Semester Essay #9: Future after High School

Some people go right on to college after high school; others take a year or more off to work or travel. Which do you think is the better choice? State your position and support it with specific reasons and examples.

Deciding on your future is the most crucial moment in a high school senior’s life. What do I want to do after I graduate? Am I going to make the right decision? These questions and many more run crazily in a teenagers mind. Everyone has their hopes and dreams they want to fulfill, but sometimes the hardest part is knowing where to start. Do I go straight to college or do I need to take some time off to figure out about myself a little better? I think it depends on the individual. No one can decide for you the next steps you have to take after high school. It’s your choice.

The choice after finishing high school depends entirely on the individual. Some people know what they want to do in the future and already have concrete plan to follow for the rest of their college lives. Others still need more time to decide what they want to do in life. Each has a specific goal they want to reach. Based on each individual’s personality, he or she can find out and explore even further what it is that makes them, them.

No one can force you to make a quick decision. Why do you need to have all of this added pressure? The only person that knows you is you. You have a brain that stores your memories, your logical thinking, imaginative thinking, and your feelings. Some high schools stress the students about the importance of college and gaining a higher education. It seems good but this can have a negative effect on the student. A student needs to be provided with positive suggestions that will help influence an interest to their minds. This is a better method to use than to force an idea on a person.

For me, I believe in gaining a higher education and search for more opportunities that awaits me. I love to explore to different places, countries, and environments because I feel that is what will make me a better-rounded person. Of course, I am not you and I am not them. Everyone has different identities and different circumstances. Life is about exploration and whatever someone does after high school is their choice. What does your heart tell you? Do you want to college right after high school or do you need to spend some time exploring?

Semester Essay #8: Same-Sex Schools

All-girl schools have been gaining popularity in recent years because of the belief that girls learn better when they aren’t competing with or intimidated by boys, who statistically get more attention in the classroom. Do you think single-sex schools are a good idea? Why or why not? Use specific reasons and examples to support your position.

Same-sex schools have been a popular choice for many parents and other educators. When the school has a group of students of the same sex, the student of that particular gender will have a better chance of focusing on their school subjects and not have to compete with another student of the opposite sex. Everyone is in one accord with the goals and objectives needed to be accomplished. The idea of same-sex schools, especially high school, will decrease any competitiveness or sexual tension from the opposite sex and will allow the student to be comfortable to achieve his or her greatness. A same-sex school is a great idea and should be recommended for students who need that extra focus.

Same-sex schools allow the students to focus on his or her studies. Males and females usually compete with one another, which can cause many failures with the individual if one of them seems defeated by the opposite sex. For example, a male student and a female student are both excellent in math. The male student tries to dominate the female student by doing extra work to make him look better. The female student does the same, but after all the pressure the female out beats the male student. As a result, the male student starts to flunk out in his math class and becomes disruptive in all of his classes because he felt that sense of defeat.

Same-sex schools prevent any sexual tensions between the opposite sexes. There are too many incidents where young males and females are having sexual intercourse. Also, someone can become entirely unfocused when he or she has been dumped by the significant other. It is normal for a male to be attracted to a female and vice versa, but especially for teenagers, this is the age where they are many changes that are happening to the human body. With same-sex schools, there is no worry of becoming too attracted to the opposite gender and trying to impress the opposite gender.

Education is one of the major priorities that children need in order to succeed into something much more valuable to them. With too many budget cuts in the United States, schools have become the main victim in our own society. Students need to gain as much education as they can get from the resources that are still available to them. Same-sex schools will bring more of a mental focus to the child and will help the student realize the options they have in order to survive in the working world.

Creative Writing Non-Fiction: The First Time I Went Swimming

The first time I swam was one of my most memorable experiences. I wouldn’t think of floating on top of water or diving into the deepest end. It was a scary moment swimming for the first time. I wore a nice fitting bathing suit and a pink rubber floaty that had tropical flowers and funny-looking dinosaurs attached to it. The first time I swam was the first time I felt like a professional swimmer.

Wearing my two-piece pink bathing suit and matching pink floaty, I slowly took off my flowery flip flops and gave it to my mother. Stepping onto the pool concrete, I tapped my foot onto the cool pool water and then dipped both of my feet limb by limb until my whole body was fully submerged into the water. The water was a little chilly but the hot sun beaming down helped to warm me up. I made little splashes and waded around in circles making donut wrinkles in the water. I did this while anxiously waiting for my instructor.

