College Application Personal Statement

Prompt #1

I come from a hard working and loving family. I have a mom, dad and a little brother. My parents came from a hard life, they struggled a lot to be were they are right now. They immigrated from Mexico to the US to give me and my little brother a better life. They wanted me to have the opportunity to get a better education than I would in Mexico . They knew how hard of a life I would had have in Mexico , they always saw the US as the land of opportunities.

All my life I had to do everything by my self, when I needed help while doing my homework, I had no one to turn to. It was a struggle doing my homework not having any help at all. My parents never did understand the simplest math problems I brought home. As I grew up and brought more difficult kind of math, they still did not know how to help me out.

Since my parents did not have as much of an education as they wished they could have had, all they could do was work to support me. No kind of educational help only the tools to go to school and learn. Every time I think whether to go to college or not, I think of all the sacrifices my parents made in able for me to have the education I have now. They left their hometown, their family to come to the US all alone not knowing a single word of English. Thinking of all the sacrifices my parents made for me motivates me to do well in school. Everything I do is all for my parents.

All these struggles and sacrifices my parents made for me led to one thing. It led to the future I want to have. I think every day of what I want to be when I grow up, but to tell you the truth all I really want when I grow up is to be able to support my parents. I want to pay them back for everything they have done for me. I want to give them the life they wanted me to have.

One way I can think of doing this is by going to college and become a business man. The fact that I see my parents always applying for jobs at various restaurants makes me want to be the person that owns the restaurant in the future. If it is not a restaurant ,then I want to own something that is worldwide.  

Prompt #2

One talent that I see in myself is perseverance. I am the type of person that learns from their mistakes and capitalizes on it. In the beginning of my high school years, I did not do well in terms of grades, but I still moved forward and beyond. Sophomore year was a success for me since I did not give up and I persevered to make a success out of myself. 


In my freshman year at my high school, I passed with grades like C's and D's. I was not proud of my myself, and something that helped me realize that my grades were unacceptable was an award that I had received from a previous teacher. The award was named "Diamond in the Rough". This award is handed out to the students who had a tough time with school subjects, but still persevered. This made me realize that I was capable of doing as good as my other peers. I felt as if this award was a wake up call telling me to do better in school. I became to realize how I was not going to get far with the type of work I was doing. I also started to think that it does not matter that I am going to school as the only full Mexican in it. My school is full of very intelligent people who happen to be primarily Asian. Although I was not doing as good in my grades as they were, it did not mean that I was going to be left behind while all of them moved on to a better future. I was going to be right there next to them moving on to a better future as well.


The "Diamond in the Rough" award made me think about my sophomore year at my school. Coming back to school as a sophomore, I decided to not play around and get my work done. So this year I ended up stronger, I ended the year with only B's and A's. I was proud of how well I had done, I knew that I was capable of doing this and now something that has prepared me for my junior year at my school is another award that I have won. This time the award was because I shined in class and was not struggling as much. The name of the award that I got as the "  “Award. I won this award for English class and the teacher who have me this award was Mr. Sutherland. He has now motivated me to do good during my junior year. He has gave me the will to move forward and to not give up. I think that knowing that I am capable to struggle in the beginning and come back stronger has made me realize that now for college classes I need to work even harder. Now I need to persevere twice as much as I had before. This awards that have been handed to me have really opened me up to realize of what I am capable of.

Catching Fire by Suzanne Collins is the second novel to the bestselling book The Hunger Games. In this story, the main character, Katniss tells the story in which she has to go back in to the Games to once again fight. In Catching Fire, there was a celebration for the anniversary of the Hunger Games. In this event, all of the previous winners from the games were once again chosen at random to go back in to the games. Not to her surprise, Katniss was chosen again because she was the only girl winner of the games from her district. Also, their mentor Haymitch was chosen to go into the games, but instead, Peeta, the other winner from the previous games stepped in for him.

The other book that Suzanne Collins wrote and that I have read is the Hunger Games. This one compares because it is exactly the same story. It is just a follow up book that relates it exactly the same. The Hunger Games tells the same story as Catching Fire and it has mainly the same themes. Suzanne Collins expresses her ideas throughout the book and she has the most similar writing styles. I think that both The Hunger Games and Catching Fire are well written novels.

The author's intended audience is mainly for the kids ages, I would say 12-18. I mainly think that this was the audience that she intended for because those are the ages in which kids and teenagers like to be entertained. The best way for them to be entertained is to tell a story with a lot of action.

The author's writing style seems to be that of a women who likes to be independent because the main character Katniss expresses all of these ideas. Throughout the Hunger Games and now in Catching Fire, Katniss shows that she is a strong girl who is not afraid to fight. This some what reveals the writing style of the author Suzanne Collins because it is some times true that the author's novel seem to be based off of their own lives and their own personal experiences. In class, I have finally finished reading the second novel by Suzanne Collins, Catching Fire. The book was okay compared to the first book, The Hunger Games.

