Can Your Life Change?

Going to the beach is supposed to be fun. You are supposed to have the time of your life. Swimming, hanging out with your friends or family, playing beach volleyball, going out afterwards, and so many other things that you can do at  beach, that makes that a day you can never forget. Wearing all shorts or swimwear, with flip-flops, is a look for the beach. Everyone at the beach will be wearing those. Me? I try to avoid the beach as much as possible. Up to a certain point, I am okay with the beach. When we get to the flip-flops part, I start to hate it. It’s an embarrassment to me when people see what I have on my foot. Trying to hide something, that can’t be hidden is almost impossible. Digging and dragging your feet in the sand isn’t as fun as it may sound. Coming up with different ways to hide, becomes a challenge for me and surely not a fun one. People start to look at you like you’re crazy, and you can’t stop trying to hide, but if you did they will see what you don’t want them to see.

Some may see what you’re hiding, and they may come up to you and ask, but that makes it even more difficult. It will reveal your history.

I always enjoyed history, and the things it tells you about your past. I know many people who couldn’t care less about your history, but then again who am I to judge. I love how one little detail can tell you hundreds of little things. In everyday life you can’t do that. As the saying goes, don’t judge a book by it’s cover. In history, “judging a book by it’s cover” can happen, and does happen a lot, but at the end, the real story is found. In real life people, “judge books by their covers” a lot. They see a person, and automatically make an assumption about them, even though they don’t know the real story behind that person.

I’m seventeen years old and have experienced much things that played a role in shaping my life, even though there’s more ahead of me.  At the age of seven, I made a big mistake that today I can’t change. Though I can change it’s appearance, I can’t change the experience that it carried.  

I can’t remember much things before the age of four, but I can remember most things after that age. I do remember that I was outgoing and was someone who always got in trouble. That would change very soon. I would become someone who is a completely different person from  that  “outgoing kid”.

Waking up early in a spring morning is beautiful. Just like every saturday, I woke up, did my usual morning routine, and headed outside to play with my friends. That morning, most of my friends had not come out, and the only people that were outside was one of my friend, and his little sister. I joined them and we started talking about what had happened the day before. The day before we had gotten in trouble at school and we talked about how everything that had happened was very unfair. One thing after another, and we moved the conversation into toys. I had recently gotten a new toy and my friend had not seen it. His sister went inside their house, and he came into my house. We started looking at my new toy, then we started playing around the house. I had not eaten breakfast before I got out so my mom asked us what we wanted for breakfast. My friend didn’t want anything because he had already ate, but I asked for scrambled eggs. My mom went into the kitchen and started cooking. We started to play again. As we started to play I heard my mom say,

“Don’t go in the kitchen.”

Even though she did say that, I didn’t listen. Right after she said that my little sister came up to us and said,  

“Can I play with you guys?”

We didn’t want to, so we started to run around the house and my little sister chasing after us. It became a game. Our first thought was go in the kitchen, because for some unknown reason my little sister was scared to go in the kitchen. I hid next to an open space near the oven, while my friend hid in the pantry closet. My sister couldn’t come in the kitchen because she was scared, so she ran back to her room. We both heard her leave, so we both got out of our hiding spaces, and tried to get back to our game. My friend got out and was head towards my room, I was dusting myself off from being next to the oven. As I walked towards exiting the kitchen, something poked my arm. As I turned around to see what it was, my eyes caught a pan dropping to the floor. My arm had hit the pan. As the pan dropped I felt something wet on my foot and on my sock, it was the oil that was inside the pan. I instantly thought I was in trouble. Than I felt the sizzling oil, sneak up on me. It was excruciatingly hot, and very painful. I ran around the house screaming and crying. My friend was frozen in place, wondering what he could do. My mom heard me and she ran after me, telling me  

“Everything is fine!”

She thought I was scared of getting in trouble. She didn’t know what had happened. I couldn’t speak. My ability to speak was muted by the pain of what had happened. My friend had broken out of the frozen state, and explained to my mom what had happened, while I was still screaming and running around.

