Reflection

 The Fluency Blog project I have been working on the last few weeks has been a bit challenging, but in the long run it seems to have helped me. The biggest challenge for me was finding things to write about. Most of my blog posts were freewrites, and they were a bit challenging for me when I first began writing them. I could never seem to find a topic for my freewrites when I began them, but once I started writing I always latched onto an idea that I was able to expand on and write a bit about. Doing this blog project helped me reflect a bit on things that were happening to me in my life or my other classes, and helped me get some thoughts down on paper and form new thoughts as I went along. My ability to translate my thoughts into understandable writing improved with this assignment.
  I did experience a little trouble at first with trying not to write about the same thing all the time. I always seemed to have the same thoughts when I sat down to write, and I was always worried that I was beginning to sound redundant. I would begin writing, and while many of my posts had similar introductions, I always seemed to branch out after a few lines and delve into whatever topic came to my mind. Once I opened up and began writing ideas just seemed to come to me, and once I got started on one I was able to take it and run with it. Once I stopped trying to force myself to use words and phrases I thought were better I was able to relax a little and just write. It became easier the more I wrote and I ended up writing about things that weren't even close to what I was thinking about when I began writing.
 This assignment wasn't something I was looking forward to when I started because I had no idea how I was going to find enough ideas to write about something new each day, but once I got started I found that I am more creative than I expected. I found I was actually able to write a paragraph or two about topics I wouldn't have expected to be able to get three sentences out of. One thing I enjoyed about this assignment was getting to write about things that were going on when I wrote the post. It allowed me to reflect on my thoughts and what was happening in my life, or think about the reasons for the thoughts or opinions I was writing about.
  This assignment has raised my expectations for my own writing in the future, and having a better idea of what I'm capable of will help me push myself when I'm writing. I will hold myself to a higher standard now and I have gained confidence in my writing abilities. I am more creative than I thought. I will use freewrites as a brainstorming tool in the future because they help me develop my ideas as well as gain new ones. As little as I wanted to begin this assignment, it really has helped me develop as a writer and become more creative.
-Ellie Lane

Freewrite

I like eating cereal. My parents want me to eat healthy things like meat so I can have protein, and I do like healthy foods, but cereal is the bomb. It's not like I eat sugary cereal anyway, I eat honey bunches of oats with almonds, or granola or raisin bran. My mom teases me and says I eat "old people cereal," but hey, if it's healthy there's no reason a sixteen year old shouldn't eat it. She says that eating just cereal isn't healthy enough though. I usually am only allowed to eat cereal once a day-for breakfast. Lately I haven't always eaten cereal for breakfast though because sometimes I am in a hurry in the morning and I just have time to grab a banana or something. I try to always eat breakfast because I know it's bad to skip, so I just try to grab whatever's healthiest before I rush out the door. I did skip breakfast the other day though, but I didn't feel the best that day so I thought I should probably not risk it. I do love breakfast, so it is hard for me to skip. I hate missing an opportunity to eat cereal, so I try to eat cereal for breakfast. I've been sleeping later lately though, so I've had to eat things that I can take in the car. It's a sleep for cereal trade I guess. I'm just always so tired I can hardly pry myself out of bed in the morning. I'm pretty busy but I have a good life so I'm not complaining. I have everything I need and much more so I am thankful. I know I have it a lot better than a lot of people so I try to keep complaints to a minimum. I like going to a small school. I don't like the idea of being lost in the crowd, although I do think I would most likely get a better education at a bigger school. I wouldn't mind a school bigger than the one I go to, but I wouldn't like a massive school. I like going to a school where all my teachers and the staff know me. I like being able to talk to them easily because they know me fairly well and I know them fairly well. It is helpful, especially since I am a pretty good student so I have a good reputation with the teachers. They seem to trust me pretty well, so I get a little bit more freedom than some other kids because the teachers know I won't abuse it. I am kind of allowed to do my own thing, especially now that I am older and I've kind of established myself in the school. I was always a good kid, but I am an upperclassman now so I've had two years to prove it and earn my teachers' trust, and they've had two years to get to know and trust me. It's kind of nice: it seems like as long as I don't break any rules, I'm pretty much allowed to do my own thing. I like it. I feel like I am pretty free to be honest. I am also responsible for myself a bit more than I was before though, because this year I am taking several online classes, so I have to keep up with homework and everything on my own. There's no teacher constantly reminding me of what I have to do. I also like being able to take tests whenever I choose. In high school classes it's on test day no matter what unless you're just gone that day. In my online classes exams are due by a certain date, but you can wait until that day to take them if you need time to prepare, or if you're ready beforehand you can just get it out of the way on your own time. It's nice. Like I said, this year I have more freedom and more responsibility.
-Ellie Lane

Freewrite

I have blond hair. I read somewhere on the internet that red hair is the most rare hair color. I think that red hair is nice, but I definitely like my blond. My hair is a nice golden color, and it is pretty soft and shiny. My computer's speakers aren't very loud. I am trying to listen to music while I do this freewrite and it is kind of quiet. I can hear it fine I just would like it a little louder. I guess this isn't technically my computer, it's my parents' or the "family" computer. It needs a new battery, but other than that it is a pretty nice laptop. It's an Asus. I like it pretty well. I hardly ever used it before this year because I have an iPad mini an my iPhone, which I used for all my social media and other things, so I didn't really use computers much outside of class, but this year I have used the laptop more because I have online classes, and I often have to work on them outside of school hours. I end up doing most of my homework on Sunday these days. I hate that because Sunday is supposed to be the day of rest, but with softball games and other things I hardly have to time to work outside of school except on the weekends, and I have tournaments on Friday and Saturday half the time. It all just ends up being pushed to Sunday afternoon after church, which is the most free part of my week. I can't really do homework on the bus rides to away games either, because most of my homework is on the computer.  It always ends up waiting for Sunday afternoon. I always seem to get it done, though, so that's good. I have a challengingly busy life right now, but I had better get used to this and more if I plan to play college softball.
-Ellie Lane

