Reflective Essay By Jessica Chen :D

    I had written lots of blogs this year that i am amazed about after reading them back. I never thought of myself to talk about my past so much on my blogs. I thought writing blogs was fun and it was a way for me to not hide myself to the outside world.After posting blogs this year, I felt that writing blog was fun because it was a good way for me to show people who i am and tell them about the obstacles i went through.

Overall this year of posting up blogs, i believe that one of my favorite post that i had posted this year was about My Life with Violin/Viola. I think that this post may had took me the longest to write because it gave me lots of thinking about what my life was all about. My inspiration for writing this post was the thought of of my past. Before playing music, I was a really quiet and shy girl who did not know how to express myself. I was not the energetic and joyful girl as I am now.The face that I could always give out to the people surrounding me was hatred because i came from really strict parents. When i was little, my mom would scream at me when i get one math problem wrong on my math test or even when my writings are too ugly. The expression i always give to people make them feel that i am out of reached. Until i met my world of music where i actually felt something and learned to express myself more. Writing this post really brought me to tears because i actually realize how much an impact music had gain to me.

Looking back to my post from My life with Violin/Viola brought me a surprise looking at the growth i had from my past.“She screams at anyone that doesn't know how to play twinkle twinkle little star. It was my luck that I remember my fingering to play that song.”“I was able to teach young musicians all the things I learned over the past five to six years. I was proud to be a music teacher and because I get paid :D”This post really amazed me about what i had gone through that made me who i am now. Music was important and i felt that i had made lots of improvements over these past years. Although, there were lots of stress and stopping points over this past year, I now find it worth it for what i gone through. Reading this blog really made me think a lot about what my life is all about. I started from a little girl who learned how to play twinkle twinkle little star into a teacher who teach young ones how to play complicated music from composers like Bach, Beethoven, and Mendelson. Music turned me into a more smarter and stronger person. After rereading this blog, it really inspire to cherish my past music life that I had gone through and what I am doing now. Currently, i am focusing on my studying with piano and i will cherish it. Hopefully I will write a blog about it someday.

             Blogging was a lot of fun. I never tried it up until this year. Although I had opened some earlier accounts on tumblr, i had no idea on how to blog. At the beginning, I thought blogging was hard, however now i am getting better and better with blogging. Good thing we learned how to this year :D I felt that blogging was a really great way to express myself. I mentioned that playing music express myself, however putting up blogs is my second choice when i have to express myself. I really enjoy reading the comments that are commented by readers in my blogging. Some comments that inspired me was a comment from a stranger who said that i did a really good job with talking about the character on the House on Mango Street. She or he thought my ideas were really creative. Also, I like looking at my stats knowing how many people had read my blogs and the places in the world that reads it. I was surprised when i found out that I had a lot of my blog viewers from Russia. I never thought that Russian people likes to read blogs i post. Blogging had changed the way i think about writing because now i find my writings to have more freedom. I could write whatever i feel like writing. Blogging is all about freedom to me where i can talk about my recent status and other past experience i would like to keep as memories. Making a blog had been a good way for me to actually show people my mood when i write a blog. There are always transitions with my mood and I like how people can actually know my mood from reading my blogs. Some examples would be from my vignettes where i talked mostly about my past memories and life.

Usually when I write a blog, I get my topics from thinking about my past. I always try to focus my blogs on writing about my life. I think that the reason I talk about my life on my blog is because I want to tell people about my life experience and for me to remember my past before I forget. One of my vignette I took in deep thoughts about my life.“Don’t talk back to me ! says Mama. She slapped my face so hard, it was red. My face was as red as the color of a red apple. Drops of tears were coming down my face like it was raining. My mom rush towards her room and shut the door as if someone was chasing her.” This is one of the quote where i talked about my past. This slap from my mom was not a bad thing because it taught me the lesson to not talk back to my parents and elders. I went through lots of obstacles through my life and I want to remember every single one of them. Writing a blog about it will stay there forever where i can read it anytime. Also, I like to share people about my past, so they would get to know me better. There were many tears that i had from my past and it shaped who i am now.The reason i start writing blogs is because Mr. Sutherland assigned this as homework, however after starting writing blogs, i realized that posting blogs is a fun thing to do. Starting writing blogs had inspired me to start writing other non academic blogs on other websites like tumblr and blogspot. I had gain more followers then usual.

