Welcome back world to another weekly post of Sierra's Weekly Sayings! This week I will be talking about the dinner table. I know what you are thinking, what is so special about a dinner table? But what you do not realize is how something as simple as a dinner table can represent a families traditions and culture. My family is very American when it comes to our dinner table. My mother always cooks amazing meals whether it be American or every once in a while she will create a special polish meal for my family to eat.  We all put our phones away, and talk to each other about our day and what we did. Our dinner table is very straight forward, nothing special to it. The first time I ever had dinner that was a different culture from my own family was when I had dinner with my friend in the sixth grades family. She was Indian, so we all sat on the floor on small cushions and ate from a small square table. There are a lot of people in her family so it was fairly packed. Her mother and grandmother prepared many dishes that for me as a ten year old, were very different from what I was used to. I ate what I thought looked the best and enjoyed the meal though I did not eat much. It was a very interesting experience for me and now as I grow older I become more used to eating dinner with different cultures and traditions that are different from my own. I enjoy these experiences that I have at different dinner tables. I think that everyone should try and embrace that we are all different. I encourage everyone to try and have a dinner that is different from what you are used to. You never know what you might learn.
To end this weeks post,
"We should except diversity in culture and tradition and coexist peacefully..."
- Haile Selassie
Thank you for reading this weeks edition of Sierra's Weekly Sayings, hope you read again next week!

Welcome world to the one and only Sierra's Weekly Sayings. Now for this weeks blog post, we will be taking about names, well my name at least. When my mother found out she was pregnant with me after my older sister, she pretty much wanted to name me what they did not name her. My mom hated the name Sierra, but my dad loved it. My mom wanted my name to be Aurora or something like that. So my name was already off to a bad start. My mom says he does not know why she hated my name, she just did. My dad liked my name because he used to live in the Sierra Nevada Mountains in Tahoe and loved it there. In the end my parents didn't really choose my name at all, an old guy in front of my parents in the line at Costco did. He was wearing a shirt that said the Marina and Sierra Boating Company on the back of it. Since my older sisters name is Marina, they thought that it was fate. When I was born my mom said that when she looked at me for the first time, she knew that I was a Sierra. I personally think that my name does fit me, though I have had many friends in the past say that I look like a Jessica or and Ally. I am not saying that my name is extremely unique but it was not as common when I was younger as it is now. So when I was little I wanted a different name because not everyone in my class could spell it, say it right, or remember it correctly. It sounds silly since my name just is not that hard but for little kids it was and that made me feel insecure about it when I was a child. I love my name now but I will always remember how I felt when everyone in my classes name was different from mine. Today I have never let my name hold me back. I mean people still stop to ask how I spell it but I am just used to that since there are many different spellings to my name. I think the main reason Gogol thinks his name is such a hindrance because he thinks that it is going to make people judge him and look at him based on his name. He is scared that people won't look past his name. But a name is not what defines who you are. A name is a part of you, but you are more than just your name. Names are all unique no matter how common they are. It is the person who makes the name special, not the other way around. Cherish your name, cause it means something to someone. I promise.
To end this blog post on names,
"A name represents identity, a deep feeling and holds tremendous significance to its owner."
- Rachel Ingber
Thank you for reading this weeks version of Sierra's Weekly Sayings! Hope you read again next week!

