Thomas looks at the clock, only ten seconds left in the final game of his high school career. He takes in the floor, scanning, surveying, and finally he finds an attack point. Like a wild mustang, he drives into two defenders, breaking free from the six-foot, burly boys. Just as he’s ready to make a layup, he sees the only freshman on the team and passes the ball at the last second. Just like Thomas gave up his last shot of the season in his era of extracurricular sports, many students’ extracurricular activities help students to improve themselves through learning to share the spotlight and discovering their identity.

Extracurricular activities help students improve themselves by teaching humility. For example, Joe is the star running back and receiver on the varsity football team and is taking his team to the state playoffs. However, during this crucial game of his final season, he finally understands the good ‘ole, infamous, said-by-every-coach-in-the-world: “There is no I in team.” This epiphany hits him in the final quarter of the game with only a minute left on the clock and four yards to go on the fourth down. The moment he hears the play called, he knows his personal game plan- give the ball to a less successful teammate and give them their moment to shine. Just like Joe, many students in extracurricular activities have this same moment of learning it’s not the all-about-me-show, but that it’s about everyone else involved as well. Therefore, extracurricular activities help students improve in humility and selflessness.

Furthermore, students also improve themselves through extracurricular activities by developing more confidence. For example, I’m involved in the White Oak Future Farmers of America Chapter and am on the area champion, state-bound, undefeated Milk Quality Products team. Through these amazing, unique, and hilarious trips and practices, I’ve learned to accept myself through my teammates and chapter members, ten times more than I would have if I weren’t involved in my chapter. Not only have I found myself and accepted who I am, I’ve also gained immense confidence in myself and feel more comfortable in my skin than before. For many students, extracurricular activities are not only enjoyable, but a way to find their own beat to march to. Therefore, extracurricular activities help students to improve by giving them confidence and acceptance of themselves everyone should have.

The freshman, Terry, catches the rough, leather, orange basketball and stands in his place, as though he’s in quicksand, paralyzed with fear, shock, and awe. Terry sets his feet and form, then swish! and the crowd is roaring. Not only do extracurricular activities teach students a specific skill set, those activities also teach students to improve themselves and accept themselves.

“Richard Cory” by Edwin Arlington Robinson and “The Unknown Citizen” by W.H. Auden both portray ideal citizens in the eyes of their society. Robinson’s short poem speaks of a rich man who is idolized by all and seems to be the perfect specimen of a high-class man, while Auden’s longer poem focuses upon the parodied account of an unknown citizen who was also the ideal, conformed, almost robotic citizen of his society. The appearance versus reality themes of both poems can be compared based on characterization, real situations, and the society’s perception of the citizen.

Despite taking place in different societies, both characters of the poems are similarly characterized by how they appear. Robinson depicts Richard Cory as “a gentleman from sole to crown,” “richer than a king,” and “clean favored, and imperially slim”. Likewise, the Unknown Citizen is portrayed as the ideal, bleak, compliant citizen of the State: “he served the Greater Community… till the day he retired,” “he satisfied his employers,” and “he held the proper opinions for the time of the year”. Similar to Richard Cory, the Unknown Citizen leads the ideal life in his community. Both characters seemed satisfied with their lives because their lives are the epitome of perfection, Richard Cory is rich and “schooled in every grace,” while the Unknown Citizen is considered a “saint” by his bureaucratic government. Thus, these images of the Unknown Citizen and Richard Cory coincide with each other on a surface level because both live the picture-perfect life in their society.

Another similarity between the two poems is the characters’ real situations, or the “behind the scenes” thoughts and life they have. “Richard Cory” portrays a seemingly perfect man with the seemingly perfect life, where all is well and happy-go-lucky all the time. However that is sorely not the case because while he was “always human when he talked,” he was thinking, and eventually did, go “home and put a bullet through his head”. Whereas in “The Unknown Citizen”, the death of the Unknown Citizen is almost of no concern: “Was he free? Was he happy? The question is absurd,” and nothing more is said of his death. Similarly to the Unknown Citizen, no one questioned if there was any hidden depression, loneliness, or even suicidal tendencies because everyone thought that since he had money of the State’s approval, he had a satisfactory life. However, all Richard Cory wanted was exactly what the townspeople had: true friendships and a sense of comradery, whereas the Unknown Citizen’s happiness was not even a question because he always did whatever was considered correct in the status quo, so there isn’t even the slightest doubt or worry that he could’ve died or even have lived unhappily. Thus, while Richard Cory’s death is blatantly described and the Unknown Citizen’s death is ambiguous, both character’s deaths seem absurd to question because they put on a facade of happiness or just went with the status quo.

