A Dance With Dragon Research Paper

My experience with literature started when I was in the first grade. My first-grade teacher was named Ms. Young. Every Friday, all the teachers would come together to have story time and read the children a book. I would be so excited for story time because I would sit down with my best friends Ashley and Jordan, and we would listen to the teacher that was assigned to read to us. During story time, all the children would gather around in a big circle and the teacher would be in the center in a big brown rocking chair, and read. Over time in the school year, the children would read bigger and longer books like the Junie B. Jones series, chapter books, and the extreme level, which would be the Harry potter series. Sometimes I would fall asleep because the book that was read was very dull. I remember Ms. Young read to us the “Very Hungary Caterpillar”9 by Eric Carle. I loved that book as a child. It had great illustrations of the caterpillar turning into a butterfly. This book made me love reading for the rest of my life. Now in college, I love to read books. I only

I had a very fortuitous encounter. One day I was at the bookstore in the young adult section and a cover picture of a girl in a black dress crying caught my eye. The book was called Fallen by Lauren Kate, a romantic gothic themed story about fallen angels. It was the first novel I was not forced to read that I liked and finished. Ever since then I have been a zealous book reader and collector. I used to read about 100 pages an hour and about 3 or 5 books a week, give or take. On those days, I seldom came out of my room because I was so wrapped up in what I was reading. Books became a way for to connect to the outside world, especially because I was an isolated person, and to explore other places and worlds I'd never been to. It was a truly an amazing moment in my life. Eventually, I began to write stories of my

“Most obstacles melt away when we make up our minds to walk boldly through them”. Slaying my dragon was an exhausting rollercoaster ride. My journey was not simple. Switching schools, making new friends, and dealing with change was difficult--but not impossible.

I also started reading more, since I received a library card to check out books. I remember rereading books from kindergartner because back then I could not understand what the books mean, so I decided to reread it so I will be able to understand the books. There was a reading test to see what level of books I should read, I remember that I felt like the books that were reading in my levels felt too easy, so I decided to choose a harder level book Harry Potter, which was too difficult for me, so I return it. In fifth grade, I decided to reread Harry Potter, because when I read it before I could not understand it at all, and since I forgot what the book was about I decided to reread to understand it and to challenge myself again.

Reading was the new outlet for my imagination and the stories I read fascinated me. They weren’t too unlike the scripts of computer games or the own stories I came up with on my own, but books actually had the action and emotional aspects written out. And again, while my peers were reading things about growing up, things that had morals and would teach valuable lessons (I remember one book about a shoplifter who had to do community service at an animal shelter), I read real fiction: Jurassic Park, Dragonriders of Pern, Lord of the Rings… Stuff of fantasy and science-fiction that let my mind stray from reality. Stuff that kept my imagination alive while I was being forced to learn multiplication and the names of countries. Of course, my teachers encouraged me to keep reading, as long as I wasn’t doing the reading in the middle of their lectures. But it wasn’t because of their influence, however, that kept me interested in books. It was because I loved it. It put pictures into my head and made me think. So I kept reading. But even then I knew reading wasn’t enough… Yes, the stories were fascinating, but they weren’t what I wanted. Back then I wasn’t sure what I wanted, but as middle school came to a close, I found it.

Dragons stand as mythical monsters that symbolize evil. They get in the way of our accomplishments, cause chaos, and destroy our future goals. Lethargy represents my own personal dragon. College essays constantly consume all of my energy day by day. Stress levels increase as each application becomes a more daunting task. In order to vanquish this wicked dragon, I must gather up all of my emphasis and concentration in order to complete this important semester of my senior year. Therefore, maintaining high levels of concentration will hopefully help me regain strength as I battle my lethargic attitude this semester.

Government and business are two great dragons, caught in an eternal dance. The world is at peace as they gracefully glide around each other, but it is a precarious balance. For as one becomes larger, the dance devolves into combat and shakes the world. Balance is perhaps the most important virtue, and is the most important aspect of society; the balance of the dancing dragons is what ultimately protects the people.

