The chance for the Super Bowl

A chance for three straight championship wins

Everyone has the fire, but only champions know how to ignite the spark-Amit Rey

Last week was a time to be pleasantly surprised by an absolute a**whoping; however, this week is a time to be terrified.

The Land of Fortune

Metacognition

A classic is a book that has never finished sayingwhat it has to say
― Italo Calvino

While reading Treasure Island by Robert Louis Stevenson, I have been both intrigued and distracted. While reading the book I sometimes go into my own world and lose focus on what is happening; for example, the main character could be on a pirate ship: I would then make my own connections to the pirate ship; for instance, what video games I’ve played that have pirate ships, and then I might think about the entire video game itself and completely lose focus of the story. When that doesn’t happen, I have enjoyed this book. It has a solid plot and a few twists in that plot as well. While reading, I always feel that I’m in the shoes of Jim Hawkins (the main character), feeling what he’s feeling, doing what he’s doing, and thinking what he’s thinking. The author also really puts the reader in a good position to not read, but experience the book and really feel and know the life of Jim Hawkins. However, so far in the novel I have yet to feel a substantial amount of emotion towards what happens in the book. I have yet to become emotionally invested in Jim Hawkins, and at the moment I don’t really care all too much about what happens to him. Despite not being emotionally invested in the story, I have enjoyed it, and have, in a way, been in the shoes of Jim Hawkins. 

After my 1:30 hours of reading:

I felt a little more invested in the story, but the description was still lacking a bit. My experience was that I was in the shoes of a boy who is scared for his life in the wild world of pirating.

Game Day

The stress of an elimination game

Pressure is something you feel when you don’t know what the hell you’re doing—Peyton Manning

     The Patriots. The Patriots have had an odd, exciting and stressful season. That season could be over today, or could be extended in triumph to the AFC Championship Game at Arrowhead Stadium.

Narrative Paragraph

The best time of the year

Christmas isn’t a season. It’s a feeling―Edna Ferber

    Joy, at one point in the year, there is a time which feels like it has is far more joy than any other. It is a whole month that I love, but the actual day(s) are the best time of the year for me. This time is Christmas and Christmas Eve. These are close to my two favorite days of the entire year, mostly because of the festivities and traditions of Christmas. For me, the Christmas season starts at the end of Thanksgiving, but Christmas Eve is when it is at the height of it’s game. On Christmas Eve, it starts to feel like Christmas during church. It might just be because I’m always eager to get home to watch “the Grinch” and get a gift from Secret Santa, but I just start to get that warm feeling inside during church and it really begins to feel like Christmas. After church, I unwind a little and start to speculate what I could get from Secret Santa and get ready to watch “the Grinch.” Once those festivities are done, I get ready to go to bed, but it never really goes to smoothly. I can never go to sleep right away, and even though it doesn’t sound like the biggest deal in the world, once you start trying to go to sleep the dead opposite usually occurs. At some point, I do manage to fall asleep, and then I get to wake up to a world of joy. Which then becomes some brief annoyance because I have to go wake everyone else up by running into everyone else’s room and jumping on their beds, yelling at them, and poking them to get out of bed so we can open up gifts. When it comes to Christmas, there isn’t any other time of the year that brings more joy to me. All of the Christmas carols on the radio, all of the lights on people’s houses, and—of course—having a tree in the middle of your home; all of this tradition leads to me feeling like everyone is having a great time, and that becomes contagious. Christmas is overall my favorite holiday because it brings my family together and I just feel happier during this time of the year. Joy, in total, is something that cannot be forced onto someone, but can be influenced.

Credit to Image: Christmas Image

The Tell Tale Heart

A literary reflection

Every man is guilty of all the good he did not do
― Voltaire

    Guilt can always get into someone’s head, which can drive someone madness. In the short story-The Tell Tale Heart- by Edgar Alan Poe, guilt is something that portrayed in later parts of the story. While reading the last part of the flash fiction, I started to get a headache as a result of how the writing was presented in a way that made you feel mad. In this quick story, Edgar Alan Poe made me feel the stress and pain of doing something as bad as murdering someone. He made me feel like my mind was being wrenched apart through the protagonist’s point of view. I did feel bad for the old man though—he didn’t do anything to deserve being killed—he just had a weird eye. This is what Edgar Alan Poe was trying to do with this flash fiction; he tried to make us become attached to the old man through the eyes of his killer and then feel the guilt and path to insanity that the killer had gone through.

Tough Times

The difficulty of having an uncertain future

Tough Times never last, but tough people do-Robert H. Schuller

Text to Podcast:

   Pain is something hard to get over; pain and time wasted is a mental test that one cannot fail. I experienced this, and I’ll be the first to tell you it is something you will remember for a long time to come. Along with the pain and the time you just have to sit, you also have to think about the things you could be doing like playing sports or having fun on the beach. For me it was about football and how I didn’t even know if I could play or not. That summer I felt that I was in the best shape of my life, but then life threw a big curveball at me. 

     I was in Hyannis, and after being in the car for an hour and a half I was ready to have some fun on the beach and go swim around. The rest of that day didn’t pan out the way I thought it would (to say the least). 

