Video readings of our Final Class in English 109.01

Hello students, friends and families--

Today, I am working to convert and upload the videos so that you will be able to see these readings, and follow along with the text that the students have posted here on the Blog.

I am really proud of this class and I had a great time teaching this group this quarter. I feel very blessed to have been able to get to know these terrific young people, and share in their hopes, dreams, and challenges. The work of this group has reminded me of how important it is to hear from many different points of view to get a more accurate portrait of what life is like in this busy world. To me, this has a calming and optimistic effect.

I hope you will also enjoy the stories, feelings, and ideas expressed here, and I think the students did an admirable job of trying to open windows and doors into the worlds that they have lived in.

Here's a group picture of the whole class. Enjoy!

Mike Lohre
Senior Lecturer in English
The Ohio State University

Li

My name is Huancai Li. I come from China. When I have free time, I like to watch T.V., listen to music, shopping, or clean the house. I am study to being a hospital management or health information management. But I am not complete sure that what I want to do and I am still thinking what kind of jobs I want to do in that department.
The strongest memory from taking 109.01 is doing lots of creative writing. I learn that when you write your finial essay, you need to revise more than one time in the writing process. I think every part of the writing process had grown a little because I had that feel and I am still learning it too.
The piece of writing that I had chosen is the snapshot 2: the characterization of a person for the reading. I pick this piece of writing because I like this one and I think it is nice. The inspiration for it is that I will remember her even when I grow older. She had watch over me when I was little girl.
Characterization of a Person
In this story, I will talk about a girl who was in my life when I grow up. I don’t know how to say in English because this story takes place at China. “3 sisters” is that what I call her and that how you translate from Chinese to English. We call her that because she is the three daughters at that family. I like her the best because she is kind and nice. When I was little girl she took care me when my family went to work. It almost likes a babysitter. But she took care of me for free. She also likes to take care of me when I was little. She lives in the same neighborhood as me. She has short black hair, dark brown eyes, and always ware nice clothes. She treats me like little sister. It felt comfortable when I around her. That it like she is part of the family. She likes to help people.
When she was getting married at age 22 year old, she dresses me up and put make up on me. That it the first time I had put make up on. At that day I felt happy for her because she had met her destiny one and she was very happy too. Later she had a baby girl and it is cute baby. I carry the baby for a while and it is cute when she smiles at me. After she give birth to a baby, she didn’t work and up until now. Even her daughter had already gone to school.

Jia Long Wu

My name is Rex Wu. I am from Canton China. I am studying Mechanical Engineering. I have lots of hobby as long as I interest. I like running and work out.

This class is interesting. I did have a good time in this class. The most memory in English 109.01 is the beginning of reading “Ordinary Resurrection”. I don’t like read books except for comics. I did not finish any Chinese book when I was in China. When we start read the Ordinary Resurrection was torturing me. I did spend an hour to finish five pages. I don’t like the homework on Tuesday, because we usually have to read book and write a snapshot on Wednesday. I was like racing horse. The homework yelled to me: “Hurry up! Read the book and write snapshot! Go! Go! Go!” However, it helps me improve my writing skill, such as analyze the paragraph and creative sentences. I did never write an essay more than eight hundred words. In high school I did write some essay for English class but teacher’s respond is: “I don’t understand what you write.” I am glad the reader can understand what I wrote.

I would like to pick “My first job” this snap shot. It is my first article which was read in class. I want to introduce Chinese cultural by writing essay. That is my inspiration. This experience is interesting. It let me learn how to collaborate with my friends and I understand It is important to catch opportunity.

First Job

Three days before Chinese New Year, the government will occupy a six traffic lines street and make booths in the middle of street. It is a traditional in my hometown, lots of people will rent a booth to sell flowers or something interesting. I had my first job in here when I was twelve.I did buy some fluorescent stick and sold with my friend on street. At seven o'clock we began walk on the fair and found a big concrete for standing I could see peoples head moving in front of me. Tons of people walks in the same direction, it looks like a black stream which runs slowly. Radios were barking on the side of street. The fair is very noisy, voice of the radio, people's talk, some owner of booth yelled for getting attention, all the voice mix together feels like I was standing in front of a waterfall. We should people’s attention too, we yelled “fluorescent stick! One for 50cent, three for 1yuan.” In a day the most people traveling the fair is at eight to eleven o'clock.As the time pass there were more and more people traveling on the street. The crow would like to walk on the traffic lines than side walk. Peoples tried to hustle into the crow, the stream becomes a moving cube and moved slowly. I found lots of people sold fluorescent stick. For getting more customers everyone dropped their price. We even drop our price to 2cent per stick. But we cannot earn any money by selling this price. Luckily my partner found his friend who sold spray snow. Nobody sold spray snow in the fair at that night. That is an opportunity to raise our price. He sold spray snow 8 yuan per can. But we yelled “Spray snow 10 yuan per can get 5 fluorescent stick for free.” We combined our goods together and try to build up our price. Our price was getting lots of attentions from the crow. They throw their curiosity look to us. All the fluorescent stick and spray snow were sold out before eleven o'clock. Yelling against to all the people is the deepest impression of my first job. Though it just temporary job, it is interesting, because it is special experience.

Tyler Stauch

My name is Tyler Scott Stauch. I was raised in Dublin, Ohio and currently still live there. Recently I graduated from Dublin Jerome High School and now I attend The Ohio State University Delaware Center. I plan on applying to the Fisher College of Business at the end of this school year to earn a business degree in aviation management. During my free time I enjoy doing anything outside like riding my dirt bike, fishing, and playing backyard sports, and hanging with friends. I love comfort food, but I am not a big fan of seafood.

Looking back after taking English 109.01, my strongest memory would have to be the class environment. The class environment is a great memory because it was small so everybody got to know each other and it really helped provide one good discussions on the material. The writing process has always been a struggle for me threw my educational career, but this class really helped me break down and brainstorm before drafting. I learned that brainstorming is very essential to writing a good paper because it helps you get all your thoughts out on paper, which therefore helps you pick the appropriate thought that best fits the prompt. In English 109.01 I learned to become an active reader. Before taking this class I hardly ever annotated the book that I was reading, but now this is no problem for me because this is where I have exceeded the most.

The piece of writing that I will be reading is a story of a skunk that was living in our yard. My parents did not appreciate the skunk living in our yard because it caused fear in us that our dog, Tanner, would get sprayed. Therefore it needed to be taken out! I picked this piece of writing because many people don’t encounter a skunk living in their yard. I was inspired to write this story because it is a story that my friend and I won’t forget. If there were a theme that is interpreted threw this story, it would be, “if something needs to be removed, there is always a reason why.”

