the meaning of this essay is to dive into the idea mindset of people who go the hardship of war. Not much else to say but hopefully you enjoy my essay.

War and violence are things that can drastically change a person for better or worse. Thought usually it’s for the worse and that leads to a multitude of other problems. It teaches us who’s hiding something deep within that they themself didn’t even know existed. Violence Teaches us how to react when attacked and how will you respond when they point fingers to figure out who to blame. War teaches us how one tiny battle can blow up to the point it drags everyone and thing till there's nothing left but an empty hollow of what was. In the classic lyrics of ‘’War’’ by Edwin Starr ‘’War...huh….what is it good for? Absolutely Nothin’’.

Some people stay haunted by their past decisions and it can become a life wrecker. Whether or not it’s from guilt, or some suppressed memory they’ve kept locked away for a long time finally coming back to light. These haunting memories can lead to depression, suicide or a long life of self loth and hate towards one’s self. Like Norman Bowker, a man who felt like there was nothing left for him. In the book of ‘’The things they carried’’ by Tim O'brien, he committed suicide at a YMCA and had left a seventeen page hand written letter saying how he couldn’t find meaning. When Bowker was writing ‘’If I die in a combat zone’’ it brought back a lot of memories of his time in vietnam and one of the biggest being the death of his best friend Kiowa. He would constantly blame himself for his death, believing that he caused it with his flashlight looking at a picture of his (Ex) girlfriend during the time. Leading to a mortar hitting the mud, water and shit feld their crew were camped in and Kiowa being sucked into the ground beneath.

Going back into the idea that war changes a person is a very interesting topic and a quite difficult one. The difficult part of it is the question of ‘’were they always like this?’’ or was it the environment that shaped what they would become? Then that's where the interest comes in because your hooked and now you just need to know or you won’t get sleep or even rest. If we say environment then the conditions are what come to mind. Could it be the weather of the area that stings the mind from overbearing heat or bone freezing cold? or maybe it’s the constant annoying animals and insects that never shut up day and night keeping your mind in neverending noise? But if we go by the war itself then it’s easier to figure and understand (from an outside view). A close death encounter could change your view on the world like you take it easy or try to find that thrill again. That or being on the front line of the fighting and seeing the many horrors war can bring to you in one place.

It’s all this that cause people to change from good people to just death wanting husks of their former selves. These horrible and disturbing moments truly twist the way you view the world and make you realize that life isn’t as peaceful as you once thought. So whenever you see a homeless vet or a vet with PTSD think twice before you immediately demonize them. Because they seen and done things that still haunt them to this day and did things you would never do. Respect to the VETs and thank god for your service.       

Sources: ‘’The things they carried’’ by Tim O'brien

Identity is something very sacred to mankind as a whole. It's a way for us to separate each other and stand out proud and loud. It’s a way to make it that when we die that we did exist! we did live! we lived through pain, through sadness, through hardship, and when we die, remember the best and worst of our lives. But, the idea of identity in death would soon fade. You see, death was something that got overlooked a lot before technology came around. Newspaper and other sources would talk about it but it would just feel like a everyday thing with no true meaning. As time went on death had started to fade in thoughts through entertainment or just the busy bodies of the world and work place. But, with the rise of social media and online networks like facebook, twitter, snapchat and instagram as quoted from the New York times article ‘’Ghosts in the machine’’ by Jenna Wortham ‘’The near pervasiveness of social technology has delivered death back into our daily interactions.’’. Thanks to the these social media sites you are always reminded of death. It could come from anywhere a friend, family, love one or even a actor/actress you like.   

While others would not want it that way and would do anything to not be themselves. Some People sooner forget who they used to be and wear the mask of someone else or even live a persona they made up. No one really knows why some people want to do this or even what can cause this want, on the surface that is. If we were to dive deeper into someone’s psyche we would find that it could be due to some form of self hate, abuse or even pride. With pride it’s because of making up the idea of a greater person. Let’s use ‘’The Great Gatsby’’ as an example of using a made up person to get farther away from oneself. Using the main man of the story himself, Gatsby. Gatsby was a very smart, rich, cunning and outrageous character with many things making him the most memorable out of all the characters in the book. But, this was nothing more than a fake mask he wore to empress the woman he loved so much that his very mansion was right across the waters from where she lived. He made up this character so well and so mysterious that everyone just ended up making stories up about him like how one of his maids says this ‘’Somebody told me he killed a man once.’’ and for it to be followed up by another woman saying ‘’Oh no,’’ said the first girl, ‘’it couldn’t be that, because he was in the American army during the war.’’.

