The Heartfelt End

          The ending of Lord of the Flies is a relief, and ultimately not expected from how much hell is raised until the last scene. It is a 'happy ending' to what the ending could have been if William Golding ended it as an abrupt ending for the reader to decide what happens , or if he made everyone die in the end. When the Navy comes to rescue the boys, not only is it a surprising change of events and happy one at that, but it is symbolic to what the story lacked the whole time. The ending scene with the Navy saving them is the only time in the story where there is the presence of "grown-ups". When the naval officer talks to Ralph, as a grown-up, he speaks to Ralph using child like references to show the boys' immaturity of it all. What happens to the boys from what they do is very real and truly disturbing, and what happens to them could easily happen with grown-ups, but because they're kids the naval officer sees it as crazy play, and not true insanity. "'Fun and games,' said the officer" (Golding 206). After the naval officer asks Ralph if there are any grown-ups around and finds out there are none, he jumps to the conclusion of the boys' actions as games, because they're kids, not thinking of how horrid everything was.

          A great moment in the ending scene was when the naval officer was going to take them home, but asked who was in charge, who was the "grown-up" of the group of boys. "'Who's boss here?' 'I am,' said Ralph loudly. A little boy, who wore the remains of an extraordinary black cap on his red hair and who carried the remains of a pair of spectacles at his waist, started forward, then changed his mind and stood still" (Golding 207). As Golding describes Jack coming forward to try and take Ralph's leadership and argue that he was the leader, he realizes Ralph's assertive "I am" and his presence, and so he stops himself, letting Ralph stand as the leader. This is a great way of showing how Ralph was the true leader all along, and Jack was only the violent up-riser. Another thing about how Golding describes Jack as "A little boy" is interesting, because they're kids, but they aren't littluns anymore and they've gone through a lot. But under Ralph's leading presence and the power of the naval grown-ups, Jack was now seen as a little boy. 

          In one of the last lines, Ralph shows his emotion for Piggy's death and shows what a loss it is. "Ralph wept for the end of innocence, the darkness of man's heart, and the fall through the air of the true, wise friend called Piggy" (Golding 207-208). Piggy represented many things, but most importantly he represented innocence and intelligence, and showed the darkness of man's heart in Jack and basically everyone else at times. Finally, after everything goes down, and being rescued, Ralph's emotion can't be controlled and is released, and he realizes that Piggy was a true friend, and Piggy was the reason for their survival in every way... the survival of Ralph's soul. The ending of Lord of the Flies is brilliant in many ways such as these, and no alternate ending could have been as effective as this one.  

The Island Being

          So far in Lord of the Flies, every chapter has symbols reoccurring or emerging that have much allegorical meaning to what's going on, the characters, and the story itself. A few examples of symbols are the island, night and day, the colors, the pig, every character and all their traits and actions, fire, and more. The basis symbol that is a part of the whole story is the island. The island can represent many things, and one big symbolic connection is that it represents everything about the society of boys and that it reacts to every action from them, as the boys react to everything the island has to offer and how it naturally effects them. The island can represent hope, as it has given the boys a place to call their own and survive on, but the island can also represent savagery and death, because the boys will only rip themselves apart trying to survive there. Every opinion and trait of the boys has relation to the island, whether it brings destruction and death, like Jack, or serenity and life, like Simon, to the island. Metaphorically speaking, the island is a mirror, reflecting every action of the boys back at them through a literal moment or situation; a reaction of the island itself. When the boys let the fire they create go out of control on the island, this shows how they can create a literal, living hell, and how they can easily make hell of their island society. But on the island's level, the fire on the island was its reaction, responding from their actions with death from fire, and the deaths it produced, from nature to the littlun, could possibly be showing that the boys will bring their death upon themselves. When one of them does something that hurts the island or something on it, the island 'reflects' the action with a natural attack, which hurts itself, the island, but also one of the boys, teaching the lesson. In this way, the island is a being, mythological like the idea of 'Mother Earth', or Earth as a being; that nature is part of Earth's body, not just living on it. The island has many more symbolic aspects to the story, just like the infinite amount of other symbols, and these are some of them. Every chapter has new emerging or reoccurring symbols and allegorical meanings; so many, with so much depth.

