Interview On Chandler Mayberry

1) What is your story about?

My story is about a young girl who writes a letter to her mother on the same day as her death. The girl faces many challenges throughout this book and the only person who can help her is herself.

2) How did you come up with the idea of your story?

I came up with this idea on my own, for some reason it just came to me.

3) What works have inspired you to write this story?

The book Ellen Foster as well as Forest Gump inspired me.

4) What genre is your story?

            My story is fiction.

5) When does your story take place?

            My story takes place around the 1990's.

6) Where does your story take place?

            My story takes place in a small town in Kentucky called Mayberry.

7) What is the moral of your story?

            The moral to my story is to never give up.

8) Who is your audience?

            Everyone, or anyone who knows how hard it is to overcome something difficult.

9) What are the major themes of your story?

            I'm not quiet sure yet.

10) Is your book going to be a chapter book, a picture book, or somewhere in between? 

            It’s going to be written in letter formatting.

11) What is the climax of your story?

            The climax is when the abuse from her father begins.

12) Who is your favorite character? Why?

            Brooke is my favorite character because she is so strong.

13) Who is the main character of your story?   

            Brooke is the main character.

14) Is there a bad guy in your story? 

            Brooke's father is the bad guy because he becomes abusive towards her.

15) What conflicts do your character face?

            My character faces the conflict to survive and also to protect her brothers.

16) Are you going to have a conflict between any characters?

            The only conflict will be between Brooke and her father.

17) Are there going to be any conflicts within your plot?

            Yes and no I’m still working on that.

18) What obstacles do your characters face?

            Brooke faces the obstacle of the abuse and also trying to gain custody of her brothers.

19) What has been your greatest difficulty when writing your story?

Coming up with new ideas I keep getting a little of topic.

20) Have you suffered any writer’s blocks?

Yes, every time I start writing.

If you would like to read Dear Mommy by Chandler Mayberry click here

Ready, Set, Don't Go.

Becoming a senior had been a dream I thought would take forever to accomplish, everyone told me high school would fly by but I would just shake my head thinking they couldn’t be serious. It turns out everyone was right; moving to such a rushed and exciting town, as Plymouth, has made my teenage years come to an end much too fast.  

Being born in Arizona has always inspired me to go back because that is my true home. Since I was six years old I have dreamed of going to college at the University of Arizona, and that dream is still very alive. Living in Arizona is something I have always been ready for. With college just around the corner, I now have to make the decision if I would like to follow my dream or stay close to my family. This is not an easy subject to discuss with my family because we have never spent more than a week apart. My dad always sings, “Get Ready, Get Set, Don’t Go” to me because he doesn’t want me to go. I have come to realize this song is extremely relative to my life and thoughts towards going far away to college.

I know my dreams are way too big for Plymouth, and even though my parents want me to obtain my goals, they don’t want to let me go. Miley Cyrus says; “I'm at the startin' line of the rest of my life as ready as I've ever been. Got the hunger and the stars in my eyes the prize is mine to win.” This line always speaks to me because I know I can never give up on my dreams just to make someone happy. If I have enough passion and hunger to reach my dreams, then I will achieve what makes me the happiest.

With my high school career coming to a close, I am finding it very stressful to make the most beneficial decisions for my future. As my dad says “Get Ready, Get Set, Don’t Go”, I do not see it as a bad thing he is telling me. I know when he tells me this; he is giving me his blessing to strive for what I want in life, to obtain my goals, and to most importantly make decisions for myself. As much as he does not want to lose me to a state, thousands of miles away, he wants me to go so I never give up on my dreams; and as much as he tells me not to go, I am going to go to achieve my aspirations. 

A Twist to Personification

 We see them in the halls of school everyday. We call them ferocious, demanding, in-style, and extremely hot. No, they are not what you think, the popular girls of the school. These are not even humans, but they have a mind of their own and cause heads to turn. This is my blog post about the inanimate object, high heels.