Freewrite

 The one thing I do like about winter is the clothes. I like hoodies and jeans and my letterman's jacket and sweats. The sweats are interchangeable with athletic shorts, however, so I don't need winter for comfortable pants. I do enjoy some nice Miss Me jeans though, usually with an underarmour or nike hoodie or a long sleeved t-shirt. I like long sleeved t-shirts. I like to wear my letterman's jacket too. If it weren't for the nice winter clothes I'm not sure I'd be able to make it through the winter. At least I can wear good clothes while I'm miserably cold. I like shorts and t-shirts too though. That's usually what I wear in the summer. Or sometimes a tank top. I usually wear athletic clothes in the summer, though. It's softball pants half the time to be honest. I do a lot of softball playing during the summer. This Friday is our last home football game. I'm not terribly sad because I'm not a big football person. I like it alright, but I would choose basketball as a sport to watch any day. It's also our homecoming this week. A friend of mine was chosen as a homecoming representative for her grade. She is buying her dress today. I want her to send me a picture but I'm not sure if she is going to or not. She wants it to be a surprise. I told her it's not supposed to be a surprise for your best friend and she hasn't answered yet. She will probably show me though. She is excited I think. I am glad for her. It will be fun for her. I will definitely have to go to the game now. I would've gone anyway probably, but I might have left pretty quickly. I still might leave after the homecoming and senior night ceremonies if I get tired of it. Like I said, I'm not really a football person, but even if I was, our school sucks at football. We haven't won a game so far this year. So I don't think I would enjoy our games that much even if I was a football fan. I like basketball better. I play basketball, and while I'm not that great at it, I have a far better grasp of the game of basketball than I do of the game of football. I just enjoy basketball more because I feel more engaged in the game than I do with football. Plus, our boy's basketball team is better than our boys football team, so it's not always a disappointing thing to watch.
-Ellie Lane

Freewrite

 I am not ready for winter. I hate being cold. These past few days of chilly weather have been about all I can stand. I just don't like the feeling of being cold. Everything is more painful when you're cold for some reason. I don't understand why, but even the smallest things like stubbing your toe are terrible when you are cold. It is especially unpleasant to play softball when it's cold out. If it gets too cold, you're not supposed to use composite bats because the inside of them can be damaged, and those are some expensive bats, so breaking them is very unfortunate. During cold travel ball tournaments you can often see players with bats underneath their shirts trying to keep their expensive bats warm with body heat, and there are often bats wrapped in blankets while teams play defense. Cold is just not fun. Winter precipitation is the worst. Snow is pretty to look at, but it makes things dangerous and wet and it interferes with everyone's plans. I don't like it when school is cancelled because of snow. A couple snow days a year are nice, just a day off here and there, but the days and days and sometimes weeks off at a time are awful. It's never just one snow day. It seems like it's always four or five days in a row, then a week later another four or five days. It just adds up and I get super bored sitting at home for that long. Don't get me wrong, I'm not saying I particularly enjoy school, but it's not that bad and on snow days you don't have any other plans and there's only so much you can do at home. You can't really go anywhere, at least for the first few days, because the roads are bad, so you just sit at home and go insane trying not to freeze. I just am not a winter person I guess. I'm made for summer. Summer is travel softball, and swimming, and no school but plenty of things to do and places to go because it's warm and nice and the roads aren't covered in ice. There are places to go, and you can get away from the people you don't like at school. You can still see the ones you like if you want, but the rest you don't come in contact with for almost three months. I have time to read in the summer, and time to watch Lord of the Rings and Harry Potter and all those other great things I don't have time for during school. Plus, my birthday is May 23, which is usually right after school gets out, so it's a great kickoff to summer break. I love summer. I just love it. Everything is colorful and alive in the summer, especially when it's not a dry summer. The sky is blue, the plants are green, and everything is vibrantly colored and alive. I love it, and I miss it. It's only October 4 and I'm already pretty much done with winter. I can't stand cold. The good news is, this week it is supposed to get back up in the 70's and low 80's, which is perfect for me.  I can't wait to be warm again. I mean outside. I'm good inside, although my house is a little chilly at the moment. My mom just turned on the heat today for the first time. I don't understand how all these people say they love the cold. I guess fall is pretty, but I hate cold. I also don't like coffee so I'm not excited about the whole "pumpkin spice latte" thing either. Oh well.
-Ellie Lane

Freewrite

 Freewrite.  Another freewrite today. I don't know what to say, but I never do when I start these things. I always think of something though. These things really do help fluency. It seems like I can never think of anything to write while I'm starting out, but once I get going it comes very easily. I liked this past summer a lot. I had a great time. I wish it hadn't gone by so quickly. I miss last school year too. A lot of my friends graduated, and I miss them. It's weird being an upperclassman too. I am so used to being a sophomore. I like being a sophomore because you aren't new to everything like the freshmen, but people don't expect out of you what they expect out of upperclassmen. You don't have the responsibilities the upperclassmen do, and you aren't expected to be a leader yet. It is also easier to impress people when you're younger because, like I said, they don't expect too much from you, so when you are good at things, it excites and suprises people. I enjoyed being a sophomore. A lot of my friends were seniors, and they were the ones that were expected to be leaders, and expected to be good. By good, I am talking in terms of athletic talent, because many of the seniors I was friends with were my teammates in softball and basketball. They led the teams. I helped, but they were the ones that were expected to be leaders and examples. They were the ones people expected to be good. This year, especially with a group that important recently graduated, there are big shoes to fill. And since I am an upperclassman now, I one of those expected to fill those shoes. Underclassman and coaches expect me to be a leader now. Especially in basketball. Softball is my main sport and the sport I am best at, but we have several seniors on the softball team, and we have a pretty good team, so it's not just me; the responsibilities and expectations are shared by several of us on the softball team. In basketball, however, I am expected to be the only upperclassman on the team. I am the only one in my grade that plays, and the one girl in the grade ahead of me that played last year has said she isn't playing this year. Even though I am not that great at basketball, I will be expected by my coach and teammates to be a leader. I am going to have to work hard to be what my team needs. I am working hard in softball as well, but like I said earlier, I am better at softball, so it is easier for me to lead there. This year will be a challenge, but I am going to do my best to step up to it. I miss my recently graduated friends quite a bit, and I am going to have to do quite a bit to try to fill their shoes. I miss having them around quite a bit, to be honest. I looked up to them a lot. I never realized how much until this year, when they were gone and I realized that I was expected to step up and be to others what they were to me. 
-Ellie Lane

