Throughout this class, I’ve had a lot of different opinions about it. Some are great while
some are not the best. It was a very different class to what I am used to. I gotta say, playing
scrabble was usually a pretty good day. However, Norton’s field guide was a bit less enjoyable. Surprisingly, the pen and paper drafts were fun to me. Even if everything was wrong. The letters actually gave me an excuse to do something I’ve always wanted to do.
I haven’t written a physical letter in years. It’s been an easy ten years since I wrote a letter
to someone. It’s an old fashioned form of communication that nobody really does anymore, at least in my circles. I can’t remember the last non-birthday card I received. Growing up in the digital age has really taken this “ancient” technology away from us. However, there is something special about receiving a handwritten letter and I wanted to share that feeling. It’s a science that people feel better after receiving a letter

Saeideh Heshmati, assistant professor of positive psychology at Claremont Graduate
University, recently researched what makes people “feel loved.” She found that “small
gestures in everyday life,” like people supporting you without expecting anything back or
showing compassion during tough times, were what participants most agreed upon as
“loving.”

Saeideh Heshmati

Instead of writing my monthly letters to friends and family that I see all the time. I
decided to write my letters to people who could use a little pick-me-up. I wrote a letter to a
family in California. This family was very close to where the wildfires were. It’s a very scary
feeling that I know well from my time living over there. I just recently heard back from the
family. The family’s name was the Nuqdadi’s and they were very close to the wildfires. So close in fact, that they were spraying down their lawns with garden hoses just in case it reaches them. His letter was extremely thoughtful and humble. He explains how thankful he was and how great it made him feel that people were looking out for him and his family. He explained how it was a very scary time and the support really helped him in his family knowing that somebody out there was looking out for them. He even went as far as to say that it restored his faith in the human spirit. I never would have thought that one letter could have so much impact on a family. It’s also
a crazy coincidence that our pets share a name! I look forward to writing back to him soon and sharing some information about myself.

The world is not as big as we make it out to be. We have reached an age where people
hate each other just because of our views. I think it’s really important for us to realize that
everybody’s human and that the majority of people are friendly and thankful. It’s time that we start treating people better and hopefully, this letter inspired that family to send a letter to somebody in need. Who knows, maybe you could start some sort of domino effect. When I look back to this class, I’m going to think back at these letters very fondly.

Work Cited
Shain, Susan. “We Could All Use a Little Snail Mail Right Now.” ​The New York Times ​ , The New York Times, 8 Oct. 2018, https://www.nytimes.com/2018/10/08/smarter-living/we-could-all-use-a-little-snail-mail-rightnow.html.

The Dancing Decent 

Alec Davidson

Dr. Lucas

English 111 116

31 October 2019

All people have a realization point. A realization that the events that have gone on in their lives have formed them into the person that they are. Maybe it’s something traumatic, like a terrible accident or maybe it’s as simple as getting something that you love taken away from you. In chapter eight, Tiny Harlots, Tara Westover experiences her realization moment. It might not have been made clear but it is the beginning of the descent of the life that she has lived.

Chapter 8 is a very impactful period for Tara. In a desperate act to get away from her family, she goes to search for a job. The pure active her wanting to find a job at her age to get away from her life truly speaks volumes. She even went as far as to advertise at Myran’s store. Tara is able to find a job working for a gentleman named Randy. It’s important to acknowledge that Randy is an outsider. This has to influence her in some way even if it’s not explicit. However, this is not the focus. 

Through her relationship with Myran, she is able to begin dancing lessons. What does support of the dance instructors and her mother they’re able to get her the clothing she needs to start dancing.  Tara absolutely loved it. Even though she was the odd one out and no one truly talks to her this was the first thing that really spoke to her outside of her family. Tara said “I love being there with them. I love the sensation and conformity. Learning to dance felt like learning to belong”. (78) learning to belong, that is exactly what Tara is doing. For the first time and her life, she feels that she’s a part of something that she truly cares about and they care about her. The dance instructors even go as far as to change the costume for the recital so she can attend. Tara has never seen this level of care.

Sadly, this does not last. Tara and her mother have been keeping this from her father for obvious reasons. The truth inevitably does come out. Tara and her parents attend the recital. Despite Tara’s best efforts, her father is disgusted. Yelling and shouting about how it’s a sin and how they should have known better for the rest of the night. What truly impacts was her mother. Entering her room late that night and saying “I should have known better. I should have seen that class for what it was.” (81) The one person that’s supported, Tara and her decision to pursue this as a passion has just backed out on her. The implications of this are far-reaching. The mindset of Tara from this point forward has to have shifted. 

