Teenage Pastimes

            Many parents and adults all say the same thing when it comes to their kids or just children in general.  It goes something like this, “My, my, my they seem to grow up fast!”  Some important and memorable times this expression is used would be: a baby’s first steps, first day of kindergarten, the child’s first “love”, fourth grade camp, sixth grade camp, graduation from elementary school.  The list goes on and on.  I stopped at graduation from sixth grade for a reason.  For the most part, at the end of students sixth grade year they are eleven or twelve years old.  This is the period of time called the preteen age.  Kids start maturing and at this point, they begin to rapidly evolve into adults.  This great change is noticed especially through the teenage pastimes. 

            The best word I can find to describe the teenage years is independence.  This important word is what all teenagers long for.  At first most parents insist that their kids stay at home with their friends instead of roaming around aimlessly in the neighborhood.  This request by parents is very reasonable considering the threat of kidnappers and drunk drivers.  This is unfortunate for the kids though.  Kids don’t want to talk in ears reach of parents.  After all teenage years are when secrets and gossip become important.  Sally wants to tell Suzy about her new “crush” but of course her parents cannot hear about it.  Therefore this is when 13 year olds will transition from playing with dolls in the house to going outside where there is less chance of being overheard.

            Now we reach the ages of fourteen and fifteen.  Parents seem to understand that their kids want to either be left alone or for their parents to “fit in”.  So most parents will be more respectful about privacy but also will make themselves more teenage friendly.  One example of that is changing their language around us.  For instance, my best friend and I would always say the phrase, “Ya schmell me?” when asking if they understood.  Noticing that his parents started to say that to us and it made him and me more comfortable around them. So now that the house was teenage friendly, more teenage activities took place back inside the house.  We would play “Call of Duty: Modern Warfare Two”, and “NASCAR” and all sorts of entertaining games.  I can even recall playing board games with my friends parents, a strange concept now that I am sixteen.

            When I was fifteen, my friends and I got tired of the indoors so we headed outside.  We were doing things that our fathers had done “back in the good ole’ days”.  We would play everything from basketball to two-hand touch street football.  One of our favorite basketball games was knockout, but we also enjoyed a good game or HORSE or just shooting some hoops.  Basketball  one on one games were not very popular amongst us because we were usually a group of three and that never turned out well.  I can remember late night football games with my three good friends during winter.  The flood light on the driveway, illuminating the shrunken asphalt field and making tall shadows out of us.  We would play for multiple games and mostly until we would get called in by our friend’s mom.  Then inside we would resort back to talking which was never a favorite of ours.  We always wanted to be doing something.

            Other than thirteen, which is the first year of being a teenager, sixteen is the first looked up to year in a child’s life.  Why?  Well in California, that is, sixteen is the legal age to acquire a Drivers License.  And boy how life changes.  This roughly 2 X 4 inch card changes everything.  For one, there is a new acceptable place to talk, the car.  And back to outside stuff goes the teens.  There is no reason to stay at my house anymore if I can drive anywhere I want.  That is the thinking of most 16 year old drivers.  At first, parents and teens have a somewhat mutual agreement that they will inform of what and where they are going.  But after awhile, kids realize that the parents have no way of actually knowing.  So now, more than ever independence was a reality.  I think one of the most important thing cars did was expand the groups of friends.  That could be the result of getting older, but cars gave an opportunity to go to central locations: parks, restaurants or stores.  And this allows the teen to go at his or her leisure and time schedule.  Now instead of some friends hanging out, there are parties instead.  Because during this time, the thinking is that the more people here the more opportunity for fun is at hand.

            Although junior year of high school is stressful and at times there can be a lot of homework.  We still find time to maintain a social life and to have fun.  Usually this will take place on the weekends, because no one has time during the week.  If there isn’t a huge history packet due, then there is daily math homework or a blog for English.  The school work supply is endless. But I like many other teens my age, take time off of homework on Saturday and just hang out with friends or maybe get to a party.  The effect of this day of fun, results in a Sunday jammed with lots of weekend assignments to complete.  Nevertheless, a week is not complete without at least one single day of fun.  Sometimes it will just be with a group of two people and yet others my Saturday will be playing mud football with a big group of people.

            As I am only a sixteen year old boy, I still have three more years of a teenage life.  During that three years will be senior year, graduation from high school and the start of college.  I know that my life will change in those three years, party from other people’s experiences and also from the fact that every year brings new changes in activities.

