She Sees

Part One

She runs
And runs
And runs
Never stopping
Until
Suddenly
She realizes
The beauty
The sky
The ground
The day
So she stops
And she looks
And she sees

Part Two

Little things
Like peach fuzz

Or shadows

The colors

Of the flowers

The flawless

Blue

Sky

How tall

Are the trees?

How bright
Is the sun?

She looks
At
Delicate whiskers

Veins of a leaf

Poisoned beauty

And finally

She sees.

She Sees, an original poem by Miss Education

I was outside and started noticing all the little things, so I took some pictures, which in turn inspired this poem.

Happy Homeschooling!

Happy St Patrick's Day!

Hello there!  Happy St. Patrick's Day :)  Hope everyone has been having a good month, mine has been very up-and-down so far.  Or I guess you could say, down-and-up, as the beginning of this month was kind of rough and now things are settling down.

For today, I was thinking that I could share some of my writing with you.  Currently, I'm taking a writing class and learning a ton!  A month or two ago I shared one of my poems called "Behind the Scenes", which is probably my favorite thing that I've written from class.

Here's a few paragraphs from the fiction I'm working on right now :)

As we load the boxes into the moving van, I spot Erica running down the street. 
“I’m gonna go somewhere really quick,” I mutter to my sister, Courtney, and take off towards my best friend.  “Erica!” I holler.  “Erica, wait!”

She turns and beckons to me, then keeps running.  “Come on, Aurora!” she yells back.  I know where she’s headed--the abandoned playground where we used to hang out after school last year.  It’s the only place where we’re sure to have any privacy.  Reaching into my pocket, I rub the five string bracelets I’ve made for her.

“I thought you’d never get here,” she giggles as I duck under the slide and scoot towards her.  But then her ever-present smile collapses and it’s suddenly obvious how hard she’s taking this.  How hard the move is going to be on her, too.  “Why do you have to go?” she whispers.  “What am I gonna do without you?  The school paper, Aurora.  All our plans, gone!”

It’s too much, and then we’re holding each other and crying, and without any words we know how much we’ll miss each other.  “I’ll email you every day,” I promise.  “And you have to sign up for the school paper!  One of us should.  Here, these are for you.”  I hold out the friendship bracelets, each of them woven with a blue string among the others, a blue string to match the one in each of my bracelets.  “Because we’re different, and we’re going to change, but we’ll always be friends,” I explain.

We slowly walk back to my house, grabbing mint-chocolate ice cream cones even though it’s cold out.  It usually is here in San Francisco, but ice cream on the first day of July is an Erica-Aurora tradition that goes back to elementary school.  When the moving van comes into sight, she grabs my hand and holds it tightly.  “Aurora!”  I hear my mom yell.  “Come on, we’re making lunch and then we have to leave!”

Then, somehow, I’ve said goodbye to Erica and May, my 20-year-old cousin who has been helping us pack, and we’re on the road to Hollis, California, our new home.

Please keep in mind that this is my first draft that still needs editing, and is not by far the end of the story!  It's a work in progress :)

Hope you enjoy it, constructive criticism is appreciated!  And I'm still trying to think of a name and permanent URL for my new blog, so leave any suggestions in the comments or just email me!

Happy Homeschooling!

Random Ramblings: Springtime, Sleeping Habits & High School

I haven't done a Random Ramblings post in a year, and there are some things to update you on.  So here we go...

Be prepared for a long, crazy post

1.

The weather has been really nice here, and I've been spending a lot more time outside.  This means I get to wear shorts and short sleeves!  Woo-hoo!  My poor arms and legs have not seen the sun in months!

2. 

This is called a lapbook.  It's essentially a collage folder and my brother made one for his science unit on deserts.  Mine is on fashion, just for fun, but I'm going to make one for my next book report instead of writing an essay.

3. 

I may not have the, ah, best sleeping habits.  As in, I stay up much too late listening to music and/or reading amazing books such as:

and

It's becoming a real problem.

4.

Somehow I doubt it will be like this.

High school.

I only have three more months of school (including this month).  That means I'm only going to be a middle schooler (and homeschooler) for three more months!!

That's scary.

So because there are only a few more months left before I officially break free of the confinement of middle school to be free for three months before I enter the confinement of high school, we have to send in many papers and transcripts in order to find out which high school I will be admitted to for the next four years.

That's being done and almost everything is in order, so hopefully that will be done soon so I don't have to think about it too much over the summer (which I undoubtedly will anyways).

5. 

STAR tests!

Notice I have the star and it says you tried because who ever does that well on these, really?  Well, alright, I got a good grade on both my tests last year but this year I have FOUR.

FOUR TESTS.  Not just two, no.  In addition to Math and English, I also get to worry about Science and History!  So instead of focusing on studying for only two tests, I have to work twice as hard and fast on all of my subjects and hope I know everything that will be on the tests.

Not to mention that the history STAR test is on everything I'm supposed to have learned from sixth through eighth grade, meaning somehow I was expected to remember ancient history,  renaissance, reformation, and US history from all of middle school.  Honestly I only remember the highlights, because I wasn't thinking about memorizing it all for a giant test at the end of Jr. High.

Just kill me now, it would be less painful.

The only things keeping me going at this point are the promise of summer, awesome remixes, and my writing class (I'll post some of my work here soon, right now we're working on fiction)!  But of course, everything will turn out fine and I'll have a great summer :)

If you read all the way to here, congratulations!  I'm pretty sure my ranting was pretty tedious haha.  But thanks for reading and as always,

Happy Homeschooling!

Behind the Scenes

Behind the Scenes

Pretty, smart, funny
Lots of friends, always has plans
Her life seems so
Perfect

I know a secret
She might seem amazing
But she's really
Not

You only see
What she want's you to see
Under that she's
Hiding

She's like a movie
Stuff goes on behind the scenes
Things can be
Messy

She works hard
For those A's in school
It's not so
Easy

I bet she can't tell
Half those friends
How she really
Feels

There may be nobody
Who she can trust with
All of her
Secrets

So next time you see
The girl who seems
To have it
All

Remember that she's not
All that different
She's just like
You

-Original poem by Miss Education

I wrote this for my writing class.  My tutor thought it was good, and I decided to post it because maybe it could make a little difference in someone's life.

The idea came from the fact that so many girls want to be someone else.  Sometimes I do, too.  But then I realized that someone might want to be just like me--my cousin, maybe.  And my life seems pretty amazing.  It is!  Sometimes it doesn't feel like that, though, and people don't always realize that even if that girl you want to be seems perfect, her life is just as tough, maybe even harder, than yours.

I hope it can remind someone that nobody's perfect.  Not me, not you, not that girl who seems to have it all.  You only see the finished production, not behind the scenes.

Happy Homeschooling!