Academic Essays

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“We need to talk, America”
By Ezra Nierenberg

Dear America,
     You're screwed. This country, you know, is the “land of the free.” Well I don't think so. I think that we as citizens are stuck in this little bottle, and you keep shoving in the cork. There are so many systems wrong with this country; it looks like it's time to open up my list and explain everything that's wrong. 
     I’ll start with our policing system. Every town, city, and state has its own police force. There are 17,985 police agencies in the United states, or 697,195 police officers. All of these officers carry firearms, typically pistols. You might stop me and say that I am going on about police brutality, and that you already know what it is, but in my opinion, you need another lesson. Most police officers are here to protect the community, not plunge it into chaos because one singular officer decided to fire his pistol on someone of color. Police officers aren't the monsters you think they are. Now, I'm not defending police brutality; I do believe it's happening, and that its happening at an alarming rate, a rate so high that I don't even know where to start. We can trace police brutality as we know it back to the 1960’s when police officers brutalized African Americans for trying to better their rights. Police officers would hit people with police clubs, use tear gas, and even spray water on them with fire hoses. Our police are here to protect us from violent criminals and keep our streets safe. Most officers are just doing their job and trying to make it home safely at the end of the day.  But one police officer is all it takes to make an entire police department look bad.
    Another thing I want to analyze is how we treat people. I’ve already mentioned that America is the “land of the free,” but I want to go more in depth about it. Ever since 1788, America has been a place where you could start a family or escape from persecution and feel safe. “All men are created equal” is in the Declaration of Independence, but in reality, not all men or women were treated equally. Around the time the United States Constitution was ratified, six million African American people had been kidnaped from their homes and forced into slavery on our soil. Six million people never got the chance to create generational wealth or set up a legacy for themselves or their families. African American men never got the right to vote until after 1865. White men had the right to vote ever since the country was first settled. Women, regardless of race, never got the right to vote until August 18, 1920! That's just about 101 years ago. Women have had the right to vote for one hundred years, while men have had the right to vote for centuries. Our country has never truly been free until the late 20th century. Yes, people of color were not enslaved, but Jim Crow laws and black codes made it excessively hard to live a normal life. 
     I could go on for pages about what I find wrong with this country, but I’ll restrain myself. I feel that just in this brief little essay, I have proven that America is not the country we are told it is. Our country needs work, work that will take time. Unfortunately, time is not on our side, so we need to act now to fix what is wrong. Let's get to work, and make America the country that we want it to be, not what everyone else thinks it is.

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​The American Dream
Nolan Wazni 5/22
    The American Dream is something that everyone strives for: Being successful on your own terms and living a happy and comfortable life, however that may manifest itself for you. However, the way that America’s systems and social programs are built causes this dream to be just that for many: a dream. The complete lack of support for impoverished people and those not well off gatekeeps this dream. The American dream is only available to those who are already well off. We, as a country, need to fix this issue so that everybody can be their best selves and live their best lives, and so that hard work actually does pay off. Financial standing, due only to luck, should not determine someone's level of comfortability. 
     America has long been known for its “American Dream” of building up financial and familial success from the ground up, and living a happy life in a general sense. Although this dream differs from person to person, and many people don’t need these things to be happy, this sense of “building success” rules America’s capitalist society. However, most people do need this to truly live well. It is extremely difficult in both a mental and physical sense to live happily when you’re in a tiny apartment with a crappy job and barely enough money to buy food. The mental energy that it takes to manage such a small amount of money while still taking care of your basic needs leaves no mental energy for any hobbies or leisurely activities. A life spent worrying is not a happy one. 
     In the play A Raisin in the Sun, Walter Lee Younger and his mother discuss money:
     Mama: “Oh—So now it’s life. Money is life. Once upon a time freedom used to be life—now it’s money. I guess the world really do change . . .” 
     Walter: “No—it was always money, Mama. We just didn’t know about it.”” 
     This play explores poverty and classism through the life of a poor black family in Chicago, trying to find the American dream that so many desire. The life of this family so perfectly encapsulates the issue with our American dream: it isn’t possible without money. The family was very badly impoverished, and came into a lump sum of $10,000, which they subsequently argued over on how best to spend it to each achieve their own American dream. And when this money was gone so, too, was that dream. Money gets you food, shelter, and water. It gets you clothes, transportation, and energy. A life without money means a life without these basic necessities. How can anyone be happy when they can’t even rely on a clean bed and a meal when they get home?
     In Death of a Salesman, Charley said, “No man only needs a little salary.” Charley is saying that a little salary will get you nowhere in life, that everyone needs enough to get by without working an insane amount of hours just to be able to eat. Willy Loman was working extremely hard, yet being paid very very little for his efforts. Subsequently, Willy was unhappy, and ended up committing suicide at the end so that his family could receive a life insurance policy to help their financial situation. This applies directly to America in the real world: No man needs only a little salary. Willy Loman’s terrible financial standing led to something so drastic as killing himself so that his family could find happiness in the money that they got from his life insurance policy. Willy was worth more dead than alive.
     Money begets opportunities. Opportunities beget more money. That is how capitalism works: you need money to make money. This is why it is so extremely hard for homeless people to climb out of their situation. How do you get a job when you don’t even have clean clothes? “Pick yourself up by your bootstraps” is quite possibly the most ironic statement that is used so commonly. You can’t just “get a job” and “invest your money” when the only money you have is going to food so that you can survive the rest of the week. If everyone’s basic needs were met, then it would actually be possible for hard work to equal success. But that is not the case, and hard work does not equal success. No matter how hard you try, you can’t climb the ladder if all of your time and energy goes to surviving, and not thriving. How can you focus on self-actualization when you can’t even meet your own safety needs? America kicks you when you’re down, and it’s virtually impossible to get back up without a huge helping hand.
     The issue of people not being able to afford basic necessities is one that has plagued this country for its whole existence. We must continue to keep fighting for social programs and welfare opportunities that help people who can’t afford these needs, so that everyone, no matter socioeconomic status, can have the American dream that they so desire. 

