The Spirit of Christmas

Family and the Holidays

You don't choose your family. they are Gods gift to you as you are to them.

Desmond Tutu

Christmas has always been a time for family. In my house, getting together with family has been a long-standing tradition. From aunts and uncles to grandmothers and grandfathers, we always make sure to celebrate the holiday with family in any way we can. In the snowy, winter days before Christmas my family can be found scattered around the house. My grandmother can be found by the fire, knitting and lecturing us about how privileged we are. Me and my dad, outside chopping wood, sometimes accompanied by my twin sister, Julia. My older sister will be inside playing with our dog, Lulu and our mom will be shoveling the walkways and complaining about the snow. The entire family, all doing different things, but still working together. Despite being different in what we do and who we are, we all still come together during Christmas. We celebrate the power of family, because that’s what Christmas should stand for, being able to come together with the ones you love the most and celebrate. Without this family aspect, Christmas is irrelevant. To have no one to share food with, or wrap presents for Christmas loses its true meaning. The spirit of Christmas can take many different forms for different people, but because of this celebration of love and life, for me, family takes the cake.

The Fire Inside 

The danger of arrogance 

That which inspires arrogance is ignorance, caused by the heart's blindness.

Saeed Malik

    Arrogance can be a very dangerous thing. To Build a Fire by Jack London showed me just how dangerous it can be. Although in a very different setting from what I’m used to, To Build a fire taught me how much arrogance can cost someone, however small it might seem in the moment. It also taught me how arrogance can be applied to my life. I started reading To build a Fire expecting a small story about a man who struggles but eventually prevails in building a fire (which was an act of arrogance in itself). What I got was a gripping tale of struggle and danger. As the story went on, and the plot kept getting deeper and deeper, each turn leading in a different direction, I kept having to remind myself of what the book was telling me “don’t believe that you know everything”. Reading this with the class was a blessing disguised as a chore because although it took longer, I felt I could better understand the themes of ignorance and how they could relate to me even in a small way. As the class kept talking arrogantly, we ended up staying longer. It was a simple yet effective way of reminding me not to be the ignorant protagonist in the story, believing his own foolish instincts instead of letting the older, wiser leaders surrounding him tell him what to do. A week ago, I might have told you that ignorance is bliss, and that you’re lucky to have it, but now, after reading To Build a Fire I would definitely tell you otherwise.

Evan Lanzendorf

The Tell-Tale Heart Literary Analysis Essay

Fitz’s 8th grade English

12-7-18  

Still Beating

The Heart of Fear

If you want to conquer fear, don’t sit home and think about it. Go out and get busy.

Dale Carnegie

Fear is a driving factor in the success of humanity. In The Tell-Tale Heart by Edger Allan Poe the protagonist is a paranoid madman who spends the story trying to prove his sanity. Reading the piece I could feel the narrators fear as he scrabbles to prove for something that deep down, he might already know is wrong and the fear of the thing that caused him to commit the horrendous crime. The author uses this character’s fight to prove his sanity to represent an irrational yet possible fear. The fear of slipping into a state of uncontrollable madness, not being able to come back.

   The Power of Hard Times

Tough times never last, but tough people do.

Robert H. Schuller

    History is shaped by hard times. Without them we wouldn’t learn from our mistakes and strive to become better. I have lived a fortunate life, free from many of the struggles that others around the world have unfortunately, have been burdened with. Unfortunately, around the time that I was about to leave third grade, when I was eight I was diagnosed with diabetes. It was a sudden change for me, I was given new technology which I had to learn quickly to get my diabetes under control. I had to learn to count carbs, and I couldn’t eat whatever I wanted anymore. It was punishing at first. There were many nights after eating too much or even not enough that I would have to wake up to fix my my mistakes. Times where I would go so out of range that it hurt or my hands started shaking. It affected my academic, athletic, and social life in a major way. Eventually I started to developer better habits to help make it easier for myself and my family. I found ways to more accurately predict how many carbs I was going to eat, and how to tell how that would affect my blood sugar. This helped me understand the consequences of my actions. If I didn’t take responsibility for my health, I would feel the effects. It also taught me to restraint, and the ability to think ahead by forcing me to know when and what I was going to eat, and that I wouldn’t eat to much of the wrong things. Although some could look at diabetes as purely a step backwards in my health and an unnecessary time of hardship I like to look at it as a lesson, to take care of myself and look on the bright side of life

Download My Song 6.band

Letter To My Loved Ones

Dear all who read or hear this,

Thank you. There are many reasons you could be reading this and in writing this I’m aware that I won’t be able to predict who reads this so I’ll leave the most important messages of thanks I have even though I probably have something to thank everyone I’ve met for. First to my parents. Thank you for raising me in a loving household that showed me everything that I could do with my life. You showed me how much you loved me and encouraged me to try my best, even when I failed. Thank you to my friends. The ones who were there for me in my moments of weakness, and were courageous enough to come to me in theirs. The ones who were always ready with a good joke and lighten the mood. You showed me the power of words how they can be used to strengthen bonds and find new family. And finally to the reader (or listener), for sticking through this sappy letter, and knowing that in someway, somehow I thank you.

