solve for the roller coaster x
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Because it will be unforgettable, I want to write in the blog how my day was... I woke up knowing today was one of the most challenging days of my life (and during the whole night I dreamed Monize and Jessie were like "Calm down Ellen, it's just a test like any other", because my math teacher said I would do the test on Thursday, that is TODAY, I mean, the GED official MATH pre-test. I don't need to say I never liked math... i don't know how to explain it.. everyone likes different things for different reasons, and numbers always felt so... "cold" to me, like, they made no sense at all... only words made sense, not numbers... I can't tell you how much my friends and I wanted to kill the math teachers in high school, i mean, i was not a violent kid, so, instead, we killed the classes jumping the school wall all over to the other side, hurting our arms and ripping our pants. Every week we did that at least once, but usually two or three times. I know that's terrible. I was a bad student. I just passed because i took the last math (and others) tests someone could possibly take to finish school. If I had me as a student, I wouldn't let me pass LOL, because of attendance. I know they had mercy on me. TODAY, I woke up and got dressed thinking like "I can postpone this MATH test for next week (again)... I can call the school and say that I'm not ready for the test (yet... and I don't know when I will be)... But I said "See you tomorrow" to my teacher, meaning I would go today, so I felt like I had to go, even because, I would feel a loser if I didn't go because of fear. When I was all dressed, I put my shoes on and looked beside me. I saw Monize's shoes that she left here last weekend. I thought: "i can't take my friends to school with me, but I can take Monize's shoes. This will help me a lot!!! hahaha. makes no sense, but it made on that moment! I thought, the Power of the Corn will be with me. Of course on my mind i knew i was just kidding with myself, but somehow it made me few better to wear Monize's shoes instead of mine... And of course my feet started hurting very soon, because Monize's feet are much smaller than mine... But I wouldn't take the shoes off because... it's a MATH test! Anything is helpful to make me feel better!!!!! A MATH test, a bonafide MATH test (and with numbers)! Anything with numbers bigger than a unit (32, 423 or 1,356) and with the symbols % or . or / has always scared me... but I always loved names like hypothenusa, vertex and adjacent, I think they sound fancy. I have already said my daughter will be named Hypothenusa, and my son Aristoteles LOOOOOL
By the way, I want to mention Marty. Yes, my MATH teacher. She changed everything! I always believed the teacher can make a difference. She is my kind of teacher. I just realized all the idea I had about numbers was stupidly wrong. Math makes all the sense. If you practice it at school, you will be ready to solve hundreds of problems in life, plus, even at school it can be fun. The scary way the word MatH makes me feel has been changing fast. I could never understand fractions BEFORE (maybe because I used to run away from school.. I know that's a shame). Now I see it is everywhere... math opens your mind to a new side of the world. Marty always tried to make me feel confident about what she found out I had just learned.
Oh yes, I will never forget when Marjory Nunes, a teacher at college, said (she taught Psychology of Education and was a GREAT teacher... I was so sad when they replaced her, cos she was like the only good teacher i had LOL) "Ellen, you have everything you need inside of you, everything but confidence, that's all you need to launch a successful life." (wow) Then, when I got to the MATH class, that's all my teacher talks about! Confidence! And she made me write a couplet about confidence LOL (I thought, "What? me??? about confidence???) That's when I realized, "Wow! There's something God wants me to learn!" Yes, that's when I realized it's all about believing! Believe God can make what's impossible, and KNOW that what's possible is supposed to be made by you. That's why it's important to believe in yourself... I'm still working on it in me... It's easy to ask everything to God, right? Maybe this idea came from a group of "Christians" in the Middle Age who didn't like to work LOL. Isn't it amazing the way God uses people to teach you? I always found that so amazing! So... I was driving to school - it was almost 10 am - super nervous, and I felt like "i will call my friends right now and ask them to pray for me" LOL, then I heard on the K-Love station "More Music K-Loooove K-LoOoOoOve. Today is the National Day of Prayer blablabla!" woohoooooo, i said "now is the time!" I got my phone and asked Monize, Jessie, Mystique and Matthew to pray for me cos I was (finally) going to do the MATHOMG test! Yes, that's the way I said. And Mom and Dad had been praying about the MatH test since about two months ago LOOL
PRAISE GOD I thought the test was NOT hard, and I didn't have one mistake, NOT ONE!! Isn't that a miracle? Yes, because everything is a miracle. You are a miracle, I am a miracle.
