Monday Muse: Childhood Memories

   When I was five years old, I remember one “very scary” time of my life.  Starting  kindergarten. It was a new school. I had to make new friends, but the thing I was going to miss most was my mom. I attended Daycare in the same building at my mom’s job.  I was always in the class across from her office. So whenever I got hurt she was always there to cradle me in her arms.
   It was my first day and everyone knew each other but me. I was considered the “new girl”. I walked into the classroom and everyone looked at me.  As I walked by to meet the teachers I could hear the girls in the “group” whispering stuff about me. “Oh my god did you see that girl, she’s so ugly” said one of them. “Lets not be friends with her” said another. 
There were these two girls in a different group. One looked just like me but with straight hair and the other, dark skin with straight black hair in two little ponytails. I walked with my mom, up to the teacher. I sensed all eyes in my direction. 
   When my mom left I cried. This went on for 3 months, September, October, and November. Everyday I cried for minutes or for hours. I can remember what was going on in my head those 3 months. Why am I here? Where is mom? I don’t like it here. Where am I? I have no friends. Can I go home? My mom and my teacher tried different strategies to help me not cry.  They let me take my favorite stuff animal but that still did not work.  I overheard my mom saying that she would change my school if I did not try and continued crying.
   One day when my mom left the two girls that were not in the “group” took me to their table. They told me it would fine. “Really?” I asked and they said “yeah.” Ever since that day the three of us were B.F.F.s. My friends and I were in the “gifted program” so we were together from kindergarten to 5th grade.  We were inseparable.
   When writing this story...looking back at it...I realized that I didn’t need my mom to be there I had plenty of friends. I had to suck it up and deal that me and my mom would be separated for almost 6 hours. Girlfriends and Guy friends, I still keep in touch with all my friends today. I call them on the weekends or whenever I have spare time.

Evermore

   After a horrible accident claims the lives of her family, sixteen-year-old Ever Bloom can see people's auras, hear their thoughts, and know someone's entire life story by touching them. Going out of her way to avoid human contact to suppress her abilities, she has been branded a freak at her new high school — but everything changes when she meets Damen Auguste. 

   Damen is gorgeous, exotic and wealthy. He's the only one who can silence the noise and random energy in her head - wielding a magic so intense, it's as though he can peer straight into her soul. As Ever is drawn deeper into his enticing world of secrets and mystery, she's left with more questions than answers. And she has no idea just who he really is - or what he is. I feel the theme of this book is don't judge someone on how they dress, or what they do.

   For example Evers best friend, Haven, starts to dress differently after meeting Drina, a very old friend of Damen. On page 119 it says "when I get to the lunch table I try not to gawk but Haven's hair is purple.....'right after i hung up with you last night i triend to die it red, you know, that gorgeous coppery shade like Drina's?" This shows that Haven is  trying to dress just like Drina. Another example of her dress just like Drina is on page 133 Haven says "you guys don't even know her.....then Miles yells 'its not true'.....then Haven says 'she likes me just the way I am'........(miles)Oh, is that why you changed your entire look, because she accepts you for who you really are?" This quote shows that Miles, gay best friend of Haven and Ever, is judging on how Haven dresses, buts its her choice to dress the way she wants to.
   Ever judges Damen for trying save Havens life. On page 179 it states "Damen on the floor, his clothes torn, his face dripping with blood, while Haven thrashes and moans under him......what have you done to her? seeing her pale skin, her eyes rolling back, and knowing theres no time to waste." Later in the books ,not to spoil it, Ever thinks Damen is a vampire but all he is trying to do save her life. Drina insist that Haven gets a tattoo of Ouroboros. The tattoo gets infected and Damen tries to save her life but Ever sees something different.
   This book taught me that me that i shouldnt judge a person on how they dress or the way they act, I need to get to know the person in order to judge them.

American Born Chinese

   I just finished the book American Born Chinese by Gene Luen Yang. This book has three main characters; Jin, Chin-Kee, and the Monkey King. I noticed that all three of these characters had one thing in common. They are trying to fit in.
   Jin a Chinese boy who came to America. He is the only Chinese-American student in his school. Until a boy from Taiwan, Wei-Chen, joins his class. Jin tries to ignore him so he wouldn't be associated with another Asian. Jin tries to be an All-American boy to date an All-American girl, Amelia, so he gets a perm. Wei-Chen and Amelia bond by talking about Jin and Jin finally gets the confidence to ask Amelia out. By gaining confidence and asking Amelia out he begins to fit in and not be "the Asian anymore."
   Chin-Kee is Danny's cousin. Danny an All-American boy. An excellent basketball player and popular with the ladies. But when Chin-Kee comes to visit it ruins Danny's reputation. Chin-Kee pees in peoples soda, shoves his crispy cat guts with noodles in peoples faces. And that only leaves him one choice, transfer schools. Not all things end with a positive note.When Chin-Kee comes to America he tries to fit but with that he ruins Danny's  reputation.
   The Monkey King was born out of a rock. He heard of a party up in the heavens and decides to go. He waited on lines for hours and hours until he finally reached the doors. He was not permitted in because he was a monkey and he had no shoes. The monkey king decided the he would learn the art of kung-fu and the heavenly disciplines. With that he gained great power and beat up all the gods. Tze-Yo-Tzuh the "hight of the heavens and the depths of the underworld" shows the monkey king that with great power comes great responsibility. He also shows him the mastering the art of kung-fu and the heavenly disciplines got him no where.
   When I finished reading this book the three main characters taught me three different thing. I shouldn't change who I am for something I desire most. I shouldn't be embarrassed of my little brother. And fitting in isn't as important  as I thought it was. These are all thing that we should think about even if they seem super important.

Monument 14

    In “Monument 14,” by Emmy Laybourne, the consumer refuge is a fictitious Greenway store in Monument, Colorado. Set in 2024, the story unfolds in a world where all students have tablet computers that run on an national network; its collapse is the first sign something is awry since, as we learn, “the Network had never, ever gone down.” After surviving a horrific morning school bus crash caused by a freak hailstorm, Dean, a high school junior who is the book’s narrator, and 13 other surviving children find themselves in a state of profound shock, forced to organize a makeshift community within Greenway’s Walmart-like walls. 

    Once inside, they learn via television that a Canary Island volcano set off a tsunami that has taken out the entire Eastern Seaboard of the United States. The eruption also initiated intense storms that have pummeled the rest of the country. And, in short order, the devastation is followed by an 8.2 earthquake, which compromises the seals of Monument’s chemical-weapon storage facility. This causes the release of deadly compounds that, depending on blood type, leave victims paranoid, violent, sterile or dead.

    Dean and two other characters, Astrid and Chloe, have blood type O. Meaning they are violent. Dean almost killed his brother, Astrid went total psychopath and went "AWOL", and Chloe scratched the other kids to death when exposed to the compounds. In the the end these three stay behind just incase the compounds get to them and they kill everyone on the bus.