Freshman Year

As the final week of my first year of college comes to a close, I can not help but to be filled with a million different emotions. Just eight months ago, I came to this place as a rather different person than who I am today. Now, less than a year later, I am forced to leave my friends, move back home, and live exactly the way I used to. For me, this school year has gone by too fast. I have quite a few friends who absolutely cannot wait to go home. They cannont wait to be back in a place they are all too familiar with. They want to be with their families and the friends whom they grew up with. For me however, I am not ready to leave this place. I have met some amazing lifetime friends who I know I will stay in contact with for the rest of my life. I have falllen in love, learned so much about myself, and am not ready to leave this place. Posted in the bathroom of my dorm, I read something that explains freshman year quite perfectly for a number of different people. Unfortunately, I do not know who wrote it:

We now know the meaning of true friendship. We know whom we have kept in touch with over the past year and whom we hold dearest to our hearts. We've left our high school worlds to deal with the real world. We've had our hearts broken, we've fell in love, we've helped oru best friends through the toughest ties of their lives, something their even best friends at home couldn't be there for. We've stayed up all night just to be there for a friend. We've parties the night away, doing stupid stuff, but we were always there for each other afterwards.......

Freshman year is coming to a close and I am not ready to leave. Leave this place, but especially leave my friends whom I have come to love over the past year.....

Escape

Escape
Often times throughout the course of one’s life, a person may go through various stages. One particular stage a person may go through is one in which they feel the need to “free themselves” or escape from the hustle and bustle of everyday life. Today’s society is one where down time and personal time is seldom able to take place. People get so caught up in so many other things that they are hardly ever able to just sit down, relax and enjoy their time. Not only that, but people frequently take part in activities not because they themselves want to do so, but because society thinks they should. There are simply times in which people need to take a break from everything and just enjoy what comes to them and be free.
In Wallace Steven’s The Poem That Took the Place of a Mountain, and Jon Krakauer’s account of Chris McCandless’s journey in Alaska, Into the Wild however, men take a path that is not usually taken in today’s culture. In both of these accounts, men take the time to escape, to be free and to simply live off the land. They are doing what they want to do, and not what others think they should do.
Chris McCandless was a young man who set off to Alaska to make it on his own. “He didn’t want to see a single person, no airplanes, no sign of civilization. He wanted to prove to himself that he could make it on his own, without anybody else’s help” (Krakauer 288). Many people dream of doing this, but sadly never get the opportunity to do so.
In Steven’s poem, he felt he needed a place to escape. Escape not only from society, but also from himself. Stevens realized he needed a place “to go in his own direction.” This feeling is understood by all of us. At times life gets us down. We realize that there are certain things that we need to get away from. Stevens used the mountain as his place for him to get away from everything.
All in all, it is evident that both Chris McCandless and Wallace Stevens were two very admirable people for doing what they did. To go to a place one knows nothing about and escape, simply living on there own in solitude, is something that many people wish they had the guts to do, but probably never will. Once again, there are times in life when a person gets down, and people need to merely break away from their daily routine; therefore by doing so, those two men were very honorable.

Sherman Alexie

In Sherman Alexie’s story The toughest Indian In the World, it seems like he pokes fun at a lot of contemporary Native American issues. One such issue that he brings up comes about when he brings up various foods such as coca cola and deer jerky.
I may be taking these symbols a little too serious, however it seems like both soda and jerky have a great significance when trying to describe the changes that have happened to the American Indians over the past few centuries. You see, before the whites got to this continent, the Native Americans were people who were very self sufficient. As the white men drove them on to less and less land, and kept taking away more and more of their resources, the Indians had less and less to survive on. In the past, they were ones who would survive on goods that they gathered. They hunted deer and buffalo, and gathered fruits and berries. As times changed however, they were forced to survive on government subsidies. Instead of being able to go and provide for themselves, Native Americans were forced to simply go to a convience store and get what they could, perhaps coca cola?
It seems as though Alexie is a very humorous writer, therefore I may be far off in this interpretation of the deer jerky and soda symbols, however this seems like an important topic to discuss.

