Welcome Back!

I am so excited to meet you all and to share work. I know we are going to have a great semester together. Feel free to read the previous posts to see the kind of work you will be publishing this year!

The Ballad of Poseidon's Daughter

On the rocks where most sirens call

I sat and waited for the sky to fall

Jumping threw waves quicker than before

Looking for anything, something more

I grew up in the ocean under the tide

 Fearing that I needed to constantly hide

I stayed down below in the deepest blue

Where the seaweed grew, I waited for you

I waited every day and every night

For my knight in armor to come in sight

Your boat just out of my reach

Shipwrecked on the deserted beach

If only I could grow legs out of this fin I’d run

Stretch my arms out to you and lay in the sun

I’d come to your rescue if I could get out of this water

But I can’t for I am Poseidon’s daughter

I grew up in the ocean under the tide

 Fearing that I needed to constantly hide

I stayed down below in the deepest blue

Where the seaweed grew, I waited for you

On the rocks where most sirens call

I sat and waited for the sky to fall

Jumping threw waves quicker than before

Looking for anything, something more

I’m still waiting in my prison of water

Years have passed and the sun grows hotter

We fight to see each other in this endless war

We’re looking for anything, something more

The Ballad of a Sea Faring Lad

The Ballad of a Sea Faring Lad

He left without warning, going with tides

Always sailing back to what he’d left behind

Going where the mermaids and sea monsters flow

Jumping through seas, adventurous as he goes

He lived for the chase that the sea presented

Jumping through hoops and waves resented

The way he sailed with finesse and grace

Quickening his heart as each wave race

At night he stared at the sky presented before

Looking for anything, something more

Through his travels and adventures a great

There were still troubles that made his heart ache

Constantly moving, constantly rearranging

The time to settle down was constantly changing

He ached for a life he’d never check

Hoping that someone would bring him back

He loved the adventure, but the adventure was too much

The waves had taken their toile, he was in a rut

He knew he could love someone more

More than the waves and sea combined

He shook the notion, fearing it rash

But in a bolt of lightning, quick as a flash

His whole world changed in more than an instant

Bringing it from dull, to full of admiration

Looking as shy as a spring flower in bloom

A beautiful creature with a tail of blue

Peeking from the water, catching a glimpse

Of the Lad staring back from the ship

Blushing as she was about to swim away

He called back to her, hoping she’d stay

He felt this spark when he looked into her eyes

Feeling that in the case of his demise

He’d be the luckiest man to walk this earth

By just being able to see her face first

She stopped on the shore of a beach, small and concealed

Waiting for him, for it was in her to feel

The spark he had, for it was hers as well

She’s waiting for this moment, only time can tell

He swam towards her, with a power so abrupt

Only for a love this fair, he couldn,t give up

She sat in the waves, soaking up the moon

Feeling as though he was already swooned

He needed only to sit and speak, to know this was it

His reason for living was here, it hadn’t quit

He could be on this beach a lifetime, without any comforts

And know he was happy just being in her presents

His love for the sea carried through to his veins

The love he wanted had finally came

He could live with what he’d known all along

Creating his life with the mermaid so strong. 

Paying College Basketball and Football Players

Paying College Basketball and Football Players

The top fifteen highest paid college football coaches make a combined $53.4 million dollars annually, while 13,877 Division I collegiate football players get paid zero dollars altogether per year (http://www.nytimes.com/).  College basketball makes 770 million dollars only off of the March Madness tournament, but the players do not see a cent of this revenue (Ibid).  One may wonder why there is all this money, yet the true makers of the money do not prosper.  The reason is that college athletes cannot receive payment; it is illegal.  These athletes are students, so the NCAA has ruled that athletes should not receive compensation beyond a scholarship.  These players’ lives revolve around their sport, and with no free time they cannot work a job.  Free time is hard to come by, and school work and playing takes up most of their time.  Although these players get scholarships, they do deserve pay because revenue is so high and time to have a job is theoretically impossible.  To solve this problem, there should be a system put into place that will pay college football and college basketball players, while at the same time it could help hold the academic integrity; it may also increase academic performance.

The problem with players not getting paid is that these student athletes who bring in the revenue have little to no spending money, their coaches are overpaid, and the NCAA is swimming in cash earned by these players.  People argue that these student athletes would have no way of surviving at this level without the help of the colleges and role models who surround them, but getting to college is a feat in itself for some of these kids, and the breadwinners are these student athletes.  The problem with some players is that their expenses are weighing down on them.  An average college student’s expenses amount to 2,066 dollars per year (http://www.collegeboard.org/).  These expenses are not taken care of by the colleges; therefore the student athletes have to supply the money to pay for these expenses themselves.

Some players come from destitute backgrounds, and most of these players only know the life of the streets.  These specific kids come to college and stick to their street ways.  Four TCU football players were arrested on February 15, 2012 for selling marijuana, cocaine, Ecstasy, and prescription drugs (http://www.espn.com/).  Many people at the university argued that this could have been avoided if drug tests and better discipline was implemented, but would it really help?  These kids have no cash flow, and no time to make money either.  They did not go about making money in a good way, but to these kids from the ghetto who have no money, dirty money is still money.  No time to work and no cash flow most likely led these players to becoming drug dealers.  They are kids, but they are also human, and everyone knows that to function well in society money becomes a necessity.  These TCU players and all other college football and college basketball players have no money, but on the other side of the spectrum, their coaches have plenty of cash.

