Self Reliance

A self-reliant person praises individualism and supports nonconformity. Although such qualities are rather dissed in real life, they are often lauded in social media sites such as Twitter, Facebook, and YouTube. The term "viral video", for example, is used to describe a clip that people found peculiar and unique enough that its views have topped a million! Status updates, tweets, and daily vlogs (video blogs) have permitted an infinite stage to display opinions that move and change as fast as time itself. While a self-reliant person would commend such qualities, their are other aspects that he might condemn. Because popular pages, YouTube channels, and blogs offer fresh and original material, their crowds start expecting too much of them. Hence, applying too much pressure on those people, and they start to want mainstream acceptance. 

Social Media

Social Media 

     Social media has grown to connect people's thoughts and ideas through different and modern means of communication. Just like anything else, though, it has its pros and cons.     Despite apparent perception, social media IS controlled and monitored by governments and agencies. This might seem beneficial, but it's more harmful; people believe that they are exposed to "the real deal" when they are actually just being hypnotized by a different, slightly more creative political weapon.     Another swindle in the modern media is the way people abuse the power of expression. Because people are able to hide under anonymous labels, they presume that they have the right to say whatever they want; little people realize that this is just an act of cowardice. The rates of suicide and depression have increased because cyber bullying.     It would simply be plain foolish if i condemn social media ON a social media site, and I am not. Social media is very powerful; it's our duty to learn how to safely use it.

Technology

Last Prompt, Last 6..





Modern day technology provides us with practical, more effective means of communication. With the help of up-to-date technology, business partners can easily follow up, separated families can keep up, and and distanced friends can catch up. Countless stories of flourishing business and dreams coming true thanks to such new methods stand as candid examples for such an argument.

      Faris Al Turkey was a simple Saudi boy of humble origins, yet his dreams and aspirations were too big to tame. Faris was always passionate about cuisine, especially breakfast meals. He took advantage of Twitter, a website where people can share thoughts in the form of short sentences or pictures, and uploaded pictures of his chows. Slowly, his account began to gain popularity. Upon people’s suggestions and support, Faris opened his very own twenty-four by seven breakfast restaurant. Twitter served as a virtual platform for Al Turkey to explore his true talent and make use of it.

Another example is Michelle Phan; an American Vietnamese whose early life could not have been worse. Abandoned by her dad, Michelle, along with her mother and brother, lived a very underprivileged life. Her mother had to take two jobs and very tough shifts, barely seeing her children. Growing up, Michelle learned to express her feelings in sketches of simple makeup, what she considers optimum art. Later, Phan learned about YouTube, a website where users could upload videos that would be accessible to the world. Michelle uploaded a low quality short clip of her applying makeup, and it was all up the hill from there. Her video went viral, meaning it peaked into a million views in a day. Thanks to YouTube, Michelle is now an internationally acclaimed makeup artist with her very own premium quality makeup line; Em Cosmetics. Michelle Phan is also active in a few child 
abuse and hunger relief associations.

      Jenna Marbles, Tyler Oakley, Justin Bieber, and many others’ various talents were discovered on the virtual platforms offered by the modern day communicating technologies. Although the twenty-first century communication, just like everything else, has its defaults, its pros most certainly outweigh its cons. 


Aya Adel

LossVsSuccess

Can Loss Be More Important Than Success? (or something like that)

This essay got a score of 6

Despite common misconception, true success lies in the journey, not the destination. The journey to victory has its ups and down, losses and gains, but that’s is where one truly learns and benefits. Literature is fertile with an endless stream of encounters where characters come across great loss only to learn the best of lessons.

In John Green’s novel The Fault In Our Stars, the protagonist Hazel lives under the fear of death. Through her battle with cancer, she tries to distance herself from the people around her, thinking she was doing them a favor. Hazel thought that the less time she spends with those who love her, the easier it would be for them when cancer eventually wins the battle and kills her. When Hazel meets and mutually falls in love Augustus, a cancer survivor, she uselessly tries to lessen their encounters, avoiding unnecessarily encounters with him. Later, Hazel and Augustus find out that a new type of cancer spread into Gus’s body, and, unfortunately, it only took a few days until he dies. Through the heartbreak and remorse, Hazel learned that a person fearing death while living is a person dying every single day. Losing Augustus taught Hazel the most important lesson and helped her look into the world with clearer, less gloomy perception.

