Blog Post 4: A Rough Draft of my College Essay

My life has been pretty normal in a few ways, however there are many things that I have experienced which have played a major role in shaping my life.  One major event that left a lasting impact on me as a child, was my parents divorce.  Another major event that shaped my life was when I got a job.  

When I was five years old my parents divorced each other.  This was very hard on me as a child, because I did not understand the reason behind it.  Around a year later my father became an executive officer of a company that went public.  This was great and created a lot of opportunity for the family, however this made it so that my father could not always be around as much as he would have liked to be, since he was always traveling for his business.  Through watching my dad work exceptionally hard, I gained a lot of motivation to do everything that I do to my best abilities, as well as learning an important lesson.  I learned that I must work super hard for everything that I want; and that I must do the best that I can do, on everything that I do to .

Right when I turned 16, I decided that it was time for me to get a job.  I began working at Chuck E. Cheese and stayed there for over a year before I decided to leave them.  I then decided to get a new job at Carrabbas Italian Grill, which is my current occupation.  Working is important in my life story because it has taught me a lot of important lessons.  Through work I have learned better time management skills as well as learning to deal with high levels of stress due to large amounts of work.    

Matthew Shepard From all Perspectives

Wyoming:

http://www.uwyo.edu/news/shepard/1998candlelightvigil.htm

This article was a statement given by the University of Wyoming President, Philip Dubois.  He is a reliable source due to how close to the scene of the tragedy was.  Throughout the statement, you can hear the tragedy in the voice of the speaker, as well as get a look at the mood everybody in the town felt about this event.  The information appears to be non bias to me.  This is because the article talks mostly about just the impact of the Matthew Shepard case on the people of Wyoming.  This article probably had a big impact on a lot of those who read it because of how crazy this case was, and the reality of the reasoning behind this brutal murder.  This article was pretty good in my opinion, especially since it gave an inside look at how some of his peers reacted to his brutal death.

Inside the United States:

http://www.nytimes.com/1998/11/21/us/witnesses-trace-brutal-killing-of-gay-student.html?pagewanted=all

This article was not from Wyoming, however it was an article in the New York Times.  It was written by a man named James Brooks.  James Brooks published  multiple other stories with the New York Times.  This information seems very accurate as it aligns with a lot of my prior knowledge on the subject.  It was also published enough time after the incident to have facts and reports about the case.  The information does not seem very biased as it comes out appearing mostly like facts.  Readers of this story probably feel bad for the torture that Matthew Shepard had to endure, however were captivated by the story and message that this article tells.  In my personal opinion this source was very good and I thought it was a very good article.

Outside the United States:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/190861.stm

This article was published by BBC in the UK.  It does not have a singular author identified, however the BBC is a well known, international, recognized news source.  This article talks mostly about how the US will react to the crisis and how the President will react to prevent violent, unprovoked crimes like this in the future.  This information comes out very non-biased and seems to see the story from a point of view that does not side with either of the parties, rather target the source of the problem.  Readers of this article get informed of what is going on with this case, then get a solid idea of what is going to happen to prevent this in the future as well as a feeling of the aftermath of these events.

BBC News | Americas | Clinton urges crackdown on hate crimes

Source URL:http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/190861.stm

Witnesses Trace Brutal Killing of Gay Student - New York Times

Source URL:http://www.nytimes.com/1998/11/21/us/witnesses-trace-brutal-killing-of-gay-student.html

STATEMENT BY UNIVERSITY OF WYOMING PRESIDENT PHILIP L. DUBOIS

Candlelight Vigil for Matthew Shepard

Six Word Memoirs

Art; your own expression of yourself.

Opportunity is nothing, without any action.

Stories and Truths

I think many things play a major role in making a story worth hearing.  Something that makes a story worth listening to is when the story fits the interests of the reader.  Another common thing that makes a story worth paying attention to is when the reader feels like they can relate to the story on a deeper level and as if,  they have something in common with a character or person in the story, or they are in a similar situation to a character or person from a story.  One more thing that makes a story worth hearing, is if the story is well told and has a powerful message or point that it conveys, and makes you want to understand something on a deeper level.

http://storycorps.org/listen/mary-johnson-and-oshea-israel/

This is a story that I listened to on Story Corps that I found super fascinating.  The story is about a woman who becomes friends with the man who murdered her son.  The story is worth listening to because it is extremely crazy to put yourself in the shoes of either of the people.  The story is very gripping and well told.  The story also shows how forgiving people can be, even when people may not think that it is even possible.  I enjoyed this story a lot more than the ones that we read in class.  This is because the stories we heard in class are not extremely interesting or appealing to me.  This story on the other hand, was crazy and it is just a real life story about something that would would never think could happen but did.  

Something that makes me different is that I work a lot as well as attend school.  This makes me unique because it's something that not a lot of kids do anymore.  However, I have worked ever since I was able to.

Practice Post

My first day of school was not very bad.  It was kind of nice to see all of my friends again.  However, I am not super excited for the rest of this school year.  It will be nice that it is my last year of high school.