The Open Road Ahead

It was tough deciding how to end this line of blogs I’ve been accumulating. I was almost used to the blog due every other week. It almost became routine. I even enjoyed writing a lot of them. It was sure better than the age-old journal entries from the days of yore. But alas, here it is, the final blog – numero 15.

I would like to take this time to look back  at my wildcat years, and then consider the future ahead. Millbrook was definitely far from the best years of my life. I made friends, though not as many as I should have, and worked hard in school to secure a promising future, though I probably didn’t have to make as many sacrifices as I did. Looking back, I nearly shut out everything else besides grades for a couple of years. It was not fun but there really isn’t anyone to blame for that but myself. Thankfully, after a few weeks at governor’s school this past summer, I met and got close to so many people and soon enough realized that grades did not define me- it’s the people and ideas you surround yourself with. Governor’s school turned my life around for the better, and ever since then, I’ve been having the time of my life! I’m pretty sure I’ve done more memorable things and met more unique and amazing people than I have in the past four years! Senior year has had a profound effect on my life, and it is definitely the one I’ll miss the most. I wish I had known what I know now back in freshman year. It’s always interesting, however fruitless, to wonder how things could have played out differently. But in the words of a poet I never thought I'd come to appreciate so much, Healthy, free, the world before me/The long brown path before me leading wherever I choose. College is right on our doorsteps, leading us on to an open road of new beginnings, relationships, and opportunities. While many lament at the dwindling days here at Millbrook, I am counting down the days to a new chapter where literally anything is possible and nothing is holding you back. Don’t get me wrong, there are no hard feelings towards high school; I just regret not getting my nose out of the textbooks earlier on nor making the most of every opportunity that surely came my way. But hey, it’s all water under the bridge; life is full of second chances, and college happens to be one of them!

University life will undoubtedly change us from who we once thought we were. We’re supposed to find our people, our passions, ourselves. Is it possible? O me! O life?

Answer: Yes, do it while you can! Carpe diem – Sieze the day! I know I will.

Wishful Walt

After straining my eyes and sifting through pages of obscure cursive, I managed to make out several key ideas and thoughts regarding the late Walt Whitman. He was considering a dialogue between him and Abraham Lincoln, the “president-elect” in the first couple pages of the document. He also mentions liberation, ships, and oceans (from what I could legibly read). He speaks of a Ship of Liberty and how it crashes against the waves. It is my belief that the ship of Liberty represents America and its fight against corruption and foreign threats. Yet is stays afloat, riding along the sea of time, carrying its patriots to continuous freedom through and through. Whitman was writing all of this around the time America was splitting in two, and the nation looked up to its brand new president for fresh ideas and an end to the breakup. Maybe the ship is the president, and the president is capable of restoring the
“harmony” of the “world” that is the Union and Confederacy.

After reading a thorough analysis on the documents, I found out he was indeed planning to write an imaginary conversation between himself and the president. Whitman also tried to depict the Civil War as a four sided version of God, one that included Satan which represented the Confederacy’s fight and rebellion. He used the Spanish word “libertad” to make clear that freedom was boundless and America was not the only one entitled to it. President Lincoln was also depicted as a captain of a ship, sailing over a now tumultuous sea that represented America. We get a glimpse of Whitman’s thoughts and personality by his ideas resembling those of a man in the midst of his midlife crisis, gentle yet also fiercely trying to stand out in the world. He also drank heavily, clouding up his mind and represented America’s feelings towards the war as well. We even see his portraits and caricature drawn most likely from some bar buddies during one of his nights out drinking.

Our American Dream

Here we are now, a bright group of teens on the cusp of adulthood who are still just trying to figure out who we are. At this age in our life, we are still over conscientious of the approval and acceptance of others, still too limited in knowledge to truly grasp the meaning of where we stand in the world. This reciprocal determinism shapes our behavior and ultimately the way we identify ourselves. Everyone one of us has a unique talent and passion, yet at the high school level, it appears that the main focus or goal is to fit in and just roll with the punches until further notice. I’m not a fan of this concept, and am looking forward to college being an entirely different and more open experience. I am a staunch believer in the American Dream being the pursuit and achievement of that talent or passion that really lets you stand out and live life to the fullest. In other words, doing what you love and seizing every opportunity for happiness can easily be any American’s dream. Heck, I think that is anybody’s dream, regardless of nationality.

