Fitness and Health Essay

Author’s Note: In these 5 upcoming paragraphs you will read about my opinion on a couple questions about fitness and health.

Fitness and health are very important for a person. It not only keeps you alive, but it keeps you looking great! If you really think about it, the answers to these two questions can say a lot. These questions are, what value does physical activity provide you?  Does physical activity provide you with health, enjoyment, challenge, self-expression, social interaction, or something else?

The first question is, what value does physical activity provide you?  Physical activity provides you strength, energy, and a better health. Physical activity can really help you gain strength in not only your body, but in self confidence, because it will help you look fantastic! It also gains energy for you in the day by having a great health.

Lastly, the second question, does physical activity provide you with health, enjoyment, challenge, self-expression, social interaction, or something else? Yes, physical activity does provide you with these things, but not just physical activity. Health takes a lot more than just exercise. You need to watch what you eat and not only watch, but to eat healthy!

Some people, not all, get enjoyment from physical activity. If you just like to jog, or even play your favorite sport, and it challenges you to try your best. You could also express yourself by showing who you are while playing a sport. I think social interaction is a big part in physical activity. You can find someone who has the same pace as you do, so you don’t need to be alone!

Health and fitness is actually very important to a person. It keeps you away from medication, and the doctor’s office. Like the saying, “one apple a day, keeps the doctor away!” With a great health you can actually live a longer life, but too much exercise can be harmful.

A Clean, Well-lighted Place

Author's Note: In these upcoming paragraphs you will read, are about how  the short story, A Clean, Well-lighted Place by Ernest Hemingway, and a short movie of the story are different!

A Clean, Well-lighted Place, is mainly about an old man, a middle-aged man and a younger man at a café. Since they are all different ages, they act different. The younger man is a little more rude than the other two. The old man is always just minding his business and just going along with his drinks. Lastly, the middle-aged man is nice, but curious! The short story is mainly just dialog with a little bit of summary! Well, of course the short movie is all dialog because they're talking!

After I read the story, I noticed is that the movie made more sense from the music. You could tell what kind of a mood everything was! It was also easier because you could tell who was talking and saying what they were saying! The movie put more of an understanding plot in my head. It made a lot more sense because in the story you could accidently picture the wrong thing. 

Re- Dreams and Goals

Author's Note: In this essay I will be explaining the quote, "Life is a broken-winged bird that cannot fly" from the poem, "dreams" by Langston Hughes and I will be talking about his life.

Langston Hughes was born in the time period when racism was a big thing. He was born in Joplin, Missouri. He was a second child to Carrie Mercer Langston and James Nathaniel Hughes. He grew up in different small towns until his Father left the family, and divorced Carrie. Langston didn't have a very strong relationship with his father. Langston's mother was looking for a job after his parents spilt, he was raised by his grandmother. After his grandmother's death, Langston went to live with family friends for a while.

In the well known poem, dreams by Langston Hughes is mainly about holding onto your dreams at tough times. It's not a very happy situation. The stanza, "Life is a broken-winged bird that cannot fly" is mainly about how life isn't fair at times, but you just have to let those hard times heal. Dreams is mainly about Langston saying, don't let go of your dreams because when life is rough, all you have are your dreams and goals.

On May 22, 1967, Hughes died from complications after abdominal surgery. His ashes are  beneath a floor medallion in the middle of the Arthur Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture in Harlem. He died when he was about 65. Langston only lived for a short time. Nobody deserves to die at such a young age.

Even though Langston Hughes had a short life, he put a lot of work into it and also put a lot in his pieces. After he died his pieces still are around today and are great hits! It didn’t matter what race he was, he was a fantastic writer and made a clear statement in each piece of his. The poem Dreams is mainly about not letting go and even though it's such a short poem I caught on very fast to the meaning.

Ellen Hopkins

Author's Note: In these upcoming paragraphs you will read about one of my favorite authors, Ellen Hopkins.

Ellen Hopkins is a fantastic author. She has many amazing series that relate to real world situations. Her book series Crank, was written about her daughter, Cristal. She isn't just an ordinary author, she writes her words in shapes. From one page to the next you could be reading from a box, or a zigzag line of words.

Ellen was an adopted child, she was adopted by Albert and Valeria Wagner.

