Johnny Benched: Mentor Text

     In wake of recent events like the Boston Red Sox, and the inspirational Patrick Myshrall my children's book idea has changed for the last time. Rocky III and Eleven Seconds  was my mentor text, my guidelines for how I am going to write my book.
     The whole plot to Rocky III was a man, Rocky, who was on top of the world he had won the championship life was good then it was all taken away by someone who wanted it more and would work to hard to achieve something, this taught Rocky never take things for granted and that even at the top you have to work hard. My story is called Johnny Benched, it is about a boy, Johnny, who came from nothing. Johnny is an orphan who's parents both died at a young age he has had a tough life but the one constant in it has been baseball. The idea that I am going to take is after Johnny has become famous in the town he already was the underdog and won the championship for his team. So this is Johnny's Rocky III, he's on top of the world in his second championship game and gets injured and his team loses. It's about a comeback story, man against the odds because his injury is he lost an arm in an accident. What I really got from the Rocky III movie was the message of dedication, dedication is such a strong emotion and belief that it can set the entire tone to a plot. Without dedication there is no drive, without drive there are no results. The main thing I wish to accomplish with this story from what I learned from Rocky is that second chances do exist not just second but third and fourth because mistakes do not make the man, man makes the mistakes and grows from them.
     My other mentor text Eleven Seconds is a story about Travis Roy a BC hockey player who just after eleven seconds into his first game ever in college broke his neck and is now a quadriplegic. I chose this as a mentor text because I had read the book over the summer and the message that it sent out was one of hope. Hope is a funny thing because there does not seem to much of it these days with the whole economy being the way it is and all these terror threats. So of all the lessons I learned from Travis Roy the one that I hope I get right is instilling that aura of hope because I feel as though if a story has hope then the reader will connect to it on a totally different plane of thought.
     Books are a funny thing because like this blog I am writing now it doesn't seem at first like it is possible. Sooo many words, so many connections. But it really does come down to what my English teacher told us at the start of these project(I'm paraphrasing) "If you care about your writing it will become that much easier to write about.
  

Jordan's Warhammer: Control=Bad

     For you video game junkies out there Jordan's Warhammer would remind you of the break out of Vorkuta in Call of Duty Black Ops. To those of you who do not know what I am talking about I will explain the situation, Jordan who is the narrator lives in a world in which his whole life has been controlled from beginning to end. He works in a mine and they're only real means of communication is a speaker, this speaker is always being tuned by the government. Not a happy place to live. I will not give anymore on the book if you want more read it.
     The main message that can be received from this book is one that is even written in the declaration of independence, "But when a long train of abuses and usurpation's, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and provide new Guards for their future security." Our English class are writing children books and mine is a sort of dystopian one. The main true thing about all these books and writings is that government is not their to rule over you. The role of government is a simple one be there to protect your human rights life liberty and the pursuit of happiness. Control can only go so far due to the fact that at some point if you break the wings of a bird by protecting it from the eagle you will eventually get bitten by the bird.
     Their are a lot of religious references in Jordan's Warhammer mostly to do with the fact that Jordan is portrayed as a Moses type figure at the end but looking past that the message is love those around you and protect them from those who wish to steal that love overall it was a maddening book at the end but it was good and it gave me a better perspective on what I wish to accomplish with both my book and my life.   

This is what I believe

"Beliefs are just another way for cons to make money"- Joseph Alfano(My Great-Grandfather)
     What do I believe in. Well shooting off some ideas, I guess family is very important, caring is key, music. I believe in a lot of things. "A This I believe" has got to portray me as a whole, give colleges an inside look on how I think, how I view life, what makes Jonathan Norris Winders tick. I could write about how family is important to me. I could write how I believe family is the glue of our social development and the foundation of our morals and beliefs. Family is the only thing that is always there for me in times of need. Last year I did, well terrible in school always sad and had no motivation, I was depressed. My parents and siblings helped me through it with support, love and everything else in between.
     That could be good an essay believing in family. Seems too generic though. This essay has to stand out, be that diamond in the rough. Patience. I believe patience is imperative. Being a camp counselor for the past two summers, well it has been the best of my entire life. The children are less than great at times point being that they want their own way all the time. Patience can not be taught it grows with experience, when one learns experience they will never stop learning that is the beauty of it. It teaches you to stop and listen instead of going and well not listening.
     Patience that seems too narrow of a subject no real way to elaborate on it. Love. I could talk about how I never have had a girlfriend, or how being an optimist there is not much I do not love like the Yankees and lima-beans. Love is a funny thing it can be someones greatest strength, weakness, or ally. Love is manifested by the individual and is a reflection on what they hold dear to themselves, take my love of Frank Sinatra. I like history and music and class Frank Sinatra has all. As humans we all have different likes and dislikes some are the same as others, we fight to much nowadays just drop the tough guy acts and put those differences behind.
    Family, Patience, Love all of these are great topics but they all come from the same place. Me. The perfect essay is the one that I have just done it is about myself and my beliefs. The one thing that I have learned over the years is that I believe in myself more than ever going into my senior year. Time to finish an essay.
    I believe in myself...