I think that the author's purpose in writing the book is to show how the government is corrupt and how that could possibly be us one day. The government here is the main villain and the book shows you a lot about how the government works in ways such as taking control of their people without letting them even have their own thoughts without being punished for it later. I believe this because the entire book is based on how Katniss despises the Capitol, which is their form of government. She hates the government because of what they do yearly, The Hunger Games. I also think she is upset that she has to go back in to the Games after she had just gotten out of there.

The weaknesses of the book are that it is not as interesting as The Hunger Games was. I feel that because The Hunger Games was the first book, it was better because we're barely starting to get a sense of all the characters. As for Catching Fire, there was not enough action to really keep me interested like Hunger Games did. Although this would not most likely happen, something that would have made the book better was for it to be written in another person's point of view. It would have been great if instead of hearing only the thoughts of Katniss, we could have heard the story from Peeta's side.

The character that still interested me the most was Peeta because he was also brave and I guess you can say that he was still in love with Katniss no matter what. He was really brave when he decided to go back in to the games to protect Katniss. Haymitch, Katniss' and Peeta's mentor was originally chosen to be the boy who got chosen to go in to the Quarter Quell, but it turned out that Peeta had decided to step in for him.

Another character that was interesting was the main character Katniss because her main goal in the Quarter Quell Games now is to keep Peeta alive. This was her and her mentors plan.

This are some of the observations that I have made about this book. Overall I thought that this book has many great characters that help build up this story. For example like I was saying how Katniss had to really protect Peeta from dying because thanks to her Peeta did not only survive in the first book but the second book to. Also Gale and Peeta both played an important role in getting between Katnis life. It made it harder for her to choose how she wants her life to go to.  They both loved her and she loved both of them. She then had to decide who she really wants to be with. So as you can see the characters in the book Catching fire really have an impact on the

Rough Draft

Catching Fire by Suzanne Collins is the second novel to the bestselling book The Hunger Games. In this story, the main character, Katniss tells the story in which she has to go back in to the Games to once again fight. In Catching Fire, there was a celebration for the anniversary of the Hunger Games. In this event, all of the previous winners from the games were once again chosen at random to go back in to the games. Not to her surprise, Katniss was chosen again because she was the only girl winner of the games from her district. Also, their mentor Haymitch was chosen to go into the games, but instead, Peeta, the other winner from the previous games stepped in for him.

The other book that Suzanne Collins wrote and that I have read is the Hunger Games. This one compares because it is exactly the same story. It is just a follow up book that relates it exactly the same. The Hunger Games tells the same story as Catching Fire and it has mainly the same themes. Suzanne Collins expresses her ideas throughout the book and she has the most similar writing styles. I think that both The Hunger Games and Catching Fire are well written novels.

The author's intended audience is mainly for the kids ages, I would say 12-18. I mainly think that this was the audience that she intended for because those are the ages in which kids and teenagers like to be entertained. The best way for them to be entertained is to tell a story with a lot of action.

The author's writing style seems to be that of a women who likes to be independent because the main character Katniss expresses all of these ideas. Throughout the Hunger Games and now in Catching Fire, Katniss shows that she is a strong girl who is not afraid to fight. This some what reveals the writing style of the author Suzanne Collins because it is some times true that the author's novel seem to be based off of their own lives and their own personal experiences. In class, I have finally finished reading the second novel by Suzanne Collins, Catching Fire. The book was okay compared to the first book, The Hunger Games.

I think that the author's purpose in writing the book is to show how the government is corrupt and how that could possibly be us one day. The government here is the main villain and the book shows you a lot about how the government works in ways such as taking control of their people without letting them even have their own thoughts without being punished for it later. I believe this because the entire book is based on how Katniss despises the Capitol, which is their form of government. She hates the government because of what they do yearly, The Hunger Games. I also think she is upset that she has to go back in to the Games after she had just gotten out of there.

The weaknesses of the book are that it is not as interesting as The Hunger Games was. I feel that because The Hunger Games was the first book, it was better because we're barely starting to get a sense of all the characters. As for Catching Fire, there was not enough action to really keep me interested like Hunger Games did. Although this would not most likely happen, something that would have made the book better was for it to be written in another person's point of view. It would have been great if instead of hearing only the thoughts of Katniss, we could have heard the story from Peeta's side.

The character that still interested me the most was Peeta because he was also brave and I guess you can say that he was still in love with Katniss no matter what. He was really brave when he decided to go back in to the games to protect Katniss. Haymitch, Katniss' and Peeta's mentor was originally chosen to be the boy who got chosen to go in to the Quarter Quell, but it turned out that Peeta had decided to step in for him.

Another character that was interesting was the main character Katniss because her main goal in the Quarter Quell Games now is to keep Peeta alive. This was her and her mentors plan.

