it's a wonderful life...

...is possibly one of the best movies ever made. It is definitely the best movie I have ever seen. Each year I look forward to watching this movie more than I look forward to opening up christmas presents or eating the annual christmas pudding cake (which tastes better than it sounds, but I still wouldn't even eat it until i reached high school). Anyway, we make this movie a big deal in our house because it is so great.
      If you haven't seen this movie, I feel bad for you. Watch it this year, or else.
     The plot is about a man named George Bailey who has always wanted to leave the small town he was born and raised in, but due to his father's death and his devotion to his family and town, he ends up taking over the family business. One year events take a turn for the worst, and he is at his lowest point. All of a sudden, an Angel named Clarence comes to his rescue in a very unusual way. He takes George on a tour of a world where he was never born to show him just how much he is appreciated.
     There are so many lessons jammed into this film that just makes me want to cry.
    
favorite quotes:

"What is it you want, Mary? What do you want? You want the moon? Just say the word and I'll throw a lasso around it and pull it down. Hey. That's a pretty good idea. I'll give you the moon, Mary."

"Well, you look about the kind of angel I'd get. Sort of a fallen angel, aren't you? What happened to your wings?" 
"I haven't won my wings, yet. That's why I'm called an Angel Second Class. I have to earn them. And you'll help me will you?"

"Every time a bell rings, an angel gets his wings."

hope (variations on a theme)

Narration:
     When my grandmother got sick, I didn't think much of it because i just assumed that though her health was jeopardized then, it would eventually get better. That's what happens in life- situations get sticky but then they clean themselves up. In the summer she got rushed to the hospital by an ambulance and the doctors told my dad they didn't think she would make it. I prayed, I pleaded, I bargained with God. And it comforted me, because God is always supposed to listen to those in crisis.  Maybe she will just be sick for a week, and then get better. It's always possible that the doctor is wrong, you see it all the time on TV shows. This isn't really happening. 
    
Description:
     It is when you're waiting for the sun to rise in the horizon after a long night filled with cold sweats and bad dreams. You've awoken late the past three nights by a harsh pounding originating from downstairs and your heart begins to beat faster and faster as the strange sound continues. Your clock tells you it's 3:45 in the morning and the simple thought of investigating the cause of the daunting creaks fills your stomach with butterflies, so you tell yourself to breath because the morning is only hours away. Tomorrow your worries will vanish, the thudding noises will disappear, your feverish chills will subside, and you will eat vanilla ice cream because it's your favorite flavor. After all, those noises are probably only the wind batting the door from side to side.
"Hope is the only bee that makes honey without flowers."  ~Robert Ingersoll

Example:
     Hope to America is a large, red, white, and blue flag, waving tall and proud in the sky. In the Civil War, it was when the Union won the battle of West Virginia, and suddenly African American's stopped ignoring the fact a war was being waged for their freedom and started fighting back. When Katniss Everdeen won the brutal Hunger Games in an unusual way, hope was the MockingJay pins they wore in her honor.
      "Hope is the poor man's bread."  ~Gary Herbert

Comparison/Contrast:
     The difference between hope and impossibilities is lies, and most often denial. When a doctor tells the parents of a child that is in a coma after a tragic car accident there is nothing they can do, the parents don't just accept the fact that their child will never come back to them. They use many what if's and there's still hope's. 

Process Analysis:
     Hope is very easy to come across, because not many want to accept dreadful news. It comes in the darkest hours of ones life, because those are the moments people need something to believe in the most.

Classification of analysis:
    Hope has many different stages and levels involved. There is the kind of hope a little boy has when he catches a pop fly in practice and believes his team has a chance to win the entire championship later that weekend. There is the kind of hope a girl has when the man of her dreams asks her out to a movie and she wishes him to be her next boyfriend. Then there is the kind of hope a soldier's family has, knowing their loved one is in battle and may not make it to the next day. Different extremities working in the same way.

