Stress factors into everything that happens in your day. It can provide the motivation you need to complete an important task, or it can be debilitating and block your goals. Stress is a huge issue in society and the largest issue is the lack of knowledge people have on it, and how it is sociologically stamped out as an unimportant topic. My capstone goal was study stress through a survey response system, and from various medical journals, and other credible sources.  

My initial goal was to drive an exchange of dialogue between myself and takers of my survey, however few were willing to respond. I received a total of 23 responses out of roughly 500. This was disheartening, but I quickly shifted my eyes toward existing studies and built the foundation knowledge to create an infographic. I began by detailing stress and methods to overcome it that people can use to their advantage.

Overall, I found that this setback worked for me in the end. I found that I learned far more with peer-reviewed medical journals and other materials that furthered my existing knowledge of the issue. The product I am left with are a survey, a paper, and an infographic. My capstone gave me an opportunity to dabble in fields of study I will likely encounter in college as a biochemistry major on a pre-professional track towards Physical Therapy.

This is how I imagine the ending should have happened. I begin with an excerpt from the final pages that serves as the end of a chapter. The chapter after, indicated by the 3 dots, is my new ending for the book.

Nicholas LePera

27 January 2016

McCarthy Unabridged: The Road, Page 287

. . .

It had been several weeks on the road traveling with his new family. The boy had still not fully accepted the passing of his father and he often woke in the night looking to see if he were there next to him. Each time he quickly brushed off the sadness knowing that this is where papa would want him to be.

The days lived out had hardly changed and he and the others ran the same procedures as before when scouring the wastes. Each creaking door, rustling leaf, and supposed footstep was analyzed and each item surveyed for use. While food continued to be scarce the group still found ways to make miracles out of each closely portioned meal. From time to time they encountered small bands of bandits, but only once were forced to take action.

As each day passed they settled the night in another town, village, or brush of foliage. The days slowly began to get warmer, signifying they were getting closer to what may be salvation. While hopes arose, they also had to prepare for the worst. For if there were to be salvation, there would certainly be villains ready to fight for it.

The boy sat for supper on the side of the road, as was customary. With nothing to clear his mind the boy looked to the sky once again and spoke to his father for the last time.

Rationale:

While Cormac McCarthy’s “The Road” is deemed a masterpiece by many, I feel as if the closure of the novel is not in an optimal state. The new family adopted by the boy is mysterious. The kindness shown by them goes to show trust, but can also be used for deception. As a reader I felt as if it was left unclear as to whether or not the boy was with a truly moral group. The state of their resources and whether they would make it or not was a topic that would often pilfer the satisfaction given by the book.

By rewriting and continuing the ending I was able to better tell the possible scenarios that they would encounter and their chances of surviving said encounters. This is something I know many may disagree with, but it is an acceptable uncanonical ending that still maintains the grim themes, and tone created by the vocabulary of McCarthy. The continuation of the basic survival procedures the man taught the boy go to reinforce one of a few motifs touched on in my piece. The tactics and caution of searching the environment for resources is one that buffers the proof that this world is almost certainly devoid of moral.

This continuation of procedures not only adds to the motif but also serves as evidence that the man succeeded in training and preparing this boy to live on without his father. While the boy is apart of a new family, he is not helpless and tasks himself with continuing life as his father taught him. This new group “carries the fire” despite not understanding the meaning of it. As a reader, fire is the hope, and ability to move on against all odds which is what they had done. The fire they held in their hearts allowed them to trek endless miles and scour in the hopes of finally catching up to what may be the last of the sane people left in this world.

When bringing the story to a close I use the boys speaking to his father’s spirit as a means of furthering the idea that the boy has rapidly matured and can survive on his own. Something that is mentioned often in the story is that thinking of the good ol’ times, or the past, is simply a means to your downfall. The boy had this pressed on him many times, and while he still loves his father, he finds it necessary to move on by removing these sentiments.

