Stress

I signed up for NHS the other day.  

I signed up because all my friends were,

and I want that tassel at graduation.

I’m a week behind on turning in my lab for chem,

And most of my classmates are a week ahead in studying for finals.

I have 3 borderline grades and if I don’t get them where I want them to be,

Where they have to be,

My GPA will be ruined.

I tell no one

that a tear slipped from my eye

when I logged on to SIS and saw that I flunked my Spanish test.

I tell no one

that I get 4-5 hours of sleep and the hours I’m not sleeping,

I spend worrying about the hours of sleep I’m going to lose.

I tell no one

That I don’t think I can do it,

That I feel like I can’t breath.

Google says,

Stress is “a state of mental or emotional strain or tension resulting from adverse or very

demanding circumstances.”

No, forget that.

Stress is the pressure to get good grades, be athletic, have white teeth, and smooth skin

Even though you know that your smile is fake and you wear foundation.

Stress is your mind trying to compensate for goals you couldn’t achieve.

Stress is school.

I am pointlessly signing up for things that take more out of me,

And put more weight on my shoulders.

I’m sixteen years old

and scarily soon enough I will have to decide

what I want to be for the rest of my life.

I tell my parents that,

“I’ve got it all under control”.

But the truth is, it feels like everything is controlling me

I’m missing out on the things I really want to do

But never end up doing because if I can’t put it on a college application

Then what’s the point?

We’ve been told that school isn’t a sprint it’s a marathon,

But I can no longer remember how many steps I’ve taken

And I’ve lost track of where the finish line even is.

I feel so pressured to keep up with everyone around me

who seem like they have it all together.

But does anyone ever really have it all together?

We proceed aimlessly and take breathless steps

To places where we think we should be going,  

Places we’re told we should be going

I look around at the sea of people that surround me

And wonder if they’ve ever felt the same

Wonder if the pressure’s ever kept them up at night

Wonder if they’ve ever had that feeling of not being good enough

And that’s when I realize, no matter if it’s a marathon or a sprint, we’re always competing against someone

Someone better, someone faster, someone smarter

And in the end, we’re all just racing against each other.

Amir's Growth Throughout Kite Runner

This image represents the theme of Amir's character growth throughout the novel despite his many obstacles. The dirt ground represents the guilt Amir is feeling about Hassan's rape and how pushes everything underground and refuses to deal with his guilt and emotions. The flower represents Amir's hope for redemption through meeting Sohrab and giving him a proper home. The crack in the ground represents Amir's opening up and dealing with the emotions of his past and how he has dealt with his guilt and grown from it. The cracks are caused by Sohrab and Rahim Khan, people who have inspired Amir to be a better person and own up to his past and what is already done.

Money Problems

   Money Problems
by Ritika Shetty

Imagine living in a place where only a few powerful people get to decide how the country’s money is spent. This is currently happening in South Africa and it is getting worse every day. Transparency International’s Global Corruption Perception Index shows that South Africa has dropped 34 places since 2001 in the Global Corruption scale and is continuing to decline (Corruption). This shows the urgency of the situation in South Africa and that there is no working solution in place yet. It’s important to be aware of South Africa’s fight against corruption because the more people around the world know about the problem, the more help the country will be able to obtain. It will also attract more attention to the problem and force a quicker solution. Despite being one of the few countries in Africa to have anti-corruption laws in place, such as the Prevention and Combating of Corruption Act, lack of enforcement renders these laws useless (South). Yet, the root cause of the problem can be traced back to two families who contribute the most to South Africa’s money corruption.

Jacob Zuma, the current president of South Africa, has been named one of the biggest contributors to South Africa’s growing corruption problem. Recently, Zuma has been in the center of one of the biggest corruption scandals yet, after he was accused of using government money, over 4.7 million US dollars, to renovate his home (Smith). Zuma’s official statement was that these renovations were necessary for his safety and security, but a home theatre, pool, and visitors centre were among the changes made with government money (Smith). Surprisingly enough, this isn’t the first accusation of corruption against Zuma. In fact, before the election, Zuma had over 783 counts of fraud against him which vary from racketeering to money laundering (Smith). These charges were eventually suspended by the courts because of Zuma’s presidential victory (Zuma).

