. my winter poem .

               Holding down the window blind and seeing outside for the very first time,

Noticing the white flakes falling between the cars

A snowman or two, and maybe three, all made by children full of glee

Cause you see it’s snow out there, chilling up the daytime air

Flakes that fall upon your hair

Lets run outside and take a look

Wind blowing the snow off the roof, catching it with our tongues

Coming back in is a chore, wanting to stay out for some more

Snowflakes in a winter blow

Okay this is my first draft of my Winter Poem. CRITIQUES! I neeeeeeeeeed them. Other than that ENJOY!

. you are who i am most thankful for! .

So this blog is a great one because I really get to show who I am thankful which is great for the Thanksgiving holiday, even though this blog is uber late. Well I really have to say out of many great classmates; Berenice Alcantar is who I am most thankful for.  You, yes you are the awesomest friend, classmate ever! We have really been there for each other, whether it be in the classroom or out of the classroom. You can make me laugh and even make sure I have all my journals. Oh I can tell you everything and not feel weird because most people have opinions  and you don’t you just listen my crazy stories. Oh and Division!!!!! Division is fun and I always have to save you from the Wrath of Mr. C, haha not really but still fun! And to really think of it we only became friends this year, well not just friends but like Great Awesometastic(I know this word isn’t real but I like it) friend. I mean we hung out like a few times but I think this class really made us even  closer than I had expected. Well Berenice I hope you read this and see all the great things I lub about you!!! <3 and again This Is who I am thankful this very late Thanksgiving season!

. i am a plow .

                I stepped onto the stairs of my school’s second floor and each step carried more weight than Atlas holding the world. The dread in my face is not noticed by anyone as it usually is. Out of the corner of my eye I see a couple that seems to have been together forever. Best friends at their locker sharing a bit of gossip or secret. I look up and see my friend calling for me and I manage to put on a smile. “Hey you,” I call back and step quickly to her.  As we continue to class, my smile never falters but of course it never has.

 A plow. My whole life seems like it’s just the same and never worth getting up in the morning for. A plow. Everything has been set out and put together for me; like a present once opened you don’t really want. A never-ending replaying script for my day. I don’t feel in control of my own life. Like a plow, you see now.

Chemistry has never really had much of my attention, so I sit and stare out the glass wall watching absolutely nothing. I think of how I became this depressed, as someone would say, and can’t find a reason that hasn’t had an influence on me.  “Excuse me,” my teacher coughs and I turn my head. While staring intently at me she asks, “What is the conversion factor from grams to moles?” I turn my head back and continue to stare out the wall. “I believe it is one mole over the compound’s molar mass,” chirps my friend. “Very good,” and my teacher takes one final look at me and continues her lesson. I feel like this glass wall, you know it’s there but you look right through it. . .Though that is what I thought until I meet you. . .

. it was never really over .

           

      As far as most people know slavery was abolished on January 1, 1863, with the acceptance of the Emancipation Proclamation. Even people may think it’s all in the past; there are many forms of modern-day slavery. All over the world, there is an estimated 7 to 12 million people brought and sometimes even sold into slavery! For me to do this blog, I had to research some information on modern-day slavery. The information I found was just crazy, just like the millions of people that are slaves. Before slaves were usually abducted and forcefully brought to wherever they were to be sold. It is was it happening now, like in the Sudan since an estimated 14,000 people have been abducted since 1983 and counting! In many places thought slaves were once people looking for jobs and a better life and promised one by employers really just looking for cheap labor. In Florida, there are accounts of illegal immigrants and their families (mainly from the inlands of Mexico), brought here in hopes of a better life and forced to work on farms and orchards for employers that pay little to nothing! In places like Europe, parts of Africa, and Asia, slavery is still huge. In a 1992 law passed by the Pakistani government, landlords are barred from offering loans in exchange for work or to hold workers hostage to their debts, but in reality that is majority of slaves are brought into the trade and in India, Kidnapped from their villages when they are as young as five years old, between 200,000 and 300,000 children are held captive in locked rooms and forced to weave on looms for food. I can’t even begin to think how I would handle that situation to be alone and scared. Slavery is never a choice and the people subjected to this find it hard to find their way out. Throughout the various countries around the world, organizations have been made to ensure that this can be stopped, like the International Labor Rights and Education Fund which helps children find their way out of the trade along with many more organizations. Like I said it’s been over 100 years since the Emancipation Proclamation was signed but in our world today slavery is still flourishing.

. the house of the seven gables .