Tara has been exposed to the real world she now knows. Strangers Like The Dance instructors are more willing to support her than her own parents. Despite the positive end to this chapter with the singing lessons and her performance at the church. The events of chapter 8 will start the descent of her positive relations with her family.

Works Cited 

Westover, Tara. Educated. Thorpe, Charnwood, 2018.

Growing up I never really enjoyed reading. Mainly, because of my dyslexia and the pure fact that it was forced down my throat almost every day of my early school career. I never realized I was different until the fifth-grade year. My class and I went to the library to pick out books. Everyone was getting the classic fifth-grader book like Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark, Peter Jackson, and Harry Potter. Harry Potter was the one that made it click. It was the last pin to the lock that I’ve kept locked my whole life! I wanted to read Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone. The book was huge. I was dumbfounded at the pure size of this book that everyone was reading. As I read the first chapter, I found myself annoyed. I haven’t made any progress I thought. The book was a marathon and I was racing on my hands and knees. I couldn’t understand how my fellow classmates could read this in a week! I never finished Harry Potter that year. That night I went home and lost it. It’s a frustrating feeling for a fifth grader to realize that are different than the other students. My parents when on and explained to my condition and how I’ve actually made great progress, I just was not there quite yet. 

The problem was I like stories and like every kid, I had an overactive imagination.  This combined with a film titled Jurassic Park would start a passion that I will carry with me for the rest of my life. I saw Jurassic Park when I was 13-years-old and it amazed me! Up to this point, I’ve only seen lackluster kids movies and the few quality films I’ve seen went over my head. The T-Rex fence scene was the scene that truly amazed me. The pure scale that it had was incredible. I was so fascinated by this film I started researching about it! I read articles upon articles about how the film was made and the director Steven Spielberg. For the first time, I was reading something I was interested in. From this experience, I would watch more and more movies. After school on Fridays, my father would take me to our local Blockbusters were I could pick out a movie. This was always the highlight of my week. I would scan the shelves like a hawk looking for a new movie to watch. I watch a lot of Steven Spielberg films. He was a favorite director at the time. Of course, this is because he is really the only director I’ve seen. 

 I started running into some problems with being able to watch certain films. My parents cared about my mental health and wouldn’t want me to watch a traumatizing rated R Thriller. Films like Ripley Scott’s Alien and Jonathan Demme’s Silence of the Lambs were considered off-limits. I’ve read so much about these movies from websites like rotten tomatoes and different Reddit forms I felt like I had to watch them, but I didn’t for a long time. This changed once I overheard a conversation at school about a film called Seven. A thriller that follows the events of a killer that is inspired by the seven deadly sins, I was absolutely fascinated. That night I brought it up to my parents, asking them if they ever have seen the movie. They both praised the movie, went on about how great it is and how fantastic the ending was. That was immediately followed by “No you cannot watch it!”. I’m not a parent but I know that that is not the thing you want to tell a curious movie-loving young teen. I decided I was going to see this movie regardless. In the following weeks, I would stay up late and scour across different TV channels to see if this elusive movie was being played. I eventually watched Seven. It played very late at night on AMC and it was an amazing experience. This was my second “Jurassic Park” moment. I remember being fully immersed in this film and it scared me to death. This was the first film where I really appreciated the direction and the overall plot of a film. I’m not going to spoil the ending of seven but it was something truly remarkable. I now viewed movies completely differently. We’re before I saw them as a really fun and exciting experience I now saw them as pure art.  I love movies, they are a huge part of my life and they’ve definitely played a part shaping me into the person I am today. Sadly, I feel like this art form is being forgotten in favor of lesser forms of media. Even if films die one day, I will always remember the impact that they’ve had on me and my perception of art.

I’ve gone through a lot of different ideas of what I want to do with my life. I know, it’s not expected for me to have a definitive answer at this point but people always like to think that you know where you’re going. Luckily, I have some sort of plan. I will be attending UNC Charlotte in the spring semester for finance. How I decided to settle in a degree in finance was a combination of experiences I had when I was in high school. The day I turned 18 my dad and I set up an investment portfolio. This Investment Portfolio is completely under my control. I am allowed to move money in and out of it and I’m responsible for maintaining it. This was my first window into what a finance career could look like. In my senior year of high school, I was required to complete a large project about something I’m interested in then presented to a panel of judges. I took this opportunity to learn more about the financial markets and learn to day trade. Day trading is a special type of trading where you buy and sell a stock position within the same market Day. I actually invested $1,000 of my own money for this project. I really enjoyed this project. It gave me great insight into some of the real stuff that I could be doing. I really look forward to the future and am eager to see where this takes me.

This is the learn plan profit platform. This is the software that I used to identify strong stocks and what I had to learn to read to successfully day trade for my project.