Ten Steps

She lies back on the couch without a care in the world. Her feet slightly propped up by the arm of the couch, and she’s facing the television as if she’s watching it. Her arm is slightly bent towards her face as support to hold up her phone to her ear. She speaks very dramatically as if what she’s saying has any substance at all. She bends her torso and leans forward towards the coffee table two feet in front of her, retrieves the television remote, and lies back to her original position. She flips through each channel pausing for several seconds and continues to change the station. She continues this routine for a while before she decides to turn off the television. She leans forward again, places the remote back onto the coffee table, and leans fully back onto the couch stretching her entire body out. A low growl from somewhere in the depths of her body, surfaces and she stretches, throw her legs over the side of the couch to the floor stands up and walks several rooms over to the kitchen. She walks in slowly as she is still talking on the phone. She seems to take a step after pronouncing a word, she finally reaches her refrigerator. She opens the door steps to the side, bends over inward and scans the contents held within its cold metal walls. There is a slight flickering sound behind her, and as she turns to see where it’s coming from she notices the bulb in the ceiling fan of the kitchens seems to slowly dim in and out. Dismissing the light she turns back towards the refrigerator, she extends her free arm slightly inside to retrieve the jelly. As she wraps her fingers around the bottle there is another flickering sound and as she starts to slightly turn all the lights seem to turn off simultaneously. She pulls her body out of the refrigerator slams the door and curses loudly. She murmurs something into the phone and hangs up, and places the phone down on the kitchen counter. She stomps her way towards the switch that operates the lights in the kitchens and flicks it to see if they would come back on, with no avail, she stomped into the living room. She test the lights in every main room of the house the same, stomps over, flicks switch, and when she gets no success curses and moves on. As she finally tests the last room, she comes to terms with the fact that this might be a power outage and stomps her way back into the kitchen. When she reaches the kitchen she leans over quickly towards the counter, snatches her phone and dials a number. “Hello?” says a faint voice from the phone. “Mom, the power in the house went out again and I don’t know what to do”, she says. There is the slight sound of shuffling coming from the phone and then another voice speaks, “What’s going sweetheart?” “Dad the power went out again, what do I do?” “You’re going to have to flip the switch in the power box in the basement.” Her eyes widen, and she responds, “The basement?” “Yes, baby the basement.” “Dad, you know what happened the last time I was down there”, she says with a slight whimper. “I know but there is no way we can come back to the house right now, you can do it.” “Ok, Dad I think I can do it.” “I’ll be with you the entire time baby.” “So what do I do first?” she asks. “Go to the basement door and open it”, he replies. She finds her way to the basement door and does as he says and opens it. A strong musky smell hit her like a ton of bricks. She coughs a little and then replies to her father by saying, “Ok did it.” He then says, “There are ten stairs you have to walk down to get to the bottom, ok baby.” “Ok, will you count with me?” “Yes, I will baby”, he replied. She takes a deep breath and says “Ready.” “Ok”, he says “One” She takes a small step down the stairs, and you hear a small creak. She takes a deep breath and then continues saying “two”, as taking another step. “Three”, they say in unison as she steps further down. “Four” says her dad. “Five” she says. “Six.” “Seven.” “Eight.” “Nine.” “Ok you’re almost there. One more step to go”, her dad says. She takes a deep breath and takes the last step while saying “Ten.” “Ok you’ve made it down, now-“he suddenly stops talking as he hears her continuing walking. She continues to count, “Eleven, twelve, thirteen, fourteen, fifteen….

The Hallway

     I stood in the middle of the semi crowed hall of our school and wondered why he had such a hold on me. There wasn’t one thing I didn’t like about him, and trust me I looked. He was perfect in every way I could think of, or even fathom. As I stood in the middle of this hallway lost in my own world, I caught a whiff of the smell I’ve become so addicted to in these past weeks, the smell of a sweet must that could only secrete from his pores. I breathed in heavily trying to catch as much of his scent as I could, as I held in this unique fragrance of his, I closed my eyes and clutched the 5 pound United States History book I held in my arms to my chest. I knew he was here. As I reopened my eyes and untangled my book from my arms I turned in the direction of which I knew he would be and stared. There he was, his 6 foot 2 inch frame barely missing the light fixtures hanging from the roof as he walked the hallway without a care in the world. He ran his large hand through his light brown high top curls, and smiled. He slowly lowered his hand back to his side, where it rested on the navy blue Levi jeans he was wearing that day. I looked at him up and down taking in every detail. From the way the curls at the top of his head leaned to the left a tad as he walked, to the way his broad shoulders kept his book bag hovering right above his waist, to the way his shirt clung to the defined chest muscles he possessed underneath. He wore his Levi’s an inch below his waist line, allowing me to see a peak of his briefs, his jeans fit so perfectly on his body that he didn’t even need a belt to hold them around his waist. He cuffed the end of his pants to a point in which they hovered about half an inch above the top of his shoe and you could slightly see his red, white, and blue Nike elite socks he wore underneath. On his feet were special edition Nike Roche Run’s, they were designed to look like a beautiful Caribbean beach coast which matched perfectly with the Hawaiian design that was on his shirt. After taking all of this in I slowly moved my eyes back up to his face, to admire the beauty that he possessed there. His skin was the color of honey and looked as soft as a cloud on a beautiful sunny day. His smile was dazzling white and amazingly straight, which shockingly was purely natural. There was not one blemish that marked his face, and if there was it would be as beautiful as him. He walked slowly down the hall, stopping at the lone porcelain water fountain, bent over and got a drink. From the angle I was standing I had a full view of his back, as I stood there staring noticing how perfectly defined his muscles were, the loud ringing of the start class bell interrupted my view. He quickly stood up and turned to his left taking three long bounds from his standing position to the light sliver door not too far down the hall from which he was. He grabbed the handle and slowly slipped in. As the door clicked back into place I was awakened from the dazed state I was in and noticed I was also late to class. I ran down the empty hollow hall seeing nothing but the blur of red lockers that lined the walls. As I approached the light gray door, I readjusted myself before grabbing the slick metal handle, pulling the door slightly open and sliding myself between the small gap in which I created. As the door closed behind me, everyone eyes shifted towards my body and I could feel my face becoming slightly red. The teacher looked at me slowly raising her right eyebrow, as if telling me without words to go sit down. I took the hint and turned towards the rows of desk arranged before me, as I studied the class looking for an empty seat my heart slowly stopped as I found one. It was positioned right next to where he was, and I took this as a gift from the Gods. I slowly walked through the columns of seats to till I reached mine; I slid my body gently into the chair as placing my book bag on the floor beside me. As I turned around in my desk to face the board I felt a slight tap on my forearm. I slowly turned my neck in the direction I was tapped and there he slowly smiled at me and asked “Can I borrow a pencil?” I turned quickly grabbed one out of my book bag and handed it to him, he took it smiled again and winked at me before turning back to the board. Leaving me questioning what he meant. 

