Separated

Dear Journal,

They're fighting again. When my mom and dad sat me down, in the living room, I thought we're going to have the "sex talk". I was prepared for anything or so I thought. What I heard over the next few minutes changed my life forever.

Dad:"Son, Your mom and I have been drifting apart lately and we feel it would be best for everyone if we distanced ourselves. So in plain terms we are getting a divorce."
Mom: "We still love you so much but we can't be next to each other right now."
Dad:"But look on the bright side you'll get more presents and you can sleep at two different houses every week, won't that be fun."
Mom:"So Tommy you haven't said a word yet, how does this make you feel?"

I stared at them for a couple of minutes, I stood up, and walked toward them. I clenched my fists as hard as I could and while I was up nothing bu anger was boiling inside me. "How do I feel huh?
You guys just told me the most devastating news of my life and ask me a stupid question like that... How the fuck do you think I feel. You're breaking this family apart and you try to butter me up with presents. I fucking hate you guys, just leave me alone." After I said that I stormed off to my room, slammed the door, and locked it.

I pressed my ear against the door and tried to hear if my parents were saying anything, but all I could hear was the silence that I had left. I threw myself on my bed and tried to think of how my life would change...

...Man this sucks.

New Kid

Dear Journal,

I can't take it anymore. Eighth grade year was suppose to be the best year out of middle school and now it's ruined. When my old school closed down I was pissed because my class was suppose to be the next eighth grade class and take a trip to Washington D.C. Now all I have to look forward to is a year with all these weirdos, here at St. Jude, who I don't even know. Oh, and you won't even believe how my first day went.

I start my first day by waiting in front of the school with the worst uniform colors I have ever worn. I wanted to go back to my old school uniform but I knew that would never happen again. So I was forced to wear these fruity: a yellow shirt and green pants. I mean come on who actually wears these colors. My mom tells me to go inside she said, "One of my friend's son is in your class. So look for him if you need help, OK. She gave me a hug and then drove away.

I found my class and went inside, all I could see where forty eyes staring blankly at me. Then they were murmuring about who I was and where I came from. Then all of a sudden I heard someone shout , "Hey Steve." I turned around and saw this Indian kid coming towards me and then shakes my hand. All I could think was, who the hell are you?. But then I thought it must be that kid my mom was telling me about. Then I replied and said,...hi. Then he says well my name is Daryl, so if you have any questions just ask me ok Steve. I said, "Did you just call me..." I was interrupted when I heard the whole class shout, HI STEVE.

The teacher asked me to introduce her to the class. I walked up and began Hi my name is DAVE Oreste (you freaking idiots). I told them my life story and then I sat back down as the teacher told us that this year were are going to be involved in a lot of things like a school play and something called Barnyard Bingo. As the teacher is talking I go through and think about everything that just happened. And I've come to realise, THIS PLACE SUCKS. I don't know anybody here nor do I want to, people have just called me the wrong name for twenty minutes, I had to explain my life story like twenty times, and worst of all these stupid uniforms.

This was only the first day. And my mom expects me to stay here EVERYDAY for a YEAR.
This is not going to be easy.

Why didn't I go to Our Lady's...

Sincerily,
-STEVE

Bullied

Dear Journal,

It happened again today. I was bullied during recess and then came home with my underwear over my head. Everyone in class is always laughing at me while the school bullies are beating me up, espicially Phillip Georgino. He is the worst out of all of them. He is always taking my lunch money and beating me up everyday. It's just not fair. Why can't everyone just leave me alone?

Mom promised that when we moved everyone would love me and I'd make tons of friends. She was wrong. Whereever I go, everyone is always making fun of my thick glasses and my braces It's always the same: "Hey four-eyes where are you going the loser convention is the other way."
"Braceface my cans need some opening, now."
"Your just a waste of space or go back to wear you come from." Then I get beat up by Phillip and the rest of his gang around 11:00 then after school again.

