Sohil's Story

       As I was struggling to figure out what community I belonged to for one of my college essays, I became very stressed and started questioning why I was going through this. I was working hard to persuade the college to let ME pay them money. College is the only scenario that I can think of where I have to work to spend money. On top of this, I'm going to college to work more and be even more stressed out than I was for any other point in my life. Basically, I had worked for 12 years to educate and I was hoping for four more. All of this just to work more until I'm 75 just to survive. Assuming I am able to live to 90, I'll have 15 years at the end of my life and 5 years at the beginning of my life to myself. And at both these times I was and will not be at my best self.      I have heard a lot of people complain about the situation in the same way that I have. Would I really be better off if I didn't have to worry about where I went to college? If I was born 10,000 y

       In Animal Farm, by George Orwell, the animals are inspired by an old boar to overthrow the humans and run the farm they live on by themselves. However, a majority of them quickly find themselves under the rule of the pigs and they end up right where they begin. The premise of Animal Farm is derived from the Russian Revolution which resulted in a government that left the people worse off then they were before. Many of the characters in Animal Farm are based off of real people. For example, Snowball represents Trotsky, Napoleon represents Stalin, Boxer represents the hardworking citizens, and so on. Many of the events in Animal Farm  also depict real life situations, such as Snowball being chased off the farm representing Trotsky being exiled from the U.S.S.R. I believe that George Orwell mimics the happenings of the Russian Revolution to make his warning about communism more clear. By using real life, Orwell shows his audience that even though communism might seem like a fair ec

In the movies and TV shows we watch, the main characters often have two clear, contrasting choices. Do I chase the bad guy or save my friend? Should I break the law even if I am doing the right thing? Do I save my best friend or 50 strangers? The hero usually makes the right decision, which is why they are a "hero". However, in real life we have many choices over a long time that lead us to many consequences. In "Animal Farm" by George Orwell and "Saving Sourdi" by May-Lee Chai, Benjamin and Nea have many opportunities to do the right thing but choose not to, resulting in a significant loss in their lives.  In “Saving Sourdi” Nea’s decisions are based on helping her sister. This includes attacking a man who is not treating Sourdi right and manipulating Duke to try to “save Sourdi” from Mr. Chhay. However, Sourdi doesn’t need Nea’s help. By being overprotective, Nea disregards Sourdi’s wishes  and acts out of a selfish desire to keep Sourdi to herself. Th

     In Oedipus the King  an interesting point is brought up: is it fate that controls our lives or can we choose our own destiny through the decisions we make. In the case of Oedipus the King  I thought it was clear that fate had predetermined Oedipus' life and cursed him to his tragic downfall. However, in the debate on Monday, my classmates brought up fair points on why Oedipus was to blame for his undoing. Either way, Oedipus the King  is a tragedy that exaggerates life for a play and doesn't show that fate or free necessarily determine one's life in the real world.      So does fate or free will determine one's destiny in the real world? Or is it a combination of the two? It is hard to come to a conclusive answer because most decisions in life are not black and white. You might have many options and all of them, in some way or another, will lead back to the same destination, giving the illusion of choice. Or in some situations you might believe that there is only o