Baby you’re a firework
Come on let your colors burst
Make ’em go “Oh, oh, oh!”
You’re gunna leave ’em fallin’ down-own-own…

Have you heard this song? Well, I heard it on the radio the other day and it got stuck in my head. Not in the it’s-getting-really-annoying kind of way, but the gosh-i-only-know-three-words kind of way. I pulled up YouTube and searched the three words that I knew. Katy Perry’s ‘Firework’ popped up, so I listened to the song and read the lyrics.

I was blown away. I listened to it twice – three times. It’s just one of those songs that you can really identify with; one of those songs that you find inspiring and so heartwarming that you post the lyrics of the chorus as your new Facebook status (go ahead – check mine). Do you know what I mean? I’ll tell you why: the lyrics to this song are SO TRUE. And, looking back over my middle school years, I wish I could have heard this song sooner!

Not because I wasn’t confident in myself; but because there were those days when someone would say something to me that really hurt my feelings or made my cheeks go red, and I think every kid has those moments when they just wish they could disappear. During middle school, and even early high school years, kids are just beginning to find themselves, to look inside themselves to see who they really are. At first, you just want to fit in. Then you take a step back and realize that you have to be your own person – you have to ‘show ’em what your worth’ and be yourself.

I’m in 9th grade now; but I have a sister in 7th and several friends in 8th, so I still have that inside look at what goes on in middle school. So many of these kids are unsure of themselves; very insecure. I can tell because they think they need to dress or act a certain way in order to fit in with the crowd. It’s really sad to me because each of these students is special! I think they need to let their light shine and be leaders to the elementary students.

It happens everywhere. Your parents tell you time and time again that you’re wonderful just the way you are; but I remember thinking ‘well, you’re biased.’ And that may be true. But you also have to remember that our parents are older (and wiser – though we hate to admit it) than us. Believe it or not, they’ve been through the exact same trials and errors. For the most part, they’ve lived life. They’ve already been through their awkward teenage years.

Here are the lyrics to Firework:

Do you ever feel like a plastic bag
Drifting through the wind
Wanting to start again?
Do you ever feel, feel so paper thin
Like a house of cards
One blow from caving in?
Do you ever feel already buried deep
Six feet under scream
But no one seems to hear a thing
Do you know that there’s still a chance for you
Cause there’s a spark in you
You just gotta ignite the light
And let it shine
Just own the night
Like the Fourth of July
Cause baby you’re a firework
Come on show ’em what your worth
Make ’em go “Oh, oh, oh!”
As you shoot across the sky-y-y
Baby you’re a firework
Come on let your colors burst
Make ’em go “Oh, oh, oh!”
You’re gunna leave ’em fallin’ down-own-own
You don’t have to feel like a waste of space
You’re original, cannot be replaced
If you only knew what the future holds
After a hurricane comes a rainbow
Maybe you’re reason why all the doors are closed
So you can open one that leads you to the perfect road
Like a lightning bolt, your heart will blow
And when it’s time, you’ll know
(chorus)
Boom, boom, boom
Even brighter than the moon, moon, moon
It’s always been inside of you, you, you
And now it’s time to let it through.

Maybe these lyrics touched your heart too – I know that they definitely spoke to me. YouTube the song and see for yourself.

Thanks, Brooke 🙂
P.S. I dedicate this post to my sweet, adorable, and extremely spirited cousin Emma with leukemia and my amazing sister who I think is wonderful, caring, and beautiful and who is battling alopecia areata. Love you both! 🙂

Hey everyone! Thank you very much if you entered my contest! I had fun with this contest – I’ll have to do another sometime soon. The winner of my Halloween contest is Jaynie Mitchell! Thanks for submitting, Jaynie! Great poem!

On Halloween night,
you will have a fright.
You will have shivers down your back,
and as much candy as you can pack.
Halloween is a time to have fun,
We normally have hamburgers on buns!
Halloween is a special tradition,
To find candy is your mission.
You will see of costumes of all sorts,
and witches with warts!
Halloween is amazing!

– Jaynie Mitchell

P.S. Check out my ‘update’ post below!

Hey everyone! I hope you liked all of the features I’ve added in the past week or so! I just had a couple of things I wanted to update you on:

1. New poll. Check it out!
2. I have updated the Scharred page. 🙂
3. The Halloween Contest is over and I will be announcing the winner in my next post!
4. Keep rating my posts, please!

– Brooke!!

Write a poem, short story, bogus news article, or song about or pertaining to Halloween, and the winning piece will be uploaded to my blog once the contest is over.

I plan to let the contest run for a full week, so entries will not be accepted after next Saturday, November 6. Please enter! Write about your Halloween experience (tomorrow night!) or about the costume you created. Write about the time your brother scared you and your friends during a sleepover.

Submit your entry as a comment on this post, and I will be sure to see it. I will not publish the comment for everyone else to see, but don’t worry – I will judge all entries. I plan to be very fair, and just because I have to choose one it doesn’t mean I don’t want to choose all! I won’t play favorites, and I will be judging based on creativity, writing technique, and other aspects of the piece. You can make your story/article/poem scary, funny and humorous, or factual.

So have fun! Please submit and you could see your entry posted on this site next Saturday!!

Have a great Halloween, everyone!
– Brooke

Hey everyone! Today is the very last day of features week. 🙁 It’s been a really great week; and I think the updates I’ve made to the blog look really nice! Thanks for commenting and voting! However, although I might not be making any more changes for a little while, the fun of features week is not yet over! You can begin entering my Halloween contest! That will be my very next post.

