Final Portfolio "My Challenging 30 Days"

Introduction

Endless Journey

A change? I think I can call this more than “a change”. The progress I have made since the beginning of this year is really significant for me, and it also shows me how hard work pays off. In the beginning of this year, I was able to write short essays (essays that are approximately 200-300 words). However, writing 1500 words every week was something that I have never expected that I would be able to accomplish. Since the beginning of this year, I have accomplished most of my goals about writing better sentences, using more correct grammar, writing more descriptive introduction and conclusion; however, while accomplishing those goals, I sometimes had difficult times, but I kept on believing that I could do better every time I thought I would fail. 

Writing in the beginning of this year felt challenging, and it had difficulties. My biggest fear in the beginning of the year was to write long essays. Yes, I knew I had to face this fear someday, but I didn’t know that that day could be this close. The first weeks of the class, we didn’t write long essays. However, in the middle of the year we started writing essays that were 500 words. This wasn’t a problem, since these essays would be written once in a week. Starting from April, the 30-Day Challenge had taken its place on my blog. This challenge had become also a writing challenge which made it more difficult than it was. I started writing 500 words blog posts three times a week. There would be days when I would run out of ideas, and stop writing the blog post, or start all over again when I was about to get to the end. Despite having difficulties finishing the blog posts, I have done my best writings of this year during the 30-Day Challenge. This challenge made me face my fear of writing long essays, and helped me to force myself to think wider, and more creative. I remember the time I wrote "The Imam Has Fainted" (it is one of my previous blog posts). The task for that writing was to write about a traditional food, and it had to be 800 words. At that time, 800 words seemed very long, and something impossible to accomplish. However, now I can write long essays by using my own ideas, and supporting them easier than I used to in the beginning of this year.  

The difficulties had slowly became invisible towards the end of the year. When I looked at my previous writings, like the ones that I wrote in the beginning of this year, I realized that I developed myself in terms of using correct grammar, and creating sentences with good, and correct structures. For example in my writing called “The Persistence Of Memory By Salvador Dali” I saw several grammar mistakes that I would not do if I were to write a new essay. “There are so many important objects that carries different messages.”, in this sentence the error can be found in the verb. It should be “carry” instead of “carries”, since it describes more than one object’s action. Except these grammar errors, I realized that I also developed the originality of the sentences I write. I started using more creative words, and creating more complex sentences with the help of semi-colons, or dashes. Using more complex sentence structures also helped me to write more words than I used to write. This way, writing long essays became easier. 

However, difficulties never went away even though I have accomplished to beat most of them. There are still some skills that I couldn’t develop as much as my other writing skills like grammar. I am still having some difficulties while writing introduction, thesis, and conclusion. In the beginning of this year I didn’t know what thesis was, and why was it important. However, now I understand why it is important––it reflects the main idea of the writing. Before I learned to write an introduction, I didn’t know how to write a thesis; for that reason it took me a long time to get used to adding a thesis statement to my introduction. While writing my conclusions, in the beginning of the year, I would repeat what I have written in the body paragraphs. However, I learned that conclusions are not always for repeating, and supporting previous points that are made in the body paragraphs. Conclusion is the part where the readers should be left with a clue of how the writing can affect their lives, or how it is related with real life. Learning these informations helped me to write more effective essays, and creative writings. 

Writing, for me, has been, and always will be a fun activity. Even if it gets challenging in the future, I will try to use the skills I learned in this class, and find a way to make it easier. The progress I have made is significant, but it is not over, and it will never be. For every writing I complete, I develop a new skill because I see new mistakes that I make, and I see new ways to fix those mistakes, and sentences. Writing, for me, is a journey that will never end.

1st Blog Post

Days 1 and 2

"Have you heard of the new phone that can count the steps you take every day?", "Have you seen how the elections went last week?" We all hear these kinds of sentences from the people around us. These phrases can be great ways to start communicating with people, but if you are not informed about the world's situation, you might not be able to communicate with people about these topics. That is the reason why I have always wanted to be up to date about important things that happen around the world. I believe that the best way to to that is to read the news. Some people might find being informed easier by just watching the news on the tv, or just listening to the news on the radio. It might be, but I believe that reading the news from the newspaper, or internet is the best way to get informed. Because internet is such a big platform, and it contains information from all over the world, finding all kinds of news is possible. That’s why for my 30 Day Challenge I will read one news that I find interesting every day. That news can be about politics, art, sports, or even music. I have 30 days to learn new stories, and to get to know the world better by reading about the world every day.

For my first day, Friday April 10th, I started my challenge by reading a short news about a university in South Africa, and a decision that the university made about removing a statue. The University of Cape Town decided to remove the statue of the British imperialist Cecil Rhodes. Cecil Rhodes was born in 1853, and made his fortune with his De Beers mining company and used his wealth to help expand Britain’s empire in Africa, especially in present-day Zimbabwe, originally named Rhodesia in his honor. I learnt who Cecil Rhodes was while I was reading this news. I also learnt about the University Of Cape Town, and it led me to make a research about both of them. I learned that there is a university named after Rhodes, called Rhodes University in South Africa. I also researched about the University of Cape Town, and I read that it is the second oldest university in Africa. It used to be a school for boys when it first opened, but then it became co-ed. 

For my second day, Saturday April 10th, I read a news about Africa again, but this time it was about Kenya, and the shootings that happened at a Kenyan University. The story was more about what Nyokabi Githakwa, a student at that university went through. It talked about how Kenya was when she was just a baby, and said that she witnessed a lot of important politic events that happened in Kenya. The article also talked about the parents of other children that died in the shootings. This news touched me because I knew about these kinds of disasters in Africa, but I have never read, or actually learned about them before. While I was reading about some parents’ comments about the shootings, I felt angry, and sad at the same time. I was angry at the people who started the shootings, and I felt sad for those parents. 

Reading these two news helped me to understand what was going on Africa nowadays. I had the chance to read about the people there, and to learn about their lives. They were not different than any of us, but because of the events that happened in their countries, they were having difficult times. This news encouraged me to read more about the world. I will keep reading different kids of news every day. Last 28 days to go!

2nd Blog Post

The Drought And The Presidencies

A lot has happened in these last three days. I have received an e-mail saying that there will be a college fair, and I have been also getting ready for my community service activities, since we haven't been meeting for a long time. 

I have been a little nervous because of the upcoming college fair that is planned to take place this Thursday at my school. College fair is an opportunity that I have to consider because I'm a sophomore, and I will have to decide which colleges to apply when I'm a junior, so that I can apply them right away when I'm a senior. I have taken a look at the college list before, but a couple of days ago, I have looked at the list again, and I've realized that one of my favorite colleges will be joining the fair, UCLA (University Of California Los Angeles). That college has always been one my favorites because of its location. 