This are some of the observations that I have made about this book. Overall I thought that this book has many great characters that help build up this story. For example like I was saying how Katniss had to really protect Peeta from dying because thanks to her Peeta did not only survive in the first book but the second book to. Also Gale and Peeta both played an important role in getting between Katnis life. It made it harder for her to choose how she wants her life to go to.  They both loved her and she loved both of them. She then had to decide who she really wants to be with. So as you can see the characters in the book Catching fire really have an impact on the book.

In conclusion the characters in Catching fire there own unique style in shaping the way the book goes. From romance to action and from death to life they all make a huge impact not only in the way the book goes but as well in the characters.

Catching Fire Last Book Review

In class, I have finally finished reading the second novel by Suzanne Collins, Catching Fire. The book was okay compared to the first book, The Hunger Games.

I think that the author's purpose in writing the book is to show how the government is corrupt and how that could possibly be us one day. The government here are the main villain and the book shows you a lot about how the government works in ways such as taking control of their people without letting them even have theri own thoughts without being punished for it later. I believe this because the entire book is based on how Katniss despises the Capitol, which is their form of government. She hates the government because of what they do yearly, The Hunger Games. I also think she is upset that she has to go back in to the Games after she had just gotten out of there.

The weaknesses of the book is that it is not as interesting as The Hunger Games was. I feel that because The Hunger Games was the first book, it was better because we're barely starting to get a sense of all  the characters. As for Catching Fire, there was not enough action to really keep me interested like Hunger Games did. Although this would not most likely happen, something that would have made the book better was for it to be written in another person's point of view. It would have been great if instead of hearing only the thoughts of Katniss, we could have heard the story from Peeta's side.

The character that still interested me the most was Peeta because he was also brave and I guess you can say that he was still in love with Katniss no matter what. He was really brave when he decided to go back in to the games to protect Katniss. Haymitch, Katniss' and Peeta's mentor was originally chosen to be the boy who got chosen to go in to the Quarter Quell, but it turned out that Peeta had decided to step in for him.

Another character that was interesting was the main character Katniss because her main goal in the Quarter Quell Games now is to keep Peeta alive.

Catching Fire pt.1

Catching Fire by Suzanne Collins is the second novel to the bestselling book The Hunger Games. In this story, the main character, Katniss tells the story in which she has to go back in to the Games to once again fight. In Catching Fire, there was a celebration for the anniversary of the Hunger Games. In this event, all of the previous winners from the games were once again chosen at random to go back in to the games. Not to her surprise, Katniss was chosen again because she was the only girl winner of the games from her district. Also, their mentor Haymitch was chosen to go into the games, but instead, Peeta, the other winner from the previous games stepped in for him.

The other book that Suzanne Collins wrote and that I have read is the Hunger Games. This one compares because it is exactly the same story. It is just a follow up book that relates it exactly the same. The Hunger Games tells the same story as Catching Fire and it has mainly the same themes. Suzanne Collins expresses her ideas throughout the book and she has the most similar writing styles. I think that both The Hunger Games and Catching Fire are well written novels.

The author's intended audience is mainly for the kids ages , I would say 12-18. I mainly think that this was the audience that she intended for because those are the ages in which kids and teenagers like to be entertained. The best way for them to be entertained is to tell a story with a lot of action.

The author's writing style seems to be that of a women who likes to be independent because the main character Katniss expresses all of these ideas. Throughout the Hunger Games and now in Catching Fire, Katniss shows that she is a strong girl who is not afraid to fight. This some what reveals the writing style of the author Suzanne Collins because it is some times true that the author's novel seem to be based off of their own lives and their own personal experiences.

My Son's storry

  In our family stories i have seen a pattern between our families. Me, Camal, and Max all talk a little about how our parents left their hometown to come here to the U.S. They all left their hometown to try and live a better life in America. 

For example in Camal's family story he talks about how his dad wanted to leave Yemen to give Camal and hi siblings a better future, and to give them a better opportunity to succeed in life. His dad knew how in America his kids would be more motivated to do good in school, he came to America because he was thinking about his kids future.

.Camal: My dad eventually left Yemen and traveled to Dubai to work as a police officer for a couple of years before making the trip to America. His hard journey to America was to help me and my siblings avoid the difficulty he had as a child and so we can live life to the fullest, which drives my motivation to achieve the best that I can in getting a good education. 

As you can see here Camal says how his dad had to Move to America and leave his hometown Yemen because he was thinking about his kids future.Thanks to his dad Camal is now at A.S.T.I and trying his best to succeed in life. Camal was giving the chance that his dad was not.

Another person who wrote about how their parents came to America was Max. Max's dad came to America for a whole different reason than Camal's dad, Max's dad came to America to come and settle down with Max's mom. 

