Thankful for a classmate

First of all, Happy Turkey Day!
I am thankful for many things. My family, friends, house, food, and everything. Among these things are my classmates.
I am thankful for Kennedy. She helps me in this class. She helps me study and is always there to help with questions I don't get and vice versa. She's also my bus buddy :) We ride the 62H together when she's by her dad's. She doesn't live that far and also came to my graduation party. :)

I am thankful for Helen. Helen also helps me in American Lit, but also in Chemistry.
I am thankful for Jiayin.
I am thankful for Ben.
I am thankful for just about everyone in this class, but it would be pretty boring if I listed the names.
The point is, I'm glad to have you guys in my life. This is going to be a class to remember. :)

I am a Plow

If I was a plow, which according to the title of this blog, I am, I would be amaaaazingly colorful. I would be lime green and neon purple. I would have hot pink and baby blue polka dots, and bright yellow stripes. Yes, I like colors. :) I would also be kept shiny and spotless and would have to be washed often due to having to work and often times get covered in mud... I would be a strong plow and also reliable. I wouldn't break down, or decide to not work because I was just to lazy, I would follow through with my commitment. Iwould be a plow to rely on and would always try to be the best that I can be. If you used me on a farm, I would help cultivate your crops. I would be super important for something like this. I could determine you getting the crops you need to sell, or possibly the crops that end up on your dinner table. I would sit there, and when you don't need me anymore because you stopped your farm or whatever, don't hold onto me, send me somewhere where I will be of some use. I would not enjoy spending my days rusting away in your barn with your stupid cows and pigs, and God knows what else. Send me somewhere to continue my life, to help others. To have an exciting life, to make memories. Although it may sound childish, the best part about being a plow would be being painted amaazing colors. :)

A Direction that the class needs.

This has got to be the one and only class that has ever asked me this. And for a question like this I would have to stop and think for awhile. I would consider how the class is moving along, how we spend our time, and think about whether or not the homework is helping us or not. We spend our time doing many things each and every day. We usually start the class with a journal, a crazy topic or line from a book that Mr. McCarthy picks and we write and expand on it, or we continue the story line. Either way, its a good way to get us to work on putting our thoughts into words and practicing our critical thinking. This is definitely a plus. So moving on to homework. Yeah. I hate it, I'm sure you do too, but we have to think, is this really neccessary? I think it depends on the homework assignment. The vocab pages from or books, DEFINITELY. I don't know about you guys but it helps me alot. Scarlet Letter reading, ehhh not so much. I'm a really slow reader so it puts me at a disadvantage but others really like it, this is just , my opinion. We are moving along at a relatively fast pace. We are on our second book of the year and we reflect a lot, we even have a flat out Philosophy class once in awhile. Do you recall: Is it possible for any one person to know everything? That was fun, and caused a big debate. But anyways, a direction the class needs is to continue working hard and doing work in class in order to reduce the homework load. Not just in this class either...

Modern Slavery in our World Today.

So this week's topic  is modern slavery. Slavery as we know it in history might not be identical to the forms we see of it today, but the roots of it are there. One of the reasons is the bad economy that we have today. To work a person with minimum wage, I consider it to be slavery. Say you're working a job at McDonald's and your checks haven't come in yet and your pay is delayed two weeks. Those two weeks you are considered to be working for no pay. Which is in turn slavery. You depend upon that pay in order to pay bills, etc. But you don't get the pay and that's when things take a turn for the worse. Back before 1865, when slaves worked on plantations for no pay at all, there life was much, much worse than this. You may have your pay delayed a few weeks, but this is nothing compared to the life African Americans led, who were thought to not even be human, who worked for no pay, who lived in horrid living conditions, who suffered greatly and who were not given the standard citizen rights....So the next time your thinking: Wow, my job sucks and my pays been delayed for three months; think back to these times. You see how far we have come and it makes you think: I can live with it since at least I treated the way I should be, rather than like an animal. I may not have the best, most reliable job, but eventually I will get paid, which is more than can be said for the African American slaves of the 1800s, who suffered through their whole lives and never had a reason to keep going. Whom the white people treated horribly and saw no wrong in it. Think that: Yes, I can manage.

