6 Word Memoir #8 - Family

Photo Credit: Darrell Friedrich

Writers Note:

I’ll be the first to admit that my family is not the closest of families. We are certainly a LOT better than some other families out there, but we look a lot more put together than we actually are. But no matter what the deal is, we’re always there for each other through thick and thin, and we love one another as much as we hate them. They may be embarrassing and dorky and annoying but they’re family, and I’m stuck with them. I’d better make the best out of what I’ve got, right? This is actually one of the only family photos we have (my mother hates getting her picture taken).

6 Word Memoir #7 - Hate

Photo Credit: Kathy Roger

Writers Note:

In grade three, my best friend Chelsea moved away. She lived just down my street, and I used to go over to her house every day after school. I shared so many memories with her, and she only lived here for two short years. We had the best times together, and then one day she told me she was moving to Halifax, and I was so upset. We kept in touch for a little while, and she visited once in grade seven, but we grew apart fast. There’s no better relationship killer than distance. I thought this photo really described how wacky and weird our friendship was, and how weird we ourselves were. I used bolded capitol letters to make the words more noticeable and I made them uppercase to emphasize the message they portray. I used a period to make the statement seem more serious and professional.

6 Word Memoir #6 - Growing Up

Photo Credit: Kathy Roger

Writers Note:

Remember how carefree the old days were? We didn’t have to worry about school, or the future, or even how our hair or outfits looked, who was looking and who was judging us. Our biggest worry was getting a swing before they were all taken at the beginning of recess, or what we wanted to be for Halloween. We were so innocent, so young. Not to mention cute. Growing up sucks. I wish I could have been young forever, but unfortunately life doesn’t work that way. I really like this photo and I chose to use it because me and my brother look so innocent and little, and we are no longer like that today. 
I used commas to make sure that people would take breaks while reading the sentence, and they didn't read it too fast. It helps people to look at the picture with each word and think about it. I placed the words at the bottom because I think that's where they looked the best, so you would see the picture and my face before you read the words.

6 Word Memoir #5 - Confessions

Photo Credit: Myself (Rebecca Roger)

Writers Note:

I’m not a very open person, but I also don’t have a lot of secrets. But the things that I may consider “secrets”, I don’t tell to just anyone. You have to matter. In other words, you have to be one of my really close friends for me to tell you my secrets, and I have to trust you a lot. When people ask what’s wrong, 96% of them will get the answer “nothing, I’m just tired.” Or something along those lines. Consider yourself lucky and important to me if I actually give you a real answer and let you in. This photo shows that I'm a very quiet and closed person, and it also says that if I tell you something private, you'd better keep quiet about it.
I didn't really use punctuation in this photo because I didn't think it needed it. I didn't really think that the picture behind the words needed to be as prominent as the words; I wanted them to be the centre of focus.

6 Word Memoir #4 - Me

Photo Credit: Myself (Rebecca Roger)

Writers Note:

This is a photo of a rock cliff by the ocean in Mexico off of our resort. I quickly snapped it with my iPhone, and I have to say, it might be one of (if not THE) best photos I’ve ever taken. I don’t know how I feel about that, considering I didn’t put any effort whatsoever into it, and it was with my iPhone. But a picture is a picture, and I’m pretty proud of it. I placed the text there because I thought that's where it looked the best, and you can still see the whole photo behind it. I like how you can still see the picture behind the words clearly. I also bolded the words "best" and "ever" because I want people to know how proud of it I am. 

6 Word Memoir #3 - Family

Photo Credit: Myself (Rebecca Roger)

Writers Note:

This is my brother and I have the biggest love/hate relationship with him. With him, I have two emotions – “hey, I’ll help you hide the body!” or “don’t even talk to me or I’ll murder you.” This picture was taken in Mexico, and because we were the only kids each other knew, we were forced to get along for a week. But we’re getting along a lot better as we grow older compared to when we were kids, and when it boils down to it, we’re family and I love him to death. As much as I hate to admit it. That’s why the words “love” and “hate” are bolded, to emphasize that. I used yellow as the font color because it showed up the best. I also liked how the words are in the middle and they're a center of attention but they still don't cover up our faces.

6 Word Memoir #2 - Love

Photo Credit: Myself (Rebecca Roger)

Writers Note:

I chose this photo because it shows how happy I am, as well as the six words. My memoir is talking about our first date, but the same thing goes for most of the things in our relationship. I chose the font I did because when I see handwriting, I associate it with love and happiness, for some unknown reason. Maybe because it’s really loopy and smooth, like the person writing it was in a daze or something. But happiness is what I think of and that’s how I felt in this picture, and how I still feel now. He made my heart race on our first date, and it still races when I’m with him, 9 months later.
I used white for the font because it stood out against the dark picture, and I used a type of black and white effect to make it more of a classy and romantic look.

6 Word Memoir #1 - My Past

Photo Credit: Myself (Rebecca Roger)

Writers Note:

I took this selfie in grade seven and I think it really shows off how much of a dork I was in middle school, hence the sentence I chose for it. Looking back at my photos from then, all the awkward selfies, the terrible hair dos, the questionable clothing choices, I can’t help but cringe and wonder how my mother let me out of the house looking like that. The only thing that makes me feel a little bit better is knowing that everyone used to be like that and are now looking back thinking the same things as me. I prefer not to recall middle school. The memories were great, but the photos – not so much.This is one of the least embarrassing photos I have, believe it or not. But even so, I'm still highly embarrassed by it.
I put the words in the middle, over top of my face to hide it because it's really embarrassing. I also used a white fade over top to make it even less defined, and the black font stood out really well.

