Day one of trip

    I haven't been able to write for a while because it has been hard to find time, so I'm starting off with my first day of my trip to the U.S. After waiting a few boring days between our vacation to the beach and our trip to the United States. Finally on the 22nd we headed to the airport around 11 am. We made our flight on time and I sat alone next to a guy from Minnesota. He was very nice and we talked for a while about why we live in panama, how we like it, and our plans for the holidays. I watched a few episodes of The Office and 30 Rock on the plane and by the time we were ready for landing he had drunken 4 vodkas and was drunk. My whole family was laughing from the row ahead and we kept joking about him for the rest of the night.
    We arrived at Miami Airport and had a three hour layover. We saw our grandparents briefly and ate dinner with them at a Cuban restaurant. It was great to see them after not seeing them for many months. We said bye and we headed to our gate at the far end of Miami Airport. Our flight left at 8:30 and we were at our gate with ten minutes to spare. Just then Carolina realized our error, we were at the wrong gate. Ours was at the far end of the airport and we only had 10 minutes. We ran like you had never seen before and hopped on the tram to our gate. By some miracle our flight had been delayed 13 minutes and we made it by a nick of time. The flight to DC wasn't as long and it passed by with the anticipation of seeing our cousins. By the time we arrived it was 11pm and we went pretty much straight to sleep. I can't wait to see my cousins tomorrow.

Wordly Wise

Once upon a time. In a ghetto far far away. There lived an audacious gangster named Sharone. Sharone was a very prudent man, and he always pilfered objects from people while they were at the annual gun convention. Sharone was so conscientious, that the neighbors never had the slightest inkling that they had been robbed. Whenever something went missing he would pretend to help the person look for it and give up saying, “If I can’t find it than no one can”. Sharone had a profusion of watches, golden rings, and bling he had stolen over the years. He had worked alone his whole life, knowing that if he had an accomplice they might commit mutiny and turn him in to the police.

One day while Sharone was strolling through the streets of Atlanta, he saw the pained look on the face of a wife living in a house that he had just robbed. Sharone realized that what used to please him know pained him. With a surprising serenity that was unusual for him, he walked up to her door step and handed her the 50mm Glock that he had stolen. Instead of rebuking him like he thought she would, she just thanked him and closed the door. Sharone realized the satisfaction he found in returning the stolen items. He realized that he didn’t want to be depicted as the gangster that he was anymore. So that night he decided to embark on his own quest, he would made sure to go during the darkest hour of night so that he wouldn’t rankle anyone, and he began returning peoples stolen items. Sharone soon became frustrated because the people were lackadaisical when they found the items at their door step. That evening after his shift at the KFC was over he went to the clothing store and bought a red hoodie, with red basketball shorts, a red snapback, 12 Dobermans and a sled. He soon began working with the Atlanta police and would return the stolen items that they had confiscated from criminals. Sharone was never slovenly during his work, and he would always make sure that no one would see him. When it became too much for him to return items every night he decided that every December 25, he would return all the stolen toys to little boys and girls in Atlanta. And that’s how the legend of Gangster Clause came to be.

Surprise

    Winter vacations just began and my family wasted no time to start vacationing. My sister's birthday was this Saturday and we decided to celebrate it in a special way. Cristina had always wanted a surprise birthday party, but the problem was that she had always planned her birthday like two months ahead. So this year we let her plan her own party, but on her birthday day we left and told her that we were going to dinner. Cristina, you can say is a very clueless child. Had it been anyone else in the family, they probably would have noticed that the dog had been gone all day, half of her clothes were missing, or even that we kept walking behind her with bags and boogie boards. Even when we drove for two hours and turned into Coronado, she didn't suspect anything at all. We had her convinced all the way until she was inside the hotel room. 
   We stayed at the Coronado Golf and Beach Resort. The suite we were staying in was probably one of the nicest hotel rooms I've ever stayed in. It had a down stairs that was complete with a bathroom, living room, dinning room, bed room and a balcony. It had a spiral staircase that led up to a loft with two queen size beds and a flat screen TV. I stayed up there with my sisters and even though they can be VERY annoying at times, we had lots of fun staying up until 1am and hanging out. The hotel was pretty nice, it had a pool, gym, spa, restaurant, and basically anything that most hotels have. It also had a nice golf course, but it rained too much so we couldn't play. Unfortunately it wasn't on the beach, but they had a shuttles that went back and forth to some beach front property that they owned. It had a pool, a bar, and jet ski's. The rain kept us inside for a lot of the time, but we still had tons of fun and it was an awesome experience.

