College Essay

College Essay

“Your brother is different.” That’s how my mother decided to tell a five year old me that my brother had Autism. Until that point I had never thought there was anything different about him. He was just my older brother; he played with me like any sibling would, and watched cartoons with my sister and I. The thought that something was wrong with him seemed incomprehensible. As I got older I realized what my mother had meant, that little kid in me faded with age and became less compatible with my brother. It was difficult for me to bond with some one who couldn’t answer me back. This didn’t mean that we were unable to have a normal family life. When we got aggravated with each other it was hard because after a fight we couldn’t go up to each other and apologize. I guess I became used to things being left unsaid. As I moved on to high school and matured the one thing that bridged the gap between us was movies.
Since we were little it was what we loved to do you put a movie on and my brother and I would be quiet for as long as that movie would last. That love stayed with us because it was our way to escape from everything around us and be in another place, and another time. When he watched a movie his eyes would light up and shine and a smile would appear on his face from ear to ear. It was always incredible to me how he would react to the movies it was like everyone in the room was gone and he wasn’t on the other side of the television. He was there in the moment he was the main character fighting a pirate. He was the boy riding on the polar express to a place unknown. With every twist and turn his joy and excitement would fill the room. Since this was our only true time to bond; I always watched him carefully and through his expressions alone I was there right next to him. Whether it was fighting a villain, flying a plane, or saving a princess I was there. We were side kicks; the brother and sister who couldn’t stand each other, were now best friends. When he was in that movie for at least an hour and a half he was in control. My parents weren’t there handing him what clothes to wear, what food to eat, or sending him off to school. Fabian was in control so if he didn’t like a part he would skip over it, this was his world and he was king; and no one tells the king what to do in his castle. If he was to like a certain part he would watch it over, and over again and he would do it till he decided he was ready to continue on with the film. I loved that my brother was able to finally have a say, if I am tired, don’t feel well, or am not ready to face something; I can say it. With Fabian he can’t, he has no way of telling his feelings, sadly the best we can do is try and guess. It may not be fair, but it’s the best we can do for now. Regardless of all the restrictions, limitations, and complications in his life he always has a smile on his face. I admire him for that; it is always the most unfortunate who are the happiest. I truly believe in this; I am blessed with a voice and the strength and free will to take action on it.
Our love of movies has been what has kept us together, even after all life changes that have occurred my brother is still one of the most important people in my life. He is also my biggest inspiration, every opportunity that I am given I go for it, and every obstacle I take head on. I try and live by this because I am lucky for what I have and I know I don’t need more, I realize through my brother that having everything you could ever want is no life at all. Tomorrow I could lose some one or something that matters to me, and thanks to him I realize that happiness is obtainable and the only person preventing your happiness is you.

The One Page Memior

It was the summer of 2007; I was out of school, and into friends, sleeping in, and living in the moment. I wasn’t alone on my journey I had four friends ready to start it with me. It all started the day of a party at a boy’s house I had just met but he knew my two best friends. Usually I enjoy sticking to my element and don’t appreciate diving in to things head first, but there was something different about that day. For the first time in my life I wasn’t scared of being who I was. I wasn’t scared of being loud, telling inappropriate jokes, or making a fool out of my self because everyone else was eager to do the same with me. There were no awkward silences or lack of conversation topics; it was as if we were all friends since we were old enough to remember each other.
There was Ana, what she lacked in height she made up for in personality she had been the one person I had known since as long as I could remember. Her personality was so big, and amazingly outgoing at times I felt like I did not have to be anything but her friend, I was always extremely dependent on her. This was the first day that I was really me was at that party, and when I realized that I looked to my best friend to see if she noticed my burst of confidence and she looked back at me with pride. Then there was Kristen, we had just become friends that year. With Kristen there was never a dull moment, she was the kind of friend you could laugh with for hours on end, and cry with over how miserable you both were at the same time. Through her and Ana I met Andrew. Andrew was different out of all the guy friends I had ever had, in fact he was the polar opposite. He laughed at everything we found funny, and was not scared to make a fool out of him self and by acting like an idiot like the rest of us he actually seemed cooler than most guys.
It seemed like the beginning of a beautiful friendship, and it was. We would spend everyday together, and even when we were doing nothing we were always entertained. We were like the perfect four piece puzzle; soon we became five when Eric came into the picture. He was Andrews’s cousin and knew just how to make us all laugh, some might call his humor weird, but weird is all that our group knew and it worked for us. We all became inseparable, although we had families, jobs, and other friends we always in between the chaos ended up together. We spent one amazing summer together, some of us fell in love, and some of us fell out of it. Some of us strayed at the end and some of us stayed. Some of us fought, and some of us made up. The day before my junior year was to begin I looked at pictures of all of us, we looked fearless, confident, and on top of the world. We all brought something different and incredible to the table. We had an incredible run for three months, and when life came back in to the picture as soon as it came it was gone. I had lost what I had been searching for, I look back on it now as the happiest time of my life. Although I miss it and wish that we were all still a part of each others life we will always have that summer, and I will always have that first day we were all together where everything fell into place, and for the first time I was me.