Location is an important factor while choosing a college, so since it was in California, I made a little research about that state, and I have found some sad news about California. One of the news I have read was saying that California Delta was missing water, so the drought had become an important issue. I didn't realize that California was in danger even though I've been there two years ago. When I decided to read the rest of the news, I saw that this issue wasn't because of the nature, but people. Unnecessary usage of water was the main reason for the drought, and of course people were causing that. In the news I even read that The State of California can also limit the amount of water that a household can use per day to prevent a possible permanent drought. It was really sad to hear that. It shows how people can be punished by their own acts, and I think that if people in California keep using the water unconsciously, they will have to have a limit of water usage. I don’t think that the limit would make people happy. While I was reading this news I haven't realized that I had ended the third day of my 30 Day Challenge. 

The next day I had already planned what kind of news to read—sports news. I had been hearing people talking about the baseball season, so I had decided that I wanted to be informed about that, but the news article I read ended up being a political news. That Monday, as the group of community service, we went to Elim Park just like we do every day. While I was visiting elderly people, I found myself sitting in an old woman's room. She was very kind, and talkative. The first thing I noticed was her tv. She was watching this tv show about politics in America. I heard a couple of stories about Hillary Clinton from the people on the tv show. She talked to me about Hillary Clinton and the presidencies, but I couldn't respond to her, since I didn't follow the news about politics. That day I decided that I would read a news about politics. I saw a news article that a journalist had written by using her own opinions about Clinton. I didn't understand what was going on in the news, but I had gained some ideas about the presidency in the States. In the news, the journalist gave her own opinions, and for me it was pretty difficult to decide which side to pick. However, the news article was very informative. 

These three days have been overwhelmingly tiring, but at the same time I've experienced new things, and learned new informations.  These days also made me think more about some topics that were included in the news that I've read. 

Getting the chance to read about the politics in America made me recognize the country more. I knew that the presidencies in America had a major effect on everyone, and now when someone talks to me about politics, or when I see a news about it, I can at least understand the main idea behind it. Also, the news about California helped me to understand the natural issues that take place in California. Next time I go there, I will observe its nature more carefully to understand how big the problem is. I know that it will be hard to stop the drought in California, but at least by warning people, we can prevent a major drought that can take place in the future. I will keep learning about the world each day!

4th Blog Post

Coffee In Space?

On a Saturday morning I woke up, and took a walk outside to feel the warm air that reminded me it was time for summer. It was a beautiful day, and I never wanted to spend time inside. The sky was almost clear. There were no clouds that made the sky look like it could rain, and I wondered that at night I would be able to see all of the stars which made me excited after so many rainy days. That was when I remembered that I had a lot of school work to do, so I walked up to my room, and started doing homework. I had totally forgotten about reading a news that day, so I went online, and found an interesting news. "Coffee in space?"

The news was really funny. It was about an astronaut that’s been working on a space ship in space, and one of the things that she had missed the most was coffee. She had been trying to make coffee in space, but since the coffee was prepared in an instant coffee machine, it didn’t have the real taste of coffee. She has been waiting on the shipment of an espresso machine for more than three months. I could feel her excitement about the coffee machine while I was reading through the news article, since I also think that coffee is an important drink. I would have felt the same the same way. I think that coffee is a vital drink that makes people happy. I wouldn’t be able to spend even a minute in space without coffee. I am not one of those people that depend on coffee, but I am sure that I really like coffee. However, I don’t drink coffee because it wakes me up, but because I like how it tastes. Also, coffee never works at waking me up in the mornings, especially if it’s a Monday morning.

Back to the news… Another point in the news had also captured my attention. The coffee machine was made in Italy just for her. I believe that it’s a good idea to design and create the machine in Italy, since it shows that the espresso machine has high quality because Italy is also famous with its coffee. The only thing that was shipped wasn’t just an espresso machine. Other food, and drinks were shipped, too, but in the news the most significant, and different one for the astronaut was obviously the espresso machine. The astronaut seemed pretty exciting about the coffee machine. One of the sentences she said was “Lots of science and even coffee's in there, so that's pretty exciting.” I think that it’s a great act what NASA has done. It shows that NASA doesn’t only care about how astronauts complete their missions, but if they are comfortable doing that, or not. I can’t imagine how hard it can be being away from earth for a long time. I bet people in space miss a lot of things from earth; just like a simple thing as coffee. With this news I’ve learned an important truth. We are all humans, and no matter what, we can always miss little things that we might not find important, and that make our lives better, just like coffee for an astronaut who has been in space for more than five months.Now that I learned that there is coffee in space, I don't find any problems in going to space! 

5th Blog Post

Enjoying The 30 Day Challenge

Tests, homework… While managing to finish all of my school work, sometimes it can be hard to pick a news to read for my 30-Day Challenge. When I usually have so much work to do, I choose short news, or news that I can understand easily. However, it is not an easy thing to choose a news to read. 

I usually choose the news I want to read through The New York Times’  website. I believe that they have the best, and most detailed news. Whenever I go on their websites, I can find any kind of news article I want to read. The political news articles are the ones that usually appear on the front page. Unfortunately politics is the subject that I hate the most, and I cannot understand it, so I usually click on technology, or science. I enjoy reading science news. Choosing an interesting news to read helps me to read the news easier, and also to enjoy it. I want my challenge to be an activity that I can have fun while doing it. That’s why choosing a news article that interests me is the most important part of the challenge. For example one of the favorite news articles I have chosen was the news about Apple Watch which made me not to buy the Apple Watch. These news effect me a lot, and they also made me change my mind about daily events, or products—like Apple Watch.

On Monday night, I had to study for two tests, and I also had to do tons of school work. Reading the news was in my mind, but I had to study for my tests first. When I was ready to visit The New York Times’  website, I was feeling very tired, but I forced myself to read a news article. As soon as the website appeared in front of my eyes, I saw a news about a building in New York City. It sounded interesting, but there was one problem, the news article was very long. I remembered that in the first days of this challenge I have read so many news articles that were longer than this one. I was determined to read that news, and plus the topic was pretty interesting. I started reading it, and finished it by the time I thought it wasn’t even finished yet. I realized that I have gotten used to reading long news articles, and I have gained patience. These news were helping me to gain knowledge, and new skills about reading. I know that these skills will help me in the future while I'm writing papers, or essays. 

I am happy that I had to do a challenge like this. This challenge forces me to learn new things about the world every day, and I can also develop my reading skills. I have learned some vocabulary words while reading various kinds of news. I hope that the words I read, and learn will be helpful in the future while I’m taking TOEFL or other important tests that I have to use a good vocabulary. 

The news that I have been reading in these last couple of days have been usually science based, since they are the ones that I prefer reading the most. However, I will try reading some news articles different than science, since the main reason why I chose to read the news was to read about different worlds. 

