Essay #21 Friendship

Friendship

Dear reader,

            This essay of mine is meant to stimulate multiple genres of writing. This multi-genre essay is made to explain what friendship means to me. Please read the following with care and an open and deep consideration for what it means.

Expository paragraph:

            Friendship takes its twists and turns, sometimes ending up in better shape than before. Sometimes not(purposeful sentence fragment). I have multiple friends that follow this pattern. I won’t mention any names, but some days I feel this friend is my best friend, and other days this friend doesn’t want to be anywhere near me. I never really know if he is my friend or not. Some friends that I have follow this pattern in larger periods of time. For example, I used to be friends with some people a year ago, but have lost touch with them since. This is because friendship follows its patterns of ups and downs. Through this pattern, we are able to find who our true friends are by who we keep as friends.

Haiku:

They were always friends,

Forgot about each other.

Never talked again

Picture poem:

Look at these gentleman.

They’ve most likely been friends for decades.

They’ve taken and passed the friendship test.

Now they just have to keep in touch.

This friendship is a friendship that is only given at an older age.

It doesn’t matter to these two if the other is republican or democrat,

which is sometimes a real problem in friendships of adults,

or black or white, they just have fun together. 

They most likely can't remember where they met,

or how for that matter!

I imagine both of them sitting on the stage of a bar,

playing jazz and entertaining hundreds of people.

These people are out at the bar with their friends.

I see two young friends asking the two older gentleman to take a picture with them.

All four of them smile a wide and photogenic smile, and snap the photo.

This photo will be kept, to remind both pairs of friends that they know how to have a good time.

Free verse(about Romeo and Juliet)

Oh Juliet,

you tease your new boyfriend.

Isn't that a good idea?

Keep him interested while you add years onto your grand total.

Smart idea!

Your mother did set an example as a young one,

but thats okay.

You seem to be making the right decision.

Yet look at you! You're a beautiful young woman who was born from a young womb.

Doesn't that make it possible that your child will be the same way?

I mean, if a mother is beautiful, her daughter will most likely be the same.

Not to worry Juliet, you have a handle on the situation.

You are keeping "the worm" out of your "bud".

Though your decisions may upset Romeo, he will accept it, because he loves you. 

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Self Assessment:


This essay was AWESOME! especially the freestyle poem. I don't know what it was about it, but I had a lot of fun writing it. I felt like I repeated quite a few things in the picture poem and in the freestyle poem, but I usually have a lot of trouble doing this, and it is still something I am working on.
Self-grade,
A-

Essay #20 Family

Cooper Feltes

English 8

Mr. Salsich

April 20, 2010

Parents:

The Relationship between Parents and Children

Parents are very important in the growing process of a child. Parents can support their child through emotional struggles, or just spend a lot of time with them. Parents can also let their child find their own way through life with very little support. My parents have chosen the first tactic, and have been a large influence to my life.

Compared to some other parents, my parents treat me with a lot more respect. To get that honor from my parents, I must honor them. For example, every time they ask me to do something, I do it. This kind of accountability and trust is crucial to a reasonable and respectful relationship (alliteration) with my parents. Though my parents are separated, they both need my help, and I am happy to graciously (apt thesaurus word) assist them. Though I have much more of a chore work load at my father’s house, I try to pitch in the same amount at each home. This allows for a more admirable family coherence. In return for my work, my parents pay me with love. Each of my parents constantly reminds me how much they love me and how obedient I am. It is known in my family that love is omnipresent, and that good deeds completed honorably will lead to nothing but good. I love my parents for they treat me with respect, and therefore, I must treat them the same way.

I believe that the presence of a well nurtured father- child relationship is obvious, or absent in the books that we have read in English class. Atticus from To Kill a Mockingbird and my father deeply respect all other people. For instance, Atticus never forgets to kindly tip his hat to a lady or to comment on their exquisite (apt thesaurus word) flowers. My dad is similar, although in a more whacky way. (Extra commentary) He is always a thoughtful gentleman, yet he tends to make more jokes and "play with his words", as he likes to say, more than Atticus ever did. Atticus and my father are very hard workers, intelligent learners, and playful fathers (parallelism). Though they spend much of their time at the office, they make plenty of time for their children. Both Atticus and my father are playful fathers, doing activities and playing games with their kids in their spare time. This father-child relationship does not seem to be apparent in Romeo and Juliet. In the play, the fathers of any of the main characters have only been mentioned around twice. The friendly children of the story seem to be very independent and the boys especially are out of their parents influence, running free all day and only reporting to their homes for meals (Loose Sentence). (Extra commentary) Juliet, however, is influenced by her father to marry a man she is not interested in. The loving fathers of these two books, as well as my father, have made a major impact on their children in one way or another.

