Assignment #16: The Journey

When I awoke this morning I was in the cabin, which I had built. It's where I should have been after all where else would I have gone in my sleep? It was rather warm in the cabin because it had been cold out lately I decided to finally sleep with the heater on. I walked over to the windows in the living room and opened the long curtains that were blocking out the sun. I let the sunlight pour into my living room and this inspired me to go into the kitchen and cook my parents breakfast because it was so peaceful. My parents don't live with me so this means I would have to take it to them, which was alright with me, it gave me a chance to go outside and soak up some sun, if it wasn't that cold of course. I walked into the kitchen and looked around, it was so clean and the sink seemed to be sparkling it was really nice to see. I looked through the cabinets and found the ingredients to make them some banana nut muffins. I hoped they would turn out good. As I put them in the oven to cook I continued on to my room to get ready. I walked through the long hallway that I had filled with many memories caught in photos. I loved to have most pictures up and out where people could see. Then I finally reached my room which had one single window and it was big. I picked out and outfit that would keep me warm on my walk and picked up the muffins from the kitchen and proceeded to my parent's house.

The field that I have to cross to get to my parents house is pretty long, I'd say it's about a mile in length. I love walking through it though. It's really beautiful. Today it isn't as cold as I expected it to be because as I look across this massive field I see various animals moving about. I look out far ahead of me and I believe I see a deer but it's too far to tell if it really is. I think back to this field during the spring. Every year it grows my favorite flowers, sunflowers. It isn't spring right now so there are no sunflowers in sight, this brings my joy down just a little bit, but it's ok. I know that just the last bits and pieces of this green grass is enough color, for now. Soon there will only be brown and yellow grass throughout the whole field. I hear something scurrying around to my left and as I turn I see the back end of a rabbit dashing behind a large tree. I hope it doesn't get to cold for him tonight. I also hope that these muffins stay warm because I'm almost done crossing this field, and when I do I will still have to climb the great mountain before I reach my parents house. This might take a while.

As I stand at the base of this mountain I'm starting to wonder if I should have just driven to their house because the temperature is beginning to drop. I think I should turn back, no I already came this far why not just take their breakfast all the way. I start climbing and it’s very rocky so I’m going to have to watch my balance as I continue on, walking on a rocky mountain is no easy task, especially when you have a basket of muffins in one hand and the other hand is beginning to freeze. When I finally look up I see that I'm already half way there which surprises me. How long had I been here it didn't even seem that long. Now that I think about it did get really cold this is because of the higher altitude. I know that these poor muffins better not freeze along with me. Before I know it I reach the last few steps to the top of the mountain. That is when I finally see it, and this is not any ordinary building.

I saw how extraordinary this place looked. It was almost just made from the Earth itself. It was coming up out of the ground and it almost look like an animal’s home only it was much bigger. I think this place was made for humans but not made by humans. It was really interesting to look at. It was almost all green and I found this odd because it was so cold outside did not even have leaves the only green tree's left anywhere were the evergreens. So anyway, this tree was green and it had flowers scattered about the exterior. This was what looked to be a spiritual place. I walked around to the other side and see that it has a door. I hesitate for a moment and listen for any sort of sound either from behind me or from behind this door. I cannot hear a thing. It is so quiet and I began to wonder why I do not hear any animals moving about either. This is disturbing me and I want to go inside because it is getting really cold outside.

I knock on the door and there is no answer. I call out, "Hello?” still no answer. So I open the door. As I peer inside that this place is one of religion and faith. I wonder to myself, "Who in their right mind would make a place so random like this; I'm actually getting a bad feeling about all of it". The inside looks sort of like an old building you would see somewhere in Europe in one of those older countries that have been around for ages. I am admiring how beautifully this structure has been put together inside and out, and then I finally hear the first sound that I have heard in a long time. I follow where I heard it come from and to my surprise I find my parents.

Assignment #15: Multiple Intelligence Essay

"I love you too."

Those simple words had changed my life forever. Once they had escaped from my lips, everything changed. The good thing is it changed for the better. I think that my boyfriend really did love me when he said it. I could feel it in my heart and hear it in his voice. I knew that something special were to come of this relationship. This is the feeling I had when we went too far.

I ended up in the hospital to early and I was scared, he was scared. I was not supposed to be here but yet we were. The only question I kept asking to myself was, "Why me, why me, please help me through this, God, please help us all through it." Just by the look on the doctor's face, I knew that this wasn't going to be the happily ever after I had wished for and dreamt about practically my whole entire life. This was going to be one hard bump to overcome in my life. Still, I wondered how my boyfriend was taking all this as he stood there and waited for all the bad in the room just to go away, after all I wasn't in this alone. He would always be there for me but right now it wasn't about us.

