It was a cold Saturday night, the wind was blowing so hard you can hear it. It was December 30, 2017, and I was coming home from dance practice. I was in the car with my mom, dad, and one of my sisters. The car was so quiet, I decided to put my headphones in and listen to some music.

When I was jamming to my music, I notice that my mom had tears coming down her face. I quickly paused my music and asked, “Mom, why are you crying?”  

My dad said, “Wait until we get in the house.” When we got in the house, my mom sat on the couch and told me and my sister to “come here.” This is when my whole life had changed forever. My dad said: “Pop-Pop Kenny had died.” My heart stopped and I fell into my mom's arms and said: “Why it had to be him?”  Then I went upstairs and just sat in complete silence.

The following day was   I had to come to school and put on a mask to show that I wasn’t hurting or depressed. But that didn’t work because people kept asking if I was ok and I would respond, “Yes,” and kept on moving.

Because I was raised to be a man, I was taught to hide my emotions cause it shows weakness. I knew that this was tough for me cause when someone who you love dies then your emotions are raised really high. But my dad only said don’t show your emotions in public when your alone cause people will start to make fun of you.

Lenard Sax wrote in his New York Times article titled Many Boys Today Define Masculinity Negatively challenges us to think about how gender and masculinity affect our identity and how we express our emotions: “Being a real man means doing things that girls don’t do.” This quote is significant because it highlights the way that boys are being raised and raises questions if parents should change the way they raise their kids? I can relate to this quote because I have personal experiences on the way my parents have raised me. My dad specifically wouldn’t let me do anything a girl does and he always made sure that I only do what boys normally do.

Another idea related to boys and the idea of Masculinity is raised by Tim King. He wrote a New York Times article titled  Encourage Boys to Embrace Individuality, So They Can Respect It in Others and it is challenging the idea of how parent raised their kids: “When we mold our sons in the image of unrealistically rugged masculinity, they are encouraged to view girls through the lens of some idealized version of femininity.” This quote is significant because it highlights the reason why boys think and do things a certain way.  Also, it makes a realization of why the parents raise their children like this. Like for example when was growing up my parents always told me to respect everyone. And they said when you look at/talk female just know to be cautious of what you say because they will show you their emotions. So my parents taught me to respect all genders equally.

These ideals our young men short-sighted ad lost. What I mean by that is that we can't keep making boys think one-sided. As a society, we need to make sure that young men and children can accept who they are and what that means is that they don’t have to think of life as one thing when there are many aspects of life.  Masculinity isn’t formulated. You can mold and shape your kids the way you want to, but if you want them to become a better ma let them define what Masculinity for themselves.

Tribute

Screams, cheering, and applauses rumbled through the room. Heart racing, heavy breathing, sweaty hands. I’m sitting in the room waiting to hear my name to get called. I’m on stage at a dance competition sitting with my friends and teammates. It was the last award for the night.

It was a hot night in Atlantic City, New Jersey, and my team was going to perform on stage. There were only two acts left. We all gather in a circle and wish each other luck on stage. When I was dancing on the stage, my confidence boosted higher. The nerves that I felt before all had disappeared as I moved. Sweat dripping down my face and my heart is racing. My eye filling up with water and I’m about to pass out while I danced. After we performed, all you can hear was heavy breathing and people cheering that we had done a great job.  The last award was between us and another team. By one point, the other team had won. The look on all of our faces was speechless and upset because we did everything that we could to get to nationals. You can see the sweat and tears rolling down our face, but we didn’t let it get to our heads and we pushed to go harder.

A few days after the competition, I was walking up the steps to get to the third floor to go to my dance studio. Suddenly I heard  my dance director counting, “Five, six, seven, eight.” I walked into my dance studio with black sweatpants, a black hoodie and headphones in my ear playing one of the dance sets. My dance studio is really big and has a lot of air conditioners in it. As you walk in you will see a tone of trophies on the wall, floor, and on the shelves. Suddenly, I notice that my dance director was crying in her office and my teammates had surrounded her. When I got there, my other dance director Ms. Danielle who is best friends with Ms. Kamillie told everyone, “Ms. Kamille mother had passed away from cancer.” My eyes began to tear up when I heard the news because her mom always uses to walk up to me after every performance telling me that I did a great job and how she likes the way that I dance.  Ms. Kamillie’s mother had always brought this positive energy everytime you are around her. She cared about all the kids and made sure that we all would stay out of trouble.