Confession Tuesday, Cheer Leader Invasion

Okay, before I tell you my confession and you start thinking Wow what a total jerk! You need to know the whole story. So for like the past week my little sister has been stomping around the whole house 24/7 waving her hands and yelling chants like. “Go, Go! Fight, Fight! Win, Win! Go, Fight, Win!” She plans on making the Balboa Cheer Leading Team (you can just shoot me now). And unfortunately it's looking as if she's going to make it.

So I’m all up in my bed room like “Lina shut up!” “Practice a real sport” And even with my headphones on listening to music, my door shut, and Cristina blasting the lamest techno music you’ve ever heard from the office. The notorious “We are the mighty dragons and we’re going to rock this team to a victory!” can be heard from her bed room. (F.Y.I. Lina, let’s just say isn’t the best singer or cheerleader you’ve ever seen.)

So last night Lina was doing her usual cheers and I started making fun of them with my older sister. Lina’s getting all mad, and she’s like, “Pat if you think cheer leading is so easy why don’t we have a cheer off. So I’m there laughing my head off and I accept. Lina starts out with some cheer that she had learned at tryouts. So I’m next, and I start like pounding my chest, and head, and legs, and start running around the room pretending to be a dragon spiting fire at my sister about to die of laughter. Of course just to annoy her. She starts getting all mad that I’m mocking her cheer leading so she runs upstairs half crying. Next thing I know my parents are all over me. (I feel really really bad now). The night really sucked from then on, but that’s just life with two sisters.

To see more confessions return to middlemindz.blogspot.com.

The One that Fell Short

            5…4… Brock rockets the ball to Matthew at the top of the key. The last seconds of the fourth quarter in the Semi-finals of the VYI winter basketball league tick away, leaving us with just one last opportunity. A fierce, high scoring game is raging between the 1^st place Jade team, that is projected to win it all, and my team, the Denim Wranglers. We are the under dogs in this match up, having just come off a nail biting win the day before. But having no expectations put upon us is something that we feed on, and by some miracle we have made a stunning comeback to only be down by three points. The clock ticks away and we will need a last second shot to win this one. Lucky for us, last second comebacks are something that we have proved very capable of. Throughout the season we have already won three games that have been decided by three points or less.

We had been down in the first play-off game by one point when a kid on the other team accidentally turned around and shot the ball at his own basket. The moment the small brown basketball left his hands everyone seemed to realized his mistake, the crowd gasped and everyone watched in amazement. The ball seemed to roll around the rim teasing everyone for a few painfully long seconds. Before it stopped and rolled into the hoop, handing us the last second victory. I felt really guilty after the win. The short Korean kid with long shaggy hair who had just made the accidental basket ran to the bathroom and hid. He hid from his teammates, he hid from his parents, he hid from the world. He knew that everyone would hate him for what he had just done. His teammates all showed different emotions. Some cried in anger, some turned beat red and began punching the walls and throwing their water bottles on the ground. Most just stood there awestruck in disbelief of what had occurred. All hating their teammate. I just sat there in disbelief praying that I would never be that poor kid stuck in the bathroom. Little did I know that to my horror I would soon follow in his footsteps.