Fave Songs

Wrecking Ball - Miley Cyrus

Radioactive - Imagine Dragons

Elephant - Tame Impala

Flowers In Your Hair - The Lumineers

50 Ways to Say Goodbye - Train

Daylight - Matt and Kim

Castle - Macklemore

Flightless Bird, American Mouth - Iron & Wine

Lover of the Light - Mumford & Sons

Young and Beautiful - Lana Del Rey

Between the Raindrops - Lifehouse

VCR- The XX

Safe and Sound - Capital Cities

Home - Phillip Phillips

Skinny Love - Birdy

Oceans - Coast

For You - Serena Ryder

Little Lion Man - Mumford & Sons

Asleep - The Smiths

Baby Come Back - Serena Ryder

It's Time - Imagine Dragons

Alright - Supergrass

After the Storm - Mumford & Sons

Stubborn Love - The Lumineers

Dashboard - Modest Mouse

I'll Be Your Man - James Blunt

Fix You - Coldplay

Drops of Jupiter - Train

What I Wouldn't Do - Serena Ryder

What Is Love?

Webster’s dictionary defines love as “a feeling of strong attachment induced by that which delights or commands admiration”. I like this definition because it is different from all the other dictionary definitions, which state that love is an emotion and attachment felt between two people. That’s not always the case though. You can love things that aren’t people, although the strongest kind of love is felt towards other human beings. Love is such a strong word that is used too loosely these days. In the case of relationships, I think that people jump the gun a lot in saying those three little words so early. They don’t really have any meaning behind them, especially in relationships between teenagers. People say it so often that it loses the strong emotions that are supposed to be attached to it and it turns into “just another sentence”.  It’s no longer a big deal, and I think it should be. Not only is love a big emotion, it’s a commitment. When you love something, you are dedicated to it. Whether it’s a sport, an instrument, hobby, or other person. You don’t give up on the things you love, and if you do, you must not have truly loved it. If you’re not willing to commit, you’re not willing to love. I’m not saying that you have to commit forever. Things happen and you can eventually end up loving things less than you once did. But I think that you have to be willing to commit to something for longer than a couple of weeks before you can say you love it. Love also is something that makes you feel endlessly overjoyed. Nothing can make you happier than the thing or person you love, and you should be willing to do anything for it, and nothing matters more than the thing you love. Love is a powerful thing, and is capable of many things. What is love to you? 

My Passion Is....

Reading. Well, I don’t know if I really consider it a passion of mine, but it’s something I really enjoy doing. As lame as it sounds, I just really love reading a good book. There’s something about curling up in bed with a cup of tea and a good book, and getting lost in another person’s world that really appeals to me. I’ve grown up with a love of reading, and I have my parents to thank for that. Well at least my mother. She used to read me stories all the time when I was a little kid, which I believe is how I learned to love it. Once I learned how to read, that was all you would ever find me doing, and I became very advanced. I love reading because I love being able to see into other people’s worlds, even if their fictional, and pretend to live their lives. It’s nice to temporarily forget about your own life and problems for a while. 

My art teacher showed my class this TED talk video on the first day of classes, and it really stuck out to me. This artist developed a shake in his hand early in his career and it caused him to "lose his creativity". He found a way to conquer the shake and gain back his creativity with a few simple tips.

(TED Talk - Phil Hansen: Embrace the Shake)

Digital Footprint

Reading Survey

The best book I have ever read is ________ because _________.

I have two books that are the “best books I've ever read”, though I have read many great books. The first one is The Perks of Being a Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky. This is a favorite book of mine because I really like how he chose to write it all in the form of letters, and you don’t know who he is writing to. It adds more interest and mystery to the novel. Chbosky also writes about a boy with not many friends who has a hard time fitting in. I can somewhat relate to this because while I have friends, I sometimes find myself having a hard time fitting in with them.  It is also interesting to witness how people like that deal with their social situation, and how it affects them opposed to how it would affect me.  My other favorite book is The Fault in our Stars by John Green. I love this book because it is a romance novel, which I am a fan of. But it falls more on the romantic tragedy end of the spectrum. It also has a lot of advanced terminology, which interests me. I like learning new words and terms, and learning them while reading a fun book is the best way to learn.

How do you decide which books you will read?

                Most of the time, the way I decide which books I am going to read is by the attractiveness of the book cover. When I am in a library or a book store, I pick books by the ones with appealing book covers to me. From there I’ll turn it over and read the back cover. If the story sounds interesting then I will probably end up taking it home to read. I may also flip through the book and read the first couple sentences. It also helps if I know or like the author of the book that I’m looking at.

When you read, what happens inside your mind?

                When I read, I usually picture what’s happening in the story in my mind. I like to picture the characters however I want to, as well as the setting. It keeps my mind active and involved and also leaves room for imagination and creativity. Picturing the scene also helps clear up any confusion I may have while reading. I also like to ask questions about what’s going on. This also keeps me better engaged in the story.

         

       I own an iPhone, but it doesn't have access to the internet unless I am connected to wifi. I will hopefully have a data plan by the time Christmas comes. I have access to a laptop that I could bring to school. It’s a Dell and I just bought it about a week ago. My mom owns a Kindle and she allows me to use it once in a while, but I prefer to read real books. I have a twitter account that I use for personal use, but I don’t have a blog. I am interested in using these forms of technology in this course. I think it would be a neat idea and a nice change from other classes.