Isis's English Blog

  Prompt Response: For the longest time, my parents forced me into sports like swimming and soccer, but then thanks to a friend I joined colorguard where in an instant I felt like I truly fit in and did something I loved. The biggest obstacle wasn't just convincing them to let me do the sport, but also dealing with everyone like my ex-friends and ex constantly telling me that guard isn't even a real sport. It was so frustrating pushing through those endless insults and practicing my tosses until my hands were bruised all while trying to prove to everyone that this was worth my time. There were so many moments when the exhausting schedule and the constant hate from people made me feel like giving up entirely. But the second I finally took the field under the stadium lights with my team, feeling that adrenaline of my first show in marching band, and doing the choreography with my teammates that will soon be my favorite people in the world, every single struggle instantly vanished...

  Prompt Response: I used to feel this intense pressure to always be the "funny friend or funny daughter," constantly making jokes because I thought nobody would want me around if I wasn't being entertaining. I was completely exhausting myself trying to maintain that personality until one night after a brutal colorguard practice when I finally broke down to my team about how insecure I actually felt. Instead of laughing or acting weirded out, my guard friends huddled around me and said they loved me for who I am, not for how well I can perform or make them laugh. Hearing that from the people who saw me at my absolute worst completely shattered my mindset and made me realize I didn't need to put on a show just to be valued. That conversation changed everything for me because it was the first time I felt safe dropping the act and just being real. Now, I finally stopped stressing over everyone else's opinions and realized that true friends just want the genuine versi...

  Prompt Response: Helping my cousin care for her daughter and driving her to preschool completely shifted my perspective on what it means to be truly present for a child. Managing the daily routine of a young toddler required a level of patience and helpfulness I did not know I had, transforming my usual rush mornings into a slower pace. Seeing the pure excitement in her eyes during our morning drives to preschool made me realize how much joy can be found in the simplest, most ordinary moments. Stepping in to support my family not only gave my cousin a much-needed hand, but it also taught me that the most rewarding impacts often come from quiet, everyday acts of service. Summary: Today in class we finished reading the story, “The Life You Save May Be Your Own”, and we also started to finish the questions for it. Reflection: After reading the story it served me as a haunting reminder of how easily human hypocrisy and selfishness can corrupt the search for true meaning. By highlight...

  Prompt Response: When I first met my ex, his humorous personality and genuine smile led me to believe they were a deeply caring and trustworthy partner. I formed this glowing first impression because they went out of their way to make me feel secure,to the point where he would carry my violin case, though I eventually changed my mind when I found out they were cheating on me when we were long distance. This painful experience mirrors my initial reaction to Mr. Shiflet, who immediately strikes me as an opportunist hiding behind a mask of humbleness. Even though he speaks about moral values and the spirit, his focus on the car and his mysterious persona suggest he is manipulating the situation for personal gain. Just like my ex used charm to blind me to their true nature, Shiflet uses his tragic backstory and smooth talking to hide his selfish intentions from Mrs. Crater. Summary: Today in class we started to read a new story called, “The Life You Save May Be Your Own,” and started...

  Prompt Response: Three items you might find in my trash can today that reveals a lot of myself are ice packs, concert wristbands, and a crumbled sketch of many Marvel characters. If you went through my trash can today, the first thing you will find first are worn out ice packs which resemble the immense hours of practice I do for color guard. This object resembles how I stay calmed even under intense pressure that comes with the sport, even if I have to absorb the horrific heat and huge amount of cuts and bruises I get while tossing my flag or rifle, the ice pack shows that I don’t give up but rather step back for a bit but go back to practice stronger than before. The next thing you will find in my trash can are ripped concert wristbands which resemble my love for music, my chaoticness and life of a party personality. Just like the huge amount of concert wristbands I’m an unpredictable type of person since my music taste varys by a lot which also resembles my different moods thr...

  Post Response: Using the STEAL method someone would describe me as a deeply loyal, imaginative, and multi-personality person who reveals different layers of myself over time. My Speech will show that, as I initially talk softly and nervously with strangers or family, but quickly switch to talking incredibly fast and unstoppably once I am comfortable and discussing things I love. In Thoughts, where I constantly overthink, impulsively react, and lose myself in elaborate fantasies. My deeply supportive Effect on others proves that I am a loyal friend, always ready to be there for people through their highs and lows, whether they need advice or just a good laugh. This loyalty is showed even more in my daily Actions, as I choose to spend my time tightly bonded with my color guard friends, making them even more important than my old friends. Finally, my Looks reflect my varied style even despite being short, I wear whatever trends catch my eye, using my clothing to express my personali...

  Prompt Response: I have definitely felt that when it comes to my family treating others differently but it’s mainly between me and my little sister being treated differently from my brother simply because he’s a boy. Even though me and my little sister are just 5 to 7 years older than my little brother, my parents give him more freedom, while they constantly stress me and my little sister over our whole life choices, from curfews, chores, behaviors and even career choices. This double standard is caused by traditional gender roles both from my house and my own culture, where even my parents grew up the same way me and my siblings are even when both my parents were growing up in Mexico, where they always act stricter to the girls while letting the guys do what they want. I don’t think it’s fair at all because privileges shouldn’t be based by age but more by maturity and age. It’s honestly so frustrating to just see my 11 year old brother and much off my guy cousins to get a pass f...