3… The score board read Jade 45, Denim 42. Matthew tries to drive in, but is met with two defenders under the basket. 2… He kicks out the ball to where I am standing at the top of the key behind the three point line. I am faced with only one option, to shoot it. This is risky I know, no one else on my team has shot a three-pointer all year. I flash back to the kid who lost the game for his team at the last second. I envisioned those tears running down his sweaty face, and his teammates not wanting to see him ever again. But I shake off the fear that tries to grip me. If I don’t shoot the ball, I will only bring more humiliation upon myself. 1… From behind the three-point line I square up with the rim and bring up the ball from my hip. My feet leave the ground and the next thing I know the ball is sailing through the air towards the basket. The buzzer buzzes, the loud sound is reflected off the tile walls off the gym. All that matters now is the ball. It hits the backboard up high, too high. The ball falls on the front of the rim with a dull clang, and for a moment I am unsure of whether it will roll in or out. If the buzzer beater were to go in I will become a hero, but if it falls short I will be just like the kid in the last game i think. It rolls for a second before the weight of the ball becomes unbalanced and falls down, out of the basket. Now I was the kid who everyone would hate for losing it. I had just ended the season for my team. 

Game over. Scenes rushed through my head of everyone glaring at me as they had to the other kid. All my teammates, all my friends were going to hate me. Nothing else would count, even though this had been one of my best performances ever, nothing would count. The points I made wouldn't be a factor, no one would remember my tenacious defense. But instead something unexpected occurred. "Hey It's okay man don't worry" Brock said. I just stood there stunned. Half of it was because of the depressing loss we had just faced, and the other half was that no one seemed mad at me. They were true teammates, they were true friends. I had failed them, but they had stayed loyal to me.

It's the 21st Century, Let it Drop

“In 1981 Mark Chapman approached John Lennon on the steps of the Dakota Hotel, New York and shot him five times killing him. Chapman then removed his copy of Catcher in the Rye from his pocket, signed by John Lennon earlier that morning, and tried to read it.” (Chasan 2) But I wonder whether the Catcher in the Rye was the motive, or even if it had anything to do with the case at all. Many schools nationwide have banned this, what some call, profane book from the schools. And according to an article a school teacher was even fired for assigning the book to kids. So should the Catcher in the Rye be taught in schools is an intricate question. Personally, strongly believe that this book should be taught to all kids as long as the teachers use discretion and assign it in the appropriate grade.

            This may be a book worthy of being banned in the 1960’s -1980’s, but times have changed. Back then, bikinis and short shorts would be extremely inappropriate. Now we look around and see half naked models on billboards, couples in bed on TV, and profanity in almost every book and movie. This book, even though 70 years old, is still very relevant to life now a day. Mainly because what he wrote at the time was so controversial. Now a day it is normal, and kids in the 21^st century are able to relate to it. It is also relatable because he writes about topics that most kids will always be able to relate to no matter how far in the future. J.D. Salinger wrote about many coming of age issues like becoming interested in girls, peer pressure to do the wrong things, and trying to fulfill everyone’s demands, which Holden has a lot of trouble with.

            Another reason I think that this book should be available to everyone, is because most kids will have or already have found out about the topics in this book. So as long as the teacher addresses it correctly there should be no problem with assigning the book. This book could actually be a positive learning experience if the teachers point out what Holden does wrong and what would have been the right thing to do in the end. Before schools ban the book they should asses what he students think of it and what they have learned from it. If parents get upset and start demanding that they are intent on not having their kids read the book, then the teachers can send home a permission slip informing parents about the book, and give them a second option if they decide that they don’t want their kids reading the Catcher in the Rye. This is a free world; you can’t just go around telling kids that they aren’t allowed to read certain books because you don’t agree with them. Now if you feel that a kid isn’t mature enough yet, then that’s one thing, but when you say that kids in High School can’t read it, then that is outrageous.

