Book Report: The Lost Boy

Imagine a young boy who has never had a loving home. The only things he has are the old, torn clothes he carries in a paper bag. The only world he knows is one of isolation and fear. Although others had rescued this boy from his abusive alcoholic mother, his real hurt is just beginning there, all alone since he has no actual place to call home. This is Dave Pelzer's sequel to A Child Called "It". In The Lost Boy, he answers questions and reveals new adventures through the compelling story of his life as an adolescent. Now considered an F-Child  or in other words a Foster Child, Dave is moved in and out of five different homes. He suffers shame and experiences resentment from those who feel that all foster kids are trouble and unworthy of being loved just because they are not part of a actual family. Tears, laughter, devastation and hope create the journey of this teenager who searches desperately for just one thing. Which is the love of a real family. Here he tells his story from the time he left his abusive mother and alcoholic father, through his experiences in five foster homes and juvenile detention, and how he eventually made it into the Air Force. He was a defiant, rebellious boy who, despite his background and personality, managed to endear himself to many guardians, social workers, and teachers. Pelzer writes in an honest, sometimes rambling, style; he is never bitter, and his story will find many sympathetic readers. However, he leaves many questions unanswered which may appear in the third book, hopfully, dealing with his adult life.

Assignment # 10: Bullying

Thirty percent of U.S. students in grades six through ten are involved in moderate or frequent bullying, as bullies, as victims, or as both according to the results of the first national survey on this subject. Bullying is increasingly viewed as an important contributor to youth violence, including homicide and suicide. One out of four kids is bullied. The American Justice Department says that this month one out of every four kids will be abused by another youth. Surveys show that seventy seven percent of students are bullied mentally, verbally, & physically, and fourteen percent of those who were bullied said they experienced severe reactions to the abuse. One out of five kids admits to being a bully, or doing some "Bullying."

You hear about all these situations where kids have been bullied so bad that it has resulted with suicide. Some cases don’t always result with such devastating circumstances, thank god, but any case of bullying is unacceptable. Barely being seventeen I witness plenty of bullying in school. Since I have always been tall I haven’t really experienced any bullying towards me, probably because being taller than everyone else wouldn’t result necessarily with being the victim. Though in elementary school I do remembering not being “socially accepted” with the kids when I would do well in any of the curriculum. So sometimes I would hide what I knew when a teacher asked a question.

Once I got to middle school I went from kind of getting bullied to being the one that occasionally bullied. I guess what I am trying to say without looking bad; though being a bully looks bad in general, is I wasn’t the usual do what I say or I’ll beat you up bully but I just went along with what my friends did and said to the other children at school. I didn’t stop to think about how I used to feel when I was in elementary and just thought how great it was now to fit in with the “cool” crowd. Then again I didn’t really realize I was being a bully since I thought at the time that a bully beat up kids, but now I noticed being a bully can range anywhere from verbally, mentally, or physically.

When I got to high school I thought that the bullying would end there. Since everyone would be more mature and everything. Little did I know it hasn’t changed at all. Sometimes I think it might have even got worse since the bullying went from more verbally to physically. I don’t know why but some kids just enjoy picking on other people. They even seem to enjoy it more to see someone cry or run off feeling like crap. I get along with a lot of people at school and when I see someone picking on someone else I am definitely not afraid to tell them to knock it off. Sometimes that just causes more problems for me but usually I can handle it more than the poor kid getting picked on can. Plus if I can get the kid to feel a little safer at school or to even just feel like they have a friend then maybe I can prevent something worse from happening.

Eight percent of students miss one day of class per month because they are afraid of the bullies at their school. Forty three percent fear harassment in the bathroom at school. A hundred thousand students carry a gun to school. Twenty eight percent of youths who carry weapons have witnessed violence at home. A poll of teens ages twelve through seventeen proved that they think violence increased at their schools. Two hundred eighty two thousand students are physically attacked in secondary schools each month. More youth violence occurs on school grounds as opposed to on the way to school. Eighty five percent of these cases do not look for any type of intervention.

I feel really strongly about this topic and I believe this is very unacceptable. How could someone go to sleep at night knowing that they are the reason that a kid killed themselves or that they are the reason that a kid is very antisocial and hates the world. School should be a place to have fun, a place to get away from all the bullshit that every day brings, and to not even be able to feel comfortable at school, hell I don’t even know what I would do.

This is a major topic that can’t be handled lightly. People have turned their back on these types of things for too long already, and we can’t be allowing kids to be going through this and killing themselves over the hateful and selfish people that bully them. People can help because one voice won’t make anything but a murmur, but if a million voices spoke up maybe we could end this once and for all. There are plenty of websites to help people just have to open their eyes and look.

 





Assignment # 9: Alien Contact

I am sitting outside drinking my evening glass of vodka and orange juice with my wife, and it is just late enough that the sky is a mixture of violets, oranges, and yellows. This is my favorite time of the evening. It is fresh and still light enough to see every detail of the earth. We usually stay out here until it gets too cold for our bones to handle.

