Okay, so lately my life has been a bit hectic. In addition to my regular schedule of school, dance, band, dance, scouts, and more dance, I have started subbing more at the studio. I don't do it very often, but it's nice to be able to earn the money. Also, Jonathan and I are teaching a scholarship class on Saturdays for kids that can't pay for regular classes. We are doing a jazz class and will be teaching a dance to "You Give Love a Bad Name" by Bon Jovi.

Also, as a Life Scout, I'm now beginning my last steps towards Eagle Scout. I need to get the merit badges done and get everything for my Eagle Scout project set up. I want to redo the signs in Banner Forest, as everyone is always getting lost in there. The project itself isn't difficult, it's just getting people to be able to actually get the signs all put up in there at all the intersections.

For Christmas, Mom and Dad got me a P-bone, which is a trombone made of PVC pipe with a graphite slide. So, I'm trying to learn how to play that so that for the concert, I can play Trombone for Colonel Bogey's March, which has a low brass Soli section. Hannah is going to work on her Baritone so we'll have more than one low brass player.

Taryn and I have started a private together for Ballroom. We're doing a Salsa to "La Bomba." We haven't learned the actual dance yet, but we have learned some combinations and lifts that will get put together into a number. We're having a lot of fun with it.

In my free time (which seems to be dwindling), I have been reading more. Some books that I have read recently are the Uglies series by Scott Westerfield, The Son of Neptune by Rick Riordan, and I'm trying to read Beowulf, but it's a bit slow as it's a poem. Books I'm going to get at the library or get at Barnes and Noble are Inkdeath by Cornelia Funke, The Hunger Games (I don't know the author), and the second Dragonlance series.

When I'm not reading during my free time, I like to play my iPod. Samantha told me about this app called Temple Run, which essentially the scene from Indiana Jones: Raiders of the Lost Ark where he takes the idol and gets chased through the temple, except in the app, there are a lot of obstacles, coins to collect, power-ups to grab, and your character runs faster with every checkpoint. It's extremely easy to get addicted to it. I've only had the game for like 2 days and I have played about 170 times.

So, that's my current life in a nutshell. As the year goes on, I have no idea what is going to change, but I'm ready for it.

Becoming an Adult

This week is studying Medieval Daily Life. One of my activities for the week is to write about becoming an adult, so that's what I'm gonna do.

At my age, I don't think I would be able to take on the world. I have VERY little experience being out and doing things on my own. Because of that, I would probably flounder a bit in the real world. Also, maturity is a factor to consider. I can be mature and make good decisions most of the time, but there's always those times when I need help with what I should do. Decision making and owning up to mistakes are probably the two things I need to learn the most before I head out into the world.

I think the reason we have such a long adolescence period in today's day and age is because a lot of kids don't learn to do things themselves. They get an adult (parent, teacher, etc.) to either give them the answer, do the work for them, or help out so much that the kid does nothing that it becomes the parent's project more than the kid's. I think if today were a bit more like when settlers were still moving west, when boys had to start work at the age of 15 or 16, and girls were expected to know how to take care of the house by that time, the time of the adolescence period would decrease significantly. I'm not saying we should go back to what it was like during Laura Ingalls Wilder's time, but maybe if kids had a bit more responsibility put on them, and they were held responsible for it, then things might change a bit.