A Laugh To Die For

I've learned that in life your not always going to get what you want.  No matter how bad you want that million dollars for no work at all, it's probably not going to happen unless you work for it or get really really lucky.

Today I saw this little boy in a wheelchair...I could tell that it was something he was born with, I'm not quite sure what he had, but it didn't look comfortable, in fact it killed me to see him having to sit in that chair, not by choice, and watch everybody else walking around.  How unfortuante. He wasn't looking for pitty and I loved that.  He was just living his life to the fullest, with the biggest grin on his face, and a laugh to die for.  Somebody with no feeling in his legs, no strength to move around on his own, NO independence.  "My chair is a five speed," little Jeremy informs me, "that's fast."
Still not looking for any pitty.  His innocent, weak voice making my stomach drop, not knowing how to respond to this brave young boy. 
"That is fast!" I reply with a grin on my face.

Throughout the day little Jeremy was all I could think about.  I admired his strength.  All of these selfish people in this world, including myself, have no idea what "picked on" is.  We all pitty ourselves for not having the money to buy our new favorite pair of shoes, when some people don't have any feet to put shoes on, when some peoples shoesm, are their wheels on their chairs.  People these days are so selfish, they don't appreciate what they have in life and it drives me absolutly insane.

Independency is a Virtue

Feleisha Antillon
Mr. Gowans
Language Arts 12
October 15, 2012

Independency is a Virtue

Independency is a much needed quality in todays society. Without independence you will have struggles that you won’t be able to overcome on your own. You will always need someone else to depend on. In the case of “Woman Hollering Creek” Cleofilas is forced to depend on her husband and becomes accustomed to not being independent and then depends on her friends to help her get out of the situation she was in. In the story “Train Time” Eneas’s grandparents depend on him to help them as they grow old and weak. Because of their dependence on him Eneas feels that he needs to be there all the time and not go to school. But in the story “Clothes Mita is very independent because even after her husband dies she still decides to stay in America.

When Cleofilas’s husband wasn’t home when it was time for bed, she couldn’t get herself to sleep. She would just lay awake thinking about what he was up to and why he wasn’t home. “But a parents love for a child, a child’s for its parents, was another thing entirely” “This is what Cleofilas thought evenings when Juan Pedro did not come home, and she lay on her side of the bed listening to the hollow roar…” (Cisneros Paragraph 4). Without the comfort of her husband next to her, she wasn’t able to fall asleep...not alone. Cleofilas was not strong-willed enough to sleep alone. She didn’t have the strength to be alone. She always needed someone. Before her marriage she was always with her mother or father. She wouldn’t just go to the movies on her own if she didn’t have a cousin or an amiga to go with her.
“The first time she had been so surprised she didn’t cry out nor try to defend herself. She had always said she would strike back if a man, were to touch her” (Cisneros Paragraph 18). As a woman I tell myself, every time domestic violence comes up in conversation that I would fight back or leave the man that abused me. I’m sure most women say that, but when it actually happens they’re too scared to do anything about it because of what could happen because of their independence. Statistics prove that more women are too scared and don’t leave the man rather than fight back and leave. Men are stronger and more aggressive. Even though it is hard to leave, staying in a domestic relationship shows weakness. For you to have the strength to leave a relationship like that you need independence.

In the story “Train Time” a small boy by the name of Eneas is a very independent boy, but his grandparents are far from. “He knew about Eneas. Most of the boys and girls were mere names....But little Eneas her knew” (McNickle Paragraph 12). They grew older and weaker day by day and needed more and more help from Eneas. It was not their fault that they were old, they cannot help that, but they relied on their grandchild for just about everything. “There was wood all about them. Lamartine was a woodcutter besides, yet there was no wood in the house...The Major had but to look at the bed where Lamartine lay, twisted and shrunken by rheumatism....He tried to wave a hand as Major entered” (McNickle Paragraph 14). Grandpa and Grandma had no strength to fend for themselves, they were much too old. With no help from Eneas they wouldn’t survive, and Eneas knew that. He would have to care for them as parents would their young children. He would have to step up and cut the wood to warm the house. “ Clearly she wasn’t, not for wood-chopping, She sat close by the fire, trying with a good-natured grin to lift her ponderous body from a low seated rocking chair...she could scarcely have come within striking distance of a stick of wood. Two blows, if she had struck them, might have put a stop to her laboring heart” (McNickle paragraph 16). When I get sick I get weak and lose my independence because I don’t have the strength to get up and do anything for myself, and it makes me want to do everything and anything I usually don’t even do. I hate not being able to help myself, I can’t even imagine getting so old where I can even barely move. Without independence I feel like I have nothing of my own to have pride in.

