Tori Shepherd
Ms. Feliks Senior English 11/5/17 Three Myths About Growing Up The majority of children are waiting for the day they are called a grown up. I was one of these children that could not wait to grow up. I know how much I wanted to be called an adult and have more responsibilities. This is something I feel that is common among the youth of today's world where growing up is seen as something that everyone wants to do. What people fail to realize is how much misinformation there is about growing up. Myth No. 1: When you turn eighteen your whole life changes The day someone turns eighteen does not redefine their whole world. Nothing will change on this day besides a number. The Atlantic states that age alone does not make someone an adult. A birthday does not determine what happens to someone's life. What does determine someone's life is the choices they make. The college and career path are what will affect someone's life far more then a simple birthday. The age that someone makes this choices is not relevant because it plays no role in their decision. Growing up is not just a number. Myth No. 2: You will love not living at home Not living at home is something that is more scary then it is exciting. Leaving home is leaving the one constant thing anyone has had. The childhood home is seen as something that is very personal and loving. Not many people willingly want to leave their safe space. The Atlantic states that home is a place that blurs the lines between self and surroundings. I completely agree with this statement because a person will become part of their home. When this happens removing yourself from your home is a painful experience. Myth No 3: You are on your own No other statement is more false. It is commonly thought that when you are an adult you have to do everything for yourself but this is not true. It is perfectly fine to reach out to others for help. Becoming an adult does not redefine when you can and cannot ask for help. When you think you are alone it is not true because you still have your family and friends to rely on for help. Tori Shepherd
Senior English Ms.Feliks 11/8/17 Jeannette Walls’s “ The Glass Castle” is a memoir that was published in 2005. In this book the author writes about her life from the time she was a small child all the way up until she was a grown adult. Incredible detail, manipulation of time and large amount of emotion are techniques Jeannette skillfully uses to create a strong, convincing essay. This book targets a wide audience because of the large amount of the emotion that is shown. When an author can convey a wide array of emotion it draws in more of an audience because more people can connect to the piece. The Glass Castle is a perfect example of how well a specific style of book can span a more open audience by using more emotions to open up pathways with people. The author's purpose with this piece was to share a personal story of growth. The amount of detail used in this book helped the reader know what the author felt as she grew in life. Using personal stories, the author helped put the book into a step by step of how her life changed as she grew up. The chronological order of this stories really helped show how in each step of life there was an improvement. A really unique technique the author used was how she manipulated time. The story was in chronological order but at a few points in the book she would skip to present day to help further explain her feelings of family. The way she composed her book was easy to follow and did not destroy the story like nature. This added tool spiced up her writing just enough to make it interesting without making it confusing. The overall tone of this piece was inspirational. It was a personal piece of triumph and defeat that always pointed to a happy ending. This gave it a very inspiring voice. The tone was woven throughout the book and helped connect it all together and drive the point home. This important message rang true all the way till the end of the book. Works Cited Walls, Jeannette. The Glass Castle. Charles Scribner’s Sons, 2005. Tori Shepherd
10/11/17 Ms.Feliks Senior English Competition is something that is born into human nature. The tendency to go beyond the limits to win is becoming more and more common as technology advances. Sadly, when this competitive gene starts mixing with competition involving animals, it is often is the animal that suffers. One of the biggest industries in the world where this cruelty is prevalent is in western pleasure. The exaggerated slowness of the horse's movement puts extreme amounts of stress on their joints and can lead to lameness. Injecting the legs, making the horse move too slow, and not allowing the horse to move freely are the three main causes of the joints breaking down. The biggest joint in the back leg that supports the weight is called the hock. The western pleasure world makes this joint hold such an odd movement that this leg tends to break down, so instead of changing the way the horse moves, they inject fluid into the joint instead so it doesn’t effect the horse. This procedure is more commonly known as hock injections. Today this is seen so commonly through every show ground that know one takes a second glance, but this technique damages the horse even further. In an article about hock injecting the top American Paint Horse Association trainer stated that stronger steroids are injected at horse shows to try and get the horse a quick fix ( Vanderwende). The steroids that are injected last around 6-8 weeks but will always need to be replaced to keep the horse in the shape that the owner wants. Hock injections are like putting a band aid on a bullet wound. The faster you train a horse the faster they will be able to compete which means the faster they will make you money. The problem with this though is when a young horse is pushed really hard the training process often starts taking shortcuts. The trainers will put quantity over quality and the joints suffer from this. AQHA, the biggest breed association in the world, stated on their website that when trainers rush their training artificial movement will occur in the horse (Hamilton). Often times that artificial movement is early signs of a horse's joints fusing and getting a mechanical look. This article from AQHA is one of many trying to fight back to get better moving