           

Naviance

          Yesterday during 7th period, the counselors came in to talk to our class about finding a career path and finding the right college for us and our futures. Every year they come in to talk to us about this, and we have to do this 180 problem test through Naviance to see what kind of careers would be right for us and our interests. It's an extensive test, and for every problem, you answer if you agree, are unsure, or disagree if the interest they give you pertains to your interests. From this, they formulate stats with the questions you agree and disagree with so they can see what kind of career choices would fit your interests the most. Overall, it's a good thing to do every year, and it is nice to find out statistics about you for your future. Not only did we do the test to find the career choices that suit you, but we found out what colleges suit us, from your choice of location/s, and what you are planning to major in. From this, they find the college that's best for your future career path to study at. Every year, my results are always according to what I want to be and where I want to go for college. A career choice I got was to be an environmental engineer, and to go to University of Colorado for college, which literally are my first choices for career and college. I learned a little on how my goals have changed somewhat, and how my stats for career type have changed some too. Otherwise, even though it's a good experience every year, it gets repetitive and is always similar for me. Naviance is a good website for planning your schooling and future, and it's great the counselors come every year to make you do the things Naviance has to offer.

Jack and his Devilishness

          Jack Merridew is one of the main characters of chapter one of Lord of the Flies, and is important to the action in the story as well as the symbolism. At the end of the chapter,  while Jack, Ralph, and Simon are done exploring the island, they're going back to the beach where all the other kids are when a pig appears from the brush. Jack by instinct tries to kill it with his knife, but it escapes in time. "They were left looking at each other and the place of terror. Jack's face was white under the freckles. He noticed that he still held the knife aloft and brought his arm down, replacing the blade in the sheath" (Golding 30). From this incident and the reaction he has from losing the pig, it shows how Jack has darkness somewhere in his nature, and evidently, that he can be malicious. In this case, since they're now in a mode of survival on the island, Jack symbolizes the 'animal' or natural instincts that people have inside of them, or the trait that in society is seen as insanity. Jack's actions also possibly show how he will become just as, or even more, ferocious later on in the story when trying to survive either by killing animals, or even going against people. "He snatched his knife out of the sheath and slammed it into a tree trunk. Next time there would be no mercy" (Golding 30). When Jack has such an instinct to kill the pig, it also might be foreshadowing the possibility that Jack will also try to kill the character, Piggy. The pig and Piggy are close in names, so that might be a play off his name and what appears in the jungle for the sake of trying to tell something to the reader in an easy way. Also on a deeper level, the pig and Piggy are similar because they are both scared of something, Piggy of being stranded , and the pig, of Jack. Since pig and Piggy are similar and the pig was the prey in the situation with Jack, maybe that means Piggy will be the prey in a future situation with Jack. Jack is important to this chapter with his devilish characteristics and how much symbolism he shows to the story.

The Effect on Societies

          Society is based off the people, but within a society are many disagreements, flaws, and varying views. Differences in political and ethical views lead to the big arguments in society, and the job of a satirist is to show or expose these flaws in society. Satire is a function of change, and all the satirist wants is to sway both sides of an argument in society to agree and meet in the middle. One of the first and greatest examples of satire is A Modest Proposal by Jonathan Swift. A Modest Proposal has many layers and uses of satire, and without this satirical writing, all contemporary satire, in all forms, would not be the same or even exist today. Satire is meant to alter apathetic or bias minds and make those people of society agree to 'the middle' of arguments, and that is what Swift's masterful satire attempted to do. Swift was a revelation to satire and the language, and his satirical words, ideas, and perspectives affected the societies of Ireland and England of his time, and the world today.

