Maya Angelou Q&A

1.) We talked about the title of Maya Angelou's first autobiography I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings.  What did Angelou say is the reason a caged bird sings?  What does that mean?  Do you agree with or understand that idea?

Angelou said that the caged bird sings for freedom.  I think this could mean a lot of different things but this time I am going to try and go with a less cliche version.  I think that she means when something or someone is holding you back you complain and whine but that doesn't get you anywhere, and that you have to actually try to knock the barriers down.  It could also mean that the bird has hope and is singing with happiness that one day her dreams will become true. Maybe the bird is just daydreaming of flying with the flock one day.  I guess I don't really understand the idea because I have so many thoughts on what the significance of it all could be. I do think you should stand up for yourself and that you should really try hard to knock down any barriers that get in your way to reach whatever goal you are trying to achieve. 

3.) Angelou says she doesn't even like to talk about her bad dreams because talking about them "gives them too much power."  Do you think talking about bad dreams or bad news or other bad things (or feeding into the "drama" at school or in life) gives those bad things more power?  When have you known this to happen?

I think that talking about bad dreams or other bad things is okay and that you shouldn't bottle every bad thing up inside. I used to do that but then I met my best friend and she helps me get through bad things or helps me laugh about bad dreams later.  I think that some bad things are just too strong to keep inside and that it feels better to just tell someone. In my opinion not talking about them is the most power you can give them because when you bottle them up you have no support system to help you and no one knows whats going on. 


5.)  After going through a major trauma at age seven, Angelou didn't talk for almost five years.  Could you live this way?  Do you talk too much or too little?  What could you learn if you listened more and spoke less?  How could you grow as a person by speaking more?

I would not be able to stop talking for almost five years.  When I was that age my family would make bets during road trips to see how long I could go without talking. I think my record was three hours but I may have fallen asleep in that. Usually the trip was to see family.  As funny as it might seem I only talked in front of my household family. I didn't really care to learn the names of all of my cousins because I have so many and for a while I was the youngest. If I would have talked more at things like family reunions I think I would have better relationships with all of my cousins today. At the same time though the age gaps are pretty big and we all live in different states so that makes it hard too. I usually just got to know them by sitting with my aunts and uncles and listened to them talk about their kids. I guess I don't really know how to answer this question but I'm just going to wing it and say that there is a time to talk and a time to just stay silent. I think what Maya Angelou did was a little over the top but that it was also brave in a way.  On those car rides with my family they always tried to get me to talk, so I can't imagine all of the people that tried to get her to talk and rather or not it was hard to stay silent. It's a hard thing to understand. 

6.) Angelou says she is comfortable using six or seven languages, has spoken at one time or another as many as twelve, and has been a teacher in at least three.  Are you comfortable using another language?  Which languages would you like to be fluent in?  Why those?  Or do you think speaking English is good enough because you live in America and that's all we should need to live here?  Why?

As of right now I only know English, and even that gets overwhelming sometimes.  I couldn't imagine being fluent in multiple languages.  I know the very  basics of Spanish but I mean who doesn't? The one language that I really wish I knew is sign language. It's always fascinated me and I feel like it would come in handy. Even if I end up working at McDonald's the rest of my life, because we have some customers that we have to have right down their order and I always feel bad for not knowing how to communicate any other way with them.  I don't know of anyone who knows sign language and who would be patient enough to teach me but I sure would like to give it a shot. 

Blue

The Colors of your Emotions

Once upon a time there was a little monster who had blue tears falling from his eyes. He was crying because he was cyan. His whole family was perriwinkle but he was not. They would not accept him. His whole family had been the same color for years and years. They couldn’t figure out why he was so different.

One day when his family was being especially mean to him he turned red. He was very angry and couldn’t figure out why he was turning a new color. This had never happened before. His family didn’t know why he was turning mahogany. The angrier he got, the darker he got. They wouldn’t stop making fun of him. He decided right then and there that he would run away from home and he would find other monsters who would appreciate him.

After a while his journey started to wear on him and he started turning a shade of green. He became exhausted and sad. As his journey went on his color got all the way to pine. He was very disappointed on his findings. Until one day, over the horizon he saw something. He saw many different colors all over the place. He decided to see what it was.

He didn’t know it at the time, but he was going to turn yellow. Once he finally got to there the rainbow of colors were at, he found a community of monsters just like him. They didn’t stay the same color all the time. They changed colors according to their emotions just like the little monster! He turned the brightest shade of aureolin anyone has ever seen. He was finally happy. He found where he belonged at last and lived happily ever after in his community of rainbows.

Color All Around

Acrostic 

Endless hours of hard work,
School work still needing to be done
Procrastinating has gone too far
Reaching for my white chocolate mocha with not one but two
Extra shots of espresso, this homework might actually have a
Shot at being completed thanks to
Starbucks who always makes me
Oddly satisfied to become

Broke and
Excited to check my empty bank account
And then count spare change for another round with
No regrets





Haiku #1 
The littlest rose,
has the biggest heart's content,
in the whole garden.

Haiku #2
Not a lot of good
hearts living here these days
but it's whatever

Haiku #3
Magenta lipstick
on your grandma's wrinkly face
now on your cheek... gross

   











Free Verse
Standing on the amidship,
deep inside the Amalfi,
I spot the silhouette of a girl on a bicycle,
as we sail closer I realize the bike looks oddly familiar,
probably because it's my blue bike that went missing
months ago
oh well it's whatever I have a sail boat now
so who's the real winner here?

Narrative Acrostic 

Beginning this
Long long journey,
Unsure where this road will lead but not too
Eager to find out

Because I like the mystery of
It all and not being stuck in the same old
Cycle of my daily routine
Yes some structure is good but nothing comes
Close to the
Lose feeling of no responsibilities and
Endless possibilities

Tennis ball

     Nursing homes are usually not somewhere I want to be.  They are filled with confused stinky old people. Disappointment all around.  Except  for this one nursing home.  The one in which takes care of Mildred Cleona Binder Rosell. I would volunteer to live in it if that was an option. That woman laughs and cracks jokes, changing the mood as soon as she wheels into the room.  She is constantly turning every situation into a positive one.  You can hear her smile in her voice. 90 years old and still as cute as ever. She had 11 kids, 5 girls and 6 girls. It must have been hard to have so many but i'm so glad that she did, because my dad is the youngest son, number 10. I couldn't live without him, literally. 

My grandma lived here in Springfield when I was younger. I didn't think about it much at the time, but I took her presence for granted. She lives in Washington state and I'm still stuck here in Missouri. Once in a blue moon I get to visit her and the last time I saw her I had gone to Walmart to buy some tennis balls to juggle. She has had too many eye surgeries to count and can hardly see, but somehow she could see the tennis balls flying around. Now every time I talk to her she asks if I'm still tossing balls around. And then she tells me about all the gossip she overheard at the nurses station. She always tells me that if I don't become a nurse she will come back and haunt me dies. That won't be so bad though. 

I am Poem

I am...

just your average 18 year old girl with not a clue what's coming after 13 years of public school.

the little sister, the "grocery getter" of the house, even though I can hardly make easy mac.

searching through old family photos, envious of my grandmother's smile.

eating way more cookie dough than cookies, and never regretting it.

piles of pillows and  blankets on my bed, even in the summer.

long drives with no set destination, not a care in the world.

sleeping in as late as possible, and then still being tired.

I am... 

crossing the big things off of my bucket list early, because life is short.

a Grey's Anatomy addict.

KFC's mashed potatoes, Braum's crinkle cut fries, and McDonald's sweet tea.