Along with underlying feelings, both societies’ perception of the citizens are alike. Auden’s bureaucratic society perceived the Unknown Citizen as: “one against whom there was no official complaint,” “he paid his dues,” and “he was popular with his mates”. Likewise, Richard Cory’s society’s perception of him is portrayed as, “he fluttered pulses,” “he glittered when he walked,” and “we thought that he was everything”. Both societies perceive each character on a simple, superficial level and with no thought as to who they actually are. Richard Cory is looked upon as royalty in the downtown area where the poem takes place and he has many swooning over his immense amount of money, while the Unknown Citizen is perceived as an invisible stitch, thought highly favored, in the fabric of his society, but neither of their societies know who they truly are or how they truly feel because they did not make their individuality known. Thus, both Richard Cory and the Unknown Citizen are perceived in similar, inconsiderate ways by their society.

Though the appearance of both characters plays an important role, their appearance is greatly challenged by their tragic deaths. While Richard Cory appeared to have it all, his suicide tells a different tale, whereas the Unknown Citizen and his death are merely a drop of water in a lake to his bureaucratic society. This appearance against reality theme is played out greatly through the characterization of appearance, society’s perception, and the behind-the-scenes reality of both characters in each poem.

Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde Book vs. Movie

In Stevenson’s 1889 novella, Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, a series of mysterious events occur in the late 1800’s of London, England. Back when medicine was advancing and experiments were strange, Dr. Jekyll grows a theory that man has two sides, good and evil, and develops an elixir to change a person from their good to evil persona, both physically and emotionally. Testing this elixir out on himself only draws the concern of his close friends as he shuts them out the deeper he gets into the experiment. However, in the 1941 movie adaptation, the events unfold in a different order with changes in characters and some cuts to the plot, merely to help the viewers who haven’t read the novella and to make the movie more appealing to the public.

For example, one of the first contrasts from the very beginning of both the book and movie is the opening scenes. In Stevenson’s novella, the book opens with Mr. Utterson and Enfield going for a late night Sunday stroll when they spot a mysterious man (later known as Mr. Hyde) in the midst of a rush as he tramples a little girl, and with not even the slightest notion of regret, remorse, or sympathy, he continues to plow on. Upon reviewing this scene once the police become involved, Utterson and Enfield, both respected men in their professions and community, describe the mysterious character of Mr. Hyde as one who made their skin crawl with a sense of evil surrounding him. In contrast, the thematic adaptation opens with a completely different scene. The setting of this opening is in a church, still in late 1800’s London, England, and during the sermon there is a man saying, then gradually shouting, evil slurs as the priest talks about the evil in the world. Once this man has disrupted the service, he is abruptly taken out and Dr. Jekyll does a quick check-up on him, only to have him admitted to a nearby hospital for this strange behavior. This difference, in my opinion, is effective as it lays a good foundation for the movie. Since it opens with the obvious evil, viewers can quickly grasp that evil will be a commonality in this adaptation. The movie’s opening is also effective because it’s more of an attention-grabber and is somewhat easier to understand than the novella’s abrupt opening. All things considered, both openings are effective, however the movie opening is strategically used to help viewers who haven’t read Stevenson’s book.

