Editorial #2: 127 Hours

Welcome to the Modern Typewriter, an online journal to voice a teenager’s opinions on practically anything and everything. I’m Alex, and I’m here to talk about the newly released movie, 127 Hours starring James Franco.

Picture this: you’re in Utah in a canyon. Your arm gets stuck underneath a large boulder. And you haven’t told anyone where you went. What exactly would you do?

Well, Aron Ralston has the answer to that. 127 Hours was based on a true story of a legendary canyoneerer (is that a word?) who resorted to desperate measures in order to survive. While canyoneering alone near Moab, Utah, Aron Ralston fell and became trapped underneath a boulder. Before leaving for the canyon, he did not tell anyone of his plans, therefore, no one was looking for him. He had a limited water supply that would last him 127 hours, hence the title. While trapped in the canyon, Ralston (portrayed by James Franco) records videos of himself remembering friends and family that he had known before this incident. Eventually, after countless hours of trying to move the boulder, chip away at it, and even trying to pull his arm free, he decides to cut his arm off, allowing him to free himself in order to climb out of the canyon and walk over eight miles in order to find help and survive.

I had seen the trailer for this several times and it looked pretty good, so I decided to rent it from RedBox, that’s how I usually watch my movies. So I rented it and watched it along with my mom. I didn’t know exactly what to expect from a movie which examined the time of Aron Ralston while he was stuck underneath the boulder and how he reaccounted his life. How exactly could they make a movie of this, with just one person being on screen practically the entire time? How would they keep the audience’s attention? Well, they sure did keep my attention, and they pulled it off quite well actually.

I thoroughly enjoyed the movie, and with James Franco cast as the actor who portrayed Aron Ralston, no one else could have pulled it off. James Franco was perfect in his performance as Ralston. At times, Franco added a bit of comedy, then at other times, he added a bit of seriousness to the movie. It was incredibly well done by him and the story was portrayed very accurately.

I wouldn’t exactly put 127 Hours in my top ten list of movies, but it’s definitely in the top 100. It was a very good movie which kept my attention and while watching, I was itching to know the end. If I had to rate it out of ten stars, I’d gladly give it an eight. It was inspirational to know some of the measures that people go to in order to survive.

Thanks for reading my editorial post #2, and I hope you look forward to reading my editorial post #3, coming soon! I’m Alex, and this is the Modern Typewriter, OUT.

Video Taken From YouTube videos.

 

Editorial #1: Faith, Love, And Soccer

Welcome to the Modern Typewriter, a blog dedicated to entertaining people of all ages, internationally. I’m Alex, and I’m here to introduce the new purpose of the Modern Typewriter, an editorial takeover.

Hey guys, it’s Alex here. I decided to take a new turn for the Modern Typewriter, and turning it into an online journal for me to voice my opinions, thoughts, and feelings. I would like to call this an editorial takeover. As often as I possibly can, I will write a post about absolutely anything. Anything in the world, anything in my life, anything. So, I would like to formally introduce you to the Modern Typewriter, an online journal for a teenage girl who’s just trying to survive high school.

I guess I should introduce myself. My name is Alex, I am a high school student, and I play soccer. I’m not exactly the typical teenage girl in several ways that you’ll come to find out, but regardless, I still share many traits that they do.

And that leads us to our title of this post: “Faith, Love and Soccer.” These three things make up the majority of my life and without them, I truly have no idea where I’d be. Allow me to explain, in order, these incredibly important puzzle pieces that once put together, make up my life.

#1: Faith

I am Roman Catholic. I believe in God, I love God, and I trust in Him. I’m not a “Jesus freak” as some people say when they hear someone loves God, and I’m not someone that knows everything there is to know about Him either. Rather, I look to Him as a friend that is always there, someone who understands, and someone who will help guide me through life.

I’m not the best follower of Christ, no, I’ll admit that right now. I don’t go to church every Sunday, I don’t pray before each meal, and I don’t know any songs they sing in our church. Often times when I go to my church, I don’t even know what the Priest is saying or what he is trying to get across. Sometimes I just sit there quietly trying to figure out the meaning of the color of his fancy robe.

But even though I am not the best Roman Catholic that I could possibly be, I still love Jesus, and I still love God. I pray each night, I read Bible verses often, and I still trust Him with everything.

