Fitz’s Wisdom

Life lessons from a wise man

"Lessons in life will be repeated until they are learned"

-Frank Sonnenberg

    Fitz always has something to say, and its a good idea to listen. He is one of the teachers that I am closest to, for he teaches me important lessons in life. If there is something you need help with, or if you hit a roadblock in life, Fitz is the man to go to. He has a lot to share about life, and seems to know everything there is to know about it. Sitting around the table in Fitz english class is not just a part of a class, it is an experience. Fitz always has something to say about life, he can turn a simple conversation into a random life lesson. He always says short phrases which make absolutely no sense, yet somehow make total sense at the same time. “Give me a pebble and I will show you the universe, show me the universe and I will give you a pebble.” Fitz is one of the wisest people I know, in fact he probably is the wisest man I know. I remember it being one of the first classes of the year, we all sat around the big round table and started talking. Eventually a problem came up and someone did not know how to do something, that is the first time that I heard the phrase “give a damn and figure it out.” Whenever I run into a problem in life, that phrase sticks in my head and helps me get through it. Fitz has shown me wisdom and life lessons which I will keep in my head for as long as my brain can hold them. If I sat down with Fitz for a few hours I bet he could sing me 100 songs and give me hundreds of life lessons, all of which would be helpful. Fitz has made my eighth grade year better with his humor and his wisdom, I always look forward to english class, because he has turned it into one of my favorites.  Fitz lessons have made a difference in my life, and if I keep them stored in my memory, they could make a difference in my future.

Sam Dean

Written in essay format

Through The Tunnel Literary Analysis

The rewards of hard work and determination

“Determination will get you through anything”

-Unknown

    Hard work and determination pay off. In the book, Through The Tunnel, by Doris Lessing, an eleven year old boy named Jerry is determined to accomplish his challenging goal, he had his share of tough moments, but he perseveres through them. The young boy, Jerry, is on vacation with his mother. Jerry discovers a more interesting, yet dangerous way to go about their vacationing, and has to overcome challenges in order to complete his goal. Jerry attacks his challenge with grit, and shows determination to complete his task. “As soon as she had bought the goggles, he grabbed them from her hand as if she were going to claim them for herself, and was off, running down the steep path to the bay.”

    Jerry and his mother are on vacation, and every day they go down to the regular, not too interesting beach. Jerry looks around and notices a wild, rocky bay, he decides that one day he will go explore the bay instead of going to the regular beach. One day, Jerrys mother allows him to go to the bay to explore. As the approaches the bay, he notices a couple older boys, diving off the rocks. “The English boy swam toward them but kept his distance at a stone’s throw. They were of that coast; all of them were burned smooth dark brown and speaking a language he did not understand. To be with them, of them, was a craving that filled his whole body.” Jerry observes them for a while, and notices that when they dive down, they stay underwater for a while and pop up on a different side of the bay. Jerry gets swim goggles, and over the next few days he explores the underwater tunnel. At this point in time, he is not able to hold is breath for long enough to make it through the tunnel, so everyday he trains himself to hold his breath. Jerry starts experiencing nosebleeds very often, and his mother becomes worried. He keeps at his task despite the nosebleeds, and eventually makes it through the tunnel. He had a tough time making it through the tunnel, but despite his pain and bleeding, Jerry feels very accomplished.

He could see nothing but a red-veined, clotted dark. His eyes must have burst, he thought; they were full of blood. He tore off his goggles and a gout of blood went into the sea. His nose was bleeding, and the blood had filled the goggles.

    Jerry was not very good at holding his breath; he did not know what the tunnel looked like; his time left on vacation was running short. Things were not looking good for him in order to complete his task. “In another four days, his mother said casually one morning, they must go home. On the day before they left, he would do it. He would do it if it killed him"

    With most tasks come challenges, and Jerry ran into challenges too. He was experiencing a lot of nose bleeds, and his mom was suggesting that he takes a break from the bay and does not physically overdo it. “That day and the next, Jerry exercised his lungs as if everything, the whole of his life, all that he could become, depended upon it. Again his nose bled at night, and his mother insisted on his coming with her the next day. It was a torment to him to waste a day of his careful training.” He did take a break, but knew he needed to get back to work. Jerry’s experience is a great representation of perseverance and how it helps us overcome problems in any situation.

Sam Dean

All Quiet Metacognition

The Impact Of A Good Book

    You know a book is good when you are excited to read it. All Quiet On The Western Front was like that for me, I enjoyed the book and it kept me interested. There was lots of suspense and action which I really liked, and I learned a lot from this book. I mostly learned about comradeship and how important it was to these soldiers, and how important it will be for me. Usually I will be extra lazy when it comes to books. I always manage to get distracted and then have to re read a page over and over. Although I could not avoid this, I don’t believe I did it as much because I was interested in this book more than some others. Books that are about war, battling, and violence are not exactly my type of book. It does not have the same effect on my as a war movie would. Except for All Quiet On The Western Front, this for me had a deeper meaning than just war. It was also about how these soldiers pushed through a very hard time with the help of each other. In return, I experienced the power of those around you, and the effect they have on you. This book was better than any other war related book that I have read in my opinion. I took a lot out of this book and I think it was interesting to read about.

Sam Dean

The Weekend

    This weekend was fun, but it went by very fast. Last week I had thought about what my weekend would be like for a while, and I knew it would be pretty fun. I started counting days until the weekend until it finally came. On Friday it had been very rainy and my baseball game got cancelled so I had a pretty chill night. On Saturday I woke up happy because I got to sleep in and it was a weekend. I had soccer and baseball games to play that day and I thought it would be pretty busy because I was also trying to get tickets to the new avengers movie that night. For some reason, not sure why, my baseball game got cancelled so I had more options for movie times. I looked at multiple theaters and it was basically sold out at all of them. After a long time of searching for movie times I knew I could not find tickets for Saturday night. Instead, I got some for Sunday morning. Sunday was very fun, I woke up and relaxed for a little, then I went to meet my friends. I picked them up and we went and saw a 10am movie. I really liked the movie so it was worth it watching it in the morning. After the movie, we picked up one more person and went to a paintball party. It was for my friends birthday and I had a lot of fun. I got to hang out with friends as well as playing some intense games of paintball. We finished that up and then I went home. I thought I had to go to my brothers soccer game which was 40 minutes away, but my mom was kind enough to drop me off at home. I got to relax for a little, and now here I am, at 7:15 on a Sunday night writing about my weekend, thinking about how it is already almost over, and now my inspiration for the week is going to be looking forward to the next weekend, and then the next. Soon enough it should be summer, and I would have to worry about weekends, I will have a whole 2 month long weekend. I will most likely not know what day it is for the majority of summer because I will be free to do whatever I want.