Hanging on to Max

Most parents are responsible adults who have jobs and a done or almost done with school. There are some parents, though, who still go to school and don’t have job, teenagers. Many of these parents give up school, or give their kids up for an adoption, or if they find out early that they are going to become parents they have an abortion. There are some teenagers, however, who keep their kids and go to school. Hanging on to Max is the book that talks about it.

Sam Pettigrew is one of these parents. Sam didn’t want to give up his son, Max for an adoption, and when he heard that his ex-girlfriend decided to give Max up, Sam proposed to take their baby. Now Sam is trying to keep up with his school work, and be a good parent for Max.

Sam meets Claire, the girl from his old school and finds out that she has a baby too. They go out and have a great time. They both like each other. Sam has homework piling up every day. When they go for dinner to Sam’s old friend’s house, little Max gets cut by broken glass. The next day Sam thinks of giving him up for an adoption.

What will Sam really do? He is a teenage father, who has dreams, and really good grades. On the other hand he really loves Max, and wants only the best for him. This book was great and really touching. I enjoyed reading it, and I’m sure that you will too.

Class Review

In the beginning of the year I had to take two more English classes to graduate. My counselor recommended for me to take Creative Writing and Senior Composition. When second semester started, I thought that I wouldn’t like Senior Composition. I thought that it was only about writing. I really hated writing essays, but now I love it. Writing really helped me to learn how to make my introduction and conclusion stronger. There were two things in this class that inspired me to read, independent reading, and writing blogs. The book we used to learn the grammar was great, but too big and expensive. During the lab time I did most of my work for this class, which helped a lot because I had ton of homework in other classes.

Taking this class I understood one thing for sure, I didn’t hate writing. The only reason why I didn’t like it was because I didn’t really know how to start and end the paper. Before taking Senior Composition, writing was my weak point, but now I think it is one of the strongest.

I really like to read, and I try to read as much as possible, but I don’t always have time for that. In this class I had an opportunity to do what I like, read. I had to read for the independent reading, and to write my blogs. I have never read so many books in one semester. This was really great, and I loved it.

The other book that worked well for me was Evergreen. English is my second language, and I don’t really know all the grammar, but now I know more than I did five months ago. I never knew that there were different orders a person could write in. I also learned other new things, like analogies.

The best thing about this class is that even though we had a lot of work and many papers to type, we had even more time in the computer lab. It was enough time not to only do work for this class, but also for other classes. It was just great.

Everything we did in Senior Composition was really great and helpful. Writing essays, reading books, spending time in the lab was fun. I really liked it. Our grammar book was really good. This class is totally designed for seniors.

Narrative Essay: "Being Ignored"

I have a younger brother. When he was born I was six years old. When my mom was pregnant I didn’t know about it, and just thought that she gained some extra weight. When she brought home my baby brother I wanted to play with him so much that it was all I could think about.
“I want to play with him!” I screamed.
“But you can’t He is not a toy,” mom calmly replied.

I wanted to play with my little brother so much, but my mom wouldn’t let me. I was on the verge of crying and tasted biter tears on my lips. Holding back tears was as hard as looking someone in the eye when you lied. I had waited for that day for such a long time. “How could she not let me play with him?” There I was in my small room again, alone as always. I was so tired of it; not only did my parents not let me play with him, but they even stopped playing with me.

I was so mad at my parents; my fingers clenched into fists. “How could they just bring my brother home, and not let me play with him. They just forget about me.” I asked myself. That was it. I was too tired of them ignoring me. I got under the table in my room, and sat there for what felt like hours. I just sat there, my hands were shaking, my eyes were on the verge of crying, and my whole body was shivering at the thought of being ignored.

“Mariya,” I heard my grandma call. That snapped me out of my thoughts, but at that moment I didn’t care about anyone. I didn’t move. “Mariya,” someone kept calling. It was unbelievable that anyone still remembered my existence. I hoped no one saw where I went after they told me to leave Steven alone. “I hope that they wouldn’t be able to find me.” I whispered to myself. After a while I started hearing many voices calling “Mariya”. Some sounded trembling, and some ready to tear me apart.

The place I chose wasn’t good enough because they found me within a few minutes.
“Why did you hide under the table?” my mom asked in a trembling voice, her beautiful blue eyes were filled with tears. “We were worried.”
“We’ve been looking for you for a long time,” my dad said sharply, in his low voice.

I just stood there, not talking to anybody, not looking at anybody. How could they not see why I did it? Were they blind? My stomach started turning, my palms were sweating. Sweat was dripping from my forehead like water during a rainstorm. I was ready to tell them why I did it, and why I was so mad, but the most annoying cry in the world, sliced through my ears. Everyone turned around and left, I was left behind again. I turned around, and went to the sunroom. I just sat down on the floor, got out my book of folktales. It seemed like the book was pounding in my hands, but I started reading anyway. “It would take them ages to find me here.” I thought to myself, and was satisfied with my choice of a place to get away from my family.

