Analytical Essay:

Everyone goes through important changes and phases in their lives, whether it be someone very close to them passing away, winning the lottery, or finding “the one”.  All of these things can cause a change in one’s character that greatly affects their view of the world.  In Kevin Powers’s novel The Yellow Birds, the main character, Bartle, goes through one of the most life-changing experiences possible: fighting in a war.  During his service in Afghanistan, he sees himself and many others change in many ways. Many people, when going through or having gone through a big change in their life, may feel like the whole world has changed because their world has changed.

At one point in Bartle’s time abroad, he goes AWOL in Germany, when the troops are waiting to fly back to America.  While he’s away from the base, he goes into a church and has some time alone with his thoughts.  When remembering this moment, he says, “I realized, as I stood there in the church, that there was a sharp distinction between what was remembered, what was told , and what was true. And I didn’t think I’d ever figure out which was which,” (Powers 60).  This is an interesting way of thinking of the human memory, because often times, those three things are seen as the same thing.  Bartle, as he remembers certain events in the war and is talking to the priest in the church, realizes that his mind wants to remember things differently than how they happened.  After he had these traumatic experiences, his view of the world was changed, although he didn’t notice at the time. His changed perspective caused him to believe that things had happened differently than they actually had.

Kevin Powers, when talking in an interview about life in combat compared with civilian life, said, "As human beings, we have the blessing and the curse that we're able to adapt to almost anything. No matter how extreme the circumstances you're in, they become normal,” (Sherr).  The Yellow Birds is written in a way such that one chapter Bartle will be fighting in Al Tafar, Afghanistan, and the next chapter he will be back home in Richmond, Virginia after the war.  The way the book jumps around like this, the reader can see a clearer comparison between his experiences in the war and how they affected him once he was back home.  This quote says that “no matter how extreme the circumstances you’re in, they become normal” (Sherr), meaning that even when Bartle was fighting in Afghanistan, at some point he became so used to it that he felt like that was normal.  The reader notices this once Bartle is back home in Richmond, because he goes out and shoots his gun at the ground to relax; the fact that this action is relaxing instead of stressful or exciting means that he is used to it, and that he believes it is normal in the world he is living in.

When Bartle is back in America and reflecting on his current life, he talks about whether he thinks he and his life are normal.  During this reflection, he says, “The details of the world in which we live are always secondary to the fact that we must live in them,” (Powers 224).  What this means is that humans can never have experiences in life or views of their world without either of those being affected by their own thoughts and feelings.  Bartle is acknowledging this, by saying that even though he feels like his life is normal, he knows that this is partially because of his past experiences and feelings.  If he was completely separated from his past, his thoughts, and his feelings, he would see that this is not normal behavior.  However, there is no way for him to perceive his world outside of his own mind.

Many people who have never fought in a war may feel like there is no way in which they can connect to a soldier.  While it is true that a soldier’s experience is incredibly different from a civilian’s, the fact that a life-changing moment or period in one’s life can change his or her perception of the world is something that applies to everyone.  Whether someone is a civilian who has just had a child, or a soldier who has just lost a close friend in combat, both situations will greatly affect a person.  This is a uniting factor between two different groups of people that should be remembered when civilians connect with soldiers.

Works Cited for Analytical Essay:

Powers, Kevin. The Yellow Birds. New York: Little, Brown, 2012. Print.

Sherr, Lynn. "A Soldier's Story: Returning Home From Iraq." Parade's Community Table.

Parade Publications Inc., 21 Oct. 2012. Web. 08 Jan. 2015.

http://communitytable.com/125987/lynnsherr/21-iraq-veteran-kevin-powers-interview-

the-yellow-birds/.

Narrative Essay:

Ugh, I hate everyone.  Why is everyone so annoying?  Wait...are they talking about me right now?

