Happiness Project:
This project was about happiness. We searched for information about happiness and where it can be found. We dived into the meaning of happiness and what true happiness is. We also found a deeper understanding of happiness by combining ideas. But through it all we learned what happiness is, it is love.
My Advice to find happiness:
If you want to achieve happiness there are some things you have to do. You must find happiness in your everyday life, enjoying even the small things. Also you must have deep friendships, where you are open and vulnerable to them showing you really care. One thing you especially need to do is have confidence in yourself so that you can have self-improvement. Also so that you can achieve great goals in your life. But one thing you need to do the most is enjoy every moment to the fullest, not taking anything for granted. |
My Plan for Summer:
My plan for summer is to really just have a great time. I am going to just enjoy peoples company and be grateful for them. Also I am going to be open and vulnerable, showing them I care. For the most part I am going to enjoy every moment to the fullest, living everyday to the fullest. I also plan not to be selfish, only caring about me and what I get. Instead I want to be selfless, sacrificing my desires for others. |
How this will Impact My Life:
This will impact my life in many ways. One way it will impact my life is by reminding me that happiness is not a material, that it cant be bought but it can only be achieved. The second way it will impact my life is by me knowing that I can achieve much if I have confidence in myself. Another thing this knowledge will give me is a better understanding of happiness, that it cant be achieved without love. So in later times I will try to love at a deeper level, showing vulnerability and being open. |
My Happy Painting:
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My Essay on Happiness:
Happiness for the Broken
Happiness is one of the most important things in our world
today. It gives meaning to our lives; it gives us connections to other people.
In a ted talk by Brené Brown, she said,
"Connection is why we are here, it’s what gives purpose and meaning to our
lives." Sadly most people are not really happy, what they feel is not real. In
the US many people are not happy even though they have so many things, they are
not happy because they only have material things that don’t last. If they want
to be truly happy they must find something or someone everlasting. Just like in
Brave New World how they have to constantly take soma, we are always
filling ourselves with unfulfilling things. In BNW they have all these
luxurious items and when someone fills empty, unlike our world, they just take
soma, they feel, in BNW, a fake happiness that is unfulfilling.
Happiness is something that can only be achieved with the help of others,
self-improvement of skills, and true, real love, and all these things need to
have meaning incorporated, and the cost for these things need to be at the limit
of our own sacrifice.
What is love, is it caring, showing affection, or just having a deep
relationship? All these things can be found in a relationship, a deep, real,
relationship. For example there is a man that lives in India, he is a very poor
man and for a living he pulls people in a cart but he is still happy. He said
in the documentary Happy, "I feel I am not poor but the richest person."
He said this because he is rich in his relationships with his family members.
Every day when he comes home from work his children greet him with a smile.
Happiness can be found even in a broken person, but for this case a broken face.
This woman with the broken face was hit by a truck, and after the accident she
lost all her beauty and her husband. After all this she found a man that loved
her the way she was and saw her real beauty, as in the documentary Happy.
Love is beauty, caring, compassion, and all this can be found in a real
relationship. Love is the key point of happiness.
Another thing that makes us happy is self-improvement, giving a sense of
accomplishment. For example I feel a sense of accomplishment when I bring my
grade up to a 88 from the quiz, Ch.1-3. Then in result to that improvement I
feel happy for a long period of time. Also from self-improvement you feel a new
confidence rising up in you. Also the time my sister, Brooke, broke her leg,
with a bone piercing through her leg and potentially a blood clot at the time,
it was devastating. Especially because she is very active all the time, for her
it was suffering, she could not move or else it would hurt. She could not ski,
board, or anything active for several weeks and all she could do is lay in bed
and watch TV. She was miserable and she was failing all her classes. Finally,
when she got better she could start working on her homework without passing out
(sometimes she still did pass out though). She was months behind in her work
and slowly catching up, and when she finally reached a barely passing grade she
felt a self-confidence and achievement and she said "I felt pretty darn
accomplished, also that I can do much.", and she was happy.
Without meaning happiness is not real, but an illusion of comfort and
pleasure. It does not last and you will not find enough of it to fill the gap.
What does last is something with value and self-sacrifice, for example in the
article There is more to Life then being Happy by Emily Smith it stated,
"Having children, for example, is associated with the meaningful life and
requires self-sacrifice." You have to commit to the child’s needs and show love
towards them, this is partly the same in a marriage. In the same article it
says, "Frankl jumped out of his chair and responded, "Sir, if this is so, then
what can be the meaning of life?"" Meaning is an essential to happiness, I
believe that we, as humans, have no meaning but one, to be loved and to love and
love brings us happiness.