Welcome all to this weeks addition of Sierra's Weekly Sayings! For this weeks blog post, I will be talking about my Families heritage. My grandmother tells me about my families heritage all the time. I know that I am mostly Irish and Polish-American. My great-grandmother was Irish and my great-grandfather was Polish. They both met each other during World War II when my great-grandfather was stationed in a town in Ireland that my great-grandmother lived in. They fell in love and escaped to the US to fine a better life to raise their family. They later had my grandma, then my grandma met my grandpa in California. They eventually had my Uncle then my mother. I do not know much about my Grandpa's parents other than that they are from Ohio. I think that my families heritage is very important. It makes me who I am. The memories that I have made thus far in my life that are related to my families traditions and heritage are some of my favorite memories to keep. I will always remember how my grandma and I would make polish perogies. It one of my favorite foods today to make and enjoy. My family also never skips St. Patrick's Day. If you do not wear green on St. Patrick's Day then you will be shunned for the day from my family. We are very serious about it. These things define me and my family as people and what we believe in and choose to celebrate about the world. To us, our heritage and traditions are very important. It makes my family unique in its own way and I love that.
To end this blog post,
"If we know where we came from, we may better know where to go. If we know who we came from, we may better understand who we are." -Unknown
I hope you enjoyed this weeks addition of Sierra's Weekly Sayings! See you again next week!

Hello and welcome back to Sierra's Weekly Sayings! This week we will talking talking about rational and irrational elements. We are almost finished with the book Notes From Underground where our narrator believes that human existence is often about the internal battle we wage each and every day between rational and irrational thoughts and actions, or elements. I personally do not fully agree with this. Human existence is so much more then he says it is. People have to deal with internal struggles everyday, it is part of being human, but it shouldn't have to come to the point where these are all that you think about. Human's have so much potential to do good in the world but people's minds use the irrational elements to overthrow and take over their peaceful actions and ideas. I do not think that rational is more powerful then irrational or vise versa. I do think that irrational thoughts lead to more experiences and they teach us more then the rational thoughts. They are both equal in my eyes. I know that I do not spend my time everyday thinking about my internal struggles. I never have irrational thoughts unless it is something silly like I'm going to drop out of school and hit the road or something idiotic like that. But that is my mind. Everyone has their own rational and irrational elements that help make that person who they are. Each persons thoughts are unique in some way. Whether or not you let those rational and irrational elements take over your mind, just know that we are on this earth to do more then just let our thoughts consume us. We take these thoughts and we will make something positive out of it. I know I have already started one day at a time.
To end this blog post,
"But rational thoughts lead only to rational thoughts, whereas irrational thoughts lead to new experiences."
- Alan Lightman
Thank you for reading!

Hello and welcome back to another week of Sierra's Weekly Sayings! This week I will be talking about my own contradictions in my life. I have a lot actually. The first one would be that I am sometimes late but expect others to be one time. I am not usually one who is late but when I am I always feel sorry for the person who has to wait for me. If I am not late but the person who I am with is late, then i guess I am a little annoyed because that person should be more responsible and be on time. This one is probably my worst one cause it happens a lot. I hate this contradiction because I know how it feels when I am late to hang out with that person yet I still get upset when they are late. I just need to work on being on time and not letting the other person being late bother me. The second contradiction I have in my life is that I have no religion but still pray when I am really scared. This one is big for me cause my family has never had any religion and I know nothing about religious ideas but I still do this sometimes. I do not believe in a certain religion or god but I do believe in their ideas and thoughts. So I do this sometimes to keep myself from freaking out and to make myself more calm inward. I have honestly come to terms with this contradiction and do not plan on settling on a single religion ever. The last contradiction I have in my life is that I want to make myself happy but spend so much of my life making others happy. I always tell myself that I am going to try and make myself happy, but I use so much of this time to make sure other people in my life are happy. I care about everyone and I want everyone to be happy. I see this as a flaw in my life because, yes I want to make sure everyone in my life is happy, but I always need to make sure and ask myself if I am happy. I don't have very many contradictions in my life so I guess I am a bit of an idiot in some ways but I enjoy the contradictions I have in my life. Without these contradictions, I would not be the person I am today.
To end this weeks blog,
"Contradiction is not a sign of falsity, nor the lack a contradiction a sign of truth."
- Blaise Pascal
Thank you for reading this weeks edition of Sierra's Weekly Sayings and I hope to see you again next week!