12th Blog Post

My Experience

I can't believe it! It's been 30 days! It's been long, and difficult 30 days, but it was worth it! I remember choosing the topic of my 30-Day Challenge, and how I had a hard time deciding it, and now it's all over. I have had three topics before I chose to read news every day. Keeping a journal, and writing down everything that happened each day, stop using social media every day, and stop drinking juice every day. I have found the last two topics a little bit difficult, since I knew I needed to use the social media in order to contact my friends back home. If I stopped drinking juice it would help me have healthier 30 days, but I didn't want to stop doing that. Keeping a journal, at first seemed pretty exciting, and fun, since I have been doing it once in every two days, since 2011.  However, the journal I have been keeping is in Turkish, so writing in English in my journal would change the way I keep it. If I were to start writing in English in my current journal, I would have had two different languages, and since I was feeling more comfortable in reflecting my thoughts, and my emotions in Turkish, the structure of my current journal would have had changed. Despite this, I was almost determined to keep a journal until I read a news article one day online. Before I started doing the challenge I would go online, and read news sometimes. While reading the news that day, I realized that reading a news every day can be a good way to complete my 30-Day challenge. I could learn things, and I could also have fun. 

One of the first difficulties I have had was finding a news article to read. However, the first week wasn't difficult. Finding news articles to read was easy, since I knew which topics to choose. However, after first week, I have realized that choosing a news article to read was getting difficult. In my blog post, I would always talk about technology, or science. In second week, I decided that I would read more political news, and news that concerns everyone. The political news could sometimes get difficult to read in terms of their language. Since I didn't have any interest in politics, I often didn't understand those kinds of news. So I stuck with reading news that would interest me—like technology, and science. 

Another difficult part of this challenge was writing blogs once in three days. This challenge was also a writing challenge. The length of the blog posts intimidated me when I started the 30-Day Challenge. I never believed that I would be able to write 500 words once in every three days, usually about the same topic. Even though sometimes I was out of ideas, I think that I did a good job in terms of reflecting on my experience through this challenge in my blog posts. Thanks to writing long blog posts, writing 500 words became an easy task for me. I can finish writing 500 words easier, and quicker. Whenever I felt like I didn't have any ideas to write on my blog posts, I would ask my friends for their experiences, or their ideas about my blog post, and the 30-day challenge. For example on my previous blog post I used an example that is related to one of my friends' life. My previous blog post was about a volcano explosion that happened in Hawaii. I have written how after learning this news, I went to my roommate, and asked her if her mother was affected from the explosion or not, since I knew that her mother was in Hawaii because of a business trip. 

Even though this challenge had difficult parts, it also helped me in developing some skills like patience. Some news articles that I read were very long. Some of them would be three to four pages. Reading news articles that long every day made me patient about reading, and I even started reading a book other than the ones I read for my English class. During the last few weeks, I was able to read longer news articles than the ones I read during the first few weeks. During this challenge I have learned a lot from the news I have read. One of the most interesting things I have learned was the news about the dinosaurs. I have mentioned this on one of my blog posts. The news was about how workers that work in a road construction site had found dinosaur eggs under the road. That news also made me happy, since those eggs were found before they were destroyed or harmed. 

While writing my last blog post, I am still thinking about how I typed my first words to my first blog post. I was worried that I would run out of ideas before getting to 300 words. However, I was wrong. When I was writing my 400th word, I still had ideas that I wanted to write on my blog post. I can say that I have more knowledge than I had in the beginning of this challenge. I am glad that I chose to read news every day for my 30-day challenge. This challenge helped me a lot to learn new things, and to develop my writing. There are so many different challenges that I can try in the future. I just have to be patient in order to achieve the goal I want to achieve through these challenges. 

Body Paragraph For My Introduction

My biggest fear in the beginning of the year was to write long essays. Yes, I knew I had to face this fear someday, but I didn’t know that that day could be this close. The first weeks of the class, we didn’t write long essays. However, in the middle of the year we started writing essays that were 500 words. This wasn’t a problem, since these essays would be written once in a week. Starting from April, the 30-Day Challenge had taken its place on my blog. This challenge had become also a writing challenge which made it more difficult than it was. I started writing 500 words blog posts three times a week. There would be days when I would run out of ideas, and stop writing the blog post, or start all over again when I was about to get to the end. Despite having difficulties finishing the blog posts, I have done my best writings of this year during the 30-Day Challenge. This challenge made me face my fear of writing long essays, and helped me to force myself to think wider, and more creative. I remember the time I wrote "The Imam Has Fainted" (it is one of my previous blog posts). The task for that writing was to write about a traditional food, and it had to be 800 words. At that time, 800 words seemed very long, and something impossible to accomplish. However, now I can write long essays by using my own ideas, and supporting them easier than I used to in the beginning of this year. 

Thesis For My Introduction

Since the beginning of this year, I have accomplished most of my goals about writing better sentences, using more correct grammar, writing more descriptive introduction and conclusion; however, while accomplishing those goals, I sometimes had difficult times, but I kept on believing that I could do better every time I thought I would fail. 

A-T-F Outline

P1: introduction, thesis. Thesis:In this essay, I will assess my strengths and weaknesses as a writer and discuss the processes that I used when writing the pieces in this portfolio.

P2: talking about the strengths (citing)

P3: talking about the weaknesses (writing strong introductions and conclusions, paragraph transitions, repeating ideas)

P4: process of writing the first essay

P5: process of writing of the next essay

P6: the context of the third piece of writing

P7: conclusion (summary of the weaknesses and strengths)

New Thesis: My writings that are included in this portfolio are able to reflect my strengths, and also weaknesses, and reflect the different processes that I used while writing these pieces. 

Thesis For The Introduction

Since the beginning of this year, I have accomplished most of my goals about writing better sentences, paragraphs, and essays. While accomplishing those goals, I sometimes had difficult times, but I kept on believing that I could do better every time I thought I would fail. 

"Bone Chiller"

“Bone Chiller” is a must-seen play. Excitement,  fright, and comedy are the main factors that make the play interesting. Every character has different sides that they hide, and everyone is scared of each other. During the play you can’t get a sense of who the real murderer is. Anything can happen, and when someone dies, it happens very abrupt, so for that reason you should follow the play very carefully.

I saw the play on 15th of May on a Friday night. The play didn’t contain a lot of musical features. That is why the dialogues of the characters were very important. Sometimes I didn’t understand some of the dialogues, since the characters were speaking too fast, and I got lost in the plot. However, the play was well presented. One of the parts that I liked the most was the beginning. The sound of thunderstorms, rain, and the lights made the scene very scary. The lighting was very good, and it helped me to understand the plot better. I liked the scene when Mauve died, and all the lights went off. When the lights were off, hearing screams from the actors was possible. I can say that that scene was very realistic, and I was scared. 

