Some of my favorite people

Growing up you have many idols. This could include family members, Teacher, friends, and even celebrities.  Now as a teenager I have many idols and people that I look up to. I look up to many friends and family members but the people that I will talk about will be celebrities.

One person that I look up to is Ellen DeGeneres she is an amazing entertainer and has influenced and helped out a lot of people with her show the Ellen Degeneres show which talks about current topics and talks to people ( this includes all types of people, not just celebrities). She has been super inspiring and the fact that she has stayed true to herself all these years shows me how a person can be happy and be so successful at the same time. she keeps doing what she loves as an entertainer and she seems like she’s changing the world one smile at a time and I really admire that.

It’s our challenges and obstacles that give us layers of depth and make us interesting. Are they fun when they happen? No. But they are what make us unique. – Ellen DeGenerees

Someone else that I would consider one of my idols is Gal Gadot and I feel that she is a good idol because she shows young women that you don’t need to gossip or do scandals to be known. She has also inspired many young girls with her appearance in “Super Woman” showing them how powerful woman can be.

My next idol is more around my age but I feel that that is more inspiring because it shows me that even someone at my age can become successful. The next person that I like is Maddie Ziegler and the reason That I admire her is that she has already accomplished so much in life. For example, she is a professional dancer that has starred in various TV shows, collaborated with many people, attends important events and has danced on many of Sia’s music videos. She’s only 15 but has already done so much with her life and inspired many other people that if you work hard enough you can go wherever you want in life.

Another name that I thing comes up in many people as and idol is Rihanna, she is a business woman, model, singer, and owns a makeup line. She has created famous music throughout the years of her career, and created a major impact in the makeup community. She created a makeup line that included all people of color and really took the time and place to perfect the products for everyone.

Of course these arent the only people I consider my “idols” in my life but this are some of the few that come to mind

May 15, 2018May 16, 2018 by melanytells Leave a comment

summer weather

I know this blog is gonna sound cheesy but its fine because one thing that I always look forward to is the warm weather. This year mother nature decided to just skip spring and go straight to summer, considering that long winter we had. Last week was just such a nice weather week. I remember it was like in the 70’s, 80’s and even 90’s and I was just so ready to pack away my jackets. I know its just weather but for me at least i’ve noticed that weather can sometimes have a role in my mood. Usually if its a rainy day my mood can be groggy or lazy, but when its warm and the sun is shining theres a more of a probability that i’ll be in a better mood. It’s wierd because I reemeber how I used to be a winter person and how I thrived in the cold season, but I think it was this year that broke me. I think that after all the days of having to shovel the driveway and puting on like 3 jackets I relized I had, had enough. Also if you compare the things you can do in the winter vs the summer chances are you’ll find more in the summer. I know this might seem boring but its true, things are just so much better in warmer weather.You can go out more, go to eat at resturants outside, go to the park, play sports, vacation, go to the beach and a ton of other stuff. Ever since the nice weather started ive been going out more and doing more things.Overall im just really stoked for the nice weather.

May 7, 2018 by melanytells Leave a comment

Metropolitan Museum

This past Wednesday was the first time that I had gone to the metropolitan museum of art. I remember when I was little I was really into art and drawing and wanted to be an artist when I grew up. Now that I’ve grown art for me has become more of a hobby than a passion like it was before. So I just wanted to let that out because even though i’m not as into art as I once was I still appreciated the work. The reason I went to the Metropolitan Museum was because of my language class which was Arabic. We were going to go to the museum to look at the Islamic arts and learn more about the culture and its arts. It was really interesting and was also really fun since I got to go with some friends. Something that I really appreciated is how the field trip was set up. I liked how they gave us freedom and didn’t have us on lock down. Going into more detail I mean I liked how they gave us a tour on the main thing we came to visit and then gave us time to look at the rest of the museum. I think that it made the experience more enjoyable. It was really fun to just take a break from school and go away. The museum was one of the highlights from the trip but another thing that many students and I enjoyed is going out to eat. The bus took us to queens New York to a street where there was a lot of Arabian food. Once we got of the bus we were able to choose the restaurant of our choice and eat with our friends. Overall it was a really nice and fun experience and I hope I have more field trips like this in the future.

