College App

   My family is funny , together and happy. I have two sisters and two brothers three of which are younger than me.  Plus, the woman that runs the show, my mother Elizabeth Lewis.

The community in which my family and I live in is a place where I would have to say that I would not want my kids to live in. Sometimes, it can be a little wild.

I come from a world in which my family is my main source for moral support.  Each and every day , they inspire me to become the best person I can be. My family is a huge influence in my life.

    As a young boy , i remember laying down in my bed staring at the ceiling. I remember getting out of bed  and my feet touching the ice cold floor. and me slowly walking down stairs. At the end of the stairs i walk into the room and see my mother siting in a chair watching Television. my eyes scan the room as quickly as possible in search of my father but him not being there.  My warm heart slowing turning cold and me feeling the tingles in my hands and feet.  That's when i knew for sure that my father had left.
    In the year 1998 i did not see my father for a few months. He was in the Navy and he worked on the flight deck and sometimes even as a rescue swimmer. When he would leave he would be gone for months at a time.  Then when he would come back it fely as if he would stay for only a few days.  Yet as a five year old boy i was just happy to see him when he came around. When ever he would return from being over seas he would always bring back gifts. One time he had brought me back this really cool picture of the ship that he worked on. It had a ton of air planes ,jets  and even a few coppers. Then one day after staring at the poster hanging on my wall came up with the idea of becoming one of those people who flew the air planes and jets. That way i would be able to spend time with my father while he was at work on the ship and still be able to fly back home to my mother and sister.
    So my father was a huge inspiration to my life. By him being in the Navy and leaving to over seas months at a time help me shape my dreams of becoming  a pilot.  Ever since then i always wanted to become a professional aviator.

    Ever since i was in elementary school i loved playing sports.  In the third grade i would discover the game of basketball and every break time outside that's what i would play basketball. From the third grade on i would play basketball and it would become a talent of mine as well as an accomplishment near and dear to my heart.
   

Throughout elementary school i would play basketball , dream about basketball and just fall straight in love with basketball.  That was until I had graduated from elementary school and that's when it all changed.  Middle school was so much different in so many ways.  There was different classes ,people and even real sports teams. There was a basketball team and i thought that it would be really fun just to play on the team. The only problem was that i had to make the team first and that meant that i would have to try out first.

    I was a very small young boy who did not have a clue how to play on a real team. I only use to play for fun. That was a huge reason why when people heard i was trying out they gave me no chance to make it. They where shooting out put downs quicker that a built leaving  a gun when its fired.  Yes i must say that the tryout was very hard and it was a huge amount of running involved but i was just happy that i did not give up on my self because other people said i should. That next Monday was when the list was posted with the names of the people who made the team. I remember walking up to the list and seeing my name on it.  I ran as quick as i could to the gym to meet up with my teammates. yet when i walked it i got the feeling as if they did not wont me there. I still greeted all of my new teammates with a handshake and a smile. The coach the spoke he said “Welcome to the chipman cougars 06-07 basketball season” and that's when-it began.

    About two weeks later was our first game and i was extremely nervous. I had got my jersey with the number 30 on the back in gold writing and that's when i got even more nervous. At tip off i found my self siting on the bench until the second quarter. When i entered the game a teammate passed me the ball and it felt like a rock I was wide open for a shoot but was too scared to take it because if i missed then they would just be very mad at me so instead i tryed to pass it and it ended up getting stolen and i had to ride the bench until the third game.
    In the third game i did not play until the second-quarter. I remember hearing yelling and hearing a voice say “just play hard”. Then i looked up in the crowd and saw my mother smile at me.  From that point in the game all the way up tell now when ever i step on the court i make sure that i always play hard and just remember that felling of when my mother smiled at me.

book review rough draft

Book Review

            · What was the author's purpose(s) in writing this book, and how can you tell? How well was this purpose achieved?

  For what audience(s) is this book intended, and how can you tell? (In other words, for whom would you recommend this book?)

The title of my book is “The Last Mission” and the author name is Harry Mazer. It is about a young boy who joins the army during world war two. He is only 15 years old and ran away from home. His name is Jack Rabb and he dreams of being a hero and this is the way he best could think of doing it by joining the United States air crops which Is kind of like the air force.  The author’s purpose in writing this book was to add a twist to the real world war two stories.

