Lately I've been thinking about a lot of decisions that I'm going to have to make in the future. Time goes by fast, so might as well not think about them last minute. In three years I'll be moving on to college and I'm going to have to decide what I want my career to be. I already know what I want to do, but one of my family members constantly tries to talk me out of it. 

When you want something, don't let anyone or anything get in the way of it. "Follow your heart", is what one of my teachers told me (or was it "dreams", I can't remember), and I realized I hear that saying a lot. But it's true, we can't always go with the flow. Be bold. It's your life, not anyone else's- so don't let them make decisions for you. Go out, and be strong! Do what you want to do, as long as it doesn't hurt others. 

Life is short, so with the little time we have left on Earth, let's make it special! Show everyone that you have courage, and be proud of yourself. Don't let anyone put you down. Never let anyone tell you that you can't do something. Prove those people wrong! Show them that you can do whatever you put your mind to. 

Trust me, it's worth it.

Just a few more days of school left and everyone is getting excited to go on vacation. Exams are in just a few days and some people are cramming the studying in, and teachers are trying to get through the last few assignments just in time to start piling us with homework for exams. 

Just about everyone I know is excited to get out of school, but I'm trying to make the days go by ever so slowly. 

I'm going to miss hanging out with my friends in the library in the morning. I'm gonna miss goofing around in my French class, and having that burst of confidence during first hour that seems to shy away as I take my path to English class. I'm going to miss acting out Romeo and Julliet, and having the ability to act out Julliet's part and the nurse's part. The class discussions of To Kill a Mockingbird will also be greatly missed. Living in a separate world with Scout, Jem, and all the people in Maycomb County. I'm going to miss being with some of my good friends in biology class, that's a class that I will never forget. Our inside jokes and sitting at the same desk, free to whisper to each other all hour. I'm going to miss the liver joke and the orange code (inside jokes). I am going to miss having lunch with all my friends and cousin. I'm going to miss telling crazy stories to my friends, and getting in huge debates that just go crazy! I'm going to miss that feeling of having a bunch of friends all together, that get along, well most of the time. It's going to be hard not to miss going outside for lunch with a picnic blanket under one arm, sitting under a shady tree, with everyone in our little group wearing some shades. I'm going to miss playing my flute in band class, we have such a great group. And my friends are moving onto different bands and that bond might be lost. I'm even going to miss my computer class, where I have all this time to blog because I get my work done so quickly. I'm going to miss my geometry class, even though I don't talk much in that class- but the people there are hilarious. 

I never want to forget this year, the best year of my life. All the group texts and Skype sessions we have will be lost. If only I could have made the memories last for a little while longer. Like when two of my friends and I created a video for NASA's space lab contest. I'm not going to forget some of the crazy conversations I've had walking through the hallways with friends. Summer will leave behind laughing in the school hallway with friends, laughing so hard that you start crying with joy and you start to hiccup and your friends laugh even harder. It's funny that I'm even going to miss coming to lunch period late because of all the conversations I encounter on the way there, walking fast to our lockers but slow as a sloth when our group gets together and starts a big conversation. 

When my uncle told me "Rachel, high school is going to be the best four years of your life. Those are the years that you will remember", I did not believe him. I didn't want to go into high school, but now that I'm here I never want to leave. In ninth grade I made a lot of new friends, and got into some really interesting discussions, I took some really interesting classes, and I started this blog- a place where I can share my beliefs for many to read. 

This has been a really great year, but I do know that it has to come to an end. Yet, I can still look forward to the amazing years to come!

"A hero is some one who has given their life to something bigger than oneself" (Joseph Campbell).


As you may know, Memorial Day was yesterday, the day we honor the men and women who have fought for our country. Memorial Day, originally called Decoration Day, began after the Civil War when America decided to commemorate those soldiers. 

Over the years it kind of seems that Memorial Day has lost it's meaning and now most just think of it as a long weekend to go to the beach or to shop with friends. So I would like to write this post to all of those who have fought for our lives. I would really like to say a thank you to everyone who has fought in the war, and to those who have helped in other ways. I really look up to those who give up their lives for others, those men and women are real heroes. 