My mom had called my dad, so we could go to the hospital. He was the only one who could get me there. He had the car. My dad was the calm one, he was able to calm both me and my mom down. On the way to the hospital, I was in the back seat of the car, and still crying from the pain. While he was driving, my dad was also trying to calm me down, and check up on me. When I got to the hospital, I began to feel as the whole world was going to end. I don’t like hospitals, if there was a way for hospitals not to exist I would be the first person to agree with it. The doctors rushed me into the emergency room, and that was the last thing I saw . I didn’t see what the doctors did to me, I don’t remember the room, I don’t remember the doctor's faces, I don’t remember the way the hospital looked. Everything I had was focused on one thing and one thing only, the never ending pain.

I remember suddenly opening my eyes, and the first thing I wanted to see was my leg. I wanted to see if it was real. My foot was wrapped around with bandages and I realized that everything I remembered had really happened.

For the next few weeks I couldn’t put my heel down, I was too afraid to. The right foot always took steps on it’s toes. I still had to go to the doctors and they checked my foot once every week. Before the bandages got put on, the doctor rubbed a medicine on the burn and that made the bandages stick to the foot. Every week I was scared to go to the doctor because of the pain the medicine caused.

For two months I couldn’t do anything. The doctors told me I couldn’t go to school, which meant I would stay home even after school was over.

As days passed, my foot started to get better, and I began to walk normally again. I began doing things like I used to, I even got cleared from the doctor that I could play soccer, and I could do all the things I used to before. Things got better.

One of the most beautiful days I have ever seen, turned to one of the most horrible and horrific days for me. Everything that happened also reminds me of a book I have read. A book about war and soldiers journey called “The Things They Carried” strangely reminds me of my story. In the book some of the soldiers have a hard time adapting to their normal lives after the war, and the main character doesn’t have any trouble adapting at all. After everything that happened I had trouble going back to one hundred percent of me. Which is why today I try to hide my scar from people, and stay away from active kitchens. What happened that day, I will always remember as life changing.

Today, people live lives on their own terms, and don’t really care much for others. The same goes for governments/nations. Governments try to do what’s right for their own, and try to block everything else. However, that is impossible to do, especially in today’s economy, where a nation can not run without a trade market that connects them to the fate of other nations. In today’s trade nations created a currency which helps them trade easily, and that currency is the US dollar (USD). In today's economy, the value of the dollar is affected more by the situation in other regions than it is by the United States. As a result, the fate of the United States lies upon other countries/nations.

As one of the most developed countries in the world, the United States has one of the highest GDP per capita of any country. But the United States also is one of the highest debtors in the world. According to the World Bank, in 2013 the government debt of the United States had a 96.1% of GDP, while China had no debt, and Switzerland had less than 24% of GDP. This means that in the United States, the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) which is $16.77 trillion, 96.1% of that, is equal to the debt the US has to other countries. Because of the debt that the US has to other countries, the dollar is losing its value. The currency is not as valuable because the government/currency is “working” for the debt. If other countries were high debtors, like the United States, then the value of the dollar, would not be at risk. According to the World Bank, in 2006 Switzerland had a debt of 33.7% of GDP, while the United States had a debt of 55.3% of GDP, the debts are not the same, but as years passed, Switzerland decreased its debt while the United States debt went through the roof. The situation becoming better for other countries, meant the situation becoming worse for the United States.

The US Dollar (USD)  is held in significant quantities by governments and institutions as part of their foreign exchange reserves. This makes the dollar the most important currency in the world. Many situations are happening across the world, which is causing doubts about the USD being the reserve currency, and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) to think about the options they have, if they have to remove the USD as the reserve currency. According to Forbes, "If every nation sold their supply of dollars at the same time, the market would be flooded with dollars, which could cause its value to plummet. This would cause inflation to spike.” The USD can keep being the strongest currency, as long as other nations don’t think about themselves, but think about the USD, and that is very unlikely because every nations wants to survive and thrive. The USD will fall when, other nations get involved, and sell their supply of the USD, causing the value of the USD to crash.

