Journal 6 By Kaylee

My biggest take away from The House On Mango Street is never too forget your roots. Esperanza never wanted to be associated with her old house again, but she finally realized that the house and the neighborhood she grew up in was who she was and it took her awhile to realize then, but towards the end we began to see she was almost becoming proud in one way or another and I think that is so important because no matter your background or where you came from, your experiences in life make up who you are as a person and I think everyone should accept their past and be okay with it eventually and even begin to be thankful for the things they had to go through as a person because it shaped them in many ways. I never want to forget how Esperanza's personality was so awesome. Really, it was. I loved her attitude for some reason. Her sense of humor  as great too. In A long way Gone, I took away to never give up. He never gave up and he became a bad person for awhile but he realized what he had gone through this over and to move on and to never give up. He  persevered  through the war, through rehabilitation and coming to a new country. I think becoming an adult I need to have the same mindset that I just need to withstand my faith and  persevere.


The documentary made me think about how good I had it in school. How I already knew basic language skills and how I already knew how to read at a very young age and it made me feel blessed because something we may not realize is not every has that. It made me think about how hard it can be for kids from hard backgrounds but it is so awesome that there are people lik Rafe who only want to help others succeed and that's what he does for a living basically. It made me feel like I should try to become that type of teacher with that type of mindset. An event that struck me the most was when they went to Washington DC and they were so grateful because when I went to Washington DC in eighth grade, I literally did not care and I was ungrateful about it but they were so into it and so happy. A quote that stood out to me was "the good ones don't give up" becoming an elementary teacher has to be hard I'm sure, and that's what I want to become and it stood out to me because I want to be a good teacher and I want to make sure kids realize I'm there for them and im not giving up on them.