You can't accomplish something without courage. 

“Take courage, my heart: you have been through worse than this. Be strong, saith my heart; I am a soldier; I have seen worse sights than this.” 

~Aiden LaCamera

It’s a hot sunny day and the sign up sheets for the school president elections were just put up. Everyone was talking about it and nobody really knew who they were going to run with. I didn’t even think I was going to run. But I gave it some thought and I decided what could go wrong at least I should try. 

Tough Task 

Facing life's challenges 

To accomplish a difficult task one must first make it easy ~Marty Rubin

   I stumbled out of bed and threw on some clothes and ran down stairs to eat some breakfast to start my day. Right before I say down my mom calls me and says. “You have to go clean the cat's litter with Owen.” I sighed and huffed and puffed.

“Sometimes you will never know the true value of a moment until it becomes a memory”

It was August 18, 2019. A day every cliff jumper lives for. It was a hot sunny day, beads of sweat were rolling down my forehead. The breeze in my hair. The bus, running over potholes, the smell of exhaust in my nose. 

Equity 

Make College Cheaper

“Fairness does not mean everyone gets the same. Fairness means everyone gets what they need.”
― Rick Riordan

You are a poor kid living in Detroit trying to go through the college process. You are really smart and at the top of your class. You can’t wait to apply and get accepted to your dream school. But, you worry about the price. It’s way too expensive to afford and you worry about paying off a loan so what do you do? Well since you can’t afford it you decide not to go you’re devastated and decide to go work a 9-5 job instead. This is what lot’s of kids go through each year. The college price is way too high. We need to make it more affordable, lower student debt and find a reasonable price to give students the college experience they deserve. 

Exploring Barry Bonds robbery from the Hall of Fame 

Barry Bonds is the best hitter to play baseball no doubt. There won't ever be someone who is close to ever breaking that home run record. He walked 2558 and only struck out 1539 times which is quite incredible. Those stats mean that you are an incredibly good ball player. 

Even though Barry Bonds took steroids he never actually tested positive for the drug and during his playing era everyone was juicing the funny thing is it was actually called the steroid era. The MLB didn’t start testing for steroids until 2003 and David Ortiz was one of the multiple people who tested positive in a confidential steroid test. Barry Bonds was not. But for some reason David Ortiz is in the hall of fame and Bonds isn’t. Even though Ortiz never used steroids since that test in 2003 he still juiced much like many other player in that era. 

I get why the writers didn’t vote him in but it’s still unfair to Bonds, he hit the most home runs by far and will keep that record for a very long time. Nobody will ever hit 73 home runs in a single season ever again. It just won’t happen. He had the most power and hitting ability in the MLB for the longest time. He got robbed and should be in the hall. 

The fact that he is still the king of the home run title says something. The record can't be broken, it's just too large. Barry Bonds found a way to set one of the most crazy records baseball has ever seen and he still wasn’t voted into the hall of fame because he took steroids. So what, as I said everybody did and just to single him out for it is wrong. He is a hall of fame player no doubt.

A Poison Tree

By: William Blake

I was angry with my friend; 
I told my wrath, my wrath did end. 
I was angry with my foe: 
I told it not, my wrath did grow. 

And I waterd it in fears, 
Night & morning with my tears: 
And I sunned it with smiles, 
And with soft deceitful wiles. 

And it grew both day and night. 
Till it bore an apple bright. 
And my foe beheld it shine, 
And he knew that it was mine. 

And into my garden stole, 
When the night had veild the pole; 
In the morning glad I see; 
My foe outstretched beneath the tree.

Exam Metacognition 

Exploring the first exam of my life. 

    Well that was a fun exam. I really thought it was going to be much worse than it was. There was lots of “poopweeding'' and revising but it was not a problem for me; however, I expected the paragraph to be much shorter than it was. This took some time and focus to fix the awful, and sloppy Microworx.  The exam was not a large task and it felt manageable. Considering we did most of the work as prep I feel that I was able to be focused and did not feel overwhelmed during the exam period. The most challenging part of this was the 25 sentences. It was sometimes hard to find what piece of punctuation goes where. But, as I continued I got the hang of it and soon it was a walk in the park. I did a solid amount of studying for this exam. Redoing the quizzes and paragraphs on past Microworx really helped me through this. If I were to do this again I would have taken more time to master the rules and really pay close attention when studying. I get distracted easily and can lose focus. Overall after taking my first english exam I thought it went very well.   

