By Abby Gross When I was applying to college, I struggled to write my common application essay. It took multiple meetings with my English teacher, tearful conversations with my mom, and many stubborn hours sitting at my computer before I finally settled on what I wanted to write about. I wrote about the different career paths I considered growing up and how I finally decided I wanted to be a teacher. I knew I wanted to impact the lives of…
By Faith Brammer I have a vivid memory of picking up a beautiful book at our local libraryâs book sale around seventh grade– Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte. It was a deep navy color with faded gold embossing ornamenting the cover, still so beautiful in its aged state. I remember buying it purely for its prettiness, only to have it sit on my shelf for months afterwards. However, one dull and rainy Saturday, I opened up the volume and was…
By Erin Ross In middle school and high school, quotes from Looking for Alaska were strewn all over Tumblr and Instagram. The story, or a few circulated quotes at the least, served as a sort of aesthetic for young kids who felt a sense of loneliness they believed could only be understood through literature and art. I avoided the book for a while, but eventually gave in, allowing my adolescent emotions and desire for a sense of self to take…
By Miranda Miller I would be lying if I said The Fault In Our Stars didnât hit close to home. The emotional pain of physical loss is one that really resonates with me. When I was 5 years old my sister died of a massive stroke from having major complications from one of her heart surgeries. When I was younger I was surrounded by terminally ill patients all of the time. Children who were losing so much of their life…
By Morgan Hatfield The Fault In our Stars is a very interesting and fantastic book to read. Its story is very motivational and has important connections to real life events. A lot of people can connect with this book and have interests in reading it. A connection many people can have with this book is that there is a tragic love story. Who wouldnât want to read a book about love? Love is a very catchy topic for teenagers and can…
Kasey Ackert I first read The Outsiders when I was in the 8th grade. Not a lot of books stand out to me when I read them, but this is one that has stood out to me. I would say that I liked the book a lot back then because I related a lot to one of the main characters, Ponyboy. Ponyboy is constantly trying to find himself throughout the book. I also feel like I was trying to find…
By Jacob Dehart The work that I have selected is called The Castes and The Outcasts. The story takes place in a post-apocalyptic setting, where all of humanity lives in isolated cities across the world. The reason is that there is this powerful being that is trying to wipe out humanity with its army of chimaeras. The only reason that humanity hadnât been wiped off of the face of the planet was because of a mystical barrier that stopped this…
By Tyler Bell The smell of fire fills the air as smoke blocks out the street lights. For the fireman âit was a special pleasure to see things eaten, to see things blackened and changed.â Books burn on the street corner as many come out to watch the scene for their evening entertainment. The number 451 is illuminated by the burning books. This is the world of Fahrenheit 451 as envisioned by Ray Bradbury in 1953. While living through the…
By Siarra Hoover I had always told my friends and family that I did not like to read on my own time, let alone for a school assignment. But then I walked into my seventh-grade language arts class. I found out that we had to read books on our own as well as a couple as a class. I was dreading going to that class every day because I had no desire to read whatsoever. However, that changed slightly when I…
By Ethan Brooker During my junior year of high school, I took an AP language course with the wonderful Ms. Hale. This class was rather quite different, as we focused on the values and lessons taught in literature instead of the basic curriculum taught. This class is where I was gratefully introduced to the masterpiece that is Tuesdays With Morrie. The many lessons that we learned from reading Tuesdays With Morrie revolved around the ideas and values introduced. As I…