Final essay

Judith Botello

Dr. Preston

Expository Composition 1^st

1 June 2014

My Senior Year Experience

People always told me how fast high school would go by and I never believed it. They would also mention that year senior year would go by even faster because you have these amazing things to look forward to like prom and grad night. Well, they weren’t kidding, these four years went by really fast and senior year was by far the most fast and also best year.

This class is so much more than I expected it to be. When I first found out who the teacher of this class would be I was scared, I though “What did I get myself into, this guy is going to be crazy hard! He has a PhD!” now looking back at it, I’m so glad I stuck with it because it has been the best and most diverse class I have taken. This class has done more for me in just one year than all my other classes in my high school career. A lot of people, including myself, are scared of change but when the change is this good there is nothing to be afraid of. I have realized that I am more responsible than I ever imagined I would be at 17.  This course has helped me become the person I am today. It has helped me build relationships with my parents, employers, colleges, classmates, and friends. I’m not afraid to take risks, knowing I could possibly fail, which at one point was my biggest fear. Failing is an opportunity to learn, if that’s what you decide to make of it and yes it can be scary, but you must fail a few times only then will you learn and succeed.

For this class we were so independent; we were each in charge of our learning experience and what we got out of it. We were given the opportunity to learn about anything we wanted to while still meeting the high school district’s curriculum and that was interesting. It wasn’t boring, busy work or pointless. We didn’t need to memorizes things that in our minds were pointless to our interests because we found a way to connect everything in a way that was interesting to us. Being taught practically the same way for 11+ years, we’ve grown used to those ways and those ways only. Change is hard, especially after the years and years of repetition. None of us were willing to take the risk, to take the first step. We didn’t have to earn this independence. It was just given to us, and no one really took full advantage of it. That is probably my biggest regret, and I probably speak for majority of the class as well.

There is a universal theme that I see right off between a majority of the masterpiece presentations. Most of the projects are intended to help others, create something for someone else to enjoy, bring a smile to someone’s face. Each one of us has to be passionate enough about the subject to do what we are doing and that is also another thing we have in common. In my opinion, it goes shows how none of us are really self-centered in life. We have such a wide variety of topics that all have similar qualities.

Amparo and I did our masterpiece together and we worked on volunteering and giving back to other people. We both volunteered our time helping the kids in the resource program on campus. By doing this, we were not only helping out the teachers and people that are in charge, but also spending time with the kids in the program and helping them out around the classroom. That takes a lot of time and dedication, but to us it was all worth is and I personally loved doing it. It not only brought a smile to the kids face, but also to mine and the adults who saw us every day.  

Mackenzie is spreading awareness about human sex trafficking. I had no idea that was still a thing until she gave her presentation and informed me more about it. She wants to create safe houses for people who are victims of sex trafficking and get the word out there that this is still an issue. I hope she gets the funds and support she needs in the future because she could become a huge inspiration for many people and just make a huge difference in those affected by this.  

Austin is interested in comedy. He wants to entertain people with jokes and stories. He wants to be able to really make people laugh. Everyone loves a good laugh every once in a while and he wants to be able to do that for people. I enjoyed listening to his stand-up acts in the classroom and I think he could make something out of this, even if it were just for a hobby. He is pretty entertaining!

This year has been the most challenging of them all. I have learned a lot about the person I am and the person I want to be. I enjoyed this whole year and everything that I experienced. I really enjoyed being in the Expository Composition class. Whether it being networking, communication skills, developing relationships, creating connections, using my resources, not procrastinating; I learned a lot this semester that will be very useful and help me out next year in college. And I really don’t think that those are things that I would have learned in a traditional English class while managing to have fun and learn as much as I did and all these skill are skills that I will always remember.

To anyone reading this, if you ever have the opportunity to take an open source learning class -TAKE IT! You learn so much and these are skills that will help you throughout the rest of your life. I was very lucky to have not only this amazing opportunity but an amazing teacher to teach this class and having him as a teacher made this class so much more wonderful. With that being said, thank you Dr. Preston. 

Raising a child / Parental involvement is overrated

As I was reading the article "Raising a moral child" i was thinking to myself, well obviously everyone wants their child to be a good and moral child right? Well than you have to be a moral parent because most likely that child will pick up on the things that they people who they are surrounded by do. Most parents should realize that they are more influential to their child's life than they think, especially at a younger age. You can raise your child right but once they are surrounded by different people with different morals and different characters, that's when things are out of your hands because your child can be surrounded by bad influences.