Until 1971, the USD was a currency that was backed up by gold. That meant that every penny that the US owned, there was an amount of gold equal to that penny. Which made it a strong currency, and one of the reasons it was chosen as a reserve currency. According to International Monetary Fund (IMF), the USD is the top currency circulating in the trade market, and the Euro coming close second. As other nations are realizing the debt and value of the dollar, and how it is not backed up by gold, they will soon try to sell their supply of USD and the USD will crash. Realizing that the Euro and the Yen are rising above the USD, will cause the USD to plummet. An article written by The Voice of Reason about the USD says, “The whole world knows that we are much worse off than Greece as the planet’s largest debtor.” Greece is in a lot of debt, that accumulated over years, and the way money was spent for the Greek government led to Greece coming to default. Economists say that it will never be able to get out of debt. If the situation is really bad in Greece, then the United States will fall even harder, if other nations like China, Switzerland, Great Britain, and many others grow and improve their economy.

Most downfalls come from own mistakes, but some downfalls come from the rise of power in others. That is the case, that the USD might face. Although the United States has one of the greatest and most powerful economies and currencies that has ever existed, the downfall of it’s economy will come from other nations and other economies.

Work Cited

Forbes. Forbes Magazine. Web. 29 Sept. 2015. <http://www.forbes.com/sites/mikepatton/2015/07/24/is-the-dollar-about-to-collapse/>.

"Central Government Debt, Total (% of GDP)." Central Government Debt, Total (% of GDP). Web. 29 Sept. 2015. <http://data.worldbank.org/indicator/GC.DOD.TOTL.GD.ZS/countries/CN-US-CH-RU-GB?display=graph>.

"IMF Data." IMF Data. Web. 29 Sept. 2015. <http://www.imf.org/data>.

Part 1

During this unit in World History, we have been learning the way humans have changed this world, by affecting it’s climate, and causing climate change. Climate change affects the Earth by heating the planet and causing destruction in many different ways. Humans play the biggest part in climate change, by releasing CO2 in the atmosphere from cars, factories, etc, and causing climate change. In my monologues my goal was to show the perspective of different people and nature, and how they felt about climate change. I wanted the monologues to inspire and make people actually feel and do something about climate change. I hope you enjoy them.  

Part 2

Oil Miner

(Picks up a megaphone and speak in front of a large crowd behind a fence protesting for no more mining and hurting the Earth, causing global warming.)

Guys, what do you want me to do?... Leave?!... Than what? Have no food for my family. No money to pay the bills. What do you guys think? You think i want to do this job?... No i don’t it’s something i hate doing, but it pays the bills. Mining 18 hours a day and getting payed almost minimum wage is not what i want to do, but like i said, it pays the bills. Hear me out guys. This is from the heart. You are right, but are you going to pay the bills in my house? No, you won’t. So this job is what i have to do. This protest you are doing, is hurting you more. As you can see, work is still going. Please, go home. Take rest. Coming out here is not worth it. Us workers we are just trying to bring food to the table. You should take this to the government. They can give you what you want. Protesting us to stop, is just making us angry. So, leave!... Guys we got families to feed, just leave.

Harry Cane

(Harry (Hurricane) thinking of a speech to give, to the people that he destroyed their properties.)

Im sorry! From the bottom of my heart, i want to say i’m sorry. It is my fault for doing all of this. I know your now homeless. I know you have lost everything. I know i caused this. My destruction, is something that i can’t control. The houses i knock down, the cars i flip over, the debris i make is all because i can’t control it. The better the environment around me, the less i appear, and the less dangerous i am. I’m just like you, a human. My surroundings affect me, just like they affect you. I do accept that some of it was my fault, and im sorry.

(Mummbles) Ok, here we go.