Hello again and Welcome to another week of Sierra's Weekly Sayings! This week, we recently finished our latest novel The Taming Of The Shrew by William Shakespeare. So for this blog, I will imagine what it would be like if I was the marriage counselor for our two main headstrong characters Petruchio and Katherina. Here is what happened........

I walked into the room where the counseling was being held and I already heard shouting. I was already wanting to leave. I honestly hate my job but it pays well so I deal with it. I come into the room to see a man laying face down on the floor, with a woman sitting on top of him holding his arms and legs down. They were both screaming at each other but I could hardly make out any of it. I sat down and started to read my book until they decided to calm down. I sat there, for two hours, not kidding. Good news is I finished my book, of course it was the the poodle groomer who killed them in the end! Ok I am getting side tracked, anyways when they both finally sat down, I looked at them and asked them to describe how they felt at the moment. They both responded with evil glares to one another and silence. I knew nothing I had to think of was going to work, so I picked up a new book and started to read it until they wanted to speak. After another hour, Petruchio finally asked if I was gonna do anything to help them. I told them that if they wanted my help then they would have to stay seated and not speak to one another unless I gave them permission to. They both rolled their eyes at me. I first asked Petruchio how he felt about their problems and relationship. He said that nothing was wrong between them and that she just needed to be kinder and not speak out so much. When I asked her the same she just sat there and said that she wished that he cared about her more and that if he loved her he would show it. Instead she claims he is rude and unkind towards her. I thought long and hard about what they both told me. Clearly they were both the issue in this relationship. I suggested that as a short term goal they should temporarily spend an hour each day and sit down together and talk about how they felt that day. This would help them come together more and learn to sit down and listen. The long term goal I gave them was for them to learn to respect one another and to calmly speak to each other. This will create a better aura around their relationship. Overall the meeting ended well and we are planning another meeting for next month to check on their progress.

To end this weeks blog, a quote for the Shakespeare lovers,

"And kiss me, Kate; we will be married a Sunday!"

—Petruchio, The Taming of the Shrew

Thank you for reading this weeks addition of Sierra's Weekly Sayings!

Hi to whomever is reading and welcome back to another week of Sierra's Weekly Sayings! This week I will be discussing the topic of women keeping their last names. I have heard a lot of debating about whether or not a women should keep her last name from birth. For me personally I do not think it is that important for a women to keep her last name. I think it just depends on the type of person they are. I don't believe women should be forced to keep their last name or be forced to take their husbands name. They should just be given a choice as to if they want to keep their last name or not. Not to sound silly but maybe the wife just likes her last name more than her husbands, or her husbands more than hers. Again it is just the type of person she is. To me it should not really matter at all. It is not a big issue and people should not use time and energy debating about it. If she wants her husbands name she will take it, if she doesn't she won't. It is as simple as that. When I get married I am planning on keeping my last name purely because I love my last and I wouldn't want any other one. I think it is ok for a women to keep her last name and people should respect that.

To end this weeks blog, a quote I just found actually,
"Well the time and day has changed, where the women where the pants without changing the last name."
- Rihanna
Thank you for reading and I hope you read again next time on Sierra's Weekly Sayings!

Hello everybody! I have been gone for such a long time but it is finally time to resume Sierra's Weekly Sayings! This week the term Feminism has been brought to our attention. I have never been sure if I consider myself a feminist. To me I feel like women do not need a term in order for us to show our equality. We should just be equal and that is that. We do not need a term in my opinion. I do not think feminist is a dirty word though. People should be allowed to use feminism as much as they want and no one should ever judge them for it. I think that people who consider themselves as a feminist are brave. They are standing up for what they believe in and that is great. I have recently read a lot of articles about feminism. Unless someone considers them self a feminist, most people seem to not like the term very much at all. I think it is crazy that people think feminism leads women to leaving their husband, killing their children, and becoming killers of capitalism. It makes me really mad that people assume those things. Even though I do not entirely consider myself a feminist, it infuriates me that people are allowed to say this. It is wrong. People do not want to see a change in the world for women and that is sad. We should all be treated equal no matter our gender, race, or who we love. We are all equal.


