Unwind Book Post #3

During my group discussion about the book Unwind, a science fiction novel by Neal Shusterman, we talked about the protagonist character Connor being a hero in some ways and a criminal in others. Also we discussed his significance as the Akron AWOL and how many kids looked up to him as a hero. Many other questions were posed from in our discussion.

Connor, the hero of the book retitled as the Akron AWOL was very significant because of his change throughout the story. He was a dynamic character. At the beginning of the book, Shusterman hints Connor’s delinquent ways, by the end, Connor is a leader and takes the place of the Admiral at the graveyard. This is different from before because he was not as intelligent and did not understand his reason for living since he was bound to be unwound anyways. By the end of the book, he knows what his fate is, to be a leader. It was obvious that Connor already had the role of a leader at the graveyard under the Admiral’s control, but once he escaped the harvest camp, it was clear that he certainly was a leader.

Could Connor be considered a holy figure if he had done so many crimes? This question came up in our discussion. At the end of the story, Roland has Connor in his grasp and is so close to killing him, in spite of their rivalry Roland lets go. He could have easily killed Connor but chose not to. Yet in the book Roland is the antagonist, or bad character. Connor on the other hand has caused the death of a bus driver on accident, took down a juvey cop, took a hostage and stopped and entire freeway. There was controversy over this topic but we came to the decision that Connor’s actions were accidents and he was still a hero.

The book Unwind was such a great novel. I recommend it to everybody because it was really good! I’m glad that I chose this book for my final and too bad there isn’t a sequel to it.

Response to Alex T's blog-Forgiving.

After reading Alex Tang's response post about forgiving friends for their mistakes, I agree with what he is trying to say. In his blog he expressed his feelings about how people make mistakes and sometimes accidents happen but you can't blame the person for doing it.

I have mixed feelings about this statement because everyone is and should be entitled to make mistakes because we are humans and everybody knows that no one is perfect. If they did something bad by accident and they owned up to it and apologized then you should forgive them because at least they owned up to it.

I completely agree with what he is saying because not everyone is perfect. Mistakes should not end a friendship especially if it was only an accident. If a close friend happens to do something that affects you, you should not make them feel any worse for their actions. They have already apologized, although if it was something that was terrible, I can see how this person would feel like not forgiving their friend.

Forgiving someone takes a lot of courage especially if what they did was very hurtful. But it also shows that you are the bigger person, for giving them a second chance and realizing that they are sincerely sorry.

Apologizing also takes a lot of courage since it could be terrifying owning up to the truth and confronting the person that is very disappointed in you.

If a friendship is supposed to last then both friends should be able to get over their obstacle and realize that they are still very close friends no matter what. People make accidents and sometimes their actions can ruin a friendship. But it should not be able to destroy it forever.

Alex also adds in his blog,

If so, then have you ever forgiven them or considered forgiving them? If not, do you think did the right thing and do you regret not forgiving them.

If you can't forgive a friend then later on it will get back to you and sooner or later you will miss that friend very much. Losing a friend is worse than the friend hurting you by accident or making a mistake because now it has affected the both of you in many ways. After losing a friendship, it can be very hard to regain. What Alex is trying to say is that people should think twice about hating somebody for their mistakes because later on you will realize that it was a bigger mistake to let your friend go.

Response to Christy's post - Definition of Beautiful

After reading Christy's post about her take on the definition of a perfect girl compared to others I agree with what she is trying to tell her readers.
What most guys look for in "the perfect girl" is based on their body features. Not everybody is perfect, some girls could be really pretty but have really bad attitudes, others could be the other way around. What Chirsty is trying to tell us is that girls shouldn't be chosen by looks, sometimes the prettiest girls can be the most obnoxious girls you will ever meet. The girls that are overlooked as ugly, or not good enough are also the ones that have been through a lot of things. Being judged on the way the look makes them feel insecure all of the time.
Some girls that I know can't go a day without looking at themselves in the mirror more than five times, wearing make up and commenting on how bad they look. These girls are the ones that feel like they aren't good enough.
In Christy's blog she writes:
N

othing about being skinny is bad, but the fact that other than skinny is considered bad. We all know that being overweight is bad as in health problems but I am not here to talk about it. People judge others by their appearance and does not realize that they are not benefiting themselves. Sure you can make fun of someone and feel good about it but really step in people’s shoes and realize what if feels like to be teased everyday.

I completely agree with what she is trying to say and I think it is very sad when a girl feels that they aren't pretty because people have different ways of being beautiful, sometimes those characteristics are just overlooked.
Later on she states:

Yeah you get the point but what do they say to a non-skinny girl? Nothing except negativity. What this whole post is about is to explain what I meant about skinny girls being referred to as pretty.

My take on this is that there are skinny girls that are also considered "ugly" but at the same time skinny girls have a weird advantage. This is true and false at the same time. I think the real issue with the definition of the "perfect girl" is their personality. Everybody has somebody out there that will accept them for their looks, but sometimes their personalities can make them look ugly.

Unwind Book Post #2

In the science fiction novel, Unwind by Neil Shusterman, three kids that are scheduled to be unwound at a harvest camp struggle to survive until eighteen to prevent their bodies from being taken apart. Throughout the story, Risa, Connor and Lev run from juvey cops to save their body parts. Later on, Lev a tithe, becomes rebellious and runs on his own. Risa and Connor now have only themselves to fend for. Until they are eighteen years of age, their only reason for living is to be unwound.

In my group discussion, we talked about the differences between Roland the antagonist of the novel and Connor the protagonist. Roland’s strive for leadership has made him look to Connor as the biggest obstacle he must overcome to obtain the role as the leader. Another topic that we discussed was the confusion between Tyler and Cyrus’s parents living next to each other.

After Lev turned Risa and Connor into the juvey cops, he finds a new person to tag along with. Cyrus claims he is a “run-to” instead of a runaway. He must go to Joplin, Missouri to take care of business that he doesn’t know what is. When he was younger, he was hit by a car and had part of his brain replaced by another kid’s. As Lev and Cyrus get closer to their destination, Cyrus begins to act differently showing a presence that isn’t the same as the one he gave off before. Cyrus was being possessed. When they get to Joplin, he sees his two dads outside of their house, a couple houses down is the parents of Tyler, the part of Cyrus’s brain. We were confused about how Cyrus’s parents could be in Joplin at the same time as Tyler’s because if Cyrus was a “run to” wouldn’t he be leaving the place he started out from? If this is true then Cyrus would be leaving his home running to Joplin. Although this part of the story isn’t as important, it still leaves our group questioning how this could happen.

Roland’s troubles with Connor has gone on since they have met. When Connor is accepted by the Admiral, Roland finds his power lowering. Now Connor is in charge and people look at him as a leader.

For the last part of Unwind, I am excited to see what happens to Connor, Risa, Roland and the many other Unwinds as they get caught by Juvey cops.

