Posted by: saraha2013 on: February 28, 2010
When Telemachus is persistently being interrogated by the suitors about his father’s return, he exclaims, “I no longer trust in rumors—rumors from the blue” (Homer 91). Telemachus still has hope for his fathers return, and although he knows it is not a great possibility, he holds on to hope and does not listen to others.
Rumors can create two sides to hope. First off, they can provide hope. All it takes is one strong believer in the positive side who then tells people their views as if it is true. However, when this idea has spread as a fact, it can provide false hope to those who will soon be crushed. People look to this to keep their spirits up, as an escape from reality. While this may be easy for now, in the end, it is the hardest. Receiving a bad grade on a test one did not study for and expected a bad grade is easily accepted. But, when one studied and believed he or she did well, but the teacher hands back a C, it hurts. One is unprepared for the option of failure.
On the other hand, rumors can destroy all hope. But, whether it is true or not, people tend to pass this piece of information over as “just a rumor”. They look past the truth because of the possibility that it could be false. But, when one does not see it as “just a rumor” and this rumor turns into reality, people are often forced into a state of despondency.
I, however, believe it is important to find an area in the middle. While not wholly believing one’s hope will happen, one must still maintain some hope. If one was prepared for both possibilities, many of the side effects could be avoided. While this situation may be difficult to reach, especially in life-changing situations, in the end, it is the easiest option.
Posted by: saraha2013 on: February 5, 2010
Based on Jacob’s reliance on God in his journey to Laban (Gen. 28):
It was the first day of spring, the beginning of the softball season. Not being very athletic, Sadie had never really participated in sports. But, she decided to try something new. Practice began at five o’clock and Sadie wanted to arrive early and learn her way around. When she arrived, there was a team practicing before and the balls seemed to be flying at the speed of sound, it scared her. Well, her team slowly began to arrive and Sadie firmly introduced herself to each player. But, each player carried a long, large bag full of gear, while Sadie had nothing. She felt a little out of it, and intimidated. But, as soon as practice ended, she forced her dad to take her to Sport Chalet and they bought a glove, helmet, bat, cleats, sliders, each the most expensive; she wanted to be as good as she could.
Sadie practiced extensively, playing catch with her dad every day after school, but just could not get the hang of it. Every practice she felt embarrassed, as every other player was much better than her. One afternoon after going to the batting cages, she realized she left her bat at the cages. The next day when she returned for the bat, the owners had seen nothing of it. They just went home, hopeless. That night, however, there was a large flash outside and the whole family ran outside to see a bat lying in the driveway. It’s golden color reflected the moonlight perfectly, it looked almost divine.
Sadie used the bat the next few days at practice and every ball she hit flew like a bullet. It traveled past each player in the outfield. Although the players could not realize it, Sadie knew her bat was special. On Sadie’s first game, her first time up, she hit a homerun; the ball flew right over the fence. Games continued this way for a few weeks. But then, Sadie was going for her thirty-second, record setting homerun. As she swung the bat, the ball crushed the bat right in half. Sadie felt extremely devastated, while her team simply looked in amazement and told her to grab another bat.
Sadie thought she was in trouble, she could never hit a ball with this bat. But, she could not do anything. So, she closed her eyes and swung. Strike one. Once again, strike two. On the third pitch, the bat hit the ball, but not like normal. It bounced right to the pitcher. Sadie was called out for the first time.
Sadie never came to a game again. She gave up hope. She believed her bat was the one hitting the ball, when actually, she was hitting it all along. What could a bat do? She had to swing it; the bat had done nothing, all along.
Posted by: saraha2013 on: February 4, 2010
Once the truth about Sarah and Abraham’s marriage is revealed, Abraham states his reasoning, “There is no fear of God at all in this place” (Gen. 20.11).
Abraham fears God as to such an extent he needs to put this fear onto others. He believes others see God as just a figure to obey or not to obey. However, fear, to such an extent, has risks. It can force one into taking dangerous risks because they fear the consequences.
During World War II, many people followed Hitler, not because they believed in his reasoning, but because they were afraid of the consequences of not following him, despite the fact that it killed many innocent people. Each person’s insecurities forced him or her to fear standing out.
When a leader is put in place, one assumes his or her rules are the status quo, and thus, must follow them. It takes a great amount of courage to overpass this fear of standing out, but those who have, went down in history. During the Civil Rights Movement, most African-Americans sat in the back without questioning the rules. But, Rosa Parks, one of the few to protest these rules, made a different in the lives of African-Americans.
Most people actually know breaking the norm will change society, but they fear the consequences on the route to success. When fear gets the better of one, he or she make irrational choices, only concerning his or her current state, rather than the world as a whole.