My life is so horrible that I just can't stand it anymore. Why can't I have one friend to stand up for me. Why won't anybody help me! I can't go through this torture for one more day. I am ending it all tonight. I'm going where no one will ever bully me again a place where I can finally rest in peace.

Good-bye,
-Braceface

"New Kid"

There are many disadvantages when you are a new kid including:

• People might forget your name or they might even call you a different name for a while
• Getting easily intimidated by the other students.
• Telling your life story over and over again.
• Remembering names and faces.
• Trying to find a new group of friends to hang out with.
• Starting off as a social outcast and no one knows you at all while you try to ease into the new school year.
• You start to miss your old school and remember how much fun it was. Also you wish you could go back to the way it used to be.
• Not knowing the "dumb" traditions of the school
• Performing at school functions.
• Hoping that each and every day you don't embaress yourself or get picked on.
• Learning under a different style of teaching.
• Trying to get used to your new teacher

Letter from any concrete object to yourself(5)

Dear Dave Oreste,

Well its about time you paid attention to me. I am the bed in your room.I couldn't help but notice that you haven't been in here in a while. So I was just wondering, "WHERE HAVE YOU BEEN?"
I am a huge queen size bed and you won't even look at me anymore, because you have been sleeping on that twin mattress in the basement haven't you. Oh are you surprised that I figured it out.

Yeah I bet your surprised now, you cheater. How dare you sleep on another mattress. I thought we had something special between us. What about all the memories we shared together, didn't they mean anything to you. Remember when you were sick I stuck by your side and gave you nothing both comfort? But you don't care about me, you just want to sleep on any old bed. You'll just say,"Who cares about my bed, I just want to sleep. It 's just a bed it doesn't have any feelings." Well this bed does.

You know what I can do so much better than you. If I stay with you I'll just end up going to the city dump. That's why I am leaving you for your brother.

Goodbye and so long,
Sean's bed

From your parents to you (4)

Dear Dave,

Hi there my little baby. I am so proud of you getting into Trinity Catholic High School, but it's not as nice as the schools I wanted you to go to. I mean what was wrong with BC High School. It has a really good curriculum and all the teachers their seem really nice and friendly, but it is your decision. And if you are happy at Trinity then I am happy too.

And you even got a scholarship to Trinity which makes things so much easier for me. It's only a one thousand dollar scholarship. I am just saying that Daryl's mom told me that he got a full scholarship to Trinity. Why couldn't you get a full scholarship. You went to school to didn't you. Just next time can you try to work a little harder so I don't have to spend so much money on your education, I want to go on a vacation in May.

Remember booboo, I am just teasing you a little to make you work harder. I know you are smart enough, now you just have to apply yourself. So you can get into a good college and become a great and wealthy doctor just like we always wanted.

p.s. You can't come with me to Europe, in May, so watch after Sean okay.

Love,
Mom

Letter from aborted baby to the mother (3)

Dear mama,

Hmm.. it feels so nice to finally call you that, even if it is this one and only time. This is little sally or little Suzie or whatever name you were going to give me, because I was going to be your little girl. I know it must have been hard to have this abortion. Maybe I was an accident and you did not have the money to take care of me. maybe I was some "bastard" child and you did not know my daddy, you were probably scared, alone, and you felt like know one understand how you felt. I get that it was unbearable.

I know it was hard for you and abortion must have sen like the only option for you nut you took away my life before it even started. You took away all the future memories we could have had together like baking cookies together, braiding each other's hair, or teaching me how to get a cute boy to notice me. Now all of that will never happen.

Mommy just know that I don't hate you. I just wish we could have had a life together with or without a daddy. If you ever have another kid just do me a favor love your child. Love your child the way you should have loved me.

From,
no one

From nature to humanity (2)

Dear pitiful humans,

You insignificant beings, you have been a pain in my backside for quite a while.I am the all powerful mother nature. All I've got to say is that I am sick of you people. When God first put you on the earth , he said that you would be peace loving and friendly but he was dreadfully wrong.

