Lacrosse Tournament

This is a picture of my team!

This past weekend my lacrosse team played in a tournament in Blake, Minnesota.  There were 28 teams at the tournament, and we were split up into different seeds.  This is the only tournament that we do the whole season, so our coach was telling us that we have to go hard and play hard if we wanted to go all the way to the championships. A lacrosse game consists of two 25 minute halves, but at this tournament, we just played half hour games, due to not enough time to play full games.  We were scheduled to play 4 games, and depending on how we did on those, determined whether we would go to the finals. We lost our first game to one of the best teams there; we only lost by two, and we kept the game close.  We were tied at one point, but then they got ahead and they won.  We won our next three games, though, and that was enough to get us in the finals!  Our first game in the finals was against a team that we had tied against in our regular season.  We were ahead 7-3, but then the refs saw lightning, and whenever they see lightning we have to wait half an hour until we can play again.  The lightning kept coming, and soon after, the rain.  But the refs said that since the game was over 80% over, and whoever is ahead will win, so our team had won! We were in the top 4 out of 28 teams! The people running the tournament said that they will try to reschedule the remaining games, but they don't know for sure.  I really hope they do!!!!!

Dream Job

There's always that question, "What do you want to be when you grow up?" Your parents usually first ask you this when you're about 5 or 6, and most kids answer, "Princess!"or "Pirate!" or "Movie Star!" or "Astronaut!" When you're a kid, you have no idea how long it will take to get there, for any of those jobs. As you get older, your answer usually changes, and when you finally decide what you're going to do when you get older, what you actually become is WAY different then what you said when you were 5 or 6 years old. I have no idea what I want to do once I leave school. People have told me I would be a great librarian, or a physical therapist, or a coach of some sort. I still have a couple more years to decide what I want to do with the rest of my life. I'm keeping my options open. Work isn't always enjoyable even if you're doing something that you love to do. Like say your a fashion designer, and you love it. You love designing stuff, and expressing yourself. There's still the the paperwork, the meetings, the flights, the pressure of getting a new line done in time for a big show. That can all be very stressful and NOT enjoyable. In the end though, its ususally worth it, because you're doing what you love and what you have a passion for. My fantasy dream job would definitely be a pop star, but I can't sing if my life depended on it, and I have stage fright so I know that will never happen. Other dream jobs of mine would be: music producer, manager for a band, T.V. producer, or someone who just gets to work in Hollywood. That would be my dream. It would be nice to be paid, but if circumstances are complicated, you're doing what you love, and you can somehow afford not being paid, I think it would be okay not being paid. When you're working at school, you're doing work that affects your job when you're older. You're also not being paid at school, and you have your parents to help you through more than you do when you're older. You're also doing what you love when you're older, compared to school. :)

Taken by KiranAmbre on Flickr Creative Commons

Wolf Ridge

This is the view of Lake Superior that we had on our Superior hike.
Image taken by one of my classmates.

This past week, my class of 36 students and 6 adult chaperones went up north to Wolf Ridge ELC in Finland, Minnesota for a week. We left at 5 AM Monday morning, and we stayed until about 1 PM on Friday. It was incredibly amazingly fun!!! I stayed in a dorm with 4 other girls, and a chaperone. It was like a huge slumber party, but you were always so tired, everyone went to sleep easily. Our days were filled with classes. We went on a ropes course that was 30 feet up in the air! We also went rock climbing, and we got to belay our classmates. Some other classes that we had were: Smammals (Small Mammals), Changing Climates, F.I.R.S.T. Games (Team-building), Beavers, Stream Study, and Competitive Orienteering. The best thing though was just being with my classmates the whole week. I learned new things about them, and I'm really glad that this is the class that I got to go with. I wouldn't change that. The thing is, at my school you look forward to this trip all through elementary school. You work 30 hours of service that goes towards the school to be able to go.  You hear so many stories as your anxiously waiting to go. I've gone, and now it's over. That's the sad part. I'm glad I had the opportunity to go; it was all I hoped it would be. I will never forget this trip.

Images on the Internet

I've been using the Internet for what seems like forever.  It's always been there.  Through the years, I've learned how to properly use the Internet; this including how to use and post images.  I've only learned recently that you're always supposed to site your images.  I never knew that you were supposed to do that until about a year or two ago.  I never did it then, thinking it wasn't important. Now I do it whenever I post a picture on the Internet. It's just the right thing to do, to give attribution to someone. If you don't give attribution to someone, bad things could happen to you.

Taken by solidether on Flickr Creative Commons

How I Spend Money

I spend my money on things a normal teenage girl spends her money on: music, books, clothes, movies, food, etc.  I also give some of my money to charity.  I probably don't need to buy as much clothes and food. I can always watch a movie at home, and I have food at home.  I'm a saver, though.  Whenever I spend my money, and either for something I really want, or something that I believe is a good cause.  I believe that I just need to be even more careful with what I buy. :)

Picture taken by Toban Black

Health Care Reform

I think that healthcare for everyone is super important. I think it's reasonable for Obama to want to pass a law which makes everyone buy healthcare. Why wouldn't you want to purchase healthcare? Don't you want to be covered? Sure, it's expensive, but it will turn out positive for you and your family in the end. I think that President Obama is just doing his job, and that's taking care of his country, by keeping them healthy.  And if this happens, taxes will go down for people because they don't have to pay for other people's hospital costs. The Supreme Court is definitely under a lot of pressure from both sides of the debate on how they're going to end this case.

Minnesota Laws for Minimum Wage and Child Labor

There are state-minimum-wage-laws and federal-minimum-wage laws.  If an employee is subject to both laws, the person is to receive the higher of the two wages.  Minimum wage applies to all hours worked.  Minimum wage does not apply to all jobs, though.  Here are just a few that minimum wage does not apply to: babysitters, taxicab drivers, and volunteers of nonprofit organizations.  Minimum wages in Minnesota very from $4.90 an hour to $7.25 an hour.  In Minnesota, a child under the age of 16 may not work before 7:00 AM and after 9:00 PM; this does not include newspaper carriers.  You also cannot work during the school hours, unless you have an employment certificate issued by the school district superintendent.  For minors aged 16-17, they may not work after 11:00 PM and before 5:00 AM, but if you have written permission from a parent or guardian, you may work until 11:30 PM, and start work at 4:30 AM.

Image by 401K on Flicker Creative Commons