The End

Thank you so much, Searcy! Thank you for all the hard work you put into making our Lit class AMAZING!!  You went out of your way to allow us to have a blast and learn in a fun way, and I am so glad for that! From haggis to cinnamon buns, sword fights to baguettes, we had an awesome class that we will all remember for a very long time to come!

And that's the way the cookie crumbles...uh huh, uh huh, I like it!...

P.S. - Haggis wasn't so bad while we were eating it...the aftertaste was disgusting though!  But your stew was great! And your cinnamon bun recipe is to die for, it it just THAT good! Just thought I'd mention....

Disembarking at The End

Me with my gelato on our first day in Italy!

Margaret Atwood's poem, Disembarking at Quebec, depicts the true immigrant experience and the feelings of isolation and loneliness.  I have never had to move to a new country or even a new city, as I have lived in Penticton my whole life, but even just changing schools can be tough.  When I changed from Carmi to Skaha Lake Middle School, only about six people came from my elementary school to my middle school, and so we had to face the daunting new task of getting to know all the other students, who had mostly all come from Wiltse.  It was a frightening and nerve wracking experience at times, but I know it is nothing compared to what an immigrant must face when coming to a new country where no one speaks the same language as you're used to.  I travelled to Italy and Greece not too long ago, which was an amazing experience but I can understand how lonely it'd feel to actually move somewhere foreign like that, for, although we tried to speak some of the languages, and the majority of the people spoke some English, all the customs and systems were different.  On our first afternoon in Italy, we went down to a beach store to order gelato, and later pizza, and the system for paying, getting a ticket, then actually receiving the gelato, or pizza, was so frazzling and frustrating and it felt so complicated just because we weren't used to it and couldn't understand the man's thick accent and broken English as we had yet to become accustomed to it.  "I am a word in a foreign language" Atwood wrote in her poem which rings true when referring to both the immigrant experience and just the experience of travelling to another country.

Hollow Day

In T.S. Eliot's The Hollow Men, the poem ends with "This is the way the world ends / This is the way the world ends / This is the way the world ends / Not with a bang but a whimper" where the men waste away with a disjointed and confused "whimper" kind of like the way some of our grad class went out.  The school year has been amazing, until we reach the final two days, in which none of our classes were very productive and we mostly played games and sat around talking.  The last day was especially bad, as pictured above, when four of us just sat on the couches in the library talking.  I expected the last day to be the best day ever and to be extremely fun, but, instead, it was probably one of my worst days of high school.  We all expected our yearbooks to come in so we could sign them on the last day like we usually do, but they never arrived, which dampened our moods.  I always pictured us running out the doors when the final bell rung like they do in movies, but that never happened either as I went home at the end of lunch to study for my bio exam during my spare and then go to work after school.  In the end, high school ended, not with a bang, but a whimper.

Do Not Go Gentle

 

My godsister, Cailla's daughter, Teagan.

"Rage, rage against the dying of the light" is what Dylan Thomas said to do in his villanelle, Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Night, which is exactly what my family's friend, Cailla, did when she was diagnosed with non hodgkin's lymphoma a few years ago.  The cancer had spread to many areas of her body, but Cailla was only in her early thirties with a baby, my godsister, Teagan, not more than a year old at the time, and was a fighter.  She'd competed in many Ironman races over the years and used to race as a pro, and now she was determined to overcome this disease, even when the odds were against her.  She's a wonderful young mother and friend, who got sick far too early, but, just like Thomas instructs people to do, she fought against Death, raged with all she had.  And won!

The Old Lie

Although not a picture I took myself, when reading Dulce et Decorum by Wilfred Owen, I thought of all the war propaganda posters Mrs. Sutherland showed up and talked about during Social Studies 11.  This poster seemed very fitting when I was looking through pictures of old propaganda posters, as, one, this man depicted died in the war, sacrificed himself for others, actually knew the meaning of sacrifice, while others sit at home and just talk of sacrifice!  This reminded me of "My friend, you would not tell with such high zest to children ardent for some desperate glory, the old lie: Dulce et decorum est pro patria mori" from the lyric Dulce et Decorum Est in which it is saying that if you had ever actually experienced way, you would never tell children the old lie that it is honorable to go to war and encourage them to go to war.  This is just like this propoganda poster where the man actually knew the meaning of sacrifice and what goes on at war, whereas others just sit at home talking about sacrifice, thinking they know what sacrifice means and everything about the war, when really they don't as they have never been there to actually experience war and sacrifice firsthand.