Then i read "Parental involvement is overrated" and i thought that those articles somewhat contradicted each other. First of all let me say that I believe that the more involved the parent is in their child's life, they better they child will do.If my mom wouldn't care about my future and my grades i feel like that would probably discourage me from wanting to do my best. So, how are you supposed to raise a moral child but not be involved? Honestly, this just had me stuck. Unless i didn't understand the articles because i had that question as my focus thoroughout the entire reading

Note to Viewers (:

Hello everyone , so you're probably thinking "Oh my gosh Judith , you haven't even done your work for this semester !" Yeah , that's sort of what it looks like but I've been having a lot of techniacal difficulties but I have done all the assignments & I've turned them in to Dr.Preston . So the point of this blog is to let everyone know that I am caught up (:

masterpeice gallery

While looking ath the list from both classes i only found 4 people who's project I could join as we are looking in the same direction . 

• Tina Alavarado 

• Gabi Perverzier 

** Summer Morgan 

° Mackenzie DeLauer 

Essay #1

Question : in what ways, as of now, am I able to help people?

Have you ever wanted to talk to someon but couldn't ? Wanted someone to just listen to you in your times of need but had no one? Well I'm sure we've all been through that and we remover how terrible those times were. I don't want people to feel like that, that is why helping others is important to me .

Helping others in anyway that I can is something that is so important because it could seriously change a life. People sometimes feel like they are alone , like what they are doing is pointless and the reality that's not the way things are. Yeah , life gets rough but all you really need is someone who can push you through those hard times because we all go through them.
The more that I write about this the more I start to realize that I'm more about helping people with sort of like emotional issues and just being able to be there for people so that they don't feel like they hav to go through any situation alone ; bad or good. As of now, I can let my peers know that they can trust me and that ill give them advise and help them in any way that I can & I feel like for the most part I have proved that to be true to my friends .
Would I like to help people in other ways? Of course! I don't want to be limited in the way that I can helps people or who I can help. I want to be able to help anyone with anything but I'm not at that level yet. One day ill he able to do that but I have to work my way there; baby steps to reach my goals.

vocab list

•Samaritan - a charitable/helpful person
•Vouch- assert/confirm as a result of ones own experience that something is true
• Variance - the fact or tranquility of being different,divergent, or inconsistent .
• Facility - Space or equipment necessary for doing something
• Alight - to descend
• protocol - official procedure / system of rules
• immaculate - a person who is perfectly clean and neat . Perfect
• accolade - an award or privilege granted as a special honor ; acknowledgement
• attrition - a reduction in numbers or strength
• spiritually - that which gives meaning to ones life nd draws one to transcend oneself .
• Invest - expend money with expectation of achieving a profit or material results by putting it into financial schemes, ahares , or property by using it to develope a commercial venture .
• awareness - knowledge or perception of a situation or fact
• abjure - reject
• diffident - shy ; lacking in self confidence
• sanguine - cheerful
• circumlocution - an indirect way of expressing something .

vocab choices and resources #2

Resources: 
- Karen Armstrong
-http://www.seedsofcompassion.org/why/
-http://www.psychologicalscience.org/index.php/publications/observer/2013/may-june-13/the-compassionate-mind.html
-http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uSL_xvokoF8
*dalai lama 

Words: 
idiosyncratic- distinctive/ unique
paracetamol- pain relieverdiffident- shy
recapitulate- to summarize
adulation- excessive admiration
egregious - outstandingly bad
abate- decrease or diminish
torpid- mentally or physically inactive
anathema- a disgrace
chauvinist- exaggerated patriotism
imprecation: a spoken curse
ineluctable:unable to be resisted or avoided
mercurial: person who is subject to sudden or unpredictable changes of mood or mind.
emulate- match or surpass, typically by imitation
disarray- disorganized
opprobrium- harsh criticism
manifold- diverse
abjure- to reject
sui generis- uniquewanderlust- a strong desire to travel

Vocab choices #1

* yes these are all words that we know , but how does the definition relate to my launch ? i wanted to use them in a way i knew for sure would be the right way and this is what i came to. Be patient, its all baby steps.

