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Slide Notes

When I was about three or four.I lived in a small house in North Carolina. There was 3 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms, a small kitchen, and a small living room. My mom, dad, sister, brother, and I lived there. My sister and I shared a small room together and my brother had room of his own. This is when my dreams of having a big house started. Eventually, we moved out of that house into a bigger house that had two stories. I was never ungrateful for the house; I actually loved it. But there was always the dream of a bigger house. One that had a wrap around porch, so I could sit outside in the early morning and drink hot tea while reading a good book. I wanted this house to have a large library, filled with all the books I've read. A kitchen that had multiple ovens and lots of cabinets, to store all the spices in the world. There would be a room just for musical instruments and a recording booth. I wanted a balcony that overlooked a large lake so I could see the sunset and sunrise. I want a room that's sound proof, so I can go there when I'm mad. But it will have big speakers, so I can blare music and a punching bag so I can let out my anger. There will be a room under the staircase like in Harry Potter. The twist will be that it will lead into a secret underground room with lots of food in it. My house will be open to people in need, because I will never need that much space for myself. I hope day that I'll have a house as amazing as this.
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my dream house

Published on Nov 18, 2015

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PRESENTATION OUTLINE

my dream house

"This is the house Papa talked about when he held a lottery ticket". Pg 4
When I was about three or four.I lived in a small house in North Carolina. There was 3 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms, a small kitchen, and a small living room. My mom, dad, sister, brother, and I lived there. My sister and I shared a small room together and my brother had room of his own. This is when my dreams of having a big house started. Eventually, we moved out of that house into a bigger house that had two stories. I was never ungrateful for the house; I actually loved it. But there was always the dream of a bigger house. One that had a wrap around porch, so I could sit outside in the early morning and drink hot tea while reading a good book. I wanted this house to have a large library, filled with all the books I've read. A kitchen that had multiple ovens and lots of cabinets, to store all the spices in the world. There would be a room just for musical instruments and a recording booth. I wanted a balcony that overlooked a large lake so I could see the sunset and sunrise. I want a room that's sound proof, so I can go there when I'm mad. But it will have big speakers, so I can blare music and a punching bag so I can let out my anger. There will be a room under the staircase like in Harry Potter. The twist will be that it will lead into a secret underground room with lots of food in it. My house will be open to people in need, because I will never need that much space for myself. I hope day that I'll have a house as amazing as this.

Sibling love

"You don't pick your sisters, you just get them". Pg.8
I am the youngest of three siblings. My sister, Melany, is eight years older than me and my brother, David, is four years older than me. I've always been the baby in the family. Since my siblings were so much older than me, I always seemed to be left out of things. My brother and my sister were very close growing up and that always left me to play by myself. They used to tell me that my parents found me in a trashcan next to a banana tree. When they said that, I would cry and run to my mom, and they would always get in trouble. This of course was part of the youngest child perks. I was the one of the three siblings to always get picked on, because I was the smallest. My brother and sister would push me around and always leave me behind. But they always seemed to be there when I needed them the most. When my brother or sister had friends over they would make me stay and my room and leave them alone. So I wasn't extremely close with my siblings growing up, but now that they have both graduated high school and both have a child of their own, we have all become closer. We hang out more now and we tell each other pretty much anything. Sometimes, they even ask me if I want to hang out with them and their friends. The bond my sister, my brother, and I have now is something that can never be broken. I'll always have their backs and I know they'll always have mine. No matter how many fights we get into, we'll always be there for each other. We're siblings by chance but best friends by choice. I love the them, and I always will. I think that's how it should be with everyone's sibling.
Photo by Josh Kenzer

The best of friends

"If you give me five dollars I will be your friend forever". Pg 14
A best friend is someone you tell everything to. Someone who is more family than friend. When I was younger I was terrible at making friends. I had, and still sort of have, terrible social anxiety. When someone came over to talk to me, I would super nervous and spit out random words. Recently, I got involved with theater and it's helped me a lot with making friends. Mostly because kids that involved with theater are really outgoing and crazy. That's who I really am. My freshman year I got involved with a play called "Who Will Carry The Word?". I've made 16 best friends since I've joined. The friendship that I have with these people is amazing. They're like my second family. With them I've traveled around Virginia and met more people that I am happy to call me friends. I believe friends are just as important as family . The bond between a friend and a family member can be just as strong. Even some of my really good friend are closer to me than my family. I tell my friends stuff that I would never tell my family. I think that is a natural thing though.
Photo by Amir Kuckovic