How Do I Love Thee?...Let Me Blog the Ways

 

Whenever anyone mentions anything to do with Elizabeth Barrett Browning's Sonnet 43 I think of Lurlene McDaniel's novel entitled How Do I Love Thee.  I read this book many years ago, long before I knew how famous the poem, How Do I Love Thee, is, and I fell in love with the poem for it was written at the very start of the novel.  Now that I actually understand the poem and am becoming a loving and lovable  young woman, I appreciate it just all that much more.  I always think of the classic romance story from The Titanic and how fitting it is with this poem, as Rose and Jack truly loved each other "to the depth and breadth and height".  As well, I think of my own current young love, and I hope that someday "I shall but love thee better after death."

Because I Could Not Write This Blog

Because I could not write this blog -

It kindly wrote itself for me -

The Blog spoke of just Ourselves -

And my Mind's Ideas.

It slowly wrote - it knew no haste

For I had put away

My patience and my work ethic too,

For this overwhelming Blog.

It passed the Stanza, where opening words strove

About the page - in a line -

It passed the Middle of never ending phrases -

It passed the final remarks -

It paused before a Bed that seemed

That it could not wait for me to Enter -

The Pillow was barely visible -

The blankets - in a Mound -

Since then - 'tis Hours - and yet

Feels shorter than a Minute

I first surmised the Bell would Ring

At 7 o'clock every Morn -

Emily Dickinson wrote Because I Could Not Stop for Death, where the speaker is dead and is remembering back to when she died hundreds of years ago.  The speaker didn't really have a negative experience with Death, she is just remembering her death and accepting Death.  Three of my favorite songs: I Will Follow You Into the Dark by Death Cab for Cutie, How to Save a Life by The Fray, and Somewhere Out There by Our Lady Peace, all have the same mood as this poem has, connecting to one another by way of their atmospheres.

Changing Your Destiny

"I am the master of my fate: I am the captain of my soul" are the famous words written by William Ernest Henley in Invictus, which ring true for many people who believe that you are in charge of your own destiny, just as Henley said people are.  In the upcoming Disney movie called Brave, which I am very excited to see, the young Princess Merida is determined to make her own path in life, and she must rely on her skills with a bow-and-arrow and her bravery to undo a curse when granted one wish after defying a custom that brought chaos to her kingdom.  At the end of the Brave trailer that I just watched, the princess says, "If you had the chance to change your fate, would you?" which made me connect to Invictus as both deal with changing your fate and being in charge of your own destiny!

Her Last Smile...Continues Forever

 

It's the simple things in life that you should always remember to never stop smiling about!...Like this penguin hoodie and sock set that my best friend gave me for Christmas, or a baby cousin, or a snowman that's taller than you are! These little things should never fail to make one happy and smile!

               

My Last Duchess, by Robert Browning, is the portrayal of a disturbed and demented mind. It is written in the form of a dramatic monologue from the perspective of a Duke who killed his first wife and is now showing a painting of his first wife to an envoy who has been sent to arrange the Duke's second marriage. The Duke's first wife was always smiling, and even in her painting she continues to smile. She was easily impressed by trivial things, for they were "cause enough for calling up that spot of joy" and were things the Duke thought she shouldn't smile about. He was an arrogant, proud man who viewed his wife as a possession, much like he viewed the sculpture of a seahorse. When we first read this poem and discussed how the woman was always smiling, it reminded me of myself, for I am often told at work and with my friends that I am always smiling. The summer that Diary Queen was opening up to incorporate Orange Julius into its building, the owners came over to eat lunch at Wendy's as their building was still under construction and not open for business yet. I was on front cash at the time and took their order and the pair commented on my smile, saying how gorgeous it was and that I looked so happy. They offered me a job at Diary Queen and Orange Julius if I wanted, just because I was friendly and had a nice smile! And then, just recently, while I was at work, a coworker was introducing a new staff member to everyone working and when she got to me, she introduced me as the one who never stops smiling!

