Patriot's Pen Essay

“I’m proud to be an American where at least I know I’m free” –Lee Greenwood God Bless America
    If you ask me if I’m proud of my country, I’d say yes.  I mean, sure, America has its faults, but so does every other country.  We need to realize this and focus on its assets.  America has made magnificent accomplishments, that and our freedom is what makes me proud.
“That’s one small step for man; one giant leap for mankind” –Neil Armstrong
    Our best known achievement is probably Neil Armstrong walking on the moon.  It was a great accomplishment because we  were the first country to have someone walk on the moon.   Perhaps the most important achievement was the bill of rights- the bill that is responsible for our freedom.
    In America, we are free.  Free to speak our opinion and free to write that opinion in the                                                                                                                       newspaper- that’s freedom of speech and freedom of the press.  We are free to have a choice.  Though some of our choices get made for  by our caretakers, most of them are ours to make. We get to choose what classes we wanted to take for middle school.  Later on in life we will get to choose what college we want to go to.  When we are adults, we will be able to vote.
    Step back and take a look at our  achievements.  They’re pretty great.   Having freedom, that makes America even better. It’s an honor to be gifted with the privilege of freedom.

In The Lion, the Witch, and The Wardrobe, the characters Lucy, Peter, Susan, and Edmond discover Narnia.  It's a land full of talking woodland and mythological creatures.   The landscape and scenery are rich with colors.  The Giver is perhaps the exact opposite.

The world that is described in The Giver is a place that has no color and the landscape is flat, no hills or valleys whatsoever.   The biggest thing that happens there is a ceremony that happens once a year. Humans are the only living things; they don't even have any animals. 

 When the Pevensie children step through the wardrobe and enter Narnia, they don't know what to think.  They're a little apprehensive and almost scared, but as they travel across the strange land, they come to love Narnia and its creatures. 

Jonas felt the same way when he first discovered color as when the children entered Narnia.  He thought there was something wrong with him when he first started to see color.  Then he met the Giver.  The Giver explained what color was and Jonas was reassured.  He started to learn more about color and soon he enjoyed it more than anything. 

 Many things that were thought to not exist were found.  Jonas discovered there are colors and animals in his world, they were just very far away.  The Pevensie children found that there is another world, it was just only able to be accessed through their wardrobe.   Whether it's on a bike or through a wardrobe, sometimes you just have to go a little farther to find what you're looking for.

Color Essay

            The world would be so dull and boring without colors.  There would be no originality.  What do you think the world be like and how would it affect jobs if Earth had no color?

            What do you think of when you hear the word Christmas?  Perhaps a house or yard covered with multi-color lights, decorations, and plastic Santa’s.  Now think of it in black and white.  It lost some of its grandness now didn’t it?  That’s how all holidays would be.  St.Patrick’s day would be pretty drab if no one could even tell if you were wearing green or not.  Think of clothes.  You would always be wearing the same color as everyone else.  That would get annoying after a while.  What if your cat ran away? How are you supposed to describe it on a missing poster, small cat that responds to Mittens?  That doesn’t give people a lot to go off of.  Maybe your family all have the same kind of toothbrush, just different colors.  Then color is taken away.  How are you supposed to tell them apart from each other now?

            If you really think about it, a lot of people’s jobs depend on color.  For example, artists.  Their paintings wouldn’t be nearly as good as it would be with color.  People wouldn’t appreciate their masterpieces.  Authors and poets, also would be affected.  Their books would be so dull.  They wouldn’t be able to describe the beauty of a sunset, or anything that has color.  It would be like this, she was tall with pretty hair and gorgeous eyes and she wore a fluffy dress and no shoes.  Compared to this, She was tall with chestnut-brown hair that had ocean-blue highlights.  Her gorgeous eyes were a light blue that almost matched the streaks in her hair.  She wore a fluffy dress that was bright yellow and made her look like she was wearing a ray of sunshine, and wore no shoes so you could see her pink and orange-striped toe nails.

            Color is also for safety.  Examples include, stop- and- go lights and identifying venomous snakes and spiders.  Traffic would be so much worse without stop-and-go lights, and camping or rock climbing would be so much more dangerous.

            If the government decided to eliminate color, would you take action and protest, or would you just stand back and watch?  What would you be willing to lose in order to keep color? Wouldn’t you miss the leaves turning colors during autumn?

Old Man Story

“Come on Susie, your mom told us to be home by five.”

“Oh, but can we just go in the pet store one more time, please grandpa, please?”I gave him my best big, brown puppy-dog eyes.

He sighed and looked at his watch.  “I guess one more time wouldn’t hurt.”

I smiled, it gets him every time.

We entered the store and I zoomed strait to the cat section.  My parents had promised me that I would get a kitten for my tenth birthday. Only twelve days left.  I had been trying my best to be patient, but I hated waiting. 

