Imagination

Imagination

Sub-theme: Imagination

Me, with a sparkling tiara on my head, sitting on a red velvet thrown, as all of the land gathers around, gasping at the sight of me. Everyone has an imagination, some more realistic than others, but everyone has one. As you get older, your imagination fades, and you realize that life isn't how you want it to be, whether you like it or not.

Santa, the Easter Bunny, and the Tooth Fairy are all imaginary characters that kids adore. Some parents feel bad lying like this to their kids, but these figures stretch childrens minds. Kids try to picture how big the Easter Bunny is, and what the North Pole actually looks like. As they get older, they start to question the reality, as their friends start telling them that they are make believe. Katie feels bad lying to her kids and fears that they will be dissapointed in her for tricking them for so long, but Katie decides not to tell them after she talks with her mother, who tells her it is important to do so. By the age of eleven or twelve, most children find out the truth, and most of the fun is lost.

Santa is make believe, and so are other things that we have to use our imagination to believe in. Some things, such as magic, make you think and try to figure out how they did what they did, whether is was disappearing or survive after a sword is put through them. Also, some kids have imaginary friends, or play imaginary games. Mr.McGarrity is an adult, but that doesn't stop him from imagining. When Johnny would talk to him about his family, he would imagine that it was him talking about his family. When you are six years old and you're bored out of your mind, you go ring your neighbor's door bell and play in the backyard or basement, pretending that one is a knight in shining armor and the other is the fire breathing dragon, and you love it and do it the next day. Once you get into the double digits, you think that you are too mature to play those "silly" games and instead you sit in front of the television playing video games for hours and hours.

Me, with sweatpants and a t-shirt on, sitting on my bed, with my dog taking up more than half of the space provided. Without imagination, life would be so dull and boring. It is important that children are taught that imagination is important so that it won't die die out and the world will still have a mysterious and exciting feel to it. With no Santa Clause, Easter Bunny, or Frosty the Snowman, children wouldn't have anything to look forward to or enjoy, except candy and birthdays.

Challenges

“A Tree Grows in Brooklyn” Response

Sub-theme: Challenges

Growing up is a roller coaster, you have your ups and your downs. Sometimes you have to face your challenges, and sometimes someone does that for you. Either way, life is hard to get through, especially being a gullible child that no one listens to, simply because you aren’t a grown up, which makes you immature and foolish. Francie and all of the other characters in “A Tree Grows in Brooklyn” have many problems, serious or small, but they all learn to deal with them in their own unique ways.

Francie is growing up in a bad part of Brooklyn, New York. She faces all different types of challenges every single day, whether it has to do with money, or school, or even troubles within her family. Her father, Johnny, has a serious drinking problem. Although Francie loves her father, she knows that he makes bad decisions and has to try to live with that. Katie, Francie’s mother, also has challenges due to her husband’s problem. She is known as the girl that married the drunk, and she has to deal with that also. That shows that not only children have challenges, but grown women and men struggle, too.

Another problem that Francie has is realizing that fantasies are fantasies, they aren’t things that happen in the real world. As Francie grows older, and is getting closer to being a women, she sees things differently. She sees that her mother is trying her hardest, although they have close to nothing. They made up games so it seemed like it was just pretend, and now Francie knows that they aren’t the real deal, they are just games that she thinks are for immature children. Every person goes through this in their lifetime, they become an adult, or at least think they are an adult, and don’t have as much of an imagination.

Everyone has a bump in their road, some bigger than others, but there isn’t anyone that doesn’t have to face a challenge. All of the characters in this book have a major problem or challenge. Francie is very poor and doesn’t have any friends, Neeley is also very poor and has many friends, but he is trying to become a man too quickly and can’t enjoy childhood to the fullest. Johnny is a drunk and can’t keep his job, and Katie is a very pretty girl who is poor and has to work all of the time to support her family. This family has tons of challenges thrown at them, but that doesn’t stop them from loving each other and supporting each other and times of need. That is something that we, as people, need to learn, that you can get through anything, as long as you have people that love and happiness.

Veterans Essay

When is the right time to honor our military heroes? Every second in a minute, every minute in a hour, every hour in a day, and every day in a year. Take a minute and put yourself in their shoes. Imagine how hard it is to leave your family behind and go to a foreign country, and for what? To protect people you don’t even know? It takes a lot of bravery to be in the military, and we, in the United States, need to stop taking these kind, generous people for granted.

Training for the military is very intense, and you have to be strong and determined to get through it. One large training facility is the NTC, otherwise known as the National Training Camp, located in Fort Irwin, California. Soldiers learn how to react to suicide bombings, riots, and cultural clashes within two weeks of training. Soldiers are attacked by “enemies” with gunpowder and challenges from all over the world, and the trainees have to defend themselves and defeat the enemy. Other things they do is going through brutal work outs, and get pushes by even more brutal sergeants.


I personally know someone who was in the military. He is married to one of my moms best friends from high school, Andrea. His name is Kevin. He went to Iraq about four of five years ago, and soon after arriving, he received a letter saying that he wife was pregnant. Luckily he made it home safe and sound, but he did not get to meet his daughter until she was just over a year old. There are many happy stories of soldiers returning home to their families, but there are also tons and tons of sad stories. Some people suffer from the loss of a family member that went to Iraq or any other country besides our own, and lost their life. It’s time to step up and help families in need and notice the people who help support our country.

Short Story Response

Me, sitting in the corner all alone, watching all the other kids playing games and laughing. I am sad because no one wants to play with you, but it’s partially my fault. Everyone thinks I’m weird because I’m different, and have seen things no one else there has. In the short story, “All Summer in a Day”, the author, Ray Bradbury, shows what it’s like when you isolate yourself from others. Making people think you are a strange person that doesn’t want to talk to anyone isn’t the way to go, and this story shows you why.


The main character in this story, Margot, moves from Earth to Venus with her parents. She goes to school with kids that have lived there all their life, and have never seen the sun before. She doesn’t fit in, and doesn’t try to fit in, so all the little kids ignore her and play amongst them selves. Isolating yourself from others is bad, and no one should ever do that. Margot isolates herself and the kids lock her in the closet, and she suffocates and dies. Not saying that this would happen in real life, but you will get left behind.

This story is an ironic tale. Some symbols that support that are blackness, lightning, no sun, thunder and midnight. Also, the main character is not in control, this story is not realistic, and evil, the little kids, are in control. They are in control because there are many more of them than Margot, and they had the ability to lock her in a closet. There is no hope in this story, because there is no sun, and Margot stays in the closet and dies in the end.

Imagine yourself, sitting in a dark closet, all alone, with no hope of ever getting out. You have missed your chance at the hour of light, and now you aren’t able to breathe. Us, as people, can not give up and spend our whole life alone. We need to take control of our lives and somehow make them better.