Sources:

• www.givingback.org
• www.kidshealth.org
• www.cspinis.org
• helpingothers.org
• bigfuture.collegeboard.org

1. Foundation- the basis or ground of work
   The foundation was started in the thoughts of one day making a big difference 
2. Organization- association
   The non profit organization focused on children.
3. Donation-contribution
   Her donation was greatly appreciated because not only did she donate her money but also her time.
4. Community service- unpaid work for the community
   her community service consisted of working on the public garden during her free time.
5. Charity- foundation or institution
   the charity needed all the donations they could get.
6. Volunteer- offering yourself for a service or undertaking
   she decided to be a volunteer at the hospital during her free time.
7. Sacrifice- something surrendered or devoted
   In order to do community service she had to sacrifice hanging out with her friends.
8. civic- of or pertaining to citizenship
9. Guidance- learning, direction, advice, counseling
   His guidance meant a lot to her because he is a professional in her field of interest
10. assistance- help, aid, support
    her assistance in these times of need are greatly appreciated
11. Generosity- liberality in giving - largeness or fullness
    Her generosity was greatly appreciated
12. nonprofit- not established for the purpose of making a profit
    the nonprofit organization was very focused on the children. 

Launch

Choosing what to focus on with this project was difficult because I don't know what I want to do with my life! i mean, im only 17 so to focus on one thing is very limiting considering all the responsibilities. There are many things that i enjoy doing but one thing that I've always been passionate about and that I probably always will be is people; helping others in any way that i can.
i can use the internet in anyway that i know how. i can research people who have contributed a lot into giving back to the less fortunate and anything similar. I can use the people around me to get feedback and to get ideas from people who are interested in things similar to my topic.

I want to help people, and not just a small amount, i want to be able to help people around the world. I want to learn what makes people happy; some are fascinated by materialistic things and others by the simple thing sin life, why is that? i want to be able to help rebuild people who have been broken, people who feel like they have nothing left. i want to help people feel good about themselves. i want people to work together and just be happy. can you imagine who much better the world would be? 

Spring Literary Analysis #1

1) "forever..." by Judy Blume is the story of a girl in high school who deal with problems that a lot of high school students deal with: betrayal, relationships,college, and love. Katherine is a senior in high school and while at a new years party she meets "the perfect guy" whose name is Micheal. they start off as friends and the more they hang out, the more they fall for each other.Although they go to different schools they hang out almost everyday; they are in love. They're love is so strong that they decide to completely give themselves up to each other; they really do believe they are in love. then summer comes around and they get jobs, they are states apart from each other. Katherine is a head tennis counselor at a camp near her town while Micheal is working in North Carolina with his uncle. They write to each other basically everyday but that isn't enough because Katherine falls for another counselor at the camp which causes her and Micheal to break up and they realize that it really was just a high school love because when you're so young, your feelings change, you aren't sure about anything.
2) I believe that one theme could be that nothing last forever. They thought they were in love but they're teenagers! you aren't supposed to think about spending the rest of your life with someone, you're supposed to be a rebel and enjoy you're youth because after high school everything changes. In my opinion, this book was very realistic because these are things that a lot of teenagers go through so its easy to relate to some of the situations that were read about.
3) The authors tone to me seemed to change a lot. at times there was seriousness like when they gave Katherine "the talk" because her parents felt the relationship was getting to serious. Other times it seemed really fun and relaxed like when the went ice skiing with Micheal's sister. And other times things were depressing like when one of the friends committed suicide or when Katherine's Grandpa passed away.  
4)   Conflict- In the end Katherine must choose who she wants to be with Micheal or the counselor from camp. Also, she must decide of she wants to go to school with Micheal or in Denver. There are many choices that seemed to be a conflict.
Point of view- everything was from Katherine point of view because she is the narrator of the story, its her personal experience.
Dialogue and tone- what was being said and how it was being said made a lot of difference to me as the reader because it seemed so emotional at times.
Characterization- The kinds of people who Katherine was friends with led her to make some choices that she wouldn't have made otherwise, also, the way that they were described was interesting because sometimes they turned out to be opposite of how they were described.
Setting- where the situations take place mad an impact believe it or not.




