Monthly Archives: September 2019

MARCH

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Dear John Lewis,

          I just finished reading your first part of MARCH. It was just a regular day, kids were at Church and people gathered together to have a conversation. Suddenly, out of the blue they were bombed. They did nothing wrong, but yet they were bombed and killed in vain. Unfortunately, that wasn’t the end of it there were even teenagers, part of the boy’s scouts, targeting African Americans. It was then when Dr.King gathered together with a few other individuals and realized change had to happen. There was a lot packed into the first part.

          My favorite part of this section was the last 2 pages. You advance many years into the future to you shaking President Obama’s hand welcoming him. It really showed the hard work and effort many people put in, including you, in order to come to this incredible milestone. It really helped put things into perspective as well as prove that we can irradicate hate even at times we think it may be impossible. It gave me a sense of hope that even though things may be rough we can always prevail against any type of hate.

          My question for you is now in our society today how can we go about eliminating any hate? In my opinion, I believe it all comes down to knowledge. People can not stop something they do not know. We have to teach people the history so we know what not to do, and how to make sure it does not happen again. As well as look at the positive, look at the successful things done and learn from that, giving us an outline of what to do. It’s a tough question with many answers and it’s hard to know which one the best answer is.  

All the best,

Jonathan NoorielPresident Obama and John Lewis

Difficult might not be so bad

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                It was just a regular day in 9th grade and I was getting ready to go into English class. I walk in ready for another basic day however, it was far from basic. Our teacher walks in with a large stack of paper in his hands. As he is passing them out, my friends and I frantically look at each other wondering what this could be, was it a pop quiz? As we are handed the paper we all froze, it wasn’t a pop quiz but it was something worse. Our palms were sweating, our hearts were racing and the look of fright swept over our faces. It was a syllabus for a research paper, but what caught our eye was the 10-page criteria. I have never written any paper near that long. Our teachers knew this so he explained that he will be there every step of the way, guiding us through this new journey, but still, the task was daunting.  

               As I started writing my paper, I kept emailing my teacher and meeting with him with new questions. I would stay up late at night on my soft bed writing away while my eyes were drooping. I would fall asleep mid-sentence then wake up in the morning, still in my school clothes with the computer still in front of me. I would go to the library, scrolling through the many books they had, trying to find the best one for me. I would worry and panic, not knowing if I would finish on time.

               Finally, the due date came. After so many dark, dreadful, dead-eyed days, I was done with the paper, ready to turn it in. I woke up that morning feeling unstoppable, I walked into school, printed my final draft then handed the still warm papers to my teacher. It felt like a giant weight was lifted off my shoulders. However, this paper was a turning point in my writing. It taught me so many skills I have never used before and on a whole new level. I took those lessons I learned and applied them to many similar assignments I had in high school. That ultimately is what made me a better writer, and has made me the writer I am today.

Me in High School

Me during my freshman year in high school. On the left is my oldest sister.