Finale of Poisonwood Bible!!

FINAL BLOGPOST OF THE YEAR!!!! <3 :)

Growing up is very important and crucial in every person. Unfortunately some people never grow up and always stay in the realm of being oblivious to real world issues around them. Sometimes kids have to grow up faster than others because of their situations. If a kid is in a violent environment then the kid has to grow up faster so he/she can fend for itself against anything that wants to harm it. Sometimes the phase in which a person grows up is through an experience he/she has. In the Poisonwood Bible Rachael, Leah and Adah have to grow up. They are faced with issues that made them open their eyes and realize that the world they believed in before is not what they want to believe in now. Many/most of them grew up after their sister Ruth died. It was a traumatic event, which made them realize they needed to see the world in a different way. Throughout the book they all had a point in their experience at the Congo in which they were forced to finally grow up.

One of the most important events was when Ruth died this was because she was so innocent and important to every single girl and that’s why her death made such an impact. Besides experiences, the girls viewed the world differently. Adah went on to view the world in a scientifically way. She saw the way nature and just the human food chain worked. Every person had to die in order to give space to the next person who is born. Adah went on to live her world in more knowledge and complex way. She actually was one of the smartest of her sisters and became to see the world in a totally different way from the way her dad made her view the world when she was younger. Adah no longer had that strong faith towards god in fact she only just viewed that god was there she no longer actually believed in god. Leah became separated from her dad. In the beginning of the book she was hesitant about her beliefs in god and how her father wanted her to believe in god. She wasn’t sure. As the book progresses was it then that she realized she didn’t want to believe and have so much faith in god like her father. She didn’t want her world to revolve around church and obscure her eyes from other ways of seeing the world. Leah became a lover of nature and understood how the Congo worked. The Congo in some ways owned the people but at the same times was very beautiful. Leah understood the Congo more than anybody else and that’s the very reason why she stayed behind. Rachael became different too. In the beginning she didn’t or want to be very religious but by the end she had a clearer sense of what she wanted to do with her life. She didn’t care about appearances anymore she learned from Ruth’s death that there are so many other important things besides the way she looks. As all the girls grew older they started developing their own separate ways. They were all still sisters that loved each other but the things that happened to them in the Congo made them who they are now. This experience was their coming of age and realizing that they needed their own opinions’ about god, civilizations and the world in general. The girls were finally able to grow up as their father loosened his ties on them and finally died. This was when they all had a clear opinion on some levels about where they stood on a global scale.

Growing up and coming of age are the same. They both demonstrate how 1 person changes. This phase/ change can and may be different to every person. Sometimes the person they were before was shy and insecure but by the end of their journey they are outgoing and brave. Sometimes the change is minimal but still noticeable. For example the person may be snobby because she is popular and is gorgeous but maybe by the end of their experience they may be more kind to people, which can be a big subtle difference. This phase doesn’t happen when the person wants it to happen sometimes it happens so unexpectedly. A person may grow up at 10 or they may grow up in their late teens to early 20’s. As I’ve said before growing up is a phase every person must grow through. At the end the person may become a better person but sometimes they can become nastier. It just depends on how they viewed others and the world when they were younger. Sometimes people can’t change how they view people because it was so drilled into their minds. For example if a person lived in a racist environment then they most likely will become racist because that’s the only way that person knows on how to view people. If another person lives in a very arrogant place then most likely the person will become as arrogant as its parent unless they have an experience or another person that corrects their views.

All the girls grew up in the book at their mid teens to late teens. The age changed because they sort of viewed the world differently at almost the same time some longer than others came to this realization. They all grew up. Their father was their obstacle. He sort of prevented them from seeing the world however they wanted to see it. The dad was so caught up in keeping his views about church so drilled into his daughters that he lost them amidst all his drilling. He became obsessed with changing the people in the Congo that he forgot that he didn’t have to change every single detail about the people who lived in the Congo he just had to respect them and help them like a good Father he was supposed to be. The dad should’ve listened to the land and people around him because then and only then would he have realized he wasn’t helping anyone but actually harming everyone and blocking them from opening their eyes. The environment he made his daughters grow up in was what made all the girls coming of age seem so drastic because the dad was blocking them from issues all around them. The Congo pushed all the girls to grow up and make their own opinions without their dad in the way.

I believe coming of age is very important and probably one of the most important experiences a person will go through in their entire life. I think this is due to the fact that after his or her experience then that is the person they will become. In fact at the end of their coming of age is how they probably will be and act around others. It’s almost like deciding the final steps in that person’s life. However Rachael, Leah and Adah are at the end is how they will be for the rest of their lives. It’s the finale in which the personalities and views they obtained at the end is how they will be forever. Coming of age happens to everyone it’s just how the person handles it that makes it memorable.

