21

    If you drive, or have ever been in a car on a road in a city, chances are, you have seen a bad driver.  They are all too common.  But, what is the difference between these drivers and good drivers?  I believe that good driving has to do with eyes.  If you cannot see well, you likely will not drive well.  You obviously need to see the road and you need to see the other cars on the road to make sure you do not hit them.  You need to see speed limit signs, street signs and any other types of signs on the road.  Drivers also need to have good, quick reflexes.  This is in case you need to evade traffic coming toward you.  This is also in case you need to avoid children, balls, potholes, dead animals, or any other obstacles in the street.  Finally, I believe good drivers should have keen instincts.   They should be able to make important decisions on the road in a flash.  This can be the difference between having an accident and not having one, which could be the difference between life and death.

20

    If you saw the recent Major League Baseball post-season, then I am sure that you have heard of a man named Josh Hamilton.  Josh Hamilton is the starting center-fielder for the Texas Rangers.  He had an exceptional season in 2010, with the exception of the World Series.  What a lot of people do not know is what led up to his monstrous career.  Josh was signed in 1999.  He was a beast and continued to be one in his first year in the minor leagues.  He soon was in a car accident with his mother.  His mother was hospitalized and he suffered back injuries.  He soon went on to continue playing, but was put on the disabled list.  He was twenty years old, wealthy, and alone for the first time in his life.  He found comfort in a group of guys who hung out at a tattoo parlor and did bad things.   He got a lot of tattoos of the devil, and Jesus and things he did not understand.  He also began experimenting with drugs and alcohol.  He was sent to rehabilitation but became angry and left.  He played off and on for a while, battling injuries and drugs.  He often consumed enough cocaine and alcohol to kill a normal person, but his amazing body pulled him through.  He was suspended until 2004.  He then found God, and quit his habits.  Now he is back on the prowl, hitting bombs.  All things are possible through God.

19

    A lot of people play baseball.  Some are worse than me. Some are better than me.  Some have been playing for years.  Some have just started playing baseball.  Some people play because it is fun.  Some people play because they love it.  Some people play because they want it on their college applications.  Some people play for money.
    A lot of people go fishing.  Some people go more than me.  Some people go less often than I do.  Some people are worse than me.  Some people are better than me.  Some people do it because it is fun.  Some people do it because they need to do it to feed their families.  Some people have been fishing the whole lives.  Some people recently began fishing for the first time in their lives.
    A lot of people are good students.  Some are better in math than in English.  Some people have always been good at schoolwork.  Some people have recently become so schoolminded.  Some people are born with good study habits.  Some people have to work to remember things that they have learned.  Some people just take tests and do very well on them.  Some people work really hard studying for said tests.  What sets me apart from all these people is that I do all three of these things and I do them well.

18

    Have you ever looked at one of your homework assignments, classwork assigments, projects, tests, quizzes, or exams and thought to yourself, "Man, I could have done better than that!"?  I am sure you have, and you are not the only one.  Everybody has done it, at least one time, including myself.  This just means that you take pride in  your school work.  However, taking pride in said work while you are doing it can benefit you greatly.  If you are taking pride in your work, and you do the best that you can, you most likely will do well.  Also, if you do the best that you can, and you fail, you still feel better about yourself when you see the result.  Too often, I have seen people work under the best of their ability, look back later and say, " Man, I should have done a lot better than this.  What did I do wrong? How is my grade going to look?  Does the teacher just not like me?"  A simple way to avoid this would be to take pride in your work while you are doing it and work to the best of your ability.

17

    Diversity is change.  Things become more diverse when they are a combination of things coming together to make a whole.  Many people think that diversity is a good thing, however, many people also think it is a bad thing.  A lot of people like to see diverse schools.  I believe this is because it shows the schools and mainly that administration are not prejudice.  So, they add people of different backgrounds into their schools: Caucasions, Chinese, Japanese, African-American, Samoan, Russian, Korean, Mexican, Guatemalen, Indian, and Native American people are all included.  Also, people of different sexual orientations are admitted into schools such as heterosexuals, homosexuals, and bi-sexuals.  Finally, people of both sexes, male and female, are added into most schools to keep them diverse.  Schools usually want to stay diverse to show that make sure that people do not think that they are racist. If people believe that they are racist, then only negative things can sprout from that:  People could sue, the press could get a hold of the story and make the school seem horrible to the public, they could lose money, they could lose students, or radical thinkers could possibly tear down or burn down the school (destroying it and keeping it from everyone).

