tea...Please
feel free to drink as much as you like"(30) and when she leaves
Kimberly asks her mom "shall we try that special white tea?"(30) her
mom responds "My heart stem, do you think that those things were
left out by accident?"(30) pointing at a box of inexpensive greeb tea left on
the counter. Kimberly's mom seems to demonstrate that ability.

   When you were a child you wouldn't really think of complicated
stuff as in something like romantic love. You only experienced the feeling
of platonic love from family or friends. When you enter adulthood  you
start to think about more complicated stuff exactly just like this. You'll
wonder more further in your life than focus on the present think what am
I going to be when I grow up, who will I marry or love, or how will I get
money? I think childhood is much more simpler which I think is a big
benefit. Who wants to have all these worries because we're thinking
about small casual things too much. Although we won't be able to survive
through life if don't over think about things.

   All the changes through Coming of Age pushes us out from childhood
to adulthood is to make it possible for us to survive in this world and time.
As life progresses its like a the sky. We were little kids playing outside as
a storm is about to come. Then through Coming of Age that storm finally
starts as rain comes pouring down. But now we have umbrellas because
we are adults. Coming of Age is like a boot camp to prepare us for that
cold world ahead of us.

Reading Response-Girl In Translation

   Our lives are always complex due to problems that are developed
during our Coming of Age. They push us off our road to our goals
of who we want to be. In the book Girl In Translation by Jean Kwok,
it describes a perfect example how Kimberly's dreams of having a
successful life for her mother and her in the future, but Coming of Age
problems like love interfere with her life as a teenager growing up in a
different country but with the same problems as any girl her age. One
example of this is love which spread like wildfire in her mind burning up
what really mattered to her. Her dreams. How did Coming of Age problems
affect her road to complete the dreams she made?

  One issue of Coming of Age in Kimberly's life would be love. Kimberly's
mother told to never spend too much time on socializing and such since
she knew it would mess up her mind and grades in school. There were
only two guys she liked in the story, One was a boy in school that was
decently rich and going to be successful in life while the other was from
another part of her life in her labor factory who life was of course to work
in a factory. Having to think about two guys at the same time and work
seriously in school had hindered her focus on school. Also It hindered her
life outside of school, going to parties instead of studying.

   Another issue of Coming of Age is competition/expectations. Various times
in the book she would know that her aunt who provided them a home and
job, also had a son who was the same age as Kimberly. His name was Nelson
and at times Kimberly's aunt would be jealous if Kimberly would do good in
school while she should be proud like Kimberly's mother was. Although
in the beginning of the story she didn't show her mother her work from
school was because she had been doing bad while her mother big expectations
of her. Sometimes her aunt would invite Kimberly over to have some kind
of competition with Kimberly's mother on which parent had raised a better child. 
 
   Coming of Age also helps you develop a personality or a opinion on the people
you, how you want to live life and how you want to get where you want to get.
of course this separates you from people and some people might like who you are
some might not. Like in Kimberly's story she proved to be a very good person to
her friends but some people like her aunt might not care seeing how she is.

   In life these problems are always there. They will always affect a teenager's life
one way or the other. No matter where your from or what kind of life you live
in, Coming of Age problems will always find a way to complicate your life.
Though they are bad they also had good side to them. In solving these problems
you'll know how to deal with your life all rhe way through your life. Its kind of
like gaining experience, or maturity, or learning what ideals,beliefs, and dreams
you will honor. In Kimberly's life it seems as though they were affecting her. It
also affected her in good ways too. She still had made it through life reaching
her dreams of being successful in life. Those Coming of Age problems problably
had made her road crooked but it gave her the strenth to move forward in life.

Artifact Response 1

   What had become important to me during the coming of age in my life
was music. It isn't a physical artifact but it was just as important as a
physical one. When I was little I wouldn't listen to music that much since
most of the time I wouldn't understand the song or I would be bored of it.
Since my coming of age I think the reason why I liked it suddenly was
because in everyone's coming of age we all develop a sense of who we
are or want to be. We then develop hobbies or opinions for ourselves.
So through coming of age we realize who we really are. What we can get
through coming of age is the objective of why we want to and are living
for. Although we realize what we want to do in life, but some of these
revelations could be fake and then we will end up making mistakes in our
life. I only think its part of life to have a trial and error process to find what
it is that you get through coming of age.

