White1

Hakeem White

19 November 2012

Ms. Harmon

Pre AP English 10

Title

The Place Where it’s cold

It seemed as if it dragged on and never ended. I couldn’t count how many there was. They were all alone the color line of brown. On a hot and sunny day it sucked to walk on them. It was the most mysterious rock road that I had ever known. You never knew what you were going to find or see. One time it was a black snake that we thought was dead. When we went to pick it up it magically stood up and hissed at us. When we jumped, he slides off into the woods. We kept our long walk, to the candy lady.

            “Who you think gone get there the fastest” asked one of my cousins.

            “We all know who’s the fastest out of us” replied Timothy, the oldest of us all.

This was all before I left for the Windy-City. I was along the lines of 6 or 7. We walked to her house daily. Although it was a about a 1.5 mile walk just to get there and of course the same back, but the reward was worth it. She had all of our favorites to satisfy our needs. After eating our “junk” , as my grandma called me we stayed and played basketball at the court by the candy lady house. I began to see myself grow as a person with my cousins and family and as long as it took me to realize it, it vanished.

Moving to a foreign place where no face was familiar, no street recognized and no building stepped upon, wasn’t easy, at the age of seven anyways. A place where you have no biological family, no friends a new school and a climate that could and would drop below 20 degrees at any given winter night was not bearable and very uncomfortable for a while.

Although getting comfortable was a big issue I had something that saved it all. Having something so elegant and beautiful and frail which before I had maybe seen and touched once or twice. It seemed as if before it was something that happened never to seldom then I got use to it.

Going into the 2^nd grade I made the biggest decision yet. I was a nervous wreck.

“Are you sure that you want to go through with this” was his first words to me.

I stood and watched what they were doing before I responded.

“Yes sir, I want to play football” I told him with pride and joy.

All I wanted to do was “play”. All of my new friends that I had adapted to were on the team so I decided to join. I joined because I was alone in the 3 to 4 hours that they were at practice. I joined they quit- what a commitment. When they quit I had made up my mind that I was going to at least finish the 1^st season. I grew to like the sport almost loved it, almost. It was a hard process but” no one promised me anything so I expected nothing”. I liked how I stuck with it up until this point now I could say I loved it.

Graduation was maybe the biggest thing that I had accomplished yet. In “Ab state” we graduated from the 8^th to the 9^th. It was by far what felt like my slowest but yet my easiest and probably my favorite year of school. I’d give credit to my teachers whom made it very easy on us and we, of course went alone with the ride. The year went by so fast and about time you looked up we were all emotional with our caps and gowns on. I looked around at the wet faces and it all hit me. The people that I had grown with since the 2^nd grade were all being disburse after that 3 hour ceremony that was being held to acknowledge our accomplishments. It hurt me so bad to the point that I couldn’t cry. So I tried my best to comfort others for my own sake.

I looked up and I was back on the same rock road that I dreaded for so long, now I cherished that road it leads me back to where I belong, home.

When Reading Counted

  Growing up a book was the key part in my learning ability. I started reading when I was a young rascal, around 3 or 4. I read a lot of Dr.Seuss and Elmo book's that were full of pictures not actual words. Interesting to me, at a young age. Reading to me was fun at a young age, what happened? I can't really give you the answer to that but one thing I do know is that it was fun, then.
  My mom also played a big roll in me learning to read. She allowed me to watch a lot of "children" shows such as Sesame Street, Mr. Rodgers and Caliiou. She use to also sit me in her lap and read me a book then tell me to read it. Of course I would memorize it and then just say what I remembered instead of actually reading. She knew, I think, but she never said anything about it so I just kept it going until I could read for real.
  Reading the little "1 fish 2 fish red fish blue fish" kind of books from Dr. Seuss were my favorites hands down. I believe it's because they rhymed and they had pictures to go along with every little rhyme they said.
  I use to take my sister's books out of here bag and read them or at least attempt to read them, she was only 2 years older than me encase your wondering. Sometimes I sit and wonder how life at school would've turned out if i hadn't learned to read at a young age.
 To me reading was cool, fun and something I looked forward to do when I was young but now it's like I can't stand to look at a book of any kind.
  I think that one reason that I really learned to read was because of the threats I received from my mother.They weren't physical threats but the "until you do.....you can't go..." type of threats, and I loved to go. That's the reason I learned to read more than anything was because of privileges to do and go places. People get what they want when they bribe you and I think that's how my mother taught me how to read. I should ask, but I really don't care as long as I can read now I'm good.

Blessing A Dead Man

   In the short story by Marquez,"The Handsomest Drowned Man in the World""That Night they did not go out to work at sea". This is reffering to the night that the village people foind "Estaban". The women were all gathered around caring for a dead man that they had found and knew nothing about. I think that this shows that women, and the men also but moreso women,care more about Estanban than their own families.

  The women of the village were "Fascinated by his size and his beauty..." The talk abotu and describe him as if he was a human being that was living or breathing.The also look aat him as if he was a god or some one with great power even though he is just a dead "drowned" man.
 
  When it came time to bury Estaban the entire village, even the men, were sadden because they too had seen how "powerful" he must have been when he was alive. The men of the village then seen how Estaban had somewhat changed the women of the village, so they rushed to bury him. The women tried to slow the burial down by moving slower and coming up with "ways to waste time." This shows that they loved him so much that they didnt want to let him go, even though they didnt know him.