Veronika Decides to Die by Paulo Coelho perhaps represents the best example for this argument. Veronika is beautiful, young, and rich; she has friends and a loving family. Still, Veronika feels hollow deep inside, and decides to commit suicide. She ingests huge amounts of different medicines, writes a death npt, and waits. Veronika, to her surprise, wakes up in a mental rehab and is informed that although her suicide attempt did not work, it has weakened her heart so much that she is expected to only live for a couple more weeks. During her stay in the mental institution, Veronika meets a group of people and gets to hear their stories. She grows fond of them and finds true love within the arms of Eduard, a schizophrenic patient. During her last days, she explores true meanings of friendships and their extends. Even though Veronika dies, her soul finds peace for she leaves this world with answered questions and quenched desires.

Hazel and Veronika weren’t the first, and surly are not the last,who truly understood and were able to use the power of loss to turn up the curtains that blurred their visions of the world. Afterall, grief does not change you, it reveals you!

-Aya Adel

True Hero

Graded Homework

SAT Essay

Assignment:

Should heros be defined as people who say what they think when we ourselves lack the courage to say it?

I Got a 6 on this one too..

Although no one would argue that Ghandi, Martin Luther King Jr., Rosa Parks, and all those other iconic leaders are heros, the term “hero” changes from a person to another. What a hero truly means is a person that does not only speak his or her mind, but also courageously acts upon it.

During Abraham Lincoln’s time, slavery was a major crisis. African Americans were enslaved and stripped out of every shred of dignity. They were treated in the most inhumane ways. Abraham always had strong views against this action, but he knew talk was cheap. Therefore, Lincoln aspired to be a president who could achieve change. Once president, it wasn’t long before he banished slavery and segregation. Thanks to Abraham Lincoln, racial inequality is considered a taboo.

In Stephenie Meyer’s The Host, Wanderer is a Soul who, just like all other Souls, had to live within a Host and live off what its world has to offer. When Wanderer reached Earth, she noticed that earthlings had a mind of their own, and that, on that planet, hosts were parasites. Wanderer found herself getting fond to a community of rebellious, Soul-free humans. She strove to gain their trust and understand that she wasn’t like the other souls, but the humans wouldn’t believe her talks. She decided that to gain respect, actions had to accompany her words. Wanderer started helping the humans develop their community, and soon she was their hero.

As history and literature make it obvious, to be a true hero you have to not only talk the talk, but also walk the walk. Saying that the only reason Abraham Lincoln or Wanderer were entitled as heros is only that they were courageous enough to say what we can’t is a disintegration of their heroic deeds.

Aya Adel

Questioning Authorities

SAT Writing Homework

        This Essay Got a Score of 6

Questioning Authorities

People in authority always appear to be smarter, more reasonable, and more sensible, but that doesn’t necessarily mean that they actually are. Questioning the ideas and decisions of those in power enforces equality among the people and their leaders as well as it sets  a field for improving previous regimes.

The people of France always knew they were abused and betrayed by their governments, but they chose not to defy it. The taboo of questioning those in power was, to them, more important than actually gaining their rights. Had the people never stepped outside their comfort zone and challenged those figures, their freedom would have never been won. “Never do anything against conscience, even if the state demands it”, said the wise Albert Einstein.

In Eragon, the people of Alagaesia hid in secret communities because they could not face the unjust rule and tyranny of The King. When Eragon and Roran went up to The King to confront him, they find out that he is nothing but a coward living on the fear of his people. The king had illusioned his people into thinking he is all powerful and great; that was what he led them to think, not what he truly was.

Those who hold a higher rank, whether politically, economically, in a workplace, or even in a school, might be there for a reason; perhaps they actually deserve to be there. But even that doesn't mean that they are unquestionable; everyone makes mistakes. Questioning those in power, if done respectfully, only sets them on the right track.