A Key To Somewhere

“Are you sure you don’t know what this opens to?”

“Glenn, for the millionth time, I honestly don’t know. Why don’t you

I truly know that he doesn’t want me to figure out what this old, rusty key opens, but he also doesn’t know that I’m a smart, twelve year old boy who has already checked every door in our house and is still trying to look for the answer. Now, as I walk through the mud and wet bushes on a gloomy, rainy day, I begin to ask myself if this was even a good idea or not..

The sound of the raind calms me down. I trot through the forest in hope to find my answer. I am sure that I will, but the fear in my heart is making me want to turn around. Unfortunately, I am not sure where I am or even if I am alone anymore. It is getting cold, and my stomach is craving for some food. Perhaps today was not the best day to go exploring; it is too wet to build a fire. Thankfully I found a try with a good amount of its trunk missing. I sat inside and ate my kipper snacks with crackers, mustard and cheese. It was comforting after a while, but I could see something in the bushes. The rain began to pour, and I was umabe to clearly see what it was. Was it looking at me? My heart began to pound’ there was something about that../thing in the bush that was making me feel uneasy. I could not handle the anxiety, I needed to know what it was. Suddently, I found myself creeping to the bush, slowly, quietly, until I was there.

“Oh, it is a small hill.” I reassured myself, but afer I moved some leaves around, I saw a door. “What would a door be doing in the middle of nowhere?” I thought to myself. Maybe a gnome or a dwarf lives there, the hill was tall enough for someone that small to live there. Plus, I heard that there is a lot of dwarves and gnomes that wander around the forests of Boston, England. Click! The door made a sound. I turned the knob to open the door, but I realized that someone…or something, locked the door on me. It made me quite furious that the entire time I was thinking about dwarvees and gnomes I could have opened this mysterious door. The left pocket in my jacket felt heavier..and as I pulled out the key it immediately stopped raining. The key was an exact match to the keyhole! I was sweating like crazy. Did I find the answer? I found where this key goes to, but what is on the other side? The door opens, and a gush of old moss smell uneases me. As I looked inside, I saw nothing but darkness and a narrow staircase. The feeling of curiousity overwhelmed, as I slowly walked down the stairs, trying to make no sound at all.

“Either this will lead to nowhere, or it will lead to somewhere. Either I will find that I’m walking to my death, or I am walking to a new life. Will I ever see the light again?” I thought to myself. My mind dwas saying a million things at once; I was unable to controlthem. My heart was pounding faster than before, I am sweating like a pig, my eyes are moving rapidly as they are adjusting to the darkness, everything is spinning, I hear a voice yelling my name..Mum? Why do I hear her? All of a sudden, a white light approaches me from every side of the room, and immediately I am on the floor, unconcious.

“Glenn? Glenn! Bloody hell the boy sleeps too much.” Th esun was shining on my face, it felt so warm and relaxing…wait, what? I sat up up quickly from my bed, trying to consume all of what happened. earlier. It was so real. So intense. So daft! And I dreamt it all? I was so upset. But where was that smell coming from? It was so familiar. My clothes are covered with mud and dirt. I knew it! It was not a dream, it happened for real. I quickly ran upstairs to talk to dad a bout the key.

“You found what? A door? What key? I honestly do not know what you are talking about.”

“Dad, the old rusty key you gave me. You told me you found it.” But all I got from him was a blank stare;  I put my hand into my pocket to grab the key, and it was gone.

« Hello, reality.

Hello, reality.

Nothing is more exciting than knowing that in a few days high school will be over. It is time to start out fresh and new; everyone needs it. These past four years have had many ups and downs, such as good grades, bad grades, heartbreaks, new love, new friends, new experiences, new look, new feel, almost new everything! But now it is ready to experience even more of that, just in a different environment.

The class of 2010 is one of the most interesting and fun classes ever. I can truly say I am glad I have the friends I have and grew up with for the past four years. It  is a lame feeling to have knowing that some of them you might never see again. However Facebook still keeps everyone connected.

A Key To Somewhere »« What is Normal?

What is Normal?

This may not be my best writing, but the topic was interesting.

Normality (adj): Approximately average in any psychological trait, as intelligence, personality, or emotional adjustment.

You and I are normal. We do normal things, we eat normal things, and we have normal friends. However are we normal in another persons’ point of view? No. In his or her point of view, I am abnormal because of the people I hang out with, the things I eat, and the things I do. But does that make this person normal, because I am abnormal? Those are the true questions that all people ask themselves.

