A Day Of Thanks

Though it was not called Thanksgiving at the time, what we recognize as the first Thanksgiving feast was celebrated in 1621 by the pilgrims of the Plymouth colony along with about 90 Wampanoag Indians. The Pilgrims had suffered through a devastating winter in which nearly half their number died. Without the help of the Indians, all would have perished. After the first harvest, Governor William Bradford proclaimed a day of thanksgiving and prayer to God. The food, which was eaten outdoors, included corn, geese, turkeys, ducks, eel, clams, leeks, plums, cod, bass, barley, venison and corn bread. The feast lasted 3 days.

On November 26th it was 2009's Thanksgiving. I'm sure a lot of the blogs will be about Thanksgiving but I have a lot to say on the subject so I will also be posting about Thanksgiving.

It amazes me how many people don't know about the first Thanksgiving or how the Holiday came about. Living with the family I have, I have learned a great deal about history and part of my heart lies in the paths of history. My dad is a found and proud American and that is how he raised his kids as well. Growing up, my mom and dad would read us historical kids books to bed. Every once in a while we'd get a children's picture book but mostly, we'd have books about American history or some kind of learning book put into a childs words so it is understandable. My dads dad and my moms dad both fought in the Vietnam war and are still alive to tell the story. Listening to them tell their stories is something that I personally have a serious obsession for. My dad is one of those people who knows everything. He's probably one of the smartest people I know. One night before Thanksgiving my dad sat down with our family and retold the story of the pilgrims. After he was done telling us I had a thought burst in my head. I wondered if, without a day of Thanksgiving, would we be even more greedy than we are now. I feel like the one day of Thanksgiving sets the mood for most of the year. I know that in elementary schools when it comes around this time of year they always have a little lesson about Thanksgiving and then they make little crafts about the pilgrims and stuff like that. So going through elementary you learn about Thanksgiving and then by the time you reach junior high age most people are pretty much educated on the subject. I think that just knowing that there is a day of thanks each year makes us have a good attitude towards being thankful.  I'm not saying that we would be a greedy society without Thanksgiving, I just wonder if anything would be different without it.

Living in the world that we live in, we see greedy acts every day. Nobody is perfect but we do have a brain. We each have the ability to think before we act. That is a line that is used in my house often. My mom will just simply say "think before you act" as a warning so we won't have to suffer the consequences is we didin't watch our actions. I think that everyday we should remember to be thankful for everything. I can't say I'm very good at this at all, but I have learned why it is a good idea to always be thankful. We live in a free country, we have a roof over our heads, food to eat, running water. To survive, that is really all we need. Sure I think the world is ending when my phone gets taken away or I get grounded. But I know that I need to remember that I have a lot to be thankful for, so before I go off looking like an outrageous stuck up, I have a lot to be thankful for, and my phone getting taken away is not the end of the world.

 "Let us remember that, as much has been given us, much will be expected from us, and that true homage comes from the heart as well as from the lips, and shows itself in deeds."

~Theodore Roosevelt

The Legend lives on.

Civil rights activist Martin Luther King Jr. gave his “I Have a Dream”speech on August 28, 1963, during the March on Washington in front of the Lincoln Memorial. President Barack Obama gave his powerful and motivating Back to School speech on September 7, 2009, to all the students of America as to how they should be prepared for the following school year. Martin Luther King Jr.'s speech is known as one of the most profound speeches ever to be expressed in American history. How could Martin Luther King's speech have impacted President Obama's speech to the students of America? How can we disregard the things that Dr. King and our President has suggested to change such as discrimination, stereotyping, violence, prejudice, and racism? And what impact did President Obama's message have on me and the students across the world?

President Obama's speech clearly stated his opinions at how serious he wants the students of American to consider and compose an education for their futures, and to make education an important part of each of their lives. When studying Dr. King's speeches and his expressed thoughts and opinions, I could identify that he had very tenacious beliefs for each and every enrolled student and would do anything to voice his thoughts out in society. I think that strong and firm beliefs are something that President Obama and Dr. King share. When I reread over the message the President verbalized, I wondered if Martin Luther King Jr. and his own expressed opinions had influenced thePresident in any way to fervently and strongly speak to the schools across the U.S. and express all the desires and hopes he had for each person individually. They both have great eagerness to save and better help this country and they both succeeded in changing the world's history forever.

Considering the hopes of our President and Dr. King we can each assume that everything they want is only to better our nation. When thePresident directs talks toward schools and the young adults, a common subject that's talked about is eliminating violence, racism,stereotyping, prejudice and things along those lines. Martin LutherKing also talked strongly on eliminating challenging things that are in our world and society. After reading some of the talks of PresidentObama and Dr. King, I've found that if we sat down the troubled kids in schools, who cause the major problems, in front of a television and made them intensively listen and comprehend everything that was being said, I think that their lives would be changed and their minds would be turned to the reasons for a safe school and not so much ways to cause trouble. And I truly believe that if just us average folks payed good attention to the thoughts and suggestions that they've expressed,we could benefit greatly for future possible circumstances. Learning and fully understanding the declamation these great men are presenting straight to us for our own benefit could have a serious impact on our thoughts and how we respond to those types of questions. The troubled parts of the society we live in could very well be changed or affected simply by if we listen or reread the Presidents speeches on those specific topics, and understanding the principles Martin Luther King Jr. was trying to proclaim.