April 26, 2018April 27, 2018 by melanytells Leave a comment

Vlog in a Blog (blogception)

Something that is really popular in todays generation in social media and the internet in general. One platform that many people go to is youtube, here people can share videos of experiences, tutorials or daily life. This has become such a large phenomenon that many people have even made this their job. Sometimes we even find ourselves pretending to be “you tubers” and make this “vlogs” and sometimes i just wonder and think how strange it is that this generation has capabilities to do things that were unimaginable 70 years ago. Ok anyways that enough of that, what i’m gonna talk about is my super fun awesome vlog, that edited and made, but lost… So I had finished making my vlog and I ended up losing everything. Heres how it went: I started off my vlog at the bus stop with my friends and we took the bus to the train station, afterwords we just talked with people and then afterwards me and Angie went to the terminal to wait for our train and wasted all our money on snacks. We went on the train and got to the stamford station and talked and waited for Angie’s dad to pick us up and then dropped me off home. This was like one of my regular days after school but now one of my regular days would be to go to lacrosse practice after school and then I would go home and do some homework or hang our with friends.

March 25, 2018March 26, 2018 by melanytells Leave a comment

Oh the places i’ll go

Some places that I want to go to in the future are Hawaii, Brazil and Australia. When I think of vacation these are the first three places that I want to go. I feel like every kid wants to go to Hawaii at some point. Hawaii to most people is the disney worlds of vacations, its just such an iconic place to go to and I mean for good reason. I have always loved the beach and how peaceful and calm it is and I also love the fresh environment that Hawaii has. Something that also makes Hawaii very admirable is the community. I have heard that the people in Hawaii are very kind and overall it just makes it a much more pleasant place to visit. Hopefully I can go to Hawaii in the near future because it really does seem like a wonderful place. If you haven’t noticed I have a theme that can be noticed in all the places that I want to go. They are all places with warm weather. I personally love the warm weather and I love anything relating to warm weather; like the beaches, the concerts and all the activities that take place in warm weather. This is a good segway into one of the other places that I want to visit: Australia. I remember really learning about how great Australia is in a youtube video. Its such an amazing place that has so much life and I could honestly see myself staying there for a while. The beaches look amazing and theres also a bunch of cliffs which is perfect because it will help me cross of one of the things on my to do list. I really want to go cliff jumping, it always seemed so scary but thrilling to me and something that I know I would love to look back on. I also want to do things I normally wouldn’t do, like some crazy stuff and honestly this isn’t out of the blue in my family because we have always been known to do crazy things.  My brother for example went skydiving and swimming with sharks, and my mom used to ride wild pigs and do insane cliff jumping when she was younger. Overall Australia seems like a great place for opportunities. One of the last places that I would love to go to is Brazil, I’d love to go to Brazil because the people and places seem like such an amazing place to be. I think that i’d want to go to Brazil for it’s people and land and I also think it will be an enriching experience.

March 23, 2018March 26, 2018 by melanytells Leave a comment

Studying Arabic

I never would of thought that when I went to high school my next four years  would surrounded around the idea or the language of Arabic, but that’s exactly what happened. I go to this program called CGS which stands for Center of Global Studies and it was a choice that I only looked into sort of last minute, but i’m happy I was able to apply and get in because I have learned more about such a large part of the world, and learning the language is something that I’ve never imagined. Its amazing how those squiggles and lines mean something and I think that it is so interesting to see this other side of the world . I understand that many people have stereotypes about people in the middle east and I personally never believed in those negative images, but while you learn the language you understand that these people are not terrorist or violent, and instead learn how they are so much more than that and people who have an amazing culture and that have also brought so many things to the US as well. I personally really enjoy the language I find it so cool to write the language. To me it seems like more of an art and I strongly encourage people to take a look at it. While I was learning Arabic I also became more aware of how the middle east is so big and how so many people are a part of it. Being part of CGS offers a lot of things  that many other high schools don’t. One of CGS’s main goals is to really engage it’s students in the world and culture. A way that it does that is that it brings students on these thing called “study tours”. What these “study tours” are is a real life raw experience between students and the language that they are learning. Students go to a place that has the language they are learning, so for example since I am studying Arabic I would go on a study tour in somewhere in the middle east. Another interesting thing about the language Arabic is that is written backwards and to English people that would be seen as the wrong way to write it but it’s actually the right way. I know that in the world being able to speak more than one language is very beneficial and to be able to speak 3 languages would really benefit me and I know that my decision in signing up for CGS would help me out in my future.