Ulysses

My Great Auntie Marie blowing out the candles on her 90th birthday cake.

Alfred Lord Tennyson wrote "to strive, to seek, to find, and not to yield" in his dramatic monolgue, Ulysses, which tells the story of Ulysses after he is back at home in Ithaca, and is bored with staying at home all the time ruling, when all he really wants to do is go on adventures and learn new things.  My Great Auntie Marie went back to high school so she could graduate at the age of ninety!  To me, she is the epitamy of Tennyson's message to people to keep trying new things and "to follow knowledge".  My Auntie Marie had never finished high school when she was younger as women back then got married and started families at quite a young age, but she always wanted to go back, and so she did!  And she didn't just go back and write the tests and exams, she actually attended classes with the high school students and studied alongside teenagers, which I think is extrememly amazing!  I think Ulysses would be proud and impressed with what my Auntie Marie accomplished in her life, even into her elderly years!

Apostrophe to the Blog

The theme of Apostrophe to the Ocean, by Childe Harold, is that man is powerless compared to the ocean, man's influence is "like a drop of rain" in the ocean.  While reading this poem, I thought of the song Colors of the Wind from Pocahontas, when she sings, "You think you own whatever land you land on / The Earth is just a dead thing you can claim / But I know every rock and tree and creature / Has a life, has a spirit, has a name," and "You can own the Earth and still / All you'll own is Earth until / You can paint with all the colors of the wind."  The message this song gives is similar to the one in Apostrophe to the Ocean, because, even if you think you own part of the Earth, you really don't, as nature - the ocean especially - is still greater and more powerful than you are, and you think you are better than it and can just claim it as your own, but really it can just as easily claim and devour you, such as during a tsunami.

Ode to the West Blog

Percy Shelley's Ode to the West Wind describes how the wind is both a "destroyer" and a "preserver", and about social change: how an old idea must be destroyed so a new one can take its place.  Shelley used his ability as a poet to change things and inspire people, just like I want to one day use my ability as a writer to uncover injustices and change things.  I was reminded of a movie we watched in Social Justice this year called The Killing Fields, where it depicts the story of a journalist and photographer, Sydney, in Cambodia during Pol Pot's bloody cleansing campaign which claimed the lives of about three million civilians.  Sydney receives Journalist of the Year award at a banquet in 1976 for helping to release the story of the events occuring in Cambodia.  This connects to Ode to the West Wind as both Pol Pot with his campaign and Sydney with his journalism could be described as the wind.  Pol Pot is the "destroyer", while Sydney could be like the "preserver", as one is wrecking the environment and the people, and the other is trying to protect and save them all from destruction.

The Rime of the Ancient Blog

A few days after we read the lyrical ballad, The Rime of the Ancient Mariner, by Samuel Taylor Coleridge, a woman and two men came in to Wendy's while I was working on front cash taking orders, and, although I missed the start of their conversation as I was preparing their order, I heard the woman say to one of the men, "It's like the albatross around your neck," which I found very ironic and hilarious that we had JUST read this in class a few days before, which I told her, and we laughed together.  English Lit has made me so much more knowledgeable than I was before I took this class, and I'm glad I took it, if even just so that when people refer to different poems, such as the lady in Wendy's referred to The Rime of the Ancient Mariner, I'll know what they are talking about.  While reading "The naked hulk alongside came, And the twain were casting dice; 'The game is done! I've won! I've won!' Quoth she, and whistles thrice," I was reminded of in Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest, when Will challenges Davy Jones to a game of Liar's Dice.  Will offers up his soul, an eternity of servitude aboard the Flying Dutchman, if Davy Jones gives him the key to the chest containing his heart, and then Will's father, Bootstrap Bill, matches Will's wager, to Will's dismay.  Bootstrap ends up losing, while Will is free to leave, but without the key.  Coleridge's poem reminded me of this scene in Pirates of the Caribbean as Death and Life-in-Death have a bet going: Death gets the crew, and Life-in-Death gets the mariner.