The cost of finding happiness in our time is very extreme. We will go very
far to find happiness for ourselves. For example in the article The Ones Who
Walk Away From Omelas it talks about it is talking about how there is a girl
or boy that is locked up and is abused all the time, and all of the citizens
know about this and do not do anything about it. They know she has to be there
in order for their happiness. What this article is saying is that we find
happiness at the cost of others happiness. We also find happiness at the cost
of the truth. In the movie I am someone says that community will reject
something, even if it is the truth, they believe that "If it can’t be touched,
tasted, or seen it is not real.", mentioned by Brené Brown. This belief is for the broken and is really just people being
ignorant of other possible answers or just the truth. They are truly just being
selfish.
How we can create a society that values authentic happiness is by
influencing them to have confidence in themselves that they can overcome many
obstacles. Also we can be vulnerable to people to show that we care. One big
key point is to have deep relationships with people, not just being friendly and
caring but also just being open with them, doing life with them. It is
important that people find ways to gain happiness because doing these tasks will
move us farther in life, it will bring us to a greater peace and give us meaning
to our lives. All these things are difficult to grasp, in fact we cannot grasp
it at all by ourselves. To achieve true happiness we need help.
Happiness is one of the most important things in our world
today. It gives meaning to our lives; it gives us connections to other people.
In a ted talk by Brené Brown, she said,
"Connection is why we are here, it’s what gives purpose and meaning to our
lives." Sadly most people are not really happy, what they feel is not real. In
the US many people are not happy even though they have so many things, they are
not happy because they only have material things that don’t last. If they want
to be truly happy they must find something or someone everlasting. Just like in
Brave New World how they have to constantly take soma, we are always
filling ourselves with unfulfilling things. In BNW they have all these
luxurious items and when someone fills empty, unlike our world, they just take
soma, they feel, in BNW, a fake happiness that is unfulfilling.
Happiness is something that can only be achieved with the help of others,
self-improvement of skills, and true, real love, and all these things need to
have meaning incorporated, and the cost for these things need to be at the limit
of our own sacrifice.
What is love, is it caring, showing affection, or just having a deep
relationship? All these things can be found in a relationship, a deep, real,
relationship. For example there is a man that lives in India, he is a very poor
man and for a living he pulls people in a cart but he is still happy. He said
in the documentary Happy, "I feel I am not poor but the richest person."
He said this because he is rich in his relationships with his family members.
Every day when he comes home from work his children greet him with a smile.
Happiness can be found even in a broken person, but for this case a broken face.
This woman with the broken face was hit by a truck, and after the accident she
lost all her beauty and her husband. After all this she found a man that loved
her the way she was and saw her real beauty, as in the documentary Happy.
Love is beauty, caring, compassion, and all this can be found in a real
relationship. Love is the key point of happiness.
Another thing that makes us happy is self-improvement, giving a sense of
accomplishment. For example I feel a sense of accomplishment when I bring my
grade up to a 88 from the quiz, Ch.1-3. Then in result to that improvement I
feel happy for a long period of time. Also from self-improvement you feel a new
confidence rising up in you. Also the time my sister, Brooke, broke her leg,
with a bone piercing through her leg and potentially a blood clot at the time,
it was devastating. Especially because she is very active all the time, for her
it was suffering, she could not move or else it would hurt. She could not ski,
board, or anything active for several weeks and all she could do is lay in bed
and watch TV. She was miserable and she was failing all her classes. Finally,
when she got better she could start working on her homework without passing out
(sometimes she still did pass out though). She was months behind in her work
and slowly catching up, and when she finally reached a barely passing grade she
felt a self-confidence and achievement and she said "I felt pretty darn
accomplished, also that I can do much.", and she was happy.
Without meaning happiness is not real, but an illusion of comfort and
pleasure. It does not last and you will not find enough of it to fill the gap.
What does last is something with value and self-sacrifice, for example in the
article There is more to Life then being Happy by Emily Smith it stated,
"Having children, for example, is associated with the meaningful life and
requires self-sacrifice." You have to commit to the child’s needs and show love
towards them, this is partly the same in a marriage. In the same article it
says, "Frankl jumped out of his chair and responded, "Sir, if this is so, then
what can be the meaning of life?"" Meaning is an essential to happiness, I
believe that we, as humans, have no meaning but one, to be loved and to love and
love brings us happiness.