مرحبا اسمي ميلاني

February 3, 2018February 6, 2018 by melanytells Leave a comment

Illegal dreamers

In recent years, the topic of “immigration in the United States”  has been an ongoing debate, especially with our new president Donald Trump. He and other members of the government have taken actions to try to tackle the problem but instead has left many people angered and confused.  Immigration is a current event that affects the lives of many and needs to be resolved soon with realistic solutions or many people will suffer.

There are about 11 million immigrants residing in the US according to Kiefer , Francine in “Should the Government Allow immigrants who are here illegally to become US citizens?”. That means 11 million people are scared and unsure what’s going to happen to them. People should not have to live in fear of being shipped off, especially when most of them are just trying to provide for their family.

Because of the president’s recent actions, the dreamers of America have been stripped away of their safety and are now at risk for being deported. This would mean separation of family and could leave many children without parents, forcing them to go into foster care.. “5,000 parentless children are now in the foster care because their mother or father was detained or deported” (Nazariooct, Sonia. “The Heartache of an Immigrant family.”). Not only are adults and immigrants being affected by this but also their children.

Many people believe that immigrants are causing a lot of the problems in the United States and should be taken back to the homeland, but granting them citizenship would actually be beneficial to the United States. “Allowing these immigrants to legalize their status will not only strengthen our national security, but will also stimulate the economy and enhance Americas, rich vibrant land and diverse culture” ( Kiefer , Francine .“Should the Government Allow immigrants who are here illegally to become US citizens?”). Giving illegal immigrants their citizenship would help America and would also be done fairly. This seems like a realistic and beneficiary solution to many.

United States should come up with realistic ideas that would be beneficial and fair for everyone. “ There are huge benefits to migrating those who go north are able to send money so their kids can eat and go to school” ( “The Heartache of an Immigrant family”. One of the points that has been brought up before is granting amnesty or citizenship to these immigrants that would in the end benefit America as well. It would also give people a chance to bring their families over.

Many of the statements said by our president are also very unrealistic such as building a wall to keep immigrants out.  Although Donald Trump says that the wall will provide an efficient way to “keep immigrants where they belong” it would actually be more harmful than good “The United States in spending billions on walls that don’t really keep immigrants out (a university California…showed that 97% of migrants who cross the border eventually get through” ( Nazariooct, Sonia. “The Heartache of an Immigrant family.”).This contradicts Donald Trump’s statement and shows that building  a wall is not the solution.

Overall the ways that are found to be most efficient is providing immigrants citizenship that would give them a chance to live a good life. Legalizing immigrants would allow them to be part of the United States and would allow them to pay taxes so it could be fair. Since they did not come here legally not everybody could become a citizenship, only people with a clean background. This would let people feel more secure in their homes.

We need to be more compassionate and understand that we are all people and we are all trying to do the best for ourselves and our family and immigrants shouldn’t be punished so harshly for wanting the best. Next time you see and article of see something on the news remember they are humans too.  

Work cited
Melany Torres-Montes

Period B3

January 23, 2018

Nazariooct, Sonia. “The Heartache of an Immigrant family.” New York times, 14

October 2013, http://www.NewYorkTimes.com. Accessed 9 January 2018. This article provided the POV of a family going through these current events and explains the topic.

Kiefer , Francine .“Should the Government Allow immigrants who are here illegally to become US citizens?” Procon, 21 January  2014, Procon.org. Accessed 9 January 2018. This article talks about the two sides on immigration and the pros and cons of both sides.

 

January 24, 2018January 24, 2018 by melanytells Tags: DACA, family seperation, immigration, important issue Leave a comment

Midterm thoughts

What me and my fellow peers are going through right now is midterms. This means  weeks of sleepless nights preparing and studying for these tests. Im feeling pretty confident in most subjects and I actually don’t mind some of the things we have to do. For example in world lit we are writing about a controversial topic and one of the first things I thought is immigrants in the U.S. So normally in my blogs I don’t really talk about a lot of serious things, but I guess this is gonna be one of those times. So this is a very controversial topic and is a very recently discussed topic especially with the new president and everything that’s been going around in the news. Honestly for me what I see and hear in the news is heartbreaking. To see these families split up and children left 

