Author’s Note: This story is all about going into a new grade and meeting new people. When you enter that new grade, there is always a boy meets girl type of thing. Seventh Grade by Gary Soto is a clever story about entering a new grade and becoming a more mature adult. Seventh Grade is a year of wise choices and this year will help you with your future.
Seventh Grade is so far my favorite grade of all time. I have wonderful teachers, great friends and exciting classes. Then I read Seventh Grade by Gary Soto. This story is the opposite of what my life is in Seventh Grade. There is a teenage boy named Victor and he is starting off the new year in Seventh Grade. His first day did not start off so well. Some of his teachers are really strict. Lucky for me, I don’t have a lot of mean teachers. On the first day of school, Victor’s teachers weren’t so thrilled about having him in his class. He was acting very strange and gangster like to the adults. It is all because of this very special someone that he loves in his class. A beautiful girl named Teresa. Ever since he saw that one girls face, she’s all that he thinks about. Throughout the story, that’s all that Victor can think about. If you see a boy or a girl in your grade that is really cute, then don’t think about them 24/7.Your mind will only be on that one person and nothing else and then you then get sidetracked from school and your academics will suffer, trying to impress that one person.
Have you ever had the feeling where when you start Middle School that none of your friends will be in your classes, lunch or even at your school? I get that feeling all the time. I had one friend in the Elementary School that I looked up to so much. She moved to another city far away from the Pewaukee District and I have missed her so much. Victor is very lucky though because he has all of his friends still at his school to comfort you when tough times happen, need help with homework or whatever it may be. Friends are one thing that you have to have in Seventh Grade. Without friends, your year in Seventh Grade will be lonely, miserable and boring. Friends give you guidance throughout the year. Friends are honest, unique, caring and most important, trustworthy. Victor’s friends gave him advice when it came to the one girl that Victor fell in love with. You can not go through school without friends or good luck having a boring year without any friends.
Throughout the whole story, the author shows me that you can save yourself a lot of humility and trouble if you go and express your feelings to someone. The best way that Victor tried to tell Teresa that he liked her by impressing her in French class. All that Victor did to himself in French class was embarrassing himself by saying random words that weren’t French like “La me vave me con le grandma” and “Frenchie oh wewe gee in September”. Victor was not using common sense and he didn’t think before he spoke. Impressing someone that you don’t even know can be a dangerous liability during the course of your Seventh Grade year. If you try to impress someone during a class, then sometimes it can really push the teacher’s buttons just like Victor did during his French class. Mr. Bueller’s buttons were pushed by Victor’s love trilogy with Teresa and embarrassed himself for good.
Impressing someone that you like during the first day of school can be very risky. Having your mind on that special someone will not help you during school. Your academics will suffer if you can’t get your mind off of that one person. Don’t be like Victor and try to impress someone in school because you will be embarrassed, especially if other people find out. Rumors will spread and you Seventh Grade year will be humiliating. People will make fun of you and bully you. Never act like you are the best person in the class to show off a talent that you don’t have. That would be the worst case scenario. If you need to express your feelings to someone, go talk to them personally so you are not surrounded by other people and you won’t be humiliated by other people. Follow what your heart says and it will guide you.
3/16/2012
It’s a glorious summer’s day in the state of Alaska. You hear the birds chirping and see the Alaskan Willow Ptarmigan soaring in the distance. You also see the most beautiful, snowy mountains glowing in the horizon. This majestic site seeing adventure is Alaska, a region known for its incredible wildlife and stunning mountains. Unfortunately, these beautiful sites are about to be destroyed. There have been conflicts about whether or not the U.S. should drill for oil in Alaska’s wilderness. If the U.S. does drill for oil, then imagine how much gas prices will go down, but at the same time, we are destroying the Alaskan forests.
Above the Alaskan grounds, there are beautiful trees, mountains and animals, but below the Alaskan grounds, there is oil that could help gas prices in the U.S. come down. The one thing about drilling in Alaska’s forests is the environment, nature and animals that could be at risk. On March 24, 1989, there was a huge oil spill from a 987- foot Exxon Valdez oil tanker, carrying a full cargo of 53,094,510 gallons of crude oil. There were no environmental damage, but all the oil seeped into The Prince William Sound Lake, causing a lot of water animals to suffer from this horrible oil spill. When oil gets into this lake, then the eco-system has been disturbed because oil and water don’t mix. The oil rises to the top, causing birds that fly into the water to relax, suffer from all the oil that gets in their feathers. One of these days, there will be an oil spill so bad, that some animals might become extinct.
A long time ago, there was a brilliant idea that was built, that would not ruin the environment, but it may disturb the habitats, where this brilliant idea was built. In 1968, people in Alaska found oil in Prudhoe Bay, which lead them to create the Trans- Alaskan Pipeline. This pipeline was finished in 1977 and it still exists today. The Trans- Alaskan Pipeline can carry oil 800 miles, but what would happen if this pipeline breaks from carrying so much oil? The Trans- Alaskan Pipeline has been standing for 35 years and it needs to be taken down before a severe oil spill happens and wipes out the Alaskan scenery and all the animals in it. The APSC (The Alyeska Pipeline Service Company) shut down this pipeline after a leak that this company discovered. The APSC operator says that there was no severe damage, however, 10 gallons of oil did spill and ruined some beautiful grassland and caused some animals to evacuate before it hit them. When the leak was discovered on a beautiful Saturday morning, the ASPC thought there was too much to get out from a pump station below the ground. There was hope. The next day, the ASPC went to the pump station in the ground and removed 90% of the oil that leaked. After the huge leak, gas prices went up by 7% in the last year. Since this terrible spill, the Trans- Alaskan Pipeline remains shut down so the next oil spill that might happen will not destroy the environment.
In Washington D.C., there have been many arguments about drilling in Alaska. What the politics are not seeing is what would happen to the people and the animals when the U.S. government drills. Robin Nixon, a retired politician, said that 300-500 oil spills happen every year when the U.S. government drills for oil. Many of the people and animals have to get kicked out of their birthing ground because of all the disturbances of the drilling. The government thinks that there is only oil that can fuel cars and make gas prices get lower. People in the world have already started creating cars that can be fueled with hydrogen and water. Alaska is one of the most beautiful regions in the United States so why would the government decide to tear it down? Well, the government doesn’t care about the environment, animals or nature. All they care about is the money and the oil that can bring gas prices down. Yes, we want gas prices to go down but the government is only thinking about the oil and nothing else. The ANWR needs to take a stand and say that we can’t drill for oil! People live in these beautiful areas and now after all those years they are going to have to leave just to get a resource, for us? The U.S. government needs to respect the families, animals and resources there because what would happen if the U.S. took all of Alaska’s resources? The Alaskans will have nothing left because the government took it all. The Alaskan land holds their future and if we drill for oil and take all of their other resources, then they will have nothing for the future.
The U.S. will not drill for oil because there are so many other resources in the U.S. that we could use. The future for the Alaskans will be miserable because of what the U.S. is doing to them. Drilling for oil in Alaska is not the right decision. How would the people in the U.S. like it if the Alaskan’s came to the United States drilled for oil here? We wouldn’t like it, so why do it to them? The United States needs to respect the Alaskans and everything in it. Protect the wildlife and the environment by not drilling for oil in Alaska’s wilderness.
By: Allison Andes
Works Cited
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