In college football and basketball, the salaries of the coaches are in the millions.  In college football “this season, at least 64 coaches are making more than $1 million. Of those, 32 are being paid more than $2 million, nine are making more than $3 million, and three are making more than $4 million. Texas' Mack Brown tops the list; he's being paid more than $5 million (http://www.usatoday.com)/.”  Rick Pitino, the head basketball coach at Louisville University, makes over 7 million dollars per year (Ibid).  These numbers show why players feel cheated.  Student athletes are the ones who perform on the court or field, yet they are the ones who are cheated out of millions of dollars.  Players also have to participate in talking to the media just like the coaches have to.  Players are just important to the university as the coaches are and without the players the games would not be entertaining.  The market is booming while these players’ pockets are being picked, and the revenue is at an all time high.

A surplus of money comes into these basketball and football programs; the numbers are mind blowing.  TV deals are the main reason for the huge revenue that is being produced in these two sports.  “Last year, Turner Broadcasting and CBS signed a 14-year, $10.8 billion deal for the television rights to the N.C.A.A.’s men’s basketball national championship tournament (http://www.nytimes.com)/.”  “On top of that, there's a new four-year deal with ESPN that pays the BCS (Bowl Championship series) $500 million (http://www.espn.com)/.”  All of the revenue that these two sports produce from these television contracts is getting to the point of insanity.  There is now so much money in advertising that these contracts are penciled in with no thought; money is just part of the games now, and the NCAA loves it.  The problem at hand is that many players do not love it; they feel exploited and used, as they should.  Another problem is that paying these student athletes is considered immoral to many people in society, but these ideals can easily be shifted with some very simple changes to the system.

Many people feel that a student should not receive money or benefits because it will degrade the integrity of the game and steer athletes focus away from school.  This is most likely true, but to eliminate this problem there can be incentives to encourage academic studies.  Encouraging kids to stay in school is a major factor in today’s day in age because a majority of the better players in basketball leave after one year of college, and players in football leave after the minimum requirement of three years in college.  Good players leave college early every year to go pro in football or basketball.  This is becoming a major problem, and in many ways it is hurting the games.  This can easily be eliminated by implementing a salary based pay system at the college level in football and basketball.  Joe Nocera of the New York Times proposed a great idea for this salary system.

A good start to the salary system would be“$3 million for the salaries for the football team, and $650,000 for basketball, with a minimum salary of $25,000 per athlete (http://www.nytimes.com)/.”  These salaries would leave the teams with plenty of money to distribute to their players, but some schools would be in deficits.  Schools that are in deficits can have the option of paying all players on a minimum salary of $10,000 per player.  Conferences will also have to pitch in money to help schools pay players.  Conferences should be responsible for thirty percent of each school’s payment to players.  Conferences should have to pay because they are the ones who gain the most money from the big television deals, so they have plenty of money to hand out to the schools who need it to pay their players.  For example, the Big Ten, ACC, SEC, Big 12, Pac 12, and Big East receive an average of $114.6 million dollars a year from the Bowl Championship series alone (http://www.espn.com/).  This leaves a lot of revenue that schools all across these conferences can bring in.  The football players’ payments can easily be solved by schools obtaining money from conference revenue.  Basketball is not as hard to figure out because there are very few players to pay on basketball teams.  Basketball rosters are slim, but they are still not as slim as they should be.  This could be a problem that teams run into at the time of pay day, so how to solve it?  The NCAA will have to trim roster sizes. 

Roster sizes on college basketball and college football teams are way too high.  Cutting roster sizes would be vital to making the system possible.  Football roster sizes would be capped off at 90 players; this would cut many unneeded players for a lot of schools, considering some schools have roster sizes over 120 players (Ibid).  Scholarships on football teams would also drop from 85 to 63 a year, freeing up an average of $440,000 a year for schools (Ibid).  Basketball roster sizes would be cut to 13 players per team, and this would allow 10 scholarship athletes per year (Ibid).  Cutting these roster sizes saves money on traveling expenses, food costs, equipment costs, and scholarships.  There is so much money being spent in college sports that is not necessary, and eliminating these unnecessary costs will free up money to make a salary system possible. 

This salary system serves two purposes, paying these deserving players and giving players the incentive to stay in school and play harder.  This system will not only pay these players for being on the team and serving the school with their athletic abilities though; the system will reward the academically motivated in a way that no one has thought of before.  Athletes that make the dean’s list will receive a $10,000 bonus for that year.  For example, if a player is paid the minimum salary of $25,000, they will be paid $35,000 on the year.  If that player were to stay four years and make the dean’s list every year, then that player will have made $140,000 in their college tenure.  For players who are stars of the team and have jerseys being sold in stores, they will have the right to obtain a 10% portion of the profit off of their merchandise sold.  These players can only receive this money if they stay their entire four years of college and graduate.  This incentive will help keep some star players around rather than letting these players leave like they have for years now.