These are just average thoughts I have had sitting in class, on the bus, or pretty much anywhere when I have gone through more depressed periods in my life.  We all have these types of thoughts every now and then, but they were an almost constant occurrence in my head.  Someone walking in front of me would do something mildly annoying and I would berate them in my head, my mood having been ruined by them during the rest of my walk to school.  This negative attitude towards even strangers is just an example of how I viewed the world in this part of my life: annoying, boring, and joyless.

One way in which my perspective on the world and my life was changed is that I became much more paranoid about my friends or people at school talking about me.  It wasn’t because I thought I was so important, I just thought people were talking behind my back, when I left the room or walked down the hall past them.  A few times, I got so worried about it that I actually would ask one friend if another had said anything about me, or if they thought someone didn’t like me.  Always, the answer was something like, “No, why would you think that?” or “No, why would they be talking about you?” and whoever I was asking would look at me funny.  I’m sure that at least once, the person I was asking about found out I had been asking about them, and it probably annoyed them or made them uncomfortable.  At the time, I never thought about that, but now that I am outside of my depressive state of mind, it seems clear that that must have happened.

Another big affect of my depression was boredom and indifference towards the world around me.  Often times, I just wouldn’t bother to make any plans over the weekend, and because I had no plans, I would start on this train of thought that I didn’t have any plans because no one wanted to hang out with me, when in reality it was just because I didn’t ask anyone.  This would cause me to just sit at home all weekend, incredibly bored and often unhappy.  My parents would suggest all sorts of things to do, and to each option I’d say that I “didn’t feel like it” or I would just say no.  At the time, I really didn’t have any interest in any of the things they were suggesting; I would even think to myself, “Why don’t I want to do anything?  All of those things seem so boring.”  At that point in time, I saw the world as very boring, with nothing exciting going on in it.  Again, thinking back, most of the things my parents suggested were pretty interesting, but that just isn’t how I viewed my world.  

Possibly the worst affect my depressed state of mind had on myself and my life was the actual change in my personality.  I was much more negative and rude or mean towards both my parents, my friends, and my boyfriend.  I believed I was behaving normally, but at one point or another, all of the people in my life confronted me about my behavior, and in some cases it was too late to fix the damage I had done without even realizing it.  Even in the cases where my apologies were accepted, I still felt terribly guilty about the feelings I had hurt and the anger and frustration I had caused.  This would send me even deeper into depression.  Once again, in these situations I had believed that I was behaving like my normal self, even though it was obvious later on that I hadn’t been.

While I will likely never be able to fully relate to the life and experiences of a soldier, I feel that the factor of a distorted reality can apply to both people like me and people from the army.  Like Bartle, I believed that my abnormal behavior was nothing out of the ordinary, even though to others the change was obvious.  The effects of my depression included ruined relationships, lost time, and inaccurate world views.  The effects of Bartle’s return and assimilation back into civilian life were changed relationships, time wasted being angry and depressive, and a distorted view of the world.  This is perhaps the only connection I can make between myself and the character of Bartle.  But it is a strong connection, and a thought-provoking one; a connection that will stay with me as I continue to learn how to connect with others who are different from me.

Music Therapy

Most people today, for better or for worse, know what therapy is—either because they need it or because someone they know does.  Few people think of therapy as being anything except talking to a therapist about one’s feelings and problems, which is called psychotherapy or “talking” therapy.  Less common forms of therapy, such as art and play therapies, offer more engaged and less abstract ways to connect with the same problems.  They use physical and visual tools, such as creating paintings in the case of art therapy (“What Is…?”), and using puppets to represent real life situation in the case of play therapy (“How Does…?”).  Even lesser known than these therapies is music therapy, which uses music in several ways to achieve similar goals as art therapy, play therapy, or psychotherapy.  It is not often heard about in the everyday world, making it at first seem much less professional or official than other forms of therapy.  However, music therapy actually is a well-researched and effective form of therapy.  Although music therapy is not yet widely known, it can be a more effective tool for those who need a more concrete way to connect with their emotions than standard "talking" therapy.

