It was a warm summer day; about two weeks after my senior year had begun. My friends and I were having a typical Sunday, lounging around, tired from the night before, and trying to find fun ways to pass the time.
We started by playing some Xbox, and while shooting each other and other people was fun, it soon grew tiresome and we were again, back to where we started. About twenty minutes after another sleepy silence, we went outside to the beautiful weather and played some football. Although it was nice to be outside enjoying the weather, not one of us had the energy to run around for any longer than ten minutes.
Frustrated with the way the day was going, we decided to go inside, get some refreshments, and brainstorm to try to find something that would hold our attention for longer than half an hour. During the middle of our brainstorming session, a family friend of the Locke’s came over. He and his kids had just caught some soft-shelled turtles out at his family’s rock quarry. Intrigued, we decided to make a trip out there in attempt to find some turtles of our own. So five of us piled into the 1980’s rusty jeep with no doors and no roof and drove a few miles to the rock quarry.
I myself was not as interested in the turtles as my friends, so I decided to learn to drive a stick shift while my friends were hunting for turtles. After stalling about three times in a row, I finally got the old jeep going and was driving around the empty field, happy as a little kid on Christmas. After about ten minutes of driving in circles, and ten minutes of finding no turtles, we decided to head back to the house for dinner.
Upon our request from the day before, Mrs. Locke had prepared us some freshly cut mountain oysters…yummy. After I got ...
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...ese crazy girls and their sticky food as possible. After taking some battle wounds, we stole some of their “ammo” and got them back, twice as bad and messy as they got us.
After calling a truce, we went back to their backyard and took a few group pictures so we could get the aftermath on film. As we were taking pictures, one of the volleyball moms said she got most of the food fight on video. After we cleaned ourselves up, we eagerly awaited the premier of our video to the Facebook world.
We waited about four hours until we heard the devastating news that she was having problems and couldn’t get the video loaded. But she promised to have it up the following night. She came through on her promise and we all watched the video as a group reliving the fight and having almost as much fun as we did the night before. What an excellent way to end an excellent weekend.
It was my senior year of high school, I was sixteen, getting ready to turn seventeen. It was my senior year of high school. I was not your typical girl wearing makeup everyday and worrying about getting dolled up for school. I did not play sports. Don’t get me wrong, I would get all dolled up if I had something special to do like go to a school dance. I had a part time job at Olive garden because my parents motto was “if you do not play a sport you need to work!” My mom used to say to me “you know Alana back in my time I was not able to work so you are very lucky you're able to work.
The turtle must deal with a deadly drought that poses a threat to its life. In the 1930’s Dust Bowl, the Midwest is crippled by series of dust storms that damage the agricultural production of America’s “Breadbasket.” The farmer families migrated west towards California to flee the dry and desolate region. The turtle symbolically does this by trying to get to the other side of the road and relocate to a new area that has a region with more lush vegetation. This determination to move on to a new home is shown on page 20 where Steinbeck describes the turtle, “As the embankment grew steeper and steeper, the more frantic were the efforts of the land turtle” (Steinbeck 20). The turtle
The turtle appears throughout giving the contextual symbolism of the struggles of the Joad family’s survival during the family’s travels to the west and new life. The turtle’s travels alongside the highway on the hot pavement and survives an attack by a driver who purposely swerved to hit the turtle, “And now a light truck approached, and as it came near, the driver saw the turtle and swerved to hit it. His front wheel struck the edge of the shell, flipped the turtle like a tiddly-wonk, spun it like a coin, and rolled it off the highway. The truck went back on its course along the right side”
...ross a street during rush hour. Nice drivers stopped and waited for the turtle to cross their paths being personified as pedestrian. The author mooched the old fable of the tortoise and hare by saying the tales reputation “…was in jeopardy…” the evening the turtle was crossing. The snapping turtles situation mirrored those of the migrant famers that were in the process of relocation; both faced challenges from all over and had to keep moving forward in order to stay alive. At the end of the Article the turtle made it to the other side, but its freedom didn’t last for long. The turtle was seized and then detained in the prison ward in the Long Island Cat and Dog Hospital. When the Agriculture famer immigrants would reach their destination, if they were lucky enough to get hired, they ended up being exploited with terrible work conditions and wages by their employers.