16

    Cooperation is when two or more people work together to do something.  People often need to cooperate to do things.  Most people cannot do absolutely everything by themselves.  Group members for school projects, families, and co-workers need to cooperate.  Without cooperation these things can easily fall apart.  Cooperation holds thing together.  As a baseball player, I know all about cooperation.   If a team cannot cooperate, they will not do very well.  Imagine that you are a catcher.  Your team is tied in the bottom of the ninth inning, and you are on the visiting team, meaning you are on the field.  Take into consideration that it is the bottom half of the inning.  There is a runner on third base.  There are two outs and the count is three and two.  You put down the number one and tap your left leg, indicating that you want the pitcher to throw a fastball on the inside part of the plate.  However, to your surprise, the pitcher throws a curveball off of the outside part of the plate.  The ball gets past you, and the runner on third base scores and you lose the game.  If you two had cooperated more effectively, this may not have happened. 

15

    If you immediately need to contact your associate, or group member, for some homework problem, what is the first thing you would do to reach them?  One thing that you could do is get on your computer in your room and contact them through Facebook.  Another thing you could possibly do on that computer is contact them through My Space.  Finally, on the computer, you could Instant Message them.  You could do so through America Online Instant Messenger, Yahoo Instant Messenger, or MSN Instant Messenger. You could also use your cellular phone to fix your problem, which most teenagers do.  One possibility is calling the other individual.  Another idea would be to send them a text message.  Finally, you could contact them through a social network, such as Facebook or My Space, or through an Instant Messenger, such as American Online Instant Messenger, Yahoo Instant Messenger, or MSN Instant Messenger, on your phone.  However, there was a time when not everyone had cellular phones and computers in their lives.   In recent days, these things have almost become necessities.  About fifteen years ago, people mostly communicated in person.  They would call people and they would even send an email or a letter in the mail every once in a while.  Communication has drastically changed over the years--especially over the last twenty-or-so years.  I do not know why this is so, but it seems that things are still changing and doing so very quickly.  Will the changes in forms of commication ever slow down?

12

    Crack!  The top baseball prospect just hit another homerun!  He is definitely on a roll now.  All of the critics and sports reporters know that he will soon be a Major League Baseball star.  He was known around the country as a prodigy.  His parents raised him to love baseball and they always knew he would be a star.  Well, the premonition is appearing to be true.  He has just received his two-hundred millon dollar signing bonus. 
    Why was talented young man able to become so wealthy?  He does not operate on cancer victims.  He does not arrest thieves or serial killers.  He does not put out dangerous fires.  All he does is play a sport.  Why does he deserve it?
   What a lot of people do not realize is that athletes, and the sports that they play, often have an affect on the people that watch them.  Children and teenagers often look up to athletes.  Many kids tell themselves, "I want to be like him when I grow up!"  For some, their role model is the reason that they play the sport.  Therefore, if it were not for the professional athletes, some children may not play sports.  If these children are not playing sports, they may be doing other things, and these things may not be good.  I, personally, have former teammates who were denied chances to play baseball and, in return, found acceptance in negative places.  Maybe if they had a positive role model to look up to, such as an athlete,
this would not have happened. 

memoir

In a song, a famous rapper named Eminem, also known as Slim Shady, asked listeners if they had “ever been hated or discriminated against...”. Well Mr. Shady, my answer to your question is “yes.” I have gone through moments in my lifetime in which i was extremely furious with individuals.

            To recall a particular situation in which I was pre-judged on what I assumed was my appearance, I would have to think back to two-thousand and five. It was my first year in junior high school, and I was excited, but I was still hesitant to walk into my first classroom. I forced myself into the classroom, and sat through the class for the designated hour, and I realized that it was not so bad. I did the same for my next two classes, and I figured that junior high school would be a breeze. However, when I entered my clas after lunch, assuming my classes would not be so tough, I was proven wrong. As my teacher took attendance for the first time, she thought she heard noises. She looked up, pointed into the sea of student along the east wall, which I nicknamed the Atlantic, and shouted, “You, stand up!” For clarification, I pointed to myself and innocently asked, “Me?” The teacher firmly replied, “yes, you hooligan, you!” In shock, I stood up. The tyrant asked me for my name, and I replied, “Travis Armstrong, ma’am.” She then continued to say, “Well, Mr. Armstrong, I knew that we would have problems in this classroom once you walked in. I do not put up with foolishness; I will not hesitate to send you to the office. Now, be quiet while I am taking roll!”