  Prompt Response: A time when curiosity or temptation caused me to ignore a warning or a rule was when I snuck out of my house for the first time. It was the summer after freshman year, I was hanging out with my cousins late at night but I had to go back to my house eventually, but I didn’t want to leave so my cousins gave me one of the most brilliant ideas at the time, but now looking back at it the most stupidest. After my parents finally went to sleep, and mind you my whole family slept in one room so it already was gonna be difficult to begin with but once I managed to get out of the room and was near the keys I stopped in my tracks and started to hesitate. I was about to text my cousins that I was gonna back down and not sneak out but the temptation of being with my cousins for a little longer was killing me, so I just gave in. Once I got the keys I started driving to my cousins house again and once I was there we started to have fun but something seem off but I just didn’t n...

  Prompt Response: The experience of me living through the Black Lives movement in 2020, it gave me a firsthand look at how fast the world can completely flip upside down, which helps me understand the sudden shock Americans felt after 9/11. When the video of George Floyd went viral it felt like an overnight shift where normal life stopped and an overwhelming wave of anger, fear and uncertainty took over every news channel and social media. Just like the years after 9/11 there was this intense, heavy feeling in the air where nobody knew what was going to happen next or if our society would ever go back to normal. Watching cities fill with massive protests and seeing military-style police on the streets showed me how a single event can immediately shatter your sense of safety. Both events forced people to constantly worry about the future while completely rewriting how we look at world-wide issues, security, and our everyday lives. Summary: Today in class we took a test over the sto...

  Prompt Response: I think a lot of people have a brutal time accepting loss or change because it completely trashes their sense of security and forces them into a future they didn’t ask for. When my ex and I broke up just recently, my entire world just crumbled because the future we had planned was just gone. At some point I even kept their old hoodie in my closet because for me letting go meant admitting it was actually over also because I grew up in a household that always keeping bringing the horrible past of everyone in the house even when that problem has been found a solution long time ago, which is exactly why I get why Emily clings to the past. Just like I held onto memories to avoid reality, Emily completely blocks out the world and refuses to accept change because her old life is the only place she feels safe. People like Emily trap themselves in familiar memories because stepping into an unknown future where you feel totally alone and out of control is just to terrifyin...

 Prompt Response: A place that holds a special place to my heart was a Toys R Us store in Nocross. This place holds a special place in my heart because it was in the part of Georgia I grew up before I moved to Dekalb during Covid and also during that time I was actually stress free and happy. I remember it was every Saturday from around 5 or 6 to 9 in the night when my parents, my little siblings and me went to this specific Toys R Us store in Nocross, me and my siblings would always spend hours after hours roaming around the store trying to find the new toy of the week, and sometimes we would even play with the toys even if they were still in boxes. It only became better if it was during Halloween season because we would go to the Halloween store right across from Toys R Us and there was also an old lady who always shifted last just to see me and my siblings get the toys we wanted which during that season will give us candy. Every Saturday she would ask me and my little sister how...

 Prompt Response: An experience in life that I had which reminded me that time moves quickly was when I visited my pre-school for the first time in over a decade. I was helping one of my first cousin's wanted me to help them to drop of one of their kids to pre-school for the first day since they had to go to work early, I asked them what pre-school is it and once I heard the name I swear it sounded familiar to me but I just didn't know from where. When I was driving through the familiar roads and streets in Nocross I remember growing up in before I moved here and saw that familiar hill that would lead to my old pre-school I gasped and quickly made sure if I was going in the right direction ,which I was. Once I got my cousin off from her booster seat and led to the entrance, a familiar woman came up to us and she instantly smiled and somehow recognized me and we started to talk about how our life's been ever since I graduated from that pre-school over a decade ago. When I ca...

 Prompt Response: A time when I felt like I truly belonged was when I went to my first marching band camp for school as a new color guard member. When I woke up for my first day in band camp I remember I didn't even want to get up because I kept overthinking on whether my teammates would like me or not, and how I want to approach them because even though I only knew one person in color guard at the time and also a really talkative person, I was still nervous on how the others would think of me. Once I stepped inside I remember I was reharsing on what I was gonna say and even giving nervous glances and waves at my teammates, but everytime I backed up in my mind the thought of them thinking I was weird kept playing through my head until lunch break came. Once lunch break came I remember I kept moving closer to the group wanting to chime in on whatever they were talking about but I always stopped before I talked because I thought my answers were stupid or weird, but once of them start...

  Prompt Response: A fear that I have overcome is the fear of heights. When I was little there were two things that I had a huge fear of which were heights and pigs, sadly I’m still scared of pigs. The fear of heights started I think out of nowhere, I mean I always was afraid of heights, I just don’t know why, like everytime when I went to the pool and I wanted to jump off from the diving board or even go to waterslides, I would always back down and rush to get out of there, or when I went to Stone Mountain and I saw how far we were from the ground after climbing it, I remember holding really tight on a tree branch, just because I thought I was gonna crack my head open if I just look down. It was to a trip to Orlando in freshman year for the music department, all my friends were already telling me that we need to go to that Jurassic Park ride eventually throughout the trip, I kept telling them I wasn’t gonna ride it, no matter how much Butterbeers or late night snacks they were gon...

Prompt Response: A phrase that I found myself using the most right now is “what is up my guys”. I started to use this especially since the beginning of the school year when one of my teammates and best friends from my color guard team, Danny, started to say it every time she saw one of us just arrived at school. To be honest ever since I joined color guard I started to pick up things that they say or do and this was not an exception especially when it sounded funny every time she said it. Once me and the rest of the team started to say it, at first she looked at us with the biggest side-eye ever, but eventually she got used to it and even started to laugh when we’re all in sync. I usually only use it when I’m saying hi to them early in the morning same thing as another phrase I use like, “vas happenin” which is a reference by one of the members from my favorite boy band One Direction, but I usually only use it with my closest people which in this case, they’re my color guard friends, b...