Thoughts on The American Dream
Julian Jaca 4/22

     The American dream for me is to just have an equal and balanced life. My American dream is to always chase my goals. I want to always have a goal so I can always have something to strive for and I'll always be leveling up. I believe all my goals will help me be a better me and that is my American Dream, to be the best me I can be. My American dream is similar to my parents' American dream. It is similar because my American dream is just their American dream but with some boxes checked off since my parents’ already checked them off. I don’t need to worry about having a good education or me stating “I want my kids to have a good education in the future”. I don’t need to worry about that because the box for that is already checked off. I am going to run things similar to the way they do because that’s how I was raised.
     The American dream for my dad was to be a good father because in the past he had really tough times with his father. My father wanted my family to live in peace and be safe because back where my father grew up he didn’t live in a safe area. Sometimes he would see dead people as a child. My father wanted to create generational wealth in his family which he is still working on. My mother's American dream was just to have a great life and have enough money for all the future enjoyable times she wanted to have. She also wanted to be a successful person so she went to college for her bachelor's degree and also her master's degree.
     I don’t really have a lot of privileges going for me. The only thing I could really say is I'm in a wealthy family but not rich. My parents are both in the army too so I have some army privileges. Things that I think will make it hard for me is racism. This will be difficult for me because I am African American. So for most of my life, I have to work 2 times as hard and stand out more than a regular man because I am African American. 
     “When the world gets ugly enough, a woman will do anything for her family”. This quote connects to my family because when my mother was a child my grandmother used to run things in the house; my grandfather on the other hand wouldn’t do much at all he would never cook anything for the kids even till this day when my mother visits. If they were in this situation as the quote above my grandmother would’ve said or done something similar. 
     “A man cannot show emotions”. This quote reminds me of characters in some shows that I watch and even one of my past teachers. My teacher said one day he decided to not cry even during the most difficult times and he really doesn’t cry anymore. He said a man shouldn’t show negative emotions such as crying. These quotes are important to me because they are all representing the theme in these 2 films. 
     “You work a lifetime to pay off a house you finally own .'' “Nothing is planted right, I don't have a thing in the ground right now”. “Biff a man is not a bird to come and go w/ the springtime. I’m telling you son from now on, you will be the head of this family, the way you are supposed to be”. “When the world gets ugly enough, a woman will do anything for her family”. “Seems like God didn’t see fit to give the black man nothing but dreams. But he did give us children to make their dreams seem worthwhile”. The 3 main themes from these films I covered were racism, sexism, and discrimination and all the quotes above are the importance of how I came to an understanding of the theme.
     The major difference I see is everything isn’t the same. Yes, we still do have racism, feminism, and discrimination but it’s not as bad as it was in the 1950s. There are fewer people trying to be racist or sexist. We’ve even had more solutions to solve these kinds of issues. I don't think there were many solutions back then. Now we don’t really do the roles thing but some people do like when they have the mother stay home and take care of the cleaning, the kids, and pretty much anything else that had to do with taking care of the family emotionally and the father would take care of things financially. I know in my house both of my parents work and whoever gets home first on what day will watch the kids or the older kids will watch the kids so they both do the same things and split it equally.
     If women would have a job it would usually be a teacher, a nurse, or a pilot but things have changed. Now you see women working almost any job that they want which is great. The same thing for men even though they weren’t as discriminated against as women were but they still were expected to have certain jobs like being an engineer or an auto mechanic.