       Do you know how if something bad is about to happen it feels like it’s moving in slow motion? That is exactly how this moment felt. I was riding along the shallow water on a skim board when it suddenly shot out from under me, and I began to fall backwards. This is when I knew what was about to happen. In my mind, it was like a shot from a movie where I was just slowly falling; kinda like the peace before the storm type of scenario. As soon as I heard the snap in my leg was as soon as I felt it. After that everything went as quick as the Roadrunner from Loony Toons. The next thing I knew, is that I was stuck in my basement with a 15 pound cast on my leg and I was just there thinking that if I had just moved my leg a little bit I would’ve been fine. I also just thought about what I could be doing if it hadn’t happened; I could’ve been having one of the best summers of my life, but no. I was left to wonder what could’ve been, and if I had a chance to play my new favorite sport—football.  The main reason why I wondered if I could play this season is actually because my doctor said he would be more comfortable with me being out for the rest of the season. I took that and said in my head “I’m not letting that happen,” but I had to be a little patient and just wait until I was ready to start “rebuilding” my leg. Eventually I made back, and in my first game returning, on my second play I took a quick toss to the right for around a 25 yard touchdown. Close to the end of the second quarter I had about a 50-60 yard run that was called back for holding. I still count that yardage in my head though because that would been my first 100 yard game. After the game ended, I felt like I was out of my rut and back to the athlete and person I was before my injury. This shows that if your in a tough time the longer you are in is the closer you are to getting out of it. Having tough times in life is not something anyone wants to go through, but is something everyone needs to get through life. 

Giving Thanks to my Family

Reflecting on them and how they impact me

Text to Podcast:

     Thanksgiving is a time to be grateful for the things you have. That may include certain experiences that you’ve had, things you own, pets you take care of, time off from work, time off from school, or people you are surrounded by. For me, Thanksgiving is about being around family and thinking about how grateful you should be for their support, help, fun and kindness. My family includes my mom, she is the parent who has fun, but lays down the law when she needs to. My dad, he is the one who will support me in sports and play catch with me whenever I want to. My brother, he is the one who will play madden with me, ask me what I did during my day, or gives up the TV in the basement if I want to hang out down there. My sister, she is the goofy one who finds something fun to do with me if I’m bored. And finally my two dogs. First, Lewis is a golden retriever who is extremely lazy except for when he is trying to get a pet from someone. Second, Pepee is an italian greyhound chihuahua mix who lays in bed all day, but when he gets out of bed he loves to speed around the yard and chase his ball while flying at the speed of light. My family is a group of people that I believe lean on each other, and help each other through tough times and encourage each other during the good ones. 

 Dead Time

The worst three hours of the year

Football is like life-it requires perseverance, self-denial, hard work, sacrifice, dedication, and respect for the authority - Vince Lombardi

    The bye week: a point in time no NFL fan wants to endure. It is a time felt wasted, and a feeling of an incomplete day. This week, the Patriots had their time for the bye week, and I had the surge to watch my favorite team compete against an opponent who would fear the pure success of the Patriots. However, the week had come that I had been dreading for the whole season. Whenever your team doesn’t play, you feel a little empty on the inside, you feel as if the world has flipped upside down, you just feel let down. While I do understand that there are positives to a bye week, such as, resting, game-planing and improving; it just leaves the fans of the teams who aren’t playing in a joyless state of emptiness. Plus, losing a game an extremely personal game to the Titans the week before going into the bye week sucks a lot more than really anything else. You’re just left with the bad feeling that Titans just smoked you, Dion Lewis disrespected you and now you don’t have an immediate chance to redeem yourself. Ultimately, I just want to see some dominant Patriot football again. Whether it be our Offense, Defense or Special Teams; I want to see us play well again, and I hope that's what happens against the Jets in Week 11.

Credit to Image: ESPN

John Kielar

8th Grade English

Team Essay

11-15-18

Tom Sawyer Literary Reflection

A Team Writing Reflection

Tom in the lead, Joe next, and Huck, a ruin of drooping rags, sneaking sheepishly in the rear! They had been hid in the unused gallery listening to their own funeral sermon! Aunt Polly, Mary, and the Harpers threw themselves upon their restored ones, smothered them with kisses and poured out thanksgivings

Mark Twain

     Tom, Joe and Huck all were returning from the island where they had hoped to become pirates and find prove to the world that they didn’t need anyone else. This, of course, was untrue and they had decided to come home on their funeral to surprise everyone and show that he was actually alive. While he was on the island he was promoting the idea of being alone and not needing anyone, but in reality he really missed many people and wanted to be back with them. The sight of Tom brought joy to everyone including Tom’s family and bonded them closer together in the end. In The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, by Mark Twain, he makes sure to balance Tom and his family affairs, his adventures with his friends, while using his words effectively to place an image in your head that shows you what is happening in the book. 

John Kielar

8th Grade English

The Fenn School

Tom Sawyer Literary Reflection Essay

10-31-18

The Adventures of Tom Sawyer

A literary reflection of Tom Sawyer

Your emotions are the slaves to your thoughts, and you are the slave to your emotions.― Elizabeth Gilbert

     Losing control of your emotions isn’t a way to live, yet people seek out for their emotions to be controlled. The Adventures of Tom Sawyer by Mark Twain does this almost to perfection. You are basically a doll with strings on your arms, and Mark Twain is controlling you and your emotions. He can zig your emotions or zag your emotions each and every way he wants, and you will have no choice but to comply to his impeccable “doll handling”. Through the entire book I think Mark Twain was trying to make us experience what it felt like to be a reckless twelve year old boy in the 1820’s. Whether Tom was trying to impress Becky, steal a treasure, become a pirate, or explore a cave; you could relate to him and feel what Mark Twain wanted you to feel.