Tales of Tenth Grade

Lately I've been paying more attention to lyrics in the music I listen to. Listening to how the writers weave their words together has really encouraged me to want to get better at writing myself, and so I've been trying to write more often. Here's some little poems I've written recently. Frustration The sky is electric blue from a dimmed shelter of nighttime quarters from one foot I rock to the other in a cautioned tiptoe circles around a weathered carpet maddened joy of cursed motivation in the witching hour of a burnt out mind Deadline Stress fills my head As the minutes inch by Blank paper white And a head stuck in time They say creative can't be rushed And I know what they mean But when creative's all you got It might be forced to succeed A pen dangles in my hand Like an old man's cigar As the sky twists to night And I ponder who they are Black ink fills a page 1000 inches tall I'll say everything at one And I'll say

Harsh, inhospitable, barren- this is the landscape which is miraculously home to hundreds upon thousands of chinstrap penguins. Defined by the black ‘strap’ beneath their chins (hence their name), these penguins are just one species amidst thousands who are suffering as a result of climate change. Due to how isolated the island is where chinstrap penguins nest (Elephant Island), the last census conducted was in 1971, when 123,000 nests were recorded. Yet the most recent survey found less than half this number, with no trace as to where the rest of the penguins could have disappeared to. Strycker, a scientist on the team studying the chinstrap penguins, says this is a 56% decrease in their population. As this was more of a preliminary expedition, the scientists were there only to record the chinstrap penguin population, not determine potential causes for such a steep decline. Nonetheless, scientists have tentatively begun to link this alarming drop to climate change, the very condition

*If you haven't read part 1: https://talesoftenthgrade.blogspot.com/2019/11/escaping-extraordinary-sila-paniker.html https://talesoftenthgrade.blogspot.com/2019/11/escaping-extraordinary-jolie-dottinger.html I couldn't believe the words that were brought to my ears. Stunned in shock, all that I could do was just stare into Steph's eyes with excitement. "Okay, here's the plan but you got to listen closely, it's a little confusing," I whispered while still standing in the dark, empty hallway. She looked side to side anxiously but then nodded for me to continue. "Long ago when I first passed, as any normal person's would, my soul attempted to lift out of the hospital and into Heaven. However, this evil man, Kevin, blocked mine from leaving. That's why I'm stuck here," I continued. Slowly and cautiously I pulled out my silver heart empty locket. "This here is what stopped my soul from leaving this place. Right as I was about to l

Godzilla (1954) Godzilla (2014)      I've been having a lot of conversations with my brother over the past few months about old movies and remakes of old movies. It turns out the pretty much every time I prefer the original and he prefers the remake. He liked the new Godzilla movie, while I thought it completely lost everything that made the original great. He thinks the new Star Wars trilogy is the best Sart Wars trilogy while I think nothing has come close to the originals. In fact, I found out that my brother won't even watch anything that's in black and white, and is reluctant to watch anything made before 1990. My brother's reasoning has always been "its because it doesn't look as good," which made me wonder how much that really matters.      Looking at the example of Godzilla, its easy to see why someone would think visuals and technology is what makes a movie good. The original Godzilla looks terrible by today's standards, the monste

I was really skeptical about playing basketball this year. Basketball isn't my favorite sport and i'm not very good at it. Last year playing was fun but I know its not taking me anywhere in life so I didn't really want to play. However, after some persuasion from my friends and Wille I was back on the court in November. The beginning of the season was rough, we ran a lot and practices were much harder than last year. I began to wonder if playing basketball was a mistake and if I should have just focused on school. After winter break was when I really started to enjoy it. I spent more time with my team than anyone else in the last couple months. Here are some of this seasons memories. In January we all got stuck in Roxbury after our bus broke down. We were there for a good hour before we had to call our parents to come and get us because it wouldn't start. In practices we would be scrimmaging against each other and someone would fall or get hit in the head with the b

A few weeks ago in my Human Body Systems class we were learning about the brain and about dreams. When I was younger, I used to believe dreams were some sort of messages that had a deeper meaning or that they predicted the future (I had a very active imagination). However, in my class we learned that dreams occur because while you are asleep, your brain is processing memories, emotions, and information that has been absorbed throughout the day. We watched an episode of the Netflix documentary show called "The Mind Explained" about dreams and it discussed lucid dreaming. I didn't know much about it other than that it is consciously influencing your dreams. They interviewed Allison McCarthy who is a lucid dreamer and she explained her process of learning how to do it. She said that the first step is to practice remembering your dreams and write them down. Next, she said to recognize when you're in a dream- look for dream-like qualities in the day and then ask yourself

So, I really want to start writing and directing a short film before the end of the year, but I don't really have any ideas for a story yet. I'm going to try and write a practice script here. Hope you enjoy! :) ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ This is unfinished, but I may work on it again at some point. Basically it's about an awkward teen dealing with friend troubles and looking for a job to find her summer. Originally I was going to have her in a love triangle, but I wanted to stop the script before it got too long, because no one would read the entire thing- for sure 😂 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ ENTER RORY Close-up on RORY, red with acne, wearing a backpack Camera pans through hallway to a classroom and Rory walks in to see her friend RORY: Hey Dyl. Rory sits next to her friend DYLAN: Mhm. RORY: What? Tuesday troubles? Rory chuckles slightly RORY: Dude, what's up with you? Are you good? DYLAN s

