Journal #25 - MY VOCABULARY HISTORY

1. I really do have a hard time with my vocabulary, mainly because I'm so used to using words I learned so long ago. It's a challenge for me to take in new vocabulary and use it everyday. I would learn a new word one day, and forget it the next day. My strong points are I can use pretty big vocabulary in my writing, but only when I feel like using them. It's hard for me to understand novels everytime I come across a word I've never heard be before, or even a word I can hardly read.
2. In my middle school years, we used a lot of vocabulary workbooks to help stretch out our vocabulary. We also read many novels and each time there was a word we didn't usually hear, the teacher would stop us and drill us on that word. Although I've gone through so many vocabulary workbooks, I don't remember three-quarters of the words I learned.
3. To be honest, I don't get used to a new word unless it sounds interesting to me. I'm only able to catch on to a word if its something I can make fun of. For example, last year we were going through our vocabulary workbooks when we came across the word flabbergasted, and I've been using that word quite a lot since I've learned it.
4. My goals for my word choice are to learn many new words and be able to use them daily. I want to be able to improve my vocabulary, especially because it'll help me in the future when I need to find a job. My evidence of "owning" those new words is when I use them in my essays.

Journal #20 - "A New Year, New Opportunities, New Beginnings"

It was the morning of December 31, 2009, New Year's Eve as everyone calls it. I woke up to the sweet aroma of pancakes and syrup, which made me realize this would be my last breakfast of the year. As I devoured my delicious breakfast, I began to recall the memories of the past year. I remembered that 2009 was the year of my 8th grade graduation, one of the best and worst days of my life. I also reminisced on the time when my cousin from California surprised me with a visit, I remembered how ecstatic I was to see her here. Before I knew it, morning turned to night at the blink of an eye, it was 6:35 p.m. Family members and friends began to pile into my small house as we were blessing the food with prayer. I was the person who had to say grace, which I always hated to do. But somehow, this time was different than the others. I really wanted to do the prayer, mainly because I knew it would be the last one of the year. It's 8:01 p.m. Excitement and joy began to rush through me as my cousins and I lit up morning glories, sparklers and flower bloomers. All the sadness simply disappeared, the memories of 2009 didn't seem to matter because I was living in the moment. It was 10:48 p.m. Smoke from all the fireworks in my neighborhood filled the atmosphere, a sign that the new year awaited for our arrival. The sight of little children wearing face masks, and adults too, made me giggle and laugh. As my cousin and I were sitting on the back of my dad's truck watching fireworks, we kept counting down the minutes to midnight. It was 11:30 p.m. Only 30 more minutes until the big One-Oh. All our neighbors began to set up their big finales, as did we. Fountains filled the open road, morning glories stuck in the ground, and 5000's hung from street poles. It was 11:58 p.m., only 2 minutes from 2010 and everyone was going crazy. My cousin and I began to light the morning glories that were set up on the side of the road. We were jumping for joy and played with sparklers as we watched the morning glories spark and fire with color. It was time we said our last goodbyes to 2009, we shed tears as reality began to set in. Finally, the moment we've been waiting for, it was 12:00 a.m. on January 1st, 2010. Aerials were booming and popping in the sky, fountains and flower bloomers were cracking, and all there was to see was flashes of light from street to street. I shared a few hugs with my family when the unexpected happens. One of the fireworks decided to fly into my garage, onto my foot and popped on me. I was holding my foot in pain, and looked down to see blisters and blood. Even with a minor setback like this, nothing could ruin my new year. 2010 was hear to stay, for a while anyway.