You have only made dangerous weapons , started nuclear holocausts, and have killed o most of your kind. Now you apes have to much power and will soon destroy each other. I really couldn't care less if you annihilated your whole kind of the face of the earth, but now all of your actions have had repercussions on the earth. You wretched humans have no contaminated the oceans waters and used my powers for your own personal gain. Now if you want to kill yourselves do it quickly without getting me involved.

Yours Truly,
Mother Nature

From an animal to you (1)

Dear owner,
How has life been treating you, jerk. Hope it has been going good for you, because God knows my life sucks. Or should I say the life you took away from me, you murderer. When I saw you pressing your face against the store glass I knew you wanted to save me from that wreched hellhole, called PETCO.

I thought we were best friends because you would always play with me, but you were really just planning on how you would finish me off. OOH I bet you were thinking, "Let me just go over my cousins house for a week. I think I left enough food for Moccha. And if he starves to death maybe I can get my 40 bucks back." Yeah I did starve you freaking idiot. I swear to God you better sleep with one eye open for the rest of your life because I'm going to come back from beyond the grave and kill you. "Muahahahahaha"

Pissed off,

Moccha(LETTER 1)

Forgiveness Letter

Dear Dave,

Hey there, its been quite some time since we spoke to each other. I have been trying to call, e-mail, and message you via facebook, or maybe you have just been so busy that you haven’t had the chance to get back to me. That’s why I am sending you this letter, because I know you will definitely receive, but whether you reply or not is up to you. I just have to get these feelings off my chest.

When we first met I knew there was a connection between us. And a few days later we were going out, I was so happy. Until that unfaithful night when we had that fight and you said, “I want to breakup”. And right then and there you broke my heart..

After the breakup, you said that we can still be friends and be a big part of each other’s lives. If that is true why haven’t you contacted me back, why have you only pushed me away. I need to know, Dave. I am not angry at you nor will I ever hate you. After all this anguish you have put me through I only have one thing to say to you, I forgive you. If you can forgive me I’m just a phone call away. If you can’t forgive me, then I will always remember you in my heart.

Sincerely,
Makeda

Real Deal

Don't you dare use that excuse again. While I was still living at the projects I was going through my "do whatever anyone tells you". This was a negative characteristic of mine. Whever my cousins and I cause some mischief they would always tell me to do the dirty work. No matter what it was I always did it no questions asked. Steal from my mom's wallet, sure no problem.Each and every time I would always get caught and then blame my cousins. I knew it was wrong, and yet I never said no.

We won.! After so many hard fought battles...we did it. The boys varsity soccer team has done nothing both struggle this whole season. We started the season 0-5 and things weren't looking very good, but the one thing we never lost was hope. Through all of this we became stronger as a team. Until the day when we faced Cathedral and played the greatest soccer of our lives.

All I saw was the Eiffel tower emerging over the horizon. After a week and a half in Italy and my "People to People" delegation was heading to France. Our first destination was the city of lights, Paris. I awoke the next day around seven o'clock and then some time later got on the bus and went toward the center of the city.

Time seemed to stand still as my head made its descent to the bottom of the pool. Will I ever...see the light again. It was my second day attending the "Boys and Girls club" summer program. I kept pleading with my mother to let me stay at home while she turned her back and ran through the front door. I looked at the activity board and looked what my group would be doing today. My heart was beating fast , my shoulders tensed up, as I was reading the two most dangerous in my vocabulary, Swim Day.

After all the hard work I put in, it just can't end like this. I knew that this year soccer season would be tough, so I was going to be prepared. I started by attending the lightening soccer camp. The kids there were in a different league from me, but I never quit and I always gave it one hundred percent. When the season started I practiced hard. While I was practicing my tamates and I were playing a fun game. But it all vanished in an in stant when all I could see was Darl entire body come crashing down on my leg. I fell towards the ground and could feel nothing but throbbing pain in my right leg. And all I could think about was, "is it all over".