Filler Page

Although I had a true realization of what it was to be a woman in a culture that at times can be oppressing towards my sex. I had a realization of what it was to be a woman, just a woman. When I figured out what that truly meant I realized that I had to be what a woman was, a strong, caring, protective, and undefeatable being. For me to be what it was I wanted to, I had to leave what I had always known, and what I had over time learned to resent. I resented what it stood for but my home, my true home is a place I could never truly hate or resent. The people I’ve met, and the family I had will always be what I think of when I remember home.
There is a saying that “Home is where the heart is.” For the first time in my life I understood it. My home was my friends, my loved ones, and my books. They were always with me. Their comforting words, the stories they told which made me laugh, cry, smile, and even shake in suspense stayed with me. They were there the moment I walked out of my home and turned back to face it for the last time. The memories may have occurred in this physical location but they would never be truly taken away from me. They would stay in my heart for ever, and that was exactly how long I planned to keep them with me.

Book Cover Meta-cognitive

Meta-Cognitive on Book Cover

For the book cover I made for the Memoir Reading Lolita in Tehran I thought about the book and one major theme, or topic I thought of was struggle. The memoir is built off of the struggle of a woman’s persistence to bring knowledge to those who want and deserve it. I thought of the face of a woman looking down in sadness, and despair. I chose to keep it simple by adding no colors or something that really pulls in the eye to much. I wanted it to have a bit of eeriness, and at the same time a sense of clarity and serenity. What I wanted to portray was the moment she realized that she was going to begin teaching these secret classes, and the emotion and sadness she has towards what her country has become.
I feel like the cover of my book fits the author’s style of writing because it is modest. This memoir is an incredible story of drive and persistence but the way it is written, makes it seem as though the author feels like what she did was not so important or brave. Since I really enjoyed this memoir I feel like finding a picture to draw would be easy to do. Though this story has its happy moments the oppression is what makes the story so like-able, and truly grasps the reader and pulls them in to the story. I think my main approach to making the cover was depicting a moment from it how I pictured it to be in my own mind.

Meta-Congnition

Carla Castillo
Mr. Gallagher
Period 2
Metacognition
For this assignment I chose to re-write a Greek myth in the style of William Faulkner. I began the process by choosing which myth it was that I enjoyed the most and I really enjoyed the myth of daedalus and Icarus I thought that this would be really easy for me to write as Faulkner because since it is so open ended with its descriptiveness I could easily add in the details of how I saw it. What stimulated my ideas was doing the myth in modern times in the army. I chose the army because I feel like what is going on today in the world we live in is easily connected to what the story touches on. My audience is I guess our class and Mr. Gallagher, as for my purpose it was to send the message to the reader that karma is in fact a reality. You take a father who has a very close relationship with his son, and make him kill a son of his sister is really ironic because he understands how much his son means to him, or how much a child means to a parent but because of his tragic flaw of jealousy he went ahead with killing Perdix regardless of how much his son meant to him. Since he ignored what was right and did what was wrong he was punished with exactly the crime he committed.

Since I was absent I did not get the real opportunity to get advice from some one else in time but going over what I had written I felt that the first time I wrote a quick draft I had to much dialogue so I decided instead to tell it from the perspective of a narrator who was in the story in a way but not a main character. Since Faulkner always uses and interesting point of view for his narrators I did the same and left on line of dialogue at the end that was actually said by the character in the story. By ending it that way I felt it was more powerful, that the one line of dialogue in the whole story was the last words before the downfall of the tragic hero.

Some areas I need to improve on I feel are that in most of my papers I begin strong and lose that special something I had at the beginning or start out slow and have a really good ending. I feel that what I need to really improve on is having a fluid paper one that is equally strong in every paragraph and can really pull a reader in to my story. I feel that I want to have stronger papers, a another big issue is my ideas are always scattered and jumping from one thing to another constantly. This is really not enjoyable for the reader at all, I would not want to read a paper like that so I hope to improve mine.