Although it’s natural to attribute wealth to success, and success to fulfilling your dreams, one must first know what type of wealth they are seeking. Personally, I believe there’s a variety of “wealth”s  in the world – wealth of knowledge, wealth of freedom, wealth of love, and wealth of money to name a few.  Wealth is a great deal of a certain variable. To be wealthy in love and happiness is completely different from being wealthy in money or power. I actually think the more “wealth” you have, the better off you will be. However, one must start with trying to get one – knowledge – in order to open up doors to other “wealth”s. Americans highly value wealth and absolutely despise poverty. Poverty – the lack of something important, most often money – unfortunately gained its stigma from the misattribution to failure and ultimately an added weight on the shoulders of society. However, the reality is wealth can be gained by cutting corners and cheating others, while poverty can simply be a streak of bad luck.

My belief is that wealth is great and admirable if it’s obtained through morals and hard work. Poverty is an unfortunate brace in society that can relieved if some wealth is shared to help them get back on their feet. This however only applies to those who tried in life, but by one way or another, things turned out for the worst.

Freebie

No regrets, busy having fun. As Camus would say- "yolo"

Practice IOC

Self Score

A: Knowledge and understanding of the text or extract - ....5.... I included and explained some quotes,but not in as much detail as I wanted.

B: Understanding of the use and effects of literary features- ....5.... I mentioned and elaborated on certain literary devices, but again not in as much detail as I should have. Also I don't talk to much about how the features affect the reader.

C: Organization- ....3.... I follow a general direction but I found myself jumping around a bit.

D: Language- ....3.... I don't always use the correct terminology, but I felt for the most part I addressed each topic and got my descriptions across.

Excerpt

“Hold on, Tommy.” Did she actually say your art was ‘rubbish?’”
“If it wasn’t ‘rubbish’ it was something like it. Negligible. That
might have been it. Or incompetent. She might as well have said
rubbish. She said she was sorry she’d told me what she had the last
time because if she hadn’t, I might have sorted it all out by now.”                                    
        “What were you saying through all of this?”
        “I didn’t know what to say. In the end, she actually asked. She
said: ‘Tommy, what are you thinking?’ So I said I wasn’t sure but that
she shouldn’t worry either way because I was all right now. And she
said, no, I wasn’t all right. My art was rubbish, and that was partly                                  
her fault for telling me what she had. And I said to her, but what
does it matter? I’m all right now, no one laughs at me
about that any more. But she keeps shaking her head and saying: ‘It
does matter. I shouldn’t have said what I did.’ So it occurs to me
she’s talking about later, you know, after we leave here. So I                                            
say, ‘But I’ll be all right, Miss. I’m really fit, I know how to look
after myself. When it’s time for donations, I’ll be able to do it really
well.’ When I said this, she starts shaking her head, shaking it
really hard so I’m worried she’ll get dizzy. Then she says:
‘Listen, Tommy, your art, it is important. And not just because it’s evidence. But for your own sake. You’ll get a lot from it, just for yourself.’”
“Hold on. What did she mean, ‘evidence’?”
        “I don’t know. But she definitely said that. She said our art was important, and ‘not just because it’s evidence.’ God knows what she meant. I did actually ask her, when she said that. I said I    didn’t understand what she was telling me, and was it something to do with Madame and her gallery? And she did a big sigh and said: ‘Madame’s gallery, yes, that’s important. Much more important than I once thought. I see that now.’ Then she said: ‘Look, there are all kinds of things you don’t understand, Tommy, and I can’t tell you all about them. Things about Hailsham, about your place in the wider world, all kinds of things. But perhaps one day,you’ll try and find out. They won’t make it easy for you, but if you want to, really want to, you might find out.’ She started shaking her head again after that, though not as bad as before, and she says:‘But why should you be any different? The students who leave here, they never find out much. Why should you be any different?’ I didn’t know what she was talking about, so I just said again: ‘I’ll be all right, Miss.’”

