Summer Reflection

This summer I went to Salem, MA, California and a parkour class. I landed a job at the Park Avenue Armory and many other things that mostly include reading, relaxing or swimming. In this post I will be mostly focusing on how I felt during the performance where I was playing Ann Lee.

We would be in a room, sitting there and just waiting to go on. Sometimes we would wait for an hour, doing nothing. To start off with, it was fun. I played cards, I had extra time for reading. Then I would get to go out and do my performance. I had to be SUPER slow. All my movements, all my words. It was like a whole new world. I got to see thing more slowly, more clearly. I was performing pretty much the same thing each time and I was out for about ten minutes at a time.  It was great. Until that fatal day. It was maybe the seventh or eighth shift I’d had. It finally set in that I was going to be doing the same thing, almost all summer. From then on I was bored. I sat in the dressing room and just sat and sat and sat. I would go out and do the same thing with maybe a slight variation here and there. It was excruciating. I was so bored! Then, just as soon as it started, it stopped. Looking back on it, I probably could have done things to make it more interesting. But I didn’t. And now it’s over.

 

Salem

Cry Innocent

Cry Innocent

Salem, Massachusetts is just as great as last summer. I went with my mom, Kate Borows-Lai, and her mom. We were there for 4 nights and we had a great time. I guess I should explain what Salem is famous for. In 1692, a bunch of little girls became a bit crazy and accused some women in the town of being witches. Of course, we look back on it now and think,”That’s crazy! There’s no such thing as witches!” But, the people of Salem believed them. In the end 19 people were hung and 1 man was pressed to death. 3 died in prison, including 4 year old Dorcas Good, daughter of the later hung, Sarah Good. Later, some of the accusers admitted that they were just having fun and apologized. I find it a really interesting time in history, but I hope that it never happens again. We went to a LOT of museums. My favorite was Cry Innocent: The People vs. Bridget Bishop. It’s a reenactment of Bridget Bishop’s witch trial. They lock Bridget Bishop(the actor) up and give someone the key. I got to hold the key! He asked me if I could be trusted. My favorite place to eat was called The Ugly Mug. It’s a diner and I got “The Elvis.” It’s a waffle with peanut butter cups baked in and it had bacon and whipped cream on top. It also had bananas, but I passed. All together, yum!

The Elvis

The Elvis

 

The accused witches

The accused witches

Parkour

Today I went to the Brooklyn Zoo! I know, it sounds like a place you keep animals, right? Well, it’s not. It’s actually a gym. Sort of. There are lots of structures you can hop around on and vault over and hang from. It’s for parkour. Parkour comes from the French word that means “by running.” It actually consists of vaulting and jumping and rolling and things like that. I jumped off a landing that was around 8 feet high into a pit of foam. I learned how to do vaults like the speed vault and safety vaults. I had a lot of fun and I can’t wait to do it again.

Part of the gym.

Part of the gym.

That's the foam pit!

That’s the foam pit!

Speed vault.

Speed vault.

Parkour

Parkour

 

Ann Lee

The Park Avenue Armory has show on called “H {N)Y P N(Y} OSIS” It is all the works of the artist Phillepe Parreno. One of his works is a Manga(Japanese comics.) character, named Ann Lee. Phillepe and his friend, Pierre Huyghe bought the character Manga character and made her an animated character. They made her speak in art videos . Then, Phillepe Parreno decided to have her come to life. In the show, she (actors portraying her) walks around and talks to people. I am on of the Ann Lees. It has been really cool so far. I have met lot’s of people I would never meet and seen all kinds of art I would never see. Yay! So exciting!

 

Some of the marquees in the show.

Some of the marquees in the show.

Phillepe Parreno and the exhibit being constructed.

Phillepe Parreno and the exhibit being constructed.

The Ann Lee art video.

The Ann Lee art video.