Abstract Term: Strength

            As a teenager strength is mostly determined as who has the most power, i.e. muscles.  Who has the biggest muscles?  Who benches the most weight?  These seem to be the things people in today’s society care about.  This kind of strength is determined by forever changing things.  This kind of strength is not forever.  This kind of strength weakens with time.  No one can be the strongest forever.  Everyone will die eventually and everyone knows that dead people cannot hold or attain strength.  It is a sad thought really, that strength is limited and cannot last forever, because lets face it, everyone wants to be strong and known.

            In cartoons I always thought it was ironic that the strongest man, the superhero, had a sidekick.  What was the sidekick for?  To me I always found it silly to have someone by your side if you are the strongest.  Although there is strength in numbers, the numbers weaken individual strength.  If, for example, a group of men win a group fighting match, then the group is recognized at being strong but there is no individual power given to a single person.  Recognition is key while speaking about power because being known is being strong.

            The ancient Romans used to recognize strength.  The strongest men would be the leader.  In the paintings, the gods always have big toned muscles.  Being strong and showing the strength was a very important part of their culture because it was the strong who would survive.  The strongest were also the champions.  In the Olympics, the champions were determined by strength.  The discus throwers were very powerful and it showed great strength to be champion.

            Now-a-days strength is still assumed as the most muscles but it also is about amount of power.  For example, the president of the United States of America is one of the most powerful men in the world.  He is basically in charge of a world power country, yet he is not portrayed as having great big muscles.  No, he holds his power in his decisions and words.  Strength in muscles is, to some extent, not very strong at all.  There is another saying that goes, “there will always be someone stronger” and that is true.  No matter how strong you are, you are not invincible. 

           

            When I was in 8^th grade Physical Education, I remember my class went into the weight room for the first time.  All the guys were excited about getting strong.  When Mr. Miller was trying to explain how to use the equipment the boys were fiddling around with the weights, being so excited to get started.  And then there were the girls.  The girls could really care less about getting “ripped” as us boys called it back then.  The girls just wanted to sit down and gossip about “who likes who” and “OMG I think he likes me”.  This always caught my attention and it was then when I really got an understanding of characteristics of males and females.  Although there are a growing number of females striving for power, it is the men who are based on strength.  They have a competitive nature that defines their status. 

            Once I moved on from middle school and finally made it to high school, a new type of strength came about.  And that was the strength of perseverance.  As a freshman I thought that high school was going to be hard and I admired the upper class men and thought that they were so strong for passing the classes.  Although I later found out that high school was very easy, it still does not take away from the strength that one has to persevere and to keep moving.  I will admit that there were some tough challenges I faced in high school and I had to build up strength to get past them all.

            Being strong makes you a big target.  Whenever there is a wrestling or boxing match on TV, the most important and popular ones are the ones where someone is trying to defend a title.  In baseball, the defending World Champions are always the team to beat.  Because beating the best team or person, makes you the best.  Although that is not always the case, the title of strength is much greater than the actual reality of it.  As I said before, there is always someone greater than you who will want to take you down and thus thrusting yourself into the position of strongest man in the world.

            Although strength is mainly associated with men there are a lot of examples of very strong women.  First off the athletes like Misty May-Treanor and Venus Williams are strong, as in muscular women athletes.  Misty May-Treanor was a gold metal winner at the 2008 Summer Olympics and Venus Williams is an internationally known tennis player who has also won many championships.  On the other hand there are women like Hillary Clinton and Meg Whitman who have become very strong leaders.  Hillary Clinton is now the Secretary of State under the Obama Administration. She has been very influential throughout the world and has supported many causes like the Haitian Earthquake back in 2010.  Meg Whitman is currently the president and CEO of Hewlett-Packard and ex CEO of eBay.  She also ran for Governor of California but lost. 

            I mentioned various types of strength throughout this blog.  It is a very interesting concept that can be examined to different meanings.  I think a big part of strength is determined by ones character.  Some people want power and to be strong and yet others are more passive and know that they don’t have a chance at being strong and they just watch other people became the best and just like that fall back down and get beaten.  These people that watch catch on the strength is limited and they spend time on more stable things.  Whatever strength is defined as, all forms have one thing in common, it will not last forever.

           

           

           

Screening Process

            If everyone went to college after they finished high school, then the colleges would be overcrowded.  High school is the last stop on the free and required educational journey.  So, not everyone can go to college.  But how do colleges decide on who does get the privilege to attend a post high school educational facility?

