Cate+exp

Practice 1
===**" With one success a thousand failures lie forgotten, but with one refusal to try, a thousand successes may prematurely die."** -Unknown Author How do we ever know what we can do if we never try? Failures go away when you make a great success, but if you never try, how do you succeed? If you never try, consequently, you won't know your limits, you won't know if something's good or bad, and you'll never, ever know if you can succeed at that task! How do you know if a snake is poisonous or not if you don't try?=== ===What are your limits? How much force can you exert on a certain point? And will that point break if you exert enough force? The answer is different for everybody. For example, one time I was at this camp called Camp Bernie, and I must say that am freakishly scared of heights. So when it was my group's turn to get on the rock wall, I was still a little reluctant to try it. But I did. And if I didn't, I would have never known that 10-15ft above ground is my limit, and the I had a breakdown. (To tell you the truth, I probably could have gone farther if I didn't look down.) Trying new things let's you know what you're limits are! You won't know how close you could get to a snake if you don't know your limits!=== ===What's good and what's bad for you? Will you get a headache if you eat bananas after bedtime? Or do you have carrots? How do you know if you never tried? I found out that I couldn't eat brown bananas until I tried! Once I was really hungry, and I realllly needed a banana. The only one in the fridge was brownish, and Mom said it was okay so I ate it. That night, I had a horrible nightmare. At first I thought it was just for that night, but then when I ate another one, anothe nightmare would appear. Sooner or later I figured out that the banana was what was making me have nightmares, so I never had a brown banana again. By trying, I found out that the brown banana-colored snake was poisonous to me! So what snake is poisonous to you?=== ===What can you do? What can you not do? You won't know unless you get off that lazy butt of yours and try new things! One time, I thought that all of my drawings were horrible. That's because I always assumed they were and therefore didn't put much effort inside my work, making my drawings actually turn out bad. One day, one of my classmates asked me to draw a pokemon for them. I liked pokemon too at the time, and decided to put my best inside the drawing. When I was done, my drawing almost looked like the exact thing! It felt great to find something I never knew I was good at! The drawing snake turned out to be harmless for me!=== ===How will you know if you never tried? That question is what this quote means to me! Don't just stand there watching the snake, waiting for someone else to prove to you that it's harmless! Get up and find out for yourself! LOOK AROUND! Try to see what that snake eats and does! Something poisounus might turn out to be as harmless as a mouse! TRY IT!!===

PRACTICE 2 Imagine yourself in a bookstore. You see a book that won a newberry award. You've watched the T.V show, and now you REALLY want to read that book. But wait, you don't have evnough money! It's probably going to take you a month before you have enough money to buy it. But what you don't know is that tommorrow's your birthday, and that everyone has chipped in to get the very book you're staring at. Many people call this situation a "pleasant surprise". I've experienced this before: probably everyone has. After all, you are always happy to recieve a gift you've always wanted. Pleasant surprises can be exciting, shocking or even something that could totally change the way you think!

Once I was in 4th grade and I had this crazy obsession with a book series called "Warriors". It was about a group of cats in the wild. I really wanted to get the next book in the series, titled, "Midnight", but I didn't have enough money. I was depressed on the way to school and when I opened up my backpack in class, there it was. All shiny and brand new, slipped perfectly inside where when I opened my bag it would be the first thing I saw. On the cover was a sticky note and it said: "A present for you. Hope you like it! - Dad." Excitement pulsed through my veins! I finally got the book and for the rest of the day, at every chance I got, I read it. This proves that pleasant surprises can be exciting! Otherwise I wouldn't have cracked open that book every chance I got.

One time I really wished someone would throw me a surprise party for my summer party. I told my Mom about it, and she never told me the date of the party would be after that. After a few weeks had past and I totally forgot about it. My cousin Sean, showed up at my door. I was surprised since Sean lived in New York, and it took him about 1-2 hours to get to us, so we went to McDonalds. Mom said she couldn't come, and I wondered why. I was totally clueless. When we got back I heard a loud, "Surprise!" I was floored to the ground. It was a surprise party, for me! And I was foolish enough to forget that I was the one who asked for it! It was shocking and pleasant at the same time!

I have a confession to make: I'm a die-hard aniem fan. Yes, it's true. I'm what you may call an "otaku", or geek. Anyway I love this anime series called, "The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya." And in February, they finally released "The Dissapearence of Haruhi Suzumiya", the 4th part of the series. I couldn't wait to see it: until I found out it was only playing in San Francisco and Hawaii. I was outraged. I live in New Jersey, so if I wanted to get to any of those theaters, I had to take an airplane. One day I was in a bad mood because of this when my eldest cousin, Alyssa, (also an anime fan) came running in with two ticket in her hand. "Cate," she said to me, "Can you guess what these tickets are for?" It tokk a minute it out. I lunged at her. It turned out that Alyssa had won a contest for two airplane tickets to San Francisco to see "The Dissapearence of Haruhi Suzumiya." I was estatic, my whole life changed after I saw the movie, and it was a good change. A pleasant surprise can sometimes be life-changing.

Pleasant surprises are always different depending on the situation. Whether it's a book you want or a movie you wish to see that's far away, pleasnt surprises are truly pleasant. Why don't you try giving a pleasnt surprise to somebody? I'm sure they recompense the favor! Pleasnt surprises are exciting, shocking, and life-changing! That's why we should always cherish these surprises! They're absolutely pleasant!