In the story “Clothes” a young woman named Mita is set up for an arranged marriage, at first she is very dependent on her parents, she doesn’t want to leave her home. “..I’d be going halfway around the world to live with a man I hadn’t met. Would I ever see my parents again? Don’t send me so far away, I wanted to cry...” (Divakaruni 18). But towards the end when her husband passes away and she becomes a widow she has to become independent. She had no other family or anybody else that she really knew in America that she could depend on. “She took an edge of the sheet and rubbed the red marriage mark off my forehead. She was crying. All of the women in the room were crying except me” (Divakaruni 18). Mita wasn’t healed from the death of her husband yet but she was starting to become stronger. “ Thats when I know I cannot go back. I don’t know yet how I’ll manage, here in this new, dangerous land. I only know I must. Because all over India, at this very moment, widows in white saris are bowing their veiled heads, serving tea to in-laws. Dove with cut off wings” (Divakaruni 33). Even without her husband with her in America she still decides to be independent and fend for herself. America is a completely different country than India, and she isn’t used to it, and still then she stays.

In conclusion, in today’s society, independency is a must. Without any independence you will be depending on everybody else to help you out and solve your problems. As in the stories, “Woman Hollering Creek”, and “Train Time”. But in the story “Clothes” Mita is a young independent woman that could now probably deal with pretty much anything that is thrown at her.

Teen Pregnancy

My teenager years have been the best years of my life, and I can't imagine giving them up to be a mommy.  I am far to immature to even be close to being a good mom.  I haven't lived my life yet I definatly want to give it up to raise a baby.  But I guess some girls don't care.

I've witnessed many of my friends and family's teen pregnancys and they all wished that they would have waited.  Being responsible for something that precious is too scary.  To be a good parent you have to be emotionly stable, finanically stable, and phisically stable to be able to raise a child the right way.

Being a parent at any age is hardwork, let alone a teen parent.  Watching Teen mom and 16 and Pregnant let me see the struggles of being a parent and it is something I never want to go through.  A friend of mine ust recently had her baby and its only been day two and she is exhausted.

She loves her little man to death but she also wished she would have waited.  Seeing this makes me very aware of what will happen if your not careful.  I just wish girls would understand how much having a baby at a young age ruins your life...It's not easy.

If you do stay in school it would be hard to leave your baby, or if you decided not to attend school anymore it would be hard to get a decent job when your ready to.  Finding babysitters are always hard, keeping a strong relationship is always a struggle and girls don't see that.

I want to make girls more aware of the struggles.  It doesn't only affect you, it affects everybody that cares for you.

Believe It or Not

Every Sunday morning I wake up at 4:30A.M. to get ready for work.  My shift starts at 6 o'clock sharp.  Dreading every minute of the dark cold mornings, I roll out of my bed and onto my feet.  I start my routine with a nice yummy bowl of oatmeal.

When I get to work I don't feel like putting up with any grouchy attitudes, but I ALWAYS end up with an old grouchy couple to start my day off.  I don't let it bother me though.  I stay strong and pretend that they don't affect me. I put on a big ol fake smile and go on with my shift.

Today was different from all the rest.  When I got to work there was no body there except the graveyard employees sitting at the counter about half asleep. 
"Fish! I love seeing your face" the cashier states "It means I get to go home!"
I told him he was out of his mind if he thought he was leavin me by myself on a Sunday morning, because Sunday mornings are always slammed!  He tells me that he had one table the whole night so he was going home early, there was no changing his mind.

I was so nervous that I was going to get hit with a bunch of customers with no one to help.  But I didn't it was dead from the time I got there to the time the second waitress got to work at 7.  Not one customer, not any locals, not any old grouchy people, and definatly not any hot guys!  There was absolutly no one.  I kept wondering what the heck was going on, and then finally my first customer comes in, a local, he tells me how he didn't want to wake up because of how cold it was.  It made sense though because that was exactly how I felt too. 

Belive it or not at 4:30AM it was 33 degrees outside!  No wonder nobody wanted to get up this morning.  It was freaking cold!  The weather is changing so fast!  It's already October! How exciting! It's getting closer and closer to graduation! Yippy!

Appreciation, Hard work, and Respect

I've been around so many people that have everything you can imagine having as a young adult AND more and they still are not satisfied.  They get one thing and they want something bigger.  They get something bigger and better but want something more exciting and expensive.

I see people struggling for food on their table while these other families are getting their kids brand new cars for their 16th birthdays.  It makes me feel so bad and angry to see them working their butts off getting paid minimum wage and getting so little and struggling for everything they do earn, while these spoiled brats are doing nothing and getting so much.

So many people take for granted what they receive in life.  They look at what they don't have instead of appreciating what they do have. I wish everyone could walk a mile in somebody else's shoes.  Maybe then they would appreciate what they have in life, and quit being so greedy.

 I have learned that no matter how much you work for something your not always going to get complimented.  I have also learned that working hard DOES pay off and people DO recogize the good effort you are putting in.  Not getting recognized and complimented on all the things I do makes me appreciate the little things I do get recognized for a lot more.

Having something that nobody else has may make you "cool" for a moment, but when you don't earn it yourself I see no value what so ever in that "cool" thing.  When I see teenagers at work, doing their absolute best makes me respect them that much more.  I see them earning what they have, and they deserve everything they EARN.