This I Believe Essay

                 I believe in the practice of Quakerism.

                Simplicity, Peace, Integrity, Community, Equality, Stewardship. These are the words Quakers like me live by. I have been a Quaker as long as I can remember.  The thoughts and ideas consume my brain. It’s everything I have ever known, though I still appreciate it. I guess you could call me a typical cliché Quaker, since I enjoy taking part in protests for peace, worship organic foods, and basically just a hippie in general. We are the hippies of the 21^st century.

                There are certain things that I love about being a Quaker. I actually enjoy meeting, the Quakers way of worshiping, when many adolescents don’t. I love the peaceful serenity to it. Without even talking, everyone in the room is connected by a comforting silence. I love how free everything is. There are no rules except for “war is not the answer,” of course. I love the fact that we are called Friends. Everyone of us is connected by that, and we all know it.

                For me Quakerism has played a big role in my life. It has helped develop who I am as a person, and it has helped me create the greatest bonds with fellow “Young Friends” like me. My greatest friends are those who I would go on weekend retreats with every other month for years. Those retreats were what I was always looking forward too. They are my family.

                I am a Quaker. I believe in peace. I believe in equality. I believe in simplicity. I believe in Quakerism. 

The Catcher in the Rye Book Project

 In my drawing I have Holden wearing his red hunting hat, but his face is the Little Shirley Beans record he had bought for Phoebe and broken. I chose to draw his hunting hat because in a way it represents his identity. He says “The way I wore it, I swung the old peak way around to the back- very corny, I’ll admit, but I liked it that way.” It’s very out of place, just like him. He hasn’t really figured out where he belongs yet. He talks about how everyone is a ‘phony’ and a ‘moron’. He’s different than all the rest, like his hat.

I drew the broken record because it represents something he really loves and how he is emotionally complex. He looked for forever for that record for his beloved younger sister, Phoebe. He says “The first record store I went into had a copy of ‘Little Shirley Beans.’ They charged me five bucks for it, because it was so hard to get, but I didn’t care. Boy, it made me so happy all of the sudden.” His little sister is basically his whole life, and he will do anything for her. When he broke the record it broke him too. He states “I damn near cried, it made me feel terrible.” He hasn’t really opened up and become super sensitive a lot, and this just shows how much he cares for his sister and how he is complex deep down.

Favorite Music Video

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ghPcYqn0p4Y

               

               The use of the Polaroid pictures to create a still shot animation was absolutely stunning. It fit the melancholy yet beautiful mood of the song, and the effect is just pleasing to the eye. It’s a simple concept used in an intricate way, kind of like the song. For me the song is a repetitive simple melody that grows more complicated with the lyrics and added percussion. I love vintage Polaroids, so the combination of that with an amazing song to make art is lovely .

                The Polaroid pictures, to me, also represent her memories in the past. She says “help I have done it again.” The changing of the pictures gives that flashback or time travel sort of feel. It makes the song even more dramatic than it already is. It’s mesmerizing to watch. It just suits the song completely.     

Philosophy of Life in Song Lyrics

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wSEsMpMxkg4

I backed my car into a cop car the other day
Well he just drove off sometimes life's ok
I ran my mouth off a bit too much oh what did I say
Well you just laughed it off it was all ok

And we'll all float on ok
And we'll all float on ok
And we'll all float on ok
And we'll all float on any way well

Well, a fake Jamaican took every last dime with that scam
It was worth it just to learn from sleight-of-hand
Bad news comes don't you worry even when it lands
Good news will work its way to all them plans
We both got fired on the exactly the same day
Well we'll float on good news is on the way

And we'll all float on ok
And we'll all float on ok
And we'll all float on ok
And we'll all float on alright
Already we'll all float on
Now don't you worry we'll all float on
Alright already we'll all float on
Alright don't worry we'll all float on

And we'll all float on alright
Already we'll all float on
Alright don't worry even if things end up a bit to heavy
We'll all float on alright
Already we'll all float on
Alright already we'll all float on
Ok don't worry we'll all float on
Even if things get heavy we'll all float on
Alright already we'll all float on
Don't you worry we'll all float on
All float on

 

This song represents one of my main philosophies of life. I have been through a lot in the past few years and this song has always helped me get through hard times, it just never gets old. “Alright don’t worry even if things end up a bit too heavy we’ll all float on”, just the song is motivating and easily gets stuck in your head.

