Respose paper on Woman Hollering Creek

       The story begins with Cleofilas remembering her life before her marriage and how happy she was. She got married and moved to Texas, and was curious about the story of the creek behind the house.  With one child and another on the way her husband begins beating her and she realizes that her life isn't like she always dreamed of. She goes to the doctor and they notice her bruises. The doctor made arrangements to help her escape.  A women named Felice would take her back home. "Felice was like no women she'd ever met." (paragraph 82) That observation is a compliment because its a good thing to be different, Felice is independent and strong and last of all it gives Cleofilas confidence that she can make it on her own.  
            Felice is like no women she ever met meaning she is different and being different is a good thing. When I say different I mean that she is comfortable with who she is. She is confident and isn't afraid to be herself. For example, in the story when Felice just meat Cleofilas and was driving back home she "opened her mouth and let out a yell as loud as a mariachi." (paragraph 77) She later explained that when ever she crossed the Women Hollering Creek she would yell. Even though she just meat Cleofilas she wasn't afraid to be herself and didn't care what Cleofilas would think of her.
           Another reason why Felice is like no other women Cleofilas has ever met is because Felice is independent and strong. "Everything about this women, this Felice, amazed Cleofilas. The fact that she drove a pickup. A pickup mind you, but when Cleofilas asked if it was her husband's, she said she didn't have a husband. The pickup was hers. She herself had chosen it. She herself was paying for it." (paragraph 80) That right there is a perfect example of Felice being independent and strong. It shows Cleofilas that she takes care of herself and that she is doing just fine without a husband. 
           The last reason why that is a compliment is that Felice gave Cleofilas the confidence she needed to make it. Seeing that Felice doesn't have a husband and that she is different than most women showed her that she also could be different and can make it without her husband. Cleofilas had been inhibited in her life by her concern for what others would think about her or how they would react to what she did.
          In Conclusion, when Cleofilas said that "Felice was like no women she'd ever met." She meant it as a compliment.  She admired Felice's inhibition.  She admired her self confidence.  She admired how she was comfortable being herself.  Cleofilas admired Felice  because she showed the strength that she had lacked in her own life and Felice gave her the courage and confidence that she needed to make it on her own.  
          

Weekly Post

This week I both had to and got to clip my dog's hair. I have two Shih-Tzus and if you don't cut their hair it will grow extremely long and can cause problems for the dogs. Even though it is good for them and it will be better for them in the long run they will fight you, try to get away and whine through the whole process. I thought about that in my own life as well as others. How often do we try to get away or whine when doing something that is good for us? For example some people including me will do anything to not have to go to school or when we do go to school we complain about the assignments not recognizing the benefit of what is being learned. School is a good thing it will be better for us in the long run but yet we are just like the dog trying to fight something that is good for us.  If the dog wouldn't try to get away or whine it would be much smoother and faster to cut its hair. The same goes for us if we don't complain and just get through it, school or whatever you are fighting will go much smoother and faster. So why do we fight and complain about things that are going to help us and are good for us in our life?

Weekly Post On What I Learned

Sometimes you learn something you already knew but have never really thought about it before.  That is what happened to me this week.   I am sure I already knew these things but because of what happened to me this week it really hit me.  Don’t sweat the small stuff; do not sweat over the little things in life. Stressing and worrying about every little thing that goes wrong can really wear you out. Nobody is perfect all you can do is do your best. There will be times where you get behind in life or things aren't going the way you want them to go, but all you can do is try to get though it and stay positive. If you freak out or start to panic over the little things in your life your life will become so much more stressful and it will make you unhappy. So just don't sweat the little thing that has already happened in your life. Smile and try to make it better! If you can't make it better move on and try not to make that same mistake again. If something has already happened it is over because you can't change the past. So move on and hope for the best because you can still shape the future.  

Response Paper

           In the story "Silver Pavements, Golden Roofs"  by Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni it says "And now it all makes sense that the beauty and the pain should be part of each other." (56) If you look around in life you can see that that statement has a lot of truth.  If you don't experience the pain and get though it in life you wont experience the beauty in life. So it does make sense that beauty and pain should go together.
          There is no good times or beautiful times without pain. Looking back at the story it talks about her Aunt and Uncle and the ruff patch they are going though in their marriage. It shows that there is hard times in life but as long as you work though them and get past the painful time, beautiful and happy times will come. Plus if there weren't any bad times we wouldn't know what a good time was or in other words if there wasn't any painful times we wouldn't know what a beautiful times we have. 
           "The snow falls on them, chill, stinging all the way to the bone. But after a while the excruciating pain fades." (56) At the end of the story she holds her hands out in the snow until they stop hurting from the cold. Than she can gaze at the beautiful sight of her hands completely covered in snow. That also shows that beauty and pain should go together. If she didn't get though the pain and continue to hold her hands out, than she would of never experienced the beautiful sight of her hand covered in snow. So in life if we don't stay positive and work though the hard times we will never experience the beauty in life. Getting though the hard times will make it all worth it when you are going though the beautiful times in life. 
          Right before she notices that pain and beauty go together she plays back of the memory of her Uncles, "scraped knuckles, arcing though the air to knock aunt's head sideways." (56) They had beautiful times before this but now its pain. But they work together and forgive each other and it becomes a endless cycle in life beauty then pain, then pain then beauty again. That is why beauty and pain should and are part of each other. When you endure pain it will magnify the beauty.
           In conclusion, pain and beauty do go together and if you learn how to get though the painful times you will have a better life. Just like the Uncle and Aunt learned how to forgive each other. Sometimes you will miss out on some beautiful times if you don't stay positive and get though the hard times but no matter how hard you try you will go though painful times and beautiful time because it is an endless cycle.  
          