This wasn't supposed to happen but I'm here, my boyfriend is here at my side. I still "love him too" but you know whose not here? My baby.

Assignment #14: Persuasive Essay: Uniforms

If I were to be called to the principal’s office to share my thoughts and opinions on whether we should have school uniforms at our high school I would tell her that I do not think that we should have school uniforms at our school. I think this because I haven't had to wear uniforms for three years now and I haven't had trouble with my peers or with the school. I think that having uniforms would be bad because high school is the short amount of time you have before you become a full grown adult living on your own in the world, and in that world you don't have to wear uniforms all the time. However, there are cases where you would have to which could be at a job. Other than that women would have to learn how to respect their bodies and dress right where ever they happen to be going and the men would have to learn how to dress too. This is not just about uniforms. There is a bigger picture here in the end. The people my age, my generation, we are going to be different we have many different things than the last generation already and were not even fully grown. Were the ones that are going to have to grow up and try to fix this world. Uniforms are just a small part of the responsibility that we are going to have to take on and if we are faced with the challenge of learning how to dress appropriately then that's just one more responsibility on our plate, it's only going to make us that much stronger. I think that it will make us stronger in the sense that we will be able to handle both the bigger and the smaller responsibilities that are put in front of us.


My main reason for argument against school uniforms is because, in most cases, many children had been wearing school uniforms their whole life so they know how it's done. In high school though we stop wearing our uniforms and move on to either more formal clothing or just the everyday attire. We do have to learn how to dress ourselves though because in the long run were the ones that are going out into the world once we graduate high school and sometimes were going to have to make choices and one of those choices may be what we wear. Most girls my age are interested in how they look right now than the boys my age. This just means that the boys my age still need time to mature and they can do this while were in high school. That is where we learn, that is the place where we make mistakes and it's ok.

I know that the school board or the principal might have their own argument that may sound something like this, "In the real world there are going to be situations where you are going to have to wear uniforms, and what are you going to do then? How are you going to handle that situation if you don't practice now while you’re still in high school?" This is what I would say to them, "There are going to be times when we’re going to have to wear uniforms at any various job, I know that. This is the fact though, we have worn uniforms before, it's not like we haven't. If that does happen we would be responsible enough to handle the situation because obviously we were responsible enough to even go out and look for that job. If we really wanted or maybe even needed that job, you’re going to wear the uniform, wouldn't you?"

I have researched on the internet that most high schools do not demand the uniform policy. It is mostly enforced by private schools or religious schools, which usually include all the grades kinder through the twelfth grade. These schools have very responsible kids attending them but so do the public schools that don't require the use of uniforms. Anyone can do something if they just put their minds to it. At my school I know that we don't have to wear uniforms and it is working out just fine and the kids look great "rocking" their new outfits. It is said at our school, mostly by administrators, that we can do anything we want in life and we WILL graduate highs school and we WILL graduate college. If everyone thinks this and believes this then why can't they trust us with the fact that we know how to dress appropriately and with dignity all the time? I just think that this is something that the people my age can handle and if one person messes up then only that person should be punished. They could be sent home or given clothes that the school has provided and there the problems solved it all just depends on the students because we have to be the responsible ones in the situation. I also know that there are solutions if this ever becomes a problem, which it shouldn't become.

In conclusion, if I were called down to the principal’s office or asked in front of the school board about my opinion and thoughts about school uniforms I would agree that high schools should not have to wear them. I think this for a number of reasons the main ones being, we have to learn how to be in the real world, we have to take responsibility for our actions when we abuse our privilege, and we have to show the people who do and don't believe in us that we do take responsibility for ourselves. If this ever became a problem the solution would be to make us wear uniforms. This is a privilege and not a right to not have to wear uniforms during school and if we break the rules then obviously there has to be consequences. I think that we can handle it though. I do think that we, as in us teenagers, can definitely handle this situation because we have been doing well for three years in a row now, the kids in my grade and school anyway.

Assignment #7: My Self-Value

I think this quote means that you have to be your own person. That you can't go through life expecting people to just do everything for you. When a person is truly experiencing self value is when they have followed this quote. For example, you can not have jealousy towards other people just like the very first line of the poem says. You also have to love yourself and not expect everyone around you to love you. In other words you can not revolve your life around what other people think of you. This is exactly what she meant when she had said this quote.

So the very first thing that James mentions is jealousy. She says that you only experience jealousy when you are not comfortable with your self. This often happens to people all over the world. She also goes on to say that those people who are jealous will not be rewarded in the end. I think this has to do with my self value because I sometimes feel jealous towards things and I didn't realize that I am not comfortable with myself in that situation. This is something that made sense to me the moment that I had read this quote.

