Colorful

Author's Note: I read The Help by Kathryn Stockett, which is about the life of African American maid owners and the maids.  This book had many important messages; one of them was that anyone can make a change.  In this piece I tried to use idioms and use details from the book.

Change is frightening.  Some people fear it, because it's new to them.  The concept is new to them.  Breaking tradition, recreating the structure that has always been; sometimes it's easier to stay the same.

  Sometimes it's better to make a change. 

In 1865 we abolished slavery, but that didn't stop them from keeping maids with low pay and unequal conditions.  Miss Hilly doesn't believe that African Americans don't deserve to live equally; according to her, they carry "diseases".  Whereas Miss Skeeter believes they should be treated like family.  I think that carrying "diseases" is a horribly thought out excuse for segregating African Americans.  After all, they clean and cook for the white families and take care of their children.  They were just in fear of change.

Aibileen knew that the only thing standing between them was the color of their skin, and she taught Mae Mobley that concept through their "secret stories".    Life was meant to be lived by anyone with a beating heart.  You can take lives but not their right of a life worth living; life isn't something you can claim.  It's what you make it to be.  It wasn't supposed to be just white or just black, it was supposed to be colorful. 

There is no reason why the color of someone's skin should determine who that person is.  Never judge a book by it's cover, judge it by it's contents.  In fact, don't even judge it, because you'll have your opinions and other's will have their own.  If you label and assess things by their color you could miss out on something amazing.  Underneath their layers of skin, there is a loving heart and a brilliant mind.

Don't be afraid of changing the image that everyone else sees.  After all, change is what keeps things new and fresh.  Treating people unequally for something they can't change, like the color of their skin, is awful and the only way you can see who they really are is if you give them a change.  Live in color.  Maybe then you'll find a diamond in the rough.

Twins

Author's Note: I have recently read the book, The Boy in the Striped Pajamas by John Boyne.  This book is about two little boys during the Holocaust that live on the opposite sides of the fence.  When they come together, both of their lives change. This piece is about how there is a price to their change.  In this piece I tried to connect with the story, use questions, and use repetitive initial patterns.

They share some things.  DNA, physical components, and family, although the only thing that most people notice is that they look the same.  If that is all that matters, can't we just pick where we belong?  Bruno, a curious boy, longs to see the other side of the fence; little did he know the other side was not quite as great as the side he was already on.  He wanted the life of someone else; he wanted Shmuel's life.

Bruno was tired -- tired of the same view every morning, tired of the family that never listened, tired of people having to do everything for him.  Most of all, he was tired of being alone.  He was in need of a friend.  Someone who could help him see the opposite of his life, someone who listed, some one who made him realize what it was to work and do things on his own was all he would ever ask of this friend.  That's what he got from this friend, but it came with a price.

Your life was created for a reason, because God wanted it to be that way.  To wish for something someone else has takes a risk.  Why Bruno would want the life of a boy in striped pajamas, sitting inside a fence is we ponder.  Maybe it was because he was young and he was clueless.  Getting to wear pajamas all day and talk with your family and other families, why it was only a dream of Bruno's.  From the outside looking in, he thought this was what he wanted.  There is always more to the story.

We always look to see the best in any situation; we are optimists no pessimists.   Even after every horrid story we have heard, we don't cease to think about if we are doing the right thing, because none of us can see the wrong that could come out of it.  We are too focused on our goals.  When we are so close, why would we let up?  Bruno thought that looking like Shmuel was to his advantage.  He thought that it was his chance to explore.

Now you should realize that it's best to be yourself and be grateful for the life that you've been given, because if you don't you would be making the same mistake that Bruno did.  If he knew how much better his life was, compared to Shmuel's, he wouldn't have made the mistake.  Maybe it's too late for him to correct his mistakes, but that's the job of the next era -- to learn from those mistakes.  So in the end, would you ever want to be anyone but yourself?

Release

Author's Note: I recently read Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck.  I have written poetry in a while, so that is how I chose to respond to the novel in this way.  There is also a structure to the way I wrote the poem.  The story had a great message behind it and there's a message in this poem, too.  It's written between the lines.

realizing there's No one else,

a promise Of reliance,

Because we owe it to each other,

friends.

above and belOw,

the tribulations and challenges,

on the cusp of Doubt,

hardships.

side bY side,

alwayS and evermore,

in this together,

pArtners.

with my life,

I swear to you,

a sense of Dependence,

oath.

through It all,

i will Take care of you,

you Will take cAre of me,

companionS.

may it cEase,

pAinlesSly for Your heart,

never was cold,

end.

Light is a Particle [and a Wave]

Author's Note: This piece is about light and it explains how light is both a particle and a wave.  I used examples, comparisons, and retold how Einstein made the discovery of light being a particle.  The pictures and diagrams are a visual aid of the concepts that I am trying to explain.