Freewrite

 My family is having potato soup for supper tonight. I hate potatoes. I am going to eat cereal instead. My mother stopped trying to make me eat potatoes after I threw up while trying to eat them in sixth grade. I think their texture is disgusting, and while I realize that they are very popular, I can't make myself eat them because I think they're nasty. I like potato chips and French fries, but the mushy texture of other potatoes is gross to me. I have weird taste, I know. I don't like ketchup or tomatoes either. I don't like mustard either. I was finally able to charge my iPad a few days ago. It had been dead since the end of this summer because I lost my charger, but at school the other day my friend gave me a charger so I can use it again. I charged it that night and now I can use it again. I haven't used it that much since, but it's handy to have around. I use it for school some and just for entertainment. I am tired. We had a tournament this weekend. We played two games last night and one this morning. We lost all three. Districts are this week, so hopefully we can win that. We are hosting again. I like having districts in Pleasant Hope because we have a nice field and we don't have to travel. Our district is fairly easy except for us and Morrisville, our neighbor town and rival. We beat them last week, though and we were missing several players, so I think we have a good chance of winning. We'll have to play well, though.

-Ellie Lane

 I am doing another freewrite right now. I don't really know what to say for this one. I am trying to gain fluency by doing this, right? I believe that is the point of this exercise. The name of the assignment is Fluency Blog so I think that is a reasonable assumption to make. I know assumptions are supposed to be bad but Fluency is in the name so surely I am right, right? I am going with a yes on this one. I think I can trust my judgement. I hope so anyway. I've been going with it for a while now so I guess that's a good start. I like reading and my sister is reading something right now. She just said she is reading "Chicken Soup For the Kid's Soul." I think she will be a very good reader when she is older. She already is, actually. She is in fourth grade. She has to do this thing for school where she has to read for a certain number of minutes either each day or each week, I'm not sure which, and she just finished it now. My mom set a timer in the kitchen for her to time it but it went off and she wants to keep reading and no one will shut it off so it's just beeping periodically. Not too often though, so it's not too annoying. I remember the first time I ever stayed up past midnight. I thought it was a huge deal. I was over at a friend's relative's house with my friend and we ended up just staying there really late. I was probably seven or eight and I was a strange kid who was weird about going to bed on time and getting up on time so it kind of stressed me out a little. I wasn't as bad about it at this point as I was going to get later, but I was still kind of weird. I later got to where I would go to bed at like 8:30 or 9 every night no matter what, and I would usually set an alarm for 6:30 and I freaked out whenever I couldn't keep that schedule for whatever reason. I didn't like throw a fit or anything crazy like that, I just got really stressed out about it and I became what my mom called "fussy." I would just worry and fret until I could go to bed and then when my mom wouldn't allow me to set my alarm for 6:30 because I had been (forced to be) up too late, I got all worried about how late I was going to sleep. I hated sleeping late. I hated it. Like I said, I was a weird kid. I wanted to go to bed on time and wake up early every single morning and it worried me greatly for some reason when I couldn't. I was not flexible in at all. I remember one time when I was staying with my Granny and she let me sleep in until 9:00 and I was so upset. I thought it was the end of the world. I didn't say anything about it to Granny because she wasn't familiar with my OCD sleeping habits and I didn't want her to feel bad about letting me sleep, but inside it was killing me. Looking back on it that was really weird. I just was a strange kid I guess. I like sleeping in now though, so it's okay. I kind of just go to bed whenever I get done with stuff now. I try to get to sleep around ten but it doesn't always happen. In fact it rarely happens because I'm so busy but it's a goal. Alright, I think we're done here for now.
-Ellie Lane

Freewrite

 I am in my kitchen. I just had a nice monster cookie. My mom makes excellent monster cookies. I don't know if you know what a monster cookie is, but it is a delicious culinary creation made of oatmeal and M&M's, and sometimes extra chocolate chips. My mom and my sister make really good monster cookies. My mom almost always makes them when we have a softball tournament and brings them for me to share with my team.
 I went to an FCCLA conference today at Silver Dollar City in Branson. I heard a good speaker while we were there. I don't know his last name, but his first name was Mike. He talked to us about how people's lives behind the scenes are often nothing like we imagine and that you could have no idea what's going on with them just from how they act on the outside. It could have been very depressing given the subject matter, but he included just the right amount of humor and lightheartedness to keep it from getting too dark. He took the matter seriously and encouraged us to do the same, but he didn't bog everyone down with negative thoughts by the end. He talked about how if someone is treated negatively their whole life, they often will fail to see the worth in themselves, and they will often allow others to treat them poorly because they don't place enough value on themselves. He put emphasis on how someone's misbehavior or straying down the wrong path is often due to them trying to cover up or distract themselves from a deeper problem. Overall, I thought it was a very interesting speech and I enjoyed it. Like I said, it could have been a very dark and unpleasant presentation given the subject matter, but he kept it from being so.
  I have another test in my online history class this week. I think it will be okay though. I enjoy history and I find it interesting, so this is a fun class for me. I know some people say history is boring and unimportant. Several times, I have heard people at school employ the old line "Well who cares they're all dead anyway" when referring to history, but I think knowing about the past is very important, not to mention fascinating. We have to know how we got where we are, and we have to avoid repeating our mistakes. You can't avoid repeating a mistake if you don't know what your mistake was the first time. I sound like a total geek. But there are far worse things to be, so I am proud of that. I like to learn, so I guess history  is a good thing for me. I think that's enough freewriting for now.

Freewrite

 I am currently in my tutorial hour. My school is doing a new tutorial system this year. If you want, you can take seven classes and have one hour of the day as a tutorial where you can work on stuff from other classes if you want. If you don't want a tutorial, you just take eight classes. I took a tutorial because I am taking so many college classes. I didn't know how hard they would be, so I wanted to take a tutorial just in case I needed it. I am glad I did. My college classes aren't hard, but I have a lot more assignments than I do in my high school classes, and I don't have much time to work outside of school because of softball, so most of my work gets done either on Sunday or at school. My tutorial has been very helpful for finishing all my work. I would probably be overloaded with work outside school if I didn't have it. Most of my friends took tutorials as well. I know one or two people that are taking eight classes though. There are many tutorials, multiple ones almost every hour. Mine is seventh hour.
  When I was seven I got my ears pierced for the first time. I got them pierced on my seventh birthday. I had pink flower earrings. They were very cute. I got my second piercings last spring after school ball was over. I waited all last year because I had sports all year, and during games they make you take your earrings out. You're not supposed to take your earrings out for six weeks after getting them pierced, and after that you are only allowed to take them out to change earrings. That would not have worked if I had to take them out all the time for games because after the game I would have had to push them back through their holes. The holes would have begun to grow back by the time the game was over. It would have been painful to push the earrings back through them if they had grown back.