James also mentions that you can't expect everyone to love you that walk's into your life. They don't even have to like you. The point she is trying to make is that you can not please every single person that you encounter in your life. When I thought of my self value this made me see that sometimes I will let someone down but it does not mean that I did that on purpose it just means that what ever it is that I did I was satisfied with it and I didn't care what the person next to me thought. I do include this technique of thinking this way in my life, most of the time. Sometimes I want to try and please everyone around me and that works too, James is not saying that it does not.

Last but not least James speaks about turning your eyes on yourself and doing what is best for you. Sometimes it's best to not notice other people, so jealousy won’t occur within you, and so that you can focus on yourself and even learn more about your own self. My self value is applied to this also because sometimes I have to sit down and just think. I think about what it is that I need to do to make my self successful in the best possible way without having to worry about what the people around me are going to say or maybe even think. I usually do this by day dreaming but sometimes without realizing it I find myself actually thinking about it.

In conclusion, just this one quick little quote that was said by Jennifer James is very true and it applies to my self value one hundred percent. This is one of the most powerful quotes I have heard because it is so true and it is said in words that are more advanced so I have to think about what she is saying and I like having to think just that much harder because that's when I understand it the best. I now know that I can not be jealous because that just means that I am not comfortable with myself and I know that I really am, I also found out that instead of trying to please everyone around me I just need to please myself and the rest should all fall into place.

Assignment 13: Halloween Haiku

I notice that these aren't people I’m used to seeing. They aren't the same.

How they move it's not normal, I need to run yet my feet do not obey.

This is the land of the dead on a Halloween night, the cemetery.

Assignment #12: The Black Cat

The narrator uses a lot of symbolism. There are so many examples of symbolism but I am only going to use the ones that had appealed to me first. He uses symbolism to show the capacity for human actions and feelings. The ones that appealed to me the most and are in order is the human conscience, that guilty feeling you get when you know you did something bad (as does the narrator many times in the course of the story, which causes him to have more guilt and more of a conscience than most people), and finally the feeling that people get sometimes, superstition. These are the three main human wisdoms that had been most used in the whole story. I thought that these ones were the main ones that a majority of people could relate too, especially people in my age group.

The human wisdom that Poe has put into this story can be any number of things. The first thing that is or can be human wisdom is that all humans have a conscience. I think this shows when the man thinks he should buy a new cat once he had murdered his first black cat, Pluto, this is just a mild example though. Another major example from the story is when the man kills his wife and the cops go to his house and search for her. When the cops are about to leave after they hadn't found anything he started to talk a lot sort of like he was getting anxious. This shows that he had a major conscience about what he had done to his wife. If I were him I would have never done that but if I had I would have acted like that around some cops too. This human wisdom was more appealing to me because I have done things that have caused my conscience to go into overdrive. This is just something that happens to everyone at some point in their lives. This is a good example of how Poe was trying to get human wisdom across. When he uses his conscience to actually think about what he is going to do next he doesn't do bad. It's once he ignores it and especially when he starts to drink the alcohol is when he starts to do bad. When he drank the alcohol he started to have a temper with everyone. He had a temper with his wife all his animals and most of all with his cats, both of them. When he killed Pluto this is when he started to get really bad and his conscience kicked in and he started to think about how bad that was. That's when he decided to get another cat only this one had a single white spot across his chest. Yet again he started to mistreat this cat too because of the alcohol and because this cat reminded him of Pluto.

Another human wisdom that can be gained from "The Black Cat" is the feeling of guilt. There are many examples in the story that can show when this man has the feeling of guilt, one of which is when he cuts out Pluto's eye and then feels guilty after the deed has been done. This is one feeling that most people can relate to no matter what their age. Guilt is the feeling you get when you do something bad and you know that it was bad and people won't approve of whatever it is that you have done. This is a feeling that the narrator has a lot throughout the whole story because he does many things that are worth being guilty over. One major thing that he does that I can think of is when he kills his wife. This is the climax of the story and also when he is struck with the most powerful feeling of guilt. This is also when his conscience starts to grow.

Another human wisdom gained from the story is superstition. Many people are superstitious when they cross a black cat's path. The man's wife was very superstitious about a black cat, Pluto, living in their house. I think superstition is the key or the main human wisdom of the story. I think this because the story is called "The Black Cat" and once he does one bad or cruel thing to Pluto things start to go downhill from there. For example, his house catches fire, etc. When the second black cat came into the picture there were also symbols showing that it wouldn't end well but he didn't pay attention to those signs either. The second black cat's spot on his chest, the white spot, is just a spot. Then one day the man starts to notice that it is turning into a noose just like the one that he had hung Pluto with. This is a sign that meant there was nothing good that would come from it. He should have thought twice once he noticed that it was starting to look like a noose. Alcohol also played a major role in the way that this man was treating his wife and the way that he was treating his animals especially Pluto. He needed to stop drinking the alcohol so he wouldn't have such bad guilt about what he was doing or better yet he shouldn't have done half of the things that he had done throughout the whole story because that’s the reason why he started to drink the alcohol. It did in fact play a major role in the story though; it ended in the killing of his wife.