Characterization
1)   One example of direct characterization is the way Katherine describes herself and her family. She talks about many things, good and bad. she was very upfront about the way they are; their strengths and weaknesses. One example of indirect characterization is the way Katherine describes Micheal when we were first introduced to him. She talks about his characteristics but we don't get to know him on a personal level until later on in the book. another example of indirect characterization is when Katherine describes Sybil,one of her childhood friends. she describes her from how she personally feels about Sybil.
2)Katherine changed a lot. at the beginning of the book she seemed to be very close with her parents and her younger sister but once she started dating Micheal things changed. She would be distant because she was always with him. she would disobey her parents and their rules.She would sneak people in her house and she would sneak out even though her parents were really flexible on her going out, she became a rebel. 3) When i finished the story i felt like i had just hung out with one of my friends and they were telling me about their summer. This story was realistic because so many teenagers can relate to at least one thing in this book. When Katherine and Micheal would get into an argument and she would describe it i felt like i could see her pain as if i were talking to one of my friends. If I wasn't in high school and if i didn't have Friends that go through similar situations i feel like my understanding of this book would be completely different and like i wouldn't have connected with Katherine. At the end of the story I felt like I had met Katherine and even Micheal because they're emotions seemed so real .

Hafta/wanna

Is there a difference between life after high school and life in high school? Maybe ? To be honest, i feel like most people are just doing whatever they can to get by. Yeah, there are those people that really are motivated to be the best that they can be but a lot of them just give up. 
I dont feel like people "magically transform", i feel like we know that its time to grow up and get our act together. some are going to get a job right after high school, some going to a four year, and some community college, well they all involve responsibility and maturity and i feel like we know that for the most part. We goof around and do childish things in high school because we know we wont be able to get away with things like that afterwards.Those who have the mindset that they want to be successful will accomplish it and those who just don't care, well we'll see what happens with those kids. As for myself, I don't know what i want to do exactly. I do know that i want to make myself and those who believe in me proud and prove those who doubted me wrong.
The possibilities are endless, you can literally do anything you want of you really set your mind to it.

The Choice

1. What is the "choice" referred to in the title?

• I believe that the choice is whether the parents have to force their little girl to drink " the poison" or if she will drink it on her own without her parents shoving it down her throat. 

2. Is it a real choice?  Why/why not?  What is the alternative?

• Yeah, i believe it is a real choice. its painful enough for the parents to have to see their little five year old daughter suffer and the fact that they have to force her to drink something that is helping her in one way but killing her in another, that's hard. They might feel a little better knowing that they don't have to hold her down and force it in her mouth. 

3. Why does the author use the word poison in the first line?

• I believe that they used poison because yeah, its helping their daughter kill the bad cells, BUT its also attacking the good cells that she needs to grow. I find that the word poison described the medication very well, i don't know it just made sense to me. 

4. The author's daughter wants to play with a toy that is intended for older kids.  Why?  Do you agree with her?  

• She felt like she needed to play with the toy because she won't live to be eight years old. It makes sense, if you know you won't make it past a certain time you want to try and experience things before you run out of time. 

5. If you thought you might not live to the age of 30 what would you want to do right now?

• I would want to travel and do community work. I would go to the homeless shelter and help. i would play basketball, hang out with loved ones and enjoy the things I love. i would sit down and enjoy a nice book. I would Ride my bike along the beach and then go swimming. I would go bungi jumping and try new and spontaneous things. i would enjoy life. 

6. Under what circumstances does it make sense to endure discomfort--or even force it on a loved one-- in service to a greater/more important cause?

• 
  

7. Is suffering a necessary condition of life and love?

• I feel like everyone must suffer a little so they can appreciate what they have. Or maybe place themselves in a situation of someone who has suffered and that way we wont take the things that we do have for granted.

8. Most readers don't share the author's circumstances, but we feel an emotional response to his words.  Why?

• I teared up a little, i wont deny it. I got emotional because no one deserves to suffer through something as terrible as cancer but the fact that its happening to a five year old. Five year olds should just have fun, they shouldn't have to worry whether they'll make it to age eight. Life is something that most of us take for granted when in reality we should appreciate life more because it is a beautiful thing even when times are rough.  

