Mariah’s English Blog

 Today we read some more poems by Emily Dickinson. The first one struck with me the most. There are often times when people think that love is one of the best things you can experience. While that may be true for some people, love can also cause a tremendous amount of pain, especially when you’ve been heartbroken. So often times people try their best to forget that person and get over them to stop the pain. Past relationships can help us learn a lot more about how to do better in our future/current relationships.

 Today we read a poem called I Felt a Funeral, in my Brain by Emily Dickinson. In the poem, she talks about having a mental illness and its effects on her. She uses an extended metaphor about her feeling like she's being buried alive due to this mental illness. I can relate to this because I deal with a lot of mental illnesses and it often feels suffocating. If I let it bottle up for too long it feels unbearable and it's a lot to deal with.

 I believe the probability of life outside of Earth is high due to how infinitely large our universe is. In the video, it shows a snapshot of a cluster of galaxies which demonstrates the universe's size. If our small planet can hold all of these living beings, who is to say there aren't other planets that have life outside of here. Seeing the image of the earth from Mars made me realize how small we are compared to everything else in space. The sound coming from the black hole surprised me because people used to think the universe was silent. All of these things make me realize everything in this life doesn't have to be that big of a deal since we're literally just a rock floating in space. Let's say I get an 80 on my test. Who cares? Don't make it the end of the world because it doesn't really matter in the end.

He passed the mailbox by her house. Straight up the driveway, he walks towards the door. He knocks quietly. Once, twice and three times, but she doesn't seem to answer. According to his research, she is always home at this time. He steps away from the door and towards her bedroom window. He carefully peeked through her blinds. “Ahh, she's just sleeping,” he says in a relieved manner. He slowly creeps back to the door and knocks louder. Once, twice and three times again. She finally answers and says hello. He makes his way into the house and the woman disappears into the shadows of her own home. 

 In class today we learned about logos, pathos, and ethos which are rhetorical appeals to arguments. This lesson led to Mr. Rease giving us the challenge of presenting an argument for having a free day on Friday using the rhetorical appeals. My argument is: I believe the class should have the option of free day on Friday. According to studies, students can only work at their full potential when they're able to have breaks. As a student myself, I have a hard time constantly working throughout the day with only having a break at lunch. Getting to have a free day on Friday will help students take a break or catch up on work.

 When I was younger, I never paid attention to the numerous biblical or mythological allusions that are present in many texts. Today, I got to discover many biblical allusions in regards to the different places/entities/people that are in a text called Navajo Creation. There are references to the “First Man” and “First Woman” which can be compared to Adam and Eve in the Bible. Also, in the text the first world had nothing but darkness and emptiness which also compares to “the beginning” in the Bible.

 My name is Mariah Jones and I am in the 11th grade. To be honest, I’m very studious and push myself hard to excel in school. Hopefully, I will get to major in engineering at MIT and become a biomedical engineer. As a hobby I like to write my own stories with eerie plots. I love to incorporate plot twists in them. I’m so excited to take this class due to my love for writing (even though I’m still a beginner) and I hope I can get the most out if this course!