Throughout the years, new clicks and new styles are created. New music, new clothing, almost everything changes at some point in time. It is what makes our world creative. There are many kinds of teenagers: Jocks, Scene, Nerds, Preps, Druggies, the list goes on and on. But no matter what each person is labeled under, they are all unique and people in the same group accept others that are only like them, and that is how you get, “We are normal, but the group over there are different and not like us, therefore they are not normal.”

Jocks are male athletes. They have toned and muscular bodies, are on some kind of athletic team, and can sometimes be known as players. Players are men who jump from one woman to the other, getting laid as if it were no big deal. Another group that is part of the Jocks, but still a separate group, are the Preps. Preps are usually women with a “hot body,” the center of attention, stylish, very girlish, and selfish. It is short for preparatory. In movies and some high schools, these two groups are at the top of the pyramid. Most jocks and preps have a good amount of money, therefore they control how others feel, what others do, and what others speak. They show an egotistical side that peers their age, such as nerds, do not care for

Nerds are the quiet, intelligent students that cannot seem to socialize with others as well other groups can. You can say they are socially and physically awkward. Their style is not what you find in the mall, and are usually very thin. Their appearance shows a lack of confidence and self esteem, while other kinds of teenagers show too much self esteem. Nerds are also made fun of by mostly the Jocks and Preps.

Scene kids are the most unique and also the most recent trend that has been created. They show confidence, wear stylish clothing, are very popular on social networking sites, are a big fan of music and attitude, and also love starting new trends. They are similar when it comes to preps and jocks, however at the same time their similarities have differences. For example, both have unique fashion styles and could careless about what others think about it. Abercrombie and American Eagle are some of the stores Preps shop at, while Scene kids go for band shirts and converse and then add a little bit of their own style to it. Also, both groups are very popular, but Preps are popular socially and Scene Kids prefer to be popular over the internet.

Last but not least are the druggies. There is no school out there that does not have a few teenagers that like to party. The best way to describe this is by the book, “Go Ask Alice.” Alice describes the good trips and the bad trips on the many kinds of drugs she has taken. People, especially teenagers, take drugs in order to make their life more exciting. Reality is never enough for a teenager, therefore sitting with a few friends smoking a bowl is what keeps them entertained.

But what do all of these different type of teenagers mean? Who is normal, and who is abnormal? By looking at a Jock and Prep’s point of view, scene kids are “too dark and too weird,” and nerds are teachers’ pets. Scene kids loathe preps, because they feel that preps are so egotistical and selfish that they do not deserve to be popular. Druggies can either be “cool” to a few groups or the complete opposite, due to what they are doing is most likely illegal. However that does not stop them from doing the things they choose to do. The fact that no teenager is the same makes everything different, and also shows that there is no such thing as normal. Groups do not stop there though, adults and important things such as politics and religion come into play with normality.

The two main parties in politics are the Democrats and the Republicans, or the liberals and conservatives. Both parties have very different opinions on how things should be ran in America, and are always quarreling. Democrats support many ideas that perhaps Republicans believe will completely ruin what they want to happen. You could say that they feel that Democrats are abnormal, and Democrats feeling that Republicans are abnormal as well.

A good conversation to talk about would be about religion. It is a tough and sometimes brutal conversation, but it makes people think about how things are in different countries and places in the world. People who are very religious and do not care to show it off might seem that it is okay to do that, but in other places if you walk around showing that you are a different religion than them, they will look at you in another way. Since you believe in a different creator than them, then it makes you left out of their society.

Another thing about religion is homosexuality. Christians feel that man and woman should be together, not man and man or woman and woman. It is written in the bible, therefore it should stay that way. Gays and lesbians are still frowned upon in most societies, just because they are different and like different things. Some people feel that they were born with a disorder, and that is why they are homosexual. Others believe that it is a disease too.

During the past, skin color was also intense and sometimes cruel. If you were an African American, then you were considered dirty. African Americans did not have the same rights as Caucasians merely because they were not the same as everyone else. However that issue has been solved, but in some states and towns people still believe that dark colored people are different and abnormal.