            Schooling is a very interesting concept.  You go to school to learn and become smarter.  But what are grades for and how do they help learning? Well grades don’t necessarily help with learning but they make separated “classes” of students.  There are the academically poor students, then the middle class (average students) then there are the smart kids, and at the very top are the students who go above and beyond a 4.0 GPA and take weighted classes.  Now in most colleges, they accept entry based on three topics, one being GPA, or grade point average.  Without grades everyone would be equal.  The idea is to cull out the weak and make sure they are not receiving the same benefits as people who do not try as hard or do not learn as easily.  Colleges do have admission limits and over packing students can jeopardize the schools reputation and/or learning capabilities. 

           

            Some kids do not learn as easily as others and that is unfortunate.  Usually the students with higher grades will get into the academies over students with lower grades.  As each college reaches its limit the fewer students it can take in. 

           

            To make some students stand out, high schools started a AP program, or Advanced Placement.  The goal of this program is to offer smarter and more intellectually minded students get a taste of what college will be like.  These courses are 5.0 weighted with lets students earning an A in that specific course exceed the 4.0 GPA.  This is what creates the top-most class of students.

            The AP weighted courses stress out a lot of students.  Receiving a B in an AP class is the same as an A in a normal high school class.  But the students in these classes most likely have not had too many experiences with receiving a B and to them, it may seem like failing.  Obviously the intended effect of these courses is to stress out students and make their high school years full of bad memories, but it does teach students to accept challenges and learn how to conquer them. 

           

            One concern in high school is that if everyone takes the same courses, then the less intelligent students will hold back the students who learn at a faster pace.  This is true and is another reason AP courses were started.  In an AP class there is no longer “popcorn reading.”  If we get assigned a literary work to read or analyze it is done at home.  The teacher doesn’t check in on how the book is going.  The AP courses are much more independent. 

            In math, there is less teacher involvement in the AP courses.  Although the teacher gives the lesson and answers questions students may have, the course flies by in a fast rhythm.  The daily agenda is correct homework and learn something new.

            In a lot of cases, grades don’t mean exactly what they say.  If a teacher gives his/her class a lot of homework, then the grade will be affected by the mass amounts of homework.  With homework, you can bring it home and get help from people so homework does not necessarily show the real learning advancements of a student.  And if homework is a large part of a student’s grade, then the grade will be affected.  Another example of why grades aren’t always reliable I that some teacher are harder than others.  Not every teacher can be the exact same grader so grades will fluctuate depending on teacher difficulty.

            The SAT is another way to weed out the not as smart students from the students with erudition.  The SAT is a standardized test that colleges focus on.  Throughout America, students are required to take the test to enter a college.  It is not just a test that you take.  Most students start studying for it sophomore year by taking PSAT (Practice SAT’s).  Throughout the school year, multiple SAT tests are offered to high school students.  It is a very prestigious test and with an important test comes stress and anxiety.  Although the SAT is available to be taken over again if you are not satisfied with your score, it still is very nerve-wracking to take the test that will in-turn, decide your future in education.  There are many opportunities and method of studying for the big test.  At school counselors can help find websites on the internet for finding SAT study questions and also test taking skills.

            To keep test takers from just guessing answers, the SAT is a rare test that subtracts points for getting the wrong answer.  This makes the test more difficult and also discourages students from guessing.  This is beneficial to some kids who just know the answer to lots of questions but to students who have used a guessing method throughout high school, they are at a disadvantage.  There are two sections on the SAT.  One section is mathematics and the other section is English.

            Colleges also look at extracurricular activities like sports are volunteering when they are looking at students applying.  Those three screening processes help the colleges determine what students get the opportunity to attend their choice of college.  I think these screening processes are also beneficial to the students because they learn important life lessons are ways to manage time.  Stress is a very big problem in today’s society and if people learn at a young age how to handle it, they will have an easier time dealing with it in the future.  The AP courses not only show the admissions workers that you are a student that challenges yourself, but also teaches you college material that will be beneficial in the long run.

Compare and Contrast

            Born and raised in Seattle, Ben Haggerty is famous for being a rapper.  If this name is not recognizable, it is probably because he goes by his stage name Macklemore.  In 2000, Professor Macklemore, his stage name at the time, distributed his album Open Your Eyes by himself.  Throughout his musically career, Macklemore had problems with substance drugs which led to the years between 2005 and 2009 with a low production of songs.

