I found three poems that “worked” for me. The first was It is a Beach Day at Camp. I think this poem worked for me because I was able to relate to it in some aspects. I love surfing and always have so when I saw the word surfing I got exited about reading this poem. For me a beach day at this camp sounds super fun. I also liked the line “and several gallons of sun screen.” The second poem that worked for me was People Seem Surprised to See Me. I liked this poem because I remember Windsor Mountain and the welcoming community there. I also remember vespers and the amazing stories that were told there. I remember all the fun times our grade had there. The last poem that worked for me was You are Watching the Sun. I liked this one because during the summer on cape cod my house is in West Falmouth and Buzzard’s Bay. I watch the sunset a lot from the beach or my house. 

Picking the Perfect Piece

Poetry is when an emotion has found its thought and the thought has found words.

-Robert Frost

    Picking a piece is difficult and important. If you don’t pick a good and meaningful piece you will just memorize it and forget it. The piece also has to be the right length. If a piece is too long or short. If it is short it will be easy to memorize it but it might not be as meaningful. If it is too long it might be overwhelming and you might not be able to memorize it. When I was told I would have to do a classic piece for WW Fenn I immediately thought of Alfred Lord Tennyson. So I looked into which piece by him I liked the most. I ended up choosing Crossing The Bar By Alfred Lord Tennyson because my grandfather studied him. So I was interested in his work. I also felt as if Crossing The Bar is extremely meaningful and I could use it later in life. The poem is about life, death and the bar in between. I think that Crossing The Bar is a great piece and I can’t wait to recite it in class. 

A Frosty Morning

“We cannot live only for ourselves. A thousand fibers connect us with our fellow men.”

-Herman Melville

    The world is truly beautiful, especially covered with snow. When I walk into school on a cold and snowy day I love looking at the scenery and enjoy the fresh air (even if it is cold). The car slowly pulls in to the Fenn driveway in the morning and I can hear the snow crunching as we drive by. As far as I can see I see the whiteness of the snow on the fields and on turf. The car stops at the red light waiting for the signal to go. As the car pulls in I get ready my bags and my self ready to step out of the car and into the frigid air. I step out of the car and onto the asphalt. I jump up onto the walk way and immediately I hear the snow crunch under my shoes. I walk towards the Boll Building with the snow crunching all the way. I enjoy and shiver in the cold but fresh air. I am waiting to see who is sitting in the blue dotted couches.

Meeting New People

“His story being ended with his pipe's last dying puff, Queequeg embraced me, pressed his forehead against mine, and blowing out the light, we rolled over from each other.”

- Herman Melville

    It doesn’t matter if you look different, sound different or come from different upbringings, it is possible to find similarities. In finding common ground with new people you often learn something. Not everything that we learn is from a book or in the classroom. Some of the greatest of life’s lessons are learned in the process of making new friends. Last summer I went to The Island School for a week long camp. There were only twelve kids in the group so we got to know each other well. There were three other boys in my room who I was the closest to on the trip. One boy, Arthur, was from a nearby island in the Bahamas called Nassau. The two other kids were from the United States. We all enjoyed sharing stories about our culture and other crazy stuff. Arthur even told us one story about a school wide fight between his school and another school during a basketball game. He said that people pulled knives out and some kids got seriously hurt. I learned that I am grateful to be to be able to learn in a safe and nurturing environment. He also taught me a card game called Peanut Butter. It is a small thing but something like that is a good way to connect with new friends. I have taught other friends the card game and told them about Arthur. I learned a lot of lessons from him some big and some small. However, I realized that it is not necessary to always have similarities with people to connect with them. You can also create bonds with people by sharing experiences.

Wisdom Leads to Happiness

“Our happiness depends on wisdom all the way.”
- Sophocles

    I would rather be wise than happy and ignorant. I think that wisdom can lead to happiness in many ways. Also I think being ignorant would be hard and I wouldn’t like being oblivious to certain things. First, I think that sharing my wisdom with others would bring me joy. Such as giving someone insight on a mistake I made so that they wouldn’t the same mistake or helping someone understand a new concept. Second, I think that using my experience to bring change and make a difference to a larger group could bring me great satisfaction. Such as helping the two main political parties come together rather than moving apart or helping the world come to peace or agree on how we can stop global warming. Third and lastly, I think that being able to learn from mistakes, grow and develop would bring me happiness. If you are able to continue to change and evolve as a person then you are never stuck. For example, I have grown as a person in the last six months. I have become a better writer and I have improved my critical thinking skills. If I were ignorant I wouldn’t be able to learn from mistakes or grow. I would just make the same mistakes again. In a life full of wisdom and good judgement I can imagine making decisions that will lead to successes in what ever I am doing. I imagine having children and passing down the lessons and knowledge I have gained throughout my life. A life that I want to live includes wisdom and happiness not ignorance.