Crazy cat lady

"Baby cats, big cats, skinny cats, sick cats". Pg 13
Between the ages of seven and ten, my family lived in a neighborhood that was quite nice. All the neighbors were very nice and there was rarely any trouble. One day, I was outside playing with my brother and some of our friends and our friends started telling us a story about this crazy lady that lived now the street. My brother and I were not believing this story for one second. One of our friends said, "If it's not true, then why don't you go up to her house and ask her how shes doing?" . I was a little nervous about going up to the house, so I made an excuse about how I was allergic to cats. My friends were now having it though, they said, "Stop making excuses and just do it. You're brother will be with you". Finally my brother and I sucked it and when to her house with a plan. We decided we were going to pretend that we had a survey that we would like her to complete. The moment we knocked on the door, she opened it. No pause whatsoever. The smell of cat litter was overwhelming. She was a very short, angry looking, old lady. She said, "Is there something I can help you with?" I proceeded to talk to her about the "survey" whilst my brother sneakingly to pictures of her house and all the cats. We left about a half hour later and we were extremely freaked out. There was at least a hundred cats in her house and we had no idea why. After we left the house we went to our friends to tell them our story, They laughed and told us how we should have believed them. Later that night, my brother and I were walking home, past the crazy cat ladies house, and we saw something we'll never forget. As we walked by her house we saw a cat walking up against her garage. All of a sudden, the garage slightly opened and a hand reached out and grabbed the cat. We started running very quickly and as we turned around one last time before went inside, we saw hundreds of glowing eyes peeking under the slightly opened garage door.

We were the crazy kids on the block

"They think it's funny". Pg 29
We were in fact the crazy kids on the block. By we, i mean my sister, my brother, our neighbors, and I. Our parents would kick us out of the house and tell us to go play. There wasn't much to do in our neighborhood so we had to be a little creative. We would dress up in our paintball gear and run around the woods with our guns. Once, we built a tree house behind my house and we hid food and toys in there. When we were having a bad day, we would go in there and hide until it was time to come inside. All of us loved climbing trees! One day we discovered the best climbing tree. I was the first to start climbing. Once I reached the top, a boy younger than me started climbing. He was almost to the top when he slipped off the branch he was climbing and fell down onto a branch. He landed with the branch right between his legs. The tears flowed from his eyes and everyone just stood there is shock, not knowing what to do. The boy ended up running to his house to his mother, who ended up just yelling at him for climbing the tree in the first place. The funny thing is is that we were all back at that tree the very next day, climbing to the very top. On days when it was rainy, the kids next door would come over. We'd turn off all the lights, close all the windows, and play hide and go seek. It was probably one of the scariest, most fun things that i've ever done in my life. Afterwards we would go outside at night and play ding dong ditch. We were so fast to run away. We never got caught.
Photo by Philerooski

The boy who sat in the back of my english class

"Still, we take what we get and make the best of it". Pg 33
In the 8th grade, a new kid arrived at my school from California. Everyone expected him to be snobby and rude. But boy were they wrong. His name was Alex and was actually a very nice guy. Of course I was the only who knew that because I was the only person he talked to in school. Me being a very sociable person, I decided to befriend him and make him feel welcome. Eventually, Alex and I became very close and we told each other everything. All of my other friends were very confused on why I was friends with him. He came off to people as a loner who didn't participate in class. Alex was a very interesting person. He loved every type of music. He wasn't the person to just say he loved every type of music. He would be listening to one type of music one second and another the next. If a random song came on the radio, and no one knew it, Alex would. Alex also had an amazing voice. His voice very jazzy but he could sing almost anything. He was an awesome person that I admired so much. But at the end of 8th grade we found out that Alex would have to move back to California at the end of summer. We were both really sad. Alex and I still talk every now and then.
Photo by Éole