            Swift's A Modest Proposal didn't solve the societal problems of Ireland in 1729, but he sure made his point from his harsh satirical points and ideas, which made the society start to make a change and resolve problems faster than it would've without his writing. Swift used many forms of satire in which contemporary satire has built off of and used since in newer ways. Irony, scathing humor, insult, mockery, wit, and sarcasm are main uses of satire in which can either be humorous or disturbing in making the satirical point. In the end, every person who witnesses the satire is usually offended in some way, on who they are or their views. During 1729 in Ireland, where Swift was born and grew up, there were many societal problems that seemed to only get worse. Problems such as hundreds and thousands of beggars living on the streets, overpopulation leading to more children in the hands of beggar women, low employment and no jobs leading to a bad economy, and famine. All these problems are connected and feed off of each other, which led to one of the worst times in Ireland's history. Swift thought it was his duty as a satirist to write about these problems in society and how they can be fixed. Through satirical metaphor, he wrote about how the beggar mother's children should be given as food after turning 1 year old and all fattened up, to the barbaric British. "...the remaining hundred thousand may, at a year old, be offered in the sale to the persons of quality and fortune through the kingdom; always advising the mother to let them suck plentifully in the last month, so as to render them plump and fat for a good table" (Swift 3). The main target of A Modest Proposal is the British government and the rich Irish Protestant landlords. For all the profit that Ireland did make at this time, it was mostly given to the rich landlords of Ireland and all of England. The British government was unfairly setup with Ireland, in that basically, the rich would take the money and the poor would get nothing from deserved profit in return. Ironically, Swift was a wealthy Irishman, who would have been 'eating the babies' with the landlords and rich, but instead he is targeting them and his own socioeconomic status by trying to show, as a satirist, that the profit the rich get, and the hardships the poor go through, needs to change. It may seem like Swift is targeting the poor Catholics of Ireland by saying they have too many children when they can't even afford one baby, and that's why they should 'give them as food' to the rich. What he is actually saying is decreasing the population of Catholics will not solve the societal problems, because the Irish Protestants and English have already done too much to the society, that it won't matter. Again, Swift is ironically targeting the people of his socioeconomic status and trying to show how decreasing the population will interfere with Catholics way of life and that the British government and the rich need to change their ways. The rich need to give some of their profit to the poor community and the British government needs to help Ireland, and not take everything from themselves, leaving Ireland in ruins. "...having no other motive than the public good of my country, by advancing our trade, providing for infants, relieving the poor, and giving some pleasure to the rich" (Swift 9).

            A Modest Proposal was a big inspiration to all contemporary satire, whether it's written or verbally acted satire. A great example of contemporary, political satire is The Daily Show with Jon Stewart, a show about him and other satirists targeting political events, people, etc. One skit he does is "The Best F***ing News Team Ever", where Jon Stewart pretends to be talking with John Oliver and his 'news crew' on the scene. In character and the skit, the news crew is 'the best news team' out there. What they're really doing, is targeting CNN's news cast and impersonating them on how they report about irrelevant stuff instead of real news. The uses of satire Stewart uses are mockery, wit, and sarcasm. "The building is four stories high...!" (The Daily Show). Mocking on synonymous stuff to what CNN reports about, and being sarcastic on saying twice as ridiculous things than what CNN actually says, is how The Daily Show uses satire. The exposed ill in society is how CNN and every modern American news show reports about irrelevant things, especially in politics, and how the people believe and listen to every word of it. Jonathan Swift used satire to expose the British government and rich classes of England and Ireland from similar ways. Like Jon Stewart, in character as a politician, he states his argument and targets what he wants to change, but he won't act on his own proposition, instead he will let the people do it. From giving his satirical stand point, he thinks he will have changed enough people's minds for them to take his place and take action. "...I fortunately fell upon this proposal, which, as it is wholly new, so it hath something solid and real, of no expence and little trouble, full in our own power, and whereby we ca incur no danger in disobliging England" (Swift 8). This is when Swift is done stating his proposal and is saying to the readers that he hopes society will act on it and make a change, and England eventually will too. As the 'politician' he is in this satire, he will not revolt, but let people decide to or not.

