Posted on by aks7465 · 2 Comments

book blog :) #1

Welcome! I figured I would start this passion blog out with a little bit of an intro since none of you likely saw my blog last semester. This is just a continuation of my previous passion blog, so feel free to look back at my other posts if you want to get an idea of what I post, but either way, I hope to make it pretty comprehendible. I am an avid reader and I love to collect books. This often means buying way more than I can read, but we won’t talk about that. I mostly post book reviews of books I have recently read, or books that had a big impact on me and that I really enjoyed and will always recommend.  In some cases I will post book hauls with all the books I got from a thrift store or other shop, and sometimes, just to spice it up, I will post a review of a book I absolutely hated just for fun and for an excuse to bash the book in any way I can. This tends to be when I am in a spiteful mood and is not as common.

With my book reviews, I generally give an overall synopsis to try to explain the plot and main features without droning on and on, and then give me personal opinion on what I really liked or did not like. I will try to include photos of the book and characters if I can find them, but sometimes I am not able to find any art of depictions, but will still try to split up my paragraphs with some kind of visual. At the end of every book review, I also rate the book on its “floppiness”. I know this sounds really weird and it is kind of hard to explain, but I prefer paper back books and really like when they just flop really well. This is best accomplished with a book with a lot of pages that are very thin and heavy. I know I sound slightly crazy right now, but it adds something fun to the blog at the end and hopefully makes it a little more enjoyable to read. I just really enjoy a book with a nice texture that is pleasant to hold. I will be influenced by the appearance and consistency of a book, and will avoid books that I do not like the look of or do not like how they were constructed. I’m running out of descriptive words and this is sounding really weird so I will stop there.

Anyway, I will likely start next week off with a book review so I look forward to writing that. I hope that you can find some interest in my blog, or at least not absolutely despise reading it every week. I try to make it somewhat comical and easy to read to not bring too much pain to your life when you are forced to read it. I am looking forward to the passion blog this semester and hope that you maybe learn something about a book or find a book that interests you slightly.

Posted on by aks7465 · 3 Comments

rcl post #2 I believe draft

I believe in forming lasting relationships with your teachers. My freshman year of high school, I had a biology teacher named Ms. Nilson for the first time. I loved that class so much even though it was my earliest class and I would practically be falling asleep. She made class so entertaining and enjoyable, while also be educational. We formed a strong bond over our love for plants and growing things. I continued to visit her every day of sophomore year in the mornings, before school started and we got even closer. In my junior year, I took another class with her, called sustainability, where we learned about environmentalism and all kinds of ways to be more sustainable in our everyday lives. By this point in time, we were pretty close and she became a safe space for me to go to. I had good relationships with many other teachers, but the bond that I had with Ms. Nilson was stronger and more trusting than the others. After knowing her for about three years, I spent a lot of free time in her room, discussing plants and eating vegan foods as she was vegan for sustainability reasons. Her room was always chaotic in the way that there was always stuff everywhere and you never quite knew where anything was. In this chaos, there was also comfort on her walls covered in murals and colorful lights. Her room and her presence felt like an oasis from the less enjoyable chaos of the rest of high school. I spent so much time in her room, that I kind of just became a known presence for other classes. If I had a free period, I would spend it in her room, even if she had another class. I practically took her sustainability course twice since I spent fifth period in there everyday my senior year. She welcomed me every time and let me do all the activities and taste tests that the rest of her students were doing. She would always check on me when I seemed extra tired or down and let me use her room to rest or make phone calls or anything else. My senior year, she became one of the sponsors of National Honor Society and I was the treasurer of it. From that point, our relationship continued to grow and we were in contact even more often. I had her phone number after joining a club with her where we went on a trip outside of school hours and we needed to be in contact in case of emergencies. I continued to text her after I graduated high school with any important updates or things that I found interesting. One time, I had these vegan gummies that I thought were amazing so I sent them to her to try for herself and her class. She texted me over the summer to congratulate me on being an AP scholar. Ms. Nilson became a critical part of my high school experience and she made it a lot more bearable than it would have been without her. I think that having those trusting and caring relationships throughout childhood and into adulthood are very important and can have a big impact on student’s lives. I know I will never forget Ms. Nilson, even if we never see each other again, and that I will always remember our relationship and the love and comfort that she gave me.

Posted on by aks7465 · 3 Comments

rcl blog #1

First, for my two ideas for my passion blog, I am either thinking of continuing my book blog or maybe doing some kind of plant care blog. I will likely continue to the book blog with book reviews and hauls, but am not one hundred percent sure.

For the civics issue blog, I might do something regarded climate change and if we need to take immediate action or something regarding athletics in college and if athletics are too prominent in a college’s identity.

For the “This I Believe” podcast, I am considering doing something like I believe in teachers and talking about how individual teachers had a big impact on my life.. Another topic I am considering is I believe in the younger generation and that they can bring about change.