My shock of America

Dear diary,

Today was my first day back in America. I have been living in Africa doing religious work with my family. The church said we were the best people for the job because we have African blood in us and look like them. I haven't been in the US for 10 whole years! I was so excited to go back to my normal life again.
When we first landed in Georgia, Daddy wanted to treat us to a burger (we hadn't gotten one since we left). We walk into Burger Bonanza and the waitress says, "you can't come in here, white only." What? we just want a burger. We go to the next burger joint. same thing. only whites. Do they even feed black people anymore? we decide that its too much hassle so we will just go home. The conductor says there is no more space on the train. we see the entire first compartment wide open. Why can't we sit there? only white people can sit there. The colored box is full. How is this fair at all? We pay just as much as they pay. So we end up having to walk 5 miles back home. by the time we get back it is 11 pm and i have school the next day, so I'm going to be exausted. Maybe tomorrow will be better i thought. it wasn't. I forgot my textbook at home. So i asked if I could borrow Sarah's book (white). She was so taken back by the question that I was sent to the principals office for disrupting the piece. Come to find out we can't share textbooks anymore. MY TEXTBOOK AND HERS ARE THE SAME THING! Do they think we have some contagious disease on us? We are just like them but with a different skin color.
I want to go back and live in Africa again. Even though I though I would never say that, I don't know how I could be treated like this for more than a day. It makes my tummy hurt to think that the White people think we are monsters. Different than them.

The questions that swirl in my brain (free response writing)

Questions. Why do I ask so many questions? If anybody ever wanted to know what I am thinking, its probably a question that a) just popped into my head b) I'm trying to solve or understand, or c) I am wondering why I am asking. I decided to write a list of some questions that have been on my mind today.

• Why do we have to learn history? I am asking this purely as a philosophical question. I love learning about history. But you can't really expound on that field and do something off of it like say math. with math you can become a doctor, engineer, accountant. Sure, people say that we learn it so that we don't make the same mistakes as before. But do we really look back on the past to prevent us from future decisions. If people looked to the past for answers then we would have had much less wars. Everyone says they know that with wars comes death, sadness and heartache. SO WHY DO WE KEEP DOING IT?? 
• Why do people only like to eat good food, and not just healthy food? If they say it's for the taste, then why don't we just keep chewing the food forever. If you keep chewing the taste will always be in your mouth. Someone told me that we don't keep chewing because we like the sensation of the food going down our throat. I'm not sure if I believe that but you could try it and see.
• Why does everyone want to look skinny? Being fat used to signify that you were wealthy and could afford to feed yourself good food. How come that changed?
• Why do people not like to talk about poop? everyone does it, it happens, and its a natural thing. end of story.
• What is it about music that makes people want to listen to it so much?
• Why, even though I have been burned by it so many times before, I still manage to procrastinate time after time? Each time after I turned in a project that I have procrastinated, I always tell myself that I am not going to procrastinate anymore. Yet, the part of my brain that remembers pain is obviously not functioning.
•  why do I want to listen to christmas music all year long?
• Who cleans the dentist's teeth?
• Why do the people that create the definitions for words use the word in the definition that they are defining?

These are just a couple of questions that I can think of right now. I'm going to have to find someone to help me answer all of those.

Why I write

This question really made me think. It seems like I have to do a lot of that now that school has started. well when it all boils down to it, there are three reasons why I write: because of my mom, because of living in different places, and because of the strong desire to be famous (somehow).
My mom was one of those people that since a scooter had wheels, she was going to make me wear a helmet. She didn't care what "most people" do, she was going to do what she thought was right. And that included making me do summer reports on various subjects. Yes, over the summer (starting around 2nd grade), she would give me an animal to research and I would have to write a paper about it. I thought this was normal so I guess that's why I did it for so long hehe. But because she started me writing at such a young age, now I don't fully dread sitting down and making words make sense on paper. So, I write because I don't hate it.
Another reason why I write is because I have moved around so much. I was born in virginia, moved to england, then netherlands, then utah, now here. all before 4th grade.Since I moved around so much I have had to entertain myself and have been the person I have known by far the most (other than my parents). because of this, and because of how I was born, I am an introverted person. Being an introvert gives me a lot of time to have my own thoughts constantly swirling around in my peanut brain and eventually, they will get on paper. So I write because I have lots of ideas to write about.
I also write because I have the selfish goal of becoming famous in some way possible. I've had a story that I have been coming up with (ideas from my introverted brain and from a dream once, super weird I know). However the reason why I would actually write it down would be to try to get it published and be famous like JK Rowling. So, I write because I want people to know me.
If I had the motivation to sit down for three hours in front of a computer and type a story, I would, but unfortunately I have the patience of a toddler. But when it all comes down to it, I write because I want other people to understand the jumbled up thoughts I have in my brain, because they can't  "read me" because I'm very much introverted.

What I will take from Alexie's piece

This is my first ever blogging experience! From the piece "superman and me", I really enjoyed the fact that he didn't use any over the top hard to understand words. it was all easy to understand and interesting to learn about him. I think I will also write about the time that I first started to love reading. I think he and I share the experience of going through a reading frenzy and always needed something to be reading. I liked how Alexie took us through his thought process when learning how to read the comic book and I think I will try to imitate that. Plus his organization of the narrative is that he kind of went through his whole life with this one idea and story. he started with when he was young and first learned how to read and then went to when he was in school and then finished with how he is an adult writer now helping other kids love to read. Finally, I really enjoyed how he started the narrative with his background and where he came from because that let me know him better as a person and helped to understand the reasons for him reading (because he was close to his dad and his dad had lots of books). I am going to try to imitate this "my life in reading" organization and also try to give a little background to the story and where I was at the time and why the story was even able to take place.