To end this weeks blog, I found this quote a while ago and thought it was incredibly interesting.
" When men are oppressed, it's a tragedy. When women are oppressed, it's a tradition. " - Letty Pogrebin
Thanks for reading and I hope to see you next week on Sierra's Weekly Sayings!

Hi everybody! Sorry I have been gone for so long. Anyways welcome back to another week of Sierra's Weekly Sayings! This week we have started a new book in my class. It is called The Thing Around Your Neck by Chimamanda Adichie. This is a collection of short stories told from her own point of view. The first short story I have read is called " The Headstrong Historian." This is the story of a woman in the late 19th century located in Nigeria where Europeans are colonizing their land. Her name is Ayaju and she is a very powerful and brave woman who is willing to do anything for what is right. At one point she decides that she wants to send her only son to school to learn English. She says she wants her son to "learn the ways of these foreigners, since people ruled over others not because they were better people but because they had better guns...." I believe that she thinks this because in a way it is true. People do not rule over others cause they are better or stronger, they rule because of man made weapons and fighting. I agree with her very much. If we look back into history, this can be seen everywhere. So far this year I have learned a lot about power and privilege. I learned that people don't have power and privilege because of what they have physically, they have power and privilege mentally because they are smarter and stronger and brave. Only these people have the power to be privileged. I have also learned a lot about story telling. I learned that the greatest story tellers are the ones who feel the story within them and tell the story as if it were their own lives. Overall this first short story has been a great start to this new collection I have begun.

To end this post, a new quote I found,

" Words can inspire. and words can destroy. Choose yours well." -Robin Sharma

Thank you for reading this weeks edition of Sierra's Weekly Sayings! Hope to see you back next week!

Hello world and welcome back to another week of Sierra's Weekly Sayings! For the past couple of weeks in my English class, we have been reading the novel Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress. This book is by far one of my favorites that I have ever read in any of my English classes. I have learned so much from this novel, such as what it is like to grow up during Mao's Cultural Revolution. The author has given me such a vivid idea of re-education that it is almost like I have lived through it. The two main characters of the book, known as the unnamed narrator and his friend Luo, have been living through it for months. Just reading about their day to day adventures and experiences gives me such a large idea of what re-education is like. I think that learning about a historical time in a fictional novel is more intimate than reading it straight from facts because when there are characters and someone for you to relate to and be apart of is something that draws people into the novel and becomes more intrigued by it. It also lets people experience this time as if they were in the book themselves, which is something really special. I overall love this book so very much and I will be sad when it comes to an end.

To end this post, one of my favorite quotes from the book itself,
" P.S. I just remembered something funny I wanted to tell you: since your visit I've come across several people whose second toes are longer than their big toes, just like ours. I'm disappointed, but that's life."
- Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress 
Thank you for reading and I hope to see you next time!

Hello everybody and welcome back to another week of Sierra's Weekly Sayings! This past week was the last week of my first quarter into my sophomore year, to say the least I was surprised at how fast this year is already going by. English is of course my favorite class as it has always been and it will probably always be. I believe that so far into the year I am doing very good in my class thus far. I have always enjoyed reading and writing. It was just something that I was good at I guess. I have noticed that I am very good at adding notes here and there in the conversations that can add a new idea to what we were discussing. I feel like I participate a lot but I definitely could participate more than I do now. I could benefit from myself by practicing my vocab much more than I do. I do really good on the quizzes the week with the new words but I struggle a little with remembering the old ones. Overall I feel that this first quarter of the year has been very successful and I am excited to continue the year with this good feeling! I also cannot wait to get to know my classmates more and learn new things everyday that will help me better understand literature!

My quote of the week is in the image above! 

