Visual #3

All I Have Left

Love. All I can give is love. The horrors of the war have left me scarred and broken on the inside, with images of death piercing my heart. This war has left me broken. It is hard to remember the feeling of love ; it is hard to remember the feeling of family  ; it is hard to remember the feeling of home. Sitting behind my cover, waiting for the order to be given, to abandon the only home this war has given me. But this feeling of home is not what normal people would describe it as. To me is it a place where I am free from the damage of the war and where I am able to take my mind off of the heartbreaking images within my brain: where the sandbags and dirt walls are the only thing protecting me from harm. But to others home is where the family is waiting with warm hugs and loving smiles; I miss that home.

As the mud dries; the fighting subsides and the trees whistle in the wind, I hear crackling in the bushes. By the time I try and reach for my revolver, a little cat stumbles out of the trees limping towards me, all alone. Its ears are small and fragile, its body is shaking, marked and it eyes are barely open. I look at it and it looks at me staring into my soul as if I can hear it crying out “help me.” I reach my hand out for it, its fur is soft but rough, I can feel every little move its bones make.

The feeling of the fur on my hands brings me back to when I was a kid coming home everyday from school to my cat cookie, her fur was the softest in the world and her bright blue eyes always brightened my darkest day. The feeling of having someone there to love you when you need it most was the greatest feeling in the world. When all hope seemed lost, love always found its way back into my life. But on this battlefield that feeling of hopelessness returns to me and the feeling of love is slipping further away from me.

With the cat in my hand I begin to feel the pulse weaken, I reach into my bag and grab some of my last ration of food and feed it to the cat. Love. Love can be found even in the darkest of places. Even now when I believe I have been consumed by the darkness of the war, this cat appears in front of me, in need of love just like how I was many years ago. Putting the food in its mouth brings back a feeling, a feeling that I have done something right and for the first time during this war there is a smile on my face. I thought this feeling was a distant memory. I thought the smile on my face had died. But deep within me the holes in my heart that the bullets of this war has put in it are slowly healing and the memories that I deemed valuable begin to show themselves once again.

My broken spirit regains what little strength it can with these memories; however, the darkness still surrounds me, but this little cat has allowed me to share the only thing I can possibly give. Love. All I can give is love

 

Visual #2

If Only it Was Possible

Dreams, the power of an individual’s imagination to foresee an utopia; however, reality tends to be the bane of an individual’s dreams.

Dreams. All I have are dreams. Staring down at the mud hole where I am forced to get my water. A necessity to living; yet it is so hard to acquire. Spending all day digging a hole with hope that water is trapped underneath. This is just an example of what I go through. My everyday life is what some people call a nightmare and call their own normal. But to me their lifestyle is a dream; a dream that I desperately want to possess. A dream of mine that is slowly withering away. I look down at my water in my wooden bowl, barely enough to keep a person alive, but this is all I have. This is all I get for the rest of the day. Once I collected the remaining brown water I sit back and put the wood bowl to my mouth. The feeling of water touching my skin again sends shivers across my body, as if I haven’t had any for years.

The sensation brings tears down my face knowing that there won’t be water in my system for some time. All I begin to think about is the feeling of water across my body; something I have only been blessed to hear about in stories. The stories of how places in America shot water out of the ground; how people could drink water without having to worry about bacteria or diseases. My body grows weaker just thinking about how that would feel; I can’t stop thinking about it. It is the only reason I kept fighting for every last drop of water. This is my last dream. The dream that I hold closest to me and the one that is slowly slipping away just like the others have. Laying in a water park surrounded by water, letting it consume me and revive my inner self that had died years ago. Being able to slip down a slide and be hit with a wave a water right in the face. The feeling of having water at your disposal and knowing that it will be there when I need it; if only it was possible to achieve; if only!  My heart sinks deeper into my chest; the tears roll down my face into the wooden bowl because I can’t let any form of water go to waste.

I sit on the rocky ground with what little water I have left. I look down: only to see a blurry reflection staring back at me. If only it was possible to see a glimpse of hope in my dream, but it all seems lost with the muddy water staring back at me. If only it was possible to see myself staring back at me in the water. Then I know I would be in my dream; but just like all my other dreams; reality tears it apart right in front of me. Mocking me that i’ll never be able to have the one dream I truly desire. The one dream that every kid should get to experience; if only it was possible to achieve this dream.

