friends | I'm Thinking Happy

…..and so should you!

Archive for the ‘friends’ Category

Homework? No thanks. :)

Hello my dear Followers!

The school year is well underway by now and definitely running full force this week. This means lots of homework, sports, learning and lack of sleep… I’d like to very honestly say I enjoy school, I love learning. At the same time, I don’t look forward to the school year. Why? Because of everything that comes with it. The late nights, followed by early mornings. The added workload after school that takes away from family time and just plain old chill time. That all disappears when school starts (hence why I rarely post during the school year). It’s the aspect of school that follows me home I don’t like, not school it self. I spend from 8:15 – 3:15 at school, then go to practice (for my school team). I get home around 6 have dinner and then do at least 2 more hours worth of school work. And that 6 pm home time is on practice days, if we have a game I end up getting home sometimes as late as 8 pm. So yeah, I’m not a fan of homework… can you tell?

Don’t get me wrong while homework is not my favorite I can see the need for it. Certain things are beneficial, like say, reading a story before class so as not to spend class time on it, that I have no issue with. Though, when it’s just work for the sake of work, or repetition in excess, that frustrates me to no end. I’m talking about when you stay up late reading or doing an assignment only to find out you’re not actually working with it until later or sometimes even not at all — or worse — when you get to class and go over the entire homework and relearn what you did the night before. Homework like that creates stress, and stress doesn’t allow you to learn no matter how you slice it.

So I wonder, why is it that I’m at school? To stress, memorize a few things for a test, take notes and not sleep? Or to learn thinking skills and writing skills and things that will help me in life and in the real world? Because I think it should be the latter. Math can help to create critical thinkers, people who see multiple ways to get one solution. History shows you about culture, and teaches mistakes of the past so we do better in the future. Science teaches you to observe and question the world around you, what it is made of and how it all works. English teaches you how to speak and write and act and analyze in the real world so people will listen, hear and understand you. I see the benefit to all of that and that kind of stuff. I’m lucky enough to go to a school where most teachers are of the same mind set, and even with that I still stay up late and stress about homework. I can’t imagine what it’s like for those who don’t. But hey, I’m sure that has nothing to do with why depression is the number one mental health issue for teens in America, or why 2.8 million youth between the ages 12-17 had at least one major depressive incident in 2014 alone, or why 10 to 15 percent of teenagers have some symptoms of depression. Definitely no connection…

Thanks for reading my lil rant here! And please don’t take it the wrong way, I do love (most) of my teachers and enjoy learning, I just think there’re some issues with the system (actually there’s a lot — don’t even get me started).

If you agree or disagree comment, like and/or rate below!

🙂 ❤ 😛

Category:

friends, Happiness, LIfe, school

Tagged with:

Don’t Yuck My Yum

This is an essay I wrote a few weeks back. I posted it on my Facebook so sorry to my friends who might be seeing this for a second time.

“Don’t yuck their yum.” This is something I’ve heard and said quite a lot while working with 3,4 & 5-year olds. The basic premise here is don’t make someone feel bad for liking something you don’t. Thinking about this along with my experience at GLW, (Girls Leadership Worldwide) on a larger scale had me thinking about America (stick with me here). And I think we are seeing a lot of adults, role models, “yucking each other’s yums”. I can’t log into any social media now-a-days without seeing someone post about how much they hate Hillary or Trump. I see how if anyone agrees with the opposing person they might as well click “unfriend” and move out of their life. So I ask you here, how does that help? If you speak of diversity but only when it suits you or your cause, what are you really saying? As a society we believe in diversity as a positive thing. No? We teach children to think and choose and be — for themselves. We tell them different cultures, faiths, colors, genders etc, are all valuable. Well I guess that’s what we teach our children but don’t follow as adults, huh? I see too many adults sit behind screens and blindly tell people they are wrong, stupid, disgusting and idiotic for simply having a different view. Following this example, should I “unfriend” all friends of different faiths because I simply don’t share the same views as them? That’s what people are doing regarding political opinions. Tell me, how this is different?