-Ellie Lane

  In my English III class, we are reading a story called "The Life You Save May Be Your Own." So far, it is a very strange read. A man called Mr. Shiftlet shows up at the home of an old woman and her daughter, who live in the middle of nowhere, and offers to work for them in exchange for a place to stay. The daughter, named Lucynell, has some sort of mental disability, and is very simple and uneducated as a result. She is dumb until Mr. Shiflet teaches her her first word, 'bird.' She is very excited when she learns how to say this word. She is around 30 years old, but behaves as if she is far younger. Her mother, the old lady who is also named Lucynell, likes Mr. Shiflet and wants him to marry her daughter. One of the first questions she asked him upon meeting him was whether or not he was married. He told her that it was nearly impossible to find an innocent woman anymore and that he didn't want any of the trashy women. The old woman told him that Lucynell was the most innocent girl he would find. She tried to convince him to marry her. He said he wouldn't marry any girl if he couldn't take her on a nice weekend trip and buy her a nice meal. The old woman said she'd give him $17.50 and let them take the car for the weekend if he'd marry young Lucynell. He agreed, they went to the courthouse to get married, then Mr. Shiftlet and Lucynell left for the weekend on their honeymoon. When they stopped to get something to eat that evening, Mr. Shiflet ditched Lucynell at the restaurant and drove off to Mobile, Alabama by himself in the old woman's car. It was a strange story.

-Ellie Lane

Freewrite

I am doing anther one of these freewrites today. I feel like I repeat myself in these sometimes, but I am supposed to write down whatever's on my mind, right? I am trying to "gain fluency" by doing these. I think they might be starting to help. I hope so anyway. I used to be obsessed with "The Hunger Games" when I was in seventh and part of eighth grade. I just loved the books and I thought they were really cool. I played basketball in junior high. I still do, but junior high basketball was super fun. It's still fun now, but we have a lot more games in high school and it can get very tiresome toward the end of the season. Anyway, I remember one day in seventh grade I was sitting in Language Arts class talking to one of my friends. He asked how our basketball game the night before had gone. I made up this story that I guess I thought was funny just to see if he would believe it. I told him that at the game there was a huge girl on the other team that picked me up and threw me at the wall and I hit my head and was knocked out. I tried as hard as I could to tell it with a straight face. I think he believed me. I don't really remember if he did or not. Probably not, because I doubt I was able to say it without laughing and giving it away. Another made up story I told that people actually believed was during eighth grade basketball. My team and I were waiting for the bus to come pick us up for our game. We were hanging out in the commons area of the school. My given name is Rachel Ellen, but I have always gone by Ellie Mae. In the school computer system I am Rachel because that's what is on my birth certificate. The seventh grade girls wanted to know why the school called me Rachel when my name was Ellie. I told them the reason I was Rachel in the computers was because  I had a twin sister named Rachel that went to another school, and when our parents had registered us for our respective schools, they had confused our birth certificates and accidentally registered me as Rachel and Rachel as me. To prove it to them, I went to the bathroom and changed one my eighth grade friends' contact names in my phone to Rachel and had her go to the locker room by herself and call me. I answered it, put the phone on speaker, showed the seventh graders the name, and let them talk to "Rachel." My deception was successful this time. Apparently it was more successful than I thought, however, because last year, my sophomore year of high school, I mentioned this incident to theses girls, who were now freshmen, and they were completely shocked to hear that I had been kidding. I said something along the lines of "Hey remember that time I tricked you guys into thinking I had a twin sister named Rachel?"  and received several confused expressions in response. 

 "Wait, that wasn't true?" they asked. I had never told them it was a joke, and they had believed the story for two years. I thought it was hilarious.

 Well that's enough for today I suppose. 

-Ellie Lane

This I Believe Essay-Draft 1

   I believe in taking opportunities. Not just taking them a little, not just dipping your toe in the water, but taking them as far as you can and getting as much out of them as possible. You have to work to get the most out of something, and really taking an opportunity means putting everything into something in order to get something out of it. Taking an opportunity sometimes means taking risks. It means putting something into the opportunity that might not pay off, but knowing that if you do get something back it will be worth it. It means putting aside the easy and taking up the difficult because in the end it will be worth it.
            Taking opportunities means doing everything to the fullest. To get the greatest rewards out of something, you can’t just do it half-heartedly. The biggest rewards require the biggest efforts. You won’t get out more than you put in. Years of playing sports taught me this lesson. As an athlete, I have learned that practice and performance go hand in hand, and that the performance will only be as good as the practice. My freshman year I played left field for the varsity softball team at my high school. Going into that season, I knew that if I wanted to start varsity, I would have to earn it. I earned it by not only going to every practice, but by giving 110% in every drill and exercise, having a coachable attitude and doing my best to learn from my mistakes, and staying after practice many days and working on things with my mom. My outfield skills developed a tremendous amount during that season and the summer before it, and my maximum effort all the time showed my coach that I wanted to play varsity and would work hard and earn my spot. I saw the opportunity to improve my game and play on a good team, and I took the opportunity and proved that I wanted it by giving it my all.

            Doing something a little bit won’t get you the rewards you want out of something. I work hard in softball, but I always neglect my other game, basketball. I started playing basketball during elementary school, around the time I started playing softball, but I never enjoyed it as much as I did softball. Due to my lack of interest, I never worked on basketball outside of team practice, and I ended up taking a few years off of basketball during late elementary. I started playing again in junior high, took my freshman year off, and resumed playing my sophomore year. By my sophomore year the average skill level for people my age greatly outstripped my own abilities. I still enjoy the game, and I still play varsity at my school, but simply because we only have eight people on our team. Although I took the opportunity to play basketball, I missed the opportunity to play well and to really help my team. I have still gone to every team practice and given it my all, and I even went to summer workouts, but I didn’t put the hours of individual work into basketball like I did for softball, and it shows in my performance. I didn’t take full advantage of the opportunity to be a serious basketball player because I didn’t put everything I could into it.

