Mutli- Genre Blog Project

 Before I Die - By Jenny Downham

Dear reader,

                The book “Before I Die” written by Jenny Downham is one of the most alive books that you will ever read. Throughout the book you will notice that one of the many themes is to live your life and just go for it. I have chosen this theme because of how Tessa lives her life, since she has cancer. The main character Tessa who is diagnosed with leukemia caner has to face platelet transfusions and taking antibiotics and painkillers. This process day after day can become one of the biggest hardships a person could ever face. Tessa’s life is slowly dwindling on these things. Her friend Zoey on the other hand had been there for her most of the time when Tessa needs her. Tessa also creates a list of things to do before she dies, and with her friend Zoey they are going to do them together. Even though Tessa knows that she has only a couple of months to live, she is willing to complete the list of things that she has written down. This is where the theme of live your life and just go for it, comes into play. Tessa would rather continue her short period of life doing the things she wants to do rather than being in a hospital bed. Things like falling in love, taking drugs and having sex were one of the many things she would like to experience before her time was up. As the story follows through, each chapter gets closer and closer to her death. Also her family plays a big part in helping her get through her tough situations. Being the reader of this book, you will notice that living your life and going for it is all you need if you knew that you were going to die of cancer, while being a teenager. Doing all the things you can before you die is a task that everyone is going to want to do, it’s just a matter of going for it no matter what your circumstances are.

“Life is not a problem to be solved, but a reality to be experienced”.

 -Soren Kierkegaard

Poem

The days of life

They come and go

So much to learn

So much to know

Days are filled

With both good and bad

Most are happy

And some sad

We learn to laugh

Learn to love

And to chare

From god above

From the colors

And 1, 2, 3’s

Playing with friends

And swinging in trees

But as we grow

To an adult

We look back on life

To see the result

If we worked hard

And did our best

Then I guess you could say

We passed the test

But remember tell all

Before you go

Pass on what you learned

And what you know

For if we help another

To lessen their strife

We’ve then made a difference

In his or her life

"For it was not into my ear you whispered, but into my heart. It was not my lips you kissed but my soul"

-Judy Garland

Life Lessons List

1. Life is too short to waste time hating anyone.
2. Don’t compare your life to others. You have no idea what their journey is all about.
3. Make new friends in all possible ways
4. Dare Life moves on so don’t dwindle of the past
5. to try but never hold back
6. Be there for others even though they aren’t for you
7. When it comes to going after what you love in life, don’t take no for an answer.
8. The most important part of your life is now!
9. Sometimes the bad things in life aren’t always bad.
10. Live, laugh and love are all you need in life.

"Anybody can sympathise with the sufferings of a friend, but it requires a very fine nature to sympathise with a friend's success."
- Oscar Wilde

Pictures with captions

        A dandelion helps represents the hardships Tessa had to face during cancer.  When the wind blew or the ground shakes the small white seeds are released from the center of the ball and the dandelion would become bare. Like Tessa, when she had to get a plate transfusion or have to swallow drugs, she would become bare inside. It is for these simple things why a dandelion can portray the life of Tessa.

                                                                                                                

                                                                                                        

 Without Tessa’s friend Zoey, probably more than half of the things that Tessa did, would not have happened. Zoey was her own character; she treated Tessa like a normal person and was willing to spend all the time she could with Tessa to make her feel better. The list that Tessa had created for the both of them to do was a task and itself. They both managed to do illegal things which meant being there for one another. Zoey was Tessa’s best friend.

  

For Tessa, life was much more than what it was supposed to be. She tried to spend every minute she could for the best. This picture helps illustrate all the things that Tessa wanted to experience or do before her time was up.

                                                                      

Love is something that Tessa always dreamed of. She wanted to feel the warmth of a man who would lie down on her and always be cared for. Tessa found such love through her neighbor Adam. At first she didn’t notice that she had the simplest feelings for him, but towards the end they both came close in friendship and they eventually fell in love. 

"Life is life a coin. You can spend it any way you wish, but you only spend it once."
-Lillian Dickson

Letter 

Dear Zoey,

I know we have become close over these four years since I have been diagnosed with this cancer. Everything we have done together has really helped me get through this, even though we both know that’s it’s not going to get any better. Through thick and thin times I just want to thank you for everything. The bucket list that I created when sitting in my room during that really crappie day, really brought me alive. I’m so glad that we promised to do the things on the list together, because I know that I wouldn’t be able to do them without you. I was really nervous to do the first couple of thing, but we both managed.  Taking my dad’s car out without my permits, and taking drugs were probably the most entertaining things to do. I will always treasure those moments. Thanks!                            

