Thoughts from Thursday...

We had a rather heated discussion in class on Thursday about the use of the “n” word. I just wanted to throw my two cents into the heaping pile.

While we were arguing about who can use the word and whether or not it was ok to say it, things were somewhat chaotic. It seemed like everyone had an opinion, and most people were very strongly grounded in whatever theirs was. It wasn’t until after class that I was really able to take a step back and form my own opinion. The only thing I could really come up with was one question. Why would you want to call someone that? Regardless of whether you’re someone who “can” or whether its “ok,” why would you want to? It’s kind of like in kindergarten, when they would tell you, “If you don’t have anything nice to say, don’t say anything at all.” Well, I think that still holds true now.

I do know that’s not the way most people think. Just take a walk down any hallway in our school and you’ll hear people swearing constantly. This probably won’t stop anytime soon. I’m just saying, though, that we should take a look at why we say the things we do, because they do have an effect on people. You shouldn’t say something unless you have a solid reason for it, and if it’s something cruel and insensitive, you just shouldn’t say it at all. Call me naïve and old fashioned, but it’s true. Just because something happens all the time doesn’t mean it should.

Why Math Tests are out to Get Me

It’s a Monday. There is no world in which a math test on a Monday is a good thing. Nevertheless, I studied all weekend and the time has come. Right before the test starts I run to the bathroom. Not thinking about anything except the dreaded upcoming exam, I open the door. And smack it right into my forehead. At first and can’t even contemplate what just happened. Then the blood rushes into my head and my eyes fill with tears. I can’t believe what I just did. How am I supposed to take this test with such a headache?

At this point I feel it necessary to state that I’ve never really enjoyed math tests, headache or no headache. Honestly, I don’t know many people who do. As the years progressed and the math grew more and more difficult, my dislike for them grew into more of a trepidation. This apprehension gets a jump start as soon as the teacher announces when the test is, about a week or so before it actually happens. After that, I’m able to put the dread away and focus on the myriad of other things going on. Even so, the night before the test inevitably arrives, and that’s when the real panic sets in. I didn’t study enough. I forgot how to do this problem. What if I totally fail? Through all of this detritus floating in my head, somehow I manage to sleep and escape for a few hours at least. Then in the morning, it’s back to the real world. I try hard to not think about it. I attempt to focus on what I’m doing right then. But all too soon, it’s time to go up to the third floor and tackle my nemesis.

On the particular day of the door debacle, the test doesn’t go as bad as I had feared it would. I got the test back on Tuesday, with a fat B+ at the top. Not perfect, but definitely acceptable. I’m actually feeling pretty happy. Then my teacher tells us. We have another math test on Friday. Oh, crap.

One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish

Poor Bluie. Does he know what he is? I’m not going to attempt to understand the workings of little fishy minds here. I was little once. I had fish (still do, actually) and I found that they are impossible to comprehend (and they don’t really make good friends. Every time I tried to talk to them or “play” with them they shimmied away. So they may not have been the best pets ever.) Personally, I always wanted a cat. That’s why I feel bad for Bluie, and my fish too. They aren’t loved as exactly what they are, they’re loved and what we wish they were. Adam Gopnick says it this way, that Bluie was, “a fish passing as a hamster hoping to be a dog.” Therefore, it seems Olivia loved Bluie not because he was a fish but because he was a placeholder for the dog she wanted desperately. But is that really true? Maybe she grew to love him for what he really was, an itty bitty blue fish with a penchant for getting stuck in castle windows.

This brings me to another point, or another fish at least. Reddie. The villain fish. Or maybe just the jealous one. Every story has a villain and jealousy is a classic motive. Until last week though, I didn’t know it was a motive for fish! I thought it was absolutely genius the way Gopnick’s son decided that Reddie was the rogue of the story. Kids can be so smart and have such good ideas, I’m constantly reminded to be more like them. Their ideas can be so simple yet so creative. It’s truly amazing.

I guess my point is just that fish, like people, are complex. That they aren’t always as simple as they appear on the outside. It’s a lot to get from a short narrative about a couple fish, but that just shows that it’s possible to get so much from so little.