Reviewer: Nicholas LePera

“From his bedroom window Mikhail Zinoviev could see that the barn door was open. It was swaying backwards and forwards into the wind and snow was swirling into the barn”, the vivid description and imagery of Child 44.  The novel was written by Tom Rob Smith, and the book is outstanding, considering it is his first.  The mere thought of future books written by such a talented person is intriguing. Child 44 is followed by two others, The Secret Speech, and Agent 6. His first book, Child 44, was so well received that it is expected to receive a film adaptation. Get ready to see it hit the big screen! This book is not for the faint-of-heart. The harsh Russian winter is as unforgiving as its people. Murder, rape, and alcoholism has its members and you may not take kindly to sexual themes.

The thriller Child 44 takes place in the midst of post World War II in Soviet Russia. From reading history books, I went into this book knowing Stalin was a mad-man responsible for the deaths of millions of his own people. He was responsible for the harsh and villainous tactics used by the secret police. Extortion, murder, torture, and more. This knowledge gave me a fear when reading that something unexpected could happen to my favourite characters due to the type of world they live in.  During such an eventful point in time is why this story flourishes. The time and place of all events created by Tom Rob Smith accurately correlate with the methods of the secret police and the propaganda used by the State to coerce people to following a maniac’s goal.  Agents huddled around the radiator of their GAZ automobile struggling to stay warm as they progress towards a farm they plan to raid has a militaristic feel to it that made me feel the brotherly feel among the crowd but also the connection to the dark deeds these men have done.  From Moscow, to Rostov, circumstances change, not all fear is the same and characters fit the living environment they are in through their dialogue to their actions.

In the boots of lead character, Leo Demidov is an MGB agent, also known as the secret police, which is responsible for carrying out Stalin’s orders. As the reader is introduced to Leo, they will find out his past is not exactly as obvious as one might hope.  His job was to blame crimes upon people who had done nothing.  Falsely placing claims and torturing confessions are the specialty of men such as Leo. The victims, taken from their rooms in the night, all traces of them gone. Nobody bats an eyelash, for if they do, they may be next. These are historical events that tie in with Tom Rob Smith’s main character, Leo who has put all of his faith in the state and lives to serve loyally. His loyalty stretches back as far to the time of being a soldier in the Red Army, it would only make sense for Leo to join the Ministry of State Security  One day events begin to take place which make their way to Leo’s attention causing him to challenge his belief in the state. He is married to a teacher named Raisa, though the marriage isn’t exactly working out. Though he cannot realize why, state deception has cast his mind away from his eyes so he cannot realize what he is doing.  Smith ties in the feeling of the harsh Russian environment through immersing the reader in its weather, but also in its appearance as a Communist nation ruled by fear. You will breathe and feel every city block, every farm, and path traveled by Leo.  From the streets of the Lubyanka to the slums of Rostov-on-don, Smith provides the reader a complete Russian geographic. As more and more events spawn onto the drawing table, Leo becomes baffled. Everything he has been taught and has believed is being disproved in a matter of days. I felt attached, as if I had been in his shoes and I was there for the battle to make a decision on what to do next. Struggling to figure out the truth, he begins to investigate these mysterious murders. We as readers are brought along in the journey, ever present yet ever distant to the story we are enveloped by.

The people he originally arrested had no correlation to these events. Leo knows this for a fact, but is hesitant to disobey the all-knowing state. Each murdered child he has come across has had the same exact autopsy report on how they were killed, surely this was no coincidence. Amongst the chaos, the protagonist is tested by the state. His rivals have given him a test, denounce his wife as a spy. For days Leo debates on the possibilities. Is his lover a spy for the West? He finds himself on the streets with his wife, Raisa, banished from Moscow.

Having been demoted for failing to denounce his wife, the couple finds themselves on their own and Leo at a disadvantage in solving the mystery at large, the murderer. He must conduct his operations in secret and find a way to bring the madman responsible to justice.  The reader may attempt to read this book and infer possible outcomes and scenarios by judging the book in comparison to other shows and books, but each one shall fail.

Within the pages of this book are vast amounts of mysteries and details making it impossible for you to draw conclusions but yet remain entertained. With countless history books, texts, and documentaries, Smith created the most historically accurate fiction of all time.