Marilyn Monroe once said; “I don’t know who invented high heels, but all women owe him a lot.” To me, heels are unlike any other shoe on the shelf due to the idea that they show power. Heels are equivalent to the president in the shoe world. We have flip flops to represent the people in poverty, sneakers to symbolize the everyday person, and flats to signify the upper class; however, the heel seems to always come out on top in the fashion world. Why you ask? Because heels give people dignity. Meg Ryan stated; “When I wear high heels I have a great vocabulary and I speak in paragraphs. I’m more eloquent. I plan to wear them more often.” The elegance heels bring out; the more educated, responsible, and classy us girls become. Along with the sophisticated heels that women can wear to refined events, we also have the edgy heels.

Daring heels have become wide spread throughout the United States. When we approach a shoe store there are many displays showing five inch heals with an assortment of patterns; such as the fierce cheetah prints, the tasteful glittery patterns, and the eye catching snake skin prints. With this new fashion trend, no one can stay away from these new stilettos because they give the ‘shoe’ a whole new name. Wearing these shoes makes a bold statement; they scream confidence. A typical boring girl would not have the confidence to put on a pair of stilettos with cheetah print on it and wear them in public, no matter how much she loved the shoes. Heels are definitely a confidence booster; they make you taller, they make your legs look longer, they are cute, and they are inexpensive. High heels show men power, dignity, nobility, and put them in awe.  

Last Tuesday I decided to live a day in my most daring heels and all of this was proven to be true to me. People would stare with shocking looks as to what I was wearing and I received numerous questions. Although I got an immense amount of weird looks, the overall outcome of my shoes was a great choice because it stood me apart from everyone else for a day. I did something out of the ordinary and for that I gained a lot of self confidence. High heels are a simple way to make a bold statement, I think all girls should wear them for at least one day in their lifetime. 

Mentor Text Number 2

For my mentor text this week I read Perfect Chemistry, recommended to me by a classmate. I honestly could not have found a better relating story to my story. I really enjoyed reading this book, it was just what I love to read, a sappy love story. However, while I reading Perfect Chemistry I was a little weirded out because my book was extremely similar in multiple ways. First off the main characters name in both my book and Perfect Chemistry is Brittney. Next they both had to do with a very pretty, rich, and popular girl and a boy that is not the most popular kid around. Both characters cross paths when they are forced to be chemistry partners in a chemistry lab, just like in my story. The biggest difference between my story and Perfect Chemistry is that my boy character, Brayden, is an outcast with no friends and the main boy character in my mentor readings main boy character, Alex, was in a Latin gang.

My mentor text greatly influenced my reading because both stories were too similar to my writings. Instead of creating a sappy romance where my two main characters fall in love, like Alex and Brittney in Perfect Chemistry, I am either going to have Brayden end up being some imaginary angel she sort of dreamed up that changed her life for the better because she is so arrogant; or I am going to make Brayden move away. As for my girl character I am going to change her name to Melissa, just so my story is not too similar to Perfect Chemistry.  This story has given me many other ideas such as having Melissa seem to have a perfect life to her classmates, but truly be dealing with problems at home that no one would ever expect. I am still brainstorming ideas; however I was thinking that she could really be poor because everyone thinks she is rich, but her grandmother left her parents the home when she died and Melissa can steal clothes to seem rich. My moral of the story has not changed but along with my idea of having the moral be about being nice to people because you never know what they are going through; I have added the idea that there is more than what meets the eye. I am looking forward to reading my next mentor text because I found this one to be extremely inspiring while writing my novel, Colliding Paths. 