We teach our children if you don’t have anything nice to say about someone, don’t say it at all. Does that not apply to adults? Instead of preaching a party’s good points and educating those of a different view, I see too many people put down the view of others and saying some very not-nice things to be honest. And in doing that, how does it help? From the way I see it, it only causes people to feel ashamed and then angry, rebellious and secretive.

Why is it we don’t see someone with a different view as an opportunity to learn something new or to share your opinion with someone who hasn’t seen what you have? If we really accepted our differences couldn’t we use them to further ourselves rather then leave ourselves in a place of hate and anger? Put up your political party, don’t down the other. Anything bad your gonna say, we’ve all heard before. Besides, you’re not teaching me anything new, only that you know how to hate. There’s only so many times people can say Trump’s a racist and Hillary’s a liar. We get it. Move on.

This brings me to another point. A wise wise woman once said, “Great minds discuss ideas; average minds discuss events; small minds discuss people.” (Eleanor Roosevelt) Why are we talking about the way he talked and the way she looked? Why don’t we talk about the bill she wants to get passed and the jobs he wants to make? Let’s talk about these, not them. Let’s talk about what they plan to do and what we think they actually can. This isn’t middle school but gosh darn it, even in middle school when we elected a class president the candidates and voters behaved better. I’m just a 15-year old girl with an opinion, I ask you to read what I say and see if you can take anything from it, even if you don’t completely agree with me. But please, think before you post your next anti-post, or talk about your hate for a politician (which your child has never heard of but will go into school preaching your views about trust me I heard it all) and consider what I’ve written. Is what your saying really what you want to be saying? That’s all. Don’t yuck someone’s yum, especially if you’ve never tried their treat.

Thanks for reading!! I plan on posting again real soon about who knows what!?!

I’d would be very interested to hear your thoughts on this — whether you agree or disagree with anything I say. I always love a good debate 😉

Category:

awesome-ness, friends, Happiness, LIfe, Summer

Tagged with:

@TwitterGirl by Nic Tatano – Review and Summery by yours truly

Cassidy Shea is more commonly known as @TwitterGirl. Twitter Girl is a sassy, sarcastic, clever and often rude Twitter. After losing her job as a reporter and her boyfriend due to a controversial tweet, she’s offered a position on Will Becker’s presidential campaign. All she has to do is tweet bad, catchy things against the other candidates. That’s easy for our twitter girl, sarcasticness and sass come to her as naturally as breathing. It doesn’t hurt that Will is easy on the eyes and quite single at the moment. But what happens when you add in some friendly competition from her best friend for his eyes? Sprinkle in Cassidy’s disabled brother who’s totally in love with the best friend? And maybe add a pinch of an adorable coworker? You end up with an amazing novel by Nic Tatano. This is politics and with politics comes secrets, drama and scandal. Will twitter girl be able to handle all of Will Becker’s secrets? Well, you’ll just have to #findout 😉

Tweet Tweet this book was sweet. I read TwitterGirl back in May of this year. Nic is truly an amazing author. While I haven’t read anything else (nor will I probably read anything else) by Nic Tatano, I really enjoyed this book. It’s hard not to fall in love with some of our male characters here and I think every girl wishes to have even just a spark of Cassidy’s sass. This book has it’s laugh-out-loud funny part yet still has a captivating plot. Filled with unexpected as well as easily predicted twists this was a fairly fast read. However while I mostly read what would be considered young adult (YA) novels, this is not. I would recommend TwitterGirl for ages 16-55. This is defiantly a chick-lit (like a chick-flick but for books -literature- not movies). TwitterGirl definitely has it’s romance going, and a fair share of” awes” and “ohhs”. Some slightly mature subjects were discussed but nothing you wouldn’t find in a PG-13 Movie. Rating wise I would give this an 8 out of 10. While I loved TwitterGirl it’s not really a book to write home about. Definitely a good read but not a life changing oh my God wow type of a book.