Unwind Book Post #1

After reading the first section of the book Unwind by Neal Shusterman, the many questions that struck me were based on the beginning adventure of Connor, Risa and Lev. A question that I had was, although Lev grew up knowing he was going to be unwound, why didn't he ever question how his life would be if he wasn't a tithe? Throughout the book Lev is compelled to be unwound, thinking about it his entire life never made him doubt that he was going to stay in one piece. When Connor, Risa and Lev are hiding in the bathroom he devises a plan to sneak out and tell an adult that he was being kidnapped. Right when he was free from being unwound, he still felt that it was his destiny to be unwound. Somewhere in the book he talks about people not knowing their reason in life, he feels that he is higher than Connor because he knows what his purpose in life was, to be unwound.

In our discussion, Ebone Qualls made a point that Lev was brainwashed when he was born. Since before he was born his parents knew that he was going to be unwound. As he grew up the fear of being unwound turned into realization of his fate. Another reason as to why he was brainwashed is because he grew up with his close family friend Pastor Dan, obviously he was a pastor that reassured his future of being unwound. I agree with what Ebone was trying to say because Lev had no choice but to live up to the expectations that were set for him before he was even born. Lev's destiny was not fair.

A quote that I shared with my group was about Lev saying that although he was going to be unwound did not mean that he was an Unwind. I asked Tony on his feelings toward this statement because I was uncertain about what Lev meant when he said it. Tony Lin commented that what Lev was trying to say was that even though he was going to be unwound did not mean that he was a juvenile or misbehaving kid, this set him apart from being referred to as an Unwind.

My discussion with the group helped me understand the book better because my group mates clarified many questions I had about the book.

The Kite Runner. My final thoughts.

In The Kite Runner, a historical fiction novel written by Khaled Hosseini about a man that struggles through life to obtain salvation from what had happened in his childhood years. His best friend, brother, role-model Hassan a mere Hazara, stays with Amir throughout his childhood journey. When one day Hassan faces a struggle between friendship and his life, he chooses his loyalty over everything for Amir. Amir maintains a stable lifestyle in America when he receives a message notifying him about what had happened with Hassan and his son and most importantly the spacious Kabul, his hometown. In this novel, Amir struggles to create balance from his past and present. This book tells the story of the mind set of a young man racing to make things right with his best friend. Along the way, he faces many obstacles that could only be passed by with perserverence and his will for a better life in the end.

Throughout The Kite Runner, Hassan and Amir’s friendship is greatly expressed. Their friendship can be closely relaated to a rollercoaster. At times Hassan and Amir can act as if they are brothers. Other times, when the rollercoaster dips down, they can face many awkward moments.

“The words I’d carved on the tree trunk with Ali’s kitchen knife, Amir and Hassan: The Sultans of Kabul... I couldn’t stand looking at them now.” (PG. 89)

Amir can’t bear to look at the pomegranate tree after noticing the words engraved in it. Would they ever be friends again? After what had happened at the kite running tournament, Amir carries a load of guilt and regret with him when he watches Hassan get sexually harassed by Assef. The guilt is too much to bare and feels that Hassan is too loyal to Amir, every day is filled with another sweep of heart ache and Amir can no longer stay Hassan’s friend. Amir constantly tries to test Hassan’s loyalty because he wonders how far Hassan would go before finally saying no to Amir. Also if Hassan finally figured out that he was a back up friend that Amir was ashamed about, would he still feel the need to be friends with Amir? When Amir takes Hassan to their pomegranate tree after the incident, he begins to test Hassan’s loyalty by seeing if he would react to the pomegranates that Amir threw at him.

“I don’t know how many times I hit him...I fell to my knees, tired, spent, frustrated. Then Hassan did pick up a pomegranate. He walked toward me. He opened it and crushed it against his own forehead.”(PG.93)

When Amir hits Hassan, his only intentions were to ease the guilt that was piled on him from betraying Hassan when he needed Amir most. Although Hassan knew that Amir saw him getting harassed, he still did no feel the need to be angered with Amir. Hassan proves that he does not need the affection of Amir to make him happy, it’s the other way around.

“...he croaked, red dripping down his face like blood. ‘Are you satisfied? Do you feel better?’ I let the tears break free, rocked back and forth on my knees. ‘What am I going to do with you Hassan?’...I knew the answer to that question.” (PG.93)

Here Amir feels the guilt finally break him, Hassan does not need Amir. Amir needs Hassan.
Amir is afraid to be Hassan’s true friend because of their religious and social backgrounds. Hassan, a Hazara followed the faith of Shi’a. While the Pashtuns were Sunni Muslims. Amir is ashamed for people to know that Hassan is his friend because of these circumstances.

“The book said that my people had killed the Hazaras, driven them from their lands, burned their homes, and sold their women. The book said part of the reason Pashtuns had oppressed the Hazaras was that Pashtuns were Sunni Muslims, while Hazaras were Shi’a...people called Hazaras mice-eating, flat-nosed, load-carrying donkeys. I...heard some... kids...yell those names to Hassan.” (PG.9)

Amir is very ashamed because of this prejudice that overwhelms many unaware Pashtuns. When Assef threatens to hurt Amir with his brass knuckles, Assef begins with despising Hassan and Amir’s friendship, disgusted by the fact that a Hazara and a Pashtun could ever be friends.
“

But he’s not my friend! I almost blurted. He’s my servant!...I treated Hassan well, just like a friend, better even, more like a brother. But if so, then why, when Baba’s friends came to visit with their kids, didn’t I ever include Hassan in our games? Why did I play with Hassan only when no one else was around?” (PG.41)

Here Amir reveals his feelings towards his friendship with Hassan. He refers to Hassan as his servant around other people, but on the inside he treats Hassan as if he were one of his brothers. Later on, Hassan stands up for Amir with his slingshot pointed directly in front of Assef’s left eye. He threatens Assef that if he tries to hurt one of them, Assef would lose on of his eyes. Hassan stands with the slingshot carrying the essence of courage, bravery, loyalty and honor with him. Throughout the book, Hassan can be found standing up for Amir yet Amir struggles to do the same for Hassan. Why is that? Does Amir need Hassan more than Hassan needs Amir?

“‘You are right, Agha. But perhaps you didn’t notice that I’m the one holding the slingshot. If you make a move, they’ll have to change your nickname from Assef ‘the Ear Eater’ to ‘One-Eyed Assef’ because I have this rock pointed at you left eye.”...[Assef replies] ‘Your Hazara made a big mistake today, Amir,’ (PG.43)

After reading The Kite Runner, I noticed that the main message in the book was that Amir faces many tragedies when trying to make things right with his friendship with Hassan. Along the way he has to overcome many obstacles that overwhelm him. He manages to fight his fears and gain the courage that he never had in the end. Khaled Hosseini’s work is admirable and I enjoyed reading The Kite Runner very much.

[Question came from back of book #2]

Book Review #3- The Kite Runner.

After finally finishing the last section of, The Kite Runner, by Khaled Hosseini, a historical fiction novel telling the story of a man making sacrifices to payback his best friend/ half brother Hassan, a Hazara. In the beginning of the story, we see Hassan and Amir playing together throughout their childhood. Yet, when in public, Amir feels ashamed of Hassan being a Hazara, as a result, he takes advantage of Hassan and treats him like the servant he is supposed to be. Amir frequently liked to tease Hassan for not understanding certain things such as what a certain word means. Although Amir feels this way at times, he also knows that Hassan is and will always be his best friend.

