The AP Exam

I went into the AP exam super sick. My head was throbbing the entire time and I could not stop sweating. And the passage from the 18th century did not help my headache. That to me was the hardest passage on the test. While reading it, I thought I understood it pretty well, but then the actual questions about the passage were very difficult. The rest of the multiple choice was pretty fair in my opinion, but I only had a few minutes to actually check my answers.

For the essay section, I felt pretty confident in my first and third essay. The first essay about libraries I talked about how we should preserve them, but this is coming from someone who hasn't stepped foot in a library in centuries. The rhetorical analysis essay was much harder than the practices I did. Maybe it was cause I was in a high pressure environment, or maybe cause it was just hard. I struggled to find rhetorical devices, but I ended up getting three and explaining them with evidence. I prepared for the test the best I could, I'm just really hoping for a 3.

Descriptive Essay

            The room has one window; it looks out to the side of another building. The room has one light; it flickers on and off periodically. The room is painted a dull beige, and as I swing the rickety door open, the smell of mold floods into my nostrils, practically overwhelming every sense. The room has one couch, small with deflated cushions that eats me as I sink into it. The room is cold; my breath forms clouds around my mind. I sit, and I wait. The room was never a place I wanted to be, a place to talk about depression that was just as dark and icy as my thoughts. The room had a clock; a clock that hang on the wall next to a crack, its second hand seeming like it moved at the rate of a sloth crossing the road. I sat and watch the hand tick, and tick, and tick, and I waited for the darkness to fade. As the session went on, the light flickered four times a minute. I sat and watched it counting the seconds between. I watched her speak, she spoke slow, she spoke gentle, she spoke as if I was dumb. Every couple of minutes, a beam of light would reflect off the adjacent building and shine into the room, but the light always went away within a few seconds. The bitterness of the room.

            But finally it was the last few minutes. At this point however my arms has goose bumps running up them. But it was now time, time to leave. I opened the door nob, the knob freezing cold to touch. I walked out of the room, and finally I could breath.

Discrimination Living on in Society Today

Black men got the right to vote in 1870, and women got the right to vote in 1920. Both these events were important in history in rewarding rights to two major groups who got discriminated against daily, sadly however many people still continued to have prejudices against groups that are different from themselves. Institutionalized racism and the ideology of sexism have embedded itself into our nations roots. Bias school funding, programs like affirmative action, and police hostility towards blacks are just a few things that prove discrimination is a problem today.

            Every school gets a different amount of funding, but if you look at the numbers, many schools within wealthier areas are offered more money, even if they have fewer students. In New York City even, public schools on the Upper East Side often receive more funding than schools in neighborhoods like Canarsie in Brooklyn. The Upper East Side is a very wealthy area, and is also predominantly white. Students living in Canarsie are not getting the money to have things like sports teams, or even art classes, but kids in the Upper East do, even though they probably already have the money to do those activities.

            Affirmative action is a program that helps underprivileged and discriminated against high school students get into colleges with good programs to overall help the youth in America. This program looks for kids who may live in bad neighborhoods and go to not so great schools, but still worked very hard in their school. The fact that affirmative action even exists in the United States proves that discrimination does too. If everyone had truly equal opportunity and no one had bias, then a program like this wouldn’t need to be implemented.

            Another important issue dealing mainly with just racial discrimination is police brutality specifically towards black men. Trayvon Martin was a young man, not even in his 20s, who was shot and killed by a policeman because he seemed “suspect” pretty much solely based on the fact that he was black and wearing a hoodie. If he was white, this most likely would not have occurred. Since then, police brutality has not at all ended, and because of such a flare up of instances that harmed blacks, it started the campaign Black Lives Matter. In New York City, one of the most racially diverse cities in this country, this is a problem still. Stop and frisk, a program in which police officers may stop anyone and search them, has been found to only stop black men (or mainly.) The prejudice and stereotypes against blacks cause all of these events to occur.