There was one thing that confused me in the play. There were a lot of characters, and keeping their names in my head was difficult. I could remember some of their names, and I could remember their jobs, or their characteristics. Sometimes it was difficult to understand what the characters were saying, since they were speaking a little too fast. However, the actors had done a good job in terms of reflecting their characters’ personalities. 

One thing that I liked about the play was the decorations. The house that they were in was successful to tell us that it was a rich man’s house. The bar in the middle of the set gave me a sense of how Jesiah Travers was rich, and he used to drink a lot. Another thing that showed me his wealth were the animals on the wall. The decorations that were used could only belong to a rich man, and Jesiah was rich.

If I were to add something to the play, I would add more music. Usage of music made the play more scary, and exciting. In the beginning, and in between the acts, the music was able to frighten me, and make the situation more exciting. Also, I liked the sound effects. For example I heard the sound of the wind every time someone came inside the house, and also the police sirens in the end were very realistic. They made the play better.

All in all, I liked the play. It was a time well-spent. Even though I was confused sometimes about the plot, and characters, I understood the main idea, and who killed Jesiah. However, I did not expect the ending, and that the murderers were inside the house. It was a great play, and I would suggest everyone to go and see it.

Final Portfolio

For my final portfolio assignment I will revise five of my 30-Day challenge blog posts. These five posts will be my first blog post "Days 1 and 2", second blog post "The Drought and The Presidencies", fourth blog post "Coffee In Space?", fifth blog post "Enjoying 30-Day Challenge", and my last blog post "My Experience". The reason why I have chosen these is because I think that these posts reflect my experience in the best way through this challenge. I will work on my topic sentences for each of the body paragraphs that I wrote on the posts. I will also work on developing my introduction. Writing an instruction, I believe, is the hardest part of the blog post, since finding an interesting hook can be challenging. Another difficult part of writing a blog post is finding a good conclusion to leave the readers with a unique ending. For that reason, I will try to write more on my conclusion, and I will avoid using predictable sentences like "This challenge made me gain new experiences." I will be also revising some grammar errors. These errors are usually caused by the wrong usage of articles like "the". Another thing that I will be working on is the usage of more interesting words. For this challenge I have always talked about how difficult it was, but in the end I accomplished my goal, and it taught me never to give up, and etc. While writing these sentences I used a lot of everyday words, and during my revision I will try to change most of them to make them sound more interesting, and more different. 

My Experience

I can't believe it! It's been 30 days! I remember choosing the topic of my 30-Day Challenge, and how I had a hard time deciding it, and now it's almost over. I have had three topics before I chose to read news every day. Keeping a journal, and writing down everything that happened each day, stop using social media every day, and stop drinking juice every day. I have found the last two topics a little bit difficult, since I knew I needed to use the social media in order to contact my friends back home. If I stopped drinking juice it would help me have a healthier 30 days, but I didn't want to stop doing that. Keeping a journal at first seemed exciting, since I have been doing it every other day. However, the journal I have been keeping is in Turkish, so writing in English in my journal would change the way I keep it. I was almost determined to do that until I read a news one day online. Before I started doing the challenge I would go online, and read news sometimes. While reading the news that day, I realized that reading a news every day can be a good way to complete my 30-Day challenge. I could learn things, and I could also have fun. 

The first week wasn't difficult. Finding news to read was easy, since I knew which topics to choose. However, after first week, I have realized that choosing a news to read was getting difficult. In my blog post, I would always talk about technology, or science. In second week, I have decided that I would read more political news, and news that concerns everyone. The political news could sometimes get difficult to read in terms of their language. Since I didn't have an interest in politics, I often didn't understand those kind of news. So I stuck with reading news that would interest me—like technology, and science. 

One of the most difficult parts of this challenge was writing blogs once in three days. This challenge was also a writing challenge. The length of the blog posts scared me when I started the 30-Day Challenge. I never believed that I would be able to write 500 words every three days, usually about the same topic. Even though sometimes I was out of ideas, I think that I have done a good job in terms of reflecting on my experience through this challenge in my blog posts. Thanks to writing long blog posts, writing 500 words have become an easy task for me. I can finish writing 500 words easier, and quicker. Whenever I felt like I didn't have any ideas, I would ask my friends for their experiences, or their ideas about my blog post, and the 30-day challenge. For example on my previous blog post I used an example that is related to one of my friends' life. My previous blog post was about a volcano explosion that happened in Hawaii. I have written how after learning this news, I went to my roommate, and asked her if her mother was affected from the explosion or not, since I knew that her mother was in Hawaii because of a business trip. 

This challenge also made me patient. Some news articles that I read were very long. Some of them would be three to four pages. Reading news that long every day made me patient about reading, and I even started reading a book other than the ones I read for my English class. During the last few weeks, I was able to read longer news than the ones I read during the first few weeks. During this challenge I have learned a lot from the news I have read. One of the most interesting things I have learned was the news about the dinosaurs. I have mentioned this on one of my blog posts. The news was about how workers that work in a road construction site had found dinosaur eggs under the road. That news also made me happy, since those eggs were found before they were destroyed or harmed. 

While writing my last blog post, I am still thinking about how I typed my first words to my first blog post. I was worried that I would run out of ideas before getting to 300 words. However, I was wrong. When I was writing my 400th word, I still had ideas that I wanted to write on my blog post. I can say that I have more knowledge than I had in the beginning of this challenge. I am glad that I chose to read news every day for my 30-day challenge. This challenge helped me a lot to learn new things, and to develop my writing. 

Explosion

While sitting in my room writing this blog, thousands, millions of things are happening. Someone may be just learned that they got into a college, or someone just got fired. We can’t guess what’s happening around the world, but anything can be happening. Like a collapse of a crater can cause lava explosions in Hawaii.

When I learned about this news, I immediately wanted to know if there were any injured people. Fortunately, there weren’t. The lava was unable to reach to places where people lived, but still it sounded scary. According to the news that area has always been dangerous. The first lava explosion had happened around 1800s, and later on continued to take place in 1920s. The most recent one before 2015 was in 2012. The latest one was the highest one according to the news. 

The news is a good source of information to get informed about the lava explosion in general. It tells us how big the lava was, and what kind of an earthquake happened following the lava explosion. We can read about a survey that is about the volcanos in Hawaii. However, I believe that the survey is not mentioned a lot, so the information that is given is not specific enough. The news gives a lot of numbers that might confuse the readers, so I think that the usage of statistics can be reduced a little bit.

If I was the editor of this news, I would start with a hook that would take everyone’s attention to the news. The news starts with a summary of the news, and I think that it can be more interesting. I would make interviews with the people who witnessed to any of these lava explosions, so that people can understand how important the issue is from the view point of a person who lives there. Because I think that by giving some statistics not everyone would understand, the news should contain more of the ideas of daily life, like interviews. 