My Heart Leaps Up

"My heart leaps up when I behold a rainbow in the sky" are the opening lines in My Heart Leaps Up When I Behold by William Wordsworth, in which he depicts the excitement of childhood and how you should never let that excitement die, and also to always worship nature.  This short little lyric made me remember Relay for Life last year when we played with a giant parachute part way through the night, or this year when we played tug o' war and had potato sack races.  Around the time we read this poem, I went walking down by Skaha beach with a friend and we sat on the swings and had swinging contests, just like when we were children.  Even now that I am a young woman heading off to university next fall, whenever I see a rainbow, especially a double rainbow, or a cute puppy, I get excited, just as I did in my childhood!

Blog of Experience

In a poem from Songs of Experience, The Tiger, by William Blake, the topic of  the experienced versus the innocent is explored.  The Tiger, in the end, symbolizes the destructive forces and presence of evil in the world, as well as experience, unlike in The Lamb, which symbolizes innocence and naive hope.  The Tiger (and The Lamb) reminded me of playing Ultimate Frisbee with my brother, Chris, over the last couple of summers.  Chris has been playing Ultimate for many years, whereas I've only played a couple times, and so he was extrememly good and experienced, whereas I am still figuring out the ways of the sport and am inexperienced still.  Also, while reading this poem, as it asks the question, "Did he who made the Lamb make thee?" I thought of all the terrible, murderous, abusive people in our world, such as Robert Pickton, Adolf Hitler, Michael Vick, and many others.  In the poem, William Blake wonders if it was the same person who made the gentle lamb as the one who made the horrible tiger, which makes me think, as well.  How did abusive, murderous people come to be?  Were they simply created by a God or higher power to be evil so that others could really appreciate the good in the world after seeing the horrors?  Or was it events in the world that made them somehow lose their minds and become evil, shedding their innocence, to do wrong?

Blog of Innocence

For my English 12 independent novel study, I choose to read The Chrysalids by John Wyndham.  In this novel, the main character, David, and some of his friends and his little sister can communicate through their thoughts, but only over a short distance.  They are novice and quite innocent and inexperienced at the "think-together" ways, when compared with the "Sealand people", who all can communicate with their thoughts, whereas David and his friends are shunned for having this "deviation".  The "Sealand people" are more skilled and educated in the ways of thinking-together, and so while reading this novel and a Songs of Innocence poem, The Lamb, by William Blake, I made a connection.  In The Lamb, it describes, in simple language as it is from a child's perspective, the naive hopes and fears that riddle children's lives and trace their transformation as the child grows into an adult.  In The Chrysalids, David and his friend's innocence and naivete is followed throughout the beginning of the story, but then, as they grow older, they realize the adults' hatred of "deviation" and finally understand why they must flee for their lives when their ability to think-together is learned of.  The Lamb starts off with a question from the children to the lamb, asking "Little Lamb who made thee?" but then later the child answers his own question, making it a rhetorical one, but he manages to make it profound at the same time as naive.  The answer is simple about where the lamb came from, but it also taps into the timeless question that most humans have about the nature of creation, their own origins, and the possibility of a God.  David and his friends are said to not be in the "true image" of God by their own small town of people, but, further away in the world, it is said that those who cannot think-together are not part of the "true image".  And so the question is raised, kind of like in The Lamb, about one's origins, and how does one define who is the "true image" and who is not?

