Facing My Fears

Author's Note: This is my essay for the story Second Chance Summer it's about the 'effect of feelings'.

She thought that she could just be like every other teenager that ignored her parents and never spend time with them. But when they go back to there old lake house that they always used to go to every summer but stopped going everything changed. Taylor wasn't forced to spend time with her family she wanted to but it was torture, knowing everyday that her dad was getting worse and worse the cancer becoming so unbearable for Taylor and her dad. But she knew that if she were to say anything to him about how it was getting worse for her to see him in pain or for her to see him get worse and worse everyday her dad wouldn't be able to handle it. Taylor has never been the person that was able to deal with her feelings she always tried to ignore them but now she can't.

Taylor has always suffered with running away, whenever things got hard she would just run away and ignore whatever just happened but when she can't run she gets stuck. This was because she never wanted to deal with what was happening, when Henry who was her boyfriend at the time and Lucy her best friend all got in a argument and all Taylor did was run away from the problem instead of fixing it, but even though that was two years ago when she still came to the lake every summer she really hasn't changed that much.  All of her anger or sadness to whatever just happened is to hard for her to handle and she just runs away from it. At work Taylor has to deal with Lucy who always used to be her best friend but when she came back Lucy was mean and rude to her. But everyday at work Taylor knew that she couldn't run and that she needed to just handle it and after a while Taylor was able to finally stay with her feelings and discovered that sometimes it's not always the best thing to run away from your feelings.

Even though Taylor lost one of her best friends that no turned into an enemy she thought that she was always going to have Henry. When Taylor found out about her neighbors and found out that her ex-boyfriend; Henry was now living there she instantly got nervous and distracted. Everywhere she went she kept running into him and finally when they really started talking and got caught up what's happened in there lives the last two years she started liking him more and more. Along with this instead of being nervous around him she began to get to know him better and what he was like and they ended up being boyfriend and girlfriend again when they finally expressed what they felt for each other and decided that they were really meant for each other even though they broke up just two years ago.

Finally after all summer spending it with Henry; her boyfriend, and Lucy; her best friend, it was almost time to go back home but the problem was that her dad was getting worse and worse everyday and they knew that any day he wasn't going to be there anymore. So in the last month of Taylor and her family being in the lake house they spent most of it as a family, spending the Fourth of July as a family outside by the lake going out with breakfast with her dad every morning. Until one day her dad couldn't do that anymore and was stuck inside on bed hoping that he was going to get better even though everyone knew he wouldn't. Every single day getting worse and worse until he finally couldn't take it anymore and gave up. This affected Taylor a lot thinking about how she always hated spending time with her dad all the things that she know regretted doing.  But this time instead of running away she had to stay there and deal with everything that was happening so she cried it out proud but sad that she was finally able to be strong but sad because she no longer had both of her parents.

The Trojan Horse

Author's Note: This is my two short paragraphs on the story The Trojan Horse.

The main conflict of the whole story was that no one knew what to do with the horse so they kept sacrificing people. This conflict got resolved because Sinon told people what was really going on so they just stopped sacrificing people and believed him. I think that this could happen in real life because someone could pretend to be someone there not and then they can come and say that there someone else. Something like this is kind of happening in the book I'm reading right now. The main character in my book keeps changing schools and every single time she goes somewhere else she pretends to be a different person. 

Something like this could also happen in class because a new kid could come to are school and then pretend to be someone that there really not. The main character in the story ;Odysseus, decided to sacrifice his daughter for the Gods so they could found out why the horse is there. There are many things that people may give up just because they want to or because it might help them. But like just giving up smoking or drugs sacrificing a person for a god is a little more extreme.

Cultural Differences

Author's Note: This is my two paragraph response to the short story Ribbons by Laurence Yep about how China and the United States have a lot of cultural differences and why the story is called Ribbons.

The things we do for superficial are wear makeup and wear fancy clothes. In some countries there is a lot of poverty and there unlike the US they aren't able to wear all the makeup and have all the clothing brands like we have here. In China there is also a lot of cultural differences like they were different clothes like kimonos and they also have different ways of learning things and different ways of punishment. Here in the United States we where mainly clothing brands like Hollister or American Eagle and even though they might also have clothing brands like that in China they probably don't have the same type of clothing.

The signification of the title Ribbons is to show some of the cultural similarities between Paw-Paw and the main character. The main character liked dancing and she wanted to show Paw-Paw what she could do so she decided to dance for her and when she asked her for help with her shoes she yelled at her because they had ribbons on them. Later in the story the main character's mom explained to the main character why Paw-Paw didn't what her to wear shoes that had ribbons on them. The main character's mom explained that back when Paw-Paw was growing up in China her parents made her wear shoes that had ribbons on them to make her feet look prettier but cause them more main because the ribbon was shaping her foot. So the main character's mom explained to her daughter how Paw-Paw didn't want her wearing ribbons because she didn't want her feet to be just like her feet that hurt all the time.

Always Together

Description of Character

Author's Note: This is my character story for a famous person and I bet you can't guess who it is.

- Always together with my best friends that are more like my brothers.

- Never get to spend time with my family

I never thought that I would ever be this famous, traveling the world to see all my amazing fans. Going on the X Factor and almost ending everything but then later finding out that I was going to advance to boot camp. All I ever thought I was going to be was a kid that just went to a Catholic school like all the other people from my hometown in Ireland. But that was before my life changed before all my dreams came true. 

