~~~The Final Blog Post~~~

During this year of blogging I learned that books can make you think a lot about things in real life. Blogging showed me that I have a lot of things to say about my books. I feel that blogging has changed me as a reader because I am looking for things in the book to write about at the end of the week. I have developed skills to elaborate on topics that I would not have been able to at the beginning of the year. I benefited from this experience of writing a blog by learning how to elaborate on small topics and continue to write with no limit.

Writing online is different from writing in a notebook because when you tell me to write one page in a notebook I just write one page and only one page. On the blog there is no limit to how much to write, sometimes you just continue and somehow there is a long post right there. Also when writing online people can see what you are writing and when you are writing in a notebook most of the time people would not be able to see what you are writing. You do not really express yourself while writing in a notebook. Writing online can be liberating because you can write anything or express your thoughts in any way, but it can also be limiting by having to write a certain way. It can limit what you can write about too.

I think that teenagers do abuse the freedom that the internet grants you. It is like the internet is a place where people should use it carefully and not too much. Teenagers everywhere are always using the internet to do things that they would regret. Abusing the freedom that it gives you is a horrible thing because it does not do any good for the person abusing it.

I cannot imagine myself keeping up with this blog or creating another because it would take too much time and effort with all the work I would have in high school. I blogged because it was part of my grade. I think that blogs are really hard things to keep up with and sometimes annoying when you just want to relax and not do anything.

Overall, I cannot believe that this is my final blog post out of 31(including this one) of the year. This blog helped me express my ideas and showed me that I can create a long response from a tiny topic. I think that it was great to have a blog this year. 

Blog Post #30: The Au Pairs: Crazy Hot

I have just started the last book in the Au Pairs series, The Au Pairs: Crazy Hot, and I started to see that the three girls have come back for another summer in the Hamptons. Mara was suppose to go to travel throughout Europe to write a tourism book with her new boyfriend David, but she forgot to renew her passport and had to stay in United States. After the company found out that this happened they fired her. You would think that David would quit his job and stay with Mara, but he cared more about his job than his girl. Jacqui was going to work a third year of au pairing for the Perrys, but they didn’t tell her that they were moving to London. Jacqui needed the job to pay for NYU tuition. Eliza has just opened a new store to sell her products in the Hamptons and is living with her dad and her step-mother. I started to wonder: do people plan out what they are going to do or just go with the flow.

Mara used to know exactly what she was going to do, but in the beginning of this book she already did not plan something correctly. One mistake caused her to lose her job, but something good came along. Eliza’s step-mother need au pairs to take care of her five kids and Eliza knew 2 perfect people for the job.  I think that people cannot really plan out every single second of their life, they have to have some sort of surprise, anything can happen. Mara did not know that she was going to get fired and that she would get another great paying job right away. Most people just go with the flow of things. Since Mara had such a great opportunity to go to Europe with her boyfriend, she thought that her summer was going to be perfect. Why would a person take a step down when they are already so far ahead? Mara took a step down because she already wrote for big name magazines and newspapers, and if she took the au pair job she would be going back to where she started.

Jacqui found out that the Perrys are moving to London and thought that she would not have enough money for her tuition if she doesn’t have such a high paying job, but she was wrong. The job Eliza was offering her paid much better and she had to do less work than if she was au pairing for the Perry kids. If Eliza did not give Jacqui this opportunity, Jacqui would have needed to go back to Brazil because she had no job. Jacqui did go with the flow and found that the flow was good. Though Jacqui did plan on working for the Perrys another year.  Most people plan things, but those things might go wrong and something new might just come up. That is life, things happen that you would not expect or plan to happen. Jacqui has a pretty good life to have gotten all these chances.

Eliza definitely changed since the first book. In this book Eliza opens up her store to sell her line of clothing in the Hamptons. Opening the store was planned out, but living with her dad and step-mother was not. This was just one of the things Eliza went with the flow with. Eliza soon found out that her step-mother was awesome and had great kids that are not always jumping around and creating problems. Eliza definitely went with the flow when Jeremy purposed to her with a huge ring. She did not know that Jeremy would purpose to her so quickly and thought of the future of them being together. I think that a lot of people do things randomly and do not really plan much of their life out.

