Changing Lives

In the beginning of Elephant Run by Roland Smith, Nick the main character in the story is a thirteen year old, who is treated like he is an adult. Most teens feel like they are treated like either adults or three year-olds and are never treated the way they would like to be, but Nick really was treated as an adult. He lived with his mom in London, England and his dad owned a elephant plantation in the middle of a Burmese jungle, after the Japanese attacked London, his mom thought he would be safer with his dad... she was wrong. Nick was very different in the beginning of the book from the end, he didn't only change as an individual but he also changed the lives of everyone else on that plantation. 

Giving that everyone always said that he couldn't handle living on the plantation and actually working for what he got, was hard enough for him to take. But when he got there he was almost crushed by a large timber elephant, and didn't tell anyone. Until close to the end of the book I didn't understand quite why. He didn't want anyone to think that he couldn't handle it out in the middle of the jungle. This reminds me of a time when I was out on a four-wheeler with one of my cousin and got my leg cut on a tree, I had deep cuts in three places on my leg. I didn't want to tell anyone because I thought they were going to tell me that I was to hurt to continue to help with whatever we were doing that day, even though I knew I was hurt and that I shouldn't be helping. That was a bad mistake on my part but I was only seven how was I supposed to know my leg could get infected, and Nick even though he was thirteen didn't know that he had three broken ribs and that riding on the back of an elephant for three days afterwards would make him almost unable to move. His dad told him the first night he got to Burma to watch out for the elephants because they can kill you in many different ways. "...impale you with a tusk, stomp on you with their feet, throw you, bash you against a tree, crush your head in their mouths, do a headstand on your chest..." (40) Nick didn't know what to do, as children and as teens both make bad judgments on what you are and are not supposed to tell someone, when they tell you things not to do and you do them anyway.

Also in the beginning of Elephant Run Nick was just a kid, pale, chubby not much to him. Everyone could tell he wasn't going to last very long on the plantation if he didn't "man up." Japanese soldiers found him in the woods and were going to take over his fathers plantation. They dragged Nick back to the house. He was locked in a room with no food or water and was not aloud to talk to anyone. So he broke out, has any teenager ever not disobeyed their parents or guardians? I know I have and it's not a great feeling to feel on your own. Nick on the other hand was trying to save his father, when he broke out of the house and he also needed food and water. No one understood him and what he was going through in life, no one wanted to help him because they were to afraid but they still thought he wasn't going to survive in the wilderness on his own because he was still a "little kid."

Towards the end of the book Nick changed a lot, he was changing slowly throughout the book but towards the end he turned into a real man. As he was on a quest to save his dad he realized that to save him he would have to risk his own life to save his. He went into the "jail" that his father was in and found out they put him on burial duty because he was sick and if he died hopefully he would just die in one of the holes he was digging. He got help from Japanese soldiers who didn't want to be imprisoning these people who did nothing wrong. They buried his dad alive and left to give Nick just enough time to dig him up and get out of the "jail" before the other soldiers realized what was going on. He grew up a lot after that and figured out that family and friends is really all you need. I don't think a lot of people have realized that yet. Sometimes I think I haven't either and then I realize that people have it a lot worse than me, to the point were they don't even have family. I think every one takes that for granted because when it is just something you have always had once it's gone you realize sometimes you don't always get what you want, and that's what helped Nick grow up so much in the middle of that Burmese jungle.

Along the way to the end of the book he influenced a lot of people, more than I probably even remember. There was a girl, Mya, she was to afraid to live her own life after the Japanese came. She was treated like a puppet on strings, and it wasn't her fault but she let them. Nick helped her cut those strings he told her that she deserved more than this and that she should come with him and her great great grandfather to help save his dad and her brother. She cut those strings and disappeared with Hilltop (great great grandfather) and Nick to save her brother. Another person that he had a lot of influence on was his own father, who acted as if when you are working you can't have any fun. Which was okay with Nick because he got a lot of stuff done. But it was more like a chore to him than actually doing something fun because he made it that way. Nick got him to lighten up and have more fun when he was doing things so that it didn't seem like such a chore. Nick influenced a lot more people in this book in good ways and maybe sometimes bad but he always seemed to have an answer for everything they may not have been logical but they were still answers, and most importantly to the people on the plantation they were the right answers which they hadn't had many of.

