Assignment 17: Lone Ranger and Tonto

“When you hold resentment toward another, you are bound to that person or condition by an emotional link that is stronger than steel. Forgiveness is the only way to dissolve that link and get free.” (Catherine Ponder)

In the movie smoke signals, Thomas tried very hard to get Victor to forgive his father. In the beginning of the movie you would see Victors father really drunk. He didn’t like it. In the movie there was a part that that father was so drunk that he hit the mom. After that had happened Victors father left home and moved far away. When Victor gets older him and his mom get a call from someone, and she tells them that the father had passed away.

How do we forgive our fathers? Maybe in a dream. Do we forgive our fathers for leaving us too often, or forever, when we were little? Maybe for scaring us with unexpected rage, or making us nervous because there never seemed to be any rage there at all? Do we forgive our fathers for marrying, or not marrying, our mothers? Or divorcing, or not divorcing, our mothers? And shall we forgive them for their excesses of warmth or coldness? Shall we forgive them for pushing, or leaning? For shutting doors or speaking through walls? For never speaking, or never being silent? Do we forgive our fathers in our age, or in theirs? Or in their deaths, saying it to them or not saying it. If we forgive our fathers, what is left?

What Thomas had told victor was really powerful in a way because some people tend to never forgive, most people don’t learn to forgive until the person that they needed to forgive is dead. SOme people never forgive. Its very hard to forgive someone that abused your family member, or someone that you loved and ran away. 

Throughout the whole movie, Thomas would tell victor stories. Those stories were not just stories they were Thomas’s  way to make Victor realize that he will have to learn to forgive is father. 

Assingment 16: Dream

I can smell the wood from my cabin, and from my furnisher, I open my eyes and see that the cabin is not very big it only fits my bed and a book shelve that also keeps my clothes. I look to the left and see a huge window watching over the beautiful river. I look to my right there is a stove, one that my grandma gave me before she passed away.

 I get up from my bed and walk out the big door. There is much to see my eyes are just so amazed my nose is dancing and smelling nice and funny things. Once I walked out the door the first thing I smelled was the fresh air and the smell if the big pine trees. I hear a small noise and turn and I see a bunny, I walk further and I see a family of deer. Close by I can hear the rhythm of the water falling from a big distance. I can feel the algae from the trees; I walk further and see the beautiful pink, blue, yellow, even orange flowers growing freely, with no one to disturb them.

When I got the other side I saw the most amazing mountain. It was tall and full of plants and animals. I climbed it and when I got there, I saw a beautiful baby deer jump out of a hiding spot. Everything was beautiful there. The mountain looked almost like a rainbow, it was full of color. The plants looked so happy, the animals played and ate. You could smell the fresh air. You couldn’t hear the honking of cars, or people yelling. All you could hear was the air. It was almost as if I could hear it speak. You would look up and the sky was so clear the clouds would make the most beautiful shapes. The moment I got to the top I felt like I wanted to run, I felt free.

When I finally got to the top of the mountain I saw a big, beautiful pink tree with its leaves hanging at its side. It had a smell like no other, it was hard to explain. You would see many animals surrounding it, which was strange, by it was a small lake feeding water to the tree, and no one else, the animals were no where near the tree as if they knew it was only for her. As I got closer the animals began to leave the tree little by little, but then never left the trees sight. When I touched the tree, I had the most beautiful feeling in the world. Love.

Assingment 15: Rich to Poor

 

Many years ago there lived a family of four who were really rich they had so much money that they could throw some in the air in the middle of now where. They never really took care of their money, they didn’t care. The only one who really cared was there youngest daughter Crystal. She would tell them to save the money and not just give it away like it was nothing, she would tell them to give some money to the poor, but they would never care, they would say its pointless, they should just go work. As the years passed the family started to have financial problems, they were getting many house bills, and apart from that one of the daughters, Jessica, would spend so much money buying random things, that their money would go from much to nothing in only a week. They would tell her to stop buying so much stuff but she would just ignore them. About a month passed and they were so broke they had to move out and live in an apartment. Another month passed and you would see the mom or the dad asking for money on the streets. Crystal had moved out the moment she found out they were going to an apartment. And the last thing she told them before she moved out was “I TOLD YOU SO!!!”

Most people don’t take for granted what they have, they don’t realize that, that could be them on the streets, Crystal told her parents to help them out, but they didn’t, I just for that when they went to ask for money or food no one gave them any.