The House of the Seven Gables had such a vague background to me, but while researching information on it and on other things, I was hit with a bunch of really cool information! At first I had first heard of The House of the Seven Gables because we were just reading about it in American Lit., which was written by Nathanial Hawthorne. This book was based on the actual house of the seven gables in Salem, Massachusetts. Nathaniel Hawthorne used to live in Salem, by the actual house. Another really cool fact is that his story was derived from his own family history on the legend of a curse pronounced on Hawthorne's own family by a woman, who was sentenced to death during the Salem witchcraft trials.

This is very much like how Colonel Pyncheon charged Matthew Maule with witchcraft because of him wanting to take over his land. It was Hawthorne, also, who came from a long ancestry of puritans. Puritans were the ones that began the witch trials. They were such a God-fearing people and had strict ways of living so that they can make it to heaven, that they were wanted to get rid of everyone that would upset the strict religious balance. Another motive might have been greed. Like with Colonel Pyncheon wanting the land of Matthew Maule to gain more to his wealth.

They all tie into together, through Nathanial Hawthorne. See, Hawthorne wrote the HSG and he also lived in or near the house itself in Salem. Hawthorne’s background included a grandfather, John Hawthorne, was a judge in the Salem witch trials. Also, how Hawthorne came from a long line of ancestral Puritans.

The second part of this is how the Puritans still have some influence on how we love our lives today. One thing can be some of our laws. Puritans were a strict people that lived by the word of God and these days a few things are still followed. One thing is that homosexuality is not allowed and we see this in how gay people are treated. In California, there is an actual banning gay marriage and people look down on it. Also many people follow the ten commandments but maybe not the full extent that they did. Like thou shalt not kill, or honor thy mother and thy father. People still follow them but don’t take it to the next level!

. i knew i was an American when .

The first time I felt like an American had to have been in the second grade. For all of preschool through first grade, I had been to a catholic school. We said our prayers in the mornings and that’s all I really remember doing. When I left that school, and transferred to James Ward the next year, it was a whole new experience for me. On the first day of school, after the sound of the beginning bell, the whole class stood up and began saying the Pledge of Allegiance. Of course, I knew how it went but I was confused and stumbled into the unison voices. Being the curious second grader that I was, I went to my teacher, very shy and quietly, and asked her why we said the Pledge of Allegiance. She told me that when we say this every morning we show PATRIOTISM and love for our great country. When she told me this it was like a new present was just given to me and it had a life-long use.I felt like an American. I felt a stronger pride for my country, I said my Pledge of Allegiance with a little more pride and when we sang our national anthem at school assemblies, or anything else, I was louder and it had enthusiamism. In my second grade mind, I wanted to grow up and do something to help and make our country better. I wanted to be the president like everyone else did (not anymore but hey you never know)! I know that it only took a few simple sentences and words to really make me feel like an American and to feel that sense of pride, but it never went away. I still am that proud and enthusiastic second grader just all grown up, and I will always be a patriotic American!

. us vs them .

“Conflict is inevitable, but combat is optional.”

- Max Lucade           

            How can we find our way out of a conflict without violence? What is the way we learn how to approach and handle them can better the outcome? Conflict ending in despair or tragedy can only bring more destruction. Death being the worse!

In The Crucible we see innocent villagers, whether they are the town drunk or most respected person, being accused of witchcraft. They were accused by people that had a conflict with them. By finding the best way to get them out of their hair was to say, oh so and so does witchcraft and conjures the devil! so that the person would be taken away. Like the conflict between Sarah Goode and Mrs. Putnam, Sarah Goode being a midwife to Mrs. Putnam at many of her births, was there to see many of Mrs. Putnam’s infants die. In turn, when the idea of witchcraft started going around, Mrs. Putnam accused Sarah of practicing it and that she had killed her babies. Now, this was not true to any extent but since there was a conflict between Mrs. Putnam and Sarah, she wanted some excuse of their deaths. This eventually led to the death of many people, the fact that people believed such foolishness. Death being the only way to end these problems between people.

                Many people see this as an only option because they are afraid if they couldn’t get their way in a situation, then it would ruin them. Death must only bring a slight satisfaction. After so long more people are going to bring the same things that they were scared of in the beginning! What are they going to do, keep killing until there’s absolutely no one left. This would only raise the amount of blood on their hands. Also people on the outside may see these persons as foolish and horrible, that they’re only going to do what best for them! In the end it would make matters worse. Can we come to realize we must see the more peaceful way of solving our problems? That a person’s life is just as equal as our own?