I Do Not like to Fail

I have always enjoyed learning, and find it exciting and challenging. I remember my kindergarten teacher once taught me the concept of friction, and I tried it out with many different objects. It was fun. When I do not understand a concept quickly, I get frustrated. I don’t have the patience to learn it from someone else, and I just want to figure it out myself.  In front of people, I do not like to accept my mistakes, and I do not like to let people know I failed. This is how I was (maybe still somewhat), and I do not enjoy it.

During a chess game recently, when I lost, and my opponent shook my hand; I got so angry that I started telling him to shut up. You can tell that was embarrassing.

Last year, my brother and I did a charity sale of our toys, and we sold zero items. I was miserable. I had worked hard to create flyers and posted them outside my front yard one day in advance so people would know about it. I and my brother stood outside with the sale sign next to a table full of toys for 3 hours and not a single customer came to our table. Few people passed by, and we just smiled. My mom asked me later that night, “what was the biggest mistake in your sale?” I did not want to answer her or even speak with anyone about it. Deep in my mind I knew that I needed customers and my house was on a quiet street and not just the right place to do it.

Recently I was reading a book that had a question which caught my attention, “Would you rather try more ambitious things knowing you might fail or try easier things knowing you would succeed?” Obviously, I want to do ambitious things, it’s fun!

If doing ambitious things is fun, then failing should also be fun, and this is what I must learn. When we fail, we look over our mistakes, carefully spotting the miscalculations in our ideas. Failure and defeat are life’s greatest teachers.

I came across this amazing article on Michael Jordan: http://launching-a-leadership-revolution.blogspot.com/2011/10/failure-is-one-of-lifes-greatest.ht

Failures of famous people:

·       It took Thomas Edison 10,000 tries to make the light bulb!

·       In her lifetime, Emily Dickinson published less than a dozen of her 1,800 poems! After Emily Dickinson died, the rest of her poems were found

·     Vincent Van Gogh only sold ONE painting out of 900 in his life! The rest of his paintings were found after he died

Source: GoComics.com

My very first music recital

Last week was my first music recital where I played the piano. I practiced a lot! It took 10 minutes to reach the place where the recital was held. I had to wait an hour before it was my turn to play. I played the songs Steamboat Round The Bend and London Bridge. When I was done everyone clapped for me. I shyly went back to my seat. 

When the show was over, it was time for the award ceremony. I got an excellence trophy.  I also got a certificate for participating in a piano test. Finally when the show was over, I helped myself to cake, cookies, pastries and other delicious treats. On the ride home, I read books and magazines. When we reached home I told my mom that it had been the best day ever. The recital had been a blast!

- Writing girl

Me at the recital

My First Sleepover

This past weekend, was my first sleepover. It was at my best friend’s house. I was very excited. When we reached there, I felt it was my longest drive ever, until my mom said it was only a mile away. When my mom stopped the car in front of her house, she was sitting outside waiting for me. The feeling of excitement was so mutual!

We first made a 3-D spherical puzzle, then we played. We also put a fake bug on her older sister’s pillow and her sister freaked out. We both laughed so hard that we collapsed on her bed. When it was bedtime, we brushed our teeth and went to bed.

As a fact, we did not go to bed. We just stayed awake and played games in night light, and chit chatted. Well, no one believed us that we were up all night.

In the morning, we went outside to play a little more. We came back inside with really dirty feet, made some more puzzles and then it was time to go. My mom was there to pick me up and brought donuts and bagels for breakfast. We ate, then I left for home.

At the sleepover, I learned more about my friend’s family, things she has, and how much fun a sleepover can be. In my heart, I was bounded with happiness. At that moment, I felt better than anyone in the world!

I have heard my mom and her friends debate over sleepovers for kids - whether it is a good thing or a bad thing. I had to convince my mom to get me this first sleepover ever. I believe its a good thing at your best friend’s house once in a while. What do you think? Will love to hear about it.

- Writing Girl (WG)

Dad

My dad is awesome.

He is incomparable, stupendous, and handsome!

They are only a couple of improvements my dad needs.

Compliment others; use the magic words like sorry, thank you more often,

And don’t say the word “um” too many times.

I love my dad because he teaches me the right things, combs my hair,

makes me smart, and loves me.

Life without my dad would be terrible.

There would not be anybody to teach me important things.

Life would be god-awful.

Happy Father's day to my dad,
I love my dad!

Acrostic Poem - My dad

My dad is…

Funny

Ambitious

Timely

Has a lot of hunches

Exemplary

Refulgent

Father’s day activity sheet - created by Writing Girl

You can print out the activity sheet: 

Answers to the Father's day activity sheet:

My dad and me!