            Growing up as a girl in the 21^st century isn’t always the easier thing. With the feminism movement to get more equality across the board, women have showed many places they are robbed of their rights. I have been playing soccer since I was three years old, and it had always been a passion of mine and something I thrived in. When I was in 8^th grade, all the boys in my middle school were talking about the new soccer team that the school was talking and how excited they were for it. I asked around to find the name of the teacher and once I did I immediately went to go ask him if I could join the team. When I asked, he laughed a little, and in a state of confusion I asked what was so funny. He told me I couldn’t play for the team because it was a boy’s team, not a girls one. Not only was this a violation of Title 9, but it was also very frustrating. Turned down from doing one of my favorite things, simply because I was a girl.

            Although discrimination is a clear problem in society, many people are blind to the issue. Some argue that since students are many difference races make up a school, there is not discrimination in that place because they all are going there and getting the same opportunities. However this is not always the case. We can’t know everything that happens in every school in the U.S., but if it is anything like the world outside of the school doors, then there is discrimination of some type. Whether its certain programs getting more funding than others, or kids forming groups based on economic status or race, I can guarantee that in almost all cases someone in that school has felt some type of discrimination.

            Is there discrimination against blacks? Yes. Is there discrimination again women? Yes. Is there discrimination again Latinos? Against Asians? Against Muslims? And even against men? Yes. America is one of the most diverse countries in the world, yet discrimination run deep in our core, and that is something that is practically impossible to erase. 

Corn-Pone Opinions Rhetorical Analysis

In Mark Twain's story "Corn-Pone Opinions" some rhetorical devices he uses to convey his main idea that people in society get there opinions and thoughts from people other then themselves through the use of details and a critical diction. Throughout the piece we see Twain use both hypothetical and social-typical examples. Twains illustrates to us a hypothetical example, writing, "If Eve should come again, in her ripe renown, and reintroduce her quaint styles- well, we know what would happen" (Twain 718). He then goes on to discuss the social typical example of the popular hoopskirt fashion trend. These details help support his purpose by giving examples, making it more clear for us to understand. 

            His use of critical diction further supports his main idea. Twain evaluates society and how they take other peoples opinions and refers to it as “unconscious and not calculated” (Twain 720) and also uses the words “mutilated morals” when discussing individuals ideals in their chosen political party. These words Twain uses have negative connotations and contribute to a critical diction because they help him evaluate and judge society.

            In the world today, we can clearly see how what Twain discussed is relevant. Through social media it makes it easier and easier for people to steal ideas and copy others. One example is fashion. Most teenage girls (and boys for that matter) follow stars such as Kylie Jenner on Instagram, and most of the people who follow her try to mimic her outfits and makeup choices. Another example is music. Most people listen to the same exact music because that’s what’s “cool”. Most teens do not have their own style, or their own taste, it all comes from other people. 

A Speech on Legalizing Marijuana

            Some people believe that marijuana should not be legalized but many others – including myself – disagree. Marijuana may once have been used only as a recreational drug, but approximately 2.6 million Americans use it for its medicals benefits. These users suffer from many chronic disease and illness such as arthritis, bipolar disorder, diabetes, epilepsy, and even some AIDS related illnesses. If this were a medical solution for someone, would it be ethical to take it away? Do we want these people to endure this pain?

            I suffer from severe anxiety and have my entire life. Ever since I was a child, psychiatrist after psychiatrist tried to find ways to help me cope or find medications I could take. Nothing worked for me until I tried marijuana. Using marijuana daily helped my anxiety levels go down, making it easier to live my day-to-day life. I don’t want other people to have to go through the daily challenges I had to, and by legalizing marijuana, few will have to. Marijuana isn’t a dangerous drug, yet it is illegal. Pharmaceuticals such as Xanax are legal but are causing a huge epidemic amongst teens for its recreational use. More dangerous drugs are out there that are legal.

            Some of Zinsser’s teachings I used from chapter 10 in his books include contractions, the use of the dash, and pruning out little qualifiers. I used contractions to simplify phrases like “is not” to “isn’t” to help make the flow of my sentence smoother. I used a dash to break up my sentence and add my opinion in a clear way but also so that it would still make my sentence without what’s in the dash appropriate. Lastly I pruned out little qualifying words like “quite” from phrases like “I suffer from quite sever anxiety”, to help and get rid of unnecessary words and clutter.