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Sabrina Flores

Dr. Preston

English 3B

8 June 2015

                                        Final Essay

                Throughout the entire year you've been saying this isn't like a traditional english class and for the longest time I didn't believe you. Every time you would say that I would think to myself okay what is he going to do that's going to make this class different and right of the bat when you said that we weren't going to get an english textbook like the other english classes I was even more curious of what I was in for.Finally towards the end of the year I understood what you meant. Since we didn't get a textbook I was wondering how this course was going to go and what we were going to read. When Fahrenheit 451 was assigned to us I was actually interested to read the book, because after we would read a chapter or two we would have a short quiz on what we read. I think that was really helpful to me because it motivated me to read and if you didn't then I guess you weren't passing that test. But once we were reading The Catcher in the Rye, and Brave New World I think you trusted us on what we said and most of the time when you asked who read and a lot of people wouldn't raise their hand and you would just say okay read it for homework tonight, then the next day came and the same routine happened. But if you would've said we're having a test after these chapters then I think a lot more people would of read. It's kind of sad to think that their has to be an assignment or a quiz after the chapters we supposed to read in order for us to read or else kids would just blow it off. So i personally think in the first semester I earned having a great

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deal of choice in the class, but in the second semester I didn't deserve it because I slacked off and didn't do all my work.

                Out of all the books I read and all the characters I met throughout this course the one that rang a bell for me was Bernard from Brave New World. This character rang a bell for me because he didn't want to be like everyone else in his society. Bernard wanted his feelings and emotions that he felt to be real. Bernard didn't want to take the soma and everyone thought that he was weird because he wasn't like everyone else. But in modern society people are addicted to taking drugs and the soma is kind off like a anti depressant and when people don't take them then they act different. Their was one part in the book that really stood out to me about Bernard. When Bernard was talking to lenina and he asked her if they could talk alone and she laughed. She laughed because in their society the idea of not being heard or seen by anyone is not normal because everyone must know everyone else's business. If you think about it that's kind of how our society is today and we call it gossip. It starts with a group of people that have to know everyone's business even though it doesn't concern them people just like to be noise. Eventually someone will mess the story or twist it up and then that's how rumors start and they're not easy to end because how can you prove it's not true.

                I still haven't found a passion that drives me I'm still trying to figure it out. The only motivation that I've had so far is keeping my grades up so my transcript gpa will be decent enough for me to get into a collage. I think as time goes one i will eventually find something that I'm truly passionate about.

                Throughout this entire course there we're many moments when i laughed. I thought it was funny when people kept coming in late they would get yelled at and then they would say ill be one time tomorrow, then the same thing would happen. I kind of laughed when

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we we're reading Brave New World because it's kind of crazy to think that this book was written a long time ago and it's how our society is. that's why this course was kind of challenging for me because i could do whatever i was passionate about and tie it into english some how. I've never had a teacher that gave me that opportunity to do that i was just used to showing up to class, learning a new lesson, getting assigned homework, and repeat that day after day.

                The presentations that had something in common to me was Christina's, Brigette's,  and Antonio's. All off these presentations had multiple things in common, one of them was how passionate they were about the subject they talked about and the amount of emotion they showed while presenting. As Bridget, Cristina, and Antonio were presenting you could tell that some topics we're difficult to talk about, but at least they had enough courage to go up in front of the class and educate us one what they think's important. Their topics also had another thing in common the topics that they chose which we're divorce, racism, and foster care those are subjects that a lot of people go through and nobody reaches out to help them unless they ask for it. These topics are not easy for anyone to talk about they made me thing in a different perspective on what people go through i am a kid of divorced parents and i know how hard it can be at times. Sometimes when you need help your friends can't  because they don't truly understand, so it's nice to be able to talk to someone that's going through the same situation as you.