Monthly Blog AP English 8 "Unique Strangers and Judgement"

            Are we all alike? Even remotely? In a way, yes. Even though we share similar qualities and habits, we all are extremely different. Every second of every minute of every hour of every day is lived differently between us all. Every thought, sight, smell, sound, touch is differently interpreted by each one of us. So tell me, why do we judge people so often for being different? Why do we fear and attack things that we don't understand?

            People have a deep true self, and we will never understand them entirely, no matter how hard we try. We will never know anyone better than ourselves. So when someone is judged for their beliefs or activities, when they are doing nothing necessarily wrong, try to hold that judgment and prejudice back. You don't know what they have been through, the wrongs that they have faced, the way they grew up, laughed, smiled, or cried. Let people be themselves, and appreciate the fact that they take pride or at least try to with how they choose to live.

            In the book The Stranger, the main character Meursault is seen as a....well...stranger. He is viewed as a strange man, rejected by society from his thoughts and choices. He seems indifferent about everything possible, not putting much thought into anything. People around him see him as some sort of monster from knowing such details as his reaction to his mother's death and Arab's murder. Due to a past, that we have barely any information on, he thinks in a much different way than the majority of society. He is more of a realist, sort of a downer, but a realist. Society's choice to reject him is pretty harsh, due to the fact that he didn't do much of anything wrong. Sure he killed an Arab, but the Arab did cut up Raymond. It is also human nature to harm, it might be dark, but it is true. Main point is, we can't judge him if we don't know his past.

            This is a huge problem in modern society, judgment. We tend to make fun of and reject people based on first glances and rumors. We need to accept the fact that everyone has a deep personality and past, that made them who they are today. There should be no reason to treat others badly because we don't understand.

Monthly Blog AP English 7 "Good and Evil"

       Good and Evil is a battle as old as time itself. After reading "The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde" I really reflected on the division of myself, the good and the bad that "exists in me". Now, I believe in "Tabula Rasa", Latin for "A Blank Slate", meaning everyone is born neither bad nor good. However, I do believe people are born with a certain "soul" I guess you could say. For 17 years living on this planet, about 6 of them actually processing what is going on, I have noticed a certain "essence" of people. I guess what I am trying to say is that everyone has something that makes them unique or special in a way, to me at least. I guess my certain "soul" has a strong heart, being both beautiful and angry, which has its ups and downs.

      ANYWAYS back to the topic at hand, good and evil. In the story, Dr. Jekyll makes a potion that divides his "evilness" from him and he turns into Mr. Hyde. Dr. Jekyll is very kind and caring, while Mr. Hyde is destructive and sour. After embracing Mr. Hyde a little too much, Dr. Jekyll cannot control the transformations. This alludes to the hidden meaning of the story, being that embracing evil can take over your whole being, corrupting your good self.

      Personally, I battle evil and good constantly within myself. So far, good has won over evil, I am a pretty nice guy after all. Even though I'm a nice guy, doesn't mean that I don't have a mean bone in my body. I go through the same stuff that everyone goes through, things like anger, desire, and depression. I'm not sure why, but I usually block these things out as much as I can and suppress them. Sure, people can still piss me off, and I have bad thoughts from time to time, but I try my best to ignore it. Sometimes these things push me over the edge, and a "person" I'm not familiar with comes out, someone who is angry and extremely negative. The good side of me always conquers the bad side of me, and this good side is who people mainly see me for.

     The main dilemma why evil is such a problem, is that it is so inviting at times. I guess by nature we are all in some ways "evil", whether it be selfishness, desire, or intention to hurt in some way. In society, It seems like evil is the winner.....which really bothers me. Our society gives into the compelling and easy life of "evil". This mainly consists of hurting others, drinking, doing other drugs, having relationships made up of mainly sex. All these things provide short term "happiness" to people, and it's easy to get into. It's so tempting as well, mainly discriminating others and adultery.

      For myself, I choose to not do these things because it causes this horrible feeling inside of me, like my "soul" is telling me that it isn't right. So I choose to be considerate, nice, kind, whatever I can to just be good overall. I want no gain, other than respect I guess, it's just my nature to be good now. The battle will always continue in my mind, but good will always shine through. Hopefully the good will start to shine and spread in the world we live in.

Monthly Blog AP English 6 "Happiness"

            Happiness. To me, it is the most important thing in life. What is the point of living if you aren't happy? You have to smile every once in a while! You just have to be happy, but of course....you can't always be. Everyone wants to be happy, don't get me wrong, there are just certain things preventing people from being happy. Whether it be family, school, people in general, just life in general, we can't always be happy. Life has its ups, downs, twists, and turns. Everyone goes through the rollercoaster that is life.

            Let me give you a speech that generalizes my view on life and happiness, right here right now, from a classic movie. "The world ain’t all sunshine and rainbows. It’s a very mean and nasty place, and I don’t care how tough you are, it will beat you to your knees and keep you there permanently if you let it. You, me, or nobody is gonna hit as hard as life. But it ain’t about how hard you hit. It’s about how hard you can get hit and keep moving forward; how much you can take and keep moving forward. That’s how winning is done! Now, if you know what you’re worth, then go out and get what you’re worth. But you gotta be willing to take the hits, and not pointing fingers saying you ain’t where you wanna be because of him, or her, or anybody. Cowards do that and that ain’t you. You’re better than that!"

