Descriptive Essay

           Throughout the three given weeks after finals ended I began my first week by sleeping in. I was exhausted from late nights of hard studying and the cramming of all the information needed on my finals. I decided to devote my whole week to sleeping (or so I had thought) to catch up with my sleeping schedule. However, I did not get as much sleep as I intended because my nephews would come over every other day to wake me up and play on the new WII DANCE that I had just received sometime around Thanksgiving. By the end of the week I was nearly as or more tired than I was before the break had started. Friday came along and I noticed the need of ventilation in my room. The plates stocked up and put aside to the corner meant I had gotten really lazy and was merely about to become a cave woman. I had gotten so lazy so I decided to do my AP Calculus and AP Chemistry homework since there was nothing better to do. Yeah, I could’ve cleaned the house around and I could’ve volunteered somewhere or went to go play outside for an hour but I realized there was no harm in dedicating my first week off to myself I felt the need to reward myself after the mental pain I took on from the last week before 2015. I did nothing productive besides my homework and run a few miles and finished off the ending of the first week. I had seen the day turn into night in a blink of an eye and it all felt so great.
            Starting my second week I was eager to get to Christmas Day. My favorite holiday was coming up and there was no doubt about the exciting yet comforting spirit filling all of Los Angeles, well specifically me. I was obviously excited for the presents but it is much more than that. It is the greatness of the whole family coming together for once and the boast of each individual sharing amazing, bizarre stories that fill the room with laughter and good energy. Although there might me some arguments here and there, it all settles down when the plates are ready to eat and we are to busy with food in our mouths’. The guys play football or soccer and the women sit around to gossip. I migrate around between the kids and adults but mostly isolate myself so that I can watch my favorite Christmas movies. This year I knew I was going to receive an Iphone 5. Leading up to Christmas Day I went to my best friend’s house because they were having a Pre-Christmas Party in order to get their family together before they disperse. His family was enormous (I believe I met approximately 70 people), but they were all so great and full of great energy. His uncles were my favorite because they kept throwing jokes around and roasted one another. The food was international, or so it felt like that. I ate so many different things, sadly leaving me no room in my stomach for the table full of sweets.  After we ate some of the uncles and other family members sat down to watch the Chargers vs. the Niners football game. It got so intense that one of the uncles ended up paying me $10! Although the Aunts were always playfully saying, "She’s your girlfriend huh?”. They were also great because they were in charge of the amazing food and stories they shared with me. I danced until my feet were sore and full of blisters. I slept over my best friend’s house and stayed up at night watching movies. I was stuffed like never before. For the past days I reminisced about the delicious food but no worries because then came Christmas Eve! I was greeted by so many of my family members that I hadn’t seen in years. I received nice souvenirs from different places followed by warm hugs. We played, we danced, we laughed, we cherished. Christmas Eve had turned out more spectacular than I could’ve ever imagined. The grownups and I played Loteria a famous Hispanic game right after the kids settled into bed. However, we gambled our money to play. I went home 5 dollars richer and my mom went home a dollar richer. It was hectic, it was wild, it was amazing. By 12am I was home now, eager to bash open all of my gifts. The wait was eating me inside out and my Dad hadn’t arrived yet, my brother had left with his girlfriend, and my mom had fallen asleep. I decided to open one gift – the Iphone5 I had been longing to own ever since the summer of 2015. I opened the big box and it was just stuffed with a smaller box and so on and so on. Until I had finished rummaging and had reached the last final box; shaking, touching, sniffing the box, trying to figure out if in fact it really was my new phone. I slowly opened. BOOM the waterworks came on. It wasn’t the Iphone5 at all but instead the Iphone6. It was the biggest plot twist I could’ve ever ended 2015 with and I was so stoked to have the most recent technology of Apple by far. After I cried out my last tears I ended up sleeping knowing I was content with one of the many gifts I had received this Christmas.
            On the third week, my mom had politely asked me to go help her babysit and clean the house of where she worked at. It was New Year’s Eve and there was much to do to get the house looking tidy and ready for that night. I acceptingly accompanied my mother to her job not knowing the worst was to come. As I walk in the house I noticed the woman and her 3 year old child. I began to entertain the child as my mom said her good-byes to the woman. As I was peacefully watching tv with the 3 year old I heard a “purr” and ignored it thinking it was next door or outside. I heard the “purr” again and this time it was closer. I began to look outside the window and under the couch in search for any type of cat. Being so paranoid due to the fact that I was allergic to cats. Strolling in with high confidence came in a black and white cat and I yelled at my mom, “MOMMMM! There’s a cat in this house” as she casually responded with a “Uhh- yeah I think”. How could my mother not have warned me about this. I didn’t come prepared with my allergy medicine or pills. Well, maybe if I just avoid it for the time being here, nothing will happen to me. I thought to myself as the cat and I interlocked eyes. Once I scooted myself to the far end of the couch the cat decided to spring up on my lap and rub up against my arms and shirt. WHYYYYY. WHY would this happen to me? At first I hadn’t noticed anything but then I got the sensation that my eye had this weird itch and the more I rubbed it the more it got swollen. In less than an hour my eye had turned into the most disgusting most uncomfortable pink eye I had ever gotten. The left side of my eyeball on the right eyeball had become numb and therefore every time I wanted to turn to look left the cornea on the right side would had to forcefully fold into the left side of my right eyeball. I was in pain and I wasn’t in my most attractive state. Sadly, my mom wasn’t able to run out and get me some medicine she had a lot of work to be finished before the woman came back home. So I had to suffer through the allergy for 6 hours at my mother’s workplace. Later that day I successfully survived and got home in time to swallow down my allergy pill medicine for an allergy that had dimmed down a bit. It wasn’t such a pleasant experience but it was a killer story to tell to all my friends. Later that week I focused in on eliminating all the fat I had absorbed in Winter Break. It was tough to break a sweat but I felt good and refreshed for a new semester. The last two days of the week before heading back to school, I tagged along with many other friends as we took on after Six Flags to enjoy the last few days of our season pass cards. It was amazing and luckily all the rollercoasters worked well. I, nor my friends, vomited in any of the rides. I came home from Six Flags, Sunday night, finishing off my last, sweet, glorious winter-break-minutes studying for the AP Calculus test I was going to have Monday morning.

