What I Want to Get Out of High School

                 When people ask me what grade I am in I reply and tell them that I am in 8^th grade. They ask me about the school I go to and about what high school I am going to go to. I tell them all about Eastmont Middle School and Jordan High School. Most of the time people ask me what I want to get out of high school well, my answer is simple.

                First, I want to get good grades to get a scholarship to Byu University which is a very hard college to get into without a scholarship. The chance to go to high school and learn all different subjects would be fantastic! In high school you can even take classes that will help you decide what major to take in college. There are some very educational subjects in high school. Jordan High School isn’t the only school that offers some extra classes. There are a bunch of different schools that have great classes.

                Second, I would want to have the social experience in high school that you can’t have in middle school. In high school you can meet a ton of new people every day. By going to high school you can work at places like McDonalds, Wendys, and Burger King! Doesn’t that just sound so delightful! You can be a clown, commercial writer, comedian, rollerskater, biker, summersaulter, gymnast, dancer, and singer! You can do all of these things by going to high school. You can also do them by not going to high school. Whatever you choose make sure that you can make a living out of it. You always want to be able to receive an education for the job that you choose so you will do better in it.

                High school is a great place to learn and grow, not only physically but also mentally. Without an education you won’t be able to do anything with your life. You will have to live on the street in a box and make your food with the only pan that you have. You will have to go on the corners and beg for food because you didn’t receive an education when you could have. People will only give you food/money because they feel bad that you didn’t receive an education like they did. You will sit all alone in the ally crying wishing that you could go back in time and take school more seriously! You will wish you could be the people who have great jobs like doctors, nurses, financial planner, or psychologist! They will earn more money in a day than you will in a year!

                Unless you want to be living on the streets with the hobos I suggest that you go and get an education. Going to high school is a great way to do this! An education is what I want to get out of going to high school! So then I will get a good job and live happily ever after!

Jack the Candlestick Hopper

Jack, be nimble,
Jack, be quick,
Jack, jump over
The candlestick.

Jack jumped high
Jack jumped low
Jack jumped over
and burned his toe.

                Jack was a former elf that worked for Santa Clause. One day Jack was working on a toy and he messed it up so bad that it looked like the checkered spaces on the checker board were circles. Some of the elves thought it was cool the way Jack changed the game, but Santa didn’t. He kicked Jack out of his workshop because when it comes to the toys, Santa doesn’t joke around.

                Now, you see Jack had a family. He had a wife and three little baby elves that he had to support. He decided to go to the park to relive some stress. As he was sitting on the bench watching the children play on the equipment, he heard their parents talking about the new Elf Games that were going to be starting soon. He asked them if they knew what the person got if they won. They said that the champion would receive 1,000,000 dollars! Now, you can imagine what was going through his head when he heard this news. I mean this elf he had gotten laid off from Santa! What else was he going to do?

                Jack told his wife everything that happened and she agreed with him to go to the Elf Games and compete. After all if he didn’t win he could just find another job. Later that evening he went to the building to sign up for the games.

                The next day Jack was training for the games. He saw and giant candlestick. He asked the trainers what he was supposed to do with it. They said Jack, be nimble, Jack, be quick, Jack you have to jump over this candlestick. He practiced and practiced very hard. He thought he was ready for the games!

                The day of the games people came from all over the world. Not just elves but fairies, princesses, princes, queens, kings, the three blind mice, (I’m not sure why they came they couldn’t see it anyways) some pigs and a wolf. The contestants lined up. They were all excited for the games they all thought they could win it! First was the elf jimmy. He went and jumped over that candlestick perfectly. Up next was Billy, he also did it flawlessly! As Jack was watching this he thought that there was no chance that he could win. He was up next. He ran as fast as he could. Jack jumped high then Jack jumped low. Jack jumped over and burned his toe! He didn’t win the Elf Games.

                After his horrible loss Jack went home to only tell his family the bad news. They would have been able to see it but they had no more money. Jack went job hunting and he found a job down in the United States to wash the humans’ shoes. Now, Jack wasn’t Jack the candlestick hopper, instead he was Jack the shoe shiner.

Nuclear Disaster

                Can you imagine walking through a kindergarten playground and seeing white dust covering toys, children books, and other things that you would find at a place where children play? I sure can’t, but the people who are walking through the ghost town in Pripyat saw these things. The sight was so bad that the guide had to say, “Careful do not touch anything with your bare hands!” What kind of place would be in such bad conditions that you can’t touch anything with your bare hands?