All the stories told were lies and over ex duration. He was nothing more than a poor man who built himself up rich and due to his building of the character people had never really got a description of what he looked like, only what he acted like. All they ever did was come to his house for his open parties and when he died not a single person from those parties came to his funeral.

Death in Identity is being completely forgotten from the face of the Earth. Something we all want to avoid at all times. Life is hard as it is and no one wants to die and just get forgotten like some lost toy. That's we try so hard to live our lives to the fullest and do the craziest things so were remembered for the outlandish things we did. That is the importance of understanding Death in Identity.  

Hi, welcome to my essay. The goal I set for this was to just get it done and be at least somewhat satisfied. This is not my best work and is in fact my least favorite of my work. But, the show must go on and maybe someone will think its great. So kick back relax and enjoy the show.

It was all new to me and something I thought would never happen. I had never been on an airplane before. But my parents say I have been on one before when I was a baby going to Puerto Rico to visit my dad’s side of the family. It was something I don’t really remember because I was so young at the time. I was excited and nervous because I don’t like planes and I have a love/hate relationship with heights. But once we got in the air everything went fine and I enjoyed the flight to the Bahamas. Being in a whole new region was fun and interesting to see how everything was placed and what they did there. On the second day there, we went to the beach in the Atlantis hotel and it was very beautiful.  

As I stood on the sand in the Bahamas I could feel the warm breeze on my skin. The sand so soft and oddly not as sticky as the sand we have at ocean city or wildwood. My first beach in a place I have never been to before. The water was so clear I could actually see the bottom of the sandy floor and it had a beautiful green and blue shine to it. But, the birds there were not afraid to get close to people. Especially if they had food near them or in their hands. One time we were eating at one of the many restaurants at the beach and a seagull was hovering over my mom’s head. After my dad swiped the seagull away, my mom replied by saying ‘What? What's wrong?’. The experience at the bahamas was something I could never forget and I hope to go back soon one day. There was so much we did there that made the entire trip worth it. Even if it was ridiculously priced It was still a fun time.  

But before that there was a trip I liked up until the near end. 3 years, ago we went to Virginia for the first time as a family. We went to busch gardens, a water park and enjoyed our time at the hotel that also had a fire alarm incident. There were three places we wanted to go to busch gardens as mention, water country was also the water park I said earlier and colonial Williamsburg. The water park was not fun and was very cramped. The lines were long, we did have anywhere to drop our stuff. When we finally found out that there was more in the back we moved over. But, before we could start finally having fun it started to rain and storm hard. But, there was a sign at the start of the day that gave me the idea that it wasn’t going to be that great a day. We went to one of many fun family dinners that can’t be found sadly in philly anymore. After eating we were about to drive when my dad found out we had a flat tire and we had to call a truck to tow was to get it repaired. On the day before we left we went to Colonial Williamsburg to see what it looked like. It was the LEAST fun day we had the entire trip if you asked me while my parents would tell you they love it. It had lots of walking, the sun was high in the sky and burning with no real cover. Worst part was the end when it started to rain and we had to walk all the way to a gocart so we could get near the giftshop and leave.

That was an experience that took the fun and joy out of the second to final day of the Virgina trip. It would considered a bad experience of the trip even though I still walked away knowing the trip had so much more to offer. Sometime life gives you a good experience like the Bahamas and others they give you a little bit of a bad experience. A experience can really leave an impression on what you do or what you might not again because of your experience last time. The experience at the Bahamas was new and it was an experience That I want to do again one day. While the Virgina one gave me a good experience at the start but the ending was something that could have been better. Maybe next time will be better and I have more fun.