Another solution is putting a graduate athletic program into effect; this is also another great incentive for players to stick around and broaden their horizons.  Out of 5,500 players in college basketball, only 50 went to become pros last year (http://www.nytimes.com/).  This is a strong reason why further education should strongly be encouraged amongst these athletes.  The hope of going pro is something that every college athlete wants, but the reality is that it is not something that happens very often.  What a graduate athletic program would do is allow players to have the option to get a master’s degree in their major and be allowed to play two more years.  These players will still be compensated, but on a lower level.  Players who want to obtain their masters will be paid a flat rate of $25,000, and this cannot be raised or lowered.  A transfer option will come along with this program also; this option is in place because some graduate programs are not offered at certain schools.  This program will educate more athletes, keep the veterans in the game, and it will show the younger kids that getting a master’s degree and being an athlete is possible.  The pay for play and the incentives to strive for a better education would be put into place, but doubters would still argue that these kids do not do enough to deserve the money; this can be refuted by placing broad responsibilities on these players’ backs.

Most college athletes are viewed as role models in this day and age, so when these college athletes disobey the rules it opens many eyes for the wrong reasons.  Strict rules and harsh punishments can eliminate these basic issues though.  Players who violate one NCAA or team rule should automatically be suspended one game and fined $5,000, and a second offense would result in a direct dismissal from the team.  Punishment in the NCAA is too light with the system that is in place; students can get in trouble multiple times and barely feel in the wrong for what they have done because their schools do not strongly enforce the rules.  Stephen Garcia, former quarterback of the South Carolina Gamecocks, was suspended five times before they finally dismissed him from the team (http://www.espn.com/).  This lack of discipline gives the school and the NCAA a bad reputation because it showed that no matter what a player does, he can get away with it if he is winning games.  This gave the wrong message to the fans, and if he had been dismissed after his second offense this would have never became an issue.  These athletes are role models, and no type of role model should be getting in trouble as much as Garcia did.  New rules and punishments can easily nip this in the bud with absolutely no problems.

On top of enforcing harsher behavior requirements, schools should enforce harsher academic requirements, too.  Every player should maintain a 2.9 GPA to stay on his team, and a 3.3 GPA must be kept intact to receive his money for playing.  Implementing GPA requirements will cause athletes to get their face in their books and out of trouble because the kids who want to cause trouble also want money; the money should easily overpower the urge to go out and be promiscuous as many college students like to be.  Another requirement of being in the position that these athletes are in is required community outreach.  Teams can choose how they want to outreach to the community, or players can do their community service on their own, but players will be expected to do two hours of community service every week.  This may seem like too much, but the money that they make and the benefits that they reap should make this a very reasonable proposal.

Clearly the system that is in place is one that hurts these athletes while the people who run the show make all the money.  College basketball and college football are becoming American staples; on Saturdays, stadiums fill up with thousand or people to watch players battle on the gridiron, and from November to April arenas are packed full of people to watch players dribble, shoot, dunk, and pass on opponents.  These events add up, and the total revenue has reached the billion marks.  It is about time to change the system, and the solutions are all laid out in a manner that will hold academic integrity while most likely increasing graduation rates.  Who would disapprove of this system if he or she really analyzed how beneficial this could be for not only the game, but the students, too.  Scholarships would be rewarded, money would be given to the deserving, and the NCAA’s market would expand because the game would become more competitive.  Not only are these solutions beneficial, but they are revolutionary; the trick is persuading the public opinion that pay for play is the only way.

Lucille's Lament

My dear child, have you forgotten
The babe that I once knew

With golden hair and bright eyes

Whose sins amounted to few?

Still I worried for your soul

When you were and infant I christened you,

So if you died an untimely death

It would be heaven that you’d go to

My cold arms may never hold you again

From heaven I still look down

To watch over my sweet granddaughter

Who in her troubles she has drowned

Her golden hair has turned dull

The light has gone from her eyes

Her face is weary from sorrow

From the guilt she feels for her lies

Do you feel bad lying to your parents,

So you can drink away your troubles?

You gave yourself up at seventeen

And your problems surely doubled

Constantly turning to others for approval

Always changing to earn someone’s love

Instead you got disappointment, betrayal,

Not realizing the love you need is above

The world to her “fend for yourself”

She began to mirror the selfishness

She continued to commit other sins,

Embracing her new ruthlessness

I see you for what you are

You cower at the thought of God’s might

So you tell yourself there is no God

And it is up to you to decide what is right

Where is that beautiful child?

She is not a part of you now

How could she be behind those judgmental eyes

Or  stay smiling behind your scowl?