Connecting The Dots

Racism is a very big issue. It's everywhere , we just decide to ignore it. Well we can no longer do that . We have to find a way to end this or at least let people be more aware. My reaction was 10 - 12 pages ?! I've never done that ! & then as I got working I was thinking racism is a big topic , so how can something this easy be so hard ?!  I'm interested in many things but my main things would be music and helping people. Music, there is racism in music. I guess if you split it up into genres that would be helpful. One quote from a song that I keep in mind is " why do black people gotta be the only ones who can't evolve ?" This isn't true about ALL African Americans & it isn't only true about African Americans. People mess up, yes but there isn't one race that is more sophisticated than another; we are all equal! Helping people , I just want everyone to have the same rights. As long as you aren't a criminal going around killing people or raping people, ten you aren't a terrible person and you shouldn't be treated different. We claims to be " the land of the free"  yet we can accept people because they are a different skin color ? C'mon now, that's ridiculous. No matter what race, be proud because each race has over come a lot ( some more than others) an they have fought to be where they are now. Don't judge someone by their skin color. Look at  how hard they work, what they bring to the table (so to speak), and how they treat others not what their skin color is .

7 Times

Erica's essay, in my opinion was really good. Throughout the entire essay I knew she wasn't happy because she stated that at the beginning. The title of the post was very interesting and her essay didn't fall short of what i expected. Her main point was that seven shots were unnecessary "they were six shots too many". I agree with her, it was a 13 year old, one shot is enough to take him down and get the situation under control. The part that captured my attention the most : "bullet 1. and he was probably down or even dead. bullet 2. definitely dead. bullet 3. still dead. bullet 4. still dead. bullet 5. still dead.bullet 6. still dead

bullet 7. still dead." The way she set it up was just really intriguing and a great way to end the essay because it got the readers thinking, it did for me at least. 

Javi's essay was also very good. The first difference I noticed was that Javi was more about the facts and showing a picture was a great idea. Erica on the other hand was more of her opinion and trying to ask why those actions ( the seven shots) were taken when there was other possibilities to handle the situation. While reading Erica's version I imagined like a toy gun not one that looked exactly like and Ak-47. After seeing that I was able to comprehend a little more why the police officers decided to shoot. But again, why so many times ?

It was good to read both of these essay because they both had different but good points. One was more opinion based and the other was more focused on the facts. Why the policeman decided to shoot 7 times? Sadly, we might not ever know the truth reason  Or perhaps the reason was because he thought it was what was best, we may never really know. 

Vocab #9

Ultimate -  Being last in a series, process, or progression
This was the ultimate finale to a great series.
Interactive-  Acting or capable of acting on each other.

Principle- a fundamental truth or proposition that serves as the foundation for a system of belief or behavior or for a chain of reasoning.
The constitution provides principles for our country.

Guidance-  The act or process of guiding
Parents,mentors, and idles provide guidance.
Collaboration- achieve shared goals.
In this class, collaboration is key. 
Formative-serving to form something, esp. having a profound and lasting influence on a person's development.
Vocabulary is formative in brain development.

Summative- additive ; the result of such an act or process 
This description was summative to the other one.
Racism- actions, practices, or beliefs that consider the human species to be divided into races and treated based on these. 
Many people have gone to great extents to  end racism only to have it still exist today. 
Intelligence- The capacity to acquire and apply knowledge.
His great intelligence and dedication helped him succeed. 
Hyperbolic- exaggerated
Her tone was hyperbolic.
Provision - to supply 
School is a provision to a better future.
Discretion- the quality of behaving or speaking in such a way as to avoid causing offense or revealing private information.
The movie stated that viewer discretion is advised due to explicit language and sexual content.
Seized-(of the police or another authority) take possession of (something) by warrant or legal right; confiscate; impound.
My math teacher seized my phone because it was out during class. 
Doctrine-a belief or set of beliefs held and taught by a church, political party, or other group

The bible is a doctrine for Christians. 

Consent- permission for something to happen or agreement to do something

I asked my mom for her consent to go out with my friends.

Hunch- a feeling or guess based on intuition rather than known facts.

I had a hunch that the student was cheating. 

Predominant- present as the strongest or main element.

His green eyes were his predominant feature. 

Warrant - Authorization or certification; sanction, as given by a superior.
The police issued a warrant for his arrest due to drug charges and being a suspect in a first degree murder case. 

Infraction- a violation or infringement of a law, agreement, or set of rules.

He made a traffic infraction which cause him a $400 ticket.

RACIAL PROFILING LIVES ON

This article  was confusing yet interesting. 