Living Passionately

"Isabel Allende: How to live passionately—no matter your age" TED Talk

Famed novelist Isabelle Allende recounts and teaches how one can live passionately throughout his or her life. In order to rid yourself of all the worries and doubts plaguing and hindering your well-being, just learn to let go of things and embrace life with a “yes” type of attitude. Whether it may be drama, comedy, tragedy, love, death, or losses, saying yes to anything that comes your way will definitely promote vigor and passion in what might otherwise turn into a dull, dragged out life. She mentions a number of aging individuals who have encountered hardship and/or started new passion projects later in life. They all became happy and confident in whatever venture or decision they made, including independence and an acceptance of a lack thereof.

Allende uses a great deal of pathos in her oration as a method of easing the tension in the room and inviting the audience to celebrate and sympathize with certain people she brings up. She offers the empowering anecdote of the woman who, at the early age of 60, started working in Nepal to save young girls from domestic bondage. Within 30 years she saved over 10000. Audiences would feel admiration and inspiration from someone to achieve such a feat at such a restricting age. Ethos is a sub level factored in due to the speaker’s fame and respectability; she didn't have to mention other well-known names to win the audience’s trust. The writer uses some logos with her presenting some statistics of girls saved by a woman in her later years. Throughout the speech, her reasoning was sound and applicable because all one needs to do is take her advice to heart and believe and assume the mentality she was encouraging. Allende failed to go in much detail about how she learned to let go and live passionately aside from saying so and throwing in a couple bullet points. However, she succeeded in captivating and entertaining the audience with sprinkled laughs and endearing anecdotes.

I picked this talk because I was already familiar with one of the author’s novels, La Ciudad de las Bestias, which I happened to read in my Spanish 4 class. Needless to say, I loved the adventure book and gained much respect for the author, too. When I saw her name on the first page of the TED results, I immediately chose her. I wasn't disappointed and quickly learned a skill that I can actually apply to my life – living passionately.

“A film without a single trace of pity or love”

Double Indemnity is a movie filled to the brim with drama, betrayal, and flashbacks. However, it is almost completely lacking in the area of love. Both of the main characters strayed from the star-crossed lovers that audiences were used to seeing decades before. Instead, they manipulated each for their own personal gain. The femme fatale lead was cunningly deceptive and used her looks to get a seemingly innocent insurance salesman to kill her wealthy husband. The salesman quickly hopped on board the murder train (pardon the irony) and wanted to get his own share of the money by exploiting the very insurance company he worked for in order to attain the largest payout possible. Both were using each other under the façade of love but weren’t aware of the other’s plan until the very end.

Phyllis Dietrichson at first appeared to be a trophy wife to a wealthy older man. As the story progressed, it was revealed and strongly implied that she killed the previous wife while she was her attending nurse. This gold-digger was always in it for the money, and once the supplies ran out, she moved on. As Walter eloquently put it, “she was a tramp from a long line of tramps.”  Taking advantage of her sexual appeal, she managed to convince an interested salesman into doing the dirty work. To maintain his motivation, she acted as if she had madly fallen for him, and she constantly threw out phrases like, “I love you, Walter”, “Now we can finally be together”. In the end, Phyllis never loved Walter, nor even pitied him. Otherwise, she wouldn't have exploited him so harshly. Walter Neff could be seen as an unfortunate man who got involved with the wrong person at the wrong time. However, under closer inspection, it becomes apparent that Walter was infatuated with the large sum of money he could end up with if he carried out Phyllis‘s request. He also wanted the girl but not nearly as much as the money. He knew he could get away with the crime since he worked for the firm that was being exploited. Being hidden in plain sight, he would know every obstacle to avoid and every fine detail to make the most of. 

The only character that truly felt compassion was Lola. She loved Nino and for once Walter could tell. The movie shows her loving nature when she and Walter spend time with each other and the latter notes, “it was only with her that I could relax and let go a little." This confession of being at ease coincides with the caretaker archetype, proving Lola is capable of love.