Later on,  the team and I decided to do a dance tribute to her mother because we felt as though that we need to show her how much we cared about her. The practices were long hours everyone was tired and trying to push through the pain. Ms. Kamille didn’t know that we were doing this for her. We had to keep it a secret. We performed this at our dance recital because we wanted everyone to see this dance tribute that we put together. At the end of the dance, we gave Ms. Kamille flowers and a big group hug to show support and love. Ms. Kamille was speechless because she saw how much we cared about her and how we all will manage to get through it.

After that experience, it made me realized how it is good to have people support and care for you. I had learned that it is good to have extended relationships with people because I know that I can contact them at any time if I needed anything and they would be there to help me. This situation will always resonate with me because it allows me to see the importance of friendship and family. It made me realize why they are important to me. People should be grateful for the people in their lives because you never know if they will be gone in the next moment. Life's too short for you not to appreciate the ones who support you and care about you. You need to realize how big of an impact that will have on your life because you will know that they got your back no matter what you plan on doing. Lastly, everything is not always about winning but it's about the work you put in that made you and/or others happy.

In William Golding’s Lord of the Flies, the author tells the story of a group of boys who find themselves stranded on an island and have to learn to defend for themselves. During their time on this island the boys had went through a lot of changes emotionally, physically, and mentally. What am I wondering about is how does the influence of bullying people affect our world today? For some, people might bully people because when they're feeling sad, angry, confused, etc and they need to take it out on someone or something and don’t notice that doing this could be hurting someone. People will bully other people just to see the person at the struggle to get through the day.

The book starts off with Ralph and Piggy  stranded on an island wondering where the rest of the people that was with them go. Ralph and Piggy blows into a conch  when suddenly all of this boys come running out the forest. Later on the boys had a voted Ralph as the leader of the group and a lot of the boys didn’t like that. The boys main objective is trying to escape the island.  In Chapter 2 there is a lot of tension within the civilization between Piggy and Jack. Piggy tries to stay his ideas of what they should do but Jack keeps on hurt piggy’s feelings. Piggy says “ There ain’t nothing we can do. We ought to be more careful. I’m scared----” (45). Jack then yells at him and says “You’re always scared. Yah----Fatty!”(45). What the reader can see is that Piggy is feeling intimidated by Jack because Jack yells at him and keeps on talking about his wait. Also, what the reader can tell is that Jack doesn’t care about Piggy’s feels because he talks about his wait and doesn’t think that piggy can’t say or do say anything because of his weight.

Later on in the book we meet this boy named Roger. Roger is a bad influence on the boys because in chapter four it says “Here, invisible yet strong, was the taboo of the old life.  Round the squatting child was the protection of parents and school and policemen and the law. Roger's arm was conditioned by a civilization that knew nothing of him and was in ruins”(87).What the author was showing how roger was bullying one of the littluns because he was throwing rocks at them. But he miss every time he threw one.

What is bullying? Bullying is an “aggressive behavior among school aged children.” There are three types of bulking which is verbal, physically, and social. Bully happens all across the world and it really needs to stop. Like for example in Lord of the Flies when Jack is calling piggy names he is verbally bulking piggy because it is hurt piggy’s feelings. Also, it is very disrespectful and Jack thinks that it is all fun and games. Another example of bulking in the book is when nobody listens to piggy because they don’t care about his ideas on anything there just pushing him to the side. One example of physical bullying is when Roger is fighting piggy and “accidentally” push pigg off a cliff that caused piggy to die. So, this is an issue in the world today and it needs to be stopped.

In my essay I was trying to show how bullying can be really harmful to people. Also this was explaining some of the reason why William Golding put this in the Lord of the Flies book to make this an awareness  it’s around the world.

My dad is so annoying. He thinks that I am suppose to always do my homework. My dad be like “Did you do your homework” and I say “yea I did” knowing that I was lying the whole time. So, one day my dad had got an email from my teachers and he was really upset with me. So, when I had got home he was sitting there on the couch. I knew that something was up. My dad was like “why are you not doing your homework.” I look at him like “what are you talking about I do do my homework.” so, he was like your teachers emailed me saying you don’t do it. Why are you lying to me?”(angry on his face) I notice how angry my dad was that I wasn’t thinking and said “I do”.