Assignment 14: Uniforms

“Always be yourself, express yourself, have faith in yourself, do not go out and look for a successful personality and duplicate it.”(Bruce Lee)

Numerous teens in the world have said that their clothes express who they are, and that their clothes make them different, and you can tell them apart from others, I agree with them. That’s why I think we shouldn’t have uniforms here in school. The colors of clothes we use can sometimes show feeling.  If you see a girl who is wearing bright colors we automatically think that they are happy, or overly excited, if we see one who is using too much black we sometimes think that they might be upset. “Color affects you psychologically, physically and spiritually.” said an article in denverpost.com. I think this reason is important because everyone likes being, and dressing different.

Everyone has different styles, doesn’t matter what race you are from, or if you are poor or rich, and we should be able to show those different styles not only at home, but also at school. Uniforms could also be boring. If we did have them we would look like one thousand zebras running around trying to get to class, but if we don’t get uniforms our school will look nice and bright and you would be able to tell us apart.” These guys are all white with black stripes and you are black with white stripes.”  (Madagascar 2)

I use to wear uniforms in middle school, and it wouldn’t be very fun to wear them in high school too. Uniforms are very hard to find. I remember for middle school it was very hard for me to find uniforms that would fit me just right. There are many families who are poor and can’t afford buying uniforms. Religion. There are people who also have hard times finding uniforms because of their religion. I have a little friend who has to wear skirts all the time, but having to wear uniforms makes it really hard because they are too short, and she needs them to be long. I also know many girls here who would have the same problem if we had uniforms

Since the moment we started coming to this school all I have heard is that “ this is a college prep school” “ we are preparing you guys for college” well in college no one wears uniforms everyone wears what they want, if you say you want to prepare us, you shouldn’t give us uniforms.

Uniforms are not the nicest looking clothes in the world, but our clothes are. Our clothes tell us apart from other people, and can sometimes express who we are and what we feel. We are two years away from being college students, shouldn’t you start treating us like one?

Assignment 13: Haiku

Spirits come to haunt. Cats come out to scare children. Hey its Halloween!The moon shines real bright. Costumes that give us a scare. Hey its Halloween!

White ghost will appear. La llorona might cry out. Hey its Halloween!

Assignment 12: Black Cat

To me the first black cat was like a demon. That cat never left the owner alone, to me that wasn’t weird at all because that’s what cats do, but later on in the story I started to get the feeling that the cat was evil, all it wanted to do is do mean things to the owner. The owner got irritated. When the cat dies later on,  there was another cat that was exactly alike but this time he had some white fur on him to me was just to tell them apart and kind of tell the owner that he was back but with revenge.  I could tell that the owner was becoming more and more crazy, All the cat wanted was to kill him in a way. The black cat would do things and the police would think he was crazy and not the cat.

Assignment 11:Beautifull Rose

“Did you hear about the rose that grew from a crack in the concrete?
Proving nature's law is wrong it learned to walk without having feet.
Funny it seems, but by keeping its dreams, it learned to breathe fresh air.
Long live the rose that grew from concrete when no one else ever cared.”

To me this quote is really something. It can have many meanings, and many people can interpret it in different ways. Once I read it 2 meanings came to my head, and many key words that helped me. Alone, own path, my way, and many more.

The first meaning that came to my head was that many people travel or fallow someone. There will always be a group that will fallow and copy someone, but that rose is that one special someone who doesn’t care what others say. He might hurt inside, because people talk, and talk, but that special rose will not fall he will keep going. Because someday he will be the leader and everyone will say “long live the rose that grew from concrete when no one else ever cared”

 

After I re-read the poem I pictured a little sick kid, who everyone makes fun of, but that kid ignores them and keeps walking. “learn to walk without having feet” to me meant that that one kid learned to keep going and kept looking at the bright side of things even if there really wasn’t.

“Keep your head up. You have so much to give. Remember to smile
And to accentuate the positive. Do not let negative thoughts cloud your mind
Just move forward and let your light shine.” (Ronell Warren Alman)

Assignment 10: Bully

Getting bullied isn’t fun, sometimes kids or even adults take it really far, and they end up hurting or sometimes killing someone for no reason.

I have never been bullied before, I have been lucky, but I did have a friend who was bullied and never told us anything, he was nice, smart, funny, and cute. He never did anything to deserve those constant messages, phone calls, painful hits. He was just a normal 15 year old.

