Winter Wonderland?

You slip on ice. You burn your tongue with hot chocolate. You're constantly sick. You can't spend longer than 20 minutes outside without thinking you have hypothermia. You have to spend time with those annoying relatives you avoided for the past 11 months. You have to spend your money buying people gifts, when you may not even have enough money to eat dinner every night. You listen to the same songs you've heard since you were 7, everyday since November. You have snow days, which then cause you to go to school longer in the summer. You anxiously wait for December to come, yet when it's here, you realize its not all is polished up to be. But, yet, somehow Christmas is the "most wonderful time of the year", right? 

Heartbroken

I don’t know why when people get “heartbroken” they call it heartbroken. Our hearts are organs that pump blood, and in no way have any affiliation to our emotional feelings. When you love someone, or have very strong feelings for them, those sparks of interest come from your brain. With that being said, it is physically impossible to say that when someone who means everything to you, leaves you, that you are heartbroken.

Move your fingers around. Now wiggle your toes a bit. If you didn’t have a heart, you wouldn’t be able to do those things. Our hearts pump blood to every part of our bodies, which in return lets them work. They don’t control our emotions. Now sing the ABC’s. Or at least say your name, maybe even get up and take a few steps. These things would be impossible to do without our brains. The brain controls everything in our bodies. It tells us when to do things, and how to do them. It tells us what to say, what to move, even what to think. When we fall in love with somebody, we feel it emotionally and mentally, we feel it in our brains, not our hearts.

Saying you have a broken heart when somebody leaves you would be incorrect. You love people with your brain, so then you would have a broken brain..right? No. When you emotionally lose something, nothing in fact is breaking. You are losing the presence of something in your life, and the emotions that came along with that thing, but nothing is physically breaking. You feel sad when something leaves you that you had strong feelings for, but that is it. Your brain is missing those feelings or actions that were in place when that object was still in your life, but that is all.

Society has established that the heart that runs inside us is the same shape and has the same meaning as the one that people use to symbolize love. When you fall in love with someone, you are falling in love with their personality, which is generated from their brain. Same goes with breakups, or losing a loved one. You are not heartbroken. In fact, those emotions have nothing to do with your heart. Saying that you have a broken heart is not true; in reality, you just have a brain that is missing someone special.

Winning The Lottery

The lottery seems like a good thing to everyone in The United States. If you win the lottery, you get a lot of money. It’s yours, to do whatever with. However, winning the lottery in the short story “The Lottery” isn’t such a lucky thing. One name  is chosen at random and the winner is stoned to death. This has been happening for as long as the citizens can remember, but what will happen in the future? I believe that if the lottery continues to take place, the whole community will revolt, and leave the country destroyed.

If we look into the future of the lottery, I see the stoning stopping, because I assume that everyone will already be dead, that is, everyone besides the leaders.  If citizens don’t like what’s happening to them, it’s their natural instinct to change it. Think about Wisconsin this past year. So many people did not like what Scott Walker was going to do, so they attempted to get rid of him. I expect the families of the people who have been killed by the lottery to get so angry one day, that they go up to the government officials and ask them to stop, and when they say no, they fight. After an intense battle over what will happen, the Government will continue stoning  (that is if any citizens are left alive).

Not many people like to constantly be controlled. No one prays that their freedom will be taken away. So, when the lives of people are in the hands of the someone else, people are obligated to upset about this. The community will rebel because they will eventually realize that the lottery isn’t a good thing at all, and brings nothing positive to anybody.

If you look at Animal Farm, written by George Orwell, you can see that my prediction for the future of The Lottery could very well be true. In Animal Farm, the Pigs control all the other animals, without them having any choice. After a long summer of hard work, the animals decide that they don’t want to work anymore, and rebel against the Pigs. In the end of the book, the Pigs are still in charge, and in all honesty, nothing really changed. Because these books have very similar plot lines, I think that my reasoning is very likely.

The Lottery could have seemed like a tradition that needed  to be done, but soon the people will see the truth. They will notice that the government has been brainwashing them for so long, they will realize that it’s not right, and that they don’t deserve that. But, in the long run, nothing will change. People will still be stoned to death, families will still be heartbroken, and the Government will still control everything.

It was a cold, stormy, Tuesday afternoon when Bill Hutchinson burst through the doors of the City Hall.

“I want to speak with Mr. Summers,” he paused, waiting for an answer, “NOW!”

“Yes..?”Mr. Summers said, approaching Bill from behind a desk.

“The Lottery has gone on way too long. We have lost too many precious lives because of it. And if you think I’m alone on this one? You’re wrong, all these people agree with me,” as speaking, the doors open behind Bill, revealing the whole community standing there.

