Madman Mercutio

In the book Romeo and Juliet, William Shakespeare does an excellent job creating the character of Mercutio. Mercutio is a very difficult character to figure out, which makes him noticeable. Personally, he is the hardest character to figure out what he's up to. When I finally did kind of figure him out, he died. So that didn't really work. I like how Mercutio has multiple personalities. There's the witty Mercutio, the party Mercutio, the suicidal Mercutio, and the reckless Mercutio. It takes time to figure out exactly which one of these personalities he has in the scene, which makes him even more interesting.

When we are first introduced to Mercutio (Act 1 Scene 4) he is immediately thought of as a smart, cunning man. You think this because he says things like "You are a lover. Borrow Cupid's wings and soar with them above a common bound" or "If love be rough with yo, be rough with love. Prick love for pricking, and you beat love down." This introduces you to his cunning side, where he can outsmart anyone daring to challenge him. In Scene 5, you see him as someone you'd love to party with. But, in Act 3 Scene 1 you see a completely other side to Mercutio. The fun, witty man we thought him to be is now gone, and we are introduced to the other sides of Mercutio; the suicidal and reckless personalities. This caught me so off guard, where was the old Mercutio? His reckless personality is presented when they are confronted by Tybalt, and Mercutio challenges Tybalt to a duel. Mercutio is fatally wounded, and spends his last minutes on earth pouring out all the wit he has left in him. When he died I was shocked, he was the one person I didn't want to die.

Mercutio is very similar to the play of Romeo and Juliet itself. At first it seems like a comedy. Everyone is cheerful and having a grand old time. But, like Mercutio, it takes a dark turn. This is when Tybalt and Mercutio die. I think that if Mercutio lived through the whole play (which was highly unlikely from the start) we could have an even better understanding of who he really was. Since he was the first to die, he received the least amount of information about him, which just adds to how mysterious he is.

"Young Love" Is it really?

When someone says young love, what do they really mean? Do they mean that, although this couple is young, they have found their soul mates? I think not. Us teenagers can barely remember what we had for breakfast, much less have a good, long lasting relationship. But, even if it is a good, long lasting relationship can it still be considered as young love? Sure, lasting a few years in a relationship is great for someone my age, but it won't really amount to anything. In Romeo and Juliet, William Shakespeare shows us how desperate and foolish young love can really be.

First off, Romeo is first madly in love with Rosaline at the start of the play. But, when he lays eyes on Juliet he completely forgets about Rosaline and goes on to fuss about Juliet. After they met they got married within 3 days. Really? You have your whole life ahead of you, (keep in mind Juliet is 13 and Romeo is 18) and you take the most important choice of your life so quickly? You just met this person, and you want to spend the rest of you're life with them. How does that make an ounce of sense? Especially since they are so young. What if you realized your partner is a cruel, harmful person? Now what? Well, back then, you couldn't get divorced so you're kind of screwed in that scenario. Luckily, we can now get divorced. But even then, you have just spent a huge chunk of your life with this person you ended up hating. You could have done so many other things in this time that you have recklessly let go to waste.

Then again, I am just a 13 year old boy. What do I know about love? Many people may not believe me, and through time, I myself may disagree with what I have said just now. I guess, from what I've seen in my years, kids my age are horrible at maintaining a stable relationship (other than a few) and that is what I have based all my thoughts on. Anyways, Romeo and Juliet have really got me thinking in its own weird way (mostly because I don't understand half of what they're saying). It has also helped me realize that there is still a lot to learn in this world, and I must be prepared.

"Just do it." -Nike

I read "Gay Couples Face a Mixed Geography of Marriage" by Kirk Johnson. It is an article about Henry D. Johnston and Alex Irwin that are a gay couple. They live in Idaho and just 2 miles away from Washington, where gay marriage is legal. They have decided to not get married and to wait and fight until gay marriage is legalized in their state of Idaho. Although I myself am not gay, I have many friends and relatives that happen to be gay. This has made me into a strong believer that gay marriage should be legalized. While I was reading this I thought, "How have these others states not legalized gay marriage? Its about time these people came to their senses and legalized it."
First of all, there are multiple states were these couples can get married and just return to their state where it isn't legal. Wouldn't it make sense for these states to legalize gay marriage? That is what Henry D. Johnston and Alex Irwin are trying to show us. They are merely 2 miles away from Washington. But, they have decided to not move out of their state of Idaho. By doing this, they are showing us that it would be so easy to just walk over there and get married, but they won't do it. By doing so, they are saying "We are staying loyal to our state, but keep in mind that we can just walk over to Washington and get married. So, wouldn't it be easier to just legalize it here?"

Now, there are the people that are against gay marriage. Here what I have to say to them: "How does this apply to you?" Obviously, these people are straight so it wouldn't affect them if gay marriage was legalized. It angers me to see these people protesting about an issue that isn't even theirs. But, in all, I am happy to see that more and more states are legalizing gay marriage. Eventually, I believe the issue of legalizing gay marriage will just be something that teachers go over with their students.

How to make it through high school in an all boys boarding school

The book "Spud" by John van de Ruit is easily my favorite book of all time. John Milton (nicknamed Spud) finds himself in an elite boys only private boarding school. Little does he know, the Crazy 8 (Spud and his dorm mates) are in for a bizarre year. Now, Spud got his nickname since he is a pre-pubescent boy in high school, and gets made fun of mercilessly because of it. While I was reading this book, I realized that although Spud having major setbacks in becoming respected in the school, he still finds out how to work his way around being massacred daily.