Max: Leaving the states for the first time was a big step for him, he had never been so far away from home and family before. So he said his goodbyes and ventured to America. As he arrived he was already bewildered by the things he saw.

So as you can see both Camal and Max wrote about how their parents came to America. Both of their parents came to America as well as me parents did to. We share this similarities about our parents leaving their country to come to America.

Cyclical Stories

In the Joy Luck Club by Amy Tan, there is a wave of cyclical stories throughout the entire book.The main cycle that goes on within the mothers and daughters of the Joy Luck Club was marrying what people consider bad men.

In the Red Candle chapter of the book, we see that one of the mothers, Lindo Jong had to get married to a boy when she was 12 years old. She married him not out of love and not because she wanted to, but her family forced her after their house had been destroyed in China. He automatically was a bad husband and form then on, she knew she had entered an unwanted bad marriage. Not only that, but the husband's mother also did not like Lindo Jong so she too wanted to make her life as miserable as possible.

“I knew what kind of husband he would be, because he made special efforts to make me cry. He complained the soup was not hot enough and then spiller the bowl as if it were an accident. He waited until I had sat down to eat and then would demand another bowl of rice,” (pg. 55).

Lindo Jong had to live out part of her life attending to her horrible husband to please her family. It was unfair that it had to happen to her and that she was being treated so badly.

 The trend of bad marriages also followed the daughters throughout their lifetime. Most of all the four daughters also had married bad men or were about to enter a bad marriage. For example, in Rice Husband, Lena St Clair felt as if she did not marry the right man and that he was too fair with her.

"Why do you have to be so goddamn fair!" I shouted,” (pg 164)

Lena had started an argument over nothing that apparently set off  fight between her and her husband. This was also not a good marriage of they couldn't settle their differences.

Another example is that one of the daughters, Rose Jordan Hsu had mentioned that she would be getting divorced with her husband because it just was not a good marriage.

Throughout the entire Joy Luck Club, we can see that marriages are not often chosen wisely and end up being horrible, and if we think about it closely, the mistakes that mothers made will be the same mistakes their daughters can make in their future.

Family Story

I remember when my mom Maria Ofelia Librado use to tell me stories about my grandparents. My mom usually told me stories about the grandparents from my dad side of the family. She told me stories to past time when I and she are having a mom and son time. When my little brother was old enough to understand what we were talking about is when my mom decided to tell me new stories about my grandparents.

I remember this one story she told me about how my grandparents started a village that is now well known. She had told us how my dad’s grandpa was the first one to live in this little village. My mom had told me and my brother that one day that village called Espinalido was once pure grass. It was no ordinary grass this grass was big and hard to walk through it. My mom told me how my grandpa and his friend would go there to play around and cut the grass of. They would do this just to pass time and have fun.

When my grandpa found out how the place they were always playing on was now full of dirt and how the grass was going all away he first thought it would be a good place to play with other people there. My grandpa was still young so he was not in a relationship, but as he grew up he felt in love with my grandma. He wanted to move somewhere with her. That’s wren my grandpa thought of the place he use to play in and have a great time with his friend. He had saved up some money to get people to build a house for him in that same place him use to spent time with his friends. My grandpa told people of his idea and one of his friend said he was going to build a house there as well.

So they got there houses built and they were the two first families to have a house in that place that was created by him. More and more people heard about them living there and how it was so peaceful and no violence. So more and more people started to building houses there, next thing you there was a mini community there. The people had all one problem. The problem was that when people told them were they live and what was the place name they all did not know what to say. So my grandpa had to come up with a name. This is when he remember how they use to be full with grass and threes, he remember how every time him and hid friend came to play they would get cut. There were things coming out the plants that were pointy and hurt if you got stab by one of them. So my grandpa decided to name id by there name Espinalido. So this is how the place got the name. From then more and more people came in to this neighborhood built by my grandpa and his friend.

When I first heard this story I thought my mom was just playing with us, but my mom had me and my little brother call to Mexico so we can ask my grandpa himself and it turn out to be that it was him who started this village. It was my grandpa who was the first person to build a house in this well known place now. He had started his own neighborhood that now is still well known. I was surprise how one Peron could start something this big.

I also found out how now there are more people who live there and that this little village has now grown to be a big village that different families now live on. I and my little brother were surprise when we heard this story and both could not believe it.  

Over all I was really fascinating about this story. It made me feel like everyone is capable of doing anything. I am not trying to say my grandpa is weak and no one but he started something with a friend. He was just one ordinary person who wanted to have fun and go explore, next thing you know the place he loved to play in and spent good times with him and his friend came to become his home.

Another story I was told while growing up was about the devil. When I spent time with my cousins they would always tell me different stories about people who got scared in Mexico . My cousins love to scare me and they always did it by telling me stories about scary thing that happened in Mexico . They always had many great stories that they told me. For example La Llorona, the devil, my uncles who got scared, and many more.

