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Congratulations on making it to Provincials. I like how you have brought in a personal examples to help demonstrate your understanding of the quote. YOu have a deep understanding of the quotes and can see the big pciture. I like how you hve connected the quotes to identity. Excellent writing! Well done.

Identity- Song

I think that this song "I Don't Want To Be" by Gavin DeGraw relates to identity because the meaning of this song it that one doesn't have to be anything except what they want to be! Your identity is yours and no body has the right to tell you to be someone else! I dentity is about how you are unique from others, and I think that being what you personally want to be is a perfect example of that!

Blog Response: 5 pieces of Poetry

Questions to answer:

1. What ideas or feelings seem most significant to you? Why?
2. How can reflecting on the differences and similarities in the poems/pieces help you clarify your own identity as distinct/or similar from/to the character in the text?

   I believe that there are various ways to determine what your individual personality is. You can express this through literature, art, music, verbal, style, and how you choose to live your life. Identity is a broad spectrum that ranges from infinity to negative infinity. Everyone has their own unique method of acting, speaking, reading, thinking, and connecting. All these attributes produce something that defines who you are, and who you will become. For instance, the five poems that I read and analyzed gave me a better picture of who I am.

   Some of the ideas/feelings that were most significant to me included:

• dreams vs. reality (As I Grew Older)-Langston Hughes
• relationships with others (Alone)- Maya Angelou
• inside/outside appearances (Richard Cory)- E.A. Robinson
• personal experiences (I Am From Swingsets and Jungle Gyms)- Debby Gordon & (Where I'm From)- George Ella Lyon

   "Dreams vs. Reality" was significant to me because I personally understand why this phrase is so important. Sometimes in life, one must be able to separate their dreams with what is real. From past experiences I can say that I once hoped for this not to be true but in fact, it is. I once believed that one day I would become the King of the World. This was my dream as a young boy, and as I grew up I began to learn about the truth, and how things worked in our society today. The reality was I don't belong the the royal family bloodline, hence, I will never become King.  I am not ashamed to say that I once had this dream, because like all children we wish to provide our families with the best possible resources and have all the toys in the world. However, I am proud to say that I came to realize that I do not necessarily have to be King for me to be happy, and provide for my family! Time was a very important aspect that helped me to come to this conclusion!

    "Relationships with others" was significant to me because I live to build relationships with others. Like Maya Angelou said, "Nobody, but nobody, can make it out here alone". I believe that this author was trying to say that in order for one to truly live and die a successful life, one must have relationships with others. It is clear to me that in order for one to achieve happiness, all they would have to do is spend time with family or friends. Money is not the answer to everything, and the sooner people realize that, the sooner their life will turn around. For example, "There are some millionaires with money they can't use".

   "Inside/Outside appearances" was another part that struck my feelings when analyzing the poems. I think that sometimes how we choose to dress or act on the outside, defines how we are on the inside. In the poem "Richard Cory" by E.A. Robinson, a young man is described as rich, happy, polite, and sensitive.However, when we read further on, we see that Richard Cory commits suicide. After realizing this, one must be thinking, why would he do such a thing? This man looked so happy and successful, yet he was so unhappy that he decided to kill himself. Well the moral of the poem is that sometimes, appearances can be deceiving. Someone that looks successful and happy may not be happy at all. In this particular case, Richard Cory was definitely not happy even though to others, he looked like the happiest man on the planet!
   "Personal Experiences" was the last quote that really made an impact on how I felt towards the poems. "I am from Swingsets and Jungle Gyms" by Debby Gordon and "Where I'm From" by George Ella Lyon both focused on personal experiences. Both authors in the story wrote about their individual experiences that helped shape who they are today. I believe that personal experiences are crucial to people because they help us see many unique things other people may never get to see! Every action that one does has a cause and effect. Personal experiences not only help us see the differences in ourselves, but they help us see the differences in others as well. Our friends may never seem to be the friends they were, from what they said, or what you remember them doing. I personally believe this is relevant to identity, because personal experiences define who you are.




  In conclusion, as you can see, I am a like many of the characters in the poems yet I am also different from them in many ways. This shows that everyone is distinct from each other, and we all have different morals in life!