Moving on to high school...continued:)

 I just wanted to add onto this week’s discussion because I think that it is a very important subject that I had a lot to say about ad I didn’t want to take up a ton of space on the discussion board, so here it is!

I have heard a lot of people saying how they are just so ready to go onto high school. I have heard this for about the last three years and I really haven’t felt the same way until recently.  I must admit, seventh and eighth grade were not the best.  I have really enjoyed this year a lot better though! It almost makes me not want to leave the school because I am just now starting to meet new people from our school. To get put into a brand new school sounds frightening! The high schools are so big and filled with so many people that I don’t know! Luckily for me, my older brother will still be in high school so I will know a few people.  Ninth grade is the very top of junior high and I think it will be hard to go right to the bottom again! I guess you could say that high school in general is the top though. I am just hoping it won’t be a repeat of seventh grade.  Even though we will be at the bottom, someone once told me that “the bottom of the top is better than the top of the bottom.”

                Regardless of all of my fears of high school, I really am excited to go. Like I said earlier, I didn’t think I was ready to move on but recently I have decided that I am sooooooooo ready to get into high school. I am excited to meet new people, try new things, and have a big variety of classes to choose from.  I am going to try and be more outgoing and more involved in the school next year. Hopefully being on the cheer squad will help with that! I think by doing that it will make my whole entire high school experience better. I don’t think that the fact that we are really “moving on” has set in yet. It will probably hit me closer to the end of the year when I realize that I am really almost done with junior high. The last day of school will be the hardest I think, because not everyone is even going to the same high school :( I think that that is one of the worst parts. I am really excited to me “movie on” to high school though!

                A funny thing happened this morning in fact that made me really decide that I was excited for high school. This morning, at 5:00 am I was woken up by two of the senior cheer leader at Layton high by being yanked out of my bed and put into a car. At first I was way confused but then they told me that we were going to wake up other girls that made the squad and then go get breakfast. I thought it sounded way fun except for the part was I was in my pajamas with a high pony and no make-up. The idea of being seen like this at all was scary but then I saw all the other girls and we all were in the same boat so I wasn’t too embarrassed. The cheer leaders told us to be happy we were going to breakfast because in previous years they would wake the girls up and then make them go to school! For the rest of the day at school they were in their pajamas, right out of bed. I would be so embarrassed! In the end, I had a way fun time and was just happy they didn’t make us go to school after. This was one of the things that made me so excited to get out of junior high and into high school because all the people I was with were so fun to be around. I hope that is how high school will be, just one big party:)

Walt Disney

I was recently watching a Disney show and I was realizing how much I really like Walt Disney. I was thinking about what the world would be like without him and I really could not picture a world without Disney land, Disney world, and Disney movies. We don’t usually realize how famous Walt Disney is but who does not know who that is? Who has never heard and watched Cinderella, Snow White, Sleeping Beating, and many other classics! I decided in this week’s blog to tell you a little more about Walt Disney. You may learn things!

             Walt Disney is a famous director. He made many classics such as, Mickey Mouse, snow white, and many more. We all know of him as Walt Disney, but his real name is Walter Elias Disney. He was born the 5^th of December 1901, Chicago, Illinois, USA. At a very young age, Walter was recognized as a great artist. Davis Low, the late British political cartoonist called Disney “The most significant figure in graphic arts since Leonardo DaVinci.” In his lifetime, Disney and his staff received more than 950 honors and citations from every nation in the world, including 48 academy awards and 7 Emmys in his lifetime. Walt Disney’s personal awards included honorary degrees from Harvard, Yale, the university of southern California and UCLA; the presidential medal of freedom; France’s Legion of honor and officer d’academie decoration; Thailand’s order of the crown; Brazil’s order of the southern cross; Mexico’s order of the Aztec Eagle; and the showman of the world award from the national association of theatre owners. Walt Disney was also the founder of Disneyland and Disney World.

            Walt Disney was one of five children, four boys and a girl. He was raised on a farm near Marceline, Missouri, Walt became interested in drawing at an early age, and he started selling his first sketches to his neighbors when he was only 7 years old. At McKinley high school, Walt also took place in making the school newspaper, he would comics and take pictures for the paper. At night he would attend the academy of Fine Arts.

            Walt Disney went on to perfect his skills. He has won many awards and produced many films. He Died December 15 1996 at the age of 65. Even though he has passed on, his hopes, dreams, and imagination are still with us almost everywhere we go!

Electronics

Electronics can be very frustrating sometimes!

Today when I walked into my computer room, I had every intention to get my blog post done and still have enough time to clean my room and get my chores done before I had to go to this party. When I came in, the Facebook login was up on the screen so I instinctively logged in. I was on for a little bit when I decided I wanted to change my cover. I tried putting different photos in that I liked and every time it told me that it had to be 399 pixels wide. What the heck does that mean?!?!? Well, an hour and a half later I realized that I was getting nowhere. I gave up on that Idea. I was very frustrated! I then decided it would be simple enough to just change my profile picture. This took a long time also. I finally just gave up on it all after spending a really long time trying to figure it out. So here I am trying to write this blog post as fast as I can so I can have as much time as possible to get ready for what I still have to do! That is where I got the inspiration for this blog post. I know that a lot of you have the same problem.

