Strength

“Confront the dark parts of yourself, and work to banish them with illumination and forgiveness. Your willingness to wrestle with your demons will cause your angels to sing. Use the pain as fuel, as a reminder of your strength.”

August Wilson

“It takes more courage to reveal insecurities than to hide them, more strength to relate to people than to dominate them, more 'manhood' to abide by thought-out principles rather than blind reflex. Toughness is in the soul and spirit, not in muscles and an immature mind.”

Alex Karras

“Strength does not come from physical capacity. It comes from an indomitable will.”

Mahatma Gandhi

Strength

ABC's Journal

Author's Note: The following is continued off of the prompt we were given. We then were given things to do with the ABC's in our stories. For example, the person on our left had to give us an animal that started with an A.

Prompt Given: You are driving across a bridge toward a country you have never visited before. On the other side of the bridge, you can barely make out what seems to be a series of homes that look to be abandoned, for there is no one around. There is a train station with a steaming locomotive parked on the track.

I exit my car, which I had painted purple in memory of Barnie. I look all around, until finally I see an orange figure disappear behind one of the houses. I run towards it.
"Excuse me! Excuse me!Can you help me?"
The figure kept walking. It finally stops behind the house. There are five more of the figure, but these are different colors.

Never Be Any Fun Essay

Is change something to be afraid of? Reasons beyond bizarre correspond with the rationalization that although the short story "The Fun They Had" was undoubtedly unrealistic in the eyes of some, it was still thought- out and intriguing to hear the gears turning in the author's head.  He had a thoughtful perspective of the future, and his future. His estimation of preferences for that time were obviously made out to be unrealistic when he wrote the story. Truly, though, they may actually be legit. The evidence is already here. We look at all of the things changing in our time. The ambience of our world today is of technology. Music, real world life, appliances all reflect what may seem "futuristic", while really there will be more advanced forms of technology in just ten years.     For centuries humans have thought that in a time period everything will stay the same, that nothing will ever change. Over time, people begin to realize that it's not the case. When television was invented, almost everyone was surprised. Then, it turns into a chain. Something altering happens, and then we think that nothing will change. What Asimov really understood was that everything truly does change, that nothing will ever stay the same. We romanticize. We want something all the time, things we can’t have. Margie wants something. She wants a better world, something that no one could ever give her.    Have you ever thought that maybe, just maybe, there is no future? Perhaps what we fantasize about is a future, but the very fact that we fantasize about it may result in none at all. It's a lot to take in, but thoughts that no one would even care to address run through other's heads, loading up ideas until they know that they must be crazy. Although they say this, we know it's not true. These ideas build up discoveries. I'm sure everyone thought Albert Einstein was a total freak show. Gutenberg, Fleming, even Newton were probably the craziest people ever. When they proved everyone wrong, they showed that they were indeed not crazy, and they made differences beyond anything in this world. Margie is dreaming of the past, while we dream of a future. By that time, will we have changed that much as well?    In the end, Margie makes it seem like we had so much more fun than her, that learning off of a computer screen is so boring. She may be right, but no one will ever think that right now. Students think going to school is so boring, all of the teachers are mean, and that no one respects us. The plain truth is that it will get worse, and by that time, we’ll be dead. That is, to put it harshly. No matter what, we will always see the worse of our lives, not seeing what is to come, not understanding that although we have horrible times, we don’t think of the future, of the possible worse things that come with it, or even the good times. So yes, we did have fun, but no matter what we will never be any fun.

Do Something

No one seems to understand that you have to have a life to live. Most people sit at home and do nothing, basically wasting everything they were built for. In my opinion, we were all built to change the world, to do something. Yet everyone wastes all their time, their love, and their energy on something that doesn't matter. If all you were meant to do is have children, well so be it. At least you're doing something. If you're not, why were you born? Why do children go to school? To do something. People waste money, also. If you're not going to live, why go to school? Why not drop out early and go get drunk at the age of six and die at the age of ten? And that, people, is the plain truth.There is not one person that is brave enough to say it, to say "Why are you even here?".

If you've ever experienced real life, real love, you'd change yourself, you'd set yourself free. We are all angels, we just don't know how to fly. Maybe what we really need to do is get actual careers instead of working at McDonald's for the rest of your life. Because when I come back in twenty years and you're still working in the drive-thru, I'll laugh in your face because I actually made something of myself.

Unless you have a special permit that says I CAN'T DO ANYTHING BECAUSE I AM IRRESPONSIBLE AND UNLOVING, I don't see a reason for not doing something. It's people like you that ruin others, that ruin this country. Take that stamp off of your head and start. Jump in. Take a risk every once in a while.

Do something.

The Dentist: Good or Bad?

Author's Note: This is something completely random that I just wrote.

I went to the orthodontist on Tuesday, and I told the dental hygienist about my bad experiences with dentists. She was surprised. Their offices are in a very fancy building that looks like the mansion in the movie Mr. Deeds. It looks outrageously expensive. Anyway, I used to, and still kind of do, go to a dentist in Illinois with my dad. I am not racist, and forgive me for saying this, but they were all Asian. It was family owned. I'm not saying because they were Asian they were horrible, I was just stating that fact. I have gone there all my life, and have always hated it. They bicker over me about stuff, and it comes off as very unprofessional. They then proceed to hit me with tools. I don't know if it's on purpose, but for people who have gone to dental school for like 6 years, it shouldn't happen. The dental hygenist stands at the bottom of my feet, and stares at me, It seriously reminds me of a demon. She tells me to open my mouth wider, while clearly the dentist hasn't said anything about it. When I try to open my mouth wider, but I can't because it starts to hurt, she gets angry and forcefully comes over and opens it wider for me. I go a little crazy. There are other things they have done that really disturb me, but I'm sure you're going a little nuts too. Does anyone else have this problem?

Setting

The setting of The Help takes place in present day, and the main character travels everywhere. This plays a roll in her feeling about life. She is everywhere at once, though perceived to be this altogether person. She wants to settle down and have a family, but a part of her wants to travel the world, wants to be free like she's never been before. Her job doesn't take her anywhere near a career path, and she lives in a crappy one-bedroom apartment.

 Her life has never been more unorganized, yet it has never been more organized. She  makes no sense, but sense is what makes her. Everything is a contradiction, like the Irish Asian from the starbursts commercial.  What no one knows is that she dreams of more. She dreams at different things at the same time. Dreams of family, some of adventure, some of settling. Whatever it is, she's thought of it.

Main Character

The main character is perceived as uptight, but really all she wants to be is free. There are many past secrets of hers, which shows that she will make some dramatic gesture as a person, possibly to a person. She sets of into a trip of the world, making most of her life. She meets characters of all types, and all of them will come back to haunt her,  and something will happen where they all reconcile. The mode of the book so far is up and down.

IN some chapters it's romance, some tragedy, and some comedy. There is no telling what is going to happen. In the end nothing will be the same. Although this may sound like some sort of Hallmark card schnoozle, maybe it's all true. Perhaps it is a fantasy world, but we escape to that in reality, in our own state of mind, or not in reality at all and just pulled out of nowhere. You  can learn a lot of things about yourself, no matter how much you want to deny it.

What she learns is that everyone has a little of each disease. Everyone has OCD, is bipolar, is some of this and some of that. What we don't seem to get is that everyone is somewhat the same, and are completely different at the same time.