Later on, after winnning the kite tournament, Hassan chases after the second place kite in honor of Amir. In doing so, he gets raped. Amir goes out to look for him and finally sees the eyes of a sheep pleading for help, Hassan. It was a matter of loyalty and fear. Fear had overcome him and Amir left.

Years later, Amir finds out that Hassan has died yet his son, Sohrab is in Kabul at an orphanage waiting to be rescued. To earn Hassan's forgiveness, he chooses to find Sohrab and return him safely to new parents. Amir faces different obstacles that he must overcome to find the suffering child. By the end, Amir becomes fond of the kid and feels that it would be right to bring him back to America with him.

Amir killed Hassan. Not directly but theoretically yes. If Amir had helped Hassan the day he was getting the kite for him, Hassan would not have had to leave Baba and Amir. Amir's fear overcame him. Now, Amir promises Sohrab that he will never be put in an orphanage again. He has failed him also. Sohrab attempts to commit suicide but is saved by doctors. Amir almost caused the death of Sohrab by breaking the promise.

Back in America, Amir flies a kite with the mute Sohrab. After their victory, Amir asks Sohrab if he would like the losing kite. He shook his head. Amir chases after it saying, "For you a thousand times over."

Throughout Amir's life he has always been pampered. Everybody doing things for him. Especially Hassan. Every time Amir would need something important, Hassan would reply, "For you a thousand times over." Later on Farid says the same quote. By the end of the story, it is now Amir's turn to do favors for Hassan's son. This is his repayment to Hassan. The only thing that could revive their lost friendship. Doing the thing that Hassan did all his life. Now it was Amir's turn to return the favor.

This book has left me speechless and I was very upset when I finished it. I look forward to reading A Thousand Splendid Suns on my own, another novel by Khaled Hosseini.

My Arizona Trip At The Airport

Today, I went to Arizona for a soccer tournament. I left school early to pack my soccer stuff and went on my way to the Oakland International Airport. When I arrived, my father saw his good friend Bruce that worked as a security guard at the airport. We talked for a while about vacations and headed on inside to the security check in. I rolled my grey suitcase through the crowed at ease, while clamping onto my gigantic soccer bag. My father followed as he carried the flight tickets. We went through security taking off our shoes, jackets and cellular devices. I also had to take out my laptop of course. It made me scared when I went through the big machine thing because I was apprehensive about metal being on me.
We finally met my teammates at gate number twelve. When we finally got the chance to board the plane I struggled to put down the book, The Kite Runner. I got to my seat, 11F luckily the window seat, while an elderly woman sat on the aisle seat. My father followed and sat in between the woman and me. Before the plane took off on our journey to Arizona, my father and the woman began to converse a lot.
Throughout the flight I heard the sounds of my dad bragging about his life, as the woman did the same. I sat next to the window gleaming out at the beautiful scenery; mountains, rivers, plains and city lights. I was enthralled in the book The Kite Runner the entire flight. It was a span of three hours which I took the time to read the amazing novel by Khaled Hosseini. I was proud of myself since I took the time to actually annotate the book. The elder woman saw The Kite Runner and enthusiastically rambled on about her amusement with the novel. She explained to my father what it was about and he began to look interested in what she was saying.
They talked for the entire flight; non-stop. Mostly about their lives and kids. As the flight came to an end, the lady finally introduced herself as Sandy. When we got off of the plane my father finally told me, “Dang, I wanted to go to sleep, but she kept talking to me!” I laughed at what he said and continued on to the rest of my journey in Arizona.

Response to Bianca's blog-Amir and Hassan's friendship

Bianca goes into detail about the confusing friendship of Hassan and Amir in The Kite Runner. In her blog, she tells us, when Amir forced Ali and Hassan to leave, it wasn't an act of selfishness it was an act of loyalty. In her blog she states,

Even though all of this happened, Amir was finally able to protect Hassan for the better of his future. Driving Hassan and Ali away seemed like a harsh attempt to rid Amir of the cause of his guilt, but underneath it all, it was a road to freedom, away from the harsh views of the neighboring people and of the bad memories. By forcing Hassan to admit that he stole something, Ali and Hassan were given an excuse to leave Amir's home and stay safe. Starting from here, Amir was finally able to see the true value of Hassan and what he truly means to him. In a way, Amir saves Hassan's life by setting him free from the wretched environment that he lived in.

When Bianca says that Amir saves Ali and Hassan by giving them an excuse to be free, she is saying that Amir was taking the initiative to help his friend. On Amir's birthday, he receives many gifts, Baba gave him a watch while others gave a variety of gifts one in particular being money. Previous to Amir's birthday, Hassan and him have a hard time communicating again after what had happened the day they won the kite tournament. To save Hassan from the constant bullying given to him by Assef, Amir makes a plan to make Hassan move out.
He takes the watch and money, and lays it under Hassan's pillow. The next morning Amir reported the items being stolen to his father. Baba has no choice but to make Ali and Hassan move out.
Amir's act was in no way to be mistaken as terrible. What he did saved Hassan's dignity and possibly life. If Amir had not done this Hassan would have continued to be harassed by Assef, Kamal and Wali.
I believe that Amir's action was loyal to his friend Hassan even though it was not the best way to solve their problem.

Book Review #2

In The Kite Runner, a historical fiction novel by Khaled Hosseini, the character Amir faces many difficult events in his life. In the second part of the book we see that he is still scarred by what he saw when he was younger. Also he was there when his acquaintance Kamal died. When his father died and heard that Hassan had also died. At the end of the book Amir is in his late thirties as he travels to Kabul to find the son of his half-brother/ best friend Hassan. The relationship between Hassan and Amir is bettered expressed in the first portion of the book, but hints of their relationship were shown in the second portion as well. Hassan and Amir were always very close. They enjoyed playing with each other everyday. But after the incident everything changed. Now in the second part of the book, Amir faces the hardship of finding out that his childhood friend was actually his half-brother, and that he was killed along with his wife. Amir feels that the only way to make it up to Hassan for what had happened in the past was to find his son, Sohrab, and take him back to Rahim Khan.

In the second part of The Kite Runner, many intense events happen that change the perspective of the book. Although readers still wish that Hassan and Amir were friends again, this can’t happen since Hassan past away. It gives me more questions as to what will happen later on in the book since it seems like not much more could be said. In each section of the book, there is a great amount of drama that takes place. After reading the second part, I am anxious to find out what will happen later on in the story. Will Amir be able to find baby Sohrab? Can Rahim Khan survive until the baby is brought back? Will Amir ever be able to have a child of his own? Many questions come to my mind as I think about the following events of the book. Hopefully the third section is accompanied by a longer series of dramatic events that adds on to the non-stop tragedies of Amir’s life.

Dangers of A Police Officer

Today the riots about Johannes Mesherle are about to occur. Although it doesn't affect me much right now I am worried for my dad. At this moment, he is part of the line of cops keeping the City of Oakland safe from harmful protestors. I feel bad for the family's of these police officers. Sitting at home watching the news and praying that their loved one would be okay. This is what I am doing right now. If everything goes well, I will be able to wake up in the morning and have breakfast with my father.

