Some of Arnold Schwarzenegger's After-School All-Stars (ASAS) will be partying hard this week, compliments of Shrek.
Dreamworks and Paramount are supporting the ASAS-LA’s East Region’s schools and the Million Word Campaign as part of a project for their upcoming film, the all-popular Shrek 4.
The winners from three of the schools will receive a movie prize pack, and the ultimate essay winner will get the grand prize: invitations for the winner and friends to a party thrown by the studio.
To read what the winning All-Stars have said, read on!
Andrew from Kranz Intermediate
What I am thankful for
My name is Andrew. The topic I chose is “What am I thankful for?” The answer to that question is soccer.
I am thankful for soccer because it is a sport that brings everyone in my family together. It is also a sport where you can meet people that enjoy similar things as you. I am also thankful for my families support in my dream to play soccer, for example: whenever I go to play in an important game, someone in my family is always there to cheer me on to do my best. I would like to go to college and get recruited to play on a professional soccer team in the future, so I am going to keep working hard.
I am also thankful for being healthy and not having a fatal sickness or disease like so many other people in the world. The one thing I will always be thankful for is having a brother that inspires me to surpass his own achievements. For example, my brother won the high school C.I.F. (California Interscholastic Federation) athletic competition tournament, so I swear to win it for at least two years in a row for our school!
Mireay from Griffith Middle School, 8th grade
My Most Memorable Day and What I am Thankful For
My most memorable day was when I joined cheer. I love cheer. It makes me very happy and I plan on doing it for as long as I can. After-School All-Stars cheer means everything to me!
So how exactly did I join? Well actually, I signed up as a dare in seventh grade. It was funny to me because I wasn’t the “cheerleader type”. What started as a dare became the most awesome thing ever! I wasn’t actually thinking of going to the first practice, but I ended up going just to try it. It ended up being really fun. From then on, I was on my way to really liking cheer.
As I became more a part of the team, my coach presented me with a great offer: she asked me if I wanted to be in a stunt group! A student group is a group of five girls who do a bunch of different, cool stunts. It’s very fun, but also takes great commitment. You have to think about how many times you might get hurt too. But I said yes to my coach. It was I very smart choice, because I ended up loving it!
We competed until the end of the school year and placed almost every time. By year end, I was a very happy cheerleader. That is of course, until I found out that my coach wouldn’t be my coach anymore. This deeply saddened me. It made me so sad, I didn’t join cheer the next semester. My cheer career was over soon after it started, or so I thought…
The next year I didn’t join cheer either. I was being very stubborn about not wanting a new coach. Luckily, I came to my senses a few months later. I was back on the team the following semester! I was on J.V. and that was fine with me.
After about one or two months, my new coaches said they were making a stunt group, and they wanted me in it. I was so ecstatic and was jumping for joy. A few months later, they put me on varsity. It was awesome because that means I’m on J.V., student group, AND varsity! That totally made my year.
Till this day, I love cheer and think it’s a huge part of my life. I get to meet new people, make new friends, and get to cheer! I am so grateful for that one day and dare from my friend, because I wouldn’t be here without it. The day I joined cheer will never be forgotten!
Kimberly from Belvedere
What I Can’t Live Without
“Come on you can look at me
I don’t need to fit in
Stand up… it’s the livin’ season” – Tokio Hotel
I can’t live without MUSIC!!!!!!! Without music there’s no fun in life. I like many songs but one I relate to the most is “Strange”, by my favorite German rock band Tokio Hotel featuring Kerli. “Strange” expresses how you feel when someone wants you to change into something you’re not. I have a connection to this song because I feel strange when my friends try to change who I am just so I could be like them. I feel like a robot being controlled.
In m life I have gone through many obstacles, and music has helped me escape the pain. One of those obstacles is my twin sister Kathy died two weeks after we were born. I think about that everyday and I cry for her. When I listen to the songs “Miracle” and “Pressure” by the band Paramore it comforts me and I don’t feel like crying anymore because they both have such a happy beat.
Another obstacle is my grandmother being in the hospital. I always worry when she’s in the hospital because I think something might happen to her. Tokio Hotel’s “Through The Monsoon” helps me especially when Bill Kaulitz sings “I’ll be with you soon…just me and you…running through the monsoon.” He is saying that he will be with you through the storm and you don’t need to face it alone because someone is there to help you along the way. Every time I hear the song “Through The Monsoon” it lets me know that I’m not alone in my situation and I can always count on someone to be there when I need them.
“Welcome To Mystery” by the Plain White T’s is a really good song when I’ve had a bad day and want to escape to my own little world. I love to listen to this song because the lyrics are so imaginative. For example, Tom Higgenson sings “Imagine a place you can always escape to, an island off the coast of nowhere…Imagine a room where the flowers they bloom through the cracks in the floor and the ceiling. This is a place where your mind can escape all the problems today and go far, far away.” I always imagine being in my own world, being free of everyday life and forgetting the problems that come with it.
Music expresses how you feel and explains your opinion. In the song “Harder Than You Know” by Escape the Fate. Craig Mabbitt expresses how he feels when he is singing “Baby don’t talk to me I’m trying to let go. Not loving you is harder than you know. Girl you’re driving me so crazy so I’ll make the call and I’ll leave today and leaving always drives me crazy.” It’s hard for him to get over his girlfriend breaking up with him. If she doesn’t want him then he would leave, but it’s hard because he still loves her.
Music means everything to me. Without music, the world woud be dull and no fun. My life would be uncreative and lacking entertainment. I would have no life in me and I wouldn’t feel like a person. Music makes me human, and it makes me feel alive.