Posted by: saraha2013 on: January 29, 2010
Based on God’s realization of his mistake of killing the human race (Gen. 9):
She paced across the floor in the shadow of her mistake. What could she do? Was there any way to fix it? She knew there was something she had to do, but nothing she could do.
It was Friday, finally. Eliza and Gemma frolicked through campus, overjoyed, unaware of what would happen next. Like an alarm clock in the morning, the bell ran, waking the two up from their freedom and sending them two class. Eliza went off to Physics, while Gemma went to math, at lease Eliza thought so.
Now, Gemma had a secret. For all her life, she had not experienced, so called, emotions. All those years her parents told her they loved her, she replied back, “I love you,” believing it was customary. She watched all her friends go from caring to almost repulsive, as they though she did not like them, leaving Eliza as her only friend.
As Gemma walked around campus stolidly, she returned to her backpack to find a note, reading:
The letter was not signed. Gemma was filled with rage, but didn’t know who to take it out on. But, as she peered around the area, she saw Brenan, her ex-best friend, running. She knew it was him. It had to be. She followed him. Through the courtyard. Through the grass. Through the parking lot. He stopped. In the bathroom. She looked around. She grabbed a rock. A fairly large rock. And walked into the bathroom. Brennan walked out of the stall. He looked surprised to see her. Gemma grabbed the rock. And slammed it into his head. He fell to the ground. Bleeding. He went limp. Dead.
It was in that moment that Gemma felt immense pain for the first time in her life. It hurt, boy did it hurt. She couldn’t move, she couldn’t even talk, she just stood there, motionless, watching her friend bleed to death. She couldn’t take it back, and she knew that. Emotion, she realized, is probably the most painful thing, more painful than death. She wanted to die, she would do anything to get her friend back.
Posted by: saraha2013 on: January 28, 2010
After creating the heavens and the Earth, God decides to create human kind and instills the idea of himself in the creatures he has just created. Then, he gives humans superiority over others, “[H]ave dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the air and over every living thing that moves upon the earth” (Gen. 1.28).
Although God plans for life to be perfect, he begins the existence of the Earth with dominance and inferiority. His motivation for this remains unclear, but it could be seen in two ways. First off, God could have believed society would only function that way, or he felt superior and strived for supremacy for himself then placed that upon others, too. However, in current day social rankings have created many problems, including many financial problems. People can’t resist the race for eminence even though it may hurt others along the way.
During an average teenager’s high school life, others will act and feel superior, damaging others and forcing them to feel worthless. Although they may know exactly how others will feel, they tell themselves they must be, so called, “popular” in an effort to avoid that feeling of inferiority.
Though superior people know that if no one placed themselves above others, all feelings of inferiority will discontinue the self-doubt most people feel. But, they refuse to end their reign because they cannot be sure that they will never feel that worthlessness.
Posted by: saraha2013 on: November 19, 2009
Lyra, struggling to decode the alethiometer, asks Farder Coram what an hourglass could possible stand for. He responds, “There’s often a clue there if you look more close. What’s that little old thing on top of it?” (Pullman 143). This turns on a light in Lyra’s head, which brings her to find a skull, symbolizing death.
A close look at something often reveals the key. In the episode of Grey’s Anatomy, “I Saw What I Saw”, a pacient suffers from unexpected burn complications and eventually death. It remains a mystery to the doctors why until one doctor figures out someone forgot to examine her throat, hiding the soot in her throat. If that doctor had remembered to check her throat, one small detail, a life would have been saved. The absence of attention to detail killed a woman, emphasizing the importance of those details.
Details often allow people to stress characteristics, get the point across, or simply make a point. In hide-and-go-seek, one, most likely, hides deep inside a corner, somewhere so minuscule, the seeker will never think of looking there. However, this idea is often rescinded when the seeker knows to look in those small areas. The details become the main point in the game, and when they are forgotten, aspects are lost. Detail provides solid support when in need and has become the go-to point for many things.
Proposition: Attention to detail allows one to avoid both major and minor mistakes and humans’ observation of this provides us with a clear go-to point.
Posted by: saraha2013 on: November 11, 2009
Today, June 13, is my sixteenth birthday. I decided to spend my sweet sixteen with a few close friends in Palm Springs, and the time to leave was creeping up on us. We waited until the clock struck midnight, and left our hotel room, hoarding bags of junk food with us. The moon reflected off the sidewalk like a mirror as we trekked to our final destination. We finally arrived. We scrambled over the hill and slid down the sandpit. There it was, one of the many golf course greens, but the only one overlooking a fountain.
We laid out a blanket and relied solely on the moon to guide our vision. We talked for, what seemed like minutes, an hour. Fear began to bottle up and we remembered one of the workers yelling at us earlier for playing on the golf course. Luckily, the hill acted as a screen to hide us from the real world. The only places visible to us were the rest of the golf course and the distant rooms. As exhaustion crept over us, we simply looked around.
