It’s Kind of a Funny Story Blog Post

SPOILER ALERT!!!

It’s Kind of a Funny Story by Ned Vizzini is an intriguing book about Craig, a stressed out New York City high school-er and his experience in a mental hospital. Craig suffers from teenage depression because of all the stress he’s experiencing at his school, “Executive Pre-Professional High School”, a fictional high school in the book. Though it’s fictional, it’s quite similar to many high schools in New York City. Craig has been yearning to get into Executive Pre-Professional since the seventh grade, when he began studying like crazy to pass the entrance exam. He studied for hours every night and barely made any time for anything other than studying. He passed the exam with a perfect score, but when he got to school, he realized he wasn’t nearly as smart as the other students there. This book had a clear message; that you need to be the best person you can be. You are good enough for anything, and if you find that you need to change yourself for something (like changing your life to study everyday for two years just to pass an entrance exam) it’s not worth your time and might end up hurting you. However, I also found hints at another message directed towards the educational system that what they’re demanding of their students might be hurting them instead of helping them.

            What Craig did to get into his school was drastic, but it’s not too far from what some students do to get into the high schools of their dreams. Some students have private test prep tutoring, go to test prep classes at school, buy test prep books to do at home, get private coaching for auditions, etc. just to nail their test, audition, or interview. It seems extreme to someone who’s not used to it, but it’s pretty normal to someone applying to high schools in any major city. This winter I went through the high school process myself, and it really was stressful and extensively thorough. There’s a lot you have to do, and as a 13/14 year old, it can really take a toll on you. You doubt yourself a lot, and with the mindset that your high school can determine the rest of your life that’s implied by many of the adults surrounding you, it’s easy to become obsessed with the high school process. This being said, the majority of kids don’t get so depressed that they end up in a mental hospital, but the process can really be crazy and unfair when you think about all the incredibly intelligent and dedicated kids who try so hard to get into the schools they desire to get into and don’t.

Craig ends up switching schools at the end of the book, which reinforces the clear message that you shouldn’t waste your time on something you need to change yourself for. Since Craig needed to change himself to succeed in Executive Pre-Professional, he started to get depressed because he wasn’t enough for the school. After his stay in the mental hospital, Craig realized he wasn’t happy at Executive Pre-Professional and decided to transfer. This is one major hint of the message Ned Vizzini is sending the educational system, that the requirements of their students are too much for them to handle, and that their students are beginning to change themselves for a school. Ned Vizzini is writing this book in the hopes that powerful people in the educational system will hear of it and read it, seeing what possible future consequences of their actions will occur sooner or later. This, along with other, subtler hints, will hopefully influence these powerful people to limit their expectations, and to remember that these students are only children, and that they need to enjoy their childhood while they can, not waste it on worrying whether they will get into this high school, and whether they’re doing enough extra curriculars for that college.

An Abundance of Katherines Blog Post

An Abundance of Katherines Blog Post

            I’ve been reading An Abundance of Katherines by John Green, an amazing book about two friends who take a road trip and end up in Gutshot Tennessee. Recently, in the book, Hassan and Colin, the two main characters, have gotten into a fight. Hassan has been hanging out with people his age who live in Gutshot, and is making new friends, and Colin doesn’t like that, because he thinks that Hassan will “dump him” (as a friend) just like every Katherine he’s ever dated has (Colin has only ever dating 19 girls, all named Katherine, who’ve all dumped him.). I’ve been trying to figure out who’s to blame in this situation, but it seems to me as thought both characters have a point.

            Hassan has always been there for Colin. Every time he gets dumped, Hassan is always there to pick up the pieces and make Colin feel better. He’s been a great friend that way, because if it weren’t for him, Colin would only have his parents to cheer him up. Hassan does, however, make jokes about Colin, and tease him whenever he talks about things Hassan doesn’t find interesting. For example, if Colin states a fact that he finds fascinating, and Hassan doesn’t, Hassan will say “Not interesting.” Hassan also calls Colin names, which seem friendly enough, but might not amuse Colin as much. On the other hand, friends tease each other and call each other names, Hassan just seems to do it rather frequently and Colin is pretty sensitive- but that shouldn’t over shadow his faithfulness to always being there for Colin.

