English 163: Parenti's Blog

If I could restructure my schedule, I would make more time for getting together with friends and family.  I feel that sometimes I struggle to focus or get started on grading and planning right away, then I am doing work into the late hours of the evening.  I would like more time for personal reading and relaxing activities. To create more balance in my life, I think I can give myself a set amount of time after work to just relax and unwind. It might help if I go to yoga after work to "reset," or I can do a mindfulness exercise before refocusing on whatever tasks I have for that evening.  I also think it would help me to make a schedule so that I am more determined to stay focused. This will hopefully open up my schedule for things like seeing friends, family, and reading more books! In class, we are reading Keesha's House  by Helen Frost.  Many of the characters are under extreme stress for a variety of reasons.  For example, Katie is trying to balance ...

I finished my second book, which is called "The Great Alone" by Kristen Hannah.  This book is about a girl growing up in tumultuous circumstances.  Her father is a Vietnam veteran and former Prisoner of War (POW).  To help him cope, the family decides to move to Alaska, where things only further unravel. The main character, Leni, constantly struggles with her parents' relationship.  One minute, they are madly in love, and the next minute, her father is drinking and abusive.  Even though Leni is only a teenager, she feels that she is the only adult in the family.  Leni is always trying to convince her mother to leave the father before he hurts her or her mother really badly.  I think this relationship can be connected to a lot of relationships in the real world.  Even if it isn't physical abuse, many people face emotional or mental abuse from relationships.  Especially when it is someone you love, you don't want to give up on that friendship...

During this independent reading iteration, I am reading The Memory of Light  by Francisco X. Stork.  The setting of the book opens in a mental hospital, where Vicky, a teenage girl from Texas, wakes up from a suicide attempt.  The main conflict of the book is Vicky's discovery of exactly what caused her to take her own life.  Additionally, she faces the harsh reaction of her family, who are unsympathetic and "don't understand."  Vicky meets friends in the mental hospital who help her on her pathway to recovery. I think this book is very special in the sense that the author presents an honest portrayal of mental health.  Often, people look for answers to what causes depression; there is this notion that something tragic must happen for a person to come into this state, but that is not always the case.  In Vicky's case, her mom did die several years before, but her depression is not necessarily a direct outcome of that death.  There are a lot of ...

Create a new post on your blog. Write a post that addresses the following questions: What do you think is the most prevalent teen issue today? Why do you think this is such an issue in the world/community in which it exists today? What do you think the solution to this issue is? Why is it important that this issue is addressed? What other thoughts do you have on this issue? This post should be between 8-10 sentences long.