A Walk in Dublin - my poem

A Walk in Dublin

 

1 I gaze out my window

2 On the eve of St. Patrick’s Day

3 There are cars buzzing¹ by

4 Streets brimming with bustling people

 

5 I walk outside though the front entrance

6 Lit up by green lights, I am greeted by your smile²

7 The streets narrow as the distance between us

8 The pavement curving crookedly

 

9 I take in a breath

10 Savoring the March breeze

11 Feeling the brisk air upon our pinkish cheeks

12 I advance with caution

 

13 The glow of the street lamps

14 Glitters like silver upon the River Liffey³

15 The water drifts lazily beneath the dim arches

16 And I grab for your hand as the chill settles in

 

17 The once illuminated sidewalk

18 Had now grown dim

19 Vacant in mind and alone in spirit

20 Together, we are alone⁴

 

21 A light mist begins

22 Water sprinkles and dances⁵ its way off the leaves of trees

23 Wetting the grand green grass^6&7

24 Gently numbing our delicate faces

 

25 We stray from the main roads

26 Down the elaborate pathways of stone and brick

27 That wind through such magnificent parks and meadows

28 Our feet pressing upon the soft ground with each step

 

29 Our eyes then smiled at each other⁸

30 We are flooded with desire

31 And just the slow pitter-patter of our hearts can be heard⁹

32 As we dissolve into the horizon

 

33 Only a walk through

34 The drizzly Dublin night

35 A walk with you

 

 

 

 

1 - Onomatopoeia: “buzzing”

2 - Synecdoche: "greeted by your smile”   It’s a synecdoche because obviously the person greeted me, but the smile stands for the whole person.

3 - Simile: “glitters like silver. . .” This simile helps show how beautiful and amazing the River Liffey is. (This is the river that goes through the center of Dublin)

4 - Paradox: “together we were alone”  This paradox is deep because it first shows the reader that we’re together, but then secondly reveals that no one else is around; it’s ironic because they’re alone—together.

5 - Personification: “water sprinkles and dances”   water can’t dance!

6 – ALITERATION: “grand green grass”

7 - Imagery: “grand green grass”   This is only one example of imagery in the poem, but there are a couple of others too!

8 - Personification: “Our eyes then smiled at each other”  eyes can’t smile! Thus, this creates a picture of eyes twinkling as they would if someone was actually smiling.

9 - Diction:  again, not the only example, but in this particular instance, words like ”pitter-patter” and “flooded”  help relate back to the theme of rain that occurs throughout the poem.

 

~Skoogster(:

P.S. yes I know it is over 28 lines but I really like it sooo...yeah!

 

You Are More Beautiful Than You Think

274 words

Maybe you have heard of the new Dove soap commercial but if you haven’t, I thought I would fill you in.

Dove recently came out with a new commercial called Dove Real Beauty Sketches. They had someone come in, Gil Zamora, who is a forensic artist. A forensic artist works in criminal stuff. Someone can describe a possible suspect and he draws what they describe. Dove had him come in and put him behind a curtain and had different women come in and describe themselves to him. Later, they had someone else who had just met the other person describe them. The differences were shocking! Here is the commercial…

 

 

 

What did you think? Pretty awesome, no?

When I first saw this, the first thing I thought of was our Miss Representation unit in my AP Lang class. The whole unit we talked about how the media affects the way women see themselves and this is a perfect example of how it plays into our everyday lives. These women in the commercial are your average woman, not jaw-dropping gorgeous yet not hideously ugly. They are just that plain and simple beauty. Yet when they describe themselves, they describe themselves in a degrading way, making them appear less than they actually are.

I think this was an eye opener for women all over. How you see yourself is NOT how others see yourself. You may hate the color of your eyes, thinking they have no distinct color to them but to someone else, your eyes might be your best feature. It’s pretty amazing to see how you see yourself compared to how someone else sees you.

 

~Skooogster(:

Dr. W: The Best of the Best

582 words

This is the last year that Kennedy will be the Kennedy High School that I have grown to love.

We have one of the most, no, scratch that, THE most amazing principal ever. I honestly don’t know what we would do without her. But unfortunately, I am going to have to learn. A few months ago, Dr. W. told the staff that she would be resigning after this year. It came as a shock to all of us, students and administration alike. For a lot of the teachers, Dr. W. hired them and they have work under her for a long time. For me, she has been my principal for the last three years.