horse's, but they are experiencing backlash from big name trainers. Dianne Eppers is the Executive director of the National Snaffle Bit Association and in an article that featured her thoughts on the exaggeration of movement she stated that trainers will put too much of an emphasis on slowness and will create a hesitation in the lope which is a fault in their training (Eppers). Such a common fault in training is leading to be a national disaster. The way we make our horse's move often follow the people who are winning. When people see a horse with a hesitation in their gate win then they train their horses to be exactly like that without taking into account the stress this training puts on their horse's joints. The judges in the horse industry are some of the leaders in affecting how the horse's move. When judging a class, the judge determines based on a set of rules and personal preference who they will place to win. This affects the direction the industry will go in. If all the judges got on the same playing field and all agreed to place more flowing horse's that didn’t have any hesitation the trainers would follow in their step because they want to win. The AQHA executive director of judges Alex Ross recently commented in an article and said in regards to judges that they should “ Utilize your advantage and assist us in moving western pleasure in a positive direction. If this is not the direction you want to go, you need to request to be removed from the list of AQHA- approved judges” (Ross). This quote is calling out the judges to take matters into their own hands and change things for the better. If the western pleasure world does not start making strides in the right direction there will be no more sound horses to ride. The horses end up being disposable because none of them can last in this world. When we change the way things are done the horse's lifestyle will improve ten fold. Works Cited Barnes, Gerrie. “Cunean Tenectomy.” A Simple Procedure Could Be the Answer to Your Horse’s Hock Pain, 9 Dec. 2009, www.aqha.com/daily/health/2016/health-archive/cunean-tenectomy/. Accessed 30 Oct. 2017. Eppers, Dianna. “Stopping the Head Bob at the Lope.” AQHA, American Quarter Horse Journal, 14 Nov. 2010, www.aqha.com/daily/training/2016/training-archive/stopping-the-head-bob-at-the-lope-part-1/. Accessed 30 Oct. 2017. Ross, Alex. “Re: We Ask the Judges: Has the Western Please Class Regressed?” Gohorseshow, GOHORSESHOW, 29 Apr. 2012, gohorseshow.com/2012/05/we-ask-the-judges-has-the-western-pleasure-class-regressed/. Accessed 30 Oct. 2017. Open Letter To The Animals In The Pasture
Dear Barn Cats, Your cute expressions and fluffy tails do nothing to hide the truth that you suck at your jobs. You sit around waiting to be fed while mice, a perfectly decent meal, trample through the hay. But alas you sit with your tail twined around your legs and ignore your sole purpose of being in the barn. While I understand your lives are busy running from dogs and hunting birds in the trees I fail to have sympathy for you when a mouse scuttles across my shoe.When the mice do come out to play I yell hoping one of you will come running to save me. In the event that you do I jump with joy and give you lots of praise. In the event that you don’t I curse at you with bitterness ringing through the words. Ignoring your failed life as a barn cat I still care for you.The chores are tedious everyday. A schedule that must be followed to make sure all of you have enough food and water to last all through the day and night. Cleaning your litter box every day is just one of the many things that I do to keep you living a happy and healthy life. Dear Dogs, You have chewed up all my shoes, towels and anything else your sharp teeth have been able to get a hold of. The weeks spent potty training you seem like years as your thick head just can’t seem to get the concept. Without fail you rip apart every pair of flip flops in the house in an effort to get more attention. The thousands of messes you have made taught me how to grit my teeth and take everything in stride, but I continued to get frustrated.You drag things outside and take off streaking into the fields with a death grip on my favorite pair of moccasins. The hours spent training you fail me in the moment when needed. Though you are my pet so I must take responsibility for your actions and recognize that I may have slacked off in your commands and now I must pay the price. Dear Horse’s, You all have had your set of challenges ranging from biting my leg to not knowing how to ride. Fighting me every step of the training process made it so much easier for me to learn how to fail. The pain from the kicks and the bites not only made me appreciate when I did not go out to see you but also made me cherish when I returned to the house without a scratch. The little victories I had with you seemed slow going with all the setbacks. You made me push through everything to reach the victory. Each of the animals has their own set of problems, but I realize that without these challenges I would not be who I am today. The responsibility of their well being has prepared me for what being an adult is like. Each time I fell off a horse I got right back on. These lessons are not something that come easy. They test your limits and make you want to give up, that it is not worth it. The truth is I would like to say thank you for every bad experience I have encountered when raising these animals. They have altered my character in ways no one can imagine. The excitement of leaving home and going on a big trip had masked the fear inside me for months. The moment I stepped onto the plane the fear clawed it's way onto the surface. I, a girl who had barely been away from home for a weekend, was flying a crossed the Atlantic to spend ten days in another country. This was the first time I had been away from home. The terror I felt was overwhelming until I realized how much experience I was going to gain from this trip. The time away was going to make me grow up and give me a once in a lifetime opportunity. Being away for ten days was just showing me how the rest of my life was just like this trip. Pushing me past my comfort zone, this trip was a once in a lifetime opportunity for me.
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January 2018
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