Post Reading- The Other Wes Moore

     For my post reading, I will be responding to the statement, " The choices we make about the lives we live determine the kind of legacies we leave."
     In this book, both Westly Moore's have similar lives in the beginning. Neither of them had fathers for the majority of their lives, they both lived in bad neighborhoods, and their families had very little money. While these things weren't their choices, they made other decisions that determined their path. They were both introduced to drugs eventually. The "Other Wes" used more often than "Author Wes". While they both made bad choices, the "Author Wes" was able to turn his life around but the "Other Wes" wasn't. The "Other Wes" made a lot of bad decisions. He got into fights, threatened to stab another football player with a knife, used and sold drugs, became a father at a young age, and even shot a man.  These are some of the "Other Wes's main bad decisions shown throughout the book. The "Author Wes" made some bad choices too, (we all do) but he turned his life around by going to military school, staying clean, getting multiple good jobs, becoming a business leader, etc. The result of these boy's decisions will determine the legacies they leave behind. The "Author Wes" is leaving a good legacy because of the things he's done, and people will most likely remember him in a good way. The "Other Wes" is leaving a bad legacy because of the things he's done, and people will most likely remember him in a bad way. This is very sad that things have to be like this.
   As for me, I know I will make mistakes in my life, but I want to be a successful person who others like and want to be around. So, I hope to leave behind a good legacy for people to remember me by. I think we all do.

The Other Wes- Moore Pre- Reading

    For my Pre- Reading I'm choosing to respond to the question about what others expect of me. I think that most people have pretty high expectations of me, which is what I want. I want people to think highly of me. I want them to see me as a good, honest, kind, and dependable person.

 From my view I think people expect me to be a caring person. I am always as good to people as I can be. If someone needs help I always try to be there for them, even if all I can do is listen. People know that I am a respectful person because I always show respect towards others. This is what I want others to expect from me, I wouldn't want anything else. I think that my friends also expect me to be funny, because I always make people laugh. I like to make people laugh; it makes me feel good to see people smile. So I think people expect me to be kind, respectful, responsible, considerate, helpful, funny, and sweet, but most of all a good person and a good friend.  I think that I meet these expectations everyday. Even if I don't, it's not that I'm trying to be disrespectful... I'm just not perfect, even though we all try to be.

  So I'm glad that people have high expectations of me, it gives me motivation, confidence, and just an all around good feeling.

Black and White- Post- Reading

  For my post-reading I am choosing to write about the quote, "For better or for worse, you'll find out everything you want (or don't want) to know about this world".  This quote connects to the book and to life both in many different ways.
  In the book we all learn that the man that Eddie (white) shoots, recognizes Marcus (black) and accuses him of the shooting. Even though Marcus didn't shoot the man, he "confesses" to doing it. When he does this, Eddie's name is never mentioned. I think that by doing this the author is trying to show diversity and maybe even a little bit about how racism comes into play in this book. The book as a whole doesn't really ever come straight out and talk that much about racism and social diversity. The reason I have mentioned social diversity is because a woman also recognized Eddie from a previous stickup, and when it came time to get lawyers, Eddie was able to afford one because he lived in a higher class neighborhood with wealthy parents. Marcus lived in a neighborhood in the bad part of town with his mother and his younger sister. ( His dad died.) His family did not have any extra money to spare, this is why they started doing stickups; to get money. This is how the author hinted at racism and social diversity throughout the book. So, whether we wanted to or not we all learned something about how others in the world think about skin color, social classes, wealth, etc.
  Everyday we learn something new whether this is at school or outside of school, whether we wanted to know it or not. Sometimes these new things that we learn can be sad or scary, and some can be exciting. Some things that we eventually learn about include death, racism, war, sickness, poverty, and homelessness. In this book we learned about racism, poverty, people not telling the truth to save themselves, and sometimes even bad friends. We have all experienced at least one of these examples.
  So, no matter if you choose to or not, you will learn something new about this world every day. But when you do, don't reject it because you never know, you might learn something new about yourself.

   

Pre- Reading Black and White

For my pre- reading, I am choosing to write about "how I want to be remembered." Obviously I want people to remember me as a good person and a good friend.  Don't we all?

  I think we all want to be remembered as a good person who people liked. After we are gone, when people/friends think about us we want them to think happy thoughts, only good things. I want them to remember me as a person who respected herself, adults, and her friends. When people think of me, I don't want them to think, "oh remember her? Remember how disrespectful and rude she was?" That's not how I want to be remembered. That's why I always try to respect others and be as kind as possible to everyone. That's a good attitude to have.  I want people to miss me when I'm gone instead of them being happy that I'm gone. When my friends and peers think of me, I want them to think about how I was a good listener, how I helped them through tough times, how I made their problems my problems, how I would always support them in their (good) decisions and actions, and how I was an all around good person. That's how I want to remember my friends. I also want to be remembered as a person who tried to make something good out of every situation. Maybe some people want people to remember them as a rebel, or a person who "showed them". This might be part of the reason that we have crime, robberies, school bombings/shootings, and other bad things. Maybe these people want to be remembered as a bad person, or the first person to do something like that, thinking it will make a difference and therefore making others want to follow in their footsteps. That isn't at all me, I'm not going to do something to ruin myself just to be remembered as a rebel or criminal. None of us should, we should all strive to be good.

  So, I want to be remembered as a good person with all of the qualities I listed above, but most of all I want to be remembered as a person who loved being here, living life and enjoying it. We all deserve to feel this way. We need to cherish every moment and make it count, because we never know when we will start being remembered.