Displaced Fairytale

In the small town of Westonville, Texas, the local people were able to come to a complete agreement about two important topics. The first was that high school football was life. The second was that anybody who had anything to do with the town of Colombia, Texas, was an enemy.
For the coaches and players of the bearcat football team, life was good. Because they were a part of the Bearcat football team, they were like celebrities in the town of Westonville. In school, Bearcat players did not do very much actual school work, for teachers give them a huge break when it came to homework assignments and grades.
Just as in Westonville, in the town of Colombia, football was life. The whole town was a part of the Tiger football games, and if you were a part of the team, than you were a big deal. Colombia, which is located merely 10 miles East of Westonville, also had another similarity to its rival town, but just the opposite. If you were a resident of Columbia, then anybody who had anything to do with its neighboring town of Westonville was an enemy.
Because both towns had such a big interest in high school football, the two teams and towns had always been against each other. This tradition of Colombia and Westonville being complete rivals stems back from a very long time ago, in fact, nobody can remember a time when the two towns didn’t hate each other.
For high school junior John Lozitt, life could not get much better. The captain and quarterback of Westonville High School and a 4.0 student, John was basically a celebrity in his small town. For many Texas colleges, John was a much wanted recruit. In fact, many colleges were offering him full ride football scholarships.
One day John was driving to the town of Austin to go on a college tour of The University of Texas, one of the schools that was recruiting him. In order to get to Austin, John had to drive through Columbia. He made it through the town without any trouble, but just about five short minutes after passing through Columbia, he saw from a distance, a car stopped in the middle of the rode. Once he arrived at the car, John immediately recognized the person that the car belonged to, Sarah Tyler.
Sarah was a beautiful high school junior. Tall, with blonde hair and blue eyes, Sarah was the captain of the cheerleading team at Columbia high school. John had always noticed the beautiful girl whenever their schools played each other, but because of the huge rivalry between their towns, he never had the guts to go talk to her.
“Do you need any help,” John nervously said to the beautiful girl.
“Umm, yeah, sure…If it’s not any trouble for you,” Sarah replied. Just as John had recognized Sarah, she had recognized him.
John took a look at the engine and immediately saw that the situation was not good.
“I have bad news for you. You blew your engine. You are going to have to call a tow truck,” he told Sarah.
“Are you serious? Oh no, this is not good. I have to drive to Austin today,” replied Sarah.
“You are going to Austin today, what for? I am going to!”
“I have a tryout for the University of Texas cheerleading team, I can’t miss my tryout, what am I going to do? This cannot be happening”
“Hey, I can help you, I’m going there too, and you can come with me. As long as you don’t tell anybody that you are from Colombia,” John joked.
“Oh, thank you so much, really, this means so, so much to me!”
So off the two went, continuing the trip to Austin. The two had such a fun time together that they arranged to meet up once again, in private, so that no one would know they were hanging out. Both knew that their family members and friends would highly disapprove if they knew that they were hangning out with each other. However, they continued to meet up in secrecy for the next few months. Before they knew it, John and Sarah were in love. They loved everything about each other and had become very close. There was only one problem: Because each of their hometowns’s hated the other’s town so much, no one would approve of their courtship.
The two hid there love for each other for an entire year. They would sneak away from their friends and family a couple times a day to meet up and see each other. At this point, they were at the end of the senior year of high school and it would not be long until they would go on to college. Finally, Sarah was fed up with hiding her love for John.
“Look, we love each other, and that is all that matters. If our family and friends won’t accept that, than so be it, they don’t have to. We will make it just fine without them. I am sick of hiding the fact that I love you.”
“You are exactly right Sarah. Nobody is going to accept this, but I think I that we should elope. Come on, let’s go get married.”
John and Sarah went and got married, and sure enough, just as expected, when they told there families, they were in utter disbelief and disapproved of the marriage. Sarah’s family told her that she could no longer live with them because she married a person from Westonville. John’s family did the same.
Although John and Sarah were deeply saddened that their families could not accept the marriage, they tried to make the best of things. They moved to Austin to attend college. John became a big football star there, while Sarah enjoyed being a cheerleader for the school. They thought their families would eventually come around and accept what had happened, but to this day they have not spoken to either of their families. The good news is, John and Sarah are still just as in love as ever before!