If you haven’t already seen the Quote of the Day feature I added to the sidebar, be sure to check it out! I don’t think I have enough ratings to post the very last feature, but if you continue to rate my posts that will be added to the site eventually!

Thanks again, everyone, for a really great Features Week!

– Brooke

Two more days left for Features Week! The contest details will be posted on Saturday; along with the last update to my blog! So far, I think the new features are doing pretty well. We’re still stuck at 7 votes – so if you haven’t yet voted and you’ve read the Harry Potter series by J.K. Rowling, VOTE NOW! I don’t have too many ratings, either, so rate some of my posts as well. 🙂 That will lead to a new feature!

Here is today’s feature:

Quote of the Day: Check out the sidebar! I cut a lot out of my sidebar; so it’s the easiest thing to add my new features to.

Comment with your opinion!

– Brooke

I know I’m posting this really late – and I haven’t made any visible changes either. Sorry :(. However, I am working on changes that may or may not be updated tomorrow afternoon. I’m still working on the travel page and other pages are also in the works. Thanks to those of you who voted on the Harry Potter Poll – 7 votes now!! (not counting my own). I am really excited. If you are thinking about entering my Halloween writing contest, more details will be posted on Saturday, when the contest officially begins. If you would like to submit earlier, just copy and paste your piece into a comment and I am sure to receive it.

– Brooke

Hey everyone! This is the third day of my Features Week, and I think it is going so far so great. My Harry Potter Poll is still stuck at 5 votes (again, not counting my own!) so keep voting! Luckily, I have more in store for this week. I will be adding a new page to the site in place of the ‘Journal’ tab, and I am planning to redo the ‘My Travels’ page as well. Here are some of my plans for the rest of this week: The new page in place of my old journal will be added to the site on Saturday, the last day of Features Week, and a contest will be launched, as well, to end Features Week for good. Here is the contest: Write a poem, short story, bogus news article, or song about or pertaining to Halloween, and the winning piece will be uploaded to my blog once the contest is over. I will upload more details on Saturday!

Newest updates:

My Travels page – I haven’t had the time to make as many changes to this page; but they are definitely there. I changed the name of the page and plan to add new content (more info about the places I’ve visited). I would like to upload pictures as well.

Nothing very significant today – but that’s okay. Again, I’ll be making at least one change to the site per day this week. I’m excited to see what else I can come up with!

Please – keep voting, commenting, and rating my posts! This is appreciated and adds much more fun to Features Week!

– Brooke 🙂

Features Week continues!! Thanks to all of you who have rated posts, voted on the Harry Potter Poll, and left comments! Of course, you still have all week to do so. Two of my posts have been rated so far; but I need more ratings before I can upload a new feature onto the sidebar. Keep rating! (I’m not asking for a perfect 5 stars, either. It’s your ratings that help me improve, and I need truthful feedback where it is due.) Five people have voted on the Harry Potter poll (I’m not counting my own vote) – let’s shoot for five more before the end of the week! So far, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows is the most favored of the seven Harry Potter books.

Okay! New updates to the site:

Journal tab – I have deleted the ‘Journal’ page because I don’t update it often enough, and I no longer think it is necessary. Now that I am writing true ‘blogs’ as posts, I don’t think I need a ‘Journal’ page taking up space on the site. What do you think?
Tags – Some of you might have noticed these already; but I am now giving almost all of my posts ‘tags.’ This means that I am tagging them with specific words so that, when searched, the particular post will pull up. (This particular post is not tagged, but if you scroll down to the ‘Wakulla Springs’ post, you will see my tags listed under the title.)
Categories – The second thing you’ll see in the left sidebar is the list of ‘Categories.’ I deleted the ‘uncategorized’ category and set up a ‘videos’ category instead. When clicked on, it pulls up the 4 videos that I have added to this site.

Again, leave comments! Quick question: What would you like to see on this website? What do you think would make it better? If you have a suggestion (and don’t be shy) please comment on this post to let me know. I’ll see what I can do.

– Brooke

Hey everyone! Starting today, Saturday, Oct. 23, Brooke Harrison’s Features Week is in full swing. What does this mean? Well, I have decided that during this week (Oct. 23 – Oct. 30) I will focus completely on revising this blog. Already I have made quite a few changes to the sidebar, and I will continuously add new features and revise things where I see fit, so be sure to hit the refresh button several times while you are viewing the site. 🙂

Changes I have made already:

Sidebar (pretty obvious – just take a quick look)
Harry Potter Poll – I’ve already written a post about this, but I’ve only gotten two votes. 🙁 (And sadly, one of them is my own.) So vote now! This poll really interests me.
Ratings – I am really excited about this. You can now rate all of my posts and even my pages (links along the top). To do so, click on the title of the post, and scroll to the bottom. You will now see five stars with a message beside them: ‘Rate this.’ When you roll over the stars, it displays the rating. ‘Very Poor, Poor, Average, Good, Excellent’ are the five choices.

Please! Rate as much as you can (if you want to). Just explore the site and rate some of the various poems and blogs. When I get enough ratings, I can add a new feature to the sidebar displaying the best rated posts. That will be added sometime this week!

Thanks, guys. Comment and tell me what you think about the new features!

– Brooke