In conclusion, this book showed that people do not really plan everything in their life. They can plan some of their life, but even those plans can be changed in a split second. People cannot do everything exactly liked planned, things can come up when you least expect it. Things that are planned can go wrong, but something better might just come up from nowhere and it might just be the greatest thing that happened to you. People should always go with the flow of things if it is not needed to plan things. Eliza, Mara, and Jacqui did not plan to do these things in the summer, but they ended up doing it because they just went with the flow even though their plans went wrong.

Blog Post #29: The Au Pairs: Sun-Kissed

I have just started the book, The Au Pairs: Sun-Kissed by Melissa de la Cruz which is the continuation of The Au Pairs series. Right now in the book Jacqui is the last au pair left working for the Perrys. Jacqui is now working with a new Korean au pair, Shannon that helps make their jobs easier. Now the au pairs do not need to even care for the Perry kids. At first Eliza got an internship working for a famous fashion designer. Though this was not all fun and games, she had to work on hours on end and work really hard. Her boss noticed her after she touched up a model’s outfit, then many others. Though she made one mistake and poof, she was gone, fired. Mara has a new job writing a column about the night life of celebrities in the Hamptons. Mara has all the VIPs to the top parties and is living with Ryan on his parents’ yacht. This book is making me wonder why people change so much. It made me think what the meaning of change is. Also it made me wonder how people actually change.

In the last book, Jacqui swore off boys, but in this book she wants to hook-up with some guys. She also wanted to go to NYU, but she could not get in because she did not have the required credits. Jacqui now has to take another year of high school, but Anna Perry and Kevin Perry are getting a divorce, so they would not be paying for another year of high school for Jacqui. She is feeling down because she really wants to go to NYU somehow, but she may not be able to. Jacqui has changed from party girl to calm and hard-working girl. She has changed many times throughout this series and I think that she might change in the next book. The meaning of change is to alter something or make something different. Jacqui makes me wonder, what a good change in a person is. I think that a good change can be like Jacqui’s change from being a party person to a hard-working person.

 Eliza needed a job for the summer, but since she got fired she could not go shopping because her parents took away her “plastic”, or credit cards. In the first book Eliza was a girl that thought she was all that, but in the second book she learned that working for something is a really hard thing to do. In this book she started out as a hard-working intern and now she turned into a girl that is looking for a job for the summer. I think that people change in many different ways. People can change from other people’s traits rubbing onto you. Or people can change from the way they behave or the activities they do. I think that Eliza’s change is from the activities she did and also a little bit from her friends.  Eliza did find a new job, but it did not pay as well as her internship. She had to take the job because she just had to have money to shop. This did not change in Eliza.

All in all, I think that people can change in many different ways and how they change are because of many different reasons. People can change all of a sudden, or they can change at a slow pace. Jacqui and Eliza changed pretty quickly because of having new thoughts on what they would do in life. Mara also changed, but not as much as Jacqui and Eliza. Mara was already a hard-working girl and she still is, she is just with a really nice guy now. Some things just do not change in some people.

Blog Post #28: The Au Pairs: Skinny-Dipping

In the book, The Au Pairs: Skinny-Dipping by Melissa de la Cruz, 3 best friends have problems being with each other. This book is the second book of The Au Pairs, but in this book Mara, Eliza, and Jacqui are kind of moving apart from each other. They are becoming more and more distant because things are changing. Mara has gotten a new boyfriend that causes her to be very popular and makes her act differently from the Mara Eliza and Jacqui knows. Eliza has a new job at Seventh Circle and is seeing Mara’s ex-boyfriend, Ryan. Her job causes her to have less time hang out with Mara and Jacqui. Jacqui is trying to get the new French au pair, Philippe to notice her. Also she is studying for the SATs. This is causing her to forget about Mara and Eliza.

