OMS Thesis Essay

       
        

          In life everyone makes choices, every choice has a consequence. We all make choices some are as simple as wither or not to bring a bottle of water to school the next day. Others are as challenging as deciding what you want to do when you graduate. Some choices you make in a slip second, like deciding to push snooze or to get up in the morning. Others take years like what you want to major in while you are in college.

            In Ernest Hemingway’s Old Man in the Sea, the main character, Santiago is faced with many choices. One of the choices that me makes that makes the book is whether or not he should go out and catch the marlin. Catching the Marlin was his biggest dreams in life. While he is out on his skiff he is faced with many problems, like fighting sharks,keeping a strong will, and keep chasing the marlin. Santiago was encountered by a hungry group of Mako Sharks while trying to catch the marlin. He needs to keep a strong will in order to keep after the Marlin. He needs to keep going after the marlin, when he his sleeping and the marlin jerks the line, he makes the decision to wake up and reel the marlin back in.

           With his conscious decision to go after the Marlin, he was forced to face a series of shark attacks at the Marlin. the marlin was attacked by a group of hungry mako sharks. While he saw the shark coming, he made the decision to fight the shark off. knowing he could die from it. but he wanted to ensure the marlin and him would survive. As sharks keep coming in for an easy meal on the marlin, Santiago keeps fighting them off and reeling in the marlin. “The shark closed fast astern and when he hit the fish the old man saw his mouth open and his strange eyes and the clicking chop of the teeth as he drove forward in the meat just above the tail” (101). When the shark bites into the marlin Santiago has a sudden burst of energy to reel in the fish once it gets bit by the Mako Sharks.

          Santiago was a very strong willed man. He didn’t give up on the marlin while he was faced with so many obstacles. “He knew he was broken now finally and without remedy and he went back to the stern and found the jagged end of the tiller would fit in the slot of the rudder well enough for him to steer”(119). He [Santiago] used his resources well enough to get himself and the carved up marlin back to his hometown of Havana. If he didn’t do that then he would’ve ended up stranded in the Gulf of Mexico until his carcass ended up on the shore of some country that boarders the Gulf.

           In the book, Santiago accidentally falls asleep while going after the Marlin. He makes the decision to wake up once the Marlin tugs on the fishing line. "He woke with the jerk of his right fist coming up against his face and the line burning out through his right hand"(82). With that decision to wake up and fight the marlin some more, he went through a lot of pain. The line was ripping through his right and, and then when his left hand found the line it started to burn through his left as well. Then, he raised it up and put is back into it, and it started to hurt his back. So he went through all of this pain just to catch a marlin in the Gulf of Mexico.

           Santiago was faced with a lot of problems and challenges with his endeavor of catching the Marlin. He made his decisions in a very timely matter. He used his resources he had inside of his skiff, and it ended up saving his life. He brought back the marlin to Havana. Even though no one knew he was the one and no one knew that it was even a Marlin, they all thought it was a shark carcass. In life, everyone makes decisions. Some can be simple other can me really complex. Other choices people make occur in a split second, and others it will take many years to get your final choice.

The Rise and Demise Of Africa

The year is 666 T.D.A, and the continent of Africa has been taken over by wild jungle cats. Such as, lions, cheetahs and jaguars. The lions, cheetah and jaguars have co-existed for 666 years. But, now they are bickering more then ever the cheetah queen was just clawed in the face by the Jaguar Prince. But the lion king wouldn’t let that go by easily so he fought the Prince. The kingdom is falling to pieces from the inside out.

All the citizens are not appreciating the corruption within their government. So the have called together the monkey elders. They held a meeting with the Queen, Prince, and the King. Each leader brought their toughest soldiers with them to the meeting just in case of any arguing going out of control. The king had the least amount of soldiers he had nine male lions and one female lion. The female Lion was his wife. She was the strongest and toughest lion of the whole pack. But she was very weak compared to the strength of the King.

But thanks to the elders there were no fights among the leaders. There were light arguments about what was going on around them. Later that day the group of rogue hyenas attacked the kingdoms walls. They put several holes through the walls and terrorized the citizens. But, before the military general, who was a howler monkey, could sound the alarm the hyenas were gone.

    When the King learned what had happened, he was furious. He had the Queen and the Prince gather their elite soldiers and the King and the Prince had gone on a hunting spree for any rogue hyenas. The general gathered some of the soldiers who didn't go with the King. Those soldiers patrolled the kingdom. Just in case there was another attack on the walls. Thankfully, there were no other attacks on the kingdom.

    When the King and Prince came back into the kingdom they went immediately went to the queen to check in with her and to see what had happened while they were gone. She said “nothing had happened while you and the Prince were out hunting for those damn hyenas. But, the citizens are so scared that they might come back they have started to put the markets out of order. They have bought all their supplies. Now if listen close enough, you can hear the hammering. They are starting to board their houses up. In the southern boundary That where the last remaining African people live. But the number is decreasing, because of diseases like malaria, salmonella, and the military’s brutality. When they found out about the attack, they started to go haywire and do their jobs extra thoroughly.

    But that very same night, the a good three-fifths of the kingdom was disturbed during the night because of some hard tapping. The general who was in charge of sounding his alarm in case of any threats happening within or out of the kingdom. The King was woken up by the tapping. because his part of the castle was right up against the east side of the kingdom. When he finally rolled out of his bed, he made a great big yawn and stretched. He started roaming within the castle and  kept hearing the tapping. When he got outside he saw the Queen roaming around.

“What are you doing out of bed at this hour?” he asked.

“I heard some hard tapping that was pretty loud.” she said.

“Oh, I heard it too. But it can’t be anything bad since the general hasn't sounded his alarm.” the King said.

“Yeah, I guess your right. But, now I'm kind of curious about what it is.” the Queen said.

“Me too, but I think we should both get back to bed before our spouses get worried or wake up and see that were not there next to them.” King Lion said.

So now they both tried to ignore the tapping and went back to bed.

Well when the sun arose, the King and Queen went to go see what that tapping was that previous night. What they discovered was shocking. They searched all the way from the south side of the kingdom all the way to the north side. But when they arrived at the northern most tip of the kingdom they were astounded by the finding.

Their finding was...there was no northern tip. The Queen had ordered several teams of detectives to figure out what had happened to the tip. After about 7 hours of investigating the local citizens and the ground and all of that stuff, they had come up with an idea of what had happened. They told the King, Queen and the Prince that some foreign animals were drilling into the wall and when they got through thy started tearing it down. But, when the sun started coming up and the kingdom was waking up they started to skedaddle. The team of detectives have a cast of one of the several paw prints they have.

That night. The mysterious tapping was back and it woke up the King again. But, it did not wake up the Queen or the Prince. So when he heard the noise he got up and started running up to the north. When he got there he saw some hyenas. But, they looked like they had a crazy eye. So he hid behind a bush. He sat there for a good 2 hours. Now that the sun is rising the hyenas were running away from the wall. Once the last hyena was gone the king ran back to the castle and waited for the Queen and Prince were awake.

When they woke up the King explained what was going on with the wall. Then, they all went to the detectives to see the cast. Since the cast was dry the detectives showed it the the rulers. They immediately said “It is a Hyena paw print.” Now that they knew what was happening. The leaders put together an official army and had them camp out at the wall. They were to try to persuade the hyenas back to their caves. But, if anything got ugly they were supposed to attack with no mercy.

Well when the hyenas got there they immediately attacked. Then the general made his attack alarm and the army attacked ferociously. At the end of the brawl there was only one hyena left and 10 soldiers left. the soldiers ripped apart the hyena and went home. While the battle was going on the King and the Prince were both back home getting ready for a war. When the soldiers got back and so did the General, they were talking about going to war with the Hyenas.

