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Browsing category archives: English 9

Balancing Act-By Tamara

Balancing Act

How can we control this thing that consumes us

Money and wealth valued over blessing and health

Have stories to tell

Not things to show

There is no such thing

As too much knowledge to know

Feelings cannot be defined If we don’t understand what they mean in our minds

Money like our blood

Blind to those around us

Like balancing life and death

The neon god holds power over our lives

Money like our blood

Slaves to material

It gives us meaning, yet it is meaningless

We believe the tangible will let us reach into places we can’t see

Balancing Act

“Balancing Act” by Tamara Markel is a free verse poem. It illustrates how in present day society, we still struggle to find a balance between our ways of intangible and tangible ways of thinking. The video that corresponds to the poem shows how destructive humanity can be while trying to gain this. Our ways of believing in the tangible material, such as money and popularity, often blind us to the intangible way of appreciating love, joy, and other emotions that cannot be measured or bought. The title of this poem goes to suggest that we need to find a balancing act, or way to measure how much we value each way of thinking. We often believe that everything has a logical reasoning, explanation, or can be measured, while often this is not the case. The repercussions and consequences of striving for things that we can measure can be disastrous, and challenge our faith in humanity around us. There is a clear reference to the video, ‘Balance’ which was posted on Chad Brocker’s YouTube page, and it shows how we will often destroy ourselves in order to get money or fame. The line from the poem, ‘The neon god holds power over our lives,’ alludes to show how electronics can often influence our way of living, and shows how we seek to become wealthy and have great materialistic presence.

 

 

 

Getting Lost (And Getting Found)

https://thisibelieve.org/essay/90212/

This story is very interesting, even before your eyes scan across the typing across the page. The title is intriguing, and as it’s tagged in the theme of ‘goodness and kindness’ along with ‘place’, and ‘self knowledge’, you can tell there’s bound to be good storytelling here. The thing that I like about this story, even before fully reading it, is that you can tell that she thinks about this experience a lot, using it as a life lesson of sorts. The description paints a vivid image in your mind, bright hues of paint coloring in a dull, colorless canvas of imaginary artwork. Her style of writing Is very precise, and she uses words very carefully to depict what she is feeling.

The connections in this story are almost endless. The feeling of being disconnected in a land expected to be one you’re familiar with is very common. She thought that her knowledge of languages would help her out here, seeing as she missed her train, her professor left, and she’s left with a classmate who doesn’t speak the native language either. She makes sure to calm herself down, and exchanging a glance with a fellow stranger helps her drive away the cloud of anxiety and fear. Us as humans feel the need to communicate with others, and even though she didn’t make a verbal connection, eye contact was enough to reassure her that everything would be alright in the end.

This article of writing illustrates how that with a simple glance, we can forget our troubles, and merely enjoy what is around us without worrying about deadlines, or life. She seems to have enough trust to willingly show her vulnerable emotions to a stranger merely though eye contact. She shows how even when we are in times of stress, fear, or need, there is always a stranger nearby willing to help, just in means of support. She realized that there was nothing in her power that she could do to fix things. She didn’t speak the right language, her classmate didn’t either, and their professor had left them, so they merely did what they could with the few given resources. They didn’t freak out about the things that they couldn’t control, instead she was calm about the scenario and situation at hand.

Your Dream Must be Bigger than Your Fear-Bloglog

https://thisibelieve.org/essay/106935/

What interests me about this article of writing? It’s a very personal story, and quite relatable to those who suffer from stage fright. I’ve always wanted to be good at singing, and I take a musical theatre class at my dance studio every week. I’m fairly shy, I don’t like to do public speaking, let alone singing, in front of an audience, but when you get over that voice in the back of your head, you can do anything. I like how the writer’s tone can easily help you imagine the setting and the series of events happening, and how the writer can relate to it herself.

