I have made a lot of fond memories over the course of my seventh-grade school year. Here are three of my favorite ones.
Firstly, I enjoyed playing for the school basketball team. I loved competing and playing against other schools in my district, chatting with teammates on the busses on the way to games, and in general playing basketball. To top it all off, we won first place out of the four schools in the district.
Secondly, I enjoyed the 20% project presentation. Presenting my project and sharing how I improved my friendship bracelet skills was pleasurable. I had an amazing time taping tri-folds down, eating the leftover samples of my friends’ projects, and learning about their projects including baking, creating businesses for crafts, and crocheting.
Finally, one of my favorite memories was working on projects with my classmates and tablemates. I loved collaborating on my science final projects and working on the big people story and art.
This week, I finished making my tri-fold presentation. My tri-fold had a theme of red and pink. I have five main sections: the title, the types of knots, the physical models of the friendship bracelets, close-up images and captions, and the QR code for my video of the chevron bracelet. Specifically, I made a video with two segments. The first segment is a demonstration of how to make a single row of a chevron pattern whereas the second segment is a timelapse of the entire creation process. I also have worked on my speech and plan to finish it before the presentation on Wednesday.
My struggle this week was time management. Finishing my tri-fold and writing a speech all at the same time before the presentation was challenging!
I didn’t have any adjustments. I have used my time to finish my trifold in four days and have started my speech. I planned the layout of my tri-fold on Notability, a note-taking app, which eases the process of putting everything together.
This is the final week of my 20% Project! I have learned a lot about the art of friendship bracelet making. This project has helped me improve my time management skills, patience, and writing skills through the many blogs I have written throughout my project.
Happiness depends on your attitude. This image imparts a strong message. Spoiled children are hard to please. Many people who have less money can enjoy the simpler pleasures of life. In fact, money doesn’t always buy happiness. Many people assume the more toys and entertainment you have, the happier you will be. However, when you have too many choices, it can be overwhelming. Desires are endless. People often want to gather and hoard as many toys as possible. Ultimately, material goods will never be enough to satisfy your desires. They often make you feel empty inside.
The children in this image have completely different reactions. In the first half on the left, there is a kid who is crying hysterically in a pile of toys, which includes video games and toy trains. In the second half to the right, there is a cheerful and happy kid running in the field in his ragged and worn-out clothes playing with his simple toy car made of sticks. Although this kid doesn’t have very much, he is grateful for the things he has.
For week five of my 20% project, I completed the letter bracelet. I took a few photos of the friendship bracelets I had made over the course of the project. Moreover, I started planning the layout of my tri-fold as I also planned to incorporate the photos in it.
Unfortunately, I didn’t get as much work done as I had wanted to due to my struggles with procrastination and the fact that the letter bracelet was very time-consuming. I foresee that as long as I stay on task next week, I don’t have to make any major adjustments.
Next week, I hope to have a more productive week by setting goals and making sure I execute them before my deadline. I will be working on my tri-fold. In my tri-fold, I will be including the forward and backward knots as well as the bracelets. I will also be working on my how-to make-the-chevron bracelet video.
In April, I read Our Wayward Fate by Gloria Chao. This romance novel is about a teen girl named Ali Chu, named after her mom’s favorite mountain in Taiwan. This book takes place in the middle of nowhere in the state of Indiana. For a long time, Ali was the only Asian at her school and she encountered racism on a daily basis. That changed when Chase Yu, a Taiwanese boy, moved into town from Queens, NY. Together, Chase and Ali work together to push back against racial discrimination at their school. Ali also discovers many family secrets that her mother has been hiding.
My favorite part of the book is how the author talks about the struggles of not fitting in and feelings of isolation and loneliness. I also love that the author uses one of China’s Four Great Folktales, The Zhu Yingtai, and Liang Shanbo legend, to help tie the story together.
Ali’s great-uncle, Bógōng, is my favorite character because he supports Ali when others are disparaging. One character trait I would use to describe Bógōng would be encouraging. While preparing for dinner, Bógōng says,“‘Regardless of what happens with Chase, don’t lose your sunny demeanor, okay? That sounded sarcastic, but I mean it—don’t change too much…Special. Very special. (304)”’ He is encouraging because he advises Ali that whether or not she goes to the same college as Chase, she should maintain her own identity. Bógōng supports her decisions and brings out the best in everyone.
My favorite quote is found when they celebrate Chinese New Year with glowing lanterns which light up the night sky, ‘“Happy New Year!’ I[Ali] yelled as Chase lit the firecrackers, the popping indeed scaring the hypothetical monsters and evil spirits away. I glowed like one of the lanterns, thinking about how I’d just said “New Year” and not “Chinese New Year.” To me, this was my New Year, and everybody else could just deal. (311)” This shows that everybody is her own person. We come from different cultures and have different ideas. I love this quote because it shows how Ali has changed from a person who can’t stand up for herself to a confident person who is not afraid to speak her mind. This book teaches me to believe in myself.
This month, I read A Song Called Home by Sara Zarr. This 356-page book is about a ten-year-old girl named Louisa or Lou, later known as Lu. She lives with her older sister, Casey, and her mom in an apartment in the city. Her dad is an alcoholic and Lou misses him even though he can be dangerous as he is often drunk. Now, Lou, Casey, and her mom are moving in with Lou’s mom’s soon-to-be husband, Steve. Steve lives in the suburbs, which means she will have to change schools.
While dealing with a lot of hardships in her life, Lou receives a birthday gift. The birthday gift is a guitar. Even though it is anonymous, Lou suspects it comes from her dad. She puts a great deal of effort into learning how to play the guitar, hoping to keep a part of her old life, including her dad, in her new home in the suburb.