                This town is now a ghost town because there was a nuclear bomb that went off there and made the place a disaster. Nobody has lived there since 1986. Nobody has bothered to try and make this place a town that you can live in again. There are so many destroyed little stores that you can’t buy anything from even if you lived in it. This town has no citizens in it anymore. The fact that nobody is trying to clean it up is just sad, because of that nobody would try to live in it.

                All in all I think that this town is a good tourist town. I would enjoy going to see this sight. Even though nobody bothered to clean it up, most likely because of the cost, it would be a very cool place to see it.

Tale of Atom Bomb

                In the book, The Last Train from Hiroshima published by Henry Hold claims to reveal a secret accident with the atom bomb that killed one American and irradiated others and greatly reduced the weapon’s destructive power. The article by William J. Broad goes on to say, “There is just one problem that section of the book and other technical details of the mission are based on the recollections of Joseph Fuoco, who is described as a last-minute substitute on one of the two observation planes that escorted the Enola Gay.

                Some people who have read this book say that Joseph Fuoco was just an imposter. Others say that he just wasn’t on the plane. After James R. Corliss told the story about how Joseph Fuoco was on the plane with him, people started to believe that he was not an imposter.

                After Joseph Fuoco died in 2008 claiming that he had never been on the plane with Mr. Corliss people started to lean towards believing Fuoco’s story.

                Now many years later, we are still confused as to which story to believe. We are all confused and we don’t know if Fuoco was telling the truth when he said that he was never on the plane with Corliss. If he says that he wasn’t on the plane then, I believe that he is telling the truth.

2,000 Descendants

                Can you imagine having more than a dozen kids? How about more than 200 grandchildren? What about so many great- and great-great-grandchildren that your family couldn’t even count them all. They had to guess that you probably had 2,000 living descendants. Yitta Schwartz had all of that and more. She was able to live during World War 2. Although some of her children were not so lucky and died in the concentration camps. I know that you are probably thinking, “Man, this woman is insane!” Well you can only believe that somebody who had so many descendants would have to be insane, but she wasn’t insane she was just trying to do what she was supposed to.

                She died last month at age 93. Her husband died 34 years before her and she never put her problems on anybody else. She did not like it when people took photographs of her. Her family was reluctant to provide more than one photo to the people who wrote this article. The people of her family say that she was a great example to them and she would always live in their hearts. Her family said that she used to say “Just keep me in your heart. If you leave a grandchild, you live forever.” Those are very inspiring words just think about them.

Uzbek Photos

                Umida Akhmedova is a photographer and documentary filmmaker. She was found guilty of slandering and insulting the Uzbek people for taking a picture of a boy lying down in an unfinished house. To me that is overreacting a little bit. I mean sure she was taking a picture that could send a wrong message about their country, but she was just being creative and spontaneous.

                “I can’t say my anxiety has subsided, I can’t say I’m suddenly O.K.,” she said. “There was a fear of going to prison. But to tell you the truth, I feel insulted, that’s the main thing. I still don’t understand how my creative work could have brought me to this courtroom.” She does not even know how she got to be in this situation. She doesn’t know what she did wrong. Punishing somebody for something they didn’t intend to do is just sick and wrong.

                Regardless, the photo that Akhmedova took was one that she thought was inspirational, turned out to be something that offended her country. Art should be something that you can have control in. Art is something that shows your interests and creativity. I don’t think that she should be sent to prison for being creative.

Loo's Journey

Alexa Loo started snowboarding at age 15. When she was 21 years old she started racing. She also worked as an accountant but the mountains were the most important dream of hers. She decided that she was never going to give up. In 2002 she missed qualifying for the Winter Olympics by 11-hundredths of a second. She was the first Canadian woman to complete in parallel giant slalom. She got so close to winning until she fell with only four gates remaining. She ended with 20^th.

            It all went downhill from there. She tore a knee ligament in 2007 and it made her change the way she raced. In 2008 she lost her financing. She would have to finish in the top 16 to qualify for her 18,000 dollar stipend from Sport Canada.

            Loo decided that she needed to tell her story better. When she tried doing that she got more and more famous. Now she tells her story along with the Kin brothers who were in a situation similar to hers. Loo goes around to schools and teaches them about determination and how you can do anything if you don’t give up. Even though Loo didn’t get to do her dream before she tore her knee ligament, she still goes snowboarding for fun and enjoys talking to kids and encouraging them.