             My goal for next semester is to write more blogs. I feel that i wrote too less blogs this year. I believe that if i wrote more blogs then i would receive more viewers that i can check from my stats. It is important to me that i would get more readers because that shows that people actually care about what i write. In order for more readers, I will write more interesting topics. Another goal for me is to expand my writing topics more. I do not want people to read my blogs just all about my life. I feel that it would be more entertaining for me to talk about other things other than my life.

Final draft For the Last Song :D

The Last Song       

       In the book, The Last Song by Nicholas Sparks describes a main character named Ronnie who has a family with divorced parents. Ronnie’s life was hard for her to face. She dislike how her parents are separated and she tries her best to ignore the fact that her parents are divorced. She was a talented pianist but after her parents divorced, she lost her confidence and gave up her talent in playing piano. Ronnie did not have any goals in her life, so she can not think about her future.

“ And Ronnie doesn’t always come with us. She locks herself in her room and refuses to come out, but as soon as we leave, she goes over to Starbucks to hang out with her friends. It makes mom furious.” (pg 27)

Ronnie does not like to interact with her family. There must be problems going on with her family that causes her to ignore her family. She tries to pretend they do not even exist. Because her routines of locking herself in her room, it made her mom curious about Ronnie’s life. Her past had impacted her lots when it comes to talking to her family. Ronnie finds that it would be better if she stays separate from her family so then she can get away from the problems that her parents are giving out.  Ronnie understands that it is hard to talk to her family,so then the best thing for her to do is to replace her family with her friends. She had many difficulties after her parents had divorced, she had tried shoplifting and other things that caused her to be in a huge amount of troubles. Her problems worsened more and more as she visited the police station more often.

Her parents’ divorce had impacted her a lot where it turns her from being a talented pianist into a girl that had lost confidence in herself. She is basically stuck in a dead end. She could have been in a destined road where she could have a better life. A life that she wants. She just can not accept the fact that her parents are divorced because she came from a family with a dad who is a pianist who she thought were in love. His dad had taught her a lot about music and the piano, however it seems like now that her parents are divorced, she hates her dad. She was able to enter to one of the top music schools called Julliard, however she rejected them. Ronnie feels that playing piano just reminds her the hatreds she has with her dad. She thinks it is all her dad’s fault for the divorce because his dad left the family behind to chase his dreams as a pianist. Ronnie may seem strong in the outside,but she is actually a really weak girl that needs help.

The Last Song by Nicholas Sparks is an inspirational book because it brings out tears to readers. After reading this book, I felt that the author had lots of purposes in writing this book. One of his purpose was to convince readers that parents are really important and they should spend more time with them before they leave them alone in their world.

   Ronnie ignored his dad for three years and when she tried spending time with him or forgive him, his dad had gotten cancer and was about to die. After she found out her dad had cancer, she realized that she only had a few months with him. Ronnie tried her best to be close to her dad.

   “ I played for him as long as I could, mom. And I tried so hard to make it beautiful for him, because I knew how much it meant to him. But he was just so weak,” she whispered.” ( pg 448)

Ronnie regretted for not forgiving her dad earlier enough or even gave her dad a chance to explain what was going on within those three years. After she found out the truth about why her parents divorced and she realized that it wasn’t her dad’s fault, her mind was full of regrets. She really wanted her dad back where she can play more piano music for him. Ronnie showed that she was missing him very much and wish that none of this would had happen.

   The author tried to tell readers to appreciate their parents because they will leave some times in life and they may not see them again. Ronnie was an example where she was mad at her dad and when she was finally forgiving her dad, she knew it was to late. Her dad was about to leave her world. I believe the author did a really good job with integrating this purpose into the book because at the end, readers were able to learn the concept of appreciating parents after reading the scenes of how Ronnie and his dad tried to spend as much time with each other as they could but they knew it wasn’t just enough. After reading this book, the message had brought readers to understand how important it is to care for their family and spend more time with them.

After reading this book, I believe that the author wrote this book for teens because it seems like the author was trying to teach teens a lesson. This book had a bit of a romance and brought in some sadness because of the dad’s death. I am one of the teens that really like this book because this book had gave me a lot of emotion like sometimes i would feel sad, happy, and excited to read the next part. This author really knows how to give out life lessons and bring in tears to teens or any readers. I will read another book by this author again sometime because i feel that the author knows how to teach lessons and brings in entertainments :D

I recommend people to really read this book !

Peer Review Comments !

