-Traveling is a great experience, even though I haven’t gone too far from my hometown.

-I will soon be traveling to Mexico where I will get to experience first hand what travel is really about.

-I haven’t had the full effect of a traveling experience , but soon it will definately happen.

Chelsea Swenson

Steve Dalager

College Comp.

11/26/07

Race

There was once a boy in my class named Chris Turner. He was darker skinned, but he wasn’t black. I think he may have been Native American. He was classified as one of the more nerdy or outcastish kids in my grade.

He was adopted by one of our special education teachers, Mr. Spearman. He seemed like he was a happy kid, from what I remember, when he was among his friends anyways. I guess looks can be deceiving sometimes.

He started coming to our school sometime in elementary. I’m really not sure when. Maybe in second or third grade? Anyways, he seemed like a smart kid that didn’t try his best. You know the type I’m sure.

I didn’t really pay close attention to him. I mean I had to be his partner once in my 7^th grade English class, but other than that I didn’t really ever talk to him. I guess he was teased just like all his other friends were. He was teased by the boys that played sports and thought they were all big and bad by picking on people that weren’t like them.

In the summer’s of elementary and middle school, I didn’t really hang out with anyone from my grade because they all lived so far out of town. I would hang out with my cousin Jennah and my friend Taylor. They are both a year younger than me, but I am young for my class so we are about the same age. I would bum with these girls all summer long. We would walk, rollerblade, or bike around town like everyday. We would stop to visit friends that worked at places, or just go swimming at Taylor’s house all day. One summer day, before 8^th or 9^th grade, I was chillin’ at my house and the phone rang. I answered it, and I figured it would be Jennah or Taylor wanting to hang out or something, but it wasn’t. “Hello?” I said. “Hey Chelsea It’s Abby.” “Ohhh hey! I haven’t talked to you in forever!!! What’s up?” “Umm..well nothing really, but I just thought I should tell you that Chris Turner died.” I was like, “What?”, like maybe I had heard her wrong or something. “Chris Turner is dead, he died.” she repeated. “Nuh-ah you’re joking right?” “No.” “Oh my god..how did he die?” “He hung himself.” “Are you serious?” “Yeah. The funeral is Tuesday, and I just thought I would tell you.” “Yeah thanks. Bye.”

It was the most shocking phone call I have ever received in my life. I wasn’t even expecting a call from Abby let alone her telling me a classmate hung himself. I remember having pictures of him run through my mind after I got off the phone. Like him walking in the hall or just sitting in his desk. It was really weird.

Even though this story doesn’t really have a strong relation to race, Chris Turner was teased, but probably not because of his race. There aren’t really racist people at our school so. He died because he probably couldn’t take the bullying and teasing anymore. I’m sure that isn’t the only reason, but who will ever know. No one knows why he did it. No one except himself and god. I think it is good that our class has planted a tree for him and we are going to dedicate our yearbook to him.

R.I.P Chris Turner.

“We must remember that intelligence is not enough.  Intelligence plus character- that is the goal of true education.  The complete education gives one not only power of concentration, but worthy objectives upon which to concentrate.  The broad education will, therefore, transmit to one not only the accumulated knowledge of the race but also the accumulated experience of social living.”

I read this and was like…wait what?  I got so confused the first time that I read it because the ending was just confusing to me.  I reread it and then I got it.  I agree with the statement that it is making.  If you have intelligence but no character you are going to be  a pretty dull person, but if you have character and no intelligence then you are going to be a good person but not intelligent.  You wont get a good job if you dont have both of these two characteristics.

“There is an innocence to the assumption that one expects(even deserves) a better grade simply by begging for it.”

I thought this quote was really good because I have seen the people that do this at my school. I think it is so annoying how people just sit there and do absolutely nothing all the time and then they are wondering and complaining about the bad grade that they have. Or they get a good grade for doing nothing while you sat in the class and did all of your work to the best of your ability to get almost the same grade as them. I dont get it sometimes.

I think the author did a very good job on this. He wrote something that most everyone can relate to in some sort of way.  I like that.

I thought this story was going to be all about the old days.  I started to read it and got to like the second page and I was totally wrong.  It actually surprised me a little bit.  It started talking about his sons and his friends fighting the war in Iraq and Afghanistan.  I thought that this part was very interesting..

“I am now the father of a young man who has far more character than I ever had.  I joined the Marines because I had to; he signed up after college because he felt he ought to.  He volunteered for an elite unit and has served in both Afghanistan and Iraq.  When I see images of Americans in the war zones, I think of my son and his friends, many of whom I have come to know and deeply respect.  When I opened this newspaper yesterday and read the front-page headline ‘9 G.I.’s Killed,’ I didn’t think in abstractions.  I thought very personally.”