At one point you did try

To do what’s right, and I was proud

But you let the world corrupt you

And the call of evil was too loud

I’m sorry I could not be there for you

With my time I did all I could

I loved you and protected you

Like every grandmother should

But it was you who turned your back on God

But  I will still miss you so

Because when the angel of death carries you away

It is to hell that you will go

1984 The Scary Truth

 1984 The Scary Truth

            The famous book 1984 is a dystopian novel based on the way George Orwell saw the future possibly unfolding. One may see it just as a work of fiction, but others use the book to open their eyes to the real world and all the possibilities they overlook. The book describes a world completely controlled by Big Brother, the government that rules the super-state Oceania. The inhabitants of Oceania must be careful of how they look, what they say, what they write, and how they interact. The possible future described may seem farfetched, but Orwell saw it as the natural outcome of Communism and Fascism. People in this society are watched like dogs; every move that is made is monitored and documented by Big Brother. In American society today, citizens are subject to much of the same surveillance, without realizing the extent. It seems Orwell’s dystopian future could be a reality in what is supposed to be the freest country on Earth.

            Big Brother is the “friendly face” of Oceania’s government; it is also a derogatory term used today to describe the ever so powerful United States government. The name Big Brother describes how those in authority watch over the actions of every citizen. In 1984 the amount of surveillance is uncalled for, every room and hallway has a telescreen. These telescreens are used to listen to every word being said above a low whisper, and to watch every movement made by an individual. These telescreens keep the people of Oceania under constant fear of being vaporized. Similar to Oceania, the United States has cameras posted around every corner, some used for security, but all of them are accessible by the government to monitor the public.

The term vaporized is used to describe how someone in the society would all of a sudden disappear the instance Big Brother heard or seen something it does not agree with. In 1984 the Newspeak writer, Syme, was vaporized. The reason he was vaporized was simply because he was intelligent and understood the point behind his job, which was to edit the language and reduce it to the simplest form. The fact Syme was intelligent does not seem like a good enough reason to vaporize him, but in a society where the capable are feared, due to the fact they can rebel. This is similar to the “black bagging” the US government uses to make people disappear. Hassan Ghul was one of the people since the national disaster of September 11, 2001 who disappeared and to this day has yet to be found. His charges are unknown, the only evidence is he was suspected to be part of al-Qaeda. Now for someone to be vaporized in the book 1984, one must talk out against Big Brother or they must commit a deed that is not permitted, such as falling in love or showing emotion. In today’s society when someone is black bagged they are never seen or heard from again, which is the point of it. A similarity between Orwell’s vaporizing and the American’s black bagging is neither requires or allows the person or persons to have a trial, the government has final say on what happens to the individual.

Depending on the job, black bagging someone can also mean keeping them under heavy surveillance with phone taps, wires throughout a home and office; and even copying confidential information. For someone in modern society to be watched so closely does not require much according to Glenn Greenwald, “For the past year, the Associated Press has systematically exposed how the New York Police Department, often working in conjunction with the CIA, engaged in a sprawling spying campaign aimed at Muslim individuals, students, institutions and mosques in the United States, all without a whiff of any suspected wrongdoing.” This excerpt from Greenwald’s website describes how someone can be watched just on their religion and/or ethnicity. For those who do not know of Glenn Greenwald, he is an American lawyer who studies the constitution and civil rights of citizens. His contributing opinions show up in many popular magazines such as The New York Times, The American Conservative, etc.

Do to the quoted War on Terrorism; the government has rapidly gained more and more oversight on the people. Some of the Acts and Bills passed by our government are starting to make Big Brother too powerful, causing Orwell’s book 1984 to slow transition from fiction to fact. The legal way to vaporize someone in modern society is to use the law and twist it the way you please. In 2009 a series of bills were passed giving the Armed Forces extra powers in war time. One of these bills is “SEC. 1021. AFFIRMATION OF AUTHORITY OF THE ARMED FORCES OF THE UNITED STATES TO DETAIN COVERED PERSONS PURSUANT TO THE AUTHORIZATION FOR USE OF MILITARY FORCE.” To make things a little simpler, the passing of these bills gives the Armed Forces the ability “to indefinitely detain, without charge or trial, anyone they consider to be engaged in hostilities against the United States. The provision would not restrict military detentions to people in specific countries or regions of the world and would apply to U.S. citizens living within the United States “(opencongress.org). Even though these acts and bills are only effective during wartime that does not change anything, approximately twenty-five so called wars have happen or are happening since the year 2000. So meeting the requirement of wartime is not a challenge at all. As stated above Orwell’s book 1984 can be used to open the eyes of the reader. Now that our government has the right to detain anyone they see as a threat to the country the idea of telescreens, vaporization, and Big Brother are no longer just fiction.

Many other acts and bills over the last few years have been passed giving overwhelming power to government officials. After the tragedy on September 11, 2001 the American government passed the Patriots Act, this act was the forefront of what is to come. With the passing of the Patriots Act the government has the ability to have constant surveillance on anyone they please. Even though there are restrictions stating someone must fit a certain category before surveillance can be placed on them; the government controls the FBI, NSA, and CIA which are all corporations that hold lists of possible terrorists. If one steps back and looks at the big picture, the government has given itself the ability to watch everyone and everything people do, not only the ability to watch, but to detain them without a trial. These acts and bills are slowly overwriting the rights given to the people by the constitution.