            The opposition may try to point out how it isn’t age appropriate for kids and it is against different people’s beliefs, but really I believe it isn’t. First of all there isn’t one real inappropriate scene which would be truly disturbing for kids of the right age. “In the first place, I'm sort of an atheist. I like Jesus and all, but I don't care too much for most of the other stuff in the Bible.” Holden says in chapter 14. In chapter 9 he says "In my mind, I'm probably the biggest sex maniac you ever saw." But really Holden isn’t that bad of a kid in my mind. Even though some might find parts of the book sexist, racist, anti-white, anti-gay, and practically anti-everyone, it’s just the way he sees life. People need to respect that that’s how J.D. Salinger wanted to portray Holden in the book. So even if many may disagree with Holden’s views, they need to let it go and know that at the end of the day they can believe whatever they want.

            I know that I stand strong with my opinion on this topic and I doubt that anyone can change my view. This book shouldn’t be banned from anywhere but an elementary school where kids may not be mature enough yet to read it, but chances are teachers weren’t going to be teaching it there anyway. If a parent for whatever reason didn’t want their child to read this book, I already shared my idea earlier of a second option for children to opt to. From first-hand experience, I can say that kids learn of this stuff way before their parents believe they do or would like. Reading this with a good teacher would be a very positive experience. So since this is a free world we are living in, and times have changed since when this book was published 70 years ago, this book shouldn’t be banned anywhere.

A Long Way Gone Book Review

Ishmael Beah’s story is a traumatic one, which was probably written for the reader as much as it was for Ishmael himself. I believe that after such a horrific childhood, Ishmael was trying to make sense of what he had been through during those lost childhood years by writing A Long Way Gone. This is by far my favorite memoir I’ve ever read. The way he pulled you into the story and shared his emotion was magnificent.

            When the story began it introduced us Ishmael, the average kid from the small African village of Mogwembo, in Sierra Leone. He has a love for American hip-hop and rap music, which he performs at talent shows with a group of his friends. One day he is on his way to his grandma’s village to perform a rap song in a talent show, when his home village is attacked by the ruthless RUF rebels who are in a gruesome war with the national army. The village is in utter chaos and everyone is separated trying to flee for their lives across the river. This would be the last time he ever saw his family.

            At this point in the book Ishmael realizes just how fortunate he had been before the war. He had a home, a peaceful environment, and a loving family, but the war stole that all from him. He was with six other friends just trying to get by each day. At this point he begins to believe that now he really has no future and that his life will never be the same. This is only the beginning for him, and already he feels hopelessness.

            For the next few months he wanders with a group of six friends, including his brother, through the dense forest of Sierra Leone just trying to survive. Along the way they are faced with a major problem. No one in the war torn country trusts anyone, especially a group of a group of seven 12 year old boys. Being mistaken for rebels countless numbers of times, they are repeatedly put at gun point by men protecting their villages. And repeatedly they must plead their cases chiefs, trying to convince them that they aren’t the ruthless rebels that they believe them to be, but a group of innocent children who have lost their families. “Some people tried to hurt us to protect themselves, their family and communities...This was one of the consequences of civil war. People stopped trusting each other, and every stranger became an enemy. Even people who knew you became extremely careful about how they related or spoke to you.” He said trying to describe the distrust that came with the war.

            This to me was one of the most important issues in the book. As is true with many wars, it brings a certain amount of distrust among people, especially when boys as young as 10 years old are being taken from their homes and are turned into trigger happy rebels. Everywhere they travel, they are suspected of being rebels and no one wants to aid them on their journey. When they are finally able to convince the tribal chiefs that they are just innocent boys, they are told that they can live but have to leave immediately. Even while walking on a path families will hide in the bushes when they come by.

            One night while they are staying in a village, they are attacked by the rebels sending everyone into chaos fleeing in all directions. Ishmael is separated from his friends and walks alone through the dense jungle for five straight days. On the fifth day while walking he stumbles upon some kids from school, he joins their group and starts a new journey with them.