Every music therapist must have completed an accredited program for a Master’s degree in Music Therapy.  Strategies used in music therapy include expressing emotions through playing a variety of instruments, uninterrupted listening sessions of music chosen by the patient, and combined listening and discussion sessions with music chosen by the therapist (“Music Therapy and…”).  One might assume that music therapy is purely used for psychological and emotional problems, as many popular forms of therapy are.  Surprisingly, though, music therapy can be used for physical and social problems as well.  This therapy can be and is used with people of all ages, and on a huge variety of patients.  Some examples of when music therapy is used and who it is used on are people with Alzheimer’s disease (elderly people), young children (as young as two or three years), and people diagnosed on the autism spectrum.  In one type of music therapy session, the patient will use easy

The first acknowledgements of the value of “talking” psychotherapy were in the 1800s (Haggerty), and the first documented instance of music therapy was in 1789 (“History of…”).  However, music had been thought of as potentially healing as early as the writings of Aristotle and Plato (“History of…”).  Talking therapies are pretty much exclusively just what they sound like—talking to a trained professional about one’s problems (“Talking Therapies”).  In contrast, music therapy incorporates both playing music and listening to music, as well as some discussion components.  Talking therapies generally only work with cognitively developed/present people, eliminating both young children and elderly people with severe Alzheimer's disease or similar conditions.  Music therapy, however, can be used in such a way so that it does not require completely developed or healthy minds, opening the range of possible patients greatly.  

A  more specific and concrete example of a group of people who can be helped with music therapy is people diagnosed on the autism spectrum.  In 1995, three scientists tested the effectiveness of music therapy on an autistic three-year-old girl, and her interactions with her mother (Khetrapal 12.).  At the end of the experiment, the little girl showed significant signs of improvement in several social areas, including eye contact with her mother.  When they checked back with her after two years, the improvements had stayed with her.  This sort of case is a combination of both a very young patient and a mentally and socially disabled patient, neither of which could have been helped much by talking therapy.  

People who need a more concrete way to connect with their feelings and emotions need and deserve the same level of therapeutic attention as everyone else.  Music therapy is one way to achieve social and mental goals with these sorts of patients that are important to their qualities of life.  Most people, don’t go into a therapist’s office knowing how to perfectly express their thoughts and feelings.  But everyone has a natural emotional response to music that can be a powerful way of connecting with unconscious thoughts and worries.  

Works Cited

Haggerty, Jim, M.D. "History of Psychotherapy." Psych Central.com. Psych Central, 30 Jan.

2013. Web. 05 Oct. 2014.

http://psychcentral.com/lib/history-of-psychotherapy/000115.

"History of Music Therapy." American Music Therapy Association. American Music Therapy

Association, n.d. Web. 05 Oct. 2014. http://www.musictherapy.org/about/history/.

"How Does Therapeutic Play Work?" PlayTherapy.org. Play Therapy International, n.d. Web.

06 Oct. 2014. http://www.playtherapy.org/playhowdoestpwork.html.

Khetrapal, Neha. "Why Does Music Therapy Help in Autism?" Empirical Musicology Review 4

(2009): 11-12. Knowledge Bank. Web. 5 Oct. 2014.

https://kb.osu.edu/dspace/bitstream/handle/1811/36602/EMR000065a_Khetrapal.pdf.

"Music Therapy and Mental Health." American Music Therapy Association, Inc. (n.d.): n. pag.

American Music Therapy Association. American Music Therapy Association. Web. 5

Oct. 2014. http://www.musictherapy.org/assets/1/7/MT_Mental_Health_2006.pdf.

Silverman, Michael J. "Psychiatric Patients' Perception of Music Therapy and Other

Psychoeducational Programming." Journal of Music Therapy 43.2 (2006): 111-19.

