10 Personal Connections to "Marigold"

1) Just like Lizabeth, when I am bored or tired of the same things I turn to my younger sibling for amusement and ideas for things to do. Usually this involves something along the lines of making up a new game between us or just teasing eachother until our mother has to get involved and break up the fight, but either way it ends up being much more fun than being bored. In the text when Lizabeth and her brother are looking for something to do and so they go together to Ms. Lottie is something that I was able to go "aha"! Because I would have done that too.


2) In the text when Ms. Lottie is yelling at the kids to leave her and the marigolds alone, this reminded me of what my mother does to me when I creep up next to her and steal some of the food that she is cooking. Although Ms. Lottie is genuinley angry at the children, my mother is just playfully annoyed and gives me a swat on the head. The same annoyance when one is working on something and somebody else comes and bothers you or messes it up (even a little bit) is enough to make somebody get extremely angry.


3) In the story, Lizabeth is "14 going on 15" and so am I! Just like Lizabeth sometimes I feel like I am too old to be playing with my sister and feel more like a woman (i guess).I can think of many occasions where I have sat inside playing piano or doing something by myself when secretly all I wanted to do was run out side and play wildly with my sister. I can also relate to the line where Lizabeth says, " I just stood there peering through the bushes, torn between wanting to join the fun and feeling that it was all a bit silly."

4) The picture that the author gives of the mysterious John Burke somehow reminds me of my Great-Grandfather before he passed away. My Great-Grandfather on my father's adopted side was one of the sweetest people that I have ever known. Quite literally, he wouldn't hurt a fly. Or a rock. Or anything, alive or static, if he could help it. Before my Great-Grandfather passed away a few years ago, whenever I visited him and my Great-Grandmother up in New Hampshire he would always be rocking away on his rocking chair on the porch, or sitting in one of the other chairs that looked over green, green, fields. But unlike John Burke, my Great-Grandfather would never yell or scream even if you disturbed him when you were sleeping. But he was so frail and fragile looking that nobody ever did bother him when he was resting. :)

5) When Lizabeth says, "Look there she is! She's fooling around with them crazy flowers!" I was abruptly reminded of my own grandmother. My grandma loves to garden, and she has her own little garden in which she grows all kinds of things from blue berry cushes to raspberries! Its a truly wonderful garden that looks, smells, and tastes good. So when the text mentioned gardening of any kind, I was immediatley hit with the smell of fresh blueberries from my grandma's garden!

6) In the paragraph where Ms. Lottie gets angry and extremely annoyed at the children so that she comes running after the children with her cane reminded me of my grandfather. My granpa is naturally a very gentle person; he has a PHD in maths and sciences and he is usually a quite, studious person. However, when he gets mad once, you should DEFINETLY watch out. I remember one time my grandpa was profusely annoyed, and his cane too became restless in his hands. He didnt wave it around in the end; his hand just shook slightly enough that the cane rattled. But that was enough for me and my sister to shut our mouthes and behave.

7) In the paragraph when Lizabeth is lying awake in her bed at 4 AM, frightened after listening to a conversation between her crying father and her mother, she decides to awaken her brother. I almost laughed at this part because that is exactly what I would have done. What better way to cope with fear than to wake up your sibling, tease them a bit, and laugh together and forget about whatever you were scared of? Although Lizabeth and Joey sneak out to Ms. Lottie's house, my sister and I have never done anything that daring. Instead, we just giggle and laugh about everything and nothing in particular until we fall asleep, exhausted.

8) Marigolds! Just the word makes me want to smile. I have quite alot of connections just with the word itself, and my favorite one I think is that I used to want to name myself Marigold. I told my dad this, and he in turn simply did 3 things. First, he stared at me. Second, he sighed softly and annoyedly. Third, he turned back and mumbled words to himself, and told me quite frankly that MeeSoh was a much better name than Marigolds. After that I dropped the issue.

9) Just like Lizabeth remembers this one particular summer out of all the others, I have a summer like that too. It was this summer for me, actually. I know this sounds lame because it just happened but I truly believe that it was one of the best experiences of my life. I met so many new friends from Houston, Texas and I had just an amazing time attending Rice Summer School at Rice University. I even met Dr. Robert Curl, nobel peace prize winner, and he signed my Tie Dye T-Shirt that I made in Chemistry class. So many things happened to me that I would probably never have gotten an oppurtunity to experience in any other moment of my life.
When I think about this summer I also laugh and cry. I laugh and smile for all the memories I've made, I cry for all the people I miss and I've lost contact with.

10) When Lizabeth felt overwhelmed with emotion (in her case anger at the unfairness of her life, confusion and fear from overhearing her fathers outburst) she felt a need to destroy. I connect with this better than anything else! I get a feeling that I need to crumble or hit something. I'm not usually a violent person, but when my mom or dad or anybody really treats me in an unfair way I usually hit my poor already deformed pillow or crumple up a huge mound of paper o.O