Last year, my father received a "blue code" call out. It was mandatory and he had to go to the crime scene as soon as possible. At the time, we were eating dinner. He quickly left the dinner table and put on his bullet proof vest. Instead of his usual work uniform he wore a shirt the was engraved with the word "NEGOTIATOR" on the back. A man was in his house, he was supposedly shooting at neighbors, my father served as the person who had to talk him out of the house. That night it was hard for me to go to sleep knowing that my dad was still out there.

When the four Oakland police officers were shot at, I was in Sacramento with my father at my basketball tournament. He got the call from one of his colleagues saying that his inspiration and role-model Erv Romans was one of the cops that was shot at. My dad left right away. My sister and I sat in our hotel room searching the news on the internet. We later found out what had happened. In honor of Officer Romans, my father with other police men, went to Michigan to bury his body where he was from.

Another disappointing event that happened was when my Uncle Will died on his way home from work. He was one of my dad's closest friends and was very important to me as well. Uncle Will was on his way home on the freeway swerving through lanes to get home quickly when a big truck hit him. He lost his balance and fell to the floor of the freeway, his motorcycle following, one of the handlebars landed on his chest with a strong force. By the time he reached the hospital, he was dead. I felt bad for his family, they were expecting him to be home until they got the call that he got into an accident.

When my father called my sister one day, I found out he was in the hospital. He tried to stop a drunk teenager that was leaving the Raiders game and ended up fracturing his shoulder. I didn't know what happened to my dad, all I heard was the he was in the hospital but he was going to be okay. My fear overwhelmed me and I couldn't help but cry all night. I was glad to hear that he was okay.

Hopefully tonight my father will come home safely.

Response to Bany's blog- Middle School.

After reading Bany’s blog, I realized how much I too missed school. In her blog she states,

I remembered the times I had with friends at middle school. I remember always hanging out, not really doing work. I never studied for test and I did my homework about five minutes before class, I never really needed to do anything because middle school was so easy. I would just talk in class and then go home and hang out again. we would have so much fun at lunch, going out to the yard and just talking all day! our classes were much shorter and we did fun things in class. We would have a better way of doing class work, by going outside to do work and having group projects. I also LOVED the events we had at our school. We had a bunch of spirit weeks and dances and parties.

After leaving middle school and entering high school I realized many things. First, I should have taken advantage of the free dress code in middle school. Second, middle school is way easier than high school. Lastly, drama in middle school compares nothing to drama in high school. At ASTI, the level of education rose. Science used to be a subject that I enjoyed very much, now I struggle to do my labs correctly. In seventh grade, I felt that I was prepared to conquer my struggles in science labs since I did so many. Now all of my work feels like it’s never enough. Another change in education level is the rate at which essays are graded. In middle school, essays were usually easy to compose, with a free writing structure my words came easy to me. At ASTI, I have to try harder to make my essays more complex. I enjoy the more advanced level of education but at the same time, it is sometimes hard to overcome.

Another reason for why I miss middle school is because we had more spirit days and dances. Spirit days were always really fun, everybody dressed up and tried to look the best! Also since I helped plan most of our dances, I knew what was coming and how fun it would be. Everybody came to the dances and the gym was always full of students having fun!

I miss my days at Linoln Middle School because there was no drama, spirit days came often, dances were always fun, and the level of education was way easier. Although ASTI is different from middle school in many ways, I feel lucky to be able to be at this school.

Kite Runner- Book Review

After reading the first section of The Kite Runner, I am now inspired by the ways that Khaled Hosseini worded his novel, he brings a new essence to his characters in The Kite Runner. Khaled Hosseini's style of writing is a mixture of a narrative but has bits of many flashbacks and flashforwards as well. An example of this is when he writes,

"The swelling subsided, and the wound healed with time. Soon, it was just a pink jagged line running up from his lip. By the following winter, it was only a faint scar. Which was ironic. Because that was the winter that Hassan stopped smiling."

When Hosseini explains Hassan's new surgery, he adds flashforwards when he says "By the following winter, it was only a faint scar." This represents a flashforward because at the time, Amir is talking about Hassan's lip subsiding. Then he jumps forward to what happens in winter. Hosseini's book is a narrative, in that, Amir is the character talking about his life story with Hassan. Though Hosseini is not the character that Amir is based off of, he still creates the atmosphere of Amir being a real person. I enjoy reading the Kite Runner a lot, and I am looking forward to see what happens later on with Hassan and Amir.

Another aspect of the story that struck me was the genre. In this case, The Kite Runner is a historical fiction novel. Compared to another historical fiction book that I have read, The Golden Goblet, I very much enjoy this novel better. In The Golden Goblet, the author does a great job in composing the book, but I feel that Hosseini has taken historical fiction to another level. The Golden Goblet is based off of the events that happened in Ancient Egypt. In this story, it is a tale about a young boy discovering new things in his life. While in The Kite Runner, it is a story about a young boy explaining the events going on in his life as well. The reason why I enjoy reading the Kite Runner more is because it is more realistic and I can relate to it easily. Although I enjoyed reading The Golden Goblet, The Kite Runner has become on of my most favorite books and I haven't finished reading it yet.

Reflective Essay

The blogs that I posted in the first quarter mainly reflected my views on friends, school, soccer and most importantly my life. I noticed that many of my blogs involved things that were happening in my life at the time. My inspiration comes from events that happen on a daily basis. Doing blogs has affected my life beyond school in many ways, for example, outside of school I find myself always thinking about possible ideas for blogs. Blogging is very different than structured writing because it is mostly about your thoughts on things rather than writing about a specific concept.
Blogs have changed my life not only during school but outside of it as well and my ideas or inspirations have resulted from the ability to write open-ended instead of academically structured.
After the first quarter, I realized that many of my posts came from the daily events that take place in my everyday life. Since one of the two blogs that I do a week is a response post, my other blog is usually dedicated to a topic that has struck me throughout the week. My ideas come to me whenever I go to a new place, hang out with friends, or even do my homework. Most of the time my inspirations for blogs are very spontaneous. In one of my blogs I wrote about the black out that I had just witnessed. I was at my friend’s house when it happened. The first thing that came to my mind when going through this was that it would make a great idea for a post. In the blog I stated,

“Last weekend there was a power outage in most parts of Hayward and Castro Valley. At the time I happened to be at my friend's house in Hayward. We were planning to camp out in her backyard for the night, but due to the inconvenience we weren't sure if we could.”

After this introduction of the subject, I began to explain what was happening during the black out. By the end I relate my post to the importance of electricity by saying:

“After this experience, I realized how important electricity is to people these days…Electricity has become something very important in our lives and without it, it would be hard to function the same.”

