15 - Taylor L. - What do you want to be remembered as?

Word Count: 285

Legacy is of such significance as it is permanent. People come and go, but the impact they created will always be remembered in one way or another. Legacies are important because they represent an individual’s livelihood, accomplishments, or memory. Many individuals try to influence their legacies and leave behind an adequate legacy.

  Legacies can be summed up in just a few words. Oftentimes, examples of this are shown on tombstones with the deceased being commemorated with words or descriptions. Professions, passions, and family are commonly written on tombs. Overall, they represent what you were known for whether that was being a loving mother or father, a war hero/soldier, or a certain individual. 

  Legacies speak volumes in regards to a person’s character. It can show how much the individual put work and effort in different aspects of their life to achieve different goals. It can also represent a person’s personality, specifically certain characteristics and traits like kindness or drive. 

  In reference to myself, I have thought a fair amount as to what I want my legacy to be. I want to be remembered as an individual who was always reliable, driven, and successful. I hope I’ll be able to reflect proudly on my academic career and be able to be described as a college graduate. I also want to be remembered as someone who is adventurous and fun, that seeks to bring happiness to everyone around them.

  “What do you want to be remembered as?” is a question that I will continue to ask myself and will continue to influence my decisions in life. I work extremely hard to set myself up for success and hope my achievements will later be recognized in my legacy.

  

15 -Emily G: Supermarket Realizations

    Growing up, I endured a lot of grief. I watched family members slowly meet terms with a long life well-lived and even watched some of the closest people come to the defeation of health struggles. I was young and frankly uneducated in the world of death, and this often placed me in a position of being unaware of complicated ideas. 

I did not understand the concept of a legacy until an old lady in the supermarket expressed her sympathy toward me as I was buying flowers for my grandma's funeral; this old lady didn't know it but she introduced me to the true meaning of legacies, as she told me ‘there would be an abundance of legacy waiting to overtake me’. I asked my mom about what this exactly meant, and me, being ten years old and battling the grief I felt, my mom gently handed me my grandma's necklace and told me it is the representation of my grandma’s legacy. 

I have held onto this necklace for years and it has become a staple in my belongings. I also include a rosary my grandma granted to me hanging from my rearview mirror in my car, knowing she is there protecting me, as well as God. 

The word legacy can mean multiple different things to individuals; it can be tangible items retrieved from loved ones, and/or intangible concepts such as personality traits passed down from those have passed. My grandma left both. 

Word Count: 243

Enza C - 15 - Full Speed Ahead

    I absolutely love roller coasters. The first roller coaster I ever went on is now far lost in my little childhood brain. I love the suspense the roller coaster makes; hearing the *click* *click* *click* as the ride drives to the top, ready to blast off and drop into the unknown. Roller coasters absolutely scare me, but that’s what I love about them. The unknownness of what will happen next thrills me to no end. The unfamiliar feeling of my insides being scrambled around makes me want to experience that ride over and over and over again. 

    My favorite roller coasters are the super fast, super old, wooden ones. You can feel every crack and turn the old tracks carry as your ribs are being smashed by the sides of the cars due to the amount of force and speed that the roller coaster holds. The wooden coasters take you up a hundred feet and sometimes, there is a nice little relaxing cruise that the ride supplies. One where you can see the entire park and a bit beyond, where the warm setting sun hits your face just right and you get a breath of free, crisp air. The colors in the dawning sky dance around you and make you calm down before the next drops and adventures arrive. 

    When I first used to ride roller coasters I would close my eyes super tight, grip the bars very tightly, and hold my breath until the ride was completely over.  Scared to fall out of my seat or get hurt, and possibly forever change my life for the negative. However, now when I ride the ride, I'm at peace. Being scared of the ride won't stop the ride from crashing or destroying so you might as well calm down, enjoy the ride, and have the most fun that you can. 

    I can't wait until this summer so I can spend hours and hours at parks such as Santa Cruz or Knott’s Berry Farm and ride more roller coasters and feel that joy and nostalgic euphoria once again.  

Word counter - 346

15 - Kayla R. - Growing Through Change

 Growing Through Change

Everyday we endure small and big changes within our lives. Whether they are detrimental, or unnoticeable, they affect us in some way. 

Even if we don’t always welcome change nor find it necessary to our lives, it is crucial to our growth. With change comes new experiences, and with this we are able to grow and learn more about ourselves and others. 

Change isn’t always easy or positively enacted, but each outcome brings you to your greater, truer self. Change brings the opportunity to try or do something you have never done before. Forcing this new reaction causes you to think about your actions in a different, unusual circumstance. This ultimately leads to your own personal growth while also gathering numerous opportunities for yourself. 

Even in small changes, we find ourselves and our lives becoming more lively. We are shown new perspectives, and we learn new lessons. Change doesn’t always get the credibility though, and many times we don’t realize the benefits we receive until we truly reflect on the change we endured. 