            Jonathan Swift was one of the first important satirists with A Modest Proposal and has made satire a part of today's art and entertainment. People such as Jon Stewart of The Daily Show have given satire a contemporary feel to the world. Political and ethical problems in society are the most argued about with the most differentiated opinions, and that's why satire is so great when used to expose society on those problems. Without satire, societal views would be very 50-50 or lopsided, but instead, are not because many people's views on things are swayed from one side of an argument to meet the middle. All the uses of satire can be effective to society when used in a way to catch the audience's attention and get them to understand, and when they are tastefully used in the right context. When satire is successful or just brilliant like A Modest Proposal, it can really make a difference to the targeted problem in society, whether it completely resolves the problem for the better, or it just alters the views of the people to the point where society is mentally changed. Thanks to Swift, satire has become a great use of writing, speech, and humor, that has changed the views of societies everywhere.

            

Satire Is Everywhere

          All the satirical video examples shown in class last week had a variety of uses of satire and humor. Besides a couple of videos that didn't show satire, everyone's videos were good examples of satire, whether it was mainly using mockery, wit, sarcasm, irony, etc. A lot of the examples were political skits, especially from The Daily Show, with Jon Stewart. With John Oliver as the interviewer, he goes on an Australian Gun Control Investigation. The literal point was Australia has had 0 massacres since 1996 when they started gun control, while America doesn't have gun control and still has massacres. John Oliver tries to figure out why gun control works so well for Australia by interviewing John Howard, the prime minister of Australia, and other American politicians to get the perspectives of both sides. The target was on the American government and our society, and how we want and have no gun control. Verbal irony and mockery are two big uses of satire in this video. The exposed 'ill' of society is American society having rights to firearms and no gun control. Family Guy examples were shown in class, and one was Undecided Voters. Lois is running for an election in Quahog, and she figures out from Brian that answering citizens' questions with short and simple answers is what gets the people to vote for you, even if it's irrelevant. The literal point is that many people decide who to vote for on political answers that are easy to understand. The target is on American voters in today's society and how many voters do this. Mockery is the big use of satire in this video, and insulting is always there, in this video and any other good satires, because at the end of the day, someone who watches a satirical video is insulted and offended in some way, harshly or not. The exposed 'ill' of society is again, the stereotypical American society and American voters within it.These two satirical videos are a couple of my favorites, as were a couple others that stood out to me, such as the STDS Hit Music video. Overall, all the videos presented in class that were satirical, were good examples, and showed me more on what satire is and how it's used.

Swift The Great

          Jonathan Swift, the Irish author, was a clergyman and satirist. He was born in Dublin on November 30,1667, and he died October 19, 1745. Shortly before Swift was born, his father passed away, and  his mother tried to take care of him under her income but couldn't. She gave him to his uncle, and Swift grew up with his uncle who gave him the best care, education, and life possible. Swift went and received a Bachelor's degree from Trinity College and then worked as a statesman's assistant, soon to become dean of St. Patrick's Cathedral in Dublin. In his writing career, Swift has written many pieces, his most famous being his 1728 book, Gulliver's Travels. He's also written pieces such as A Tale of a Tub, The Battle of the Books, Drapier's Letters, and A Modest Proposal.

Jonathan Swift has written many great things, and has many great quotes to share as well.

"Satire is a sort of glass, wherein beholders do generally discover everybody's face but their own." (Jonathan Swift, The Battle of the Books, preface (1704)).

He has influenced many others with his brilliant writing and challenging styles, some enough to have quotes about him in their own pieces.

"As fierce a beak and talon as ever struck -- as strong a wing as ever beat, belong to Swift. [...] One can gaze, and not without awe and pity, at the lonely eagle chained behind the bars [...] An immense genius: an awful downfall and ruin. So great a man he seems to me, that thinking of him is like thinking of an empire falling." (William Makepeace Thackeray, The English Humourists of the Eighteenth Century, (1853)).

Works Cited

Biography.com. "Jonathan Swift. Biography." Bio.com. A&E Networks Television, 2013. Web. 07 Oct. 2013. <http://www.biography.com/people/jonathan-swift-9500342>.

BrainyQuote. "Jonathan Swift Quotes." BrainyQuote. Xplore, 2013. Web. 07 Oct. 2013. <http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/authors/j/jonathan_swift.html>.

Wikiquote. "Jonathan Swift." Wikiquote. Wikimedia, 07 Oct. 2013. Web. 07 Oct. 2013. <http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Jonathan_Swift>. 

