Seeing streams of red blood running down my hand and the felling I get makes me forget
everything. 
    My book is about a fifteen-year-old girl name Callie and her story of why she
started to cut herself. 
    I really enjoyed the book Cut by Patricia McCormick. This book takes you through the emotions and the thoughts of Callie. Callie cuts herself and she doesn’t really talk when she is sent to a facility or how she calls it “sick-minds”. There she meets other girls that,
like her have problems. Her therapist tries to help her by listening to how she
feels. Callie starts to talk and she notices that she needs help. 
     The book cut it’s a really good book that shows the feelings and thought of a fifteen year old girl. I feel that this book is really good that anybody would love to read. I feel that the book Cut has a lot of themes but one that shows a lot is being self-motivated. In the book Callie is sent to a residential treatment facility to help her with her problem. Callie isn’t talking to anybody in the center, not even her therapist. Her therapist tries to help her by learning more about her and finding what’s bothering her but Callie is not cooperating. Later on in the book Callie begins to talk little by little and realizes that she needs help. Callie first had to realize her problem and be willing to try her best to get better so others could help her.
    I think that the story takes place in this period of time. The story would of change a lot if the setting was different. If Callie lived in the time when there were no therapists, she probably would not have received the help she needed. What’s good about the time period that Callie lives in is that she gets the help she needs and that she learns to confront her problem. Callie’s parents didn’t really pay attention to her; I think this is something that also affects her. We can see that a lot of parents in this period of time are really busy and they barely spend time for their children. 
     A character that changes throughout the story is Callie, she felt guilty for her brother's illness. Callie always thought that it was her fault her brother got asthma. Later in the story she realizes that her brother was sick which caused him to get an asthma attack and her father was the one that was supposed to be taking care of them. Another character that changes throughout the story is Callie’s mom, in the beginning of the story she doesn’t talk about her mom that much but you can tell that she is not that close to her mom. Callie explains to her therapist that her mom used to drive but since her brothers’ asthma attack she started being afraid of trucks. Her mom also begin to be cautious about germs because she’s scared that Sam (Callies’ brother) might get another asthma attack, but close to the end of the story Callie’s dad tells her that her mom start driving again and that she is also trying to change.
    The fact that Callie doesn’t talk that much in the beginning about her problems and her family it makes it a little confusing. Something else that is a little confusing is that she thinks stuff but at the same thing you don’t know what parts she’s talking. What I really liked was the climax of the story because I founded intense because I wanted to know what was making her cut herself. The flashbacks in the book help me understand what happened to her before she was sent to the facility. I also like the way she describes how Callie feels and what she thinks. 
    A cause and effect that happened in my book is that Callies’ brother Sam had an asthma attack and Callie always thought that it was her fault her brother got asthma. The day that Sam had the asthma attack Callies’ dad was supposed to be taking care of them but he went out. There was a lot of responsibility in Callie because she had to take care of her brother that was sick, also that day she got mad at her brother and yelled at him. From that moment she always thought that it was her fault that because she yelled at him he got sick and to take the guilt out she cuts her wrist. A second cause and effect that happened in my book was with a girl name Becca. She has a food disorder but she was hiding that she was still throwing up her food and sometimes she would hide the food in a napkin and throw it in the trash can. One day becca had a heart attack the rest of her  friend were really worried about her, but Callie told everybody what Becca  had been doing so they got disappointed and mad at her. Her friends cared about Becca and because she was doing that they got mad at her that she was not trying to get better. Another cause and effect that thanks to the patience of Callies’ therapist she started to talk. In the beginning of the story Callie didn’t talk at all, but her therapist didn’t forced her to talk instead she gave her time and make her notice that she was the only one that could help herself. Later on Callie began to talk about what happen and was happening in her life. Callie learned that she had to confront her problem and she was willing to get help and get better.
     I agree with this quote from goodreads.com by Jennifer Wardrip that also read the book, she said, “And you'll be amazed when you find out what started it all; that it's an entire family in pain, not just Callie.” I agreed with this quote because it did amazed me what was bothering Callie. For me to know that it was not her fault and that
she felt bad also that cutting was her only solution was a little surprising. The way her parents didn’t pay much attention to her as they did to her brother made me think that they did accuse her a little of what happen to him. The quote that I found in amazon.com written by a customer that said, "Cut" is not a novel about the issue of cutting. It is a novel about a girl in an adolescent psychiatric ward.” I disagree with this quote. I disagree with it
because I do think that this book is about the issue of cutting. This book may not talk about the most common problem that a girl that cuts herself might have, but it gives us an example of some reasons they could have to do this. Something else is that it shows us some of the felling they go through like the feeling of not wanting to talk to anybody, also the feeling of trying to keep everything inside. I agree with the quote in amazon.com by Allyn who wrote, “But the best thing about this book was its hopeful ending that leaves us with the feeling that Callie has emerged from her treatment stronger, wiser, and able to overcome the temptation to cut herself.”  I also like the end of the book because I could see that Callie didn’t want to harm herself but it was only the way for her to take out her feelings. In the end of the book she realizes that she needs help and she wants to get better.
    I think that this book is a really interesting book, also which helps you learn a little about the persons that have the same problem. I feel that this book takes you through the journey of Callies life. If we learn more about the problems that girls like Callie go through we might be able to help them better, and fine a way to prevent this from happening. This is why I say that the book cut is a really good book. I feel that anyone that reads this book with really like it and you will even feel good for Callie that she wants to get better. 
 