Sorry about how little I have been posting guys. IT’S BEEN LIKE 8 MONTHS!!! I got side tracked with the end of school year buzz then I had a crazy busy/awesome summer. I also just started high school a few weeks ago. The only reason I got the time to post this is because I am home, sick 😦 I’ve also been pretty busy reading. SInce January first 2015 I have read over 110 novels. A big chunk of which are from wattpad which I am planning on (if i have time) writing a post about in the future. Love to all my wonderful followers…………

#Hannah

Category:

awesome-ness, Book review, books, family, friends, Fun, funniness, love, Review, smile

Tagged with:

Catching Jordan by Miranda Kenneally – Review by yours truly

Starting senior year Jordan is a starting quarterback and team captain. She is also girl. You’d think father, who’s a football star, would be happy right? But it’s quite the opposite. He wants her to stop playing and refuses to come to her games. But Jordan doesn’t care. Its Jordan’s life, literally. She lives and breaths, thinks and sleeps football. To be captain and one of the best quarterbacks in her league it has to be that way. Acting like one of the guys is easy for her, it is her. Her best friends are all guys, well all her friends are guys. Girls just don’t get her and she doesn’t get them. The guys take her seriously, they have to if they want to go to the championships and if she wants to get onto the best college team they need to make it to the championships. That’s why she has a strict no dating guys on the team rule, and anyways the guys on her team are like (over protective) brothers to her. She’s known them all since forever. Senior year is looking bright. Well that’s until this new guy shows up with some kick-ass abs and a great throw, almost better than hers. Almost. He changes everything. Is he trying to steal her spot? No he can’t be and anyways coach wouldn’t let happen, would he? And this new guy, Ty, is actually nice guy. Why can’t Jordan stop thinking about him? He is totally messing with her head, which is bad, but the thoughts are good. She thought she was immune to the power of all guys, up until now. No one before Ty could mess with her when she was in the zone, not even her best friend Henry could. They are like practically the same person, Jordan and Henry, inseparable since a young age. But now on top of everything, Henry’s acting weird. How much can one girl take? Find out in Catching Jordan (The first book in the Hundred Oaks series) By Miranda Kenneally.

Catching Jordan by Miranda Kenneally is a cute, flirty, sporty romance novel. Miranda has created a story filled with all my favorite things; sports, humor, friendship and obviously romance! This novel is filled with unexpected twists and turns, laughs and tears. I love this book for a couple of reasons. One, being the author is amazing and two, being I haven’t read another book like it. What book has the main character being a female football player who doesn’t like dresses or girl talk, a girl that guys actually respect? I think in some ways it’s really a powerful book. It goes against a lot of stereotypes and to me that is a beautiful thing. I would give this book a 9 out of 10. The only reason it’s not a 10 out of 10 is a spoiler, so I wont say it. You’ll have to read it and contact me separately to learn why! I would say it’s for ages 12 to anyone who likes YAs.

For this review and all future YA novel reviews, I will only put the youngest I think you can be to read it. YA books are not really an ages thing, they are more of a preference thing. I know friends mother’s who only read YAs. Sorry this review took longer then expected to get posted!

Category:

awesome-ness, books, dad, family, friends, Fun, funniness, Happiness, LIfe, love, Review, smile

Tagged with:

Since You’ve Been Gone by Morgan Matson – Review by Yours Truly

Emily is Sloane’s best friend. And that is all most people know about her. That and she is pretty fast, given her track record. But Emily doesn’t mind, she has Sloane who talks to other people to make up for her shyness. They spend every waking moment together, so it all works out. But that all changes when the summer before their senor year, Sloane and her family leave with out a word. No explanation, no good bye, no future address. But there is a list, a list that comes in the mail. This isn’t the first list from Sloane and it’s defiantly not a grocery list. It a “must do” list for Emily and the only thing she has left of her best friend. Emily sets out to complete the list and find her best friend. But skinny dipping and kissing a stranger? Really Sloane? And why does she keep running into Frank? The perfect student who just wants to save the world, and maybe her too? In Since You’ve Been Gone by Morgan Matson, Emily’s in for a whirlwind of life changing events, new friendships and new experiences as Emily is pushed past her bonds, thrown into a wild and possibly life changing summer in hopes of finding her best friend. And maybe some romance along the way too.