my future

"In my job I had to wear white gloves" . Pg 54
My dream job is to be an actress. It always has been. It was just have recently gotten into theater, but it's something that I can see myself doing for the rest of my life. A goal of mine is to perform in a Broadway musical. I know that it's a one in a million chance but I'm willing to take that risk. I don't want anything to be handed to me. I'll work hard to be on a big stage with the big lights. Just the thought of opening night with an amazing cast and a sold out theater, it's so exciting to think about. And I couldn't make it to Broadway, I would be just fine with being on a small television series. Just the excitement of making a script come to life. Or the capability of being ten different characters in the seconds. Being famous would be nice but I would never let it get to my head like all these celebrities. I would make sure to stay humble and be a good role model. It would never be about the money for me. It would be about doing something that I love doing. Performing is something I could never get tired of doing. Acting will never actually be a job for me. It'll be more of a hobby that I'll just happen to get paid for. I'll never give up on my dream job. One day, you'll see my name in lights.
Photo by SimoneD90

Kind of first job

"I needed money". 
My freshman year in high school, I volunteered at a hospital. I worked the gift shop from 3pm until 8pm. I wasn't payed for it but I consider it my first job. I had fill up the cooler, my calls, check people out, and at the end of the night, I had to count the money in the drawer. I loved working in the gift shop. It made me feel like a grown up. I made lots of friends in the gift shop. A lot of the doctors came in everyday and got the same thing. It was really cool to get to know them all. One time, two security guards came in because they wanted a drink. They ended up staying longer than planned just talking to me about books and movies. It was honestly amazing. Volunteering made me feel good. Like I was doing something for all the times that someone had done something good for me. It also helped me with talking to people. I'm naturally really shy and awkward around people but volunteering helped a lot. It also helped me with realizing how much
Photo by sporkwrapper

Gone but never forgotten

"Esta muerto". Pg 56
Death is one of the hardest things to go through. Especially when it effects a large group of people. On December thirteenth two thousand twelve, one of Massaponaxs own took his life. I remember the day so clearly. That morning as I walked into school it was oddly quiet. As I was sitting in my second block class I heard a huge bang out in the hallway ; my teacher ran out to see what it was. I could tell by the look on her face that something was wrong. I asked my friends if they noticed how quiet it was but no one had noticed. Later that day, after my third block class, we were about to leave for lunch when my teacher said he had an announcement. He took out a piece of paper told us that River Ciccocioppo had taken his life at around one that morning. Immediately after he said that, my eyes filled with tears. Everyone was dead quiet. As we walked into the cafeteria the silence was unbearable. i remember not eating and just being in a blank stare. River should have been in that lunch with us. After lunch, Dr. Pisani called everyone in band to come down to the band room. He spoke about how much River loved band and how happy he always was. A single tear fell down his face and that's when everyone started crying. I had to leave because it was so overwhelming. The feeling I experienced that day is a feeling I never want to feel again. The pain that I felt was immense. I don't know why he took his life that day, but I do know that I miss him so much and I wish he could come back. Rest in peace River.
Photo by Leo Reynolds

A scary day

"I'll shake the sky like a hundred violins". Pg 61
One day, as I was walking through Target, my mom gets a call. My abuelita called her frantically saying something about my abuelo being in the hospital. My mom dropped everything that she had in hand and started to the car, she was crying. At the time I had no idea what was going on. My abuelita said she had to call back. After about thirty minutes of waiting, she called back with terrible news. My abuelo had had three heart attacks and a stroke. Considering my abuelos weight, this added to the problem. Abuelo lives in Pennsylvania so it's a long drive to go see him. We waited for my dad to get home from work and we left for PA. It was a very long quiet drive. When we arrived to the hospital and walked into the room, the doctor was telling us exactly what was wrong because the rest of the family didn't speak English. The doctor said the my abuelo could not move his legs or his right arm. He said my abuelo would most likely not be able to walk for at least 2 years. This put this all in shock. He was brought into emergency heart surgery and we were left to wait and see what would happen next. The doctors said they didn't know if he would make it through this. My entire family went into prayer the moment they said that. My abuelo is not a man to just give up so easily. Within a month he was starting to say words and he was in physical therapy starting to walk again.
Photo by Benson Kua