My inspiration from the black out helped me turn a small idea about a bit of my weekend into something that others could relate to.
Being able to freely write my blogs made it easier for me to flow through each post. At the same time, the quality of my posts was still questionable. In almost all of the blogs that I wrote, many of them lacked effort and showed little composure to edit them. I enjoy being able to write my posts with more freedom, but with a less structured form my blogs ended up being very sloppy. Though being able to write this way has turned in some ways a failure, in other blogs I have been able to express my thoughts to create a well-written post. One of my inspirations to do so was soccer. Since I can write a lot about this subject I found it easy to create a blog post concerning the aspects of my soccer life. One of my blogs pertained to my experience at the Olympic Development Regional Soccer Camp. Throughout the post, I explained my emotions going through this camp and the struggles I had to face to be my best. Another blog that was easy to write was my response to Tony’s blog on movie night. Even though it was not the most well written blog that I have posted, it was still very fun to write and I managed to exceed the word limit by roughly a hundred words. Doing this blog was very intriguing because I was able to express my thoughts on this topic without the burden of worrying about the specific structure that it had to be formatted in. I really like the privilege of being able to write my blogs freely instead of having a detailed structure of how they are supposed to be ordered. In the next quarter, I plan on having a more well fitting structure for each of my blogs to boost up my level of writing.
Doing weekly blog posts have affected my life not only in school, but outside of school as well. Every day I find myself constantly thinking about possible topics for my next blog. To me, ideas for blogs come easy, for example if I was looking at a paper cup, I could easily relate it to the overuse of paper in our world. Or I could talk about manufacturing of the cup and even make a story of the person that drank out of it. This is the usual process I take to create a mass amount of topics that I could write about. After a couple of days, I have a long list of topics that I look forward on making a post about. I feel like blogging has become a big part of my life because it gives me the ability to express my feelings about certain ideas. It is also a way to share my thoughts towards other people’s blogs too. In the next quarter, I am looking forward on sharing more ideas in my blogs and hopefully relating them more to others.
After the first quarter I noticed many changes that I can make to improve my blog posts. First, I want to focus more on making each post count. When I say this I mean that if I am going to work on a post for about half an hour, I might as well take another ten minutes spending time editing and revising it before putting it on my blog. Another thing that I want to focus on is writing about more important things instead of telling my audience what I did over the weekend. This way my blogs will be more interesting and hopefully they change the way others look at them. I am ready to improve my work ethic in the second quarter and in doing so I will continue to turn my inspirations into great pieces of work.

Lennie's Fight Against Society.

In the novella, Of Mice and Men, by John Steinbeck, two migrant workers travel to different areas in California during the Great Depression in search of a stable job. Lennie is a big man but is caught up with the characteristics of a child, while George dreams of being his own boss and owning a farm. In the end society holds them back from their dreams. Throughout the story Of Mice and Men, Lennie struggles with not having a place in society because of his mental disabilities. The central conflict in Of Mice and Men was character vs. self.

Lennie struggles with his mental disabilities throughout the story. He is unable to be accepted into society because of his problems. Even though he is a Caucasian man, he does not belong to society. When Lennie goes into the barn to look at the pups, he sees a light coming out of Crooks's room, curious of what was in there he went in. Crooks went on saying,

“I don't know what you're doing in the barn anyway,” he complained “You ain't no skinner. They's no call for a bucker to come into the barn at all.” (pg. 68)

When Crooks says this he implies that Lennie does not belong in his room even if Crooks is an African American worker. Crooks and Lennie share the same feelings about society. Lennie doesn't fit into society because he's not like everybody else. On the other hand, Crooks doesn't belong in society because he is African American. Both characters share the burden of not fitting in.

Another conflict in the story is character vs. self. Lennie constantly finds himself messing up and tries to make things better. At the end of the story, Lennie feels that it would be easier if he left and lived in the hills. He does not realize that without George his existence in society would be nothing. At the same time Lennie struggles with the things he has to put up with, with the other people he interacts with.

He expresses, “I'll go right off in the hills an' I'll fin' a cave an' I'll live there so I won't be no more trouble to George.” (pg. 101)

Lennie constantly uses this as an excuse to make things better for him yet he knows that he would never leave George. Since George has taken care of Lennie for many years, it is hard to leave him but sometimes Lennie does not realize how hard it is on George to take care of the both of them. When Lennie gets himself in trouble it also affects the things that happen to George because George is the person who is supposed to watch out for him.

The next supporting conflict would be character vs. fate. Lennie and George have a clear idea of what they look forward to seeing in the future. They planned on having their own farm and animals to support themselves. George and Lennie had so many things in mind; the only thing stopping them was fate. In society the people around them doubted this idea of being successful during the Great Depression. Lennie and George struggle with their dreams because of the sayings that they will never be able to make it. Even though they planned their success out, it would be hard to overcome by the lack of support of other people. Ideas are only a thought actually getting them done is another factor.

When George finally says, “I think I knowed from the very first. I think I knowed we’d never do her. He usta like to hear it so much I got to thinking maybe we would.” (pg. 94)

At the end of Of Mice and Men it proved that George and Lennie’s fight against fate was a failure. Lennie’s idea of having their own farm and rabbits became so realistic it made the two actually believe that it was going to happen. Lennie and George fought against fate very much in this book.

By the end of the story Of Mice and Men, Lennie has a hard time being a part of society. His actions have caused the distress of other characters in the story. When Lennie goes into Crooks’s room he realizes that in society even though Lennie is Caucasian he does not belong there. Later on Lennie finally starts to realize that George is forced to take care of Lennie he had no choice, without George, Lennie would not be in any part of society. Lastly, George and Lennie’s fight against fate was a ridiculous dream according to others, but in their society their dream was too hard to overcome. Lennie struggles very much with the conflict character vs. society.

Tony's Words of Wisdom

Over the span of two weeks Tony Lin has taught me a lot. I know this can be a bit shocking, I found it weird also, but yes he taught me ways to be a better person! The two lessons that I learned from Tony were, first, if somebody feels uncomfortable telling you their secrets and you respect that person then you should mind your own business. Which brings me to my second moral lesson from Tony, if it's none of your business stay out of it!

I feel that it is important for everybody to follow both of Tony's words of wisdom because they are very true. If somebody is apprehensive about telling you something that is important to them then you shouldn't force them to tell you. Also, if that person is somebody important in your life and you care for them, you should at least respect them enough to not make them share their secrets. Keeping secrets is something very hard to do. When one person tells their friend a secret they expect them to keep it to themselves, not to share it with other people. So, if you ask that person what the secret is, you may not know it but it is affecting more than just that one person. First, the person who wants their friend to keep it a secret will be affected the most because now their business is being spread around. Second, the friend that was supposed to keep their friend's secret is going to be put in drama with that person for telling the secret to someone else. Now that you know what the secret is, it's hard to keep it to yourself. The saying "Don't tell anybody!" will not prevent the secret from being passed around. So, the moral here is, if you respect your friend, you will care enough to not worry about the secrets that they know.

The second concept that Tony taught me was, if it's not your business, stay out of it! This is very important because sometimes you can find yourself tangled in a web of drama. To prevent this just stay out of business that you don't belong in. For example, if your friend and another friend are having a fight, it is alright to tell them that they should stop, but it is not alright to take part in the fight. If you do so then you will now be arguing with them even though it was not what you intended to do.

Tony has taught me two really important things that I will need to know throughout high school and I'm glad he did because it helped me be a better person! He calls himself "The Asian Dr. Phil", I guess that's sort of true. But anyways thanks Tony!

Response to Tony's Blog- MOVIE NIGHT!!