“Oh, so you all think I’m wrong?” Mr. Summers paused, waiting for an answer, “YOU THINK I’M WRONG? I run this city better than any of you ever could. Ever.”

“I understand you feel that way sir, but nobody else does,” Bill stated.

Right about then, Mr. Summers took out a gun, and shot Bill Hutchinson.  In front of everybody.

“Alright. I killed one. If anybody has anything else to say, I’m sure Mr. Hutchinson would appreciate some company,” he paused, watching to see if anybody moved, “now get along, I’ve got things to do and places to be. “

As the sun set that day, the citizens sat in their houses, and realized, that the lottery would not stop, unless they MADE it stop. 

Casey at the Bat Response

I think that because Casey struck out, he will change greatly. His whole reputation was ruined in that one game, so now he will have to change his ways to once again be the might Casey. He will change because in the poem, if he doesn't like a pitch, he doesn't even go for it. After having this accident happen, I think Casey will be more cautious of striking out, to save him from the embarrassment of losing a game...once again. He will change because reputation is everything to him. Everything. He relates to like Cato in the Hunger Games, all coincided and thinks that he can do everything, but once he fails once, he needs to change otherwise bad things will happen again. 

Unimaginable

Author’s Note: This is the Cause and Effect piece on The Best of Me, by Nicholas Sparks. If you have not read the  book and are planning to do so, just a warning, I spoil the ending!

The unimaginable can always happen. As a nation, we tend to think that nothing bad will happen to us, until it does. Amanda, the main character in Nicholas Spark’s The Best of Me, thought these things too. She always assumed that even if she made mistakes, nothing extremely bad could happen to her. But then, one night, her son gets in a car accident, and is told that there is a rare chance that he would live. However, none of this would have happened if he was never in the car, none of this would ever have happened if just a few simple events changed.

The point of no return for this book was when Amanda’s son got in a car accident. You can’t reverse that. As much as the reader or the characters may want that event to change, it can’t.  Once the car was hit, the mark was left forever. Once the crash was set in stone, the passengers of the cars would be injured from that day on. Once the son was in dangerous health, the story had really started.

Amanda’s son would have never been in the car if it wasn’t for his father. Getting overly intoxicated that night, Frank needed to call his son to drive him home. If he wasn’t a responsible adult like he should have been, their son would have never even been in the car in the first place. Calling the son to come and drive may not have seemed like such a big deal, but in the long run it is what caused the accident.

Though getting in a car accident may have seemed like the end of the world, there were a few positive effects in the result of it. Being very sick, and in need of a replacement heart, Amanda’s son was about to die. Hopes were high to get a donation heart, but reality showed them that it wasn’t very likely. Through torturous days of painful waiting, Amanda’s long lost love from high school died, and his heart was a perfect match. Amanda’s son got her old lovers heart. This would have never happened if not for the car accident.

Thinking that nothing bad could ever happen to you is horrible. Awful things will happen to you, it’s true. However, when they do you have the choice to either be prepared and positive, or negative and not understanding. Even when things go wrong, you have to keep your head up because even through bad things, wonderful things can happen.

Fighting

Author’s Note: This piece was written to explain my knowledge of Conflict/ Resolution.

There is not a single way you can explain the conflicts in the book A Child Called It. Many disturbing things happen, but they all center around one issue, the mother abuses the son. David takes on loads of abuse from his mother. Fighting against his mother, we see a great example of person vs. person conflict, but we also see a struggle with person vs. self, too.  

It’s easy to see how this is an example of person vs. person. The mom is literally fighting the son, by hitting him, kicking him, making him eat poisons substances, and ruining his life, but in this book he is also fighting himself. When somebody is constantly telling you that you are not good enough, you start to believe it. When literally living in Hell, David had to fight against himself to make sure he didn’t let the things his mom was telling him, get to his head.

Getting out of hard situations can be the most difficult thing ever. In David’s case though, he had to sneak his way out, and take risks while doing it. One day when he was at school, he told the teachers what happened, and that got him out of the conflicts with his mother, but how did he resolve the ones with himself? He told himself that even though his mother was telling David those things, they weren’t true. She was lying to make herself feel better. Even though it was a long road, David eventually gained back his confidence.

These two types of conflicts may be hard to find in other novels, yet I found extreme similarities to these problems in the book Speak, by Laurie Halse Anderson. In that book, Melinda was fighting against other people because of popularity issues, her social issues, and her past issues with a boy; much like David was fighting his mom. Also, she was fighting herself because she was sexually assaulted and felt like she was worth nothing. That, once again, sounds like David.