To Change the World

I volunteer weekly at the Penticton Regional Hospital as a Candy Striper, as well as raised pledge money for the Relay for Life. These two activities made me connect to Robert Burns' poem, "To a Mouse", as I have used my time to help others, rather than going to the mall with friends or going to watch a movie at the theatre. "In proving foresight may be vain: / The best laid schemes o' mice an' men / Gang aft agley," are lines from this poem which mean that even the best laid plans often go awry, and rings true with my volunteering at the hospital and for Relay for Life. The patients at the hospital who I visited did not choose to get sick and those who have gotten cancer did not choose to have this disease, and yet they do! They may have lived very healthy lifestyles, always eating right and exercising, but their plans to live long, healthy lives went askew when they found out they had cancer, or needed surgery, or were sick in some way. I volunteered my time, when I could've been doing other things, to raise money to help these victims of cancer or those who have been admitted to the hospital for some illness or the other.

Times Gone By

 

A few years ago, a very good friend of mine made me a DVD as a Christmas present with pictures of us and our group of friends over the past few months.  She also added in videos of us doing silly things and set it all to the songs Time of Your Life by Green Day and Photograph by Nickelback.  This reminds me of Auld Lang Syne by Robet Burns as both capture the remembrance of past times and friendships.  "Auld lang syne" itself means 'times gone by', and Burns' words "And there's a hand, my trusty fiere, and gie's a hand o' thine" is meaning 'and there is a hand, my trusty friend, and give us a hand of yours'.  I really like the meaning in these two quotes and in the whole poem, which is often played at New Year's, because, although times have passed you and things may have changed, there's always that trusted friend to count on, the one who you would help with anything, and, in return, would lend a hand to you, no matter what! 

Blog Written in a Modern Graveyard

"On some fond breast the parting soul relies, / Some pious drops the closing eye requires" are two very important lines from Thomas Gray's Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard, which describe how people, no matter who they are, want to be mourned when they die and they want to be remembered, somehow.  This reminds me of a ribbon I received at my great-grandma's funeral back in 2002 which says GRANDMOTHER on it, to always remind me of her.  And since then, every time I see it, I remember her and our family get-togethers and her wonderful Ukrainian cooking, and I remember all the good times we used to have, and I miss her!

Blog Written in an Urban Home

A little while before we took our class field trip to the graveyard, I had actually gone to take pictures in both that cemetary and the cemetary near the PENTICTON sign for my blog post about Holy Sonnet 6, so I had already recently experienced many of the same emotions I felt when we went to the graveyard as a class to read Thomas Gray's poem, Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard.  It was very sad seeing all the graves, especially the ones of the young children, or the men who died at war, and all those who had unfulfilled potentials.  Seeing the tombstone of the "Infant Daughter" who died at six months old I found extrememly sad because, one, she didn't even have a name yet, or, if she did, I wondered why her parents choose not to write it on her tombstone? And, two, because I just connected to that poor young couple who lost their daughter so soon after she was born back in 1916.  Just like in Gray's poem, everyone wants to be mourned and wants to be remembered when they die, but for how long was this little girl remembered?  Did her parents have other children before her and she was just an "accident"? Or, maybe she was their first child and after she passed away they never had another child? Maybe after she passed away her parents had a dozen more children and she was never thought of again? I wonder what she died from and, if in different circumstances, she would've lived and would've grown up to become a potential world-changer! I don't know whether her family was rich or poor, but, just as Gray wrote, "The path of glory lead but to the grave," meaning that everyone, even if you are rich, ends up the same: dead.  The thought that Death comes to everyone is a depressing thought, but also reassuring, in a way, for people who are not as fortunate or are unhappy with their lives for they know, one day, they will move on from this life.  Gray wrote about those who have unrealized potential, and I just hope that I will not die before I have achieved something of significance, something meaningful, showing how I fulfilled my potential!