I learned from this news that Hawaii is a dangerous place in terms of lava explosions. By looking at how often the explosions happen, we can understand that the explosions are not that rare in Hawaii. 

After reading this news, I remembered my roommate’s mother. My roommate kept telling me how her mother was in Hawaii for a business trip, and she wanted to go, too. The first thing I asked her, when I saw her after reading this news was about her mom. Fortunately nothing happened, and the explosion had happened far from where her mother was. 

After learning that Hawaii is a quite dangerous place in terms of volcanoes, I started to think about my friends who live in Tahiti. Tahiti is located in French Polynesia, and is a couple of hours away from Hawaii. It is a small island. It is probably smaller than Hawaii. The night I read the news, I looked at a Facebook page of one of my friends who lives in Tahiti, and saw that nothing had happened to them. 

Success

Ice cream and graduation sounds like an exciting idea for students. It might sound like a dream, but Cheshire Academy seeks to turn this dream into a reality at this year’s commencement. According to Cheshire Academy’s Homepage, Jeff Furman ’61 will give a speech about his journey after high school until the success of Ben&Jerry’s Ice Cream’s at the 221st commencement of The Academy (Cheshire Academy Homepage). Also, free ice cream will be served for everyone who will attend the commencement (Cheshire Academy Homepage). 

Jeff Furman was determined to pursue a career as a “chemical engineer” even though he was still unsure about this decision (Cheshire Academy’s Homepage). Later on, he changed his mind about studying “chemical engineering”, and he went to New York University to study law (Cheshire Academy Homepage). He wasn’t stable in his decision making, so he left pursuing a career in law, and met Ben and Jerry, who later on would be his “long term friends” (Cheshire Academy Homepage). They couldn’t reach their success in the second they found each other. It took years for them to shape their business. Jeff found a way that would make their business interesting, and he was successful in doing that. Jeff Furman was a brave, and determined person. He always kept working until his work was perfect. I believe that he was a good student in terms of perseverance in his work. Furman mentions his success as “It turns out I was innovative and good at starting things.” (Cheshire Academy Homepage). From his words, we can see how being creative had helped him through his life after graduating high school, and creating a business that would change his life entirely. Jeff Furman was the key for the business to be successful. For the business to be successful, his “innovational” thoughts were needed (benandjerrysfoundation.org). The effort he has made for the business to be successful made other “entrepreneurs” think that it was easy to be successful (Ice Cream Social). From what I understand is that success is not always valued by the effort that is made at school. Jeff Furman was not the best student at Cheshire Academy. Even though he had a passion for basketball, he chose not to continue his life by playing basketball (Cheshire Academy Homepage). He wanted to follow his own path, and he was successful. He had also helped several non-profit organizations such as The EDGE Funders Alliance, and PartnerShops (benandjerrysfoundation.org). 

Head of Cheshire Academy, John D. Nozell, expressed his thoughts about Jeff’s arrival on campus as “Jeff’s dedication to corporate social responsibility is part of why I asked him to speak at commencement.” (Jesse Buchanan Record). Mr. Nozell also thinks that Jeff Furman can make a lot of students learn from his experiences, and maybe Jeff Furman can help them shape their own future (Cheshire Academy Homepage). If you like ice cream, and you are from Cheshire Academy, come to the graduation ceremony this year to eat a lot of ice cream, and learn a lot from Jeff Furman. 

Works Cited

Buchanan, Jesse. "Ben & Jerry’s Official to Give Commencement for Cheshire Academy." Myrecordjournal.com. N.p., 27 Apr. 2015.Web.

Edmondson, Brad. "Ice Cream Social: The Struggle for the Soul of Ben & Jerry's | Green Money Journal." Green Money Journal. N.p., Mar. 2014. Web. 06 May 2015.

"Meet the Staff and Trustees." Ben & Jerry's Foundation. N.p., n.d. Web. 06 May 2015.

"News Detail | Cheshire Academy." News Detail | Cheshire Academy. N.p., 07 Apr. 2015. Web. 06 May 2015.

Copy & paste citation

How Did I Improve?

When I think about the beginning of the year, I think that I have improved in so many ways. One of the most important writing skills I developed is writing an introduction. Before I started taking this class, I wasn't aware of the importance of writing a thesis for the introduction. However, I learned that thesis is the sentence that determines the whole writing. Without thesis, the writing becomes confusing,and incomplete. Another important thing that I have learned was writing topic sentences for each body paragraph that I write. Topic sentences gives readers a sense of what is told in the body paragraphs. In the beginning of the year I would write topic sentences, but they were not good enough to describe the body paragraphs. Another important thing that I have developed was my grammar. I have learned so much about the usage of commas, and the usage of some confusing words like "every day", and "everyday". Using correct grammar, and correct words helped me to write better sentences where I would try to use less "I", and more specific words. Towards the end of the year my writings became more specific. I started using more descriptive language that made my writings more understandable. 

Paraphrase-Quote

Paraphrase: CA is a high school that aims its students to be prepared for college (Cheshire Acdemy Homepage). 

Quote: CA is a school that "challenges its students", so that they can be prepared for college (Cheshire Academy Homepage). 

Writing And Reading Challenge

It’s been almost 23 days since I’ve started doing the 30 Day Challenge. While thinking that it would be easy to read news every day, I realized that writing a 500 blog every two days is not that easy. While writing my blogs I always try to find interesting topics to write about. I try to choose the most interesting news, so that I can have more things to write about.

This challenge has become also a writing challenge for me. I am happy about writing 500 words every two days even though it gets more challenging for every blog post to find a topic to write about. Writing a blog is different than writing an essay. In an essay, it is easier to find a topic to write about, since it might be easier to find ideas. In blog posts, I have to include more of my personal opinions, since these blog posts should reflect some of my personal opinions. Blog posts are normally informal writings that reflect people’s opinions about a specific topic. That’s why writing blogs about the same topic is challenging. To prevent myself from writing about the same topic every blog, I try to read news from different areas. These blog posts aren’t just about the news I read. They are also about how my life has changed with this challenge. To write about the changes in my life because of this challenge is difficult, since my challenge is not about a major change in my life. Some people’s challenges include cooking every day, or working out every day which can affect their everyday lifestyles. Even though this challenge doesn’t affect my everyday life that much, it affects how I think. These news had helped me to have more knowledge about the world, and understand people easier. I have learned about how a major earthquake affected thousands of people, how the prince and the princess of England just had a baby girl, and also how people just found about some dinosaur eggs in China. These news even changed the conversations I have with people. I can now talk a little bit about politics, or recent scientific discoveries that happened in the world. 