                                                                                                       

What I learned this week

 I learned that blogging is way more difficult than I expected. Writing to an unknown audience makes me very uncomfortable. Knowing that anyone at anytime can read what I write and judge what I have to say makes me think twice before I post it on my blog. I tend to be a private individual and don't ever talk to strangers. Now being assigned to do a weekly blog of what I learned with a minimum of two hundred words is putting me out of my comfort zone. It is driving me crazy that I don't know who I am writing to or their reaction of what I am saying will be. Learning about myself may be the most important lesson learn while doing this project. Knowing my insecurity and how to deal with my feeling of inadequacy in a public way is very frightening to me. I don't like to write things that others will see. I would never be good at graffiti, just saying because I wouldn't want anybody to read it. But here I am writing in my blog all for a good grade. Oh the power for that little letter "A". Yikes! What if I get a "B".

A Rewarding Experience

Life isn’t fair but to avoid all that isn’t fair in life we would miss out on its most rewarding experiences.  In life, love, laugh, learn, lament and labor, or lose the experience.

It all started with the life of a puppy but it wasn’t any normal puppy. He was a black and white Shih Tzu, with a white tipped tail. When the puppy was first born he was about the size of a medium size pear.  This puppy was born with a cleft palate. We didn’t notice right away but after the first day you could tell that something was wrong with it. It was skin and bones and much smaller than the rest of the litter. As we inspected him you could see that the top of his lip was gone and because of that he couldn’t nurse from its mom. We talked about our options and what we were going to do with this puppy. After a while I volunteered to provide whatever care it needed to help it live.  

I soon learned that his condition could only be corrected by surgery and without surgery he would never be able to nurse.  To make matters worse it would cost too much for the surgery to make that an option. With further study I found that you could feed it baby formula with a dropper ever two to three hours. So that’s what I did ever three hours day or night I would go feed that puppy. I learned how to sacrifice my time and sleep for the puppy so it could live. After a while I learned easier ways to feed it with the dropper so it didn’t take as long and I also learned that it was easier to keep the puppy in my room at night so I could hear him when he was getting hungry. I tried to stay positive and by doing that I noticed how much better everything is when you learn how to look on the positive side of life.  As time went on it was clear to see that my learning and labor were making a huge difference in the life of the puppy.     
With time my learning and labor seemed like nothing because my labor became a labor of love. When I got home from school the puppy would follow me everywhere. When he was about four weeks old in order for him to eat I would have to wet the dry crusty dog food so it would get soft and gooey. Then I would smash it up with a fork so it would be all soupy. When I was all done it would look like someone ate some gram crackers than vomited it back up. When I put his food down I would have to stay there or he would stop eating and follow me or start to whine.  Even though he could eat without me he still wanted me there. He also liked to play with me more then with the other puppies.  He had the cutest personality and was always wagging his tail. No matter what was going on he could always make me laugh. The way he would have to eat his food or when it got up his nose and snort, which happened a lot. Even how he would prance around in the grass would make me smile. Even though it was harder for him or wasn’t fair he was the happiest puppy and always wanted to play.

Of course the time came when we would give all the puppies away to family and friends. I tried to convince my parents to keep him but they already promised my aunt’s friend that her family can take the puppy by the end of the week.  Even though I loved him and didn’t want to give him away I knew I had to. Since that has happened I have looked at people in my life and the trials or problems they are going through and the experiences they would have missed out if they didn’t stay positive.  Looking back on my experience I am glad I had the chance to take care and create a bond with this little puppy. What a loss it would have been if I hadn’t taken the opportunity to have this experience; I would have missed out on a life changing memory.  Through this experience I learned that life isn’t fair. It wasn’t fair for the puppy to have a cleft palate or to take a puppy away from a little girl, aka me. Everybody knows that life isn’t fair but if you look on the positive side you will be able to love, learn, labor, laugh and in the hard times lament which adds to the quality of the life we live.