With Tradition Comes Connection 

“Without tradition, art is a flock of sheep without a shepherd. Without innovation, it is a corpse.”
- Winston Churchill

    Tradition is a critical part of connecting family and community. My Christmas Eve with my extended family is a great example of connecting family. We have so many other traditions inside of the tradition of Christmas dinner. Every year my family hosts a Christmas Eve dinner with 21 people. We have people from different sides of the family. We have cousins, aunts, uncles, grandparent, great aunts and great uncles over. One of the most fun traditions inside of the dinner is the table decorations. My family sets up a table with fun toys and meaningful quotes. We put Christmas crackers, quotes on the table, a candle pyramid with the creche scene and candles all around the table. I have some great memories from the table decorations. I remember everyone reaching over the person to there left or right and saying “want to pull my cracker” and everyone would be talking about the cool toy that they had just got. Everyone would be playing with the toys they had just got with the person next to them. The next thing everyone would do is reading the quote at table setting. We get these quotes the Nesting store in Concord. These quotes are extremely meaning and my family gets a chance to pull the meaning from an otherwise complicated quote. Before the dinner my whole family goes to a church session at our local church. We all sit together and tons of fun singing and being in each other’s company. Just getting a little taste of the story of Christmas and how it came to be can raise the Christmas spirit. Throughout life, tradition can still be extremely helpful to connect with a community or a larger group of people. Tradition is scattered everywhere, sometimes even in places you wouldn’t expect.

The Power of Human Imagination.

“The power of imagination makes us infinite.”
- John Muir

    “‘A fine Christmas!’ and smacking at the smoke with a slipper...‘Call the fire brigade,’ cried Mrs. Prothero as she beat the gong...‘Let's call the police as well,’" Jim said. "’And the ambulance.’" "’And Ernie Jenkins, he likes fires.’” In Dylan Thomas’s A Child’s Christmas in Wale the reader is brought along on a magical journey into Thomas’s imagination. He describes memories of past Christmases. Through vivid descriptions he turns the ordinary into the extraordinary.

Lost Luggage, Found Heart

“Family is not an important thing. It’s everything.”
- Michael J. Fox

    What matters in life is who you are with and not the things you have. I realized how much I value the time I get to spend with my family. It isn’t cool electronics or fancy clothes that will support you during hard times it is family that will. It was Thanksgiving break three years ago and my family was getting ready to fly down to Florida. We were flying down to Florida to my grandparents house to meet up with the rest of my Family for a reunion. For the days before the trip I had been checking the weather, packing the my things and making sure I got everything in the bag. Perfect planning had gone into packing my bag for the right weather. At that time my parents thought I was incapable of bringing my luggage in so my Dad was charged with bringing my bag in. Somehow in the rush of getting out of the car my bag was left in back seat of the car. I did not know that my luggage was left until I got to Florida. Once I got there I realized that I would not be needing my luggage to have a great time with my family. Even when my grandmother wanted to take a photo for the her Christmas it didn’t matter that I only had my cousins borrowed clothes to wear. Having the perfect outfit did not matter it was being together that really counted. Ever time we are packing for a family reunion we talk about the forgotten luggage. It was a really wonderful Thanksgiving together with all my cousins.

The Way Out is Through

“Positivity, confidence, and persistence are key in life, so never give up on yourself.”
- Khalid

    The most helpful lessons are learned from hard times, and I learned some important life lessons when I learned that my Grandfather needed to battle lung cancer. I learned from Grandaddy that you can’t give up on life when facing death; I learned that staying positive is the best way through hard times. Late last year, my family found out that my Grandfather had cancer that was diagnosed. What possible good reason could there be for my Grandfather to find out that he had lung cancer right before Christmas. The worst Christmas present he could get. One of the things that I most admire about my Grandfather is that he stayed so positive since diagnosing and through his 10 months of treatment. There were countless times where rather than being sad, he was positive and made it possible for us to truly enjoy our time with him because he remained confident that everything would work out. He has been showing positivity is throughout this whole process even when he has been uncomfortable. Not once has he complained. He stays positive and does not focus on what is not optimal but he focus on his family and positivity. At the beginning of the process he became extremely thirsty all the time and he was drinking massive amounts of water and sodas. He did not complain. He said positive and he was present for his family during a get together. His trait of positivity has been passed to me and I aspire to be as positive as him. I would describe myself as a positive person but I believe that I can be even more positive like him. Positivity can help anyone in any part of life. Whether it is working out a conflict or just complementing someone. Positivity is one of the most important aspects of life and if one does not have positivity, they can not live a full life.