One of the stories that I remember is when they told me about this one big rock in Mexico that had the devils wife in there. The story was that this rock was once the devil and his wife house. One day the devil came out to go do his bad stuff and let his wife in there. Now usually both the devil and his wife went out to do what they do. This one time is when the devil decided to go out by him. People knew about the devil and his wife and how this huge scary rock was their home.  The people were tired of them going out and making there life miserable so they decided to do something about it. They were going to get a cross and put it on the rock. It was more like a spell. The spell was that both the devil and his wife could not come out unless someone removes the cross, but it had to be a person not a demon. So the decided to do this, but the day they did it is when the devil had decided to go out and do his bad stuff.  It was a dark and rainy day. The people did the spell but only the devils wife was inside this huge rock.

The people thought it was all safe now but the found out how it was not ok. People were still dying and getting scared to death. So the figure out how the devil the only one out was and that they only trap the devils wife. So through the years the devil tried to posses a person so they could remove the cross. There was one problem though if the devil posses someone it counted as them being a demon. So there was nothing the devil could really do.

My cousins had told me how one of my uncles in Mexico was pressure by the devil to take the cross off this huge rock. He told me how my uncle and his friend decided to climb this scary rock. When they did they made it all the way to the top of the rock. My uncle had said that it was huge and bones were up there. He told them how he had never felt so scared in his life. He told his friend that they needed to go because he had a bad feeling about it.  So they listen to him and decided to go. Later that day they were at my uncle’s house drinking and having fun. Out of nowhere this man comes and tells them if he could drink with them. They were running out of drinks so the stranger told my uncle to go to the store with him to get some more. My uncle being drunk and wanting to drink more said yes.  What my mom did not know was that the stranger was the devil. The devil took him to the huge rock and tries to make my uncle take the cross of but some how he said no. so then out of no where my uncle woke up on his bed. He could not remember what really happened but he was not able to move. Everyone was worry about him. About two days pass and he was able to move again. This was like a miracle.

This story was kind of scary when I first hear id. This was one of many other stories that my cousins told me to try to scar me.  At first I thought they were playing around with me but the kept saying they were not. So I still do not know what to believe. I do not know if that story was real or if my cousins were just trying to scare me.

These are some stories that I was told about my family history. My family has many great stories to tell and every time there is a new baby born and could talk and understand these great stories are told over and over aging. There are sometimes told with more details and sometimes with fewer details.

 

Mother- Daughter Relationship

In The Joy Luck Club by Amy Tan, and in, Why Chinese Mothers Are Superior, an article by Amy Chua, they both discuss mother-daughter relationships. Amy Chua believes that Western parents are not strict enough on their kids as they should be.

" For example, my Western friends who consider themselves strict make their children practice their instruments 30 minutes every day. An hour at most. For a Chinese mother, the first hour is the easy part. It's hours two and three that get tough."

A similarity between Tan and Chua is that in The Joy Luck Club, The Twenty- Six Malignant Gates, tells hoe Suyuan wants her daughter to become a prodigy. She wanted her daughter to be really good at playing the piano and that was why she made her practice on the piano all the time for hours a day, piano lessons and piano practice… to practice on every day, two hours a day, from four until six.” (136). This relates to Amy Chua's arguments because she states that the best way for their children to get better at something is to practice at it for many hours.


Obedience plays a difference between Tan and Chua. Chua states that,

"Second, Chinese parents believe that their kids owe them everything... parents have sacrificed and done so much for their children. (And it's true that Chinese mothers get in the trenches, putting in long grueling hours personally tutoring, training, interrogating and spying on their kids.) Anyway, the understanding is that Chinese children must spend their lives repaying their parents by obeying them and making them proud."

The difference between Amy Chua's argument and the mother-daughter relationship between Suyuan Woo and her daughter June Woo was that the daughter had given up trying to make her mother proud, and that was also the day she decided to be disobedient,

"I didn't bulge. And then I decided. I didn't have to do what my mother said anymore. I wasn't her slave. This wasn't China. I had listened to her before and look what happened. She was the stupid one," (141). 

Chua believes that Chinese children owe everything back to their parents and that they must try to make thir parents proud for the rest of their lives. Amy Tan contradicts this because June disappointed her mother and gave up trying to make her proud and became disobedient.

Joy Luck Club- Intro

In The Joy Luck Club, Amy Tan's purpose behind the introduction for the section, The Twenty Six Malignant Gates, is to show the relationship between mother and daughter and how the mother is always just there to try and protect their daughters from all of the bad things that can occur to them. The next two chapters to this section of the book, Rules of the Game and The Voice from the Wall, are all foreshadowed by the introduction. In the introduction, the mother warns her daughter to not leave on her bike because she will be out of her sight. After the daughter does not listen, she falls off of the bike, "And the girl ran outside, jumped on her bicycle, and in a hurry to get away, she fell before she even reached the corner, "(87). This shows that daughters need their mothers to be protected. Without them there, then they would be lost and make many mistakes.