"Be true to your work, your word, and your friend" -Henry David Thoreau 

Thank you for reading this weeks addition of Sierra's Weekly Sayings! Hope you will read again next week!

Hello world and welcome back to another week of, you guessed it, Sierra's Weekly Sayings! So this week an event has been brought to my attention, National Banned Book Week. In all honesty I had no idea this week even existed. I knew that some books were banned in the past but I never knew that it had a whole week dedicated to them. I took a look at the most recently challenged book list of 2015, and I am a little surprised about the novels that have been listed there. Out of all  the books on the list I have read three of them. Perks of Being a Wallflower, House on Mango Street, and The Complete Persepolis. I kinda agree with these three books being on the list. I have only read each of these books only once but the first time I did, I will admit it was a bit confusing, especially The Complete Persepolis. All three of these books each had different themes to them but they were all complex in their own ways. They all had a lot of ideas that might be difficult for people to understand because no one can fully understand what message the Author is trying to get across. I believe others might view these books as dangerous because it is showing people that it is ok to be different and that we are not all the same. Everyone is unique and in some cultures being different or standing out is considered dangerous. I am willing to risk everything in order to be able to read a book deemed illegal by my community. I would only stop if it ever put anyone I care about in harms way. I think the main reason I would still read it would be that I do not care what other people think and I would do it to be different. I love being unique and I would not trade who I am for the world.

Never forget to be unique and that it is ok to break the rules every once in a while, but for good reasons only. To end this post, a quote that I think is perfect for this weekly blog.
"A reader lives a thousand lives before they die, the ones who never read, live only one" -George RR Martin
Thanks for reading this weeks addition of Sierra's Weekly Sayings! Hope you read again next week!

Hello world and welcome back to yet another weekly post of Sierra's Weekly Sayings! This week I will be talking about the generation of wimps. I remember when I played soccer as a child and winning a lot. I always thought our team was very good, but now that I look back on it, I don't remember one time where we even scored a goal. I have s many articles about our generation being known as the generation of wimps and in some ways I think it is true. I completely agree with the fact that if a child never learns to lose, how will they finally react when they do? In all honestly I think that younger leagues should keep scores but I think it is still important for the coaches to do their jobs, and their jobs are to teach them to play the sport, and learn that winning is not everything, they are there to have fun. Related to this is the whole who is special and equal thing. In a way I agree with this. I think that if everyone if creative, smart, talented, and special, where is the individuality? In reality, not everyone is all of these things and they may never be. The equality people want is something that may never happen. Don't get me wrong, I would love everyone to be treated equal but we cannot all be physically equal, it is impossible. I am in no way offended by our generation being called the nation of wimps because in ways it is true. The things that bugs me is that the world is saying the if we can't win, no one can, or if we can't run fast, then no one can run fast. I want equality but not this way, I will not let us live in the world of "Harrison Bergeron" by Kurt Vonnegut where everyone is handicapped physically and mentally in order to be fully equal.

To end this weeks post, one of my most recent quote discoveries,
" Individual freedom and individual equality cannot co-exist. I dare say no one since Thomas Jefferson has really believed it." - Katharine Fullerton Gerould
Thanks for reading this weeks addition of Sierra's Weekly Sayings! Hope for you to read again next week!

Hello everybody and welcome back to Sierra's Weekly Sayings! This week I will be discussing the matters of where my happiness lies within the suffering of others. Oddly enough it seems that I tend to deal with this idea a lot. As a young girl in Middle school, I wanted to be happy and I wanted everyone else to be happy too, but that was not always the case. I remember once for a school trip, we were all put into small groups to travel with. I remember being in a group with all girls and I was pretty happy with who I was with. There were three groups. The one I was part of and two more. There was this other girl who was not a part of our group. She was very kind to everyone and smiled a lot. This time she was not smiling, she looked sad. She said she wanted to be part of our group but there were too many people in our group for her to fit. Nobody in my group wanted to trade with her, they were all happy with who that were with. I felt bad for her, so I asked if I could trade groups with her, she happily accepted my offer. Now that I look back on it, in order for the girls in my group to be happy, she was suffering. This relates to "The Ones Who Walk Away From Omelas" because the girl was my suffering child in a way. She was sad and she suffered in order for us to be happy. Now that I am older I feel pretty silly about it honestly.

