D.C Sniper

                October 7^th, 2002. Crowds of 12, 13, and 14 year olds rushing and whispering. A windy, overcast day, a day you wake up with a feeling of uneasiness. We are rustled in the dark of Benjamin Tasker Middle school’s gym as we enter for our morning classes. “What’s going on” is said here, “he’s dead” said there, whose dead? Entering my class, my teacher with her face in her hands, a sob she tries to resist, a sense of strength she’s trying to find, but finally it’s uncontrollable. Outside of my algebra class the bloodstains, the ambulances, the endless cop cars surround the entrance of our school. A young life robbed from my very school? The D.C Sniper, attacked us? That’s not supposed to happen to us. So young so innocent, but now so lost, and helpless. Then, the news. He survived! Critical care but he’s one of the “lucky ones”. How lucky can you be in a situation such as this?

The safe haven we are suppose to see as our school is now a desolate building to which our parents are wary to send us back. How do you come back from a moment that was so viciously taken from you? The nightmares, the looks over your shoulder while you rush into a place you resist coming to in the first place.

October 24, 2002 a day of reverence. The D.C sniper and his accomplice were caught. A slow sigh of relief, a moment you can never forget, but now a time where you can at least try.

Point: Every day is a gift, do not take them for granted.

The Worst of the Worst, The Best of the Best

“Were going to Miami on a field trip!” my algebra teacher in high school said to us on the first day of class. He was so eccentric and full of great ideas on how to learn. I was inspired and I couldn’t wait for what was next.

                A whisper in your ear to the point you can feel his hot breath on your neck, caressing of your hair, and a hand on your shoulder is what was next. My teacher sexually harassed more than half of the girls in our class.

                I loathe anything to do with mathematics. (Word Count 100)

Assigned seats, a student’s worst nightmare. However, all of my best friends were in the M and N’s, I was excited. I find my seat and am sitting behind the A’s away from everyone. AP History, already a dreadful class, was now my least favorite to attend. My teacher kept me after class one day and expressed his reasoning for the seating adjustment. He believed in me. He separated me from distractions to help me flourish and that I did. I scored a 4 on the AP exam and finally discovered my capabilities. All it takes is that one person to believe. (Word Count 100)

Family is Where the Heart is

Word Count: 300

At one point or another life throws you a curveball. Whether it be a breakup, a fight with a friend, or a tragedy it has or will happen to everyone. When it does it’s as if the world has fallen out from under you, you cannot catch your breath, and it stops you in a moment. Where do you go from here? How do you escape? To the people who love you unconditionally and forever. The people who you will never lose in a fight, break up with, and know more about you then any other person in the world, your family.

It was early in the morning of March 10^th 2007 and 4 days shy of her 17^th birthday. I was woken up gently by a tearful mother and told that my best friend had died in a drunken driving accident after a party, a party I was at but I had to leave because I had a game the next day. I cried myself back to sleep for several days without eating, playing soccer, which is a huge part of who I am, and talking to anyone. I should have been with her, could I have stopped her from getting in the car or would I have even perhaps been in the car with her? I was angry and confused and shut my whole world out and although many people let me, my family did not. They were there for me from start to finish and brought me back to life. Without them I feel as though I could have been lost forever but now, although I still mourn, I can celebrate her life and still be capable of living mine.

I believe in all that family stands for, unconditional love, irreplaceable support system, and dependable.

What'sItGonnaBe Generation

What'sItGonnaBe generation is one that is presented with a manifold of opportunities and resources in which we can use to succeed. Contrary to other generations we have multiple technologies, multiple resources to become educated on a college level (money or not), and endless options for internships and sources of work. Although, many fear that my generation will be our downfall because of laziness, I fear not. I know like myself, many others are striving to be all they can with the resources available to us, that earlier generations were not lucky enough to have. (Word Count- 94)

Sooner Nation Part Dos

The location of an athletic event defines the atmosphere surrounding the affair. In 1921 the students of Oklahoma University knew that and held a movement in order to have a football stadium built. The Gaylord Family Oklahoma Memorial Stadium is named after students, faculty, and other members who lost their lives fighting in WWI.

The memorial stadium that holds 82,112 screaming fans has an ambiance that could turn a Texas Longhorns fan into an Oklahoma Sooners fan (well, probably not but, you get the point). Stadium games have been sold out since Coach Bob Stoops joined, and currently holds a standing record for most games won at home.

When I was a little girl I had always heard of this place where time practically stopped for an OU football game and at 15 I witnessed it firsthand, I attended the OU versus Texas-Tech football game.  Fans walking into the game were chanting the theme song “Boomer Sooner”. Its adrenaline so high you feel as though you’re in the game, its feeling another player’s pain, its experiencing a moment so high where the next second a play can make you feel your all-time low. Oklahoma’s stadium is a place where you have a bond with complete strangers exchanging high-fives for a nice play, where everyone is united inside one place, you’re a family.  It’s a feeling that doesn’t exist at an away game, inside your home, watching it in a bar, and that’s something I never knew until I experienced it myself. (Word Count 250)

Sooner Nation

The location of an athletic event defines the atmosphere surrounding the affair. In 1921 the students of Oklahoma University held a movement in order to have a football stadium built. The Gaylord Family Oklahoma Memorial Stadium is named after students, faculty, and other members who lost their lives fighting in WWI.

The college stadium that holds 82,112 screaming fans is an atmosphere that could turn a Texas Longhorns fan into an Oklahoma Sooners fan (well, probably not but, you get the point). Stadium games have been sold out since Coach Bob Stoops joined, and currently holds a standing record for most games won at home.

When I was a little girl I had always heard of this place where time practically stops for an OU football game but when I was 15 I attended the OU and Texas-Tech football game.  Fans walking into the game are chanting the theme song “Boomer Sooner”. Its adrenaline so high you feel as though you’re in the game, its feeling another player’s pain, its experiencing a moment so high where the next second a play can make you feel your all-time low. Oklahoma’s stadium is a place where you have a bond with complete strangers exchanging high-fives for a nice play, where everyone is untied inside this one place, you’re a family.  It’s a feeling you can never get at an away game, inside your home, watching it in a bar, and that’s something I never knew until I experienced it myself.

What's Your Identity Part II

Style is an identity. As our society and culture has grown, it has allowed women to identify with themselves as individuals, when that was not possible in times such as the 1960’s. What a woman wears to school now is a definition of who they are, no matter if they’re wearing a band t-shirt, pajamas, combat boots, a cheerleading uniform, or a tie-dye shirt with a peace symbol.

Analyzing the Skip Jack I realized that a woman's attire was very repetitive and bland no matter the situation. In the yearbook there is a young woman photographed in a skirt and blouse and on the next page the same thing, and the next, and the next, until I reached the very last page. Every young woman looked the same. I began researching the styles and etiquette of the 1960's and discovered that women were not allowed pants or shorts in school, and jeans, never. Individuality in women was not promoted or celebrated.

The equality of women to men and their rights began to flourish from 1960’s to about the 1980's and the boundaries that held women faded. Today, you would be able to instantly know about a woman from a glance at the style they're portraying. Who their friends are, what club they belong to, what club they don’t belong to, and one or more of the interests. Take the movie Mean Girls for example, the opening sequence is introducing all of the cliques and they all have a distinct style. The movie is fiction but the styling is all fact for girls in school. A tiny detail such as having the right to choose an outfit to wear to school can be the start of defining your character, a way to express who you are without repercussions, a life that is yours.

Now women are not only able to wear pajamas to class if they wish but they are originals not copies. Women have a choice to be themselves. Before equality of rights and even sometime after, having a life not dictated by norms was a dream. (word count 349)