All of these things that he did remind me of a character in a different book. Someone whose parents died and moved over 8 times. Someone whose journey influenced a lot of people that maybe their life wasn't so bad. Someone whose journey changed her more than anyone could ever imagine. Violet Baudelaire, from A Series of Unfortunate Events is a character much like Nick. As in Elephant Run Violet got moved when her parents died even though Nick's mom didn't die it was kid of the same situation, it was better for them somewhere else. As Nick wanted to save his dad, Violet wanted to make sure her two younger siblings were safe throughout the whole thing. Also Nick was being chased and was also captured by the Japanese, Violet was being chased by an evil villain, Count Olaf, even though she was not captured they were close to being multiple times throughout their lives. In many ways Nick and Violet are similar and in many ways they are different, but they both shared their wisdom and bravery in life with many people who needed their help. 

Nick didn't only change from the beginning to the end of the book on his own, but he also changed many other people's lives along the way. He realized many things, and didn't care what others thought about him. He knew he could make it in the Burmese jungle and he was determined to, and he did once he grew up and recognized that he needed his family and friends to help him along the way. He needed their support and even though he changed their lives, I don't think he would ever admit that they changed his too. 

Friends

Author's Note: I wrote this essay on what I don't do in a friendship that are probably some of the most important things that hold a friendship together. I have realized why with the help of two of my best friends along the way, but you will hear more about that in the piece. Let me know what you think!

To find a real friend is to find someone who knows just about everything about you. Someone who actually cares about how you feel, and someone who is there through it all so that they know what is going on. This is hard to come by. Of course there are some things I do regret about some of my past friendships, and things that I would change about each of them. A lot of those different things happen to be stuff that all strong friendships should just have, but mine never seemed to. I would have opened up more about what was actually going on in my life. I would tell them different things they wanted to know, even though I may not have trusted them 100%. I would most importantly tell them why I was mad at them, if I ever was, but most of the time I would just leave it and not talk to them. I never understood why I did most of these things until I became best friends with two very important people. Yes, we may argue sometimes, but it never lasts long, one thing I know we will never do is hide things from each other. I don't know why I never did these important things in my past friendships, but going forward I know why I won't ever do them again. 

People turn on you, it's true as much as when we are little we don't believe that it is possible to loose any friends, but it is a lot easier to loose them than to gain them. I never liked to tell anyone about my home life. Frankly I thought it was none of their business. I was at school, not at home. Why should you care about what my parents are like, and how my household runs. I have realized that they only want to know so that it isn't awkward if they ever come over to your house. I still don't tell many people about my mom for reasons that no one really needs to know. Usually I like to tell my friends about my dad. Either way they would like my dad a lot better. But sometimes it just isn't the right time to ask someone about their family usually when I first meet someone my questions are a lot more like do you have any siblings, and are they younger or older. Then if your friendship grows you will find out more. My friends just get that about me, eventually I will tell you about my home life but right away the first day I meet you I feel is a bad time to ask. Plus, I never really could grasp the fact that people actually cared and wanted to care. So a lot of the time I would just be like no you don't need to know that. Until Kaitie came around. She just seemed like the kind of person who was laid back and not judge mental. My kind of person. Are friendship started instantly, but she still doesn't know about my "life". She gets everything else like the sports I play and things along those lines. But one of the reasons I haven't told her is that she just hasn't asked why I don't talk about it, which is perfectly fine with me. The whole thing is I would rather have someone ask about it than just be like well here it all is, and this is what I realized when I started being friends with Kaitie is that if they don't ask it really isn't something that has to be said. 