This evening seemed a little different though. It seemed as if the night was getting dark pretty fast. We didn’t think anything of it though and continued with our conversation, laughing and reminiscing. Before we knew it, it was already pitch black outside and the only sounds we heard were the songs from the crickets. We decided to go in now that the midnight chill was finally getting to us when suddenly our backyard seemed to light up again as if it was already morning. My wife and I looked at each other then at the sky. We could see a bright light to the west of us. It was very odd looking and my wife suggested to just go inside, but I wanted to know what it was. The next thing I see is it ZOOM across the sky and stop over the field just behind our house.

My wife is now pretty freaked out so I tell her to go inside so I can go to check out just what this weird thing is. Never in my eight five years of being on this planet have I seen anything like this. It seemed to be something not from this world, and this only encouraged my curiosity even more. I have to admit as I get closer and closer to this thing my nerves seem to be pulsing even faster through my body. For a moment I thought it might just be the vodka but then I remembered that my wife had reacted to the site of this thing also. I am now just about ten feet away from it when I see something or someone coming out of it. I stop dead in my tracks; eyes wide open as I can’t believe how odd this, this creature looks.

At this very moment the fight or flight response kicks through my veins as I think of turning to run back to my house, but before I can even turn around this thing is right in front of me. This seems like a scene from one of those science-fictional shows and I cannot seem to think of something to say. We just look at each other for a while then I slowly turn around. Which turned out to be a bad idea, because now I have this creatures fingers wrapped around my arm. My thoughts are scrambling as I try to figure out what it is, because there is no way this can be an alien since everyone knows they don’t exist.

I say hello hoping that I can get a response from it other than just this creepy silence. Though it only seems to get quieter. So I just look down feeling as a prisoner since I can’t undo this tight, though not suffocating grip. When suddenly my heart felt like it was going to come out of my throat when I heard my new “friend” respond with a Hi. That’s it I know for sure now that this is only the vodka kicking in. So playing along with my drunken illusion I ask what it was. The thing simply responded that it wasn’t from this planet and it is only here for a short period to help out.

Thinking I could escape my illusion by going back inside my home I ask if it wants to come in. When we get to my back door my wife is peaking through the curtains. That is when I realized it probably wasn’t the vodka because my wife’s eyes are as big as a baseball. I kind of regret going to check out things since I now have no explanation to what everything is, though I keep my offer and allow this thing into my home. Not knowing exactly how to greet this thing my wife offers it with a cup of coffee. It politely declines the offer and starts explaining just what it is doing here, and since I’ve been around for so long everything it is saying makes total sense. Over the years I have noticed the simple and somewhat colossal changes our earth has taken, and it seems that creatures outside of our planet have too.

It explains that over the years they have noticed the drastic changes we have done to our planet and they can’t sit back and watch us destroy it anymore. I get a feeling of disgust as I slowly start to understand that we have forced the earth to be something it isn’t, therefore slowing we are being the cause of its death. I think of how sad it is that we have done so much wrong that even life from other planets are here now to fix it.

To think that we stress over things to only help make us happy when we are slowly killing the only place we have to live only show signs of immaturity and selfishness. I can’t believe that I haven’t thought of this before. It seems to me now that I have just walked through my whole life blindly as I sit here and listen to every mistake we, as life on this planet, have made. How ironic it is that the things we seemed to fear to interact with before are the only ones to help us now. The only thing that I can say now to this creature is how or what we can do to help reverse our damages. He simply replies by saying “Before you are no longer who you claim to be, you need to change the way you see, because that is the only way you may continue being who you want to be.”

Assignment 8: The Necklace

As in many stories, The Necklace has many, many morals you can acquire from it. The most abundant moral I got from it was that material things aren’t everything, and being greedy gets you nowhere.

The woman was given a beautiful dress as a gift and it's not enough, she soon needs more. Later on her greedy actions come back to haunt her when she must replace a borrowed necklace and ruins her and her husbands life in the process.

This story is a perfect example of how karma might just work out for you when you are a greedy person. It’s obvious from birth that it isn’t good to be greedy especially because people don’t like greedy people. Trying to empress people with illusions of you with marvelous things only digs you deeper and deeper in a hole of lies until, finally you can’t get out. I believe that the marvels of the world are only what you make of them; therefore depending on perception, a million dollar gift could have the same value of a gift that cost only a penny. It just depends on how close to the heart the item is to someone.

Many people can see right through lies so trying to show off ones false riches to be popular only helps you to be unaccepted with others. Also material things and approval of others are always going to be there, even if it is a day from now to a million years later, you will always get a chance to empress. Therefore, focusing on the materials just allows the irreplaceable things to slip through your fingers.

In my everyday life I use the common morals from The Necklace often. I see the consequences of being greedy and I would much rather avoid them in every way. I also take time to appreciate all the little things; the things that I’m not promised will be there tomorrow. Sure I like to have the wonders of the material life too but I would never sacrifice any of my prized possessions for it.

