Secret Life of Bees letter from Lily

Dear father,

            It’s me, your daughter. I hope you remember me from the last time you have seen me--20 years actually-- and time has elapsed very fast that I have so many things to tell you. First of all, I got married with the person I love the most in my life, Zachary. He is one of the best lawyers in town and is--as you call it-- "negro". We married 5 years ago and we have lived happy since then. I know it might be bizarre to you that your white child married a black person but that is just how things are and I don't want to go back.

            You and I know perfectly that if I would have married Zachary in South Carolina, it would have been a calamity and he might even get apprehended, so we decided to move to the north, New York to be exact. People here are very pleasant and most of the time everybody is equal, so we're accepted for who we are no matter the color. As I told you before, Zachary has a very stable job being a lawyer and they pay him very well, while I am an author and we live very adequately and happy.

            Father in this letter I also wanted to talk a little more about myself. My career as an author has been great. People often lionize me because of the books that I had made, and I think about you when I make them. Most of my books are about the past, all the shackles I had when a was a kid, and I am very meticulous when I write. I pay attention to everything I write, I try to remember every single detail, and sometimes I interrogate Zachary to help me remember.

            I know that in your point of view, it is a great dissension all the things I did in my life, but I am really happy and I wanted to inform you that, but it still isn't enough. I've always wanted to be raised by my two parents, but it hasn't been possible because of the anarchy that happened when I was young; well I want to take that back and be with you for the rest of your life. To conspire with you would be great for both of us and we would live happy--or at least try--for the rest of your life. I am sure you would assimilate here with our family and be with us happy. Also, I just wanted to tell you that you are going to swelter here a little bit because of the weather, but you will be fine from all the heat that you have taken from your hard work in South Carolina.

            My husband and I have been thinking of how to live with you--if you want--and where. We were thinking of going back to South Carolina since desegregation has already happened and we can live together, but we are doing such a good job we thought maybe you wanted to move here, to New York City. It would be a really pleasant experience to have you in our home and to reunite as a family. The only thing I hope would happen is that you don't arraign Zachary as soon as you see him but instead you be with him peacefully as a whole family.  Dad, I hope you do receive this letter and please write us back to know what you think about this whole idea.

Sincerely,

Lily

(23)24 of December

It was 23 of December and today´s plan was to have a family reunion with all my cousins, aunts, and uncles at my grandmother´s house. It was a little strange to me because this big family reunions were always on the 24, but this year they decided to do it on the 23. Later I would have discovered that on the actual 24 we had another reunion on my uncles´s house, but we always opened the Christmas presents on my grandmother´s house on the 24 at night. Anyway, that day we all got together and had a very big dinner with all my family members and I really liked it because we were all together. When we all finished eating we all went to the living room and opened our Christmas presents. We all decided that since everybody was there, we should open the gifts there and not wait until tomorrow. I was against that decision because it was a tradition for me to do it on the 24, but I couldn't do anything about it. Anyway, I had a great time.

Welcome Home

     Many people say that Friday is the best day of the week, and I agree with that. It was December 16, 2011, a Friday, and it was the day that I was going back to Colombia for my winter vacations. I had been waiting for this day for six months now, and time has past incredibly fast, luckily. My flight was scheduled to go at 9:18 and land 1 hour later, and it did. When I arrived at Barranquilla´s airport, my grandmother and my 30-year-old cousin were waiting desperately to pick us up and go home. When we all got out of immigration and got our bags, we all met outside. We were all happy, especially my mom who hadn't seen her mom in six months. When we got home to my grandmother´s apartment, we were welcomed by my cousins and aunts, and they made us a very good dinner.

Don't Make it Worse- Confession Tuesday

     I woke up one Sunday in the morning to realize that some very loud screams came out of my mother's room. My sister and mother were fighting, again, but this time it was louder. I got a little scared. Because I thought somebody was going to get hurt, my first reaction was to get up and see what was happening. When I got to the room, the fight was already over, and my sister was walking out. "Get out of the way, idiot", she said (she said worst things when she was mad).

     After that happened, I jumped on my mom's bed to see if I could get some words from her, but I couldn't. She looked surprised, sad, and mad at the same time. I though she had left the world for one second but later on she responded, "nothing". I waited there for 30 minutes until she said we were going to go out and eat.

     That day was one of the worst day ever. It was sad and in everything anybody said you could hear the bad mood we all had. We went to church and it was the same. We went home and we all went to our rooms. The reason why I avoid fights with my mom is because of this. It ruins the day to you and for everyone. The worst thing about it is that it happened every weekend. It was me or my sister and my mom always had her day ruined. I really wanted to make things better so I went to her room and started talking to her; she looked like she was going to cry like in the mass. I was trying to make things better, not trying to make it worse.

To go back to Confession Tuesday click here.

Unexpected Call-Memoir Monday

     When the phone rings you can expect different types of calls. Bad calls, good calls, meeting calls, calls nobody wants to hear, and little calls that can change the mood you are in the moment. But when you hear the people on the phone are people you never expected it is a whole different thing. This is the people that take their own time to take the phone and make the other person whom their are talking to, that they haven't forgot about that person. That is what happened to me this weekend.