The cost of finding happiness in our time is very extreme. We will go very
far to find happiness for ourselves. For example in the article The Ones Who
Walk Away From Omelas it talks about it is talking about how there is a girl
or boy that is locked up and is abused all the time, and all of the citizens
know about this and do not do anything about it. They know she has to be there
in order for their happiness. What this article is saying is that we find
happiness at the cost of others happiness. We also find happiness at the cost
of the truth. In the movie I am someone says that community will reject
something, even if it is the truth, they believe that "If it can’t be touched,
tasted, or seen it is not real.", mentioned by Brené Brown. This belief is for the broken and is really just people being
ignorant of other possible answers or just the truth. They are truly just being
selfish.
How we can create a society that values authentic happiness is by
influencing them to have confidence in themselves that they can overcome many
obstacles. Also we can be vulnerable to people to show that we care. One big
key point is to have deep relationships with people, not just being friendly and
caring but also just being open with them, doing life with them. It is
important that people find ways to gain happiness because doing these tasks will
move us farther in life, it will bring us to a greater peace and give us meaning
to our lives. All these things are difficult to grasp, in fact we cannot grasp
it at all by ourselves. To achieve true happiness we need help.
MUN Project:
To left there is a pic. that shows that MUN.
I'm the third one down.
I'm the third one down.
Project Description:
This project was about are class modeling the UN and what they do and how they think. We all were given a country to be for the project. Then we all had to gain our countries perspective on the issue we chose (Israel Palestine conflict). After we got all the information on our countries r perspective we had to wright a policy paper, resolution, and a speech for the resolution that we decided to support. Once all that was done we did a conference on it, mocking UN conferences and following Roberts Rules. We did two conferences as well, one on North Korea and one on Israel Palestine conflict.
My Thoughts...
What I would tell another student if they asked why the MUN project is important.I believe that the MUN (Model United Nations) is important because it helps us better understand what is happening in the world. Also it benefits us by giving us a tremendous amount of vocabulary and makes us sound more professional sounding. For example I learned the words, and how to use the words
appropriately, tremendous, partition, etc. It is also important because it is training us for our future. It is also very challenging and we have to think through a lot of problems. My greatest challenge during this project.The greatest challenge I faced was speaking in public, specifically giving my speech. How I overcame it was that I just practiced, practiced, practiced, like Sara Price says to do. I also tried not to doubt what I'm capable of. I also practiced in front of my friends and got their advice. One thing that helped me get through this is realizing that it wont take long to read and say my speech.
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The HOHAM I'm most proud of during this project. The Habit of Heart and Mind that I’m
most proud of using during this project is perseverance. I believe this because I always did my home work as soon as I got home and I rarely "goofed off" during work time. Also because when I finally gave my speech I spoke clearly and kept my tone the same. I believe I have also improved on advocacy because of all the public speaking we had to do. Also because we had to sound intelligent and like we know what we are saying. The most interesting speech I heard at the MUN.The most interesting speech I heard was the speech that Vivian Doucette gave. It wasn’t just unique but it was also emotional and she seemed so in depth and knew what she was saying and she stood by her opinion. She also acknowledged both side of the argument and their losses. Her voice was also clear and strong. What I learned from her speech was impeccable.
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Policy Paper: Israel Palestine conflict
Skylar Schultheis Schultheis 1
Sara Price
Model UN
2/28/14
India's Perspective and Solution on Palestinians Right of
Return
Although the Israelis have established a home for themselves and have
claimed it as theirs, the Palestinians were in Palestine first and now are
suffering in their refugee camps.
The struggle between the Palestinians and the Israelis has been going on for
over 50 years and is still going on. It started with the Palestinians living
there first and then the Israelis came in and slowly claiming more land that was
the Palestinians. The Palestinians were getting pushed out of their rightful
land and into refugee camps. Now Palestine is called Israel because it was
overtaken by Israelis. Why this is a problem is because the Israelis have
undermined the right of return. According to the article "Why
Palestinians Have a Right to Return Home", I learned that
the definition of "the right of return" clearly says that that it is a universal
right that, regardless of where they are from and where they have left to,
allows anyone that has left a society to return (Why). Also as it says in the
article "Should Palestinian Refugees Have the "Right of
Return?", India believes they have the right of return
because they are suffering and all of their suffering is the effect of the
Israelis pushing them out of their land (Should). So technically the refugee
crisis is because of the Israelis. They should have this right because so many
countries are on their side and there are only 9 countries that are against the
right of return as said in the article "Countries That
Voted Against Palestine At UN Include United States,
Israel And Canada." and majority rules (Countries). In the
past the UN has tried dividing Israel/Palestine and it has only ended up in more
war eventually having more Palestinians pushed out.