Being Followed

"He is a punk, Papa says, and Mama says 
When I first moved to Virginia, the neighborhood I live in was not finished at all. There was only four houses on my street. Most everyday there was construction workers around. My mom would always tell me to be careful when I went walking by myself. A few times, when my sister and I went walking, men in these white vans would drive by and stare at us until they couldn't see us anymore. If that wasn't bad enough they would turn around and do the same thing. It was a very scary situation. We would run home and tell our parents and they would tell us start memorizing license plate numbers so we could call the police if they do something again. One night, about a month or so after, a few friends and I were standing out in my neighbors driveway, and this white van drives by. Us being stupid twelve year old girls, decided to go stand on the edge of the driveway in like a model pose as they drive by. For us it was just a joke. Then the car drove by again. Another white truck drove by a few minutes later. We were oblivious to the fact that this could be dangerous. Luckily a neighbor that I new was watching us and came over to us to let us know that the men driving by could be dangerous. He talked to our parents and the police ended up being called. When the police arrived, the asked for the license plate numbers of the cars. My neighbor had written it down. A few minutes later, we saw a helicopter, with it's spot light on, flying around. It was looking for the cars that had been driving by. They did not find them that night. A few days later I heard that a girl that's bus stop was a few streets from mine, was almost kidnapped by a man in a white van.
Photo by i k o

Poetry

"She lets me read her poems. I let her read mine." Pg 84
In the past year, I have fallen in love with poetry. I like most types of poetry, but the type that I love the most is Spoken Word Poetry. Everything about it just intrigues me. Spoken Word is poetry that demands to be said aloud. It can't just stay on paper, that would'nt satisfy the poem. I have attempted to write a spoken word poem many times, most of them have failed. Recently, I wrote a poem called "Lies". The funny thing about the poem was that I wrote it whilst I was walking around Target. I wasn't sitting down trying to think of the perfect poem, it just came to me. As soon as I got home I wrote it down, made a few changes so I could make it as perfect as possible. I'm really proud of my poem, and I hope to get it published one day. Honestly, I don't think there's anyway I would've been able to write that poem if I hadn't watched so many YouTube videos of people like Sarah Kay, Phil Kaye, Neil Hilborn, Shane Koyczan, and many others perform their poems. They all put so much emotion into their performances. They have really creative thoughts. Recently, I performed in the V.H.S.L. Forensics Competition for the Poetry category, and I won first place at districts. I could only hope to one day be as amazing and creative as these people. I think Spoken Word has helped me succeed as an actress. I'm positive that poetry will always be a huge part of my life. Whether I'm performing it, writing it, or just watching it come to life at a down town cafe.
Photo by Hafiz Bastan

Small Town country girl

"But I won't forget who I am or where I came from". Pg 87
I was born in Pensacola, Florida but I grew up in Jacksonville, North Carolina. When my family first moved to NC, we lived in a small house. There was three bedrooms, two bathrooms, a small kitchen/dining room, and a small living room. My sister and I shared a room and my brother had his own room. We were okay with it though. Everyone in that neighborhood knew each other. When something big happened in a family, everyone knew. We were extremely close with our next door neighbors. I've grown up with them my entire life. They had a daughter my sisters age and a son my brothers age. When I was younger my brother and I played a lot of sports. I played soccer, danced, and played softball. My brother played soccer and baseball. I remember summer nights just sitting at baseball games with a bunch of friends. We'd all be sitting around spitting seeds, watching the game, and having that good ole country music in the backround. One of my brothers coaches was very southern to say the least. Everytime someone would have a good hit he would say, "Way to hit the ball son! Way to hit the ball!", in the strongest country accent ever. Those nights were the best. That's just some of my small town country girl memories. They're some of the best memories of my life.
Photo by Claudio.Ar

El Cielo esta llorando

"No speak English". Pg 77
My dad grew up in Connecticut. My mom grew up in Puerto Rico. My dad was stationed in Puerto Rico when he met my mom. It was a Saturday night and my dad and some of his friends decided to go out to the club. They had just walked into the bar and were getting their drinks, when my dad saw a girl across the club. He asked a friend if he knew who she was and his friend said, "Yeah, that's Ruby". My dad then said that he was going to talk to her. Little did he know that she spoke zero English. When he walked up to her, he had a little bit of a realization. They ended up seeing each other the next weekend at the same club. My dad decided that he was going to ask her out on a date. My mom agreed. They ended up hanging out a lot. He bought and English to Spanish dictionary and that's how he communicated with her. One day he didn't have his dictionary and it started raining. He wanted to say that it was raining but he didn't know the word. He ended up saying, "El cielo esta llorando" . Which means the sky is crying. My mom laughed so hard. She came to the realization that she wanted to be with him for the rest of her life.