Stinky

It was only two months ago when I noticed a skunk roaming threw my yard. As weeks passed by, I came to conclusion that he settled into his new home under my barn. After observing that the skunk was not going to move anytime soon, my Dad and I decided that this skunk needs to be shot to prevent it from spraying my chocolate lab, Tanner.

On a nice Sunday afternoon, my friend Jeff was coming over. After finishing the call with him, I went outside and sat on a rocking chair in the yard. As I was waiting, I happened to look over my shoulder. After looking over my shoulder, my eyes grew large because the skunk was twenty yards from where I was sitting chowing down on the green grass. As soon as I was done looking over my shoulder, my buddy Jeff had come steaming down my gravel driveway causing a cloud of dust to appear. I ran over to Jeff’s dusty black car and showed him the skunk. Jeff had brought his .22 caliber rifle over because he can’t shoot his gun in his neighborhood and we wanted to shoot targets in my back yard. As soon as his eyes saw the skunk, he quickly ran back to the trunk of his car and started preparing his gun to exterminate the skunk. He put five bullets into his clip and crept up on the skunk for a better shot. I observed near the car and watch him destroy the skunk. When the bullet first hit the skunk, its face froze and had an expression as if he was screaming. After the skunk was taking out, my Dad came outside and said, “ What’s all this shooting?”

I replied, “We got the skunk Dad!”

“Really? Are you guys going to take it out to the woods so it doesn’t start stinking up near the house?”

“ I think Jeff and I are going to let it sit for a while to make sure it is dead, then we will take it.”

“No. You guys need to take it now.”

“ Ok, I will.” I went and grabbed a scoop shovel out of the barn and went over to the skunk. As soon as I got it on the shovel, it started stinking really badly. The stink was so incredible that it caused my nostrils to get irritated and Jeff and I had to take turns to re-gain our breath. After walking nearly a 100 yards to reach the woods, we flung the skunk in to the woods where it still lies today!

Jimmy reads it and means it

My full name is James Raymond Wall IV. I graduated from Dublin Coffman High School in 2009, I have lived in Dublin, Ohio my entire life. I started classes at OSU Delaware in the fall of 2009, and i enjoy playing video games and ice hockey in my spare time.

My strongest memory from taking English 109.01 is the fact that we would always thoroughly cover the assigned reading before moving on to another activity. In previous classes it was hard for me to keep up with the reading but now i am comfortable with reading assignments in any class. Throughout the quarter i learned the importance of brainstorming several ideas for a writing assignment before beginning the drafting process, learning the writing process allowed me to develop as a writer throughout the duration of the class. It seems to be much easier for me now to develop an essay in any class, over any topic due to my advanced comprehension of the writing process. This helped me a lot as a college student, due to the large amount of essays you have to write in every class you take.

Throughout the quarter, we did many creative writing pieces. I believe that this helped ever member of the class become a more versatile and unique writer. Our final assignment was to write a poem about someone in your life that had a positive influence on you. The following paragraph contains the text from that poem:

Mrs. Miller

She was simply a neighbor.

She was an undoubted friend.

I mowed her lawn,

I trimmed her trees,

spread her mulch,

and charged a fee...

She paid on time with no complaints.

On payday she always had a snack waiting for me.

She offered advice and wisdom without restraint.

Her friendly smile filled me with glee.

She paid her dues in more than currency.

For the tree trimming she paid in wisdom.

For the mulch she paid in smiles.

Sure, her work was an easy buck.

But in my eyes she was more than that.

In my eyes she was a dollar sign.

In my eyes she was a text book.

In my eyes she was a master chef.

In my eyes she was family...

Childhood Paradise

My name is Abdikadar Ali.
Originally I’m from Somalia; I lived in the states for almost two decade.
I’m studying to become a Chemical Engineer.
My hobbies are playing physical sports like football and soccer.

My strongest memory in this class is understands the writing process and ability to writing perfect ten papers. One thing I master in this class is how to write creative paper, use metaphors and other sarcastic expression. In the future, I see myself fitting comfortably in English 110, not struggling with my papers.

For my presentation I choose snapshot Four, because this piece tells the story of my childhood paradise. This place is where I use to shake off the entire stress related problem in less than a month. It was place you socialize with many different people that come from all the corners of country. The animals were the beauty of the place.

Childhood Paradise



As child, I had been travel to many places around the world. I have seen Serengeti, wilderness reservation in Tanzania, and Pyramids of Gaza in Egypt. However, no place that I seen has surpassed the beauty of my childhood paradise the Valley of Daar.
Daar Maalin was a summer camp set deep in the heart of a valley inside the wilderness, river running wild, steep jungle, and animals roaming freely feasting the lash green vegetation. No haunting was allowed, because it would ruin the beauty of the place, which was the animals who occupy the valley. The most amazing thing of the place was the Baboons, who occupy the trees on the bank of the river. They felt that we are threat to their territory by bombarding us with rocks. Regardless of the reasons for this phenomenon, we all had known that these Baboons want to play.
Every morning we collected dozens of rocks, wait for them to show up, than the game begins. Sometimes they chase us back to the river. Sometimes we chase them back to the steep jungle, which was spooky place occupied by Wild Hogs. Walking there, I remember, it feels like someone is breathing down on your neck. Sending chills to our spine, our body would start shivered and we would not know how fast we came out of there. Than the Monkeys go nuts. The spectators were some of the monkeys who were dangling on trees above us, and our parents who were surprise to see this phenomenon. Our parents were enjoying the entertainment without thinking about the danger this might lead to. After long battle under the scorching summer sun, we would postpone the game to take dip in the river, all of us including the Baboons in peace.
The sun had laid itself to rest ending long day, and the moon brightens over the valley. The smell of wood burning mix with sweet smell of lavender fills the fresh air. The children gather around the burning fire to listen the elders tell stories about warriors, who used to gather here long, time ago, which none of us are interested. They perform rituals ceremony usually haunting lions to gain the status of become warrior. Haunting loins with spire, give me a breake. Most of us would be snack for the king of the jungle. When everybody goes to sleep, the predators come reeling in to fight over the spoil leftovers. The Haynes start laughing, the loins started roaring, and parents grew worry. Morning came. After long month in the valley, the fun come to end and the packing begin. Daar Maalin was a place you feel relaxed and comfortable in harmony with the environment. Perhaps the most memorable part was the breathtaking view that the valley offers. However, those times are over now and the dreadful world of stress begins.