Comments Week 6

http://chandlermayberry.blogspot.com/2011/10/man-in-black-top-hat_13.html

http://sally-girouard.blogspot.com/2011/10/ready-set-go.html?showComment=1318557229262#c1955595634983559561

http://morality-hmatthews.blogspot.com/2011/10/chevy.html?showComment=1318558331096#c823284567245497206
http://kaileymazzillimorality.blogspot.com/2011/10/importance-of-family-not-even-question.html?showComment=1318558732414#c2653549794148924455
http://labates.blogspot.com/2011/10/dont-be-fooled.html?showComment=1318559374077#c447213505776108685

http://aperiodenglishmmpshs.blogspot.com/2011/10/art-of-procrastination.html?showComment=1318806406528#c7756467451522584680

The Controversy: Is Cheerleading a Sport?

“Cheerleading is not a sport!” This is a simple sentence that may mean nothing to some, however to a cheerleader it is the most dreadful comment in the world.

Being a cheerleader for twelve years out of my seventeen years of life has made me extremely familiar with this sport. Yes, I say sport because you would not understand what it really takes to be a cheerleader, if you are not one. I watch other “sports” and do not see how other people can say; “Cheerleading is not a sport,” when these other things I watch I can’t even understand what they are supposed to do.

For starters, I’m sure we have all seen a baseball game. We have our outfield and infield standing around until a ball comes that they catch and throw away to another player. Then there are the batters that just sit around until they get to swing a metal pole around and hope to possibly hit a ball. If they’re lucky enough to hit it they only have to run 90 feet, then they get to stop and take a breather. And they call baseball a sport?

Then we have football, where a big group of boys run and jump on top of each other. They also throw a weird shaped ball that looks like Hey Arnolds head. Bringing us to hockey, all they are, are boy figure skaters with a stick and a puck that they hit into a big net and fight each other.

What about soccer? We see people run up and down a field kicking a ball and hopefully aiming correctly into a huge net. Sounds pretty tough. And then there’s basketball. In this so called “sport”, boys and girls run up and down a big court bouncing a giant bouncy ball off the ground, and when the times right, they throw the big bouncy ball into a net! And you still say cheerleading is not the sport here when we have a sport called golf? They drive to different holes and hit a ball with a metal pole then they drive more.

The reason I am using these sports is because I have never played on a team for these sports, I would never understand what it takes to seriously play each one of those sports. Cheerleading is discriminated as a “hobby” due to the fact that our audience sees the ending factor of what we do. They see our stunts hit precisely, our motions perfect, and our dance exquisite; to our audience, we make it look easy.  They would never see the blood, sweat, or tears that come from us. Eat. Sleep. Cheer. Repeat. That is a cheerleaders’ life. Cheerleading is a sport; however, if you are not one, you would never understand. 

Comments Week 4 and 5

http://sydneycochran7.blogspot.com/2011/10/personal-narrative-shifting.html?showComment=1318290870012#c4796542647710021138

http://chandlermayberry.blogspot.com/2011/10/life-is-prize-live-every-moment-like.html?showComment=1318290931288#c2388076640025686524

http://sally-girouard.blogspot.com/2011/10/width148-height44-namemovie-value.html?showComment=1318290968667#c3904867192189875413

http://adamferguson16.blogspot.com/2011/10/i-believe-life-is-improvised-solo.html?showComment=1318291945878#c528332252956168267

http://scriordan94.wordpress.com/2011/10/07/i-am-me/#comment-8

http://kaileymazzillimorality.blogspot.com/2011/10/personal-narrative.html?showComment=1318295025713#c3748841562490613110

http://licensetobemorallyrational.blogspot.com/2011/10/blissful-blindness.html?showComment=1318296367333#c7151632616340735739

http://alexjosephson.blogspot.com/2011/10/impacting-my-community-my-college-essay.html?showComment=1318296665367#c6153651554284411716

Th1rteen R3asons Why Relation

In order to write my book, Ms. Kennett gave me the assignment of reading Th1rteen R3asons Why. This book was so inspiring to the plot of the story I am creating. I really enjoyed this book it was a true page-turner. The Th1rteen R3asons Why was a sort of morbid story about a young girl named Hannah that committed suicide, for thirteen reasons. Hannah records 13 stories about the reasons why she killed herself and they are sent to the people involved one by one. The story is the journey of the last person, Clay, listening to all of the tapes and following a map through the city Hannah had left for him.