Throughout fighting with other people, and yourself, you gain a lot…but also lose a lot. These conflicts were things that nobody should have to deal with, yet we now know that they can be resolved.

The Dark

Some people are afraid of heights, others may be afraid of pickles, spiders, even spoons, but me? I’m afraid of a little girl. A 5 year old “angel” to her family, but the devil to me and my friends. She may  seem innocent and sweet, but don’t be fooled, this little girl was anything but.

It all started after a day of laser tagging, my four friends (Mandy, Taryn, Shelby, Haylie) and I were relaxing in Haylie’s basement, when it occurred to us that hey, it was 4:30 pm, and we should watch a horror movie. After looking through Netflix movie suggestions, we settled on Don’t Be Afraid of the Dark, which is a movie about, well , not being afraid of the dark. We watched the movie with countless jumps and screams from all.

After eating dinner, we decided to go outside and swing on the tire swing. Taryn, who was always afraid of hitting the tree, had agreed to go on the swing. She was, as you can expect, scared and screaming. While all of the attention was on Taryn, I saw Haylie’s neighbor, Sammy, appear out of the woods. She reminded me of a fairy, in  her little shorts and a shirt, shoes and dark brown hair. Her skin was pale, with dark brown eyes. Her face was painted, and she looked like a pirate. Momentarily, the others noticed her, too. She inched closer as the swing came to a stop. “Can I try,” she said, I her voice which was a high sounding pitch. The only thing I remember for a while, was Sammy eyeing down Taryn, saying “wee” , in a monotone voice, obviously making fun of when Taryn was afraid on the swing.

Following the swing, we did some dancing, and some chatting, but then Sammy turned to Haylie – who was obviously her favorite – and asked to see her room.  Shelby, trying to take charge, told Sammy that maybe in a little bit we could go upstairs, but we should maybe just stay outside. A glare was given, followed by a scream, then we took her hand and marched up the stairs.

When we finished taking her to Haylie’s room, she looked up at us, and said “Now come see my room.” After making her ask her mom, a group of five teenagers walked into a five year olds room.  She had the classic room: butterflies, stuffed animals, and only one toy though, a light up wand from Disney. Her door also had a lock on it.  She took us out one by one and showed us how to lock the door, then unlock it. After all the lessons, she turned off the light. The reason behind this was to show us her little spinning light up wand.  After showing us the wand, the kept the lights off. She told us all to get on the bed, and as good people, we climbed up on the bed. Prancing around us, the pulled out all of the night lights, saying “We’re going to turn off these, and unplug these,” then reaching for the blinds, letting in barely any sunlight and saying, “and close these.” By the time she was finished, she had made sure all light was gone.

Being trapped in that room, dark, with her taking light steps  around us on bed for about 3 minutes, Sammy told us all to get up, and then go out of her room. We all stood up to leave, when she stopped Taryn and told her to stay in her room. From the outside, we could hear them fighting over whether the lights should be on or not. Finally, Taryn said that she needed to go to the bathroom, so she could get out of there.

Taryn, being the idiotic person she is, told the little girl that there was no toilet paper in the bathroom. Sammy grabbed Taryn by the hand and pulled her to the master bedroom, where there was a bathroom.   Dragging her around a corner, Sammy pointed to the bathroom and told Taryn that she could “go in there.” As Taryn closed the door, she saw the master bathroom light turn off, then she looked out and Sammy was locking the door. Taryn, like a right-minded person would, asked, “What are you doing?” And the response, from a five year old, in a high pitched voice, “We’re going to play in here.”

Sprinting out of the room, Taryn told us that we should go, because something was not normal about this little girl. Sammy, then back in her room, took me, and told me to give her my phone. Sammy  knew I had phone my , so I had no other choice. She collected the other phones, then made Mandy and I go in a timeout.  Still with no lights on, we were all thinking about the horror movie we had previously watched, and all just assumed that we were not going to make it out alive. Sammy, who had put us (Mandy and I)in the hallway, then left her room to go to the bathroom.

As she returned into her room, from the inside, she put her head through the crack and told Mandy and I that she’d be back for us. With that, we booked it to her room, and then got our friends and left. When we were walking down the stairs, she followed us, and said in the voice that gave us shivers  “Come back and we can play some more.”

Looking back on this story, I know it doesn’t seem that scary. I mean, we took harassment from a five year old. But being locked in a room, with all the lights off, and a girl with pirate makeup pacing around you, it was terrifying. I can’t believe that something is normal about a little kid who likes to be in the dark.  From that day forward, I can still hear her voice screeching in ears, I can feel her cold hands up against mine, I can see her face haunting me in the dark…but only in the dark.