Like I’ve said before, it is also a writing challenge. I would never imagine writing 500 words three times every week. Now, this task had become so much easier than it was in the beginning of the year. For example, in the beginning of this challenge I was really scared about writing that many words in a week. Even 300 words would scare me. However, now 500 words has become like writing 300 words. I can easily write long paragraphs, and find ideas to write about quicker than I could do in the beginning of the challenge. 

No matter how difficult this challenge gets sometimes, I am determined to keep writing blogs, and keep reading news every day. I believe that I will keep doing this challenge even when it ends. At least I will try to read news every day, because I realized that it is a good activity for me.

Plagiarism Paragraph

Cheshire Academy, a high school that has students who are internationally diversed was founded in 1794 (CheshireAcademy.org/About). The school aims all of the students from 8th grade to PG to discover their talents outside and inside of school, to have high academic achievements, to become internationally mixed with other students, to help them have a "critical thinking skill", and to make them be confident and prepare for college (CheshireAcademy.org/About). 

Too Much Technology?

Today was a sunny day that reminded everyone that summer was here. The weather was beautiful. While I was walking around campus to go to the library during my free period, I saw several students having class outside. They looked really happy, and I was sure that they were having so much fun. That’s when I wished how I had one of my classes outside that day. Luckily, my last class was writing, and we did a fun activity on the outside. It was one of the most fun activities I have done this year. We went outside, and found thirteen adjectives, and thirteen nouns on campus, and took pictures of them. I thought that in my old school I wouldn’t be able to do that, since iPads weren’t used. This activity reminded me the significance of using iPads at school.

After finishing my afternoon activities that day, I headed to my dorm to get some school work done. Reading the news was my priority for every day, so I turned my laptop on, and ended up reading a news about how the usage of iPads can be destructive for people sometimes. The news was about American Airlines, and how they had a hard time while using iPads instead of using papers. American Airlines is one of the companies that uses iPads to determine the routes of flights, to organize the ticket information, and to keep the airline’s information in the iPad. Unfortunately they had an issue with the iPads in these last couple of days, and this issue had affected the airline. American Airlines wasn’t able to control the flights, and wasn’t able to schedule flights. It was a big issue. They even ended up canceling some of the flights. While I was reading the news I was able to get to know the workers’ thoughts. There were a couple of interviews that made me understand the issue better. I think that the writer of this news had done a good job by interviewing people. These interviews can make us learn more about other people’s opinions. 

This news made me think about the future. At school we are using iPads, and I believe that it’s really fun and helpful. Unfortunately when I have had some issues with my iPad, I didn’t know what to do, since I have all my school work in it. Once my iPad is broken, I can’t reach my school work, which can make me have hard time at school while doing my homework.That’s why I don’t think that technology should be something that people depend on in their everyday life. Technology is human made, and nothing that is human made can be perfect, so technology has its flaws, too. Those flaws can make our lives harder, if we depend on technology too much. We should use technology by knowing that it has its limits. It is already a big part of our lives which makes it even harder to cut from our lives. However, I don’t think that we should completely cut it, we should just decrease the usage of technology for important things like managing an airline.

Scavenger Hunt

Leo, Sera

The Earthquake

I woke up to a really sad news on Sunday Morning. Nepal had been affected by a huge earthquake that caused thousands of people’s death, and the cut of electricity in the entire country. It was terrifying. When my dad gave me the sad news, I wasn’t even aware that such tragedy could have happened. The earthquake was almost calculated to be 7 degrees. My dad also told me that there were some other earthquakes that happened after the major one. However, the ones that happened after the major one were just as bad as the 7 degrees earthquake. They were 6 degrees. After talking to my dad that Sunday morning, I went online, and googled “Nepal.”

The first title came up was “Nepal Earthquake”. The rest of the sentence was telling how many people were found dead. I felt extremely sorry for the country. I clicked on CNN News, and the first thing I saw was a video of several climbers, and how they were caught by the avalanche that was caused by the earthquake. It was terrifying. I was pretty scared by the video. People who were caught by the avalanche had no chance to see where to go. The avalanche was looking scarier than the earthquake itself. The video was enough for me to understand what was going on in Nepal. I believe that watching the video was a good idea, since it made the news more visual, and easier to understand. The video wasn’t professional; it was taken by the people who were near the avalanche during the time when the earthquake happened. It made the video have more emotion. The way the person was holding the camera was enough for me to understand how frightened he was. Watching the video before reading the news kind of prepared me for what was told in the news.

The news was usually about how many people were killed by the earthquake, and what were the consequences of the disaster. When I finished reading the news, I wanted to learn more about the event, so I clicked on other news related to the earthquake in Nepal. Some pictures appeared in the middle of my computer screen. Pictures of soldiers, hurt people… These photos made me understand how disastrous this earthquake was. One of the most interesting photos I found was a photo of hundreds of cellphones that people were charging on the ground. This photo reminded me the importance of communication. People over there wanted to communicate with their families, and know if they are hurt by the disaster or not. The photo really touched me in the middle of all those photos that included hurt people, and soldiers. 

After getting informed about Nepal, I learned that anything can happen to anyone in the world. For that reason helping each other is important. I saw some countries were helping Nepal by sending them money to help them rebuild the country, since it was destroyed by the earthquake.

Paper

Will paper disappear, or will it continue to be a part of our lives? Day by day we are erasing paper from our lives by using technology. For example even at Cheshire Academy, we use our iPads instead of using papers. It is good for nature, but I think that the usage of paper should be considered important. Handwriting is one of the most crucial inventions of our lives. By writing on our devices rather than on papers, we might soon lose our ability to write, which can be devastating for humanity. This topic has been interesting me for a couple of years now, and I decided to make a little research about that. I have found a news comparing paper, and technology.

In the news it first draws a comparison between notebooks, and technological notebooks. We can read how even normal notebooks are able to get connected to computers. The news describes how the smart notebooks work, and what benefits can humans get from that. I think that these notebooks can actually be beneficial for us in the future. People don’t type on these notebooks, but they write. By this way, they won’t forget the handwriting in the future. I also think that these notebooks can be helpful while transferring the information on the notebook to the computer. These notebooks can make our lives so much easier.

In the news it also talks about how people read newspapers nowadays. I agreed the first time I read the news. It says that everyone can access to newspapers from their smartphones, or tablets. It is really good for the protection of nature, but I don’t think that everyone enjoys this change. If I was writing this news, I would interview people about this topic, and see how many people agree, and how many people disagree with that. By that way we could understand if this change is fruitful for our lives, or not. 

In the end of the news it talks about how paper is still needed. The writer of the news gives an example of a plane ticket. We are able to access our tickets through our phones, and we don’t have to print them anymore. However, this doesn't mean that paper is needless in this situation. We still use our paper passports, and we still print our tickets just in case. That’s why paper will never disappear forever from our lives.