“Liberty Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment: No State shall... deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law.” This statement from the fourteenth amendment states we have the right to life, liberty and property. The definition of liberty according to the dictionary is “freedom from control, interference, obligation, restriction, hampering conditions, etc.; power or right of doing, thinking, speaking, etc., according to choice.” If people were truly free of control and interference the government would not tap its people’s cell phones, and wire its people’s houses. Similar to 1984 the people were told all the freedoms they do have, they were not taught all the laws except the three main slogans “WAR IS PEACE, FREEDOM IS SLAVERY, and IGNORANCE IS STRENGTH.” Every day that passes life as it once was is changing; no one will ever be as free or as strong as they were yesterday.

Now that the secrets out, is the possibility of telescreens, vaporization, and controlling history really that farfetched? As far as the people of today know they have privacy and the ability to do as they please without government interference, but who is to say that we are not being watched? Telescreens in every room is old technology Orwell predicted, in modern society the technology available allows us to be watched from space through satellites in real time. If one analyzes society enough they may come to realize the so called dystopian fiction of 1984 is actually a living nightmare that is overlooked every day.

Work cited

"Blog - Read the Military Detention Bill." Read the Military Detention Bill. Web. 24 Apr. 2012. <http://www.opencongress.org/articles/view/2438-Read-the-Military-Detention-Bill->.

"U.S. Government Printing Office Home Page." U.S. Government Printing Office Home Page. Web. 24 Apr. 2012. <http://www.gpo.gov>.

"SALON." NYPD Spying Program Aimed at Muslims. Web. 24 Apr. 2012. <http://www.salon.com/2012/02/22/nypd_spying_program_aimed_at_muslims/singleton/>.

"Timeline of United States Military Operations." Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation, 23 Apr. 2012. Web. 24 Apr. 2012. <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timeline_of_United_States_military_operations>.

"Liberty." Dictionary.com. Dictionary.com. Web. 25 Apr. 2012. <http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/liberty>.

"Dozens of Prisoners Helf by CIA Still Missing." ProPublica. Web. 25 Apr. 2012. <http://www.propublica.org/article/dozens-of-prisoners-held-by-cia-still-missing-fates-unknown-422>.

friendship

             High school friendships are more likely to pass the test of time then middle school friendships are. This is due to the fact that we are in such a sudden pace of change, we are just figuring ourselves out and none of us really have a good judge of character. The friendship I have with a girl known by the name of Whitney Head surely passed the test of time. I met her when I was twelve years old at time where we were both barely making our way through middle school and without knowing, trying to make our way out of the false shell’s we had created. When I look back it’s so strange to think that when we met we were twelve year old girls in seventh grade. Now we are seventeen and almost woman about to graduate high school and head out into a whole different world. It has been such a good friendship, one that has blessed me with growth and with a whole new understanding about life.

            The past two years I have learned a lot about people, about how you should surround yourself with good people. Good people, who by being in your life make you a better person, lift you up instead of bring you down. I came across this realization the more mine and Whitney’s friendship progressed because of the fact that she is such a good person. She makes an attempt to bring me up when I’m way down and usually succeeds with that task. She makes me strive to be better, makes me want to be better and has made me better. She is someone I respect most in the world.

            This year has been a tough one but the more I think about it the more I realize almost every year has had its difficulties. However, I’d be lying if I said this hasn’t been one of the toughest and throughout it Whitney has been by my side the whole way and I’m so thankful for that. Somewhere down the road this year I lost my way but she was always there reminding me that I am a fighter, that I am strong and that I am better than the person I was making myself out to be. Whitney has always been harsh in the best kind of ways; she’s only ever harsh when it’s for my best benefit.

            It’s nice to have this sort of comfort in knowing that she will always be here fighting for me even if sometimes it’s with me. There’s quite a comfort in knowing she will be here making sure I stay strong and making sure I don’t give up. I’ve also watched her go through some pretty tough things this year. Things that made me sit there and question logic, because it wasn’t logical to me that these things were happening to her. It wasn’t logical because she never deserved any of it, because she deserves to get what she gives and that is love and kindness, and loyalty, and trust, and passion. And if she were not to receive all those things faith will have failed me. I would have viewed life as one big joke because if people like her were never to receive those things it’d be an abomination. The beautiful thing however, is that faith never fails.

            People like to say that they were created and as they were created another person was created and that this person was created for the other. People say that this person created for them was connected to them at the soul and they were called soul mates. I and she clearly are not soul mates but I do like to categorize us into a subgroup of that nature, I believe we are soul sisters. In my eyes it is not strange to imagine her as my best friend because it feels like that’s the way it has always been but others question our friendship. In other people’s eyes we are the opposite of each other and that is true, but we balance each other out. We do have things in common and sometimes it may not seem like much but these things are the things that matter most.

            To me all that matters in a friendship is that the two people in it genuinely like each other, that the two people in it respect the other, that the two people in it loves the other, fights with the other, fights for the other, and reminds the other to fight. All that matters in a friendship is that you are willing to be selfless, you are un-willing to give up and you are there to remind that person of what a beautiful person they are. I think anyone can instantly and clearly see that I genuinely like Whitney. Through my actions it is not hard to tell that I respect her, I respect her more than I’ve ever respected anyone else, for many reasons, but mainly for being a wonderful and strong person.