Like when I saw him that angry it made me feel some type of way? Like it’s like I made my family disappointed at me.  He was like “go to your room and don’t turn anything on since you want to be a liar. So, I stormed up the steps so mad that I almost punched a hole in the wall. But I didn’t I stayed poised by controlling my anger and then I hear my door open. It was my dad and he walk over to me and was like “Son all I am trying to do is teach you a lesson. “ I said what do you mean you are trying to teach me a lesson and he was like “don't be a liar because it will create a really bad image on you.” Then he went on and said this “people will not trust you if you keep on lying.” Then he kept going on and on and was like “ I am trying to protect you because I don’t want you to be put into a bad situation with someone.”

Suddenly I start to realize that I need to change my ways. Like after hearing what my dad was saying to me it took me into a different state of mind. Like for instance, it made me want to actually try and take off these negative things that teacher and students have about me. So, I started to work really hard and try to prove everyone wrong. I took this serious, and it started to show in my class and in my grades. When my dad seen my grades he was so, proud of me because he knew that I had taken in what he had told me. So, my dad was like “Son I really like how you listen to what I had said and took upon yourself to start doing your work and handing in all your missing work.” So, this made me so proud because I can see my how proud my family was with me. What I had taken away from this was to always be honest because if I wasn’t then people will still think of me the same way.

It was a cool and sunny day in the city of Philadelphia. The month that was November 2011 and I was a 4th grader coming back from gym class My teacher had taken me, and my friends to the bathroom and my friends and I were in the bathroom playing around. We weren't supposed to be doing that.

Then we started to pick each other up and throw one another. Suddenly, one of my classmates picked me up when I wasn’t paying attention and they had thrown me. When he did it made a loud bang, I hit the ground extremely hard and I suddenly started crying because my right knee had hit the ground so hard.

So, everyone went to go get our teacher. She came out towards the bathroom.

“What happened?”

My classmates told her. So she took me to my nurse and I had told the nurse what happened, why I was there. The nurse had given me an ice pack and kept me in her office with her. Next, we had to call my mom and tell her what happened and she told me to get on the bus and come straight home. When school was out I had got on the school bus and went straight home with my sister Kyianna.  

Around 5:00 pm my mom came home and I told her that my knee hurts every time I'd walk or move. My mom had to take me up to Abington  Hospital because that is where I  got my x-rays taken.

I was very anxious, and terrified because when I went into the room to get my x-ray done they had told my mom that she couldn’t come in.

“I’ll be waiting right here for you” My mom said. “Ok” I said. So, when we had returned to the room me and my mom started to joke around and take pictures.

Later on, my doctor finally came into the room and said the bad news to us. He said that I have a fractured knee and that I couldn’t dance, or do physical things anymore. I started to cry hard right away because my mom said that I might not be able to dance in the Thanksgiving day parade.  I was really sad/ upset because everytime that I had gone up to dance practice I had to sit and watch them and I was hopelessly upset cause I couldn’t dance. They had put my knee in an Ace bandage and gave me crutches. I had walked out the hospital sad and devastated, when we got home my mom, I  told my dad and my two older sisters what the doctor had said. I was letting my knee heal faster because I never gave up and pushed through it and my knee wasn’t 100% heal it was basically like 90% healed halfway. I managed to dance in the parade and I was really happy, satisfied.

As the years went by I was downstairs on the couch watch tv in the living room and I notice that my x-rays were in the corner. I was looking at my dad “dad can we look at my x-rays,”I asked. “Yes we can go get them,” dad replied. As we open up it up and put it against the light my dad pointed out where I had fractured my knee. When I saw it, I couldn’t believe it. “This is why I am the person I am today a stronger hard working person” I said to myself. This made me think of the three words my parents always told me. The three words are to never give up on any obstacle/challenge that is in my way. So the lesson that I had taken from this was to never give up even when a hard and painful challenge is in your way or blocking you from your dreams.  Still here and there I feel pain in my knee but not as much before. I am always willing to share this story to people so they can be amazed by how I became the person that I am today. When my friends are in the hospital. “Don’t worry because you will come back stronger than ever.”I tell them.

Hello again to my blog post readers. How are you guys doing? For all my new readers for my I had been assigned a project that is supposed to be talking about problems in the world. I had to choose a topic that I had to do research on and had to do a agent of change which basically is like how was I going to get people's opinions. . After we choose are topic we had to do research on the topic for our first  blog post. So, for you all know that I’m doing stop and frisk for my you & the world project. Previously I did my interview with a cop about stop and frisk  to get their opinion on it. During the interview this really made me be surprised about this cop’s opinion because he told me that “stop and frisk is unconstitutional so that's why he doesn’t use it.” So that  showed me how some cops don’t want to use it because they know that they are wrong for that. So, what I am still going to do for my agent of change is that I am going to donate to an organization called ACLU. I am going to raise money and make my donation.  Hear is a picture of the organization home page.

