Reflections

My freshman school year has been a pretty normal school year for me. By that, I mean that I would have rather been out of school. However, I have had some great times this year. A lot of these moments have been in honors geometry. I really love my class and teacher. We always seem to have a really great time making jokes about how our teacher, Ms. Birkhead, had been to prison and about her many prison tattoos. That class, even though I do not enjoy the subject, has been my favorite class this year. The most important thing I have learned this year is that life keeps moving. This has been a hard lesson for me to learn because I have missed quite a few school days due to surgery and sickness. The tough thing about missing those days is that the school year keeps moving, so while I was home watching Netflix, the makeup work kept piling up. That lesson ties into one of the pieces of advice I would give to next year's freshman class. That lesson is to never miss a day of school. Another piece of advice for next year's freshman class is to take as many classes as possible. This will help in the future because if you take a lot of classes, then your senior year will be easier for you. One last piece of advice for the freshman of next year is to not take things to seriously. While school is very important, one bad grade is not the end, so if you happen to make a 60 on a test just know that you will be okay. My freshman year has taught me a lot and prepared me for the rest of high school.

Photo by Nicole C. Engard

Free But Not Equal

An important fact that I learned from The Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman is that even though slaves were freed, they were still looked down upon by society. When Jane was freed, she was free to do anything she wanted, but there would always be people that would try and put her down. Jane still had to live in slave quarters, and was treated poorly because of the color of her skin. Jane was old, wise, and respected by the black community, but all that the white people saw in her was the color of her skin. The white people shot and killed Ned Douglass and Jimmy Aaron because they both fought for equality. It took 100 years for civil rights to be given to African Americans, and even then, they were not treated equally. For the most part, things have changed, and now everyone is free and equal.

Photo by feverpitched

An American Workplace

My favorite television show of all time is The Office. Some of the things that make it so great are the actors, the subject matter, and the fact that there is an ending to it. My favorite actor in the office is Steve Carrell. He plays Michael Scott, who is the boss of Dunder Mifflin Scranton. Michael comes up with lots of crazy ideas and never actually does any work. The whole show is a documentary about the American workplace, and it is set in a small paper company in Scranton, Pennsylvania. It's odd that a place like Scranton would be chosen because it really is just a boring small town, but the people who live there make it very exciting. The Office ended after 9 seasons, but the ending was the greatest ending I have ever seen on a television show. The ending was very planned out and wrapped up everything. I was sad to see it go off, but the ending was so good that it made me appreciate the show even more. If you're looking for a show that will let you laugh and relax while you watch it, then watch The Office.

Photo by Sean MacEntee

Some are More Equal than Others

A lesson that I learned from reading the book Animal Farm is that all people can never be equal. Even if everyone was to receive the same schooling, some people would still do better, putting them at a higher level. In Animal Farm, all of the animals attempted to learn how to read, but some animals were not smart enough to get past the first few letters of the alphabet. Because the pigs were smart enough to read and write, they were more powerful than the other animals. In real life this happens as well. It may not be a specific group that rises to power in real life. It can be just one person who gets things more than others. Those people can go on to be leaders in government which makes them more powerful and influential.

Photo by Stefan Fussan

Cranberries and Stuffing

Every year for Thanksgiving my family has our own celebration at our house. It's usually just my sisters, my parents, my brother-in-law, and me that are there. My mom and dad always make all the food. They make a turkey, stuffing, cranberry sauce, and cheesecakes. My favorite is the cheesecake. Besides eating and making food, we always decorate for Christmas and watch Christmas movies. One thing that I don't really enjoy about our celebrations is that my parents talk about the cranberry sauce and stuffing for weeks. They always talk about making it more often, and they talk about it for a really long time.

Photo by Bruce Foster

Casting for Julius Caesar

If I was to cast actors for a new version of Julius Caesar, I would choose Tom Hanks as Brutus, Morgan Freeman as Caesar, Nicolas Cage as Cassius, and Johnny Depp as Antony. I would choose Tom Hanks as Brutus because Tom Hanks seems like a really gentle person who could do bad things for the good of others just like Brutus. I would choose Morgan Freeman as Caesar because Morgan Freeman is an older guy who usually plays roles of wise people. This would make him a good Caesar because Caesar was older and was wise in some aspects, such as war. I would choose Nicolas Cage as Cassius because Nicolas Cage just has kind of an evil smile that makes him look devious. I would choose Johnny Depp as Antony because he's a younger looking guy that plays roles that make him appear sort of smart and always having a plan. Antony was planning how to turn the people against the conspirators, and his plan worked.

Photo of Tom Hanks by Alan Light

Photo of Morgan Freeman by Thorsten Becker

Photo of Nicolas Cage by Patty Mooney

Photo of Johnny Depp by Quicheisinsane

A Modern Take on Caesar

Photo by Mrs. Studer

I decided to paint a portrait of Julius Caesar for an English presentation. I was supposed to explain why I chose to paint Caesar, what was significant about him, and why I chose the medium that I did. I feel that I could have done much better in my presentation because I did not expect to be nervous, but I was. I began to speak very fast and forgot to explain the significance of Caesar. However, I feel that my portrait captures Caesar very well. I chose the color red to express his power as well as to resemble the blood when he was murdered. I chose to paint a more modern portrait of Caesar because I had seen a video on Youtube of  someone painting in the same style. I chose to use acrylic on canvas because that was what the person I saw used.