On the last Monday during the month of May some go and visit their families graves and decorate them with flowers. The tradition of decorating the graves with flowers originated on the 4th of July actually. Local historians say that in Boalsburg, PA in 1864 the ladies in the town adorned the graves with beautiful flowers which started the tradition. 

The name and date of this holiday wasn't the same as it is today. The holiday changed from it's original name, Decoration Day, to Memorial Day sometime during 1882. The date changed from May 30th to the last Monday of the month to create a more convenient three day weekend. The law was passed around 1968, but it took awhile for everyone to become accustomed to the idea, and all 50 states starting celebrating the holiday's new date around 1971. In 1987 Hawaii's Senator, David Inouye, has introduced the idea to change Memorial Day back to it's original date.

On this day, the American flag is supposed to be raised to the top of the staff and then slowly lowered to half and stays at that position till noon. The half-staff position is made for us to remember that half a million men and women have died for our lives. At noon we raise that memory by the living, who stand up not in vain, but instead to continue to fight "for liberty and justice for all". 

I would just like to say one more thank you to those who have fought for our lives and to those who continue fighting. They truly are our heroes.

I have a Slovak background and every Easter Monday is the days the "boys get the girls". Every Easter Monday I usually wake up to running out of the house as fast as I can to school, careful not to wake my brother up in fear that he will get me soaking wet. The question is- How did this tradition originate? Well, I've done some reading and haven't exactly found anything saying how this tradition came to be, but I found some other interesting information. 

There are some reasons that the boys used to chase the girls down with water and lightly whip their legs with braided branches. The water is symbolic and is said to make the girls "pure" and to cleanse them. "The legend states that the branches used for whipping posses youth and beauty and that it is transferred to the girl"(cited from). Of course, this is just a legend.... Or as I read some people think of it- an excuse to get the girls wet and lightly whip them. Most girls do think that this tradition is fun. When else can girls enjoy several guys chasing after her? ;D


A long time ago the girls used to wear traditional costumes (as seen above) and every time the guys would come and get them wet they would have to change into another costume. Back then, it was considered impolite to wet the girls in the afternoon. So the boys would have to get up early in the morning to soak the girls in bed or find them hiding in their closet or in the stables. After the boys were done wetting the girls soaked the girls would go in town to find their friends and brag about how many boys came to get them wet. 

After the boys pin the girls down and get them soaked with water, the girls wait again for other men to get them wet. I also read that in the past (I'm not sure if they still do it now) the girls would bring the boys beer when they were done and sometimes a colored egg. 

Now on the Tuesday after Easter the girls get the boys back, it didn't always used to be this way though- although some point in time the tradition changed a little. Even though I don't live in Slovakia I know several Slovak boys who got me soaked this year.... Let's just say some of them will gett it back even worse next year... ;)

Age saw two quiet children 
Go loving by at twilight, 
He knew not whether homeward, 
Or outward from the village, 
Or (chimes were ringing) churchward, 
He waited, (they were strangers) 
Till they were out of hearing 
To bid them both be happy. 
"Be happy, happy, happy, 
And seize the day of pleasure." 
The age-long theme is Age's. 
'Twas Age imposed on poems 
Their gather-roses burden 
To warn against the danger 
That overtaken lovers 
From being overflooded 
With happiness should have it. 
And yet not know they have it. 
But bid life seize the present? 
It lives less in the present 
Than in the future always, 
And less in both together 
Than in the past. The present 
Is too much for the senses, 
Too crowding, too confusing- 
Too present to imagine. 


Once I get the chance I'm going to come up with a poem analysis for this, but for now here is my favorite quote by Robert Frost."Education is the ability to listen to almost anything without losing your temper or your self confidence." -Robert Frost

We've been going over some poems in my English class at school, and I'm a fan of Robert Frost so I'd like to share with you his amazing poem called The Road Not Taken. 

Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,  a
And sorry I could not travel both  b
And be one traveler, long I stood  a
And looked down one as far as I could  a
To where it bent in the undergrowth;  b

Then took the other, as just as fair,  c
And having perhaps the better claim  d  
Because it was grassy and wanted wear,  c
Though as for that the passing there  c
Had worn them really about the same,  d

And both that morning equally lay  e
In leaves no step had trodden black.  f
Oh, I marked the first for another day!  e
Yet knowing how way leads on to way  e
I doubted if I should ever come back.  f

I shall be telling this with a sigh  g
Somewhere ages and ages hence:  h
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I,  g
I took the one less traveled by,  g
And that has made all the difference.  h 
 
Robert Frost's poems always catch my attention because there is always some kind of mysteriousness lurking around at the end. Basically the road is a metaphor for two paths one can choose in their life. The "yellow wood" symbolizes change, usually in the autumn the color of the leaves will change. The rhyme scheme stays the same throughout the poem, which I have written out in green. Between the first and second stanza shift is shown, first the narrator looks down one road but the decides on the latter. He doesn't really know where which road will take him, but he knows after taking the chance he won't be able to come back. Some might misunderstand the poem, one might say "So the poem is telling us that when we come to a fork in the road, it's telling us to go the other way..." No, the narrator isn't telling the reader that at all. First of all, there isn't even a road that is "less traveled by" in the poem, they're both equal. Second, the narrator wants the reader to step back and take a look at it before continuing. In the last stanza the narrator foreshadows that he will regret his decision of taking the second path later on in his life. "I shall be telling this with a sigh/Somewhere ages and ages hence". The speaker knows that later down the road he will second guess himself. I think the thematic statement is about taking chances and having confidence in the choices that you make. Overall, I think this poem was wonderful along with many of Frost's other poems.

I have had no clue what to write for days, honestly, topics just don't fall out of trees. So I guess I'll talk about this-

I'm really starting to realize how much people aren't grateful for what they have and instead they focus on what they don't have. Well, we all have our bad days and occasionally it's okay to cry it all out if you need to I guess. Anyways, we have to be thankful for what we have and I know that you probably hear that a lot but that's not what we do all the time. It's easier to talk the talk rather than walk the walk.

Everyone has their bad days, everyone gets into some trouble now and then. But I often hear "I hate this", "this sucks", "Why do we have to do this?" And a few other things that I don't really want to repeat. Sometimes I hear the occasional "I'd rather kill myself". Why would one say that? Your life is precious and no matter what is going on in your life you should never take it away. 

We have to be grateful for what we have and who we have. We need to be thankful for every single moment we are alive, or else it will slip from our fingertips before we can close it in our palm. One might never really understand until one escapes death by a thread. One doesn't fully realize how much they will miss if they aren't alive.

If I died I would miss my friends, family, school, fun activities, and even homework. There's so much that we just think of as unimportant, but everything matters and we should be thankful for everything! We should be thankful for the good and the bad times. We should be thankful for our family and friends, no matter how many arguments we have. We should be thankful for the life we have and not the life we want to live another because God made us  live the way we do for a very important reason. A reason that we may not find out till the day we die.

When one learns to truly be grateful for life it is the most amazing feeling in the world! You'll be more positive and happy and the world will seem to be round again. Remember, "When life gives you a hundred reasons to cry, show life that you have a thousand reasons to smile." I've always loved that quote. You can always have a reason to smile, just gazing at nature can make one happy. Such as the way little squirrels will run up and down a tree without a care in the world. Or how a little baby will laugh at a dog chasing after a ball. A smile should curl your lips up when you look at the things you have done instead of the things you haven't. 

Smile at your friends, smile at your family, smile at your life. Smile at the world and remember to be thankful for your life. God gave it to you, be happy.

I love you Mommy! Happy mother's day, you are the best mom in the whole entire world. Honestly, I'm not just saying that- you are. You're always there for me and you always tell me the truth, even if it can be hard sometimes. If it wasn't for your nice and loving care I don't know where I would be right now. Thank you so much, love you!

I'm facing a bit of a writers block right now.... So I made a poll to see which of my topics you like best! I put in the two topics that I enjoy writing about most. I've done some debate topics and I've written about The Hunger Games and a little bit about Harry Potter. I know the blog I wrote on bullying doesn't really seem to belong in the debate section, but I put it there anyways because a lot of my most important blogs are in that section of my website. 

What I'm getting to is just let me know a topic that you would like me to blog about- maybe the presidential election (if you're interested), a different book, or maybe even something completely different. Let me know on my Facebook page, send me a message and I will respond to any suggestions or comments you'd like to share. You can even comment right here on this post with topics you'd like me to write about. I'll be sure to take your ideas into account!  :)