A Modest Blog Post

Whenever I drive to Vancouver and we accidently take the long way through the city to get to the UBC campus, it sickens and saddens me to see all the homeless and drug-addicted people on East Hastings.  We read Johnathan Swift's A Modest Proposal, which addresses the topic of the starving people and the overpopulation in Ireland during the eighteenth century, which connects to cities in Canada and other countries these days, in a way.  Swift writes on the experience of when one "walk[s] through [a] great town or travel[s] in the country, [and] they see the streets, the roads, and cabin doors crowded with beggars."  Although he is reffering to Ireland in the eighteenth century, on East Hastings in Vancouver, the streets are covered in masses of people who probably haven't showered, eaten, or seen a clean needle in days or months!  They might not neccessarily have the problem of having an overpopulation of children, like in A Modest Proposal, but there is an overpopulation of homeless people.  The high rate of homeless people is due to many things, but just a few really stand out to me.  The fact that there are very few jobs for the uneducated, is one.  People would argue that people should then get an education so they can aquire a well-paying job, but I would argue that going to university, or even just college, is extrememly expensive and hard to pay for, especially if you do not have a job to earn money in the first place.  Being faced with trying to earn enough money to pay for my own university education for next year and the following years is quite stressful and difficult, and I come from a decently well-off family! I cannot imagine trying to go to college while being homeless and jobless! And then there's the reason that houses, or even apartments, are just too expensive these days.  I was watching a story on the news and a young couple living in Vancouver were being interviewed and they said that they wanted to start a family but couldn't afford a house in the area and the only apartment they could afford would be too small for children and they both had respected, well-paying jobs! I find it so shocking how scary-expensive things have gotten these days! And another reason for the high rate of homeless people, I think, is because of the easily accessible drugs.  Although drugs are illegal, people still easily get ahold of them, which I find disgusting and unneccessary.  Unless used for medicinal purposes, I don't see any reason for drugs to be in this world.  I feel that people can have a good time without them, and if you can't be happy or have fun without them, then something is very wrong with the world!

To the Ladies

My uncle walking with his son!










Lady Mary Chudleigh writes a testament, To The Ladies, telling women to "value [themselves], and men despise: You must be proud, if you'll be wise," meaning women should reject marriage if they value themselves.  She was a very intellectual woman, but was bitter because she was married at seventeen-years-old and lived in the countryside raising three children for the rest of her life.  One day I hope to be married and have children of my own once I am in my late twenties and have started my career.  We spoke in class about how women have to sacrifice career for family, but men can have both, and I agree with this to some extent.  Primarily, it is women who opt to care for their children in their infant years, but more and more these days, men are taking paternity leave so they can be the caregivers to their babies, which I think is amazing.  It takes two to tango, so I believe it should take both the mother and father to look after their young baby, as well.  After a baby has reached toddler years and is able to start playschool or preschool, I don't find anything wrong with a mother working, at least part time, or a home-based business would suffice.  I think women have fallen into the role of stay-at-home mother, which I am all for if that's what a woman chooses, but I like the changing times where there are now stay-at-home fathers, too!  It makes me happy when I see a father pushing a stroller down the street with his children riding along; proving that he's helping with the child-raising, as well, and it's not entirely left up to the mother these days!

The Trivial Delights of Mankind

We studied the poem, The Rape of the Lock, by Alexander Pope, in which a man cuts off a lock of hair from a woman's head and they have a big fight over it, and, in the end, the hair is immortalized in the stars by the Muse.  The theme of this poem is what mighty contests rise from trivial things, and Pope is attacking the shallow values and misplaced priorites of the upper classes in his mock epic.  Well-off people spend far too much time worrying about insignificant things and spend too much money on items that they don't neccessarily need, but purchase them just because they want them, such as Ipods, cell phones, laptops, and other electronic devices.  They spend money to redecorate and update their already lavishly furnished homes with expensive items that they won't actually use but are "just for show".  People, both nowadays and in previous times, spend too much time and money worrying about all the wrong things; they should really be worrying about all the poverty-stricken and homeless and sick people, rather than the little lock of hair that was cut from their head that will, in time, grow back, or the cell phone that's twice as much money as any other but this one "looks nicer".

To My Parents

During the King Lear unit, we spoke a lot about what we, as children and students, owe our parents, if anything.  In King Lear, Lear's daughters, Regan and Goneril, profess their love to him to gain his land, but later betray him and they feel they don't owe him anything.  But Cordelia, Lear's third daughter, refuses to tell him how much she loves him like her sisters do for she won't spew false words, and Lear banishes her, but, in the end, the King realizes how much she really does love him and what they owe each other.  I feel I owe my parents a lot, but maybe not quite everything.  They are the reason I was born and the reason I have turned out the way I have, for which I am thankful, but, somedays, I wish things had been different in my sheltered upbringing.  Overall though,I love my parents and owe them a lot for all the things they have done for my brother and I over the years.