As in the article "Palestinian Refugee.", in
the past India has held refugees and tried to help them (Palestine). It has not
been that effective and there needs to be a solution to this mess. The solution
that I propose is a popular solution with a few adjustments. We would go back
to the old UN solution by dividing the country. Half to Muslim and half to
Jewish. The West Bank would be connected to the Gaza Strip. Were it connects
there would be a neutral zone for passing through to get to the other side of
your land. So they would both have a piece of land. Also if for some reason
they do not want to return they would just have the option to return. They
would also not be able to cross the border between Palestinian land and Israeli
land otherwise they would have to leave the country itself, they may return to
Israel/Palestine after an amount of time depending on what they did on the other
side.
Sara Price
Model UN
2/28/14
India's Perspective and Solution on Palestinians Right of
Return
Although the Israelis have established a home for themselves and have
claimed it as theirs, the Palestinians were in Palestine first and now are
suffering in their refugee camps.
The struggle between the Palestinians and the Israelis has been going on for
over 50 years and is still going on. It started with the Palestinians living
there first and then the Israelis came in and slowly claiming more land that was
the Palestinians. The Palestinians were getting pushed out of their rightful
land and into refugee camps. Now Palestine is called Israel because it was
overtaken by Israelis. Why this is a problem is because the Israelis have
undermined the right of return. According to the article "Why
Palestinians Have a Right to Return Home", I learned that
the definition of "the right of return" clearly says that that it is a universal
right that, regardless of where they are from and where they have left to,
allows anyone that has left a society to return (Why). Also as it says in the
article "Should Palestinian Refugees Have the "Right of
Return?", India believes they have the right of return
because they are suffering and all of their suffering is the effect of the
Israelis pushing them out of their land (Should). So technically the refugee
crisis is because of the Israelis. They should have this right because so many
countries are on their side and there are only 9 countries that are against the
right of return as said in the article "Countries That
Voted Against Palestine At UN Include United States,
Israel And Canada." and majority rules (Countries). In the
past the UN has tried dividing Israel/Palestine and it has only ended up in more
war eventually having more Palestinians pushed out.
As in the article "Palestinian Refugee.", in
the past India has held refugees and tried to help them (Palestine). It has not
been that effective and there needs to be a solution to this mess. The solution
that I propose is a popular solution with a few adjustments. We would go back
to the old UN solution by dividing the country. Half to Muslim and half to
Jewish. The West Bank would be connected to the Gaza Strip. Were it connects
there would be a neutral zone for passing through to get to the other side of
your land. So they would both have a piece of land. Also if for some reason
they do not want to return they would just have the option to return. They
would also not be able to cross the border between Palestinian land and Israeli
land otherwise they would have to leave the country itself, they may return to
Israel/Palestine after an amount of time depending on what they did on the other
side.
Policy Paper: North Korea Issue
India Schultheis
Skylar Schultheis Page 1
Sara Price
Model United Nations
5-February-2014
Although North Korea is a beneficial trading partner with India, India is
concerned about the developing of nuclear weapons since its a threat to regional
security and if they stop producing nuclear weapons it may increase their
friendly relation.
India has a neutral relation with North Korea. For example most of the time
when they have a nuclear weapon test launch or any other type of concerning
activities India reports it. Also when they do unauthorized tests they usually
condemn them. But they are also generous in their trading and training a report
says, "Bilateral trade between India and North Korea reportedly
totals about $500-million annually, while increasing number of North Koreans are
receiving scientific and computer training in India."(Ghosh). Also at one time
according to an article (Bahree) at one point they have traded in a year more
then 1 billion dollars.
The solution to this issue is to ban all trade that involves nuclear weapons
with North Korea. How this could actually happen is, the UN could put sanctions
on them. The sanctions would make it so that no one could do trades that
involve nuclear weapons and if they do they have to deal with the consequences.