My grandpa tapped his foot and finally dragged me out of the store.  He was very impatient; after all, he’s the one I inherited it from.  As we started to head down the stairs, a group of men in all black entered the mall.  “I don’t mean to be judgmental, but those boys look like they mean trouble”, my grandpa whispered to me. Unfortunately, he was right.

Just as we reached the bottom of the stairs, they whisked off their jackets, revealing that they were armed. There were five of them total, and everyone of them wore a vest that held at least four guns.  (Sorry that I can’t be more specific, I just don’t get into the whole weapon thing.)

Suddenly, the mall was silent.  The tallest one of them spoke first.  “As you can see, we’re armed, and you’re not.  So let’s make this easy, you are going to sit there and watch us rob this mall, and you are going to do absolutely nothing to stop us.  But if someone decides to play a hero, I’ll shoot you all, starting with her.”  He was pointing at me. Instinctively, my grandpa put himself in front of me.   The one that had spoken pointed his gun at him. Grandpa  used to be a cop, but he retired after 35 years of service.  If there was anyone here who would try to be the hero, it would be him, but with innocent lives at stake, including mine, he wouldn’t risk it.  “That’s right old man, and just in case you try to ruin my plans”, he brought the butt of the gun down hard on my grandpa’s head.  He fell to the ground and lie there, motionless.  I screamed and tried to run to him, but attacker held me back.  “Hold her and watch the others.  Make sure no one moves.  I’m going to finish the plan.”  The man that was assigned to babysit me was huge.  He looked like he wanted to pull me apart limb from limb, chop me into little bits, and then stew me in a giant cauldron. 

            I struggled relentlessly against his hold but he only laughed at my futile attempts.  Miserably, I gave up.  Even by just holding me with one arm, he was too strong.  To humiliate me he had even started to read a book with his free hand. 

I felt so horrible; we could have just left the mall without going back in the pet shop, but no.  I just had to be selfish even when I knew that mom was waiting for us back at home with dinner ready.  Now my grandpa was laying on the ground unconscious and possibly dead, and it was all my fault.

Essay Introduction

The amount of joy on a child’s face while they sled down hills with squeals of glee is just priceless.  Do you really want to lose that just because you have to shovel off a sidewalk?  Yes, roads get dangerous and snowplows are costly, but snow has its positives too.

Short Story Introduction

It was midnight.  They had been on their way home from the family vacation that her parents had promised her for her thirteenth birthday.  They were just flying over Denver when everything had gone wrong.  The plane had suddenly jolted and then plummeted down into the dense forest.  Amber woke to a blast of heat that was accompanied by ghastly fumes.  She searched for her parents and remembered that she had been on the left side of the aisle and they had been on the right.   Amber crossed the aisle and found the roof of the plane caved in – where her parents had been sitting.  Her foot bumped against something and she looked down. Realizing that it was a hand she quickly turned away, not wanting to confirm whether or not it was her mother’s.

Color

The world would be so dull and boring without colors.  There would be no originality.  What do you think the world be like and how would it affect jobs if Earth had no color?

            What do you think of when you hear the word Christmas?  Perhaps a house or yard covered with multi-color lights, decorations, and plastic Santa’s.  Now think of it in black and white.  It lost some of its grandness now didn’t it?  That’s how all holidays would be.  St.Patrick’s day would be pretty drab if no one could even tell if you were wearing green or not.  Think of clothes.  You would always be wearing the same color as everyone else.  That would get annoying after a while.  What if your cat ran away? How are you supposed to describe it on a missing poster, small cat that responds to Mittens?  That doesn’t give people a lot to go off of.  Maybe your family all have the same kind of toothbrush, just different colors.  Then color is taken away.  How are you supposed to tell them apart from each other now?

            If you really think about it, a lot of people’s jobs depend on color.  For example, artists.  Their paintings wouldn’t be nearly as good as it would be with color.  People wouldn’t appreciate their masterpieces.  Authors and poets, also would be affected.  Their books would be so dull.  They wouldn’t be able to describe the beauty of a sunset, or anything that has color.  It would be like this, she was tall with pretty hair and gorgeous eyes and she wore a fluffy dress and no shoes.  Compared to this, She was tall with chestnut-brown hair that had ocean-blue highlights.  Her gorgeous eyes were a light blue that almost matched the streaks in her hair.  She wore a fluffy dress that was bright yellow and made her look like she was wearing a ray of sunshine, and wore no shoes so you could see her pink and orange-striped toe nails.

            Color is also for safety.  Examples include, stop- and- go lights and identifying venomous snakes and spiders.  Traffic would be so much worse without stop-and-go lights, and camping or rock climbing would be so much more dangerous.

            If the government decided to eliminate color, would you take action and protest, or would you just stand back and watch?  What would you be willing to lose in order to keep color? Wouldn’t you miss the colors of autumn, the beautiful leaves turning colors?