     I woke up another day to realize that the weekend had started. Another boring weekend locked in my apartment without doing anything. Nobody ever did actually. In my family nobody ever went out to do anything important or recreative, except for my sister, which went out every weekend. I took a bath and had breakfast, like normal, and then went back to my room to my computer. Skype opened automatically and auto signed in. While I was watching videos on YouTube I suddenly receive a call.

     It were my friends, my old friends in Colombia, were calling me at 10:30 in the morning. That was very early if you think about it. They were two friends, very close friends, whom I thought they had already forgot about me. The last time somebody from my old school was when a friend came to visit in October. We started talking about each other's schools and how my grades were. They also asked about my new friends and I asked about my old friends.

     The call didn't last to long and it was only 10 minutes, but that didn't matter. What was important is that I knew that they hadn't forgotten me. I didn't care if the call lasted 30 minutes or 30 seconds, what mattered was the consideration my friends had to wake up early and call me. After I said goodbye to my friends I felt very good. I felt like I didn't have to go out anymore. I could just wait to another call, but that had been enough. I don't want to sound like I am a very lonely person, but that really made my day better.

Catcher in the Rye Persuasive Essay

     The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger has been a very important book in the United States. It has won several awards as well as it has been banned in many different states in that country. It is about a 16-year-old named Holden Caulfield who got kicked out of a prep school and goes to New York to experience a new life. This novel has made a big controversy all around the country and many people think it should or it shouldn't be taught in schools. My personal opinion about this book is that it shouldn't be taught at any school.

     This book is a good book to be read in schools because it shows a life about a teenager who doesn't care about his school nor his responsibilities. The story teaches you that you shouldn't be like Holden and that you should care about school because it is important to your life. Holden sees school as something unnecessary in life and that is why he got kicked out of many of them. This is also another reason why I believe he went to New York before getting kicked out.

     Another reason why this is a good book to be taught is that Holden is a teenager, like any other in any school. Many teens could reflect on his offensive language and smoking/drinking problem and change the way they are. I believe this because many of the teens may recognize with him and see how bad it is to be like him. You can see many people in college or in schools that act like him, are expelled from schools, and although it was written in the 1950's, Holden's behavior is still seen in the modern teenagers.

     Many people think that The Catcher in the Rye is a inappropriate book to be taught at schools for its sexual content, offensive language, and Holden's drinking/smoking habits. Violence also appears in the book, for example when he fights with elevator operator, and it is also used against the book. I think that all of these things said are already being exposed in movies and in T.V series, so I don't see anything wrong with the novel. Swearing and drinking are seen a lot in the teenagers these days, so there is not much to hide from this book.

     In conclusion, I think this is a very good book to be taught in schools. It shows how you should be responsible and how you should manage alcohol. It also shows how school and education is important and how you would look if you don't apply to it. Many people criticize that it has a very offensive language and that it teaches too much about sexuality, but I think all of this is already shown in the T.V and movies. I personally read and enjoyed The Catcher in the Rye.

The Longest Trip Home Review

     The title of the memoir that I read is called The Longest Trip Home by John Grogan. This title was chosen because at the end, John returns to his home, waiting to see his father who has just died. In his trip home, he thinks how it would be to him to see somebody who has been with him all his life, leaving forever

     This book is about a boy named John who lives with his parents and his 3 siblings in the city of Detroit. They live in a suburb made up by mostly Christian families, but this family was the most religious and therefore, the most strict. His parents are a little old and they have brought with them many religious customs, like going to Sainte-Anne-de-Beaupré in Quebec, and praying her on their knees. But as they were growing up, their attitude towards their religion started to change. John started adapting some negative habits and changes in his life, which soon would make his life worst.

     As he kept growing,he started trying different things, like smoking, drinking, and even planting his own drugs. He first started with smoking cigarettes with his best friend in a tree, at the age of ten. Then he became an altar boy to drink the wine that the Father left after the mass. After that he started to cultivate his own marijuana plant in his room, which he later got caught by his father. All of these were supposed to be a mortal sin, as he describes them. Then he goes to college where he got serious about academics. He spent 3 years of his life in the Central Michigan University. After that he went to back home, to see that his father had died.

     The memoirist came to know about himself that family and religion are very important things in life and they should not be ignored in the way that he did. He realizes at the end that he shouldn't have started with all the habits to look cool at the first place, and he should have focused more in his religions and family. My thoughts about this book is that it was a very interesting lecture. I was surprised that in a very young age, John started drinking and smoking. I think that all these bad things that he got used to do were not worth to do because later when he was not with his friends who smoked, he is not going to be well seen anymore.

     This memoir is organized in vignettes; it is a long narrative and it tells itself between chapters. The line that I like the most was "The only expectations I had to meet now were my own". I liked this line because it shows that he's independent, alone, and nobody to help him in his new life. This line was when John returned to his home to see that his father had just died. That explains why he says he's now alone in his new life without his father.

     I like this book becuase I can connect with the character a lot. He lives some experiences that make his life worst like smoking and drinking, and stops paying attention to his religion. The character is also a teenager in the first part, and I can tell that many of things he does are very common in teens these days. I really enjoyed and recommend this book.