Regardless of its numerous outcomes, I would choose change over the same any day. Changes that I personally have endured have allowed me to grow into a person that I am much more proud of than I have ever been before. Changes have shown me who I truly am as a person, as well as the true colors of those around me. My changes have brought me numerous opportunities that would have lain dormant before. 

Who I am today can wholeheartedly be put to blame on the changes I have experienced. Both the good and bad have shaped me to be the truest version of myself. Through my changes I have found my people, my passions, my serenity, and myself. 

Word Count: 293

15-Ella Draper- Get Free

 Get Free 

 

 Word count:440

The vintage stylings and poetic lyricism used throughout Lana Del Rey’s songs make me admire her as an artist and person. Her song, “Get Free” is what I believe to be one of the strongest songs lyrically of this century so far.  

Get Free is essentially a song where Lana vows to rid herself and her life of any unnecessary darkness. The message of this song is just as important as how the message is told throughout this song. 

Lana opens the song with, “Finally… I’m crossing the threshold, from the ordinary world to the reveal of my heart”. This opens the gate for her listeners to hear her in a new perspective. One that leads listeners to Lna’s inner thoughts. 

In the first verse Lana writes, “Take the dead out of the seas and the darkness out of the arts: This is my commitment, my modern manifesto”. She takes such articles of light and joy, and promises to take the hurt, and darkness out of them. Her claiming this as her “modern manifesto” means that she is on a mission to carry out these duties until all the duties are finished. Meaning in this stance, she will be taking darkness out of the light until there is no more darkness left to be removed. 

Colors can represent light and darkness and Lana uses this in her chorus when she sings, “ I wanna move out of the black, into the blue”. We as people associate many things with color, especially moods. Black for many represents shadow, hurt, and isolation, whereas blue is widely associated with things that bring joy such as the ocean and the sky. This line adds a great contrast between the two moods we have been introduced to in this song. 

  My favorite line in this song is, “sometimes it feels like I’ve got a war in my mind, I want to get off, but I keep riding the ride”. This line acknowledges how hard it is to stand up to the darkness and hurt in life. We as humans become more comfortable with darkness in out lives because we find it harder to discard that darkness than to live with it. This is exactly why Lana wrote this song to begin with. 

This song has taught me many lessons in the formative years of my high school time. Lana is portraying in this song that although it may be difficult, ridding your life of its darkness, will allow you to live to your fullest potential in a joyous light. Proving that the pursuit of happiness is long road, but one worth a difficult travel.

15- Trevor O: Moving Again

 

On the first day of fourth grade, I was excited and happy to see all of my friends again. The way my elementary school was set up, every student had the same teacher and class for both third and fourth grade, so I basically knew what to expect and already had a close group of friends on my first day. For the most part, my school year wasn’t much different from the last and was fairly ordinary. In class, we learned basic math and science, and we learned about the missions and the gold rush. At lunch, I would eat our school’s brand-new cafeteria and then play wiffle ball or trade Pokémon cards with my friends.  

Most of my school year was fairly ordinary and boring. The highlight of that school year was probably when my class and all the other fourth grade classes went on a multi-day field trip to this state park up north that was a large center for gold mining during the gold rush.

Everything seemed to be going good and I really enjoyed the new campus our school had moved to and the friends I had in my class. But then, towards the end of the year, around March or April, my mom told me and my sister that this would be our last year at that school and that we would be moving again, this time to Vacaville, which is a whole hour away from where we used to live. I was pretty shocked to say the least and while I was at first excited at the thought of moving somewhere new, I quickly lost that excitement when I realized that meant I would have to change schools and make new friends again. On the last day of fourth grade, I signed my friends’ yearbooks, and they signed mine as we said our goodbyes. I stayed in touch with some people from my fourth-grade class for a little bit, but quickly fell out of touch with them.

Word Count: 333

15- Vivi L- The year I don't remember

 

When I first thought about this topic, I could not remember a single thing from fourth grade. I thought about it for a while and continued trying to figure out why this was, it was to the point that I could not even remember my 4th-grade teacher’s name. While this could just be due to the fact that I was in fourth grade eight years ago. I noticed one big event that occurred during 2015, my fourth-grade year, my brother passing away.

I believe that because of this traumatic event, my mind blocked off most of my fourth-grade year, as I was so focused on my loss, that I did not have time to be a normal fourth grader. I learned in my psychology class this year that it is very common and easy for this to occur. 

Some people would assume that due to how long ago this grade was, I simply just forgot, but I have absolutely no recollection of anything from that year in school. What convinces me of my theory is that I can remember details even back to kindergarten so what caused me to so easily forget everything from that year?

However, looking back, I do not think I would want to remember my fourth-grade year. Knowing that the year was packed with trauma, family drama, and missing constant school, I am glad I have no memories of that year. Not to mention, I was extremely bullied at the school I had been going to at the time.

WORD COUNT 253 of 1564