                I have told myself countless times during my lifetime to just ‘float on.’ In the past couple years I have had to completely change my lifestyle from moving from Pennsylvania to here in North Carolina, to having my parents get divorced and my mom suddenly remarried. I’ve had to keep my head up and 'float on' and realize that soon everything will be back in its rightful place, and everything will be fine. It just takes time and my own positive thoughts. 

Literary Writing Prompts

            44. In a literary work, a minor character, often known as a foil, possesses traits that emphasize, by contrast or comparison, the distinctive characteristics and qualities of the main character. For example, the ideas of behavior of the minor character might be used to highlight the weaknesses or strengths of the main character. Choose a novel in which a minor character serves as a foil to a main character. Then write an essay in which you analyze how the relationship between the minor character and the major character illuminates the meaning of the work.

               In the novel The Catcher in the Rye, by J.D. Salinger, Holden Caulfield, an eloquent and insightful teenager, befriends Robert Ackley. Everyone at Holden’s school, Pencey Prep, seems to hate Ackley, and Ackley hates all of them too. The companionship between Holden and Ackley started the night Holden was told he had flunked out of Pencey. “All of a sudden, Ackley barged back in again, through the damn shower curtains, as usual. For once in my stupid life, I was really glad to see him. He took my mind off the other stuff.” (pg.45) Ackley is the only guy at Pencey that Holden doesn’t call a “phony”.

                Ackley shows the compassionate side of Holden. Even though Holden describes Ackley as a sort of nasty guy with a terrible personality, He still enjoys being around him. Ackley’s peculiar ways comfort him and help him forget all of the negative things in his life. When Holden and his roommate, Stradlater, get into a fight, he automatically goes to Ackley’s room to escape.

                Holden has a very complex personality. Robert Ackley, for some reason, brings out his compassionate side. As Holden is leaving Pencey to go to New York, he shook Ackley’s hand and tells him “I just want to thank you for being such a goddam prince, that’s all. You’re acres, Ackley kid, you know that?” (66) Holden could see something in Ackley’s crude personality when all everyone else saw was a pest. He took the rudeness of Ackley as a joke to help him forget everything. He realized that out of anyone Ackley was the most human, like himself. And as Holden would say, that killed him.

42.    Select a line or so of poetry, or a moment or scene in a novel, epic poem, or play that you find especially memorable. Write an essay in which you identify the line or the passage, explain its relationship to the work in which it is found, and analyze the reasons for its effectiveness.

                In J.D. Salinger’s The Catcher in the Rye, Holden Caulfield states, “I mean he’d keep telling you to unify and simplify all the time. Some things you can’t hardly ever simplify and unify something just because somebody wants you to.” (pg. 240) Holden is definitely not a simple person. Throughout the book you find out the many traits of Holden, and that a lot of the time he isn’t who he tries to portray. He tries to seem all tough a lot, but truly he is sensitive, with a good heart, and strong intellectual mind.

                Holden’s life in general is very complex. He’s ‘gotten the ax’ from Pencey as he would say, and he really can’t go home. Going home and telling his parents what happened probably would help simplify the issue, but that’s just not Holden’s style. He likes to try and make things more complex instead of simplifying. His overdramatic ways, and how he ‘horses around’ all the time. He just doesn’t like simple.

                Holden Caulfield is a digression.  He doesn’t fit into everyone’s “simple” world. He is unable to “simplify and unify”, but that’s just how he likes it, complicated.

Revised Literary Essay

                Throughout Remarque’s All Quiet on the Western Front, Paul slowly loses all of this hope he had ever had and realizes how he is truly alone. He states “I am so alone, and so without hope that I can confront them without fear” (pg.295), and then he just gives up. Many actions have led up to this feeling, even though he has been trying to fight it.

                Some of the earliest signs of him losing hope was when he came back from the war. No one could understand how he felt, even though they tried to. “I imagined leave would be different from this. Indeed, it was different a year ago. It is I of course that have changed in the interval. There lies a gulf between that time and to-day. At that time I still knew nothing about the war, we had only been in quiet sectors. But now I see that I have been crushed without knowing it. I find I do not belong here any more, it is a foreign world. Some of these people ask questions, some as no questions, but one can see that the latter are proud of themselves for their silence; they often say with a wise air that these things cannot be talked about. They plume themselves on it. I prefer to be alone, so that no one troubles me. For they all come back to the same thing, how badly it goes and how well it goes; one things it is this way, another that; and yet they are always absorbed in the things that go to make up their existence. Formerly I lived in just the same way myself, but now I feel no contact here… what I mean.”(168-169) His father and all of the other men act like they know what he has been through when truthfully they don’t. He is alone and has no one to vent and open up to about everything he has seen. This causes him to draw back and wish he was back with everyone else in the war.