          The author's purpose in writing this story is to bring up a different way of what could have happen during world war two, almost as if he wanted to predict what would happen if this young 15 year old kid was a part of the air force. its a action filling what’s going to happen next type of book. I think that the author of this book must have been around during this world war two times otherwise he probably would have not had these strong details about the war and he would not be able to add that war like twist to his story with the young boy trying to be the hero.

In my opinion the strengths in this book are the fact that’s the kid is only 15 years of age yet he has a huge desire to be a guy that can say he help fight in the war. I think the weakest point in this book so far is when they kind of come up with this idea that because the parents are polish they are sending these care packages to Poland because of what is going on. I think that was really a weak point that the author put in this story. Yet overall this is a very interesting book and I feel like I am in for a surprising ending with this action filled book.

          The second part of the book is about Jack travel to Florida for a few weeks for relaxation before he gets shipped overseas soon. During that time he meets this girl that is from New York just like he is. So they talk for a while about small things and soon enough they go on a mini date where they hang out. They go to the beach, eat shaved ice and ride bikes. Her name is Dotty and she is from Brooklyn. So after the day was done and she had to leave she gave Jack her address so that way he could write her and she also gave him her phone number so that way they would be able to talk on the phone.        

          A few weeks later Jack had got moved to Louisiana and the crew was given a few days before heading overseas to go home. Before jack and his pals went home they had stopped in New Orleans to check out the place.  Hours pass and two of jack’s friends pick up a few girls and walked with them down a street and jack was all alone. So he ended up calling Dotty and they began to talk and that’s how their relationship grew.

          Now the authors purpose to adding a girl into 15 year old jacks life was to one give this story plot a twist and the other reason is because it shows how the author  wants to add some what of romance to a war book. I think when the author gives jack his age it makes the story really different because he is very young and left his family is more than likely home sick. Then he adds a girl into his life to try to help balance both the home sick load and also help jack fill in his shoes. So that is what I think the author second part of the book is about.

           The type of audience in which this book was written for was people who like to read about war times and the romance that can be involved in it. I feel like there is no set age group when it comes to a book such as the one like this.  Now the way in which I can tell is by reading this book and figuring out how the author in other books writes about the same general l topic.  So that is the audience I think in which this author was aiming for.

           

The Last Mission-part 1

In the book The Last Mission by Harry Mazer , it talks about a young man who joins the army during World War Two where he later would join the air force and become a hero.

A little background information  during this time is during world war two the war was almost over and Hitler was at his end yet there was still one last air mission to put him away for good. The main character name is Jack and he is only 15 from New York. He had lied about his age just so he can become apart of the air force. He knew he wanted to stop Hitler and this was the best way he could do it.

The author's purpose in writing this story is to bring up a different way of what could have happen during world war two, almost as if he wanted to predict what would happen if this young 15 year old kid was apart of the air force. its a action filling whats going to happen next type of book. i think that the author of this book must have been around during this world war two time otherwise he probably would have not had these strong details about the war and he would not be able to add that war like twist to his story with the young boy trying to be the hero.

In my opinion the strengths in this book are the fact thats the kid is only 15 years of age yet he has a huge desire to be a guy that can say he help fight in the war. I think the weakest point in this book so far is when they kind of come up with this idea that because the parents are polish they are sending these care packages to Poland because of what is going on. i think that was really a weak point that the author put in this story. yet overall this is a very interesting book and i feel like i am in for a surprising ending with this action filled book.

Family history response

Two stories that some what connect to mine is Jackson's story which is about who came back from the American war to protest. Another story that connects to my story lightly is Andy Lau's story which was about how  mother moved from china to the United States to get away from the hardship and raise her son. What both of theses story show is how hard they will work to try to achieve that "American Dream".
  In Andy Lau's story he also talks about how his mother had to live and grow up in hard places.

My mom described how their family had to go to the local public shower rooms that were created for people who did not have showers or toilets in their houses. She described these as dirty and filthy places that she hated going to."

