Freshman Year

Electives

Korean 1

Art
Cartooning and Manga

DANCE!

JHDYC

JHDYC

Nuts and Bolts

JHDYC

Nuts and Bolts

Speech & Debate

My freshman year I did 2 speeches, one on vegetarianism and one on pointe shoes. The latter my mother video taped, but the video was lost when she updated her phone! Oops! 

Here's a copy of the speech:

American History

English Composition & Literature

While reading Our Town my freshman year we were asked to write a story about our own town. 

Since I live in both Indiana and Chicago, I chose to write about Chicago.

My Windy City

Chicago is home to many people. It is filled with many beautiful things as well and has a fascinating history. The city's people are kind and there is a lot of diversity and acceptance every where you go.

Downtown Chicago is a very popular place among tourists and even Chicagoans themselves. Many visit the museums; the Willis Tower; the shops, stores. Navy peer is another fun, but packed place. There's a Farris wheel, boats to explore the lake on and many events happen in the main building.

Now for the history part. Chicago's first citizen was a young, freed African man from Haiti. He arrived in 1770 and was a trader. His name was Jean Baptiste Point du Sable and he was the first to stay in the marshy lands.

In the 1850s, the city began to grow. The population was doubling and the city was changing too. Sewers were installed, raising the streets and adding more levels to buildings. Sadly most buildings, streets and sidewalks all burned when the Chicago Fire of 1871 broke out. Still, no one is completely sure how the fire started. But the location was 558 W. DeKoven St. Only few buildings remain from the fire, such as the water tower building where many people hid from the flames.

Chicago rebuilt quickly. And almost all the debris from the fire was dumped into Lake Michigan as landfill, forming the grounds for what is now Grant Park, Millennium Park and the Art Institute of Chicago.

20 or so years later, Chicago's people decided the celebrate their city's comeback with the World’s Columbian Exposition of 1893. One of the Exposition buildings was rebuilt to become the Museum of Science and Industry.

Another fun and historical fact is that Chicago was the first city in America to have a skyscraper. The building was 10 story's tall and was built in 1884, but demolished in 1931. Another skyscraper was also made. It was called the Sears Tower—now the Willis Tower—and was finished in 1974. It is the tallest building in North America and the third tallest in the whole world.  Chicago was also the first place to have TV remotes and the car radio as well so you can see that the city had a lot of potential.

The current population of Chicago is 2.715 million people and is still growing. Many fantastic people have come from this city and it is a place everyone in their lifetime should visit at least once in my opinion.

This is my City.

“... Chicago divided your heart. Leaving you loving the joint for keeps. Yet knowing it never can love you.”
― Nelson Algren, Chicago: City on the Make

Reading from Our Town



I wrote a sonnet for my literature and composition class.

❝summer leaves,

winter's bare trees.

brown, green;

blooming buds

lasting circles; 

never ends.

humming days, 

flapping wings,

fumbling hands, 

won't stay the same.

summer never lasts,

spring fades away,

but winter seems to stay.

it stays all the same.❞

More Poetry

❝stop yelling, stop screaming.

let's just stop this for tonight.

so we can close our eyes 

and shut them tight.

and act like

we love each other tonight.❞

-

❝with your hands to cover my eyes,

i shall wait for my demise.

with flowers in my hair,

i'll follow you everywhere.

and as we decay,

i will stand by the bay

and wait for the sun to rise.❞

-

❝my world is so dark,

it's just black and white.

but you, my darling,

you are the light.❞

-

❝close your eyes,

and i'll close mine.

as we dream

across my mind.

to escape the hateful world below.

oh, please, my darling,

never let me go.❞

-

❝let's run away,

and escape these days.

till time runs out,

and our legs start to ache.

till the sun won't shine,

and our words run dry.

let's run away,

and escape the world

we began to hate.❞

-

❝she watched as the world went by,

without a glint in her eyes.

she saw all the hate,

that love couldn't replace.

but her eyes did sparkle

when she noticed the few

who tried so hard to fix it all

with ace bandages much too small.

and the little acts of kindness

she did see;

lead to what she came to love,

Math
Pre-Algebra

American Sign Language