Material things are just that, they are only material which can be found at anytime. If you are greedy of the things you want much rather than the things you need them soon you will find yourself lonely and struggling. As for me of the few things I am greedy of, not wanting to struggle and be lonely is one of them, I would much rather have nothing and have everything that I need than have everything and nothing that I absolutely need.

Assignment 7: My Self-Value

“Jealousy is simply and clearly the fear that you do not have value.” The beginning of Jennifer James’ quote states exactly what she wanted said. She jumps right into the point. She states that jealousy is only to prove a point, and the only alternative is self-worth. This quote that she stated has a high morality. I believe though there are many different morals people can get from this quote the main one is be yourself, and to empower the best not only in you but in your peers as well, and you will be the one that everyone else will envy. When I read this quote this is exactly what I extract from it:

Jealousy is only what one has when they don’t have the potential to do what someone else can do. There is no need for jealousy, the only reason it exists is to make the lazier, less of a worker person feel better when they notice the excellence and extensive achievements of another.

Now maybe that person does their best to show off but most often than not they are simply doing it just because they can. So why surround them with musty envy? You should be the first person to congratulate them on everything they have done. Though before, you must be able to look at yourself with the utmost worth as well. If you cannot love and appreciate yourself how would you expect others too? If, for you, it is always just a coincidence and you doubt yourself then that leaves only that much more room for others to doubt you also. This in return will probably have you result back to jealousy.

So stop noticing everyone else, which is not going to help you reach anything. Find what exactly it is that causes you to be jealous and achieve those wants. As soon as you figure out how to turn that jealousy into something positive for you to push from, than people will start looking up to you. But don’t just do things for the approval of others. They aren’t the ones benefiting or getting set back from it, you are. You do things for yourself, because achieving your goals will only allow you to be able to help others with theirs.

Though success is everything that everyone is looking for it isn’t as great when it is only you experiencing it. I believe that in any relationship your job is not only to push yourself to do the best but to encourage the other person, because only then is when you can truly celebrate together.

If you are stuck on what everyone else is thinking than that’s just going to be three steps back for every step you take. Who in their right mind is going to want to work that hard when work is already hard enough? Do exactly what it is that YOU want to do and finally you will get the right attention from the right kind of people in the end, and you can realize how unpleasant jealousy is.

I Dream a World

I dream a world where man

No other man will scorn,

Where love will bless the earth

And peace its paths adorn.

I dream a world where all

Will know sweet freedom's way,

Where greed no longer saps the soul

Nor avarice blights our day.

A world I dream where black or white,

Whatever race you be,

Will share the bounties of the earth

And every man is free,

Where wretchedness will hang its head

And joy, like a pearl,

Attends the needs of all mankind--

Of such I dream, my world!

From The Collected Poems of Langston Hughes, edited by Arnold Rampersad (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1994), p. 311.

The powerful poet Langston Hughes has written many wonderful and inspiring poems. Though some might ask who is Langston Hughes? He was an American poet, novelist, playwright, short story writer, and columnist. He was one of the earliest innovators of the new literary art form jazz poetry. Hughes is best-known for his work during the Harlem Renaissance. He famously wrote about the Harlem Renaissance, saying that "Harlem was in vogue". He often wrote about the struggles that were happening in that time and how he felt about them.

As I read this poem by him above, I instantly could tell exactly where his point of view was. He also worded this poem in a way that was so spine chilling I couldn’t ignore what the poem is about. In this poem he speaks of a world where everyone is equal and “man No other man will scorn”. He states he dreams of a world where there is peace; people no longer have greed, “And joy, like a pearl, Attends the needs of all mankind”.

It is amazing how even now, forty-three years later, people are still dreaming of that same world. As I go day by day I notice more hatred people have towards each other than I would have ever imagined. Instead of being proud of a peers success people would rather talk in envy, killing people slowly with words and actions one would only think the devil could do.

I dream a world of kindness, forgiveness, and the ability to be swollen with pride of not only ones own success but the success of others as well. I dream a world where difference is embraced rather than shunned, and helping towards others is as involuntary as the beating of ones heart. A dream of which the smoggy clouds of despair will clear and people will then experience the beauty of the sky. As these entire things sound wonderful, and even though Langston Hughes and many other previous inspirational people couldn’t change the path of the world today, I believe maybe, just maybe a common dream such as this can come true in the years to come.

Race

September 11, 2001 the Twin Towers and World Trade Center were violently destroyed when a plane flew into each of them. Now, September 11, 2010, nine years later a huge controversy on whether or not there should be a building of the Islamic mosque in New York City just a few blocks from ground zero. Some don’t mind the building of a mosque in a diverse country while others revolt at the thought of one so close to ground zero.

