My Interactive Reflection Journal

Hi, I’m Anna. I am a ninth grade student and this blog contains my assaignments from my english class. There are posts reflecting several different books, including  “The Bible”, “The Golden Compass” and “Haroun and the Sea of Stories”. Enjoy.

Reflection 22

While flipping through my planner, I stumbled upon a quote at the top of the page. The French proverb states “A day is lost if one has not laughed”. This made me think how our society spends our whole lives worrying about little things in life, such as popularity and what clothes you should wear today. This got me thinking how big the universe is to us. People are tiny, microscopic specks compared to the universe or even other planets. Sometimes, we just get so rapped up in our busy lives that we forget to enjoy life and realize the beauty around us. Every once in a while, we need to step back from our somewhat superficial lives and relax. Although nobody knows the true meaning of life, it for sure isn’t a contest to see who can become the most popular person in school, or the richest person in the world. So in the end, I agree with the French proverb and we should live our lives to the fullest extent and live our wildest dreams. We should laugh and play, forgive and forget and just be happy because there is not point living life in anguish.

Reflection #21

In the Bible, the idea of brother killing brother comes up numerous times. The first time was with the two sons of Adam and Eve, Cain and Abel. Cain becomes jealous of Abel so he takes him to the field and kills him. The next time we see this re-occurring theme is with the sons of Isaac, Jacob and Esau. This time, brother is not killing brother, but stealing and hurting his brother. Isaac gives orders to his favorite son, Esau, and if he completes them he will be blessed. Jacob tricks Isaac into thinking he is Esau and he gets blessed. When people see situations with brother killing brother, most would ask themselves why somebody would ever do that. Well in some and most cases, the answer is jealousy. They want what the other has and they will do anything to get it. They are selfish and they are willing to hurt others to put themselves in a better place.

Reflection #19

Regret

I chapter 6 of Genesis in “The Bible”, God regrets creating man kind. He says that he saw the wickedness of mankind was great in the earth. He feels that everything would be better if he had not created mankind and left the earth peaceful with the other animals. Since God regrets his decision of making man, he decides he will reverse this decision by annihilating man kind all together. God says that he will “bring a flood of waters on the earth, to destroy from under heaven all flesh in which is the breath of life; everything on the earth shall die.” (Gen. 6.17)

Regret is one of the worst feelings in the world. When you do something you regret, you may never be able to let it go and hold on to it for the rest of your life. When people regret things, they always wonder what things would be like if they had taken the other path and gone the alternative way. They wonder what their life would be like if they had not done that one thing. Regret can torture people and drive them insane. Some people regret life changing decisions so much that they are willing to hurt themselves and others to fix their mistake.

IRJ Reflection #18

We Need Curiostiy to Kill the Cat

People always say that curiosity kills the cat. In Chapter 2 of Genesis in “The Bible”, God tells Adam and Eve that they may eat from any tree in The Garden of Eden except for The Tree Of Knowledge of Good and Evil. They are warned that if they either touch or eat the fruit of this tree, they will die that day.  The sea serpent tricks Eve into taking the fruit, although she was warned of the consequences, by saying that God lied and you won’t die but your eyes will be opened to good and evil. Once Eve finds out that she won’t die, she figures she may as well take the fruit. She is curious to who is correct in this situation and doesn’t see the harm in giving it a try.  Once she eats the fruit, her eyes opened to good and evil, as the sea serpent said, and she saw herself as naked for the first time.

            In this case, curiosity did not kill the cat but it gave her some unfortunate consequences. After she ate the fruit, God came and told her that since she disobeyed, all women will be punished by being in pain when giving birth. He increased the level of pain as a punishment.  

            Although curiosity may kill the cat occasionally, sometimes curiosity can be good. If it wasn’t for curiosity, nothing would ever get done and our nation and world would never evolve.  New discoveries would never be made and the world would be boring. So although curiosity kills the cat sometimes, we need it in our lives to give us the motivation to keep exploring the wonders of the world.

IRJ-CP#16

My best friend

By Anna P.

I still hear her voice when she’s thinking of me

I still hear her thoughts in my dream

We read each others minds, and I have no idea why

But without her it’s tough to survive.

I think of you

You think of me

Now that you moved away, I know see,

This friendship was definitely meant to be.

She’s a person to laugh with and maybe shed some tears,

She’s the person that’s been with me all through the years.

She’s the person that makes me want to take a dive,

But without her it’s tough to survive.