For the consequences the UN could send in forces to stop all transportation of
trade. They could also have a fine or tax for transporting nuclear weapon
involved trade to North Korea. If any other party violates this agreement they
will get a fine. This solution will bring peaceful relations between North
Korea and other countries. Also it will increase North Koreas necessities for
its people such as food, water, and shelter.
The Tragedy Project
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Tragedy Project
Reflection Skylar Schultheis Humanities 9 The thing I am most proud about my project is that we did the visual part by using drawings. We spent lots of time drawing and then coloring the pictures. I think I’m most proud of this because it took skill and patients to draw that many drawings. Also because we added many details and kept the same color for every aspect like the side walk, Xanders tie, and etc. The main reason I’m proud of this the most is because we worked very diligently and hard. For the next 9th graders my best advice would be to choose a way to show the visual story that you will have the most fun doing. Like for me we chose to draw everything, even though it took a much longer time I enjoyed it the most and I’m glad we chose it. Some more advice would to be to communicate with your partner on what you’re doing and what you’re doing next. Also always work together and work together from start to end. Another piece of advice would to use lots of actors if you make a movie for your tragedy. In this project I feel that working in partners went very well. I think that because of many reasons, for one it would be very difficult by yourself because of the time limit. Second at least for me is that my group I think worked well together and got a lot done. It worked out very well and I hope further projects will be in groups. I think it worked well because we worked very hard and even though we goofed off a little we still got it done without it being too difficult. I think the challenging part of being in partners is that sometimes we disagreed on things like the title for instance, but in the end we merged ideas and compromised. The most challenging task for me was drawing fast. At first I felt very rushed and I didn’t want to mess up. I only really got like one drawing a day done. But as I continued drawing these characters and scenes it got easier. I got used to drawing their faces and the scenes and I usually got like two to three drawings done a day. |
The Walking Dead
Grant Gibson
Skylar Schultheis
Prologue:
(Travis, Xanders best friend, and Xander sitting on the side of the street in a dirty
alleyway with lots of trash around)
Xander:
I don’t feel too well today. Maybe it’s because I’m homeless and have no real
reason to live anymore besides for my daughter.
Travis:
Why?
You know, you never really told me your life story and how you got to Skid
Row.
Xander:
Well… It all started when I was at my amazing job. I was at a meeting for
a new customer that would help his reputation get even bigger if he would sign,
the Skittles Company.
Scene
1:
(The
scene travels back in time to his job at The Promoting Palace, meeting with the
executive director of Skittles.)
Xander:
How
do you feel about signing a contract with our company?
Felix:
I feel like this is the best advertising place in the city, so I will sign the
contract.
(Phone
rings)
Xander:
Hang on I must take this, hello?
Joan
the clerk: Hello
Mr.Xander this is Joan from the Good Samaritan Hospital of Los Angeles.
Your daughter is here, her school called us, and she is very very sick, we
think you should come here now.
Xander:
OK I am on my way! (Xander hangs up phone) I’m sorry but I must go, my daughter
is very sick and I have to go to the hospital right now!
C.E.O:
If
you leave right now you will be suspended for at least a
week!
Xander:
I’m sorry but I have to go. This is very important to me.
(In
the hospital in Ellens room on the 6th floor towards the back of the building,
Xander walk in the room and approaches Ellen)
Xander:
Hey sweetheart how are you?
Ellen:
I don't feel well at all daddy.
(The
doctor walks in)
John
the doctor: Hello
Mr.Xander, your daughter is in bad shape….
Xander:
By
any chance do you know what’s wrong with her?
John
the doctor: She
has pneumonia, she has entered stage 4 out of 5 but she has a Good chance of
living. We can do surgery and give her “special” medicine, but it will cost a
lot of money.
Xander:
That is fine, do whatever you can to save her, I can’t lose her the way I lost
Teresa many years ago!
(Travis
interrupts)
(Xander
and Travis sitting on the side on the street in a dirty alleyway with lots of
trash around them)
Travis:
Sorry
to interrupt but
who
is this women you speak of?
Xander:
She
was my wife, I loved her with all my heart.
Travis:
What happened to her? How did she fatally pass?
Xander:
While
I was away she got very sick, I was driving home to take care of her and I got
the call.
Travis:
Oh I’m so sorry about that, now continue with your story
(Xander
continues where he left off in his story)
John
the doctor:
Ok, well we will call you and let you know when we are ready for the
surgery.
(Xander
holds his daughter as the doctor leaves the room)
Ellen:
Daddy,
am I going to be ok?
