StrongInMe

Updated Draft of This I Believe

2008-09-09T07:37:00.000-07:00

In the society around me today, the people in it make it seem as if parents need to be married for a child to have a good life. I believe that you do not have to be married for your child or children's lives to go well. The so-called studies that doctors have done show or say that children growing up in married homes have a better life. I, as a teen growing up in a single-parent family home would have to disagree.

My mom has never been married a day in her adult life. She is a single mother of three; two teenage girls and a 11-month old baby boy. To me, my life has been going just great. She is always at all of my award ceremonies to cheer me on for doing well in school. She used to be the loudest one in the crowd yelling "WOOOO!!!!!KELLA!!!!". Sometimes it would be a little embarrassing but at least I know she supports me.

Sometimes it does get kind of hard because my father helps very little. I remember us getting evicted from our apartment when I was around the age of 7 or 8. We were low on money and it was getting hard for my mom to pay the rent. She began to cry but tried not to let me and my sister see. We saw anyway and she started to apologize. I never have liked to see my mama cry. I told her to stop crying because we would be okay and we still loved her. We made it through that rough time because my mom held her head high and got back on top.

Just because my father does not reside in the same home as I do does not mean my life is horrible. Sometimes I do get down or sad because he makes it seem as if he does not know I exist. But now I just blow it off because my mother is also my father. She is my rock and always will be. She holds me at times and lets me know that she loves me even if no one else does.

So just because to people are married, does not make the child's life awesome. In order for the child like me to have a good life, I don't need for my parents to be just married, I just need them to be present in my life and show me love and support in any and every way they can. Being married is just an exchange of vows between two people. It does not determine the way the child's life will be. In my naive teenage mind, my mama is married; to herself and her beloved children.

The Man With the Enormous Wings

2008-08-21T07:33:00.000-07:00

I believe that the man with the enormous wings was not just a man. I believe that he was an angel. Anytime that a human being is seen with wings, we automatically assume its an angel. I think its an angel because obviously he has wings. But also, because the neighbor who could tell what that man was told them that the man or the angel was coming to take their son who had been sick with high fever. To me, that symbolizes that like in reality, when someone dies or is sick, we as people in the society say that higher power has come to take them "home". The angel also began to show up in different parts of the family's home at the same time. No actual human can be in one place at one time. And at the end of the story, the man's wings begin to form again and he begin to fly. That to me is what made me thik for real that he was an angel. To me, this story means that there are such thing as angels and even though we may not actually see an angel in front of us, they are there.

Irony of Life/The Cathedral

2008-08-20T07:54:00.000-07:00

Explain how the narrator's voice is definitely male.

In the story The Cathedral, the narrator is telling most of the story. I finally came to the conclusion that the narrator is a man. There are many ways to tell that the narrator is a man. The main way is at the very beginning of the story when he says "an old friend of my wife's". After reading that I immediately assumed that he was a man. Also, as I was reading the story, the tone of the story came to me as a hint of jealously. When the blind man Robert and the narrator's wife were talking, he wanted his name to come up at least once but it never did. So he got a little angry. Also he talked about how the blind man and his wife were always sending each other tapes about their lives and now the blind man was coming to sleep in his house. In reality, a man gets a little jealous when another male friend has a closer relationship with their spouse than they do. They don't like to feel as if someone is coming to take over what's theirs.They like to feel like the king of the jungle in their home not the underdog.

This I Believe/Draft of Podcast

2008-08-18T07:30:00.000-07:00

I believe that you do not have to be married for your child or childrens' lives to go well. The so-called studies that doctors have done show or say that children growing up in married homes have a better life. I, as a teen growing up in a single-parent family home would have to disagree. My mom has never been married a day in her adult life. She is a single mother of three; two teenage girls and a 10 month old baby boy. To me, my life has been going just great. Just because my father does not reside in the same home as I do does not mean that my life is just horrible. My mom is a very strong woman. She does a very good job at making sure we are very well taken care of. Even though we have had our rough times over the years, we still manage to make it through. Just because two people are married does not make the child's life awesome. In order for the child to have a good life they do not just need their parents to be married, they need them to be there and support in every way they can. Being married is just an exchange of vows between two people. In my mind, my mom is married;she is married to herself and to her beloved children. So when I look at my life and some lives' of teens I know have grown up or are growing up in a married home, I think my life is great living in a single-parent home. This is why I believe you do not have to be married for your children to have a better life.

Yayyy!!!!

2008-08-14T07:54:00.000-07:00

This here is Laila Keller. Dealing with what I deal with everyday, there is strong in me.