Have you ever had to do the dishes?  Well I have, and I really didn’t want to.  It was springtime and hot outside with all my friends out.  So basically if you haven’t had to or if you did still listen up.

First off if you know it’s hot outside and you want to be with your friends, do your chores. This is what happened, my mom told me to clean up my room and do the dishes before I go outside.  Then she left to go to work.  I cleaned my room, which took an hour or so. 

Then I thought about what time it was and how long it would take to do the dishes.  It came to me that if I did the dishes it would take days.  So I thought what I should do, tasting sneakiness in my mouth.  I thought about throwing them away, but that was a bad idea.

I couldn’t think of anything, it was driving me nuts.  I was wasting good outdoor time sitting there.  I slid into depression, but then it came right to me what I should do.  I should hide them and do them later.  So I hid them and left to go outside.  My curfew was 10:00 to 10:30; I came in at 11:00 which was late.  So as I came in my mom was yelling, and I knew I was in for a rude awakening.  I got in trouble and couldn’t go outside for a week.  I also still had to do the dishes.

So if you haven’t had to do the dishes when you do just do them and get it done.  Don’t sit around and try to find a way to get out of doing them; like throwing them away or hiding them.  Just follow my motto and just do it, like NIKE!!!

Demere

North Albany Academy

On Writing

Beginning to write is always the hardest part.  You either think too much and become frustrated or try to relax and begin t drift off, forgetting what the initial goal was, until you’ve stopped the entire thought process and enter a semi-comatose state.  When the words are locked away, writing can be a horrible burden.  The excuses pile up.  “My fingers are cramping.” “My neck muscles ache.” “I have to go down stairs to get the last slice of chocolate cake before my brother gets it.” I guess that writing does required a certain amount of self discipline.

Every writer does have something in common, which I believe is the reason for their eventual accomplishments; they all love to dream.  It may not be one specific dream to chase. Often there are a bunch of little, almost annoying dreams tugging at the writer’s heart.  They all want their turn to be explored and heard.  The mind seems to have a special zone, or waiting room, if you will for these dreams to become seasoned and prepare for their grand debut.

A blank sheet of paper can be a promising writer’s worst nightmare.  An inanimate object, with no voice, no opinion, is defeating you in a staring contest.  Talk about being discouraged!  It’s astounding just how many topics the mind can wonder off to play with, when it’s needed to concentrate on the writer’s feelings.  The words HAVE to come out and be heard.   How will this jumbled mess be woven into a tapestry of my thoughts?  How will it tell the story I need to tell?  I argue with the speechless sheet of paper.  The silence is deafening.  Then it happens.  A letter, then a word.  Soon a sentence becomes a paragraph, and so on until, my thoughts have wrestled the paper and manipulated it to speak only as I command.

I never really thought of myself as a writer, as I never really enjoyed it.  That, of course, was because there was never really anything to write about.  Not the way I wanted to, anyway.  I hadn’t really experienced anything and my vocabulary was very limited; no to mention that the younger I was, the worse my spelling abilities were.  Now, it’s a whole new ball game.  I’ve experienced becoming a teenager and attending dances and other social functions.  Life has become fuller and more exciting.  I’ve begun dating and had my first kiss.  I’ve also felt some loss and sadness.  All these things combined, have given character, and helped mold within me a more mature person; someone who now has something to reflect upon and write about.

I also began reading more sophisticated books and materials.  I began to understand the punch lines to jokes that never made sense, before.  Then, my written humor became sharper than it had been.  My mind’s imagination is now able to take me to places I never knew existed.  I’d like to think that this makes my writing more meaningful.  I finally had a real live personality!  It is only when we can relate to life, that we are able to share and write about it.  It was when my teacher, Ms. Sarah Beers-Wolf, started complimenting my work, that I really stood back to look at it with any degree of seriousness.  I felt good about myself.  Now I have to write the way I have to breathe.

I would like to conclude by reading a short poem I have written, as well as an excerpt from a recent essay of mine.  Where it is writing or painting, or just about anything…step back enough to look at it with fresh eyes before critiquing it. When it’s time to wrap it up and put it away for the future, it will have become a piece of YOU.  I would also like to encourage you to look within yourselves for your special talent, whatever it may be.  We don’t always have a loving parent or caring teacher to help us see ourselves at our best.  Learn and grow from your life’s experiences and follow your hearts to discover your own happiness.

From the essay Langston Hughes.

“By writing what he knew and experienced, Langston Hughes lectured to writers of all races, encouraging them to embrace their poverty as a way to express their hardships.  For he believed that to put off one’s dreams was to let your inner self, already bereft of luxury, be evaporated from you very being.  The title of one of his best known works states it all in a nutshell, that; “a dream deferred, is like a raisin in the sun.”

Serafina

North Albany Academy

Have you ever been in a situation when your brother or sister made you do something that you got in trouble for?  Well I have and I learned not to listen to my brother when I think he is not telling the truth.

One time my brother and I were home alone and we were hungry.  My mom called and said, “I will be home soon and I will cook dinner, but don’t eat your sister’s food in the fridge.”    So me and my brother went to the kitchen and made us a snack.  I went to the bathroom and then I came back.  My brother said, “I called Quanda and she said we can eat her food.” I didn’t believe him but I was so hungry, so I ate the food, but my brother didn’t.  It was a little suspicious that he wasn’t eating it after he called and asked to eat it.

A half an hour later my mom and sister came home and my sister went to the fridge.  I saw that my brother was smirking and that’s when I knew he had set me up.  I was really mad, but at the same time I knew I was in trouble.  My mom said, “I told you not to eat her food.” 

“But mom,” I said.  “Leon said that he asked her.”  Then my mom started to believe me.  Then he got into trouble for lying.

The lesson I learned was not to ever listen to someone when you think they’re lying.  That can get you into trouble.  Have you ever been in a similar situation?

Jade

North Albany Academy

North Albany Academy

Through my rose colored glasses, the world is filled with peace, love and frivolity.  The naiveté I cling to creates a place of equality and fairness where even those who are appointed and paid to judge, do so with mercy and compassion.  It is, though, I sadly admit, becoming more difficult; with each day that passes me into adulthood to believe in that world I so desperately want to live.

Now I see that everyone is so wrapped up in trying to meet societal expectations that they lose sight of goals that once grew from within their hearts.  We all possess a conscience, that If put on automatic pilot rather than wrestling it at every turn, the world would automatically be a better place.

I used to think when I was much younger, that the efforts of one ordinary person, with a petition and pen or picket sign or hitch in the Peace Corp could fix all the problems of mankind – a word incidentally which I now consider and oxymoron.  I thought that one ordinary person could be me.

As I grew older though I saw how people empowered with authority often abused a phat bank account and the ability to cheat and not get caught, pretty much hold the winning cards in the game.  This is why I began to lose hope.

As there is now a new political dawn on the horizon, I am not sure how my hope may be affected.  I will continue to stay true to my own expectations while glancing above and occasionally through my beloved rose colored glasses perched upon the bridge of my nose.

Serafina

North Albany Academy