Since You’ve Been Gone by Morgan Matson, is not your classic teen summer romance book. There’s more to it than a boy and a girl. Which is refreshing after reading so many of the same story told with different characters. It’s about friendship, love, loyalties, fun and finding yourself. Morgan writes amazingly true characters. She is an amazing writer. As my former English teacher would say,” she uses juicy words”. She writes in a way that keeps you guessing and interested. Falling in love with this book is pretty easy, it’s putting it down that’s the hard part. I can honestly say its one of the few books that made me want to go out and do something. Not change the world or feed the hungry but it made me want to experience more things. I was torn between getting up and trying to do the stuff Emily had to do and reading more (needless to say reading always won). But after I finished, I had a new found love for my best friend and we made a List of our own with over 50 things that will push us to do thing we wouldn’t with out it. So we are competing to see who can complete more by the end of 2015. We have a very competitive friendship so it should be interesting (I will obviously win). But probably not as exciting as Emily’s adventures. I would give Since You’ve Been Gone a nine out of ten. It’s a fun read for I’d say ages 9 to 25, defiantly a YA Novel. Its a cute romance and a quick read. And I guess in a perfect universe it would have an epilogue.

If you’ve read Since You’ve Been Gone by Morgan Matson let me know in the comments below. I’d love to hear your opinion of it!

Seems like even though this post is about Since You’ve been gone, it seems like I am the one who has been gone. I have another review due to post on Friday, it’s a review on Catching Jordan by Miranda Kenneally. I hope you all had a wonderful holiday and would like to give a quick shout out to my mom to wish her the happiest birthday! Go see what she is posting at Taking the World on with a Smile

Category:

awesome-ness, books, friends, Fun, funniness, Happiness, LIfe, love, Review, smile, Summer

Tagged with:

Eleanor and Park by Rainbow Rowell

Rainbow Rowell tells this unexpected love story from both Eleanor and Parks’ point of view. Eleanor is just getting back after her step father, Richie kicked her out a year ago. Now she is going to a new school where she is definitely an outcast. With big red hair, a big personality and just being over all big, this don’t look bright for her. Even the Asian boy, Park, who let her sit next to him on the bus, isn’t showing any signs of friendship. Park has been living in this town since birth. His mom is Korean and his dad is American. He’s not popular to begin with but adding this big redhead sitting next to him on the bus twice a day is not going to help his image. But soon the two begin to bond over comics and become an odd type of friends. Not expecting to fall for each other, but that changes fast. Now how will their relationship last, when things aren’t as Park expected at Eleanor’s house and he is not allowed over, and she feels uncomfortable at his house, and on top of all that someone keeps writing sick notes on Eleanor’s notebook. Will this first love turn into a lasting one? Find out in Eleanor and Park by Rainbow Rowell.

I loved Eleanor and Park! I read it in less than 24 hours. I fell in love with their love and Rainbow Rowell as a writer. There were a lot of unexpected twists and meaningful components. This not your average love story and has its funny parts that had me laughing out loud! It has a more real feeling to it that makes all us single pringles jelly. Rainbow Rowell is a truly amazing writer and I would recommend definitely Eleanor and Park! I would probably give it a 9/10. The only reason it’s not a 10/10 is because there was no EPILOGUE!! A note to all authors I ALWAYS NEED A EPILOGUE! DON’T LEAVE ME HANGING!!

Have you read Eleanor and Park? If so, what did you think? Any book review suggestions? Let me know in the comments! I love seeing your feedback!

p.s. I am sooooo sorry I have not posted in soo long. School, reading and friends have left me without a minute to spare. I do have another book review written and a few in the works though, so those should be posted soon. Thank you to everyone who stuck with me through multiple posts a week and no posts in months!

