Graduation Speech

Congratulations to all of the eighth grade for keeping up their hard work and determination to get to where we are now. We’re ending a new chapter in our lives and moving on to a much bigger one. As much as I’ve looked forward to this day, I hate endings. The last day of summer, or the last chapter in a great book but, endings are unavoidable and you have to say goodbye at one point and today is that point.

It’s time to say goodbye to seeing the smiles of the teachers who once taught you, goodbye to crazy science expos, the enjoyable field trips and running the mile. Even though we are moving on and it hurts, we will always be able to look back and smile on the little things that happened in class and the small memories we’ve each shared with each other.

Being put into a smaller grade in a small school is, in my opinion, an amazing thing since we’ve all had the pleasure to know each other and be friends with each other, even though we weren’t all best friends I feel like we’ve had a special kind of bond only people from a small school would understand. The feeling of acceptance, The outgoing people, The class clowns, The more reserved people have all impacted how we have a forever bond with each other.

I grew up in this school district, kindergarten all the way through eighth grade, I’ve known most of you since I was old enough to remember anything and I was only able to know certain people for a few years yet it feels like a family to me, a school bond that can’t be forgotten. Everyone I have met from this grade has impacted how each of our personalities have molded us into the astounding young adults we are today. Our peers weren’t the only ones who have helped make us who we are today, our teachers, parents, siblings, younger generations of future cardinal graduates have all taught us, helped us through the rough nights of complaining about all the homework we have, helping us to understand a question we can’t quite find a resolution to and taught us to never give up on our dreams.

So I stand in front of you all today, teachers, staff, students, and family members, on behalf of the graduating class of 2016 I thank you for everything you’ve done and I thank all of my classmates for getting me through these past years at Golf and Hynes by using laughs, tears, and smiles. It’s going to be hard for me to say goodbye and leave you all but I know there will be memories I will never be able to forget with each and every one of you, no matter how special or brief they were, but according to Robert Frost, Nothing gold can stay. Congratulations class of 2016, I wish you all the best.

Testing with sarcasm :)

Have you ever seen those scenes in movies where there's a devil and an angel on the main characters shoulder? That's what I have the nights before tests, except they're both devils :).

Now your teachers always say things that you hear before every test, "Get a good amount of sleep" and"Eat a healthy breakfast" - well, guess who doesn't follow those tips? ME!!! If you want to absolutely bomb that test (not in the good way), stay up until 1 in the morning thinking of pointless scenarios that most likely will never happen!

Having trouble waking up the next morning? So am I! Don't forget to get your extremely healthy breakfast in before your exciting bus ride with all younger kids (on the box it says "pop tarts" but don't be deceived, it's quite healthy...) Once you arrive at school here's the number one thing every kid like me does, complain about the standardized test you have to take while saying, "I really don't want to take this test' and end up taking the test anyway!

Good luck on your tests while taking them with no energy and a very low level of sleep.

  -And here is a visual representation of what you'll look like after this test and following my horrible advice :)

Holocaust Museum

    My experience at the Holocaust museum was very informational and I believe it was somewhere important everyone should visit at least once in their life. The holocaust teaches children and adults the importance of World War II and how segregation and mistreating others that may be different than us is not okay and has consequences. Taking a trip to the Holocaust museum is a good idea for a field trip and I would recommend it because it is a very important part of history for not only people of Jewish decent but for people all over the world who have witnessed such cruelty, because some of those people are still alive today.  I have to admit it was hard standing around that museum for about three hours but I just thought about what the prisoners had to go through and I stopped thinking I was tired. I appreciated hearing a live survivor from a camp in Germany called Aushwitz. Loved the museum and I definitely would go back anytime I could.

Photo Blog

It was a warm afternoon on May 24th 2001, That was the day I had my second birthday party and my parents and siblings planned it so I had no idea what I was walking into. I woke up and I knew it was my birthday because that's all my family had been talking about for a month. Soon it was time for my party and my family was talking about how they couldn't wait for me to meet "The Clown"? I was confused, I didn't know who "The Clown" was until he walked right into the door of my house. Suddenly, the welcoming door that brought people into my house whom I adored turned to a door I thought I would never want anyone to come through again because of seeing that clown. My parents made me take a picture with him the moment he got here, only for me to find out that after we took the picture "The Clown" revealed itself as my aunt Mary and suddenly I wasn't as scared of clowns anymore. This picture has haunted me every day since we took it. 

Food Feast

My family and I always take road trips down south to see my dad's side of the family and my grandmother. Last year we went down for Thanksgiving break to spend the food-filled holiday with a different side of the family for once. My uncle Mike is an astonishing cook and he used to take culinary classes in highschool and college, so he was mostly the one cooking our Thanksgiving feast with a little help of course, me! We devoted a whole day and a half to cooking the food we were about to put on our table that night. We cooked the feast as I stared in bewilderment at the light brown turkey and vegetables with an assortment of yellows, greens, and oranges. My mouth completely watered when we took the crisp apple pie out of the oven and snuck a little piece and rearranged the other pieces to look like we never took one. That Thanksgiving was one I couldn't forget and I can't wait to go back and do it again next year. 

  

Ricardo's Struggle

Being a child of two beautiful parents gets hard sometimes. I begin to wonder what happened to me. Going to school everyday is hard for me when my friends and fellow classmates are all more attractive than me, it makes me feel bad about myself. My parents Maddy and Arlette tell me that I'm beautiful just the way I am and what counts is on the inside not the outside but they don't understand that looking in the mirror makes me hate myself. One day I was in Mrs. Maldonado's science class and we started talking about mitosis and meiosis and then I realized that there was no way I could've changed how I look and I need to take pride in that, thank you parents for loving me even when I don't love myself.

Movie Review "The Forest"

The forest in my opinion could have been better, there could've been a more interesting story line. I would give this movie a 6 out of 10, because the forest wasn't a very scary movie honestly and that's probably wht it was rated PG-13. The movie in a way had a happy ending but not quite.