Persuasive Essay

“As you grow older, you will discover that you have two hands- one for helping yourself, the other for helping others.” – Audrey Hepburn.

The cost of college tuition is continually on the rise and has placed many burdens on high school students as well as their families. Some of the burdens that are placed are a result of parents putting pressure on their children to earn scholarships. Some of the burden is a result of students putting pressure on themselves to earn scholarships. Then, there is the burden of high college debt once the student graduates. Is this pressure really helping our students or is it hurting them? The bottom line is college tuition is skyrocketing out of control and something must be done before it destroys our families and our children.

A quote by Willa Cather says, “The end is nothing; the road is all.” This quote is stating that it is not about the destination arrived at, but that it is about the journey to get there. I do agree with this quote. Instead of only waiting for the end, enjoy and cherish the events that lead up to it.

Source: CDC, National Center for Health Statistics, National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey. Health, United States, 2002. Flegal et. al. JAMA. 2002;288:1723-7. NIH, National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute, Clinical Guidelines on the Identification, Evaluation and Treatment of Overweight and Obesity in Adults, 1998.

The negative side of uncleanliness at Magic Mountain develops into unhappy guests who may not ever return. If the guests do not return, there is a decline in profits. Magic Mountain is already experiencing this situation and there has been discussion about going out of business.

In a world of many political, social and moral issues, I believe that people should back the president in his attempts to secure our border.  Without protection of our borders we are open to terrorist attacks.  I completely disagree with Henry David Thoreau’s motto that “that government is best which governs least”(Thoreau 369).  If Trump was not allowed to try to keep our country safe by protecting our borders, our nation could easily be attack and leaving people to feel unsafe.  While I believe that most muslims are not terrorist, I think that it is necessary to have travel bans for some countries in order to keep the American people safe.

Society exudes pressure to be someone who you are not, especially to high schoolers. The sporty people play all the sports, the nerds are all up in their books, and worried about the future and what’s to come. Then there are the outcasts, who just want to live their life, and just don’t care. And because of this, it’s hard for them to show who they really are. This is notably true for Margo Roth Spiegelman, everyone saw Margo as someone she wasn’t. They saw her as the it girl, or the mysterious girl, or the girl with all the girl with all the friends. This, however, is not true, she’s just like any other 18-year-old senior in high school, she likes music and has (or had) a boyfriend. But in other ways she was different, she didn’t want to go to college, start a family, have just one boring job where you work in a cubicle all day. She wanted to travel the world, live on her own, and just not care. However, this was hard for her to show because of the pressure to be someone else, in other words, she was what society wanted her to be. Then there was Quentin, he had his own friends, didn’t have any real problems with people, and was just overall himself. This is why he was not popular because he was himself. This is what Margo needed and eventually learned that you have to be who you are, and not what society portrays you as.

On September 5, 2017, Matt Harrell, passionately presented on whether or not it was ethical to use Hellfire, Brimstone, and Damnation as fear tactics to get people to behave morally. Harrell took the stance that this was unethical and I agree with him. It is unethical to threaten people with hell and damnation to try and convince them to behave morally. It is also inhumane to frighten people with hellfire and brimstone. This is not The Gospel of Jesus Christ and street corner preachers who harshly call out the sins in those passing by are not accurately representing God. No one in this universe is without sin; therefore none of us should be the first one to cast a stone at another brother or sister.

“Your assignment is to write a persuasive essay and present it to the class in a week. You will be graded based on how convincing it is. Today we will be choosing topics,” announced Mr. Bowerbank, my 7th grade English teacher and ruler of classroom 110. My class simultaneously groaned at the prospect of work. I simply lifted my head with intrigue as it was already May and about time we had our first essay. He then proceeded to give examples of topics we could choose and gave us some time to think before we had to tell him our topic. My classmates were already rushing to tell the teacher their idea lest someone else steal it. That meant the usual abortion, death penalty, or drug use topics were out. I really couldn't think of anything and the teacher was slowly making his way through the remaining students like an executioner beheading criminals in a line. I have always thought that he would make a marvelous supervillain if he had a curly mustache, a tophat, and a cape. Eventually my name was called. I slowly dragged myself over to his desk. Even sitting down, he still seemed to tower over me. “What is your topic Cindy?” As usual in such desperate times, my mind turned to food. “Waffles are better than pancakes.” I figured that a waffle was just a differently shaped pancake with a nicer texture. “Hmm. Excellent topic. I look forward to your essay!” I survived to live yet another day.

