Moving forward...

So today I have a little bit of a twist for my blog. My teacher had us watch a commencement address by JK Rowling to the Class of 2008 at Harvard University http://www.ted.com/talks/lang/eng/jk_rowling_the_fringe_benefits_of_failure.html (this is the link if you want to watch it yourself) and asked us to respond to some of the ideas that we felt most connected to that we saw in the video and maybe find some way to integrate them into our project. I had several. However, I'm only going to use three. The first one was that parents want the best for their children even when their children disagree that what Mom and Dad say is best really is. I feel like this is already a part of my project since so many of my values are based on things my parents taught me so that I would have a better quality of life. If that was not apparent consider this my official way of making a statement that I know that my parents want what's best for me and (*gasp*) they're usually right when they state an opinion of what would be best for me. The second one is a healthy and reasonable fear of speaking in front of people. This will be incorporated into Part three of my project during which I will be speaking (hopefully) to the entirety of my high school. THIS IS TERRIFYING!!! And for good reason. To appear before one's peers and say things that they may not want to hear is something that anyone would  fear. But to face that fear with grace and dignity and to persevere is what really counts. The last one was that "failure is inevitable." We cannot escape failure. It happens to everyone and the best thing we can do is continue to persevere through it and do our best to overcome it and come out ahead. This will be incorporated in this project because I know that I will have problems and encounter roadblocks as I progress, but I also know that I will never let those stop me. If something goes wrong, I will simply adapt my project to fit new criteria that will work.
Now for my project update:
As promised I have a vague idea of what I'm going to do for each representation:

• Family First- represented in a plastic canvas hierarchy wall hanging of family, religion, school/ work, other (in that order)
• Taking Joy in the little things- represented in a Modge Podge tile (most likely a tile that is subject to change) containing journal entry copies, poetry, book exerts, and quotes on the subject.
• Faith- will be a painting of a seed sprouting with the lyrics of a song I learned as a child in church going around the edge and background of the plant.
• Choices have consequences- this representation is undecided at the moment. I know I want to either carve something or buy an already made piece and change it/decorate it into what I want.
• Work- this will be represented in the form of a simple children's story that will outline the merits of doing hard and honest work. The work part will be the moral of the story. Exact storyline unknown.

Hopefully tomorrow I will have sketches of the built things and a web for the story. Also tomorrow I will probably be outlining my Part Three project which I am doing with two other girls in my class. That's all I have for today. Toodles!

Jessie Jane