Some people of the United States abide by the foundations of which our country was built, and don’t see any problem with the building of the Islamic mosque. On the other hand we have people that cannot stand the thought of the building of something representing “the people” that caused this devastating event to happen. When in reality it wasn’t the group of people that decided to destroy three of our important buildings, but were just some Islamic extremists. To go and blame the whole Islamic society is like accusing the entire population of the United States for a killing that a single man committed. Not only is this irrational but is also an assumption that only shows signs of stupidity and a lack of understanding. This controversy has widely divided the country in two, those who approve of it and those who deny it. This has resulted in many unbelievable actions.

The lack of knowledge of some of the US people results in immature behaviors such as the treat of the burning of the Koran, at a church in Florida. This is attracting global attention as it organizes a "Burn the Koran" day to commemorate the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001. Pastor Terry Jones, leader of Dove World Outreach Center and author of a book called Islam is the Devil, says Islam is a "violent and oppressive" faith, and that the only way to stop Muslim terrorists is to expose their religion "for what it is."

Actions like this only result from the ignorance and hatred of those that are against change and anything that is not what they are used to, putting our troops in more danger as they fight in Afghanistan. They gather the support of the uneducated by saying things that they know people are afraid of. They didn’t state that the Islamic community is “the devil” based off of fact, but stated it knowing that they can easily convince those who are scared or have no knowledge of the truth to join them in bashing another religion.

I believe that in the United States we have so much diversity that in the end we are all somehow related. This is because we all came to this country to escape the hatred and lack of freedom. So as I notice people bashing each other we might as well be showing that same hatred toward our families.

The term race or racial group usually refers to the categorization of humans into populations or ancestral groups on the basis of various sets of heritable characteristics. What I also believe is that race can also group people with the things they have in common. We all came to this country for change and what I see now is not any different from the cruelty so many of our ancestors escaped before. As quoted on the statue of liberty “Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free.” I have noticed over the years that our nation has slowly taken action of just the opposite. Building a two thousand mile long fence to keep our southern neighbors out, having so much paperwork to fill out to become a citizen that it takes years to even get close, and making laws that only allow people to show racism towards each other. This isn’t what our ancestors fought for; they didn’t go through all that trouble just to see us undo everything they have done. If we keep acting like this, we will eventually cause people to flee our nation as they did before when they came here for a new beginning.

Cultural Underpinnings of Literature

The United States today would not be what it is without taking bits and pieces from every culture ever imagined. That is one of the reasons why the United States started, so that people wouldn’t have to hide what they are or how they feel. As our country has evolved there are plenty of things that people may or may not agree upon, but as we can date back a lot of our “habits” today are from the many different religious beliefs of our ancestors. One of the most influential religious beliefs that helped mold our perception of things is the Judeo–Christian paradigm.

Though, before I can even get started explaining how this mixture of two cultures helped shape our thoughts, what does Judeo-Christian mean? Christianity emerged from Judaism in the first century of the Common Era. Christians brought , from Judaism, the belief in one god, including a priesthood, concepts of sacred space and sacred time, the idea that worship here on Earth is patterned after worship in Heaven, and the use of the Psalms in community prayer. The term was used in the United States of America in an attempt to create a civil religion, which by embracing Judaism avoids the appearance of anti-Semitism.

I believe that a big part of our countries founding and actions is from the paradigm of the Judeo-Christian tradition, even though we are free to practice any religion or no religion at all. However, the debate still rages between those who seek to eradicate all traces of Judeo-Christian philosophy from our government and those who seek to preserve those principles.

Everything we know is some form of Judeo-Christian tradition, and to separate the idea of civil rights from the Judeo-Christian principle of moral obligation and the idea of a higher power is to devalue our liberty as United Citizens. As Alexander Hamilton argued, to separate the two concepts is "the most manifest violation of justice." Espoused by Enlightenment philosophers such as John Locke and as stated in the Declaration of Independence, the rights to life and liberty are ordained from no less a power than God.

Judeo-Christian traditions are in everything that we do, from going to the mall to buy new clothes or to the doctors to get a checkup. Our activities of our daily lives are many modifications of how the monasteries ran things in the Common Era.

So even though there might be a lot of controversy of the Government forcing a religion onto its people, this is not all that true. As evidence by even the little things we do as a society relating to the Judeo-Christian tradition. A 2007 Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life study found that about 75 percent of Americans are either religious or take no offense to public mentions of God on currency or monuments. However, we still find our legal system in cases to remove "under God" from the Pledge of Allegiance and to ban Bible study clubs from public high schools.

Yes, the classic separation-of-church-and-state argument has to come into play somewhere. Let's break down this argument. The exact term "separation of church and state" is found nowhere within America's founding documents. This does not mean, however, our government cannot adhere to the Judeo-Christian philosophy in its operation. The wording of the First Amendment supports such an idea, as well. The establishment and freedom of exercise clauses prevent specification on the part of the government.

