A Ghost Story/ Back in 2010

I found Mark Twain's "A Ghost Story" to be rather entertaining and different from other short stories we have read in class. I felt like it was a generally fun story, although I admit, in the beginning I thought someone was going to die or something awful was going to happen. As the story went on, I sort of got the sense that there was nothing to be afraid of and the narrator seemed to become calmer as well. I had never heard of the Cardiff Giant before so I used trusty Wikipedia to gain some background knowledge on the situation and found that Twain is satirizing the hoax that occurred at that time. I found the ghost's diction to be rather comical and added some humor to the story because you would sort of expect the ghost of an enormous being to be rather angry and hateful towards the world. When he finds out the body nearby is just a replica, the reader gets the sense that Twain is having a good time with this and that he indeed is making fun of the situation. I felt like this short story was a page turner and a good read. I know I found my self laughing a couple of times. This is different in terms of narration compared to other of his stories but he is similarly satirizing a human condition: believing everything you hear and see.

Lucy

So I met with Lucy last week for a short introduction and she was thrilled to see that I speak some spanish. It will definitely be useful as I teach her a few things. She is a real sweet person and she just wants help. She reminds me a lot of Dolores, my previous partner, who I will also start seeing again real soon. This whole service learning thing, in my opinion, is great because it allows us to interact with TCU faculty we would usually not. These are hardworking people that just need a little help. As a college student, we are being prepared to better the world when we graduate. We can still make a difference while we are in it. I am glad Lucy and I am on the path to success. She called me a few minutes ago saying she can't meet this week, but next week is a go. I look forward to it. 

Dolores, Goodbye. For now.

I met with Dolores on Friday and we decided with finals coming up, it was best for us to continue our work together next semester. She thanked me and said she had came a long way. I agreed. I look forward to taking it further next semester. She indeed has come a long way. We are going to have to figure out how our schedules will be next semester to see what time we will meet at. We then basically discussed everything from the current news to our winter break plans. I told her I was going back home to Los Angeles and she said she was looking forward to spending time with her kids.

My First Car

I remember when I got my license, I was very proud. I walked to my dad with a smile on my face. All the practice with him had paid off. There was just one problem: I didn’t have a car. I didn’t want to ask my dad for one right away, but I wanted start driving right away. That afternoon I approached him about the situation and he said we would begin looking in two weeks. That was a lie. A month had elapsed since my victory with the DMV. I was growing agitated because the rest of my friends were already driving themselves around and I wanted to do the same. When we did begin to look, it seemed I would never find a decent car at a reasonable price. We spent another two weeks looking at cars that weren’t even worth our time. One day as we were driving home we passed a private dealership where we saw a green Range Rover for a decent price. I instantly fell in love and I remember lusting after it like it was a beautiful woman. I pointed it out to my father and we pulled over. The dealership appeared to be closed but when we neared the vehicle behind the fence, a man popped out. He invited us into the dealership to see the car. It was in excellent shape. The engine appeared to be in pristine shape. The paint looked brand new and the interior was gorgeous. It was a 1999 model but it was well taken care of. When he dropped the price on my father, he seemed impressed by the deal. I was hoping that he would decide that this would be his choice for me. He told the dealer he would return to give it another look. Sure enough he told me he would buy the Range Rover. I was very happy and I saw myself riding in style. He then told me that he was going to buy it for himself and he was going to give me his 2002 Jeep Grand Cherokee. I didn’t mind that either. I was just happy to have a car. The first time I drove by myself, I turned up the radio and went cruising by the beach after crusing through the freeway. Ever since the, the Jeep has been mine and I have made many memories while driving in it and just in it as well.