To me this would motivate me to try my best to move out of such a place because i want a better life for my children and for them not to experience such hardship in their lifetime. I think this is why Andy mother did what she did and move to the states.  she was looking for the American dream.After reading a strong quote from Jackson it really did statr to connect even more.

"After leaving, he, along with many of his friends, etc. began to protest the war. I guess you could say at one point he became the classic image of a “hippie."

 I think that in both of these stories is is rather important to see how them coming to a different place was because they where searching for better experiences.  It really shows what people around the world tend to think about America. After reading a lot of stories i notice one think that seems for the most part to be the same and that is how the parents want to seek opportunity. I think these patterns are starting to become is because of what America is being views as and that is anything is possible here in the states. Thats to me is also a huge reason why more and more people are coming to the united states. They want to live that American dream and feel it for there self's.

cycles-joy luck club

family essay

My family has a lot of stories that were past down for a long time. There is one story that really

gets to me every time i hear it. It's the story my grandma told me not to long ago and i can 

remember it word for word.  The way in which my grandmother tells the story replays in my mind just like a movie.

My grandmother's grandparents lived in Texas. They where two school teachers who had about a 12th grade education. At that time in Texas for African American people that was considered to be rather high. My grandmother said that her grandfather was a very dark man and his wife was a light skin black women. her skin almost looked as if she was white. that was because her mother was raped by a slave owner that why her skin is so light.  so anyways back to the story, my grandmothers grandparents had this friend named Jim. Jim had been friends with them for a long time he would always help the children during school. That was because my grandmothers grandparents could use a little help every once in a while. so that is what Jim offered to them.

Oneday Jim had came running into my grandmothers grandparents house begging them to give him mercy and hide him somewhere. the reason in which he was needed to behind en was because he had been accused of raping a white women. in the state of Texas at that time would mean that a black man would be lynched. so my grandmothers grandparents hid there friend jim under theses floor boards. if Jim was to be found in my grandmothers grandparents house all three of them would be lynched because they where apart of hiding this man. For them to avoild that from happening they moved to the state of California.

When my grandmothers grandparents moved to the state of California they had lost their teaching jobs. they moved to a small town called allens's town which now is know as Fresno.in this small town their was a lot of black families moving in. now in a near by town there where white people in which they did not want black families to live next ti them. Now for them to stop black families from coming into this town they poisoned their water. that caused them not to be able to have clean drinking water which simply had met that they would have to move to another town. The town in which my grandmothers grandparents was down in southern California where they would own a farm.  

That is where my grandmother said her mother would move to a city called Bakersfield. That is where my grandmother would spend  her childhood. 

The reason this story has lasted so long in my family i think is because it shows the moral of friendship and also courage. What i learned about my self after hearing this story from my grandmother was i was not sure if i would be brave enough to do the things they did to save this mans life. i do not know if i would be able to handle that risk.In a way though i feel like if that was me back then i still would have had to do my best to save the life of my friend. 

Amy Tan and Amy Chuan

I think that there are many similarities and connections in The Joy Luck Club. in the story tiger mom Amy tan is both of the  authors. Amy tan was talking about how strict her mother was and how hard she was pushing her so she can become really smart. also how she did not allow her to live her life by not letting her do things like watch TV and kick it with the friends and stuff. in a way i think this made Amy Tan feel as if she had no freedom in her life because her mother was controlling it.

In the third chapter of the Joy Luck Club it talks about how hard the moms treat there daughters. an example would be when Wavarly mother was making her play chess. This then makes her feel as if her mother is asking to much of her and she doesn't like that at all.  That probably the reason why she gives up playing chess. Its almost as if Wavrly mother is pressuring her to much. this is just like Amy Tan mother when she was pushing her to be good at everything. This si the reason why Waverly stop playing chess.

I think thats moms have more past life experiences both good and bad so thats why they want there daughters to do somethings and not others. It is so they dont make the same choices as they did. Although  i think sometimes you should let people make there own mistakes because thats how they grow as people.  In the story of "rice husband" lena's mom always notices that things are not going right. she seems to struggle a lot. anyways the experiences the moms have should not be connects to there daughters.