I learned from a young age that life is tough and it’s not a given. Coming to the United States from Gambia in 2005 on a cold winter day this country was nothing like what I had expected. It is assumed by all Gambians that America is the Holy Grail but that is not accurate. From my first day I have had to go through hardships to fit in. My accent was very thick. My teeth were out of place and the kids at school didn’t hesitate to comment on it. I consider these hardships as something that many people
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Introduction Esmeralda Santiago’s When I Was Puerto Rican focuses on island life in the 1950s. In the immediate period leading up to the 1950s‚ Puerto Rico experienced a rapid change in the economic situation of the island. The island began to change from a primarily agricultural economy to one dominated by industry and commerce. Sugar plantations (owned by the wealthy and worked by the poor)‚ cattle ranching‚ and subsistence-level agriculture gave way to a more urban style of living. In the 1930s
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If I could go back in time and change a decision that I had made it would be the time I decided to change schools my senior year. This decision was made because I relocated with my parents to a place that was about an hour ride from my high school. My mother gave me the choose to either travel back and forth every day‚ or transfer out my senior year. I decided to transfer out because I knew that my mother would be worry about me traveling at that distance every day. And not only that‚ I also played
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Beginning When we joined the team‚ we were put with a friend from band‚ this kid we didn’t know‚ and somebody from Ally’s math class. Things were great over the summer. My band friend‚ Liam‚ was very close to me at the time so we would always talk about our ideas but that sort of left us cut off from the rest of the team. Of course I would talk to Ally but it was nowhere near the amount towards Liam. During the year‚ she started getting close to him too and I no longer felt like I could say my
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A wise activist once said‚ “There may be times when we are powerless to prevent injustice‚ but there must never be a time when we fail to protest” (Wiesel). Elie Wiesel‚ in the time of great oppression through the Holocaust‚ understood that if society does not speak out against indifferences‚ no change will even spark. He was known and respected for being an activist and speaking vivid hard truth about rough places in our culture. Protest literature has the ability to take on the outlook of Wiesel
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The poem “When I heard the Learn’d Astronomer‚” is a very smooth and beautiful poem addressing the irony of the professional astronomer. Who is stuck in a room encompassed by algorithms and diagrams‚ never to look up and enjoy the very things he has dedicated his life to. The narrator is mocking this astronomer with the usage of incorrect English‚ in an almost southern drawl‚ when repeatedly calling him a learn’d astronomer instead of educated‚ professional‚ or any other positive and sophisticated
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WHEN I WAS TWENTY years of age I went through an evening with Howard Nemerov. He was the main "renowned" writer I had ever met‚ however I would later discover that he was profoundly disillusioned by what he saw to be an absence of admiration from commentators and different artists. (I once heard Thom Gunn call him a "zombie.") My main recollections are of his awesome avidness to nail down the time and place for his late morning martini‚ him recounting "Animula" when I let him know I cherished Eliot
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Whitman‚ generally ignored in his time‚ has come to be recognized as a great poet among the American romantics. His works emphasize romantic ideals such as reverence towards nature‚ examination of the inner self‚ and distaste for scientific thought. Whitman’s poems piece together life lessons and observations of existence into a message which promotes reader based reflection. His strongest works are debatable‚ but his poems with the strongest messages remain clear. "When I Heard the Learned Astronomer
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can’t wait to grow up when we’re young. The world is filled with all this possibility and wonder. I’ve been told ever since I was little that the world is my oyster; in other words‚ the world was completely opened to me and I could be anything I put my mind to. So I just couldn’t wait to grow up. Being an adult seemed awesome and I wanted to skip over the kid stage and get to my life‚ start living and taking care of myself. I thought I knew it all and I was ready to prove it. I had this idea‚ this
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important times about my life was when i realized i actually had to try in school. I came to that realization shortly after my freshman year when I failed my math and world studies classes and had to take summer school. there wasn’t anything that made me have to buckle down it was all my choice because i was 16 no job‚ no car‚ and failing my classes. after my freshman year i realized that i was hanging around the wrong crowd and started doing some stuff that i probably shouldn’t have. as soon as I actually
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