The Satirical iPhone 5

          The satire I chose to do was an SNL skit on complaints about the iPhone 5, with Christina Applegate as "Tech Talk" host Caitlin Owens, Bill Hader as C-NET complainer Josh Savage, etc. This skit is set up as a talk show, where Caitlin Owens interviews three technology reporters that complain about the iPhone 5, and then she brings in three Chinese factory workers who make the iPhones in China, and talk about how their problems 'are similar' to those of the reporters' with the iPhone 5. In this satire, there are of course literal and metaphorical aspects to it. There are many literal aspects, such as the literal characteristics and bugs of the iPhone 5 that the tech reporters complain about. "...Apple Maps has been a total disaster."-Josh Savage. "Every time I point it straight at the sun, there's a very slight purplish hue in all my photos..." -Adrienne Terzoli. "...It's just too thin, and light!" -Dennis Metcalf. Another literal aspect is when the host, Caitlin Owens, has the 'Chinese peasant laborers' come in. This is literal because in reality, there are hundreds of thousands of  'Chinese peasant laborers' mass producing iPhones in factories to this day. One last literal aspect is when the Chinese workers are sarcastically saying that the reporters suffer with their "First world problems" as much as they suffer with their actual harsh struggles. In this, the struggles of the workers are the literal aspect, because they are all, whether exaggerated or not, struggles that 'Chinese peasant laborers' probably face in reality. With this said, this satire has some realistic literal aspects.

          Also with this satire, are the metaphorical aspects, or deeper meanings. The part of satire used the most in this skit is sarcasm. The characters that play the reporters are being truthful about their complaints on the iPhone 5, but the Chinese worker characters are being sarcastic when they talk about how the reporters' lives must be so hard. "You want Starbucks and it takes you to Dunkin Donuts? That must be so hard for you.", and, "You want Macy's and it take you to J.C. Penny, how you deal with that?", are sarcastic quotes in the beginning from the Chinese workers. In the midst of trying to get their point across, and that the iPhone 5 has some flaws, they're saying with sarcasm against the reporters, that it's nothing compared to their own lives! This kind of sarcasm is used throughout the whole video, showing how America complains about "First world problems", such as, our iPhone 5 has bugs and flaws. Meanwhile, China rightfully complains about things such as, 'sleeping at work with strangers', 'lice are the best bug you can get', and 'Americans wait in line for 6 hours for new iPhone 5, while Chinese peasant laborers wait in line for 21 days for baby formula'. These are possibly exaggerated examples from the Chinese workers in the skit, showing through satire what problems are for the average American, and what they would be for an average Chinese (laborer). Another usage of satire is scathing humor. The obvious scathing is put upon Apple for making the iPhone 5. Scathing is also directed towards the average American, and who we are as people for complaining about iPhones. The possible vice for this skit could be that the reporters make their complaints, and without thinking but also knowing, that they are bad for making the complaints and should be grateful to even have a new iPhone and a good life, compared to the workers especially. Lastly with deeper meaning, mockery and insult tie in together with this skit. "What does America make? Does diabetes count as a product? If not, we have to get back to you.", is the Chinese worker insulting the reporters, by also being sarcastic saying that diabetes is 'a product' of America. "Good idea, Einstein!", is mockery from the worker, mocking a reporter on how he thinks he's smart because he's a tech guy, but meanwhile he makes a complaint right in front of them! With sarcasm, scathing, insult, mockery, and more, all parts of this satire have a deeper meaning, as well as every other satire out there.