A fit older woman approached me with a friendly grin. “I guess it is my swimming instructor,” I thought. We moved into a little bit deeper end. Five feet to be exact. I was four feet and nine inches, so I definitely had to learn how to float on my own. Torture. My instructor first taught me how to breathe underwater by blowing bubbles through my nose. I thought, “Wouldn’t boogers escape through my nostrils and contaminate the water?” Answer, “I do not mind that at all.” I took a deep breath and dunked my head into the water, seeing bubbles reaching the surface like I was my own scuba diving air tank. My instructor smiled at my accomplishment. For the rest of my 1-hour lesson, I learned how to kick with two feet. My legs were pretty weak and gentle that I only made quiet splashes. I held onto the blue board and kicked, kicked, and kicked as hard as I could. My legs became a long propeller forcing me to glide forward to the deepest end: 8 feet deep. I held on to the rail bordering the entire pool; so that I didn’t have the urge to accidently drown myself. I climbed the steel ladder and walked carefully and quickly to the diving board. Even the gentleness of the cool breeze struck against my skin with frosty lightning bolts that a human is too blind to see. My instructor told me to step on the edge of the diving board. I felt like I was risking my life for a certain purpose: learning how to not make a cannon ball and splash all the water out of the pool, leaving me stuck at the bottom of the pool. I jumped as far forward as I could and landed safely without becoming a human meteorite. My instructor grinned at my second accomplishment. The first time I swam was the last time I learned my strokes and many diving skills in order to become a professional swimmer.

Semester Essay #7: Public Transportation in Cities

Many cities suffer from serious air and noise pollution—as well as endless traffic jams—because of too many cars. Some people feel that cities with extensive public transportation systems should ban passenger cars and force people to walk, bike, or use public transportation. Do you think this is a good idea? Why or why not?

The idea of a “city” has been known to be a place where people and other living organisms suffer from serious air and noise pollution. The city is not entirely bad; it is a location where people can visit and enjoy the structures of famous buildings, view the great scenery from a certain vantage point, eat the best-known foods, and watch the greatest entertainments in that particular city. Some people feel that extensive public transportation systems, such as buses and cars, should be banned. They think everyone should be forced to walk, bike, or use not so much of the public transportation. This sounds like a good idea but that doesn’t mean it is the best idea to look forward to.

No individual should or have the right to force anyone to make their daily travels in a certain type of transportation. There are people who have jobs much farther away than where they live. Therefore, travelling by walking or biking is not a great idea. If everyone uses public transportation, then it would mean more production of buses and trains in order to prevent from carrying overcrowded people in one station.

Some people cannot afford a car depending on how much money they earn from the jobs in which they work in. So, their only way to travel is by bus and/or walk, if convenient. Everyone cannot go back to simpler transportation if these types of transportation were made so that people can travel somewhere much faster without waking up extra early to travel a long distance. There is technology to help create greener transportation without completely destroying the invention. There are hybrid cars which do not fuel off of so much gas. Inventors can later create a much greener public transportation just like hybrids that will not pollute the air we breathe.

We do not need to reverse ourselves to other inventions that get us around to places but not fast enough. A better solution for this problem would be to remodel the trains, buses, and cars to become environmentally friendly. As long as everyone reduces, reuses, and recycles common material, such as paper and plastic, we can decrease the amount of pollution we create by a larger percentage. Cities will become a lot cleaner and mostly noise free if we tweak our public transportation system without eliminating them completely and let nature do its course. The strong winds can even clear the smog covering the beautiful city of Los Angeles with the mountains as its backdrop.

Semester Essay#6: Computer Communication

Many of us spend hours in front of our computers and communicate more by e-mail or instant-messaging than in person. Some people believe that this is good because it helps shy people communicate more openly with others. Others believe that computer communication prevents us from developing interpersonal skills and limits our ability to have meaningful relationships with others. How do you feel about this issue? Use specific reasons and examples to support your position.

Computers have been one of the inventions of the 21^st century that has become a huge impact on everyone’s lives. It made news and other types of messages pass along much faster than by word from a person’s mouth or sending a letter by mail. People of the 21^st century can send e-mails and instant messages, post pictures and videos, and even chat with another person by using a webcam. Yes, many people believe computer communication has given shy people to become more open to express themselves, but this kind of communication has endangered the human nature of communicating with others face-to-face in order to create meaningful relationships.

People should not spend so much time on the computer to communicate with another person. Staring at a computer screen for a really long time can make anyone’s eyes light sensitive. Next problems it can lead to are laziness, obesity, and other health issues (physically and mentally). No one wants to become unhealthy to the point of possibility of death but computer communication seems like a useful tool for anyone who needs to bring about their ideas a lot faster, especially for writers and soft-spoken individuals. Although, when a person approaches an individual in front of them, that person acts either inappropriately or weirdly towards that individual. That person does not have the ability to socialize with that individual normally.