Hawthorne, Salem, Puritans, and how their roots remain.

Nathaniel Hawthorne was a Puritan in Salem during the early 1800s. His family was involved with the witch trials and he was ashamed of them so he added the 'w' to his name. He was previously Nathaniel Hathorne. His father died of Yellow Sea Fever when he was only four and his mother thought he should pursue an isolated career. Because of this he loved books and all things related. He graduated from Bowdoin college and his first book was FANSHAWE.....it was unsuccessful though. Years later, he earned enough money from writing to marry a woman named Sophia Peabody and move to the Manse in Concord. He wrote many other books and novels and on May 19th 1864 in New Hampshire, he passed away.

The Puritan Church held the most power over the state. It was the greatest influence and was in-charge. In my opinion, it is ironic how the Puritans had left England to become more free and independent, but they did not give the freedom of religion at all! As we all know [because we have read the Crucible] during this time, the Salem witch trials were going on. This was a major part of their life considering so many met their  death because of vengeful [fake] accusations. But I have also found that there may be another reason for this. Ergot poisoning is in rye bread. Rye bread was eaten because wheat was too expensive. The symptoms of this are: hallucination, choking, violent fits, and itchiness. I personally doubt it to be this, but it could have been the cause.

Salem as whole was expected to be very disciplinary and controlled. The children, as the adults, did chores, attended church, etc. Also, you were not supposed to show emotion, which is TOTALLY crazy. Emotionless. Children learned to read, but everybody was only allowed to own the Bible.

Puritan roots are still in our world today. During the witch trials, hardly anyone questioned the girls that were throwing the accusations around. They believed that children never lied. They believed they were innocent and pure.....It's sad to say that some parents still think that about their children. They are thought of as to never lie, and against another person's word, they are always the truth-tellers, of course I know that children and teenagers are not! I mean, I am one, and I have my perspective. We aren't innocent. I'm sure we've all lied before. Adults just don't see it.

Also, adultery is a big issue. Some states want to repeal the adultery laws that were from old Puritans, but others still have the perspective that it is a sin. In many states their is controversey about whether or not to repeal these laws.

The Moment I knew I was an American

I would make the guess that the moment I realized I was an American was when I as in kindergarden or first grade. And I guess Christopher Columbus was included. So basically at my old elementary school from about kindergarden-5th grade, Christopher Columbus was portrayed as a heroic explorer that founded America and made peace with the Native Americans. And in the illustrations everybody was all smiles. Him, the Native Americans, the pilgrims, etc. We all know pretty much the full story now. Now that we can handle it, they start teaching us little by little how he was a murderer. They build on year after year. Until this year where we read his actual journals or whatever in American Lit. Now we know it all.

So anyways, we talked about it in  kindergarden and that was probably when I realized I was an American. We talked about how he came from Europe to America, except he thought he was in Asia(India). We talked about how he was the reason for us being here today. How he was nothing but good to the Native Americans. How he brought them new food, and corn, etc. We didn't talk about his downsides......such as mass murder, disease, etc. We talked about how he is the founder of this country. How he is the reason we live here and are proud to call ourselves Americans. But if he was the reason we are called Americans I'd rather not be called one because of all his horrible actions. I would not like to be called an American if it is solely because this man 'founded' our country. I want to be called an American because I live in this country, because I respect and am loyal to it.

Us vs. Them

There are many ways to interpret this...
It's very general. But one example of a situation of this is the time I had friends over for our annual block party...
It all happened this summer and the drama that followed still partially continues.
It was a nice sunny day when my school friends arrived, we were swimming, eating cotton candy and just having a good time. Then I explained my evil plot. The night before a girl was saying rude stuff about people. So, to set her straight I planned to throw water balloons at her :) but then, since she's 3 years old at heart, she tattle to her dad.....one thing you should know about him, is that he is rarely NOT drunk. So of course when he came over to yell he reeked of beer... But he continued...an we almost lost our tempers at him, but that wouldn't have been good at all. The girl, had friends that were mine but I haven't talked to them since, which I honestly don't mind at all. I have a life and proved I don't need them. To this day it remains: Us vs. Them.
The end.