Summer Reading

By John Green

By John Green

By Carolyn Meyer

By Carolyn Meyer

By Lauren Myracle

By Lauren Myracle

By I.W. Gregorio

By I.W. Gregorio

By Sarah Dessen

By Sarah Dessen

By Lauren Myracle

By Lauren Myracle

By Sarah Dessen

By Sarah Dessen

By Phyllis Renolds Naylor

By Phyllis Reynolds Naylor

By Megan Shull

By Megan Shull

By Raina Teligmyer

By Raina Telgemeier

Rosalyn Schanzer

By Rosalyn Schanzer

Book 1 and 2. By Marjane Satrapi

By Marjane Satrapi (Book 1 and 2)

By Jennifer Roy

By Jennifer Roy

By Paula J. Freedman

By Paula J. Freedman

By Tim Federle

By Tim Federle

By Wendy Mass

By Wendy Mass

By David Levithan

By David Levithan

By Rainbow Rowell

By Rainbow Rowell

By Trenton Lee Stewert

By Trenton Lee Stewert

By Lauren Barnholdt

By Lauren Barnholdt

By Wendy Mass

By Wendy Mass

By Leslie Margolis

By Leslie Margolis

By Leslie Margolis

By Leslie Margolis

By Danielle Paige

By Danielle Paige

Hero Essay

Heroes are people who demonstrate kindness, positivity, and a solution oriented mind. When someone is in need, a hero is kind. When there is fear, a hero is positive and supportive of others. When someone is in trouble, a hero is solution oriented and gets them through. While the ancient hero Ulysses displayed ego and other un-heroic qualities, Kate Borows-Lai, my classmate, always strives for compassion whenever she can.

While in the book “The Adventures of Ulysses” by Bernard Evslin, Ulysses shows some heroic qualities, overall, he lacks what it takes to be a hero. Ulysses is not a hero because he was cruel to his men and other people. He stabbed Polyphemus and taunted him, stayed with Circe for too long and betrayed his wife, and came crawling back to Aeolus, asking for more help. On page 26, Ulysses said to Polyphemus, “Poor fool! Poor blinded, drunken, gluttonous fool- if anyone else asks you, it is not Nobody, but Ulysses who blinded you!” In this quote, it shows that Ulysses not only taunted Polyphemus, but he also wasn’t helpful to a being in trouble. Ulysses shouldn’t be remembered as a hero, but Kate should.

Kate Borows-Lai displays all of the qualities that a hero should have. She is kind to her friends and even strangers, positive when no one else is, and solution oriented to help people in trouble. One time, when I had an audition for a really important part, I couldn’t figure out a way to remember my lines. Kate decided that she was going to help me learn my lines and she gave up her recess to help me. This shows that she is kind and generous and also solution oriented. I think that one day, Kate will be doing good things for the world.

Heather Brandstetter is a hero in many different ways. She comes in and teaches us everyday and even when we are misbehaving, she is kind and helpful. Whenever we are learning about things that aren’t right in the world, she tells us she wants to help too. When we were learning about Malala, Heather said that she wants to be like Malala. She wants to help girls all over the world who can’t go to school. This shows that she is kind enough to take notice of the things that are going on. She inspired me to do good things in my life.

If there were no heroes, then we wouldn’t have anyone to model ourselves after. We would all try to be good on our own, but then we would end up doing bad things in our lives. We should take after our heroes in the good things they do. We should all be inspired by our heroes. They’re not heroes if we are not inspired by them. But, you shouldn’t just think of someone that is your friend’s hero. You should pick someone who is special to you. Someone who inspires you. Heroes are people who demonstrate kindness, positivity, and a solution oriented.

 

Discovery Day

On Discovery Day I went to Coney Island and went to the beach. We also rode the rides. It was really fun, even though I was to short to go on the Cyclone. (Did you know that you have to be 54 inches to go on the Cyclone? So upsetting.)

My Website!

We made websites in d.lab! It was really fun, because I’ve never done anything like it before. I’m not very good at coding, but I think my website turns out really well. I’m proud of how it reflects on me and the things that I like.

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