According to the book, Mara is starting to become a celebrity’s girlfriend that has a lot of publicity. Mara gets free stuff from big designers and a hot new car. At first Mara just went out with Garnett to get her ex-boyfriend jealous, but then later on she felt that Garnett was a really great guy to be with and she does not need Ryan. Mara goes from goody-two-shoes to IT-girl. What makes a person abandon their friends for a new life? I think that Mara is abandoning her friends for a new life because she feels the pull of the popular life. She is being attracted to glamorous life of getting free stuff and being noticed. Everyone is talking about her because she is with a rich, hot, celebrity boy. Mara starts to fade out Jacqui and Eliza by just thinking of herself.

Eliza is being occupied by her new job, but has enough time to see Ryan and not Mara and Jacqui. Eliza was trying to avoid Mara because she was seeing Ryan without her knowing. Eliza felt that her boyfriend was starting to become distant from her and she needed another guy to be her rock. Why would a person go out with her best friend’s ex-boyfriend when she knew that her friend still liked him? I think that Eliza went out with Ryan because she thought that Mara was over Ryan because she was with Garnett. Eliza went out with Ryan all the time, but never had the time to talk to Mara or Jacqui.

Also, Jacqui falls in love with the new au pair, a hot, French boy, though Philippe always was gone doing something. Jacqui barely got to see him and when she did he would always run off somewhere. Why would a girl chase a guy that she barely sees? I think that Jacqui chased Philippe because of the way he looked, but she did not really know him that well. Jacqui soon gets distant with Mara and Eliza because she is studying for the SATs to get into NYU. She is forgetting about hanging out with her best friends. Jacqui used to be a party girl, but now she has transformed into a girl that has a goal to get into NYU and get Philippe to notice her.

In conclusion, the 3 best friends are becoming distant from each other for different reasons. Mara has a new boyfriend that is taking up a lot of her time. Eliza has a new job that is very troublesome and hangs out with Ryan all the time. Jacqui is chasing the new au pair and studying for the SATs. Each of these girls is turning into different people from the first time they met. Their personalities are shifting around.

Blog Post #27: Summer Boys

As I come to an end of Summer Boys by Hailey Abbott, I noticed that romance cannot always be the way you want it to be. Sometimes you want a person to be with forever and sometimes you just want a fling. People would have different thoughts on what romance is, like one person might think it is just getting together with someone and another might think it is being with a person that they really like. This makes me think that Jamie, Ella, and Beth are really different people that have a different point of view on romance.

According to the story, Jamie wants a guy to be with for a really long time instead of just having a fling like Ella. Beth though wants to have a relationship, but not with a guy she does not know. Ella just wants to go out with a guy her sister is dating as a fling. What exactly is romance? There are all kinds of romance, but which kind is romance. I think that each personality has a different thought about romance.  Romance can be a hard thing to figure out for different people because each person would have a different point of view of things.

Jamie wants be with a guy forever and wants a one true love. Beth wants to be with a guy she already knows, but never knew she actually liked him and Ella wants to be with a guy that is appealing to her. I noticed that Jamie and Beth wanted a real solid relationship with a guy, but Ella just wanted the guy because she liked him. Does a person perspective on life impact their perspective of romance? I think that maybe if a person has a different perspective of their life then their perspective of romance can change. Toward the end of the book Ella’s perspective of life changed and also she started to think that she should find a guy to just be with.

In conclusion, one’s perspective of life can change a person’s perspective of romance. I wonder if similar people would have the same point of view of romance as each other. I think that every person has a different personality and thinks differently than others. 

Blog Post #26: Summer Boys

Right now I am reading the book Summer Boys by Hailey Abbott, it is about 3 cousins that have love troubles and want to find a guy for the summer.  Jamie Tuttle and her 2 cousins are back in Pebble Beach for another summer. Jamie reunites with her last summer boyfriend, Ethan, but things change quick when he tells her that he just wants to be friends. Ella is a girl that bounces around guys, but this summer she wants to find a person to settle down with. She falls in love with a singer at a concert named Peter, but her sister gets to him first.  Beth wants to find a boyfriend that does not just like her looks. Though, soon she finds out that she is in love with her best friend, George. Throughout the book she hides her feelings from George because he found a summer girl. The theme of this book is that you cannot rely on something or someone to be the same forever. Also another theme is that if you made a choice and regretted it, do not make it into a big emotional pain. You should live from your mistakes and move on with your life.

