Resilience Cafe

Resilience Café
Olivia Marquez

“The main thing is to care, care very hard, even if it’s just a game” is an important thing Billie Jean King said. She is right, no matter what you’re doing you have to care. You also have to strive for better. “If better is possible, then good is not enough” is one thing that my nana always says to our softball team and me. They both always did the best they could in anything. Whether it was coaching, playing tennis, playing softball or basketball, they never gave up. They both inspired others and they also inspired me. My nana has always pushed me to try my hardest, and Billie Jean King inspired me to fight for what I believe in.
Billie Jean King went through a lot. She was judged just because she was a woman. She had to prove she was good enough to play with the men, and she did. She was the first woman to win Wimbledon in 1996 and she even beat Bobby Riggs, who is another champion in tennis. She was named one of the 100 most important Americans of the 20th century. As she was growing up, she played softball but since she knew that there was no future in women’s softball (that has changed now), her parents introduced her to tennis in her teens. She grew quite fond of it and continued to play. She became one of the best women of her age. People said that it wasn’t right for her to play a man’s sport. She played even harder to prove that she was good enough, and that women are as good as men. In 1966, Billie Jean King became Wimbledon’s first female champion. She won for every woman who was said no to in sports. She proved that women were as good as men in any sport. Billie Jean King once said, “Tennis is a perfect combination of violent action in a place of total tranquility.” I think she meant that you shouldn’t go easy on your opponent; you should always do your best. Even though it looks violent, it’s just how you play.
My nana, on the other hand, didn’t win any big championships, but she did win many other things, many other awards that are just as good. My nana grew up playing basketball from elementary school through college, but she only played basketball because it was the only sport that girls could play in school at the time but she loved it anyway. In college she became the captain. After playing for so long, her knees became weak. She was unable to play, anymore She eventually tried playing again, but still wasn’t like it used to be. It was hard because basketball was her favorite sport. She moved to California and started playing tennis. She joined a club in Mission Bay and loved it. She played tennis all the time with her friends, but since tennis is a sport where you have to run, she was unable to play as much. Her knees couldn’t stand it anymore. But while she was playing tennis, she also played softball for a little bit and she loved it, also. She became the coach of her own team. On June, 14,1994 the answer to her prayers had come out of Lorena Horton (my mom). The reason she would continue softball was named Olivia. Her life was not complete without sports and without an adorable granddaughter. My nana became my t-ball coach. She taught me the basics and moved toward the advanced. She showed me everything I know today about softball (not including pitching). She always said, “If better is possible then good is NOT enough”. Every year she would make that our team motto. She inspired so many girls to play softball, and she treated each new kid like she had known them for years. When she was 50, she discovered rowing. She loves rowing because it’s a beautiful sport; it keeps you in great shape. She now rows 5 time a week(and still is my softball coach, she has many medals. So even though they had different lives, they still went through obstacles to play the sports they loved.
Both these strong women made me realize that I should always stand up for what I believe in and always, always try my hardest in anything. I feel like that I should also inspire girls and boys to always strive for better, and I will fight for the cause. When I’m in high school, I am going to volunteer as an assistant coach for my softball league. I hope someday I will become as good of a coach as my nana is. Its important to continue what they did because I’m sure in the future, there will be cases where women wont be able to do something only because they are woman (I hope not though). Hopefully I will be the first woman to do something big. Billie Jean King and My nana to me are two very important women to me, and they will be remembered for their legacies and honor.

Voting, Election etc.

Her are my opinions are the current candidates, now I dont want to start a fight or anything, i just want to put my opinion out there so here we go:

Clinton: I think Clinton has a good chance of winnig, she knows what how the White House works, She knows how to handle and she is one of the smartest women in politics.

Obama: Now, Obama also has a good chance of winning. His main idea is change. But HOW will he change things? HOW will he deal with the war? HOW will he handle Health Insurance? HOW will deal with all of the problems? He just talks about change, but NEVER about how he is going to change things.

MCcain: BLAH BLAH BLAH. He will most likely win the primaries for the republican party, but i just pray to god that he wont be president. PLEASE!

Huckabee: PLEASE! I dont dont dont want him to win anything! My grandmas are lesbians so if he wins he will throw them and all the gay ppl in the FIRE! so i dont want that to happen. (btw, thats just an expression)

Paul: Poor Paul.

Short Story Reflection

Title:Clouds and the Sky

Author:Olivia Marquez (that's me!)

Genre:Fiction/Fantasy

Pages:About 5 or 6

Mentor Texts: The Edward Harris Sketch- I got my idea from the picture with a boy sleeping in his room, with two glowing lights above his head. And one saying "Is that Him?" I just thought that would make a great story, but I just had to make it my own.