Okay so you’re probably wondering why this is such a big deal. She’s only a principal, right?

Wrong.

Dr. W. is more than just a principal. She is the most amazing woman I have ever met. Kennedy is like her family. She treats us with respect and tries as hard as she can to fix our problems. She comes to as many activities as she cannot because she feels it is her obligation as principal, but because I honestly believe she WANTS to. She drove all the way to Valley High School in Des Moines, a two hour drive on a Saturday to watch our marching band perform. If that doesn’t show dedication to my school, I don’t know what does.

Also, she tries to get to know you on a personal level, but not in a creepy way. She makes it her job to know each and every student’s name that goes to Kennedy…and we have over 1800 students. I don’t even know all the names of the kids in my grade, let alone the whole school!

One of the best qualities of Dr. W. is that it doesn’t matter who you are: if you’re a good student or a bad one, get into a lot of trouble, or don’t, she will take the time and talk to you and talk you through anything you could be going through. I mean, I haven’t talked to all 1800+ kids, but I haven’t heard someone criticize Dr. W. once. I’m pretty sure we all love her and will all agree that next year, without her, is going to be extremely different.

The hardest part for me, though, is the fact that my senior year, my LAST year at Kennedy will be without Dr. W. It’s just kind of hard for me to wrap my mind around. Next year when I walk across the stage at graduation, I won’t be shaking her hand; I will be shaking the hand of someone I have known only a year. And I’m not saying he or she won’t be good. They could be the next best thing after The Dubs. All I am saying is that one year won’t be enough for the person graduating me to get to know me like Dr. W. knows me. I’m finding it hard to see myself as a graduate of John F. Kennedy High School without shaking her hand.

So here is my plan:

She comes to every graduation party she is invited to. Her husband works at a local high school. Next year I will just drive over there, give him my invite to give to her. When she comes, I will have my mom take a picture of me shaking Dr. W’s hand. Only then will I be able to completely graduate high school.

~Skooogster(:

Honor Bands

317 words


Today I went to my first ever honor band at Coe College. I had never been to one before so I had absolutely no idea what to expect!

After we signed in and got registered, we were sent to an area with other people who play the same instrument as you to have chair auditions. Luckily for me, it was my lesson teacher doing auditions for flute so it wasn't anywhere as nerve-wracking as I thought it would be! That took about an hour (there were about eighteen flutes! Yikes!) then we were all squished into a small band room. It was hot and stuffy. Not the most ideal setting for musical instruments, that's for sure!

We rehearsed for about two and a half to three hours before dinner. I was so hungry I could barely play a good note on my flute. The food was pretty decent considering we ate in the Coe dining hall. After eating in college dinning halls it isn't hard to see how easy gaining the 'freshman fifteen' is. They had an icee machine!

After dinner we had two more hours of rehearsal. My lips are so sore. I've never played that much for that long.

The music that we are playing is actually really fun! We are playing four pieces: two fast and two slow. The fast ones are going to need a lot of work done on them before next weekend when we all meet up again for our last rehearsal and our concert but they will get there. They aren't totally impossible!

If you have ever wondered what an honor band is like, well, there you go! I mean, this is the only one i have been to but I'm sure they are pretty similar in what they do! But just know going into it that you are going to have chapped lips and sore hands when you're done.


~Skooogster(:

Websites Need to be More Organized.

273 words

So I’m currently pulling my hair out trying to fix my works cited page on my argument and persuasion essay I wrote last term. I admit, yes I did use easybib.com but I went back and changes some formatting things that I knew easybib didn't do. However, now I need to go back and put in a publisher and publication date. My teacher told us that if you go to the bottom of a web page, you can usually find a link that says 'about us' or something like that and you can find some of those missing parts. I've just gone to two sites that I needed to find this information for and there isn't an 'about us' link or anything of the like. So how am I supposed to find these things? Information on a University's website is going to be used and they should know that. People write books and provide the publisher, publication date, and author, everything needed for a works cited page. Magazines do the same thing. Pretty much everything else does except the website of the three university websites I looked at.

I am getting really frustrated right now because I have honestly looked at every single possible link that could take me to find the publisher for my works cited page. It would not be that hard to add just a quick link on the bottom of the page with this information.  

If a person who creates web pages for universities and colleges is reading this, please consider supplying this information. It would make language arts classes everywhere much easier and a whole lot less stressful!

~Skooogster(:

It's Prom Season Again!