            Colin has never found it easy to make friends. Hassan was his first friend, and other than Lindsay, and possibly other Katherines, Hassan is Colin’s only long-term friend. Being dumped seems to be really hard for Colin, and to have that happen repeatedly, 19 times, is probably not the best for his self-esteem. It probably helps to have Hassan try to comfort him, but I can imagine that when you’re really feeling sad, Hassan’s humorous and sometimes demeaning attitude isn’t the best medicine. Colin also talks about how he’s disappointed in himself for not being able to quite reach the high standards his dad’s set for him, and for only being a prodigy, and maybe not a genius. I think when Hassan tells him he’s not interesting it affects him more than it would other people.

            In conclusion, I think both Hassan and Colin have a point. They are certainly opposites, but opposites attract, which I think is what makes them such great friends. I really hope they’ll be able to get over this fight and focus on what’s really important, which is their strong friendship.

January Nonfiction Blog Post

January Nonfiction Blog Post

            This week, I read “On Staten Island, Relentless Bullying Is Blamed for a Teenage Girl’s Suicide” by Vivian Yee. It talked about how 15-year old Felicia Garcia committed suicide, perhaps because of bullying from the football team. Felicia lived in the foster care system, and had a prior history of being a “rebellious” teenager. However, she’d seemed fine before she committed suicide, apart from crying in the hallways once a few days before her suicide. The football team tweeted defenses, saying they barely knew Felicia. I think that the football team’s response using social media was definitely not the right decision to make.

            Social media and the Internet have literally been taking over the world. Bullying has even taken a completely different form through technology- cyber bullying. I think defending yourself after someone has committed suicide is by itself, a selfish thing to do, you can at least show respect for the person and have a moment to reflect on what their lives were like, and not immediately think about how they will “get in trouble” for it.  So not only do I think it was wrong for the football team to defend themselves so quickly, but I think it was a really bad idea for them to use the internet to do it. People read things differently on the Internet than how the writer intended them to be read, and while the football team may not have intended for their comments to sound selfish, they did. I think if there was any way for them to defend themselves, it should have been done in an interview, or a press conference if absolutely necessary. They brought it upon themselves to defend themselves, when no one had asked them to, and they didn’t need to. Perhaps if they’d waited until they’d been questioned, this situation wouldn’t have happened.

            In conclusion, I think that this football team made the wrong decision when they decided to write a comment on Twitter about Felicia’s suicide. I wish things like this didn’t happen, and that bullying could be less of an issue in our society. It’s something we really don’t need and that could easily be avoided. Maybe then horrible things like this wouldn’t happen so often. My thoughts go out to Felicia’s friends and family.
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/10/26/nyregion/suicide-of-staten-island-girl-is-blamed-on-bullying.html?ref=bullies&_r=0

K.E.I.D.A.T. Blog Post 2

            Kim: Empty Inside: The Diary of an Anonymous Teenager Blog Post

            I am still reading K.E.I.D.A.T. by Beatrice Sparks. She’s just told Becca about what Mark did at the party. When she writes about it in her diary and includes her own inside thoughts, she says she can’t stop thinking about what had happened, but she also says she feels stupid for not listening to her friends when they told her to watch out at the party for people who might want to hurt her. I think that Kim, as well as her friends are to blame in this situation.

            I think Kim contributed to the problem in a big way. She’d been warned by her friends not to get too comfortable at the party and watch out for anyone trying to get close to her, and that’s exactly what she did. I hope that anyone in their right mind knows not to consume anything at a party with strangers that they haven’t prepared or opened (drinks, food, bottles, etc.) themselves. Kim’s a smart girl, and she should have known better, and listened. I think Kim is so wrapped up in her own world that she doesn’t really listen to people when they try to help her. This instance is a perfect example. If only Kim hadn’t been so concerned about herself and the way she looks, maybe this would have never happened to her. She was afraid about the party a few days before it, and then she got so self absorbed the day of that she let this happen to herself.

            I also think that Kim’s friends are to blame here. Kim wrote in her diary that they promised to stick with her at the party, which obviously didn’t happen. If they’d stuck to their promise, they would have taken Kim the second Mark introduced him self to her and stayed with her throughout the night, so that hopefully she wouldn’t go to the garden with Mark. They also knew that this was Kim’s first party, and they should have suspected she might not have heard or understood everything they’d warned her about. They should have looked out for her like they said they would have, or not brought her to the party at all.

            In conclusion, I think that Kim and her friends are both to blame at the same time. I hope that Kim’s learned her lesson, and that so have her friends. Maybe Kim will realize she’s not hanging out with the right group of people and leave them even if it upsets her family.