Good Times!!

My name is Muna Dirieh. I am 18 years old. I'm originally from Somalia. I speak three languages which are Arabic, English, and Somali.I attend OSU/Delaware Branch. Hopefully if i dont change my mind, i will stick with being a Register Nurse. I chose nursing beause i guess it will allow me to help others in need and i am all about helping others that are less fortunate. On my free time, i like to read, listen to music, go out with freinds to do something creative and fun. I am blessed to be alive and thankful i live in a place where anything is possible.


English 109.01 was a class i wasnt sure i would like it. I told myself this is easy and i dont need any help with my english. But it turns out that i very much needed this class. This class taught me alot of things. It taught me how revise and polish my essays. I learned the more i try, the better of a writer i will be and in the future i wouldnt need any help. As far as where did i see myself growing the most, i would have to say my writing. With the help of this class my writing has definetly improved.


The piece of writing i chose to show is about my dear freind Hadel. Hadel was and still is my closest freind ever. I met her when i use to live back in Saudi Arabia. We would do anything and everything together. Anywhere you saw me, you saw her, and vice versa. This poem is basically about how i am grateful to God that i met her and i will always cherrish those memories we had together. Whether it was us fighting or us laughing. Nothing will ever change. We are still freinds till this day.

Here is My Poem. I titled it My Dear Friend:

My Dear Friend
Influences are either good or bad or in between
Life is either in black or white with gray in between
Friends can either help me or hurt me there’s no in between
I found a dear friend of mine that would cross the line of in between

Someone who wouldn’t mind being more then helpful and do right by me by all means
Where can I find another friend like mine that is so serine?
Who taught me about life and how to face my fears?
Not only fears but to join me when I needed to shed a few tears.
Someone who would keep near for all these years

I miss my friend of mine who was the tom to my jerry
The best of my friends who wouldn’t mind following me to the ends of the earth and would stay cheerful and merry
My dear friend of mine knew me when I was in my cocoon and when I morphed into a beautiful butterfly
Knew my friend when she was a duck and when she transformed into a swan and was no longer shy
I cannot lie to this day, I still cannot find someone like my dear friend of mine so I just close my eyes and go to the sky to see my dear friend of mine

Phenomenal Woman!

Hello, everyone my name is Najma Ali and I am currently a freshman at the Ohio State University the Marion Branch. My current major as of right now is education but it's bound to change like always. The reason why I keep changing majors is becuase am someone who gets bored easily and it's really had for me to settle for one thing. I do have many qualities, but one of them would be that I am a very friendly person. I like to help others in every way I can but most people suggest that I do public relations as my major. My family and I are immigrants from Somalia. It's really wierd for me to call my self somailan sometimes becuase I have never seen somalia. It's really hard to relate to some of my peers becuase they talk about how many memories they have of certain towns. I come from Egypt but as I have already stated my nationality is Somali.

English 109.01 was a really fun and creative class, even though I was distracted half the time. We learned alot about the writing process and also focused a lot of time on details. I have learned about creative writing and how to use great language in my writing. My biggest accomplishment in this class is that I learned how to organize my paper. I always had an issue with gathering my information and presenting in a very well written and well thought out manner. This class has taught me to get my information together so that its not jumping from one subject to another, in other words smooth transition.

Picking the piece that I was going to do was really tough because I really liked most of my snapshots. They all had such a big significance and also described many of my experiences. My favorite Snapshot would have be the seventh one. I picked that becuase it was about my favorite poem called Phenomenal Woman by Maya Angelou. I really like poem becuase it lets everyone know that there is more to someone than just beauty. That you don't have to be beautiful to be noticed or to be powerful or to have an impact.

Phenomenal Woman
The poem “Phenomenal Woman” by Maya Angelou is one of my favorite poems. I was never a poetic person neither did I care for poetry. My mother got me into poetry. One Sunday morning we were sitting in front of the TV watching an Oprah rerun and she happened to be speaking about Maya Angelous. She talked about how she’s not just a poet, she’s also a humanitarian. I never really read any of her poems so I asked my mom. She told me that she loves her poems. She told me to Google her work and I did. I started reading all of them but the one that caught my attention happened to be Phenomenal Woman. This poem is about how she’s not the most beautiful girl but she has something that other pretty girls don’t. She says “pretty women wonder where my secret lies. I’m not cute or built to suit a fashion models size but when I start to tell them they think I’m telling lies”. I love that line because it shows that there is more to a woman than just good looks and a great body. This poem confirms that you don’t have all looks; you should always have something else other than that. It lets you know that you should always be confident about yourself regardless of how you look and regardless of what society says of you.

Never Shall I Forget

My full name is Liza-Andrea Fabiola Bonilla and I am a freshman at The Ohio State University studying early childhood education. I was born on April 19, 1991 in Lansing, Michigan. My father is originally from Colombia, South America and came to the United States when he was seventeen through an exchange program. He lived with my mother's family and they fell in love. I have one brother, Carlos, who is 23 and a University of Findlay graduate. I also have two little sisters, Mariana, 14 and Sofia, 7. My family and I are all very big Michigan fans, therefore my favorite hobby is to watch football and cheer on my wolverines.

My strongest memory from taking English 109.01, is reading the book Ordinary Resurrections, by Jonathan Kozol. To me it was a book that helped me to realize what many children around the world, not just in the Bronx, New York, have to deal with each day. I see how precious life is and how lucky I am to have all the things that I have. I learned many things about the writing process, such as how to write an essay that was worth reading, and how to start off a paper which was my struggle in the beginning of this class.

It was tough to choose one writing that I really liked or wanted to read, but the one that I chose is Never Shall I Forget. It is a poem that I wrote about the day my little sister, Sofia was born. I would have to say that that day was one of the happiest days of my life. Waiting for her for nine months was tough because I wanted so bad to be a big sister again and hold a precious little baby in my arms. Her being born, showed me a lot about myself and I realized that something so little could bring such happiness to so many people, including myself.

Never Shall I Forget

Never shall I forget that cold January afternoon

Never shall I forget snow flakes the size of quarters,
falling from the ocean blue sky

Never shall I forget the time I waited

Never shall I forget the day I saw her

Never shall I forget the light in her eyes,
that shined like the brightest star in the sky

Never shall I forget the joy she brought me

Never shall I forget the moment I held her

Never shall I forget the sound of her cry

Never shall I forget calling my friends and telling them

Never shall I forget bringing her home in her little pink blanket

Never shall I forget watching her sleep
wondering how something so little could bring so much peace

Never shall I forget thanking God for her

Never shall I forget the day my baby sister was born

Never!

