Monday, June 6, 2011
Sunday, June 5, 2011
PWA Essay
Kindred was a book written by Octavia Buttler with many messages. The book was about an African American woman,Dana,traveling back in time to save her white ancestor Rufus when he was in danger. Through out the book many events occurred. We learned about the oppression of slavery,how slaves conformed to slavery,pressure and unfair treatment. However I believe that Octavia Buttler’s main message was to be able to overcome problems and to be able to forgive and learn from it.
Tom Weylin,Rufus dad, for example was forgiven by Dana.Tom whipped her,mistreated her,took advantage of her,and told Rufus to try to get her to .Even through he did all this,Dana still forgave Tom.Years later when Tom was having an attack and dying,Dana proved that she forgave him by trying her best to save his life.Unfortunately it was too late and he still died.Dana learned how to forgive Tom after all the pain he brought to her.
Margaret,Rufus mother,was another person that was forgiven by Dana. Ever since the first time when Dana traveled back to the river and saved Rufus,Margaret disliked her. Margaret was racist to Dana and would force her to do work she wasn’t responsible for her. Margaret would be jealous of Dana because Rufus would enjoy spending time with her more than his own mother.Margaret yelled,was disrespectful and would boss Dana around. After the years passed and Dana traveled back in time and Margaret was older,Dana learned how to forget and forgive all the unfair treatment.Even though Dana was treated unfairly by Margaret,Dana proved she forgave her by taking good care of her. Dana was with Margaret day and night helping her in whatever she needed.
In this world everybody makes mistakes.We have people that hurt us when we less expected but we have to stay strong and learn how to forgive.When my mom was younger around 17 her older sister mistreated her and forced her to leave her home.Her sister threw all her personal belongings on the floor,and asked her to leave.All this happened because of a misunderstanding. After 8 months my mom forgave her sister. She forgave her because they were sisters,and she didn’t want to have problems with her own family. Many people have similar cases where problems happen in their family,friend,and relationships.In some point in our lives just like in the book,people will hurt us but we realize their mistakes,learn from it next time.
From all of this we can conclude that forgiving someone is hard after whatever harm they’ve done to us.We realize that that person wasn’t thinking right or realizing how they where oppressing us. Like in the book Tom and Margaret didn’t know how they were making Dana feel and suffer.They might have not been thinking straight and acted quickly on whatever was on their mind. Once again, I believe that the main message is to learn how to forgive, but never forget, learn from experience.
Tom Weylin,Rufus dad, for example was forgiven by Dana.Tom whipped her,mistreated her,took advantage of her,and told Rufus to try to get her to .Even through he did all this,Dana still forgave Tom.Years later when Tom was having an attack and dying,Dana proved that she forgave him by trying her best to save his life.Unfortunately it was too late and he still died.Dana learned how to forgive Tom after all the pain he brought to her.
Margaret,Rufus mother,was another person that was forgiven by Dana. Ever since the first time when Dana traveled back to the river and saved Rufus,Margaret disliked her. Margaret was racist to Dana and would force her to do work she wasn’t responsible for her. Margaret would be jealous of Dana because Rufus would enjoy spending time with her more than his own mother.Margaret yelled,was disrespectful and would boss Dana around. After the years passed and Dana traveled back in time and Margaret was older,Dana learned how to forget and forgive all the unfair treatment.Even though Dana was treated unfairly by Margaret,Dana proved she forgave her by taking good care of her. Dana was with Margaret day and night helping her in whatever she needed.
In this world everybody makes mistakes.We have people that hurt us when we less expected but we have to stay strong and learn how to forgive.When my mom was younger around 17 her older sister mistreated her and forced her to leave her home.Her sister threw all her personal belongings on the floor,and asked her to leave.All this happened because of a misunderstanding. After 8 months my mom forgave her sister. She forgave her because they were sisters,and she didn’t want to have problems with her own family. Many people have similar cases where problems happen in their family,friend,and relationships.In some point in our lives just like in the book,people will hurt us but we realize their mistakes,learn from it next time.
From all of this we can conclude that forgiving someone is hard after whatever harm they’ve done to us.We realize that that person wasn’t thinking right or realizing how they where oppressing us. Like in the book Tom and Margaret didn’t know how they were making Dana feel and suffer.They might have not been thinking straight and acted quickly on whatever was on their mind. Once again, I believe that the main message is to learn how to forgive, but never forget, learn from experience.
Thursday, March 10, 2011
Expo Reflection
I really enjoyed english expo.Something that I liked most about the english expo was having a comfortable discussion with our family and community.We were all very respectful to eachother and we learned new stuff about eachother. The main area I want to improve on upon for next time is listening more attentively because sometimes I got distracted and didn't know what to say . I am most proud of keeping the conversation flowing and asking high level questions. I appreciate all the parents that came to support our discussion.I also want to appreciate my group for all the hard work we did together.