Cameron : Hey Cameron, I think you did a really good job with your book review. Although, there are some redundancy in some parts. Your blog post had attracted me to read this someday. This book seems very interesting and complicated to read. The quotes are hard for me to understand, however you did a good job explaining and relating to it.  This book seems like a good book for anyone to read if they want to learn or know more about life. The last suggestion that I want to give you is as if you want to expand your ideas more, but everything else are well done already :D

Kasia : She did not have any new blog post updated and i commented on her last one already.

Beatrice : She also did not have any new blog post updated.

Ashli : Hey ashli, your book review was really good. A suggestion for you may be that you could actually add more commentaries to your quote. Your book sounds fun to read. I like how you gave a biography in your blog post, so i would know what the book is actually about. The book sounds like its a really good book and very interesting. The ending should be more detailed. other than that your book post is awesome :D

Adralyn : Hey Adralyn, I really enjoyed reading your book post. I liked how you gave a full summary about your book. A suggestion from me for you is that you should give out some quotes and commentaries to your book post. The book post would be better if you apply some quotes onto there. Your blog post makes me want to read that book. There are some grammar issues but everything else is good :D

Rough draft The Last Song

The Last Song       

In the book The Last Song by Nicholas Sparks describes the main character named Ronnie who has a family with divorced parents. Ronnie’s life was hard for her to face. She dislike how her parents are separated and she tries her best to ignore the fact that her parents were divorced. She was a talented pianist but after her parents divorced, she lost her confidence and gave up playing the piano. Ronnie did not have any goals in her life, so she can not think about her future.

“ And Ronnie doesn’t always come with us. She locks herself in her room and refuses to come out, but as soon as we leave, she goes over to Starbucks to hang out with her friends. It makes mom furious.” (pg 27)

Ronnie does not like to interact with her family. There must be problems going on with her family that causes her to ignore her family. She tries to pretend they do not even exist. Because her routines of locking herself in her room, it made her mom curious about her life. Her past had impacted her lots when it comes to talking to her family. Ronnie finds that it would be better if she stays separate from her family so then she can get away from the problems in her family.  Ronnie understands that it is hard to talk to her family,so then the best thing for her to do is to replace her family with her friends. She had many difficulties after her parents had divorced, she had tried shoplifting and other things that caused her to be in many troubles.

Her parents’ divorce had impacted her a lot where it turns her from being a talented pianist into a girl that lost confidence in themselves. She is basically stuck in a dead end. She just can not accept the fact that her parents are divorced because she came from a family with a dad who is a pianist. His dad had taught her a lot about music and the piano however it seems like now that her parents are divorced, she hates her dad. She thinks it is all her dad’s fault for the divorce because his dad left the family behind to chase his dreams as a pianist. Ronnie may seem strong in the outside,but she is actually a really weak girl that needs help.

The Last Song by Nicholas Sparks is an inspirational book because it brings out tears to readers. After reading this book, I felt that the author had lots of purposes in writing this book. One of his purpose was to convince readers that parents are really important and they should spend more time with them before they leave them alone in their world.

   Ronnie ignored his dad for three years and when she tried spending time with him or forgive him, his dad had gotten cancer and was about to die. After she found out her dad had cancer, she realized that she only had a few months with him. Ronnie tried her best to be close to her dad.

   “ I played for him as long as I could, mom. And I tried so hard to make it beautiful for him, because I knew how much it meant to him. But he was just so weak,” she whispered.” ( pg 448)

Ronnie regretted for not forgiving her dad earlier enough or even gave her dad a chance to explain what was going on within those three years. After she found out the truth about why her parents divorced and she realized that it wasn’t her dad’s fault, her mind was full of regrets. She really wanted her dad back where she can play more piano music for him. Ronnie showed that she was missing him very much and wish that none of this would had happen.

   The author tried to tell readers to appreciate their parents because they will leave some times in life and they may not see them again. Ronnie was an example where she was mad at her dad and when she was finally forgiving her dad, she knew it was to late. Her dad was about to leave her world. I believe the author did a really good job with integrating this purpose into the book because at the end, readers were able to learn the concept of appreciating parents after reading the scenes of how Ronnie and his dad tried to spend as much time with each other as they could but they knew it wasn’t just enough. After reading this book, the message had brought readers to understand how important it is to care for their family and spend more time with them.