Pubmed. Web. 5 Oct. 2014.

https://drive.google.com/drive/u/0/#folders/0ByDxnS1HotqDNENYdkFsMkJNOE0.

"Talking Therapies." Mental Health.org. Mental Health Foundation, n.d. Web. 04 Oct. 2014.

http://www.mentalhealth.org.uk/help-information/mental-health-a-z/T/talking-therapies/.

"What Is Art Therapy?" ArtTherapy.org. American Art Therapy Association, 2013. Web. 6 Oct.

Sneakers have always been apart of our lives since the Michael Jordan era. Many young teenagers now don’t remember who Michael Jordan is but remember him for his sneakers. The sneaker culture now has now been focus on what sneakers someone has and if they have the most exclusive sneakers amongst friends and others. But with that comes a price.

Many incidents have been occurring about someone getting shot or killed over a pair of sneakers (mostly Jordans). On December 22, 2012, 2 men were shot in Texas over their Jordans (to be specific Jordan 11 Bred). Both men were leaving the mall with the sneakers in hand until they were approached by 2 men in a car and told them to give up the sneakers. 1 man got away safely but, the other victim tried to get in the car and drive away but was shot at in the back of the head by the men who shot through the back window of the car. All of this over a pair of sneakers is unacceptable. There should be no reason to kill an innocent person for a pair of sneakers. Sneakers are sneakers. Yes, some of them are rare one and some are limited to a certain number of pairs made but that doesn’t mean that a person should rely on violence to get one of those pairs of sneakers if they didn’t get one themselves.

Another incident where someone was robbed of their sneakers involves college students who go to a excellent college but decided to beat up a student for his Nike Foamposites while his friends video taped the fight and watch. Every student who laughed and video taped the fight including the student who beat the other student up for his sneakers were all expelled from the college. These were people who were accepted into a very good college but doing one little mistake caused them to be expelled.

Now the sneaker culture isn’t always having bad and cruel incidents with it. There is good things that come with it too. Sneaker Con is a convention that is held in different states and countries all the time. It’s a convention where people who love to collect sneakers get a chance to connect with people just like them and sell their sneakers or trade them. This is a great way to show their love for sneakers in a organized way. This is also a learning experience for young people who go to these conventions in a way. Let’s take a look at one story about a young sneaker collector named Alex who is 15 years old. Alex was featured in a ESPN article called, "Sneakerheads: The Business of Reselling Sneakers.". Alex is many of young sneaker collectors who buy and sell sneakers making up to a much as $1000 dollars. During the documentary, it follows  Alex and his friends at a sneaker convention. While they are there, Alex becomes a smart deal maker. Alex is in the middle of making a deal with one person (which ends up ending with a deal of $340 dollars), Alex finishes another deal halfway down the table worth $320 dollars which he wasn’t apart of at the moment. Alex and his friends continue to make deals with people and bargaining with them to get the right price.

After that, Alex’s father is sat down and talks about how he feels about his son and what he does. Alex’s father says that he somewhat likes what Alex is doing. He says that it is showing him that he knows how to handle money and how negotiate with his money. But, his father also says that he does not like it as well because he feels that instead of spending time on a Saturday morning on the computer trying to purchase a sneaker coming out that day, he could be studying and doing his homework. This is true but this could also be another way for young sneaker collectors to learn how to manage money and how to use it wisely and not spend it on things without really thinking about it.

“The moment we saw each other, we knew it was meant to be.” Almost everybody has heard this phrase on TV or in the movies, but does this happen in real life? Because of this small sentence, lots of people ask how someone could fall in love with someone just by looking at them. Many people assume that people can choose who they fall in love with. However, brains are actually controlled because of the powerful force love has, so they can’t force themselves to love someone – it just happens.  