This is somewhat similar to what happens in Rules of the Game because the daughter, Waverly abandoned her family, and when she came back home that night, her family ignored her and ate without her, "We not concerning this girl. This girl have not concerning for us, " (100). Waverly left her family and basically did not have any concern for them . She was without her mother at that time. When she came home, her mother told the family to not mind her because she had done the same. Without her mother, Waverly was lost and her family began to not concern her.

In The Voice from the Wall, the mother of Lena St. Clair was constantly trying to protect her from harm. When Lena and her mom walked down to the store, a man tried to attack Lena's mom, and after that, she was so shooken up, that she held on to her daughter the whole time. When Lena tried to get away, the mother reacted quick, "She grabbed my hand back so fast I knew that instant how sorry she was that she had not protected me better, " (108). The daughter needed guidance and protection form her mother. The letting go of the hand symbolized how at some time, the mother must learn to let go, but at that moment, she had to protect her daughter from anything bad that might happen to her.

Joy Luck Club

In the first chapter of the Joy Luck Club, one of the main characters, Shuyun Woo tells her daughter a story with many different endings. Each time that she told her the story, she had a different ending to it.

The first ending talks about how she and three other women  started the Joy Luck Club. They all were in this club to support each other and they stuck together during the hard times. Although people would criticize them for being so happy at a hard time, they still went on with their club.

The next ending that she told her daughter was that at  the Joy Luck Club meetings, the four women used to play a game and when she won money from it, she bought a cup of rice that she turned in to porridge. Then she had two feet from a pig that turned into six eggs. and from those six eggs became six chickens. June said that the story seem to always grow more and more each time.

The final ending to this story took place in Kweilin where Shuyuan was with her first husband and two babies. This was when she told her daughter, June what really happened in Kweilin.When her husband was an officer, she stayed at home, while the Japanese were trying to take over. A man who worked with her husband showed up at her door one day and told her to flee. She listened and took with her only two bags and her children. The two bags had food and the other had clothes. When she was running away, her hands began to get bloody, so Shuyuan Woo decided to let the bags go. After her arms were tired of holding her two babies, she had to let them go as well.

The message that Shuyuan Woo is trying to send to her daughter, June Woo is that she should be grateful for all that she has and that she should not be complaining about anything. Shuyuan Woo had to sacrifice her babies for her to make a better life for herself in America.

Chinese Parents

Why Chinese Mothers are Superior by Amy Chua

Chinese parents can get away with things that Western parents can't. Once when I was young—maybe more than once—when I was extremely disrespectful to my mother, my father angrily called me "garbage" in our native Hokkien dialect. It worked really well. I felt terrible and deeply ashamed of what I had done. But it didn't damage my self-esteem or anything like that. I knew exactly how highly he thought of me. I didn't actually think I was worthless or feel like a piece of garbage.

so basiclly they are saying that asian parents are really strict. even though people may not agree with their method they have a reason for what they do. they want their kids to do good and not mess around in school. right here in this qoute it makes it clear how by asian parents telling their kids to do good and school and know they are capeble of getting lower than a A makes it less hurtful when they call theis children trassh.

Asian parents have lots of faith in their children so  this is why the kids know how much their parents care about them. So overall is good that the Asian have high expectations of their kids.

Quickwrite

Some of the main similarities between Animal Farm and Tunisia were that both revolutions were inspired by a cause or an action. Animal farm was inspired by the speech given by Old Major, while in Tunisia, the revolution was inspired by the man who lit himself on fire. Also in Animal Farm, the animals all heard about the revolution from Old Major. He was the reason for there to even be a revolution. While in Tunisia the word got around by Facebook and Wiki Leaks. So both revolutions spread out in different ways.

The similarities that they both had was the fact that they got both inspired by somethimg or someone. For example in Animal farm Old Major inspired everyone with his speech,

"Man is the only creature that consumes without producing. He does not give milk, he does not lay eggs, he is too weak to pull the plough, he cannot run fast enough to catch rabbits. Yet he is lord of all the animals. He sets them to work, he gives back to them the bare minimum that will prevent them from starving, and the rest he keeps for himself. Our labor tills the soil, our dung fertilizes it, and yet there is not one of us that owns more than his bare skin. You cows that I see before me, how many thousands of gallons of milk have you given during this last year?...”

This part of the speech shows how Old Major is talking about the problems that the farm animals have. Also how they can do something about the humans who are mistreating them and treating them unfair.

In Tunisia, the fact that the man lit himself on fire and the reason why he did this was because he wanted to see a change in his government was what made people think. It made them think how that guy did not just burn himself for nothing, but for something that is affecting everyone. When more and more people started to hear about what this guy did is when the revolution slowly started to build up. Slowly and slowly more and more people started to realize how they all want to see a change in their government as well. So basically the guy who lit himself on fire was who inspired the revolution.