Thoughts on Lies

(For all of you not in 3rd block AP Comp, we read an article about lying to kids on Friday for our choice essay discussion time. Just in case you wondered.)

I was thinking about why parents lie to kids and I thought of a reason that we didn't read about. Parents lie to kids sometimes because they want their kids to admire and respect them. They also don’t always want their kids to do what they did. If your son asks you if you ever stole something from the grocery store, you’ll probably say no, even if you did, right? We don’t want our kids to make mistakes the way we did so we won’t admit to making the mistakes in the first place.

Wouldn’t it be better to tell them the truth, “Yes, as a matter of fact, I did take a Hershey bar that one time,” and to tell them how guilty you felt afterwards than to pretend it never happened? They might learn more from someone who did something bad and learned their lesson from it than from someone faultless who they’re supposed to imitate.

If you always tell a child that you never made a mistake, that’s setting a pretty hard precedent for them to follow. Even though in reality, you weren’t as perfect as you tell them you were, they’ll still see you in that light. I think that if we were to tell them the truth, they’d be able to relate to us better and learn from us even more than just trying to be perfect. That’s just setting them up to fail, something no parent wants.

The things we lie about are not always going to be as simple as swiping a Hershey bar from the store shelf. What if your child asks you if you did drugs or had sex before marriage? What would you say? I don’t really know what the best thing to do is when that happens, probably to just tell the truth, but I’m not really sure. I definitely think we should start to contemplate that before we get asked, though.

So…to lie or not to lie? That is the question. A question that I don’t have a solid answer to. But in my opinion, when in doubt, tell the truth.

How I Write

When I write, I usually just dive right in. I used to prewrite extensively, but I've found that if I dive in right away and fix it later, my writing ends up more fluid and less "chunky." I don't want my writing to sound rehearsed and insipid, I want it to be relatable and genuine. Occasionally, it's good to take a minute and organize my thoughts before I start talking about them, but not frequently.

I like to write when it's silent, just me and the keyboard. A nice pointy pencil and blank piece of paper will also suffice. I love listening to music while I work, but I find that when writing, it's more productive to have utter silence. I'm complacent to just be alone and focus on what I want to say. I find that my best writing happens when there is absolutely nothing else for me to think about, nowhere for my mind to wander, nowhere for my hands to roam.

My feelings when I write are somewhat harder to describe. That's quite possibly becuase I have differnt emotions when writing about different things. My find myself feeling excited, zealous, even occasionaly fearful. However, I would have to say that most of the time, I just cannot wait to get my thoughts out and share them with the world. Really, isn't that what writing is?

Response to "Three Cups of Tea"

“Here, we drink three cups of tea to do business; the first you are a stranger, the second you become a friend, and the third, you join our family, and for our family we are prepared to do anything even die.”

This quote is from my non-fiction book, Three Cups of Tea, by Greg Mortenson and David Oliver Relin. I wasn’t really sure what I wanted to read, but my mom, my sister, and several others strongly recommended it. Now I’m someone who will strongly recommend this book to others.

Three Cups of Tea was about its co-author, Greg Mortenson. Greg was a mountain climber and while he was climbing the mountain K2 in Pakistan he got lost. He ended up in a small village called Korphe. When he saw how the children of Korphe had no school and just sat outside when they could, he promised the village chief he would build them a school. Greg returned to America and the book follows his life from getting the funds to build that one school to finally building 81 schools in Pakistan and Afghanistan, plus the many water systems and vocational centers. Various things went wrong for him, but even after 9/11 and the war began, he kept going. The area was extremely dangerous for Americans, but it didn’t seem to faze Greg. This book is a huge testament to how one person can make an immeasurable difference to thousands of people.

