Life of a Teen: Expectations

Life of a Teen: Expectations

Life is a roller coaster of emotions and situations. As a teen, we are expected to do a lot and know a lot. We are supposed to try to figure out what to do with our lives, and figure out who we are going to be as a person. We have many influences on our lives, but some steer us in different directions. As a teen, we are pulled in so many different directions we don’t know where to go. From our parents, we are supposed to act like adults and do whatever possible to help, even if there is nothing to do. Our parents expect us to go to school, get good grades, act in a proper manner, and do whatever they tell us to do. They expect all of this from us as an adult, but yet they still treat us like a child.
From our teachers, they also expect a lot. I mean we have eight classes and each teacher expects me to do all the homework that they assign. From each class we get about 30 minutes of work, which doesn’t seem to bad. But once you add 8 classes with that amount of work and only have a little time to do it, you do become very stressed and tired from staying up too late working on it. Plus they expect us to stay awake during their class to learn their information, but since we were up late working on their homework it is pretty much counter productive.
From our friends, we are expected to act a certain way around them and act like them. If you don’t you won’t be friends. But you want to stay in with the cool people so you conform to them. We start dressing certain ways, talking certain ways, and acting certain ways that may not be how we would normally act. As a teen, we need help guiding ourselves down the right path, but not with too much influence that it pushes us in the wrong way. It all has to be a gentle balance.

Famous Quote

Alex Engler
Famous Quote

"Learn from yesterday, live for today, hope for tomorrow. The important thing is not to stop questioning." ~ Albert Einstein

I like this quote because it has excellent advice on how we should live our day to day lives. Everyday we should look back at what we have accomplished and all that we have yet to do. Each and every day we make mistakes and fail to do something. We should look back at it and think to ourselves, “I know I can do better”. We can take these as learning opportunities and a growth in who we are meant to become in this life that God has given us.
We should live for today everyday because you never know when it may end. Everyday that we are given, we should live to the fullest and enjoy every last second. If we live each day to the fullest then we will not have as many regrets. As we live each moment enjoy it, if we enjoy it then we will be able to look back and see all that God has given us. We will also be able to make as many memories as possible.
Also we should hope for tomorrow. I know that there is only so much that we can do to prepare for the future, but we should try our best to make it the best future possible. If we hope and pray for guidance, God will help lead us to where we are meant to be. All things happen for a reason, we can only hope for a better tomorrow and future. Plan carefully, pray continuously, and hope and God will lead us to the future that we all are meant to have.
In the last part of the quote, Einstein states that we should never stop questioning. I agree with this last part, because we should always be asking questions. Questions on how we can do better, about how things work, and everything that just goes on during everyday life. Just don’t question too much, there is a limit on how much we can understand as humans because we are sinful beings living in a sinful world. Ask for God’s guidance and we will all understand once we are with him.
So remember to learn from your mistakes from yesterday, enjoy every last moment of today since we might not get tomorrow, and hope for a better future.

Personal Goals

Personal Goals

I have a lot of personal goals for my life. Some are more ambitious and others are really simple goals that I can achieve soon. Most of my goals I have planned toward my future and so on. Some will come within reach sooner than later, or will take a while to achieve. I have also achieved some of my personal goals for high school already and I am very proud to have accomplished them.
I play two sports, tennis and volleyball. Last tennis season I was able to make varsity doubles with my partner Rin. We made an excellent team. We set ourselves a goal to never give up on a match and always finish out the points. We lost only a few times and the times we did lose, we were very close and we never gave up. This year, I hope to win more matches and find a good partner, since my partner Rin graduated.
I made a goal over this past summer to try my best at volleyball. With my hard work and determination I was able to make on the varsity team as a sophomore. Even though I was not playing my usual position and had to learn a few things, the team made it to semi-state and also won the Marion County tournament, which is a first for our tiny 1A school. I am also playing club volleyball this winter for Circle City. I am very excited that I made a team since so many other players were cut. I am with an amazing group of girls and am so excited for the season ahead. We as a team hope to go to nationals. I also have a goal of learning new plays to run as a middle hitter.
I also have many academic goals. I am hoping to graduate with honors and get into a good college.

