Thursday, December 17, 2009

Hope

A Responce To A Tree Grows In Brooklyn

The woman and her children huddle together under a worn, ragged blanket. It’s getting dark out, and the nights in winter are bitterly cold. However, things may turn out better for this family than others, for these poverty-stricken people have something that nobody else has: hope. Hope is something you hold onto when there’s nothing left. Hope is the luminous candle burning in the night. While sometimes the faith of the people is overshadowed by uncertainty and doubt, one hope alone may save you from destruction and insanity. If you hold on to your hopes and dreams, the world will be a brighter, happier place to live in.

Francie’s life is filled with uncertainties. Will her family come out of poverty and make enough money to keep their house? Will she and her brother, Neeley, grow up and have families of their own? It takes a lot of hope, faith, and trust to overcome these situations. If people didn’t have hope, there wouldn’t be anything left to look forward to. People would stop trying, believing strongly in the lie that nothing will get better, that everything they wish to achieve is just a far-off dream, nothing more. Depression and hopelessness would consume the world.

Keeping your hopes alive and vividly trying to achieve them is perhaps one of the most important things you can do in your lifetime. No matter how little money you have, how much you’ve lost already, or how utterly devastating your circumstances are, if you have hope and faith that everything will turn out alright, you will carry on. Your world will be a bright place filled with light, even if all you have is that one small candle.

Fear

A Response to A Tree Grows in Brooklyn

The young girl stands rigid with fear as she gazes down the long, treacherous road. She knows it is her duty to continue, to proceed, but she just can’t seem to take the first small step for fear of what may come if she does. Fear is a concept in everyone’s lives that we all have to deal with. Whether it be fear of growing up, failure, or something as common as spiders, every person on this planet is terrified of something. In A Tree Grows in Brooklyn, Francie must face her own fears and uncertainties as she continues down the road of her life. Learning how to deal with fear is a necessary concept to succeed.

When someone is afraid of something, they tend to hide from it or ignore it, pretending it isn’t there at all. While it may not be the truth, it comforts the person and assures them they have nothing to worry about. Then, when he least expects it, he has to face his fear and make a choice as to whether he wants to defeat it or run away from it like a coward. If you run away, you are therefore going back to pretending its existence was all a sham. You will be safe for now, but fear will always find away to strike again. The ones who face their fears by saying they’re not afraid and defeat their terrors with pride, end up being the most successful in life.

While it may seem like fear is unavoidable, that doesn’t mean people have to fear all things potentially threatening. Fear can take over your mind and destroy your bravery with doubt, but not everything is to be feared. If you learn how to deal with your fears and face your own treacherous road in life, you will succeed and be a stronger person.

Wednesday, December 2, 2009

"All Summer In A Day" Response

The girl looks out her attic window at the streets below. Children her age are playing in the streets, their squeals of laughter echoing to where she stood. The girl could have gone outside and joined them, but once again she declined their offer, choosing to stay home by herself. If we isolate ourselves so much that we are always alone, all our sanity will be lost and we’ll miss out on the greatest experiences.

What would happen if everyone just suddenly stopped socializing? Stopped talking to their friends, ignoring their parents, and spending the whole day locked up in their rooms? The world would turn into a place of fear, uncertainty, depression, and irony. People would stop seeing the purposes in life and would feel they couldn’t rely on anyone but themselves to help them in their troubles. When opportunity knocked on the door, the people wouldn’t bother getting up to answer it. They’ll miss out, and will never know what they’re missing out on. It’s a sad life to live in.

While it may seem like isolation is the enemy, that doesn’t mean it can’t be helped. What if that girl would have gone out to her peers in the street, took a risk in asking to be a part of their group, and ending up having the time of her life? The human race is all about uncertainty. That doesn’t mean we can’t face up to it and be a part of something greater than ourselves. People shouldn’t isolate themselves, or their life will be something they will live to regret.

Veterans Day Essay

When Is The Right Time To Honor Veterans?
by Alaina Mundt

Veterans are very important to our country. They fight for us, serve for us, and unfortunately, die for us. They sacrifice everything for the love of America. However, some people believe they are not worth honoring for more than one day a year. People need to stand up for them and show the veterans that they really do care about what veterans do for us. Anytime is a time to honor veterans and all the things they do for us.

Can you imagine packing some bags, leaving your family, and heading off to a foreign country? This is what all veterans, at one point, did. Can you imagine fighting and risking your life because you wanted to, not because you had to? All former soldiers and other veterans did this for us, and for our country of America. Defending our country while leaving everything behind is a brave, difficult thing to do. Veterans deserve more respect than we give them.

Many veterans leave their country for years before coming back, but some don’t come back at all! Others become injured, sick, go missing, or are even kidnapped or taken hostage by another country or group of people. There have been many soldiers that are never able to walk, write, see, hear, or play athletic games again because of their injuries. It is very hard for the soldiers that aren’t injured to see their friends suffer when there is nothing they can do. War is very difficult, complex, and just downright a horrible thing to go through. Veterans have fought for us at any cost, knowing that they are taking a huge risk.

Restricting our honoring of veterans to only one day a year actually makes a lot less sense than most people realize. Veterans don’t restrict their dedication to only one day a year, do they? Anytime is the time to honor veterans. And the more we respect them, the more committed they will become to serving our country. They will know that we are a country worth fighting for.