The Dreamer

My name is Carter Elizabeth Taulson and I dream. It's not that I'm the only person that has dreams and everyone else doesn't. It's just that, my dreams are just sort of....special.

Earlier this year, I was just a completely normal teenage girl. I attended Marlin High School in Alabama. I'm 16 and at my old school I was pretty popular. I guess you could say I was one of the preppy people; the head cheerleader and such. I remember I always wore my hair styled and as for my wardrobe, well, it was a bunch of mini skirts, designer jeans, tank tops, and happy colors. I dressed that way because after all, I was a pretty happy girl.

Now, sadly, I'm not very peppy, cheery, or happy anymore. Instead of being in the popular group at my new school, I'm an outcast. My wardrobe now consists of a collection of clothes from Hot Topic: black chocker necklaces,deep dark red, purple, and black colors. My style is more dark and covering.

This all started in the middle of my Junior year of highschool at Marlin. My parents Marcus and Melinda both had decent jobs that got the bills paid. I was very selfish and always was wanting to spend their money. Sometimes, we cut it awfully close to not being able to pay our bills though because of my shopping sprees and just the daily cost of raising two kids and living. My parents had just found out that my little 8 year old sister was going to need braces on her teeth. We didn't have that good of dental insurrance because everyone in my family from ansestor to ansestor and on down had perfect, white, teeth. Except Riley. Her front teeth on the top and bottom row both were just the slightest amount crooked. My family members and I were perfectionists and the fact that Riley had a few turned teeth bothered the heck out of us.

So, we found out that her braces were going to cost a lot of money because we didn’t have good insurance and we would have to start spending less and only living and buying what we needed, not wanted.



My parents started fighting. It started as bickering every once in a while, then evolved into yelling a couple times a week, and finally screaming at the top of their lungs every single time they saw each other. After months of constant fighting we had saved up enough money to pay for Riley’s braces. But, by that time it was too late, my parents hated each other.



One night, I remember laying in my bed upstairs listening to their argument that I could hear all the way through the floor that they were having in the kitchen. It was one of their worst ones ever because it is the most vivid in my head when I think back to that night. It was raining really hard out, pouring. It was around 7:30 and it was dark outside. Suddenly, there was a bright lightning strike that showed through my curtain; lighting up my room and soon after there was the loud clap of thunder I had been anticipating. At the same time of the thunder, I heard the front door slam, and with that, my mother was gone, little did I know, I would never see her again.

To be continued..............

For feedback I would like to know where to go with this story.

This is a poem I wrote about winter. The feedback I would like is what you like about it and I would like some suggestions on what to name it!(:

Walking really slow
Boots in the snow
Tromping all around
My feet sink into the ground
Animals hibernating
Instead of celebrating
Rosy cheeks
Frozen over creeks
The smell of hot cocoa
Makes everyone go loco
Later I'll go inside
A warm place to hide
And I'll come out in the Summer
When being outside isn't such a bummer

Ronald Reagan (background piece)

This piece is a background piece to let my readers know about my topic, which is Ronald Reagan. For feedback, I would like to know if I should add a little bit of information between the last two paragraphs about his presidency to fill in that gap of his life that I left out.

Ronald Reagan by Shelby

Ronald Reagan was born on February 6, 1911 in Tampico, Illinois. His dad's name is John Edward and his mom's name is Nelle. Ronald's brother is two years older than him and his name is John Neil (5).
He worked at the community pool in Dixon, Illinois as a lifeguard for 7 years. At Eureka College, where he graduated in 1932 with a degree in economics and sociology, he was on the swim team (5).
After College Ronald was out of money and in debt, so when he was 21 he went to Chicago trying to find jobs as a radio announcer. He didn't have very good luck there though, so he decided to travel to Davenport, Iowa. There, he was hired at WOC radio station to announce a few University of Iowa football games and eventually was hired in January of 1933 to become the regular announcer which paid $100 dollars a month. A while after that he was moved to the larger station in Des Moines to be the chief announcer of WHO (Zachary Kent; 25, 26, 27). Ronald Reagan spent 5 years in the radio business (5).
In 1937 Warner Brothers offered him a seven year contract with them, but they said he would have to change his name from "Dutch Reagan" to "Ronald Reagan" because Dutch wasn't right for the Silver Screen. Also in 1937 when he was in Los Angeles he was screen tested (5). After that he acted in his first film. During his life he acted in over 50 movies (4).
Ronald Reagan became a member of the Screen Actors Guild in 1941. He fought with movie studios to get better contracts. A lot of the other members of the Screen Actors Guild liked how he spoke out for what he believed in so they elected him as president. Ronald served 6 terms as president (Zachary Kent; 39, 40). He worked really hard to get good medical insurance and other benefits for actors and even spoke in front of congress trying to get them to pass laws to help the SAG. This is what started his interest in politics (Cynthia Klingel & Robert Noyed, 13).
In 1962 Ronald Reagan decided to join the Republican Party. He was Governor of California for 2 terms. While he was governor, California's budget doubled and the amount of state workers increased. Also, to end the state's deficit, he had many tax raises (4).
Ronald was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease in 1994 and 10 years later died of it in 2004 (4).