Considering the many brave, courageous people out in the world today, the few times that I took a stand seem pretty insignificant. But when I look at what I did and compare it to my life, my stands made a huge difference in my life. I think that my most memorable moment for taking a stand was when I stood up to my dad for not listening to my brother and I. This event may not sound very important, but the occurance of this stand made for a critical turnpoint in the relationship I now have with my dad.
My dad divorced my mom when I was in kindergarten and married his girlfriend the same week that the divorce was finalized between he and my mom. After spending 5 years with her, my dad divorced his wife and joined the sea as another single fish. Since then, he's been bringing girls in and out of mine and my brother's life. He gets a new girlfriend every few months and everytime he does, he says that she's "the one." But everytime they break up, he says that it was a mistake. Now he has a new girlfriend that he got at the beginning of this school year and he says that she's "the one." Although my brother and I usually try to get along with his girlfriends, this one is hard to deal with. She acts like one person in front of my dad and then a completely different person around us. She also says completely fake things about us to our dad to get us into trouble. How did we ever deal with such a woman?
One weekend, my brother and I were at our dad's for our normal every-other-weekend visit. Rather than spending all of his time with us, he wanted us to spend time with him AND his girlfriend. Well I can tell you right now that Chris and I did not want to spend our entire weekend with a woman we didn't like. So after we told our dad for 30 minutes that we didn't want to go, we were forced to go to her house. When we arrived, Chris and I sat on the couch in her house, saying nothing to anyone. Eventually, she got fed up with it and started yelling at my dad. My dad got fed up with us and told us to go sit in the truck. When he got into the truck, he was fuming mad. He was getting on to us all the way home. When we got home, he went to his room to cool down while Chris and I went to our rooms. Dad finally came into the same room as Chris and I and told us that we were going back to his girlfriend's house. After arguing with dad about it for a while, I called my mom to come pick us up because we didn't want to go to his girlfriend's house.
We went home after that. Taking a stand against my dad helped our relationship a lot because he now knows how serious we are about not spending all of our time with her.
Tuesday, January 19, 2010
Taking a Stand Part 1
There are many people in the world who take a stand every day. Those brave people stand up to others that keep them under wraps, whether its the leader of their country or just a group of friends. The group of people that I look up to for taking a stand are our Founding Fathers.
The colonists that lived here in the United States put up with a lot from the English king. They withstood many unfair taxes so the king and England could become richer. I look up to the colonists because they took a stand against their mother country for treating them unfairly.
When the colonists revolted against the British, the king didn't appreciate them standing up to him. He tried to quell their revolts, but the colonists' will was too strong. Our Founding Fathers wrote the Declaration of Independence to the king to tell him that they would no longer put up with the high, expensive, unfair taxation, they would be separating from England, and that they would no longer be a colony of England.
The colonists, considering what was at stake by their revolting, were very brave people at this critical point in history. Had these brave men and women let the British muffle their cries of freedom, where would we be today? We wouldn't be the strong, independent country we are today if the courageous colonists had not stood up to England and its unfairness.
The colonists that lived here in the United States put up with a lot from the English king. They withstood many unfair taxes so the king and England could become richer. I look up to the colonists because they took a stand against their mother country for treating them unfairly.
When the colonists revolted against the British, the king didn't appreciate them standing up to him. He tried to quell their revolts, but the colonists' will was too strong. Our Founding Fathers wrote the Declaration of Independence to the king to tell him that they would no longer put up with the high, expensive, unfair taxation, they would be separating from England, and that they would no longer be a colony of England.
The colonists, considering what was at stake by their revolting, were very brave people at this critical point in history. Had these brave men and women let the British muffle their cries of freedom, where would we be today? We wouldn't be the strong, independent country we are today if the courageous colonists had not stood up to England and its unfairness.