Letter to America
Janaya Winstead 4/22

Dear America,
     I wish you would stop judging me based on my looks, my gender, and race. I wish you would stop debating, preventing, questioning, and degrading me from doing a lot of things because I am a woman and not only a woman, a Black woman, a woman of color. Just because of how I look and what I identify as does not mean I am any less of a person or different from other people in this world. Not only does America need to fix this problem, a lot of other countries have to fix this problem. Women should not be treated any differently than men. Women should not have to live under a man's rules and expectations. We were not brought into this world to be housewives. We were brought into this world to be people, be ourselves. But America, and a lot of other countries, still use “religious reasons” to hold us down, almost like it’s a controlling mind game. Why do women have all these expectations and ways of being controlled but men don’t? At the end of the day if the roles were flipped, how would men feel?
     As stated in the first paragraph, not only am I a woman, I’m a woman of color. So America still looks down on me and tries to hold me back and it’s a shame that I have disadvantages in life naturally because of my skin color and my gender. It’s a shame that people will try to belittle me and make me feel like I don’t belong because I’m Black and a woman when they don’t realize if women didn’t give birth to them they would not be alive to even have the power and strength that they have. I think it’s shameful how women are looked down on so much but we do so much, we just never get credit because we are “women.”
     But not only is it a problem just to be a woman of color in America. It’s a problem to be a person of color in America. It’s heartbreaking to even have to think that not just me but any person of color can just go out on the street minding their own business but still have a chance of getting harassed. Yeah, it can happen to anyone, but there’s more of a chance of it happening to people of color than to people who aren’t of color. It’s heartbreaking that we can easily be misidentified and lose our lives at the hands of the police simply because of our skin color. It’s really shameful that sometimes we don’t even have to leave our house to be in danger because of our skin color. 
    I respect America but America does not respect me. How can I live the American dream while America is still in a way preventing me from living the American dream? One thing about America is that a lot of my people, ancestors, did not ask to come here. They were kidnapped, beaten, and even killed coming here. So why have all this discrimination against us but you are the main reason why we are here?

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Personal Essays

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Midterm Exam Reflection
Ryan Tuxpan 5/22
     What I wrote here was for my midterm exam. The question was about my time in  English 3 Honors. I'm proud of it since it is mostly about me and about my struggles as I find out what makes me who I am today.
      This year I took English 3 Honors. I learned that poems don’t have to sync or rhyme, and I also learned how to write better. I still have a lot of work to do for this class, as in for myself, not homework. When I look back to when I started and look at myself now, I don’t think I have improved, sad to say. But I am willing to try by reading books that are harder than usual, but also to do it at my own pace and to read what I like. 
     Ms. Englart was very helpful when I needed help, especially when I didn't understand the work itself. She would also tell me if my grammar was right or not. When she does correct my mistakes, I do listen, but it’s also my job to practice correcting my mistakes and make myself become a better me.
     When it comes to class discussions, I hate to say it but most of the time I fall asleep since I would be tired from boxing or the gym. (Once I have a license it’s going to be different.) But if we were talking about something about something I could relate to, like business, mindset, or the gym, my brain would have that urge to listen more and be more focused. Class discussions do help me since I get to learn many other subjects and vocabulary, educating me on subjects I haven't even heard.
     I feel the most important thing I experienced in this class is feeling pressured, which gave me that motivation to become better because everyone around me is kind of an enemy, but friendly, in a good way. The pressure feeling is always good to have since I KNOW what to work on and I KNOW I HAVE to do it, that’s what I tell myself. Making everyone your enemy is sometimes a good thing, since your intention isn’t to impress the enemy but to beat their expectations. Being friends with enemies could be better to help me to have that competitive spirit in me. Having that could help that urge in me to do better. 
     Even though I was often tired, my favorite thing that we did in this class were the class discussions. I liked them because there was always something new to talk about, especially when my peers would be brave and share their poems. Some were very good and sometimes that got my spirit up and I wanted to add something to maybe help them. But there is always that negative thought in my head that I would just make it worse rather than making their poem better. I always thought about making poems in my free time but I don’t have anything to think about and if I did, it wouldn’t come out the way I want it to be. 
    I was not brave, motivated, hardworking, focused, and productive as I know I could have been. I know this since I know myself better than anyone else. I could’ve been reading, jogging 10 miles per week, doing my homework when I get home, and doing chores when I’m not doing anything. In the next semester I think I’m going to shrink my circle even more, focus even more, become a better me, and go against my fears by talking out loud with the class because I don’t think ignoring my problems will make them any better.
     I plan to challenge myself by sleeping on time so that I can be awake in classes, speak out loud for once in the class, and increase my vocabulary by reading or by doing assignments. 

