Monday, June 11, 2012

Ode to Nobody...


I'M NOBODY! WHO ARE YOU?

by Emily Dickinson.
 I'm nobody! Who are you?
Are you nobody, too?
Then there's a pair of us - don't tell!
They'd advertise - you know!
How dreary to be somebody!
How public like a frog
To tell one's name the livelong day
To an admiring bog!
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     Emily Dickinson's poems almost always make me laugh or ponder something new, and more often than not they contain true-to-life lessons. This is one such poem. This piece explores how boring it would be to 'tell one's name the livelong day' to what at first appears to be a group of good listeners. In my mind this creates the image of any and all 'famous' people -  people who work in the movies, for example. Even outside of the theater, it seems as if the whole world welcomes them with open arms. This helps me draw the conclusion, then, that it would be so incredibly 'deary' to be anyone but who God has made me. Woe to the girl who wishes she were famous! 

Monday, June 4, 2012

Learn to love learning

"     A good book is worth trying to track down, and if your local library doesn't have a particular book, by all means explore the use of special requests and inter-library loans."
                        ~From Books Children Love by Elizabeth Wilson. Page xxii
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     I know, it's a short piece, but as we get into summer I think it's important for students, from Kindergarten to Seniors in College, to get involved in reading. I'm sure all of us have a book we've heard of or a topic we know of that's crying out for you to explore. I personally have one of each - The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald is considered a classic and I've never read it!! As long as there are still good books out there that I haven't read, I want to 'track down' those masterpieces.
     Also, I greatly enjoy being able to read about something - whether it's a Historical event or a fact of Science - and fully understand it. For example, this year in Biology we learned about open and closed circulatory systems. If you were to ask me about them today, I would take great pleasure in being able to explain these interesting blood systems to you! So one of my goals for this summer is to find a topic and learn about it so well that I could write an essay about it in my sleep.
     This summer, I challenge you to learn to love learning, and to expand your knowledge. Don't let all those great books sit at the library all summer - get out and read!