Vallejo's Blog

“We can shoot rockets into space, but we can’t cure anger or discontent.”- John Steinbeck Americans should invest more in mental health. It’s almost everyday that I hear news of a new teenager being admitted into a mental hospital. Now I might just be crazy, but that is a lot of people; and there are a lot more mentally unhealthy people who are not admitted to hospitals. Some people who are not mentally unhealthy enough to be admitted to a hospital refuse to go to therapy; and some people who want to go to therapy can’t afford it. John Steinbeck is quite a smart man. Sure, we can give anti-depressants or mood stabilizers, but we can’t exactly cure any mental health issues anyone has. We all live with them. I can speak from personal experience, it’s hard to deal with. Your head becomes heavy and dark. It hurts and you’re scared but also not. You’re scared to go through it but not scared of anything around you. Sometimes you lose yourself and you do things you don’t want to. When y...

What is the first thing you are going to do when the stay-home order is lifted? As soon this order is lifted, I am going to see my friends and getting as far away from this house as possible. My brothers have driven me insane so I go on hours long walks but that still doesn’t help. When this is all over, I also plan to go to stores. While in quarantine, I realized how much I loved riding in the car and walking around stores. I plan to go shopping with friends and have a lot of fun. Recently, I’ve tried to buy things online but then I realized I need money so there is another thing I would like to do when this is over. Babysitting my cousins and family friends. Normally I basically nanny and it’s a lot of fun so I’m super excited to babysit. The thing I’m super excited about though is the musicals I get to participate in when this is done. Newsies is super fun but a lot more fun when the whole cast is there. I am also super excited to participate in another musical I recently audition...

www.makeameme.org Well well well, my life since self isolation has been pretty intense. I still have an ear infection, after over two weeks. It hurts a lot and it keeps driving me insane. My phone has been taken away twice now. Our father had to be tested for COVID yesterday because he had a fever for two days but we think he is fine. I learned a lot of new songs on my flute and memorized the chromatic scale. That took me a while but it keeps me entertained. Although we haven't had rehearsals in person, Sydney filmed choreography for the songs and now I can practice "alongside" her. I have to practice in our dining room during one song though because I have to tap. Every time, I feel stressed or annoyed or something like that, I make a kind of complicated art design so I can focus on that and not where our lives are headed. Last night I realized that us eighth graders have one month and twenty-five days left until we "graduate." It sucks. I feel bad for all ...

1.        LAST YEAR WAS THE YEAR OF… Last year was the year of feeling left out and sad. 2.        THIS YEAR WILL BE THE YEAR OF… This year will be year of being included and happy. 3.        HOW CAN YOU IMPROVE YOUR LIFE FOR THE NEW YEAR…? I can improve my life for the new year by doing what I myself finds fun or exciting or new, and not caring about what others have to say. 4.        WHAT WAS YOUR FAVORITE PART ABOUT LAST YEAR…? My favorite part of last year was going to state. I did not go because I raced with the team and won a state required time. Technically, I was an alternate, but it was just as important as if I had raced with the team during sectionals. Our team got placed lower than we had wanted but it was just as exciting and fun as if we had won 1 st place. 5.        WHAT WAS YOUR MOST SUCCESSFUL STORY ...

“On your marks…” My heart danced while I waited in my starting position. “Get set…” I raised my back. Pop! The gun had shot; my race had started. I pushed myself forward, starting ahead. Easily, I forgot about my worries. I focused on the rhythm of my feet which were light on the ground. I pushed myself harder to keep our second-place spot at the curve. Just after the one-hundred start, I ran as fast as I could. I gained a first-place start for our second runner. “Go,” I yelled signaling our second runner to start so I could hand the baton off. We matched strides and speed. Her left hand went back. The baton, in my right hand, met her left hand and I let go. She ran as fast as she could as I slowed my pace to an eventual stop. When they called the winners, I learned that we had won that race. As a young person, being healthy and staying in shape are always important to me. During track season, and before for a while, I condition. Conditioning not only helps me keep in shape b...