Beauty Is Pain.
By Piper Zschack 5/22
     Being cradled in depression’s fist from a young age caused my spirit to grow into the gaps between its unyielding fingers. The shape that I take as I enter my adult life is a product of the ways that it stifled my evolution. We fit together like the weed in the concrete crack, inseparable. Synonymous.
Once the caress of depression slipped away from my skin, I didn’t know how to handle my peace. However terrible, being depressed had become a deep comfort. I’d nestled into the sadness that wouldn’t leave and made a home there. Aside from the Lexapro, the hardest pill to swallow has been the fact that pain doesn’t always have a purpose.
     I am not better, stronger, or wiser for having been in emotional pain for so many years, an operose realization for a writer. The culture of creation and art making is so interwoven with suffering that to accept happiness is to give up a major source of inspiration. Trauma is material, and I’ve found that healing is infinitely difficult when I consider the fact that my writing will become less consumable the lighter it gets. The audience is insatiable with morbid curiosity.
     So I become a container for pain without purpose. Where does that leave me? I’m no genius artist anymore. With a world so corrupt, it looks silly, foolish to experience joy and contentment. How can my art be meaningful if I don’t live and breathe agony? The tortured artist, the suicidal poet, the depressed painter are stereotypes that become a self fulfilling prophacy. The idea that the best art is made with blood eventually becomes a new knife instead of a bandage; art should be agony’s outlet, not its birthplace.
     Beauty is pain?
     Losing my depression was as much of a displacement as it was a release. I’m mourning an identity that hinged on suffering as its core component. As I settle into my peace, the value that resides in joy is springing forth for the first time. Joy breeds growth and the more intently I listen to the parts of me that reach out for happiness, the more I am guided to create. The dents in my soul are softening as I gravitate towards the softness that the world has to offer; I cannot fight with the sharp edges of injustice if I cannot negotiate peace and balance within myself. The voids that depression carved into me are mine to fill and I am not naive for desiring that they be patched over with eudaimonia.
     Beauty is not pain. Beauty is recognizing that my art finds meaning in its ability to heal.


Eighteen
By Jake Warner 5/22

     I honestly don’t even know how to feel about it. Maybe it’s because in my head, I still feel like I’m that 15-year-old freshman I started off as before everything hit the fan; one among many that never got a chance to have a normal freshman year. From the day quarantine started to now, everything has felt like this massive fever dream I can’t seem to wake myself up from. It’s had its highs and lows (the highs being very high and the lows being very low). 
     So being 18? It’s quite a pill to swallow. Now I’m legally considered an adult. I could vote, join the military, buy a lottery ticket, open a bank account, get a 10-year passport, buy real estate, book a hotel room, change my name. I always thought that once you get to the age where you’re considered an adult, that’s when you would finally have the freedom to do whatever you want. That thought made me wish that time could go by fast so I could make it to that age, but now that it’s finally here, it doesn’t feel real at all. It feels like time went by too fast even though I asked for it to be that way. Now that it’s here, I realize that I don’t think I’m ready for adulthood. And when I look back to when I told myself that I wanted time to go by fast, I wish I knew what I was getting myself into because I still don’t know. 
     I feel like I have some qualities of being able to be a decent adult, not enough to be able to tell myself that I’d do great, but enough to maybe get by at most. I’ve worked jobs, but not one that pays. I haven’t even gotten my learner’s permit, let alone touched a steering wheel for more than a second. I am very much not ready, even though I would like to be. 
     I still need time even though I hate to admit it. This is too soon. I didn’t think I would grow up this quickly. I kind of wish I could go back in time and prepare myself better, or in my case, at all. 

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