            Sometimes taking an opportunity means stepping out of your comfort zone. Many of the best opportunities disguise themselves as risks, and because of this, many people pass them by. When I was in junior high, I switched travel softball teams. My old team just wasn’t quite right for me, and my parents and I decided it was time to leave. After the current season was over, my dad told my coach I wouldn’t be playing with them next year, and we began shopping for a new team. I didn’t know where I would play when I left my old team, and there was always the risk I would end up in a worse situation than the one I had left, but I knew that there were good things waiting out there if I was willing to go out and get them. I was nervous about leaving my friends on the old team and going to a team that I was unfamiliar with. I would have to get used to a completely new group of people and I didn’t know how good they would be. I tried out and subbed for multiple teams to try to get a feel for them before I found one that was right. I played with my new team for three years and loved it the whole time. My skills improved and I had a lot of fun, and it wouldn’t have happened if I hadn’t been willing to get away from the team I was comfortable with and try new things.

            Taking an opportunity might mean having to miss a few things along the way. Doing something right can require sacrificing some time and effort along the way. Over the years I have missed plenty of social opportunities in order to go to practice or do homework.  My goal is and always has been to play softball in college. Working toward this goal has required me to put in hundreds of hours outside of team practice to hone my skills and put myself ahead of my competition. I can’t always go to the football game on Friday, and I can’t always watch a movie with my sisters or read the book I’m dying to start. But playing softball for four years after I graduate high school is an opportunity I know I want to take, and I won’t even have the opportunity if I don’t work and put something into it. There is no guarantee I will play in college, and no guarantee that injury won’t end my career, and if I don’t play in college I will never get back the hours I put into softball. I have put something into this opportunity that there is no certainty I will get back, but if I do get it back, it will be worth it. I have to take the chance if I want any hope of getting something out of it.

            The most worthwhile opportunities aren’t usually easy to take. I knew when I started high school that I wanted to complete as much college credit as I could before I graduated. I wanted to have a head start when I started college full-time. This year, my junior year of high school, I am enrolled in five dual-credit classes. Just as I expected, these classes are more challenging than my high school classes, but they are more rewarding because I know they will help me more in the long run. I have to work harder at them, but I also get more out of them and learn more. I am taking the opportunity to accelerate and enhance my education. Taking dual credit classes is not the easiest opportunity I have ever taken, but I know that if I keep working hard and putting full effort into them, they will definitely pay off in the end.

            Choosing the right opportunities to take requires me to keep things in perspective. I have to choose whether to do what seems fun and easy, or to do what requires a little bit more of me but I know will be more rewarding in the end. I have to choose between cruising through life only thinking about what I want right at the moment and taking opportunities that challenge me in the present but will pay off in the future. I believe in taking opportunities, and that means looking at things long-term.

            I believe taking opportunities is something that is necessary to reap the greatest rewards and have the fullest life. Take opportunities that will push and challenge you and require you to put something in before you take something away, because the more you put in, the more you will get back. Taking risks is often necessary when taking opportunities; sometimes the risks will pay off, and sometimes they won’t. It is impossible to know without taking the risk in the first place. Taking an opportunity leaves no room for half-heartedness. It won’t pay off without putting something into it first. I believe in putting in full effort and taking full advantage of the chances I am given. I believe in taking opportunities.

Freewrite

 I am doing another one of these freewrites. These aren't my favorite thing to do but they're alright and I think they're pretty good for me so I guess I'll keep doing them. I am about to go to lunch. I wonder what we're having today? What to eat? They haven't updated the menu yet so I have no idea. I hope it's not barbeque ribs. Those are kind of weird. I don't like them much. I hope it's cheezy bread. And yes, that is spelled with a z. That's how the cooks spell it. It's pretty good. I like chewing gum. I am chewing some minty gum. I like gum. I read somewhere once that chewing gum during games helps athletes focus and helps their performance. I don't really understand why it helps so much but why not try it, right? I had a teacher middle school that hated gum. If we chewed gum in the classroom once, she gave us a warning, and after that we had to write sentences. Each time we got caught with gum, the amount of sentences increased, but I don't remember how much. I like gum. I am so hungry.  I want to eat something. I want pizza. I had subway yesterday. As far as fast food goes, Subway is pretty good. I like it. I like McDonald's too. I always get a plain chicken sandwich and fries and a sweet tea when I go there. I am hungry. I want some food. I wish I had brought my lunch today but I didn't have time to make it before I left home. I usually bring my lunch, but today I am eating school lunch. Lunch starts at 11:21 but it's only 11:14 right now. So close, yet so far. I am so hungry. I just want it to be lunchtime. I am so whiny today. Oh well. I guess everyone gets a whiny day every once in a while. I have another game tonight. I had six games last week, and I had yesterday off because it was Sunday, but we start up again today. I have five games this week. It'll be another long one.

-Ellie Lane

Freewrite

  Here we go. Freewriting again. I seem to be getting better at this. I jsut tallk and talk and talk and then soemthing comes to me and I just write about it. sometimes I just tell stories like that one about my geometry teacher that I told last time I freewrote. I liked her. Here's another story about her: on March 14, she made a kind of holiday out of Pi day. She let us bring in food and stuff and we watched a movie. It had to be circular food though, so we had cookies and stuff and it was really good. The movie we watched was kinda weird. It was about shapes that had this weird society. THen one of the shapes met a sphere and a line and a point I think and he was introducted the other dimensions. It was very strange but we all laughed about it in the end. Apparently there was a sequel to that movie, because the kids that were in algebra 1 and geometry last year said they watched the sequel and it was about the shape society again except they had a civil war or something and apparently it was very gory considering it was an animated movie about multicolored shapes. My geometry teacher only stayed at this school one year but the teacher that replaced her showed that sequel. I heard some weird things about that sequel movie. Look at that, I'm already halfway fdown the page. There ain't no cure for the summertime blues. THat song is playing in this classroom right now. I think 9/11 was a very tragic event. It certainly sparked a very big change in airport security. One of my teachers told us that before 9/11, in the 70's and 80's especially, plane hijackings were very common and happened all the time. He said they really weren't a big deal back then, and they were hardly ever dangerous. I just can't understand what would make someone want to kill that many pepople or do something that horrible. I just don't get it. I'm going to write about something else now. I am reading this book series right now called "The Testing" and it is pretty good, but it is very similar to "The Hunger Games." They are both set in post-apocalyptic societies, and both have very controlling governments and a brutal event that some of their young people have to go through. Both have a stong female main character. Both have a boy from the girl's hometown that goes through the event with her and they end up falling in love. I think the stories are both good though. I just think they are very similar. Look at that, I am about done. That went quickly. Well I guess that's all for now.
-Ellie Lane