You can think I studied enough. I may have studied enough, but nothing happens in my life without the "permission" of God, because my life is in His hands since before I was born. That's what my parents always said, and I see it's true, everyday.
Today I didn't get just a perfect score... I broke one of my biggest fears... yes, a fear...
Now I'm confident to do the official test.
I realize that, with time, we always start seeing what we coudn't see before, so we can never judge anything, or be afraid of anything...
I thank God for lots of special people who made and make a difference in my life. The people I'm most thankful for, they haven't done anything "special" for me, they have just existed and done their job and been who they are... You know, it's not all about what you do "on purpose" to others, but about who you are inside. That's what makes the whole difference.
When I got home I called everyone back again to tell how it was and Monize's shoes helped me a loooooot LOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOL
I called Elaine to tell her, and she said "Ok! I'll call you back in 5 minutes, I'm eating right now!" LOL She does that sometimes. Then she called me back, and we stayed like one hour on the phone? I don't know, i just know that we talked so much that i got so hungry and said like "now it's my turn, I need to eat!!!! byeeeee" LOOOL i know you're reading this, Elaine! that was so funny! i laughed a lot! LOL
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About eating, did you guys know that Jessie always calls me to ask what she should wear before going out? Yes, but that's nothing! She has just called me to ask WHAT SHE SHOULD BUY TO EAT!!!!!! LOLOL she was at the store (this late at night) and as she knows i'm an example of 'healthy eating' LOL, and she was confused between donnuts and blackberries LOOOOL - you are unique, Jessie - if she had called Monize she would have been advised to buy the donnuts because Monize is all about DoNnUtS, but i'm all about being healthy LOL, I told her to choose the berries. LOL
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well, it's too late now, i'm going to the zoo with Jake and his classmates tomorrow morning so can't sleep during the morning LOL, so i really have to go, otherwise i could write all night long heueuoeuhe... hope you enjoyed my post =)
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ellen
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ps. enjoy the picture below, Jake eating watermelon LOL
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Hahahahahahahahaha....
Ellen, you are a banana girl... The PDC is so proud of you!!!!!!!! good job dear!!!!!!!!
About Moni`s shoes, haha!!! I did the same with your T-shirt this week before I sent an e-mail for a host family. Funny uh?!
ps:. Isn`t Jake so cutie in that pic?!
That's all =)
Love, Jessie
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Hey, it's Ellen again, LOL i'm back from the zoo... i'm so tired! But Jake is much more tired than me of course... He was able to stay in the zoo for almost three hours! That's great!!! We saw all the animals except the ones that were hiding, and only the female lions show up, the males were scared of so many kids LOL! Oh yes, before arriving at the zoo I thought: Well, at least Jacob is wearing a red t-shirt, thank God his teacher had this great idea. If he tries to run away from me, i cannot lose him because he will be A CHILD WEARING RED!!! Then I realized in the zoo that there were about 2 thousand children and half of them were wearing red, that's about 1,000!!! 1,000 Jacobs!!! I didn't lose him because i didn't take my eyes off him. The thing about having your child wearing red in the zoo in good. But I think all the teachers of all the schools of Cincinnati and area had the same idea. How can't you lose your child in red if everyone else is in red? LOL ... Next time I'll ask Bill if I can have Jake dressed as Spiderman... one more picture of Jake below. Today is a special day for him, because he went to the zoo, yay!
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do you think he's cute?
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