I finish my water and refill the hole I made. Not knowing if I will have the same blessing as I did today. I stand up and look at my empty cups and they stare back at me. The dreams I once relied on to carry me forward are now trapped in the same bondage of reality I am. If only it was possible to escape; but unfortunately it is not. Reality has devoured all I have deemed precious in my life. Even the dreams I once held so deeply close to me; even now they are gone. Now I stand here broken from the inside; mourning what reality has done to me. If only it was possible to escape this life; but I’m afraid there is only one way and the path now is sealed shut.

 

Persuasive Letter

Dear Prosper School Council:

My name is Terry Reid, I am a recent graduate of this very school and I’m here today to inform you about the issue of separating core classes by gender. I believe that separating core classes by gender will overall affect student performance negatively.

Having been in core classes that are co-ed allowed me to develop social skills that I have been able to use later in life. These skills were built by being able to talk to girls, while giving and receiving help in class. Acknowledging that girls and boys brains develop at different speeds, not all boys develop slower than girls. Having different genders in each class allows for different ideas to be shared resulting in a greater amount of information to be spread and the greatest amount of development to happen. One may argue that this conversation will not always be about school resulting in distraction that causes key points to be missed; however the conversations the boys and girls have build fundamentals that they will need for later in life, as the job they may be working at may not only be one gender thus causing them to work with the opposite gender. Allowing co-ed classes will allow for crucial communication skills to be developed, it creates the most fair and equal education for the students and finally it provides the greatest opportunity for students to develop relationships between other students.

Communication skills are the most essential of skills: they provide individuals with the confidence to talk to others and allow them to deliver the best outcome possible. Being segregated from the other gender limits an individual’s communication skills resulting in them not being as confident when talking or discussing ideas with the opposite gender. In the real world I can speak from experience that having that communication skill develop between genders at a younger age really helped me succeed in my job; as I am able to confront girls in a respectful manner, a skill that I was able to develop through high school. Once you get out of high school most jobs are co-ed; this means that girls will have to be able to work with boys and vise-versa and being separated from them throughout key high school cores will result in less teamwork between those two groups. Also creates more misunderstanding between them as they have not had much previous experience with problems that involve both genders.

Education everyone receives is meant to be fair and equal, as everyone learns the same content and studies the same course; but if separated it can be seen that boys and girls will be studying different text in Language Arts class. Yes, the courses always could be made the same but seeing as how girls and boys brains develop at different speeds, boys may offer a different perspective to a text that a girl does not see. The proposal for the separation of different English studies, creates an unfair course all the girls texts in the course may have a deeper meaning than the boys texts resulting in different levels of education being taught. Experiencing a mixed LA class and studying the same content allowed for boys and girls to share the ideas they had about each text, thus resulting in the maximum amount of learning to be done.

Relationships are key parts of life and how an individual develops and keeps those relationships is what matters. Being friends with only one gender will create biased viewpoints but also limited view points. Having core classes with the same gender will teach students that it is okay to only be by your gender and that there is something bad about being mixed. Creating this spereration will create stress between existing relationships seen by John and Lisa, they are sad that they are forced to be separated from each other, this could potentially cause issues to occur in the future. Being separated from the other gender in the core classes limits the ability to interact and build a relationship with someone from the opposite gender, it may also cause current friendships to be ruined because they won’t be able to see each other as often. I saw many friendships created between boys and girls and some of those have even lasted to this very day, which shows how important that time together is. So without a doubt, separating genders will affect the students friendships and the ability to make them with the opposite gender.

Separation between boys and girls for core classes limits their ability to develop key communication skills, it limits the ability to receive the most fair education and it creates conflict between relationships between students. I would love to see core classes stay mixed genders as you have read it has helped me greatly in my everyday life now and taking that away will ultimately affect those students. Thank you for taking your time to read this today and I hope you take into consideration what I have said.

Sincerely

Terry Reid

Terry Reid

 

Lit Exploration

The Choices We Make

“What is your opinion of the idea that our beliefs are influenced by the actions of others.”