            I'm not going to lie, I might seem like a "happy go lucky" kind of guy, but my past wasn't all sunshine and rainbows. I was a nobody up until 11th grade, and even then I was still in a bad time. I've been neglected by a lot of people, besides my family, and it was pretty terrible. I was that nerdy kid who wanted to be friends with everyone and just be happy, but I guess I wasn't a likable person. I was picked on a lot, people avoided me, called me all sorts of names, strangled me, punched me, and more. This stuff ruined my life, made me cry a lot, thinking that nobody ever wanted anything to do with me. When 11th grade rolled around I joined sports and got a lot more athletic and social, without these sports I probably wouldn't be alive today. It gave me a place to be somebody....it made me happy. This happiness also came with a lot of maturity. I gained a pretty open mind from my social stand point. I wasn't the "popular guy" or "the nerd", I was just an average seeming person. This gave me such a wide view on everyone else's lives. I understood everything, how people think, why they did certain things, and I became very mature from it. I also learned not to judge just because someone is different than the average person. Society changes everyone, for better or for worse, and sometimes I can't blame them for who they become. This knowledge made me sorta special in a way. This knowledge  allowed me to make better choices, especially friends. The way I started living my life, made me truly happy, and I won't let anyone destroy what I hold dear to my heart anymore. All these past experiences, and more things that I can't really fit into this blog post, made me who I am today.

            So anyways, back on topic, happiness. An example that ties in with this control of life's happiness is in "The Yellow Wallpaper" and "The Awakening". Both of the main characters in these pieces of literature have their lives controlled by others, and it ruins their sense of happiness. They lost their independence and pride, which caused them to lose themselves. Edna and the narrator of "The Yellow Wallpaper" are both seized by society and their husbands, to the point where they can't even make decisions for themselves without permission. Both go insane. As stated before, happiness is essential to life, without it I'd go insane as well.

            So yeah...if that nonstop rant and ramble of words made sense to you, then I achieved my goal of getting my point across while also managing to do everything required for a monthly blog. Honestly I have a really amazing view on life, you probably can't tell from what I just wrote, but hey I tried. I will depart with one last saying. "Hakuna matata", it means no worries, for the rest of your days.

Monthly Blog AP English 5 "Love"

Rewriting this because Google decided that the blog I wrote didn't matter

            Love. What is love? My definition? A magical connection between two beings. Now partly what I am saying can be related to family, but this is mainly focusing on people not related to each other. In today's society, love is still a mystery. How does someone know that they are in love? Is it the rapid beating of the heart whenever the significant other is close to them? Is it that magical feeling, almost as if time is slowing down while gazing into their eyes? Is it the fact that you would give your own life for that person? Love is crazy, why does it do these things to us? Who knows, I'm only 17 years old after all.

            Everyone wants to feel loved, but sometimes "love" hurts. Some people may believe that they are in love with someone, when they really aren't. Love is a definite feeling, there is no, sort of, kind of, maybe involved in it. In the literature read over the past couple of months, it has been observed that people are together because they either have to or it seems like the best option at the time. It is very rare to see "true love", especially in this society, with all these divorces and scandals in marriage, but scandals have always existed. Why can't people just marry the person they truly love and not hurt each other? In the writings of "A Doll's House", "A Thousand Splendid Suns", and "The Awakening" this uncertainty is displayed. The marriages all these women share are abusive in different ways. They are disregarded extremely, mainly because that's how things were back then, but it is still unacceptable. Nora in "A Doll's House" is treated as a pet by her husband, Mariam in "A Thousand Splendid Suns" is abused and taken advantage of, and Edna from "The Awakening" was disregarded as if she was nothing.  Why were women treated this way? Why didn't they ever marry the men they truly loved? Society and history is a major influence, if the man was wealthy and seemed good, they got married. They got married faster than you can say "you may kiss the bride". The main question now is......Is love any better today? I'd say yes, in a way.

            Since women have more rights and freedom in today's society, things have improved a lot. Men have become more considerate too, sure there are still horrible guys out there, but I think it has improved. Maybe I'm just looking at this too positively because of my morals, but people are really starting to show their individualism and what beautiful things we can do as a human race. I could go on for days, months, even years about the topic of love, because I feel so strongly about it, but I'll wrap it up in a few of my beliefs. Love should be found and determined over time, with care and consideration. Love is a beautiful thing, so take care of it once you have it, never let it die. Everyone has someone out there for them, you just have to be yourself, it is the only way you will be truly happy and fall in "true love", which I believe actually exists.

            Anyways that is that, I tried out a new way of writing my blog, just typing the first thing that came to my mind. I love talking about love, and I hope one day I'll meet that special person, get married, have kids, and die old and happy. That is really all I want in life, to experience love and raise my own children with the love of my life, respecting her, laughing, smiling, telling her I love her every day.... it will come....in time.