My niece, Michelle, is all of 13 3/4 yrs. old, and is, in many ways, your typical, 8th grade teen, with typical teen interests, whose parents, and assorted other relatives, all love her dearly and encourage her along every step of her life's journey.
She is a very bright young lady whose occassional slips in her grades mask the fact that there is an intelligent mind hidden in that head that is just waiting for the right moment, and/or interest, to break loose and develope to its full, Adult, potential.
I've always known she likes getting on the computer, but I recently was made aware of the fact that she has taken the 1st steps toward entering the more involving, and personally expressive, side of the internet:
A Personal ( sort of ) webpage, and a Blog ( sort of ).
She recently lost her beloved Daschund, Skipper, to illness, and it broke her heart but, being a resilient soul, she searched, with her Parents help, for a young pup to follow in his treasured footsteps.
In early February, she found him, and named him PEANUT:
I woke up so early this morning excited and eager too meet my new puppy. We had to drive a long way from corona to stevens ranch California to finally meet Erin(the owner) Jimmy and Malibu ( Peanuts mommy and daddy)!!! We waited in front of petsmart and were anxious for his arrival. Then the time came and he was the cuttest thing you can ever imagine seeing him so tiny and wrinkly and all mine forever!!!!
So what if the spelling, and punctuation are a tad off...
Doesn't that simple Blog entry just blow you way? :-D
That entry is the 1st of what I hope will be many she will write as part of the pages she set up at Dogster a couple of weeks ago.
On the main page the writer has a chance to add info to several categories, to help tell about their Canine companion, and my niece expresses herself very well here as well.
Likes, tricks, and Favorite foods, and toys are amusingly described in short sentences, but it's in the sections requiring longer "essays" that her ability really shows promise:
ARRIVAL STORY: well my very first dog skipper ( a daschund ) past away new years eve 2004. so we were very sad and lonley so we were searching everywhere and we found Erin on dashies bulliten and she had heard the news of his death and told us that she had one puppy left and that if we were interested in him so we said YEAH!!!!! so we brought Peanut home Feb 12th 2005.
BIO ( Written by "Peanut" ): I am considered a Dapple Doxie , I have a personality that will earn your love everytime. I am fast and jump just like a Kangaroo. I love to play chase around the house and be your snuggle bunnie at night. Oh before I forget I also give kisses and kissess and kisses :) untill you make me stop . Michelle who is 13 is my loving owner she takes good care of me and loves me , she is my PAL.
I once was that young.
Maturing, and trying to gain a sense of myself as change overtook my mind, and body.
Reading, and writing, were my pleasures, and sometimes a place to escape to for calm, and peace, and my young skull was stimulated by all that I read, even my textbooks, and reading assignments in school.
My creative writing talent developed through the research, and writing, I did for all my book reports, and led to my becoming brave enough to write a Letter to the Editor of my local paper about some local issue that caught my attention.
Imagine my suprise, and pleasure, when it not only got published but created a furor in the paper for weeks. :-D
This was long before the advent of the Computer Age of the last 15 years, so there were no such things as personal websites, and Blogs.
My ability to read books, and magazines, beyond my age level, and my talent for writing could have taken me in a different direction than the one I went in, but that is in the past.
Reading, and writing, are important in the developement of Critical Thinking, and Decision Making, and the ability to earn ones way in the world.
The important thing for my niece is the world opened up to her by the current era of the Computer Age.
It allows our youth, those Young Skulls Full of Mush we call our children, nieces, nephews, and grandkids, to expand their horizons, in a host of ways as they grow and mature, discover what they want to be when they grow up, prepare for College, and then life after their education is complete, and they fully enter the world of their elders.
The ability to read, and write at, or above, her grade level is important for her future.
The ability to write intelligently, thoughtfully, humorously, or seriously, with a pen, or from a keyboard, for a report only her teacher, or future job bosses, will read, or on a simple Journal like that on Dogster, or more complicated Blog like mine ( where she might write creatively, or write about her pets, her life, her interests, or even her opinions on a 100 different issues, and events ), read by maybe an audience of dozens, hundreds, or even thousands, is an important, and critical skill to master, even in a small way.
A friend of mine, who I have written about here before, is living proof of all of this: I first encountered this young Black woman online when she was 14, in 1999, and an opinionated contributor to a group of message boards I frequented.
She had a developing personal website, loved the movies, and was exploring her Christian faith.
A year after I started Blogging she was also inspired to begin a blog of her own at the same time that she had settled on the direction her studies ( Film making )would take as she prepared for College.
Her talent for writing film reviews led to her becoming a leading contributor to a popular film website where our old message boards eventually migrated, and she is now in college.
It is my hope that my writing this entry will give my niece, and any other young people reading this who are about to enter High School next fall encouragement, and much food for thought ( within themselves, with their friends, and with their parents ).
Visit the webpage of my Niece.
There are 7 wonderful photos of Peanut, and the new Journal is called The Life of Peanut. ( Her Mother, inspired by Michelle apparently, has made a "Tribute" page to the memory of Skipper, with several wonderful pictures of him.
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