I think that in the future, paper is going to be used, but only for important things that has to be written, like for political issues. Day by day, we can see how new generations start using technology at an early age. They can type, but they can’t handwrite. This shows that the usage of technology should be decreased for little kids, so that they won’t lose their interests in handwriting. Even now, for example during summer breaks when I don’t handwrite for a long time, I don’t feel comfortable while writing it. For that reason the usage of technology should be balanced, and should not erase paper completely from our lives.

My Goals For My Future Blog Posts

I'm almost halfway done with my 30-Day Challenge. It's been going good so far, but I have been getting stuck sometimes while writing my blog. That's why I have decided to change a few things for my future posts. I have been writing about the news that I read, and how I feel about them. I will start writing more about how I find those news, and why I decide to read about them. I will also predict how those news will affect the future. For some of my blog posts I will act like I'm the editor of the news, and I will write my ideas about how the news can be better, and more interesting for the readers. 

Excited-Exciting, Inspired-Inspiring

I am excited about summer break this year. 

The book that I am reading is exciting. 

I am inspired by many books. 

Some books that I have read in the past were inspiring. 

Passed-Past

I ______ by my friend's house on my way home. 

He always makes mistakes while using the _____ tense. 

His mother's home reminds him of the _____. 

In these _____couple of weeks, I have been trying to get ready for my finals. 

She ____the class by studying hard. 

He would never talk about his _____. 

Dinosaur Era

Another school day has ended with long hours of classes and tests. I have been working really hard lately on my school assignments, and tests, so I can say that this week has been a little rough. Thursday was a slow day though. I didn’t have any tests, and I had a busy schedule. I was glad when I finally came to my room, and had the chance to relax, and just watch some movies with my friends. During study hall, I wanted to read a news about space, since I am interested in that topic. I went online, and typed The New York Times on Google, and when I tried reading a news on the website, it said that I had to pay to read more news, since I have been reading a lot nowadays. I was really angry because I liked The New York Times, and because they had the best news, and news about everything. However, I was determined to find a website like that, and read a news about space. That was when I typed news on Google, and found The Daily News’ page. I remembered that it was a good site, too. So I clicked on it, and as soon as I saw the front page, I started reading a news about dinosaur eggs. 

The news was talking about how a Chinese construction crew found 43 dinosaur eggs while repairing a road. I though that it was pretty interesting. There can be many dinosaurs eggs where we build schools or houses. I believe that before building roads, or buildings there should be some kind of inspection to see if there is a historic object lying under ground. It has become an issue in Turkey, since it has a lot of history. In some of the small villages, while people build homes by themselves, they find historical objects, and they never give them to the government to make money out of it. I think that by this way they can harm the object, and the history. The eggs were lucky, since people announced them, but if someone else had found them, he or she might have not reported them, and those eggs would have been disappeared. 

There can be a pro of finding these eggs. We might learn informations about new species of dinosaurs that lived in the past. These eggs might even led us to a new era. That’s why I’m glad that they found them.

There might even be some dinosaur eggs under Cheshire Academy, and nobody might have heard about them. That’s why I think that archeologists should make excavations in areas where there are already buildings, or roads. For example if people made excavations under the road where they found the eggs, we could have learned about them sooner, and maybe they could have been less harmed, since they were a little harmed because they have been under ground for a long time.

These dinosaur eggs might be a new information about the past, or might be just regular eggs. 

Enjoying The 30 Day Challenge

Tests, homework… While managing to finish all of my school work, sometimes it can be hard to pick a news to read for my 30-Day Challenge. When I usually have so much work to do, I choose short news, or news that I can understand easily. However, it is not an easy thing to choose a news to read. 

I usually choose the news I want to read through The New York Times’  website. I believe that they have the best, and most detailed news. Whenever I go on to their websites, I can find whatever kind of news I want to read. The political news are the ones that usually appear on the front page. Unfortunately politics is the subject I hate the most, and I cannot understand it. So, I click on technology, or science. I enjoy reading science news. Choosing an interesting news to read helps me to read the news, and also enjoy it. I want my challenge to be an activity that I can have fun while doing it. That’s why choosing the news is the most important part of the challenge. For example one of the favorite news I have chosen was the news about Apple Watch which made me not to buy it. I think that these news help me a lot in changing my mind about daily events, like Apple Watch.

On Monday night, I had to study for two tests, and I also had to do tons of school work. Reading the news was in my mind, but I had to study for my tests first. When I was ready to click on The New York Times’  website, I was feeling very tired, but I forced myself to read a news. As soon as the website appeared in front of my eyes, I saw a news about a building in New York City. It sounded interesting, but there was one problem, it was very long. I remembered that in the past days of this challenge I have read so many news that were longer than that one. I was determined to read that news, and plus the topic was pretty interesting. I started reading it, and finished it by the time I thought it wasn’t finished yet. I realized that I have gotten used to reading long news, and I have gained patience. These news were helping me to gain knowledge, and new skills about reading.

I am happy that I had to do a challenge like this. This challenge forces me to learn new things about the world every day, and I can also develop my reading skills. I have learned some vocabulary words while reading various kinds of news. I hope that those words would be helpful in the future while I’m taking TOEFL or those kinds of tests. 

The news that I have been reading in these last couple of days have been usually science based, since they are the ones that I prefer reading the most. However, I will try reading news different than science, since the main reason why I chose to read the news was to read about different worlds. 

Preposition Practice

I saw my dad waiting in the car. 

We have met on Queen Street where there were lots of cafes, and restaurants. 

My mom left to pick up my brother who is at school. 

I have been doing my homework since five o'clock. 

They will be talking until it's lunch time. 

She is having a math test from twelve to three o'clock. 

We all wanted to learn the topic of the test. 

He's been writing letters to her for years. 

My sister went to school by car, since she just had her license. 

I had to do my homework with my history teacher because I knew that I needed some help with it. 

Patience

30 Day Challenge taught me a lot of things about myself. This challenge showed me that the challenge isn’t just about reading the news every day, but learning new things, getting to know people around the world, and most importantly watching how it effects myself.

When I first started the challenge I thought that the hardest task that this challenge would bring was to choose a news to read. I can say that it is not easy, but it is not the hardest part of it. Choosing a news to read usually takes five minutes for me. I like reading the news that interests me the most, so that I can remember it later on, but not all the news I choose is short enough to remember. During my 30 Day Challenge so far, I learned that I am an impatient person. In the first couple of days I chose some short news, but after those days I started reading long news which made me realize that I was an impatient person. Before I read the news that was about the drought in California, I remember scrolling the page down to see how long it was. It was pretty long. While reading, I remember skipping a couple of words because it was too long, but when I finished reading that news, I realized that skipping lines or words doesn’t help me with understanding the news. That’s why I had to read some parts of the news over and over again just to make sure that I understood the whole news.