First, Spud gets pretty lucky since he is in the same dormitory as the biggest kids in their year (Rambo and Mad Dog). Since he is in their dormitory, he is in their group, keeping him safe from anyone else. Second, he becomes good friends with a few of the teachers, including the crazed English teacher nicknamed The Guv. With these two friendships, he is covered by both schoolmates and teachers. Finally, he has to have a reputation of his own as well, so he uses his "spudness" to his advantage. He joins the choir, and it turns out the he has an amazing high-pitched voice, which will work to his advantage in the future. With these three basic things: friendship with fellow schoolmates, friendship with teachers, and a bit of a reputation of his own, he finds a way to make it through the first year of this crazy boarding school.

I got hooked on this book and couldn't put it down until I had finished it. Luckily, when I finished the book, I found out that there are 3 other books in this series. So, I found these other three books and I eventually finished all of them as well. The other three books: "Spud- The Madness Continues", "Spud-Learning to Fly", and "Spud- Exit, Pursued by a Bear" are all as amazing as the first one. Each character have are so complex that you start to think you know the character, then suddenly it is like a different person. Another reason I love "Spud" is because the school is absolutely crazy. He likes to think of himself as "a island of sanity in  a sea of madness", which I definitely agree on. Spud is such an amazing book, and I would definitely recommend it to anyone who is able to process a book that you need to be a bit mature to be able to read.

We shouldn't have to change for others.

When Ms.Robbins mentioned that we were going to be writing a blog post on a song that had a message I immediately knew what song I was going to use. I have been listening to this song for quite a while now. It is called "Same Love" by Macklemore and Ryan Lewis feat. Mary Lambert. It talks about how people need to accept gay people into their community. They show how some politicians believe that gayness is a disease or an be changed, although Macklemore believes that gayness is biological and that it isn't a disease. I completely agree with Macklemore on this one. We both believe that gay people shouldn't be shunned or be tested on to change their sexuality.

For example, Macklemore says "Man-made rewiring of a pre-disposition. Playing god."
 This refers to the right wing conservatives that believe that being gay is a disease (or something like that). They try to cure or change the homosexual's sexuality. In the chorus Mary Lambert states that "And I can't change. Even if I tried Even if I wanted to. And I can't change Even if I tried Even if I wanted to. My love, my love, my love She keeps me warm." She shows that love is so strong that whatever these people do to try to change gay people's minds it will never work. Love is what keeps a great relationship together and that people's partners are the ones that help the other through life. Nobody would want to change that about themselves.

Although "Same Love" isn't my favorite Macklemore song, it certainly is the one with the biggest message. It explains how love is so strong that other peoples beliefs won't change them. This song is currently one of my favorite songs, and it probably will be for a long time. But, not only because it is good music, but the lyrics are so empowering that they do help lift my spirits. I think gay people do have the "Same Love" as straight people, others just aren't used to it yet. I believe it will pass though.

Check out the music video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hlVBg7_08n0

A ramble on to complete the (near) impossible

I just finished the book "Slam" by Nick Hornby. It is about this skater boy named Sam who accidentally impregnates a girl named Alicia. But, before all hell breaks loose, Sam gets sent a few months into the future by his mentor Tony Hawk. Sam has a Tony Hawk poster he talks to. It magically sends Sam into the future to teach him something. Although it doesn't really make sense at first, it pans out quite nicely. While I read this book I realized, I better watch out, something equally as life-destroying could happen to me at any given second. Nick Hornby shows how life could be much easier, but how it can sometimes be impossible.

When I first started reading this I thought "This guy is cheating! You can't just go into the future and be like 'Oh its good I know that for future references'. That's not how it works." Then, I realized that Nick Hornby is showing us how much easier it would be it we could go into the future, a convenience we would never have (unless someone invents a time machine). The obstacles Sam must face are now much easier thanks to time travel. This is not something someone could have though, but it is something we would love to have. Ironically, Sam gets sent even farther into the future once again at the very end of the book. I find this somewhat stupid, just once is enough to show what we want, yet we can't have. Maybe it is just for a sequel though.

I only just realized this, but there might be more to add to all this. Maybe, what Nick Hornby is trying to say is that there are some things that seem impossible, but if we try, we could make it. Two very different examples of this (that are in this story) are the issue of having a baby seems impossible for Sam because he is so young and the impossibility of time travel. But if we work hard enough, we could somehow find a way to solve this near impossible problem. It sounds much better than "life could be much easier, but how it can sometimes be impossible" as I said before.

My weird younger self

On the New York Times website I was skimming through articles, deciding which I could elaborate most on. Then, I found this article: http://www.nytimes.com/2013/01/15/us/near-new-orleans-a-new-effort-to-breed-endangered-species.html?ref=us&_r=0 As weird as it might sound, this was the only article I could really elaborate on. Why you might ask? Well, mainly because way back then, when I was a kid (or at least less of a kid than I am now) I always loved doing research on endangered species. I liked to type up info  about endangered species  and make profiles about them. It was really weird, but I enjoyed doing it.

Adding on to what I said before, on how I loved researching endangered species, I loved seeing pictures of what these animals looked like. When I was younger, I always could generally could imagine what an animal could look like, but it's the details of each certain animal that makes them different from the others. I think that's why I always loved researching these different animals, because I'd never know what might pop up out of nowhere. I'm not sure of why I liked endangered animals over any other though. But, anyways, I always had a soft spot for that subject and it will always be something I will some how remember when somebody brings it up (such as this article).

But, in all, I think it's great that there are still people in the world that are interested in another species other than ours. It saddens me to think that so many species have died just to comfort this one self-centered species called "Homo sapiens" find it ridiculously unfair that just because we are so much farther ahead than other animals that we decide that killing them off is OK. Sometimes, its hard to think straight when there are so many horrid things going on in this world.