  
 

"Who Isn't  Graduading from High School?" PBS News.June 4,2012.http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/education/dropout-nation/who-isnt-graduating-from-high-school/
The Article that I chose talks about the average of students graduating from high
school. It tells us that “1.3 million student’s drop out of high school each
year-that’s about 7,000 per year” I think this a lot of student losing their
dreams of a better future. It makes me sad to know that we aren’t doing anything
to change this or find a way to help them. The fact that students aren’t
graduating from high school not only affect then but it also affects the economy
and us as well. When I first read this article I thought it was going to talk
about the reasons why students are dropping out but it mostly gives rates of drop outs. I like the article because it’s letting us know that we must be doing something wrong in our society that our students aren’t graduating.  I
feel that we should do something about it, that we shouldn’t let students end their careers and goals so early in their lives. If I could do something about it I would first ask students that "if they were to drop out of school what would be their reasons to drp out?". I would try to find ways to solve those reasons and help them keep their interest in school and what they want to do in the future. If you could do something about school drop outs what would you do? How would you do it? 

    Have you ever think about what culture you belong?? If I analyze my life I could say that I belong to the mexican culture. Although I was not born in Mexico I call myself mexican because both my parents are.
    The first way that i can tell that i belong to the mexican culture is by the type of food we eat. We like to eat tamales, enchiladas, frijoles(beans), and tortillas.We gather in the table and talk about our day while we eat " i feel like if i was in a restaurant".We also  eat a lot of chili with our food, like my mother says "the food is not good without chili on it". I like to help my mom when she is cooking because that way it helps me learn the recipes so i can keep passing it on.I alway ask her what else to put:"Ma what else do i put in the soup?". she is like "add salt and mix it".That ius the way a learn to cook.
    Secondly "we are like oceans and water",we are really united and we love to spend time with each other.In the Christmas season i remember that we planed everything to get together for that day. My mom and aunts are the ones that make the food (tamales), my dad and uncles usually just sit down and talk while they drink coffee.My cousins,brothers and i usually play games and wait till is time to open the present. I remember one time when one of my aunts had to take care of the tamales so they won't burn ,but they end up burning because she forgot.It was funny because somebody start smelling the burn tamales so they told her and they wher trying to take out the ones that were good.
    The third thing that makes me feel that i belong to the Mexican culture is my language, why?. Well it's not because i speak spanish is just that there are things that we call differently then other places, for example we say "aretes"(earrings) and other countries they say "zarcillos". We have words that mean different things to us then what they mean in other countries.Some people think that because we speak spanish we now everything the same way, Sometime i don't understend what my friends from other countries in South America say. "We are like a school lesson" we learn something different each time.
    In my opinion this is why i think that i belong in the mexican culture. What culture do you consider yourself to be part of?

    Always we hear the cry from teenagers" What do we do,where can we go?"
A judge in New Zealand said that teenagers should stop being cry babies.
i don't agree with the judge, Why? Well because he is judging all the teenagers by the actions of just a group of people. 
    Something that the judge doesn't know is that a lot of us , teenagers don't act like babies.We as teenager have responsibilities and some of us do take care of them.He also comments that we should do chores insted of harming our community. Yet we ask ourselves, that ones we finish doing everything and every chore, what else can we do?.He also says that nobody owe us anything,not our town, parents or the world. The truth is that nobody owe us, but we should be working back and forth.
    We are only young once; being a teenager is a only one chance. Its an age when you feel that you can do anything.Life is not only about working and doing chores. There is a point when you have to stop for a second and have fun.Being a teenager is not that easy,we also have problems not only adults.We have the right to have fun and distract ourselves from the problems that we face nowadays. I believe that's why there is a lot of depression in people, because they only worry about work and responsibilities. Life is also about enjoying your youth while you have it.Something that he mentioned that i agree with was that we should develop a backbone. We should have goals and work to achieve them,but also have fun.
    He shouldn't have said that teenagers are cry babies,because he was judging all of us by the actions of others.

When you train to become a soldier, you actually train to learn how to defend yourself in the combat.Well just imagine that you get a concussions because of the trainings.In Fort Hood, Texas, one of the main centers for training a soldier gets a concussion every other day.

At Fort Hood ,researchers found that  six percent of the students in a class had just been struck in the head. The students were having  symptoms of brain injuries, the Defense Department said "They include "altered mental status," such as confusion and disorientation, plus a combination of other symptoms such as headaches, nausea and balance problems".  One of the training that is hurting the soldiers it's the hand-to-hand fighting. The brain specialists think that the soldiers are at risk if the had a concussion befor going to war.What i  think is that it's bad and that they shoud change the tranings.This is because insted of helping our soldiers protect themselves we are actually sending them already damaged. I feel this is going to make things worse because they no longer have the same capacity to fight in war.

I think that the Army should take action and try to help or give options of new training technics. Do you think that they should try to change the technics for training? and What are some options you would give the Army for new  technics ?