Every action we participate in shows some background of Judeo-Christian paradigm. This is because education derived greatly from it, healthcare, anything, even wearing makeup. So to have someone sit there and tell me religion shouldn’t be taught anywhere else but at a church is like saying the teaching of our history should only be taught by the president. This is religion is a great part of our country it is what makes us who we are today.

Therefore even trying to expel Judeo-Christian tradition from being one of our most important “stepping stones” for our country, wouldn’t be correct because you would see it in our everyday actions and in the fuss of deciding whether it is justifiable to be in our government or not.

Book Report: A Child Called It

A Child Called It was so incredible that I couldn’t set it down. I believe Pelzer’s story of his great determination would inspire anyone that took the time to read it. Dave Pelzer’s story shows that as long as you believe in yourself to survive, and choose not to give up because of anything that everyone has the power of bettering themselves in any circumstance. This book is about one of the most severe child abuse cases in California. It is the story of Dave Pelzer, who was brutally beaten and starved by his emotionally unstable, alcoholic mother. Dave had a mother who played tortuous, unpredictable games that left him nearly dead. He had to learn how to play his mother's games in order to survive because she didn’t consider him her son, but her slave, and no longer a boy, but an "It." Dave's bed was an old army cot in the basement, and his clothes were torn and dirty. When his mother let him eat, it was nothing more than spoiled scraps. Nobody knew anything of his living nightmare. He had nothing or no one to turn to. Pelzer’s dreams of someone taking care of him, loving him and calling him their son was the only thing that kept him pushing to survive his mother’s irrational games. After reading this book makes me think twice about complaining about the little problems that I face in my life. It makes me realize how much I take everything that I have for granted without even thinking twice of how lucky I am. This book inspires me to better myself in every way possible.

Wisdom Haiku

Struggles

I know we all wish that we could get away from life's institution.

Since life can be the one causing all of the difficult confusions.

Though, running away isn't the solution, because then, you'll never win.

Show and Tell

What I would bring to show and tell is my wonderful butterfly collection. There is a variety of different colors and sizes. My favorite type of butterfly that I have is a Pieridae. A pieridae is the white and sulfur yellow butterfly. I first started my collection when I was nine. My aunt had a butterfly in a frame on the wall and I fell in love with it. I've been collecting ever since. I have blue and black ones, green and orange, brown, white, and many colors you wouldn't expect a butterfly to be. I take alot of pride in my  collection and that is why it would be the first thing I would bring to show and tell.

"The mark of your ignorance is the depth of your belief in injustice and tragedy. What the caterpillar calls the end of the world, the Master calls the butterfly ( Bach, Richard)." 

My Sophomore Year

“The doors we open and close each day decide the lives we live ( Whittemore, Flora).”

This year in this honors language arts class I have learned many things, but the things that I have learned that are interesting to me are paradigm and propaganda, how to break down a word so I can have a better understanding of what the word actually means, and about subjective and objective.

Paradigm is the lens through which we see the world. There are three things that shape a person’s paradigm, which is image, language, and music. Propaganda is when you shape your paradigm to get the result you want.

I have come to understand that the whole English language comes from Latin and Greek words. Therefore if there is a word you don’t understand then you can just break it down into its prefixes and root words and figure out what it means. For example perception, I learned that per means through and ceptio means to see, therefore perception must mean to see through something.

Another major thing that I have learned about is subjective. Subjective is from the persons, or subjects, point of view. This is the person that is doing the action. Subjective may be true may be false this is all because it depends on your own opinion. Objective is total opposite of this. Objective is the person, or object receiving the action and the truth has been verified scientifically, but you can’t always believe that what the scientists say is true because it may not always be, for example when they believed the world was flat.

In these past few months I have learned so much, but I haven’t just learned about things in language arts I have also learned a lot socially, spiritually, and I have grown up a lot as well.

What I mean by me learning socially is that I’ve learned you can’t harp on what other people think. If you let what other people think about you get to your head then you won’t be able to grow in any other way. I believe that negative people are like coffee, they stunt your growth and ability to succeed in life.

I have also become more of a calmer person spiritually. What I mean by this is my ninth grade year I used to be more of a rebel. I didn’t care what I did, but now I see that I shouldn’t be acting like that all the time and that there is a lot more things in this world that I need to be worrying about.

The biggest change I have made this year is growing up. Now that I am a sophomore and I took the PSAT’s I know that my main priorities should only evolve around school. I don’t have time for all the drama and high school nonsense and this year I’ve made a choice to skip out on it. Yeah, I’m not going to avoid all of it but at least this year I have realized what exactly I need to be looking out for.

I can’t believe how much I’ve changed in just this past year and I can’t even imagine how much I will change by my senior year, but I do know that I won’t mind the changes as long as I keep changing in a positive way and not in a negative one.

“Nobody can go back and start a new beginning, but anyone can start today and make a new ending (Robinson, Maria).”

Video: My Poem or Rap

Silence, they say, is the voice of complicity.

But silence is impossible.

Silence screams.

