Sohil's Story

    Recently I have been watching a lot of March Madness. Filling out my bracket, rooting for my favorite team, Michigan, and watching basketball make March Madness lots of fun. However, by watching the games I learned a lot outside of basketball.      One of the big upsets has been Oral Roberts University advancing to the Sweet Sixteen. To do this, they beat Ohio State and Florida. No one thought they would make it this far but they overcame the odds of playing two difficult games and proved everyone wrong. This showed me that no matter what anyone says, as long as you believe in yourself anything is possible.      The second lesson I learned came from the Illinois vs Loyola Chicago game. Illinois was coming off a great season and had the number 1 seed and many people thought they could win the championship. However, Loyola Chicago beat them to advance to the Sweet Sixteen. Even though you could see a lot of the Illinois players were hurt by this...

 You say goodbye to your parents Your belongings are packed You drive away from your house And start your new journey. While driving you look out the window And see beautiful flowers everywhere All along the sides of the road Are orchids the brightest, richest shade of purple. Orchids shoot out of other cars exhaust Orchids raining from the sky Orchids sticking to your windshield Orchids cloud your vision.  You get to your dorm And turn on the lights Your bed is covered in orchids And your orchids litter the floor.  Yet even in the midst of all the orchids You still miss back home.  This poem was my spin on Orchids Are Sprouting From the Floorboards by Kaveh Akbar. The poem is about distracting yourself from a distress in your life. 

 I sit at my desk Typing on a medium screen Feeling a little tired I have to sip some caffeine Once I finish working On my medium screen I can start to relax And change the scene I switch my attention To a smaller screen Scrolling through stories About the COVID vaccine I should get some fresh air, I think to myself I glance outside, the sunset red as a rose But Netflix calls to me on a large screen Fresh air isn't that important I suppose It's time to go to bed I finally shut of my screen Resolving to decrease my screen time But I can't escape my routine. 

You sit at a desk Tapping your feet They pass out the test And tell you not to cheat You work through the problems At blazing speed Then look back through the test Making sure to proofread You turn test in Nervous for your grade You walk back to your desk Still a little afraid Over the next couple days You still think of your test Trying to distract yourself Just makes you more distressed The teacher finally hands back your test Facing upside down You flip it over hoping for the best And you are not letdown Now you see That your hard work pays off Your worrying was foolish You look back and scoff.

 In Invisible Man , by Ralph Ellison, the narrator is sent North by Dr. Bledsoe under the guise of finding a job in New York City. After being rejected by all except one of the jobs Bledsoe supposedly lined him up for, the narrator goes to the last job opportunity. There a man who is the son of Mr. Emerson, a trustee, reveals to the narrator that the letter of recommendation that Bledsoe gave him actually portray the narrator in a negative light.  This realization leads to a feeling of anagnorisis, where the narrator realizes that just because someone is black doesn't mean that they have other black people's best interest in mind. He understands that Bledsoe doesn't care about him and the other black students, but rather Bledsoe just cares about his position in the white man's society. This means doing anything that allows him to hold his power, which predominately includes doing things that please white men.  After realizing that people's motives may not be what th...

 What makes a good mentor? Is it someone who simply teaches you how to do something or do they have to have other qualities? I believe that more than just passing on experience, a mentor must help a person improve their own confidence as well as be able to work toward their goal themselves. If the mentor cannot just hold the mentee's hand and guide him through whatever it is that needs to be done. The mentor must actually teach the mentee to a point where the mentee can become a mentor to someone else.  A great example of a mentor and mentee relationship is in The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings movies. In these movies, Gandalf takes the role of a mentor and Frodo takes the role of a mentee. Gandalf asks questions, challenged Frodo, encouraged him to take risks, helped him make goals, listened to him, offered encouragement, and gave Frodo responsibility. This helped Frodo succeed and allowed him to increase his confidence, abilities, and determination.  Mentorship is mor...

 Online school has had positives and negatives for me. Waking up at 7:45 allows me to feel a lot less tired throughout the day as opposed to waking up at 6:30 when there was school. Furthermore, during each week during last year it felt as though I was just trying to make it to the weekend to get a break, while this year I am able to stay energized through the whole week. However, it has been hard for me to get motivated to stay on top of my homework and pay attention in class. In school, I was engaged in every class and learning every day but online just feels like I barely understand the subject material and have to cram before every test.  In English class specifically, after a long period of not writing anything, my first essays were not at the level that I wanted them to be at. Through the second quarter, I was able to slightly improve my essays and I hope to continue increasing my scores throughout third and fourth quarter. I also want to work on speaking and contributin...