In the distance, we saw a figure that took the shape of a person; the darkness hid exactly who or what it was. So, we just continued to talk. A few minutes later, the man was slightly closer. At this point we could make out that it was a person heading in our direction, but we just assumed he was walking to the pool and continued to ignore him. One of my friends, Alex, was telling us about the plans for her sweet sixteen when we heard a voice behind us whisper, “Hello, girls.”
Posted by: saraha2013 on: November 10, 2009
Josie, a teenager girl, witnesses a shooting at her high school, lasting exactly nineteen minutes. Her mother, Alex, thinks to herself, “In nineteen minutes, you can stop the world; or you can just jump off it” (Picoult 5). She comes to realize that, in any amount of time, her life could remain exactly the same, or her entire world could end.
Plot Summary: Overview of Nineteen Minutes
Jodi Picoult: The author’s website
Most people do not realize just how quickly life can come to halt. They continuously tell themselves, “nothing will ever happen to me.” But, people are often mistaken. For example, The Titanic was thought to be indestructible. The makers and passengers believed nothing would ever happen to the ship. Then, they were brought to their senses when the ship sank. Realizing reality in dangerous circumstances often reveals one’s self. Alex comes to realize not just the danger Josie is in, but also herself as a parent. She learns that she has, in fact, allowed her job to be a higher priority than her daughter. The awareness of this sparked her efforts to be a better mother. Perceiving her reality forced Alex into changing her poor ways.
Many may draw conclusions as to fear being the bottom line of these circumstances. Actually, the fear acts as simply a starting point. It forces people into changing their previous ways and improving themselves as a person.
Proposition: The realization of one’s reality precipitates fear, forcing one to changing old ways.
Posted by: saraha2013 on: November 3, 2009
The essence Halloween lurked though the streets; young children wandered the streets in ostentatious costumes searching for candy. My dad and I were driving to my friend’s, Kaitlyn’s, house. Kaitlyn had left for boarding school in September and I had not seen her sense. The copious throngs of young children trick-or-treating congested the streets as my stout dad fought his way through the street. Finally, we arrived at her sumptuous house.
I snatched my bag and raced indoors thrilled to see Kaitlyn. Her mom opened the door as a hear a screech from indoors. Kaitlyn saw me and darted down the hallway, next thing I know, she has picked me up and were swaying in, what I can only imagine, to be the greatest hug in history.
Two of my best friends, Mariah and Olivia, were also there. Once we began trick-or-treating, Mariah and I thought a lark. We sauntered to another boy trick-or-treating, held out or bags and said, “TRICK-OR-TREAT”.
Shocked, the man soporifically replied, “Um, sorry, I don’t have any candy.”
We looked at him with disdain and the looks on our faces made it obvious to him that there was one more thing he needed to do. “Actually, maybe I do have some candy.” He reached into his bag and handed us each a piece of candy. I cannot imagine any other way I would like to spend Halloween night.
Posted by: saraha2013 on: October 21, 2009
“Up the stairs, second door on the left,” she replies as I ask for directions to the bathroom. Well, it must have been a mistake as I peer in and see the bedroom a girl who must live here. The pink walls catch my eye first. They are draped with paintings of sunsets and beaches and posters of Taylor Lautner. Oh, how much we have in common. As I take a step in, clearly disrupting her privacy, a large, walk-in closet stuffed with clothes reminds me of my closet. In fact, we have many of the same Forever 21 outfits. Next to the closet, sits the white desk. An iHome with an iPod Touch in a pink case rests on the corner. Adjacent to that, is her new white Macbook, open and turned off, like in a Pottery Barn Magazine. A large stack of textbooks is reposed on the left side. Ah, my favorite part of a room, the bookshelf. She has ranges of books, from the Twilight series to Jodi Picoult books to an autobiography of Helen Keller. Skimming the book titles, at the very bottom I see DVDs, including all the Full House seasons, my favorite show. I reach down and grab the first season. As I open it expecting to find a DVD, I see a bag of, what looks like, some kind of drug. I cannot believe it! I somehow believed I knew her, but yet, she is a stranger to me. Disappointed, I want to see what else she is hiding. On top of the bookshelf lies her many trophies, including the “Character Award”. I wonder how she achieved that. Her perfectly-made bed comes next. The white covers with pink and orange polks-dots resemble mine perfectly. We seem to be the same person, but yet, I cannot help but to desire to help her. Wondering what else I can find, I reach under the mattress only to be surprised by a pang. I lift the mattress and I see hoards of weapons. I have had enough. I stormed out of the party, not bothering to say goodbye to my friends.