Voting with a taste of decay

Voting is one way that people choose who gets all the power without using any sort of violence. It's a way to select someone who the people believe has both the skill and mind to lead. Although sometimes it just becomes a beauty show where people just pick who looks the best and sounds the smartest out of the other candidates. It could goes as far as kids just raising their hands and saying ‘’yeah that guy looks good’’. So one must ask himself, how does voting affect who gets the power? The answer is that there are many different ways to vote that lead to different outcomes.

The voting situation in Lord of the Flies by William Golding is very easy compared to other ways of voting used nowaday. A simple raising of hands for the one that should lead the boys who have no adults there to lead. The obvious person to lead is Jack, because he was the leader of the choir and he is older than most of the boys on the island. But there's something about Ralph that makes everyone vote for him instead. The narrator says, ‘’While the most obvious leader was Jack. But there was a stillness about Ralph as he sat that marked him out: there was his size, and attractive appearance; and most obscurely, yet powerfully, there was the conch.’’ (22). The boys voted for Ralph off his appearance that gave off a more powerful leader than Jack and because he held the conch that rallied them all together which they turned into a symbol of power.    

Having an anonymous ballot makes a vote possible for people who aren’t comfortable with others knowing who they voted for. It takes the stress off of people’s shoulders by having a ballet that nobody knows who voted for who. For example, the American voting process has a voting system called secret ballots. This is what people normally use to vote without their information being shown outside and personal info compared to other voting systems. Some states like the United States do this as well like United Kingdom, France, New zealand and Australia. ‘’The voting boxes are required to be of certain dimensions and closed, the only aperture being a small slit at the top.’’ by the encyclopedia Britannica which provides lots of information on different voting and political things. Though the box method has changed a little since then, but the box method is still used in certain places like school. Nowadays we use computers that have tarpes around them so people can’t see who your voting for and have questions like, what do you support? Does this law seem fair?. This style has made the Box method much more anonymous and stress relieving than ever before. If the boys had a type of voting method like this they wouldn’t have so much guilt on their shoulders and feel bad about that guilt.         

Elections can even be persuaded by fear of some sort. There are many types of fear that make people vote a certain way. A fear of corruption, a fear of invasion of privacy, or a fear of losing freedom can make a voter feel very stressed about who they should vote for and even cause some chaos. Jack uses the fear of the beast to have the boys vote for him to be chief instead of Ralph, and tries to make the boys believe that he isn't afraid of the beast when in reality he is just as scared as they are. But he doesn’t show it, so they believe in his words and think he truly isn’t afraid of the beast. To turn the boys to his side he starts by stating they hadn’t caught the beast that night and Ralph called the hunters ‘’no good’’. ’’The next thing is that we couldn’t kill it. And the next is that Ralph said my hunters are no good.’’(126). Then he tries to make him look worse by saying that Ralph said they were cowards. ‘’Ralph thinks you're cowards, running away from the boar and the beast.’’(126). To top it all off he uses the dislike of piggy to unite the boys to choose a new chief. ‘’He’s like piggy. He says things like piggy. He isn’t a proper chief.’’(126). After trying to turn the crowd against Ralph, he holds a vote to see who still wants Ralph to be chief. It backfires because everyone felt awkward at how serious he was and the only response was silence. Angry he runs away from the group crying from the embarrassment. The way he tried to turn the boys is very similar to how some candidates will take things other candidates had said and twist it to their favor. They will even go as far as to use dead voters to increase their votes or mess with the voting system by increasing their votes and decreasing their pants.          

So does voting affect who gets power? Yes. Different voting systems can lead to someone getting the power and making the rules. Whether they got it fair and square or cheated and blackmailed their way to the top, the type of voting and types of candidates affects who wins and who loses. But as the story goes on, and things start to get crazy, voting starts to lose its purpose and the boys start to split into two different tribes that focus on different things. Lord of the Flies is a good example of different types of tactics that people will use to get power. Everyone starts to careless about what the others think, which leads to a big conflict at the end. This decides who truly leads the island, and who really is the sore loser. Over the course of time, things change for better or for worse. But people start to see things clearly as the problems start to show themselves and things fall apart some problems take time to sort themselves out or people will unite to fix a problem.  