Looking at the science of it, there are many small components that make someone fall in love with their significant other. For instance, their face. An Australian scientist discovered that women prefer a man with a symmetrical face, which is often considered a sign of good health. In an interview, Dr. Grossman, a physiologist, said, “It’s a survival of the fittest thing. We subconsciously look at their face and say, ‘That’s a great face -- our kids are going to look awesome.” It is a form of judgment, which is a quick one. It takes even less than a second for their brains to make the decision when they first meet someone. This has turned into people calling it “love at first sight.” People, when they meet someone of the opposite sex, tend to visually fixate on the face to see if they will see any signs of any romantic love.

This basic concept of love at first sight has been used in many stories, such as Romeo and Juliet, and West Side Story. However, one of the most popular TV shows, The Big Bang Theory, began with this simple experience: In the pilot episode, two physicists return home from work when they notice a woman moving in across the hall from their apartment. The moment one of the physicists, Leonard Hofstadter, makes eye contact with the woman, Penny, he instantly becomes nervous and begins stuttering when he speaks. At the end of their conversation, he turns to his colleague and says, “Our babies will be smart and beautiful.” Love at first sight is always looked at in a curious manner by most teenagers and adults. They used this concept in the show to send the message. This is a general example of how it only takes within five seconds for someone’s brain to analyse the person they’re meeting and make a decision on whether or not they like them. It is like saying they only get one chance to make a good first impression of themselves.

But love at first sight is not the only example of how we could suddenly end up loving someone. People are most likely to fall in love with people they hang out with every day: Their friends. They can choose their friends, but they can’t choose which of them they are in love with. The love force always starts small, and then it slowly gets bigger, making it more clear to the person as time progresses. It usually takes a few months, but at some point, someone will begin to think of their friend (opposite sex) more often than they’re used to. Specifically, there is such a thing as two lovers with completely different personalities. A professor of physiology said that, "Based on what research evidence shows, similar people are more likely to get together in the first place -- and are also more likely to find satisfaction in their relationship." (Prof. William Ickes) It may be most likely that mismatched couples may not stay together for long, but it is how they loved each other in the first place that makes people curious. It’s like needing a positive charge and a negative charge to make a battery or needing peanut butter and also jelly to make a sandwich. Opposite people who fall in love have brains that somehow attract to each other. It is one of the ways that show how love can happen at any moment, without people knowing.

If people stopped to think about it, they would realize that love is not just about "love at first sight," but also opposites attracting as well. People assume that love is as simple as meeting someone, and then developing an affection towards them. Actually, the powerful force of love is running through their systems every day without them knowing.

Works Cited:

Scott, Jennifer A. "8 Secrets (From Science) For Falling In Love." The Huffington Post. N.p., 2014. Web. 21 Sept. 2014. <http://www.huffingtonpost.ca/2012/07/12/why-do-people-fall-in-love_n_1667527.html>.

DiLonardo, Mary Jo, and This Article Was Originally Published on Upwave.com. "Do Opposites Really Attract?" CNN. Cable News Network, 01 Jan. 1970. Web. 21 Sept. 2014. <http://www.cnn.com/2014/04/07/living/opposites-attract-upwave-relate/>.

Edward Snowden went from a loyal NSA contractor to a United States Traitor. Many people knew him to be politically conservative, very intelligent, and he was also a gun owner. No one expected this man, the most trusted man in the United States of America to be behind the biggest intelligence leak in history. Even after Edward Snowden leaked thousands of classified documents he still considers himself a patriot, and he is not the only one who agrees with this statement. Most people have agreed with Edward Snowden and his actions, but many others are deeply divided and worried by government surveillance. According to the Huffington Post Fifty-one percent of Americans said that Edward Snowden was “something of a hero” who should have been rewarded for his actions, while fifty-four percent of Americans agree that “security and anti-terrorism efforts mean we may sometimes have to infringe on civil liberties such as personal information privacy”. It is an issue that currently makes the American people question their privacy and the actions of the government. Edward Snowden’s actions have made the American people question the government and people’s safety relating to the privacy that American citizens are entitled to.

