Ellen Degeneres

Ellen DeGeneres.

Some people would argue that this particular woman is one of the funniest and most loved comedians of the century. Some people turned away from her when she announced in 1997 that she was gay and when she later became an icon for the gay community.

Born in January 1958 in Louisiana, Ellen DeGeneres was constantly around her brother who was always considered the “funny one” but little did they now what was to come. Ellen originally wanted to become a veterinarian but later decided that she was not “book smart” so she pursued the job as a waitress, sales person, painter and legal secretary. Then, when Ellen was 23 she started performing at a local coffee house and was later discovered and invited to the Tonight Show. They enjoyed her appearance so much that Ellen was then invited to all of the major talk shows like Oprah, Larry King Live and Good Morning America. Her career was skyrocketing and no one could stop her soon to be fame. For the next few years Ellen started to appear in movies, commercials and was beginning to start her own talk show in 2003.

When Ellen started her show she immediately started to speak out about her being gay and how it was wrong to abuse animals. She started to follow in Oprah’s shoes because she started to donate and help many people and at the same time she was being a great comedian. On her talk show, Ellen repeatedly has games for people in need like her “Dough-Vember” to help a luck family that needed help financially. She continues to help people and animals daily.

Ellen DeGeneres has also won many awards including 4 People's Choice Awards for Favorite Daytime Talk Show Host, Favorite Funny Female Star and was in Forbes top 5 Influential Woman. I hope Ellen continues her show for many more years to come because she just makes your day so much better As Ellen once said, “Sometimes you can't see yourself clearly until you see yourself through the eyes of others.”

Lauren :)

Inspiring, moving, exciting, emotional, amazing, remarkable astonishing and heartbreaking. Those are all words that would describe what our school felt on Monday October 26. That was the day that Eva Olsson came to our school and once again broke her silence to talk to us about her past experiences with the Holocaust.

What impacted me the most about Eva Olsson's visit was how much courage she has to be able to speak out about the genocide that happened. I could tell she was still very emotional about all of the events that happened and especially about her mother and how she was not able to say goodbye.

One of the most important lessons that Eva taught us, I think, is that we shouldn't use the words hate, to not be a bystander and to not drink and drive. (Eva lost her husband after the war due to drinking and driving and said that the war was caused because of hate. She said to use the word dislike if you must but never hate)The hardest lesson in my opinion will be to always remember to love and remember your family because you don't know how long they are going to be with you. Unfortunately Eva lost her family because of the bullying by the Nazis'.

It must be very difficult to do what she is doing but it is good that she is because since she is one of the very few survivors of the Holocaust, it was nice that we got to hear her story because many people will not be able to hear it first hand in 20 years. I was very happy that I had the chance to listen to her story.

Lauren