Work cited

1. Golding, William Lord of the flies. New York: Penguin, 2006

In 2016, my family planned to go Virginia for four days. During the summer we started to get everything set and in the month of August we left. We went to a very big and cool hotel that was pricey but worth it. On the first day there, we got settled in the room that the hotel gave us and began to get  ready to see what they had. We found this place called Busch Gardens which is a hotspot of activities and different cultural themed areas. So my family and I went to try the place out and see what it had to offer.

The entertainment system is a very big part of the world. What we usually do is go to the beach but we wanted to try something new and see if we would like it. We didn’t want to go somewhere off land and on an island because it takes too long and cost too much.

When we arrived,  we took a family photo to remember our first moments. The first ride we got on was called ‘’Pompeii’’. It is a huge water ride that looks almost like a log flume but with more effects and and a scarier drop. Day one we really did nothing and just went around half of busch gardens, got on some rides, ate some food and enjoyed the day.  On day two, we woke up to the wonderful sound and rhythm of a fire alarm. We still don’t know what triggered it but that gave me an idea of what type of day was ahead of us.

Then next we went and got breakfast which was great but after we left, we had to pull over because our car broke down. The next few minutes, maybe 12 minutes tops, the repair man comes and fixes our broken down car. Later we went to the water park and that's when things got worse.

The park was crowded but not so much you couldn’t move. Just too many people in the area. There was nothing to really do thanks to the many people in line and in the water. When we learned that there was a back part to the park by the time we were actually having fun A GIANT STORM CAME AND WE HAD TO LEAVE. We waited in our car for an hour because everyone was leaving at the same time because of the storm and we got really hungry. We didn’t eat there cause the lines were packed and the food didn’t look good.

At the end we just had enough of how bad a day were having we just decided to go to Busch Gardens and eat at the Smorgasbord. The food was good and we even got to see a show as we ate so that made the day better. We ended the day off with something right and it fixed everything that had happened before.

The entertainment system has ups and downs. We had lot’s of fun in Busch Garden and Williamsburg. Downs that set us back were the alarm at the hotel, the dead battery in the car and the rain storm at the water park. But that didn’t ruin the experience of the vacation. Many people chose different places to have a vacation and sometimes they work other times they don’t.    

In my last two I talked about what Autism is and what slightly helps it. In my final post I will be talking about who is helping promote it as much as I am. Then I would love to describe how I felt when I did my ‘’agent of change’’ for my cause. My ‘’agent of change’’ was something that will show lot’s of love and support for something right and doesn’t feel like a bad thing. It will be on thursday June 1st and was on the memo so I hope lot’s of people wear the colors.

The best time to show your love and support for Autism is ‘’ Autism awareness month ’’. It takes place on April 1st to April 30th just incase no one knew what month it was. ‘’ Autism speaks ‘’ is one of many other Autism organizations that help support Autism. During this month they set little places parents can go to and have fun and talk to other parents that have the same problems as them and get some advice. It’s very nice and every year they have national monuments glow blue to show their support and some people do the same with light bulbs outside their house.

On the day of my ‘’agent of change’’ I felt happy. It was nice to walk around with the colors of Autism and feel like I was supporting even if I wasn’t a part of the real help. Many other people also wore the colors to help and show support for Autism. It really was fun to wear my Autism shirt and it was like the superman one in the image I used for this post. Some of my teachers also wore colors as well to help show support for Autism and help with me was what really made me happy.

Lot’s of articles say a early education is a smart so in the future they don’t develop any learning problems and I agree because that's what my parents did with me and it helped a lot. A fact I found on a website called oregonlive.com says that if one identical twin has Autism the other identical has a chance of getting it too from 36 to 95 percent of the time. For non-identical twins the one without Autism has a 0 to 31 percent chance of having it as well. It also states that if parents who have a child with Autism are 2-18 percent chance of getting another child with Autism.

What I learned from this project was that if I want to make a change or some lot’s of support for something close to me I have to say it loud and proud and think smart about it. This project was very fun and close to me for helping me express the life of Autistic families and what they go through for their loved ones. I wanna say thank you to those read these post and help show support for Autism in any way, shape or form you see fit. I hope you enjoyed these blog posts and I hope you smooth sailings to wherever you see fit.  