"I'm Thankful For.." (A Classmate)

I’m thankful for every class mate in our 5^th period English class.  Everyone is unique and special in their own way and make the class the way it is. I know we get a little rowdy at times but the class is truly enjoyable. We've all come to like each other at least and I've made so many new friends. But if I had to pick one person in particular I would say I’m thankful for Rosalina. She makes insightful comments and discussion topics and makes the conversation actually meaningful. She’s super funny and smart. We've known each other longer than this year in English but this class has made us closer. We have a couple things in common and a lot of the same interest. But as a person I really am thankful for everyone and I truly enjoy every single one of them. Gissel, Sophia, Rosalina, Maya, Imani, Jonathan, Bing, Amanda and everyone I surround myself in that class. I've created a bond with everyone in the class some not as close as others but they’re there. Know all I can ask is that they are thankful for me and what I offer and incorporate in the class and me as a person. 

I Celebrate Myself..

Celebrating yourself is about the way you appreciate everything you have to offer. In today’s society it’s hard for people to do that. Many are scared of the judgment and disapproval that comes with expressing who they truly are to the world. There is a set of social norms the world seems to follow and it makes our society conformed. Thoreau expresses his thoughts about the way our society is set up and how conformed we are in his many different works. He encourages us to “meet” our lives and live fully. We need to come out of our scared little shells and blossom into the people we truly are. We need to break the rules and rebel against the norms. There’s nothing wrong with being different, and there is no such thing as being normal. We need to go out and experience the world the way Emerson, Thoreau, and everyone else in the transcendentalist period. We need to become one with our inner self and let that be who we show on the outside. That’s the only way we could truly become free in today’s trapped society. There is no point in life if one can’t truly live theirs.

"Poe"

“I became insane, with long intervals of horrible sanity.” – Edgar Allan Poe

Edgar Allan Poe is a romantic author and is known for very dark and mysterious stories and writing. All of his writing was such and The Fall of the House of Usher didn’t fall far from the tree, but I enjoyed it. I think some aspects were related back to Poe’s actual life and his disapproval of it. In the story when he hinted to act of incest going on in the Usher Household, you can relate back to his actual life and the fact that he married his own cousin and how unjust he might have felt about it. The Raven is just like the rest of his writing. It seems so lost and delirious, like the main character is dazed and confused. The way he portrayed the character in The Raven could be a representation of his life and the way he felt on a daily basis. Poe was known for being sad and depressed, which can relate back to the many down’s he have had during his short life span. Poe’s writing reflected his life and his way of thinking we were all just lucky enough the be able to experience with him. 

"What Is An American?"

The Google definition of an American is a native or citizen of the United States. My definition of an American is someone who pursues a life of freedom and equality. If we want to get technical with it, nobody in America is technically an American. The Natives were the only true Americans. But because of the European Exploration and the fact that basically the whole race was eradicated, there are no more “true” Americans. But as of today there are many different representations of what an American is. The image people think of when they think of an American is a blond hair, blue eyed person, when really Americans are the complete opposite. Yes, there is blond hair, blue eyed people, but there are also brown hair, brown eyed people, red hair, and green eyed people. Americans are all different shapes, sizes, colors, races, and religions. We are in some way a giant melting pot of people. No we are not perfect, we are FAR from perfect, but we try to offer a better life for all people. Our policies and way of thinking can be screwed up some times but we try to improve the way of life for everyone. An American is someone who truly wants to better the life of their self and everyone around them. 

The "Modern" Day Puritan

In the Scarlet Letter the Puritans there were very strict and some would say well disciplined. These views and rules of their society can be found in today’s society. These people were very god oriented and very bent on their religion. There is many people and places in society that are exactly like that. There aren’t that many that are as strict as the Puritans but there are a couple, such as Providence St. Mel School. This is a catholic oriented school which is very strict. Like the Puritans this school has a very strict set of rules. The students must wear a uniform, just like the Puritans were forced to wear a certain style of clothing. They believe that through God they can change people, ideas, and ways of life (which is stated directly in their mission statement); such as the Puritans believed that they could do anything through God. Providence St. Mel also have very strict rules for any disobeying of the rules, such as the Puritans had certain punishments for anyone who disobeyed their rules. The Puritans have changed dramatically from the time of The Crucible to the time of The Scarlet Letter but you can still see and feel the after effects they had on the way of life for certain people.