It was a wonderful journey on the roller coaster ride,

But then it was time for us to divide.

She was the one to hug when I was happy or sad.

She was there in all the good times and bad.

Now looking back on the fantastic memories,

I learned the greatest gifts are not found in a store or under trees,

But in the hearts of true friends that take you for a drive.

Without her it really is tough to survive.

IRJ-OP#15

I once heard the saying “Faith is taking the first step, even when you don’t see the whole staircase.” This quote was said by Martin Luther King Jr. and I personal believe you cannot describe faith any better.  He is saying that faith is when you take challenges and be spontaneous because you believe in yourself and in others.  Faith is when you do something even if you don’t know the outcome but you believe and have faith that it will be good. A couple good examples that connect to this idea are in Romeo and Juliet and also Neil Armstrong.

In Romeo and Juliet, The couple takes a risk by pretending to be dead, not knowing what lies ahead. They had faith in each other that they would both make it out. They took the leap not knowing what lies ahead. Although they both had faith that it would all work out, it did not, but that was fate. Romeo and Juliet’s whole relationship was based around faith because it was forbidden love. They had to have faith that they could live together happily ever after.

The next example of faith is with Neil Armstrong, the first man to walk on the moon. Lance was the first successful attempt on getting to the moon and back. Lance had no idea what was ahead of him, yet he took the step anyways. He had faith that everything would be okay, and it was. 

Proposition: Faith is just having to believe that the outcome will be good.

 

IRJ#14

There once was a girl named Chloe who was fourteen. Chloe grew up surrounded by music, because her father was in a band. She had natural talents; she was an amazing musician on piano, guitar and drums. People praised Chloe for her amazing singing voice. It was beautiful.  All Chloe’s friends loved music so one day; they desultorily decided to make a band. Chloe would sing and play lead guitar, and her friends would make up the rest of the band. It was just a lark, but they ended up being really good. They decided to name the band Kitten because of their first and favorite song, Kitten with a Whip. Before Kitten’s first concert, Chloe peered out from behind the curtain to fin a copious amount of people, friends and family waiting to listen to their music. One band member, Max, suddenly was hit with a pang of stage fright. Chloe and her other band mates tried to pacify Max by telling him that it will be fun. Max’s friends told him to be stout and face the audience like a man. Max could not respond, for he was torpid. Finally, max got over his fear and Kitten rocked the house! The band played fast songs, slow songs, ballads and rock songs. The crowd was amazed, they loved them! Chloe was so glad that she had randomly decided to make Kitten, a year back. And still today, Chloe and Kitten rock the house all over Los Angeles.

IRJ#12

Her bedroom is bubble gum pink with hot pink curtains. All of her furniture is white. She has many pictures of herself on her walls. On her dresser, there are hundreds of trophies, ribbons and tiaras. In the closet, you see a bunch of dresses, some casual but a lot are costume. She has a big tub of makeup and hair accessories on the vanity.  In front of the vanity, there is a large mirror. On her bed, there are stuffed animals and dolls. She has sashes hanging on her bed posts. There are Barbies under her bed.  She has a bouquet of flowers next to her bed and all around her room.  There isn’t much school work around.

IRJ-CR#11

In chapters six through nine in “Haroun and the Sea of Stories”, Haroun has become much more adventurous. It seems as if he is looking for a heroes quest or journey. Haroun wants to prove himself to his father and thinks that he can do this if he steps up to challenges like going to rescue the princess and the ocean. Then Haroun steps up again, to be the spy going to stop one of the Cultmaster’s from putting poison into the ocean, poisoning the sea of stories. He says “ I don’t like the idea that all the good stories in the world will ggo wrong for ever and ever, or just die.” (Pg. 137)  He wants to save what has been a large part of his life for a long time, although he didn’t always know it existed.

Also, in these few chapters, more characters have been introduced. Haroun has met a bunch of friendly people (and things) that are sticking with him all the way to the end, so far. There is one character that seems to stand out though, and that is Mudra the Shadow Warrior. I think it is very cool and interesting how he is probably the only Chupwala who is daring enough to rebel against the Cultmasters. I also find the Chupwala’s way of living very interesting. Instead of talking, they use a sign language. But that is also a form of expression of thought. At first I thought they didn’t want anyone to talk because they didn’t believe in self expression. But then I figured out that it is simply because they don’t like using their mouths to communicate. I personally, think this is silly.  They go to such great lengths, such as stitching their lips together,  to prevent people from using their mouth and speaking. This concept is very interesting to me.