The theme of this book is that people cannot rely on things being like the way they were before because things or people can change. When Jamie came back to Pebble Beach she was so excited to see Ethan, but he had changed since the last time she had seen him. I think that nothing can stay the same forever, especially people. Things can change in a split second, but that is life and you should just get over it. No one can stay the same person forever. Ethan changed in one summer, but Jamie still thought that he was in love with her. Jamie really thought that Ethan would be her one and only love, but that turned out to be wrong.

Based on the story I can tell that the theme connects to real life because in real life there are a lot of breakups, hook ups, and fights. Ella broke up and hooked up many times, but never found the right guy. Ella made many wrong choices, but she never regretted them and just moved on. Though she did regret trying to get her sister’s boyfriend to notice her and go out with her. In real life people would try to do things that they would later regret, but they never move on. They should just keep on living their life and forget about their mistakes. Ella really wanted to settle down with a guy, but she soon hurts her sister by doing so.

Sometimes people can keep on staying out of the way, but really want to show what they really feel. Beth made a choice that she regretted and it was that she set George up with a hot summer girl. It would have been better if Beth figured out that she was in love with George before that. Beth started to feel jealous of Cara because she wanted to be in her spot hanging out with George. I think that Beth could have stopped this emotional pain if she figured out her love quicker instead of waiting for Cara to show her that she loved him. Even though Beth made a big mistake she still made it through and continued to live her life.

In conclusion, there were 2 themes in this book that played big roles. I think that you cannot rely on someone or something to be the same as they were before because things can change in a second. Also, if you made a choice that was regretful you should just move on with your life. You should not make a mistake take over your life so you cannot live it freely anymore. It can’t make your life into a huge pain.

Blog Post #25: The Au Pairs

Currently I am reading the book The Au Pairs by Melissa de la Cruz. It is about 3 girls that are working in the Hamptons for the Perry family. In the beginning the 3 girls thought that this job would be a piece of cake. They thought that taking care of 4 kids was easy, but they were wrong. Their work was tedious because they must treat the kids with great care. While reading the book I noticed that each girl had very different personalities. Mara is more a of a shy and goodie two shoes, Eliza is more of a spoiled girl that likes to party all the time, and Jacqui is a girl that wants to have someone love her all the time.

Mara is a girl that is shy most of the time, but sometimes she gets out of her comfort zone and has fun. I think that she is a feisty girl when she wants to be. Even though Mara has a boyfriend in Boston, I think she has a tiny crush on Ryan Perry. I never would have thought Mara would like someone else instead of her one and only boyfriend. Mara always took care of the kids while Eliza and Jacqui were out doing something, which was most of the time. Mara is really helpful because she usually takes care of the 4 children.

Throughout the book Eliza shows that she is a party girl and always wants to go somewhere. Though Eliza also shows that she can help out, but most of the time she does not because she does not want her former friends think she has dropped down so far that she must work. Eliza was rich, but then her dad was part of Wall Street when it crashed and they lost a lot of their money. Her family formerly lived in New York and then they had to move to Boston because it was cheaper. Eliza lied to her friends because she did not want them to know that her family was broke. Eliza is a really great person, but she does not want her friends to know the truth.

Jacqui has a personality of a girl that is truly in love, but soon she finds out that her one true love has a girlfriend. Jacqui also likes to party like Eliza, but she has a hard time without having a guy by her side. She took the job at the Hamptons because she wanted to find the guy she loved, but after that guy left she thought that there was no point of staying. I think that Jacqui should really move on from the guy that lied to her while she was falling head over toes for him. Jacqui usually has a guy by her side all the time because of her looks.

In this book, the characters have very different personalities. Each girl shows a different side of them throughout the book. I think that these girls can all be different from their personalities from the beginning of the book. I noticed that their personalities change very slowly, but their personalities do not change a lot. Each girl makes me think that everyone in the world is unique from others, twins are very similar, but most of the time they have different personalities.