SNL Tech Talk iPhone 5 skit

http://vimeo.com/51392953

Jack Hall & The Heroes

          For my group's and my hero poster assignment, I think we put a lot of effort into it, and worked really hard to make it look good and have good information along with it. We did the movie, The Day After Tomorrow, and I am glad that we did for many reasons. First of all, I hadn't seen that movie since I was 10, and it is awesome, so I enjoyed watching it again. But I'm glad we chose it because it was a hard movie to put into the hero's journey cycle and make a good product out of it. The movie is mainly half about Sam Hall and the other half of Jack Hall, so it was harder than others to get the hero's journey filled out. If it was just about Jack Hall and he was the definite main character, than this movie would've been easier to do for this project, but also not as interesting to do. On note of the poster and writing, I think we did a good job. The poster was creative and artistic on our part, and was cool with the fake snow on the corners, the snowy statue of liberty in the center, and blue color of the poster for the theme of the movie. The writing was well done, and we explained everything about Jack Hall and what happened to him that made each step relevant to him as the hero. Lastly, I enjoyed being in my group. We all divided the work evenly as best as we could and worked hard together. Overall, it was fun! I liked our project for these reasons, and there's nothing I would've changed on our poster. 

          Not just our group, but I think every group did great on their posters for different reasons. My favorite ones artistically were the Life of Pi poster with the orange background and black stripes everywhere representing Richard Parker, and the Tangled poster with the actual recreated giant braid of Rapunzel's hair on it. Honestly I got a similar amount of information from each poster, and no poster had more writing to give than another one, so I liked them all for that reason. I basically learned the hero's journey of all the heroes in each of these movies in detail. Atlantis with Milo Thatch, The Nightmare Before Christmas with Jack, Tangled with Rapunzel, Life of Pi with Pi, Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl with Will Turner, The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey with Bilbo Baggins, and finally The Incredibles with Mr. Incredible. As I've said, all these projects were great, the heroes were picked accordingly, and the descriptions of the hero's journey for each and every poster were well done, as ours was too. They were all informative, and some more visually exciting than others, but I think as a whole, our class possibly did the best with our posters than any other class. This is what I think about our project on The Day After Tomorrow and what I think about the rest of the class's projects.

The Day After Tomorrow

Jack Hall

Biking Eldorado Mountain

           Eldorado mountain, one of the mountains of the Flatirons, is near southern Boulder and the northernmost part of Golden. Eldorado mountain is my favorite destination for mountain biking. I go mountain biking there from Louisville either with my friends or my dad. The trail is long, and challenging enough for a fun ride, but not all-downhill or anything too exhilarating. I love to mountain bike first of all, because I love biking and being in nature while doing so. This trip is my favorite because I can start right from my own house without driving first, and it's a good length. It's long enough for good exercise, and short enough where it doesn't take up your whole day. There are parts of the trail that are more rocky, more uphill, more tactical, or downhill, so it keeps it interesting. To me, I ride on this trail over and over for the exercise and to be outside. I'm not looking for a new experience every time I bike, I concentrate on getting better at the trail and biking, and being in nature.

           Unfortunately, the recent flood disaster happened in this area, and I wouldn't be surprised if run off from this mountain and the others around it destroyed the trails. I have yet to go there (if I can) and find out if it's either in ruins, or still intact but in poor/just okay condition. If there were lots of puddles and debris, that wouldn't bother me with biking, but if there are lots of thick mud spots and loose rocks, that would be pretty dangerous. Hopefully, it's not ruined and I can bike there again, but if it is not suitable for riding or it's closed, I might not bike again until late fall. Finding this out will be my adventure of the weekend, and I hope I'll be able to bike on the mountain again, now or soon enough.

In the forest of Eldorado Mountain (my pic)

On the trail to Eldorado Mountain (my pic)

            

The Dark Abysses

          An abyss is the lowest part of a hero's journey and is the place of darkness where he must 'slay the dragon' metaphorically to the situation, for the transformation to begin. The abyss in my life would be whenever a loved one of mine passed away. The biggest abysses in my life would be when my grandpa died or when my first dog died. For both of their deaths, I watched them literally take their last breathes and these were very memorable experiences to me. From each death came my sadness and period of having to get over them. Both of them were ready to die and had lived good lives, so to get me through my abysses, I had to think of how their deaths were giving them the peaceful way to no more suffering. Life is a gift, but when you know you have lived life the way you could with only suffering on the road ahead, you know it's time to go. I know this is how they felt, so to 'slay my dragon' was to realize that death was the better choice for them. The realization for both abysses made me feel better, and once it wasn't so saddening anymore, I was successfully out of each. Those abysses happened in 2005 and 2008, and I haven't been in any abysses as low as those since.