Orphan Train Post- Reading

  I am choosing to write my post reading about the quote,  " I learned long ago that loss is not only probable but inevitable." I think that this is a very powerful and true statement. It also relates very well to the book Orphan Train.
  The first examples  that I want to give are related to the book, as well as Molly and Vivian's lives. Vivian is a ninety one year old who Molly (a teenager who was put into a foster home when she was very young) is helping clean out her attic so that she can stay out of jail. When Vivian was a little girl, a fire killed the rest of her family, fortunately she was able to be saved. At this time Vivian was put into a foster home and later moved between families. Sometimes she had a good family and other times she had a cruel family just like Molly's former family. The same exact thing happened to Molly, her father died and her mother turned to drugs to fix her problems. This resulted in Molly being orphaned.  Her former family ( Dina and Ralph) were not such a good family. Her mom Dina only kept her because she got money from the government each month for parenting an orphan.  Another big loss that they both had to face was losing their birth parents. This would be so hard for me to lose my parents, I can't imagine the pain that they faced during this. Another example is when Vivian's first husband died at war and she put her newborn baby up for adoption. She voluntarily put her baby up for adoption but, her husband's death forced her to do this. There are many more examples in this book, but these were the ones that stuck out to me most.
  Loss is also inevitable in real life, not just in stories. We lose family members and friends all the time. I'm not saying that this is a good thing or something we should hope for, but it happens... It's inevitable. I've been through it, everyone has. Everybody loses friends because of disagreements or arguments, and even if it hasn't happened yet, everyone will lose someone special to them. That person could be a friend, a family member, a teacher, a coach, etc.
  So, loss is inevitable and it's going to happen to all of us. We have to learn to deal with these losses somehow. I think this was a great book and it definitely portrayed many great real life references. I enjoyed reading this book and look forward to reading more from this author.

Human Nature Essay

Human Nature Essay

When you were born, you were moral, you were good. You and everyone else were all born decent people. If you are an evil person, you chose to be, or you were raised that way. Everyone is good hearted in general. Have you decided to be good or bad? It’s your choice and only yours. There are definitely lots of good morals that you could live by, that teach good things. Treat others the way you want to be treated, if you are nice, people will usually be nice back. Remember, people aren’t born evil!

 People help others out sometimes before themselves. In Lord of the Flies, Piggy and Simon helped out the little kids with taking care of themselves and they helped get them food. They lost their time when they could’ve been doing something they wanted, but instead they helped the little kids. The kids were very appreciative to Piggy and Simon because they couldn’t do this for themselves. In Night there was always one really nice SS officer anywhere they went that would sneak them extra rations of bread and soup. This is what kept some of the Jews alive. It spared someone like Elie’s father’s life for a few days. He was weak and the extra bread helped give him energy. Another example in Lord of the Flies would be when Ralph took up for Piggy when people like Jack and Roger taunted him because of his size and his asthma. At first Ralph made fun of Piggy  too, but then he realized who his true friends were.

 Another thing to think about is… If you are nice, people will usually be nice back. In the Cold Within Poem, one man said he would give to those who gave, but nobody gave so he didn’t This goes to show that if you are nice, and give people will usually give back. At school, I always try to be nice to others, because I want them to be nice to me. Treat others the way you would want to be treated.

 People aren’t born mean, everyone has some kindness in their hearts. People aren’t naturally cold- hearted. They either have to be raised that way or they have to learn it from someone else. Even though in Lord of the Flies Jack and Roger are mean and cruel, they didn’t choose to be stranded on an island with no order and no grownups. They were put there because of chance. They had to do what they had to do to survive, even if that meant being cruel to one another. I think in this situation we would all see a little bit of Jack and Roger in us. That doesn’t mean we would intentionally kill others, but we would all have frustration and anger. I think that deep down Roger and Jack can be good people. In Night the SS officers and they leaders weren’t always evil. Are most of them evil? Yes, but there was the occasional officer who snuck extra food and the one who sometimes didn’t kill someone. They weren’t evil at first, they chose to be this way. Sometimes they were even told that they had to do this cruel job, if they wanted to live.

 So, I think deep down, people are naturally good-hearted. Just remember that nobody is born evil or mean. Some things that you should think about before you are mean are… Most people help others before themselves, and treat others the way you would want to be treated. Always remember that you are a good person! Before you are rude to someone, remember the kind of person you want to be. I try to be good and be the best person I can be. Are you Good or Evil?

Pre-Reading Orphan Train

For the book Orphan Train, I am choosing to write about empathy. Empathy is when you have the ability to understand and share the feelings of someone else. Having empathy is a skill that I have. Everyone should try to have empathy even if it is hard, because having empathy makes you a better person and more people will like you.
  I think that having a sad experience just one time will make a person empathetic. Sometimes another person can relate to you, in the same sad experience or time. For example, in 2008 when I was 5 years old my grandmother passed away unexpectedly. I was so sad because I was super close to her and we were always around each other. She was and still is one of the closest family members that I have lost. Obviously I had a lot of questions for my mom and dad, but I was too little to really understand most of the answers to my questions. I still have lots of questions that I still can't understand today.
  Recently one of my close friends lost a very close family member. Having been through that same situation, I was able to understand what she was going through while helping her cope. I was able to listen to her and offer suggestions that might help her get through it and move on while always remembering. I wouldn't go as far as to say that I experienced it a second time with her, but I did share her sadness and listen to her talk through her emotions. I still feel very sad for her because going through another loss like that would be close to unbearable.
  My group of friends don't just have empathy for each other when we lose somebody, but we support, encourage, and sympathize each other in good and bad times. That's what all real friends should do for each other.
  So, having empathy isn't such a bad thing because it can make you a more understanding, loveable/likeable, encouraging person. I think that by having this quality, you will make more friends, because most people want a friend who listens to them and talks about their problems as well as yours. I will always try to have empathy because I know how important it is.

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 My favorite vacation ever was going to Washington D.C.