Definition Essay: "Love"

Many people have a different definition of the word “love.” For me love is not just a word to say to my boyfriend, it’s the feeling I have towards my friends, and family. It’s when my heart starts pounding with excitement and jumping up and down when something good happens to my loved ones, and when my heart squeezes when something bad happens to them.

Two years ago I met one of my friends, Vika. We are very different and same at the same time. I could never even imagine that this girl would become one of the most important people in my world. Scientists are right, opposite charges attract, and so did we. When she is happy, I try to be happy too, even though I might have problems. When she is upset, or something I’m just crushed. I can’t stand her getting hurt. It always hurts me a lot to see her suffer from something. I always try to protect her, and if I don’t my heart just breaks into pieces. It is hard enough to care for one person, but much harder to care for two.

The second person I care about is my friend, Mike. I almost a year ago, and since then we have always been together. He is a little more than a friend to me, and the regular definition of the word “love” isn’t good here. It is more than a word to tell him, it’s what I feel toward him. When he is smiling, my heart melts the same way it did when we met. When Mike is angry I feel like someone squeezed my heart, and doesn’t want to let go. If he is hurt, I hurt even more, and nothing can help me. His touch still sends chills through my body, and if he has to leave I start missing him even before he leaves. I try to protect him as much as I can, even though it’s not right, his friends aren’t really good, and that’s why I usually end up getting into the conversation between him and his friends, or trying to tell him what things are good and what are bad, and that’s why his friends hate me.

Three other people in the United States that I love very much are the members of my family. My mom, dad, and brother are the only family I have here. I really care for them, especially my brother. When my parents are not at home, I have to make him food, check his homework, and help him with whatever he needs. I’m like his nanny, but I work for free. I also try to do as many house chores as possible, so that my mom won’t have to do anything. When my mom was in Ukraine, had to be her substitute. I had to clean, cook for my brother, and cook food my dad could take with him to work. I always call everywhere they ask me to, and speak English for them. I try to help them as much as I can.

Many people expect love to be just a word, or a simple feeling, but it’s not. Love is much more some word or a simple feeling. Love is something really beautiful, something that your whole body can feel. If the person is really in love he/she feels it with every ounce of his/her body. My loved once are my friends, and my family. I try really hard not to have them hurt or disappointed. I get really happy and excited when they achieve what they wanted or planned. And it’s really hard to watch them getting mad, hurt, or disappointed when something doesn’t work the way they wanted it to be. Love isn’t a mental feeling, it’s a physical feeling.

Description Essay: "My Home"

Three years ago I was living in one of the most beautiful countries in the world, but unfortunately not one of the wealthiest. Most of the people in Ukraine are very poor; they live from check to check. In the villages that are far from the city, roads are really bad and no official cares about anything. On the West side of the country we have mountains, and these are the highest mountains in the country. They are called Karpaty.

Living near Karpaty, I could see them from far away every day. Four years ago, my friends and I decided that since it was out last summer together, we would have to do something really fun. That summer we went camping to Karpaty. To go camping we packed huge camping bags full of food, got out sleeping bags, and two tents. One of our friends had a minivan, so we packed everything, including ourselves, in to the minivan, and drove to Karpaty. The road took us about two hours, after the drive we parked the minivan, got our stuff and hiked the rest of the way. We were amazed at the site, from far away everything looked the same, and trees were the mixture of blue and green that was separated now, the mountains looked much smaller, even though they are huge. There were different types of Christmas trees. Green tall ones were on one side, and green short ones were on the other side. They were so beautiful. They smelled and looked so fabulous we didn’t even want to go to the place we planed to stay, but of course we had to set up our tents.

In Karpaty the air is so clean, I felt like someone put an oxygen mask on my face. After we ate dinner it started to rain, and we were happy to have out tents all set up and ready for us to get in them. It rained the whole night, but we slept like babies, nothing bothered us, even wild animals.

The next morning we all woke up around ten, and were surprised to find ourselves full of energy. It wasn’t the same as sleeping in the city, were you could sleep as much as you want and still feel really tired. When we got out of our tents, the freshest air I have ever breathed hit us. It was even fresher than the night before.

We could hear every single sound that was made by a bug or a bird, and every single smell that surrounding was producing. There was blue, violet red, yellow, and white field of flowers. Different buzzing sounds were made by different bugs that were flying over the field. It was the most beautiful thing we’ve ever seen. On the other side of the flower-field was a little stream going down the mountain, and the water was freezing and fresh. That was the only water we used to cook food, I was even better then the one we brought with us.

My friends and I stayed there for two more days, and really didn’t want to leave, but we had to because we didn’t have enough food supply, and our phones were discharged, so we couldn’t call home and tell we would stay. That was the best summer in my life. I really want to go back there with my old and new friends, and spend in Karpaty more time than we did when we were last time, and have even more fun than we did.