            At this part I think he notices two things. First, he notices just how easy it is to lose someone at those times. At any time of the day you never know when you will see your friends again, or even if you will live to see the next day. The second thing I think he notices is the abundance of lost children wandering without their families, trying to avoid the war. He loses his friends and then five days later he’s off again with a new group of kids.

            The new group faces all the old challenges the old groups faced. They are in constant need of food and water, no one trusts them, and everywhere they go they need to be cautious of being captured or killed. At one village they learn that their families are located in the village only a few miles away, they are eager to set out and meet them, but decide to wait until morning. In the morning they set out for the village. On their way they help a farmer from a farm near the village carry some wood. You can fell their eagerness at this point to drop the wood and run to see their families again, but right when they get to the top of the hill the village is attacked by rebels. The rebels are ruthless and shot every person not letting anyone escape or taking any prisoners.

            This attack basically symbolizes his luck during the book. One mile short. One mile short of seeing his family, one minute away from being shot by rebels when held captive in a village, one bullet away from being dying and not being able to live to tell his remarkable story to the world. After coming so close to seeing his family and falling short he became depressed for the next few days saying he had rather die and been able to see his family.

            Ak-47s, ammo, a little food, and backpacks. On their first day they encountered rebels in the forest. They hid in the brush and ambushed them when they came closer. During the battle a kid right next to him gets shot and killed. Ishmael panics and stands up trying to revive the ten year old kid. He is yanked down before a bullet whizzes by right where he had been. He doesn’t fire a single shot in the first battle in fear that he might kill someone. Ishmael soon becomes addicted to marijuana and cocaine, in the next few battles he proves to be a strong fearless fighter killing dozens of rebels. During a contest one night he kills a rebel prisoner in less than five seconds and becomes a “Junior Lieutenant”. He leads some small scouting missions and at one point he and five other soldiers take an entire village by themselves.

            This right here is the heart of the story. He is turned from the innocent lost boy to a fearless soldier. He kills countless men and has no mercy. He sees how in reality the military is no better than the rebels. They are murderous monsters that attack even their own villages for supplies. Ishmael changes drastically throughout this part of the book. He is hooked on drugs, he kills rebels for pleasure, and war has become his life. All he does is fantasize about war and imagine that he was Rambo taking on a whole army.

            Ishmael has become high ranked in the military and never wants to leave, but all that changes. One day a UNICEF truck pulls up and the lieutenant chooses Ishmael and 4 other boys. They are all enraged when they find out that they are being removed from the war and brought to a rehab facility. They plot to hijack the truck, but each time that they are about to attack they pull up to a checkpoint. They arrive at the rehab center where they are given rooms with beds. There are a lot of people already living there and more arrive by the hour. The clueless UNICEF workers don’t realize their mistake of joining the RUF rebel kids with the kid soldiers until it’s too late. A horrible fight breaks out killing six of the kids. He is sent with a group of retired kid soldiers to a rehab facility farther from the capital Freetown. They act totally irrational; they attack employs, steal food, and sell their supplies for money. The workers only give them new supplies and say “It’s not your fault.” This drives them mad. In their minds they are still soldiers and they shouldn’t be taking orders from civilians. After a few days they start going crazy from the detox and lack of drugs in their body. Finally they are able to get over it and the center begins to become his home.

            This is a drastic change in the story, he thought he was going to be a soldier his whole life and then all of a sudden he is taken away to rehab. He feels betrayed by his battalion and he wants nothing more than to be back on the front lines. He had changed from a child to a soldier overnight, but changing back would prove very difficult. Even at the rehab center the war is still raging with fights that break out daily. At the beginning he still feels superior to the civilians and city soldiers who they mock. They act like brats for the first few weeks knowing that the workers and city soldiers can do nothing about it. Ishmael realizes how hard he was to bring back to his old self and just how much he had changed. 