Reading Response RAD (radiation and death)

   The book I am currently reading and have started to read is the dead
and the gone by Susan Beth Pfeffer which is a book is about when this
asteroid hits the moon out of it's orbit and causes a change in the
gravitational pull between earth and the moon. So now tides are much
more higher on earth and tsunami powered waves occur like daily events.
This book focuses on this character called Alex Morales. He has a great
life of going to the best school in his town and also is respected by everyone.
After the incident he is now stuck to take care of his two sisters and trying
to find out where his parents are and what is their conditions.
What I want to focus on in this book is that this boy is left with two sisters
with his dad almost certainly dead since the place his dad is in was hit the
hardest while his mother is lost in the chaos of new york city. This is just
the beginning of problems that will come up. The world is disorganized
and can't be fixed. He has to get by through feeding his sisters and himself
while finding his mother to get things right. I want to show how great of
a character that Alex is.
   I think that the regular teen would just cry all alone and give up, but he is
trying to not lose confidence and stay strong in front of his sisters. One
quote in the book "he felt a wave of panic and had to himself to calm
down. It would be easy enough to find out if Mami is all right."
there is something about Alex that I feel that he will always make it through
this story or even when the world blows up I always think that he had survived
with the determination he has to keep on living and protect his sister's. He doesn't
even think about his parents anymore since he gave up hope of his parents and
now carries the goal of living for his parents and his sisters. You don't find
this kind of determination in everyone. This can also be how strong he feels
about staying alive but I think its more determination than the will to just survive.
    I also think that he is all alone because he has no close friends or not
anymore in the book because his only friend who was more of a competition
left town to go somewhere safer. His friend also is concerned about how he
has no close friends in a situation like this. In this scene where his close
friend says good bye to him he says" Well, you will [get offended] , but I'll say
it anyway. I've noticed you're one of those guys everyone likes and respects, but you
don't seem to have any close friends"(74)
   This text relates to the world in some ways because there are some good
people who are stuck in a situation that brings the worst out of them and
they don't deserve it, like Alex he doesn't deserve to be in that situation
being all by himself with his sisters while other kids have their parents and
don't need to worry. I think this book makes the reader understand what
kind of person it takes to be to drag yourself through a situation like this
and ever thought their might be light at the end of the tunnel.
   In real life the chances of finding people like this are low. I think that guys
should take an example of Alex strength and be like him more. He is brave,
determined, and someone who take care of himself. My topic was made
because I felt that maybe I should become somewhat like Alex. The readers
should see in my opinion what a good person really is (except the part where
he steals food from the other apartments, but they didn't need them anyway).
Its only normal to see a person like this character to admire them, like I do
for the people in the Army. The whole reason I'm writing this post is for the
people that are reading this post; I want people to think about what kind of
character they have and ask them selves, Is this how I want myself to be.

Blog Responses

Blog 1. I liked Isaiah's blog because all of his blog posts were neatly
in oder and for each blog post he had a title that explained what the
blog was nearly or is about. I think on all of his blog posts he spended
a lot of time and effort to make them really perfect, so it has a actually
lasting effect on you.
Blog 2. On one of Mohammad's post he was doing his research topics
he had a video that was made by some organization that felt the same
way that he did on that topic. It helped in bringing some information and
life to his blog post. He also had many links so the reader could do some
researching on their own.
Blog 3. On Mahir's blog he had a reading challenge done and that tells
me that he really likes to read and write. Theres also proof to this
by his other blogs since he seemingly had fun while he types them up.

Poem

Used "Shake me down" as source by Cage the Elephant

Who Knows

  People laying on the ground
  Sea, Constantly plagued by memories
  Not a lot of love
  Broken sound,Broken dreams
  Lonely times indeed
  People wanna know the future
  I keep my eyes on the way
  People stopped in the past
  with eyes cast around the corner,
  fixed upon Memories
  I'll never turn back
 
 
 

Narrative poem

Lone wanderer 

has treaded paths no men tread before

walked from battlefield to battle field

fights for his only belief

Friends that are temporialy

never lingering somewhere too long

his life is like a clock

he is always on moving

even at the end of his life