1. People will promise to never leave you. They will. It’s okay to be sad when they do. 2. It is always okay to cry. Always. Find a bathroom, bury your face in your pillow, and let it out. Cry in the shower. Cry in the car. Cry when you need to. 3. Boys will flirt with you for a while and then ignore you. Then, they will flirt with you some more. It will be confusing. You have every right to stop putting up with it. 4. Pay attention to what people say when they’re angry. When you make up and they tell you they didn’t mean any of it, know that they did. Also know that they wish they didn’t. Forgive them. 5. Never pretend to be someone you’re not. If you don’t like tea and classic novels, don’t act like you do to impress people. If you don’t want to wear leather jackets and combat boots, don’t wear them to please someone else. 6. People will be mean to you; they will spread lies, call you names, and talk about you behind your back. Eventually you will realize that it is petty and stupid and not worth your time. You’ll be right. Move on with your life. 7. Your friends will not always be there for you. When you really need to talk, they will sometimes not want to hear it. That’s okay. Take a deep breath and remember all the times you felt the same way. Exhale. 8. You will wait and wait and wait for your first kiss and your first date and your first relationship. The anticipation will kill you. You will keep trying to find the right person in everyone you meet. Relax. There’s no rush. The best things happen unplanned. 9. Enjoy being young. Love that everything is spontaneous. As you get older, things become more and more scheduled out. Embrace the fact that you aren’t there yet. 10. Tell people how you feel. It will be terrifying in some cases and gratifying in others. It will create relationships and ruin them. But speak your mind, even if your voice shakes, because your thoughts may never otherwise be heard. 11. Sleep. If you go to bed late, sleep in. If you’re still tired when you wake up, go back to bed. If you can’t stay awake during the day, take a nap. Sleeping is a foolproof way of getting rid of your problems for a little while. Utilize it. 12. Talk to people. Talk to your sister about the guy she likes. Talk to your mom about her childhood. Talk to your dad about his favorite books. Talk to your grandparents about their families. Talk to your friends, talk to your pets, talk to the cute waitress at the restaurant. Learn things from them. Be inspired. 13. Always bring a sweater. Even if you think it won’t be cold. 14. Try new things. Eat a new food, try a new kind of juice, switch up the way you dress. You never know what you might end up loving. Life can get boring. Mix it up a bit. 15. Take care of yourself. Wash your hair with that good smelling soap you love. Eat fruits and vegetables. Drink lots of water. Go for long walks in pretty parks. 16. School is important. Try your hardest. If you don’t get something, ask for help. Do your homework. Show your teachers that you’re willing to work hard, and when it comes time to apply to colleges, you’ll be glad you did. 17. There will always be someone prettier, smarter, funnier, or more popular than you. The beauty of it is that it isn’t a competition.

17 things I learned by 17 (via jane-eyyyre)

I definitely agree with you! Out of all the part of the project this is the part I had the easiest time with. Everything else i struggled with except this one. 

Intro to annotations

Why is everyone freaking out about this part of the project?? To me this was the easiest to write. When i was writing this part, every thought came out smoothly and it didn’t take me long to finish. I gave a short summary of each annotation and that was basically it. People are saying we have to mention our criticisms in this part? Is this true???

When I finished mine it was actually the most rewarding feeling I have ever felt in my 18 and a half years of life. 

Research 5

I am officially done!!! This is the most amazing feeling ever just saying!!!!!

I started to write out my intro and i felt like it was complete nonsense so I had to restart a couple times. I ended up combining them and I feel like it turned out a lot better than it would have if I had just completely started over!

Never thought it would be this hard to write an introduction to my critical file. I’ve probably wrote and rewrote my intro twice already and keep starting over, maybe I’ll end up combining all of them- we’ll see.

This is exactly how I felt when starting my general introduction. I probably sat for a good 20 minutes looking at a blank screen. It was quite frustrating so i feel your pain. 

Research/Writing

I have no idea how to even start writing this thing. I have a blank word document open and minimized. Every time I open it, I stare at the white screen and then remember the more important things in my life like Pinterest and my refrigerator. I have very little motivation to do this project. I can feel the pressure building up. This project is as irritating as a mosquito bite in the middle of your back and no matter how far you stretch, for the life of you, you can’t reach it. So instead you distract yourself just like I am doing now. Really I could have been done with a lot by this time but instead I am ranting on Tumblr and making weird analogies/similes. Although…this feels a little productive because it is part of the assignment. That means I deserve another 50 minute break.

Metafiction

If I could pick any fictional character to go to prom with it would most definitely be James from The Program. He seems like the complete package. I haven't seen a out based on the book so I can only base this love for him from the book, but I imagine him being very dreamy and having nice eyes. The way the author writes his character makes him seem so perfect a lovable. I imagine him being the perfect prom date. I think James and I would have a lovely time together. 

Research 3

So I finished basically everything and now I’m sitting here trying to write my general introduction and I am so stuck. I am so frustrated and I don't like that I’m doing. When I first sat down to write it a couple days ago I thought I had a good idea of what I was going to write but now that I am here writing it i feel so lost like I don’t know what to write, which is extremely frustrating. There are so many little parts I feel like I am missing and just writing it is tough because I don't know what all needs to be included and I don't want to miss anything or put something completely unnecessary. Wish your homegirl luck

Research 2

I finished writing all my abstracts today and I honestly really struggled getting started. I wasn't really sure how to write it. I knew it was supposed to be a summary but I was still having a hard time with how to get started and what parts of the criticism to focus on. Once I finished the first one I felt that I had a good handle on it and started to really get going on them. I found that reading through the piece first and then going back and finding what I wanted to talk about was very helpful. On the first one I started reading and picking it apart but then on the second and third I found that reading it first was very helpful. 

