Jay Gatsby is like the American government – the weak, dishonest, inefficient government we believe to be the best in the world. His individual qualities are ones that, when examined objectively, should be frowned upon. Like the government, we can hate these qualities but love the whole. From the beginning of The Great Gatsby, he is protected by the most influential character; the narrator. Because our first impression of Gatsby is provided by a biased friend of his, our view is skewed in his favor, resulting in overcompensation for his obvious flaws. Gatsby is not a good man, we just want him to be. We so strongly want to believe that he is great and pure that we are willing to look past his inherent qualities, to construct in our minds a…
My grandfather passed away and it sent my family and i into a turmoil. It was so sudden and fast we knew we had to prepare for our future without him. That day was the first day ever that my whole family and I sat in silence. No conversations, No cracking jokes or laughter, just silence. It was a day of sadness, but as the strong family we are, we lifted each other up and we accepted it and we made a promise to each other that we would never leave each other's sides. That day made me realize how much our family is united and this day put our strength to the test and we didn't let it break us. It actually brought us even…
It was a normal day for my grandma, but when she turns on the news it became very far from normal. She see’s that Mt. St Helens erupts. After that, she looks outside, but doesn’t see any ash yet. She then tells my grandpa about this. He was just outside working in his shop and is not surprised about this because of what he had heard before on the radio. He then goes outside and then finally starts to see the ash in the distance. He then gets my aunt who was only 7 at the time, and shows her the ash in the sky. They get inside quickly before the ash gets to their house.…
In second grade one day I woke up and felt really sick. In second grade I didn’t think of anything being wrong with me. I was in second grade and didn’t know a lot. I was just 7 at the time I didn’t know a lot of things. My sickness led to appendicitis and my appendix exploded in my body it was not good. It was one of my worst sicknesses I have ever had. But I am glad my appendix are removed.…
Early in November, my mom was scheduled to have surgery on November 20th, about three days before Thanksgiving. My aunt flew out to us to help around the house and to help my mom when coming home from the hospital. Everyone in the family was on edge. I was already stressed from the junior years school workload, but now I had my mom and her surgery to think and stress about, too.…
One day after classes, I came home and discovered the shoe shop was closed in the middle of the afternoon. Feeling something was wrong, I rushed to our apartment and found my father in severe respiratory distress. He was wheezing and gasping for air. His skin had turned blue, and he was too weak to talk.…
i will never forget that sunny, warm and peaceful day afternoon at the summer vocation I was bored and depressed so i turned the TV on as always there is nothing in it i saw a real TV show called "The Exorcisms of Anneliese Michel" it was about a haunted girl from Germany it was creepy as hell so i shut it down i didn't feel well after i had watched it i decided to sleep early at night before my parents and i did i woke up at the middle of the night because i felt there is someone standing next to me i found out it was my young sister i looked at the door i saw Anneliese standing there i totally freaked out and i started to cry like crazy but without sound after half an hour i woke my sister up i told her to take me to mum she started to laugh…
That was the day that my grandpa passed away. Every single part of that date is engrained in my memory. My parents had driven up to Wisconsin, and my older sister Lauren drove home for college to stay with me. It wasn’t out of the normal for my parents to quickly leave, so I didn’t think much of it. I remember going to hang out with Tatum, my best friend of the time. It was a nice day outside, so of course we were outside playing on the trampoline and doing all our weird routines like we always did. Her family, who was like a second family to me, decided to go out to eat so they brought me along. We went to La Charitas. I remember how Mrs. Teeple pulled out a funny card game for us to play, and I remember Tatum cutting out faces in her tortilla, making us all laugh. When we got back to the house we saw that my sister called, so I said bye to the Teeples and walked one minute down the road to my house. Lauren, who is one of the most emotional in the family, was left with the task of telling me that my grandpa had passed away. I had just grabbed a snack of chocolate cheerios as she started to tell me the news. I didn’t know how to react, so I ran into the basement directly to the furthest corner I could find. Lauren tried talking to me, but I wanted to be by myself. One of the hardest things I have ever done was talking to my dad on the phone after finding out. He called to tell me the plans, that he was coming home to get us, and…
Holiday to me, mean well needed time spent with my family. Now, don’t get me wrong, I see my family a lot- I just don’t see all of them at once. Thanksgiving 2011 brought my family together more than it usually would. It was the year after we had lost my grandfather, and his brother in-law Richard (or Uncle Dickey as my cousins and I called him) had terminal lung cancer, with his health deteriorating quickly. Uncle Dickey was married to my grandfather’s sister, Lois. Pappy and Aunt Lois had the closest relationship of their nine siblings, and they were the youngest. Though Pappy’s family didn’t have very much money growing up, they always had each other. That’s why family was so important to me, because I was taught even when you have next to nothing; your family will be next to you. And so, losing my grandfather and finding out my Uncle was terminal, it felt like I was losing every one.…
It was 2009 and I had been in sixth grade for a couple of months. I was on the phone with one of my friends from school when my mom called through my door for me to come out into the living room. I ignored her and kept talking for a few minutes when she called me out again. I rolled my eyes and told my friend I would call her right back. I walked into the living room and it seemed odd to me that both my sisters and dad were all out there too. I watched my mom take a deep breath with my dad by her side. As she began to speak her voice shook and gloss covered her eyes. “The doctors found a lump in my last mammogram.” she said. “It came back as cancer. I’m going to have to get treatment but I’m going to be okay.” No one else said a word, we all…
I hadn't been feeling like myself. I was nine years old and I had been visiting my neighborhood pediatrician's office very frequently, but apparently nothing was wrong. Then one day, I woke up and realized that I had a bump on my neck; I didn't think much of it but I showed my mom anyways. She then immediately took me to the hospital. In the cab ride to the hospital, all I could think about was what was wrong with me as I looked at the buildings zooming out of sight.…
The death of my beloved sister plagued our Thanksgiving celebrations for numerous years. Nevertheless, by the matchless grace of God, our beautiful traditions replaced the horrible memory of the last time I saw her alive. In 2000, while living in Okinawa Japan I noticed a paradigm shift in the way we celebrated that wonderful holiday. I spent that particular holiday cooking for my wonderful military family.…
It was the last Thanksgiving that my grandparents were there for. How could we ever expect them to be, they slept in small cases underneath the grass. Nonetheless it was merry, still filled with so much “family” that I had never met and I still flinched at the words, “do you remember me?” that parted from unrecognized lips. There was Aunt Helen’s famous apple pie, and the six turkeys, and the dogs running around in the backyard.…
The most depressing Thanksgiving for me so far was last year. Not because of food or anything but I had to meet my sister’s new boyfriend.…
When I was in fifth grade (12years old) I was at a friend's house for the first time. Me and her were playing in the basement, her brother (17years old)and his friend were on the other side of the room playing video games while me and her were throwing back and forth a big yoga ball. Me and her are throwing back and forth and I miss it, before I can grab it, it hits her brothers Lego Death Star. I look up at her and all I see is fear, she grabs my arm and screams to run. We make it up the first flight of stairs but at the top of the second flight is a very narrow hallway and you had to take a sharp right turn to get to her room and I tripped and fell hard on the wood stairs, she was already in her room screaming at me to get up but I couldn't…