On Christmas morning, I received a record player as a gift, along with Queen's Greatest Hits I & II as some starter records. Two weeks ago, in the absence of the rest of my family, my mother and I went for a girl's night out. We ate dinner together and saw Knives Out , which was one of the best movies of this year, in my opinion. Anyway, we had some time before the movie, so I decided to pay a visit to the CD Store in the Rockaway Mall. If you love vintage records, this is the place to be. I ended up buying an original first press copy of Pink Floyd's The Wall . I also befriended the owner, Ron. We talked about nothing but music for at least half an hour.   Two weeks later I returned with my friend, Daniela. She picked up a record of California Dreamin' by The Mamas and the Papas and I bought two more Pink Floyd records: The Piper at the Gates of Dawn and A Saucerful of Secrets . This time we spent over an hour looking through the mountains of records and talkin

As some of you may know, I was recently out for over two weeks due to a combination of illnesses and deaths in the family (I know, I know, you're all so jealous). Incoming "I'm sorry for your loss" junk aside, getting back to school has been a struggle, and I mean STRUGGLE. I'm behind on five assessments as of writing this article and next week, I am going to be absent for two days where I will be at Atlantic City competing in DECA. Now, as I've been trying to catch up, and by "catch up" I mean think about doing assignments or studying and then feeling too overwhelmed to start, I've realized that high school is not at all like I thought it was. I know that this sounds super vague but the more I think about it, the more disappointed I get. Allow me to take you on a trip down memory lane. Imagine yourself in middle school (or elementary school if middle school was THAT bad). Now ask this younger version of yourselves what they think high school

Earlier this month, thousands of Iowan voters crammed into a collection of school gyms and auditoriums. Why? To be the first to vote for the Democratic nominee for president.  Why does Iowa go first, you may ask?  Nobody really knows why.  In fact, the recent Iowan caucus was a complete disaster.  The biggest failure of the caucus was its struggle to report results promptly - something that Iowa has previously prided themselves on doing well.  Then, once the results were finally reported, nobody was sure if the results were even correct.  In fact, it took 24 days after the caucus for the state to release the "official" results, which are now basically irrelevant. So why is the Iowa caucus so important?  This question is one I can't help but think about a lot.  Why does Iowa of all states get to go first?  According to Li Zhou, a Vox reporter, the early states in the primary system are meant for "winnowing the field" of candidates for a particular party.  A per

When I was younger, I made a bucket list and the other day I found it in an old notebook that I used to use all the time. On the list, I wrote the top five things I want to do by the time I turn 20. Yeah I was a little ambitious, so for the sake of making things more realistic, I'll change it to the things I want to do by the time I turn 30. The list is mostly about traveling and going to other countries, which is probably because my family doesn't travel all that much. The furthest we, or more so I, have gone is to North Carolina, but I have never actually gone across or outside of the country. I've never even been on a plane. Yeah, I know, crazy. Anyway, here are the 5 things on my bucket list. 1. Visit the Land of the Strays The first thing on my list is something that I always  used to talk about to my family. If you don't know what this is, the Land of the Strays is volunteer-run organization/shelter in Costa Rica where tons and tons of dogs get to run around in

Katie Groome and I birthdays are exactly one month apart this year, so we decided that we can have a joint birthday party 2 weeks from each of our birthdays. February 28th is exactly 2 weeks after February 14 and exactly 2 weeks before March 13 so we thought that date would be perfect. Katie and I aren't completely different, but we definitely don't have the exact same taste. But when we both happily agreed on hibachi for our birthday, I was surprised but excited. Going to hibachi on/for my birthday has been a tradition in my family for as long as I can remember. Being able to extend this tradition and to spend it with my best friends is exactly what I would want on my 16th birthday. I was actually really surprised that my parents would agree to this because I have thrown out the idea before but they were never really up for it. But Katie and I invited 18 of our friends to come which is so exciting. This is Katie's first time celebrating her birthday at hibachi, so I'm

My grandpa's favorite story to tell our family is his "8 Dollar" story, or the story portraying his immigration into this country. My whole family on my mom's side would be gathered together on Indian holidays such as Diwali and every year, as if it were tradition, my grandpa would start telling us about how he, the first member of my mom's family, immigrated to America. He would always tell us about how he walked through Ellis Island with only $8 in his pocket and was eventually able to be successful enough to send both his daughters through four years of college. My grandpa on my dad's side tells our family very different stories. On Christmas Eve every year, when my dad's family gathers to celebrate their holidays, we all listen to my grandfather tell his stories. He usually tells us stories about his 3 deployments in Vietnam, and how each one of them affected him and his friends. He tells us stories about friends he lost in the war and friends he s