            Whitney has taught me what it means to not be afraid to be who I am. She has taught me to stand up for myself and she has taught me to be an open and honest person. I love her to the moon and back a million times over again. She has been the family I’ve never had. Before now I’d never be able to openly admit how much I care about a person but she taught me to open my heart wider then I’d ever imagine was possible.

I keep going everyday even when sometimes I feel like I can’t because I’m fighting for her. Fighting for her to be the best she can be, fighting for myself to be better. Fighting for her to realize how much strength she has. I will always be here to constantly remind her that she is strong and that she can get through anything and that because of her I too am stronger.

             This is one friendship I do not plan to give up on and will never give up on, because she is one person I will never give up on because she never gave up on me. I couldn’t give up on her because I believe in her because she made me believe in myself. I think about the future more often than I would like to but when I imagine it I can’t imagine it without her because she has been my saving grace, my guardian angel. She is responsible for who I am and who I am is someone I am proud to be. So every day I want her to know that she is a beautiful person that her smile lights up a whole room, that her smile reminds me that I have a reason to smile too. She is beautiful to the core of her being, she has a beautiful heart and soul and well of course a pretty face. Those reasons though are not even a quarter of what makes her as beautiful as she is. She is the greatest person I know and the greatest gift I could ever ask for and without her I’d be lost in this scary world.

It was the hottest summer that the south had seen in quiet a long time. I remember the weather was so hot that we had major droughts that were so severe that the government had laws restricting the times that you could use water outdoors; most of the time we just could not even use water outdoors whatsoever. Most of the time when it gets hot you can go swimming or go to water parks, but the weather was so hot that the pools were like warm public baths and most of the water parks were shut down due to the major drought.

I had been living in the same little town in Michigan ever since I was just a few years old. I was born in Flint, Michigan and lived there until the age of two, that’s when we moved to Davison, Michigan, population, hardly any. Davison was a very small town; we had one middle school and one high school, the people that you went to elementary with were the same people that were in your middle school and the same people that you graduated with. Due to this fact the bonds that you made with your friends were for the most part a lifetime friendship. The community was very close knit; everyone went to all the football games and parades. Parades were a very big thing in Davison. We had on average about five parades a year. We had a parade for the homecoming football game for the high school, then another parade for Fourth of July, a Thanksgiving Day parade, another parade for Halloween, and finally a Christmas parade. Each one of the parades would last a few hours and tons of people were in the parades. I really did not want to move away from Michigan, but the fact of it was we just had to. The economy in Michigan was getting really bad. We had our house up for sale for quite a while; finally we had to foreclose on our house. I was pretty young when we finally moved here and I did not really understand how hard it was for my parents to do that; now that I am older I really understand how hard it truly was for my parents to do.

In Michigan one of the things we really liked to do was make fun of stupid southern people, as we thought of them. We thought of most if not all southerners as dumb redneck people who did not speak real English. This was a real struggle for me to get over when I first moved down here. Everyone that I saw down here I saw as the stereotypical dumb redneck person that I had grown up knowing them as. It didn’t matter what you told me I really just didn’t like you no matter what because you were living in the south. I still talked to most of my in Michigan; however, I didn’t have a whole lot of really good friends. The saying out of sight out of mind really set in when I moved here because once I was gone a lot of my friends in Michigan just kind of forgot about me. I really tried not to make friends when I moved down here because of what happened with a lot of my friends in Michigan. I figured that even if I did make friends we wouldn’t be friends for very long because we would be split up between the many different high schools and then forget about each other.

This all changed, however, when I met my now best friend Brandon Sponseller. Oddly enough my very first thought about this him was “Wow, this kid is a jerk”. Whenever anyone said something that he thought wasn’t correct he just had to correct them. He was also a smart ass who thought he knew everything. My thoughts changed, however, when he and two of his friends were hanging out at the pool in the neighborhood that I lived in. I was up at the pool with my mom and little brother. I was showing my brother how to do flips into the pool. Brandon and the two kids he was with started doing flips as well. We started a kind of friendly competition that turned into a cannonball contest. This was the start of a very good friendship.

Brandon has since moved back to Ohio where he is originally from. He used to lived with his mom down here but he likes the north much more than down here so he decided to move back to Ohio with his dad. We still talk all the time and he comes to visit once in a while and when he does we always make sure to make time to hang out together at least a few times. It is crazy to think that the kid who is now my best friend I despised at one point. I guess it just goes to show you really can’t judge a book by its cover.

Ballad

Ballad of the Liar

We used to be good friends

Until you made one wrong move,

Now there will be no amends

Cause you have nothing else to prove.

I tried to be the nice guy

But you blew me off,

Now you’re nothing but lies

Cause for you it’s like a cough.

You say it’s something that I’ve done

When really it’s all your fault,

This battle has not been won

Cause I will not win by default.

You say I stole your boyfriend

But really you let him go,

Now let me lend a hand

And tell you something that you know.

He told me he doesn’t want you

So how about you back off,

You really don’t have a clue

Of what I’m capable of.

Now I spend my days happy

Cause I have what makes me feel good,

You go around looking crappy

Cause you did all that you could.

Now I have your ex boyfriend

And we are happy as can be,

And for you I recommend

trying to be happy like me.