626 words

So, it’s that time of year again where everyone is getting ready for PROM! Yay! And for us girls, that means finding a dress. Now let the fun begin….

For most senior girls, you will get a dress no matter what because, hopefully, you will go even without a date. Unfortunately, I’m not a senior; I’m a junior, who got asked 22 days before prom. That didn’t leave a TON of time to find a dress but it’s still enough. Well, for me it was. I did find some good websites along the way even though I got mine in a store (today!). Sorry, but I won’t put a picture of my dress on here because I don’t want my date to see it until prom. Maybe I will add it later!

One of them is www.jjshouse.com. They have beautiful dresses at reasonable prices especially now when most people’s dress shopping is done but there are still those last minute shoppers. Kind of like me. Also, what I like about this website is, I believe you can get every dress in every color. So if you like the style you can most likely get it in the color that you want. It also allows you to send in your measurements for people who need custom sizes, like me. I have such wide shoulders that it is honestly hard to find a dress that will zip up past the middle of my back. It is very frustrating. This is one of the dresses I considered from this site.

Approximate shipping time: 14-17 days

Another site I looked at was www.merledresses.com. They have nice dresses but unfortunately, most were out of my price range. I actually found the dress that I REALLY wanted on there but it was almost twice as expensive as it was on the other website. This website also has the custom size option.

Approximate shipping time: 17-28 days

The last site I was looking at was www.livedresses.com. Their prices range from high to low but they are more in the middle of the previous two. This is where I found the dress that I absolutely loved. I got really excited because it 1. Had custom sizing and 2. Had a place to put when your prom is. This made me really happy because I thought, maybe if I tell them my prom is in 18 days they can tailor it and get it to me within the time period. But here’s the catch: April 27 wasn’t even an option for me to select. The earliest date I could chose was in May. And also when I put in my measurements it would say ‘false’ under some of them while when I put them into another website, it didn’t question it. So apparently, people like me who have weird body shapes can’t shop there. So I got a little disappointed. I would probably try it again if I had more time. It’s probably a great site if I had more than 18 days to find a dress. So it isn’t all bad! I’m just not recommending it for people who are short on time. This is the dress that I was seriously considering:

Approximate shipping time: 12-27 days

Fortunately I found my dress today at a store called Elegant Repeats. It has new and used dresses (mine was used) with prices ranging from $64 all the way up to $300+. I was lucky enough that this dress fit me PERFECTLY. Whoever wore it before me must have been my height exactly.

If you are short on time like me, I would definitely recommend looking at local stores. You can always get it tailored and there are some people who can do it within a week!

 

~Skooogster(:

Scrapbooking Ireland

438 words

So I’ve started to make my Ireland scrapbook. Somehow I managed to take 1000+ pictures and decide on about 250 to put in it. It was not an easy task! There were so many pictures that I loved but obviously I couldn’t put them all in! I’ve never really made a trip scrapbook. I’ve made one for my friend for her birthday (which I have to say, I’m pretty proud of!) but this is a little different. I don’t have a thousand pictures of me and my friend (at least not then) to choose a select few for the book. Then not to mention I had to find all of the pictures that other people took that I wanted from Shutterfly or Facebook and download those.

Then I had to find a scrapbook. I didn’t want something too boring but I didn’t want something so crazy that it would take away from my cover picture. I decided on a teal book that had an engraved floral print. Simple, yet pretty.  

Honestly, the longest, most tedious part of the whole scrapbooking process would be the actual making of each page and deciding on the layout you want and then having to glue everything on. My biggest problem is I always want every page completely filled up but when you are making a scrapbook there needs to be some white space! I’ve also gotten frustrated with patterns. A lot of patterns take away from what is in the picture or are difficult to write on. If you are using a patterned paper, try writing on a solid color and gluing that onto the page so it is easier to read. You may be able to read it now but in thirty years your eyes won’t be as sharp as they are now so do your future self a favor and make it easier to read.  

My mom is helping with mine and she said that every time I look at a picture I tell a different story about something that happened when it was taken. I think that is the beauty of pictures. There are so many stories contained in just one picture and every time you see it you will remember something else that you didn’t remember the first time.

I really can’t wait to see the finished product. I’ll probably think that looking through it will make me happy remembering all the fun that I had but in reality, just like when I thought that watching Leap Year (a movie set in Ireland) would make me happy, it will just make me long to go back even more.

~Skooogster(: