Daddy

Every time I see you my heart smiles. You make me feel safe and secure when I'm in your arms. You are heaven sent; a beautiful blessing that I thank God for. I'm so blessed to have you in my life and teach me lessons. Talking to you Daddy, is like talking to a open-book with no ending; You have everlasting chapters and tear-jerking stories. I can see why you are so strong. I can see why my beautiful mother picked a soul as strong and caring as yours. Being your child is a blessing and I can't reiterate it enough. I can honestly say that I wouldn't be as focused if it wasn't for you talking to me the way you do. You are always brutally honest and that is the type of parenting that is needed in this day and age. You are my best friend; someone I can always depend on. I love watching movies with you and just talking to you for hours and hours. I can't really explain the love from a father, but its too good to explain; you can just tell from the smile that is on someones face. I just want people to know that my Dad grew up without a father and he always tells me "it was the best thing" because he knew had it been a bad person who was his father figure he wouldn't be the man he is today. But I love my dad, for all he has done. I'm thankful to have someone like him in my life because without him, I wouldn't be as careful of who I am and I would most certainly be a naive person.

Thank you, Sheffiled High

We are like a melting pot of good and bad fruit. At first you taste to grisliness of the rotten but, you can always relish in the sweet aftertaste of the good and plump. Sheffield has offered me many things that I am grateful for. Being here has showed me the different types of bad people. Some are just ugly for no reason, some are oblivious to almost anything important and some are simply just experts at nothing. This school has showed me a glimpse of the real-world. Being here is almost like a pretest that is prepping me for the exam of life. Sheffield has showed me that I have to be strong enough to do things that are important right away. I can't wait on people to do their jobs; it is imperative for me to do things on my own. However, Sheffield has offered me some amazing things that I will always be grateful for like My AP class. Being in this class gave me a chance to realize that I am intelligent,although I Have a lot more to learn. This class allowed me to see that I can do,learn, and effectively execute things if I work hard at it. I have also met some of the most amazing people ever, from all walks of life. My eyes have been opened even more now that I know that I'm not the only person with hardships and that I have to learn to always smile. This class gave me more than just lectures on rogerian arguments and juvenalian satire;it has given me lessons on life that I can always use. This class has offered me new methods of thinking and people that I will never forget. And for these reasons, I want to Thank Sheffield not only for the dissatisfying taste in the beginning but for the sweet taste that I will always remember now that the end is approaching.

Bamboozled.

It has come to my conclusion that my people have been bamboozled.Apparently, we have forgotten the value of an education, the importance of a culture and the fragileness of life. We have been bamboozled not by "the white man" any longer, but by each other. We fool each other into thinking its "cool" to skip school and sleep around,canonize those who wear the trendiest clothes and humiliate those who don't. There was a time when it was beautiful to be black and everyday we were reminded not only in home but out of home by our peers, not everything was perfect but it worked and there was a sense of purpose in the black community. We were happy with our kinky,curly,and wavy hair and we exalted each other because of the amount of melanin in our skin. But now its gone, we have been tricked by the TV screens,magazines, and each other about what is beautiful. What happened to our culture? We fool each other into thinking its cool to skip school and just "kick it". Furthermore,some of our black educators have no faith in our students and honestly it is so sad to know that they have set the standards so low and just wait for time to pass to move on the next group of children. Sometimes I wonder, do these children think the civil rights movement never happened? Do they think that the enslavement of our ancestors was a mythological story to get them appreciate their lives? Do they not understand that people have been hung and killed,raped,spat upon,talked down to ,tortured and treated as if they are useless,soulless, bodies all because they felt they had something to stand up for. They believed that education and life should be equal to all. We must have forgotten that education is more than just school but what we learn throughout our lives. Have we done so many useless things in our life that has caused us to learn nothing? What happened to our education? We've lost our sense of togetherness, we let the small things bother us and we hold onto tho emotions. We taint our bodies when we feel anger and revenge. We think confrontation is the answer and forget that death can happen to anyone. We fight without thinking and shoot without caring. A wise preacher told me "death has no age barrier". Have we forgotten how fragile life is? It saddens me to say that answer to all of these questions are the same in some type of way. We have been bamboozled by each other. We follow each others footsteps and sadly enough some of paths are either graveyards or jail.My people, not all but some, have bamboozled by each other.

Real Time in Mississippi

The Blacker the Berry.

Being a darkskin person is suppose to be a beautiful thing, a blessing but instead most treat it as a curse. Because of the fact that we grow up in such a self-conscious world, young black men and women feel as if they are not beautiful. I believe that it should be taught that the amount of melanie in our skin should not outweigh what is in our hearts and if people do mistreat us because of our beautiful skin then we should not let that take away who we are and lose sleep. Alot of people feel like they have to "deal" with their skin and they let people who make fun of them control how they feel about themselves. I feel the only key to getting over those traumatic experiences is to love yourself and get down to who you are. In Wallace Thurman's The Blacker The Berry he opened my mind and showed me just how bad judging someone and setting certain standards can mold who they grow up to be. It is important for people to realize their self-worth and like Emma at the end of the novel, remove anything or body to finally become the person you should have been.

Kaplan... Is it everything it says to be ?

In 2012, the junior class of Sheffield High School experienced a change no one saw coming; they moved us out of major classes we need to graduate to help us prepare of the upcoming ACT test. Many felt this change was needed and the majority refuted the whole situation. The majority was correct. This change took students out of important classes and put us in rooms with no teachers.They let the computer teach us and this is against everything a workshop is suppose to be. Kaplan is undoubtedly the wrong choice to choose when looking for ACT tutoring.
To begin with our Kaplan instructors interrupted us in the second semester of our school year, knowing many of us would miss out on our full-year classes. Not only did Kaplan interrupt us but they only visit during the morning classes. This means that the majority of us didn't get the chance to learn these "Kaplan Methods" that they are so very certain will take our score to the next level.
Furthermore, Kaplan offers online classes that allows the computer to teach us. This is wrong because we don't have the interaction that we need. We need to have the personal connection with our teachers so we can ask questions and actually learn things the right way.
In addition Kaplan is not sponsored by the ACT meaning that they actually have to ties with ACT. This means that Kaplan teaches us what they think is going to be on the ACT versus what is going to be on the ACT. In addition, Kaplan uses Wikipedia as sources to teach us and it is well known that Wikipedia is not a reliable resource seeing as anyone can change.
All in all Kaplan is not the right choice and it was wrong for our board of educators to all these Kaplan people into our enviroment.

Dear Derica

It's still shocking to know you're gone and I don't think it will ever set in. When Christian and I sat in Mr.Marshall's class without you for the first time it felt unreal. It felt like you were absent and you would come back the next day.Every time someone knocked on the door we both looked up, and prayed my some miracle you would walk in and I know this because I noticed we both were doing it.I miss your smile and your laugh. I miss the dumb conversations we had. I miss talking about hair, nails and clothes with you. I miss talking about our dreams and goals. I miss the text messages-I just miss you. We miss you. It would have been nice to see all your hard work pay off and you still continuing to enjoy life but God had better plans for you in His kingdom. I think I can speak for us all when I say it was a blessing and a privilege to have been your friend and have had you apart of our lives. You have touched us with your laughter,humbleness,determination,and your presence.I love you so much and I miss you! Your family will always be in my prayers. I love you Derica.
Rest in heaven.
- Angelique