Our Founding Fathers

If you could travel back in time to meet America’s Founding Fathers, what would you tell them? Would you give them advice on how to further help our country, or simply say “good job?” Do they deserve to be recognized for their hard work? Many people don’t even know who the Founding Fathers are. They signed the Declaration of Independence after we won the American Revolution, freeing us from Great Britain. The most important  were George Washington, John Adams, Thomas Jefferson, and Benjamin Franklin. They were part of the many men who worked hard to help our country become how it is today.

All of the Founding Fathers worked hard to come together to create our wonderful country. Although they were different, they had one thing in common: They were all leaders. What does it really mean to be a leader? Not necessarily loud, or strong, but respected and confident. These two things are why the Founding Fathers became what they were. Their passion to create a strong government earned them the respect of many.

If the Founding Fathers could see how far their country has come, they would be proud. For example, without them, we wouldn’t have the Bill of Rights, which guarantees us some personal freedom, and limits the government’s power in some areas. Without them, we wouldn’t even have a little freedom, because we’d still be under the rule of Great Britain. Look at us now, creating new technology and ways to make our country even better.

But what if the Founding Fathers had given up? What if they hadn’t been good leaders, and simply said “this is too hard” and walked away? We would still be under the rule of Britain and have no government. Our country would be a mess, and have almost no order. But they didn’t give up, because they were leaders. They worked hard, and that’s what I would tell our Founding Fathers.

Cause/Effect of Frogs and French Kisses

Conflict/Resolution of Crossed

Crossed is about a girl named Cassia who sets out to the Outer Provinces to find Ky, a boy whom she was separated from. She faces many hardships along the way: Hunger, sickness, and the dizzying secrets she learns as she travels. Cassia finds out more about Ky than she would have thought, and all the while she is not even with him. This is one of the conflicts, because Ky has so much he wants to tell Cassia and wants them to be together.

After a long journey through the Canyon, Cassia comes upon a village. She has no clue that Ky is in a cave nearby, burying a friend that was killed by poison. Ky decides to go out, to explore some more and take his mind off of his dead friend. When he goes back up to the cave, he sees a figure and realizes it is Cassia. The conflict is resolved, they are back together.

A Trip to Mexico

Warm, sunny weather. Delicious new foods to try. A whole 5 days of relaxation. This is what I imagined before my family went to Cancun, Mexico because we wanted a vacation and my parents couldn't stand the weather (it was winter at the time). I’d been waiting for that day ever since my parents  booked the trip online, 2 months earlier. Unfortunately, we had to get up at 3 in the morning because our flight was at 7 and we wanted to have time to eat and relax a little. But once we were at the airport we checked the big board, and saw that our plane was scheduled to be at 7:45 because of delays. My brother then started whining because he wanted to get to Cancun really fast, so we hurried to the check-in place.

What was really funny was that when I went through the metal detector thing, it went off. No one could figure out why, but I still had my braces at that time and I figured it must be that. So the security guard let us through and we went to our gate, but it was still only 6:00. So we decided to do a little roaming around until about 7:15. My mom asked one of the people at the help desks where we could get some breakfast, and she pointed us to a Starbucks.

While I was munching on a donut and sipping hot chocolate (yummy!), I watched my brother gaze at all the planes that went by. He kept trying to take pictures of the planes, but all of the planes were going too fast. So the pictures either came out blurry, upside down (somehow), or of random people outside. At around 7:30, people started lining up to have their boarding passes checked. The plane had arrived a few minutes before, and workers were attaching the tube walkway to one of the doors (my brother finally got a decent picture of a plane).  

Once the lady at the desk had stamped our boarding passes, we walked through the door to the walkway. I immediately started shivering, because as you know Wisconsin winters are not the least bit warm. There was a flight attendant standing at the entrance to the plane, and he greeted everyone with a smile. My family’s seats were near the wings, which my parents feel is the best place because you get to see the flaps open and close.

When we had stuffed our carry-on stuff into the overhead compartment and sat down, I watched other planes take off and land. Suddenly we started moving, slowly, and in a couple minutes we were at the runway. I absolutely love being on the runway, because it’s so fast and feels like a roller coaster.

The plane finally started speeding down the runway, and I watched everything go by in a blur. We lifted into the air in a couple of seconds , and I gazed out the window as the buildings and trees got smaller and smaller, until we were above the clouds and I couldn’t see out anymore. After about half an hour, I was hungry, and one of the flight attendants came around with drinks and pretzels.

When we landed in Cancun it was a big change, because we went from temperatures in the single digits and white everywhere to 70's and green plants. I was excited to get to the resort, but we still had an hour drive ahead of us. Apparently we had to wait for a specific taxi, and it was late getting to the airport. When the taxi arrived, we all got in and drove to the resort. The drive was really cool because I got to see all kinds of things that you can never find here in Wisconsin.

I was totally mesmerized by everything: The lush plants, the delicious food, the white beaches. It was kind of like a dream, and it felt so good to be away from being an icicle every day. From the moment I arrived in Cancun, I knew I would enjoy my vacation.