I found it very clear as to why Ms. Kennett gave me this story to read. Not only did I have a great interest to the book, however the Th1rteen R3asons Why is a less happy version of my story. Her character Hannah is very similar to my character Brayden. They both live very rough lives and struggle with the hardships that come along with your high school years. They both have friends that come and go and are noticed for all of the wrong reasons. They both find someone they truly mesh with and begin to fancy that person. In Th1rteen R3asons Why it is too late for Hannah to get over the pain and fall in love so she kills herself; however in my story, it is the perfect time for Brayden to meet a new girl.

Along with my main depressed character, my main character that comes along, Jessica resembles the character Clay in Th1rteen R3asons Why. They are both very empathetic and kind people, and they look past all of the bad things they hear about the person they are interested in. They both take the time to get to know someone rather than judging a book by its cover. It was very interesting how my characters fit so well with the characters in Th1rteen R3asons Why.

My setting of my book was very similar to the Th1rteen R3asons Why, they both mainly take place at a school and little places around town that are significant to the troubled character. For example Hannah had a very close tie with Monet’s, a coffee shop; and my character has a very intense feeling towards a park in his small town.

Reading this book inspired many ideas of what Brayden could be going through, rather than just having they typical parent dying story. It was very interesting to see how closely my story related to Th1rteen R3asons Why. It gave me many great new ideas. Reading this book has definitely enhanced my ideas towards my story. I can not wait to begin creating new ideas for my story that have been inspired to me by the Th1rteen R3asons Why.

Impacting my Community: My College Essay

http://vocaroo.com/?media=vd1GsTVTTV1nnC450

"I want to be remembered as the girl who could always brighten up your day even if I couldn't brighten my own."

As she advanced out the door settled in her wheelchair, a look came upon her face she was not sure would ever appear again.  This remarkable girl unfortunately had brain cancer, was a child of poverty, and had no hair; prom -to her- was out of the question. Her lips began to separate displaying gorgeous teeth and cunning dimples as she flaunted her olive green prom dress. It was not just a smile; it was a sense of relief, a sense of beauty; something this girl had not felt in years.

That day I will never forget. The day I changed someone’s life. The day I saw bliss in a girl filled with dismay. The most rewarding thing, to me, is seeing someone smile, and knowing -I- caused that smile. 

Throughout my seventeen years of life, I have always dreamed of helping those in need; in March of 2011 my dream quickly altered to reality. As I was on the expedition to find an impeccable gown for my junior prom, I saw that the local chapter of Becca’s Closet, a charity that donates prom dresses to the less fortunate, had shut down. I recognized this would affect many of my peer’s attending the prom. I began researching Becca’s Closet and was informed that the woman that had just ended the business stored the dresses at a local cleanist. I decided opening this business back to the community would become my top priority.

Taking on this large task was not going to be simple. I was aware that I would have to be persistent, enthusiastic, and motivated to make this conceivable. Throughout the process of reestablishing the chapter I knew this would be beneficial to my community, which strived me to keep moving forward.

Immense amounts of girls come to the Becca’s Closet - I run - from all around Massachusetts. I find the thankfulness from the girls so rewarding, I have assisted many girls with such drastic life stories such as one girl having brain cancer and never being able to walk again, and another girl that became mentally impaired after a car accident.  It is stories like these that truly teach you to value life and do what is most beneficial for you and others surrounding you. When I am asked how I accomplished this achievement at my age my response is always the same. Nothing makes me more ecstatic than to see a girl find her dream prom gown from something I have enhanced and took over when they never thought that was possible. When the going got rough I knew I could never give up if I wanted to rise above all odds.

When people hear my name, I hope they smile and are reminded of my motivation, persistence and enthusiasm. 