Introduction of Annie Yu

My name is Annie and I am from Hong Kong. I just moved here three months ago and I am living with my brother, my mom and my stepdad. I am majoring in business and I wish I could get into the fisher college of business in OSU in the next academic year. I studied in a music school in Hong Kong and I was in the vocal major. Singing has always been one of my favorite hobbies and sometimes my parents feel annoyed because I sing too much at home.

In taking 109.01, I learnt a lot because we have to practice writing all the time. We have to write journals and snapshots every lesson, so that we can get more familiar with writing. I think my writing skills are improved because of all the practice we’ve done in class. We also read actively on books about children in the poor neighborhood which make us think more about the problem of social inequality. We learnt to get the author’s main ideas in the books and we analyzed them in class.

I am going to share the snapshot on characterization of a person which is about my stepmpm. I chose this snapshot because my stepmom has a really great influence on me. She has been takecaring of me for 15 years and she treats me as her own daughter. She is so selfless and I've learnt a lot from her throughout all these years.

Snapshot Two: Characterization of a Person

I’ve been living with my stepmother since I was three years old. She is nothing like the wicked and evil stepmothers portrayed in Cinderella or Snow White. She’s very kind, caring and gentle most of the time. However, you never want her to get mad as she has the ability to scold people for an hour or two, or even more. When I am not studying for my exams or misbehaved, she gets mad at me and will scold me for the whole night.

My stepmom has to work on weekdays from nine to six. She’s the toughest woman I’ve ever seen. After working in office, she cooked dinner for the whole family at home, then she’ll do all the housework until twelve at night. She always looks tired and exhausted, like she can fall asleep anytime, anywhere. I never thank her for all that work she does for the family, I always take it for granted.

The night before I moved to the United States, she cooked all my favorite dishes and was very quiet. I looked into her eyes, and they are filled with tears. I was speechless, thinking of the scenes when she’s doing housework and scolding me for not studying my tests. She’s only a stepmom, so actually she doesn’t have to do anything for me or even care about me. However, she’s the one who’s always worried about me and cared for me. My father once told me that stepmom is not looking for any pay back from me for what she has done for me. I would love to say she’s the greatest stepmom ever, but the fact is she’s more to me than my stepmother and she will always take a very important part in my heart.

Hello, Ladies and Gentleman

My name is Eddie Loomis. I was born and raised here in Ohio, specifically Gahanna, Ohio. I moved here to Delaware about 4 years ago. So, I never went very far. Here at Ohio State I plan on studying music which is something I love. The instrument I will be focusing on is the guitar. I started playing the guitar when I was 13 so I have been playing for almost 6 years now and I love it. I have played with a couple of groups and it is so much fun.

In English 109.01 I have really enjoyed a lot of the writing that I have been able to do. I also enjoyed reading The House on Mango Street. I think that I have also learned a lot about the writing process in general. I think I am getting better at brainstorming and playing around with different ideas as I write and it is helping me to open up and be more creative. I think this makes the writing process a lot more enjoyable and I am happy with the way I have begun to grow as a writer. I feel like I can be more creative and I have more of an outlet because this class has been good practice to develop my writng skills.

The piece of writing that I chose to read for the class was my fourth snapshot. I wrote this one about a place downtown called Park Street Tavern where there is a jam session every tuesday night. I chose to read it because I think I did my best to give life to that feeling I get when I hear the music there. It is really about that feeling and about the synergy between musicians during a good performance.

There’s a place downtown where all the cool cats go to jam. It’s a tavern on the north end and on any given Tuesday night you can hear all of it from the street. Cool smoky tone saxophones, slide trombones, wails and moans, chomping keys, walking bass lines, crashing cymbals and brushes on a snare. It all fills the air and spills out through the doors and windows. It’s warm inside, and it smells like free popcorn, but the sound always brings me home, and when I walk in the back door during Pete’s solo there’s always a chair open.

I’ll walk in around ten, buy my coca cola from the pretty girl at the bar and take a seat next to a stranger. Some of these people aren’t here for any jazz, but you can tell who is. You can see a few drumsticks by the bar, the old timers are in the corner nursing their trumpets, and you can hear a symphony of b flats coming from a group of sax players tuning up by the door. I just write my name on the list and set my guitar against the wall next to me while I listen to the quartet as they snap another tune.

Later in the evening I’ll join the band. I might not know anyone there, but when I pull out my guitar

it doesn’t matter. When you’re on stage it’s like everyone knows your name. You call a tune

that everybody knows and it all comes together.

Memories

Hi, I am Lindsey Robson. I was born in Melbourne, Florida, in 1991. From the age of one till now, I have grown up in the small villiage of Ashley. It contains maybe 1500 people in the village and the surrounding areas. I attended and graduated from Buckeye Valley High School. A small country school just outside of Delaware. While in high school, I decided to attend the Delaware Area Career Center. They had a health technoligies program there which caught my interest. This helped me to decide what I would major in college. I am attending The Ohio State University and majoring in nursing, inparticular the labor and delivery field. In my free time, I enjoy being in the outdoors, camping, riding quads. I also enjoy watching movies at home, going to the movies, dancing, and bowling.



My strongest memory from 109.01 would be our class dissussion. I enjoyed how as a class we would sit together and discuss what we were reading. In high school, it wasn't like that we would all sit at our desks and only a few people would talk. It has helped me to be comfortable with talking as a group. In 109.01, I also learned new things about the writing process. Invention is a vital part of the writing process. It helps you to get some ideas establish and then pick from those ideas. I never did this in high school. I just would write about the first thing that popped into my head. I grew in this class especially in the area of creative writing. I enjoy writing now, whereas before i hated writing. It didn't matter what writing it was, academic or creative, i hated it. I can now say that I actually enjoy.



I chose the piece of writing, Snapshot Seven. The one where we talked about our favorite song and why it was our favorite song. I picked this piece because it stands out most in my mind about my everyday life and its about music which is a part of most college students life. The inspiration for this piece was my mother and the song "Don't Forget to Remember Me" by Carrie Underwood. There is a theme with all of the creative writing that we have done. In all of them, we have written about things or people that have had an affect on our life. This theme is seen also in this piece which i think is important.

"Don't Forget to Remember Me"

Carrie Underwood was on American Idol.

She is one of my favorite country singers.

"Don't Forget to Remember Me" is one of her popular songs.