One thing I happen to like about this article is the saying that she saw on a fortune cookie when she was out for Chinese food, “Your dream must be bigger than your fear,”. That speaks on a very truthful level for just about anyone who wants to accomplish their dreams in life, but are too scared or insecure to. If you can get over the thing that is stopping you from enjoying your dreams, you can do anything. The author illustrates and depicts that once you do one small thing, you can do anything, and even though she struggled with getting over her fears, she’s now the lead singer of a group.

The author’s writing is quite truthful, and is quite insightful. Most people would give up on their dream, and here, she did temporarily, but she overcomes and perseveres, and in the end, finds out that all the work was worth it. She doesn’t hide the main details behind elaborate wording, it’s quite clearly put. She puts in an effort to state it clearly how it is, and shows the journey of how she came to get over her fear in the first place. It’s important that we don’t let fear control every aspect of our lives, and that we learn how fear can make us stronger, more determined, and brave. If you can get over your fears, however small they may be, it makes you feel stronger and more confident about yourself.

Kind Gestures-Bloglog

https://thisibelieve.org/essay/4881/

This writing is one that stood out to me the moment I clicked on the link. The title is interesting, and draws you in, wanting to fulfill the wish of wanting to read and finish this piece. This story starts out young and naïve, she wanted to win the Student Council Vice President position. She tried hard to win the campaign, but she was shy in the beginning, and didn’t have the ‘blue sparkly pencils with her name printed on them’, and she lost. She took the loss hard, and tried to rethink of a new strategy to win, knowing that her parents wouldn’t fund her campaign. She wanted to run again in high school, and as soon as she got there, she tried to make friends with everyone so they would vote for her. She wanted to learn everyone’s name in order to gain a vote. By the next year, she knew over 1/4 of the people in over 500 people.

There are many connections to this post. One of them is that even if you fail at doing something, there are many good things that can happen. Also, if you have an open mind, you can meet many new people and create new friends and acquaintances. She was determined to win the election, and kept up her effort in order to win. In the end, she didn’t bother trying to campaign again.

This writing illustrates and shows that with showing kind gestures, being friends with lots of people is better than winning an election or campaign. She ended up knowing over 1/4 of her class of 500+ people, and many people looked to her if they needed to rant, or simply just to share what was going on in her life. In the beginning, she merely wished to get followers to get her elected, but in the end, she ended up making so many friends and meeting all different kinds of people. She realized that her ‘motives had changed’, and instead of getting caught up in winning, she actually ended up valuing the people she had met and the friends she had made.

What other people thought was a kind gesture, she wanted to win, but now she cared about making friends. She said it made her genuinely happy to see someone who was smiling and being friendly with her, she truly did care about the people in her school, and didn’t have to put forth an effort to be kind to others.

Love on Four Feet-Bloglog

https://thisibelieve.org/essay/28061/

What interests me about this article of writing? Well, you can really tell that even though we may not appreciate everything around us, it loves us and cares for us. The author’s style of writing was insightful and truthful, and she revealed the truth about many things that us as humans think and do.

There are many connections about this writing that apply to real life, that you may not think and appreciate the smaller things, but once something happens and you find yourself needing support, the smaller things make it better and you wonder how you ever lived without caring for it in the first place. She shows how she became more in tune with her feelings and thoughts towards something she took for granted.

This writing article illustrates how that even if you don’t care for something at first, when you realize how much you inwardly love it, it shocks you. When something as small as a kitten or a puppy comes into our lives, it’s a lot of work to take care of it, as well as taking care of your own being. Pets are in our lives for such a short time, but in that short time, you come to love them and appreciate them.  Pets live quite a short life, but they show unconditional love and affection for each minute they’re with us, and it leaves us sad and alone when they have to leave us.

This article of writing shows that we take the things we have for granted, and it teaches us to appreciate everything that we have, even if we didn’t want it in the first place. I grew up with 2 dogs, and when they leave us, we are surprised by the emptiness in our lives, and how the house is so quiet when you don’t hear their paws and nails clicking on the tile. The fact that she had a cat when she was growing up, and seeing despite how she didn’t particularly care for it since it was a lot of work, that the cat missed her and helped her through a mental breakdown more efficiently than a human shocks me.

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