Silence is a message,

Just as doing nothing is an act.

Let who you are ring out and resonate

in every word and every deed.

Yes, become who you are.

There’s no sidestepping your own being

or your own responsibility.

What you do is who you are.

You are your own comeuppance.

You become your own message.

You are the message.

-Leonard Peltier

Heartbeat

Your neighbors are outside talking and their children are playing. You are standing at the front porch in your favorite jeans and a muscle shirt. You start walking towards the street as you hear sirens getting closer. COPS, lots of them, your heart drops to your stomach as all of them pull up to your house with their lights flashing around the whole neighborhood. Is there something wrong? Suddenly the Chaplain parks. The look on their face, you don’t even want to ask what happened. The Chaplain starts walking up to you in his black suite. It feels like your heart stops. You fall to your knees. At first you could only imagine what was going on but now you’re crying because you know what’s coming next. The Chaplain walks right past you, rings your doorbell, and waits for someone to open up. You stand and approach the Chaplain, “What’s Wrong, what’s going on??” you say but no response, it’s as if he can’t hear you. Your wife comes out, her best friend just behind her. She’s wearing your favorite purple dress with the matching flip-flops and earrings. You can see it in her face, a look of grief a look of pain as the Chaplain whispers something in her ear. She falls to the ground, crying uncontrollably, her black eyeliner running down her cheeks. You’re screaming trying to find out what has happened. Her best friend is on the ground hugging her trying to calm her down. You look around and finally realize what’s wrong, why nobody answers you, why nobody even seems to notice you, as she screams your name asking why, how could it happen to you?

Wisdom Quotation

"Everything is based on mind, is led by mind, is fashioned by mind. If you speak and act with a polluted mind, suffering will follow you, as the wheels of the oxcart follow the footsteps of the ox. Everything is based on mind, is led by mind, is fashioned by mind. If you speak and act with a pure mind, happiness will follow you, as a shadow clings to a form (Buddha)."

What makes someone unique? This is a question that many people seem to have a problem answering, but what makes someone unique is not just a question. I believe what makes people unique is more than their DNA. It is where they come from, the things they have experienced in life, and a whole lot more. Now let’s not state the obvious, like the usual “my personality makes me unique” or “the way I present myself”, being unique comes from your own paradigm, your own perception of the world.

I come from a strong, diverse family. Just being in my family allows me to see many of the different personalities in the world. Everything I know I’ve learned from my family, some good and some bad. I think my family is so strong and unique because we come from everywhere. Even though the government labels us as Hispanic I don’t really believe this is true. When I say this it’s not because I don’t know where I come from but it’s because I come from so many different ethnicities I don’t consider myself as just Hispanic. Looking at my family tree I can see that my family comes from all over the world. Therefore labeling myself as just Hispanic wouldn’t be absolutely correct.

What I believe also makes me unique is all the things that I’ve been through. Even though the decisions I’ve made in the past were hardly any good ones they have taught me that you shouldn’t take life for granted and that everything happens for a reason. The time that helped me figure this out was when I almost died. This showed me that I was given a life for a reason, for example to maybe help people, or discover something, or maybe even just find the true meaning of living. And when it can sometimes feel like nothing is working and I should give up, is when I realize I should push harder.

This is where my paradigm is expressed. I try to view the world with a positive outlook. This is mostly because I believe that you are what you think. Meaning that if you believe that life is nothing but a boring waste of time then your life will turn out to be a boring waste of time, but if you see life as a blessing and live it to the fullest then everything around you will be positive and fun.

Recently I have stopped trying to be like everybody else and have learned to be myself. My life is more interesting and there isn’t a dull moment until I allow one to happen. My truth is everything I believe in and what I believe can happen is definitely a possibility, therefore everything in the world is possible for me. This is what makes me unique, not some little fingerprint that scientist says is different from everybody else, it is everything in my mind, heart, and soul.

"Today is gone and tomorrow's never there. Life is too short. Don't let the negative lead your path. Find your own path, and do so by skipping out on the drama (Martinez, Celina, May 10, 2010)."

Person For a Day

She walks tall, her head high. Coming up to only just above my knee, yet so confident. Her big brown eyes always filled with life but slightly dim when she is tired. She always has a smile from ear to ear. She is so beautiful. Her short brown hair frames her round face.

Her imagination runs wild. Her favorite game to play is doctor. She follows me like a duckling follows its mom. I guess I could say I am her role model but she is the one that influences me and encourages me to do my best.

Her history isn’t really set yet it has just begun. Her background is full of loving people and wild personalities. She is still young yet her personality already shows strong in her. Very friendly and never shy. She always speaks her mind. She is a great people person, and can make friends with just about anyone.

Something I would always recognize about her is her laugh, it kind of sounds like a zebra. Also I could never forget all the crazy things she says. Her favorite fraise is “Freeze sucka”, or “What’s crack-a-lackin dog”.