I was in disbelief of what I had just heard. I realized that we all wore the same clothes, because we wore uniforms at our school. So I did not know why she would assume that I would act badly in her class. Respectfully, I told the woman, “Alright ma’am. I understand that, but I believe that you are accusing the wrong person.” The teacher proceeded to send me to the principal’s office.

personal essay

Nobody likes being disappointed. If someone does like being disappointed, then not being disappointed disappoints him or her. Disappointments are sad, and sometimes can be depressing. Disappointments can cause you to change plans, make plans, or cancel plans. I have been disappointed may times in my lifetime, but one recent disappointment has really devastated me, and is continuing to do so.

            I am in a creative writing class. In this class we do various writing assignments. One day, our teacher assigned three prompts a night for us students to do. This really disappointed me, mostly because each prompt had to be two-hundred and fifty to five-hundred words. I knew that this would be extremely difficult, especially considering I have other classes. Also, with this assignment, I would not have time to cook for myself, which means I would have to eat a lot more fast-food. Also, I would not have time to run or work out at the gym after school. Also, my zero period class is keeping me from doing these workouts before school starts. I predicted that I would gain weight. And this premonition came to be true.

            So, in essence, this creative writing assignment has had a great negative impact on my life. It has affected my health, my baseball career, and my other classes, although my other classes have not been affected so greatly. Also, if I do not do so well in the creative writing class, I may not get a good grade, which could affect my near-perfect grade point average. Another issue is that my teacher judges students on how much work they do in his class alone, disregarding their success in other classes. Therefore, my teacher may very well think that I am stupid, which is far from the truth. Finally, this assignment had made me dislike writing, since I am doing it too much. So, this assignment was a big disappointment.

Figurative Language Poems

1. Courage hides in the depths of your mind
in its shining silver armor
waiting for your releasing touch

courage, worn on the sleeve
plain to the model, unseen by spectators
intil the "unexpected" happens



2. Love, tattooed on the heart
might not be in plain sight
but known by two

Love, tattoed on the heart
worn on the sleeve
it screams out, "I love you"


3. Leadership, if you are not in front, you are losing the race
you cannot hide it, nor should you want to
it leads you, and you lead them

leadership cannot be hidden
its guiding hand is always seen
seeking the mislead, in order to get them onto the path of righteousness.

Persuasive Essay # 5

Today’s top professional athletes often have salaries and bonuses in the tens of millions of dollars. Do you think these athletes deserve such high compensation? Why or why not? Explain your position and use specific reasons and examples.

            Crack! The top baseball prospect just hit another homerun! He is definitely on roll now. All of the critics and sports reporters, as well as fans, know that he will soon be a Major League Baseball star. He was known around not only his neighborhood, but around the country as a prodigy. His parents raised him to love baseball, and they always knew he would be a star. Well, the premonition is appearing to be true. He has just received his $200 million signing bonus.

            Why was this talented young man able to become so wealthy? He does not operate on cancer victims. He does not arrest thieves or serial killers. He does not put out dangerous fires. All he does is play a sport. Why does he deserve it?

 What a lot of people do not realize is that athletes and the sports that they play often have an effect on people that watch them. Adults get tied to their favorite sports teams, whether they have been watching them their whole life, they just moved to a new town, or they just like the jerseys. However, I believe children are impacted the greatest affected by athletes, because many children and teenagers look up to them. A lot of kids tell themselves, “I want to be like him when I grow up!” For some, their role model is the only reason that they play the sport. Therefore, if it were not for the professional athletes, some children may not play sports. If these children are not playing sports, they may be doing other things, and these things may not be good. I, personally, have former teammates that were denied a chance to play baseball, and, in return, found acceptance in negative places. Maybe if they had a positive role model, such as an athlete, to look up to, this would not have happened.

 Also, fame and fortune are motives for adolescents to look forward to. They can achieve those things with hard work, perseverance, and practice; all of these things are very good values to have in this society. Finally, sports, and their venues, have many jobs for people, keeping them out of unemployment. Not only the players are being paid; there are other jobs, such as sports trainers, ticket salesmen, and vendors.

So, although professional athletes are not immediately helping with problems, such as fires and robberies, they are positively affecting people, specifically out youth. And, although I do think that some important jobs’ salaries are lower than should be, I do not think that professional athletes are overpaid, as a whole.