Cause and Effect:
     Hope is created when humans come up with excuses to tell yourself over and over in times when you don't know what else to do. As humans, we neglect accepting the hard truth in emotional situations because they are dear to our hearts. We will do anything to prolong the hurt, or make us feel better. It may be the cause of disappointments and irritations that lead to victory. And that's what it does: focuses our attention on outcomes we like the most. It fills our hearts with joy and fills our stomachs with butterflies. It is one of the best yet uncertain feelings to ever be felt.

Definition:
    Hope is a noun and a verb. It works as a noun when someone is filled with hope, and they cherish a desire with an abundance of anticipation. They have an expectation of what a certain outcome should be and they stick to it faithfully, and put their trust and confidence in that result. Hope is that trust. Hope is also inputing that trust into their minds and thoughts, manipulating their beliefs and thinkings.

Argumentative/Persuasive:
     Hope as often as you can, even if it breaks your heart. There will be haters of hope out there, the people who neglect outcomes to look forward too because it's too painful when their dreams come crashing down. But hope gives you something to fight for. It gives you strength to handle the hard situations in your life.



p.s. my previous video gives more insight

hope

so, i have been sick a lot lately, and i took the time to experiment with iMovie, because i am interested in making videos. I  really liked marissa's visual argument, so i decided to make another one but a bit differently. Here you go, katrina! :)

ride

  I was in the winter of my life- and the men I met along the road were my only summer. At night I fell sleep with vision of myself dancing and laughing and crying with them. Three year down the line of being on an endless world tour and memories of them were the only things that sustained me, and my only real happy times. I was a singer, not very popular one, who once has dreams of becoming a beautiful poet- but upon an unfortunate series of events saw those dreams dashed and divided like million stars in the night sky that I wished on over and over again- sparkling and broken. But I really didn’t mind because I knew that it takes getting everything you ever wanted and then losing it to know what true freedom is.

When the people I used to know found out what I had been doing, how I had been living- they asked me why. But there’s no use in talking to people who have a home, they have no idea what its like to seek safety in other people, for home to be wherever you lied you head.

I was always an unusual girl, my mother told me that I had a chameleon soul. No moral compass pointing me due north, no fixed personality. Just an inner indecisiviness that was as wide as wavering as the ocean. And if I said that I didn’t plan for it to turn out this way I’d be lying- because I was born to be the other woman. I belonged to no one- who belonged to everyone, who had nothing- who wanted everything with a fire for every experience and an obssesion for freedom that terrified me to the point that I couldn’t even talk about- and pushed me to a nomadic point of madness that both dazzlez and dizzied me.

Every night I used to pray that I’d find my people- and finally I did- on the open road. We have nothing to lose, nothing to gain, nothing we desired anymore- except to make our lives into a work of art.

LIVE FAST. DIE YOUNG. BE WILD. AND HAVE FUN.

I believe in the country America used to be. I belive in the person I want to become, I believe in the freedom of the open road. And my motto is the same as ever- *I believe in the kindness of strangers. And when I’m at war with myself- I Ride. I Just Ride.*

Who are you? Are you in touch with all your darkest fantasies?
Have you created a life for yourself where you’re free to experience them?
I Have.
I Am Fucking Crazy. But I Am Free.