Along with contrasting openings, the events that spark Dr. Jekyll’s friends noticing his strange behavior differ slightly. In the movie, Dr. Jekyll schedules a dinner party with his girlfriend  Beatrice and friends, only to later have begun his experiments and start crafting his elixir. Having been wrapped up in all his work, Jekyll is late to dinner and Beatrice appears to be worried at his untimeliness. This is also when Jekyll let’s his thoughts about man having two different personas out, sparking more concern for him. However, in the movie Jekyll begins acting suspicious when he is having dinner with Utterson, Lanyon, and Enfield and raises their concern for his well-being. In the movie, the relationship between Dr. Jekyll and Beatrice adds for a thematic build-up, along with another appealing aspect for viewers. The use of Jekyll revealing his thoughts of evil at dinner is used as a foreshadowing as to what Jekyll’s experiment will lead to compared to Jekyll’s dinner with friends and his troubling thoughts during that dinner. Through sharing his thoughts in the movie, it informs the viewers of what is going on and where the movie will be going.

Finally in my review, the ways the worry and suspicion of Jekyll is presented is portrayed in different ways. For example, in the book Utterson’s worry only increases as Jekyll becomes more and more elusive, and his worries only grow when Poole, Jekyll’s butler, comes to him in a hasty, worried, terrified state and confides his fears about Jekyll. Poole’s worries, only confirm Utterson’s own theories and worries. Both convinced Dr. Jekyll has been murdered, Poole and Utterson bust down Jekyll’s laboratory door only to find it in disarray with a dead body laying on the ground. The culprit, they automatically assume, is evil Mr. Hyde. In the movie adaptation, however, Beatrice is the worried one and she informs Dr. Lanyon of her worries of her dear Dr. Jekyll and his sudden disappearance. Lanyon shortly replies with a letter stating he will promptly send for Jekyll in haste. This letter only slightly calms the worried woman’s nerves. Through this contrast, the suspense in the movie grows more than in the book, simply because in the movie, Beatrice plays the worrisome woman concerned about her lover instead a concerned friend and butler.

Overall, the movie was relatively successful in capturing Stevenson’s intent for the novella. However, in my opinion, certain aspects of the novella should have been preserved in the movie as well, but that is my only concern about the movie. I believe both the movie and the book were relatively good, although I’d refer the novella over the book to someone.

Kathleen

Kathleen was the name I was born with

And it is forever with me

No matter how much I desire to change it

Maybe to something more unique

Like Elinor or Thalia

Names that get stuck in your head

I used to look up at the sky and dream

Dream of sitting on the saddle in high-end cowboy boots

Instead of slouching on my simple bike seat in old Nike’s

Caging me in to doubt in my abilities

My never-ending world

A simple ranch with exotic animals filling pens

Home to my friends the deer, llama, and buffalo

Filled with creations of mud pies and tepees

And old friends with their burial ceremonies

Me a famous veterinarian

Who could have saved them all

Having people lined up for miles, pets in tow

Happiness, I thought, did not

Lie in my seemingly simplistic life

But in entering my safe haven

That step across the threshold to outdoors

Where I found someone else

Not quite unlike me, but still someone not Kathleen

I didn’t intend to accept myself

But year by year

Month by month

day by day

Acceptance would flash across my face in the mirror

Instead of doubt

When I saw my mind, body, and face

Begin to grow out of their basic form

The thing about Kathleen

Maybe someday we can meet up

Go for a horseback ride

Swap stories

Because I might like what I learn

The Endless Night

        In his memoir, Night, Elie Wiesel reveals his horrific experiences in concentration camps such as Auschwitz, Buchenwald, and Birkenau during the Holocaust. Wiesel tells of his childhood experiences while in the concentration camps, and how those experiences will forever be engrained in his mind.. Through the use of syntax devices like rhetorical questions and sentence structure, along with dialogue, Wiesel portrays the deterioration in the Holocaust prisoners in both their physical and emotional conditions.