Many believed as recently as the turn of the last century that light was just a wave, but in 1905 Einstein discovered that it was also an object, a particle.  Objects can be affected by gravity, but waves cannot.  On the other hand, waves cannot be touched or felt, but particles can.  This is where most people would stop here and conclude that light is a wave, but what they don't know is that light can actually move due to gravity. 

In some ways light is a wave.  If you compare light and sound, they both have some similarities.  They both radiate and can amplify by diffracting and reflecting off of other objects.  Changing with the number of different waves is also something that occurs in both light and sound waves.  The wavelengths can change color and pitch, and the amplitude can change the brightness and volume.  Although in many other ways they are completely different.  When someone far away from you talk the amplitude of the wave stretches out making it harder to hear and the sound will fade, but if you are far away from the sun you can still see it because the waves are consistent.  Light waves are smaller and faster than sound waves.  That's why sometimes you can hear what you can't see.

 

Light has some qualities of a particle that a wave would not have.  For example, if a light is shining at a screen with a hole through it, light will stop and hit the screen like a particle, but it will also go through the hole and end up on the other side.  That example demonstrates one way of how light can be both a particle and wave.  All Einstein needed to do was corroborate that light was a particle. 

To substantiate this, he conducted a little experiment.  He waited for a day where there would be an eclipse.  The gravitational impact would help prove his hypothesis.  With the research that he did, he hypothesized that even though the eclipse's corona is very bright, the stars should still be seen around the moon due to gravitational force.  Stars are always constant, so they should always be seen in the same spot.  If the light of the stars are seen around the corona, then he'll know that the position and light of the stars was moved and bent by gravity, therefore making it a particle.

When he saw the star's light around the moon he provided evidence to his point.  The placement of stars is constant, and even though the stars were blocked by the eclipse, the corona curved the light so it could still be seen.  His theory was proven, because gravity shifted the light giving showing that it had properties of a particle.  That's also why they call it Einstein gravity.  The theory of relativity as he called it is now one of his most famous experiments.

One Family

Author's Note: This piece is about a book that I read called One Summer by David Baldacci.  In this response I will be discussing family.  I will try to use irony, litotes, antithetical patterns, repetitive initial patterns, and climatic patterns.

Families are always cooperative.  Why wouldn't you love them when they don't seem to care or see how everything is different?  That's what Mikki thought when her family began to fall apart.  Sometimes life isn't perfect, which gives families all the more reason not to be.  There are days where you would kill your siblings, but you know that you would kill for them any day.  Family is irreplaceable.  They are a part of you, and without them life wouldn't be the same.

In a family, everyone has something in common; they are connected in one way or another.  Family is not the same when someone is melancholy, lost, or gone.  These people are a part of you. Some days life will be hard on you, but your family will always be there to support you; they feel what you are feeling and they may even know you more than you know yourself.  The people in your family are pieces of a puzzle that make up you.  Without them you wouldn't be you.  They are a support system.

Besides always being at your side, they care for you in other ways.  Home is where the family is.  When you're away from them too long, you feel homesick -- with them too long you get annoyed.  I guess that's why they say there's no place like home.  They provide comfort and safety.  A safe haven.  Your family is a blessing that just keeps giving.

Another minor thing that families bring that you can't get everywhere in the world is joy.  There will be many people that you meet in life for many different reasons, and not all of them will be kind or willing to laugh along with you.  Some won't cheer you up or help you laugh it off.  Family will.  They'll cheer with you, they'll make you laugh just because they are family.  Happiness isn't rare, but the elation that family emits is.  They are rays of love that light up your world.

A family is an unique group of people that are connected to you.  They make you laugh, they make you cry, they help you forgive, the help you forget; through it all, they are there.  Never will they cease to love you.  Each one is different, because there is one for everyone in the world.  Family comes first.  After all, "family is the most important thing in the world." -Princess Diana

Branches of Government and 10 Amendments

Weather: The Great Impacts

Author's Note: Callie and I conducted a project on weather and the impacts that it has on the environment.  We looked at natural disasters and debated whether sewer drainage or oil spills were more harmful to the environment.

Is he really the "Monster of Monticello"?

Author's Note:  After reading "The Monster of Monticello", I was asked to critique the piece and discuss whether the author's claims were supported enough to be considered true.  I will try to support my decision as much as possible.  I will try to keep a formal voice, but at the same time, use syntax patterns that make the piece flow. If you would like to read the "Monster of Monticello, click here.

People are perceived differently through different eyes.  Paul Finkelman, writer of the" Monster of Monticello" has a very strong opinion about Thomas Jefferson.  He believes that "the third president was a creepy, brutal hypocrite".  I don't believe this entirely.  His biased opinion was blind to the many things that made Thomas Jefferson a good person.  An opinion is an opinion.  There is never a right or wrong. 

For argument sake, I would have to say that there was some reason why Thomas Jefferson was elected president in 1801.  No one would vote for him if he really was an awful person.  Even though he owned about 175 slaves he was still a person that supported religious and political freedom.  Along with his support for our rights by writing the Declaration of Independence, he also helped the state of Virginia in the last few years of the American Revolution. 