SHOOT! a failure of my past

    I was never an athletic child. Even when i played sports, i never put much effort into them. Hence, i was never very good. Hence, i hated playing sports.
     I think i tried every sport in the book: lacrosse, dance, ice skating, gymnastics, soccer, etc. In high school, my dad was a superstar basketball player. He was in several newspapers, won several trophies, and had many admirers who knew just how amazing he was at basketball. Therefore, being the oldest of his kids, he put my sister and I in basketball early to fulfill his legacy.
    So it turned out basketball wasn't my sport. Just like all of them had been. My father was never disappointed in me, because unlike some he never pressured me to be as great as he was. He wasn't one of those parents who tried to make their kids perfect, as long as we put effort into it he was happy. Anyway, when i say basketball wasn't my sport, i mean i physically could not play basketball. Dribbling without my eyes locked on the ball was nearly impossible. This caused for actual running and dribbling at the same time actually impossible. I have never been an aggressive person, therefore stealing the ball away from someone was out of the question. Hitting or shoving anyone of any kind was off limits for me as well.
    I played for a couple years, and not once had i made a basket. I hadn't even been close enough to the basket in order to make a goal. But i didn't mind- i didn't care about the competitive aspect of the game. I was just in it to spend time with my friends. I'm sure my dad cringed at my lack of athleticism, but hey, he got it later with my little brother.
     During my last year of playing basketball, my series of unfortunate scoring events suddenly had hope to redeem themselves one game when one of my team mates passed me the ball as i was standing right under the basket. The game had been played really intense by my team members, and it was during the last quarter of the game my coach had finally put me in the play, just so my mom could get a couple "action shots" of me on the court. It was probably an accident the ball was passed to me in the first place. But it was, and i didn't know what to do with it, so i froze.
    I literally watched the ball land in my hand, the other team closing in on me, and my coach screaming something incoherent at the sidelines. My teammates kept pointing up at the basket, the girl guarding me got closer and closer making my heart beat soar, the basket above kept getting farther and farther away, and my father was yelling at me to "SHOOT!".
    And I didn't. I did not shoot the ball. I sat there, paralyzed with fear. Rigid. Doing nothing. Nada.
    The ball ended up getting stolen out of my hands by that darn girl who was just doing her job in guarding me. My team ended up winning the game, no thanks to me. But I think back to that moment and wish i hadn't just stood there. Why didn't i just try to make the shot? Why didn't i try to make my dad proud? Why didn't i do anything except stand there? Would i have made the shot if i had tried? Could I have won the game for my teammates?
     I will never know, because i never tried.

I'm a Gustie!

     You know those moments where everything incredibly perfect, and all the pieces fall together? Yeah, me neither. But this Friday was the closest I got to having a moment just like that.
     My friend Jane went with me down to Gustavus Adolphus College because I had my interview for admissions that afternoon around five. We arrived a little early, so i pretended to be a tour guide and showed Jane the campus- i have been there several times and pretty much know where everything is by heart. I first toured Gustavus the summer before sophomore year, and ever since the first moment i walked through the doors i knew that was the place i was going to attend college. It felt like home.
    I was sitting down in the Admissions office ten minutes early. "Are you nervous?" Jane asked me.
    "No," i replied. For some reason i had this odd sense of security and calmness within me.
   The admissions counselor came out then, shaking my hand and saying it was nice to see me again (small town, private schools are way friendlier than the big ten). Then he gave me a big smile, saying he forgot something in his office and asked me if i minded waiting for just a minute.

You can see the tears in my eyes. 

   He came back with a gold envelope, which he handed to me and told me i could open it right there. I broke the seal and pulled out the first piece of paper. The top read: Congratulations! You've been accepted into the class of 2017 at Gustavus Adolphus College...
    I didn't read anything else. My mouth dropped and I looked up at Bob (the counselor) and blurted out, "Really?!"
    He smiled. "Yes. You don't even need an interview. We accepted you a couple days ago."
    My eyes automatically started tearing up and it literally took everything in me not to start balling right then and there. "Thank you, thank you so much!" was all i could say. He laughed and congratulated me. My friend jane had to grab my arm and guide me outside. As soon as we were out of view from the  important adults in the office i broke down in joyful sobs, half crying half wailing. It was the best kind of crying i had ever experienced in my whole life. Jane just grabbed me into a big hug and it took me five minutes to get me all out.
   I think the reason i was so emotional about it is because i had been picturing that moment for two years. Not to mention the complete spontaneity in the situation. Here i thought i was going to have my interview, when instead i got accepted.
    My dream has finally come true, and my future is more real to me now than it ever has been.

       See you in a year, Gustavus!

I'm going to college!