Poem

What is Collins trying to say with this poem?   That after childhood you have nothhing.  How does he capture childhood and the process of growing up?  Childhood the best time of your life and once you start growing up you will start becoming depressed.   What makes this poem effective?   All the description and detail of what you do as a child and how you thought as a child.  how does this fit into your own life experience?  My childhood was amazing and so much fun but I am also looking forward to the future and I love the place where I am now.

definition

Beauty is not what you are born with, but what you can do to yourself to look more appealing.  Beauty is not skin deep or in your skin at all, it is what you put on top of your skin.

Denial is what a person has when they do not agree with common culture.  Denial is frowned upon and isn't something a person should want.

Evil is everywhere and everyone.  It is constantly spreading its negative attitude on life.  Evil people are those who seem kind but go across seas to kill others they dont agree with.

Are there any fresh ideas enlisted in this definition? How would you have defined this idea? Are there ideas similar to it that you could choose to define?  Yes the idea that a yankee is kind has never occered to me.  I'm not sure how I would have defined this idea but it would have gone along with the idea of the baseball team.

There are allusions here: (1) to the musical Damn Yankees!, (2) to the Bible (the parable of the Good Samaritan), and (3) to a poem by Robert Frost. Do these allusions add anything to the essay or to your understanding of things? What if you didn't "get" the allusions?   If somebody were to able to understand these allusions, they are now able to look up all three and get a better understanding of what the writter means.

What techniques of development does the essay use in the process of definition? Do you think the writer dwelt too long on what a Yankee is not before moving on to what a Yankee is?   No I do not think the writer dwelt too long on what a Yankee is not because sometimes the best way to describe something, is to describe what it isn't.

Can you point to (write down) one sentence that functions as thesis statement in this essay?

That's what I think defines this dying breed of the American Yankee: an extraordinary sense of balance and reserve, a holding off — and yet, behind all that reserve, a reservoir of generosity and friendliness that can be nearly overwhelming.

spring break

Over spring break I went on a cruise!  I went with my best friend Moran.  The cruise went to Florida and the Bahamas.  I met many interesting people on the boat and ate lots of interesting food.  The downfall of the trip was when I got sick.  I thought I had food poisoning but then realized I had the flu.  I really hated staying on the boat while everyone else got to go to the beach and lay in the sun. 

Since I had a two week spring break, my second week was spent sleeping in.  Every morning I woke up around noon.  Although I had scheduled dance classes every day of the week, I still managed to find time to spend with friends and also find a job!  My brother is a manager of the subway on Polaris and he was able to get me a job.  This spring break I learned all the special ways to make the different types of subs.  Overall it was a great spring break full of relaxation, working, and spending time with my brother.