My name means light but it carries weight. It carries the weight of many generations that my name has been handed down through. It all started with a boy. His name was Xavier. He had two brothers and they were very close friends. He was the youngest. They were playing ball in front of a foundation that had been made for a new building. It had rained the night before so it was filled with brown murky water. Xavier was running to get the ball. This would be the winning play, but he wasn't looking where he was going and he fell into the dark sludge-thick water. He was only seven years old and didn't know how to swim. His brothers couldn't find him, the water wasn't clear enough. They called and called his name. One minute, two minutes, three minutes, he was dead.

My name carries the burden of this death. It carries the burden of my family's sadness, but it in fact means shining light and a new house. As the first born child of my generation I can lead with my shining light. I am a new beginning. My light gives my family hope.  I feel that although Xavier died everyone can remember him through my name and because of this he lives on. No one has a name like mine.

One of my reading books over the summer was Into the Unknown: How Great Explorers Found Their Way by Land, Sea, and Air, written by Stewart Ross and illustrated by Steven Biesty. I thought the illustrations in this book were fantastic. At the end of every chapter there is a fold out that includes diagrams maps and pictures. There are also more pictures throughout each chapter. One thing I didn't like about the book is that the stories were short and you were sometimes thrust into them. For example, The story of columbus and Magellan were combined into one chapter. This made it not an enjoyable chapter because it was very short. I thought the ending was really good. I think it really portrayed the main idea of the book. The book had 14 different explorers journeys. It tells where they went and how they got there. I thought it was a very good book.