The Visibles

I am reading The Visibles by Sara Shepard. Summer Davis is a friendless girl who's mother left her and her family. Ever since then, Summer has had many problems. The cause of Summer's problems were because her mom left Summer and her family when she needed her the most. Summer was 11. She was just about to hit her teen years.

One problem is that Summer's father went into depression. The hospital had a nurse to take care of her dad. But since Summer's dad distrusted the nurse, so it was up to Summer to take care of her father by herself. But Summer has enough things on her mind. She's 18, she needs to worry about college and concentrate on her school work. Summer was offered a fellowship in Ireland for her junior-level genetics at school. But Summer decided not to take it because she knew she was needed at home to take care of her dad. I sort of hate Summer for giving up this really good opportunity for her career to take care of her father. But I know that I would have done the same thing for my dad.

Another problem is loneliness. Summer has no friends! Even the blurb describes her as a loner. When I read that, I felt bad for her. Summer is so shy and too independent. But I can relate to her because I am also shy and I don't make friends very easily unless people approach me first. Summer doesn't even try though, which frustrates me. I wish she would just try harder. Summer really needs a friend that she can trust and rely on. She needs someone who she can bounce ideas off and share advice with. She is under so much stress because of her dad's depression. Summer did have one friend though. Her name was Claire. But after Claire moved to France and came back, they became very distant. Claire is a popular girl and she hangs out with her own crowd.

Research shows that many kids go through many stages of emotions when their parents divorce or separate. Which Summer does go through. Though I'm not one of them, there are many people that go through these issues everyday. But I can still relate to Summer in different ways like friendships and family issues.

Prompt 5

Your middle school/teen years are when you are still trying to figure out who you are, who you want to be. For my 5th grade year book, my teachers had the 5th grade writ what we wanted to be when we grow up. I wrote, 'olympian or teacher.' That was elementary school. Last year, I think I wanted to be a pastry chef or a dancer. Right now, I don't really know what I want to be. I don't really bake anymore, only occasionally. Dance is something I love doing. I've been dancing my whole life. But I don't know if I want to make an occupation out of it when I'm older. Now I'm going onto high school and when I turn fourteen, I can get my job papers. This is getting me thinking about what I want to do with my future life.

Author's Note for Poetry Project

  I don’t really know why I decided to write about dance. I guess it was because I’ve been dancing for so long that it became this huge thing in my life. Like something that I’m really passionate about. Like Alice Abrams said, “Dancing with the feet is one thing, but dancing with the heart is another.” And because it was the first thing that popped into my head when I heard “something you care about”. Dance is something that I can pour out my feelings into. It’s like writing for me. I can just express myself through dance. I wanted to tell everyone how I felt as a dancer and what I felt when I danced.

  I also had a lot of feelings about dance and what I thought of it after one of my dance teachers talked to my class about why we come to dance and why we take the classes. I realized that I’ve been taking dance lessons practically my whole life and I never stopped to think why I did it. I understood more as my teacher spoke that I’ve always been dancing because it comes natural to me, and because I feel very strongly about it. I’ve come such a long way to get to where I am today. Now I can even express my feeling into a dance, in a small phrase.

  I admit trying to find the right words to describe how I felt was hard. Because I’ve never done anything like this before. But soon as I thought hard and imagined dancing in my head, words started to come to me and before you know it, I had four poems done. And like Martha Graham said, “dance is the hidden language of the soul.” So please, try to see it my way.

Coming of Age

    This year, a 9.0 earthquake hit Japan. I am Japanese so obviously my family was very worried. I knew that we couldn’t fly out to Japan to help the people that were affected, but I wanted to do something. So I decided to do something at school.

    The next day at school, I asked Ms. Vissa if I could start a bake sale. When Ms. Vissa asked me for what cause, I told her that I wanted to raise money for Japan. So that the money raised can be used for food, clothing and other needed necessities. Ms. Vissa agreed and told me to go see Ms. Speth so that I could reserve the hallway for the bake sales I was planning to hold.

    The bake sales went well. I remember feeling really good and excited every time someone bought something. As I looked at the money, I couldn’t help but think how much the money I had raised could help the people in Japan.

    I held bakes sales for the whole month of April with the help of some of my classmates. I don’t know how much we made all together, but I know that we made a lot. Before I had heard that Lady Gaga was selling ‘Pray For Japan’ bracelets. So I bought one. I wear the bracelet everyday, and it reminds me that I did my part to help Japan recover.