This collage represents me because I put in images of my favourite things, and things that show my personality. On the right I added in a poster for the 1991film ‘My Girl’ because it’s my favourite movie. I watched it for the first time in 2016 on the flight home from Australia. For years after, I always remembered the story, but I could never remember what it was called. One day, I saw the film on Netflix and realized that was the film that was stuck in the back of my head for so many years. Reading is one of my biggest hobbies so I added random book stacks and the three book covers Scholastic Classics: The Secret Garden (A retelling of the original story by Frances Hodgson Burnett) abridged by Martha Hailey DuBose, Saltwater Taffy by Eric Delabarre, and Wonder by R.J. Palacio. Scholastic Classics: The Secret Garden is a book I just remember owning since I was a kid. It was always so easy to read and I’ve always loved the story. I’m not sure when it became my favourite book, but for years whenever someone asked what my favourite was, I never hesitated to respond with “Scholastic Classics The Secret Garden Retold from Frances Hodgson’s original story.” The long overexplained title always confused everyone which was funny, but I needed to specify it was that version I was talking about. I first read Wonder in 5th grade for class, but I remember always loving the story, shortly after reading it I watched the movie. I’ve always loved the formatting of the book and the way it’s written, and for the last 5 years it has been one of my comfort books. Saltwater Taffy was a book that took me years to finish, I remember started it so many times but I never made it past Chapter 2 until over a year later. When I was in 5th grade, we used to live almost 20 minutes from school, but my sister started school before me so my mom and I would drop her off, and then go sit in Starbucks until I had to go to school. One morning we were sitting at the long “community” table they had, and there was a man sitting a couple seats away from us. I don’t remember what started the conversation, but all I remember is all of a sudden my mom and I are talking to him. It turns out, his name was Eric Delabarre and he was the author of a book called Saltwater Taffy, which I had never heard of before that day. He had a copy with him, and he wrote a note, signed it, and gave it to me. I don’t remember much of out conversation, but I always look back on that day and think about how incredible it is that I’ve met the author of my, now, comfort book. Whenever I’m in a reading slump and I need motivation to start reading again/more, I’ll pick up either Wonder or Saltwater Taffy and I finish it so quickly. No matter how many times I read those books, I can’t get sick of them. I added in pictures of Vinyl’s, a record player, and headphones because no matter where I am, you can always find me listening to music, whether I have earbuds in, or if it’s playing on a speaker, or if I’m playing it myself. I will often tell people that I need music to live and function, which medically is not true, but mentally it is. I can get very easily distracted if I don’t have something for the back of my mind to focus on, so music is a way to distract my brain while staying focus on assignments. I also love older way of listening to music, Record Players, Vinyl’s, Cd’s, etc.; I actually have my own record player and a small collection of records, along with a Cd player and a Cd Walkman and my collection of Cd’s.

I love to travel the world, and I plan to travel a lot with my friends once we’re older and done with high school, I added in an image of a small plane, and a dotted line forming a heart. Seeing new places, and experiencing new cultures is always so much fun, especially with the right people. Whenever I get a chance to get Australian snacks my go snack is Chicken Twisties; I can’t explain why, I’ve just always loved the way they taste. My dad’s side of the family (grandparents, brother, sister-in-law, niece, aunt, and cousins) all live in Australia, so I’ve gone to visit them quite a few times. It’s always nice to visit them, even if we are just sitting around the house, because I don’t get to see them often. This is why I also added in the Australian flag, and the Croatian Flag because my grandparents are originally from Croatia. There also an image of Caramel Iced Coffee, just because I really like tp drink it. I love the taste of caramel, and mixing it with Iced Coffee makes both better. For the background of the collage I decided to use a “Vintage Writing Paper,” which included a quill and ink in the photo, because I really like reading and writing. I don’t write very often, and I’m not too great with words, but I still love the idea and thought of writing. I find it really easy to create such detailed stories, but my biggest conflict, is that I can’t write them down the way I see it in my head.