Allegiant Finale

Allegiant Finale
Alex Engler

I left off on my last post with Tobias in jail and another attack on the compound near. Tris is now unsure of her relationship with Tobias because he hasn’t been listening to her. Even though he stayed with her through her depression and completing all of the suicide missions she tried. Tris is in a really bad spot at this point in the story. Her boyfriend isn’t there and listening to her, her brother tried to get her killed, her parents are dead, and her best friend Uriah is about to die because of being near the bomb that Tobias set off to create a diversion. As the story goes on Tris finds out that her mother came from this compound and that her being in the faction society was all a plan to see if they were ready to come and save the compound from it’s own destruction. She is given her mother’s journal and Tris reads it over and over again trying to understand why her mother never told her any of this information.
Once she is done reading her mother’s journal, Tris decides that it is time to show her brother who came with them to the compound. She is at war with herself because Caleb is still her brother even though he almost got her killed and didn’t do anything about it. She finally decides that she will try to forgive him and try to rebuild their relationship. But the damage may already be done and it won’t be able to be fully repaired.
Tobias is in jail, but the “genetically pure” give him a fair trial and he is able to get released from jail. Once he is out he tries to repair his relationship with Tris. Over the next few weeks they finally come to an understanding and are once again trying to get rid of the “genetically pure” rule over the “genetically damaged”. They come up with a plan to get in to the weapons lab and get the memory serum to reset the memories of the genetically pure. The only problem is, is that it has a high tech security system that if you don’t enter the right passcode you will get sprayed with the death serum and die. This death serum is absorbed through your skin and no one can outrun it or try to cover themselves from it. One of them will have to make the ultimate sacrifice and die trying to get that memory serum.
The day finally arrives to start their attack. Tobias goes back to the city to reset his parent’s memories and try to make peace. Tris and Caleb are the one’s to go to the weapon’s lab. Originally Caleb was going to be the one to get serum and die trying. But last minute Tris makes the courageous decision to go to the weapons lab instead of her brother. Since Tris is Divergent she was able to resist the death serum. She got the memory serum and was about to leave with it, when the leader of the “genetically pure” shows up and shoots her. Tris dies, but her effort was not in vain. The “genetically pure” were reset and all were saved from the destruction that was coming. Tobias is depressed that Tris died. After a while he finally learns to move on and he gives life a new chance.
In my opinion this was the worst ending to the book, because the main character that we followed through the entire series dies. I was really hoping that it would be a Harry Potter moment and she would come back to life. But in the end she doesn’t and Tobias has to live his life without her.

Allegiant

Allegiant
Alex Engler

This is the the third and final book of the Divergent series. The second book, Insurgent left off with their society on the brink of war. The five factions were in chaos. The Erudite had just taken over the Dauntless minds and forced them to murder most of the Abnegation faction. Tris and the other Divergent were able to avoid the mind control and shut down the simulation. But sadly the damage had already been done. Most of the Abnegation were dead, including Tris’s parents. Tris was then went in to a depression, and started to do compulsive things risking her life at almost every turn. But her boyfriend, Tobias was able to help her and make her come to her senses. Tobias during this was also going through a rough time. He has just found out that his mom, who he thought was dead for a long time, is alive, and his father is still alive in the Abnegation faction. This brought horrible memories for him back to light. He was forced to remember how his father abused him and how his mother ran away and supposedly died. But even with this all coming back to him, Tobias was able to suppress them and focus on what really needed to happen.
They have just seen this video from one of Tris’s ancestors, who came from outside the fence. She told them the real reason they were there and how all the factions were formed. She also told them that there was life outside the fence of their city and that they needed to come and save it from it’s own destruction. Tris and Tobias showed the video to the entire city. Once the video was seen, a group was formed called the Allegiant. They were going to be the ones who were to go outside the fence and find out what was really going on in the society.
The Allegiant finally had enough people to go on this mission, with Tris and Tobias apart of the group. They went outside the fence and found a compound were many people lived. Tris and Tobias found out the history of how and why their society was created. Turns out the Divergent are considered “genetically pure” and those who are not, are considered “genetically damaged”. The “genetically pure” are the race that basically rules the compound, they are the researchers and security guards, while the “genetically damaged” are on the lower end of the stick and are forced to do maintenance and clean-up duty. Tris thinks that this is unfair and she finds a group there who are trying to do something about it. Tobias joins right away, but soon finds himself in jail and away from Tris. Tris had known it was a bad idea from the start and had tried to warn him, but Tobias was in his own world and went against Tris’s wishes of sitting this one out.
I can’t wait to finish this book and find what will happen to Tobias’s and Tris’s relationship and what will happen if the “genetically damaged” are to attack the compound again.

