Sunburst
1st place
Star of the Night
When I saw you there that dark night
Your eyes, like the stars, were so bright
They couldn’t compare
To the stars up there
And I fell in love at first sight
~ Valerie Munoz
2nd place
Beautiful Chaos
This chaos you caused in my head
So confusing its left unread
This poem is to you
Is all I can do
Still, there is so much more unsaid
~Melody Ruebush
3rd place
The Nature of Love
A feeling that roams through the air It wanders like it’s everywhere Not like a cold breeze On a summer’s eve But a gentle wind through your hair
~Valerie Munoz
Love Yourself. Treat Yourself
By Shannah Rudiger
Valentine’s day is now upon us in the new year of 2019. Everyone sees Valentine’s day as the time of couples showing love for one another. This holiday of affection doesn’t have to be solely about the couples however, those of us that are not in a relationship can love ourselves. Loving yourself is so important; loving yourself is about self-acceptance. A quote from Tyra Banks had said “Self-love has very little to do with how you feel about your outer self. It's about accepting all of yourself.” (flower photo)
Loving yourself is such an important aspect because it not only teaches you to love and accept yourself, but it also teaches you what love is and how to love someone else. So yes, being single isn’t bad, loving yourself is far more important than being in a relationship. A famous quote states, “In order to love someone else you must love yourself.” Hailee Steinfeld has a song about self-love titled “Love Myself,” it talks about how loving yourself means you don’t have to have someone else there, that loving yourself is all you need. “Gonna love myself, no, I don’t need anybody else”. Especially if someone has just gotten out of a relationship the self-love you have for yourself can help someone so much, it allows you to remember you still have love in your life, its not gone.
Treating yourself can allow you to have that self-love within yourself by doing something nice for yourself. Some ways someone can treat themselves for self-love on this valentine’s day can include simply making yourself a wonderful breakfast for yourself. You don’t have to stop at just making yourself breakfast you can also make yourself a nice dinner or bake millions of sweets just for you! You can binge watch whatever
you want on Netflix and just enjoy it, even find something new to watch! You can tell yourself each and everything you love about yourself like how awesome you rocked that test or how amazing your creative skills are, don’t be negative be positive and say everything you love about yourself. In the wise words of Tom and Donna from Parks and Rec “Treat Yo Self!” (Snoopy heart here)
In honor of self-love, help someone who might not have much self-love in their life, let someone know that they are amazing and let them know hey self-love is as important as loving someone else. Helping someone know about self-love can have such an impact on their life. Compliment someone on what they are wearing, how their hair looks or their shoes and just tell them how nice you think they are. Being nice to someone is free and it creates a domino effect.
Show kindness today and every day.
I love you from head to toe.
I love how your skin can shine and glow.
I love how your eyes shine
with your personality --so sweet and kind
I love your hair so soft and nice.
and your eyes as blue as ice.
You're nice and cool and smart.
and you are like a work of art.
Sophia Gallegos
Memorial Elementary - 5th grade
Self Love
Today’s the Day
The Day of Love
Couple love
Friend love
Family love
But the person who should be shown the most love,
Is myself
Self love;
It’s the most unusual type there is
But also the most needed
For self love can be stronger than any other
No matter what,
You will always have yourself to rely on
So love yourself
Treat yourself
And have self love
Cause you will always be worth it!
Boy Erased
By: Shannah Rudiger
Memoirs are special. They give us a personal look at someone’s lives. They are true stories someone is willing to share. To be so raw and so vulnerable for others to witness. The memoir Boy Erased tells the true and personal story of Garrard Conley. His memoir tells his own story of identity, faith, and family.
In Boy Erased Garrard Conley covers the very heavy subject of conversion therapy. More specifically his own experiences of it. Now conversion therapy is the unethical practice of trying to change someone’s sexual orientation. Conley’s story revolves all around his time at Love in Action (LIA), an organization that said they guaranteed to change your sexuality. In between his stay at LIA he goes back to memories of him and his family, a time before he was in LIA. Within the book you see how everything that has happened to him shaped him into what he is. Such as when he was in therapy eh became someone he didn’t know and how he set on that path of figuring himself out again and how to be happy.
His story is truly heartbreaking in many part of his memoir. The way he wrote all his personal experiences is something you don’t forget. His story is mesmerizing and something worth reading. It talks about an issue that still exist today, about how conversion therapy ruins a person and how it should be illegal in all states and is unfortunately not. New York became the most resent state to make it illegal. With stories like Garrard’s we can make sure people don’t have to suffer. A book like this does so much good, so many people should read it to see the impact.
*Note from Me: when reading this story be cautious it does have lots of sensitive topics that might not be suitable for everyone. But it is still a good read, just very sad.
The Knife of Never Putting Down
By Shannah Rudiger
Dystopian future books that fully immerse you to where you never want to put it down can be hard to come by. You always want a story that will keep you wanting more and more. A story that makes you wonder what will happen on the next chapter or page. The futuristic novel The Knife of Never Letting Go by Patrick Ness tells an amazing story you won’t want to put down. It tells an entrancing story and does something unique that I’ve never seen before in a book. The plot of this book is one that is not easy to summarize without giving away too much, but I’ll give it my best shot.
The science fiction novel by Patrick Ness tells the story of Todd Hewitt, a 12-year-old boy who is about to become a man with in his small town, Prentisstown. He is the only boy in his town where all of the men have already turned 13 and so on, now Prentisstown and the world Todd lives on is known as the New World. As Todd has grown up in this town with is adoptive parents, Ben and Cillian, his entire town has told of the tales of the Spackle. The Spackle are the reason their town is so small, the Spackle are the ones Todd has always heard about, they are the ones who released the germ. The germ that killed all the women and more than half of the men, the same germ that made the Noise. The Noise is something you can’t get away from since the Noise makes you hear the thoughts of everyone. It is when Todd finds a hole in the Noise that things in his small town take a turn. Ben and Cillian fore Todd to leave with only a backpack filled with supplies and the dog he never wanted Manchee. There is something greater that Todd doesn’t know and it is up to him to figure it out before the town of Prentisstown get to him. He encounters many struggles and even something that shouldn’t exist, a girl. A girl named Viola,
together they have to face the confusion of what really Prentisstown is and all the mysteries that lye in their way.
This book is brilliant, it does so many things that make you love it. It does and amazing job developing characters that you either hate or love. The character interaction doesn’t seem forced it is natural, it allows the characters to be real and someone you can relate to. In most books it sometimes feels like the characters are forced to be likeable and while reading this I didn’t feel that, they felt like normal even through their crazy adventure. One of the best things this book does is through the Noise, the Noise that allows you to hear everyone’s thoughts. This is one of the most unique things I’ve seen in a book since the book is told through Todd’s eyes, you can be able to hear everyone’s thoughts. It is amazing since the Noise goes as far as hearing animal’s thoughts. Manchee, Todd’s loyal dog is one of the best characters since you can hear him something that I have not seen in a book. It makes it so much better. Overall this book is one I definitely recommend, it tells an amazing story that you won’t want to put down.