Electric Car: "Suspects of the Crime"

The electric car is an amazing invention that can do a lot of good for us. If we drive an electric car, we could save money, environment, and our lives. Unfortunately electric car was killed and we have to figure out whose fault it was. There are a few suspects: consumers, General Motors (lack of maintenance profits), battery technology, big oil, Federal Government (Hummer t), CARB, and Hydrogen. All that is left to do now is decide who is guilty, and who isn’t.

Our first suspect is the consumer. According to Paine’s movie “Who Killed the Electric Car?” most consumers either didn’t hear about the electric or didn’t want to drive it. Consumers wanted to drive big cars like Hummers or SUVs. People didn’t think that if they changed their life style it would really matter. They didn’t realize that it takes only one person to start, and then everyone else would follow. I think that consumers are guilty because if all of them stood up for an EV, it would still be alive.

Our second suspect is General Motors. According to treehuggers.com, General Motors lost about two billion dollars on the EV1. According to the movie, the EV1 didn’t have many parts regular cars use, so General Motors couldn’t make money on replacing and fixing different parts. They don’t make money, when the product you make doesn’t need reapers and changes every few miles. General Motors is guilty because they don’t care about the environment; they care only about their profits.

The next suspect is battery technology. According to treehugger.com, the electric car could go only 130 miles without being recharged, and heater, air conditioner, and headlights reduced it. Charging was taking a long time. Batteries that were supposed to work for three years, failed in three months. On the other hand, according to the movie, there were better batteries and they were actually being used already in a racing electric car. People that made the battery for the electric car said that they had an even better battery which only had to be put in. Battery technology is not guilty because there were batteries, but no one used them.

Big oil companies are a suspect too. According to the movie, oil companies have a monopoly, and they don’t want anyone to disturb their peace. They didn’t want to have a nemesis, and the electric car was a real danger to them. If the electric car stayed on the roads, oil companies would have lost billions of dollars. According to wikipedia.com, big oil companies fought the California mandate, and they also “bought patents” on the NiMH to “prevent the batteries from being used in US electric cars.” Oil companies are guilty, because they don’t care about the environment, but only about their profit. Oil companies did everything they could to kill the electric car, and unfortunately they were successful. They are the guiltiest suspects in this case.

The Federal Government should protect its people, and do what is best for them. This is not the case with our government. According to wikipedia.com, our government “has failed to act in public interests.” According to the movie, they sued California to stop producing the electric car. The Federal Government also called the electric car a “cancer that has to be killed because it will spread through the country.” It is really hard to try to make something fuel efficient in a country where the president has strings that connect him to the oil, and all of his cabinet has been working in the oil industry before coming into politics. The Federal Government is guilty, because they didn’t want electric car to be on the road.

There are a couple more suspects in this case, and one of them is the California Air Resources Board. According to the movie, CARB has been really unfair. When there was a discussion of whether or not the electric car should be on the road they had given electric car representatives a limited time, while car company representatives had unlimited time to talk. According to wikipedia.com, CARB killed the ZEV mandate. They are guilty because they listened only to the car company representatives. CARB already knew the answer to the question that was discussed during the conference.

The Last suspect is Hydrogen. According to wikipedia.com, ahydrogen car was used for the distraction from the real problem. It bought oil and car companies much needed time to get rid of the electric car. According to the movie, hydrogen cars have too many problems to be solved “before anyone would even be interested in them.” Hydrogen is too expensive, an actual car costs a million dollars, it doesn’t go as fast as people would like, there would have to be built a few more thousand fuel cells in the country, and “the competing technology would have to stay at the same level, and not improve.” Hydrogen is guilty because if it wasn’t there oil and car companies wouldn’t have anything to distract people with.

The electric car was a very necessary and great invention, but it was killed. Out of seven suspects only one wasn’t guilty. The electric car was killed by people, who care only about their “fat” wallets, by people who don’t think about the future of their children. These people like to decide everything for others. People should have the right to say what they want, and car companies should provide it if they have the technology.

When one’s parent leaves or dies, other members of the family find different ways to kill the hurt inside. They often separate. The Key to the Golden Firebird is a great example of that. It shows how a family can grow apart if one of them is missing. Brooks, May, and Palmer Gold had a great and happy family. They spent a lot of time together, until their father died.

It all happened last year, when their father had a heart attack. Their mother had to start working much more, May got a job and started helping with the family budget, Brooks started drinking, and Palmer hardly ever talked to anyone, all she did was watch television or play softball.

When May got her driver’s license, the three girls drove to the Camden Yards, in Baltimore. They buried their father’s ashes in the middle of the baseball field, on the pitcher’s mound. At that moment they felt the connection that was between them before their father died.

When the Gold girls tried to find ways to kill the hurt of their father’s death, they separated. All they had to do was keep together, and it would have been much easier for them. This book was really great, and it gives an example of how members of the family always have to stick together no matter what. I really liked this book, and enjoyed reading it. If you are trying to spend as little time as possible with your family, you have to read this book.