My favorite part of this book is how much it connects with me. I am able to experience the emotions experienced by Lou and many of the characters. I can emphasize with the characters because I can relate to the hard changes in life including moving and not seeing my friends as often as I like.
Casey, Lou’s older sister, is my favorite character because she is caring and is always there for her sister even though she is going through some tough changes in life as well. When Lou, Casey, their mom, and Steve were all at home after the talent show and Casey was giving Lou feedback, “She [Casey] showed Lu the pictures and videos she’d taken. ‘I was right about the jeans and T-shirts. You guys[Lou and Kyra] were the coolest. (346)” The amount of attention and advice Casey gives to Lou shows how deeply Casey loves Lou.
My favorite quote is when Lou and Casey were sitting in the back of Steve’s truck while camping and Lou realized why Casey was so annoyed, “Moving. Changing. Starting at a new school… All those things from the past few months that seemed to make Casey difficult and moody and full of complaints… maybe that whole time, she’d just been afraid. (306)” This shows that changes are inevitable. They are often hard to handle as they happen, but it is important to adjust. Everybody adjusts with time. I like the quote because it teaches me that changes and life can be difficult but not impossible.
There are many essential rooms in my house. The kitchen is my favorite room!
It is where my family and I cook meals and bake goods. The smell of delicious pasta and cookies can always be found wafting out from the kitchen. I have had a lot of great memories in the kitchen, from my mom teaching me how to make a scrumptious carrot cake, which is still one of my favorite desserts even till this day, to my brother and I licking the leftover chocolate cake batter from the bottom of the mixing bowl. I have had many wonderful times in the kitchen.
The kitchen is also a place where I eat. I love a variety of foods, from snacks after school to birthday cakes. I enjoy different kinds of food because all of them have meanings and are unique in their own ways. I especially enjoy our refrigerator at home. Everytime I open it, there is always something wonderful in store for me. My favorite raspberry sorbet and marble cake are stored in the freezer. I can always find my refreshing aloe vera drink greeting me inside.
This room is where my family eats together during dinner time. This room is where we talk about our day, whether it is exciting news, work, or upcoming events. After a long day, it is always relaxing to be able to sit back and be surrounded by the people I love.
This week, I worked on a new friendship bracelet, the letter friendship bracelet. The letter bracelet I made consists of purple for the background color and white for the letter color spelling out my name.
It is the most time-consuming one among all of the bracelets I have made. This bracelet requires you to tie one string around seven strings one at a time going in many different directions creating a pattern. After the first two letters, I got into the rhythm of creating them. Some of my struggles during this project was remembering which string to knot to the other string. The other bracelets I made usually went diagonally and not horizontally, going from left to right and right to left.
There are no adjustments to my plan for next week. I am staying on track with my eight-week plan, I will be starting to make videos and demonstrate the process of creating the four types of friendship bracelets.
For week three of my 20% project, I finished making two multicolor heart friendship bracelets. The first bracelet was purple and white. The second bracelet was dark pink and light pink. I liked my first one better because the colors contrasted more. This bracelet was one of the easier bracelets I have made.
I didn’t have any struggles this week because this bracelet only required two types of rows: a special row and a normal row. The diamond bracelet was much more complex than the heart bracelet because I had to remember more complicated rows for the different directions.
Since I didn’t have any struggles, I didn’t have to make many adjustments. I figured out that using a clipboard to keep the bracelet in place instead of tape or a binder clip is more convenient.
I am making good progress on my friendship bracelet-making journey. Next week, I look forward to creating the ultimate letter friendship bracelet.
This week, for my 20% project, I finished a multicolor diamond friendship bracelet. This bracelet was made up of five colors: blue, purple, red, turquoise, and white. It took longer to make than the chevron bracelet from last week since it was more complicated.
I had a few struggles this week including messing up the order of the colors and getting confused while finishing the last knot of the color before moving on to the next color. When knotting the last two knots of the color, I didn’t know whether I was supposed to tie two forward knots, two backward knots, or one of each. I realized that the book I used, Charm Love: Friendship Bracelets,and the YouTube tutorial I was watching were demonstrating two different ways to create the diamond friendship bracelet, which led to more complications. Because of the complexity of following two different methods, I had to undo several knots before continuing on the right path.
After several trials and errors, I learned that it was most effective to use the book to figure out the appropriate color pattern. On the other hand, following the video made learning the right kind of knot to use easier. I also learned that preparing to go in the opposite direction meant making one forward knot and one backward knot when going left and vice versa for going right.
With the completion of the diamond friendship bracelet and the experience gained from week two, my eight-week plan is right on track. For week three, I look forward to learning a brand new pattern and creating a heart friendship bracelet.
There are so many people I would like to invite to dinner. My top three choices are my maternal grandmother, the computer scientist, Margaret Hamilton, and a polyglot named Powell Janulus.
First, I would like to invite my maternal grandmother who passed away two months before I was born. I would love to learn more about her, her life and her interests. I would be grateful to get some life advice to help me through my struggles and hardships in life.
Another dinner guest of mine would be Margaret Hamilton, the famous American computer scientist, who helped NASA develop the Apollo missions’ guidance system. If I invited her to dinner, I would learn more about opportunities in the math and science field.
Finally, I would like to put Powell Janulus on my invitation list. He is a Canadian polyglot who is fluent in 42 languages. I enjoy traveling and exploring new places. If I could learn more languages, I would be able to communicate better and be immersed in the local culture and traditions.