The person I am talking about is my niece, Estrella Luz. I love her with all my heart. She is so wonderful. I guess I would want to be her for a day because she is so carefree. She can just play all day and not stress about anything. I am always wondering what she is thinking and how her mind works so if I could be her for a day then I can finally fulfill that wonder. She is always very happy and energetic that it would be fun to be in her shoes. Also she is pure innocence and what teenager or adult wouldn’t want to be truly innocent for a day?

Betrayal

 

“One should rather die than be betrayed. There is no deceit in death. It delivers precisely what it has promised. Betrayal, though ... betrayal is the willful slaughter of hope (American Playwright and Dramatist, b.1958)."  

I've never relayed on anyone for anything. Never had a best friend, never wanted one, and never asked anyone for help. I would always think that if I let people get too close to me, in the end I would be the one to get hurt in some way. I was always by myself, but I liked it that way. I would see people with there so called "best friends" but I knew one day they would betray them.

My eighth grade year I got involved in student council with the high school I was going to. I was one of four people that started this student council; there were two boys, another girl and me. We spent a lot of our time together, and I started hanging out with the girl a lot more. Before I knew it we started doing things that I saw other best friends doing. I was having fun and I started letting people into my life a lot easier now.

I actually started to like having someone to talk to all the time and go out and do things with, so we now considered each other best friends. We used to do everything together from getting in trouble to achieving academic rewards. Though, I was still not used to having a best friend. I was still kind of sketchy about how long this would last because nothing good lasted with me. “What can we take on trust in this uncertain life? Happiness, greatness, pride - nothing is secure, nothing keeps (Euripides, Hecuba).”

She went to Afghanistan for the summer and we lost touch until she came back, but when she came back it wasn’t the same. She had this stuck up attitude and didn’t really act like my best friend, but we were still closer than other people.

Then her boyfriend started getting really jealous of how close we were and only wanted him and her to be close. So slowly I started seeing him come between us and she just let it happen. I didn’t really care because of course I knew it was going to happen. So I just started doing my own thing and she still couldn’t see that she let a guy she knew for four months get between her and her “best friend” that she knew a lot longer.

She would always ask me to hang out and I would just make up some excuse so that I wouldn’t have to put up with the drama. I didn’t mind losing my friend if she was just going to choose her boyfriend over me, but what made me mad is when she tried to turn everything around and blame it all on me. She was defending her boyfriend when he was the one that caused all this friction between us.

Although all these things were going on I still had her back and considered her my best friend. Well at least until her boyfriend pulled the last straw and she still defended him. After that I realized that I don’t even want to be her acquaintance. If he could say things so evil to me and her still say just forget about it is when I realized that she wasn’t a true best friend. To this day I think she still believes her boyfriend didn’t do anything wrong and wants me to act like nothing happened, and although people should forgive and forget things, this could never be one of those things. If my boyfriend had done that to her she would expect me to get rid of him right away, and before all of this I probably would have. So now I have just went back to my old ways not caring and not needing anyone. I guess I should have just stayed that way in the first place because betrayal is the worst thing to feel especially when it is from your so called “best friend”.

“One should rather die than be betrayed. There is no deceit in death. It delivers precisely what it has promised. Betrayal, though ... betrayal is the willful slaughter of hope (American Playwright and Dramatist, b.1958)."

Movie Proposal

We all know and love the Twilight saga, what if we fast forward almost 17 years. The Cullen clan is still the same, Esme, Carlisle, Alice, Jasper, Emmitt, Rosalie, Edward and Bella. Things haven't changed much, Rosalie and Bella still don't quite get along and Alice is still trying to get Bella to dress more like a girl. Jacob is steady at 17 waiting for Reneesme, Bella and Edwards daughter who Jacob imprinted on, to become his age so they can live their lives happily and in love. The family is now living in Kodiak, Alaska. Reneesme's 17th birthday is slowly approaching and the family is trying to get everything together for this very special day. This party will be bigger than the graduation party they had years prior in their old place they used to call home, forks, Washington. There will be a DJ, a dance floor, streamers, banners, food of all kinds plus all of Reneesme's high school friends will be there and all the Vampires that gathered together to help defend the Cullen family against the Vulture years ago. This is what is hard about mixed parties, how do you keep Vampires away from humans if they are not "vegetarians" like the Cullen's. It is agreed and understood by all Vampires, they will feed before the party so they do not get an urge to purge on a human.

The party is going according to plan when a vampire catches the scent of a lovely blonde high school student and cannot resist. He charms her to take a walk with him into the woods. She trips over a bolder and scrapes her knee, just enough to draw blood! The scent is too sweet and the urge is too strong to stop!! The vampire, eyes red and teeth erect, lunges toward the girl and just as swift as she fell his teeth were penetrating her carotid artery. What he didn't know was that young girl's boyfriend had followed them and saw everything!