Even though I think a certain way about telling people about my family. One of the other things I have found myself doing is not telling people simple questions that they want to know? Some of them aren't even that hard to answer like, "what did you get on your science test" or "What did you do in science today?" Even though the questions are as simple as that I have strong views. Surprising right? I feel like people, even my friends need to know what I scored on any test that is something that is for my teacher and I to know and not the entire school. It is not a hard thing to live with but it annoys a lot of people because they would openly tell you anything you wanted to know, I am not that way. Also when people ask me what I did in certain classes a lot of times everyone is doing something different so I tell them what I did and then they yell at me when they had to do something different. I really don't have problems with answering my friends questions along these lines if they aren't going to tell everyone. Things that aren't your business or you are just going to complain about the answer later, I wouldn't ask me about it just for a fair warning.

Getting people to understand why you don't want to answer their somewhat "dumb" questions, is a task all in itself. Telling people why you are mad at them is just about the worst thing you could ever have to do. Sometimes friends and family don't understand why you bottle everything up; and sometimes I don't know the answer. Or at least I never really thought I did. Now that my best friend Chloe and I have gone through one of these arguments it is easier to comprehend. She didn't like the way I was treating her "I was acting like a best friend" she said. I can take that I can understand that, but why couldn't she just tell me. I understand now that it is harder to realize when you are truly mad at someone, or if you are holding a grudge over just about nothing. Which happened to be what this was about. Nothing major but we had some really awkward moments. Things that people do wrong to you, don't hold a grudge. Tell it to them to their face it is much nicer hearing about it straight from the person than from the people they have told.

Realizing why you never did the important things that hold a friendship together is one of the hardest things to do, but when you have friends there to help you along the way, it just makes your whole life a lot easier. I am still working on remembering not to hold grudges and also to not get so annoyed with peoples somewhat "dumb" questions. It is going to take some time and some effort, but it is nothing I can't handle with the help of some awesome best friends along the way. 

Cause/Effect

Author's Note: This is an analysis we were told to do in the Reading Lab that focuses on the cause an effect of an event in a book. In these paragraphs you will find out what caused an event and made an effect on the story Elephant Run by Roland Smith.

In the book Elephant Run by Roland Smith Taung Bow and ancient Chinese monk leaves an elephant plantation to explore what else life has to offer. Well once he gets to Japan he can't expect that the Japanese are going to take over the plantation when he becomes close friends with the leaders of the Japanese army. He only wanted to become friends with these people, who else would expect them to bomb their country and take over their home?

First, Hilltop (Taung Bow) leaves the plantation because things are going wrong. His better choice was to leave and come back when everything was in its proper place. Who wouldn't have? On his journeys through the lands he meets some friends. Colonel Nagayoshi and Bukong, who were to become leaders of the Japanese army later in the book. He told them, once he had to leave to that they should come and visit him at the Freestone plantation in Burma, he drew them a map to were it was and left to continue his journey. 

Then, a few years later there was a war, World War II to be exact. The Japanese were starting to attack just about everyone. Once they hit Burma they had one thing to find and they knew exactly where it was, thanks to Hilltop. They sent away most of the people who lived there and took over what they called Hawk's Nest. Which is where the Freestone family lived. No one could have expected this but everything was starting to get better in the end once the war was over. The Freestones moved to Australia and Hilltop stayed in the forest with one of the timber elephants. All he wanted was for his friends to come and visit him once he left Japan. Not kick him out of his own home, send him into hiding, and almost make him go back to the country he was born in. He said to everyone that he was born in China and he was Burmese and he wanted to die on his own land. 

This is one of the most prominent cause/effect events in this book. Among others this was one of the ones that stuck out to me the most. I would have never expected that to happen to me just inviting my friends to come and visit me in my own country at my own home. But it teaches everyone a valuable lesson, which is to be careful of what you give out to people because it may not always turn out in your favor. 