Creativity Crisis!!!!

   Many people differ struggles whether it is at home, work, physical, emotional, etc. However, a major struggle that the whole world is dealing with is creativity within the walls of our schools and walls of our brain. We have been lacking creativity worldwide and it is presenting its absence among a given creativity test. Authors Po Bronson and Ashley Merryman published “The Creativity Crisis” in Newsweek.com in July 2010. The published news was determined by a test of creativity that had been given to millions to people. Nevertheless, the creativity test failed, as it showed that the “creativity quotient” had crept downward, since 1990. It had come to someone’s attention that the insufficiency and decline in creativity was “most serious” in younger children, from kindergarten through sixth grade. In the meantime we are having trouble coming up for creative solutions, whether it is an everyday problem or an international importance like saving the Gulf of Mexico. It is highly recommended that these children, as well as adults, be taught more about creativity through creative thinking classes. Not only to become better for the test but so that we humans start to grow and expand alongside creativity.
            Creativity can mean so much. It is a structure of our minds so that we are able to think “outside the box” and look for answers or see certain things that aren’t visually there at first. Creativity will help expand the mind of what we are conformed to normally think and help build a tree of knowledge of new ways in how to think or answer. Creativity is essential and can identify the limit of how much one person can think about a certain topic. For example, if a subject matter were to be brought up between two students -one being creative and the other not- the creative student will excel way better and further than the original student. The creative student will think of fresh new ideas/answers, on the other hand, the other student will be limited to the way he/she thinks and may have a difficult time trying to solve or approach the subject matter.
            Creativity starts at a young age, therefore it should be explicitly taught at children’s schools from a very young age in which they can begin developing their creative minds from an early age and throughout their lives. It should also begin at an early age like kindergarten due to the fact that the test had its decline during that stage. The younger, the better, because at this stage it is where children are taught to see/say/do/think things one way and not the other. Professor Kyung Hee Kim at the College of William and Mary claimed as quoted,” It’s very clear, and the decrease is very significant,” She also reports that it was the scores of the younger children in America- from kindergarten through sixth grade- for whom the decline is most serious. It is unfortunate to know that the decline were from the children instead of adults because it is a period in life where kids begin to develop, discover, and learn new things.
            Regardless, the school board might find it hard to agree with this decision because it might be a wasted class period or wasted time on the children. In addition, a new class would cost money so that a teacher can teach the creative-thinking class. Despite that, we shouldn’t put a price on the education of any children/teen or even an adult. The creativity class would be a great privilege to have, because later in life when those children become students and compete in college, it compares one student from another.

            I hereby strongly suggest that the creative thinking class should be put into action, towards kindergarden-6^th, teens, and adults who struggle as well. It would be a great outcome for students in the future to develop a much more broader and better way of thinking. Furthermore, by having these creative thinking classes we will see a change in our future and the publics “creativity quotient” will begin to grow upward.