This project was very interesting to me because I got to learn more and see great sources for stop and frisk. My favorite part about this project was interviewing my because I got to see an actual cop opinion on this.

Annotated Bibliography

Printmaking is an art where you put ink on a certain material that has previously been carved and ink has been put on it then printed onto paper. It was originated in China around AD 105.The following print is by Samantha Moody. I find this piece interesting because of the simple black and white contrast. Another reason it's pleasing to me is because I like how the dinosaur looks and how it goes in and out of negative space. . I wonder what was the inspiration of this creative print.

My topic that I am going to be talking about is stop and frisk. Stop and frisk is when the police can stop you and pat you down on the outside of your clothing when the police officers believe that you are armed and dangerous. This topic is important to me because I think that it is unconstitutional. This  violates the Fourth Amendment because  the amendment is talking about the rights of the people. One part says “shall not be violated” and stop and frisk goes against that. It’s  a problem right now because it makes people not feel like they are free. For example take a look at this picture right here.

This picture is from  The spokesman review  and it shows a African American being stop and frisk for no reason. You see Donald Trump and basically  when he was talking about stop and frisk in the presidential debate he wanted to make the stop and frisk law be enforced even more in urban areas. So, like it would make African Americans feel uncomfortable/ not safe anymore because now the cops will be checking them for no reason. Also, I believe that this shouldn't be enforced more because that will make kids not be safe no more if they see cops stopping people and checking they probably  will make  them think “Will this happen to me?”

This picture is from Pinterest and it shows the race percentage of stop and frisk. Young Black Men is 25.6%, Young Latino Men 16%, Young White Men 3.8%. So, there is a big difference in which race gets it the most. I think that this needs to change because I don’t think that cops should assume that African Americans are guilty or up to something the most.

Negative space is the darker space in images that people don't really focus on. I found the negative space buy cutting the image on the blue construction paper and put it on the red paper. Also, the blue is the negative space. Negative space helps the  artist because it makes the image stand out more. Yes, because like it makes the drawing stand out more.

Soy yo

El hijo de mi padres

Tengo catorce años

Tengo dos hermanas

Vivimos en filadelfia

Mi familia es grande

Yo veo las flores bonitas del sur

Yo saboreo mi abuela macaroni y queso

Yo oigo los ritmos de la áfrica

Yo abrazo mi familia

Hola! Nosotros somos Siarra, Mayah, Kyle y Isayas. Nosotros tenemos catorce años. Pero Sierra tiene quince años. Nosotros vivimos de Filadelfia y estudiamos SLA. En la escuela nosotros tenemos muchos clubes: unión de estudiantes afros, club literario, club de poesía, anuario, robóticas. Nosotros tenemos programas deportivos - voleibol, baloncesto y pista. Nosotros tenemos aproximadamente quinientos estudiantes.

Somos del primer años. Las clases que nosotros tomamos son inglés, español, historia, drama, álgebra y bioquímica. Nos gusta drama y inglés porque es muy interesante y divertida. Necesitamos el libro, la computadora, un lapíz y los tenis. Te gusta la computadora la mejor. Siempre estamos preparados. Es importante prestar atención. Nosotros leemos, actuamos, hablamos, escribimos, dormimos.  Para tener éxito en esta clase participamos activamente.

En SLA, nosotros tenemos muchos profesores. Por ejemplo, la Señorita Giknis enseña inglés, el Señor Symonds enseña historia, y el Señor Kay enseña drama. Me encanta la Señorita Giknis porque es divertida, extraña, inteligente, simpática, cómica, y artística. El Señor Kay es simpático, cómico, atlético, y creativo. El Señor Symonds es bobo, serio, extraño, y muy interesante. Su clase de historia es estresante y aburrida. La clase inglés es divertida. Su clase es drama es fácil, chévere, y interesante. Finalmente, SLA es la mejor.

Nos encanta SLA porque de los deportes, por ejemplo baloncesto, pista, y voleibol. SLA es seguro, divertido, y energético. Nos gusta SLA porque es divertida, estresante, y chévere. Lo que más nos gusta es los estudiantes porque son chéveres y guay.