First time playing soccer in weeks

        For the past week or two I have not been able to play soccer on my team because my coach doesn't want me to get hurt, but it is really upsetting to me because soccer is my favorite sport and always helps me think. Over the past few weekends I was going to the games but I was only allowed to watch which was very painful because all I really wanted to do was to go play. This past weekend we had another scrimmage where we played the U-16 boys for my club, Capital City United. In this game I finally came up with the courage to ask my coach if I was even going to play and if I could. He surprised me by telling me I could go warm up to play but I could not get hurt out there.
      Playing for that little amount of time was amazing. Before when we were lining up I was literally jumping up and down because I had no idea how I was going to play. When I got out there my team mates supported me and they told me it doesn't matter how I played then because they knew that by the tournament in Houston I would be back to playing how I usually do. I felt supported and at the point I couldn't care less how I played as long as I got to play.

The Elite by Kiera Cass

      Right now I am reading The Elite by Kiera Cass. It is the second book of the series, The Selection. The first book was called The Selection. It was about a teenager, America Singer, who gets chosen to fight for the marriage of the prince, Maxon. She is forced to leave her home and boyfriend, Aspen. The only upside is that her family receives money for each week she is there. She is outright rude to the prince and tells him that she is not competing for the marriage but only wants to stay so that way her family can be fed. He makes a deal with her saying that he will keep her in. But she doesn't know what to do when she starts to get closer to the prince. In the second book it involves her having to choose between her old boyfriend who came to work for the palace as a guard or choose to fight for the prince.
      If I was America I would tell the prince about the conflictions she was having in order to see if he actually cared about her too or if it was just a one sided relationship.If he didn't care enough to want to convince her to be with him then she would know to choose Aspen. Both of the boys make you care deeply for them and you are secretly rooting for both. Maxon may have a temper at times but you can tell that he truly cares for America since he tells her secrets of the palace that nobody knows and information about him. Aspen is always there for her when Maxon is being a jerk though, so you never know who you want to side with.

Book	Author	Time
The Elite	Kiera Cass	2 hours

Concerns for this year

         Coming into ninth grade I was very worried about the amount of work I would have because of what I was hearing. On the first day I was still really stressed out and worried but as the day progressed I started to enjoy it more. I am still very concerned about the workload since I have already had a little trouble keeping up but so far I have been up to task it is just taking a while to get used to it.
          I am also worried about sports. I run cross country and play soccer. The team I play on outside of school is CCU United. My coach, Coach Chris, has told me to sit out of contact activities due to my injuries so that way I can play in the tournament on Labor day weekend in Houston, TX. I am worried that when I go back to play I will have not gotten used to playing yet since I have not been allowed to play. So far this year I have only been able to make it to one cross country practice because every time I run my injuries act up causing me to not be able to go to practice the next day because I don't want to injure myself more. My injuries have gotten a lot better though which is keeping optimistic because I ran today without any pain and I am very happy. I hope that I will be able to keep up in sports this year while also handling my homework.

Reading Log

8/14/13           Gorgeous by Paul Rudnick            3.5 hours

Gorgeous by Paul Rudnick

    This week I read Gorgeous by Paul Rudnick. I always read the last page first but none of the pages before so that I have more insight on what happens and I can see if it is a sad book but at the same time I still don’t know exactly what happens in the end and I still have to try and figure it out. What made me choose the book was that the whole summary about the book was about how she wore 3 dresses and they made her beautiful and how she had to go though her new life while knowing that it was all fake but still acting like it wasn’t. Something that surprised me was that most of the characters are actually dead and no one knows who let them stay on Earth and the end of the book is when they tell you that all of the characters are actually dead but that they will never know how or who put them there.
    I had stopped reading for a while because I just wasn’t interested in any books anymore and every time I would start to read I would just stop on the 2nd chapter. After reading this book I have found my interest in reading again. I think the reason why I didn’t want to read anymore was because I had stopped reading the last page and I was always afraid that the ending would disappoint me by being sad or just ending without having a sequel so I just decided it would better to just not read so I wouldn’t be disappointed. This book was an exceptional book because at Paul Rudnick was able to relate to everyday life while also putting mystery and fiction into the book so you never knew what was going to happen next which is what made me decide to start reading again.