The person I am writing about is 14 years old. I have known her since she was 5 and I was 6. She lives in Chugiak, Alaska, but has lived in Talkeetna, Nome, Unalakleet and Girdwood, Alaska. When she was a baby, her parents moved to Uganda for a year before coming back to the US. Her only sibling is a younger brother, who is 12. My best friend is probably the most interesting person I have met, she is funny and silly, but still caring and understanding and has her own unique take on the world, how it is and how it should be.

She is named after her Polish grandmother who escaped the Nazis during WWII. She has blonde hair and is about 5’5” and 115 pounds. She has an inch long scar right by her right eye, which I gave her accidentally a few years ago. She is ¼ Norwegian, which she can speak the language fluently. She runs cross-country, skis, and, most importantly to her, has a 6-dog team, so she is very healthy. Her life revolves around the dogs, feeding and caring for them so that they can mush. She is ambicious about what she thinks is important, but can let other things slide. She isn’t afraid to say what she thinks, which can be embarrassing and annoying, but is probably a good thing overall.

My friend is never afraid to take risks or break rules, especially when there is someone around to egg her on. When we were around 10 years old, I dared her to throw a snowball at our 60-year old neighbor as he drove down the road on his snowmachine in the dark one night. She picked up a chunk of show that had an icy covering and threw it at him. She hit the target, much to our delight and our victim’s horror. We both got yelled at and in trouble, but it was a memory that we will remember and look back on laughing. I think that if I hadn’t been there to suggest the idea, she never would have done something bad like that, but since I did she was eager for my approval and would do anything.

Though she can be swayed by peer pressure at times (like with the snowball), one of the things that I like best about her is that she doesn’t care what other people think about her and is not afraid to be herself. She is determined and knows what she wants, and argues until she is blue in the face. I think being yourself no matter what anyone else might say or think is a very rare quality in a person of any age. 

            The play Hedda Gabler had a very interesting plot. Hedda, the main character, was married to George Tessman, a very serious scholar, who she didn’t love. They had just come back from their 6 month honey moon, much of which George spent working, which annoyed Hedda. They are facing economic troubles after coming back, and George is counting on getting a job as a professor. George lived with his aunts before he married Hedda, and was very attached to them. His aunt Julia visits often, but his other aunt is very sick and eventually dies. The judge is a good friend of the couple and visits often, especially to see Hedda. Thea Elvisted came to visit them to try to see if either of them had heard any news of Eljert Lovborg, who was George’s longstanding rival. Thea was in love with Lovborg and had helped him write his new book, but Lovborg was still in love with Hedda, who was the real inspiration for his books. Thea left her husband to move to the city near Lovborg, and when she comes to visit Hedda quickly manipulates her into telling her all about her affair with Lovborg. They invite him to visit later that night, forgetting that George already is going to a party with the judge.

That night, Lovborg comes and shows George, Hedda and the judge his new book, which has not yet been published and he only has one copy of. The book is brilliant and talks about the future. He is alone with Hedda and is very disappointed in her for marrying George, because he still loves her. Thea comes in, and the three of them quickly get into a fight, which ends in Hedda persuading Lovborg, who had been an alcoholic, to drink. Lovborg decides to go to the party at the Judge’s and promises to pick up Thea at 10:00. The women wait and wait, but he never comes. At 6 the next morning George comes in and says that Lovborg had been out of control that night and had lost his manuscript, which George had picked up for him. Then George gets the news that his sick aunt has died, so he rushes away, leaving Hedda with the unpublished book, which she locks away. Lovborg comes in as soon as Hedda is alone and breaks up with Thea, telling her that he tore up the book. She leaves and he tells Hedda that he didn’t want to tell Thea he lost the book. He says that he is done and his career is over. Hedda gives him her pistol, which she puts in his coat pocket. Then she burns the book in the stove. When George comes back she admits what she has done, and says she did it out of love for him. The judge comes with the news that Lovborg has been shot when the pistol discharged and is dead.

Thea and George begin to re write his book by using the notes Thea had saved. Hedda shoots herself with one of her pistols and dies.

The characters in the play Hedda Gabler were very complex. The fact that the play was set in Norway in the 1800s made it harder for us to understand some of their actions, because in that time people were more formal and didn’t just say whatever was on their minds. The main character, Hedda, was married to George, who she didn’t love. Hedda was very manipulative, she charmed Thea into telling her all about her affair with Lovborg. She is always trying to start trouble and doesn’t care about other people and their feelings. George is an absent minded scholar, he doesn’t understand that Hedda isn’t happy. Though he is devoted to his aunts, all he really thinks about his work. Lovborg is trying to reform and become a better man by not drinking, but in the end his demons get the best of him. Thea is very in love with Lovborg, her whole world has revolved around him for three years, even though she is married.

A dramatic moment in my life happened last November when I was walking over to my neighbor’s house to baby sit. It was a cold day about a week before Thanksgiving and I was walking over to my neighbor’s to watch her 4 year old like I did almost every Saturday or Sunday morning. As I walked out I took a short cut through the dog lot. Most of the dogs came out of their houses because they thought I was going to feed them, take them for a run or stop to pet them. I was running late because I had just gotten off the phone with my friend and was in a hurry, but I always stop to check on the dogs. I noticed our best lead dog, Jazz, didn’t come out of her house like she usually did. I called her name; still no response, so I walked over to her house and saw her curled up inside, so I reached my arm in. I felt her body, it was rock hard and cold as stone. My mind went blank, I was shocked. Growing up with a dog team, I have seen several dead dogs, but I had never been the one to actually find one. I sat on the cold snow and petted her fur. Suddenly I snapped out of it and began to cry. The first thing I could think of to do was to take her out of her house. I unclipped her chain and tipped her house over, some irrational part of me still thinking she might hop out at any minute. Tears streaming down my face, I wrestled with her house, but I couldn’t do it on my own. My only option was to run back into the house and get my mom, which I did. Together we tipped her house and got the bottom out so we could carry her out of the dog lot.

The most difficult thing for me to remember was the discovery, the thought of touching her hard, cold body inside the dark house. Finding a dog like that has always been one of my biggest fears, and that day it became a reality. I had wondered how I would react to something like that many times, but it had always seemed vague and fuzzy in my mind, like something that probably would never happen. I think the realization that the unexpected can happen was what hurt me the most.