After reading Tony's blog about movie night, I agree that it was one of the best ASTI moments of the year. In his blog he writes, 

Yesterday felt like a bonding day. It was actually better than a bonding day cause it felt like I really bonded with people. The duration of movie night was four hours, I spent about 20 mins watching a movie. The other 220 minutes I spent hanging out with friends and having fun.

On movie night, I had so much fun hanging out with my friends. I was glad that I went to movie night because it gave me a chance to get closer to my new friends at ASTI. After school, Tony, Ivan, Ebone, Rokhsor, Shannon, Kathyrn, and I went to McDonald's. Ivan and I took the bus to McDonald's because we didn't feel like walking all the way there. When everybody else got there, Tony decided to order 20 mcnuggets, of course. While we sat at the back, Tony eyed one of his mcnuggets. It turns out that they gave him one the size of a quarter. He went to the register people and asked for another one.In the end he finished all 20 of them.

When we were finished, Ivan, Ebone, Karissa and I decided to take the bus back to ASTI since we were too lazy to walk. We didn't realize that the bus stop was two stops away, we sat at the corner of the block waiting for one. Then we saw a bus two blocks away. We sprinted to catch that one so we could get back. I remember the faint sounds of Ivan screaming "Ahh! My pants are falling down!" I turned around to see him holding his pants up as high as possibe. We all started laughing. Finally we got to the bus and passed by Shannon, Tony, Rokhsor, and Kathyrn walking.

We got back to ASTI and saw everybody waiting outside to get into the movie. It took a while for it to start. The movie comercials were pretty scary, and of course Tony had to scare me while I was watching one. We ended up watching Without A Paddle it got really boring so we decided to leave. Troy, Tony, Rokhsor, Ebone, Kathyrn, Shannon, Yen, Cameron, Stan, Karissa and I all walked to the soccer field and sat in the bleachers to play Truth or Dare, it ended up being Dare or Dare. The football people started looking at us so we left. It started getting a bit chilly, so we wanted to join the yoga class. Too bad they had already started. Instead we went to the building on top stairs where they usually do music club. We did more dares up there. It started to get really fun. I won't say what the dares were because it's a secret. But in the end we all had a good time.

When the first movie ended, we went back to ASTI to see if we wanted to watch the second movie. Instead we went to the roof on the college campus and did more dares. It was getting dark and I wanted to watch the scary movie. So Shannon, Tony, Yen and I went back to ASTI. I sat there for a while and it started to get boring. Shannon left leaving only Tony, Yen and me. M.R and Tony decided that it would be funny if they screamed, when Tony did I got really scared. Tony then left leaving only Yen and I. I got even more bored so I decided to leave. Yen, MR and I went back to the roof. When I got there my friends were still playing truth or dare. We did this for the rest of the day until movie night ended.

That night I made new friends, MR (Ella), and Kyle Salter, and hungout with my ASTI friends. Movie night was a night that I won't forget because of how much fun we had that night.

Response to Karen

After reading Karen’s blog post about love and what it means I had much to say about it. In her blog she says:

Every word he spoke was true.I occasionally did just want to have someone to call mine without actually having feelings towards them.Love does fade away.There have been various divorces and a lot of people do cheat on their supposed,"Amor." I'm not anti-love is just that i haven't seen proof of any long lasting love without any difficulties or problems.

I can see where Karen is coming from. I feel that love is real, but at a young age like now, it’s hard to tell if you really “love” someone. When teenagers tell each other that they love one another, sometimes they can be blinded by how they are feeling at the moment. Maybe it’s something you like saying to someone but may not always be true. It feels right to say it at the moment but in the end you don’t actually feel that way. I’m not saying that love can’t exist in a teenage relationship because I have seen it happen, but I realized that many people say they love each other without understanding what they’re saying.

Also, I do believe that love is real because not everybody gets divorces, sometimes things don’t work out but there have been other really successful marriages that do exist. Maybe Karen has not seen proof of long lasting love in teenage relationships but it could be because teenagers can be too young to really love one another. In middle school I’ve seen many relationships that last about a week or so and end. During the relationships the couples say that they love each other. I feel that teenagers get into relationships with people that are attractive to them but never really consider thinking about the way they act. Sure they can be really nice but in the end you never know if the person you “love” is really uptight or jealous until you stay with them longer. Maybe this is why Karen has not seen long lasting love occur. I feel that love is real but it’s hard to tell whether you love someone or not at a young age.

What Would I Do Without Electricity?

Last weekend there was a power outage in most parts of Hayward and Castro Valley. At the time I happened to be at my friend's house in Hayward. We were planning to camp out in her backyard for the night, but due to the inconvenience we weren't sure if we could. I arrived at her house around 6 p.m. When I entered it was quiet, the sounds of music was nowhere to be found. My friend, Haley, informed me about the power outage and how nothing was working. Sadly on the car ride there I drained my phone battery hoping that I could charge it at her house. My phone had 5% battery left. I was worried that it would turn off because at the time I was texting somebody.

Haley and I sat downstairs at her dining table accompanied by her older sister, we sat in silence listening to her ipod. As we sat I realized how horrible our lives would be without electricity. We were extremely bored, and as the night went on it started getting darker. Haley and I searched the house for candles that we could light up since there was no lamp that would turn on. Once all the candles were lit, we went back to the table to sit. All of a sudden a light turned on. It took us a while to realize that the power was coming back. We were so excited when all of the lights turned on. I could now charge my phone.

After this experience, I realized how important electricity is to people these days. I found it a bit unhealthy to know that instead of finding something else that didn't require power to do, we decided to listen to music. We sat at the table for three hours not knowing what we could do. Electricity has become something very important in our lives and without it, it would be hard to function the same.

Qfwfq's Shame and Pride.

Throughout each of the stories, Q often goes back and forth between prideful arrogance, and shameful embarrassment.

Qfwfq faces different emotions while being a new member of the New Ones. Towards the end he begins to realize the real reason why dinosaurs decided to give up and leave the world when he saw one of his brethren dead and fossilized. He began to see the similarities of him and the dead dinosaur when he says; “If one of them had looked from the skeleton to me, as I stood there staring at it, he would have realized at once that we were identical.” (PG108) When Qfwfq say this, he compares his physical resemblance to the dinosaur. His mouth open as if in his last cry before being defeated. Q feels a bit shameful when looking at the fallen dinosaur because it reminds him of how vulnerable the dinosaurs were in the first place. But at the same time, he felt that the essence of other species questioning whether or not dinosaurs actually existed made him feel special.

In the story The Aquatic Uncle,Q is also shamed by his uncle, N’ba N’ga, because he is not as evolved than Q is. Qfwfq feels that N’ba N’ga is an embarrassment to him whenever he says things about water. Q expresses this when he says, “Yes, we had a great-uncle who was a fish, on my paternal grandmother’s side...(the fresh-water branch: who are, for the matter, cousins of the others..)” (PG71)When Qfwfq states this he is reluctant to show that his great uncle is any way related to him. Later on in the story he feels embarrassed when his girlfriend Lll meets his uncle because she is a land animal. To Q, land animals are a more advanced species of organisms so when N’ba N’ga talks about the greatness of water he is very ashamed.