Many Americans are conflicted in what they think of Edward Snowden and his actions. The Huffington Post states that “fifty-one percent of Americans said that Edward Snowden was something of a hero who should be commended for letting the public know that the governments are running electronic surveillance programs that threaten people’s privacy”. While 49 percent labeled him more of a traitor who should be condemned for publicizing security activities and threatening western intelligence operations, along with the NSA. Edward Snowden’s actions have clearly surprised many Americans in a positive and a negative way, the previous example shows a statistic that proves that not only did part of the American government label him as a traitor but many Americans also suggested that he should have been condemned for leaking thousands of classified documents.  In response to my previous statement this situation causes people to have a hard time making sense to it because it clearly threatens western intelligence agencies that help protect security activities, but not one U.S. citizen was aware this was going on in the government.

Hero or no hero he has brought to light important information that deserved to be in the public’s reach, while doing no harm to the national security of his country. Many Americans today are genuinely and understandably torn by Edward Snowden’s actions. Even though he revealed many U.S. government actions and is now classified as a criminal, many Americans find it troubling that their privacy does not exist. It makes sense that people feel grateful to the person who brought this information to us, but is calling him a hero appropriate? In a recent interview with Edward Snowden people now have cause to doubt how much privacy they are entitled to. In this interview Edward Snowden stated, “The N.S.A. has built an infrastructure that allows it to intercept almost everything. With this capability, the vast majority of human communications are automatically ingested without targeting. If I wanted to see your emails or your wife’s phone, all I have to do is use intercepts. I can get your emails, passwords, phone records, credit cards.” This example not only shows the little privacy American citizens have but it also shows how easy it is for the government to access people’s important information that not only affects us as individuals but  families as well.

Today Edward Snowden remains a hero to some, to others he is a common criminal and wouldn’t characterized him as a hero of any kind. I believe this topic is very interesting because in though this is a issue currently going on in the United States, many people from different countries have expressed their feelings about Edward Snowden and his actions, for example in in The Huffington Post it is stated that 67 percent of the people living in Canada and 60 percent in the U.K. viewed him as a hero. Even after Edward Snowden leaked thousands of classified documents to public domain, it has come to the conclusion that the U.S. government currently uses intercepts to hack into emails, phone records, credit cards, etc. The reality of it is that American citizens have a very small amount of privacy than people think they are entitled to, which shows to point how the government contains personal information and why it is needed.

Work Cited:

Edwards-Levy, Ariel. "Americans Still Can't Decide Whether Edward Snowden Is A 'Traitor' Or A 'Hero,' Poll Finds." The Huffington Post. TheHuffingtonPost.com, 30 Oct. 2013. Web. 08 Nov. 2014. <http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/10/30/edward-snowden-poll_n_4175089.html>.

"Edward Snowden: 'I'd Volunteer for Prison' to Return to US." TODAY. N.p., n.d. Web. 06 Oct. 2014.

Why Edward Snowden Is a Hero - The New Yorker." The New Yorker. Http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/edward-snowden-says-motive-behind-leaks-was-to-expose-surveillance-state/2013/06/09/aa3f0804-d13b-11e2-a73e-826d299ff459_story.html, n.d. Web. 06 Oct. 2014.

"Quora." Why Do Some Americans Believe Edward Snowden Is Not a Hero? -. N.p., n.d. Web. 06 Oct. 2014.

Improvements:

I first edited the mistakes that Ms.Pahomov had commented onto my google document, after I resolved the comments I looked for words that I know are not allowed in 2fer essays. Secondly, I had one of my peer's peer edit my essay just in case there were any mistakes that I couldn't see, there were a couple that my peer found but I fixed them just in time. I then clicked my sources cited to make sure that they were the right ones, I used a couple of sources but they weren't in the right order at first. I also tried to fix some of my paragraphs that repeated, I think I did a pretty good job trying to make it more sightful. If I could change anything I would change the sentence structures of my essay.