The answer to the mysterious question, “What is Normal?” is that absolutely nothing in this world is normal, because each and every single person is different. There may be groups and people who feel that they are similar with others, but that does not mean that only their group is the “normal group.” It all depends on where you live, what you do, what you eat, the people you hang out with, the music you listen to, etc. It all helps try and show that perhaps you are normal, but if you truly think about it there is no exact explanation for a “normal” person or a “normal” group.

Hello, reality. »« Speech.

Speech.

I am pretty excited about this. I was chosen to be the Honorary Mayor of Cotati! Usually I never get something special like this because I’m not one of the top students in the class. But finally I get recongized. How did I? Well, because I live in Cotati. Anyways, the meeting is on December 9th at 7:00 PM and I need a speech, for I am talking in front of the City Council..Kind of cool, in my opinion. Here is my speech.

First off, I’d like to say thank you for having me here tonight. I find it an honor to speak in front of the City Council, since this is a rare occassion. Kind of. My name is Lindsey Coats, and I am seventeen years old.  I’ve lived in Cotati since I was two and I think this is the coolest town around. Anyway I’ll keep this speech somewhat short since I’m not sure how much time I have to speak. This is my fourth and last year at Technology High school, and in June I’ll be graduating. Half of me is excited to graduate high school but the other half is not excited, for I know everyone I grew up with within the last four years are going to be attending other colleges, some pretty far away. Having such a small school makes it harder to let go, because I’ve seen these faces almost every single day and now I think to myself if I will ever see some of these faces again.  *pause* My goals for after high school are to become a nurse. I plan on going to the JC for two years and taking the nursing program there, and then after that I will figure out which state college I would like to go to. All I know right now is that I’m dead set on being a nurse, and I hope I can actually achieve that goal. Hopefully soon I can volunteer at Kaiser for a few months to get my foot into the door and see how it is like working at a hospital.

A current event going on at Tech High is CAPA Night. CAPA stands for Corrective and Proventative Action. Do I know what it’s going to be about? Nope. It’s a surprise. It is  next Thursday night,  and all seniors are required to go to school from 6:00 PM to 10:00 PM. Parents too if they want to check it out. I heard that it is fun but stressful at the same time. And after all of this is done, we have to write a two page paper that is due the very next day at 1 PM. It puts us on the spot.  And that is pretty much what is going on right now at Tech.

Lets seeeee…Alright so we all know that Cotati is a small but nice looking town, right? Cotati Creek Critters is doing an amazing job at keeping the creek clean and planting trees, etc., but why do we need to stop there? I know this town is kind of hurting with money, but the least we can do is keep it neat and pretty. Why don’t we re-pave some of the streets again? There are a lot of streets that need some touching up, whether it be the main roads or neighborhood ones.  We shouldn’t let our town deteriorate because of money issues. If we just take it step by step, keep the parks clean, houses-which means don’t park your dead cars in the middle of your front yard to rust- plant more trees, clean up your trash, we can slowly turn our town into an amazing town.

What is Normal? »« Give thanks for once, and quit whining about what you don’t have.

Give thanks for once, and quit whining about what you don’t have.

Thanksgiving. One of my favorite holidays. I feel the need to blog about this holiday because of how special it was to me this year.

As a senior, I view the world and the people around me differently. This year, thanksgiving was the same it has always been. The same people are always at my house, which are my grandparents, and my uncle. My dad cooks the turkey, my mom sets the table, my uncle and I make the stuffing and mashed potatoes, and my sister makes the vegetable tray. My grandparents come at around 11:00 AM and they sit around while we talk. After a while we sit down to our early dinner. It has absolutely every dish you can think of. The hot turkey, mashed potatoes, stuffing, peas, cranberry sauce, yams, everything. But before I began to eat I kind of looked around and checked everyone out. First was my dad. He was stressed out; he usually is on thanksgiving since he does most of the work on holidays. He kept a smile though. My uncle, which is my dad’s brother, seemed fairly happy with his humongous plate of food in front of him. I know secretly he isn’t as happy as he wants to be. He is lonely, for he hasn’t found a woman to spend the rest of his life with. But during the holidays when he is at our house with our family I think he forgets about it for a while and just has a good time. My mom sat next to my dad, not really saying much except telling my sister and I to stop “bitching.” And my sister just eats and gives me weird looks, so I get upset and make a big deal out of nothing.