In the beginning chapters of Night, Wiesel uses syntax through rhetorical questions to illustrate the effect the concentration camps have on himself, his father, and the other prisoners physically and emotionally. For instance, in chapters one through five when Wiesel first arrives at Auschwitz, he is unable to comprehend why God, his Savior, is standing by allowing people to be slaughtered: “How was it possible that men, women, and children were being burned and that the world kept silent” (32)? Wiesel is struggling and wondering why God is allowing this genocide to happen and not doing anything about the issue; he at least is expecting God to send someone to object to these horrific crimes, but later loses that feeble hope. However, through the harsh, numbing effects of the concentration camps, Wiesel’s questions soon change from asking God to pondering how he and his father will survive. For example, when the prisoners arrive at Gleiwitz and are trapped in the barracks of the camp after an exhausting forty-two mile trek without food or water Wiesel wonders, “And who knew when we would be given another ration” (95)? Their ration of bread given to them in Buna before their departure to Gleiwitz was quickly devoured along the journey, leaving them starving once they arrived at their destination; this portrays the dehumanizing, physical effects the camps have on the prisoners by changing their concerns from God to survival. In these rhetorical questions Wiesel uses, the depiction of the prisoners’ poor treatment is vividly displayed.

Wiesel also uses various sentence structure to exemplify the effect on the prisoner’s physical and emotional conditions throughout his memoir. In chapters one through five, Wiesel uses simple and complex sentences to set the scene of the camps and the prisoner’s early physical conditions before the abuse of camp life numbed them to the point of not acknowledging the true cruelty of their treatment. For instance, when Wiesel is describing Mrs. Schacter’s insanity on the cattle cars in the early stage of their journey to concentration camp life, Wiesel uses simple sentences to describe her emotional shift, “The night seemed endless. By daybreak, Mrs. Schacter had settled down” (26). By using this combination of sentences, Wiesel achieves a child-like effect in describing the emotional toll of the transition to concentration camps and loss of family has on Mrs. Schacter. In comparison to chapters one through five, in chapters six through nine Wiesel also uses simple and complex sentences to illustrate the physical and emotional shifts in the prisoner’s conditions. For instance, Elie and the others are allowed to stop for rest on their journey to Gleiwitz in an abandoned village, and the temptation to fall into an endless sleep eludes them all. Elie’s father warns him not to, thus keeping him from the dangerous, never-ending sleep, “I had neither the desire nor the resolve to get up. Yet I obeyed” (88). The uses of simple and complex sentences depict the physical and emotional toll of exhaustion the Holocaust has on Elie and the others even.

Another type of device Wiesel uses in his memoir to portray the physical and emotional changes the prisoners experience is both snippets of dialogue in the beginning and later full-fledged conversations. For example in chapters one through five, when Wiesel and his father first arrived at Auschwitz and find they have a cousin, Stein of Antwerp, working as an SS officer, he talks to them briefly, “Take care of your son. He is very weak, very dehydrated…” (45). Wiesel uses conversations sparingly in the early chapters of his memoir to keep the focus on the actions of the prisoners, instead of what they were talking about, unless it is an important detail. In comparison to rarely using dialogue in the beginning chapters, Wiesel uses brief conversations in chapters six through nine to describe the physical and emotional changes in the prisoners. For instance, when Elie is running beside Zalman and trying to encourage Zalman to continue running for fear of him being trampled, “Make an effort Zalman… Try” (86). These brief words of encouragement to Zalman show a quick emotional change in Wiesel to his old, more caring self before camp life.

Another way Wiesel uses dialogue to show the emotional and physical changes in the prisoners is through the meaning of their conversations. Such as in chapters one through five, when Wiesel’s father tries to encourage him to eat by saying, “You mustn’t eat all at once. Tomorrow is another day… Me, I’m not hungry” (44). Wiesel’s father is trying to encourage and strengthen him both physically and emotionally by saying and showing that Wiesel needs to keep both his physical and emotional strength up. Conversely to the beginning chapters, chapters six through nine in Wiesel’s memoir depict the dehumanizing words the SS officers used towards the prisoners, such as on the beginning of the forty-two mile trek, “Faster, you flea-ridden dogs… Faster, you filthy dogs” (85). The SS officers using these dehumanizing words to make the prisoners run faster shows how emotionally numb the prisoners have become as a result of the camps.

Elie Wiesel’s Holocaust memoir, Night, illustrates the physical and emotional trauma Wiesel, his father, and other prisoners experience through the horrific, dehumanizing effects of concentration camps. To paint the picture of these effects have on the prisoners, Wiesel uses many devices such as syntax and dialogue to emphasize the importance, loss, and effect that concentration camps have on people, especially a young child such as Wiesel.