Freewrite

Today is a nice day. I think the high is around 80 degrees this afternoon. I have a fair amount of homework to do. This whole freewriting this is kind of difficult. At least there is music in this classroom. I like reading. I can't wait to finish reading "The Other Wes Moore." I wonder what's for lunch today. Something good hopefully. It seems like every day I don't bring my lunch and need to eat school lunch the school lunch is something I don't like. Sometimes it is something good though. I especially enjoy the cheezy bread. No, I didn't spell cheesy wrong, the cooks at my school spell it with a z and since they are the ones making the dish I think they can spell it how they like. Anyway, it's pretty good, and they serve it with this sauce that I'm pretty sure is spaghetti sauce, although I'm not certain. I sometimes dip the cheezy bread in the sauce, but somtimes I jsut eat it plain without the sauce. It is pretty nice either way. I alos don't mind when they serve the pizza. The rectangle pizza. It can sometimes be kind of greasy, but when it is too greasy for me i just sop the greasy off with some extra napkins. This freewriting is getting easir as i go along. I am not running out of ideas as much right now as I sometimes do.It's just like the little voice in my head is talking directly onto this paper. Is this fluency? Is this what that feels like? I assume so. I wouldn't really knhow what it is if it isn't this honestly. I think I'm funny sometimes but I'm pretty sure I'm honestly not. I am laughing just thinnking about it. I make myself laugh but I'm pretty sure it's just self-amusement. That's alright though; I'm always entertained at least. One time my freshman year, my geometry teacher was getting annoyed with our class because we wouldn't shut up. She told some kid she was going to move them to a different seat if he didn't shut up and he I think asked her why she didn't move me or something, and her reply was something like "Well it wouldn't help because Ms. Lane entertains herself." I don't remember her exact words but it was something like that and I thought it was funny because it was so true. I liked her though. She was a good teacher.I generally don't like math, but I actually enjoyed geometry. It was easy and I liked the teacher.

-Ellie Lane

Freewrite

  The weather we have been having lately has been extremely pleasant. I enjoy the nto too cold, not too warm ncie in between weather, I like being comfortable. This is perfect softball weather. I enjoy not being so hot i drown in my own sweat, but I also hate being cold. I absolutely despise being cold. I think it is miserabel and when it's cold out playing softball is terrible. Everything hurts worse when it is cold, and when it gts below a certain temperature you can't use composite bats because it can break the inside of them. That is very unfortunate, because then you have to use old crappy bats and it makes hitting harder, and if your bat vibrates in your hands it hurts way worse than it would if it were warm. I like summer. I also enjoy swimming. Blue is a good color. I have never done swimming as a competitive sport, but i like to go to public pools or swim at a friends' house sometimes. I enjoy being in the water. I have always liked swimming, ever since I was a kid. Ecology is an interesting subject. For my ecology class in school we recently did a project where we had to build our own biome in a jar in groups of three or four people. In our biome, which was supposed to survive for two weeks, we put a rhinoceros beetle and twelve pill bugs, as well as a partially rotten log, some knapweed and crabgrass, and some moss. We also put wayyyyy too much water in the biome before we sealed it and it ended up growing lots of mold. We are pretty sure the mold took a lot of oxygen because before the mold was growing everything was going great but when we opened it this morning the first sight that greeted us was a dead rhinoceros beetle covered in mold with its legs in the air. The pill bugs were also dead, except for I think one that was kind of moving a little. There was also a tiny worm that was still alive. We are doing the project again bcause most of the class didn't have very good biomes. My group's crabgrass was still partially alive, and our knapweed survived. Well, that's enough about ecology I think. I am fairly sure I've written enough for today, so I'm gonna  call it quits on this freewrite. See you later then.

-Ellie Lane

Reading Response to "Be Cool to the Pizza Delivery Dude"

  I recently read the 'I Believe' essay "Be Cool to the Pizza Delivery Dude" by Sarah Adams. I enjoyed reading this essay because it put a unique spin on some things that I believe myself. The beliefs Adams writes about in this essay are not new to me, and they are things that are important in my life, but in this essay she creatively links them to pizza deliverers, which clarifies these principles and helps pin them down and make them more personal and applicable.
  The way Adams broke her beliefs into four basic principles was helpful and simplified her philosophy. The plain way the author stated her beliefs left enough room for the essay to be interpreted individually by the reader while also making clear the idea of the principle as well as the basis for it.
  I enjoyed how Adams explained the respect she has for the honesty of the occupation of a pizza deliveryman. She writes "They never took over a company and, as CEO, artificially inflated the value of the stock and cashed out their own shares, bringing the company to the brink of bankruptcy, resulting in 20,000 people losing their jobs while the CEO builds a home the size of a luxury hotel. Rather, the dudes sleep the sleep of the just." This passage of the text makes it clear that the author values honesty and hard work.
  Overall, I thoroughly enjoyed this essay. I thought it was creative and interesting and put a unique spin on some common beliefs. I think Adams did a good job of organizing this essay and presenting a unique worldview.

