3. Comb Jellies

  So, America. We’ve been writing about America for two-ish months now, and this is pretty much the end of our discussion about this topic—so I’m going to go for it and discuss the one aspect of America I hate talking about.  That’s right, you know and love it—American politics. I personally do not participate in political talk or practice politics of any kind, which is part of why I am so reluctant to discuss the subject—the other reasons being the fact that I am underage, and most importantly, because I am an immigrant. I’ve discussed how my status as an immigrant has changed my viewpoint and given me some rather unique ideas before, and this is one of these interesting views. My status as an immigrant and not a citizen of the U.S. mean I cannot vote legally, regardless of my age. Unless I choose to become naturalized and officially be recognized as a U.S. citizen (which, let’s be honest, would not end well for me in light of our current issues), I can never vote in the U.S....

 Jaycee Snelson Week 8: My Poem Left Unwritten Ever since seeing someone in our blog cohort do a poem for one of their blogs I wanted to try something similar. So, with the new topic of America I decided I was going to do a poem at least one of the weeks. I tried to start it week five but there was one problem: I didn't know what to write my poem on. So, I abandoned the idea last minute and came up with a new topic for my blog that week. Then, life got busy. Week six and seven flew by and I didn’t even consider doing a poem. Finally, it's week eight. The last week I have before we get a new theme and I have no idea what I am going to do. So, I think about my idea to do a poem once more but I have no idea of where to start.  I try to think about what America means to me. The American dream. The things that make it special. What makes an American an American?  Nothing My brain is empty.  Then it hit me. What if that's what's wrong with America. The fact that someone ...

Since the first day of freshman year, I have crossed the intersection of Alder Avenue and Fremont Boulevard to get to school. I did this every day along with likely hundreds of my fellow schoolmates, and although the people I walked beside always changed, one thing remained common: We walked in complete silence. We waited for the crossing guard to beckon us forward, and we made our not-so-merry way to school. The first time I ever heard someone break this silence was after school one day before a football game, when my friend Tayjah and I went to the crosswalk to go to Ain’t Common (back when it was Ain’t Common and not Bing Bing or whatever). As we passed the crossing guard, she did something I’d never seen before: She looked up at the crossing guard, smiled, and said, “Thank you.” It was a small gesture, but it made waves for me. I’d never even thought to say a simple “thank you” to the crossing guard, who probably stood at that crosswalk for an excruciatingly long forty-five minutes...

A few weeks ago, as I’m sure many of you remember, we watched a video of Professor McRae analyzing certain aspects of the novel The Great Gatsby . One of the things he talked about that really stuck with me was the idea of Nick Carraway as an unreliable narrator. McRae discussed how the ambiguity of Gatsby’s wealth and the true events of the story are caused by the fact that our narrator has biases. His own reputation influences what he chooses to disclose to the audience.  The idea of an unreliable narrator has always confused me to an extent. How can a reader know what is true if their only source of information is conveying skewed content? This idea gets even scarier when we stop talking about fiction. The history of America has been skewed to make ourselves look like the “good guy.” We are the unreliable narrators of our own history.  We have been taught from a young age about the endless opportunity and freedom that our country has offered to people from all backgrounds. ...

  Thanksgiving—the second holiday that comes up if you were to Google “What is America’s Holiday?" (I did this btw).  The holiday that’s really just a filler between Halloween and Christmas, or at least that’s what I thought growing up.   Thanksgiving has transformed into so much more for me, and has invited me to be self-reflective for all that I am grateful for, but more so, to try and have this conscious gratitude everyday—not just on the special day.  But I’m not here to bore you about all that I am grateful for; instead, we are going to walk through America’s favorite Thanksgiving sides and desserts.  What are the best Thanksgiving foods?  Well I mean obviously a crispy, gold crusted, decadent macaroni and cheese has to take the top slot. That first bite into the chewy sharp-cheddar crust is simply unprecedented, and 34% of Americans have it listed as their favorite side.  Arguably though, those Yukon golden mashed potatoes—with a flake of ...

Marching bands are certainly a staple of American culture. Though, I can’t comment much on how “regular” people view marching bands since I’ve been affected by the band kid plague. Bands which march can be found all around the world, but they are engrained in today’s American culture as a vestigial niche of our colonial times. Most notably, America has high school marching bands, which are quite widespread across the country compared to the few community or town bands of other countries. If you couldn’t tell, I’m in our school’s marching band—and American High School is the only school in this district to have a band which marches football game half-time type shows in competitions. These shows are what make marching band so worth it. But I’m no good at band. And I’m horribly coordinated. Being someone who is musically inept, how could I ever perform within such a daunting program? If you’ve ever seen a marching band show, it’s a bit crazy how all those people can move in such coordinat...