My nanna is really old. Not extremely old, but in her 80′s. She always has a smile on her face, no matter who she is with or where she is. She seemed very content. Her plate is always smaller than the rest of us, and her wine always has more water than the drink itself. She sits at the end of the table, usually talking to my sister or me, or just eating. My grandpa is always happier during the holidays, which makes me feel happy. He always has something bugging him when he usually comes over. He’s a pessimistic guy and worries too much. But looking at him while eating our late dinner made me smile because, well, he was smiling.

Which is what really this blog is suppose to be about. While sitting at the table I thought to myself, “It’s my last year in high school. My grandparents are so old they might not even be here next year. If so, what will we be doing for Thanksgiving, or any other holidays?” It’s a deep thought. You should always spend time with your family, whether it is boring or not, because one day they won’t be here.  What almost hurts me the most is to think that in a few years you might not be able to celebrate it with your own family. Either you will be celebrating it with your husband/wife’s family, or perhaps your parents won’t be alive anymore. I don’t want to get too depressing with this blog, but for once teenagers should just aknowledge how good their life is.

Us teenagers always complain about how how our lives suck, or how protecive our parents are over us, and we really just do not give them enough credit than they should be getting. So by sitting at the table on Thanksgiving, I thought to myself that we should, well, be thankful for everything we have in life instead of whining about what we do not have. I’m sure there was other things running through peoples’ heads when their eyes boggled over the food, but hopefully at least a few of the youth smiled and said to their parents or other family members, “Thank you for everything” because it truly makes a difference in how you look at everything.

Speech. »« Poem.

Poem.

Humans may be ordinary

But what we dream is extraordinary.

Our imagination is going fast and running wild

But once we wake up, our rememberance is mild.

When we dream, life is simple

But as we wake up, reality comes to shrivel.

One dream can be optimistic and great

But a nightmare comes along to settle your fate.

Give thanks for once, and quit whining about what you don’t have. »« WalMart.

WalMart.

For the past couple of years, (five to be exact) Walmart has been trying to open up a store in Santa Rosa. They’ve spent hundreds of thousands of dollars on building it, etc. But after a while, people have decided to not actually open up Walmart there anymore.

If we were to build that Walmart in Santa Rosa, there would have been many positive and negative sides to it. Everyone needs jobs, especially in this economy. So having another store open up, it would bring out more job opportunities, and help everyone who needs those jobs! The increase in property tax values, lower consumer prices, and annual sales tax revenues are all positive things.

As for your negative side, it doesn’t sound so good. Apparently they lost the environmental debate, which isn’t a good thing in our economy right now. It will also lead to more congestion on the streets. We would have to put up more stop signs, stop lights, more traffic signals and probably widen the roads. That will cost a bunch of more money.

Poem. »« An intense conversation.

An intense conversation.

A couple of days ago, my boyfriend and I had a very intense conversation about the randomest things. We talked for a full school period of either nonsense or intelligence, of how we feel about things, what we think, what we’ve learned, etc.

We first talked about the speed of light. The speed of light is 299 792 458 m / s. That is extremely quick for light to travel. Us humans have tried going as fast as the speed of light, but have never successfully done it. We have gotten close, but no cigar. My boyfriend brought up that maybe if we ever found a way to travel as fast, we might find ourselves in a different place, or while travelling as fast all we could see is darkness. However, people belive you need to be massless in order to travel the speed of light. We agreed on that.

We also talked about if there was even a speed of darkness. On the internet though, it said that everything is covered with darkness, and the light is like a blanket covering it. It’s a legit answer, I believe it. Anyway, what amazed me the most is that if we look through a telescope at a star, we wouldn’t be seeing what is happening at the exact moment, we would be seeing what was going on three hundred years ago.  Same with if there were aliens out there pointing a telescope at Earth, they would be seeing George Washington and all of those famous people.

Here’s the big question: “How big is the universe?” That question had probably the most intense answers. Some of them do not make sense, but bear with me, they make sense after a while. Anyway, the universe is huge. It goes on and on for lightyears and lightyears. But what if there is an end to it? Lets say we magically travelled to the end, what happens? Do we start at the beginning? Where does the beginning start anyway? We came up with more theories that perhaps there is more than one universe, and once you get to the end of one universe, another one appears, but they overlap each other. We could not figure out what happens in the part where both universes overlap, but it was still a cool idea. So if we have a cluster of humongous universes together, what keeps them together? If all of our planets are in a galaxy, does that mean we have a humongous galaxy keeping the cluster of universes together? How many of these kind of galaxies are there? There must be some other kind of life out there; why would we be the only planet throughout the entire universes, galaxies, that have life? We never got to finish this conversation, but it made me think a lot. It’s those kinds of conversations where you’ll lay in bed for an hour and think up of many ideas and theories about what you believe in or what you think about the topic. It’s amazing what people come up with.