Besides his presidency, he accomplished many other things too.  He was known as one of the designers of our capital, Washington D.C., Virginia's capital, his home, Monticello, and the University of Virginia.  Jefferson founded this university too; he had a strong passion for education.  Thomas was also a writer who wrote several documents that make the United States free: the Declaration of Independence as I stated before, Virginia's Statute of Religious Freedom, and the Manual of Parliamentary Practice were some of the many. 

Paul Finkelman can argue that Jefferson was evil, racist, and unfair.  Although you cannot judge someone by the one thing that they did wrong, but by the many things they did right.  I disagree with Finkelman, because as you now know, Jefferson was an important and helpful being in the creation of our nation.

Moments in Time

Author's Note: This piece is one of my responses  to the book I just finished reading called the Time Keeper by Mitch Albom.  In this story there is a man named Dor (a.k.a. Father Time), a girl named Sarah Lemon, who wanted to end her life, and an old man named Victor Delamonte, who wanted to live forever.  When I finished this book, I realized how important time is.  In this piece about the importance of time, I will try to use crisscrossing, reversed, antithetical, and climatic patterns.  I also wanted to create a visual response to this piece too, so I use my photography and editing skills to show you what these moments  looks like.

Time is an important part of life -- or is it the moments that are?  To Dor, time is a way of counting the moments in a day; to Sarah, time is the number of days she has to suffer through; to Victor, time is the amount of life he has and deserves to live.  One question was carried throughout this story: why do we count time?  There are many answers to that one question although, the answers are determined by the kind of people who we are.

A way of counting the moments in our lives, time is.  We praise those wonderful flashes of life that we have, yet we number the seconds until the day ends.  Time is the reason that we don't stand still.  Never do we savor the daytime.  Never do we forget that the clocks are still running.  Although we wish, we wish for it sometimes.  Anytime, for us to just forget and stop.  Everyone wants to freeze time, yet we burn away the hours by flooding our lives with errands we don't need to do.  Time is what keeps life constant.

Without time, what would our world be like?  Would we wonder what to do with that time?  Would we slow down?  Would we waste that time?  Time is the only thing that keeps the clocks running, literally.  We need it.  For preventing us from getting off track it is important.  All of us know time is important, but why we keep it ticking some of us don’t know.  The only thing that we know is that moments in time cannot be wasted.

In the Center of It All

Author's Note: Yesterday, we took a reading test, and there were so many words I didn't know, and I'm not the type of person that can look it up and memorize it, I have to actually use it.  In this piece the blue words are words I didn't know, and I tried to use them in a sentence; I hope it makes sense.  There were also some writing techniques I learned and tried to use too: satire and allusion.

The morning subway train whizzed by, as I sat in the diner at the station.  Pale yellow tiles and the scarlet booths made the scene look like a restaurant from the 60s.  Right outside the window was reality -- the hustle and bustle of the real world.  People with their usual everyday garb.  Sometimes in that bunch there would be one person dress for an occasion, and when you came back from your trip, they would be back on the bench, eyes swollen and red, because there day wasn't a fairytale. 

Seeing the slovenly station through the window began to make me think to much about if I should be here, so I became listless of that dark tunnel and turned back to the black and white sheet in front of me.  The obituaries were very long two day -- a whole two pages of the paper just to give others despair.  Apparently, a famous actress known for her breath taking asides was mauled by a psychotic biped of which species they do not know, or what ever they said to spark up the media.  In another location, there was a regicide.  Although, the convicted murderer was conspicuous and left evidence within the vicinity of the crime scene.  After the many depressing stories I folded up the paper and shoved it into my handbag. 

Today I was on a "mission".  For the last five years I've pushed people away, but after I met this one person, I decided to go introspecting, looking into myself.  My first stop was my grandmother's house.  Ever since Grandpa died, she has been the antithesis of social.  She likes it when people visit; it helps her with consoling. 

Next stop, on my train ride to restarting, was the home of my adversaries . . .  My little brother and his wife, Beth.  Beth just been an annoyance me; maybe it's the way that she is always so indecorous, from living styles to just her way of life.  And I've always had contempt towards her,  she's contradictory to any proper woman of our time.  I'll bet that she'll be just rapturous to see me when she opens up that creaky old door and lets the apposite life clean up their ways. 

When she responded to the gentle ding of the doorbell, I immediately sense the repulsive aroma of a meal she failed to create.  Instead of causing a fracas, I accepted her warm "hello". . .

Believe me when I say this, I could not have stayed any longer than I did.  It was like watching the Grinch set all your Christmas decorations on fire.  It was horrific.  Now, I am completely fine, in this tiny little room; after all it's just a sojourn.  I'm just about to let my mind drift off when I hear something.  People running around this tiny cabin, or maybe away from the building.  I try to open the door, but it won't budge.  Smoke fills the room and I have no where to go.  The alarm dies and I feel as if I am, too.  I have elated myself, and I couldn't want any more to stop right now and right here.