To end this post, a quote that I find very interesting, " Every time I thought I was being rejected from something good, I was actually being re-directed to something better. " -Dr. Steven Maraboli       Thanks for reading this weeks addition of Sierra's Weekly Sayings! 

Hello everybody! Welcome back to Sierra's Weekly Sayings, where this week we will be discussing the idea of how social media influences our day to day lives. In the short story "Once Upon a Time" the author Nadine Gordimer tells of a bedtime story that has rather the opposite of a happy ending. It talks about how media and news can affect the way people view their own lives and the places they live in. Social media has a tendency to cause a large amount of panic whenever there is a threat anywhere in the world. This causes people to take more drastic actions then needed such as building a wall surrounding their home or putting up a new type of special lock system that is unnecessary. Another story that touches upon this is Barry Glassner's book The Culture of Fear where the author also speaks about how the more TV a person watches the more likely they are to being overly worried about situations that are less then likely to happen. I do believe that fear saturated media does have a large effect on peoples happiness because they spend so much time worrying about things that are most likely not to happen. I also believe that this could effect the criminal justice system because since people are more and more worrying about crime that the people will have an effect on crime justice such as longer prison time and harsher punishments that are uncalled for at most times. Overall I completely agree with the idea that media effects peoples happiness.

The picture above is an example of how media can have an effect on peoples lives and happiness. To end this blog, a quote that I find quite interesting about media
" The media's the most powerful thing on earth, they have the power to make the innocent guilty and to make the guilty innocent. Because they control the minds of the masses." -Malcolm X

Hello and welcome to my second blog post! For this post I will be talking about an important event that took place not too long ago. It happened June 26 2015 actually. This was the day same sex marriage was legalized in all fifty states. The morning I woke up and had heard the news, I was so overcome with happiness. No words could describe what I was feeling, which brings me to my picture below. The image below is a picture of internet-youtube star, Tyler Oakley. Tyler makes hilarious weekly videos about his day to day life and makes people laugh a whole lot. He is such a sweet and genuine person and is never rude to anyone. Tyler has been openly gay to his fans and viewers from the start of his career. So the day that same sex marriage was legalized, he of course took to social media to post this picture.

No words can describe the emotions he is showing in this image. No words can describe what he is thinking either. The point is, is that everyone deserves happiness. We are all equal and we all deserve a chance to be who we are no matter what. We are all beautiful in our own ways. Thank you for reading and to end this post, one of my favorite quotes ever.

"I am, you are, everybody on this planet has the capability to do something extraordinary." 

               - Tyler Oakley

Hello everybody! Welcome to my very first blog! My name is Sierra and I am the creator and author of "Sierra's Weekly Saying." I am very excited to share my ideas and thoughts with the readers of my blog and can not wait to hear feedback from everyone. The reason my blog is titled "Sierra's Weekly Sayings" is because at the end of each of my blog posts, I will write an inspirational quote either by the given author or myself. The picture below is an English project we had to do where we had to think of twenty or more words that define who we are. As you can see mine is very bright as I consider myself a bright person. I have a total of twenty-one words that I would think of. Some of the more important being my name, family, soccer, Irish, sisters, art, and photography. All these words are what makes me special, and that is why I am unique!

Thank you very much for reading my very first blog post, there will be plenty more to come! My first saying is from my favorite book as a child.
" If there is ever a tomorrow that we are not together, there is one thing you should always remember. You are braver than you believe, stronger than you seem, and smarter than you think. But the most important thing is: even if we're apart, I will always be in your heart." -Winnie the Pooh