Daedalus and Icarus as Told by Faulkner

Carla Castillo
Mr. Gallagher
Period 2
Daedalus, and Icarus as Told by Faulkner
It was a foggy, humid and dreary day at the Military base, you were lucky to see your hand if it was in front of your face the air smelt of gasoline, and paint. Daedalus was always a clever man, his hands were his weapons he could make anything into something better than it originally was. When he saw his nephew was moving up the line in ranking too quickly he feared they would let his nephew Perdix, take his spot in building the fighter jets. When Perdix was chosen to lead the troops in to battle, Daedalus was to build a special jet for Perdix, in a moment of pure jealousy he left the jet with to many flaws for it to work, and Daedalus was so lost in his anger he forgot to cover up what he had done. When Perdix’s jet crashed and he died they discovered why it had actually crashed. As a punishment they left him and his son Icarus stranded at the base that was to be bombed the following day by their opponent. They had no way to escape, until Daedalus found enough parts to construct to functional jets.

When he had finished the jets Daedalus realized that they opposing army would see that they were from the Base and shoot down their jets. So he found cans of gray paint just like the other armies jets were and began to paint them with Icarus as fast as possible. There was just not enough time to let them dry the paint would not stay on the metal because it was not made for metal so they needed to leave as soon as the possibly could. Daedalus new his son Icarus was to young to be prepared to fly it properly, but after instructing him for about twenty minutes he was sure Icarus could handle it. Daedalus had one major warning for his son, that was to fly low so that they could go by undetected and if the sun were to appear the paint would melt off and he would be completely exposed. Icarus told his father that he had nothing to
fear he understood what he had to do.

Since Daedalus had to prep Icarus’s jet for take off Icarus was to go first his father kissed his son and told him that he would be okay and that he would see him soon. As Icarus took off Daedalus found he was wiping tears from his eyes. He had never been so proud of his son as he was at that moment. Suddenly the clouds slowly cleared as Icarus took to the sky it was almost as if the heavens wanted to awake to watch his son become a true man. In the excitement Icarus started going higher and higher in his jet. He got so wrapped up in the moment he forgot what his father had warned him about, and as the sun got brighter and brighter the heat hitting the jet was increasing rapidly. As Icarus stared out to the open sky he saw gray drops of paint sliding down the windshield when he realized what he had done he tried to lower his jet. As Daedalus saw what was happening in the distance he heard the sound of more than ten jets heading towards the base. He cried out to his son and in less then a second, fire and smoke filled the sky and the only trace left of his son was a cloud of black smoke.

As the other jets circled over the base Daedalus thought of what he had done and fell to his knees sobbing, because he let jealousy, envy, and anger get the best of him he made a terrible mistake and took the life of a son away from its parent, and the gods had decided to return the favor. The sky darkened and although the sound of the jets was roaring all around him, it was as if the whole world had been muted, the sound and noise were gone all that remained was the drops of rain and wind that was pounding against his body . As he looked to the sky trying to find an answer to why his son was punished for his wrong doing, balls of black, orange, and red smoke began to fall towards the ground. When Daedalus realized that this was the end that he would not have to bare the pain any longer he smiled to the sky and said to his son in heaven. "I’ll see you soon my son, ill see you soon".

Summer Work- Things Fall Apart

Part1- Hello its carla To what danny said i feel night is another theme but it alsos bring out another point as well. Alot of students have been commenting on the animalistic traits and characteristics portrayed through the characters that trait really intertwines with the theme of night because as danny had said they are portrayed like animals but are humanized through fear so another theme that i saw through those two were the struggle between learning to be what is considered a person in a world where animal traits are needed could very well be a huge part of this novel.

Part2- On the contrary I feel that his chi might be better for the first time Okonkwo has had to pay for a mistake but i dont feel he is paying in his heart for what happend to the boy i feel this is his chance to reconcile his hatred for his father and to even possibly learn that emotions do not make you any less of a man.Through the second part of this book i feel like you are able to really understand Okonkwo in the begging the character is shown to us as this horrible ruthless man in a way but as the book continues you see that okonkwos fear of failure is what causes him to do what he does. I also feel that what will start to change him the most is Ezinma, when he followed Cheilo to the cave it shows you that he could not help but let his emotions get to him he truly does love his daughter and even Ekwefi. I feel that him being exiled is also in a way pennance for what he did to Ikemefuna and i feel he is leaving peacefully because he feels like it is an almost punishment for what he had done to the boy who became practically his own son. Also Okonkwo has his own personal demons because of his father and needs to come to terms with that and hopefully his returning to his previous home might do that for him.