Poland

Author's Note: I wrote this essay as an assignment in the Writing Lab. It's about my three cousins who were adopted from Poland last October. In this essay I worked on using regular words to make them less basic. Let me know what you think.

Poland burns a picture in the back of all their heads. They don't want to go back. They don't want to meet the people who sent them here in the first place. They don't want to even think about what happened before they ended up in the arms of Carla and Ron Dul. But why? What happened to these three kids. I realized something after thinking about my question several times. Life isn't fair, it's a quote we all grew up hearing, and throughout life we learn, that in some extreme cases, it's exactly that.

Meeting them was an experience all in itself. Having them show up at my house, get out of the car, with the look of fear in all of their eyes. They were beaten, abused, had alcoholic parents. But no one would believe them. All of them are just like me, we share the same passions, four-wheeling, being in the woods, and just being loud and goofy. But they couldn't do that where they were before not at all not ever. Being on the four-wheeler with the two youngest of the three was a day I will never forget. 

“Dzien dobry” (Good Afternoon) as we are on the four-wheeler and Michal and Ola look at me and say this meaning good afternoon in our language. They start to tell me their story, not just bits and pieces there life stories. They were thrown, not just thrown onto a bed, or into the coach jokingly. No, they were thrown. Into walls. Into the floor. Into their dining room table. Crying, screaming, shaking were not allowed. If you did one of these things it was done again and again and again until you stopped crying or screaming. Pretty much until you collapsed onto the floor and then they were kicked, hard like a dog who just bit a little kid. Again and again and again but this time harder. I would never be able to take this, let alone having it done to me at 5,7,8 years old. I couldn't even imagine having this done to anyone. Let alone living through it, and telling the story. It was scary to hear this and it was only part of it, I stopped and hugged them both for a long time all of us in tears. I whispered in their ears “Ciesze sie, ze tu wszyscy teraz twoj.” (I’m so glad you’re all here now) 

After we sat there for a little while longer I had a couple of questions not about their lives in Poland, but actually about them. Since they had gotten here maybe a couple hours before I knew their names that was it Sylwia, Michal and Ola. They were adopted from Poland, that was it, all I knew,  nothing else. So I asked them when their birthdays where, if they liked school, what grade they were in and they answered me in perfect English they had been in our country for no more than a couple of months. I was so proud of them and it was really cool to hear their accents on English words. 

Having family adopt kids from Poland has been an experience. It has had its ups and downs but we have made it through it all, together. I couldn’t have asked for more well behaved kids or more fun. The more I get to know them the more excited I am that I have new family and it almost feels like I have known them forever. Their lives before this still weren’t fair. I don’t think they could have ever been. But, it’s one of those things, everyone has heard it one time or another. As much as people can wish that life is fair, in some cases it never really can be. So we move on and learn that life isn't fair.

Conflict/Resolution

Author's Note: This piece is about the conflict/resolution in the story Elephant Run by Roland Smith. I wrote this to demonstrate my understanding of my book.

In the book I have read Elephant Run by Roland Smith. The main conflict is that the Japanese have taken over Burma and the elephant plantation, and are holding people hostage in prison camps. This means that as the Japanese soldiers start to push themselves through Burma they are sending more people in to prison camps. If this is something that no one is going to be able to stop it could mean big trouble for all of Burma. This is a person vs. person conflict because you have one army fitting against another and ultimately come out with a winner on top.

This conflict could get resolved when the Burmans come together and break out of the prison camps all through out their country. They have built an airfield and a railroad, that the head of Japan has been making them run. They know all about what the Japanese are planning and are going to be able to take their country back once they realize that if they come together they can concur the Japanese. If the conflict doesn't get resolved nothing is going to go right for the Burmans, all that they will have left to look forward to is dying in a prison camp under the watch of the Japanese.

Courage, Hope, and Honor

Author's Note: I wrote this essay in the Writing Lab for a DWA piece. It is about people who don't know the real meaning of courage, hope, and honor. Let me know what you think. 