-Ellie Lane

My Personal Credo

 I believe in taking opportunities when they are given to you. Taking opportunities doesn't just mean taking a new job or starting a new sport. It isn't just doing something in name only. To take an opportunity you need to really take it, and take it as much as you can. You need to wring it out until it has given you everything it can because sometimes those last few pieces that you thought weren't important are the best part of the whole thing. If you are going to do something, you need to do it to the best of your ability. That is what taking an opportunity means. You need to not just take the position, but really do the job. Put your full effort into that job so that job can yield benefits to you that doing a half-effort job wouldn't have. Taking the opportunity means not only going to every practice, but practicing on your own as well. It means not only doing all your assignments, but doing the extra credit assignment that you most likely won't need as well. I means giving not just 100%, but 110%. It means doing something fully. Take advantage of your opportunities not only by doing what you have to to get the job done, but by doing the extra little bit as well. If you put more in, you'll get more out. There will always be an opportunity to do something a little bit better, and taking that opportunity is what will pay off in the end.

-Ellie Lane

Know Your Audience Analysis

  While reading through the Know Your Audience discussion board, I found many questions of the type I would have expected. For example, questions such as "What are your hobbies?" and "Where would you like to travel?" are the type of question I would expect someone to ask when they are just getting to know someone. They allow you to learn a little bit about a person without invading their privacy or hitting an uncomfortable subject to soon after meeting them. They are good introductory questions and I wasn't surprised to see questions of this type.
  There were a few questions I was surprised to see, however. Some of these questions were more difficult to answer, such as "What would you do if you were the last person on Earth?" Answering questions like this one requires a bit more thought than one would put into an answer given to one of the previously discussed questions. These are the types of questions that allow you to get to know a person a bit more deeply and allow a better look at their personality. I learned from the answers to some of these questions that this is a class that has an array of personalities. Some of my classmates are more social and seem to be devastated by the idea of being alone on Earth, while others say they would go straight into survival mode.
  When writing to this audience I will have to take into consideration the different types of people in this class. I will have to be sensitive to the beliefs of others, but I also can't let the worry that I will offend a classmate get in the way of my writing. I look forward to hearing my classmates' responses to my writing because I think they will be able to offer insights that I wouldn't have seen on things I write about and I think hearing all the different opinions in the class will help me expand my understanding of what we are discussing. When writing to this audience, I will try to write from a unique perspective so I can help them grow as well.

-Ellie Lane

  I have enjoyed reading "The Other Wes Moore: One Name, Two Fates" so far. For a non-fiction book, it holds my interest as well as any fictional story I have ever read. I enjoyed the detailed character and setting descriptions and all the background information they provided about the boys. The detailed descriptions provided insight into why the boys behaved the way they did and I think it will help grow the story as I continue reading.
  One of my favorite things about the book so far is how well it describes the boys' parents, especially their mothers. It provides background knowledge of their parents and their pasts, which helps me understand better why their adult lives shaped up the way they did and what effect the events of their pasts might have had on how they raised their sons. I think having background knowledge of the boys' parents helps give the story a deeper perspective and helps the reader understand how the boys' families came into the situations they were in while the boys were growing up.
  I also enjoyed the introduction of the book. I liked that it showed me what happened in the boys' adult lives before it showed me their childhoods. This not only captured my attention from the very beginning, it allowed me to make predictions of my own about what the boys' childhoods might have been like.
  So far, I have really enjoyed this book. I have found it interesting and insightful and I can't wait to continue reading.

-Ellie Lane

Thursday Freewrite

                Today is Thursday. Today we have a softball game against Buffalo High School. I am looking forward to it. I enjoy game days because they are just exciting to me. I am looking forward to playing tonight. I also have a lot of homework to do. I am a very busy girl. I am also a slightly tired girl. I am always doing something and the constant frenzy of activity can wear you out after a while. It’s fun though, and I don’t know what I would do with myself if I was not so busy. I like having something to do.  I do not enjoy boredom. A day off every once in a while would not hurt though. I usually get to relax on Sundays though. I like Sundays. On Sunday mornings my mother sometimes makes cinnamon rolls or biscuits and that’s always good. Then after breakfast we get dressed and go to church. After church we come home and clean the house a little and then eat lunch which is usually pizza on Sundays. We usually watch TV in the afternoons, take a nap, and go to the softball field. Then I come home and take a shower, then we go back to church in the evening. I love church. After evening church my mom usually makes us shakes. I usually have a chocolate shake with bits of candy or cookies in it. I like Reese’s cups. They are my favorite candy. I also like M & M’s and Hershey’s. Hershey’s with almonds are good, but I like plain milk chocolate best. I enjoy eating brownies as well. Fresh out of the oven with peanut butter on top is best. I also like cookies. My mom and sister make excellent monster cookies. They have oatmeal and chocolate chips and M&M’s in them. I love them.

-Ellie Lane 

307 words 

Wednesday Post

I am doing a freewrite today. I don’t know what to write about really, so I’ll just go. I like to play softball. It is my favorite sport and I have played it since I was five. I am a pitcher and an outfielder primarily, but sometimes I play infield as well. I also enjoy hitting. I have hit two home runs and I hopefully will hit more at some point. I love pitching. It is exciting and engaging for me, and I enjoy the intensity of it. I like having such a high level of involvement in the game. It can be stressful at times, because so much of the game depends on you as a pitcher, but it is also very rewarding. I enjoy having that big of a part in the team’s performance. Yes, there will be days when you let your team down, but the days you love as a pitcher are the days when you help bring your team a victory.

Pitching requires a lot of focus. It takes a lot of mental ffort as well as physical. You have to have excellent technique consistently in order to be successful, and it takes a lot of practice. I am sixteen now and I have pitched since I was eight years old. I love it. Pitching takes a lot of attention to detail as well. It is important that you are able to pitch to very precise targets. You don’t just want to throw the ball in the strike zone, because if you throw a ball right down the middle almost any decent hitter is going to cream it. You want to throw to the corners of the zone, and push the umpire’s boundaries. The first inning of each game is often spent by pitchers figuring out what kind of strike zone that particular unpire has. Each umpire is a little different. Some prefer outside pitches, some low, some high, some inside. Some umpires will hardly ever even call a strike unless it’s right down the middle. These kinds of umpires are very annoying as a pitcher, becaue like I said earlier, if you throw right down the middle the batter is likely to get a very good hit. This is a struggle I have faced before; I try to throw to the corners of the zone to avoid big hits, but the ump won’t call anything that isn’t right down the middle. There are some umpires, however, that will call pretty much anything you throw. These umpires are nice to have every once in a while. They are very easy to pitch with becaue yuou don’t have to have as precise of a zone, but you also don’t want to let yourself get lazy and complacent with your spots. You want to make sure you still hit your spots even if the unpire is more lenient because you want to make sure you stay in top form for those games when you have tougher umpires.