Conclusions

Never take a right turn on red when you're not supposed to. I learned this lesson the hard way. One sunday morning as I came from another grueling practice. I felt so exhausted, that I could barely stand straight. I just remembered that I had to drive my mom's car home. All I wanted to do his head bak home and hit the sack, that was the only thing that kept me going as a limped to the car. I turned on the ignition, paused got into the driving posItion. Then took off from the driveway. I so tired that I could barely concentrate on the road. I saw the light flash red and made a quick "right turn" unknowingly I had missed the "NO TURN ON RED" sign. All I saw was a grey Mercedes-Benz as it was heading straight at me.

I awake to the sounds of sirens, and my life was never the same again. That will be a day I will never forget. The series of events that took place were unpredictable. I began the day just as usual with a bowl of cereal and some toast. All I heard was a crash and then a scream coming from outside.

As I fell through the arc, I closed my eyes and took a deep breath. This was bound to happen because of all the reckless choices that I made. Looking back now I wonder what could I have changed. Could this have been preventable. As all these questions were lingering in my mind, I saw my life flash before my eyes.

The echo of his voice reverberated through the forest. He was lost. on the way back from school, I remembered that I had to meet up with a friend across town. I got off the bus and saw him waiting at the corner for me. We had to get to the mall before it closed at eight o'clock. We only had fifty minuets left. To save some time I thought of a shortcut through the woods.

I took a sigh of relief as I closed the program, but then I realized I forgot to save it. I thought to myself, I had just lost everything. One Sunday Night, I spent the rest of the day working for the hardest english essay of my life. I was running out of time, and I had to concentrate.

5 Intros

1. Don't you dare use that excuse again.
2. We won.! After so many hard fought battles...
3. All I saw was the Eiffel tower emerging over the horizon.
4. Time seemed to stand still as my head made its descent to the bottom of the pool. Will I ever...
5. After all the hard work I put in, it just can't end like this.

Broken Dreams

When I came to Trinity Catholic it was quite nerve racking starting at a new school all over again, but this time it was high school. I was optimistic I was in a new school and had a chance to meet new friends. So I thought that I would try the easiest Fall sport and it happened to be soccer. I was thinking if I should really join. Well I had one year of experience and I thought “how hard could it be its just kicking a ball around a field.”I was thinking about how I would be a starter, outrun everyone, and have a laid-back coach who doesn’t really care about the game. “I WAS DEAD WRONG”
On the first day of practice the wonderful laid-back Coach Turick made us run about 5 deadly laps around the field. Everyone was in such great shape because by the end of the second lap, I was already out of breath. I thought that I would outshine everyone even though I did nothing soccer related over the summer, something I truly regretted. By the time I was finishing my last lap, everyone had already gotten a drink of water and was already onto the next activity. A major rule that Coach Turick told the team was to always, “Go hard, or go home. And I really wanted to go home. I thought that practicing five days a week was too hard and stressful for me to keep up with. Also I wasn’t even good so team doesn’t need me. Even though I was so stressed out and tired during practice I always hid that anxiety feeling behind a big goofy smile.
Coach also told me that if you work hard during the practice you will always get playing time. So over the next grueling few weeks, I went hard at every practice. When our first game came I was so happy because I knew that I went hard during practice. So I just sat on the bench waiting for coach to call me. The game ended; he never called. It was then I realized that I was just “benchwarmer.” I always think that if I just lowered my expectations, maybe I would have felt so damaged.

Me Talk Pretty One Day

1.Sedaris makes a humorous essay out of a potentially boring experience by making fun of the fact that he can not understand his teacher. So whenever the teacher is reprimanding him and he comes across a word he doesn't know he takes it out and uses silly words like "palicmkrexis" or "kfdtinvfm". He uses this just to add funny parts to his essay.This type of writing would be considered a deadpan style because it uses no emotion. The funniest part was at the end of the essy. When Sedaris wanted the teacher to keep insulting him because he was finally understanding the language.