The real laugh

"Our laughter for example".
There's a game called the "Your Real Laugh". This is where someone lays down on they're back and they fake laugh. Someone comes up to them and pushes on their stomach. The person's real laugh then comes out. Once I went "camping" with a bunch of my friends. Really we just slept outside in tents, next to this beautiful lake, outside of a beautiful house. That day we had done a lot. We had gone swimming in the lake and in the pool. Then we had a big group girl talk. We then play a game of hide and seek at night. At the same time, we roasted marshmallows and made s'mores. When we went inside for dinner, we ate in the living room. We also watched "The Boy in Striped Pajamas". Someone ended up spilling something on the floor and it left a stain. While someone's mom started cleaning it up, she wanted us to go elsewhere. We went into another room and started joking around. Everyone was telling funny stories. Then one of my friends laughed but it sounded really fake. Everyone called her out and said that it sounded fake. We decided to do the "Your Real Laugh" game. When we did it, her laugh was completely different. Everyone wanted to find out their real laugh after that. Then, one girl was going and someone pushes on her stomach. Out of nowhere, all you hear is this loud fart. Everyone burst into laughter. That's how we ended finding out everyone's real laugh that night.

the stories

"I like to tell stories".
Ever since I was little, I've enjoyed telling stories. Most of them were stories that no ones ever heard. I told stories for entertainment. When I nothing to do I would make up these crazy stories. It made me seem like a real weirdo. Mostly because I would just sit and tell stories to myself. OUT LOUD. One of the stories that I most remember is about my toes. I was put in timeout for five minutes. My parents didn't let me have anything with me when I was in time out. So I decided to make up a story about my toes. I ended up being in "time out" for much longer than five minutes. I would end up sitting there for hours. Just making up stories. Sometimes, when I would make up a story, I would dream about it that night. I think my telling of stories helped me to be such a creative person. I feel that it just gets your brain working. One day, storytelling may be the only thing we have left. Nowadays we have devices reading to us. If we don't give children the chance to use their brains and become creative, the future will honestly suck.
Photo by JeremyHall

My hair

"Like little candy circles all curly and pretty".
My hair has always been very hard to deal with. When I was younger my hair was so curly. It went down to my waist. The curls very tight. My mom did my hair until I in 6th grade. My entire 6th grade year, my hair was in a single braid on the back of my head. I didn't know how to do anything else. Everyone always complimented me on my hair when it was down. But the only time it was down was when my mom had time to help me do it. Curly hair requires a lot of maintenance. As a eleven year old, I couldn't take care of it. One day, my mom asked me if I wanted to get my hair relaxed. This would make my curls more loose and easier to manage. I decided that I would do it. After the relaxer was done, I loved my hair. I could straighten my hair by myself for the first time and it wouldn't take four hours. Soon after, I came to miss my curls. My hair wasn't the way I wanted it. The curls just didn't work the same way. I'm still trying to get my curls back to the way they were when I was younger.
Photo by Fouquier ॐ

Day of thrift shopping

"There is a junk store".
I love thrift shopping. I always have and I most likely always will. Just the feeling of the stores are amazing. I like going down town and going into all the shops. I could spend hours in just one shop. Just looking at all the antiques and thinking of where they came from. Thinking about who used it and what they used it up. It's cool just picking something up and making up your own stories up about it. You could never know if the person a chair came from had the chair since they were little. Or maybe their grandpa read stories to them in that chair. I always feel like Nancy Drew when I walk through thrift shops. You never know when you're gonna find something worth a million dollars. It could just be hidden in a little jewelry box. It's so exciting. I also love looking at the clothes in thrift shops. You can buy things that are so cheap and you probably would've gotten it for double the price at a store like JCPenny. Even if you don't like the piece of clothing, you can take the fabric and make into something modern looking. But no one else would have it. The excitement of a thrift shop is awesome. I hope to open one of my own one day.
Photo by practicalowl