Your friend,

Tessa

“And in the end, it's not the years in your life that count. It's the life in your years”.

   -Abraham Lincoln

Reflection

Each genre in my multi- genre blog represents my main, protagonist character in many ways. I tried to use a variety of poems, pictures, letters and lists to help get a better understanding of the main character in the book who is Tessa. One of the genre groups that I chose was to write a poem. The poem describes life within rhyming versus. Since Tessa has cancer, its best to talk about life and how your able to overcome it and facing death. The second genre I chose was to write a letter as being one of the characters in the book. This helps get a better understanding of how the people around Tessa helped her through her life while she had cancer. It also lets the reader know how Tessa communicates with her best friend and what they do together. The third genre that I chose was to find pictures. Each picture I tried to find represented all the things that Tessa treasured in her life before her life came to an end; one being love, and another friends and so on. Pictures also always help the reader understand visually what is going on in the book. The last genre that I chose, which was a choice of my own was to make a life lessons list. This list incorporated the things that people everyday should consider before things go “down hill” in their lives, whether its cancer, love or a death.

Some difficulties that I experienced were finding pictures. It wasn’t where I found the pictures but more of which picture best represented the group that I wanted them to be in. Like for searching love, I didn’t want words or a picture of a heart, but rather between two people. Another difficulty I had was being able to finish my book before this project. I didn’t take me long but I had to space out the amount of chapters that I was going to read and to manage my time.

Some things that I have learned from this project are to really dig deep about the theme of my book. Even though the girl Tessa gets cancer, the theme isn’t about getting cancer but how to overcome it and to spend the last months you have with the people you love.

Works Cited

"The F"The Friendship Page: Friendship Quotes: Famous." The Friendship Page ..for Every Friendship! Web. 22 Mar. 2011. <http://www.friendship.com.au/quotes/quohis.html>.

"Friendship…or..friendship? « Lolita Cossette." Lolita Cossette. Web. 22 Mar. 2011. <http://lydiarayyan.wordpress.com/2008/06/11/friendshiporfriendship/>.

"Google Image Result for Http://loyalkng.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/11/Dandelion-Flower-to-Seed-Head-Time-Lapse-Filmed-by-Neil-Bromhall-@-Complete-Gardens.jpg." Google. Pervy, 10 Nov. 2010. Web. 25 Mar. 2011. <http://www.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://loyalkng.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/11/Dandelion-Flower>.

"Google Image Result for Http://www.livelifewell.nsw.gov.au/images/layoutimage.jpg." Google. Health.nsw. Web. 25 Mar. 2011. <http://www.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://www.livelifewell.nsw.gov.au/images/>.

"Life Quotes, Life Quotations, Famous Life Quotes, Sayings." Famous Quotes at AllGreatQuotes. Web. 22 Mar. 2011. <http://www.allgreatquotes.com/life_quotes.shtml>.

"Love Quotes." Find the Famous Quotes You Need, ThinkExist.com Quotations. Web. 25 Mar. 2011. <http://thinkexist.com/quotations/love/>.

"OG Love." Keturah Weathers. Web. 22 Mar. 2011. <http://keturahweathers.theworldrace.org/?filename=og-love>.

"Short Famous Quotes. Short Famous Quotes about Love, Life and Friendship for Your Messenger Nick." Famous Quotes, Quotations and Proverbs in Proverbia.net. Web. 22 Mar. 2011. <http://en.proverbia.net/shortfamousquotes.asp>.

http://mrpottersclassroomblog.blogspot.com/2011/03/mister-master-potter.html?showComment=1299108794268#c1215494768478479074

My Greatest Achievement

As far as i remember, im not too sure if i have achieved something that great to be able to put it on my wall of achievements. I guess you could say that there are other little things like getting my first A++ on a test, in the fourth grade, or you could say if i score in lacrosse that would tie up the game. These little things are really much of a great achievement. I still have much more time in my life, hopefully, that will be out there for my greatest achievement. Maybe it will be in college or maybe it will be out there with my first job. Hopefully one of these things will be out there for me to succeed in.
     hmmm... since  i dont have much to say about that topic, im going to talk about lax.

okay, so this week we have been having practices after school from 3:30 to 5:30. Let me tell you in was kinda tiring and cold the first day cause the sun wasent out. But now since its like 40 degrees outside, with the sun, its not to bad. Infact i enjoy it. Also we have new players more freshman than anyone else, so the learning process has been renewed once again. I like being able to teach others about lacrosse since i have some experience from last year and sharing what i know with others. Its been great:)