CUTe Polar Bear. hey, what are you doing there?!

The bear is so exhausted,
so it dips its head in the water,
rolling its eyes, looking for anythings to eat.

Then, it finds a fish, playfully going back and forth
in front of the bear.
So the bear starts to move slowly into the water.
Do you see his left leg pushing the rock?

Not recent work, but just like it!

   My strong determination on practicing my plan used to last three days. Should I be defined by what I thought of, or what I actually did? Although it is common sense that people are defined by what they do, majority of people are often blinded by their sweet words. However, looking back to previous world top leaders, we should rather define people by how they act.

   Anyone can talk after a short practice, pretending they are prestigious leaders who care a lot for the good of his citizens. On the other hand, the world has never got in touch with a leader who practiced all his words into reality. In other words, while words can be all lies, actions never lie. This is exactly why Presidents, no matter what country they govern, often get cruel slash by his citizens few months after inauguration. Before the inauguration, since Obama was able to do nothing on any main issue, he gushed out all kinds of words that could possibly satisfy the citizens. Now, he failed to satisfy Americans with his actions, and finally Americans are evaluating their leader in a correct way: they are defining a person with what he does.

   Words and thoughts do not bear unforgetful results, while actions do. Material consequences are created when an individual acts in a certain way. For instance, Benjamin Franklin did many activities that other people are all willing to do, but merely give up, for they are so tiresome. He came to be known as clean, white leader, who is more diligent than anyone else. As a result, many citizens started to admire and wanted to go after his path. His hardworks had payed off, and just like him, people create results that comes after their actions.

   Not many great public speakers who spit out touching words are greatly admired by majority. Instead, real action-takers like Mahatma Gandhi and Rosa Parks capture the mind of people. This is one of the reasons why people are more likely to be defined by what they do. Gandhi was not a mere talker; he weaved his own clothes with his own spinning wheel. He also wore simple white cloth, not covering his body properly. He did not fight against England with weapons. This actions not only touched citizens’ mind but also England leaders’. Rosa Parks was similar; She quietly demonstrated against white by sitting on white-only seats on the buses.

   To sum up, people are defined by what they do since anyone can talk sweet words, actions can bear consequences and lastly, people are more touched by people’s actions.

Seeking Difference

            Read a lot of high quality books; that’s the key to your fruitful success in writing. Most writing experts say there are outputs, which means good writing, only when there are lots of inputs, which means reading. Some of my friends have similar writing styles as their favorite authors, which is the result of spending most of their time reading those writing styles. Most of the books I’ve read until now are literatures, rather than logical writings such as newspaper articles or knowledge-based books. I don’t know if this is the reason or not, but what I know for sure about my writing style is that I’m much better off writing emotional works than formal essays.

            I think of writing as a tool to express my emotion and deliver it clearly to other people who couldn’t have otherwise understood my side. By writing, I think I can make others feel the same as I do, making more people on my side. This principle of mine is why I love writing. It’s just great when I get the feeling that people understand me and feel the same way as I do.

Since I love to write, I have participated in writing contests or context exhibitions on themes like ‘protecting our environment’ or ‘living righteously’, and have been selected as great works. When I write on these contests, I tend to follow my heart as I write, not planning beforehand with specific logics. This style helps me to write much more persuading writings or essays that appeal to emotions more strongly. It may be unacceptable for a lot of writers, but I just got so used to this style that it feels weird when I plan in term papers, TOEFL or SAT writings.

Many times, I’m complemented on highly emotional writings. However this factor serves as disadvantage in some cases. What I often get critized upon is that my formal essays are too emotion-based that my reasons may seem less persuadable. As everybody is aware of, habits are really difficult to fix. That is why I’m trying my best to mend this problem but it’s not working too well.

Another critical problem I have is that my English grammar is a disaster in a nutshell. Of course, throughout my three extensive years in middle school, I have learned grammar from basics to complex principles. However, I just cannot apply them perfectly on my writings. It is like as if my writing and the knowledge of grammar are separated in my brain.

Although I’m not good at writing logical essays or following grammar rules, I can come up with creative ideas on writing. What I hate most in writing are repeating the same words over and over again, writing in common styles as everybody do, or using cliches. I love to revolutionize styles and use innovative words. In this way, my essay will be much more fresh and pleasant to read. Also, it will appeal more to the readers and make them like my essay even more.

Therefore, in this class, in order to fix my main problem, I hope to have more opportunities writing logical and formal essays!

Total 526 words.

The Great Gatsby

The Great Gatsby Essay:                                                                                                

             How does Gatsby represent the American dream? What does the novel have to say about the condition of the American dream in the 1920s? In what ways do the themes of dreams, wealth, and time relate to each other in the novel’s exploration of the idea of America?

            According to how James Truslow Adams defined the term, the ‘American Dream’ ensures that "life should be better and richer and fuller for everyone, with opportunity for each according to ability or achievement regardless of social class or circumstances of birth". For this reason, millions of people all over the world rushed into the continent to search for and accomplish their goals. Since this was a prevalent trend throughout the 19^th and 20^th century, there are many literatures portraying American Dream, and one of them is ‘The Great Gatsby’.

            Gatsby as a child spent his life in poverty in rural North Dakota. He had a lover, Daisy, who got married to Tom Buchanon by the time Gatsby was studying at Oxford after returning from the WWI. Gatsby has afterwards raked in the money so diligently that he finally became excessively rich. As a result, he finally had a huge mansion and held extravagant parties every Saturday night. At this point of novel, the author begins to reveal Gatsby’s true personality and hidden reason for scraping the money so hard, which is Daisy. In other words, Gatsby became wealthy and held parties all in order to impress Daisy, whom he is still in love with. Gatsby had a dream, to get together with Daisy again, and he pursued his goal with his amazing ability to turn a dream into a reality, for so long time, until he was shot just because of an unfortunate misunderstanding. This is shown in the following sentence, directly quoted from the book which says: Gatsby believed in the green light, the orgastic future that year by year recedes before us. All these factors prove that Gatsby represents the American dream.

            Other than Gatsby, the novel itself also has some relevance to the American dream, particularly in the 1920s. At this time period in America, economy soared, which brought unprecedented levels of prosperity to the nation. Also, with the WWI finally put into end, people wanted to compensate for their distress from WWI through squandering money all over. This led to sprawling private parties and ‘speakeasies’, the secret clubs that sold liquor. Both of these trends in America enabled American residents to become filthy rich over a short period of time, either by selling illegal drugs and alcohol or others. In the case of this novel, Gatsby became extremely wealthy through selling illegal drugs and then opened extravagant parties so frequently. This overall increase of Americans’ wealth brought them closer to their own dreams. In Gatsby’s case, he opened parties, inviting major celebrities, bringing lots of people into his great mansion. He appeared to be surrounded by spectacular luxury, courted by powerful men and beautiful women. He was the subject of a whirlwind of gossip throughout New York and is a kind of legendary celebrity. By doing this, Gatsby could impress Daisy, attract her, and fall into love again, which was Gatsby’s only dream since Tom Buchanon married Daisy.

            To sum up, the novel presents a repeating cycle that was prevalent in the 1920s in America, among the ‘time’, ‘wealth’, and ‘dreams’, the American dream. To define a little more, this time period led to extreme wealth of majority of Americans, which made a lot of dreams possible to accomplish, whether it’s love or other goals.