Not Eurotrash, just people trying to get by.

I'm sitting in class, a formal presentation due; I notice only 17 out of maybe 30 kids are present. After a brief unpleasant verbal confrontation with the teacher, which was my attempt of trying to be rational and explain to her why I had not completed mine entirely, I felt bitter and angry. Disgruntled, I sat back down succumbing myself to my own feelings of guilt, that were not quite necessary and most definitely not welcome. Soon after I had noticed that everybody had scrambled off on their own to print off notes or to put together a last minute presentation, I had quickly pondered over something that has been in my mind for quite some time;"voter registration". So I did my best to collect an array of ambition and courage and walk towards her and present forth as much respect in the manner that I introduced my question in as I considered fundamental. What happens after is narrated in the following sentences. I asked if I could hand out forms for voter registration. My question, had seemed to appall her, apparently it had this deviant quality that I was not aware of. For from her I got remarks such as "In my class? No, why would you even think about that? I mean, seriously?" I suppose you could either consider me as being ignorant or her being unfair. I don't quite understand why I had gotten that reaction, quite possibly because she was annoyed at the situation. However, the majority of the class had not been doing anything, aside from the groups scattering together their final thoughts, we were either sitting and waiting, or off talking to someone about something completely unrelated with the class. So again, I will tell you that I do not quite understand why I could not have taken 2 minutes to ask "who in here is 18?" and "are you registered to vote?” A yes or no would have sufficed; further information was only a piece of paper that could be filled out on their own time. Two minutes is all I would have needed. We were in World History, why are you even asking me what that has to do with your class? What the hell is that suppose to mean? We sit there, for a certain consecutive period and listen to your lectures. Read the text books we have been provided, be expected to complete presentations on lifeless empires, expired royalties, deteriorating governments, and my curiosity in registering students to vote, was denied? How can you feel that you are fulfilling your duties as our teacher, "leader" if you would, when you deny something that you yourself and your colleagues speak such monumental words about? In a class about History, of the world, a world that would not exist without people’s opinions and collaborations of thoughts, how could that be categorized as off topic, especially in a moment when time was only being wasted?
Not appropriate in your class room?
Fuck you public school.
Fuck you for caring more about being able to see my cell phone in my pocket or my bare shoulders than making sure that my peers and I have the ability to be involved in the world that we are expected to have knowledge of that we are obligated to endure.
Fuck you for supporting taking time out of class for homecoming ballots and pep assemblies. We are led by various selections of esteemed individuals, devoting their lives to educating us. Does any one of you understand my point? Do you understand that 4 years from today, the percentage of the student body that was wearing pajamas on the first day of homecoming week in the year 2008 will never cross my mind again? The president of the country in which I reside in however, will. The thought of the 1 million people in our state alone, that were left unregistered, only days before the deadline, will. I cannot appreciate what you try to teach me and the curriculum of the class when you do not appreciate what I want to learn.
Fuck you public school.

Never fall asleep in the midst of a murder!

In lieu of insightful, comedic, or hell, I would have even taken sappy, I was granted horrifying, horrifying, horrifying. Imagine for a moment the following things: having somebody repeatedly strike you in the face,seeming somebody you greatly dislike naked, your boyfriend's father crying, your boyfriend near death, and your own father stabbing himself. Now try hard to neatly thread that together and visualize my dream. I mean, nightmare. Minutes before, I had dozed off one-hundred and forty-three pages into the terror and distress of what is the life of Rodia Raskolnikov. Thank you Dostoevsky! Beginning this book (Crime And Punishment) , I was quite fearful that boredom would overcome my mind and I would immediately become disinterested. What a shame that I thought this to begin with! Those vague ideas of what an agonizing and unbearable book this is? Bullshit! Crime and Punishment has a distinctively tasteful plot, it reads elegantly and is written brilliantly. In the most unexpected and terrifying way, I am in love with this book.





To be continued...
-Jules

I like my sentence fragments, okay!

I'm taking this class called "Inquiry and Expression" and currently am doing a wonderful job at postponing the writing of paper due in two days. Postponing is such a weird act for me, I don't do it because I don't want to do the task at hand, such as a I would imagine most do. When I postpone, it's me thinking that if I do this now, I won't be able to do a good job. I need to let this idea sink in for a while, and think about it. Writing a mediocre paper seems like such a waste of time for me. I've always also thought that my writing process was incredibly different than the ones that we've been taught. You know, "brainstorm, rough draft, peer edit, revise, final draft". Mine has always been more of "How can I come at this paper a different way?" Then - write, erase,read;write,erase,read. Usually, when a peer or even the professor is reading over my paper and adding small comments, I feel offended. I feel this rage like... "that sentence fragment was on purpose, and it makes sense in that context". Which, as far as I can remember, we have always been taught that sentence fragments are incorrect. Well, GUESS WHAT? The semester previous to this, a professor actually told me what I've been thinking my entire life. THEY'RE NOT ALWAYS WRONG! I felt so full of gratification when she had said that. Needless to say, I will still always use them, and I will still use my writing process. Is it worth losing points for not peer editing? Well, possibly. Either way, I like my way, and I'm sure there are other people who have their own ways of writing a paper. This is a creative process after all, isn't it? Enough postponing for one night I believe, wish me luck.

- Jules