Another “but” in this situation is people who create spams and viruses and who cyber bully an innocent person. We can never really tell which one is a trustable site or if the person is real or an alias, unless notified by others neither which people to not approach nor which site or link to not click on. Anyone can steal your personal information and use it against you. The computer itself (not just the Internet) is a public place to save or post items that anyone can see. It creates a major question to everyone’s minds: How can we tell if someone I am conversing with is real and not secretly a sexual offender?

Computer communication is one of the best inventions ever formed for the 21^st century, but there are many concerns in terms of safety of someone’s mental health, physical health, and emotional health. This type of communication can damage a generation of youth sociability. Eventually, future generations might not know how to interact with someone they can physically, and not virtually, touch. Also, the future of computer communication can turn against us, believing anything we see in instant messages and anonymous e-mails without taking certain precautions.

Semester Essay #5: Fieldtrips

Dear Mrs. Brown,

Education is the basic tool needed every day for the rest of each individual’s life. Students learn the basic subjects: English, Mathematics, Science, History; and they study other subjects to enhance their learning, such as a foreign language or a performing arts or visual arts course. High schools used to have many electives, internships, and other options to help a student explore a certain interest. Now, since there are too many budget cuts in education in the state of California, there are not enough school supplies or teachers to help provide good quality education. Therefore, if you cancel all fieldtrips for the remainder of the year, the students at City Honors College Preparatory Charter School will not be able to gain a new learning experience hands-on.

Fieldtrips are a good way for students to learn about a particular subject. Students can get the visual idea on the topic discussed in class and will be able to understand fully on any details he or she is unsure about. For example, a group of students in Mr. Washington’s Physics class learned about Newton’s three laws, gravitational force, and the motion of any solid object. One student suggested a fieldtrip to Six Flags because it was fun and everyone will be able to understand the concepts in great detail. At the end of the year, all of Mr. Washington’s and Mr. Harden’s Physics classes went on a trip to Six Flags. The students enjoyed themselves and they had a much clearer idea on what they were learning in Physics for the entire year.

Fieldtrips give students a break from in-class learning. Teenagers have a short attention span and can get easily distracted especially during a long boring lecture. Going on a fieldtrip can not only give the students fresh air; it can open the students’ eyes to an engaging experience. Students love to do something with their hands to create or build something or go on an excursion to see their school-learning brought into life.

Finally, fieldtrips can prevent the troublemakers in the classrooms from disrupting the teachers and other students. Once a troublemaker is able to do something within their interest, he or she will be engaged and be able to tell the teachers everything they know about the topic with excitement. Fieldtrips are good opportunities for troublemakers who barely had any help in their education. They will be able to express their thoughts intelligently with much hope and confidence.

Education is always a number one priority in anyone’s life, since the amount of education students obtain will lead them to the opportunities available. Instead of cutting fieldtrips that will give a disadvantage to the students who need it, we can come up with fundraising ideas to help raise money for those trips. Without fieldtrips, students will be bored of learning and more likely cause trouble in the classroom, which prevents other students from learning as well. Fieldtrips are a method of expanding a child’s learning to a new higher level.

Sincerely,

Alexis Jackson

Setting As The World

When I walk up the driveway, a brown gate is manually opened to reach the back of my house. There is our new garage with lovely brownish-reddish earth tones on the rims of the brown roof supported by white cream walls. There are green, gray, and brown trashcans lining up against the edge of the concrete driveway. I sit across from the trashcans and at a left angle, I see the gigantic house standing firm with our new addition of the backyard deck. The house has the same earth tones as the garage. My mother's bedroom and the house deck stands where a concrete plateau used to be. The concrete plateau was a mini country gathering that stretched across the back of the house. I used to play with one of my cousins at this particular spot doing all kinds of games, such as playing race cars, hula-hoops, and catching a huge tie-died bouncy ball with our dirty alligator hands. The only place that is still in my backyard is the huge forestry green tree that came from the neighbor behind us. My grandmother always sends a gardener to cut it down, but the tree always grows to its bushy Afro size that covers our wired gate. Every time I look back at the tree, I see different figures and draw them in my head: a dog, a monkey, a train, a flower, and a human eye. I close my eyes and breathe in the washed out vegetation with my nose and exhale the taste of freshly uncooked broccoli. I can hear the pigeons cooing to each other ordinary nonsense. My backyard smells like a barbecue pit, but my old memory of the backyard smells like a river-green forest.