I liked this because he is telling us exactly what he is feeling. He has had a huge change since he has been in the war.  I didn’t expect him to come out and say that he was a father in this story.  I just didn’t see it coming.

Thesis- “My attitude was the same as Dick Cheney’s: I was special, I had ‘other priorities.” Let other people do it.

I think that is the thesis because later on in the story he comes back to it.  He gives it support.

“This was my first really big step toward self-degradation.  when I endured all of that pain, literally burning my flesh to have it look like a white man’s hair.  I had joined that multitude of Negro men and women in America who are brainwashed into believing that the black people are ‘inferior’ and white people ’superior’-that they will even violate and mutilate their God-created bodies to try to look ‘pretty’ by white standards.”

I chose this paragraph because in essay 3 this is what I wrote about.  It was Model Effect.  I explained my views on Anorexia and Bulimia.  I even used the term ‘brainwashed’ in my essay.  I just thought it was really cool how similar the essays were.

Thesis- Shorty soon decided that my hair was finally long enough to be conked.

This is exactly what the story was about.  Conking. So I figured that this must be the thesis, but it is hard to tell because his introduction isn’t very long.

I’m thinking that maybe this lady’s breaks went out.  I really think that she saw this huge boat in front of her because it is light outside.  There are stopper things by where the people are standing, that is another reason why I think her brakes went out.  The lady is holding a water, so I don’t think she was drunk.

I am really not sure how you can pull this stunt off. lol. She must be a crazy driver or something.  She had to have seen that there was a boat and body of water in front of her. I’m sure she didn’t do it on purpose either. Who would do that!

My partner is someone very close to me.  Her name is Tracy Swenson.  She would be my mom.  I would do a grandparent, but as I explained in the last blog entry I don’t have any left. My mom has three kids and a husband.  She has two boys and a girl.  Brock is 23, Riley is 19, and I am 17.

My topic is communication.  I am going to explore how communication has changed over the years. 

*What did people back in your day use instead of cell phones?

*Did you have e-mail?

*Did you even have computers?

*How did you do research projects?

*How often did you use the telephone?

*Did most everyone have telephones back then?

I think it will be quite interesting to see how the times have changed since like the 1960’s.

Well for me this is going to be a tough post.  I never really got to know my grandparents because they all past away early in my lifetime.  My dad’s father died when I wasn’t even born yet, so I couldn’t really get to know a lot about him.  I can’t even remember his name right now.  My dad’s mother Elsie died when I was just a baby, so I guess she knew me, but I knew nothing of her.  Unfortunately they both died of smoking.  It just goes to show that smoking really does kill.

Now my mom’s parents were alive long enough to where I can remember them.  Her mom Joyce died when I was about eight or nine, or maybe even younger.  There wasn’t much to remember of her though.  She was sick throughout the time that I knew of her.  Guess what from? Well if you guessed smoking then you are right.   She had emphysema, and she coughed all the time.  She was really skinny and really pale.   My mom’s father Dean  died of the same thing.  He got really skinny and pale, and coughed constantly.  He died when I was about ten or eleven.

So, to tell you the truth I really don’t have much to say about my grandparents.  Usually people write about how they make them cookies, or they go to grandma’s house on the weekend, but not me.  I have a different situation.  It doesn’t make me sad or anything though, because I never really had it to begin with.  If that makes sense.

What I learned from my Grandparents is not to smoke.  It does you no good.

“Yet some of my friends tell me they understand 50% of what my mother says.  Some say they understand 80% to 90%.  Some say they understand none of it, as if she were speaking pure Chinese.”

I can relate to this right here.  When I am in Spanish class and our teacher is talking in all Spanish.  It seems like everyone else in the class understands but me,  eventhough there is only 4 people in that class.  Even when I am speaking Spanish I know that I say the wrong things all the time, but I dont know how to say what I want to.  I think that is how the mother feels in this story.  She knows what she is saying, but sometimes others aren’t so sure.  I can tell when I am giving a speech or something in class that my teacher is trying to figure out what I am trying to say.  She often looks confused but just nods her head like she understands.  It kinda funny now that I think about it.

My point is that I can relate to the mother in the story.  I think the writer wanted us to know that not everyone in the U.S can speak perfect english, but it doesn’t mean that they are dumb in any way.  They should not be descriminated against just because they don’t know the language perfectly.  Her mom could have been smarter than someone who spoke perfect english, but you wouldn’t consider it because of the way she talks.