College For All Reflection
College for all trip is an unforgettable experience. On the way there it was really hot in the back,but it was really fun to be with friends.We went to visit different colleges.The fist college was Santa Barbara. They have a place called 'El Centro'. Chicano students go there to do work and it feels like home because everyone gets to know eachother.Most of the students transport in bicycles.During this trip I learned that sleep is very important to students because they have a busy schedule. We stayed at a very comfortable hotel in Santa Maria where we got our rest.The next day we went to Cal Poly, there we leared that they focuse on architecture.We went to a different hotel in Santa Cruz.We went to boardwalk in the afternoon.It as realy fun to hang out wit all our friends. Our last visit was at UC Santa Cruz. There thay have good food and their campus was divided into 10 difrerent campusus. College for all was an unforgetable expericen i will never forget! In the future I see myself in a college where they have good food,and we have choices about what classes we want to take and programs we want.Something I didn't like about the colleges was that most of the population was White/Asian.I didn't like that because Latinos were underrepresented.Something I enjoyed was that they have sports like soccer and basketball and I really enjoy that. I really enjoyed this trip and I hope that UPA keeps doing this trip to encourage other students to go to college.
Tuesday, March 1, 2011
Oppresion...
Drugs and alcohol are both oppressive. They are oppressive because when people use it they loose control or aren't aware of their actions. People take this to get away from problems ,when really they're bringing more problems into their lives ! Oppressors consume drugs and alcohol to forget what they've done wrong, but they end up doing more harm. It's harmful because for example a person that consumes alcohol and goes driving can get into an accident and end up hurting others around them.Drinking and using drugs sometimes encourages others to use them too. These people have sometimes internalized that people don't care about them and that they're not important in this world. When they do this they are affecting themselves,community,and their families. These oppressors restrict others from going out and doing what they do because they're afraid to get hurt.
Liberation
The community can be free of oppression by having more fun programs for teens to attend. If there was more programs for teens then students would feel more safe and happy to be in a good environment. They would avoid and forget about drugs and alcohol. If there were more police around the streets then people would feel more comfortable when they go to work or somewhere were they need to be.
College... Is It Just a Dream?
Do you come from a family that hasn’t attended college? Do you live in a ghetto neighborhood where all you see are gangs and violence? Well I do,I was born here in Oakland , and my family comes from Mexico. Here in Oakland there is violence and gangs.You walk around the neighborhood and all you see is gangs hanging out or people using drugs. Here in Oakland it’s hard for many people to stay out of gangs and not use drugs but if you believe in yourself and take the right path nothing will happen and you’ll be successful.My parents didn’t attend college because they had no money for it and they had to work instead.
One word to best describe my family, community, and school is supportive. My family is always together and there for each other whenever we need support or help for anything.I come from a caring and supportive elementary and middle school that just want the best for our future. They have always helped us in everything we need. Upa,middle school I attend, has always encouraged us to go to college,persevere, and do what we believe is right.They give us challenging work to prepare us for our future and we do a lot of working together for support and teamwork.Upa always has us thinking about our future and how important it is for us to attend it.
At Upa I had a great opportunity to travel to our nations capitol Washington, DC. The Close Up program helped us travel there. It was 11 of us that traveled there. It’s an unforgettable experience,that I will always remember . We learned so much new history about our country that we didn’t know before. During this trip we learned how to be more responsible,organised, and independent. I learned that anything is possible as long as you really want it and you persevere. You can achieve anything you want if you work hard and have your mind into it. This trip made me want to go to travel the world more and explore new things. Another great opportunity that we have in UPA is the College For All Trip and other trip we have that involve visiting colleges. This is a great opportunity because we’re already thinking about college,why we should go,and why it’s important. This helps because we get to see how colleges are different and which one we actually want to go to.
One of the major issues that we have here in Oakland that affects me is gangs,violence,and drugs. All around our community you see different gangs,drug dealers,vandalism, and sometimes serious violence. Having this in the community makes others feel unsafe to walk around or simply go somewhere where they need to be. Something that I’m doing to try and stop the community from how it is,is joining the Peer Education Team here at UPA. We teach the younger ones about how to make the right choices and how joining gangs and using drugs are bad and can affect your future. We tell the younger ones our personal experiences and how to make the right decisions at home,on the street, and at school.
As a result of peer education, I have changed.Now I feel more responsible and confident about myself. I’m not that afraid to speak up for what I believe is right and should be done. This changed my dreams in a way because now I’m more interested into attending high school and college more. I look forward to teaching others more about how to help the community and about right choices. I hope to be a leader and a role model for my sister, friends, and others around me. Now I have been more caring about the community and younger ones that live around me and go through what I go through.
Do you know what college means to me? College for me means being responsible and getting the education that I’m suppost to get.Going to college means getting a better job in the future and being independent. Attending college also means making my family proud by being the first one in the family to go.
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