The Veil

Genre: Expository text. The writer is explaining the purpose of the veil.

Central Message: We need to not judge other people for their culture, but try to understand them.

Purpose: To explain what the Muslims think about the veil, why they do it, and what it means to them.

World View and Assumptions: The world’s view of Muslims is very judgmental, and we find their way of life rather strange. However, we should try not to judge, because every culture finds what another culture does weird.

Use of Tools and Evidence: He used evidence from the media. As far as tools, he tried to show both sides of the argument, which I like.

Precocious Paper

I am so so so happy to be done with Personal Narrative. I spent many hours slaving over the thing, and it feels awesome to be done. Although, I spent a lot of time writing it and am happy to be done I also kind of enjoyed it. It was fun to express my feelings, reflect on the past, and it kind of even gave me a little closure about losing the state championship. My paper was about how my team lost the state championship my senior year and how painful and disappointing the loss was. However, even though we lost we still ended the season as winners, because we grew in so many other ways. I found it difficult to figure out how to put quotations in my paper. For example, whether they should just be put in the paragraph or if they needed their own separate paragraph entirely. Do any of you have any idea on this subject? I also found it difficult to express my feelings and still sounding intelligent, not that I am a dumb person, but I’m not freaking J.K. Rowling or Mark Twain or something. I also had a hard time structuring the whole paper. For instance, where to put paragraphs chronologically, or when a new paragraph needs to be created. The paper was difficult and took long, but I’m glad I wrote it. It felt good to write, and I am now confident that I can write more than two pages without dying.

I love personal narratives

Writing, writing oh how I love writing haha but not really. I guess it is kind of nice to write about myself, but it’s still hard to take a little or even a big story and write four to six pages on it. Anyways, I’m getting there I guess for the most part. I’m finding it difficult to make my story more lengthy, but still entertaining and direct. I’m glad it’s due Monday though that is a huge relief considering I have a ton of homework in all of my other classes also. I am also having trouble formatting and knowing when to have breaks in paragraphs and different stuff like that. I mean I don’t write books or anything all I ever have written are essays, and they always have a specific structure. Frustrating. I guess it is just difficult to write a personal narrative when I have never written one in my entire life. Sister Elliot seems like she is optimistic about it though so I’m not too worried. I hope I can get a decent rough draft written by Monday. I’m doubting that I will get a good paper written by Monday, but that would be nice. I need to get a lot of it done before the weekend too, because my birthday is on Saturday, so I want to party it up this weekend, not do a bunch of homework. Thanks a lot Sister Elliot haha just kidding I will survive!.... Or at least I hope so.

Dark as Night

I really had a good time reading the excerpt from Elie Wiesel’s book, Night. I read this book this past year in English class, and really enjoyed it. However, it was a very rough book to read, because it was so descriptive and explicit. The excerpt chosen is a very moving and dark piece that really paints a good picture of the Holocaust, in my opinion. I really like Wiesel’s writing and I think he paints a great picture with his words. While reading about all the children being killed it almost made me feel sick, and I felt a lot of sympathy towards those that were so persecuted during World War II. I cannot even begin to imagine what he, and all the others tortured and killed by the Nazis went through. It really is mind boggling that humans can do these types of things to other humans without even a second thought about it. It makes me worry about our world today, and what is to come. It is said that the world is getting progressively worse, but can you get much worse then that. I don’t know, and I’m not looking forward to finding out. I wonder how I will handle whatever comes my way. Would I stick up for those being persecuted, or just pretend to be ignorant? Would I have a positive outlook if I were the one being persecuted or would I just give up? These are all questions I hope I never have to answer.

Families Can Be Together Forever

I read Families (that have been torn, re-cut with dull scissors, and then messily glued back together) Are forever. I enjoyed reading this text, but at the same time I found it rather frustrating. I found it annoying to read, because I thought the part about the dress was dumb, on both sides, and that the girl should have been more grateful for the gift and Kathleen shouldn’t have taken it so personally. I did find it inspiring that she could just fall on her knees and pray with such sincerity and faith and receive comfort. I also admire her ability to love those that are hard to love and to resolve conflicts with those close to her. I enjoyed her testimony also that said that families are forever. This is applicable to my life, because I also agree that families are forever. This has never been so real to me as it was this spring when my father passed away of metastatic prostate cancer. I don’t know what I would have done without the knowledge that families are forever and that I would someday be with my father again in a much, much better place. I have felt the same comfort and reassurance that she felt, not in the shower haha but I have often felt the comfort of the Lord. In addition, I agree that it is sometimes hardest to get a long with our families, but I think that it is just because we are so close to them.

My favorite quote was from Love Story Fades to Black when she says, “I’m not going anywhere. You smell nice. Hold me.” I chose this quote mostly cause it makes me laugh cause I had an experience like this once. Also, I think this shows that these two people were a little too attached.

Me in 100 Words

My name is Jerry Dearden. I’m 18 years old and live in Cottonwood Heights, Utah. I love an interesting conversation, sports, and being lazy. In addition, I love my family and friends. I appreciate people who are kind and polite and good music. It bothers me when people put their used gum behind their ear or on the side of their cup. I’m fascinated by deep gospel doctrines and new advances in exercise science. I’m terrible at being on time, texting conversations, and motivating myself to read. If I could be anyone I would be Ryan Gosling or Adam Levine.