Sincerely,

Evan Lanzendorf

Treat ‘Yo Self

Sometimes the best thing you can do is relax

Mark Black

Sitting in front of my computer I stare at the screen and smile. My stomach is full of crêpes and I’m playing a relaxing game with my friends. The suns shining in the sky and I’m happy despiste the knowledge that tomorrow is a Monday. The term ended last Friday and life is good. Grades are always a stressful topic but today is the day to forget all that. I worked hard this last term, and today I treat myself. Through the stress and hard work of school I often find myself deprived of sleep, free time and overall motivation so today I take a break to remind myself of the results of hard work. I properly feed myself, I sleep in and I make sure that I have fun. In everyday life hard work is often held as the only thing everyone should think about but I think sometimes it’s good to relax and de-stress before continuing. So as this new term begins and students and teachers alike begin for another grueling time of challenge and pain, I invite all to treat ‘yo self. Have a good time because if you can’t there’s no purpose to work.

Tom Sayer Metaconition

Read a thousand books and your words will flow like a river

Lisa Lee

Writing this paper was an adventure. It took us a while as a team to find out who would fit in which roles, but we finally did, we cracked down and worked our hardest. In the first paragraph it took us a while to find our theme. When we finally decided we took our time and I think that we did really well. In the second paragraph we took a little more time, and ended up needing to work on it more last minute. We still managed to find time and proofread but I feel that some people shirked some of their duties and others had to work harder and produced lower quality content because of their lack of time. Overall I think the group worked well together and it was a fun assignment to do but there was still room to improve.

Evan Lanzendorf

Fitz’s 8th grade English 

Tom Sawyer Literary Analysis Essay

11-14-18

Tom Sawyer Literary Analysis

Themes of Tom Sawyer

“Hang the boy, can't I never learn anything? Ain't he played tricks on me enough like that for me to be looking out for him by this time? But old fools is the biggest fools there is. Can’t learn an old dog new tricks, as the saying is. But my goodness, he never plays them alike, two days, and how is a body to know what's coming? He 'pears to know just how long he can torment me before I get my dander up and he knows if he can make out to put me off for a minute or make me laugh, it's all down again and I can't hit him a lick. 

― Mark Twain, The Adventures of Tom Sawyer

         Think back to your childhood. What inspired you? Were you a troublemaker? Have you changed since then? In the book The Adventures of Tom Sawyer by Mark Twain, the author writes about bravery, adolescence, and what it takes to truly grow up. Reading this book shed light for me on the unlikely ways these core values can shine through.

Evan Lanzendorf

8th Grade English

Fenn School

Tom Sawyer Literary Reflection Essay

11-1-18

 Fear in Tom Sawyer

The Power of Emotion

“If You don’t want to conquer fear, don’t go home and thing about it. Go home and get busy.”

Dale Carnegie 

              ^{Emotions drive almost everything humans do. In The Adventures of Tom Sawyer by Mark Twain, the main character Tom feels the effect of fear personally. As a generally doubtful person, I have very personally felt many of the doubts and questions, driven by similar fear, Mark Twain describes. This piece helped show me an outside view on these emotions and how I could handle these experiences. Throughout this classic tale of boyhood and growing up, Mr. Twain writes about life and the experiences that come with it, such as adventure, anger, love, heartbreak, and how Tom overcomes them.}

Evan Lanzendorf and Parker Nagtegaal 

Tom Sawyer team Analysis

8th grade, Fitz English Fenn School, 10-19-18

The Adventures of Tom Sawyer

An Analysis of the themes of mischief

Vanity working on weak head, produces every sort of mischief

Jane Austen

        Children are mischievous, it’s a fact supported by media, literature and society. The book The Adventures of Tom Sawyer by Mark Twain, clearly shows that when the protagonist Tom gets bored he get into mischief, and he gets bored a lot. Throughout the story Tom uses his guile and cunning to fool his peers, and family to do things for him. He also uses techniques of violence to achieve the goals of his mischievous escapades.