Pwa essay on Kindred

  Has your life ever changed drastically at an unexpected time? Well that's exactly what happened to Dana , the main character in Kindred. Dana's character is of an African American woman who was a writer in the 1970's. On Dana's 26th birthday she gets time traveled to the slavery era of 1815 in the antebellum South without her consent. Since that day on her life became a crazy puzzle that she had to put pieces together to solve a mystery of why she time travels. During the periods of time she stays in the South she faces many barriers that try to oppress her. During this essay I will talk about Octavia Butler's, the author of Kindred , main message of how life is full of unexpected events that can turn your ordinary world upside down.

  The book Kindred has many events that happen that go changing Dana's life , little by little. One of the most important &life turning moment Dana faced was when she realized why she time travels to save Rufus's life and then returns. Here's the quote from the book , " Then... Rufus's fear of death calls me to him , and my fear of death sends me home." From this quote we can now understand that Dana travels to Rufus when he is in danger of losing his life &she returns when she is in danger of death. This moment was life changing for Dana because she now knows why & for what reason she is being time traveled.

   As the story of Kindred goes on & Dana constantly continues to time travel and accept the oppressive conditions of slavery many important events happen . One event that completely shocked me & changed Dana's life very drastically is when Dana and her husband Kevin time traveled together. When  Dana was in danger of &time traveled back to her era Kevin came to late to go with her & he got left in the past . Here is a quote from the plot changing event , " I saw Kevin , blurred , but somehow still recognizable. I saw him running toward me in slow motion , running . Legs churning , arms pumping , yet he hardly seemed to be getting closer. Suddenly , I realized what was happening and i screamed - I think I screamed. He had to reach me . H had to! and I passed out . " ( The fall pg.107 ) As you can read it doesn't really say what happened to Kevin but he didn't time travel with Dana & the next time Dana saw him again was when she time traveled again & 5 years had past for Kevin while for Dana only 8 days .

  Kindred has many unexpected events I could write about but I don't really want to keep on spoiling you the story, so I suggest you check out Kindred and you would really hooked on it like me .  Now I would like to tell you about how life unexpectedly turned on me . One of the events that turned my world upside down was when I started 6th grade at Upa. I used to go to Fruitvale elementary & all of my childhood friends were going to be together at Bret Hart. As you can see I didn't end up going there & I came to Upa. For me that was hard because I had to start from scratch , make new friends since I didn't know anybody . That was hard but I overcame that obstacle & now everyone knows everyone and we all keep it cool since we have been together for 3years now . Also I would like to add that I got closer to my 6 main females ; Claudia , Lupe , Sarah , Clarissa , Betty, and Heidi (: (The fantastic 7) and that I love them because we all have been there for each other when life gives us those unexpected turns.

  Octavia Butler made us , the readers of Kindred , understand how life is full of unexpected events that can change your world completely. All of us have had an unexpected moment in life because that how life is and you never know what's next . That's just life.

That Special Guy

Where is that special guy?
The one that will stay beside you
The one that will care and love you
The one that thinks its cute when you get shy
The one that doesnt judge
That special guy
That doesnt care about your body
but about how you are
That will trust you
and never treat you bad
That will never comform to the persciptions
of being a "man"
Where is that special guy?

College For All 2011 Reflection

College for all was an awesome experience for everyone. Not only we got to be with our friends and but we also learned about what UC Santa Barbara , Cal Poly , and UC Santa Cruz offer to their students and how their lives are like. The students showed us around the campus explaining the history of the buildings and telling us what was in there. Even thought we didn't actually got to see the dorms inside we saw them threw the outside , I would have liked to go inside a dorm though. One thing I liked from all of the colleges was the food. Well in UC Santa Barbara we ate pizza but it was good . In Cal Poly and UC Santa Cruz I liked the dining halls system because I think that is convenient.

Another moment I enjoyed was in the Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk even though the rides were closed. It was really fun when we played laser tag girls vs. boys and the girls won! :) yeahhh! Also in the bowling alley even though I suck at bowling . Also big thanks to Diana because we got to stay in the nice comfy hotels and the boys got the weird cheap ones haha :p . When I got to college I would want it to have alot of options on what to study and nice dining halls like the ones in UC Santa Cruz. Also clubs or group for Latinos like the one in UC Santa Barbara. College For All was a great experience that I will never forget and I hope that in high school we also have these types of field trips.

My reflection on expo!

For me expo was really good this year even though it happened before the time we did expo in 6th and 7th grade. I think we were all prepared for it and ready for what came. From all the other classes I think that the English expo was the best and that we were more prepared for it.

Our Expo poster on alcohol and drugs

How life would be like without alcohol and drugs oppressing us

Liberation:

  Without this type of oppression people would feel more confident and healthier about themselves. Also people who don't do drugs or drink alcohol, but are oppressed by them would feel more safe to go out and be in a safe drug and alcohol free community. When free from this oppression people will be healthy and they will feel more motivated to do more positive things like volunteer and do community work.

What actions you need to take to be liberated from alcohol and drugs

Action:

  Individuals that are oppressed by alcohol and drug can liberate themselves by choosing better people to hang out with that are a positive influence on them. Another important element of liberation is to go to a rehab or anonymous alcoholics to get professional help. Individuals can incorporate joy into their life by doing a hobby or sport to get their mind off of alcohol and drugs.