                As the book progresses Paul starts to lose more and more hope. “To make matters worse, we have to return almost all; of the new things and take back our old rags again. The good ones were merely for the inspection.”(207) Even the officers have given up hope. When the Kaiser comes to inspect, they give all the soldiers new uniforms to hide how raggedy and awful they are, and to give the illusion that there is hope for them to win the war. This also goes back to when Kat says, “You take it from me, we are losing the war because we can salute too well.” (40) They try to make everything look good to give everyone, including Paul, hope. Everything is just a gimmick.

                Paul finally realizes he is alone when his only friend, who is more like a brother, Kat dies. He states “Do I walk? Have I feet still? I raise my eyes, I let them move round, and turn myself with them, one circle, one circle and I stand in the midst. All is as usual. Only the Militiaman Stanislaus Katczinsky has died. Then I know nothing more.” (291) Paul has lost every bit of hope he had. That even has caused him to give up. He realized that he isn’t scared anymore to lose him life. Even though he has lost almost everything, he has gained some attributes including companionship, leadership, and compassion, and that has changed him forever. “Let the months and years come, they can take nothing from me, they can take nothing more.” (295) He is finished.

                Throughout the book Paul slowly realizes there is no hope for anyone. He had lost everything, his friends, his relationship with his family, and even small things like his enjoyment of words. He tried to fight the loss of hope but as he matured through the war, he realized there was no hope left. He has decided that since he has lost everything it is his turn to go, and he accepted the loss with open arms.

Persuasive Essay

Dear New Hanover County School Board,

It has come to my attention that the arts are potentially going to be cut. The arts are essential to many students. They allow students to express themselves, help them succeed academically, and teach them how to work well and cooperate in groups. They are even what some students, including myself, look forward to every day. Many students, including myself, would be absolutely devastated if the arts were cut.

            Now I know you are probably thinking that they are just too expensive to fund anymore. I agree that they are very expensive; research has shown that it is about an average of $158,537 a year (Americans for the Arts), but according to studies most schools give a lot of money to fund sports teams. Some of that money could easily be given to fund the arts, and I know it would make a lot of students happy.

            Many students are afraid to truly express themselves because they are worried about being judged. In the arts no one has to have this fear because everyone is meant to express themselves and they all just embrace their differences. Everyone seems to be more bonded. In my chorus class we are like a family. We all know each other and we are all friends. No one is judged and we are all doing something we love.

             The arts also help students succeed academically. Studies have shown that students who are in the arts program scored 58 points higher on the verbal portion and 38 points higher on the math portion of the SAT than students who were not in the arts program. (H, Kevan) The arts has defiantly helped me academically, and made my critical thinking skills better. Taking away these programs would cause many students’ grades to decline.

            Students’ intellectual skills aren’t the only skills to increase. Participating in the arts also helps teach students how to cooperate better and work well in groups. In music classes especially, if you aren’t able to work together and listen to each other than you won’t be able to play, or in my case, sing well. It’s all about listening to each other and making sure to sound as if it was only one person. This skill is imperative to have to succeed in school and in life. I know it has helped me open up more and be more patient with people. Yes, sports teams can teach this too, but not everyone is athletic, and I am defiantly not. There needs to be a place for people who excel in the arts too.

            Students need the arts to help them succeed. Music and art are many students’ whole lives and even possible careers. Taking away the programs will cause many students to not work at their full potential. Without music and the arts I wouldn’t be at the academic and social standard I am at now. It has helped me so much and is one of the greatest things in my life. I am not the only one out there who feels like this. The school board can’t cut the arts. It’s not fair to all the students who live for them. They are just as important as sports, and even academics. Everyone enjoys just a simple art class even if they don’t have any artistic talent at all. Schools need the arts. Just simply splitting money a little more evenly can solve this problem, and everyone will benefit. I know it is important to me, and many more people.