The Last Song Review
Have you ever been angry with one of your parents? Have you ever been so upset with them that you never wanted to speak to them again? For Ronnie, this resentment was so strong that she didn't speak to her dad three years after he left their family in New York to become a traveling concert pianist. So when her dad suddenly decides that he wants Ronnie and her younger brother Jonah to spend the summer with him in North Carolina, one can only imagine the bitterness she felt towards her dad. She didn't understand why he wanted them there, but she definitely would rather be back in New York. When she and Jonah arrive at their dad's house, Ronnie leaves to go walking. The people she encounters on that long walk will make Ronnie's summer bearable. They will help to give her a great summer filled with happiness and a dreadful summer with plenty to remember. Nicholas Sparks' The Last Song took me on an emotional thrill ride through feelings of anger to happiness to extreme sadness.
The style that Nicholas Sparks wrote in was different from many of the other books I've read. He describes characters, scenery, sound, and many other elements of the story with vivid descriptive words that make the reader feel as if they're really in the story. He describes better than any male author I've read. But his descriptions aren't the most interesting thing about this story. Even more appalling is that each chapter of the story is told by a different character. As you progress from one chapter to the next, the story is told by a different point of view. This clever tool of writing helps the reader understand the events of the story by knowing how every character feels about a certain situation.
The characters of Nicholas Sparks' The Last Song are very real, imaginable people that someone might see on the street. He describes their appearance and feelings so well that it seems as if you are knowing a real live person. The emotions shown by the characters are very common, believable feelings that make the characters seem even more real to the reader. The fact that Ronnie is a teenage girl angry with her father and falling in love makes it easy for me to relate to her.
The theme of The Last Song is forgiveness, but taking a stand is also incorporated into the story. Blaze, Ronnie's new friend in North Carolina, is controlled by her boyfriend, Marcus. She worships Marcus and does everything he tells her to. Whether its giving him her food while she goes hungry or asking her to spend the last of her money on him, Marcus asks Blaze to do some pretty sacrificial things. After Blaze gets jealous of Ronnie because Marcus is interested in her, she makes it appear that Ronnie was shoplifting so she would get into trouble with the police. But Blaze learned that Ronnie was a sweet, kind-hearted person that cared more about her that Marcus ever would, so Blaze stood up to Marcus by turning him in for a past crime.
Nicholas Sparks' The Last Song is an excellent book that i recommend to anyone who enjoys a touching, inspirational story of family, love, and forgiveness.
2 books--390 pages
The style that Nicholas Sparks wrote in was different from many of the other books I've read. He describes characters, scenery, sound, and many other elements of the story with vivid descriptive words that make the reader feel as if they're really in the story. He describes better than any male author I've read. But his descriptions aren't the most interesting thing about this story. Even more appalling is that each chapter of the story is told by a different character. As you progress from one chapter to the next, the story is told by a different point of view. This clever tool of writing helps the reader understand the events of the story by knowing how every character feels about a certain situation.
The characters of Nicholas Sparks' The Last Song are very real, imaginable people that someone might see on the street. He describes their appearance and feelings so well that it seems as if you are knowing a real live person. The emotions shown by the characters are very common, believable feelings that make the characters seem even more real to the reader. The fact that Ronnie is a teenage girl angry with her father and falling in love makes it easy for me to relate to her.
The theme of The Last Song is forgiveness, but taking a stand is also incorporated into the story. Blaze, Ronnie's new friend in North Carolina, is controlled by her boyfriend, Marcus. She worships Marcus and does everything he tells her to. Whether its giving him her food while she goes hungry or asking her to spend the last of her money on him, Marcus asks Blaze to do some pretty sacrificial things. After Blaze gets jealous of Ronnie because Marcus is interested in her, she makes it appear that Ronnie was shoplifting so she would get into trouble with the police. But Blaze learned that Ronnie was a sweet, kind-hearted person that cared more about her that Marcus ever would, so Blaze stood up to Marcus by turning him in for a past crime.
Nicholas Sparks' The Last Song is an excellent book that i recommend to anyone who enjoys a touching, inspirational story of family, love, and forgiveness.
2 books--390 pages
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