Leaving an Impact: My College Essay

<object width="148" height="44"><param name="movie" value="http://vocaroo.com/player.swf?playMediaID=vd1GsTVTTV1nnC450&server=m1.vocaroo.com&autoplay=0"></param><embed src="http://vocaroo.com/player.swf?playMediaID=vd1GsTVTTV1nnC450&server=m1.vocaroo.com&autoplay=0" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" wmode="transparent" width="148" height="44"></embed></object>

"I want to be remembered as the girl who could always brighten up your day even if I couldn't brighten my own."

As she advanced out the door settled in her wheelchair, a look came upon her face she was not sure would ever appear again.  This remarkable girl unfortunately had brain cancer, was a child of poverty, and had no hair; prom -to her- was out of the question. Her lips began to separate displaying gorgeous teeth and cunning dimples as she flaunted her olive green prom dress. It was not just a smile; it was a sense of relief, a sense of beauty; something this girl had not felt in years.

That day I will never forget. The day I changed someone’s life. The day I saw bliss in a girl filled with dismay. The most rewarding thing, to me, is seeing someone smile, and knowing -I- caused that smile. 

Throughout my seventeen years of life, I have always dreamed of helping those in need; in March of 2011 my dream quickly altered to reality. As I was on the expedition to find an impeccable gown for my junior prom, I saw that the local chapter of Becca’s Closet, a charity that donates prom dresses to the less fortunate, had shut down. I recognized this would affect many of my peer’s attending the prom. I began researching Becca’s Closet and was informed that the woman that had just ended the business stored the dresses at a cleanist. I decided opening this business back to the community would become my top priority.

Taking on this large task was not going to be simple. I was aware that I would have to be persistent, enthusiastic, and motivated to make this conceivable. Throughout the process of reestablishing the chapter I knew this would be beneficial to my community, which strived me to keep moving forward.

Immense amounts of girls come to the Becca’s Closet - I run - from all around Massachusetts. I find the thankfulness from the girls so rewarding, I have assisted many girls with such drastic life stories such as one girl having brain cancer and never being able to walk again, and another girl that became mentally impaired after a car accident.  It is stories like these that truly teach you to value life and do what is most beneficial for you and others surrounding you. When I am asked how I accomplished this achievement at my age my response is always the same. Nothing makes me more ecstatic than to see a girl find her dream prom gown from something I have enhanced and took over when they never thought that was possible. When the going got rough I knew I could never give up if I wanted to rise above all odds.

When people hear my name, I hope they smile and are reminded of my motivation, persistence and enthusiasm. 

Comments Week Three; Morality

http://bit.ly/p5KRXK

http://bit.ly/oBQDfq

http://bit.ly/pKlnFK

http://bit.ly/nr8eHB

http://bit.ly/nfPUlt

http://bit.ly/n34MbN

http://bit.ly/oj6AKA

Morality and Immorality are Essentially the Same Thing When It Comes to Society

Can someone make a moral decision and an immoral decision; is there a definite line between right and wrong? After The First Death, by Robert Cormier, is an action filled novel about a terrorist, Miro, who contemplates whether or not he is making a right or wrong decision throughout this story. Miro is a very complex character most see as an extremely immoral character, however he is not immoral. There are many instances where we find Miro making moral decisions, as well as immoral decisions; the moment he is given the mask, instances while he is on the bus, and when he kills Kate.

When Miro is given the mask, it is an empowering part of the story. Miro is contemplating whether or not killing the bus driver is the right thing to do; “Sometimes, however, he brooded about the mask. He had the feeling that he must be doing something dishonorable if the operations and confrontations had to be carried out with faces hidden. If what we are doing is heroic, to deliver our people and restore our homeland, why must we hide who we are? He once asked Artkin. And Artkin had told him that there were many laws in this world, good laws and bad laws, right laws and wrong laws. According to the wrong laws, their mission, their work, was condemned. But their enemies had made these laws. So they had to disguise themselves to remain free under the wrong laws,” (41). Miro does not believe that if he has to hide who he is to follow through on his actions then they can not they be moral. When we are heroes we are happy about what we are doing and want people to know who we are, and in this quote, Miro shows us that he feels the same about that; but if he is doing this for his civilization there is a possibility that Miro is being moral and heroic.  