Xander:
Yes
sweetheart you are going to be just fine, daddy is going to help get you
better…. don’t worry.
(One
hour later at his new job at Walmart)
(Xander’s
phone rings)
Xander: Hello?
Rosie
the fire department lady:
Hello Mr.Xander this is Rosie from the Los Angeles fire department, we are at
your house on James Fenimore Cooper lane and your house has burned
down…
Xander:
What!
What happened? How did this happen?
Rosie
the fire department lady: It
seems that your candle caught your curtains and the rest just went up in a
blaze.
Xander:
OK
I’m on my way!
(He
hangs up the phone, then drives to what's left of his home)
Rosie
the fire department lady: I’m
afraid that your house is going to need a lot of work done to it to repair it.
It will cost a lot of money and it will take a couple of years to rebuild it.
Xander:
I’m
afraid that I don’t have enough money at the moment because my daughter is in
the hospital and I have pay for that, so I can’t afford to pay for anything else
at the moment.
Rosie
the fire department lady: I
am so sorry about that and I you will still need to pay for the land until you
decide to put it on the market to sell it.
Xander:
Ok, thank you.
Chorus:
Once
there was a house,
now
there is just dust,
it
is like it was never existed,
he
has almost no money to pay,
and
now he has less money,
for
the expenses that must be paid.
Scene
2:
(Xander
leaves to go back to his daughter, he walks into his daughters
room.)
Ellen:
Daddy!
I missed you. (She sits up and hugs him)
Xander:
I
know sweetie but I really need to tell you something.
Ellen:
What is it?
Xander:
I…
I lost my job and our home burned down, but I can find a new one. I
promi-
(Ellen
interrupts)
Ellen:
Daddy
it’s ok as long as you are ok and you didn't get hurt I am happy no matter
what.
Xander:
But
I will help you get better so don’t worry about me just worry about getting
healthy again. Now I must go, I have to go help Travis.
Ellen:
Ok
Daddy, be safe. I love you.
Xander:
I love you too sweetheart.
(Scene
ends)
Chorus:
Sometimes
love will overcome you,
you
would do anything for love,
you
would even become homeless for love,
how
far you go,
is
really up to you.
Scene
4:
(Xander
leaves the hospital and goes to see Travis but the scene goes back to the
present time.)
Xander:
Yup,
that’s how I got here, my daughter Ellen is still in the hospital and she is
getting worse. I lost my job at Walmart and I have no money left to help her,
that’s how I became homeless.
Travis:
That
is so sad...how are you going to help her? You’re homeless, you have no
money.
Xander:
I
don’t know, but I will figure out how I will. Being homeless is harder and
different then I thought it was. I thought that homeless people could just go
get a job and work their way out of it but now i realize that they can’t because
they may have had something tragic happen to them and they have to pay for
that.
(Cop
walks up to Xander looking for him to deliver a message)
Cop:
Are
you Xander Bottomsworth?
Xander:
Yes
thats me.
Cop:
I
have a message from Joan from the Good Samaritan Hospital of Los Angeles and she
said that you need to go to your daughters room immediately.
Xander:
Ok!
Thank you! Sorry Travis but I gotta go!
(Xander
runs to the hospital then to Ellens room)
Xander:
What’s wrong! What happened?!
John the doctor: We
have bad news…. your daughter has passed…. I’m so sorry…. We did all we could to
save her…
Xander:
What? (tearing up) She….She’s gone?
John the doctor:
Yes…. I’m so sorry…. I will leave you to be alone for a while.
(doctor leaves)
Xander:
(yelling and sobbing to himself)
Why did this have to happen to me?!?! I had a good job, I was successful in life, I
didn’t do drugs, I had a house. I wasn’t homeless and now I am! Why did she have
to go?!?! Why couldn’t it have been me instead of her?!?! What did I do to
deserve this?!?! Why did I have to lose both of them?!?! Oh Ellen I love you!!
Oh Teresa I love you!!
Chorus:
Many people get sick,
and most make it out,
but some are unlucky,
some don’t come back after the sickness,
it is always sad when this happens,
but the saddest part is,
it is part of life.
(Xander opens the window facing into an alleyway where no one is at and pulls out his
pocket knife and steps out of the window onto the ledge)
Xander:
(looking to the sky) I don’t deserve to keep my heart. I never want to love ever again…….