            Sincerely,

                Gabi Metzger

This I Believe

Favorite Essay:

http://thisibelieve.org/essay/4210/

Favorite Video Essay:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P2Y45hvLp8E

Poem:

 

I believe in the perfect combination of sounds and rhythm.

I believe in the soft strumming of a pawn shop guitar.

I believe in the staticky sound of an old Beatles vinyl.

I believe in the adrenalin rush throughout my favorite band’s concert.

I believe in serenading the stars on a warm summer night.

I believe in the way music soothes the soul.

I believe in music.

Northern Fall vs. Southern Fall

 

   When I think of fall I picture red, orange, and yellow leaves everywhere, cool crisp days, sweaters, apple picking, hot apple cider, fall festivals and pumpkins. There are basically two types of fall on the east coast; the typical cliché fall, also known as the Northern fall, and the Southern fall. They are the same season and both last from September 23^rd to December 20^th, but there is a huge difference between the two.

  I personally prefer the Northern fall. One of the huge differences between the two is the changing of the leaves. In the North the leaves always change into exaggerated, vibrant reds, and oranges, and yellows. Deciduous trees are everywhere so you are just surrounded by these colors. It almost feels as if you are in a painting. And when they start to dance to the ground it is just magical. During the Southern fall you don’t get to experience this as much. For one thing there are so many pine trees everywhere that you don’t get to see as many leaves. And the few leaves that do change don’t last long.

  The cool, crisp days are another great thing about the Northern fall. The refreshing coolness starts close to the end of September, and is probably one of my favorite parts. You can bundle up in a great sweater, and drink hot apple cider or hot chocolate to keep warm. It’s always the perfect temperature, not to warm, not too cold. There is even sometimes that exciting first snow during this time.  In the South it is always about 10 degrees warmer, and a lot of the time when it does start to get cold it just rains and rains. There is never a time when it really just stays cold. It might be in the 60s one week and in the 80s the next.

  The fall traditions in the North are what I have known and experienced all my life, there are so many I can’t even remember. The fall festivals at schools, churches, Quaker meetings, and pretty much everywhere, and of course the apple picking and pumpkin picking at orchards. The fall is an exciting time and everyone celebrates it with exuberance. In the South I have noticed that none of these things really happen. There aren’t any orchards around that I know of.  There are fairs, but they aren’t specifically for fall. To them it seems like it’s just another season. 

  I am from the North so I have experienced the Northern fall almost all my life. So far the Southern fall hasn’t really impressed me. I miss all of the things that made the Northern fall so special. It’s amazing how the same season can be so different. The Northern fall is beautiful and exciting, while the Southern fall is well just fall.

Who I Am

    I don't even know where to start when I think of the question "who am I?"I guess some people would define me a music geek, hippie, cat lover, Quaker, or ginger, but there is so much more to me that I can't even think of it. I am very simple yet complex. Music is basically what helps keep me going. I sometimes swear it runs through my veins. I can't even describe how I feel when I play my guitar, mandolin, sing, or hear a great song. I also can't even begin a list of my favorite bands. Dirty Paws, this is a song by the band Of Monsters and Men that I just love. In a way I feel it really describes me, especially the line my head is an animal. I am definitely more imaginative then most people and I like to stay in my own little world. Music really helps me stay there. It's basically what my life revolves around.
    I just enjoy laying on my bed for hours on end listening to my collection of vinyls I have. I also absolutely enjoy taking my guitar into the woods and sit in a clearing and play my heart out. It's a lovely feeling. The woods next to my house is probably my favorite spot. There is something about forests, and the mountains also, that intrigue me. I love the cool freshness feeling they have, like that of fall. Fall is my favorite season. Its just has this rejuvenating feeling. I can also wear sweaters during fall which is one of my favorite parts. Sweater weather is better weather.
    As you can probably tell I am not the most organized person and I tend to get distracted easily. I'm not just into music but I love a great indie movie. Some of my favorites are Donnie Darko, Submarine, 500 Days of Summer, The Go-Getter, The Art of Getting By, Fight Club, It's Kind of a Funny Story, and so so many more. I love a great book too, especially The Perks of Being a Wallflower which is my favorite. I feel as if it just describes me perfectly.
     There is so much more I know I could share, but then this would be a novel, so I will just end with one of my favorite quotes, "we are all made of stardust." In times of trouble just remember you are made of this beautiful, miraculous substance that stars are made of to, and you truly are greater then you believe yourself to be.

               Peace and Blessings.