Obsession or Depression

She’s getting sick, Her heart won’t tick. She’s dying inside,

[Chorus]

Tears role down her cheeks,

She can’t get any sleep. She really liked him,

But her chances were dim. She tried to get him at any cost,

But all chance of that is lost. She’s sad, Things are getting really bad.

She’s cutting, And puking.

Her friends are worried, Her futures buried.

The obsession she has won’t go away, Not even for just one day.

[Chorus]

he was all she thought about, but now she’ll have to take another rout. But she can’t. She wanted him to be her only romance.

[Chorus]

Is it an obsession? Or is a depression?

Author: Mitch Albom

Publisher: Doubleday

Book Type: Non fiction

Pages: 192

Reviewer: Melissa Shymko

Date: October 21, 2004

 Summary:         This book is about Mitch Albom, and his old professor. While watching TV Mitch comes to a show about his old professor from college, who is dying of some disease. Mitch has not seen his professor, Morrie Shwarts in over 20 years, so he goes to see him at his home. After their first visit they decide to make the rest of their visits occur on Tuesdays. As they share their Tuesdays together the disease progresses more and more, until after their fourteenth Tuesday Morrie passes away on the following Saturday, at the age of 82 years. After Morrie’s death Mitch Albom (the author of the book) decides to write a book about his time with Morrie and the life they shared together. Some of the activities they had done together and all of the things they had talked about.

 Opinion:           This novel was very compassionate. Because Mitch Albom lived the story, so he really knew what he was saying. He knew how to write this novel with lots of passion because he wasn’t just making up what he thought the book should be about, he was writing what really happened. The topic he wrote about was not something he just happened to be interested in, it was a topic that he felt he should write about even before Morrie had passed away, so he wrote about how Morrie changed people’s lives. It was a very emotional book, and I enjoyed reading it because it touched my heart. It even made me cry. I would recommend this book to people who like books with emotion; because it was a very well written book you get lots of emotion out of it. And I think that lots of people would be able to connect with this story, if they are losing or have lost a loved one. A lot of the things they talk about are good for people to hear, so that is another reason I think people should read this book.

Chaining Down

 *Boy chains himself down to Bridge!

              15 year old boy, Brian Troupe chains himself down by chain and combination locks.  Brian Troupe was found early yesterday morning chained down to the bridge that is just blocking the way to Orca Sound. Next to him was a yellow nylon sign tent fly stating: SAVE THE TREES! When refusing to give officers the combinations to the locks, police were forced to cut the locks with chain cutters.

           This event has been linked to the protests that have been taking place over the past few weeks. Most of which have included his mother Iris Troupe. Who has been arrested several times, her last sentence was to last six months. But she was released after only the short period of sixty days. Will Brian follow in his mothers foot steps?

 Children of the River.

Report.

       In this essay I will talk about the book that I read in literature circles, Children of the River. I will compare the book to a real life disaster, and make connections between my book and the disaster.

 The book I read was called, Children of the River. The main characters are a girl named Sundara, who travels from Cambodia to America, and a boy named Jonathon who goes to her school. Four years earlier Sundara and some members of her family left Cambodia for safety. But not all of her family could go, including the boy she loved. So she had to leave them all behind. Now she lives with her younger aunt, uncle and two cousins, in a small cramped house. She doesn’t fit in anywhere, because at school she is not American enough, and at home she is too American. Her aunt is fighting to keep their customs in the house hold, but things can’t stay the same, they have to change at least some of their ways.  Sundara is slowly falling in love with one of the most popular boys in her school, named Jonathon McKinnon, who is also showing a lot of interest in her. They start to spend a lot of time together, even though her family does not want it, and he has a girlfriend. So Sundara lies to her family so that she can spend time with Jonathon. But then her aunt finds out and forbids her from ever talking or being with him again, and makes her promise that she won’t. This is a very hard thing for her to do, because Jonathon refuses to go unnoticed. And no matter how hard she tries, she can’ avoid him, because he wont let her. He runs into her in class and after class. His eyes are always following her, where ever she goes. Then Jonathon’s father (Dr. McKinnon) who is traveling to Cambodia to doctor the sick people there, asks Sundara to teach him he language that he needs to know, so that he can understand the people and what they need, so that he can speak to them and reassure them that he is there to help. So Sundara decides to help him, and each and every night she went to the McKinnon house hold so that she could teach Dr. McKinnon her language. Then again Sundara and Jonathon get closer and closer until the end of the book.

          The issue that I have chosen to relate to my book is the war in Afghanistan. I chose this because many people were chased away from their homes and shipped halfway around the world. And not all of their family members could go; because there was either not enough room or their entire family could not afford to leave. That was the same as the situation in my book, where many families were separated.

Those tragedies are both sad. Because in Children of the River, many families were separated, because a lot of the families couldn’t afford to leave. Or there wasn’t enough room on the boats for entire families to leave together. Sundara had to leave with her aunt, uncle, grandma and two cousins, but she had to leave her, mother, father, younger brother and sister and boyfriend behind. The families in Afghanistan were separated for many of the same reasons. Either because they couldn’t afford for the whole family to leave the country for safety from the war. Or there wasn’t enough room for transportation, for a whole family to leave together. So these situations are very alike, because kids and families get separated because of the war, while trying to get to safety.

Society could do a lot to help make the world a better place for children. They could send children whoa re in the middle of a war to go live with safe homes, around the world, to a safer place like Canada. This way they could learn new things; this is an example from the book. And it is a good thing because it would take the children away from the violence and terror.

 To conclude this essay, I think that the book I read did something productive. They saved many children and families from the war. Just like the children in Afghanistan need. If this happens, these issues can and hopefully will be resolved.