In The Dinosaurs,  Q is a new member of the New Ones, but as he adapts to their ways, he realizes the similarities between the New Ones and the Dinosaurs. When he found out that the Dinosaurs were coming back, he detested the concept. Qfwfq states, “If the Dinosaurs were trying to re-establish their rule with invasions and massacres, it meant they had learned nothing from experience, that they had survived only by mistake.” (PG106) As a result to this, the New Ones turn to Q for help in defeating the Dinosaurs. He feels that they are taking the easy way out by giving responsibility to a mere outsider. Later on he states, “I wanted nothing to do with either side: let the rip each other apart in turn! I didn’t give a damn about any of them.” (PG106) When Qfwfq say this he feels shame in both the New Ones and the Dinosaurs and wants no part in them anymore. Being alone and traveling by himself was a better idea to him than being with these clans.

Friendship. Response to Rokhsor

After reading Rokhsor’s blog about friendship, I realized how important friendship is and how powerful it can be. In her blog she states,

What is friendship? That is one thing us high schooler's do not know the definition of because no one knows the first thing about friendship. Friendship is the most precious thing in the world. It is about trust, loyalty, and fun. .....Being trustworthy is a big thing. High school students do not take it seriously but it is definitely an important thing. It takes a very long time to earn someone's trust, and when you do, it is in you best interest to not ruin it.

Throughout her blog she explains the main parts of a good friendship: trust, loyalty, and fun. I can relate to her thoughts about friendship because I understand how hard it is to build a really good relationship with a friend. Trust is a big factor to friendship. Without it, the friendship would fall apart. A good friend is somebody who can keep your secrets without telling one person hoping they won’t spread the rumor. I believe trust is the most important part of a friendship because it determines how long the friendship will last. Friends that have a hard time trusting each other won’t be able to have a healthy friendship. Loyalty. Similar to trust but at the same time has its differences. One can be trustworthy to a friend but not be loyal at the same time.

During my time at ASTI so far I have learned more about myself by the people I hang out with. I’ve built good friendships with the people that I feel that I can trust, and that are really fun to hang around. Friendship is a key part of my life because my friends are some of the people I know I can count on later on and even though they won’t be there forever I know I can count on them right now.

2010 US Soccer Regional Camp

Over the summer I was invited to go to the University of Idaho to participate in the 2010 US Soccer Regional Camp. After months of training in the 97’ Girls Cal North State Olympic Development Program they chose the strongest players to attend the camp. At first I had mixed feelings about it, knowing that it would be very competitive and I was going to be gone for a week with non-stop soccer I was scared. At the same time I was ecstatic to know that I was chosen. After an hour on the plane, and another hour on a bus I was finally at the University of Idaho. When I got there I noticed right away the Cal South team glaring at us. Cal South was our rival team which didn’t make sense since were both from the same state. I looked around and I saw each team that represented their state. The girls that attended were from: Hawaii, Idaho, Utah, Alaska, Oregon, Washington, Arizona, Cal South, Cal North, Ohio, Nevada, Colorado and New Mexico. There was a total of 264 girls fighting for 30 positions. The competition was very tough and to make it onto the regional team would take more than just luck. Each day girls would have packs of ice wrapped around them, some passed out from the workouts. I was lucky enough to not get injured.

Our daily schedule was breakfast at 7 a.m. or 8 a.m. depending on what time our morning game was. Tardiness was not acceptable. After the morning game we would go back for lunch and then have our class session. In the class session every team gathered into a room and talked about strategies and techniques of how to be a good soccer player. Once the class was over our team would have to rush back to the dorm to get our bags and go to our workout session. Since I am a goalkeeper I had a different workout from my team. Workouts were then followed by the invitational games. Players could only play in the invitational games if they were asked by a regional coach. Finally, once the invitational games were over my team went back to the dorm to go to sleep with only half an hour for five girls to shower.

Regional camp was not one of my most favorite experiences because I didn’t like the high level of competition. It made me feel intimidated whenever I saw a regional coach watch my games and when this happened I started to play horrible. At regional camp I can honestly say that I sucked. It was weird playing on a team that wasn’t like my club team. I played with different girls in Northern California that all had different methods of playing. After going to regional camp I noticed that I don’t perform well under pressure. I regret not trying harder at regional camp because in the beginning I didn’t want it as bad as other girls. It wasn’t until the end that I actually wanted to try to make the team.

Although this camp felt like torture to me I feel that now it has improved the way I play. After going to regional camp I learned more about myself and the passion of soccer throughout the U.S. Even though I did not make the regional team next time I know what will be coming my way. Right now I am getting ready for my State ODP tryouts in October and hopefully I go farther than State. My goal is to at least try harder to make the regional team. This past summer didn’t mean much to me because it was my first year doing this and being in the youngest age group I wast still naive about what I was going through at the time. Hopefully I can go far in the Olympic Development Program and understand what it takes to be a good soccer player.

Word List.

1. acquisition
2. coherence
3. forthcoming
4. intrinsic
5. albeit
6. hierarchical
7. phenomenon
8. ideology
9. integral
10. allocation

First Month at ASTI-freewrite

After having a quick write in class about my thoughts of the first month of ASTI I was inspired to write a post about how it went. When asked about ASTI the first thoughts that came to my mind was, challenging, a lot of homework, and social suicide! At first I thought ASTI was simply a nerd school. Knowing that I was the smartest out of my group of friends I guess I am considered a nerd too. On the first day of school I was shy and didn't really know who I was going to end up becoming friends with. After the first week I made new friends and started to enjoy this school a lot. My thoughts about ASTI being a nerd school started to fade away as I saw the different types of people around me. I didn't realize that some people that came here just wanted to better themselves educationally.

When two weeks went by ASTI seemed like paradise to me. The homework load was fair, I met new people, and after the end of the day I was always excited to see what will happen the next day. My favorite class was P.E. I enjoyed interacting with other people and found myself counting down the minutes of each period to get to the next. ASTI wasn't a nerd school to me at all. I was having the time of my life.

Once I began settling in at ASTI and school started to get more serious I was still able to keep up with my classes finding everything to go by smoothly. Later on I ran into a bit of drama but found my way out of it. School was the same and every new day seemed like the one before. This is when I realized that I adapted to how things went at ASTI.

My first month of ASTI was exciting. I remember telling my sister how glad I was to be here. Every school day went by so fast that I couldn't wait for another one to come. This first month has been a great experience for me and I am excited to see how the rest of the year goes.

Life at ASTI.-Response

After reading Nawara's post about her experience at ASTI and how she feels about the school I was inspired by how she explained in detail her opinions. In her post she stated:

When I think about school, I imagine homework, quizzes, breaks, gossip, etc. When I came to Alameda Science and Technology Institute, I learned that I was in a smaller environment and in an area that is full time work, work, work. When it was my first day of school, all I was thinking about was college. I felt like I was not in a high school where they have rallies, dances, and football games. I was in a community where we succeed in higher educational standards.