Searching for answers to his question, Leo will meet new people. What fate will he face in the harsh and barren cold of such an unforgiving land? Leo must redeem himself, for his wife, Raisa. Living a life of lies only makes it harder to search for the truth.

Book: Child 44        Author: Tom Rob Smith        Publisher: Grand Central Publishing

  Date Published: 2008        Pages: 400          Genre: Thriller         Language: English  

Pre-workout kicks in and I’m ready to make all kinds of gains.  Where do I start? Light cardio on the stair-master to maintain my vascularity during bulking season. Depending on the day, after cardio it’s time hit up my first compound workout.  See my friend Ahmed and give him the gym greeting, “Get shredded or die mirin’ brah”.  I proceed to my next workout.  

It’s not long after January first and the new people are rushing in.  All sorts of people with their “resolutions” that have been our everyday. They come in taking selfies, and acting hard to their friends because they can do a few pounds more than them.  Then the “not-bads” who are just a bit too self-conscious are scattered around.  I was once like them, fat, scared, unconfident  Were they bullied, or unliked? Will they find inspiration soon? The sort of inspiration I found will provide for a life time. Zyzz and Kai Greene, the two most inspiring figures bodybuilding has seen, with two completely different types of physiques.

Life is not life if you are too well-behaved, or scared to be yourself. No matter who you are or what you want to do you will be down-talked.  No matter how big your dream, or how big the path you’re going down, there will be haters. Letting these people bring you down doesn’t make sense. Our lives are too short and we need to chase our dreams while we’re still in our prime. It pays off to be done sooner rather than later. As Zyzz said, “We’re all gonna make it bro.”  

When you talk to someone they don’t dislike you at first. Except when they find out you want to be a bodybuilder. Then they hate you, because your dreams make them feel inferior. They aren’t dreaming big or even dreaming at all. They’ll come at you saying it’s just a dream, and dreams don’t come true. To this you must quote Kai, “ Trust me when I say this dreams do come true and if a man doesn’t have a dream, he has nothing to work for, no reason to get up in the morning, no reason or purpose to be.”  Once said they’ll be astonished and their hate intensified because they failed to bring you down.  You are a warrior, and you will keep fighting for the dream no matter what obstacles you face.  The reward at the end of the road is worth more than any amount of money, than any car, or any tv show.  The dream doesn’t occupy all 24 hours of the day and seven days of the week, you still have time for the shows, friends, and video games.  Just make sure you are making progress towards the dream.

Nothing of value ever comes easy, so you need to work hard, that is what life is about after all.  Many people would look at me and who I am and think I’m a “douchebag” or “fat-hater” but I’m not.  There have been so many times when people first meet me and they think I have all kinds of things going on and they like to tell me the reason I go to the gym is because I’m making up for something else. They do this thinking I started skinny and I’ve only gained a bit of weight. These people think I don’t know what it is like to be fat, they judge me on my current look and don’t bother to look at my past, instead they fill in my past with their imagination and try to make it reality.  

When I see fat people or skinny people at the gym I am joyed.  People are slowly becoming themselves regardless of what other people say. They made the change and the only way for me to dislike somebody is if they gave me a good reason to. That’s the way it is for any real person. I am human, I have faults too, I once came down the same road as you, it’d be hypocritical for me to hate you.  I only look at those outside the gym who are skinny and those who are fat and say to myself, I don’t understand why people limit themselves to such a normal life style. They aren’t really following the dream. Everyday is the same for them.  In my mind I think to the first quote from Zyzz that made my mind start thinking,

"Everybody, one day will die, and be forgotten. Act and behave in a way that will make life interesting and fun, fuck a mundane predictable life working Monday to Friday with something you derive no pleasure from; just living life out till you grow old and wither away. Find a passion, form relationships, don't be afraid to get out there and fuck what everyone else thinks, trust me it’s a lot more fun that way.  Don’t ever pay people out or put people down. Instead just put yourself up and let the haters do their thing. I’d rather be a person that's hated on, than a person that does the hating. A wise man once said… “Haters gonna hate!"

No matter how I act or how I look, I’ll still be judged, and I am fine with it. I’m living my life, and I’m happy.