MY NARRATIVE

         My name is *Julia Rodriguez, and I am a proud Hispanic who’s 16 years of age. I am a softball player who currently has 3 college course classes in her 11th grade year. In my community I would be known as a person que va a salir de la pobresa otherwise known as “someone who will leave from the poverty”. I am identified as an overachiever in my community and people express admiration for it. Although I like the recognition as the more and more people I meet along the way of my path of education, I find it reprehensible to not hear of those who have made a difference in another aspect besides education. As a Hispanic we hardly have a great big headline on a newspaper of an achievement we made, unless if it is in our own Hispanic newspaper. We should heed the little achievements of others as well and not just in the Hispanic community in every community with unspoken heroes, pursuers, or achievers.

         I am excited to be in your class because you were such a great substitute and your zeal goes perfectly well with the way you teach. I am very lucky to have an intellectual teacher like you this year and I bet you will teach me a lot. In my ninth grade year I had Mr. M who had us read books to capture our ideas, images and thoughts in a journal just like the RR journal. I enjoyed it a lot because it was well organized and like a book diary. In my 10th enjoyed having his class because his selections of books for the class were prodigious and astounding. As the year round up, my favorite class would have to be my Creative Writing class in middle school. My writing is so amazing and better when I free write or write fictional stories because my mind gets carried away with great, big ideas. When writing my stories it was just pages and pages piling up. The most pages I have written for that class were 16 pages long. I believe we should have more of these Creative Writing classes because it opens up teens’ creative minds that have never been discovered or brought to light yet.

        My goal in life is to become a doctor, specifically a pediatrician. I just have a great love and care for children as well as patience. Knowing that I can cure or make children get/feel better is such a good feeling. For my educational ride into becoming a pediatrician I just want a four-year ticket to a good UC school. The more and more I spend in high school, the less friends I have and the more homework I have. I don’t need a lot of friends to know that I am great, because I know I am! I like to describe myself competitive and ardent yet I get lazy which is really bad. As a matter of fact, I love a little competition here and there and I believe it is good for everyone.

*Name has been changed

QUESTION 1

                Locavore Movement
            A community is considering organizing a locavore movement. Locavores are people who have decided to eat locally grown or produced products as much as possible. With nutrition starting to grab people’s attention, the locavore movement has become widespread and well-known over the past decade. Beginning a locavore movement would be a more convenient resolution to bio-terrorism, the earth (as in: air quality and pollution), supporting local providers, and overall because it taste 10 times better. However, starting this movement is not so easy. Some might disagree in the benefits of eating food grown and produced locally because of the distance of fresh produce and because Americans aren’t really motivated and nutrient deprived to eat these types of produced food. The locavore movement strongly sets out a nutritional, economical, and more efficient way to process, produce, and serve our food.
            Starting a locavore movement would have so many positive outcomes not only on people but the earth as well. “For example eating local protects humans from bio-terrorism” (Source A). That means that food with less distance to travel from has less percentage of being a harmful contamination. Another way it greatly affects people is that it “Supports local providers with land” (Source A). By this, we give a chance or opportunity for farms and pastures an economic reason to stay open. Finally, “Locally growns produce is fresher” “Local food taste better” (Source A). Becoming a locavore benefits yourself the most because it is a healthier way of eating locally grown food from a 100-mile radius.
            Economically, a locavore movement would strongly benefit the community itself. A dollar spent locally generates twice as much income for the local economy (Maiser). The money people would regularly, ridiculously give away to the multimillion-dollar corporations could be spent helping out communities. A recent bill legislation passed which gave 2.3 billion to specialty crops where as before it was fewer. This allows farmers to get 75% of their organic certification cost reimbursed.  Tom Harkin, a senator, feels that the bill is not only helping our community but we are investing in the health and nutrition of the American children (Gogoi). In addition, this provides much-needed jobs at the local levels that goes on to rebuild hurting communities says Paul Roberts. A locavore will positively shape-up our economy.
            A locavore movement benefits the earth really great because it reduces long-distance food shipments that generate a lot of fuel that effects the air quality of earth. Eating local is better for air quality and pollution than eating organic (Source A) The miles that food travels creates environmental damage by the expose of gas coming in and out delivering the food when we can just simply avoid that and produce the food locally. It is why overall, locavores provide a better systematic for earth itself, communities, and the own produce we eat.  If we start a locavore movement we will begin to see huge changes in the community and ourselves as well.