 I can relate to her thoughts on her first impression of high school because, before I came to ASTI I wished to go to Alameda High School. I wanted to have the full high school experience and be able to take part in school rallies, dances and football games. Seeing how amusing and fun others made it seem I was excited to be in a "regular" high school. When I found out I was going to ASTI I didn't know if I should have been ecstatic, or if I made the wrong decision. I knew ASTI was a better choice for me educationally but at the same time all of my friends were attending AHS.

I am glad that I made the choice to go to ASTI because now I realize how important this school is to me. With less students I don't have to struggle with crowded hallways and constant drama. Leaving my friends was tough since I've known them for so long, but I feel like this was a big step for me independently. Although I still wish I could attend games and homecoming events at my school, I know that ASTI will give me better results for my future and in the long run those things don't matter as much as the college you are accepted into.

Nawara does a good job explaining her thoughts on ASTI and after reading this she helped me realize that I made the right choice on coming to this school.

Rebuttal. Abortion-PRO. Yen and Melissa

Rebuttal: Abortion PRO

Pro Opener:
Abortion is not an act of murder, it is rather a case of a decision on whether or not a baby should be kept for the better or struggle through life. We believe that abortion cannot be called murder because a fetus is not yet an infant until born. According to W.G. Derbyshire, PhD and senior lecturer at the University of Birmingham fetuses are unable to feel pain until birth. Having an abortion is a mothers choice. They should be able to decide the options in which can benefit the incoming child. For example, if a fetus is diagnosed with handicapped abilities and the parents are unable to afford certain necessities for the child, it is unfair to bring the baby into the world if it cannot be treated correctly.

Con Opener:
Our opponents, Alex and Victor, stated that abortion is murder of a child, and should not be legalized. (A fetus is not a child until born, also they are unable to feel pain until birth.)  Another one of their arguments was about the hypocrite oath in which doctors swear that they will not abort a baby. (This cannot be proven because there have been many cases of abortion.)  They also stated that 2 million parents are looking to adopt a child, while only 130 thousand are actually up for adoption.  They made an invalid statement that future heroes may be aborted, and never have the chance of contributing to the world(they have no proof of this because how many heroes of America have actually been aborted?).  Alex and Victor also referred to the Bible as one of their sources. We believe that it is an ineffective and unreliable way of collecting information. Religion is not a good way to get information. They responded to the Bible saying that abortion is not humane and should not be done. Yet this is not enough information to persuade us to make abortion illegal. The last statement they spoke about in their opener was that mothers who abort a child may have remorse about their action, and that it may lead to depression and/or suicide(we are debating on whether or not it should be legal, so it is the mothers decision on the abortion. if the government forces a mother into having a baby, it may affect the mother and/or the child in the future.)

Abortion should be legal. -PRO yen and melissa

Pro: Abortion should be legalized.

Mothers who wish to have an abortion should not be penalized for the mistakes that they have made in the past.  Stated by the Supreme Court, “It is a woman’s fundamental right to make the choice to have an abortion.”  Abortion cannot be considered murder because a fetus is not a human being. Having an abortion is relative to terminating a pregnancy, not a defenseless child.  Also, according to Stuart W.G. Derbyshire, a senior lecturer at the University of Birmingham, fetuses cannot feel pain until birth, therefore having an abortion will not harm the developing infant. Fear of unsafe procedures during abortions are common, but modern, professional abortions are quite safe;the numbers prove that: 1 in every 100,000 women die in an abortion, while an average of about 13 women die out of 100,000 from pregnancies.  Keeping abortions legal, prevents women from having to preform illegal, unsafe abortions, that may cause death and diseases because of unsterilized tools, or amateur experience; according to The World health Organization, over 68,000 deaths have occurred because of non-official abortions in countries that outlaws it. 1 in 800 babies are born with Down Syndrome, and 1 to 4000 males/1 to 8000 females are diagnosed with X syndrome; It is unfair to bring a child into the world who will face a lifetime of handicap-ability.  

Having an abortion is a mother’s choice.  73% mothers who have abortions do so because their finances would not be able to support another human being, while 38% say that their baby would interfere greatly with their studies or pursuit of their career.  If the mother is unable of providing for her incoming infant then it should be her choice on whether or not to keep the child. Legalized abortion lowers crime rates by 50% . When a teenager or poor parent is forced to raise a child because of a mistake he/she made in the past, they must resort to crime to pay the bills and keep the baby alive.  But when a baby is raised in a crime filled neighborhood, he will grow up seeing crime all around him, and wont be able to differentiate crime from survival from unnecessary crimes.  They will grow up thinking that exploiting theft, or other sorts of crimes, not because of bad parenting, but the environment they were forced to grow up in because the parent was not financially ready to support a child.They cannot bring up a healthy child because of the influences around them.  By having an option to have an abortion it gives mothers a second chance to decide if they want to raise their kid in an unsafe environment.  

Better Together

In Bianca Hseuh's blog "Odd Girl Out", she summed up her response to bullying in this simple, short sentence:

If they have the right to mock me, then I believe I also have the right to stand up for myself.

Her statement correlates directly with number 6 on ASTI's constitution: speak up for yourself and others.  I agree completely with Bianca in the fact that she has the right to stand up for herself. Unfortunately, it is not as easy as it seems, which is why number 6 on ASTI's consitution might be one of the hardest to abide by.

Speaking up takes a lot of courage. In a perfect scenario, speaking up will often times leave the perpetrator feeling remorseful about the way they made a victim feel. However in the nasty world of high school where drama is constant, speaking up directly can often times lead to even worst consequences. The bully may use it against her victim by teasing them or even taking offense to it and becoming more harsh with their attacks.  Now standing up for others? I would imagine that being ten times harder than speaking up for my own self.

So how can we speak up for ourselves and for others? I feel like the only way to be effective in speaking out is to do it together.  So in that sense, number 6 should really be rephrased to "Speak up with eachother" because if a larger group comes together to motion a belief, the message is often times a lot stronger and people have more courage to speak out because they feel a sense of unity with others that they can relate to - others who have also been bullied. 

Odd Girl Out by Rachel Simmons

Rachel Simmons talks about the reality of alliances against kids and the factors of bullying in her book Odd Girl Out.  In their teenage years, kids begin to bully or harass other students more by breaking then down emotionally and physically. I remember when I was in eighth grade there was one girl in my group of friends that seemed like a "follower". We used to leave when she came towards us and tell secrets about her when she was listening. It felt nice knowing that I was superior to another person, but at the same time, I felt wrong about the choices that I was making. I remember being the one who was scared to talk and always followed the crowd. Looking back, I was just like that girl. After I realized that what I was doing was hurtful and rude I felt bad that I was pressured into breaking down this girl.

I believe that people bully others so they can feel better about themselves. Knowing that you can control another person's emotions makes you feel important to others. It was hard to stop being mean to the girl when I knew that all of my other friends were doing the same. Then I realized, that instead of following the crowd, I should speak up for the girl. The next day instead of leaving her I stayed with her, and it turns out that she was actually very nice.

People don't just become mean all of a sudden, there has to be something that pressured them to feel this way. Sometimes it's from conflicts at home, other bully's, the want to stay popular, there are many other factors to why people bully kids. That's what Rachel Simmons is trying to talk about in her book, so that others understand why bullying is wrong.