Drops of Tears, The Last Song

    The Last Song by Nicholas Sparks is an inspirational book because it brings out tears to readers. After reading this book, I felt that the author had lots of purposes in writing this book. One of his purpose was to convince readers that parents are really important and they should spend more time with them before they leave them alone in their world.

    Ronnie ignored his dad for three years and when she tried spending time with him or forgive him, his dad had gotten cancer and was about to die.

    “ I played for him as long as I could, mom. And I tried so hard to make it beautiful for him, because I knew how much it meant to him. But he was just so weak,” she whispered.” ( pg 448)

Ronnie regretted for not forgiving her dad earlier enough or even gave her dad a chance to explain what was going on within those three years. After she found out the truth about why her parents divorced and she realized that it wasn’t her dad’s fault, her mind was full of regrets. She really wanted her dad back where she can play more piano music for him. Ronnie showed that she was missing him very much and wish that none of this would had happen.

    The author tried to tell readers to appreciate their parents because they will leave some times in life and they may not see them again. Ronnie was an example where she was mad at her dad and when she was finally forgiving her dad, she knew it was to late. Her dad was about to leave her world. I believe the author did a really good job with integrating this purpose into the book because at the end, readers were able to learn the concept of appreciating parents after reading the scenes of how Ronnie and his dad tried to spend as much time with each other as they could but they knew it wasn’t just enough. After reading this book, the message had brought readers to understand how important it is to care for their family and spend more time with them.

Ronnie,The Last Song

In the book The Last Song by Nicholas Sparks describes the main character named Ronnie who has a family with divorced parents. She dislike how her parents are separated and she tries her best to ignore the fact that her parents were divorced. She was a talented pianist but after her parents divorced, she lost confidence in herself and gave up piano.

“ And Ronnie doesn’t always come with us. She locks herself in her room and refuses to come out, but as soon as we leave, she goes over to Starbucks to hang out with her friends. It makes mom furious.” (pg 27)

Ronnie does not like to interact with her family. There must be problems going on with her family that causes her to ignore her family. She tries to pretend they do not even exist. Because her routines of locking herself in her room, it made her mom curious about her life. Her past had impacted her lots when it comes to talking to her family. Ronnie finds that it would be better if she stays separate from her family so then she can get away from the problems in her family.  Ronnie understands that it is hard to talk to her family,so then the best thing for her to do is to replace her family with her friends. She had many difficulties after her parents had divorced, she had tried shoplifting and other things that caused her to be in many troubles.

Her parents’ divorce had impacted her a lot where it turns her from being a talented pianist into a girl that lost confidence in themself. She is basically stuck in a dead end. She just can not accept the fact that her parents are divorced because she came from a family with a dad who is a pianist. His dad had taught her a lot about music and the piano however it seems like now that her parents are divorced, she hates her dad. She thinks it is all her dad’s fault for the divorce because his dad left the family behind to chase his dreams as a pianist. Ronnie may seem strong in the outside,but she is actually a really weak girl that needs help.

Lets talk about Guitars ! :D

Reading all these vignettes that my classmates had wrote, I found out that there was a pattern in some of the vignettes that strucked me. I realize that some of the vignettes have the same pattern just like Christy, Fermin, and David where they all talked about guitars.

Many of us have talents that were not revealed until our later age. Christy is an example because she found her talent later on in her life. She found her talent and she has the passion to keep going.  

“After a year I decided to buy a guitar. My first guitar was absolutely stunning. Jet black body that shined in the light. The light colored wooded neck fits in my palm perfectly. I know that the first strum would last forever.”

Christy found her talent and she knows that she will have it forever. Her talent was playing the guitar and the way she describes the guitar is really descriptive. This shows she love her guitar and love her own talent.

    Fermin is just like Christy because they both like to mention about guitars.

“Playing Bass is my favorite thing to do in my free time. And of course, it is my all time favorite hobby. In my family, I happen to play bass and also so does my godfather.  But, there is a big difference, He has been playing bass guitar for about 15 years and I’ve been playing for only 4 months, a huge difference.”

Fermin found his talent too and it is to play guitar just like Christy. They both are beginners on the guitar. They develop a pattern where they both mention about guitars. They both believe that guitars are their favorites and will keep going throughout their life. Guitars are mention both of their vignettes.

David also mentioned about guitar in his vignettes. Although he did not talk about how guitar is one of his talents, he mentioned about it. They all have an interest in guitar so that is why they mention about guitars in their vignettes. I think that finding our own talents is really important and I am happy that Fermin and Christy found their talents.