I like to listen to all kinds of music. I think the best kind of music, however, is music that has meaning or tells a story. It makes it seem more related to life and allows people to make connections to things in their life too. There is a song that has stuck with me since it came out in 2005 and now seems very vivid in my mind. The song is "Don't Forget to Remember Me" by Carrie Underwood.

This song is about a girl who has grown up and is now leaving home. She sings, "Eighteen years have come and gone, for mama they flew by but for me they drug on and on." She is saying good-bye and moving on with her own life. She doesn't want her family to forget her. This song means a lot to me, because I am at that stage in my life now. I'm ready to leave home. Every time I hear this song I think about how it will be when I do eventually leave, if mom and I will stay as close as we are now. It tells of the relationship she has with her mom which is most similar to mine. She sings, "Hey Mama don't forget to tell my baby sister I'll see her in the fall and tell Mee-Mal that I miss her yeah I should give her a call and make sure you tell daddy that I'm still his little girl yeah I still feel where I'm supposed to be but don't forget to remember me." This is probably one of my favorite songs and my mom's too. This song has had a great influence on me to not be afraid to leave as they will remember me.

Life Lessons by Abdi, Maryam, and Yianni

We learned that in school if you have beef with someone, don’t go to the bathroom alone or you may be drinking water from the toilet.

We learned that if you don’t play nice with teachers it might affect your grades.

We learned that being creative had its rewards

And that art class is only important if someone important thought so.

We learned how to run away from school

And that escaping school might cause you grounding at home

We learned how to cheat when we had to pass our exams.

We learned that love makes the world go round but showing any signs of affection in public was against the rules.

We learned that there are no shortcuts in learning

But also how to force the naïve to do our homework

We learned how reading was important for our minds.

Except if it’s the wrong book.

We learned that some teachers tend to favorite some of their students

And that nerds are more favorite students for the teacher.

But that’s not exactly the case for the rest of the school.

What we learned in school- Rex Wu

We learned that do not use computer for fun.
Every time I use computer to do my homework, I wanted it for fun. I hoped god would do homework for me. But this kind of miracle never happened to me.
Throw paper but don't hit other student
Make sure flash your sturff away after using toilet
Get lunch, follow the line
Finishing all the food which you bought in lunch
Know the direction to your next class
When I know the direction of my math class, I would not pay attention in class.
Talk with the teacher but don't said mean things
But my physics teacher would play a jock to me when I was late. She said "Smoke in the bath room."

What We Learned In School- Annie Yu and Lindsey Robson

We learned that little boys had cooties,

We learned that we can’t chew gum in class, after being made to spit it out,

We learned that procrastination is not the best way to get an A,

We learned that detention class is what we are rewarded for not doing our homework,

We learned that attendance is a must and that tardiness is not tolerated after having a lunch detention with the weird attendance officer,

We learned that sitting in the corner of the class is the best way to get some good sleep,

We learned that snow days often are enjoyable at the time but are not so fun when you
have to make it up at the end of the year,

We learned that we are not allowed to have any excuses for not doing homework even we
have one that makes sense,

We learned that sometimes practice lockdowns are really lockdowns with drug searches and police dogs,

We learned to send text messages under the desks and tables all in all for the most part
we learned how to not get caught.

What We Learned In School By Najma Ali And Muna Dirieh

Never go to the boys bathroom and theres no soda machines in there too.
Learn to not chew in class.
Learn to always wash your hand, even though some of the teachers dont wash their hands themselves.
Learn to never skip lunch or else lunch detention is riding up on you.
Learn to agree and never disagree
Learn to be open-minded, but they tell you what to think.
Learn to never bad mouth a teacher.
Learn to never skip school and roam around the school at the same time.
Learn to never smoke in the bathroom because you will get caught.
Cheating is never the solution.

What We Learned In School

By Fahad and Eddie


We learned that if you miss a practice, you’re a bench warmer.

Cheeseburgers don’t stick to the window.

Fighting in school can only make you end up at the principal’s office.

But allowing your dog to poo in the hallway can get you suspended.

And playing with cats always ends up with scratches.

You should never leave the lid off of the snake’s cage.

To get a good grade always kiss up to the teacher.

But you’re not allowed to actually kiss the teacher.

If you’re in the hallway instead of in class, you will be caught red handed.

Unless you’re slick.

What We Learned In School
By: Jimmy Wall, Tyler Stauch

In school we learned not to stick gum under a table, that would lead to a detention, or even worse,

We learned Arithmetic so we could count down the days until summer,

We learned Science, so we could poke dead frogs with a stick,

We learned English, so we could effectively disagree with our parents,

We learned History, so we could never talk about it again,

We learned Spanish, to hurt our brains,

We learned to respect our peers, only to hate their guts,

We learned the Health system, wow that was interesting,

We learned how to eat lunch, we thought we already knew how to do that,

All in all, we learned a lot…

What We Learned In School: You'll Be Punished

We learned that...if you get up and walk out of the classroom without asking, you'll be punished

We learned that...if you stick your gum underneath the chair, you'll be punished

We learned that...if you cut in line in the cafeteria, you'll be punished

We learned that...if you're late to class, you'll be punished

We learned that...if you get caught texting, you'll be punished

We learned that...if you throw food, you'll be punished

We learned that...if you're not nice to others, you'll be punished

We learned that...if you don't do your homework, you'll be punished

We learned that...if you don't dress properly, you'll be punished

We learned that...if you don't have a pass in the hall, you'll be punished

We learned that...if you don't attend school, you're parents will be punished

journal 9

I like street dance. Street dance is from America. Most of Asians think Micheal Jackson is the best dancer they admire him. But in here lots of people just make fun of him. First time I saw his dance I felt it is amazing and tried to learn his moon walk at home. His dance let me have enthusiastic to dance. Latter my friend and I had dance class in a studio. I like dancing gradually. And I felt I would become another person when I was dancing. Sometimes I imagine I have a dance with my friends on stage. I want to see people feel surprise went I am dancing. And everyone will give applause.