Parents have an option of how to raise their child. They can be very loving and supportive of their child, or they can let them be independent, discovering the world on their own. Both tactics have their benefits and their disadvantages. From To Kill a Mockingbird and Romeo and Juliet, we can see that either way, the child can grow to be a proper man or woman.

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Self-assessment,

                            This paragraph was fun for me to write. I really got to examine how the characters in the book develop through their childhood through the help of their parents. The very last sentence of the essay was the absolute trickiest sentence to form. I might have been able to make this sentence clearer. I love the adjectives and the “bell words” I used in this essay. It is a definite strong point I see. I need to learn to spot little mistakes better than I have in the past. These mistakes affect my grade, which I have chosen to be:

B

it is here

Cooper Feltes 

April 14, 2010 

It Is Here 

It is here 

It is gone 

Another missed opportunity. 

There will be others, but none quite like this. 

Mind to the future, body to the present, spirit in the past 

Slipping past like a ninja, until I go back to fix the problem. 

The only dream of mine is to slip back in time. 

To fix my mistakes. 

My wish is to fix my own mistakes 

She doesn’t know. Or does she? 

Were friends until… 

Until I remind myself that it is what I want 

What the world wants. 

The solutions of wars and hate alike 

Love 

O’ Sweet love.

Essay #19 Fix You

Cooper Feltes

English 8

Mr. Salsich

April 8, 2010

"Fix You"

    The song "Fix You" by Coldplay Is a great song. Because the lyrics relate to my life and the life of Romeo in Romeo and Juliet, this song really means a lot to me. Though this song touches upon sad topics, I can find times in my life when the lyrics of this song make perfect sense. "Fix You" fits in perfectly to my life and in Romeo and Juliet.

    Name: "Fix you"/ Time: (4:55)/ Artist: Coldplay/ Album: X&Y/ Genre: Alternative/ Play Count: 11; No it's not my favorite song, but it means more to me than any other song in the world. Starting off with an organ playing, Chris Martin says," When you try your best but you don't succeed, when you get what you want but not what you need. When you feel so tired but you can't sleep, stuck in reverse". These lyrics embraced (thesaurus word) me when I first heard them. I often do find myself yawning and lying in bed, but not falling asleep, or trying so hard on a quiz and getting a C+. Similarly, When I "loose somethin' [I] can't replace", I can't stop thinking about the things I have lost, such as missed opportunities. Martin goes on about things that make both him and I sad. In another song of his, he says "curse missed opportunities", which is something I do everyday. "The tears stream down my face" when possessions are lost, never to be replaced. These thing are set aside in my mind when he finishes the song with "lights will guide you home, and ignite your bones, and I will try... to fix you".

    “Fix You” definitely relates to Romeo and Juliet. First of all, the emotional side of the song relates to Romeo.  On page 19, when Benvolio is talking to Romeo's father, he says that Romeo has become become moody and emotional. I would bet that Romeo would much like the song I have picked out for it's relations to his life. On page 21, Romeo is again describing his feelings by exclaiming opposites like, “O heavy lightness” or “cold fire, sick health”. Though the song doesn’t exactly exclaim opposites,  it does mention things that make a person hurt, a feeling that is felt almost every day. Romeo is feeling things like, “los[ing] something [he] can’t replace” or “lov[ing] someone but it goes to waste”. It seems to me that this song just might have been one of Romeo’s favorite songs, had it been released in his time.

    Romeo, living in the 1500's, unfortunately, never experienced this song. If he had, I imagine he would get the same feeling I do, a feeling of love. I imagine he would get a feeling of anguish, or sorrow, and I imagine he and I would have a similar experience if we listen to "Fix You" together (tricolon). "Fix You" makes me feel more emotions at a single moment in time than any other song I know of.

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Self-assessment

This essay was a very emotional essay for me to write. I must have listened to the song over and over again around eight times until I could finish the first body paragraph. I am still working on writing in a more formal manner. in multiple areas of this essay especially, I see points where it sounds like I am informally talking to myself. I do, however, like all the quotes and the amount of emotion I put into it. I could have incorporated my quotes into the sentences more, rather than using them as their own sentence. Self grade=B+