College and Decisions

Many of us don’t realize that whatever we do now can have an impact on our future. Say you become valedictorian of your middle school and elementary do you not think that high schools and colleges will not take that into consideration later on? A pupil maintains a 4.0 average his/her entire career in school that average will propel the student to be accepted into many more school compared to someone who has an average that goes from 3.5 to 2.5 and then goes back to 3.5. Schools look at everything a student does before accepting them. Sure usually senior year counts the most but if administrators look at the junior year and see a 3.0 compared to the 4.0 a student was receiving then the people who run the admissions know that this student is not all they seem to be.

So what happens when a student gets to college? How do they start applying? How do they look into schools? The article I read is about college waiting lists. Many students have found out by now which schools they have been accepted to. Then there are the students that still don’t know what school they are going to. All of the colleges have extremely long lists. These lists are so long that the probability of a student getting in who is on the list is almost slim to impossible. Over the years the numbers of students on waiting lists has increased. This may be due to the fact that students are either selecting too many colleges that they are not interested in to make sure they at least get into a college. The article recommends that the students who are on waiting list who really want to go to that particular school should respond quickly to the waiting list. It advises the student to not keep emailing the administrator because it can easily get them rejected faster. Those who do not wish to go to that school should send a rejection letter and decline properly so other students who want to get in have a better chance.

This article is mostly informative as so are the rest of New York Times articles. This is due to the fact that New York Times is a type of newspaper that runs on facts. They try to be as credible as possible by being subtle about the opinion. New york times is a newspaper that just tries to keep anyone who is reading the article updated about world issues. If and when New york times start to have a strong opinion on subject matters not many people would want to read it because the article would be bias. My opinion of the article is that college applications are hard. They are especially harder when there thousands of kids applying and the probability of a student getting in is small.  Even in waiting lists the probability of a student getting accepted off of that is even slimmer. Just to give you some helpful facts, Yale’s waiting list is 1,001 people, so long is the list that Yale has decided to defer their acceptances. Duke has had a record of holding the most kids on a waiting list with the number of 3,336. The students who were accepted that year from the waiting list was 60 were accepted. Being realistic is key into getting into a college.

Lastly I believe that everything matters. If anyone wants to get into college they have to be ready for challenges. This includes, patience, hard work, time management and perseverance. Students have to be diligent in everything they do. They should be able to handle themselves in competing numbers. This means they should start preparing all the way from elementary to obtain that perfect average or at least close to it.

Link to the article: http://thechoice.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/04/04/what-to-do-while-on-a-college-wait-list/?hp# 

Love and Decisions and Regret

I hope everyone has heard the song “Someone Like You” by Adele. After all it has been played on the radio like a billion times. Over and over the song is played. The song itself is not silly it actually has a meaning. If anyone reads the lyrics they understand that the song itself is a story. Both people in the song were in love but they went their own ways then years later Adele whomever she portrays is told that her true love is getting married. She comes back to the town that they grew up in to see him getting married with someone else. She is heartbroken but she remembers what he told her when they went their separate way “sometimes it lasts in love but sometimes it hurts instead.” She doesn’t want to accept that he has moved on because of all the memories they shared were precious and beautiful. She admits to herself that she herself has not moved on from their love they had. Then she sees them again sometime later and accepts the fact that he has moved on and she has to, too. She realizes that his words were so true sometimes it does last in love, but sometimes love just hurts. The story is real. Sometimes people let things go and they don’t realize that it was the best thing that could’ve happened to them.

Why people let go of the best things that have ever happened to them I will never understand. In the end if someone let a person go it was out of his or her own decision. They should not regret the decision they took because it was their own fault. If they truly love someone they will not let them go no matter if the world is ending right in front of their eyes. Many people believe in true love, I do.

True love may only come once. Only once. If someone lets it go where would they find true love again? It would not be the same. It’s sort of hurtful. The fact that one of them lived their fairytales and the other one got burned. Though I strongly believe that Adele went out, lived her fantasies and made her dream job or wishes come true; she forgot about him until he lost him. Meanwhile the guy she abandoned didn’t get to live his fantasy until after he got over his heartbreak and someone fixed him up (his wife).  If Adele had been smart she would have made the guy travel with her or she would have abandoned her dreams to live with her true love. Sometimes its better if a person gets burned then they can retell their story and help other people not make the same mistakes.

In real life this may happen either in love or in another way. Someone could let an opportunity get away. Then over the years they would regret ever making that decision. Maybe someone committed a crime and can’t take it back and they are left with regret. Not only is this song mostly about love but also it’s about making mistakes and regretting them later on. One should never regret a decision they made because they have no one to blame but themselves. Yes the decision can “hurt” them but oh well they should suck it up and eventually move on and enjoy other things. No one should dwindle on matters that are past history. Events will come and go that will define you but in the end its how they viewed it themselves.

I believe that this song is live changing. It helps me see that I should be careful of how I make my decisions and why I made them. Decisions are important and need to be taken seriously. One decision can alter an outcome by a big degree. When you make a decision its final, there is no going back. Adele’s love story clearly demonstrates that.

Link to see the lyrics: http://www.azlyrics.com/lyrics/adele/someonelikeyou.html