The war in Afghanistan
How may of you think we should escalate our involvement in Afghanistan? President Obama wants to send more troops into Afghanistan. This decision could be one of the most important decisions of his presidency. Should President Obama send in additional troops? Or declare victory and withdrawal our troops and hand over security to a stabilization force consisting of troops from many nations? Although Obama may be leaning towards this, he is still reviewing his options. Vice President Biden has deep reservations about ramping up the war effort tin Afghanistan. Many Americans feel that Vice President Biden needs to act on his own reservations and not only those of Obama. The escalation of troops in Afghanistan will also escalate contact with terrorists and lead to more lose of lives.
Many American families are being affected by another war that may never be able to be won. As the Obama administration continues to spend billions of dollars on foreign soil, the U.S. economy continues to struggle. We should concentrate on our issues at home, without weakening our position on terrorism. Keeping terrorism outside our borders could be accomplished without investing in more troops being deployed on foreign soil. Do we continue to spend billons of dollars deploying troops on foreign soil while people in the U.S. are struggling to keep their homes and jobs?

During this summer, a horrible event happened to me, my sister, and our friend Clare. We had had a sleepover the night before and when we woke up we were very hungry. Clare lives by a Subway, so we just decided to go there. As we were walking through clares neighborhood we heard barking and growling. We could not see anything so we just kept walking. We walked another few feet and right as we turned the corner we saw a dog running towards us. At first I thought the dog was cute and was just coming to play with us, but man was I wrong!
When the dog got a little closer to us I got a pretty good luck at it. It was very short and extremely chubby. The dogs teeth were out and he did not look happy. When it finally hit me that the dog was coming to attack us I thought to myself, “Is this really happening”. That is when I started to run. Clare, our friend ran the other way back towards her house. I couldn’t figure out why this random dog just started chasing us. I was thinking maybe the dog will chase after Clare but no, it came for me and my sister. We then started running really fast. I couldn’t run anymore, so I hid behind the nearest car. Becca on the other hand, kept running. Becca was screaming so loud I just fell to the ground and started laughing. She even lost one of her flip flops! Some of the neighbors started to come outside of their houses to see what all the screaming was about.
After about one minute the dog finally just ran back to its home and sat on the front porch. Clare walked back over to us and Becca was still a little bit in shock. We found Becca’s flip flop and kept walking to subway. Just as we thought the all the chaos was over we heard growling again. We turned to the side and saw the dog sitting on the front porch staring at us with evil eyes! We didn’t want the dog to come attack us again so we started to walk back the other way. I was so hungry I was not going to let anything get in our way so I created a plan.
I said that maybe if we go behind the houses where the dog won’t see us we might be able to make it with out the dog coming. So we quickly and quietly went behind the houses. The dog thankfully did not notice us. We made it to Subway and finally got to eat. This was one of the funniest and craziest experiences I had all summer!

A Whole New World!

Today is my first day of high school. I have been waiting for this day all summer, and it was finally here. This morning when I woke up, I was really nervous. I remember my mom saying, “don’t worry hunny you’ll be fine”. How am I not supposed to worry, it’s my first day at not only a public school but a rather large high school. I didn’t know what to wear or how I should do my hair. Coming from a catholic school, I never gave much thought to my appearance considering I wore a uniform everyday.
The night before, I decided to see if my neighbors Denise and Diana wanted to carpool. They are sophomores, and I figured if I showed up with a familiar face, I wouldn’t feel like such an outsider. We walked into school and it didn’t seem as frightening as I imagined it would be. I thought I was pretty well prepared for the day. As I walked around, the halls started to get a little more crowded, but so far everything was going okay. I began to walk away from my locker, and as I took one little step, the six minute bell rang. Everyone started moving and walking to their classes, and I realized how busy these halls were.
I automatically started to panic. I kept thinking, “am I ever going to get to my class.” It was like driving through rush hour traffic. I was surrounded by a thousand people pushing and shoving their way through. It took me forever to even get out of the hall where my locker is, but I budged my way through and made it to my class. In the middle of my fourth hour, I made my way to lunch.
If I thought the halls were bad, lunch was ten times worse. I couldn’t even find a single seat open because the cafeteria was so crowded. I almost wanted to scream and run out, but just as I turned around, I heard someone yelling “Allie, Allie”. I looked over and saw my friend Ashley. There wasn’t even a seat open next to her, but thankfully she let me share one with her. Lunch didn’t start off to well, but than I started talking to all of my friends and asking everyone how their day was going.
After lunch the day went by really quickly. I got to all of my classes on time and everything went fine. At the end of the day I was really glad it was over. I knew tomorrow wouldn’t be as nerve-racking. In the end I thought I had a great first day of school!