       Exploring a Good Friendship 

Good friends are like stars. You don’t always see them, but you know they’re always there.

~Christy Evans

The book, The Old Man and The Sea, is a powerful story, the author, Ernest Hemingway, explores the impact of friendship on a young man (Manolin), and an Old Man (Santiago). They spent five days fishing together on a small boat in Cuba in 1950.

    On the first day, Manolin came back to Santiago's shack in the dark, he saw the Old Man lying in the chair, sleeping with no blanket. He took Santiago's army blanket from his bed and draped it over his shoulders.

When the boy came back the old man was asleep in the chair and the sun was down. The boy took the old army blanket off the bed and spread it over the back of the chair and the old man's shoulders. {Day 1}

Manolin cares about the Old Man. He wants him to be warm and sleep well. Manolin's dad does not like Santiago because “He hasn't much faith.” But the boy keeps showing up to help load the boat or buy him a meal. Manolin and Santiago care about each other, and they are willing to do anything for each other.

    Later that night, Manolin walked in with food for Santiago and himself. He thought Santiago could have washed up. The closest water supply was two streets away from the shack. He felt guilty that Santiago would have to walk all that way to wash up.

I must have water here for him, the boy thought, and soap and a good towel. Why am I so thoughtless? I must get him another shirt and a jacket for the winter and some sort of shoes and another blanket. {Day 1}

Manolin -being selfish- did not think about the Old Man walking all that way to wash. So he got him a new jacket, shirt, shoes, and a blanket for the cold winter. He gives him new clothes because he wants him to start warm for the approaching winter. The friendship between Manolin and Santiago is the concrete to help them survive the winter.

    A little past halfway through the book, Santiago is hard at work trying to catch the “eighteen feet from nose to tail,” fish. Over the days of fighting, he had been cutting his hand on the coils of the line. The Old Man wishes for the boy to help him get through this struggle. “If the boy was here he would wet the coils of line, he thought. Yes. If the boy were here. If the boy were here” {day 3}. The Old Man is reliant on the boy and struggles without him. While Santiago was stuck on the boat, he was constantly aspiring for Manolin's presence. The Old Man wanted the boy to help him with the massive fish or keep him company. Their friendship is so strong that Santiago feels he is incomplete without Manolin. He continuously wished for The Boy to be on the boat, and when he gets back, they are both delighted to see each other again.

    On the fifth day, Santiago was sleeping in his shack after returning from his three-day trip where he caught and fought a gigantic marlin. The people at the dock say that “There has never been such a fish.” Manolin saw the boat in the dock and realized it was Santiago. He is finally back. He walks up to his shack to go take care of him.“The boy carried the hot can of coffee up to the old man's shack and sat by him until he woke”{Day 5} The boy cares about Santiago. While catching the fish, the boy called the police and had the coast guard search for him. He was fearful that something bad happened to the Old Man. While Santiago was fishing, he repeatedly mentioned how much he missed the boy. “I wish the boy were here.” When he got back, he could finally tell the boy, “I missed you.” Manolin was happy about this but worried about the Old Man's condition, his hands were shredded apart, and he had no energy. The boy wanted to take care of Santiago because he always took care of the boy.

   Without Manolin, Santiago's life is empty.

Old Man and the Sea Reflection

Exploring a difficult challenge

“Challenge yourself: it is the only path that leads to growth”

~Morgan Freeman

Life can throw unexpected challenges your way. Reading The Old Man and the Sea challenged me to think and read slower to fully comprehend the material. It made me present and focused more than I ever would have thought. Ernest Hemingway’s odd vocabulary coerced me to check and relook over the story. Reading this book made me realize that a challenging book is always worth the read.