           

Dwayne Michael Carter Jr. was born in New Orleans, Louisiana.  At age nine, Carter joined Cash Money Records as its youngest member.  This was the start of Lil’ Wayne’s powerful musical career.  Lil’ Wayne has released multiple albums, and most recently, he released, Tha Carter IV.  Lil’ Wayne is also known for drinking something out of a white Styrofoam cup.  The substance in the cup is cough syrup and a soda.  In We Takin’ Over Lil’ Wayne rapped that. “I like my Sprite Easter-pink”.

           

            Although both rappers, Macklemore and Lil’ Wayne, have used substance drugs, Macklemore has admitted to it causing problems and eventually getting off them.  Lil’ Wayne has never had a public problem with the drugs and still uses them.  In Lil’ Wayne’s songs he addresses the drugs and glorifies it.  Macklemore, on the other hand, has been sober of drugs and alcohol for two years now and also writes his songs without the mention of drugs unless it is to explain the harms of them.  In Macklemore’s song Otherside he raps about a friend dying from overdosing on cough syrup.

            Lil’ Wayne has had problems with the law, however.  Lil’ Wayne was sentenced to a year in County Jail for criminal possession of a weapon and marijuana.  He was released four months early for good behavior.  Macklemore has not had legal problems, or at least any that are known of by the public.

            Lil’ Wayne and Macklemore have very similar and different qualities.  Lil’ Wayne is very outgoing and likeable.  Similarly, Macklemore is a likeable rapper but is much less low key than Lil’ Wayne.  Since he is not as popular or well known, Macklemore is more passive and just does his thing.  Lil’ Wayne, however, is always in the limelight.  His big ego and popular rap style and songs contribute to the love of him by his enormous number of fans. 

            Although Macklemore has been in the rapping business for over 10 years, compared to Lil’ Wayne he is a rookie.  Lil’ Wayne, becoming very popular at a young age and throughout his career has produced many hit songs including: "Go D.J.", "Lollipop", "Got Money" and "Let It Rock".  Macklemore is best known for his hit songs: "My Oh My", "Otherside" and “Irish Celebration”. 

            Macklemore is not officially part of a rapping group, but he does have a band that plays the music that he raps too.  Ryan Lewis is the producer, the violinist is Andrew Joslyn, Owour Arunga on trumpet, on bass, drums and guitar, Zach Fleury and on piano is Noah Goldberg.  Lil’ Wayne is currently with his producing group of Young Money.  He has created this group into one of the most well-known groups of the time period.  Drake, Nikki Minaj, Tyga, Gudda Gudda, and Cory Gunz are all part of the famous group.

            Lil’ Wayne made a documentary about himself and his life.  It is called “The Carter” and it was released in 2009.  Since the film is a documentary, there is no acting involved.  Lil’ Wayne just is filmed doing his normal everyday things.  There are scenes of him rapping songs and others where he is on his tour bus.  Lil’ Wayne spends a lot of time in Amsterdam, where it is legal to smoke marijuana.  In most of the interviews, Lil’ Wayne is either smoking marijuana or sipping his cough syrup and soda, sometimes he is doing both.  Lil’ Wayne was asked, “Does [your career] put pressure on you?”  He responds saying, “What is a life without pressure?”  Even though Macklemore has not been in any movies or been the subject of documentaries, he is still very famous in his hometown of Seattle.  Macklemore performs often at the Capitol Hill Block Party in Seattle.  A lot of his fans are from Seattle but he does have many fans from all over.

Macklemore and Lil’ Wayne have experienced the same drugs and are in the same career.  However the difference is that Macklemore has cleaned up and now preaches the harms and dangers of using substance drugs, or any drugs for that matter.  The young generation of our time that listens to Lil’ Wayne is being greatly influenced by what he does.  Some kids even look up to him as a role model and he is not setting a good example.  Even if young kids don’t look up to him as a person but they like and enjoy listening to his music, they are still being influenced by it.  Although they might do it unintentionally, kids absorb what they listen and see and apply it to there own lives.  If they hear Lil’ Wayne rapping about codeine and marijuana they will assume that it’s alright and safe for them to try.  These problems are what Macklemore is trying to fix.  By writing the song Otherside, for example, he portrays a scary scene of someone overdosing on drugs.  Macklemore raps, “Room spinnin', thinkin' he might of sipped just a little bit too much of that cough syrup, his eyelids closed shut, sat back in the chair clutchin' that cup
girlfriend came and a couple hours later said his name shook him but he never got up”.  He also says, “Now he just wanted to act like them, he just wanted to rap like him, us as rappers underestimate the power and the effects that we have on these kids”.  Macklemore basically presents the same argument that I addressed before.  Rappers may not think that kids will take what they say to heart but in reality a lot of young people do. 