Control Freak

We discussed the topic of people ruling over or controlling others, and I feel that, in some situations, people do have the right to rule over others.  If there were no rulers, the whole world would fall into utter chaos.  I believe people have the right to be respected when they request others to do something, within reason.  Leaders of countries, along with police and even teachers, have the right to control others to some extent, but not to dictate or abuse their powers.  Without some people controlling others, there would be no order to the world or organization, and our sophisticated cultures would break down.  I believe there needs to be some authoritative figures, but not dictators or complete controllers.  People still have free will, but most people will follow orders anyways out of respect, knowledge of consequences, and wanting to do the right thing for themselves, their community, and their world.

Paradise is Yet to be Lost

     This picture of an angel praying with a pretty flower reminds me of Paradise Lost by John Milton.  This symbol of praying and being devout beside something so elegant as a freshly-opened flower is like Heaven and the Garden of Eden.  In Paradise Lost, it tells of Satan who fell from Heaven and Adam and Eve who fell from the Garden of Eden.  All three were cast from their paradises after making choices with their free will.  I am glad for free will, to allow me to make my own choices.  Although there could be such thing as Fate, I believe we also help to control our destinies and that we have the power to change our future if we try very hard.  As we wrote in class in a free write about Fate and free will, I am starting to notice more events occuring around me that seem to be Fate.  The other day as I was going to meet some friends to go running by Okanagan Lake, my dad convinced me to quickly go over to London Drugs to look at a laptop.  We went in for about five minutes, and then he walked home and I drove down main street and was hit by an elderly lady trying to change lanes without shoulder checking.  This seems to me like something intended by Fate, for whatever reason, as I had already made plans to go running and did not, in the slightest, feel like going to the store, and yet, there I was with a scratched and dented car, talking to two elderly women who had just been going to the car wash.  Some things may happen by mere chance; some things happen because of our choices; others happen because of Fate.

No Man is an Island

     In Meditation 17, John Donne writes that "no man is an island entire of itself; every man is a piece of the continent, a part of the main"  I can really connect with this essay as I entirely agree that no person is entirely alone in life and that if something happens to one person, it effects everyone else, as well.  I have been fortunate enough in my life to have been blessed with very close friends and the people I work with have become a family to me.  I am thankful to have them all as I would not be able to be an island; I definitely need to be part of the continent.

Until Death Take Me

     In Holy Sonnet 6, John Donne is talking to Death and mocking it.  He says that "death shall be no more; Death thou shalt die" which is a paradox as death cannot die, and yet if you go to Heaven where there is no death, then death is gone and has died, so death shall die.  This passage really boggles my mind, and yet, at the same time, I understand it.  It's reassuring, in a sense, that after we die, we won't have to worry or even think about Death anymore for there will be no more Death.  "And soonest our best men with thee do go, rest of their bones, and soul's delivery" is the passage I find the saddest of the sonnet in which it speaks of the best people usually dying first.  I find this so true, and so sad, as it is often young, good people who fall prey to Death's friend, Sickness, such as cancer.  My grandmother on my father's side passed away from lung and breast cancer when I was just four-years-old; she was far too young to die.  One of my childhood friends died of cancer a couple years ago when she was just a young teenager.  I had fallen out of touch with her, but she was always so nice and was too young to have been taken by Death.

