Well, how do I start this without crying? I need help. I am going crazy. One of the two things I cared about most in my life is gone. Mary is gone. She has died of infection from losing her hand in the factory "accident." I am beyond devastated. My everything is gone right before my eyes. She was only 15. She had so much love and life left in her, and she is gone, just like that. It is not fair. Why? Why us? Why not some other family? I ask myself these same questions everyday. I have not spoken to anyone since she died, which was last week. I spend everyday in my room doing the same thing. I usually wake up early in the morning, then I begin to write as I am now. I write everyday. I am not entirely sure what I write about, but I know it is making a difference. I can see it from my window in the streets. The people are changing. I wrote to the paper about Mary and they published it. I write a new piece everyday and every single one has been published for the public to see and read. They all know of Mary by now, and I can see the spark of change in their eyes. I can see that they want their lives to be different, they want to be equal. The government says they are searching for me. They say my entries have caused a disruption in the system and I must be removed. So this is my last entry for a long time. I fear for myself and the rest of my family. My sister and I must escape the city and run to the countryside where we will be safe. We have little to nothing and no idea where we are going, but we have each other and that is all that matters. I am leaving my journal behind though. If they one day find this place, I want others to be able to read about my life and my stories of urbanization. I want others to be able to make the change they want to see in the world. So farewell my friend and wish me luck on my upward journey ahead of me. So goodbye, for now.

- Adalyn Smith

Well today is the day. Today I am going into the local Newspaper to stand in front of a committee of men and tell them that I want to write for them. To say I was nervous was quite and understatement. I was completely mortified. This is everything that I have wanted my whole life and I am just waltzing in and demanding for a job? Seems a bit far-fetched but I am going to try it anyways. I walk into the office with my head held high and my entries in hand. I catch a few of the confused looks from all the men in the office. I put my appointment under the name Jonathon so they would not immediately deny me. At least I hoped I would be given a chance for success. Once everyone is seated, I am surrounded with strange looks and whispers. I speak up and tell them all of my ideas. No one speaks once throughout the whole speech. I worry instantly that they did not like it or understand it at all. Once I finish, they clap? Yes they actually clap for me. I was just as surprised as you are trust me. They offer me a full job as a the head of editors in the local paper. I am so overwhelmed and excited that I run home to tell my sisters of the news. Once I sprint back home, I run through the door and see a scene I had never hoped to see. This was the start of the worst day of my life. I will never forget it.

My sisters and I have been working in the cloth factory for about a week now and everything so far is going well. We have been treated poorly, been payed close to nothing, and work in unsafe places, but its ok. This is our life now and we need to accept it whether we want to or not. I have come to my senses and learned to enjoy this job, until one day. It was a fairly cold day, and it was very windy. We came to work same time as always and started. About three hours in the day, I here a scream and cries. The sounds come from where Mary is working. I immediately worry and run over. I see Mary on the floor, she is bleeding a lot on her hand, it looks as if she has lost it. This was when I realized that we needed to get out of this place. How can they send children to work in such an unsafe place? We were given off work the next day but that did not stop me from going in and talking to the owner of the factory. I came in and yelled at them how they could do such a thing to a child, but they didn't care. They said they won't need me to come in to work for them anymore. I was devastated, how can I send my sisters to work in such an unsafe place when I am not even there to watch after them? I kept to myself in my room all night long thinking of something for me to do that can help. Then it hit me. There is only one place where I can fix all of this and warn others. The Newspaper.

I have spent the past week traveling with my sisters and half brother to the new city. I have heard many things about the city yet I have never had the thought to visit it myself. When we reach the top of a long hill, my feet are killing me. I almost do not make it to the top. I do not realize I am on the ground til my sisters start yelling at me to hurry up. When I ask what all the fuss was about, I see the tall city in front of us. It is the most strange thing I have ever come across. As we start to ascend into the streets, I notice how out of place we look among all the city folk. Jonathon finally takes us to his home in the city. It is a pretty nice home, very quaint. It is certainly nicer then what our farm house that is now in ashes. When we are all finally settled in, Jonathon tells us that in order to live with him, we would need to find work fro ourselves. We go into the city once more to find work. We come across a large factory filled with women making cloth. We decide that this would suit us since we made our own cloth and clothing back home. We would start the next day and that was when I realized our job choice was a mistake. The next day, we wake at five in the morning to prepare for our long hours at work. We have to arrive at six sharp or we would be beat for our tardiness. Once we arrive, we see the poor working conditions and the distraught women working around us. About three hours into the work, Mary already hurt herself on one of the machines.  She almost lost a finger while trying to fix a loose thread. We have not eaten in hours and we are starving for food. We now know why all the women are so thin and tired. We never truly knew how long we needed to work today until we heard we needed to be here for twelve hours. None of us realized how much work this would create for us. As the hours pass by, we have already seen four women been beat. It was horrifying. The way the owners treated us was quite horrid and inhumane. Once the day is finally over, we are completely exhausted. We have to continue this job with low pay for five days a week and six hours on Saturdays. Our first week in the city is making us regret coming here even more. They say technology and inventions are good for society and people, but where will these harsh conditions and poor working wages lead us? I knew the people of change wanted new ideas, but this is dangerous for us all. We will not be part of urbanization without a fight, right?