Ellen…. Teresa….. I.. I love you both with all my heart………… (whispers to
himself) I love you…….
(Xander stabs himself in the heart and falls out the window and
dies)
(An ambulance, a police car, and a dead body outside of the hospital from a birds
eye view)
Chorus:
He had it all,
his life was great,
But then tragedy fell upon him,
he lost it all,
It was his fate to fall,
Everyone is one tragedy away from being homeless,
he had such love,
but all at once,
it was all gone.
The
End
Mask Reflection
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Skylar Schultheis
True “Manliness” Socialization is what makes us today who we think we are and who we act like. We are all socialized by who and what we see and are taught. What have I been socialized by and how does it affect the way I am? In this paper I will talk about how society and the media set these goals for me and many others that are to always feel forced to have an on the edge life style, to love all sports and never even think of doing any “girly things”, and to never have feelings and to never show compassion to “women stuff” if you are male. Do social figures and the media in a way control who I am as a human being? I have been socialized by society and the media to always be as manly as possible (to always be dominant and like so called manly stuff), be great at everything (all sports and etc., except “women stuff”), and not do “women stuff” (just like cooking, cleaning, dancing, singing, and others). Most people say you have to be as manly as possible and most dominant if you’re a guy, otherwise you’re so called “gay”. Like in a video we watched in class, “Tony Porter: a call to men”, Tony Porter talks about the man box and says “This man box shows all the ingredients to be a man” and to stay in the so called “man box” you have to follow everything it says in it such as; don’t cry, be brave, have no emotions except anger, and etc. Tony Porter also said “Men had to be strong, had to be courageous, no pain, dominance with the exceptions of anger and definitely no fear”. If these are the ingredients to being a man, then men are like programmed robots built for dominants. The man box that most people make in their heads says that men should never cry, that means if a man is crying and it’s not at a funeral they are normally called gay or homosexual just for showing some emotion. And of course all men have to be brave in any situation otherwise in most people’s eyes they aren’t a man or aren’t manly enough, because all men have to do these things, or else they aren’t actually men, they can’t show any emotions like fear, love, happiness, joy, or sadness, but instead they can only show anger, or they have to act “chill” or “cool”. This matters because that can make men abusive, feel emotionally trapped, always strive to be dominant, and actually make bad husbands if they even become one. Today’s men and women have been socialized by the media to always strive to be perfect and for men, dominant. Back when I was in middle school an old friend asked me in his own words, when I was going to start striving to be a real man, like liking knives or always wanting to see who the better “man” is. Truthfully I didn’t really think much of it then, but now I realize he was socialized to think you have to be and like those things to be a “real man”. In the video “fotoshop by Adobe” they say “now you can transform your look the way celebrities do”. I thought this was a great way to show that society, like magazines, set goals for us. Like in all the magazines I’ve seen just on the corner of my eye the male in almost every picture is either hunting, playing a sport, or being adored by many girls, and while this happens the only emotions you usually see on their face is pride, bravery, or anger. And for women they are almost always skinny, have no acne, and look beautiful. The worst part of all is that most of all perfection to them is done by Photoshop. When people look at these images they look down on themselves almost all the time, these standards we set and society sets for ourselves is way too high. Most men and women stay with their gender norms, but most don’t because they are too afraid to break their norms because they may be shunned or harassed for doing something they like. If I told you I had a friend that does dance, gymnastics, singing, and has a homegrown garden, you would probably immediately think it’s a girl. Why? Well society has trained our minds to think that those are girl things and to reject anyone that breaks those norms. In the video “My Princess Boy” the boy challenges all of the social norms that define sexuality by wearing dresses. Everyone is shocked at first but then most learn to accept him and some to become friends with him. This is a great representation of how to break these social norms of not doing the opposite genders norms without being called gay or homosexual. All we have to do is accept them for who they are and treat them normally with respect. In fact I have a grandpa that loves to cook and he’s great at it. Today I believe that to be a man is to be courageous in your own true identity. Today I will try not to use the word gay willy nilly and call people gay if they are just doing what they love. I will also be the true me underneath my mask that society has formed for me. And I will learn to accept others beliefs and culture. We should never have to strive for impossible goals that will only lower our self-esteem. My mask mainly represents the worries and joys of the day, day representing life, joy, and no worries and night representing worries and troubles. The lock shows that I have to be permitted/allowed to say unusual but beautiful thing and opinions. The whole mask itself represents who I am underneath the mask society has formed for me. |