Once, the decision was made the King, Prince, and General all spoke in front of the whole entire Kingdom telling them what was about to happen with the kingdom and the Hyenas.They all said That any willing citizens of the kingdom are welcome to join the army, and it would be very appreciated if people did join the army. So when the meeting was over the rulers and the General and the elders all came to an agreement that they should start putting together and army as soon as possible. So they took the whole military which was about 10,000 people in it. After a couple of days the King had at least 2,000 people come to him willing to join the army. After 3 months all the newbies were trained and fitted for the army. through out those three months the hyenas and the Kingdom both launched attacks on one another. So it all lead up to a war. On December 12,666 T.D.A. the hyenas and the kingdom both went to the forbidden land. They both went to their respective sides and organized their army.

One of the elders took his gun out and shot into the air. That was signalizing the start of the war. As soon as the the two rival enemies collided together, it seemed like the war lasted a couple minutes tops. But in reality it lasted about eighteen hours. When it was over their were 1,100 soldiers on the kings side and 20 hyenas. But the Hyenas left because they were too scared to continue on in the battle. The first second the Kings Military stop the slaughter on the hyenas they all scurried back into the woods and ran home.

Once the war was completely over the Kingdom was never bothered with the hyenas attacks ever again. Only because they knew the consequences of tampering with the Kingdom. The northern tip was rebuilt but it was rebuilt so it extended the Kingdom's territory another five hundred miles. The Population of the kingdom was higher then it was ever before. So the King, Queen and the Prince had agreed that to take three out of ten babies and put them into the army so just in case they would be secure with having to go to war with the hyenas or Middle east again.

Fourth Marking Period

               I chose the statement "Girls are more likely than guys to say they have been sexually harassed." I chose this one because it was the only one left that had a definate answer. I agree with this statement, because of many reasons. One reason is that Girls have stuff to show it. They have their "cherry" while guys do not. Girls are also very weak when it comes to keep stuff a secret. they cannot hold anything in. I think they have something in their brain that says "go tell someone" becuase if they get raped or harassed sexually then they wont be able to keep it in.
               But, guys in the other hand, dont have anything to show what has happenned to them. They dont have a organ that tells every that bad stff has happend to them. But, when it comes to holding stuff in guys can do that way better and WAY longer then girls can. IF you say a girl can hold in tht type of secret for 4 months then a guy can hold it in and not show any emotion towards it for like a year. But, thats just me. I can hold stuff in for a very long while. Im not saying all guys can, or even a majority of them can.
              So overall the statement is true in my eyes. It might not be true in another persons eyes. But, to me it seems very unlkely that girls can hold secrets in for a long term. Again im not saying that all girl can't do it but some can.

Third Marking Period

                       I chose the staement "There is a difference between being quiet and being withdrawn." I chose it because I understand what it is saying but don't really know if I agree and disagree with it I guess you could say I disagree with it because it is just atrual for someone to become quiet when they are being withdrawn. When people are being excluded(synomous to withdrawn) they tend to be very quiet and just process thoughts in their heads. So really I dont think there is much of a difference from being quiet and withdrawn.
                       When I was a little kid i was excluded from a lot of stuff (only because I kept switching from school to school). So whenever that happened I would always be a combination of sad and upset.  would also just be very quiet for the rest of the day. Bt, everyone who I was living with always asked me if I was ok. ecause i wasnt that really loud obnoxious kid that i still am today. I would act totally different when I was being withdrawn.
                        In my opinion, people that get withdrawn and excluded from activities more frequently then others tend to be a lot more shy and hidden then everone else. They would rather sit in a corner alone then be at a birthday party with other little kids his or her age. But, I can also relate to that. Because I was somewhat the same way. But, if i got invited to a birthday party I would go so I could make new friends.

