Learning To Love You More - Mandy

Amanda Mantelli:

Here are my three projects I did for our first Mini assignment.  I really did enjoy doing this.  I especially enjoyed making my own assignment, I had many ideas but I liked this one the best, and it didn't come to me until yesterday.  I hope you enjoy them too.  
 Assignment 44 (Make up my own assignment)

Take a picture of 1-2 abadoned animals and write a story about their lives before and after they were abadoned in their words. 

My name, well I really don’t know what my name is.  I remember when my people first got me, there were two kids and two adults.  I was just a kitten then.  The kids told the parents that they wanted me.  I felt so lucky and proud.  They took me home and loved me.  They loved to play with me too.  I would chase strings and balls all over the house.  As I got older I would lay in my owners laps and play with the kids.  I would eat and lay by the warm fire on cold nights.  I loved my life.  I loved to be pet by my owners, it was my favorite thing in the whole world.  Then one day they put me and my dog friend in a little kennel.  I couldn’t understand why.  I thought maybe we were moving, I did see boxes around, but when they took us out of the car they set us down somewhere, it got really cold really fast.  I heard footsteps and then the car door shut and the car start up and drive away.  I wondered what was happening and I was really scared.  My dog friend was more scared than I was, but she tried to put up a tough front about it.  Later on I heard more footsteps, I thought it might be my people coming back to get us, but it wasn’t.  The footsteps went right by into a building.  Then two people noticed that we were there.  They picked the cage up and took it into the building where I saw other people walking in and out of earlier.  They put us on a table to look at us, but my dog friend was to scared and wanted to bite the people if they tried to touch her or I.  Finally after a long day in the kennel, one of the people got me out of the cage but my dog friend still didn’t want to come out.  I was sad my people left, I didn’t understand why they left, but maybe these people will love me like my people did when they first got me, I do love attention and these people pet me and talk to me so it helps me feel more comfortable in my new place. Maybe things won’t be that bad after all, now if only my dog friend could see that too, unfortunatley she’s still to scared to let anyone touch her, I don’t know what will happen to her. 

This is my dog friend.

(True Story, at least the abandoned part, not sure about the rest of it.) 

Assignment 53 (Give Advice to myself in the past)

Dear Me, 
I am writing to you at age 27, I know you are only 16 now and I know you are confused and high school isn’t everything you thought it would be.  Life isn’t fair, people aren’t fair and that foreign exchange student we have there isn’t very nice.  Don’t worry about her, she will leave soon.  Now about your crush and why you think life isn’t fair, you will have this crush on Dylan for many years, but nothing comes of it, so don’t chase something that will never work; besides he ends up marrying someone else from our class.  It’s ok though, you meet a wonderful man that you will marry as well.  He’s better than Dylan will ever be.  He understands your needs and wants and he wants and needs those same things.  You will finally have your own horse, at first it’s Raine, but then you realize what you really want in life and sell her, but you keep the baby you were going to sell to begin with, don’t worry, it’s the right decision.   

Now the advice I give to you is don’t fight so much about not wanting to be like mom.  She’s not all that bad.  Listen to your friends when they tell you that you should be a vet tech and most of all listen to your heart.  Be the best friend that everyone one wants to have.  Always be there for the people that are closest to you and listen to the people who aren’t as close to you.  They have good things to say as well.  Appreciate every waking moment up at Grandma and Grandpa’s camp; you won’t be able to go up there for as long as you do now and trust me there will be times that you wish you could be up there for a month.  Look at scholarships when you plan on going to college, because you will go to college.  Make sure you get some of those scholarships; they will help in the short and long run.   Most of all just enjoy the times you have with your family and friends because you won’t have them forever.  Listen to the sounds and enjoy the smells and sights around you, be happy you are who you are, there are many things to be happy about in life, love every bit of it.

Love, 

You