Thanks!

There are so many people within my English class that I am thankful for, although some, I may have never spoke to, nonetheless, I will give them my thanks for just being part of the class and making it such a wonderful learning atmosphere. Although everybody has received my gratitude, there are those in my class that I have bonded with more, and choosing just one of them proved to be a very difficult choice for me, so I will thank them all. First off, I'd like to thank Rameez, Justin, and Jiawei being my companions that I associate myself with the most. I met Rameez and Justin during my Freshman year, with Rameez and I becoming great friends from the start. I met Justin later, and as well, we became pretty good friends. Now Jiawei I met this year, but nonetheless, I consider him as a great addition to those I consider my friends. We have all sat together since the beginning of the year and have always worked together on everything since, leading to a very tragic and painful experience when Mr. McCarthy only allows a groups of three and one of us has to be left out. The others that I would like to thank personally are Amanda, Gissel, and Elli, who are great people with their own great personalities, which makes me feel lucky to be able to call them my friends. Thank you to all my friends who have made the school year such an amazing one, and know that I am thankful for each, and every one of you.

I Celebrate Myself

For one to celebrate themselves, it can have various meanings to what it actually means, but to me, celebrating yourself is when you have come to the point in your life where you accept who you are in society. You have come to enjoy the person you are, no longer worrying what others have to say about your lifestyle. What they may find weird, you have come to the realization that that is what makes you happy, and if you would rather stay at home on a Friday night and watch T.V. than go out with a couple of friends, why does it matter. You should pursue what makes you happy in life, not what may satisfy others. We were taught growing up to always be yourself, but as you age, reality hits us, don't be yourself is what you're basically fed every day. We live in a world where it is important to hide our imperfections and follow a set guideline to our social norms. We are taught that staying inside is bad and that going outside is not. We are taught to be socialbeings and seek out others, but sometimes we are able to find the most comfort when we are alone and left to our own thoughts. When you finally learned to respect yourself and who you are, that is when you gain true happiness, being able to shrug off common norms, not being worried what others think of you, be the individual that you want to be, not the one that society wants. Shape yourself out to become who you truly are, it may seem difficult if you go against what society deems as right, but sooner or later you will realize that the positive factors far outweigh any consequences you would face. Stay true to who you are, do not become someone you do not want to be, love yourself for who you are, or in other words, learn to celebrate yourself.

Poe

             Edgar Allan Poe was a famous poet throughout the Romanticism age, he was well know for his dark stories, Poe was born in Boston on January 19, 1809. Poe was born with two other children, Henry and Rosalie. By the time Poe was two years old, both of his parents had died. Later he was adopted by Mr. and Mrs. Allan, both of whom, made decent money leading to Poe growing up in a fairly well environment. Growing up, Poe had started to face difficulties in his life, with him being in debt and his adoptive parents had shunned him. In 1827 he joined the U.S. Army as a way for his parent to support him and send him money, when this had failed, he started being a nuisance until eventually he was dismissed from the academy. He finally found a break through a job as a newspaper editor for the Southern Literary Messenger. Later on though, he quit the job due to his salary not satisfying him. He continued this for many more years until finally his mysterious death had taken him.

             Now that I have talked about his life, I will talk about his writing. From the pieces I have read, "The Fall of the House of Usher" and his most famous piece, "The Raven" Poe manages to fulfill the the dark entertainment that he is well known for. The Raven, I understood why it was his best piece, reading it and trying to figure out what was going on can be a tad bit confusing, but once you start to piece things together in your head, you understand more and more about what is going on. I wish I could say the same thing for his other piece, "The Fall of the House of Usher" As I read it, I lost interest in it a few paragraphs in, it seemed to drag out a story and then was ended in a way as if he was trying to finish the story and get it over with. Possibly if the story had been shorter, much more thought would've been put into this piece, even with a much better ending than the one it has received. From these two pieces, I am neutral to his writing, if Poe has gotten such great reviews off of everyone else, then I will read more of his pieces to see what makes him a great writer.