At least I think it’s amazing that the smallness of our brains can create something gigantic. Don’t you think so?

WalMart. »« 10 things I do whenever I procrastinate.

10 things I do whenever I procrastinate.

Oh yes. Another random blog because I cannot think of what to write. I was told to write about “10 things I do whenever I procrastinate.” So here’s the list”

1. Go on Myspace/Facebook

2: Go on Twitter

3. Talk to people on AIM

4. Play Beweled Blitz

5. Play WoW

6. Go to my neighbor’s house

7. Sleep

8. Eat

9. Stumbleupon

10. Shower

I usually don’t do all of those at the same time, of course. I’m really not addicted to social networks either, even though I put myspace and facebook as the top 2. While I’m on my social networks, I’ll talk to my friends and come up with stories that make no sense at all. For example, a senior friend of mine and I came up witih a plan on what to do if zombies attack. While I’m on facebook, I go straight to the game called Bejewled Blitz and play it until I beat my high score or it gets boring. Now if all else fails, I go play WoW. Yes, geeky, I know, but it makes the time pass away. I’ll go sign up for a battleground and play for about 15 minutes to 30 minutes.

Sometimes when I know my neighbor is home, I go over to her house. We will make junk food, take walks, eat ice cream, watch tv, go on the laptop, make cakes, brownies, cookies, all of that fun stuff. Finally I’ll go back to my house and repeat numbers one through five.

On rare occasions, I fall asleep. I fall asleep when I’m watching tv, though. The reason why I don’t fall asleep that much is because I’ll fall asleep for about three hours.  After I wake up, I’ll go to my computer and click the stumble button and stumble for a while. If I honestly get bored of doing all of that stuff, or I just don’t want to, then I take a shower (or bath). I take my time, let the warm water fall on me, then take my time getting dressed. Finally I’ll go back to doing what I need to do.

An intense conversation. »« Rainy days

Rainy days

I’m really not going to waste my time on trying to remember what blogs I’ve already written. But since I cannot think of any other good blog topics, I went on to the internet and searched for “writing prompts.” The first thing I saw was “What do you do on rainy days?” It seemed pretty legit.

I personally love rainy days. I love being inside and cozy, and watching the rain fall down from the window. When I was younger I would usually curl up next to my awesome fireplace. My fireplace is your real fireplace too. YOU make the fire, not turn on a switch and have it light up for you. Anyway, I’d curl up by the fire with an intense book, and read. The sound of rain relaxes me; it’s the only kind of noise I can handle while reading. It’s soothing, and tranquil. I would also make hot chocolate while I’m by the fire. The whole “cozy” feeling warms me up, and of course the hot chocolate does too. My dad would read a book with me too in the living room, so I knew I wasn’t lonely.

Also, when I would hang out with my neighbors, we would make an “umbrella house.” My neighbor had about ten huge umbrellas, and I had about three small umbrellas and two big ones. We would also bring blankets outside and put them in the back of my dad’s longbed from his truck. (Which happens to be my truck, now!) After, we’d open up all of the umbrellas and put them on top of each other, as a shelter from the rain. Finally, we would bring food and gameboys and for about 2 hours my sister, my neighbor Allison, her older brother Andrew, and I, would eat junk food and rot our brains out with videogames. The rain would sometimes pour, but since our shelter was so awesome, no raindrops came through.

Unfortuantely, that was when we actually got rain like that, and we don’t have those umbrellas anymore. It was still fun, though. It was a good way of passing the time away and having fun without really being stuck inside all day.  Now as I’m older, we don’t really do those kinds of things anymore. Now I’m just stuck inside on my computer or watching tv. I don’t feel trapped inside or anything, since I still have that cozy fire roaring in the living room and the rain coming down, but sometimes I feel like running around in the rain. Hopefully we can still get rain, we do need the rain, but we also need it so that every day isn’t the same old boring weather. Anyway, that is what I do while it’s raining, and it is a bunch of fun.

10 things I do whenever I procrastinate. »« First blog of 2009.