1. The Fourth Amendment prohibits unreasonable searches and seizures and requires any warrant to be judicially sanctioned and supported by probable cause. 
2. The fourth amendment applies also when you are being chased 
3. Officers have many ways he/she can justify for a search. 
4. The supreme court should be more strict on its definite meaning.
   - people should be aware of why they are being searched and what they can and cannot do 
5. " reasonable suspicion" can be no more than an instinct and no less than a probable cause. 
6. High crime areas can affect the suspicion
7.  when enforcing immigration laws, race is taken into account
8. courts rely on police judgement/ testamentary- in my opinion isn't always a good idea

* There are ways that can cover up a police officers racism. 

* race should matter, anyone can turn out to be a criminal not just Latinos and African Americans 

What I see is all in my head.

So, my little sister, little brother and I watched this video together. We all agreed that it was pretty easy. Honestly it was really easy. It was just to me, a test to see if i could actually focused on what was asked and not on all the players. The gorilla was just random!

My little sister counted 14 passes and didn't notice the gorilla. 

I counted 16 passes and did notice the gorilla 

My little brother counted correctly and did notice the gorilla.

filter bubbles

Honestly , I already knew that Google did this. I knew that they personalized the results based on what you usually click on only beacause my brother and I have talked about it. What I didnt know was that other websites such as Yahoo are doing it to. I think that many different results should come up just so that you can get different perspectives . They way it changed my thinking about the inyernet is that now I will be more carefull I guess . I mean i don't look up bad things or anything but I will try to click on different links . Honestly, Im jus going to use duckduckgo.com from now on because like I said , I want different views and thats exactly what that website does. Honestly , im just going to do everything differently now, but I want to use the internet as little as possible just because I feel like it has become such a distraction.

Tools that change the way we think

Technology and the internet are amazing tools, but they are also a big distraction. everyone has a smartphone, iPod, or access to the internet so we are always distracted; everything is literally at our fingerprints. Like Kayla said, this generation relies way too much on technology, social media, and the internet. We don't really do much for ourselves to the point where we thing about things ourselves and use our knowledge and imagination.We think every answer is at our fingerprints, But Not everything as we think. We think that when we Google something EVERYTHING pops up, but it doesn't. Watching the Ted talk video was really eye opening because I knew that was happening, but it hadn't really hit me. People think they can just post whatever they want on the internet and that it won't matter, but it does. This generation and every future generation would be so much better off if we didn't rely so much on the internet and technology, I feel like people would be smarter because to most people these things are a distraction. It should be a helpful resource but sadly that is not the case most of the time.

Literary Analysis #3

Topics and / or events 

1) Johnny Gunther was a normal high school student. He loved science, especially chemistry and physics. Straight A student with friends and a great personality. Then, at age 17 the unthinkable happens; he is diagnosed with a brain tumor. It all started with simple headaches and fatigue and of course nothing was thought of it only to find out that it is a brain tumor. Why Johnny though? He was a good, friendly, intelligent, hard working  boy? He suffered through multiple surgeries and many harmful x-rays, yet he never lost hope. He always said he would make it out alive and he just had a positive attitude about life, even though he chances of survival were slim. This young boy would of had an amazing life, he would of gone to Harvard and would of done wonderful things in the Scientific field, but sadly his life was cut short by a terrible illness. 

2)I believe the author chose to write about this because it was a hardship that was overcome. The life of a amazing bright young man was lost and that was hard for everyone who knew him, especially the parents. Although he went through so much suffering it has a positive message; Johnny always stayed strong and had a positive mindset not only for himself but also for those who loved him. He knew he was going to die eventually, so he spent his last few months enjoying what he had and the time he had left with his family and loved ones.

3) To be completely honest, I don't know why I chose this book. Once i actually started reading it I realized that it wasn't as interesting as I thought it would be. What made me keep reading it was just to be motivated; Johnny had a terribly illness and yet he had such a positive outlook on life, why? Having cancer would of been a reason for people to get depressed and knowing they would of died within a few months most people would of just gave up on life. Yet, this 17 year old with so much potential and such a bright future did the complete opposite of that and I find that inspiring. 

4) The one aspect that wasn't realistic to me was that knowing he was going to die, Johnny wasn't even sad. He was so young ! If i were to be in his position i would just be depressed and i would just want things to end. Yes, its inspiring that he was so positive and so grateful for what he did have. But he could of lived for so much longer and he could of done great things and all that was cut short. Not only did he suffer by being in pain all the time but his family and loved ones suffered a great loss and if i would of been in his position, I would of been pissed of at the world. Other than that the book was pretty realistic because they talked about the procedures he had to go through and the sacrifices he had to make just to live a few months longer.