Not all of it was my fault. It was mostly your fault. This is a two way street. You can’t receive but don't give back. You take everything from this planet, destroy it, cause global warming, and think it will be okay. But it won’t. You know why?... Because of all of you. I come because of you. You treat the planet bad. I then return the favor to you. Don’t just think about your planet, think about your children. What kind of future are you leaving for them? What example are you setting for your children? Think about how they will have to pay for this. There is ways to fix this way of treatment to the planet. There are many ideas that are phenomenal, and would work greatly, but nobody does anything about it. If you get off your phones and computers, you can actually do something about your planet and follow those who already have started. Again, blame yourselves for this destruction that happened. Because of this destruction, you have no houses, no belonging, and are sitting in a crowded shelter. Think harder for what your actions bring you!

(Talks to himself) Needs more work.

Steven Gerrard

( Steven who is about to give a speech in front of his entire school about what they can do to help climate change, and what they are currently doing)

(Speaks to himself) Oh my God! … I can’t believe i’m doing this! … Hope everyone doesn’t make fun of me. …

​A. What is negative space (explain this concept to a fourth grader that has never heard of it)

A negative space drawing, is an outline of an object or someone. It is opposite of a silhouette. The negative space is outside and positive space is inside.

B. Explain how you found negative space in 1. your cut out?, 2. in your stool drawing?

Negative space in my cut out was, the blue. The pink is the background that touches with the edge of the negative space. In my stool drawing i found the negative space by the outline of the object that i drew. Outside of the outline that was the negative space.

C. Why does it help an artist to see in negative space?

Negative space helps artists because they can focus on one side, and come out with two. It can make things more attention grabbing.

D. How is negative space useful in creating art?

Powtoon: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LDBuo7By-G4

 ¡ Mi Escuela es muy Divertido !

Mi nombre Nevrid. Mi apodo es Nevi, y yo tengo quince años. Soy estudiante de SLA. Esta cerca de Arch Gomet. La escuela es pequeña, y tienes cinco pizos. Hay 400 - 450 estudiantes. Hay muy amable profesores. Tenemos regulas diferentes. Tenemos fútbol, baloncesto, béisbol, ultimate frisbee, etc. Participó en CIC porque es un buena idea.

Tengo biochemica, español 1, álgebra 1, inglés, historia, technologia, drama. Mi clase favorita es  inglés porque es muy divertido, cómico, y interesante. No me gusta mucho drama porque es super dificil, y no soy bueno en actar. En inglés necesito una computadora, lápices, y libros. En drama necesita a nada. En drama actuamos y hablamos. En inglés leemos y escuchamos. Para tener éxito en esta clase necesitamos trabajadores.

La señorita Manuel enseña español uno. Usted es muy amable, talentosa y trabajadora. Usted es de Phillipines. Su clase es muy interesante, y divertido. Nosotros cantamos a veces. Profesora es muy inteligente. Señor Kay enseña inglés. Usted es muy comico, amable, talentoso, y trabajadores. Su clase es muy divertido, y super comico. El profesor Kay es muy inteligente y cómico.

Mi opinión para SLA es, SLA es super bien escuela. Lo que más me gusta de SLA es profesores porque ustedes son muy útiles. No gusta nada de es proyectos porque son fastidiosos. SLA es muy divertido, súper apoyo, y a veces duro.

I didn't make a lot of changes in my slide because the things my classmates said about my slide were about the font of the slide and the word "hidden". So i changed the color of the word "hidden" into black and i changed the font into more welcoming font.

Script

Hello I'm Nevrid and
in my presentation is about showing people that no matter how much you think
you know someone, that someone will have something you don't know (secrets). My
slide is a slide that some of us can relate to. I constructed my slide the way
i did because, it shows the things i learned from learning from the websites
that i read. It shows the message which is bright and clear and contrasts with
the dark background. So readers eyes will immediately be attracted to the
message and will be able to get the message quickly. The moon also plays a part
on the slide because it shows the meaning of the words and it doesn't take much
space on the slide. The message i wrote, also helps me remember what i need to
say for the presentation, just by taking a quick glance at it.