The book talked a lot about how terrorism can be stopped, or at least slowed, through education. A lot of children and young adults in Pakistan go to schools that support terrorism and other extremist groups because that’s the only schools there are for them to go to. The schools Greg helped build provide “balanced nonextremist education,” that gives the students what they need to be something other than soldiers and terrorists. A quote from the book says, “Working over there, I’ve learned a few things. I’ve learned that terror doesn’t happen because some group of people somewhere like Pakistan or Afghanistan simply decided to hate us. It happens because children aren’t being offered a bright enough future that they have a reason to choose life over death.” Greg gives them what they need to have a bright future.

Another thing Mortenson stresses is educating girls. Girls are scarcely educated at all in Pakistan and the vast majority can neither read nor write. By the end of the book, two of the girls from one of the villages have made it all the way through school and are requesting scholarships for college. They make it through college and have big plans for the future. One of them wants to return to the village to give all the girls the chance to come to the city and change their lives. The other was going to become a health care worker, but then she decided to go for broke and start her own hospital. In her own words, she wants to be, “superlady.” I think it’s really inspiring how one man can cause two girls to gain so much confidence and make them able to become leaders to make sure other girls can have what they did. These girls don’t just want to be able to read for the fun of it, they want to do something big.

I think this book was really inspiring. People always say that one person can change the world. But when it comes right down to it most people don’t truly believe that they can make a difference. Greg showed that one person really can do that. I think that’s a big theme in this book. This one man, Greg Mortenson, helped many kids to get an education. Then they can teach others and help in ways they couldn’t have before. The effects keep rippling so that eventually it’s not just one person, its thousands or millions of people who are doing what they do because of one person.

Response to "The Prevailing Opinion of a Sexual Character Discussed"

Ok, so I have to admit, I came very close to falling asleep several times while reading this. Don’t get me wrong, Mary Wollstonecraft was a great writer, and this was a great piece, but it seems to me it took her 22 pages to say what she could have said in about half as many. I suppose that might be a slight exaggeration, but not too much.

Even though she’s a little too long winded for my taste, I found myself getting lost in the language and style she used. Not many people write like that anymore. Words like epithet, propriety, and pernicious are scarcely ever used. I loved how smooth and sophisticated it sounded, but I had a mammoth list of words to look up by the end.

Speaking of words, I think Wollstonecraft had a powerful message about the oppression of women. She made many valid points about how women are treated. However, she wrote this 217 years ago and things have changed a lot since then. Women are no longer educated only to be docile housewives; we have the same education as men. That isn’t to say that women are always treated equally and with respect, but it’s not nearly as bad as it was in 1792.

Although it’s a lot different now, instead of writing it off as irrelevant to today’s society , I took it as an insight to life during Mary Wollstonecraft’s time. She says that,

“Women are told from their infancy, and taught by the example of their mothers, that a little knowledge of human weakness, justly termed cunning, softness of temper, outward obedience, and a scrupulous attention to a puerile kind of propriety, will obtain for them the protection of man; and should be beautiful, everything else is needless, for, at least, twenty years of their lives.”

That, to me, sums up much of this whole piece and much of the lives women had then. Women didn’t need to be smart or do anything for themselves. All they needed was to be pretty and socially graceful so that they could get a man to protect them. They didn’t need anything else but a man, it was their ultimate and only goal.

All this talk about how life was for women in the 1700’s made me extremely grateful for how it is now. I don’t have to be perfect on the surface, nor do I have to agonize over gettin’ me a man. I can get a good education and know that I can survive on my own. If I want to be a superficial socialite I can do that, but I don’t have to. Mary talked a lot about how it would feel to be free, and I get to feel that way every day. I am so lucky, as are all women in our society.

I found it interesting that Wollstonecraft compared both women and men to children and different times. First she talks about husbands attempt to keep their wives in a state of childhood. Then she goes on to say that many man are overgrown children themselves. Being a girl, I tend to agree more with the second statement, but then I started thinking and realized that both can be true sometimes. Some wives are content to play Homemaker Barbie and live as if life is a fairy tale. On the other hand, a lot of men just never seem to grow up.

So while I had my various thoughts and my ups and downs with Mary Wollstonecraft, I did like her piece and her writing. She made a lot of good remarks that spurred thoughts of my own. It’s was little out of the ordinary for me, but that’s what makes it special.