Since I started doing the challenge I believe that I have become a more patient person. The length of the news doesn’t matter for me anymore. If the news is interesting for me, I can read it no matter how long it is.

Coffee In Space?

On a Saturday morning I woke up, and went outside to feel the warm air that told me it was time for summer. It was a beautiful day, and I never wanted to be inside. The sky was almost clear. There were no clouds visible, and I wondered that at night I would be able to see all of the stars which made me exciting after so many rainy days. That’s when I remembered that I had a lot of work to do, so I walked up to my room, and started doing homework. I had totally forgotten about reading a news that day, so I went online, and found an interesting news. Coffee in space?

The news was really funny. It was about an astronaut that’s been working on a space ship in space, and one of the things that she had missed the most was coffee. She had been trying to make coffee in space, but since the coffee was prepared in an instant coffee machine, it didn’t have the real taste of coffee. She has been waiting on the shipment of an espresso machine for more than three months. I could feel her excitement about the coffee machine when I was reading the news. I would have felt totally the same. I think that coffee is a vital drink that makes people happy. I wouldn’t be able to stand the space without coffee. I am not one of those people that depend on coffee, but I can say that I really like coffee. However, I don’t drink coffee because it wakes me up, but because I like how it tastes. Also, coffee never works at waking me up in the mornings, especially if it’s a Monday morning.

Back to the news… Another thing had also captured my attention. The coffee machine was made in Italy just for her. I believe that it’s a great idea to design and create the machine in Italy, since it shows that the espresso machine has high quality. The only thing that was shipped wasn’t just an espresso machine. Other food, and drinks were shipped, too, but in the news the most significant one for the astronaut was obviously the espresso machine. The astronaut seemed pretty exciting about the coffee machine. One of the sentences she said was “Lots of science and even coffee's in there, so that's pretty exciting.” I think that it’s a great act what NASA has done. It shows that NASA doesn’t only care about how astronauts complete their missions, but if they are comfortable doing that. I can’t imagine how hard it can be being away from earth for a long time. I bet people in space miss a lot of things from earth; just like a simple thing as coffee. With this news I’ve learned something. We are all humans, and no matter what we can always miss little things that we might not find important, and that make our lives better, just like coffee for an astronaut who has been in space for more than five months.

Breaking Laws And Cheating People

The college fair went good, actually it was really good. I got to talk to many colleges, and they were the ones that I wanted to go. Also about community service, It’s been going great so far. I’ve been meeting new people everyday, and hearing great news from them.

Two days ago during study hall when I was in my room, I saw this news about driver’s licenses and how they can be taken away from people. It was simple–break a law. Breaking a law can be considered about just driving in the wrong lane, or driving without seat belts, but no. The laws that would bring big punishments in the end, can cause someone’s driver’s license to be taken away forever. For example if someone had been in a robbery, and if that person is the one who caused it, then that person’s license can be removed. Another example that was in the news was about this guy that didn’t have his license anymore because he had been in a criminal situation. I learned that anyone with any criminal case, is not allowed to have license, or their licenses would be taken away. It kind of made me feel more relaxed, since I was sure that this was a solution to make the traffic safer, but we all know that driving is still dangerous. 

The day after reading that news, I wanted to continue with a happier news, until I saw the title of Brooklyn on The New York Times’ website. I love New York, so whenever I see a news about it, or hear it, I would get interested in that news. When I saw the title Brooklyn, and protest together I knew that this news wasn’t the good one. I started reading it, and I learned that there were protests took place in Brooklyn, that later on continued on The Brooklyn Bridge. In the news it said that the police was involved in this, too. No matter what they did they had a hard time to stop the protests. I actually felt like it was a normal day in New York. New York is really big, and I remember that last time I went there there were protests all over. The protests were about a murder if I remember it right. It was during Thanksgiving Break. I was kind of scared, since I haven’t seen a crowded protest like that before, but I learned that protests like that happens sometimes.

The next day I read that news, my friend asked if I bought the Apple Watch. I said no, since they were pretty expensive, and I thought that they were not necessary. Later that day I read this news about the Apple Watch, and how they were promoting it. The news made the way that the Apple Watch is promoted sound really cruel. It actually was. It was only available online, and when people buy it, there wouldn’t be a specific time for it to come. I thought that it was a good way for Apple to make money, but a bad way to gain customers.

I can say that in these last three days, my opinion towards a couple of things have changed. For example I will never consider buying the Apple Watch again. Last 23 days to go!

The Drought And The Presidencies -Final Draft

A lot has happened in these last three days. I have gotten an e-mail saying that there will be a college fair, and I have been also getting ready for my community service activities, since we haven't been meeting for a long time. 

I have been a little nervous because of the upcoming college fair that will take place this Thursday. College fair is really important for me because I'm a sophomore, and I will have to decide which colleges to go when I'm a junior, so that I can apply them right away when I'm a senior. I have taken a look at the college list before, but a couple of days ago, I have seen it again, and I've realized that one of my favorite colleges is coming to the fair, UCLA (University Of California Los Angeles). That college has always been one my favorites because of its location. 

Location is really important while choosing a college, so since it was in California, I made a little research about that state, and I have found some sad news about that place. One of the news was saying that California Delta was missing water, so drought had become an important issue. I didn't realize that California was in danger even though I've been there before. When I decided to read the rest of the news, I saw that this issue wasn't because of the nature, but people. Unnecessary usage of water was the main reason for the drought. In the news I even read that The State of California can even limit the amount of water that a household can use per day. It was really sad to hear that. While I was reading this news I haven't realized that I had ended the third day of my 30 Day Challenge. 

The next day I had already planned what kind of news to read—sports. I had been hearing people talking about the baseball season, so I had decided that I wanted to be informed about that, but the news I read ended up being a political news. That Monday, as the group of community service we went to Elim Park just like everyday. While I was visiting elderly people, I found myself in an old woman's room. She was very kind, and talkative. The first thing I noticed was her tv. She was watching this tv show about politics in America. I heard a couple of stories about Hillary Clinton. She talked to me about Hillary Clinton and the presidencies, but I couldn't respond her, since I didn't follow the news about politics. That day I decided that I would read a news about politics. I saw a news that a journalist had written by using her own opinions about Clinton. I didn't understand what was going on in the news, but I had gained some ideas about the presidency in the States. In the news the journalist gave her opinions, and for me it was kind of hard to decide a side to pick. However, the news was very informative. 

It has been long three days that taught me a lot of things, and made me think more about some topics that were included in the news that I've read. Getting the chance to read about the politics in America made me recognize the country more, and the news about California helped me to understand the natural issues that take place in California. I will keep learning about the world each day!