Choices. All choices affect us; however, it may not be the choices we make that persuade the way the world is viewed, sometimes it’s the choices by the people around us that influence our beliefs. The values and beliefs that are ingrained into our personality are difficult to remove; however when an individual is at a vulnerable phase in their life, the actions, made by other carry a much bigger burden.

Vulnerability, the most evident feature during early childhood years. In the film A River Runs Through It, Norman and his brother Paul are raised in a catholic household by their father who is also the minister of the church. As years go on we begin to see how Normans beliefs are mirroring his fathers beliefs simply because of the choices the father has made for Norman. We see Norman and Paul laying down on a hill talking about their future goals. Paul asks Norman what he wants to be and Norman replies “A minister I guess…” But later shares he rather be a boxer. Norman sharing that he want to be a minister demonstrates the actions of the father and how they penetrated the vulnerable Norman. Thus causing Norman to change his beliefs from what he wants to the expectations of the father. Norman not pursuing what his heart desires represents that the father of Norman has been influencing his beliefs by the choices he makes. Being vulnerable at a young age is when most individuals are influenced the most by others. Young kids are curious and always look and see what other are doing, they then reflect on what they see and use the actions of others to develop their beliefs. Beliefs are a fragile subject they are easily altered by what other individuals do around us. Learn and decrypting the actions that others make around us ultimately shapes our beliefs and what we value later in life.

 

Growing up the main actions that influenced my beliefs were also the ones of my parents. Through my early childhood I remember my dad always being the kind of person that showed respect to whoever he met. Having been such a young age I didn’t realize why he was always being so nice to others for but it stuck with me. Now that I am mature enough to make my own choices and I am able to change my beliefs I know I will not be able to change the ones my dad ingrained in me as a kid. When we were on our way back from the pool at the Ramada Maingate in Anaheim California, we saw someone crawling in the bushes. There was a man on his stomach crawling unable to stand because of the amount of alcohol he drank. Instead of leaving the man there and letting him fend for himself; my dad offered his hand to a complete stranger who was in desperate need of help. My dad carried him to his room in the hotel and made sure that someone was there to watch him in case he threw up. To me this demonstrated the true identity of my dad and how he cares and respects any individual he comes across. Now I treat everyone with respect no matter how much they give me because I know t is the right thing to do. Having been such a young age the lesson my dad taught me has influenced the way I see others and because I was so young I was able to take in all that he was showing. To this day I still believe all individuals deserve kindness no matter what they have done. The actions displayed throughout my life by the people closest to me shaped who I am and strive to be as an individual.

Being vulnerable is not always at youth, sometimes it is when an individual enters the darkest place in their life and focus more on the people around them. This is evident is the character Paul, because Paul was raised the same way Norman was they both had similar values. Meanwhile, Paul was trying to figure out what his passions were during a dark time in his life, he had a drinking problem and refused to admit it.Watching his brother and the people around him Paul realized that his beliefs right now were not the best to have. The quote “Paul stayed, unwilling to leave the fish he had not yet caught.” shows how Paul is still waiting for his beliefs to be influenced by the actions others make around him. An example of this is seen by Norman leaving to University and fulfilling the father’s expectations. Paul, however his different he see that Norman is not as happy as he can be and this caused him to change his beliefs from expectations to passion. Because of Normans actions leaving to University it inspired Paul to go to college and follow his passions despite what his father thinks. The values and beliefs taken in by a child are hard to replace but after being affected by an individual’s actions those beliefs may be influenced and changed. The actions of others affect the way individuals perceive the own beliefs and use the actions of others to alter those beliefs. Even though they may not be vulnerable if an action my another individual is powerful enough it may change set beliefs.

Having seen the actions of others and those actions having a direct affect on an individual’s life, and individual may realize that their beliefs are not as accurate as they want them to be thus causing the to alter them. Norman and Paul were excellent cases of beliefs being changed because they both were at different phases in their life when those changes happened. Being vulnerable can happen throughout the life of an individual, but it’s the choices others make that deeply affect a person during that time. Choices are the most powerful action in the world and no matter who they are made by they will leave some kind of lasting effect on the people around.