2.By the end of the story Sedaris reveals parts of himself throughout the story. This is seen when he comes across a word he is not familiar with he starts to make up his own word, so that it won't make him feel so bad. We see that when Sedaris is afraid of something he tends to ignore it because the fear is holding him back. When he says, "but now I was convinced everthing I said was wrong. When the phone rang I ignored it".

Trust and bad memories

Nobody in life is perfect, everyone has at least one “unflattering” thing about themselves that they wish they did not have or never happened. Maybe when they here they think about the word, unflattering. They might think about something in their appearance or maybe some embarrassing moments in their lives that always brings them down.
For me an unflattering thing I don't like about myself is my trust for others, especially family members. For instance when I was six years old my mom forced me to go to my cousins new house in Everett, my cousin Taina wanted to tag along too. I am just sitting in the car playing with my superman toy and complaing, "do I have to go."
We finally arrived at my cousins house. We all greet one another and I am just staying behind my mom so I don’t have to talk to anyone. Then my mom tells me that she has to forgot something in that car and she needs Taina’s help to find it. She tells me to stay and she’ll be back in a minute. I’m very gullible and way too trusting, so I believe her. So I am standing at the closed front door and I heard the car door open and then close. Next I heard the engine turn on and I’m thinking she’s probably needs the light, that’s why the engine is on. Lastly I ear the car tires squeak and drive away until I couldn’t hear anything. I said to myself she is definitely coming back but my aunt says don’t bet on it. Even when all hope is lost I still trust my mom that she will come back. She never came back.
So I spent my first two hours crying at their front door waiting for my mom. Later in the night I start to warm up to my cousins and play with them. Now I love going over their house to have some fun, but whenever we meet new people or they just want a quick laugh. They always bring up that story when my mom abandoned me. They will always laugh no matter what and I don’t think they will ever stop. So my trust in others is the most unflattering thing in my life. Sometimes trust in others can be good but too much trust will make you gullible.

Shooting an Elepahant

1.In the essay, Shooting an Elephant, the story is about a British police officer who patrols the streets of Burma. In the story a rather tame elephant goes berserk in the town. The officer follows the beast all around town and finally has it cornered, but he is wondering if killing it is really the best solution. In this story there are two dissimilar themes. The first one is British rule over the Burmese people (or Imperialism) and the second theme is peer pressure. As the story goes along these two themes seem to intertwine.
The British officer seems to hate the Imperialistic ideas of the British as he says, “I was all for the Burmese” (Orwell 222) The rest of the Burmese people seem to just treat him as another officer who they hate. But when he corners the elephant rifle at hand, the Burmese crowd behind him seem to honor him because he is about to kill this beast. The officer is now thinking that the elephant has calmed down, but this might be his one and only chance to prove himself to the natives. So he conforms to peer pressure and kill the elephant. This is how these themes join together.

2. Orwell has a lot of unflattering aspects about himself. Some tactics that Orwell employ whenever he is doing this is first, to say how he feels about the situation at hand. Next he will play out the situation in two ways. What he ought to have done in the situation and what he did do. He says, I ought to walk up to within, say, twenty-five yards of the elephant and test his behavior.” “But also I knew that I was going to do no such thing.” (Orwell 225)

10 Easy Lesson to achieve popularity

1. Treat others with respect. Follow the golden rule, " Do unto others as you would like to be treated." Do not belittle anyone and never yell at another person.
2. Be yourself. You do not need to act a certain way to make others like you. If you show people the "real" you, you can become popular in no time.
3. Be a role model. Work hard and always make moral decisions. This way you can help others make moral decisions
4. Be optimistic and never pessimistic. No one likes a complainer who whines about every little thing. Always have an ptimistic outlook on life.
5. Never doubt yourself. Always believe in yourself and in your abilities. If you put your mind to it you can do anything.
6. Look proper. That means looking clean and cut. Show others that you are in control of your life whenever they look at you.
7. Remember to listen. You should always listen to others around you as a sign of respect. When you listen to others people will start listening to you.
8. Be more involved in your community. Know what is going on in your school, neighborhood, or town. Find the time to help out in your community and meet some new people along the way.
9. Don't be secretive. Have an honest and open relationship with your friends.
10. Keep smiling. Smiling is a sign of trust that makes people more feel more comfortable around you. And they get to see those beautiful pearly whites.