ABC Traits!

A is for athletic. I am a very athletic person. I play three sports: volleyball, basketball, and softball. My favorite sport is basketball! I love being in shape and just going out and having fun!
B is for bizarre. Im a pretty crazy person. I love to have fun and just be my wacky self!
C is for cheerful. Whenever any of my friends are down I love to cheer them up. Even when im having a bad day I always find something happy to make it better.
D is for dancing. I would say I am a pretty horrible dance but I just love to do it. I have made up several of my own dance moves and just have a great time doing them.
E is for easy going. Im not a very picky person. I don’t argue about things, I just kinda go with the flow.
F is for friendly. I enjoy meeting new people and making new friends. I am also very trustworthy. A lot of my friends come to me when they need something and that makes me feel good.
G is for goofy. A lot of people tell me that im a goofy person. I always try to make people laugh, even if it makes me look like a weirdo.
H is for happy. Usually I am very happy. I laugh a lot and enjoy being in a good mood. You should always look at the positive things not only the negative.
I is for independent. I do a lot of things on my home. I don’t depend on my parents or others for everything. If my mom wasn’t going to be home early enough one night I would make my own dinner and do my homework on my own too. Unless I need help with something im oretty independent.
J is for jumpy. Im always moving around constantly. For some reason it is very hard for me to stay still.
K is for klutzy. i am extremly klutzy. im alwatys tripping and walking over things. its pretty embarrasing.
L is for loveable. im a very loveable person and I have a lot of love for others too!
M is for magic. I have always wanted to be able to do magic tricks. Although, i have never succeded.
N is for needles. I absolutly hate needles. They remind me of getting shots. The last experience i had getting a shot was not something i would want to relive.
O is for Orange. I love bright colors. they always remind me of something happy!
P is for pepperoni panini. I have a sandwich maker that i make paninis on all the time. My favorite is peperoni.
Q is for quick. Iam a very fast runner. Playing volleyball, basketball, and softball means you need to be a good and quick runner.
R is for Rebecca. I have a twin sister named Rebecca. She is one minute older than me.
S is for setting. I play the position of a setter on the volleyball court.
T is for turtle. I have a turtle stuffed animal that i sleep with every night! I named it Propel.
U is for undertsanding. Iam a very understanding person. My friends tell me a lot. They also listen to me when i need help too.
V is for volleyball. I play volleyball for the stevenson freshmen team. I have been playing volleyball for 4 years. It is one of my favorite sports.
W is for water. I love to go swimming. I pretty much go to my swim club every single day in the summer.
X is for xylophone. I do not play the xylophone but i love music. When ever im bored thats what i listen to. its a pretty big part of my life.
Y is for yellow. Yellow is another one of my favorite colors. It is also very bright, wich is why i like it.
Z is for zebra print. I like wearing zebra print clothing. it is very much in style now a days!

The Start of Freshmen Year!

So far I am actually enjoying school. In grade school I would wake up and be dreading the day, but when I wake up and know im coming here I get excited. Not for school work or anything but just coming here to Stevenson high school. Comparing my old school with about 800 people and this school with over 2,000 people it’s a pretty big jump. Although I do think I am getting the hang of everything it still takes a lot to adjust. There are a lot of things I like about Stevenson but a few things I don’t.
Most of my classes are pretty challenging. Being a global ed student is tough work, but it’s a great opportunity. In global ed history I like being able to talk about current events instead of just going chapter by chapter in the book, It gives you an opportunity to know what is going on in the present. Global ed English is one of my harder classes. After writing my first paper I realized how hard you really have to work to keep up good grades. There are also a lot of fun activities I have heard about in global ed so Im very glad to be apart of the program.
I would deffinetly say lunch is my favorite part of the day! I love being able to get away from school work and just relax. I sit with a pretty big group of people at lunch and we all get to talk and share fries with each other! If your one of those people who have never bought lunch, man are you missing out! I would recommend at least buying a cookie for yourself. Lunch is a very fun time and its good to be able to relax for a while. Besides getting homework and having tests or quizes I am enjoying school and am very glad to be attending Stevenson.