The amazing Robert Frost

Robert frost is a well-known poet. He has written many amazing poems and said countless quotes that are inspirational to many people. These are some quotes by Robert Frost. There is even a Robert Frost Foundation and a museum. These websites show many of his poems and tell about his life. I found all of these websites to be very helpful in learning more about Frost and his poetry. I really like studying poetry and figuring out what the poet is writing about so I enjoyed reading some of Frost's poems. 

 

Stereotyping

Stereotyping is a part of American culture. It is a common way of easily classifying people by their appearance, accent, or personality. Stereotypes are not always negative but they tend to be that way because they are usually a judgement of a person. As a child I was often stereotyped as the quiet, smart girl because I was placed in advanced classes and hardly ever spoke up in class. I had lots of friends that I would talk to after school or during lunch but in class I was too timid to say anything. Because of the stereotype, I became more and more shy in class and doubted myself even when I knew the answer to a question the teacher had asked. Instead of trying to break out of the stereotype that people had placed me into, I merely hid behind it. Today it is like a habit to not speak up in class, because I have never gained enough confidence when it comes to talking in front of other students. 

In high school I was stereotyped as a rich, smart, white girl because I went to a low-income predominately black school. There were 30 white people in my senior class out of 300, so most of the black students thought that we were all rich and snobby. However, I am neither of the two.  It was a stereotype that we were placed into and even though it was unfair it was no where near as insulting as the stereotype that the community placed on the predominate race at my school. Recently, in my home town, there has been discussion of changing the lines of where children go to school so that the high schools will be evenly distributed. The other two high schools are over-populated and crowded, while the school I went to is failing because of bad grades and a high drop-out rate. A discussion board was placed on the county website for people to write their opinion about the redistricting. The comments are astounding and insulting. Many people said that they are scared for their children to go to my high school because they are scared they will be beaten up by gangs or killed. They stated that they had rather their child drop out and get their G.E.D. than go to my school. Many parents said that they moved twenty miles from the city so that their child would not have to go to my school and the thought of them having to go anyway infuriated them. The horrible stereotype placed on the students at my high school was that they were  gangsters who shot people everyday and would hurt anybody they came across. This was not true and most of the people I met in high school were very nice people. It was sickening how many parents made them sound like horrible mobsters. Stereotyping can be a terrible thing because not only can it cause people to create an image of themselves that they carry for a long time but it can also tear a community apart. 

Stairway to Heaven

Over the past two years I have become addicted to watching Grey's anatomy every Thursday night. The episode this past week was very interesting and also very sad. There are several different situations happening throughout the show to keep it fast paced and intense. One of the scenarios is about a little boy named Jackson who needed organs. He has been in the hospital for a long time and one of the doctors, Miranda, is particularly close to him and his mother. It was heartbreaking to watch Jackson struggle to stay alive throughout the episode while his mother and Miranda do everything they can to help him. 

The second scenario is about a prison inmate on death-row who is condemned to be executed in five days. He has brain problems and wants to die in the hospital instead of in the prison, therefore, he bangs his head against his bed after brain surgery to kill himself. As he is doing this he tells the main character, Meredith Grey, that he wants to donate his organs t Jackson because he is a match. The prisoner says that he wants to do one good thing before he dies so he begs Meredith not to page the other doctors because he knows they will save him and Jackson will not get organs in time. However, Meredith eventually finds out that the prisoner was not trying to save Jackson, his intention was to manipulate Meredith by getting in trouble for not calling a doctor when he hit his head. He only wanted to watch her destroy her career. Thankfully, Dr. Shepherd, the brain surgeon, rushed in just in time to take him to surgery. 

During the surgery Miranda runs into the operating room and begs Dr. Shepherd not to continue surgery.  "This man is trying to kill himself. God forgive me, I need you to let him," Miranda persists. The controversy is that the prisoner who he is doing surgery on will be executed in 5 days, however, his organs could be transplanted into Jackson who is just an innocent boy, but will die in a few hours without new organs. After a few long second, Miranda decides that she cannot let the prisoner die because of the oath to save lives that she took as a doctor. Eventually Jackson receives organs which were donated by a man who has been in a coma for a couple of days. The man's wife had to make the extremely tough decision of cutting of the machines and letting him go. By doing this she saved Jackson's life. As the prisoner is about to be transported back to the prison to be executed, he says the Meredith, "It would  be good to have a friendly place in the crowd, when they kill me." Meredith goes to the execution in order to show the prisoner that people can be compassionate and there is good in the world. Watching him be killed was very hard for her and caused her to emotionally break down. 

The third scenario is about a doctor named Izzie who has recently been seeing her dead fiance, Denny, everywhere. She carries on conversations with him, kisses him, argues with him, and a number of other things. At first she thinks that she is so lucky to be able to see her fiance again and still have her current boyfriend, Alex. However, soon Denny becomes annoying and Izzie cannot concentrate on work. She yells at him and begs him to leave but he just keeps saying "I'm here for you." Eventually she realized that "I'm here for you" means that he is here to take her to heaven. "I'm sick," Izzie says, and yells at him for not telling her right away. "I can go now, because you know," Denny says. "But it's your choice. You get to choose." She tells Denny to go, asking what he's waiting for. "This," he says, and kisses her goodbye. I'm not sure what is wrong with Izzie but I think it is something with her brain. This scenario was created because Izzie is leaving the show so in the next sometime this season she will probably die from her sickness, which will be devastating. 

I love watching Grey's Anatomy not only for the entertainment of the characters but also for the medical aspect.

Ballet and Surfer Blogs

One of the blogs that I found was about thoughts on dancing, teaching, and watching ballet. The bloggers wrote about ballets they had seen such as Swan Lake and La Bayadere. They wrote about techniques that they had tried in class with their students and new ideas to help students understand the principles of ballet. They also talked about the changes and culture of ballet.  I really enjoyed this blog because I have been taking ballet for 16 years and it is one the things that I am most passionate about. 

The second blog I read is called The Coastal Surf and Ski Blog. This site had many pictures and videos of surfers. It talked about many different kinds of boards and places to surf. It talks about new kinds of wave pools and tips for surfing. This site shows the culture of surfing and the joy behind it. I liked this blog because I like to surf and it was really cool to see the pictures and read the stories of people who professionally surf.