All of the training and hard work I have done all comes down to this one moment: I can either fail or succeed. Everyday I dream of being the first person to cross the finish line. I dream of my coaches faces lighting up after the race. To achieve this though, I have to be pushing myself as hard as I can: until my legs go numb and taking breaths becomes harder and harder every second. I have to wake up everyday and have motivation and know that it is possible, I could win the whole race.

I remember the first time I landed in Maui, as I got off the plane I was greeted with tons of hugs and beautiful handmade leis from my other family members, followed with a question that I have become very familiar with from my grandparents, “Are you hungry?” Of course who wouldn't be after spending over nine hours cooped up in a plane with tasteless and overly expensive airline food. I didn't really know what was in Maui since it was my very first time visiting, so of course I left it up to my grandparent to choose a place to eat at. Which ended up being one of the greatest choices I have ever made because I was introduced to a place like no other..

I look at my pale short legs thinking ‘I need to shave.’ I sigh realizing that summer isn’t close to being over and I have nothing to look forward to. I grab my phone and head towards the kitchen searching for something to eat. I see my mom preparing dinner “Hi mom”

The United States presidential election, it’s a huge event in the United States and its been seen by some as an example of our democracy, but should it be? In truth, “American citizens do not cast their ballots directly for their favorite candidates for the presidency. Instead, they vote for electors ostensibly (but not always) committed to a given candidate.” (Levinson, Page 83). But, why not let the citizens vote directly for the president themselves? This old idea of not trusting the American people more with knowing how to vote isn’t fair anymore and while at the time it may have been okay and even made sense because it made voting easier since, “Never in the history of the world had a comparable election been conducted in a territory as large as the United States” (Black, Paragraph 14) it’s now (in my opinion) outdated and no longer necessary. This isn’t to say that I would completely get rid of the system we have though, I do agree with how, “Above all, the Founders feared power, the domination of some men over others.” (Critchlow, Page 19), they knew that in this case something would have to be done to keep the few large states from controlling the elections if presidents were elected with the popular vote. I think that we do need to make some changes to take the more of the people's opinions into consideration, though instead of giving all of a states’ electoral votes to the most popular candidate and ignoring the rest of the states residents votes.

We have grown accustomed to the wonders of clean water, indoor plumbing, laser surgery, genetic engineering, artificial joints, replacement body parts, and the much longer lives that accompany them. Yet we should remember that the vast majority of humans ever born died before the age of 10 from an infectious disease. S. Jay Olshansky.Genetic engineering is the deliberate modification of the characteristics of an organism by manipulating its genetic traits. As you may know, we have been eating foods that have been selectively bred by humans. Humans selectively bred organisms to develop or consist particular characteristics. One good example is dogs. Dogs are selectively bred wolves. Whether it is for a different size, look, ability etc, wolves were selectively bred and itis the dog we know today.Selective breeding keeps traits that are desirable, and over time it becomes different, which mostly have certain desired traits it was not supposed to have with natural selection. Artificial selection made animals and plants easy to use, easier to grow, and more useful to human. GMO can drastically reduce the amount of time and effort, which will benefit the environment and resources used. Some believe that GMO may disrupt the natural ecosystem, however, I believe that the benefits brought about by this technology outweigh such consequences. This can be for reducing a spread of disease, make organism's immune to disease, and use fewer pesticides.

Picture this, an intense basketball game with the score going back and forth for the past hour. By the end of the game both teams and every player, whether they were trying or not; received a participation trophy. Teens on sport teams should not just obtain trophies, but they should work hard to earn it. When everyone does not acquire a trophy it is teaching the teens to work hard through merit. Despite the idea of not all teens receiving trophies, some people think that teens should take the trophy either way as a confidence booster. In fact, there are more reasons why kids should not just take the trophy, but they should earn it and be rewarded for their great athleticism.