Tomorrow Thanksgiving break is over. I'm not exactly happy about going back to school, but I know that it's necessary. I'm happy that I had this past week to spend with my family and enjoy the time off. I like Thanksgiving because it gives everyone a break from whatever is going on in their life and gives them time to catch up with their family, eat a huge meal, and take a nap on the couch.

   Last Friday Ochayna gave her country presentation just like Vuk had done previously. I think it's cool how the foreign exchange program they went through requires the kids to present how they live in their countries. This way we as Americans can be exposed to a different culture just as they are exposed to ours. Everyone lives in different ways but it's clear that a lot of aspects of peoples' lives are the same no matter where they live.

Vuk's presentation

     The other day in class Vuk presented a powerpoint about his country of Montenegro. I thought it was cool how much he seemed to be really proud of his country and he was really excited about sharing it with all of us. I think it shows leadership in the fact that he signed up to do the exchange student program and left the country he obviously cares a lot about to come and learn about our culture and study in our school. I'm not sure if I would be willing to do the same.

   I've been thinking a lot about what Aaron Thomas said about being a consistent person. What he meant was that to be a good person you should have a consistent personality between all the people you associate with and shouldn't change depending on who you're around. I've been working on this for a while and it's pretty hard actually. I want to be able to be a person that is likeable to all different kinds of people and not just change how I act when I'm around them.

         Last week Aaron Thomas, the son of Ed Thomas, came to give a motivational speech to our school. I thought it was really cool how he seemed so at ease and comfortable yet not over rehearsed in front of us. The message that he was trying to get across was pretty emotional due to the tragic incident involving his father, but I also found it pretty inspiring and true. Mainly he was saying that you shouldn't forget where you came from, which I thought was good advice because I believe that Williamsburg is a pretty nice town that, for the most part, is full of good people who are truly kind and genuinely care about one another.

    Yesterday in class we made a list about all the problems that we have found in our school. I think that it was interesting to get the different perspectives of everyone in the classroom that are involved in different things and see how that influenced the problems that they saw. One of the problems that I thought really stood out was participation. I think  that that is in important problem because I believe that in order to fully enjoy the high school experience you have to get yourself involved and see what's it's really about or else you'll probably regret it later.