QUESTION 2

            In the Abigail Adams letter she advises and reminds her son who is traveling abroad with his father, John Adams, to take ahold of every given opportunity there is. She wanted to shape up and guide John Quincy Adams into a better thinker and innovator just like his father, John Adams. Abigail Adams lets her son know how much knowledge he has and all the superior advantages he has laid out in front of him so that he does not repent his second voyage to France.  She advises and persuades him all by using rhetorics such as pathos, logos, and ethos as well as adding in figurative language such as metaphors and imagery.
            The use of pathos is seen in the tone used by Abigail Adams throughout her letter. She shows shifting through serious and then to a sensitive more connective tone towards her son from beginning to end. She appeals to emotions such as “Render your parents supremely happy, particularly your ever affectionate mother,”. She also uses emotional appeals when she rants into the greatness that her son holds which has made her a proud mother. This better persuades and encourages John Quincy Adams to take action.
            The use of logos is merely seen through the example given of Cicero.
 This gives her persuasion towards her son to be a more historical inspiration for the way Cicero accomplished his achievements through the push and struggle of many haters. She expands her use of logos by expressing that “ all history will convince you of this, and that wisdom and penetration are the fruit of experience”.
            As Abigail Adams writes the letter she writes and awards herself towards he credibility, reminding her son that it was her urge towards him to accompany his father and brother on the voyage. “If I had thought your reluctance arose from proper deliberation… I should not have urged you to accompany your father and brother.” Abigail Adams speaks towards her son as a “mother-knows-best” tone, and compliments herself and her husband, John Adams.  “You have a parent… as to be honored with the important embassy which at present calls him abroad.” Abigail Adams furthermore adds on the credibility of his father to encourage John to do be outstanding and take ahold of the greater advantages given.

QUESTION 3

                    Creativity Crisis
            Many people differ struggles whether it is at home, work, physical, emotional, etc. However, a major struggle that the whole world is dealing with is creativity within the walls of our schools and walls of our brain. We have been lacking creativity worldwide and it is presenting its absence among a given creativity test. Authors Po Bronson and Ashley Merryman published “The Creativity Crisis” in Newsweek.com in July 2010. The published news was determined by a test of creativity that had been given to millions to people. Nevertheless, the creativity test failed, as it showed that the “creativity quotient” had crept downward, since 1990. It had come to someone’s attention that the insufficiency and decline in creativity was “most serious” in younger children, from kindergarten through sixth grade. In the meantime we are having trouble coming up for creative solutions, whether it is an everyday problem or an international importance like saving the Gulf of Mexico. It is highly recommended that these children, as well as adults, be taught more about creativity through creative thinking classes. Not only to become better for the test but so that we humans start to grow and expand alongside creativity.
            Creativity can mean so much. It is a structure of our minds so that we are able to think “outside the box” and look for answers or see certain things that aren’t visually there at first. Creativity will help expand the mind of what we are conformed to normally think and help build a tree of knowledge of new ways in how to think or answer. Creativity is essential and can identify the limit of how much one person can think about a certain topic. For example, if a subject matter were to be brought up between two students -one being creative and the other not- the creative student will excel way better and further than the original student. The creative student will think of fresh new ideas/answers, on the other hand, the other student will be limited to the way he/she thinks and may have a difficult time trying to solve or approach the subject matter.
            Creativity starts at a young age, therefore it should be explicitly taught at children’s schools from a very young age in which they can begin developing their creative minds from an early age and throughout their lives. It should also begin at an early age like kindergarten due to the fact that the test had its decline during that stage. The younger, the better, because at this stage it is where children are taught to see/say/do/think things one way and not the other. Professor Kyung Hee Kim at the College of William and Mary claimed as quoted,” It’s very clear, and the decrease is very significant,” She also reports that it was the scores of the younger children in America- from kindergarten through sixth grade- for whom the decline is most serious. It is unfortunate to know that the decline were from the children instead of adults because it is a period in life where kids begin to develop, discover, and learn new things.
            Regardless, the school board might find it hard to agree with this decision because it might be a wasted class period or wasted time on the children. In addition, a new class would cost money so that a teacher can teach the creative-thinking class. Despite that, we shouldn’t put a price on the education of any children/teen or even an adult. The creativity class would be a great privilege to have, because later in life when those children become students and compete in college, it compares one student from another.

            I hereby strongly suggest that the creative thinking class should be put into action, towards kindergarden-6^th, teens, and adults who struggle as well. It would be a great outcome for students in the future to develop a much more broader and better way of thinking. Furthermore, by having these creative thinking classes we will see a change in our future and the publics “creativity quotient” will begin to grow upward.