Old Major was like the guy who lit himself on fire because they both inspired people to start a revolution.

chpt 11 collab. Andy Tsang

i collaborated my with a Andy Tsang

Rebuttal for Kaila

The English Language

The English language is in fact getting worse. Humans are making the English language itself bad. We are the ones changing the style of not just how we write the English language, but speak it as well. In other words, you can say the English language is getting bad.

Orwell is a person who also believed  that the English language is getting bad  because he says, "It becomes ugly and inaccurate," (par. 2). He says this because he believes that our thoughts are getting foolish. He also says this because the English language is bad already. He is trying to say that worldwide, the English language is becoming somewhat of a problem.. Now, it becomes more easier to think or create foolish thoughts. People seem to not care no more about whether speaking the English language good, as it is supposed to be spoken like. Although Orwell states this, he also believes that we can make that progressive change. He says that we can avoid the foolish thoughts if we are just willing to take the necessary trouble. And if we can do this, we would be able to think , more clearly and that this would be the first step in to fighting against the English language that we have all supposedly damaged.

Orwell also compares the English language to a drunk man. He describes that a man is taking a drink because he is a failure. So basically, because he is a failure in life, he feels the need to drink. Orwell says that this relates to what is happening to the English language. It is kind of funny how he uses a drunk man to symbolize the English language, but he wants to show, that like a drunk man, the English language is all over the place and that it is out of our control. When he said that when people do not care no more and that is why they decide to do more bad things as in trying to ruin our version of our own language. We are persuaded to drink the same way that we are persuaded to have to speak a certain way, which might not be the right way. When people start to speak the English language, they tend to not care whether or not they are speaking it well or not and a drunk guy does not care whether or not others care about his drinking. So then, that can lead to them doing it more often. It is mostly like a cycle that a person continues doing.

Orwell gives strong evidence about why he thinks the English language is becoming ugly and inaccurate, but he also gives off ideas of how we can take the first step in teaching others the importance of speaking the right way. To fix this problem of how we talk and write the English language, it will not only take one person, but together, we can. To stop the bad habits that we have with our way of speaking, we need to all work together in order to get it done.

I do agree with Orwell;s idea, and I also think that the English language is getting sloppy and it is being misused in many occasions. An example of these bad habits is when people text.People seem to always have to switch up how the words are written when they text. When people text with their phones, the word or phrase that they would actually be saying would be texted with acronyms. Instead of saying "You.", they text "U". People take the shortcuts to writing in order to text faster. Also, some people seem to text like this; "WhAt ArE YOu DoInG?" People seem to forget that that you can only capitalize the first letter of a word at the beginning of a sentence, people, places or names. Since people think it is okay to not write the English writing well when they are talking to their friends, they would most likely assume it was okay to speak it improperly as well.

Overall, I agree with Orwell's ideas about the English language getting all nasty and how it becomes our silly little mistakes due to our foolish thoughts. The English language is becoming this thing in which it leads to other factor, in this case, it leads to both speaking and writing all wrong.

How do we stop human Overpopulation?

What is the most important step we can take to help control human overpopulation?
The best thing that we can do to stop the increasing rate of humans throughout our country is by teaching the teenagers that the best way to not end up pregnant is by using birth control.


We obviously can not stop the adults from doing what they want to do as in having kids, but we can say something to the teenagers so they won't be the ones out there having unprotected sex and ending up pregnant at such a young age. I think that in schools, there should be more awareness of teen pregnancies and sex. Schools should be able to teach their students that they should be using some type of birth control to protect themselves. For the teenagers that are sexually active, which is a large percent, they should be taking some kind of method to prevent them form getting pregnant. It might not be the right thing to do, but if a teenager happens to end up pregnant, they should be able to have an abortion if they please to instead of keeping the baby if they can not raise it. Also, parents are a big factor in all of this. They should be able to talk to their kids as well about sex because there are a lot of parents out there who do not like to talk to their kids about it. They think that by not talking about, then their kids are not going to be out there doing it, but instead, their kids end up pregnant. If we were to take these steps, we would see that it can make a difference as in not increasing the rate of the human population due to kids that didn't use birth control.

This is basically what the United States is left to do if there was really anyway that human overpopulation can be reduced. If we just let the teenagers of today go on and have children of their own and not do anything about it, then the world would eventually run out of resources for us to live as comfortable as have.

Political Power

In my opinion, political power does corrupt people who attain it. It is really easy for people to abuse the power that they have. People strive to be the best at everything that they do and that can relate to political power.