Audience: I think my audience is in general, anyone. Kids who are in 4th grade can read this and enjoy it, and maybe some adults also. When I was writing my story i didn't really have a specific audience in mind. But i hope that everyone can enjoy my story.

Writing Process:I had 4 drafts. Every draft had a different ending. Since i enjoyed writing it so much. I kept on adding more and more stuff. I kept on adding more paragraphs, more dialogue, and more endings. So i finally had to end with something and so i decided to end with my favorite.

Publishing Process:I decided to add my story to another Collection of Fantasy stories.
With Summer, Mo and Kadija. We all put our stories together, And add to our classes library.

Feature Cast Article

Old Times Newsletter

October, 11, 2007

We the people of the Unites States of America, in order to form a prefect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America.” That is a quote and the very beginning of our very own Constitution.
The Constitution was ratified in 1781, which created a loose foundation for government and laws for the thirteen independent states. With no source of government the Congress adopted a solution (Constitution) on February, 21, 1787. September, 17, 1789 thirty-nine delegate men had signed the constitution, some of those men were: Roger Sherman, B Franklin, Robt Morris, Gouv Morris, James Madison Jr, James Wilson and Nicholas Gilman. Then the 9th vote of ratification was New Hampshire’s vote which put the constitution to effect. Congress under the Constitution, met in New York and agreed to make George Washington should become the 1st president of the United States of America, and he did become president on April, 30, 1789. On June, 8, 1789 James Madison introduced the first ten amendments; and those 1st ten amendments (The Bill of Rights) were ratified in 1791. The Bill of Rights intended to protect individual liberty from the power of the government; it guarantees freedom of speech, the press, religion, petition and assembly and specifies the rights of accused criminal and civil cases. It basically protects the rights for American citizens.
The United States Constitution is the shortest (7,000 words) and oldest written constitution in the world to still be in effect. It divides the governmental powers between the national and state government in a system know as federalism. It also divides national government into three independent branches: the executive, the legislative and the judicial. It was prepared/written in private, behind closed doors that were heavily guarded by sentries.
I interviewed Susy Creamer, 56, to see if she knew anything about the constitution. Here is what she had to say,“Well the article was written to form a union, it was passed in 1781 and no woman signed it only our founding fathers. It was written in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.” She also thinks that, “It was a good start, It has been added to and it is also a matter of interpretation.” So she knew some facts, but had some of the dates mixed up. So as you see The constitution is still in affect to this very day, because we still have freedom of speech, and other rights which are stated in the constitution. You may not realize it but the constitution is one of the things we all live by today.

FeatureCast Reflection

Project Purpose:
To learn about the connection between our event and today's news. I think another reason why we did this project was mainly to learn about history and the major events that happened in order to creates today's worlds.
Project Requirements:
We had to create the 5 W's of our event (who, what, where, when, why) and present it to our class. We had to have 3 drafts of our article or podcast. The article had to have the basic features in a newsletter or news paper (headings, captions, pictures etc.) then we had to make the article in either illustrator or pages. (i chose pages) and for the podcast you had to record it on Garage Band. And we had to have it all ready by Media Night to present it to our parents.
Specific Concepts Learned:
Something i learned through this whole experience was what the Constitution is all about. It basically states the formatting of the laws and government, and the Bill Of Rights. Another thing i learned was that Pages is really easy to use, all you have to do is copy and paste. And it has a lot of different templates to choose from.
Challenges:
I challenge I had was writing the work cited page because when i tried to go back to the site i had used it never worked. So I couldn't get all the information i needed to write the work cited page.
Real-World Significance:
I think that the significance of learning about history is that if you don't learn about history than its bound to repeat itself.

My Querencia

I see her walkup to the plate, flash me a dirty look and start to swing her bat. I turn around, walk to the back of the circle, gather my thoughts and focus on one thing: striking her out. I sep up to the mound get in my stance and think to myself, “I am going to strike you out whether you like it or not”, and I know that she is thinking, “I am going hit this ball over the fence whether you like it or not.” I grab the smooth leather ball out of my glove and set up the laces on my fingers. I can feel the dirt blow against my ankles and a single drop of sweat glide down my cheek. I stop take a deep breath and start my pitch.
The reason I chose the softball field as my querencia was because I know I am going to have a fun time no matter what happens. I love it so much because I know what I’m doing. I know what I am going to do with the ball before it comes to me; I know most of the plays; and I feel comfortable at the pitching mound. My goal is to be the smartest player out there, not always the best player but the smartest. My nana/coach always tells me “If Better is Possible Good is NOT enough”; knowing that makes me always want to do my best out there. I have been playing since I was four. I have been pitching since I was seven and been getting better and better. I don’t mind the running and the stretches as long as they help get better. That’s why I love being at the softball field so much.