One night I went to his house and he was crying, I didn’t know why, He was always so happy, you would never see him cry. I had asked him what had happened he felt embarrassed and he didn’t want to tell me, but I begged him to. He told me everything that was going on, he said kids would give him crap. I got really worried and I asked him what he was going to do and he said, “I’m gonna try to stay away from school for a while, just to let them calm down”  I didn’t really think anything of it I just thought that maybe I would pass, but I guess I was very wrong. It was a Saturday afternoon, and my phone rang, it was Michele she was crying I got really worried, she said she needed help so hurried to her house. When I got there Michele came out running and she said I don’t want to play anymore!!! I asked her what she meant, but she said nothing. When I went into my friend’s room, it was too late.

I heard on the new that there was a 15 year old in Massachusetts who also committed suicide because she was tired of all the bullying. They also said that the staff from the school didn’t do anything. 9 students were charged, and sent to prison, because of all the abuse. Those students would send her nasty messages, and give her ugly comments.

I think it’s very wrong that some schools don’t care that you are being bullied, don’t they know how many people, and students have killed themselves because of it? I always think that they don’t care because it’s not their children, but what if it was? They would probably be sending cops to their kids schools.

People think it’s easy to make fun of others, it is, but being the one getting bullied isn’t.

Assingment 9:Aliens

You see a girl sitting on a bench, alone, with tears in her eyes, with no one passing by or asking if she was ok. She sits there for hours, waiting if someone would notice her, and make her feel like she was someone. She finally picks up her head, wipes her tears away and when she was about to get up she sees something really tall maybe more that 6ft tall. She wipes more tears away to make sure she wasn’t dreaming. That thing got closer, and closer. He sits by her, grabs her and sits her on what looked like his knees. She was frightened but didn’t know what to do or say. She waited to see what he would do next when out of nowhere he says “jjlkdjlsdsnc” What? “Jjlkdjlsdsnc”  “uumm.., my name is jasmine do you have a name?” “Bbblloobblyyy” nice to meet you bobby. Jasmine removed his hood off of his head, when she did, she got a little frightened, he wasn’t a normal person, he was some kind of animal, a cute animal. Bobby was Tall, slimy, with a little blue fur, and beautifull eyes. She tried to understand what he would say but all she would hear was “jjlkdjlsdsnc” Jasmine told him why she was crying and why she was alone. He seemed like he understood exactly what she was saying, he would nod, or shake his head when he would disagree. “So where exactly are you from?” “From white sand” he whispered “oh, where is that?” “It’s up there somewhere, maybe you know Jupiter, white sand is the same size but cooler” he whispered again. “Oh.. YOU SPEAK ENGLISH???????” Jasmine was so surprised that she couldn’t stop staring, then she thought for a moment. “Wait, you’re an alien?, how? You have blue hair!, aren’t aliens supposed to be ugly and wrinkly?!” “Hdfsjdhflasjcnisufhab” “speak English man” “My mom is blue and my dad is slimy and wrinkly, I kinda got a little of both, but with good looks”

Jasmine and Bobby got along with each other so well that Jasmine asked him to stay with her, but he denied her invitation. ‘I think your parents might get a little freaked out, besides I came here to cheer you up, and guess what I did!” “But I have to get going now my dad is going to have a snail if he finds out that I spoke with an alien!!” Bobby told Jasmine that he would visit her.

Who would have thought that a human could meet an alien?! Things happen, just got to wait.

Assignment 8:Moral Teaching

“We tend to forget that happiness doesn't come as a result of getting something we don't have, but rather of recognizing and appreciating what we do have.” Frederick Keonig

 The more the time passes the more teens, even adults stop appreciating what they have, just like Mathilde from the short story “The Necklace” by Guy de Maupassant. Sometimes your family doesn’t have enough money to be buying $100 dresses or other luxurious stuff, and they get upset because they wish they could be like all those famous people on TV or even like some of their friends. The Necklace teaches us that we must not think further than our limits, because even if you try you might end up doing something you shouldn’t, we must be pleased with what we have, at the end everything will probably end up being better.

 I have a friend who loved rings but never actually had expensive ones, because she couldn’t afford one. She ended up selling 2 $500 porcelain dolls. Her mom worked hard to get them and she knew it. When she told her mom that she bought the ring, she got really mad, and disappointed. A week later we all decided to go on a trip to six flags, we got on many rides, and ate a lot of food. Then you hear “My ring!!” “What about it?” “It’s gone!!” We really couldn’t look anywhere because we went on so many rides that ring could of landed anywhere. After that she would tell us to never buy things you can’t take care of because you lose it just like her ring.

   “Appreciate what you have, because in a blink of an eye it could all be gone.” Unknown