Before dropping out of college to start a family and a business, she had two children, Jason and Cristal. When her marriage failed, it led to divorce, and had a daughter named Kelly with a man she called a 'rebound'. He was abusive and kidnapped Kelly, keeping her in secret for three years. She was found later by his grandmother. Around 1985, she married John Hopkins, her current husband. They also adopted their daughter Cristal's son, Orion. Around the year 1990 is when Ellen started her writing career.  In a later time of Ellen's life, she found her biological mother, Toni Chandler, who was also a writer and poet.

Right now Ellen is still continuing to write. She has a couple of books coming out during the time period of 2013-2015. These books are Rumble and Tangled, which are apart of her other novels category that don't belong in a series. She has written over 15 novels. About four series, and five books that don't belong in a series. Her series that she has written are named, Crank, Burned, Impulse, and Triangles. There are about four or two books in each series. Ellen is a unique writer, because she writes in patterns. Normal books have their words written in paragraphs in a box shape. Ellen likes to write her words in different shapes or poem like looks.

 Ellen's series, Crank, is about her daughter, Cristal. She had a pretty tough life when she was a teen and it made her future not so pretty. Cristal is currently 34 years old with 6 children, only 3 live with her. Cristal has been I prison twice for the possession of drugs. She had her first child at age 17 and didn't know what to do with her life. Ellen took care of about 2 of Cristal's kids for a long period of time. Cristal's friend took one of her kids for about 8 years and was just found about 3 years ago.

Ellen has written amazing books that relate to real lives and situations. I personally think that most people enjoy reading books with knowing more information about the author or behind the story.  A lot of Ellen's fans really enjoy her sense of writing style with the format and topics. Knowing more information gives you more knowledge of what you're reading, and is easier to relate to real world situations.

Citations

"Ellen Hopkins tells about her daughter - YouTube." YouTube. N.p., n.d. Web. 24 Apr. 2013. <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CTb9CXdigcA>.

"Ellen Hopkins." Ellen Hopkins. N.p., n.d. Web. 24 Apr. 2013. <http://www.ellenhopkins.com/index.html>.

"Ellen Hopkins - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia." Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. N.p., n.d. Web. 24 Apr. 2013. <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ellen_Hopkins>.

  

The Note

Author's Note: In this upcoming piece you will read, is a summary and what I think is the most important part of the story, "The Ransom of Red Chief" by O. Henry. 

In the story “The Ransom of Red Chief” tells a lesson, and leaves a huge twist. We thought that the most important part of the story was when the father read the note, because it changed the whole story. A couple boys thought it would be a good idea to kidnap a boy with a rich father. They intended to do this because they thought the father would pay them money to return the boy. The boys wanted money from the rich father so they tried to black mail him. The main part of the black mail was, we have your son, give us the money and you will get him back. As they weren’t expecting, it didn’t turn out, and this is where the whole story changed. The father didn’t want his son back, and the son didn’t want to go home. It was a huge twist to the story and the boys who kidnapped the son ended up giving money for the father to take his son back, instead of getting it to return him. It left a lesson by saying, not everything you do turns out the way you plan.

Dreams and Goals

Author's Note: In this essay I will be explaining a quote from the poem, "dreams" by Langston Hughes.

In the well known poem, "dreams" by Langston Hughes is mainly about holding onto your dreams at tough times. It's not a very happy situation. The stanza, "Life is a broken-winged bird that cannot fly" is mainly about life isn't fair at times, but you just have to let those hard times heal. Langston Hughes is a fantastic author who has written many poems. I personally like "dreams" as a favorite of mine. "Dreams" is mainly about Langston saying, don't let go of your dreams because when life is rough, all you have are your dreams and goals.

A connection I have with this poem is when I have tough times, especially drama with friends at my age, I never let it get to me because I know that my main goal is to work through it with them. In the end I always achieve that goal. When someone says the wrong thing about your appearance and makes you upset, life will be a broken-winged bird but, you have your goal in life to change what they say.

I have a feeling the author wrote this poem because not everyone has a perfect life and sometimes all you have are your dreams and goals. This poem relates to me in many ways because not everything  turns out the way I plan. Another thought of why this poem was written is because maybe he was trying to say, don’t ever let go of your goals because one day you may achieve them.

Never let your dreams go because one day it might come true.  All struggles in life end, and if it isn't over yet, it's not the end. Again, not everyone has a perfect life but your goals and dreams will get you through the struggle.