People

1) I feel like the purpose of this book was to inspire people. Somethings just happen and we have no control over them so we must as well just accept it and make the best of what we have left. Most of the interpretations in this book were based on what he saw and the suffering that he saw his son endure.Yes, there are some parts when Johnny's thoughts are coming directly from him but other than that it was descriptions of his procedures and the new doctors or equipment that they were being worked with.

3) John Gunther- He is the proud father of Johnny. He was a writer and thats what he did for a living. He was strong through the story even though he had to watch his son die slowly and suffer everyday. Him and his Johnny's mother were separated and yet they managed to remain friends for Johnny's sake. No matter how bad things got John was always there for his son

Johnny- Intelligent, selfless, caring, friendly- those are just a few words that were used to describe Johnny. As I have mentioned, I admire this kid because he took a bad situation and focused on the good and the positive. He was selfless, always thinking of others before himself. he worried about the well being of others, even though he was the one dying. He was funny and just loved life and wanted to succeed at everything he tried. 

4) Nothing about the authors description of the character changes besides the description of his physical being. Johnny had a brain tumor and after under going so much surgery and x-rays he was going to get weak and things like that. Yet he always focused on how Johnny was such a positive and grateful human being. He survived longer than what the Doctors predicted and I believe that the fact that he was so grateful and positive played a role in that.

5) The Author is always changing his attitude and thoughts, how could he not? His son is dying. there are times when he had hope that the doctors had removed most of the tumor if not all of it. But realistically he knew that that wasn't the situation. Also, he seemed very proud of Johnny, he was an intelligent boy its hard not to be proud of him but through that you know that he is suffering. He is losing his only son, he sees Johnny suffer everyday and can do nothing about it so obviously there was sadness there. Yet, he managed to stay strong not only for himself but of johnny and his mother and in a situation like this, I give him props for keeping himself collected through such a hard and painful situation. 

Style

1) I noticed that there was foreshadowing involved. I predicted that Johnny actually did die because the author referred to Johnny is past tense so that is what gave me the clue that he died. Other than  that his style of writing was journalistic because he just stated things as they were happening . He talked a lot about what procedures Johnny was undergoing and how he would react to those procedures. Aldo, he talked about all the different Doctors they had to visit and all the hospital trips that were made.

2) The Author definitely uses lengthy descriptions. A lot of descriptions were mad when they would talk about the procedures and Johnny's reaction to those procedures. I think that it was a good technique

because most of the the readers wouldn't of know what was going on otherwise. I personally didn't understand a lot of things that were said because they were medical terms but the fact that he described what the procedure was and what the hoped result was actually helped a lot. 

3) I believe that the fact that the author focused on Johnny's attitude through all this helped set up the mood. It made me realize that bad things happen, but it could be way worse and that I should be grateful for the important things in my life such as my family and my health. I felt that although it was a sad story it was also inspiring. Almost like  Morrie from Tuesdays With Morrie, his situation was terrible yet he focused on the positive and good things that he had in his life. 

4) I think the author was trying to help us realize that we should be grateful. Yes, things get bad at times but most the time it isn't something tragic like Johnny's situation. It really makes me think twice about complaining about little things that I want. Im sure that Johnny's loved ones would give anything to have Johnny back but obviously that isn't going to happen. so we really should be grateful for what and who we have in our lives because reality is it can be taken from us at any moment. 

5) The author uses letters that were written by Johnny and doctors notes that were written about Johnny's illness. That didn't really matter to me because I had my mind set that this id was inspiring and that as someone who has the basics to survive ( food,shelter, and health) i need to be more grateful because there are good people out there who are dying and are more grateful than I am.

Enduring Memory

What i got out of this was just like what I said in my last literary analysis; enjoy life and be thankful because it can all be taken away from you at any moment. Stop focusing on the materialistic things and be glad that you have your health, food, and a roof over your head. because while we are sitting here crying because they can't get the newest electronic there are people out there dying from starvation and suffering from things that no one should suffer from. 

Bonus questions

Johnny's father realized that he needed to be more like Johnny and appreciate life more. like most of us, Johnny's father took life for granted and we shouldn't do that; life is a gift and it can be taken away from us at any given moment. He also realized that he had no control over Johnny's disease, everything happens for a reason. He feels that Johnny having a tumor was a mistake but he realized that even if it was he has no control over what happens in the end.