Last year there was a movie named step up 2. I love it very much. The characters endure all the problems on dance. The problem of family, the problem of requirement these problem did happen on me either. Eventually they can solve all these problem and had an excellent show. It is one of my favorite movie.
Street dance influence me. I can find another me in my mind. It let me not quite anymore. It made me had lots of friends. Learning street dance it is the best time in my life. But it belongs to my high school years in China, I can not have that feeling in here. I even do not have enthusiastic to dance here.

http://www.youku.com/playlist_show/id_3537776_ascending_1_page_1.html

Journal 9

The American popular culture that influence me in my life are TV shows. When I was child, I often watch The Arthur show. This show is on PBS channel. The show have influence me by teaching English because when I was a child, I just start to learn English. This show is like teach some English to me. They show the pictures and the action they do, so I can understand some of it at that time. When the character speak in the show, I try to follow what they said and understand what it mean by see the action. I mean by that time is when I just come to American not very long and still learn baisc English. There a website about this show: http://pbskids.org/arthur/

My Show

A show that I absolutely like is Saturday Night Live. I can’t necessarily say that the show has influenced me in any sort of way. But it’s a show I look forward to watching and I get a good laugh every time I watch. SNL is one of the longest-running network programs in American television history. The show is basically about throwing a good show for everyone and bringing in a guest and musical performance. SNL inspired and influenced other sketch comedies such as Fox's In Living Color and Mad TV, not to mention created countless of characters who found their onto the silver screen.
I guess this show for me proves that not everything is about shows being negative and bad influence to children or world. I sit down every Saturday with my little snack and my siblings surrounding me and I watch it. And every time I watch it, I’m not disappointed. I laugh and I laugh.

check out the official website: http://www.saturday-night-live.com/

Suheir Hammad

My favorite celebrity is not really a celebrity she is more of a poet. I guess you can say an artist, an artist of words that is. Her name is Suheir Hammad, I found her on YouTube. She is a very inspirational Palestinian poet, author and a political activist. The reason why she is so influentical in my life is becuase she has faced the same struggles that my family has. Since she is a muslim women I feel that I can relate to her in so many ways. Her poems are very realistic and the reflect on her life. My favorite poem of hers is First Writng Since. It talks about her reaction to the 9/11 attack.You can find her writting on her website at http://www.inmotionmagazine.com/ac/shammad.html.

Journal Nine

Facebook is a popular social network originated in the United States. Almost everyone in my high school has a facebook. I notice the facebook have both positive and negative influnces on people. Facebook's positive influence on me is that I can connect with my friends in Hong Kong so that we can keep in touch. I saw people who are on facebook all the time and they keep constantly playing games on it. I think that is a negative influence on people. Sometimes, people spent too much time on it and they just disclose their whole life on facebook. I used to be addicted on facebook when I first started using it, but then I found out that I just wasted too much time on it. Now, I seldom go on facebook because I want my privacy. I’ve seen people who use facebook to stalk people they barely know and I just don’t understand sometimes. All in all, I think that facebook has a positive influence on me as long as I limited what people can see in my profile. My friends and I send messages to each other in order to update how each other are doing in different countries.

http://www.facebook.com/

Journal 9

It is undeniable that popular culture is probably the most influential factor concerning our lives especially now; on account of the fact that we constantly immerse ourselves in it with our technology. One of the biggest influences in my life has always been movies. There is literally no media like it and no more effective media when it comes to influencing the minds of young people. Without a doubt the most inspiring movie I have seen so far would have to be Whisper of the Heart. It is a film that was licensed from studio Ghibli by Disney. It is the story of a young middle school girl growing up in Japan and discovering herself as a writer. From the moment I watched it I felt compelled to write my own stories. I connected greatly with the main character of the story, and could really relate to a lot of the same problems that I and my friends had when we were in middle school. A lot of times animated films are stereotyped as being childish or more for younger audiences. But this not the case with this movie it is rated G but I found it would be more suitable for teenage to adult viewers because of the themes and tone of the story. http://www.tcm.com/thismonth/article.jsp?cid=114169&mainArticleId=114160

Soccer Phenomenal

The most thing that had influence on me was one legendary Soccer player and his name is Ronaldinho. He is one of my favorite soccer player and most exciting soccer player to watch in the history with all of his creative soccer skills. Even though he is not on my favorite team of soccer which is Chelsea F.C. I still admire him for being the best player in the world. Ronaldinho used to play for a spanish team called Barcelona which he don't play for no more. HE currently place for an italian team called AC Milan. As an international player he is a Brazilian Born and won the 2002 world cup with Brazil.

Ronaldinho influenced me because he is guy that works so hard to earn all this respect from the whole world. In order for me to be good in something i like i always have to put a hard work on it and focus on it the most. You have to have a commitment on the thing you like to do best and always try your best and work hard to get the respect. The other thing that influences me about him is that he is a good role model for young kids who grew up to be fans of a soccer team and who love the game. He is a good guy On and Off the court that is what inspire me the most about him. A guy so talented so gifted and also a good role module. To find out more about Ronaldinho and his career go to http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ronaldinho

Popcure Culture in America

There are different kinds of popular culture in America such as TV shows, sports, movies and artists. Everyday of my life, it contains American popular culture. From the morning, when I drive to school, I hear different kinds of music from the radio. In the class, I use internet to receive information about research. When I get home that night, I watch shows or movies on the TV. This influences me how I live each day, for example, listen to the recent songs so I do not get lost when my friends are talking about it. Same as TV shows and celebrities.

Football has been the biggest sports influence on me. Football is definitely an American sport. Therefore I did not know the enjoyment of football until I was in high school. I started watching Ohio State football games, however, I did not understand the rules at all. I figured out the rules and ever since, I love to watch the game every weekend. This influences me because I found another enjouyment and I do not get lost whenever I watch football.

More info: http://www.ohiostatebuckeyes.com/

Air Jordan

Growing up as young kid in the 90's, my biggest influential celebrity was Michael Jordan. The man who earn the nickname Air Jordan. He gained a reputation for being one of the best defensive players in basketball. He had a positive sportsmanship and dedication to the game which earn him six tittle. He was the best sport role model I ever had. The most memorable moment was watching him jump from the free throw zone and dunk. My admiration of him still didn't fade out. Still there are no NBA player who could fill his shoe.

http://www.michaeljordan.org/

Perfection

http://ellen.warnerbros.com/

Popular culture is something that is a part of every person's life. Whether we were just born, in our mid twenties or late eighties, it follows us everywhere. Every single day of my life, when I turn on the T.V., radio, computer or whatever it might be, I am being influenced by the people speaking, the music playing, the website I'm visiting etc.


I would have to say that the biggest influence that American pop culture has on me is that fact that most girls around my age think that we are "expected" to look a certain way. We see so many celebrities, both men and women, who look the part with perfect hair, perfect skin, perfect body, and just everything seems so perfect in their lives. I sometimes feel pressured to be skinny, or the ideal weight. I find myself wanting to look like the celebrities that I see on T.V., with their weight lose plans. It makes me think about what would happen if I did what they did, would I feel better or not? Then again I think to myself, what is the true meaning of perfection? Everyone has their own definition of this word and no one truly is "perfect." We all have our flaws, including celebrities. If their stomach is not toned enough for a photo shoot, they use photo shop and technology to fix the flaws. To me, being the best I can be is me reaching perfection.