Final Paper

Religion

Today’s society is one which is very diverse. There are many ways in which the people of this day in age are different, whether that be because of race, culture, religion or something else. Religion happens to be a particular subject that sparks a great deal of debate and controversy not only in the United States, but throughout the whole world. For many, religion is something that is very essential and necessary in their lives. No matter what religion a person happens to be, or not be for that matter, it seems that each and every person is in search of a very important topic: nLooking for something to comfort them and help them find stability and reliability in life.
Throughout the world, there are many different religions, each religion believing in something different and unique. Some religions are very common, while others are vastly unheard of. In the United States, some of the most common religions are: Protestant, Roman Catholic, Jewish, and Muslim, with roughly ten percent of the United States population being Atheist or Agnostic (CIA World Fact book).
It appears that a lot of the reason why people practice a certain religion is to change the way they live and help transform their lives. Even though I do not consider myself to be a very religious person, I do however consider myself to be a Protestant Christian. I grew up in the Methodist church, my parents both being Methodists and believing in the Christian faith as well. I certainly did not go to church every day, not even every Sunday. I never lived exactly by what the Bible said or anything of that sort, in fact I rarely remember ever praying or talking much about God in my household. Be that as it may, I feel that it is the idea of having God in a person’s life that is far important. I think that because of that fact that I grew up with Christian values I was able to better understand and grasp the meaning of what is important in life. Through my parents and through the church, the upbringing that I had helped me be able to make better decisions and choices throughout my nineteen years of life.
For me, I feel that as a Christian, I am able to make better decisions. Growing up, I was raised to be a person that held strong morals and values. I believe that because of the way in which I was brought up, I am a good person. While my religion has been an important part of my morals and values, there are even more ways in which religion has helped me throughout my life.
As a young child, I remember thinking to myself that God really was not very important. I remember believing in him, but only because that was what I was brought up to do. I can look back on my childhood and clearly remember thinking and saying to myself “What’s the point in believing in God anyways, it doesn’t really seem like there is a God at all.” As I grew older and more mature however, events that took place throughout my life helped me realized that there was a point and a reason for believing in the idea of God. Unfortunately, it took some unfortunate and heartbreaking events for me to actually realiz this.
The summer before my freshman year of high school, my family and I went through some very difficult times. In June of that summer, my cousin Travis passed away while serving for the United States Marine Corps. He died at only nineteen years of age. The death of Travis was an occurrence that was very devastating for everyone who know him. Travis was the type of person that got along with everyone and always tried to put others first. I really do not think that there was a person who did not like him, he was just that special. So when everyone heard word of his untimely death, everyone was shocked and saddened.
When someone dies, especially a person who is young, people are in a great deal of grief. It took a lot to come to terms with his death, but one of the ways in which my family was able to cope with it was because of our faith in god. We know that everything happens for a reason, even though we found it hard to understand what that reason really is at the time. More importantly, we now know that Travis is in a better place, watching over us all.
As time went by after the death of my cousin, I soon found it easier and easier each day to deal with the loss of Travis. He and I very close, so there were many days that I struggled through and found it hard to get by, but I credit my faith in God for giving me the strength to do just that. After I had begun healing, I remember looking at other people, who were close to Travis just as I had been, but were still having a difficult time grieving and handling their loss. Many of those who had a more difficult time were those who did not have a God to believe in and give them hope.
All in all, each and every person is entitled to their own beliefs. For some, those beliefs belong to the bible, while others do not believe in any other higher power. From that higher power, people are able to transform their lives and live life in a better, less selfish way. No matter what however, it seems imperative that a person have some sort of guidelines or rules for which they hold their beliefs in how to live their lives and uphold their ideas, morals, and values.

Graffiti

For most of us, we have basically seen graffiti in every town we have ever been to. I know that for me, whenever I see graffiti, I never really think too much about it. Usually I just pass it by, without giving any thought as to what the meaning behind the art is. However, behind each work or art there is some sort of meaning.
As we discussed in class, for many, graffiiti is a voice. It helps people show their feelings, but rather than only in words, people are able to show everyone how they feel.
I recently read an article that brought about a lot of interesting points about graffiti:

Although the general public criticises graffiti for contributing to the 'ugliness' of an area, graffiti writers as a rule do not write for the public as an audience. They write for themselves, and other writers, engaging in a dialogue with others who they may have never met, who inhabit the same city or visit the same areas. (Ilse Scheepers)

Up until now, I always believed that a big part of the reason graffiti writers did what they did is to make a statement to the people that would look at their art. Now I am able to see that they do it for themselves.