Indians; what kind?

What are Indians?  Well you could be thinking of three things right now.  One: you may be thinking an Indian is someone native to India.  Two: you could be thinking about the Major league baseball team; the Cleveland Indians.  Or three: you might be considering the name giving to Native Americans.  Well, there is most defiantly a difference between all of the topics but I will be addressing numbers one and three and how the connotations of the word “Indian” has evolved and also offended some people.

In 1492 Christopher Columbus took sail for India.  The goal of his expedition was to find a western trading route to India.  When he eventually made landfall in present day San Salvador, he called the natives Indians, thinking that he was in India.  It was only later on that he discovered his mistake on finding the Americas rather than the intended destination of India.  The name of the natives in America stuck and people referred to them as Indians.

That was the 15^th century.  Yet still now-a-days people will refer to Native Americans as Indians although politically incorrect.  In modern history textbooks the authors no longer misuse the word Indian.  The only exception for that is the war between the British and French.  The French were allied with the Native Americans thus the French and Indian War. 

            Jeevan is one of my good friends.  He is full Indian, more specifically, Punjabi.  He is very active with his Indian culture and I have talked to him about his view of Native Americans being called Indians.  He stated that Native Americans were NOT Indians.  He gets frustrated when people talk about Native Americans as Indians, not because he is offended by the misuse rather of people’s ignorance with words and their meanings.  I agree with what Jeevan is saying and respect his view on the matter.

            Jeevan was a socially known person in middle school and still is in high school.  But when I had first heard of who he was there was one question I had.  Was he Native American “Indian” or Indian “Indian”?  I later found out that he was indeed India, as in from India.  This was confusing for me and maybe other people who are trying to communicate. 

            There are some people who still refer to Native Americans as Indians, including myself.  I was raised in such a culture that to me, an Indian was someone who was originally from America.  I can recall multiple memories of my childhood playing Cowboys and Indians.  We most defiantly did not call the game Cowboys and Native Americans.  The way people use the word Indian upsets and aggravates many people who are either Native American or Indian and the usage of the word should be corrected in not only American literature but also in modern American language.

           

           

Argue This!

Is everything an argument?  Well according to Chapter 1 of “Everything Is an Argument” it is.  “Everything Is an Argument” outlines the purposes of arguments, the types of arguments, occasions for arguments, and also, kinds of arguments.  Arguments are everywhere from street signs to popular non-fiction novels.  There is no getting away from them.  The western world, however, often times misuses or is ignorant of the word “argument”.  “Argument” does not necessarily mean a fight or debate, as it is perceived to be sometimes.  Rather an argument could simply be an interpretation or thesis of a writer, or any person’s, point of view.  Arguments can also “make nuanced, sometimes implicit, arguments about who you are and what you value.”  For instance, “A nurse assures a youngster eyeing an approaching needle, ‘This won’t hurt on bit.’”  This line from “Everything Is an Argument” argues how little kids are scared of needles, or even deeper, their fear of doctors.  So many things can be told through arguments.

            Types of arguments include: arguments to convince, arguments to inform, arguments to explore, arguments to make decisions, and last but not least, arguments to meditate or pray.  Arguments to convince are mainly persuasive statements.  If you are trying to get someone to do something this would be a good argument t use.  The writer or speaker will make their side sound good to make readers or listeners to join them.   Arguments to inform are basically showing your point of view for others to learn about.  Arguments to explore could be to find things out about a topic.  These arguments can be deeply personal.  Arguments to make decisions refer to the process of decision making, and finally arguments to meditate or pray are used to change something about themselves.

            There are special words used to describe arguments and when they are about.  An argument about the past is referred to as a forensic argument; these arguments are common in politics and business.  Arguments based in the present are called ceremonial arguments mostly because they are presented to the public.   Sermons are an example of an argument of the present.  Deliberative arguments refer to arguments in the future.  Groups that decide what will happen in the future are called deliberative groups; like Congress.