Although nearly every culture has the concept of dragons represented in its mythology or art, the idea of what a dragon looks like, how it behaves, or the purpose it serves varies drastically. Does the dragon fly—if so does it have wings or does it fly through other means? Does it breathe fire? Ice? Does it bring good luck, energy, or protection? Or does a dragon instill fear and bring harm and destruction? What is their intelligence level? The characteristics of a dragon can be determined based on whether or not we look at western dragons or eastern dragons. However, what’s even more interesting than the different variations of dragons that have been around for centuries, is the etymology of the term and how it has changed over time in meaning

My father left at the age of three leaving me in the capable hands of my mother. This is where my life began. I don’t reminisce my father, the only memory I have of both my parents was relationship of abuse. My mother worked effortlessly making life survivable. Growing up in Greenwich, Connecticut wasn’t easy. I was girdled by opulent people and didn’t have the same opportunities as my peers around me did. As grew up, my only escape from reality has always been reading. Books have shaped my life inexplicable. I’ve traveled and experienced life through a vast variety of characters. From reading The Giving Tree by Shel Sliverstien to How to Kill a Mocking Bird By Harper Lee and developing the knowledge to read classical literacy like Emily Bronte

I discovered the series “Harry Potter.” I can’t recollect where I first heard of or found these books, but I do vividly remember reading them and loving them. I can remember reading the entire series in a matter of 5-6 months. Something you should know about Harry Potter: they are very long novels. The longest of the 7 stories is over 800 pages long, and the shortest being about 350. I recall heaving up each book with my youthful, weak arms. I was reading extremely long novels that were above my elementary school reading level while my peers in my class were still struggling with the classroom story books. Thinking about it now, I’m still not sure if that was just because I was just more driven to read more, or if I was just plain ahead of

According to Astrology, the key characteristics of a Pisces are kind, sensitive, easy-going, imaginative, creative, self-pitying, dreamer, romantic, and easily influenced. To the Chinese, having the zodiac sign of a Dragon means that you’re healthy, energetic, excitable, short-tempered, and stubborn. Dragon people are the most eccentric of any in the eastern zodiac. They neither borrow money nor make flowery speeches, but they tend to be soft-hearted which sometimes gives others an advantage over them, that is, again, according to the

Reading takes you so many different places. From a perfect world to a world where you can’t control your thoughts or the things you do. Sometimes it’s good and sometimes it’s scary. You get pulled into the book and now your the kid who keeps reliving the last day of their life over and over again or the kid who is getting sucked into the closet into a new world away from their life at home.

The dragon has been for ages a symbol of power, strength and mystery. As we can divide the world into western and eastern cultures, we have two different types of dragons as well. There is the Asian one, the more positively described, who has great power, immortality, activity and good fortune. And the European one, closer to my culture as I am from the central Europe, is evil cold-blooded and always an enemy of man. In most of the legends, stories and tales, was this dragon provoking people to fear and misery. Imagined is a mystic bloodthirsty, fire-breathing creature from the time age of medieval Europe. The word “dragon” reminds me of something I am really afraid of. My deep worries trapped inside me. They are not possible to be defeated in one day, week or month. At this moment my biggest concern is about my future college. And that is best described by the dragon called Kyo.

In my own life I had once been an avid reader, I would read for hours on end every day after school up until seventh grade. Before seventh grade I knew that I had a connection to the words that the author put down, after each word I would be drawn even deeper into the book than I was before. In those years each trip to the library was a brand new experience, three new books to read and finish in a week before we had to return them: Check. Whole heartedly my obsession with reading was because of my parents. My parents had always stressed the importance reading on me as much as possible. Like Eudora Wealty where as a child she was “ presented with books of her own, which appeared on my birthday and christmas morning” (Wealty, 49), each christmas or birthday that I can remember I received

As a child, my interests were more focused on reading than writing. In elementary school I fell in love with books. Initially I read simple children’s books, much like everybody else in my class, but it did not take long for my passion to drive me to read more difficult writings. Fiction books quickly became a replacement for any childhood toys. Instead of blocks or stuffed animals I would ask my parents for books. Since they were aimed at young readers, they tended to be short. I found myself going through them within days, and then soon several hours. Towards the end of elementary school I was reading series like Lemony Snicket’s A Series of Unfortunate Events. I was captivated, and reading truly opened up a whole new world for me.