Carpe Diem

Just like in To The Virgins by Robert Herrick, I want to seize the day and make the most of the time I have on Earth.  I have already gone to Italy and Greece, as shown in the picture above of my best friend and I in Santorini, but visiting Scotland, Ireland, the Ukraine, and Poland are also on my bucket list.  As well as touring those countries from my heritage, I would like to foster and train a guide dog puppy to one day serve a visually-impaired person.  I would also like to get married somewhere tropical, such as this little vacation resort in the Maldives on right.  While at Candy Striping one day a few weeks ago, I saw this calendar with this beautiful picture on it and my dream to be married somewhere tropical with a pier and a short, flowing dress on, became even more real.  I want to be married somewhere with a pier so my new husband and I can jump off the end into the warm water just as the sun is setting.  Although all of my dreams may not be possible, I hope to one day be able to say I have accomplished them.

Make Much of Time

Robert Herrick was a cavalier poet who wrote To the Virgins, to Make Much of Time, with the main theme being carpe diem, or seize the day.  "Use your time; and while ye may, go marry" are lines from this poem meaning that you should take advantage of opportunites while you can, or they will be gone.  While at the fair, I went on a majority of the rides, but refused to go on the zipper.  Then a couple of my friends were going on it just after my boyfriend and his friend went on it, and so I gathered my courage, telling myself I wouldn't get another chance to go on the ride for probably another year or two, and I went on it the next time around with my boyfriend and then two of my girl friends in another cage.  I screamed for the majority of the ride and may have cried a little bit the few times I actually opened my eyes, but, afterwards, even though I will probably never go on that ride again, I was glad I summed up enough nerve to seize the opportunity of going on the zipper with mny friends....YOLO as some would say!

The Nymph's Blog

Sir Walter Raleigh's anti-pastoral poem, The Nymph's Reply to the Shepherd, is about a woman rejecting the promises of a man.  The speaker is being realistic about flowers fading, winter coming, feelings changing.  She says "But could youth last, and love still breed, / Had joys no date, nor age no need, / Then these delights my mind might move / To live with thee and be they love" meaning that youth doesn't last forever and times people and people change, but if there was no such thing as aging and there was no end to joyful youth, then they could be together, but, since people change with age, the pair just can't be together.  This poem is kind of like reality television, such as when on The Bachelor, Emily, whose first husband died in a plane accident, was chosen in the end to marry a man, but then things didn't work out and so she is now currently on The Bachelorette, trying to find love again.

The Passionate Blog

The Passionate Shepherd to His Love by Christopher Marlowe depicts the promises of a man to the woman he loves, and is an ideal, fantasy idea of a relationship.  This connects to many Disney movies, such as Cinderella, Pocahontas, Beauty and the Beast, Lady and the Tramp, and many others, for they are pastoral and idealistic, just like this poem.

Sonnet 130

Sonnet 130, by Shakespeare, is an "anti-petrarchan" poem, meaning it is not about the ideal but rather about a real woman and how the speaker loves her anyways.  Our gradnap day reminded me of this poem as the guys were truly scary-looking women, for "if hair be wires, black wires grow on [their] head[s]" and "music hath a far more pleasing sound" than their voices when they tried to be feminine.

Sonnet 116

    Oh no! It is an ever-fixed mark

That looks on tempests and is never shaken.

It is the start to every wandering bark,

Whose worth's unknown, although his height be taken.

     Sonnet 116 is about how true love is constant.  This passage from Sonnet 116 refers to how love is fixed like the North Star.  It also tells how it is the star to every wandering bark, or ship, meaning that love guides you when you don't know where to go.  And, lastly, it tells that you can never measure true love's worth, for it does not have a price.

Sonnet 29

     This is the lark which represents the volta in Sonnet 29.  At the start, the speaker is wallowing in his misery and he believes that life sucks, but then he thinks about the person he loves and his perspective rises like a bird, for he wouldn't trade places with a king, as he realizes his life isn't that awful after all.

Whoso List to Hunt

    In Whoso List to Hunt, the poet, Thomas Wyatt, is in love with a woman, Anne Boleyn, who he chases like a deer on the hunt.  But he cannot have the woman, for she belongs to Henry VIII.

Renaissance Artists

     The Renaissance, which means "rebirth", began in Italy, just like where these masks came from.  The five main Renaissance artists and poets were Michaelengelo, Petrarch, Leonaro, Donatello, and Raphael.