The celebrity that i would say influences me the most would have to be Ellen DeGeneres. I admire her because she is different than everyone else. She knows that she is unique, and she is a lesbian, which to some people is morally wrong, but to her it is just her being herself. On her show she is silly, humorous and you can tell that she does not care about what other people think of her. Her life may not be perfect, but she tries to make it as perfect as can be.

Entourage

The most influential part of popular culture that affects my life is the TV show Entourage. It is produced and directed by Mark Wahlberg, one of my favorite actors of all time. The show is about a young man from Queens, New York that has become a very promising movie star.

He grew up very poor and is now very wealthy and successful, which in my eyes is an example of one aspect of the American Dream. Despite the large amounts of money he has acquired, he never forgets where he came from. He likes the money and the toys, but he never lets it go to his head. He provided his close friends with jobs such as a manager, driver, or a chef.

Most of the episodes describe average problems that an actor would face, such as unemployment, paparazzi, and the actual physical job of working as an actor to create a finished movie or show.

This show reminds me that no matter where you come from, you can always achieve your goals, and no matter how much money you make, you should never forget where you come from.

More information on this show can be found at:
http://www.hbo.com/entourage/

John Butler's Influence on My Life

To focus on more important matters I prefer to stay away from the TV and not spend a lot of time mindlessly surfing the internet, but music has always been a passion of mind. Therefore, I think that the strongest links between myself and American popular culture are the artists that I listen to. One particular artist that has really changed my life is a man named John Butler.

John Butler is an incredibly talented multi-instrumentalist and a songwriter from australia. The thing about his work that first appealed to me was his work on the 11 string guitar. When I heard a composition of his entitled "Ocean" (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5xZw9D9c18E) the way I play the guitar began to change completely. However, there is more to his work than the guitar. I find the words he writes to be inspiring as well.

The lyrics in John's songs all seem to contain themes of peace, love, and respect. They are hopeful and they inspire me to do good things. One particular thing I like about his songs is the emphasis he puts on the importance of love in almost all of his songs. Everything he sings about just seems so natural. John has been a big influence on my life because his music has changed my priorities and changed my life for the better.

Journal Nine: The influence of pop culture on a person

The American popular culture most influences me through movies and television shows because I find it enjoyable. I am a frequent member of Blockbuster and enjoy watching movies. The movies I most enjoy are generally comedies, romance comedies, drama, and movies that have meaning. There is a movie that stick out most in my mind that has influenced me. The movie is "Gifted Hands: The Ben Carson Story". "Gifted Hands: The Ben Carson Story" is a movie with Cuba Gooding Jr. It is based on the true story of Ben Carson. Its about a young boy who lived in Detriot and struggled with school but once he got a pair of classes school was not such a struggle. This boy had dreams of becoming a neurosurgeon. He never gave up on his dream. This movie has influenced me, because this boy and man as you see him grow throughout the movie never gave up on his dream. When people would put him down and say he could not do it, he would fight harder. He had a hard life growing up in Detroit, but he never gave up on his dream. This has had an influence on me, because it shows me that dreams are obtainable no matter what circumstances you might have. I can have my dream all I have to do is fight for it. Here is the sight for more information on this movie. http://www.bvonmovies.com/2008/08/29/cuba-gooding-jr-to-play-dr-ben-carson-in-gifted-hands/

Deadliest Catch

When I think about American pop culture, I think about the T.V show Deadliest Catch. This is my favorite T.V show because their is never a dull moment in the show. Their is always something happening such as a big storm nailing the fishing fleet, boats breaking down, and injuries to the deckhands.

This show plays an influence in my life because it helps influence me to obtain a college degree and work hard to earn it. Even their many of the boats are family owned and passed down from generation to generation, many of their helping deckhands don't have college degrees. The only these deckhands earn an income is risking their lives fishing in the deadliest waters of the Bearing Sea. They work months at a time threw rough conditions, and work for 24 hours straight at times. This helps influence me to get a degree so I don't have to go threw those hardships.

http://dsc.discovery.com/fansites/deadliestcatch/deadliestcatch.html

Journal six

After tread this book I did learn how to describe a scene and it brought me back to my childhood. Some stories it talks about which did similar happen around me. Such as, the first job, chanclas, and some more, and so on. This book has two strengths. Each time the main character got problem finally they got fix it and have experience that is the first strength. Such as the story name “The Family of Little Feet”. The other strength of this book is the love in their family for example “Papa Who wakes Up tired in the Dark”. I gave me a shock, and let me thought about the scene when my grandmother died. Though it is a really short story, all the sentences have their feeling. This book has lots of stories however some of these stories are boring. In my opinion it is the weakness of this book. I would like every stories are interesting so that I can keep enthusiastic from the being to the end. But in the other hand I can think the boring stories can let the good stories become more interesting. Let readers feel like claiming mountains, sometimes goes up sometimes goes down.
My favorite story is “The family of Little Feet”. Girls curiosity to the heel. But they are the the age to wear that shoes. I think they just try to pretend an adult, however they do not understand these shoes should be wore in special place. Somebody warned them on page 41 “You girls too young to be wearing shoes like that. Take them shoes off before I call the cops, but we just run.” “Do you like these shoes?” this sentence appear 3 times in page 41, in my opinion they really like the shoes and try to get all peoples' attention. Eventually they got flirt with a Bum man. I like this story because it is let me understand I should pay attention to others warning.

The house on Mango Street.

This book was a really nice book. It more creative than anything else. She used many figurative language in the book. She described things so well and made them jump out of the book. She gave many objects characteristics that they didn't have and made sure it made sense. She was very detailed in. She has many themes and she just jump around from story to story. She talks about realistic situations that she has experienced that you can relate to.

