Voice Overload

 Tishani Doshi is an Indian poet, writer, and dancer. Her pieces of literature are usually about violence, aging, religion, and female bodies. Let us look at one of her popular poems, The Deliverer . The first part of the poem describes a conversation between a mother and a sister, also known as a nun. They are talking about an orphanage that consists of children who were abandoned by their parents for either being disabled, being too dark to be accepted by Indian society, or just for being born a girl. The author uses brutal imagery to describe how violently these children and disposed of, including being buried alive. The last sentence tells the reader what the poem is about. The speaker and her mother are visiting the orphanage and plan to bring a child home with them. The second part of the poem is about bringing the girl home to America. When Doshi says, "they are American so they know about the ceremony," she says it in a mocking tone and the reader assumes that the par...

 It was during the beginning of quarantine. I was bored because school was all asynchronous, and I had finished my homework for the week, so I decided to do a puzzle that I found lying around at home. I had done this 1000 piece puzzle before many times, but it was years ago, so I decided to challenge myself and finish the puzzle without looking at the picture on the box. It was really hard, but I somehow finished it in 4 days. I started off by picking out the corner and side pieces. The only challenge with those pieces was to figure which pieces connected with which because half of them were green while the other half were blue. Then I picked out all the blue and white puzzle pieces that represented the sky and cloud and put them together. Figuring that out took more than 2 whole days, oh boy! I then sorted out the green pieces that represented the grass and put them together. This was not too bad because I could figure out where each piece went based on the sun and whether there w...

When I think of beautiful words, I start thinking about words that look beautiful, such as minimum or silhouette, in my opinion. However, this assignment called for a word that sounds beautiful. It took me a while to find a word, but I finally figured it out. Werewolf. Just say it out loud. It sounds beautiful, right? It is kind of random, but the sound of it is just so gentle and calm, especially when you compare it to other words that relate to werewolf, such as wolf or even beast. The "f" in the word puts random stress on the endings. However, the word werewolf sounds calm because of the prefix "were" before it and I like how it just flows out of your mouth. If I had to relate to this word, I guess my only relation would be the shows I watch. I have finished watching The Vampire Diaries and I am now watching The Originals, and there are werewolves in both these shows. The werewolves are probably one of my favorites characters in both shows. It is hard to describe...

Finals are now over, and the second semester of senior year has started. These past four years of high school have gone by so quickly. I still remember freshman orientation like it happened yesterday, where I spent more than 20 minutes trying to find my 9 Honors English class before a senior walking by finally helped me find my class, which was the only class behind the auditorium stage (strange place to put an English classroom). Now, I am hearing back from universities and hoping that the school I choose to go to is the one for me.  High school has been a roller coaster of ups and downs, from meeting people that have now become some of my best friends to the countless breakdowns and sleepless nights because of homework and stress. However, I would not trade any one of those days for something else. I am a different person now than I was during the first day of freshman year. Those days, experiences, and people are what shaped me into who I am. If I am proud of myself today, it is...

 In such a short time, half of my senior year has already finished. It is easy to say that 12 AP English is probably one of my most favorite classes this year. The activities we did in class were very engaging and I got to learn so much. I loved our solo reading time in class. I got to read a book of my choice, which brought back my interest in reading after I lost it in 9th grade. The independent reading time we had in class was much different than the class readings we have because we have group discussions about the book we are reading. I learn new things about the book that I did not initially realize and I also got to see the character and plot from the perspective of my peers. For me, the workload this semester was perfect. It was not too much and not too little. With other difficult classes and college applications going on, the homework we got from the class was very helpful and reasonable.  I like doing our book clubs because we get to choose the books we read and we ...

Christmas is my favorite time of the year. This is the year my best friends and our families get together and play our traditional Secret Santa game. Every year, our favorite part is to look back at the very first time we played Secret Santa and laugh about everything that went wrong that year.  The funniest thing that happened was our karaoke contest, both singers and non-singers included. We love looking back at the videos and "complimenting" everyone. The most entertaining thing that happened to my friend and me was while baking Christmas cookies. The recipe had asked for 2 cups of sugar, but I had accidentally put salt instead. I was then called away for something, so I had put the container down. However, my friend thought that the content inside the container was sugar and added 2 more cups, thinking that I hadn't put any of it in the dough. None of us realized this.....until everyone ate it. When I say that everyone was running to spit the cookies out, I mean EVERY...

Tuesday, November 10th. It was a beautiful day outside, and I mean BEAUTIFUL. It was 79 degrees Fahrenheit, and the sun was shining so brightly. I sat outside on my balcony and enjoyed the warm sun rays hitting my face as I enjoyed a delicious watermelon with my family. Later that day, my friends and I went to Boulan Park and enjoyed a picnic together (while social distancing, of course)! All summer, it was raining, but it literally felt like the summer in early November. How was I supposed to know that in literally a few days, it would finally look like winter? Sunday, November 22nd. I woke up to my backyard sprinkled with snow. "Mom! C'mon, why is it snowing," I whined. I didn't want snow just yet! It weather never gave warned me about snow coming so soon. One day it was close to being hot and the next it is snowing! Don't get me wrong, I love EVERYTHING about snow, from its beautiful color to the way it makes me feel while drinking hot chocolate in front of my ...