Money does not bring you true happiness?

Money does not give you true happiness.
“Money never made a man happy yet, nor will it. The more a man has, the more he wants. Instead of filling a vacuum, it makes one.” (Benjamin Franklin) As Franklin states, if money ever did bring us happiness then we truly would not be happy because it is human nature to always want more, we can never be satisfied with what we have. Money ends up corrupting us so far that it takes away all our friends and everything we care about. In a sense we become a vacuum sucking up everything we care about to fill a void that the evil corruption of money has left. In short terms, money can never make you truly happy.
There is an old proverb that, “Money is the root of all evil”. This is true because everywhere you turn where there is misery money has been a prime factor. Take for example the recent stock market crash that happened. Money people started a pandemonium when they saw how most of the banks stocks were dropping. People have invested so much money and time into their stocks just to see it get washed away. Unemployment rates have gone up because banks can not pay their employers or give loans. Therefore people become scared of the future and how will they survive. Soon people will resort to crime and illegal activities to make ends meet. Violence may soon spread and the streets will never be safe. This may as well continue until we are just a shell of the people we once were. All of this misery, anguish, and corruption originated from money. Through all this there are people who oppose this idea.


There are people who think that money can never corrupt you or bring you to your downfall. They think that money can only bring you joy and happiness. The reason they think this way is because they know what money can give them. Money can buy many of the material possession that people need, it can give us the basic necessities we need to live. It can pay for our educational and medical needs as well. Some people go as far as saying that money can give you love because you always need money in a relationship. Lastly, there are arguments that say money can not corrupt; it is just a form of exchange between people. Therefore the only things that are corrupted are people, not money. All of these statements are good arguments but they are not stable.
Money can be a good thing when we need to buy all the basic necessities we need to live, but when we want more that is when it corrupts us. We may need more money because of soaring gas prices or more health coverage. When we ask for the basic necessities we always need more money to cover every little detail. Money is just another word for power and when humans have even the smallest amount of power they always want more, it is in our nature. If we need money to keep our relationship alive then it is not true love, because love does not require the need for money. Some relationships dissipate because their partner cares more about the money then actual person.
Money can never make you truly happy. It is just another form of temptation to bring us to our downfall. In certain cases it can help us, if we only use what we need, but since we are human we can never be satisfied with what we have. Hence this temptation will continue to rule over us taking away our happiness.

The Trouble with Self-Esteem

As humans we are all born with self-esteem. Self-esteem is having a realistic respect for or favorable impression of oneself. How we gain high or low self-esteem depends on our lives and how we deal with it. People with high self-esteem have confidence, belief, and an optimistic view on life. They are the type of people that can turn insults into effective criticism so they can better themselves and have been complimented for any of their accomplishments. Therefore, people with low self have a lack of self-confidence and do not believe in themselves at all. Lauren Slater would state the opposite, Believing that people with high self esteem create a greater threat to everyone around them. That they are cocky and become too overconfident. While people with low self-esteem, who feel bad about themselves, do just as good if not better than people with high self esteem because they work harder. Slater would be right in this case as people with high self-esteem feel that they do not have to try as hard because they feel like they are the best, this is where overconfidence sets in. Hence, people with low self esteem tend to do better and work harder for the sake of acknowledgement. They want to known for all the work and effort the put, so that others will acknowledge their existence and develop a true sense of self respect.