Senior Year

Electives

Gloving
 Gloving is light show done with your hands!

Fashion

I really enjoy taking my clothes and turning them into something different and new. 

I think this something I will be doing for a long time.

Below is a few examples of my work:

With this hat I added the spikes.

Work Experience

I have been at Treehouse for almost 3 years now. I started out by volunteering there. It is difficult, but rewarding work and I plan to stay on and maybe start work in the clinic soon.

Yoga
I took a yoga class at our neighborhood yoga studio and continued my studies at home with a DVD.

Science

Biology with Lab

Determining the PH of Common Substances

Building a Normal Distribution Curve

Mapping the Valves in Veins

English

American Literature

The Poetic History Of Edger Allen Poe

Edger Allen Poe was born on January 19th 1809 in Boston Massachusetts son to Elizabeth

Arnold Hopkins Poe and David Poe, Jr. Both of Poe’s parent’s were actors and Poe was their

second child and second son, they later had a daughter. In 1810 Poe’s father abandoned

their family, and his mother died a year later from pulmonary tuberculosis. Poe was

then taken into the home of John Allan, a merchant in Richmond, Virginia. The Allan’s

served as a foster family and gave Poe the name "Edgar Allan Poe", though they never

formally adopted him. While with the Allan’s, Poe moved frequently first to Irvine,

Scotland then to London and then finally back to Richmond, Virginia. Four years after

returning to Richmond Poe served as a lieutenant in the Richmond youth honor guard

sparking his military career. Shortly there after Poe decided to attended University of Virginia for

ancient and modern language. After a year he became unable to pay for classes and dropped out.

He moved to Boston and attempted to support himself with various odd jobs. but to no avail and

on May 27th, 1827 he enlisted in the United States Army as a private. Poe enlisted under a fake

name “Poe A, Perry” and claimed his age was 22 when he was actually 18.

Later that year Poe released his first book which was a 40 page book of poetry, titled

“Tamerlane and Other Poems.” The book mad a very small splash and gained almost no

recognition. Only fifty copies were printed. Nonetheless Poe continued with both his

writing and his involvement in the army and in 1827 was promoted to an artificer, essentially an

artillery troop. Fast forward 2 years and Poe is now a sergeant major in the artillery division

which was at the time the highest rank attainable by a noncommissioned officer. Despite this,

Poe attempted to cut short his 5 year term and eventually was discharged. Shortly after being

discharged Poe wrote his second book “Al Aaraaf, Tamerlane and Minor Poems,” in 1829.

But it wasn’t until 1831 that Poe started his career as a full time poet and writer. Poe was one

of the first Americans who tried to make a living by writing alone and for good reason, after his

first few attempts at poetry Poe turned to dramas and short story and found a modicum of

success in October of 1833 receiving a prize for his story “MS Found in a Bottle” from the

Baltimore Saturday Visitor. This story captured the attention of several important members of

The Society of Baltimore. These men later went on to connect Poe with Thomas W. White, the

editor of the “Southern Literary Messenger.” Poe quickly became the assistant editor of the

periodical in 1835, though this did not last long for Poe as his boss found him drunk on the job

shortly after appointing him to it. Immediately after being discharged from his position Poe

returned to Baltimore. After Poe’s return to Baltimore Poe (26 at the time) feel deeply in love

with his first cousin Virginia (13 at the time) and they secretly got married. It was around this

time Poe’s career also started to look up. He published scores of: poems, books reviews, critiques

and stories in the local paper garnering him attention and respect in the writing community.