Another instance where we see Miro being immoral, along with when he is given the mask, is while he is executing his terrorist attack on the bus. We begin seeing Miro is terrified when he is walking onto the bus; “Miro entered the bus and removed the mask. His skin was hot and flushed,”(104). The fact that Miro is flushed shows us as readers that he feels very uneasy about what he is doing from the start. As time passes on the bus we see numerous occurrences where Miro keeps talking about the girl, and he frowns every time he looks at her. The sadness and apprehensiveness we see displays Miro’s conscious side, showing a sign of morality. We also see Miro being moral when he says; “I accept mistakes because humans make mistakes. And the the young are expected to make mistakes. But to be careless is different. To be outside the bus with the girl inside, that was more than a mistake,”(165).  Miro validates that he is a scrupulous person with this quote because it is showing his thoughts to himself; ultimately making him a moral character because even though it is wrong to him, he is still following through with the attacks for his society.

            Along with the moment Miro is given the mask and instances while he is on the bus, lastly we see Miro kill Kate. This event was extremely appalling because at the moment when he shoots her it is completely unexpected. As Miro is mourning over Artkin we see a nurturing side to Kate; “ Kate cradled him, moving one free arm to embrace him. His wailing formed a word now as it rose from the hiding place, bursting out of the enclosure. Aaaarrttkinnnnnnn! Rising and then dying in the air lingering as only a faint echo in the ears. Kate rocked him gently, the way she had rocked the children on the bus, crooning softly, a song without tune, words without meaning, but sounds to bring him comfort and solace. She closed her eyes enfolding him, enclosing him with her body, with her warmth and her breath, her sweat and her urine. When he squeezed the trigger, the bullet smashed her heart, and she was dead within seconds,”(220). As we see Kate instantly die without Miro even contemplating whether or not he should, he just does it. Perhaps, he killed her so he could stay content within his society, if nothing was holding him back he could easily forget and continue more deaths after the first death. By doing this for his culture, this still makes him a moral character because in his civilization, what he did is morally correct.

The Nurture vs. Nature debate explains that our minds begin as a blank slate, if this is true then can a true moral really exist, the answer is no. Different people, different countries, and different ethnicities all have clashing morals and this is because we believe something is wrong due to what our society tells us. In Miro’s society it was perfectly fine to begin a terrorist attack and take innocent peoples lives because that is what he had to do to defend his homeland. In the end of After the First Death we see Miro finally choose the immoral side, the dark side; but essentially Miro never did anything immoral because killing people is considered honorable in his mind. It is up to us, as readers to decide whether Miro was a moral or an immoral character, and in the end Miro was a moral character because he knew what he had to do was technically bad, however he had to do what was best for his country, which makes him an honorable character. 

Week #2 Comments

http://bit.ly/oBYa7I; I am the first anonymous.
http://bit.ly/qXdAuE
http://bit.ly/q653uO

http://bit.ly/pMSTvn

http://bit.ly/n0DOzc

When we must walk alone, we have our moral compass with us: Blog Post # 2

“Because your own strength is unequal to the task, do not assume that it is beyond the powers of man; but if anything is within the powers and province of man, believe that it is within your own compass also.” This quote is said by Marcus Aurelius. When we cannot find our selves we use our moral compass to get us back to who we truly are. Your savior, your moral compass, consists of what you truly believe to be the most significant points in your life. My moral compass consists of love, friends and family, education, and happiness.

Love is my first point on my moral compass because without love your life would be nothing. No, love is not just about a boyfriend and girlfriend or husband and wife; it is loving life, nature, and most importantly yourself. Love is everything, why else would people crave it so much; it is so special and endearing. When all else fails, love will always be there to pick you up; whether it comes from a friend, a family member, a flower, a dog, it can truly be anything. Beauty is found within love, and that is where we find our self-esteem. If you do not love who you are can you truly love something else? You must find your love within. 