I had to make two trips to the library because I didn't have a card to check my books out. The first time I went we talked to this librarian, and she was extremely helpful. She gave us a username to look online but I decided to just use the actual books. She gave me the sections and I spent about an hour looking at the selection of criticisms on Jane Austen. I found four really useful books but it took a long time to pick them because there were about two full shelves of Jane Austen criticisms. At the end of the day the books I found are very useful and it was worth the time it took! The second time I went I went back up and got a different book after looking back over it. I ended up wit four books that have a lot of helpful information. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2ksWKOy665o

Although Dolly Parton is not very talked about today, I don’t think you can get an artists like Miranda Lambert without Dolly Parton. It seems as though today there are so many country artists that have strayed from strictly country, and turned to pop-country, but Miranda Lambert has remained country. When I was looking at hers and Dolly Parton’s music it seemed to have a few similarities. They are definitely very different from each other but I think at the same time they are very similar in style.

Chapters 1-6

Throughout the first chunk that we've read the main thing I noticed was the idea of independence. To me, I saw that Janie grew up very independent. She had her Nanny who raised her but she was very independent and had to grow up very fast. When she marries Logan I think she almost looses a piece of her independence and she is trying to get it back. Same thing with Jodi. She has been so used to being independent, and now that she is no longer independent, she is trying to find a balance between having her independence and being in a relationship. It seems like that is going to be her struggle throughout the book and I'm really anxious to see if she finds that balance.

When i was reading this I don't know why but it made me think about my book and how it seems like its almost completely opposite of yours. It seems as though the women are treated kind of poorly in the novel I'm reading.The women are constantly being judged by the choices they make. From what I got out of mine they don't have a lot of choice in things. That could be because of the time period that this takes place in, or where it takes place. Just reading this made me think of that!

Edith Wharton is a genius. To me, she seems a little sassy and sprinkles her own opinion throughout the book. I thought the protagonist would be sexist man who cheats on his fiancée but it turns out...

Reading #6

I just finished the book, and although I knew what was going to happen, because I've seen the movie that is based off of this book, in the end I was surprised. Before, when I was struggling with the book I figured Emma would end up with someone at least, but I thought it was going to be someone random that wasn't a big character throughout the book. Although now that I think about that, that would be kind of stupid if the main character of the story ended up with someone the reader is unfamiliar with. I can honestly say that I enjoyed most parts of the book. The beginning was very slow and hard to follow, so i was not a big fan of that, but once I got to the end where we see Emma starting to realize how she feels about Mr. Knightly I was really drawn in. I think throughout the whole book Emma talks about not wanting love for herself, when really I see it as she wants it more than anything. She tries to help people find love, and I think seeing other people fall in love made her realize her true feelings for Mr. Knightly. I was also very glad to see Harriet end up with Mr. Martin. In the beginning there was a proposal, and Harriet wanted to say yes but Emma convinced her to say no because she didn't think he was right. He ends up proposing a second time, and Harriet says yes. I was very happy with the outcome of the story. Although I had a hard time reading it, I really enjoyed how everything ended up playing out. 

I saw this post and since I was having a hard time focusing when reading my book I tried out the music and it actually helped me! I think it makes you kind of just in the zone and not really focusing on anything else. It really relaxed me and made it easier for me to just focus on one thing. That being the book. I find that sometimes when I'm reading I get side tracked on multiple things that have nothing to do with the book, so while reading, I have all these little outside thoughts in my head while trying to read and listening to the jazz music helped me a lot. 

In one of my earlier posts I mentioned how I was having trouble focusing on the book and not thinking of other things while reading. I’ve since found that something that helped me focus more was...

I think its super interesting how you made a connection to yourself when reading your novel. That probably makes it a whole lot easier to read. I felt that with my book there was no way to really connect it to my life so that made it a little difficult to read because I couldn't relate to anything that was happening.

Throughout the book, Grace Marks is talking to Dr. Jordan as he trying to figure out if she actually murdered Nancy Montgomery and Thomas Kinnear. I noticed a big similarity between her and I, we have...

Reading #5

I have a couple chapters left and I am finally really getting into the book. It took quite some time for the story to really pick up, and appeal to me. Once things started to climax and there were more character additions things really started to get interesting and I was drawn in. Although the character additions had me more confused, I was able to understand who was who after a chapter or two, unlike before when there were so many characters I couldn't keep track of who was who. Although the story is good, I still don't think I am much of a fan of Austen's writing technique. I can say that I am enjoying and understanding the book much more now though, which makes reading a lot easier. 

I'm reading a book by Austen as well and I think it's interesting that you say the character doesn't really care about her reputation and doesn't care what other people think because in the novel I'm reading the main character is completely opposite. She is very concerned about what others think of her and her reputation with the people in her town, and even outsiders. It's interesting to me because it seems like in some authors novels there are similarities with characters in different books. Not to say that all are like that, but I just thought that was interesting because of how completely opposite they were!

Something different about Pride and Prejudice is that there is lengthy dialogue rather than description. This makes sense considering that it is written in third person, but it’s easier to get lost in...