I woke up this morning to the most devastating news I could have heard. Our land is being sold. Everything we have ever worked for and put our lives into, will be gone within the week. I never thought this could happen to us though in a way, I felt it coming. My sisters are devastated. Mary is too young to completely understand and Elizabeth is trying to sort things out. I am left in the middle with nothing to do but think about everything we have ever done to this land. We have lived here almost our entire lives and now we have nowhere to go. We have nothing. I decided that since I had nothing to do, I went to my study to write another newspaper entry to add to my collection. Now I know they will never be published. It feels like I have been up here for hours though I know its been merely minutes. I decided that I would finally go into town to see if I could find work anywhere that could benefit me and my sisters. On my way down I see a black mare with a rider running through the fields. I instantly look away for it reminds me of my father. I realize I don't speak of them much, but our history as a family is far from peaceful. I would rather not touch upon it. As I continue my journey to town, I see many local farmers and families moving away from their land. I have now heard that it was not just my sisters and I loosing our farm, it was almost everyone in the village. We were all broken. As I continue my journey I come to the conclusion that there is almost nothing for us down here. Our village is a wreck. I finally start heading back to our farm, when the rider and the black mare appears again, this time following me. I turn to ask the rider to leave me alone, until I finally see his face. It is my half brother, Johnathon. He says he comes bringing news of our father but I turn away and continue on. As I am coming up the hill towards our land, I see smoke in the distance. I worry and instantly start running up the hill to our farm house. As I reach the top I am exhausted but continue on. I see our house in flames and many surrounding it. I run as fast as I can to reach our house. I quickly look for my sisters in the midst of the crowd. I discover the two of them crying on each other in front of our destroyed home. I ask what had happened and Elizabeth responds with that they were preparing dinner and some hay from the barn for the animals caught fire. They could not save anything. Now we truly had nothing. No home, no food, and no money. We were lost without it all. This was when I felt a tap on my shoulder and turned to see Johnathon. I said where can we go, we have nothing. He smiled with a sorrowful look and said, come with me, for I can help you. I realized this is only the start of a great adventure.

Hello my name is Adalyn Smith, and I am a 17 year old girl growing up as a farmer in the Industrial Revolution. I have a very simple life with my two sisters, Elizabeth who is 21 and Mary who is 15. We have spent our entire lives on a farm and unless a miracle happens, it is where we will stay. I am a pretty average girl. Nothing is very special about me. I am pretty tall, have light brunette hair, and have lots of freckles. When I was born people from my town thought I had a disease and tried to cure me. The only disease I have is the metal thoughts that I will never achieve anything in life,which for me is terrifying. I dream of being an Architect and a Writer for the local newspaper. I am the only one in my family who can read and write which causes a bad image for my family. Where I come from girls are not supposed to read or write. I consider myself a very kind and honest girl. I am sweet to everyone and I will always tell the truth not matter what. Our farmhouse is fairly average. We have a large field that mainly has crops of radishes and sweet potatoes. We make a small profit of about £7 every week. We also have a stable full of goats, chickens, and two cows. My job everyday is the same. I wake up around 5:30 or when the sunrises, and go to tend to the land and animals. Elizabeth usually tends to the washing, and cleaning of the house, and Mary cooks the food and does the dishes. After my morning job I always go back to my work space and write journal entries for the local newspaper, though I know they will never be published. After about two hours of writing, I then practice drawing shapes and buildings that I have seen before. When it is around dinner time, I return back to the main dining hall where my sisters and I have our simple dinner of bread, butter, and sweet potatoes. After dinner we all clean up and prepare for sleep. Every night I read a story to my sisters from my vast collection of books that I have collected and "borrowed" over the years. After an hour of reading we all go to sleep. Our days have been like this for 5 years, everyday. Nothing has changed and I am scared that it never will.