Happiness, smiling, and laughter is the next point on my moral compass, which also explains my quote to live by; “
Every time you smile at someone, it is an action of love, a gift to that person, a beautiful thing;” said by Mother Teresa. This quote is extremely important to me because when someone smiles at me it completely brightens my day. You never know if someone is having a horrible day, and if you smile at a stranger at his or her darkest moment, you could just be that one light that makes them strive to keep moving forward and ultimately brighten their day. A day without smiling or laughing, to me, is a day of misery and a complete waste.

Family and Friends is the third point on my moral compass. The day we come into the world our family is standing right there beside us welcoming us into their family. When there is no one there for you, your family will always be there to pick you up when you have fallen down at your weakest moments. They say we do not choose our family, but our friends are the family we choose. Friends, like family, help you through so many difficult times in your life, that without friends, life would be almost impossible to live. Our friends and family can always make our days better.

Lastly on my moral compass is education. I find education to be one of the most beneficial morals to my life. Without education, we could not go any where in life; we would not know how to read, how to write, how to correctly speak. Education is the building blocks to our future, every day we learn new things; not just things in school, we learn about others and ourselves. Education builds us the pathway to success and only sends us in a beneficial direction for our lives. Without these morals in my life, I would not know who I was or where I would be in life.

My 5 Comments on Classmates Blogs:

My five comments i made on my classmates blogs: 

1) http://bit.ly/qIcl5e

2) http://bit.ly/n0IVuT

3) http://bit.ly/q4MayJ

4) http://bit.ly/ooJeFT

5) http://bit.ly/mXv4Mw

What Is Morality? Blog 1

What Is Morality?

Mark Twain once said; “It is curious that physical courage should be so common in the world and moral courage so rare.” This enlightening statement stands out against many other quotes because it questions the morals people have. Twain is saying that numerous people have the ability to physically do things due to the fact that we do not have anything to stop us; however it is seldom that people choose whether or not to do something based on the idea of what if you are doing is wrong? Morality, to most people, is the ability to know right from wrong; however it is much more than that. Morality is the guideline to our lives, an essential way to think so we can live our lives without doing wrong to the world. Having your own beliefs is your form of morality; it is your state of mind. If we want to do something, despite the circumstances, we will usually make our minds think it is in fact morally “right”, when it could really be wrong. People do not have morals because it is a rule; people have morals due to the fact that they have a conscious. Unscrupulous people do not have the same morals as a scrupulous person. Your conscious helps you decide if you are following your morals, if you go against them you will feel corrupt after, and if you follow what you believe in you will feel virtuous after. The author Ernest Hemmingway also agreed with how making decisions about your morals will make you feel; “About morals, I know only that what is moral is what you feel good after and what is immoral is what you feel bad after.” Someone with morals can absolutely make an immoral decision. Being moral does not mean you do not make bad decisions; being moral means when you do something you know if it was wrong or right. Morals are not based on what you do physically; it is how you feel about the decisions you made. Morals are a very diverse subject because everyone has different morals. No one thinks alike, that is why we are humans, and we are our own persons. Morals are not just things we do; it is what goes on in our minds. Our thoughts can be as immoral as an action; just because you did not do it does not mean you did not want to at one point. Our morals make us who we are, they are much more than a simple thought, idea, or rule; morals are our state of mind and our human nature. What does it mean to be moral? It means you know how to shape yourself into the best person you can be.

1.     "Twain, Mark. "Moral Quotes - BrainyQuote." Famous Quotes at BrainyQuote. Web. 07 Sept. 2011. <http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/keywords/moral.html>.

2.     Hemmingway, Ernest. "Morals Quotes - BrainyQuote." Famous Quotes at BrainyQuote. Web. 07 Sept. 2011. <http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/keywords/morals.html>.