Traveling all over the world preforming at the best arenas Madison Square Garden being able to meet the queen and preforming on shows all over the world. I never expected that just from one audition my life could change so drastically from just being a normal person from Ireland to being almost as famous as the Beetles. Now to people all over the world I'm there inspiration living breathing proof that your dreams really can come true. We never thought that we would have sell out singles and albums in over 100 countries never thought that we could take over the world with our music.

That's me the boy that with all his best friends that are more like brothers now that we spend so much time together, took over the world with there music and made them one of the most popular music groups ever. The boy that chased his dreams and one day they came true. Beliving in myself every single day and trying to reach my dreams and eventually they happened. Having to avoid all the people that hate on me people all over the world some of them being jealous most of them just hating us and laughing at us when we see them. Having all of the support from fans and that's what really's worth everywhere we go seeing people that support us and that is what makes all the bad things that I get from people calling me ugly that's what's really worth seeing the fans everyday that support us and that's why we keep making music. 

Finally Free

Author's Note: This is my conflict resolution piece for the book Pandemonium by Lauren Oliver.

It is an intense battle between the DWA and Lena and Julian. Lena and Julian's only hope is to escape from the DWA's grasp and get back into the Wilds and freedom. Lena- the main character was trying to find out more about the DWA and what they were doing. Julian has been working for the DWA but when he meets Lena she completely changes his prospective on all that he was doing with the DWA and realizes that he really needs to be helping Lena. But eventually when Julian and Lena figure out a way to escape from the DWA they get caught again and everything just gets worse for Julian and Lena. Since the whole story Lena and Julian are fighting against the DWA and trying to be free the main conflict of the story is person versus society.

One of the reasons why the conflict is person versus society is because when Lena and Julian are trapped in the room together they also try and figure out a way to get out when they open the door to get them food. While Julian and Lena are trapped in the room they keep complaining about how there being treated and how they need to escape so badly. Once when the DWA decided to take Julian into a room so they could find out about where his dad lives since Julian's dad is in charge of the DWA and the fake people that captured Julian and Lena for the DWA want to murder Julian's dad. When they took Julian into the room to interrogate him Julian wouldn't tell him enough information so instead of just letting Julian back into the room they keep beating him until he'll tell them something about his dad but when they get the idea that Julian isn't going to tell them anything they finally let him back into the room 

The conflict of the story is the DWA capturing Julian and Lena and not letting them go until Julian tells them where his dad is. Lena and Julian have no way to escape out of the room until Lena looks at the supplies that she has in her bag and discovered that she has things in her bag that she didn't even know about since she didn't make her bag and that the people that packed her bag were expecting her to get captured so they gave her weapons so if she did get kidnapped that she would be able to get out. The message that you can get from the book is to never underestimate someone or something. The DWA had a whole bunch of people working underground where Julian and Lena were and even though there were so many people that were making sure Lena and Julian didn't get out they still figured out a way to escape. Well Julian was still in the room with Lena and found out more about her and what her life is like in the Wilds he started to question everything what life was like on his side. With people get procedures so they don't fall in love with people and people getting killed for things that aren't even that bad but he eventually decides that he doesn't want to live like that anymore and chooses to stay with Lena in the Wilds.

The resolution of the story is when Lena and Julian finally do get out of the underground area where the DWA was holding them hostage Julian then gets captured again by the DWA and is forced to have his procedure which he know discovered when he was captured by the DWA with Lena that he didn't want the cure anymore. Lena then gets taken back to Raven- the person that was helping her- and then she escapes from them and goes to save Julian again. Lena knew that it was going to be basically impossible to get Julian back from the DWA's grasp again but she knew that since Julian was now on her side that it's the right thing to do. So she goes to the procedure and sees that there's a whole bunch of guards and camera people there filming everything. But then out of no where Raven shows up with a whole bunch of people and cause a distraction so Lena can go get Julian and bring him back into the Wilds where he can finally be free.

Don't Judge Someone if You Don't Know Their Story

Author's Note: This is my two paragraph story on what I think of the racism that is in the short story, After you my Dear Alphonso. It also has a lot to do with what my opinion is about racism and it also analyzes what I think of the characters in the story.

'After You my Dear Alphonse' relates to reverse racism because in the story Johnny's mom is judging Boyd on how he looks like and how he's responding to the questions she's asking him. It's kind of like your school since some people judge people for how they look or how there friends with. Johnny's mom didn't know what to do when she saw Johnny's new friend and since he was African American she didn't know how to treat him either so she just decided to try and help him even though she later found out that Boyd really didn't need any help. The majority of the story is of Johnny's mom asking Boyd a whole bunch of questions like if he needed any clothes, if he has enough money and what kind of jobs his parents have.

Back in the Civil War whenever someone some a African American people assumed right away that they either were a slave or that they were a bad person and that's kind of what Johnny's mom did with Boyd right away she assumed that he was poor and that he needed help from her. Still today people that might have moved from China or Africa to America might be judged for what they look like or what they act like. I think that Shirley Jackson was trying to teach us that all people should be treated fairly. She was trying to show people that you should treat everyone fairly just because someone might not be the same as you or look the same doesn't mean you have to make fun of them for that.