parentless and forced to be in foster care truly breaks my heart. I remember seeing this little girl on the news crying and begging that they pass the immigration reform, because all she wanted for christmas was to have her mother with her. Imagine having to worry about your mother being taken away, not knowing when you would see her again? Many immigrants come from Mexico and south america and let me tell you something that we really value is family. I think I might of mentioned this before, but in many people’s life family comes first and it’s honestly the reason why so many people immigrate here in the first place. Now I was the daughter of immigrant but thankfully my family has received their papers and we are all legal citizens. I don’t really have an immigration story, but I can tell you my mothers and hopefully you will understand why we migrate and why we risk it all. My mother is 1 of 8 and living in the mountains with my grandfather’s with poor education really didn’t give my mom and her siblings a chance to succeed in life. They were all talented, my uncle and mom were incredible gymnasts my aunt was amazing at math and my aunt loved the practice of medicine. Now the thing is before there really weren’t scholarships so my mom and her family were destined to live in the farm for the rest of their lives but my mom decided to change that. She immigrated to the united states going through incredibly hard situations and was able to provide and practice in medicine for my aunt and gather enough money to help my aunt get her papers and come live with her. My mother and Aunt supported their whole family from the united states doing whatever they could and they did it for family. You see people immigrate here because they don’t have a choice because their life stops advancing if they stay in their homeland and I hope we can come up with a solution for tackling these problems without splitting these families apart. In the end la familia sobre todo.

 

January 12, 2018January 12, 2018 by melanytells Tags: highschool, midterms, tests Leave a comment

Christmas for teens

This year was my very first year where I really experienced my first “teenage” christmas. There is a thing in the hispanic community where we celebrate christmas a little differently from other people. What we celebrate is Hispanic Christmas, and what this basically means that instead of waking up early Christmas morning we stay up late on Christmas Eve and wait till 12 am surrounded by family and friends. When the clock hits 12 all the kids would either distribute or tear apart the presents. I remember how it was always filled with so much energy and fun. The whole day would include games and the kids running after each other doing our own thing. This would happen every year until these past couple of years especially this year. I remember if I ever got clothes or shoes when I was little I just politely smiled, ( but secretly preferred the toys). Now if I get a pair of shoes that i’ve been wanting for christmas I would be more than happy. Im also getting “grown”presents which means getting things like socks or hair bands or pajamas   ( which I also really appreciate). I realized something was wrong when the thought of socks excited me. I was now an official teenager. Ok you might say don’t you become one when you turn 13? or when you go to high school? no, it’s when you realize you are slowly leaving your childhood behind. I was organizing some of my stuff end i ended up finding my toys and I know this is strange but I thought, ” just one last time” and when I attempted to play with my polly pockets I really didn’t feel much, I was disappointed because it didn’t have the magic it once had and just made me realize how old i’m getting.  So yeah this was my first teenage christmas and if anybody is wondering what to get me a pair of fluffy socks will do. 

January 12, 2018 by melanytells Tags: Childhood memories, christmas, teen Leave a comment

Little warriors

One of my fondest memories from when I was a kid was when I went to Colombia when I was 10 years old to meet my new sister. Her name was Juliana and her parents died and had a rough childhood, and we knew her because she was a family friend. She was two years old and I can safely say that was the funnest summer of my life. We stayed at my aunts house in a neighborhood that came together like a horseshoe and in the middle there was a playground and a pool. Next to the playground and the pool their was like a room where people around the neighborhood would throw parties. This was the best time, especially for us kids. We danced and jumped feeling the enthusiastic rhythm of the music coursing through our bodies filling us with energy till 1 am with the adults.  On many of the times that us kids would decide to go play ( which was very often) we would go to each others houses and knock on the door where the mom would open the door to a small village of neighborhood kids asking for their child. We would always catch a whiff of what they were cooking ( because everyone always was) and our little noses would be greeted with the aroma of  comfort food that filled our lungs. When the whole gang was gathered we would play and one of my personal favorite was when two teams would be formed and everyone would play war. We would grab our bikes and chase each other with people riding in the backs of others, screaming with joy. We were considered around the neighborhood as Little warriors. Us warriors played until we couldn’t feel the warmth of the sun on our skin no longer. And when the battles have been fought we all sought refuge in our homes saying goodbye to one another and ate what our parents were brewing for us.

December 14, 2017December 20, 2017 by melanytells Tags: Childhood memories, memories, Playing Leave a comment