Another prominent family in South African government, the Guptas, have been accused of corruption several times because of their powerful influence in the government. The Gupta brothers, who came here from India in 1993, began as one small IT company but now have one of the largest business empires in South Africa (Yeatts). A recent 355-page scathing report, written by former Public Protector Thuli Madonsela, about the Gupta family has revealed that President Zuma is implicated in a serious case of ethics violations and criminal allegations with one of the Gupta’s biggest companies, Eskom (McKenzie).  In fact, the Gupta and Zuma family are considered so close that many people refer to them as Zupta (McKenzie). One example of allegations made against the Guptas was in December 2015 when President Zuma fired Then-Finance Minister, Nhlanhla Nene, after his department stated their disapproval of a new nuclear energy plan for South Africa. The Guptas, who had become interested in investing in the nuclear energy sector, were heavily involved in the making of this plan (Yeatts). It was also uncovered later that the new Finance Minister, David van Rooyen, and his associates had close ties to the Gupta family (Yeatts).

In total, the South African government has a lot of work to do and cannot let families such as the Guptas and the Zumas use their power and money for their own benefit at the expense of the people. In the end, this information raises the question, if you can’t trust your government, who can you trust?

                                                                    Works Cited 

McKenzie, David, and Laura Smith-Spark. "South Africa Corruption Report Released amid Protests." CNN. Cable News Network, 02 Nov. 2016. Web. 06 Mar. 2017.

Smith, David. "Jacob Zuma Accused of Corruption 'on a Grand Scale' in South Africa." The Guardian. Guardian News and Media, 29 Nov. 2013. Web. 04 Mar. 2017.

Anonymous. "South Africa Corruption Report." GANBACP. Gan Business Portal, n.d. Web. 07 Mar. 2017.

Anonymous. "Why Is Corruption Getting Worse in South Africa?" Corruption Watch. N.p., 18 July 2015. Web. 06 Mar. 2017.

Yeatts, Tyler, and Joshua Meservey."South Africa Is Losing the War Against Corruption." The Daily Signal. The Daily Signal News and Media, 20 Apr. 2016. Web. 06 Mar. 2017.

Anonymous. "If Zuma isn't ousted South Africa faces ruin; Cyril Ramaphosa's challenge to the corrupt president is a last chance for ANC and the nation." Times [London, England] 23 Feb. 2017: 20. Global Issues in Context. Web. 6 Mar. 2017.

Secret Symbols

Secret Symbols

Sijie uses the symbols of the alarm clock and the sheepskin coat to represent Luo and the narrator’s expression of intellectual liberty. The alarm clock symbolizes the two boys’ intellectual superiority that allowed them to have more control over their situation. The sheepskin coat represents their hunger for knowledge and the curiosity they have once they have been exposed to Western literature. They both represent a form of rebellion against the barriers that had been put up around them. Manipulating the clock allows them to get more rest and take advantage of the headman. Writing on the sheepskin coat would definitely be considered reactionary, but their determination to learn outweighs their fear of the possible consequences for their actions.

Quotes

“After that historic morning we got into the habit of re-adjusting the time on the alarm clock” (15).

“In the end we had changed the position of the hands so many times that we had no idea what the time really was” (15).

Quotes

“It was the first time in my life that I had felt any desire to copy sentences from a book” (58).

“This fellow Balzac is a wizard … He touched the head of this mountain girl .. and she was transformed … She ended up putting on your wretched coat … She said having Balzac’s words next to her skin made her feel good, and also more intelligent.” (62)

Importance of Balance

The Importance of Balance

If you want to be open
Learn to trust
If you want to be free
Learn to let go
If you want peace with others
Learn to be at peace with yourself
If you want to see the light
Learn to be okay with darkness
If you want to be powerful
Learn to be weak

To be whole with yourself
You must know what it is like to be empty
Only once you have experienced the bad
Will you be able to appreciate the good