The boyfriend waited until the vampire was long gone then he ran! He ran as fast as his legs would take him back to the town. He told his father the sheriff what he had seen. At first his father didn't believe him but after putting a few clues together he finally caved. The sheriff, his son, and a few other towns people they trusted researched and researched. They dug up everything they could on how to kill vampires. They came across an interesting story of the Quileute tribe, they wondered how true it was. They took a trip down to forks to research further. They ran into a few men whose fathers knew the Cullen family. The Kodiak towns people talked with these men, Sam, Quil, Embry. While talking one of the Kodiak towns people snuck into Sam's room and stole a map of where all the werewolves can be found. The towns people found some werewolves and by lies convinced the wolves to help them destroy the Cullen's.

The Kodiak towns people and the wolves headed back to Kodiak to pay the Cullen's a visit, but Alice saw them coming. The Cullen's thought they were prepared but they were definitely out numbered! When the towns people got to the Cullen house a great fight broke loose and humans and werewolves were getting slaughtered left and right. Bella caught a glimpse of a werewolf dragging Reneesme into the woods with three men following them, she and Jake chased after them. Bella took care of the three humans and saved Reneesme while Jake was fighting the other wolf. Bella, after saving her daughter, went to help Jake blood was everywhere, this was the hardest beast Bella and Jake had ever faced but nothing prepared Bella for what happened next. A bigger werewolf jumped out and attacked Bella leaving her on the ground. At the same time Alice sees Bella is in trouble and tells Edward, Edward runs off to find and save his wife as he has done so many times before. Jacob finally kills the two other wolves and goes to check on Bella. As Bella lay there in her own pool of blood Edward arrives to see Jacob, covered in blood, (as a werewolf) standing over his wife's body. Edwards eyes blacken in anger and his heart breaks in anguish, he leaps forward...

A Brave Moment

April 25, 2008 was the quietest moment in my life. I don't mean hypothetically either, on that night I thought my life was definitely going to come to an end. It's really hard for me to bring this thought up again but before that night my family and I had been going through a really hard time. I gave up on everything, and I had started to make some bad choices.

I don't really remember much. All I remember was my body in pain, the worst pain I have ever felt in my life. At that moment the whole world was quiet and everything stopped. It was like I was on the outside looking in. My body was shaking with cold sweats. My mind racing, trying to scream, trying to get out of this mess, but all I could do was lay there, motionless.

I can't really say why this was all happening, but I can say that it was all because of me and my actions. If only I had been stronger. I did a good job of hiding what was really going on and even now no one really knows. My parents didn't know what happened and thought it was because of a whole different reason. I wanted to tell them but I didn't think they would have understood.

I finally got through it but I would never wish for anyone to feel this pain. My family and I are doing better now, I'm making better choices, and we're not fighting as much. I'm just glad to be here.

After that my parents wouldn’t let me forget about the mistake I had made, so I finally got the courage to tell them what really happened so that maybe they would let it go. They say that the first step to recovery is to admit that you have a problem, and I believe that admitting to something so that you could get help is really brave, and every person can do it.

It is so easy to do what is wrong. I think this is because you actually have to work to succeed. I used to try not to think about what I was doing because if I thought too much about it I would start feeling guilty. Now I look back and I am glad that I decided to get help. I haven’t done too many brave things in my life, but I think I could say that this is one of the bravest things I have done.

Time Travel

     

      Although time travel has been a common plot device in fiction since the 19th century, I have found something that makes this fictional idea possible. You may not believe me, which is fine, because recently I have been present in so many previous historical events that I could tell you what truly happened. I have also been in some future events that may soon even be in the history books. Although I have accomplished what I was originally set out to do, which was build a functional time machine, I still have not achieved my primary goal which is to go into the past and live with the dinosaurs.

Ever since I was little I would imagine what it would be like if I lived with dinosaurs and now that I have my time machine I can actually find out what it is like. I bet your thinking that if I have already been to so many places with my machine then why not just hurry and go see the dinosaurs? Well, see someone can’t just go live with a bunch of flesh eating creatures; I have to have my plans set perfect. I have been planning this trip since I figured out that my invention worked, and I am almost ready to finally go.

Being so close to achieving my childhood dream, my nerves are getting the best of me. Now I imagine that I can study their actions and come back and tell exactly how they lived. I want to find out everything about them, how they lived, what they did to survive, and the real reason to why they are now extinct. I just want to see if what it says in the history book is actually true. Sometimes I imagine though, that if I do go through with this and people find out about it then they might be so greedy they’ll use my machine to find things that would only benefit them.

This time machine is the best thing that I could have ever invented, after I go see the dinosaurs then I will probably use this machine to sail with Christopher Columbus when he founded the Americas, march with Martin Luther King Jr., and then to go inside a mummy’s tomb.

With everything a time travel machine can do, why stop there. Maybe I can even go to the future and find cures to some of the incurable diseases today. Since I have a time machine I wouldn’t only use it for the things that I want to see in the world, but I would also use it to try to change the world back to the way it was before mankind started making some decisions that hurt our planet.