In 1838 Poe published “The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym of Nantucket” a wildly

reviewed and loved novel, this was the only novel Poe ever wrote. After it’s publication Poe

was offered a position as assistant editor of “Burton’s Gentleman’s magazine” while with the

magazine Poe built up his reputation as an incisive critic, and reviewer. Later, in 1838, Poe

released “Tales of the Grotesque and Arabesque” which was a collection of previously published

stories. although it made little money and gather mixed reviews, it did create a big splash. In

1840 Poe left the Burton’s Gentleman’s magazine and started his own “journal” Poe intend to

call the journal “The Penn”, although the first issue was not published before Poe’s death in

1849. Poe died at the age of 40, the cause of death remains a mystery, he was found 4 days

before wandering the streets of Baltimore on October 3rd, he was allegedly in a delirious state

begging for help. The man who found him quickly brought him to the Washington Medical

College where he remained in an incoherent critical state until passing the morning of the

October 7th.

Poe did not gain serious recognition until long after his death. He is today considered to be

one of the great American poet’s and is studied all over the world.

A Fitzing Story

F. Scott Fitzgerald was born in Saint Paul, Minnesota on September 24th 1896. Although

Fitzgerald was born in Saint Paul he spent the bulk of his childhood in New Buffalo, New York

and Syracuse, New York. Both of Fitzgerald’s parents came from Irish decent, with his father

also having British roots. The family held strict Catholic beliefs which influenced Fitzgerald’s

schooling. He spent the entirety of his childhood flitting from Catholic school to Catholic school.

Although the manner in which he conducted his studies was considered strange, because of his

quickly noticed intellectual abilities, he was permitted to only attended half of the school day and

he was further allowed to choice which half of the school day he would like to attend. This was

incredibly strange in the early 1900s and even today may still be found to be rather odd.

From a young age Fitzgerald proved to be rather keen at all studies, but particularly that of

literature. His first work to be published was at the age of thirteen in his school newspaper,

though not a major achievement this is thought to have sparked Fitzgerald’s dreams to be a

professional author. Two years later Fitzgerald switched schools again and while at his new

school, the Newman School, a priest noticed his literary ability and spent the next three years

encouraging it and his ambitions of honing it as a profession. After his graduation from Newman

in 1913 Fitzgerald attended Princeton, while attending Princeton he became friends with several

to-be great American authors including Edmund Wilson And John Peale Bishop. They became

close through several clubs, including the Princeton Triangle Club which was the inspiration for

Fitzgerald to submit his first novel to Charles Scribner’s Sons and editor in the area. Although

his novel was ultimately rejected the writing did receive some praise from the editor. This

marked the first and only attempt Fitzgerald would make to publish anything while at Princeton.

In 1917 Fitzgerald unable to juggle both his coursework and writing was put under academic

probation, shortly after he dropped out to join the United States Army. Fitzgerald quickly became

nervous he may not live through World War 1 and therefore never fulfill his dreams of becoming

a published author so he quickly wrote a novel titled “The Romantic Egoist”. Again Charles

Scribner’s Sons rejected the novel, although this time citing praise for it’s originality.

Fitzgerald was stationed at Camp Sheridan outside Montogomery, Alabama, it was there, that

he met Zelda Sayre, who in Fitzgerald’s own words was the “golden girl” and the daughter of a

Supreme Court Justice. In 1918 the war had ended and Fitzgerald who had never been deployed

moved to New York City to launch a career in advertising he hoped would persuade Zelda to

marry him. He worked at Barron Collier advertising agency, this proved to be enough to

convince Zelda to accept his marriage proposal. But before they were married Zelda became

wary of Fitzgerald’s ability to support her no matter Fitzgerald’s reassurances that with his job in

advertising and writing short stories to various local newspapers he could provide for her. Zelda

remained unconvinced and called off the marriage.

Fitzgerald heartbroken moved back into his parents house. While back home he began revising

and perfecting “The Romantic Egoist” later renamed “This Side of Paradise”. This was

Fitzgerald’s first novel to be accepted by the editors and published. Shortly after the publication

Zelda resumed the engagement and later married Fitzgerald. During the marriage’s peak,

Fitzgerald published two books of short stories titled “Flappers and Philosophy” (Published

1920) and “Tales of the Jazz Age” (Published 1922) as well as a novel titled “The Beautiful and

the Damned” (Published 1921). These pieces helped to further Fitzgerald’s career and

fame in life, but it wasn’t until long after his death that his most iconic work came out of the

woodwork “The Great Gatsby” published in 1925 lives on to be what is widely considered

Fitzgerald’s masterpiece, though not considered such during the time of it’s original publication.