I don’t just like softball though. I also like reading and spending time with my family. I have two little sisters, one is twelve and the other is nine. They like to read too. I like reading sci-fi and fantasy mostly, and the twelve year old sister likes murder mysteries. The nine year old reads a variety of things.

We also have a cat. His name is Batman. He is all black. We got him when hwe was about six weeks old. I was a freshman when we got him. He was a Valentine’s day present from my parents to my sisters and I. He is a very well behaved cat. My dad doesn’t like him that much, but that’s mostly just because he is allergic to cats. I am mildly allergic to cats as well, but not too bad. I am also allergic to rabbits and horses, and I have seasonal allergies. I don’t have any food allergies that I am aware of. We used to have a dog when I was younger. His name was Sam and he died when I was eight. He was a very mild mannered dog and he was a great pet. He was fourteen or fifteen when he died, I can’t remember exactly. It was very sad. My parents had had him since he was a puppy, before I was born. When I was in fourth grade we had another dog named Daisy. Daisy was a good dog, always very friendly, but she got annoying because she had a very bad habit of jumping up on you and she constantly wanted to play. We got her when she was a puppy. She was a stray that a friend of ours had found somewhere. We got rid of her after a while because we just got sick of her. She was too friendly for us I guess.

-Ellie Lane
813 words 

Ten Minute Freewrite

I Believe I Have a Bright Future

                I believe my future is going to be good. I believe this because I am intelligent and responsible and hardworking. I think I am going to do well in college and in the rest of my life. I don’t  worry too much about what I’m going to do after high school because I know that I am capable of a lot and if I push myself I will be able to accomplish a lot. I think I know that my future is my own responsibility and no one else’s so I know that anything I want in life I am going to have to earn for myself. I want to have a good life, so I know I’ll have to work for it. I want to have a happy life, not defined by money although I don’t want to be short of money either. I want to have a life that will be full and satisfying. I think I am capable of getting this life. I think I can work my way to it and I think I have the ability to go above and beyond the standards set for me. I think I know my abilities well nough that I can get into a field that will be good for me and help me succeed. I think I will be a good employee and that I will make my employers happy. I think I will do well and help raise the quality of work produced by myself and my colleagues. I think I can help raise the standards of my workplace. I think I can have a good life. I think my future is promising and I think I have good things down the road. I think I can get where I want to go if I put my full effort into it. I think there are many opportunities waiting out there for me and I think I will be able to seixe them. I think college will be an enjoyable experience for me and I think I will have a good time learning and preparing for my career. I think I will have opportunities to prove myself as a student and person and I look forward to doing so. I cant wait to show what I can do. I look forward to what is coming and I want to work hard and earn somehintg worth having. I want to do something impressive and worthwhile. I can’t wait for what the future brings. I hope to play softball in college. I think I might have the chance and if I do I can’t wait to seize it. I want to play the sport I love. I want to have a good time and continue my softball career. I want that sport to continue to be part of my life.

Word Count: 477

This I believe

I believe I am a hard worker

I believe I am a good reader

I believe I try hard all the time

I believe I am a well-rounded person

I believe I come from a good family

I believe I have a bright future

I believe I am smart

I believe my favorite color is blue

I believe I like to talk to some people

I believe I can get an A in this class

I believe I like smartphones

I believe I like Italian cuisine

I believe I can help people

I believe I can make a difference

I believe I can improve myself and my abilities

I believe I have good self confidence

I believe I like some music

I believe in God.

I believe everyone is good at something

I believe hard work pays off

I believe dedication is important

I believe education is important

I believe that doubting things can be very problematic

I believe that ignorance is dangerous

I believe that confusion is dangerous

I believe that many things can be thought through with logic

I believe knowing your history is important

I believe having confidence is important

I believe helping people is good

I  believe many problems can be avoided through reason

I believe people could understand things better if they tried

I believe change can be good or bad

I believe you can determine your future

I believe your decisions impact you in a very big way

I believe most people have good intentions at heart

I believe most mistakes can be corrected

I believe in forgiveness.

-Ellie Lane

Typology Test Reflection

  I took the Jung Typology test and the results were fairly close to my perceptions of myself. The test classified me as an INTJ personality type. INTJ stands for Introversion, Intuition, Thinking, Judging. The INTJ personality type sounds a lot like me and while I was reading about INTJ's there were many parts of the text that I was able to connect to my own life.
  I am introverted and prefer working either alone or with one or two people of my choice, and I do tend to put high standards on my own work and the work of others. In group projects at school I tend to be the one that ends up doing all or most of the work. I tend to be organized and punctual with assignments and I am a bit of a perfectionist, especially when it comes to school and sports.
  This test was helpful because it showed me some things I need to be aware of as well as some ways of helping me work better and relieve stress. Physical activities such as sports have always been stress relievers for me and they make school easier because they give my mind a break for a few hours and help me relax. One of the things that would probably help me stress less during group activities is delegating responsibility to others in the group and not trying to do everything myself.
 I agreed with a few things the article said about the learning styles of INTJ's but I felt like some of them didn't really apply to me. For example, the article said that INTJ's "most effectively study in an independent environment," which is true of me, but it also said that sometimes INTJ's become stressed "when they try to gain knowledge in all subjects of interest." I have never felt stressed by curiosity about subjects.
  Overall, the results of my personality test described me pretty well. There were some things that didn't quite fit with what I know about myself, but many areas described me perfectly. I think this knowledge will help me to work with less stress in the future and produce higher quality writing and other schoolwork, as well as possibly helping me with career planning down the road. I am glad I took this test and I think the results can help me in the future.

-Ellie Lane

  Works Cited

Saskatoon: University of Saskatchewan, n.d. 2-7. Student Employment and Career Centre, University of Saskatchewan. Web. 30 Aug. 2015. <https://thepurpleenglishteacher.files.wordpress.com/2009/09/intj.pdf>.

   My name is Ellie Lane. I enjoy spending time with family, reading, and playing sports. I like to travel and softball has taken me many places. I love books, especially fantasy and adventure. I enjoy watching movies like Lord of the Rings, Harry Potter, and many others.