Courage, Hope, and Honor are hard things to figure. You can have courage based on a dumb idea or mistake. You can have hope based on things you “need”.  You can have honor based on just history. You have to use all these things to make your own life yours. But, you’re not supposed to question adults because they have all of the right answers. Is that really true, it all depends on who you are, what you want to be and maybe where you came from. Sometimes no one understand the differences between these three words. That’s why life is such a tricky thing. Should you always do what the adults in your own life tell you to do, or should you make your own path. Take that path no one else is willing to take because if you make your own life decisions you will turn out better than the people who where dumb enough to follow everyone else.

But what are courage, hope, and honor are they really as tricky as people think they are or do you figure out what they are when you choose your own life path. Courage, is the ability to face fear. We all have fears in life but do we all really confront them? I will say that I claim that I face all my fears, I don’t. I am really scared of dogs, when I was three I was attacked by one. It gives me a good excuse to be afraid of them, right? Not really I should really suck it up and act like I’m 13 and move on but, I can’t get over that fear and I don’t think I ever will. When I was little my uncle told me that facing my fears proves to everyone else in the world that it is possible. My uncle faced his fears when he had cancer for ten years before he passed away in 2010. I will make sure that I eventually concur my fear of dogs, just like my uncle concurred his fear. All though it will take time for me to get over that hump, as much as it scares me. But being scared isn’t always a bad thing either is it? It goes with courage, you have to be afraid of something in order to have the courage to face it.

Even though courage is one thing some people don’t understand, I think a lot of people don’t understand the meaning of hope. Their meaning of hope is that they hope they get a car for their birthday, or they hope they get that shirt, or something that they really want or “need”. That’s not the meaning of hope. The meaning of hope is that something good will come out of something that isn’t going very well. Growing up I hoped two of my uncles wouldn’t die from cancer. Well you know what those kids got that car and got everything they wanted, and guess what I didn’t get my wish and I was really hoping that someone would finally give me what I wanted but, I learned something after they both passed away though,  it was that everything happens for a reason. You can hope for anything in the world and sometimes it’s just not good enough because that’s what happened in their life and you can’t change that, but the best part I got out of it all was that they were proud that they were themselves and lived their lives to the fullest and you know what the honor of being yourself is 100 times better than being the copy of someone else.

All though when I was thinking about hope I started thinking about honor. Honor to me means that you die trying for something important, or that you are your own person, then you have both honor and courage.  I hope that everyone understands the meaning of honor. All Americans had hope on 9-11-2001. All Americans had hope on the day Pearl Harbor got hit, and even though both of these were really sad times for our country we realized, that we are free and able to get through anything. That is why hope and honor fit together so well. Sometimes though I feel like our country is far from honored to be together as one, I hope that everyone in America is honored to be an American and be proud that we can make it out of anything together.  

That’s why courage, hope and honor are such tricky things. It’s not because of their meaning in the dictionary, but because of what they mean to each and every person in the world, and how they help make each and every one of us different by our meaning of what these words represent. But the question here is, should you always do what everyone else tells you to do. If I had to answer this I would say that I am going to choose my own path in my life, my other answer would be it’s up to the person you’re asking. You should hope for courage and try for honor, and maybe even pray that the people telling you what to do know what they’re doing before the choose your life story, or will you let them. So are you going to follow everyone else and listen to the people picking your life story for you, or are you going to make your own path in life, the answer is only up to you, no one else.  

ELEPHANT RUN

Author’s Note: I wrote this as an assignment in the reading lab, to see if we could write a retelling of out favorite book we read over the summer.

Elephant Run is about a boy whose dad gets taken away by Japanese soldiers, from the family elephant plantation. His world is turned upside down when he is locked in his room under the control of the Japanese and not given any contact with his father. When he is eventually taken out of his room he isn’t sent back to his mother like he was told he was going to be, he was lied to.