After the publication of The Great Gatsby Fitzgerald’s drinking caught up with him and in the

late 1930s he suffered two heart attacks, Fitzgerald managed to survive both, but then a third

heart attack stuck him dead on December 20th 1940 leaving his last novel and the sequel to The

Great Gatsby unfinished. Though through the progresses already made and Fitzgerald’s extensive

notes Edmund Wilson was able to posthumously publish Fitzgerald’s final novel in 1941.

World Literature

The Renegade Adventure of Don Quixote

Don Quixote is a Spanish novel by Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra. It follows the adventures

of Alonso Quixano, a retired elderly man who develops a fascination with chivalrous novels

eventually become delusional, believing everything written to be true and actually happening in

the Spanish country side where he lives (La Mancha). The novel itself contains a narration of

Quixote’s adventures. These adventures are broken up into “Sallys”. The first Sally features

Quixote’s first “quests”. After setting out early in the morning Quixote eventually wanders his

way to an inn that he believes to be a castle, he asks the innkeeper who he believe to be a lord to

dub him a knight. Having very little money Quixote spends the night in the stable with his horse,

where he starts a fight with muleteers who are attempting to water their mules. The muleteers

attempt to remove Quixote’s gear from the trough to water their horses, but Quixote sees their

attempt as a threat and attacks the men. As a result the innkeeper tells Quixote to leave.

Quixote’s next quest is to “free” a boy who is tied to a tree and being beaten by his

master. After freeing the boy, Quixote’s makes the master promise on a chivalric code to treat

the boy fairly. Upon leaving the beating continues worse than it had previously been.

His final quest is to defend the honor of his imagined lover from traders he met on the road.

After picking a fight with the traders Quixote is left badly wounded on the side of the road. He

is found and returned to his home, thus ends the first Sally.

The second Sally begins with Quixote’s recruiting his uneducated neighbor Sancho and

asking him to be his squire, promising him the governorship of an island. Sancho agrees to be

Quixote’s squire and they begin on another set of quests starting with the duo attacking a hillside

bunch of windmills. Next they encounter a lady of royalty traveling in a guarded caravan.

Quixote assumes the lady has been kidnapped and is being held hostage so he attacks the caravan

guards until the lady tells her guards to “surrender”. This encounter is the final major encounter

in the second Sally, unlike the first Sally this one does not end with Quixote’s being severally

injured and sent home.

Throughout their journey the duo encounter: innkeepers, goat herders, soldiers prostitutes,

priests, and escaped convicts. Theses characters sometimes tell tales from actual events that had

happened or were happening. This fusion of fiction and reality was one of the first of its

kind and was one of the many reasons this book is considered to be among the best fiction

novels of all times. The meaning and themes of this book are monumental, as well as

significantly layered over each other. Entire careers have been made from trying to understand

the full level of detail put into the meaning and themes of this book. The books most recognized

themes are betrayal, faith, and an educated spoof of chivalric romance literature. These themes

become stronger in the second book, though they are still rather apparent in the first.

The theme of betrayal is far more prevalent in the second book where Quixote becomes the but

of several sadistic and cruel jokes, even from his squire Sancho.

The theme of faith is not only in the sense of religion, but also in the way of Quixote’s faith in

the restoration of the chivalric code and the strength his delusions are given from his faith.

Finally the spoof on chivalric romantic literature is immensely apparent throughout both books,

this commentary on classic romantic literature is widely cited as being the first modern literature

book to ever be written. These themes just scratch the surface of everything at play in this book

and the second and really cannot begin to explain the complexity of the book as a whole. Though

they do provide an okay summation for all of the groundbreaking ideas in this book.