Analytical Writing- BY:Joey Jackson

ANALYTICAL – Comparing and contrasting differences between the movie Psycho, and the book And Then There Were None

Psycho is a reference to someone that is psychopathic and tending to have characteristics of insanity and acting crazy. In the movie Psycho, we observed the psychopathic nature of Norman Bates. He looks like this ordinary guy that runs a small motel complex called The Bates Motel, which is home to him and his mother who he cares for and looks after very much. So we first see hints of his psychopathic nature when a tiresome lady who is weary from the guilt of stealing money looks for a place to spend the night and rest. So she decides to stay at the motel, and checks in with Norman to pay for her stay for the night, and we see that Norman has a strange and peculiar liking for this girl. We also see that after peeping on the girl, he gets a certain arousal and later while she is still showering, she is killed by an attacker that appears to be Normans mother. So after this incident, Norman talks to himself in an angry fashion about how his mother shouldn’t have killed her. He also has no problem cleaning up the bloody mess left by his “mother” and discarding of her body in a swamp. So we see the one of many telltale signs that Norman is indeed psychotic.

 And to sum up the movie a bit faster, we discover that Norman was indeed the killer. He dressed up in his dead mothers cloths, who we find to have been dead for many years from Norman killing her in an outrageous burst of anger for seeing his mom sleeping with another man, and showing her affection to someone other than her son. So because of this horrific event that even Norman couldn’t handle, he took on the personality of the momma’s boy that we clearly see in the beginning of the movie and his mother whom he killed in his earlier years. So as soon as the audience/reader learns of these events that have unfolded throughout the story, we can most defiantly make the conclusion that Norman Bates is psychotic along with another character from another story called And Then There Were None.

Justice wargrave is a very similar character in a story called And Then There Were None. He is also very much as psychotic as Norman because his story is about killing 10 people in a very precise series of events that were very well strategically planned way ahead then when this all happened. These people were no ordinary people either; they had some point in their lives committed a crime, and when put to trial they were found innocent. So the whole point of the story was that Justice Wargrave was going to take “justice” into his own hands because of the flaws in our legal system that allowed these guilty people to get away with their intolerable acts without any consequences. The psychotic thing though is that he liked doing this, he wanted to plan this very strategically and leave his legacy of the perfect murder and for his work to be studied and solved if even possible.

The two characters are very much alike, but most defiantly different in motive. The two characters were alike because they were both absolute psychopath’s. Justice Wargave enjoyed killing even when he was a boy, as did Norman bates or at least it was acceptable to him. I think though there were a lot more dissimilarity between the two. Norman Bates seemed to be more of a case of a mental breakdown from seeing his mom intimate with someone in bed. The event horrified him in a way that made him snap by killing both his mother and her lover. Because he himself didn’t realize he was capable of performing this, he took on another personality besides his own which was that of his mother in a strange and deranged way. He dressed like his mother by wearing her cloths and wig, while also preserving her corpse, which is why some of the characters in the story thought the killer was his mother and that something was going on that was too fishy between both him and his mom. So in his case I believe he was brought into psychopathy because he mentally couldn’t handle something and was pushed to a limit that broke him, while Justice Wargrave is a textbook psycho.

Justice Wargrave is a textbook psycho because he was ok in everything he did, and was completely dedicated to what he did. To him it seemed as something that was also a belief that should have been studied. Even though the book refers to him having these impulses at a young age, it looks like it was just something he believed in and that wasn’t out of the ordinary. I understand completely why he did everything he did, the only thing that makes him sane or not is the standards to which he solved his problem and how we would/should have. This is also true of all psychos, the thing that divides them from being sane or not to our standards is the manner in which they do, say, and believes in something.

Five Years and... Over

It was a normal Monday morning; everyone was asleep and tired at school, even more because it was the first Monday of school. Now, I am staring at flashing blue and red lights. Nobody was being arrested, no one going to jail, only one would be leaving in an ambulance. But before I get into all that, I need to go to the beginning.

            It was my first day of my seventh grade year; I was the new kid from Florida. Everyone avoided me in the typical new kid fashion except for one, Justin Hartsell. He walked right up to me and asked if I did any kind of skateboarding. I had no coordination on a skateboard, but I was optimistic. I told him no, but I have one I can learn on. The friendship began. We only had one class together both years I was in that school, but it did not matter. We did nothing in either class except sit back relax and complain about how we never wanted to go another day of school in our lives.

The next year, in eighth grade, we finally had our day of skate. Little did I know he was taking me to a full pledged skate park to teach me how to skate in front of every skateboarder that was there. When we arrived, the lot was full, when we walked in, the park was packed. I did not know what to do. He got the basics down with me, riding, stopping, and falling. The next four years of school could have taken longer, I would not have cared. Throughout the years I did nothing but go over to Justin’s house hangout, skate, eat, and fall asleep. I was consistently at Justin’s house. It got to the point I was over there so much that I just started calling his parents mom and dad. It was the same for him at my house. The time finally came to where I needed to skate with his friends that were as good as, or better than him.