The three main human wisdoms that I had gotten out of the story is the fact that humans have a conscience, the fact that humans can feel guilt after they commit an act particularly a bad act, and the main one would be that some or maybe even most humans feel superstition and that can lead to something really good or really bad. In this particular case, it leads to bad.

Assignment #11:The Concrete Rose

Tupac Shakur's poem is about a person rather than an actual rose. He uses the rose as a symbol to represent a person and it can be any person he is not talking about one person in particular. Another thing he uses as a symbol is concrete. That represents the other people in the "roses" life that are bringing it down and don't expect much out of its life. Also another thing he uses as symbolism in the poem is personification. An example of when he used personification is in this line, "Proving nature's law wrong it learned to walk without having feet." By it he means the rose. This is just a few of the poetic devices that he portrays in just this one small poem. You can also say that he starts off the poem with a question like he's trying to hook the reader. Then by the end he starts to state it like if it's a statement instead of a question.

The first form of symbolism that caught my attention is the way he was talking about the rose. When I read about it the first time I was thinking about an actual rose. It didn't sound right in my mind because of course roses can't walk so then I had to think harder. I then realized that he was actually referring to a person. He is actually saying that there is a person out in the world, it can be anyone, and that person grew up in a life where he/she was not expected much of. They might have been told that they won't do anything with their lives and might even have been told to just give up a few times. Then Shakur goes on to say that the person grew up and learned how to deal with the put downs and "breath fresh air" which means that they learned how to exceed other people's expectations. To prove all those people out there wrong and to show them that they can do better than what was expected. By using the rose he is using something incredibly beautiful to everyone who has seen one and is showing that everyone is beautiful either when they have had an easy life or if their growing up like the "rose" and having to go through stuff like "concrete" and learning to "walk" and learning to "breath". That is the most beautiful thing about the poem. When he said this it helped me to understand what he was trying to portray in the entire poem. It is hard to get a message through such a small short and sweet poem. He used very powerful words and symbols.

Another form of symbolism I happened to notice second is that Shakur was using the concrete as sort of a barrier that the rose had to get by. I thought of the concrete to symbolize people that were the ones who were bringing the "rose" down. The concrete is the obstacle that a person might have to overcome in their life. Like I said in the last paragraph, a person who is constantly brought down and never pushed to their potential has a lot of obstacles to overcome before they become successful. He helped me to understand this because the concrete was the main thing that the person would have to get past to break free, learn how to walk, and to breathe fresh air. Concrete is a good way to describe a person who might be holding you back because that's a hard thing to break past and get through. If there was a concrete wall in front of you, you can't just break through that wall on the first try to get to the other side. Sometimes you have to work at it and build yourself up to the point where you break past the wall and go further then what you and everyone (the wall) around you.

I also noticed a writing technique that is hardly used. Shakur used the form of personification just to push this poem to the limit. In the poem he says, "Proving nature's law is wrong it learned to walk without having feet." meaning that the rose was the one who had learned to walk without having feet. When you use this form what you do is you give an inanimate object human like qualities. He lets the rose walk and of course roses do not have feet and nor do they just get up and walk. I thought this was a clever way to put it. To have it work out in the poem and to add a literary device just to add a little something to the poem. I think that this also helped me to understand that roses walking are not very likely at all so that shows how hard the person has to work to get up and walk past all the people that bringing it down. A rose can't just get up and walk away but a person can and he's trying to show that. He's trying to say that you can and you should.

In conclusion, Tupac Shakur's poem is about a person that grew up in a life where no one believed that they would do anything special with their life and they made sure that he/she knew it. He used a beautiful object such as a rose to describe something beautiful happening, a person going against all odds and proving everything wrong and doing something great with their lives. Just by saying that a rose can get up and grow past concrete, walk without feet, and learn to breath fresh air is a miracle within itself and should be recognized. This is what he meant when he wrote this poem. Shakur meant for the world to see how hard it would be, especially for a child, to do this. Not necessarily grow past concrete, grow feet, and learn how to breathe fresh air but to grow past the people bringing them down to walk away and to do better for themselves. He wrote a great poem and helped me to realize that things like this happen all the time.