The House on Mango Street

The House on Mango Street was a little different than other books. Some scenes were hard to understand because how the author, Cisneros, used grammars. I liked her unique writing styles where she did not use quotation marks at all. All the short stories were interesting and had a lot of details.By reading this book, I found the new writing skills. I learned that the main character, Esperanza, did not like the house on mango street, however, she had the most memorable moments with her friends and neighbors. The strengths in this story were how Esperanza did not complain about the house to her parents because she knew that they could not afford. And also how she had problems about the friends and family and find a way to solve them.
My favorite story in this book was “A Smart Cookie.” This is my favorite story because I could tell that Esperanza’s mother cares about Esperanza. She does not want Esperanza to experience the same like how she dropped school because of not having nice clothes. My favorite quote from this story is “I could’ve been somebody, you know? Esperanza, you go to school” (Cisneros, 91)

Journal Six

I learnt a lot of writing skills after reading the House on Mango Street. Ciseneros does really good on narration and characterization, she made the people and places come to life. She also used a lot of similes and metaphors which make the stories much more interesting to read. The sequence of the stories in the book is well organized; it showed me how the children in the Mango Street grow up and what they have to go through as a kid in a poor neighborhood. The stories are short but they just inspired us to think more about the in-depth meaning conveyed from each stories. The weakness of the book is that there are a lot of grammatical problems and it’s sometimes confusing to read; Ciseneros narrates stories with a lot of dialogues but she does not clearly indicate who the speaker is most of the time.

My favorite story is “Mango Says Goodbye Sometimes” which is the last story in the book. She says, “They will not know I have gone away to come back. For the ones I left behind. For the ones who cannot out.” In the previous stories, Ciseneros actually showed how much Esperanza doesn’t want to stay in Mango Street and choose her own way of life. She was ashamed to be poor and she wants to escape from the poor neighborhood. However, although she left the Mango Street at last, she just didn’t forget who she really is and she come back to the Mango Street to help the others who got stuck there.

Mango response

I enjoyed the story of House on Mango Street for several reasons.
First of all, It kind of reminds me of my own life. Before I moved to Ohio, I lived in Brownsville where there were many young girls like Esperanza. Since I met some of them while they were working in restaurans or gas stations, we kind of became friends and they told me stories similar to what happened to Esperanza.
I liked the story for other reasons too. In the first place, it portraits the dark side of American life. People from outside US might think that here there is no poverty and everybody is driving at least a Cadillac. Besides, this story has a strong message for poor people all over the world that it is possible not to break down the pressure of poverty. Esperanza shows us that by engaging our mind in useful activities such as writing, we can not only tolerate the pressure of life but also move on in our life successfully. And finally, I liked the fact that although Esperanza was determined to leave that street, She still felt responsible and sympathetic about the older women living there. I like her desire for thinking it is emotional and deep. My favorite story is MANGO SAYS GOODBYE SOMETIMES, the way she takes a risk and freedom in writing and she knows a beauty in herself, and she has a dream in her mind that she wants to bring it to this world. It has wonderful ending for the book very soft and sensitive but powerful.

Journal Six

After reading The House on Mango Street, I have to say this book has become one of my favorites. Even though the stories were short, I enjoyed reading them. I think when people read this book they become fascinated with the amount of meaning each story has. Cisneros does a very good job at explaining details very much and making sure the reader does not get confused or anything like that. I learned a lot from this book. I learned that no matter how happy a person seems, some are just putting that smiley face as a cover to hide what’s really going through their lives. I didn’t find any weaknesses because over all I liked the book. Some of the strengths of the book were that most stories were about the struggle of the people and things that happened behind closed doors when nobody knew anything about it.
One story that stood out to be the most was “A House of My Own.” I thought this story has the most meaning out of all the other stories. And also it is the shortest story in the book. But at the same time, when you read it, you instantly become amazed at how a short story can have such a meaning. She describes how she wants a place of her own and to basically start something new. She states “Only a house quiet as snow, a space for myself to go, clean as paper before the poem” (Cisneros 108). Even though she is still a young person, she understands life more than anyone else.

Journal Six: Thoughts on Mango Street

Overall, I liked the book. It was an easy read and a hard read. It was easy because it was composed of short stories. It was hard because it was her life. It told about the good times and the bad times. It dealt with how she struggled through it. I would say its weaknesses is that it was somewhat hard to follow because it was composed of short stories. I had a hard time tieing it all together at first. The strengths were that her creative writing made it seem real to the reader. It made you feel like you were there by the way she described things. I learned from this book to definitely appreciate what we have. I also learned that you should always remember where you came from. Some people may not like their past, but that is what made them who they are. If they forget where they came from, they could forget who they are.

My favorite story was "A House of My Own". I liked this story because all her life she wanted to live in a house. A real house. " Not a flat. Not an apartment in back. Not a man's house. Not a daddy's. A house all my own. With my porch and my pillow, my pretty purple petunias. My books and my stories. My two shoes waiting beside the bed. Nobody's garbage to pick up after." She wants it to be just hers and she doesnt want to have it because a man gave it to her. She doesn't want to be like Sally whose husband won't let her out of the house. She is independent and this much reminds me of myself and how I want to have a place of my own. She wants to be happy and on her own in her house.

Linoleum Roses

In this story, Esperanza's friend Sally gets married. Sally is maybe 14 or 15 at the time. She gets married in another state becuase you can't get married that young in most states. She gets married to escape the abuse, and violence going on in her home. Even though she no longer lives with her abusive father, she is still trapped, and can't go anywhere. It stood out to me becuase she is still in the same situation, she can't even leave the house becuase her husband won't let her or becuase she is too afraid to stand up to him. He is controlling her just like her father was. My favorite sentence is "she sits at home because she is afraid to go outside without his permission".

A House of my Own

I thought that overall, The House on Mango Street was a different and interesting book. Mostly because the author, Sandra Cisneros, did not follow the common grammar rules, and she basically made up her own form of grammar. She is the type of writer I like to be, which someone who can just sit down and type without worrying about whether the punctuation is correct or not.
What I learned from this book and from the main character Esperanza, was that whether you are happy about where you live, how you live and the people you live with or around, you have to suck it up and deal with it. Life eventually will all pan out the way you want it to be, just be patient.
One strength that really stood out to me in the book was the fact that Esperanza, for being a little girl, was so strong. Sure she complained about things that were not very significant, but like I said before, she continued to work. She found a job, she talked to people and made friends, she helped out her family when they needed her. She did all this without really asking what was in it for her. That is a true strength. A weakness that I saw in her was the fact that she did spend some of her time complaining about certain things that could not really be changed, like her name.
My favorite story in this section was, A House of my Own. I liked it, because even though it was the shortest story, it had so much detail and told a story in itself. She talks about having her dream place and having place of her own. My favorite quote in the story was when Esperanza said, “Only a house quiet as snow, a space for myself to go, clean as paper before the poem.” Another reason I like it is because this is what I too dream of. To have a place that I can call my own, where I do not have to clean or cook for anyone but myself. Where I can be myself and not worry about what others are thinking. My own sanctuary.