Category:

awesome-ness, books, family, friends, funniness, Happiness, LIfe, love, Review, Summer

Tagged with:

Roads by Rebecca

This is a poem by a good friend of mine Rebecca. She is an AMAZING poet and is trying to get published. I wish her all the luck in the world. Here is one of her poems-

Roads

The road goes ever on and on,
This road that is my life,
A hard road that leaves blisters on my feet,
With a harsh sun beating down on my back,
With no horizon and twists and turns everywhere,
It is easy to get lost on my road.
But sometimes, I meet someone,
Someone who provides some shade from the heat,
But they are small shadows,
I am gone,
They are gone,
Far too soon,
I am on the road again.
My road goes ever on and on.

Category:

awesome-ness, books, friends, Fun, funniness, Happiness, LIfe, love, school, smile

Tagged with:

Chains by Lauren Halse Anderson book review

Ok, I lied. So I said my next book review would be for The Book Thief. But I had to write a blog post about Chains for my school blog (http://7thgraders.edublogs.org/). So I combined the two. The Book Thief review will come shortly, be patient!

Chains by Laurie Halse Anderson, is about a girl named Isabel who is a slave during the revolutionary war. Her master died and set her and her sister Ruth free. Though the lawyer that has her old master’s will is missing. Her word means nothing, so she and Ruth are sold to a tory ( loyalist) family. Isabel knows what she deserves, she saw the will and read it to. How will she get her self and Ruth to safety? Will she get them to safety? What about the new boy she met at the docks? What will happen to him and his patriot master? Find out the answer to all these questions and more, in Chains by Laurie Halse Anderson.

I have mixed feelings about Chains by Lauren Halse Anderson. I didn’t love the story but I also didn’t hate it. I didn’t love her writing style but I again didn’t hate it. It wasn’t my favorite but at some points I couldn’t put it down. I think for me it was a little bit predictable. Which kind of ruins a book. If you like historical fictions I would definitely suggest it as a great book for you to read. Though if you’re like me and on the edge about historical fictions, I don’t suggest it. I enjoyed it but wouldn’t read it again. It was told from Isabel’s point of view which was interesting, but she wrote in half old English which was annoying. But if you like that kind of stuff I would definitely read it. On my scale of 1-10 (1 being bad and 10 being fantabulous) I would give it a 4.5. It’s not on my hate list but not on my faves list! So basically, I have mixed feels about Chains by Lauren Halse Anderson.

For more Chains posts and other post go to– http://7thgraders.edublogs.org/

Category:

books, family, friends, funniness, Happiness, LIfe, Review, school, Summer

Tagged with:

Quote

“Don’t tell me…

“Don’t tell me the sky’s the limit when there are footprints on the moon.”

― Paul Brandt

So I saw this quote on my friends status and fell in love with it! The impossible can always be done! Believe in your self and others!

Written

on April 23, 2014

All the fixins’

Jeez I’m bad. I was away on a school trip with no technology from last Tuesday to last Friday. So I didn’t get a chance to post anything since before that I was packing and after that I’ve been spending time with family and been nonstop busy! So I’ve got a post today with all the fixins’.

Picture by Me

To start of this overdue post, I am SO thrilled I just exceeded 100 followers on I’m Thinking Happy! I have a total of 106 followers (at the moment). It feels like it was just yesterday I was overjoyed getting 50 followers (even though that was October 12, 2013)! I want to thank all of my followers for helping me get this point and being so awesome! I want to shout out to my parents for being my first followers and always reading my blog (also for giving me life but that’s another post). I would also like to shout out “armerando” and “afisherman2013” for almost always commenting on my blog and encouraging me to write. And last but not least I want to shout out to all my new blogging friends, you know who you are if you are one.

I like to post things my followers like and I love getting comments(good or bad!). If you have anything to say don’t be afraid to comment no one is gonna chop off your head if they don’t like your comment. So let me know what you think or what you want me to post/not post. Once again thank you to all my amazing followers. You guys are FANTABULOUS!

I’ll end this post with a quote from the next book I’ll be reviewing –
“A snowball in the face is surely the perfect beginning to a lasting friendship.”
― Markus Zusak, The Book Thief

So there’s my post with all the fixins’, quote and all! I hope, I keep helping keep people thinking happy! Because I’m thinking happy and so should you!