As an individual, I have greatly cherished what these men have done to change world I live in, and make it a much better place. When rereading through President Obama's message to students like me all across the U.S., I have gained such a better realization to how important it is for every determined student to stay strong in their school work and keep away from the awful thoughts that come when the blessed people of this free country forget their great miracle that they have the opportunity to live in such a place as this, and forget what it truly means to be apart of this free nation, and end up taking it for granted. I have also learned a great deal of determination as I reviewed through the Dr. King's great speeches. He taught me to never give up on a firm opinion, because one day I could end up changing the world for the better. My hope is that everyone will eventually realizeand consider these great men and their anticipation on turning the world into a much better and safer place to live in.

Martin Luther King Jr. changed the history of our world forever. He impacted the way we as Americans will live. He had a dream and succeeded in following and reaching it, and by doing so he created a nation of equality. His goal was to make sure that every man in theUnited States was equally free. Our President is following the footsteps of Dr. King in making our nation a finer and choice nation. No more racism, no more discrimination. Martin Luther King Jr. is a legend, and as we follow in his footsteps and strive to make America a nation of equality, his legend lives on.

True Happiness

Once upon a time... there was a teenage girl who would constantly disobey her parents and get in trouble with the school. The cost of this tribulation was greater than she could ever imagine, but ended up being the greatest life's lesson. This is how my story goes.
My first year of Junior High was brutal. I wasn't trying to get in trouble, believe me, getting in trouble isn't my nature at all. But, for some reason, I would just end up in situations that I didn't purposely mean to put myself in. For instance, I was caught for cheating and my parents were called by that specific teacher that taught the class I cheated in and I ended up getting in the most trouble I had ever thought I could ever get in. But as my junior high years went on things started happening and I wished that that specific incident had been the source of all my other future incidents that followed and, unfortunately they weren't and it just went downhill from that specific happening. After a series of fatiguing events, I kind of turned into a whole different Tori. I didn't exactly turn emo but I did turn a little bit depressed and I just wasn't an all around happy person. And quite frankly I would probably assume that I was not generally a very fun person to be around. This was me for a good year and half or longer. After about a year I started getting into some really bad habits and I though I was participating in these habits because they would make me feel better but that was not what I got. Man, I'll tell you, I actually got so much worse. I went through this long brutal stage where I wasn't sure what I wanted at this point and I just stayed on the ugly path I was on, disobeying my parents and choosing the wrong ways of life. Until one day I had a talk with my conscience and I realized what I had been doing with myself. I wasn't being truthful to myself and I was doing things that I had never though I'd even get into. So I made up my mind to change. It took a good 5 months to get back to normal and when I finally was back to my normal self, I witnessed the greatest thing of my life.


Happiness: The quality or state of being happy.

One's life journey should revolve around being happy. I learned a great lesson that I wish everyone could know for their own. Happines does not come from choosing on your own. Happiness is the souls desire. I learned that I tried to find happiness on my own. And then I realized that  real happiness was sitting right in front of me the whole time. And it was just simply obeying the rules. I turned into a different person because I was desperate to find something that would make me happier because I wouldn't make the greatest decisions and I would end up trying to find something that would make it so I wouldn't feel sorry for myself or feel like a complete failure in life. That is what I thought most of the time and that is what led me to turning into what I was.
Know right from wrong. Know who you are. And stay true to yourself and don't try to change yourself because you feel inadequate. Know right from wrong and always have a set plan to what your choices will be in the future. Ask yourself: "Is it worth it?" Is it worth the trouble, the pain, the missery?
I changed my life forever from this experience because I realized who my true self was and I made up my mind that I would never go against myself again.
My sister mentioned something that will stay in my head forever. "Life is a climb, but the view is what's worth climbing to". 

Variety

Variety. Think hard about variety. The definition of variety is the state of being varied or diversified. While walking down the halls of Fairfield Jr. High I get to see variety play in many different forms. The people, the teachers, the genders, the looks I get to approach, the athetics, the so called "clique's", the genius's, the slower ones, you name it. Before seventh grade, I was very distraught about going to Fairfield because the majority of my elementry friends would be at Kaysville, but there was drama in sixth grade that led me to come to Fairfield. The first part of my seventh grade year was pretty brutal. I was wishing that I would've made the decision to go to Kaysville because it was hard getting used to new people and having to start all over again with friends. Then as second semester approached I was pretty happy with a good amount of great friends. I ended seventh grade pretty satisfied, but there still was a little part in me that missed the Kaysville friends. Starting eighth grade wasn't too terrible. Some drama had happened over the summer which led to a little decrease of friends but I still had a good number of friends. Eighth grade was a pretty smooth year and eighth grade summer was even better. Starting ninth grade this year opened my eyes to so many things that I had not noticed or picked up before. One of these things was variety. As I went about school each day I begun to notice all the variety our school has and then I started comparing with Kaysville. To me is seems like theres a lot of the "same" kind of people there. And there's a lot of cliques. Being a Fairfield I could see how variety makes a big difference. Being at a school where not everyone is the richest person on the earth. We have low income to extremely high income kids. And being in a school that has that people learn to appreciate everyone and everyones circumstances no matter what they might be. And that is a great quality of our school.
Enough variety shows all the differences in all of us and sometimes, that's the better route.

"Two roads diverged in a wood, and I took the one less traveled by, and that has made all the difference." - Unknown.