9/11

I remember exactly where I was on the morning of September 11^th , 2001. I woke up at 5:30 in the morning to get to the bus stop. I was in seventh grade. As my father drove me to the bus stop, we heard on the radio that a plane had hit one of the Twin Towers. My father didn’t know whether to believe it. The DJ was Rick Dees, who was known for being quite a joker. We then flipped the station and realized that the coverage was on almost every station. I knew something was wrong. As I boarded the bus, I plugged my Walkman into my ears to hear what exactly was going on. The bus’ radio was not working that week, so not many people knew what was going on. So there I was, twelve years old, wondering what was happening to my country. I just had a gut feeling that a commercial airliner would not accidentally slam into an enormous building. My father drove away with a angry and concerned look on his face. It was like something in a movie, on the 45 minute ride to school, I was telling everyone what was going on. I told them when the first tower fell down and everyone couldn’t believe it. The bus driver was getting updates on the radio and I remember the terrified look on her face. It appeared everyone knew that it was no accident. When we got to school, our teachers informed us that there had indeed been a terrorist attack on our nation. Some parents kept their kids at home. The entire day everyone was on edge. We didn’t have football practice and everyone was told to talk to our parents about the day’s events. It was a long bus ride back to the bus stop. The bus we took back had a functioning radio and we heard the estimated deaths and stories that were storming into the newsrooms. I live relatively close to Los Angeles International Airport (LAX). I had never seen police and police cars in such a plentiful amount. They were patrolling what seemed like everywhere. I grew up accustomed to seeing planes in the sky. It was eerie not seeing a single plain in the sky. There was much less traffic on the roads and I am sure that people were glued to their televisions wondering if Los Angeles would be next. It made sense. New York had been hit, so why not us? I remember taking a shower and worrying what was going to happen to our nation. I’m glad we came a long way.

The Journey

For graduating seniors at my high school, you had two options. You either had to choose an organization or facility to devote three weeks of community service to, or you had to go on a grueling excursion in the mountains for the same amount of time. It was a mandatory exercise for us if we wanted to graduate. After thinking about it for a while, I decided I would challenge myself and go on the trip. We went to an informational meeting. They told us we would be going through rigorous terrain and that it was not for the weak. We would be covering a span of 100 miles in three weeks, which didn’t sound horrendous until we actually got there. I figured it would be a good learning experience.  We departed on a Sunday morning and the journey had begun. Over the course of the next three weeks, we had many struggles and victories. The Sierra Nevadas are full of treacherous terrain with much uphill so it was physically grueling and tiring. Every day we would appoint a pacer, a leader, and a compass man. The day I was leader was our hardest day. We had just reloaded on food for the second half of the trip and everyone was complaining about their packs being heavy. The day consisted of much uphill terrain, river crossings, breaks, and extreme fatigue. When we reached our destination for the night, everyone started throwing his or her packs on the floor. Some immediately began to rest, some cursed, some ate. It was the most beautiful thing I had ever seen. It was a flat valley that was once covered by an ocean millions of years ago. We found fossils if ancient organisms from long ago. The best part was going to sleep since we weren’t rolling downhill as we were accustomed to on the uneven land. The rest of the trip was just as bad and when we returned to school, we were all smelly, tired, unshaven, and dirty. I remember I was very glad to see my parents and I immediately went to go shower. It took me an hour in the shower to take all the dirt off of my body and to shave. I felt like the journey’s dirt was no longer on my body but the effects of it were everywhere. I felt more mature and I knew I was a stronger individual because of it. I still look back on my trip and the things I learned. 

Truth Vs. Fact

After reading the question, I gave it some long thought. I think Iyer means that you can write whatever you want on a piece of paper or word document. I think each person's reading or writing is different and unique to that one specific person. In other words each person has a different view and interpretation on any narrative. In " The Karheef", we can see that Iyer has an opinion on the facts of the story. It is his opinion, that make the story truthful for him. Each reader is influenced by the story in a different, unique way. It's very hard to encompass the "real" truth in what you write, but it should be our primary goal as writers to develop truthful, understandable, and honest essays. This reading made me realize the power of writing, and that it requires responsibility.