            As the need for drugs gradually wash out of their systems they begin to behave better and go to school so they can take a trip to the city each weekend. Ishmael becomes great friends with a nurse by the name of Esther. She befriends him and really helps him get back to his old self. She plays a major role in restoring his life; she buys him a Walkman and Bob Marley’s album. He spends time with her every day and she helps him track down a lost uncle who lives in the city. He finally meets his uncle and every week goes home with him for a day to meet his family and get used to his house.

            Esther becomes a major part of his life, and without her he probably would have ended up a very different person. She was like a motherly figure for him who he could converse with and joke around with. She was also someone who he could trust which was hard to find at the rehab center. He blows off the criticism he receives from his friends and stays with her every day.

            One day he finally goes home with his uncle who has five other kids who he has adopted. One week after h moved in with his uncle, one of the men from the rehab center came to the door and asked him to come with him. He told Ishmael that he wanted him to go to an interview in the city to go to the UN in New York and talk about the problem of child soldiers to the council. When he goes to the city he is amazed by the size of the building and the other kids laugh at him when he stands in front of the elevator not sure of how to work. He tells the man who is interviewing him for the trip that he deserved to go more than any of the city boy, because he himself had been a child soldier. A few days later he gets a call telling him that he along with one other kid has been chosen to go to the UN in New York. The next few weeks he spends in anticipation getting his visa and passport. His father keeps telling him to not get his hopes too high because these people lie all the time.

 When the day comes he says bye to his family leaves the country for the first time in his life. When he arrives in New York he is stunned by the freezing temperature and the icy wind. He can’t fathom how people could possibly live in a place as cold as New York, and he instantly wants to return home to Sierra Leone. He bonds with the other 52 kids from around the world and goes around the city every night with his new friends. When they accidentally stumble upon Times Square they are flabbergasted and just stand there mesmerized for a few minutes. The next day they go to the UN and give preplanned speeches in front of the general council. Ishmael decides that instead of giving the speech he had planned, to talk to the council and tell his story from his heart. At the end of his story people come up to him telling him how much he inspired them. After the week with his 52 new friends, he realizes just how an amazing of an experience he had been through and just how much he didn’t want to leave. When they are at the airport ready to depart they all break down and start crying, not wanting the wonderful experience to end.

Ismael is definitely changed at this point in the book. Right here he sees just how amazing and lucky his journey was. He knows how much of a problem child soldiers are from first-hand experience, and he realizes just how much he wants to stop it, and what it means for his country. When he gets to America for the first time he kind of hates it, but by the end of his trip he wants to stay there forever. Also his conception of New York changes “My conception of New York City came from rap music. I envisioned it as a place where people shot each other on the street and got away with it; no one walked on the streets, rather people drove in their sports cars looking for nightclubs and for violence.” He also befriends one of the councilors at the UN named Laura, who gives him her phone number if he ever needs anything.

He finally arrives back home in Sierra Leone and tells his family all about the strange culture in New York, and they all agree that it was very weird. Ishmael is extremely eager to start school again as a normal student again, but when he arrives at the school he and his one other friend who had been on the trip with him in New York were looked down on for having been child soldiers. He doesn’t let this bring him down because he decides that anything is better than his past life, and when he thinks this he begins to smile. Later that month, one morning a huge group of rebels march into the capital and start fighting with the soldiers. Later that afternoon the General announces that he has overthrown the current president and his group of soldiers and the rebels join up to make the Sebles. They go around looting and stealing all around the city for the next few months. The sound of gunfire and explosions become a usual noise, and people need to look around the city for any place that still has food, and the only place they can find food is in a black market where prices are more than double the usual cost. During those months his uncle dies of a disease and regardless of the soldiers occupying the streets, tons of people come out for his funeral.