I have been surrounded by animals my entire life and have loved every moment of it and as a result, animals have impacted me enough to consider a couple of careers involved with animals. Although I have a few years before it is necessary for me to start looking at professional, lifelong careers, I have already started the search by looking at and researching about working as a veterinarian, athletic trainer, or wildlife biologist.

During my research, I examined these careers hinged on the level of education, required certifications and tests, salary, aptitude, and versatility. After sifting through these criteria, I would choose to become a wildlife biologist because I work well with with animals and have vast experience with a vast amount of animals.

The comparison chart below lists the criteria evaluated for each career:

          Veterinarian         Athletic Trainer     Wildlife Biologist

Sources used for information on chart: http://www.healthcarecareers.org/athletic-trainer/ , http://www.bls.gov/ooh/healthcare/veterinarians.htm , http://www.bls.gov/ooh/life-physical-and-social-science/zoologists-and-wildlife-biologists.htm , http://www.careerinfonet.org/Occupations/select_occupation.aspx?next=occ_rep&level=&optstatus=111111111&id=1&nodeid=2&soccode=&stfips=&jobfam= , http://www.bw.edu/academics/hpe/programs/at/

By examining the given information on the chart and considering flexibility of the jobs, an athletic trainer has the most versatility because someone with a degree in sports medicine can work at a sports medicine clinic, high school, college, or professional sports team. This flexibility allows for a multitude of professions, not limiting someone with a sports medicine degree to just one job. Therefore, this career has a vast number of occupational possibilities and would allow me to pursue a career working for college, professional, or high school sports teams, or at a sports medicine clinic.

Another well-supported case, when looking at flexibility, can also be made for a veterinarian. For example, if I were to have a doctoral degree in veterinary science, I could not only work at a veterinary clinic, but also work as a post-secondary teacher, veterinary surgeon, or even a microbiologist. Similar to the athletic trainer career, a veterinarian has a variety of jobs available at their disposal, such as working for someone or opening their own clinic, veterinary surgery, specializing in working with a certain type of animal, or as a pet caretaker. Overall, someone with a veterinary science degree would, again not be limited in their choice of jobs, because they could pursue opening their own veterinary clinic, specializing in a certain animal, or veterinary surgery.

Although the versatility of an athletic trainer and a veterinarian are tantalizing, I would choose the career of a wildlife biologist because some of the key abilities necessary used by wildlife biologists are a perfect fit for the abilities I already possess.

In order to show the reasoning behind my choice of wildlife biology, I would take you back to my childhood when I was at my most curious stage at seven years-old. Around this time, my family’s ranch was full of exotic animals which initially sparked my interest in all animals. After seeing, caring for, and even interacting occasionally with the different breeds of deer, buffalo, and cattle, my curiosity grew as I was always asking what the animals were, how they live, and how long they would live. Through this rare, lucky childhood I had, I always respected and admired all animals, along with loving to be out in nature. As a result, I was, and still am, drawn to any career with animals; however, I’m not just interested in helping domesticated animals, I am also wishing to help wild animals to not limit myself to only a few animals, but to have experience with most animals.

If I pursued a state certification with the Wildlife Society, along with at least a master’s degree in wildlife biology, I could make a pleasant, annual income of $57,710 and could also be helping our natural wildlife thrive. I already have some experience in computer science, problem-solving, outdoor, observation, and communication skills and believe I could quickly learn better interpersonal skills.

All three careers I looked at use my caring need of helping others, whether person or animal, and trying to aid them in their recovery. Although the annual income of a veterinarian is considerably higher than that of an athletic trainer standing at $86,600, I don’t want to limit myself to helping strictly domesticated animals because I want to help the wild animals as well. Furthermore, the job I would choose to devote my effort, energy, and compassion to is wildlife biology, whether it be aiding an injured animal, saving a natural habitat, or finding new ecosystems for wildlife to thrive, working with wildlife seems like my best fit. My spark to help animals all began about seven years ago when I began paying closer attention to our animals, and hopefully one day I will be outdoors saving wildlife.