A Field Trip To Sandy Hook

On June 6th, 2014, the entire second grade at my school went to Sandy Hook for a field trip! Sandy Hook is a beach on the central East coast of New Jersey right in North Atlantic ocean. I think the beach is called Sandy Hook because it has a lot of sand, and it is shaped like a hook.

I was wondering why my school decided field trip to a beach. I got all my answers once I reached there! I was amazed to see the beauty of the beach - it had deep sand and rare shells. Many of the shells were hiding under the sand. Our tour guide taught us many facts about the shells and how to find them.

My favorite shell treasures were a multi-colored shell, a humongous shell, a devil’s head shell, a full shell. Be careful before you take away a full closed shell because it could have a living organism inside, and you don't want to kill it. To determine if a shell has an organism inside, just smell it - if it smells foul, put it back down in the sand because it has a living organism. If it doesn't smell, add it to your treasure!

If you ever want a shell collection with the rarest shells, Sandy Hook is the place for you! Don’t miss out even if it means you have to take a trip from one of the neighboring states; Pennsylvania, New York, and Delaware.

With these special shells, I and my friend started a shell club at school. In the coming weeks, we plan to further examine the shells, and learn more about them.

-Writing Girl (WG)

Can you spot Sandy Hook beach? the black hook in the bright yellow circle!

Dancing Daddies!

This past Friday, I was doing my very own things when my mom came and told me that she signed me up for dancing with my daddy.

I looked up at her and said “what?” My mom asked me what was wrong. “You know I hate dancing. Why did you have to sign me up?”

My mom said she thought it was a good time because my dad’s interview had just passed, and it would be a relaxed fun evening for me to get daddy time.

“Well, I don’t think Dad would like it either. He doesn't have any interest in dancing. Who organized it?” My mom said it was organized by the Girl Scout. I love Girl Scout events, but this wasn't my thing.

When mom was getting me ready, I was feeling mad and frustrated. “You know I don’t like fashion, and I am not wearing these shoes with pink lace.” Mom tried to explain that she was only dressing me up for the occasion, just like I wouldn't want to wear my pajamas to my softball practice. That sounded reasonable, but I still didn't want those shoes with pink lace, and mom finally removed that lace.

On our way to the dance, I was still upset that I had to miss my evening bike ride, and my dad was not in a good mood either.

When we got to the dance place, there was a sweet smell of pirate’s booty, cookies, and many other snacks. We ate snacks, had photo shoot with daddy, and then the dance started. I had thought the daddies would have to go up onto a stage and dance with their daughter, one pair at a time. It wasn't like that though, there wasn't even a stage! Everyone danced together with their partner in two large circles! We did the Do-si-do square dance. The DJ explained the steps, and we danced for the next two hours! At the end of it all, daddies hugged their daughters! I got to eat, dance, and play with balloons. It was a blast!!

I will go again! I want to dance on many different songs. If you have a favorite song, post me a comment. 

-Writing Girl 

A good use of hair!

One sunny day, I was waiting in my house to get a haircut. But my mom said I would have to wait till the end of day.  The day seemed so long! It was 2 years ago that I started to grow my hair, and they were now becoming a little unruly. When I put my swim cap on for a lesson that afternoon, my head started to hurt.  The big blob of hair beneath my cap made it not fun to fit my swim goggles, and not fun at all to swim. Finally, after my long restless day, it was time for the haircut!

Longer hair is difficult to comb, they hurt when tangled, and you have to depend on a parent to get you ready. But longer hair is also pretty.

At Great Clips (which was great!), the hair dresser split my hair into 4 ponytails and cut the ponytails out. Then she shaped into the style that I wanted. Finally my haircut was done! It had been the best day of my life! Hooray! Hooray! I was feeling sad a couple minutes after I got home and missed my hair, but I got over that quickly. I am now going to start growing them again. The good thing with short hair is, I do not need a parent’s help to get ready for school, and being independent feels great!

Did you know that more than 2 million kids are impacted by hair loss every year? To donate, you only need 8 – 12 inches of hair.  It can take 1.5-3 years to grow this length depending on how quickly your hair grows, and it takes about 3-8 hair donations to make a wig for a child in need. And also, all of that has to be the same color. So don’t stop after donating one time.  Keep it going! Enjoy your long pretty hair, then after the cut, enjoy your short manageable hair.  The best of it is, put your hair to good use!

Donate your hair today, and help spread the word!

If you decide to donate your hair, please send me a message so I can thank you!                                

-Writing Girl (WG)

P.S: I donated my hair to Children with Hair Loss. There are other choices of organizations you can donate to like Wigs for Kids, Locks of Love, and you can read more about them here.