Part3- Wow this book was truly fantastic. When i began too read the last page of part two i realized this book was going to throw me for a hhuge loop i never anticipated that Okonkwo would have been exiled for seven years.Something i noticed is that when ever some one is killed in this book like Ikemefuna or the boy he killed accidently there is no grusome detial its just tells you abruptly this person was killed and moves on. I think that Chinua Achebe had a point to do this i think it was to show how in that culture that death was just some thing that happens, and is moved on from relatively quickly.When the missionaries began to appear in some of the other tribes Okonkwo did not thing he would have to even give it a second thought but when one appeared in his village he was outraged. Okonkwo was very stern on traditions and staying true to his culture. He seemed to fear difference because the ways he grew up were what allowed him to be wealthy and well of as an adult. When the missionaries asked to build a church in his village he told the council members there was no way but at the time they thought let them have the land they wont last here and it was because of their spiritual beliefs that they thought these missionaries would be gone soon but when they didnt leave they it tested the faith of the people and soon they saw the missionaries as a real potential threat.Nwoye on the other hand had always resented his father like Okonkwo his for how he choose to lead his life. Things that Okonkwo choose to do just so he would not seem weak or caring disgusted his son. Nwoye did what Okonkwo had done he was going to make sure that he would never ever end up like his father. So when the missionaries appeared with the praise of love for one another Nwoye wanted that kind of enviornment of love and compassion around him. In a way it was almost karma towards Okonkwo he never tried to come to terms with or respect his father and so his son was never able to do the same either.Okonkwos death was truly unbelievable it was almost in one short sentence like i mentioned above that they said he had killed himself. It was not that suprising to me that he did it because he was a man of pride and stature and he would of never let any man who was less than him be the one to take his life.

Summer Work- The Remains of the Day

Part1- To mario's response my initial reaction towards Stevens was that he seemed to be so caring and a bit anal about his work because its a way for him to avoid his own inner conflicts. I feel if anyone were to ask stevens his opinion about himself his first response would be "i am a buttler" but the thing is that is a job description not who he is. His job has become routine and he cant hide behind it. So when Mr.Farraday suggests he should venture out on his own he almost laughed to himself but it seemed as though he was avoiding the fact that he is not self aware he is not truly sure who he is and to be asked to venture out with out his employer and being just stevens the man and not stevens the buttler was frightining to stevens because he would have to face a life with out the shelter hes always had from taking care of some one elses life.

Part2- In my opinion stevens is such a tricky character to grasp. He really confussed me with his actions towards Miss Kenton he has no real clue about how to interact with her he often has things to say about her flaws but always goes back to her in his mind. She gets under his skin in a way its almost as if being a buttler for so long has made him lose his ability to interact with those he is not serving. The fact that she wants so know what he is doing like about what book he was reading gets under his skin because he is used to being left alone and only bothered when needed i think stevens is convinced she has an angle for wanting to be close to him.

Part3- Hey I am so sad for stevens and proud of him at the same time it kills me that he could never look inside him self when the time came and see that Miss Kenton meant more to him than he had thought originally. And i think even he realized that he should have done things differently. Im proud of his decision to give up his profession and start a new life for himself. The Remains of the day was a sad story because he didnt get the girl like most books and movies the protagonist gets the girl but in the end i think stevens walked away with something more precious he left with his self worth, and with his life in his own hands and that was an amazing thing.

Summer Work-One Hundred Years of Solitude

Part 1- There is so much to talk about i cant choose one okay well first i would like to comment on Jose Arcadio Buendia he really is a leader. Mario had commented that he practically was the town. I agree its almost as if they made his character to sum up the town they live in. I would also like to comment on analus statement about the marrige of Aureliano Buendia and Remedios Moscote. I know that in times of the past old men marrying young women was a bit of a normalcy but im quite sure that at the time they married it wasnt even possible for her to have children. She herself was still technically a child. Also i dont understand how Remedios Moscote could truly be attracted and completly happy about marrying some one who had little to no womanly features. There is a large sense of pride in this book that i have noticed or a theme of pride which i feel could possibly be a tragic flaw for some characters in this novel.

Part2- Hey everyone i noticed one thing that there has to be some serious curse on them because no one can ever get what they want and can never get anything right death seems to be an occurance every step of the way its insane. I completley agree with dario this books has tons of reoccurences i feel like with every new generation there is another oppritunity for them to get it right but it nevers works out. For example its like every new generation is the soul of the ones before trying to undo their past mistakes but it never happens.I think its interesting they way Coronel Aureliano Buendias childrens deaths are mentioned first and then later on the author talks about their lives.

Part3- Well it think ill start with the ending i mean when the child died it was like the complete ending of this family it was the straw that broke the camels back it was what brought the complete and utter ending to the Buenida Family tree all those years of depression and suffering and even solitude were for nothing because in the end they never got to overcome it they all eventually lost the fight.