Thesis Statement for "Gangsta's Paradise"

The attraction to money and power is what draws kids into the fake "paradise" of the life of a gangster, making it nearly impossible to escape.

Time Management in College

In the world of attending college, time management is key. You need to be able to set aside time to go to class, to study, maybe to exercise, eat, and socialize! There are a large amount of things that everybody has to juggle while being in college, and even the real world. Some things are more important than others, and therefore require more time to complete and make sure you do them right. Studying is one such thing. Going to class is not sufficient enough to procure good grades, you need to do a substantial amount of studying along with it in order to prepare yourself for quizzes and exams. If you don't study, then going to class will not be worth while either, and you could end up failing out of classes. That is why you need to devote a large amount of time to studying and going to class, whereas eating, exercising, and socializing can be cut down and shortened a bit to make room for more important things. Eating, exercising, and socializing are also very important to do in college, but the main purpose of college is not to get fit or make friends, it is to excel in class and end up doing what you want to do with your life, so that is where the majority of your time should be spent.

Analyzing

In high school, whenever a teacher brought up a specific movie, play, song, or picture, they always tried to get the entire class to see the deeper meaning behind what they saw or heard. I was always skeptical, assuming that the creator of the piece was simply trying to create a work of art for entertainment purposes. As it turns out, most pieces of literature, music, or movies have a deeper meaning that the audience was meant to pick up by digging deeper into the back round of the author or creator. Many people who create works of art have interesting back rounds, and they include a large portion of it in the piece. Through analyzing individual pieces that perhaps don't make sense, one can possibly find a large variety of knowledge hidden underneath the surface. These hidden meanings don't always have to be about the back round of the creator, either. They can relate to world events that are occurring today, or problems with society, or any number of hidden meanings. It is important to understand, however, that many pieces are created for symbolic purposes where there are specific meanings of things that are said or occur in that piece.

Writing

Throughout my life, I had always considered myself to be a decent writer. I was able to tell a story and usually do it with a "flavorful" vocabulary. My teachers always rewarded my efforts with good grades, and this always boosted my confidence in myself as a writer. All of this was the case, until I reached my senior year of high school. I took a few different courses that required me to write in substantial amounts throughout the course of the trimester. The first course was AP History, the most difficult class that I had ever taken. This course required me to take all of my writing and cut it down to the bare minimum. Pieces that I wrote were written in response to a prompted question, and so I had to keep my explanations brief and to the point in order to thoroughly answer that question. My teacher, Mr. Haverdink, took my pages and marked them up all over with red ink, and gave me less than exceptional grades. I was displeased, but throughout the entire process, I learned how to write differently and in a better format suited for what I will be doing for the rest of my life. This is an important skill and I am glad that I struggled throughout the year in order to become the better writer that I am now.

Carrie

Last Thursday in English 1050 we watched a movie titled "Carrie". This is an older film about a young girl with special "abilities". She is able to move objects with her mind. Carrie is picked on in school for being different, and the reason that she is different is because her mother is overly religious and won't allow Carrie to grow up as a normal teenager. She keeps her from doing things that other children do, and this forces Carrie to grow up as an outcast. Finally, after her forcing her mother to let her go to the prom through her telekinetic abilities, she seems to be fitting in and having a wonderful time. Just then, a girl who sought revenge on Carrie, along with her boyfriend, dumped a bucket of pig blood on her head in front of everybody wen she won prom queen. In a fury, she burns down the school and kills everybody inside of it. This horror film is a relatively sad story about this poor girl who just couldn't fit in. I found it to be very different from any type of film that I've ever seen before, not only because of the time period in which it was created in, but due to the fact that the antagonist of the story is not completely black and white. Many would say Carrie is the antagonist of the story, but I would say that her mother and the cruel children who picked on her were actually the antagonists while Carrie is the poor victim of their crimes. This movie is certainly one that could be discussed much further in depth.

Track and Field

All throughout middle and high school, I was involved in the Hamilton Track and Field program. In the sport track and field, you are placed into events that you can excel at and made to practice with other students that have been placed in similar events. I was a mid-distance runner, meaning that I mainly focused on the 400 and 800 meter dashes. I was never very good at these events, mainly because you have to maintain a very fast-paced run for a substantial distance. It's almost a sprint for an entire half-mile! This became very difficult and the 800 meter dash quickly became my least favorite race. That's why, as I grew older, I began to focus less on the 800 meter dash and more on the 400. Along with these events, I also took part in a field event. This particular field event that I was involved in throughout the majority of my high school career was pole vault. I enjoyed pole vault very much, but in order to succeed in such an event, you need to have nearly perfect form. This is something that takes an incredible amount of practice to achieve, and something that I never quite figured out how to do, but I tried my best. Needless to say, track and field was not my best sport, but I always had fun and enjoyed competing amongst my friends and other athletes.