            We arrived in Oakboro, where Justin’s friends lived. They seemed a little weary about me at first. The feeling of not belonging started to kick back in, but Justin talked to them. After a few quick skate sessions his friends started calling me my nick name, Grady.  The crew started to grow from just a crew, to more of a family. If I were to get a phone call from anyone during the days of summer vacation I would have to say I was skating with my family. It went from just having some skate sessions to skateboarding all day, having dinner with the family, and then passing out in the living after watching a skate video. That summer was the best summer I have ever had.

            Everything changed when I met the love of my life, Brittany Guidera. We met at a football game I was at. I kept her warm at that game I have been keeping her warm ever since. I frequently visited Brittany every day which meant, I wasn’t at Justin’s. the visits got less frequent with Justin. There would be a few time where I would blow off my girlfriend to hang out with Justin. We would end up in Oakboro skateboarding until two o’clock in the morning. The rides home were the best. The volume all the way up in the truck, windows open and not caring about people sleeping, we would speed through the night to my house because that’s where Justin’s parents thought he was. Then the day came to celebrate my ten months with Brittany. I invited Justin and his girlfriend, but he had other plans.

            Now I am staring at blue lights through my windshield, no one was being arrested. but one person would not be returning to his family at the end of the day. Brittany’s and my own ten month anniversary had ended tragically. My best friend that was supposed to be with me that night on a double date had gone home and played a game; a game designed to kill; the choking game.
     I never did get to see Justin again except for in his coffin, laying there lifeless. I wish I could blow off Brittany one last time to skate with him again.

Ballad

How much is needed to destroy

This dilemma that tortures me

At night? Does not give me joy

Nor does it give me glee.

I enclose myself and drain

My dreams, why do I need them?

They only cause me pain,

If only I was just a stem.

If I knew myself I would as well

Turn my head and feel lament

They say that love swells

And I feel torment.

I never understood how

To prevent that feeling

That breaks my vow

When you’re not here.

And so together age,

But I couldn’t make you happy

 And so I turn the page

And leave unhappy.

Narrative Writing

                                                Narrative Writing

The time that I was most terrified was when I got into my first car accident.  It all started when my sister and I took a trip to Wal-Mart to pick up a couple things.  My sister went to a store and I was very tired so I stayed in the car and took a nap.  It must have been an hour later as I woke up from my sister tapping on the window to unlock the car door to let her in.  So I looked for my keys and started the ignition and pulled out of the parking lot.  On the way (which was about five minutes down the road from my house), we talked about things just to make the time fly faster.  It seemed like the longest time before we finally reached our turn to go down the road that we lived on we ran into a bit of a problem.  The big problem was that it was rush hour and a lot of cars were in the lane I was trying to cross over into.  So I took my time and tried not to panic and waited for my turn to get ready to make the cross to the next road.  Then all a sudden a car that was in front of me in the opposite direction was making a turn also as I was.  So me being the new driver that I was I looked both ways once before crossing and went for the turn.  As I went across the street I noticed a speeding Chevy truck heading in my direction very quickly.  I panicked and my first thought was to stop but then in realized that I was too far out in the road to stop, so I pushed the gas pedal and tried to beat the car across the road.  As I approached the end of the road, just as I was about the make it to the other side the truck hits the side of my car that my sisters on at about 70 miles per hour and pushes us twenty feet backwards.  As the impact happened the air bags deployed and hit me in the face and rattled me for a couple seconds.  As I came back to my senses I felt a sharp pain in my elbow and I looked at my sister and she was in extreme pain also.  Then the people who were around the accident, came closer to check to see if were were both ok and called 911.  After about ten minutes the paramedics came and checked my arm and took me out of mar car and out me on a stretcher.  As they rolled me into the ambulance I had a good look at my first car and saw my sister getting cut out if the car with the jaws of life.  I waited for a moment or two for my sister to enter the ambulance with me, hoping that she wasn’t hurt too badly.  Finally they rolled her in there and I was a little relieved.  As we were on our way to the hospital I was praying that nothing would happen to my sister, that if anything bad would happen that it would happen to me because it was my fault. The paramedics found my phone on the floor of my car and contacted my parents to meet them at the hospital.  As we arrived to the hospital they came to get my sister in intensive care first because she was hurt worse than I was. It must have been ten minutes later until they came to get me out of the ambulance and they rolled me into a waiting room.  Soon nurses came in to ask me if I was ok and if anything hurt.  I told them that my arm hurt and they got me x-rayed and sent me back to the waiting room.  Then the doctor came in and told me that first off my sister was ok that it wasn’t as serious as they thought.  They told my parents and me that she had a collapsed lung and she would have to have surgery and stay in the hospital for a few days.   They also told me that my arm was not broken it was just bruised very badly.  Both were very good news to us.  An hour or so passed and they released me from the hospital as my sister was going into surgery.  I didn’t sleep very well that night because the wreck kept flashing through my head over and over all night.  My mom stayed with my sister the whole time she was in there and after a few days they released her from the hospital.  It took her a while but she finally got back to normal.  To this day I still miss my first car and I will never forget the most terrifying moment in my life because it will always be in the back of my mind that I almost lost my sister due to an accident that could have been easily avoided if I would have just been more cautious.