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I think I can speak for everyone when I say I want to impact the world positively. At least, I don’t want to leave it worse than it was; not it if I can help it. Even though the career I plan to do is one that looks superficial, it has potential to create a massive wave of change. I plan to make a clothing brand catered to transgender people and others with different gender identities. My main goal is to cut down the gender roles in clothing as low as possible. Clothes are clothes after all; why should your gender have anything to do with what you wear? Why can women wear pants and suits but men can’t wear skirts or dresses because they look too ‘feminine’? Every time I hear that, it makes it seem that looking feminine is something that is demeaning. I plan to completely obliterate that. If women can now wear what men wear, by all means, we should accept it the other way around.

However, that’s only part of my career plan. My main plan is to make clothes for transgender people. There is practically no market for them, most likely because they aren’t really accepted by society. Those who become female still don’t fit most female clothes because they’re made for women who were born with a different body structure. The wide shoulders and boxier figure isn’t flattered by women’s clothing. The same can be said for women-to-male transgenders. And so, I plan to change the dimensions of these basic clothes to better fit them. All the while coming up with new designs that’ll be modern and clean. I’m starting to think that rather than label my clothes as ‘male’ or ‘female’ once you enter the website, I’ll put ‘masculine’ or ‘feminine.’ From there, I would work to make all items of clothing available in two fits: one that fits men better and one that fits women better. Of course, should you want something tailored, that can also be an option.

For my community service, I volunteered as a waitress for the Henry County Pregnancy Resource Center Banquet. It was hosted in Club One at the Atlanta Motor Speedway on October 15, 2018. This banquet was meant to celebrate the organization’s 25th year anniversary. It was also a hub for donations. The service was necessary because, as an organization that works largely on donations, it seemed fit to acquire volunteers to help organize the banquet rather than hire them. Many of the volunteers were from church groups and teen organizations, as well as some middle school groups.

Title of Article: Hurricane Florence makes landfall in North Carolina, with plenty of destruction and suffering ahead

Source: CNN (https://www.cnn.com/2018/09/14/us/hurricane-florence-south-east-coast-wxc/index.html)

Who is this article about?

This article is about Hurricane Florence and its beginning destruction on North Carolina.

What is this story about? List four important facts from your article.

Hurricane Florence has finally made landfall in North Carolina as a category one hurricane.

More than 500,000 customers in North and South Carolina have lost power.

More than 1,100 flights along the east coast have been cancelled.

A storm surge reached 10 feet, flooding many houses in the city of New Bern.

When did this story take place?

This took place the morning of September 18, 2018. The article was recently updated at 10:22 AM.

Where is this event or issue occurring?

This is occurring in North Carolina, along its coast. It is also moving inland, so most of North Carolina could be affected.

Why is this story important?

This is the first hurricane that has directly impacted the east coast of the United States. It’s also the first hurricane in the Atlantic ocean that has reached category four this year.

What is happening because of this event?

Many people in North Carolina have lost power and some have already lost their homes due to flooding. This has even extended to some communities in South Carolina.

Who is it going to affect?

Those living along the lower east coast. Other inland states like Tennessee and Kentucky could also be affected in the future, if the projected path is correct.

How is it going to affect a large population of the world, your community, your school, your family or you?

Obviously, those living in the Carolinas will be impacted the most. If anything like Puerto Rico is an example of what could happen, people could lose their homes and lives because of this. It is possible for the hurricane to pass by Atlanta, but all we could be getting from it is a large amount of rain.

What is it that makes this event an important event?

This is an important event because it affects a rather large part of the south. The damage could cost millions, maybe even billions, of dollars.

Poem:

Water should be life giving Not taking Covering driveways, floors, couches, It now laps peacefully on the stairs As if it has done no wrong And been the same as it was in memories In a cup, bathtub, shower Tossed about as children ran through it in the form of a sprinkler Light and delicate Not dark and churning, As it is now Tainting couches and memories Of better times

Theme: Deceit

Literary devices: simile, personification, imagery

Rather than ignore the attempts the LGBTQ community has been making for social rights and deem whatever they have accomplished to be enough, this society must make efforts to be more accepting of queer people. Heteronormativity is stifling for those who don’t fit in, especially queer youth, who already wish to fit in due to them being young. LGBT Americans make up around 4.5% of the United States, having raised 1% from 2012. This doesn’t seem like a lot, but it’s actually around 15 million people. And considering that 7% of millenials and a whopping one third of generation Z identify as LGBTQ, this society should be more open to them. Many believe that the eradication of same-sex marriage bans in the United States is ‘enough’. However, laws cannot cannot be put into full effect unless society allows it. If this society continues to view LGBTQ people as wrong and immoral, their rights will continue to not be fulfilled.