If we were to look at our history, we would see a lot of men who obtained power, but somehow found a way to abuse of that power that they had. For example, Hitler is the most notorious tyrant in history. In the beginning, the people that voted for him had no idea that he would turn into this maniac who killed millions of Jewish people just because of their race. He committed genocide because he had the power to do so. His people basically handed over the power to Hitler when they voted for him. All of this hatred and the abuse of Hitler's power resulted in World War 2.

Other men in history such as Stalin, from Russia, and Mao, form China, killed many of their own people also because they had the power to do as they pleased. They became tyrants because they were in charge and there was no one there who had the right to tell them what to do or what not to do.

When it comes to the point of power, we need to make sure that it does not fall in to the wrong hands or else, we will end up with an all new Hitler.

I think George Orwell, the author of Animal Farm,  would answer the question by agreeing that political people does corrupt people. He writes about animals revolting against the humans to take over their farm. This story relates to history because I can predict a new leader will come out and become the dictator of all the animals.

All we need is one quote to predict what will happen next,

“All animals are equal,” (Orwell 43).

When The United States said this in the U.S Constitution, they didn't really mean it. If all men were created equal, then why was there slavery for some time? It only makes sense to say that the book will most likely end with a revolt among the animals to overthrow their new leader. This cycle of abusing of power is endless.

Free Write

“Camel you are staying outside the whole period, I’m tired of you coming in late!” Mr. Fargher said.
Camel did not want to stay outside waiting in the rain for the whole period. So he decided to go to Starbuck’s. On the way to Starbuck’s, Camel sees Tramy. Camel started walking with her and asked her if she wanted to go to Starbuck’s with him. Tramy says yes and as soon as they started walking, she says, “Sham!” and trips him. Next thing you know, Camel’s face falls straight into a puddle of water. His whole white ASTI polo gets dirty and wet. Tramy then starts walking back to school laughing. When Camel came back to school, Mr. Fargher makes him come in class and throws the Starbuck’s coffee away. Camel gets mad, but does not say anything.
When we went to Mrs. Corbally’s class, we had a substitute. We all got to sit down where we wanted to. In the back, it was Jair, K.C, Camel, Rubs, Maxito and Tramy. Mario comes to ask Camel for a piece of paper, but as soon as Camel was going to give Mario the paper, he says, “Shhhhhhhham!” we all laughed. Then, Mario says, “Shhhhhhhham this!” and slaps him across the face. He slapped him so hard Camel turned black. We all started laughing again. Then we started to throw papers at Maxito. Camel tells K.C, “Hit him!” and K.C tells him, “Oh look at him!”, but instead of K.C hitting Maxito, K.C hits Camel on the back of the head with the paper. Camel thought he was cool when he really wasn’t. We all started laughing once again. 
Suddenly we hear the substitute talking. He kept going on and on and Jair says, “What are you talking about?! No one ever knows what you are talking about! You are like a hungry Chihuahua who never stops barking!”
It was lunch time and we decided to go to the cafeteria again with Bossman and his sidekick. K.C asked him if he could drive his black on black Mercedes. He says, “Sure when you get your license.” We all got the same thing, cheeseburger with fries and a soda. When we get our order, we go and sit with Maxito and Peanut Head. We were all eating and then you see about five fries in the air straight to K.C’s head. They had just done a drive by on K.C. Then you see… 
TO BE CONTINUED!

Debate- Colleges

In a 7-way debate over the idea of which colleges matter the most, we get to hear two sides. Some responses speak of the great opportunities at elite colleges, while the other responses speak of the unimportance of elite colleges.

After reading through all of the responses, I found two. One was very persuasive to me and the other was not. 

The response that was the least interesting to me was "Numbers Favor Top Schools" by Richard D. Kahlenberg. He makes some points in which he talks about how the elite colleges were not even about teaching their students anything. He says that people who attend elite colleges are there more to meet people than to take the classes.

 "At selective institutions, a student is surrounded by talented and high achieving peers, a fact illustrated by the story of physicist Freeman Dyson, who many years ago asked his daughter Esther, a Harvard undergraduate, why she was ignoring her coursework. “Dad, we’re not here for those classes,” she replied. “We’re here to meet each other.”

I think that Kahlenberg does not do a good job by adding in a story. If he's trying to prove a point, then he is basically opposing the elite colleges which is not what he is trying to say throughout the rest of his response. Therefore, I think that this response is the least persuasive.

The response that was the most persuasive was "Skip the Admissions Game" by Kevin Carey. He has strong points because he mainly talks about how it really doesn't matter if you go to an elite college or not because you can still get a good education if you look at the right places. Community colleges can give you good opportunities as well as elite colleges can.

"It turns out that the best community colleges do a better job than the average elite research university at teaching freshman and sophomores. That means that even if you're not among the chosen few, you can still get a great college education -- if you know where to look."

I found this response to be the most interesting and the most persuasive because he tells his readers about the greatness of community colleges as well and how they can turn out to be a place where you can learn a lot without it being an elite college or Ivy League school.

Response