My first dog Cody

Passages of Myth

          The passage by Joseph Campbell in the first paragraph of Chapter V, The Hero's Adventure, talks about finding your inner world and the outer world finding you. Every line of this passage talks about how everything you think you'll find, instead is the shear opposite. All the lines are good examples of this, but the last two lines I think are the most important. "Where we had thought to travel outward, we will come to the center of our own existence. And where we had thought to be alone, we will be with all the world." (Campbell). This is saying that where ever you think you're going in life, it's really to find yourself. Whenever you think you're alone in the world, you are a part of the world because the world has you. His line, "The labyrinth is thoroughly known." (Campbell), is a self explanatory line of the two last lines. He's saying the most complicated thing to figure out is really already figured out from finding yourself  and discovering your inner world.

           Another passage from The Hero's Adventure I thought was interesting (as were many others) was this: "The rituals of primitive initiation ceremonies are all mythologically grounded and have to do with killing the infantile ego and bringing forth an adult, whether it's the girl or the boy.". This passage I think is important and very truthful to growing up into adolescence and in life, because it's something we all have, but must fight against. Whether you're an egotistical person or not, everyone has their ego, as Campbell talks about ego in Plato's soul circle, "the aspect of our consciousness that we identify as our center." (Campbell). Ego, in all its definitions, is a part of life and the thing we must fight to not let control our souls. Once you've found your true soul and its meaning without ego, you have matured into an adult. Not the physical maturation into adolescence, but the mental maturation into an adult. I think becoming an adult by 'killing the infantile ego' is the step in life that changes you, making you a whole new person, and not a child anymore. There are many passages in The Hero's Adventure that are truly meanings of life that you never think about as life goes on, but they're all important aspects that I believe everyone should know and understand.

A Best Experience

          I don't have a favorite best experience in my life, but one of mine would have to be when I went to Florida to perform with all the music classes from Monarch this past April. I was in the jazz band and was with them when we performed in Disney, but the rest of the trip you could hang out with your room mates for the trip or anyone you knew. One big reason this trip was one of the best experiences in my life was because it was such a blast! To be with all your friends and schoolmates without your family at Disney World was awesome, and I wish I could go on another massive school trip again. But the second reason I think the trip was one of the best experiences in my life was because of what I got from it. It was fun and all, but I had never left my family for more than two days in a row before, especially not across the country and on a trip! Being 'on your own' with only your schoolmates was a big change for me, and a once in a lifetime experience. Not only was it important to me, but it was something I will never forget. These are reasons why this was one of the best experiences in my life. Below is a video of an average day in the parks of Disney World and the picture is the logo for the program that we were a part of for going to Disney.

Favorite Hobbies In Life

          Music is one of my favorite things in my life, from playing to listening. I am very into rock music, and every kind of rock. I'm a drummer and love to play and make music. Throughout my life since I was four years old, music has been a big part of my life, and is the thing that brings happiness and interest to my life, either from listening or playing. I look to music when I want to relax or get pumped. I look to music when I want to challenge myself or feel awesome by playing it on an instrument. I also see music as an art, and as it is an obvious art, you don't usually think of it that way so I like to look at  music in a structured and creative way sometimes. Music is great, and I have a long list of my favorite bands (and favorite drummers). My favorite band is Jimmy Eat World. Here is the music video, "Pain", which is off of my favorite album by them called, Futures.

          Hockey is another one of my favorite things in life. I used to play roller hockey when I was younger for about 3 years, and then I switched to ice hockey when I was about 10 and have played the sport since. Hockey is a great sport, from building your stick or skating skills, to playing with a team, and to the excitement and aggression of the game. For these reasons and more, hockey is my favorite sport by far and the most exciting and interesting in my opinion. There's no other sport where you get the feeling that you do from skating fast! Once you're good at hockey, it's very enjoyable. Playing hockey is great no doubt, but watching hockey is fun too. There are lots of inspirational hockey players, and my favorite player is Joe Sakic. Here is a picture of the best offense man to ever play for the Colorado Avalanche!