                Electronics are sometimes very helpful, but in some cases they make me want to pick them up and throw them when they do not work. If I work on trying to get something to work for a long time and in the end it works I usually don’t get too frustrated. It’s when I work that long and then in the end it does not even work! So I spent that much time working on something that was absolutely a waste of time. What makes me even madder is when I work so long, and then I finally ask for help and it works right away for someone else! It makes me want to scream! Ugh. Electronics can be so frustrating to deal with, but they are good too sometimes.

Farenheit 451

I was pretty proud that I got the first reading assignment due on time! So here it is...hopefully this will happen every time!!!

So in the beginning of this book, Fahrenheit 451, it seemed like Montag really liked his job. I think that the first real thing that sparked his transformation was meeting Clarisse McClellan. Clarisse saw the world differently than most people did at this time. She stopped to think and catch the rain in her mouth. She thought every little aspect of the world. She said that “the rain tasted almost like wine”.  She was not satisfied with the way that the world wanted her to be, so she was herself. I almost cried when later in the book they said they thought she died four days earlier. Mildred didn’t even seamed concerned at all! She simply forgot to tell him. At the end of one of the conversations that Montag and Clarisse had, Clarisse asked Montag an interesting question. She asked him if he was happy. I think that at first Montag probably didn’t question it. I am pretty sure Montag always just thought he was happy. This question really burned inside of him. When he got home to see that Millie had overdosed on pills, I think he started to question if he was really happy. I think another thing that sparked his change was the dandelion trick. It told him he wasn’t really in love and I think he started to believe it. In the end of the first section, I think the change he went through was good. I think it will bring him and his wife closer and they will find out all the secrets of why so many people love books.

                 I sure hope that our world is not headed down the path that leads us to the world that Montag lives in. In Beatty’s lecture, he tells how everything goes on the way it does so that everyone will be happy. I don’t think that his definition of happiness is correct at all. They think that happiness comes from just partying all the time with not a whole lot of responsibility. At first glance this may seem like a great lifestyle, but when you look closer you realize that it would not be a great life style to live at all. I strongly believe that happiness comes from all of us being unique and doing the things we really love. In Montag’s world they strongly discourage strong thinking and diversity. Clarisse was the closest thing to that that this world they live in has had, so they got rid of it. They “nipped it in the butt”. If out world is really heading in a way that we will not be allowed to really think and read the books we want, I am really worried for us.

How To Get The Most Out Of General Conference

I recently gave this talk in seminary and in sacrament. This talk is about getting the best out of general conference:)

The topic I was assigned was finding answers to life’s challenges through general conference. I realize it is good to think about this because the next general conference is in just a few weeks.  When I heard the topic I was very happy because I love listening to general conference. When I was younger I didn’t enjoy it much because I was just there, not really listening to it. Now that I am old enough to really listen and understand what our leaders are trying to tell us, I can get more out of it.

One of my favorite general authorities to listen to is President Uchtdorf.  He helped me understand why it is so important to work through life’s challenges.  I have the book “Your Happily Ever After” that is based on a talk he gave.  He pointed out that life was never all sunshine and roses for fairy-tale princesses.  Before the happily ever afters, they all had to start at “once upon a time”.  And I love how he says that, “Sandwiched between their “once upon a time” and “happily ever after,’ they all had to experience great adversity.”  We all will have adversity in life and it is our reaction to adversity, not the adversity itself, that determines how our life’s story will develop.  It says in the scriptures that there must be opposition in all things, for without it we could not discern the sweet from the bitter.  Our loving Heavenly Father has set us in a world filled with challenges and trials so that we, through opposition, can learn wisdom, become stronger, and experience joy.  So to get back to my topic….  

          One way to find those answers to life’s challenges is to come to conference with a question in your head that you want to be answered. This last week in seminary we were talking about this exact thing. My teacher told us that if you come to general conference with a question in your head, it will be answered in one way or another. One time I was looking through my scriptures for an answer to a question that I had, and it just so happened that where I was reading led me to understand the question. When I later looked back on the scripture that had given me that inspiration, I realized that it really didn’t have much to do with the question I had, but something in it spoke to me and told me the answer I needed at that time. This can happen in general conference too. Even if you are listening for an answer and there is not one whole talk dedicated to that subject, you can still find the answer if you listen. The lord will always find a way for your question to be answered, whether it is through a living prophet, scriptures, or even a thought that was planted in your head.  I have a testimony of this because I have had it happen to me.

I love that this gospel and the leaders who speak at general conference give me so much guidance in my life.  I feel so lucky to be a member of this church and feel like I will be able to get to my own “Happily Ever After” if I just stay true to what I know is right.