            “Inherit the Wind”, by Jerome Lawrence and Robert E. Lee, is a prime example of an argument to inform and convince.  This play takes place in Dayton, Tennessee in 1925.  In this town, church was the basis on the culture, which is why a teacher by the name of Bertram Cates was thrown into jail for teaching his class about evolution.  As one would imagine, this did not go well in a highly religious town where they undoubtedly taught The Creation Theory.  But Bertram was not one to conform to society, he believed in teaching different opinions.   Society has changed an awful lot since the 1920’s.  Now-a-days the teaching method is completely different in public schools.  Teachers have to teach about evolution and cannot even mention the religious views on creation.  But during that period of time and especially in a very religious town like Dayton, Tennessee teaching about evolution was completely unacceptable.  After a long trial fought by two famous and intelligent lawyers the decision was made regarding Cates’s fate.  Since there was a jury of men from the small town, the verdict did not seem to be in favor of Cates, although his attorney put up a really good argument and even got people in the courtroom to question the veracity of the religious views on creation.  Cates was fined 100 dollars for disobeying a Tennessee law that allowed o teaching of evolution in schools.  100 dollars was barely anything in those days and the prosecuting lawyer was livid.  Even though Cates had lost the case, in some ways he had won.  As the whole town watched the public trial, they began to believe that Cates should not be imprisoned for the crime and some even started to believe the theory of evolution. 

            The arguments produced in this book are arguments to convince and to inform, as I mentioned before.  The controversy over the theory of evolution and the theory of creation has been ongoing for over a century.  And the debate still continues.  The pro-creation people use biblical references to convince more people to join their views and the pro-evolution group draws people using scientific fact.  In “Inherit the Wind” the defense lawyer unintentionally draws people to believe that evolution may be more accurate than the religious views that God created the world in seven days. 

            Up until the days of Charles Darwin, most everyone believed in the creation story in the Bible.  The reason for this is that there were no opposing arguments of points of view.  Then came Darwin who brought up his whole theory of how men evolved from a species of ape.  Along with that he thought up his theory of survival of the fittest.  These theories were the first to oppose church doctrine.  Darwin started off having no followers until people started losing faith in the church and that’s when the theory of evolution became popular with a lot of people and eventually made it way into schools where the younger generation of kids learned about Darwin’s ideas instead of the religious views. 

            After reading the play “Inherit the Wind” my sophomore year, I really began to think about what theory was more accurate.  This book pushed me to educate myself on the topic.  I read the Bible more and also was very intrigued during the evolution section in my science classes.  Jerome Lawrence and Robert E. Lee used the arguments to inform and the arguments to convince, not only to describe the debate going on inside the book but also to make the readers think about what they agree with in their personal lives. 

            Arguments are everywhere and finding them in literary texts and analyzing them is the job of the reader.  Once analyzed, the reader will understand better the author’s intent and also the meaning of the work. 

What does it mean to be a "reader"?

When I hear the word “reading”, I immediately think of an English class or something pertaining to literature.  But what I have come to learn is that reading is not limited to stories.

            Reading is a way of life.  Everything we do involves reading whether it be driving down the street and looking at a stop sign or interpreting a situation by using other people’s body language as reference.  Now, there are many different languages such as Spanish, French and English but also there are languages without words. 

            So first off I will start off on an unconventional note.  As a trumpet player, I have learned and become familiar with the language of music.  You might think that sounds silly but if you are familiar with music in any way, you would know that, other than notes, there are a lot of symbols and signs to read.  Some symbols inform the reader what note to play and how to play it.  A note with “^” on top of it signals the musician to play the note short and loud.  But just like any other language, music takes time, practice and repetitiveness to nail down.  For me, music is a story without words.  Every author or composer has a purpose for writing novels or music.  They want to present their point of view to the public.  But what good is a book that is unread.  The same goes for music.  As a musician I like playing the music to build the story that the composer has intended audiences to hear.  Since I am in the top band at my school, I consider myself to be a fluent reader of music.

            Now for the more orthodox definition of reading.  I have never been a big-time reader.  Growing up I read mostly series books so when I finished a book I would have another book that I could start reading.  That worked well until I finished the series.  Finding books to read has always been difficult for me which is why my parents just gave me stories to read and forced me to read them.  I will admit that some of the books I read, I did enjoy.  I loved the Chronicles of Narnia, by C.S. Lewis and The Magic Tree House, by Marie Pope Osborne.  That was elementary school.

           

High school brought about a new perspective on reading in English classes, one with which I was more familiar.  Students were now required by the teacher to read all kinds of interesting literary works.  I have enjoyed nearly all of the books I have read in high school so far.  I love these high school level books because of the complexity that each book contains.  One of my favorite novels is To Kill A Mockingbird by Harper Lee.  I connected effortlessly to this story and enjoyed the adventures and lives of Scout and Jem. 

            I hope someday I will discover a love for literature that I lack now as a teenager as well as to appreciate music.  I love the clichéd idea of grabbing a book and snuggling up next to a crackling fire to enjoy what an author has to offer.