...ns we had plenty of time to talk about things, but I also had time to sit and think about things for myself in the calm outdoors. That first day of hunting proved to me that hunting is one of the most fun and enjoyable things to do, along with an emotional experience, as long as it is done safety.
During the time we learn about the turtle, it faces several hardships. First, the turtle attempts to cross the road, “Pushing hind legs strained and slipped, boosting the shell along, and the horny head protruded as far as the neck could stretch,” (Steinbeck, 21). Second, the turtle has to tr...
It was my senior year of high school I was sixteen getting ready to turn seventeen. It was my year. I was not your typical girl wearing makeup or play sports. Don’t get me wrong I would get all dolled up if I had something special to do. I had a part time job at Olive garden because my parents motto was “if you
Last night during the middle of summer, I thought that I would stay up late and just play games the whole time. That’s how it happened though. I played my favorite game being a First-Person Shooter game. It was on my tablet and in a pixelated version.
Did you know there are seven species of sea turtle in the world? Four of which make home on the Salvadoran coast. Throughout my 19 years of living I have encountered a handful of learning experiences. The most significant was when I went to visit my parent's motherland, El Salvador. For those who don't know El Salvador is a small, in fact, the smallest country in Central America. My experience there changed my perspective about life. El Salvador is filled with gang violence and poverty. Making it one of the most dangerous countries in the world. Yet, is also filled with amazing views, delicious foods and beautiful people. In my visit I witnessed how hard the people work for how little they get paid, the struggle of living there, and how little you need to be happy.
The first notable example of the turtle’s obstacles is shown in a simile. Ryan portrays the turtle’s movement as “graceless, like dragging/ a packing-case places” (5-6). When one is struggling to move a heavy package, one usually starts to push or pull it slowly; one is using all his strength to move it, yet the package barely moves. The lethargic movement of moving the package is similar to the slowness of the turtle. This slowness is an obstacle because it prevents the turtle from travelling far distances and escaping from predators. Nevertheless, the fact that the turtle perseveres through this struggle shows that she is
Christmas eve ended with me crying on our living room floor because my mom wanted me to eat just one of her famous sugar cookies. Her cookies had always been one of my favorite Christmas traditions, but this year when I looked at the cookies, all I could see were calories and guilt. They smelled and looked delicious, but just the thought of taking one bite filled me with anxiety and fear. I consider this the moment I realized my eating disorder had completely taken over my life. I had become obsessed with calories and weight as a way to feel in control of my life and gain confidence. In reality, my eating disorder had slowly stripped me of my independence, health, and happiness. After that Christmas, I finally decided to seek help after months of struggling, and at the age of 17, I began an intensive outpatient treatment program.
“Imagine walking on the beach at night, the sky completely full of stars. Suddenly you see this big dinosaur lumbering out of the sea—a 1,000-pound, 2-meter-long (450-kilogram, 6.5-foot-long) turtle. With incredible concentration, she uses her flippers to dig a huge nest in the sand."
Barbour, Roger W. and Ernst, Carl H. Turtles of the United States. Lexington: The Universty Press of Kentucky, 1972. Print
It was in July, and we wanted to go camping. I asked my dad if we could go up to our family's cabin in Elk Springs, which is near Montrose. He agreed, so Chase, Tyler and I, all sixteen years old, packed our stuff and were ready to go camping. With excitement, we jumped into Chase's truck, and took off to the woods.
The ship was being tossed by angry waves. The whole crew and captain had deserted their ship only to perish to the sea. The only ones remaining on board was the Robinson family. When the storm was over, they discussed about how to get to shore. After much thinking, they built a sort of raft big enough for the family of six, taking with them things that could be of use. Once on shore, they began to search for food and made up somewhere to sleep. The next day, Father and the eldest son, Fritz, went into the forest to explore the island further. They found food like sugar cane, potatoes, and figs. Father, Fritz and two other sons, Ernest and Jack, built a sort of tree house for the family to sleep. Father and Fritz went back to the wreck for supplies and took with them all the animals they had left on board. The two dogs, which they named Juno and Turk, would be guard dogs, the cow would be good for milk, the sheep for wool, the donkey for travel and the chickens for eggs. The family soon learned that there were other animals on land for they had to hunt for food. There were penguins, lobsters, oysters, agouti, monkeys, and jackals. Fritz took a baby monkey and named him Knips and Jack took a young jackal, who he named Fangs. Mother planted roots for lemon, apple, and pear trees.