I chose these words because: parties- I chose parties because during October and the beginning of November most of the time, there are plenty of Halloween parties. pranks- I spend a good majority of my time that I am not busy on YouTube and around Halloween I see a lot of prank videos. In fact, this year my friend had said he was going to prank people on Halloween. spooky- Okay, so, I have a pretty stupid thought process considering how smart I am. I was sitting in bed and watching some stupid TV show my brothers had turned on with them. There was some noise and the entire group in the show screamed but one person said "Spooky," instead of screaming. This person then reminded me of some stupid meme type song for Halloween and I immediately wrote spooky down. Hocus Pocus- I chose this because I feel this is by far the best Halloween movie. Ever. Period. Never will there ever be a better movie. I will actually fight someone over this. Just the movie and the plot and...

This is some music I like to listen to when I am in a good mood! Mr.Brightside- The Killers  Speechless- Dan + Shay  Tongue Tied- Grouplove  Sk8er Boi- Avril Lavigne  Graveyard- Halsey  What's Going On?- Scotty Sire  Like a Rodeo- Kane Brown  The Middle- Jimmy Eat World  Crush- Tessa Violet  DONTTRUSTME- 3OH!3 watch- Billie Eilish Riot Girl- Good Charlotte  These are only a few that I enjoy to listen to when I am in a good mood and want to sing and dance along. Here is why I like these songs and why I put them in this playlist. Mr.Brightside- I like this song because it's very up-beat though the lyrics are kind of sad. This is song is part of this playlist because as mentioned before, it's up-beat and the kind of song you would jump up and down to. Speechless- I like this song because it's a slow but happy song. Sometimes, most of the time for me actually, more slow songs have kind of sad lyrics while I ...

Ronald Reagan once said, “We remember those who were called upon to give all a person can give, and we remember those who were prepared to make that sacrifice if it were demanded of them in the line of duty, though it never was. Most of all, we remember the devotion and gallantry with which all of the ennobled their nation as they became champions of a noble cause.” Another way of saying this is, we honor those who have died, or those who have served, for our country. Our veterans are special.                 My aunt was friends with a veteran from first grade on. His name was Adam Dobereiner and was born November 21 st , 1989. In his family, there was a long line of military service and after he graduated high school in 2008, he enrolled in the military in 2010. There, he graduated as a Combat Engineer. A year later he was deployed to Afghanistan on July 6 th . He died November 18 th , 2011 in Kandahar ...

Something that surprised me about copyright was how many different licences there are. Something I learned was where to get copy right free pictures. I won't use pictures from google as freely because I'm scared of being fined and because I can take better pictures anyway.

One of my favorite pictures from my walk on Friday October 18th, is this one here. It shows one of the many broken windows where I live. This pictures features the glass in a sharp and jagged pattern. From the angle I took the picture, you can see buckets and broken glass on the floor. You can also see a box overflowing with books on the floor if you look hard enough. I like this picture because of the angles on the glass. This is my second favorite picture from our walk. It shows another broken window but with a beautiful pattern carved almost into the glass.  There is white chipped paint on the window frame. Behind the window, is a wood plank. I think it compliments the white and the lighting in the photo.  I like this picture because it shows a beautiful patterned window and I love little things like that. This is my third favorite picture from our walk. I have always enjoyed playing with shadows and such in photography. My great grandfather sparked the interest; ...

We have been working with run-on sentences, and different ways to avoid writing them. Our teacher asked us to create three different memes; each containing a sentence that shows a different way to avoid run-ons. Each meme's sentence must connect to the meme. The memes below were created by makeameme.org

So today, which is Friday October 18th, our teacher had us walk around the town I live in and take pictures. Here are a few I enjoyed. I have some more that I enjoyed but, I'm not sure I should put that many pictures out.