Up to about a year ago, my faith sucked. That’s another thing I’ll admit. It SUCKED. Horribly. I never prayed, I never even took a look in the Bible, and I rarely went to church. Maybe twice a year at Easter and Christmas, and even then, I begged my mom to just let me stay home. Why? I don’t even know. But then when February 2010 came around, after my brother left for Navy boot camp and after I realized I had not talked to my dad in over a year and a half (another whole story there), I realized that my life sucked. The life I was leading made no sense. Then it officially came to me when I listened to the song, “Let It Fade,” by Jeremy Camp. After listening to that song, I can truly say that it changed my life forever.

I listened to the song and realized that I needed to change. I began listening to more Jeremy Camp songs, I began to pray more, and I began to occasionally go to church more. We began to go to a more contemporary church, where it’s nondenominational and more casual. After that, I became even more enthralled with living a life of purpose. To this day, I continue going to that contemporary church, and I truly love it.

Since then, I’d like to believe I have become a better follower of God. I continue to do what I can in believing in Jesus Christ and I continue to hold strong faith.

#2: Love

Love. We all have it towards someone. We all have that certain person that we think of while listening to a Taylor Swift song; that person we tend to daydream about; and that person we always wish for when the clock strikes 11:11.

I am no different. I have one person that I can always be caught thinking about. However, one thing that does set me apart from the rest of the high school crowd is that I am bisexual. I am attracted to both males and females. And at the current moment, I am completely, hopelessly in love with a girl older than me. I can be caught thinking about her and I care for her happiness more than my own. That is what love is to me: caring about someone’s happiness more than my own and thinking about them more times in a day than I do myself.

Whether or not this girl feels the same (which is less likely), I am happy right now. I am happy where I am and I am happy being a good friend of hers. For me, that is all I can ever ask for.

#3: Soccer

That leads me to the third and final part of my life. Soccer.

I started playing soccer when I was nine years old. I was raised around it with my two older brothers having played since they were three years old. I began on he recreational level, not expecting any soccer skills to be there. What I expected was correct, I was horrible. But hey, I was only nine.

I played for a year and improved and when I turned ten, I moved up to a level called challenge. It was for kids who were slightly better than the recreational level, but not quite ready for the highest level called classic, which was fancy schmancy terms for travel soccer. I ended up staying in the challenge level for two years before realizing how competitive I was and how much I wanted to play at a high level of soccer. I tried out and made the lowest level classic team at another club. I played there for a year half of the time as a field player and the other half a goalkeeper.

The coach I had that year changed my life. His name was Alan, and he helped me decide to be a full-time goalkeeper. After making that crucial decision, I trained fully as a goalkeeper for a few months before making the top level team at that club. I became the starting goalkeeper for that team and played majority of the games, sharing the other games with another goalkeeper who I still remain friends with today.

After that year, however, I remain unsatisfied with the competitive drive that my team had somewhat lacked. We had been placed in the top division in our state and ended up being demoted for our record. I was unhappy. I sought out a rival club and tried out there. I ended up making the second team in the age group out of four, known as an elite team.

That brings us to this year. My team ended up tying fo first place in the top division in our state, winning all games except two. We won a tournament and came in third place in our bracket for another tournament. Overall, our season ended up being a great one, and I cannot wait for next year.

I also play high school soccer. I made my school’s JV women’s soccer team and I am the starting goalkeeper and I play 100% of every game (mainly for the fact that I am the only goalkeeper but shh don’t tell). We are halfway through our season with a record of 8-2-2; 8 wins, 2 ties, and 2 losses. We are currently ranked third in our division and we are incredibly proud of that especially seeing how we were given a new coach this year. Nonetheless, we still did it, and we continue to do so.

It is easy to say that without soccer, my life would be nothing. I don’t know where I would be. I love it more than life itself and the competitive drive to win is what keeps me going. I can honestly say that there is nothing in my life that has made more of an impact than soccer.

Well, there you have it. You now know the three most important aspects of my life; faith, love, and soccer. I hope you enjoyed learning a little about me and I’ll see you soon for post #2 of my editorial takeover.

Thanks for reading, I’m Alex, and this is the Modern Typewriter, OUT.