When a situation becomes dangerous, the mind will figure out a way to make it safer. After the shooting in Platte Valley, many school officials are worried about how the students are handling this event. In "The Windsor Tribune", Chris Casey's article reviews just how chaotic all of these procedures can be. Every single one of the procedures can be a physical and mental strain on the all the school officials and students. The emotional strain was also another big worry that the weld county superintendent had.When a student has lived through that type of traumatic event, many things can be racing through their mind. Their behavior may change completely after this one event; they may feel as if it is better to be shy so that they do not attract too much attention. The student may do the complete opposite and be very outgoing because they feel as if they have nothing to lose anymore, or they feel invincible.I believe that the emotional strain that is put on everyone at this time will prevail and prepare us all for a very terrible possibility. I also believe that this emotional strain would be much less than that of someone losing a very close friend that was a victim of yet another school shooting.My MemoryI had to memorize "The Dreams," a poem written by Eugene Field, for my competition in speech & debate. The first way I tried to memorize it was called "chunking." It is where I would separate the different stanzas so I could learn them separately and then put it all together at the very end. For me, this worked all the way up until I tried to put the entire poem back together. I could not remember what stanza went after the one before, it was just a mess. After this, I turned to my mother for help. I asked her to read and re-read the poem to me. I figured that if I heard the poem enough times that I would be able to remember it better. So she and I spent the night reading the poem, until I got to a point where I could speak the poem along with my mom while she continued to read it. After I felt as if we had accomplished a lot for one night, I went to bed. I didn't think about the poem until the next night, where I tried to recall it, and came up with nothing. Strike two. As I was sitting in my room, trying to figure out a new way to remember the poem, I started chanting the poem. Not in a scary witch way, in a song, beat type of way. I had put music to the poem. After "singing" the poem to myself for a night, I went to sleep. The next night I recalled more than three-fourths of the poem. That really encouraged me. I continued to memorize the poem this way until I was able to recall my poem without using my note cards!My MoodsOver the course of two consecutive weeks, I kept a mood journal. It was simply a piece of paper where I would jot down my current mood on a particular day. During these two weeks a lot was going though my mind. Our Homecoming dance, and all the extra drama that brings, was just around the corner. According to my mood chart, the first couple of days I was very happy. It wasn't until later in the week that I started feeling stressed and tired. It is a possibility that I could have been stressed about the upcoming weekend and how I was planning on managing my weekend time. Within these weeks my moods were all over the chart; one day I would be very happy and excited while the next day I was sad, stressed, and flustered. If I would look at my mood chart and was not aware of what big event was coming, I would probably think that I was insane. My moods, now that I look back upon them, are just scary. I believe that any little affair that happened during this time set off my emotions, for good or bad. As I look back in my chart, I notice that the weekend before the dance, I was very lonely, scared, and uncomfortable. Well, the only thing that I did that weekend was homework. I did not have any visitors, which would explain the lonely part of it, but as for my other moods, I have no explanation. My moods are totally an effect on of the events that were going on at the time.
