Final

By far my favorite writing assignment was about the animated movie short with the spy. That gave me a good amount of creative push. My least favorite were the general topics. I guess the only thing that I liked that came from those types of writings were I had to freedom to go in another direction. I'm an angry writer, I guess that stems from my general bad history with English classes. I stayed angry pretty much through the entire class, but I did have some fun with the writings. The class is fairly laid back is where I thrive. I'm a jokester if you couldn't tell. I didn't like how when we did turn things in, I never received any sort of confirmation or feedback from the assignment. I would have read the book sooner would be something I would definately have done sooner. What did I learn about myself? Nothing that I didn't know already, like the fact I'm a pessimist that's attempting to be positive. I think with everyone it's a daily struggle. Honestly I felt like this class was a little too relaxed, I felt like you could have gotten more strict with the class. Self reflection of my own grade? This might sound conceded in which case I'm sorry, but I felt like I was one of your more involved students. I participate in class, I do my homework, and I add at least a little bit of humor to the class. I would feel disappointed if I received less than an A in this class. Not that I was a completely outstanding student, but I was a student that teachers want to have in their classrooms. An involved student should get a better grade than a student that doesn't contribute at all.

Happiness

This is cliche but no one can tell you you're happy. It's something that is hard to be. If you are truly happy it doesn't mean you are impenetrable, it means you are at your most vulnerable. There's only one place to go when you're at the top...and that's down. Life is ups and downs. Enjoy the happiness and persevere anything less.

This is not creative writing

Corey Johnson

Carol Curtis

History 120

Cerami, Charles. Young Patriots. Sourcebooks Inc., Book. 2005

            I wanted to focus on the young political minds that were the constructs of the U.S. Constitution. It’s not every lifetime you get to create a new government. Luckily for me I was already planning on reading this book because my roommate already owned it. It just happened to fit nicely inside the parameters of this assignment which may or may not have influenced my topic.

            This book is written by Charles Cerami. Cerami is a New York Times Bestseller for multiple genres ranging from History, Finances, and European Economics. He even was the Editor of The Marshall Plan for the 1990’s, which was a symposium of articles from multiple contributors on the global unemployment and trade problems. Now that isn’t exactly a Doctorate in American History but he was granted access to the Rare Books section in the Library of Congress for his research. His publisher is Sourcebooks Inc., which is one of the largest independent publishing companies in the country, and they focus on nonfiction publications but also publish other genres. I wouldn’t have considered this a good primary source but it is referred to as Historical Non-Fiction in libraries and I feel this assignment left a little bit of room for interpretation.

            This book primarily focuses on the time period of 1776 to the early 1800’s although it references previous events and consequences we see even present day. Young Patriots goes into detail on the individuals such as James Madison, Alexander Hamilton, and George Washington, who were instrumental in the creation of the U.S. Constitution. It fixates on their history, education, personal habits, as well as their different philosophies that led to the culmination of the Constitution. The author expresses admiration on how “sublimely simple are the few pages that guide our nation”, and so he researched the brilliant minds behind “perhaps the greatest social and political document created by man”(Author to Reader section). His goal was to shed some light on the circumstances and steps taken to mold our freshly birthed nation.

            The author researched the good old fashioned way, with libraries. Not just any libraries though, some of the most highly accredited in the country. He was granted access to the Rare Books Section in the Library of Congress, the Eisenhower Library at the Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, and the Philadelphia Athenaeum. I believe Cerami did a great job with humanizing these historical figures as well as describing how others viewed them. He describes James Madison as small in stature “with pale skin like parchment” with a soft squeaky voice, yet he could command energetic political debates with his “gently uttered remarks” (Cerami 18-19). Cerami linked that since Madison wasn’t great at public speaking, he tended to be almost overly prepared for any political discussion so that he could make his points very clear through the spontaneity of opposing views (Cerami 19). In evaluating history, it’s important to not just know the facts, but to rather incur the thought of “why” things unfolded the way they did. With George Washington he stresses the fact that after the Revolutionary War, George wanted to do nothing more than retire and spend time with his wife Martha. For Washington knew it would be a long political struggle to establish a new government, especially since he himself felt that the American people were not ready to govern themselves (Cerami 40-41). Cerami succeeded in making these important historical figures into personable profiles of people I can relate to today. He even mentions Alexander Hamilton’s way of agreeing with someone then slowly diverging from their ideas to his own to make the transition of compromise easier, which reminds me of myself (Cerami 52). The idea that someone that uses similar argumentative tactics as me was a major pillar of ideas for the Constitution really hits home for me. The author also succeeds in showing that not all of the young patriot’s ideas were accepted by the other political leaders from the states. Hamilton had the nerve to give an exceedingly long speech as to why they should mold their government from British parliament even with the lingering resentment towards the British. Oddly many leaders agreed but didn’t support him in fear of how their own home state would react (Cerami 161-164). Many of the states liked their independence and they would have to realize they would need to be united if this nation was to survive. Lastly, the author makes a reference that I’m not sure if he meant to make. He refers to Madison as “scientific experimenter” which made me evaluate what he might be implying. Seeing as The Enlightenment still had some echoing effects, meaning people were still using the scientific method, maybe the constitution is exactly that, a scientific experiment ( Cerami 318-319). Through trial and error with the other political documents, such as the Articles of Confederation, the Constitution will always be a work in progress. That’s why they kept it fairly open for interpretation and altercation as our nation grows and ideals change.

            The only questions that come to mind are the “what if” questions. What if Hamilton would have finished his education at Princeton and never joined Washington’s Continental Army? What if Washington did retire when he intended to after the war and would have never contributed to the early years of our nation. Honestly I think all of the circumstances lined up perfectly for us to have flourished like we have. Political heroes stood out and risked persecution from peers to broaden the minds of others. This book has definitely influenced the way I perceived this time period. I never realized the complexities of every decision and circumstance that our forefathers faced. The last thing I’ve come to realize is that Hamilton may be brilliant, but since he reminds me of myself I don’t think we could ever be friends.

Bibliography

Cerami, Charles. Young Patriots. Sourcebooks Inc., Book. 2005

I believe in a thing called Discipline

I firmly believe in responsibility and respect. As a child, I was raised by my mother and I wasn't taught manners at all. I knew my mom loved and cared for my brother and I, but she was also just relaxed and careless too. We didn't eat at the dinner table and I would stay up all night because I wasn't ever told to go to bed before 9. As I grew older into my teen years I decided to move closer to my family in Springfield and moved in with my father. My father wasn't around most of my life so I wasn't really sure what was in store for me. My dad and stop mom both lived the upper class lifestyle. I didn't really know what that meant but at the time I didn't really care. A lot of things changed for me. The way I ate, slept, went to school, and many other things. My dad's house was always like it was on a schedule. His main motive was responsibility and to have responsibility, you must have respect to others as well. Let me tell you, my first few weeks we're probably the most frustrating and complicated weeks of my life. I had no clue how to respect my elders or what responsibility even was. Paying bills? I'm only 14, I don't need to worry about that yet. That's not what he meant though. I had a list of chores to complete everyday if I was wanting a ride to school later that evening. It was also expected to be done before mom started dinner and if it wasn't then I would be making for myself dinner that night. I had no idea how to even cook. Soon enough, I caught on and was cleaning up after myself and made sure I was completely prepared for school the next day with all homework done and ready for bed after a nice hot shower. To this day, I don't regret one thing that my dad has taught or trained me. My late high school years I moved back in with my mom when she moved to Springfield. I wasn't looking forward to going back to my bad habits, but surprisingly, it stuck with me. I was always cooking dinner for my siblings and making sure the house was picked up. My mother is a very busy woman with a mentally ill child and a full time job, as well a part-time weekend job, some days I may think she's being lazy but I know that she's truly a hard worker and needs time to relax like the rest of us do. To this day, I still have my good OCD habits and I am more responsible than I ever thought I would be. I got a job when I was 16 and I haven't stopped working since then. I saved up all my money during my high school years and I moved out of my parent's house by 18 with that money. If I never lived with my dad then I definitely think I would still be living at home with my mom while in college and probably with no job. I give my parents much respect for raising me with such responsibility at a young age. I will take after them and train my children the same exact way and I will watch them go very far in life with it.

my 5 words

Corey Johnson

English Comp 101

Fire – Not actual fire, but an adjective. Describing something as extremely satisfying and beyond expectations. “This meal is fire.”

Raw – Descriptive when it comes to being powerful and unrefined. Not finesse, just unleashed power. “His old muscle car is so raw.”

Stacked – To describe being superior in many ways. “That basketball team is stacked.”

Beastly – To be strong in a certain aspect. For something to seem like natural instinct to perform well.

Weak – To not live up to expectation. “His report was weak at best.”