Second Marking Period

            The statement chose this time was " Whatever happens at a party should stay at the party." In some cases I believe that this statement is true, but other times it is not. Like, say something tragic happens to someone, and they are toatlly embarassed about it and it hurts them emotionaly, mentally, and/or physically just to think about it. Then, yea no one should say anything about to anyone that was there or wasnt there.
            The times it is not true is when, someone does something really funny, or something just a little humiliating and that they dont mind other people knowing it. LIke say someone slipped and fell into a pool with all their makeup on and nice pretty dress. If it is ok with the victim that other people know about it, then it is fine to talk to others that weren't at the party about the incident.
            But, on the other hand there are times when something that happened at a party definatly needs to stay there, and never be spoke of again by someone other than the victim. Like say you and a friend of the opposite gender went a party, and the girl of the tw was talking to some other dude and he was drinking at the time, that doesnt sound too bad right now, does it? But later on in the night that dude becomes "over the top" drunk. So he calls over the girl in the sencario and brings her upstairs into a bedroom. Then she ends up getting raped. And a lot of people find out about it. It just so happens that everyone who found out about it was at the party. In that case no one should go around telling other people that. The only people that should be talkin about that incident should the victim and whoever she is talking about it with.
           Those are just two opposite cases of when an event occured during party can and should be spread around. But, there are a lot of other happenings that shouldn't be spread around school or town or wherever.People should just kep to themselves until they get permission from the victim in any scenario that it is ok to spread around.

First Marking Period

          The statement I chose is "If someone is drunk or high, she or he is not responsible for her or his actions." I completly dissagree with that statement. It is the most false thing I have ever heard of. If someone to so drunk r too high to the point where they can't control themselves then they should be at home or even better in jail. I think this because no matter what you are like weither you are drunk, high, Or even really tired, you should still be able to control yourselves and be fully aware of what you are doing at that time. No if, ands, or buts.
           I was once at a concert in Madison, WI and there were a bunch of men standing and sitting, they were acting as if they were drunk. Which, they probably were drunk. But, they started throwing popcorn, soda, and other objects at eachother. They got so out of control that someone got hit in the head with a soda cup. So, they obvisously had the authorites come in and get the men out of the crowd and somewhere isolated from everyone else.
           So when that was over the concert returned to normal and it was very good. The thing about it, is that those guys, I think had no self control once so ever, and they probably didnt remember what happened once the woke up. weither it was in there beds or in a jail cell. So people should never get that drunk or high EVER. But, if it does happen they at least have the control to know wen and where they should do stupid stuff like that.

Speak Respone

  I chose the statement ‘Parents simply don’t understand the problems teenagers go through’. I chose it because I agree with that statement very strongly. I believe that because the things that teenagers encounter now in our day is very different but yet very similar to what our parents encountered as teenagers. But, also it depends on how old they were. If they are old like in there 50s then there is a lot more differences then there are similarities. But, if they are young like in their 30s, early 40s then there would be either an equilibrium or more similarities then there were differences.

          The things that are different from what they encountered is a much more, severe rate of bullying. wither at school, over text, over the computer,etc. they are still encountering it a lot more then their parents did as a kid. One way that they are the same is teenagers in today society encounter drugs. Same with our parents. they have encountered drugs as well. But back when our parents encountered them (depending on how old they are) were probably more tempted to try them out because they didn’t now what the effects of the drugs were. But, if they are younger set of parents, they would have a less chance of trying the drugs, because of the research done on the drugs and the kind of information scientists have found out about the long term effects and the short term effects. So they would be more hesitant to try them.

           Another way that parents teenager years would differ from today’s teenagers is just the way they live and survive in high school. Back then they wouldn’t/didn’t need to worry about people not liking them for who they are and girlfriends/boyfriends. But today we do. We have to worry about getting rejected from boys and girls the corresponding gender likes. We also have to worry about people not liking us for who I am. That is why girls wear so much makeup to hide their real faces and their real selves from everybody else. Or why guys act so tough around everyone else and act cool. It also explains why rich people wear such fancy clothes and poor people try to get the fancy clothes rich people wear. Just so they can fit in.

           One other thing that is similar to our parents life as a teenager compared to our lives as teenagers is that we both have the same goals, or milestones. we both just want to graduate from high school and move on to get/ have a good life afterwards.