“They had run so far away from the war, only to be caught back in it. There is nowhere to go from here.” (201) He says when the rebels invade the capital. He had tried so hard and almost got away from the war, but now he realizes that there is just no safe place to be in the whole country. This is when he begins to realize that this country isn’t fit for a boy to grow up in and that he has to get out of there. The situation goes from bad to worse the longer the city is under Sebel control. The leader changes almost every other month and you can never plan what will happen to you in the future.

Ishmael contacts Laura and explains his situation and asks if he can go to New York and live with her. She says that that would be great and she wires him some money. He sneaks out to a secret bus stop where tons of people get on the bus and set out to travel to the northern border with Guinea. They get stopped countless amounts of time at checkpoints where they need to get off their bus, show their documents, and usually bribe their way back to the bus. After more than a day of travel they arrive at the border with Guinea and cross over it becoming free of the war. He finds it very hard to communicate because they all speak French in Guinea instead of English. He is able to communicate enough to get to the Sierra Leone Embassy where he and other refugees are able to stay for a while. At the very end of the book he thinks of a story that he had been told by an elder in his village. A hunter is out hunting and is about to shoot a monkey when it says “Stop! If you shoot me your mom will, but if you don’t your dad will die. Then the elder would end the story and ask all the children what they would do while their parents watched them, the kids would never answer. At the end of the book Ishmael decides that he would shoot the monkey and his mom would die, but then no one else would to face the decision again. This decision signifies how he has matured and is now a different person then who he was as a soldier. He is willing sacrifice someone he loves so that others wouldn’t have to suffer.

In this final escape we see how he realizes the horror of war and fighting. He knows that if he stays he would either run into an old friend from the army who would shoot him if they found out he had been rehabilitated, or he would end up rejoining the army which he was intent on not doing. He risks his life trying to escape the situation and ultimately is one of the few lucky people who were able to make it out, and he knew what lay ahead of him when he arrived in America. Laura ended up becoming his mom and he went to a special UN school, then on to college.

The title of this book is very significant, A Long Way Gone. The title basically means that he is far away. He is far away from home, he is far away from happiness, and he is far away from peace. It also means how he has gone a long way to try and find a peaceful home where he will be safe. I remember seeing that he used those exact words in the book at one point, but I’m uncertain if he took that line from his book and made it the title, or if he put the title in the book afterwards to show the meaning of it. Another thing that I found interesting was the front cover. “a long way gone” and “ishmael beah” are both written all in lower case. And “Memoirs of a Boy Soldier” are written in what looks like hand writing. There is a picture of a boy the age he was in the book walking with a gun and bazooka, but I doubt it’s actually him. I think the title is written the way it is to show how young he was.

This book is amazingly written and there are a lot of great quotes from the book. Out of these I had two favorites. The first one was said by an old man in his grandma’s village. “We all must strive to be more like the moon” he said, reminding people to always people to be on their best behavior. The old man justifies what he says by saying. “People complain when there is too much sun and the again when it is too cold. However, no one grumbles when the moon shines, because a lot of happy things happened in the moonlight.” I just loved the sound and flow of this quote. It made me put down the book for a minute and actually think about the meaning of it. My second favorite quote was. “Some nights the sky wept stars that quickly floated and disappeared into the darkness before our wishes could meet them.” I loved this quote because it showed how he was feeling down and how everything, including the sky was sad. It also showed his bad luck again. He would see the shooting stars, but never be able to make a wish in time.

Ishmael learned so much about himself through writing this book. The most important thing I think he realized from writing was that fighting is not an answer to problems. “I joined the army to avenge the deaths of my family and to survive, but I've come to learn that if I am going to take revenge, in that process I will kill another person whose family will want revenge; then revenge and revenge and revenge will never come to an end...” This quote I found to be so real, and it showed what he had come to learn. And because of this he now works with the UN trying to prevent child soldiering around the world. He had joined the war because of his family’s death, and he ended up killing families. If someone didn’t put a stop to it, it would be an endless cycle. The book was one of the best memoirs I have ever read.