In my last post I talked mainly about facts and some percentages of Autism affect. I would like to dive more into this subject by expanding the facts. Thanks to my survey on Autism and the response I gained helped me with my project and I thank them. So I would like to talk about the responses first and talk about my new made research after I talk about my survey.

The responses to my Autism survey have really given me a great look at how people care and think about Autism. The vast majority know one or two or three and some even know 20 to 30 people with Autism or more. Many thought that the National rate of Autism was 1 in 39 but it’s actually 1 in 67, but, many also chose 1 in 82 or 1 in 99. They also picked 16% of people with Autism in the world but it’s actually 1% of people have Autism in the world. The 16% had the most people pick it. The true or false question is where many get divided. 38.3% thought it was true and 61.7% thought it was false. The real answer is ‘’false’’ because you have to ask the insurance companies to pay for it and 50% won’t pay for it. The scale chart was very pleasing to look at to see 21.3% of people feel strongly towards Autism and 34% are close to that 21.3% of people. But 40.4% of people feel neutral towards Autism and that's alright. But, what caught me off guard was the 4.3% of people who felt that Autism wasn’t that big of a deal. The yes, no, maybe question is by far one of my favorite ones. What surprised me was that 10.6% of people said ‘’maybe’’ to the idea of Autism getting more support and the ones that said yes were about 89.4. Through this survey, I have learned that many people know about Autism and help support.           

People who have Autism don’t look any different from anyone else. They just act, talk, learn, and think differently from others. Some people with Autism have different measurements to how much help they will need which goes from gifted to severely challenged. Some signs someone has Autism is by avoiding eye contact, having trouble understanding other people’s feelings or talking about their own feelings, repeating actions over and over again and having unusual reactions to the way things smell, taste, look, feel, or sound. These facts were found on CDC which is a disease learning website.

There is no cure for Autism as of right now. But there are many therapy sessions you can go to and try to raise them different to decrease the chance of serious symptoms. There's something called ‘’early intervention‘’ which is when you give your child therapies. It involves many different types of therapies including occupational and physical. Therapist will come to the house to give the child a safe environment and because they are young and still don’t trust unfamiliar faces. Info from PA DHS and  Child Mind Institute.

I am doing a project where we choose a problem and find a way to let everyone hear about it. I hear many people have chose to do things that affect an area or an event. I wanted to do something else and talk about something that affects people all around the world. I chose Autism because it's something very important and need a lot more support, and people talking about it spread for help. I hope I can help spread the word and have people show their support and love towards kids with Autism so we can embrace it, not run away from it or shun it because it's “weird”.    

I feel very strongly towards this topic because I have Autism and I want people to know about it and help to support it. It something that can really hold children back their whole life because of it’s effect it has on people. A fact I found on a very reliable source called Autism speaks which says Autism is one of the fastest-growing developmental disorders in the U.S. How it works is Autism impacts the normal development of the brain in the areas of social interaction, communication skills, and cognitive function. Individuals with autism typically have difficulties in verbal and nonverbal communication, social interactions, and leisure or play activities and I found this at the national Autism association. A fact I found in Autism society is More than 3.5 million Americans live with an autism spectrum disorder. This is something that hasn’t found a cure as of yet and many have tried to get rid of it in different. Some crazy mothers have tried bleach pills because a long time ago someone said that it worked..which it didn’t it only damaged the baby more and possibly killed a few as well. A very interesting fact I found on quick Autism facts is if one identical twin has autism then there is an 80-90% chance that the other twin will also be diagnosed with an autism spectrum disorder. Autism was originally believed to be a form of schizophrenia brought on by a traumatic experience or bad parenting this is not the case. It also costs more than $8,600 extra per year to educate a student with autism. Between 30-50% of people with autism have seizures and this is scary to know about. Scientists are unsure what, if any, environmental triggers may be involved in autism. Beliefs in the late 1990s and early 2000s that vaccines may cause autism have since been disproven through numerous studies. Boys are nearly five times more likely than girls to have autism (And seems fair right?). Autism costs a family $60,000 a year on average that is pretty hard to find that out. I hope my facts help show you how Autism works, how it affects people and how they react to it without understanding it. I plan to use my research to help express my project and what I’m trying to tell about Autism and Autistics.