Even considering the legalization of same-sex marriages in all states; that achievement was still incredibly recent. A little over three years ago, actually. The “Beyond I Do” campaign highlights this, making it a reminder that this social movement is still very active and has not reached its height yet. While many laws against discrimination and hate crimes have been instituted, it’s not nationwide. There are still 31 states where discrimination is legal. This is a surprise to most, since about 80% of non-LGBTQ Americans believe that discrimination anywhere in the U.S. is illegal. Everyone should have the right to live safely and without hate. To  have things such as medical services be denied and to be hurt, both emotionally and physically, just because of something you can’t change about yourself is unfair.

Just as the call for equality in minorities brought results, the call for equality for members of the LGBTQ community should yield similar, if not identical, results. Queer people have the born right to not be discriminated against for simply being themselves. The thought itself is ridiculous; why should you be hated because you’re simply you? People being queer or not does not affect anyone else’s life but their own, so there really is no problem. But many retaliate, saying that while that is true, it goes against their beliefs, whether they be conservative or religious. Again, this has nothing to do with your personal life. You cannot stop someone from doing or being something just because you don’t like it. It’s a childish way of thinking and it’s rather concerning that a considerable amount of hate towards LGBTQ members are from older generations. It’s high time we shed this close-minded thinking and adopt a more mature, accepting mindset.

The concept of imaginary worlds has always been a large time waster for me. I could spend hours happily daydreaming, oblivious to anything that’s happening in the real world. Whether that imaginary world be through my own mind, the words of a book or images on a screen, it’s always immersed me much deeper than other people. Time runs swiftly whenever I’m in my own head and it’s a welcome distraction from anything serious. The concept of an imaginary world, whether realistic or fantastical, has always allured me more than anything else, possibly because it allows me to explore the endless possibilities that could occur in my life.

At first, I encountered these imaginary worlds through books. It gave me a finite reprieve, allowing me to relax and forget about everything for a short while. I have more empathy than most people—a trait that oddly doesn’t help with my social anxiety—so whenever I read I really felt the story. Couple that with my overactive imagination and I could practically see the scenes playing out. These worlds truly drew me in, captivating me in a way nothing else has. Though they took away my focus, they returned that focus twice-fold whenever I closed the book. A lot of the things I have done have been the result of reading about those imaginary worlds, giving me strength and courage to participate in more things. If the hero in that book, I thought, could overcome such a big threat in so little time, I could certainly get an A in this class. That determination eventually turned into a habit and helped shape me into who I am.

However, as always, life moves on. Life gets tougher and reading books wasn’t enough to give me that mental break. Instead of reading about imaginary worlds, I started creating them. At one point, I was churning out weekly chapters to an elaborate trilogy. Sadly, I abandoned the trilogy in the middle of the second installment, but that was bound to happen. Creating these worlds, rather than just reading about them, opened a new window. It drew me in even more, if that was possible. Possibly because I could do anything I wanted with them. If I chose the world to have purple grass and a pink sky, it did. If I wanted people to have elemental powers or pre-determined soulmates, I could do that. The sheer possibility of it all captivated me and had me rushing for a laptop whenever I felt a little stressed. It can’t really be that healthy, escaping from my problems and responsibilities through words. Still, it helped control a good bit of my social anxiety. The persistence of my anxiety was kind of cancelled out through the escaping through books and writing. Kind of confusing to understand, but what matters is it helped.

To learn more about these worlds, I delved into more books, eventually upgrading to TV shows and movies. Pieces of each world collided into my mind and had me making notes onto any scrap of paper I could find in fear of forgetting that specific situation or that specific line. Daydreams quickly overtook my writing, giving me the chance to make any world I wanted whenever I wanted. It’s currently my main method of de-stressing, though those worlds are starting to seep through my pencil in my drawings. These imaginary worlds have shifted throughout the years, from printed words to elaborate daydreams and detailed drawings. Should I have not found out about these worlds, abstract as they are, I don’t know what kind of person I’d be today.