Finale to The House of Hades

Finale to House of Hades

I left off with Percy and Annabeth wandering down in Tartarus and their friends Leo and the gang rushing to Athens to fight off Gaea. Will Percy and Annabeth get out of Tartarus alive and make it home in time to help stop Gaea from rising and save Camp Half-blood from the Romans? Will Leo and the rest of the gang be able to make it to the ancient lands and close the doors of death in time to stop Gaea? 

Percy and Annabeth, as I left off, were stuck in Tartarus looking for the Doors of Death. The Doors of Death are their only hope of getting out of Tartarus. But the question is where is it located? Along the way they meet one of Percy’s old friends, Bod the titan. Back on earth Percy had defeated him and wiped his memory. Now Bob has forgotten everything about himself and his past, plus he thinks that Percy is his friend. Bob decides to help Percy and Annabeth through Tartarus. But along the way Bob meets his brother and he tells him of his past. Bob is sad that Percy lied to him and he leaves. Now they are without a guide again but have a general idea of where to go. 

As they walk along, they are attacked by these monsters that if you kill them they release a curse on you. Percy killed so many that he almost dies, but Bob coming to his senses comes in and saves Percy, taking him to a giant that can heal him. The giant heals Percy and sends the group on their way. 

But with just their luck they are faced with Night herself. She sends her children after the group and the groups runs away. As they ran through her castle they had to keep their eyes closed because otherwise they would have seen horrific images that even if they had gotten out they would have been changed forever. They came to the end of the castle and they were forced to stop because there was a large canyon in front of them. It was to wide to jump but there was a river at the bottom so Percy was able to control the water and get them safely across. 

Once they were safely across they found Bob again and they caught their first glimpse of the Doors of Death. The sad problem was that there were hundreds of monsters surrounding it trying to get back to the mortal world. In order to get rid of the Doors of Death the group will need to fight off all the monsters and hold the button of the elevator to make it disappear. They are able to fend off the monsters and Bob holds the button for them as they return to the mortal world. 

Back in the mortal world things aren’t going so great either. Percy’s friends as they try to find the mortal side to the doors of death, are attacked by thousands of monsters. Nico is able to raise an army from the dead and Leo leads them to win the battle. They find Percy and Annabeth at the doors and they are finally able to try and defeat Gaea. But we will have to wait and find out what happens in the next book. 

The House of Hades

House of Hades
Alex Engler

This is the fourth book in the heroes of olympus series. At the end of book three, Percy and Annabeth had just finished fighting Arachne but had fallen into a pit that led down to Tartarus. On the other hand, Gaea is rising and is planning to wreck chaos onto the world. To stop her the heroes must close the doors of death and meet her for battle in Athens, the ancient holy lands, in which no demigod is supposed to venture to. This wasn’t their only problem, they also have angered the Roman demigod camp and they are now coming to wage war on the Greek camp and destroy them.
As Percy and Annabeth fell, they felt like they had fallen for hours. Finally you could hear sounds of crying souls and see an opening into a cavern. Were they going to crash and die into the land of Tartarus? Not at all, Percy being a son of Poseidon sensed a river near by and called it to them and had it catch them so they wouldn’t die on impact. They had officially entered the horrifying land of Tartarus. As they looked around they could barely comprehend what they were seeing. It was a large carvern that never seemed to end with a red sky and swirling clouds along with jagged rocks for the land.
Percy and Annabeth wandered about trying to figure a way out of there because they were both injured and exhausted. Pretty soon they figured out that the river of fire was used in the fields of punishment to keep the souls just alive to have them fulfill their punishment. So they drank from the river. It was like eating a ghost chile which is one of the hottest chiles on earth. But it did provide them relief from their injuries for the meantime. They kept on their journey and tried to find the doors of death. Even when faced with monsters that almost killed Percy, they kept on moving through Tartarus trying to stop Gaea from rising and get home to their friends.
Back on earth Percy and Annabeth’s friends were in a panic that their friends had been taken to Tartarus. They ran around on their ship just trying to survive. They had already been attacked by so many monsters that they all had lost count. What were they going to do? They repaired the ship as best as they could and continued on their journey assuming that they could reach the doors of death on the mortal side. Along the way a daughter of Pluto was given a vision of how she would help the quest to save Percy and Annabeth. She would have to learn how to control the Mist, which was what shielded the mortals from seeing the monsters and weapons of the demigods on earth.
Will Percy and Annabeth get out of Tartarus alive and make it home in time to help stop Gaea from rising and save Camp Half-blood from the Romans? Will Leo and the rest of the gang be able to make it to the ancient lands and close the doors of death in time to stop Gaea? I look forward to figuring out these answers.