Shira's Personal Journal Blog

           Covering 70 acres of the West side of the bike-friendly college town, Davis, CA, is a enchanting neighborhood called Village Homes. But Village Homes is so much more than just a neighborhood, because it is also the foundation of a strong and close-knit community. I feel lucky to say that I am a part of the vibrant community of Village Homes residents. Our neighborhood was created nearly 40 years ago with the hopes of fostering true relationships between neighbors and also supporting conservation and sustainability. When I look at our community today, I believe that we are the product of those intentions and that we continue to pursue even greater fulfillment of them everyday. A Village Homes common area (Taken from Village Homes website) When I was kid, I thought everyone walked out of their house, saw their neighbor, Peggy, from a few houses over, and waved like crazy, while yelling, “Hi Peggy!” And I assumed that as any person walked down the paths of their neighbo

Introduction The devastation of war is a reality that many children all around the world have lived and are living. Zlata Filipovic and Ishmael Beah are two individuals who endured the horrors of war as adolescents and who chose to share their painful, but compelling stories with the world. Zlata’s story, published in her book, Zlata’s Diary , comes in the form of entries from the journal she kept while she was living in Sarajevo during the Bosnian War. Ishmael, on the other hand, recounts his experiences involved in war in Sierra Leone in his memoir, A Long Way Gone: Memoirs of a Boy Soldier . Both of these books shed light on what life can really be like for a child during wartime. Although the details of the stories these two books tell are very different, they both unflinchingly expose the ways war can demolish a child’s sense of self and the world and how these children fight to hold onto their true selves throughout the violence.  War Changes Children Zlata’s Diary :

Link:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MmWWoMcGmo0 On May 1st, Jimmy Kimmel gave this monologue about his newborn son, Billy, and Billy's life-threatening heart condition. I really like this monologue, because it is so raw and emotional. Jimmy Kimmel is literally holding back tears while he shares details of his  experiences-both external and internal-throughout the ordeal. There's something so humanizing about seeing this typically-jovial man be (relatively) vulnerable. I also appreciate that he intersperses some humor into the monologue. Those moments provide needed breaks in such an intense story. At the end of the monologue, Jimmy Kimmel ties his experience to the current healthcare situation in the United States. I like that he chose to do that. I think it's important that the potential consequences of the repeal of The Affordable Care Act are personalized as much as possible. Hopefully, these stories will make it clear that the (many) adults and children who w