The Controversy Over Welmed-Personal Narrative

Walking away from everything you once knew and starting over is never a picnic. Leaving Iraq, and moving to America has impacted my life more than anything. I was only 4 years old at that time, and the only English I spoke was “excuse me, water please.” My family and I did not know it then, but our lives were going to change; we would become “Americanized”. Learning English was one of the massive changes that occurred, the way I dressed (culture), and even the way I had power to go to school and educate myself.

This past year, I have been apart of Naperville Central’s brand new Special Spaces club. When my friend approached me and asked me to join, I agreed even though I had no clue what I was involving myself in. In retrospective, I can honestly say that becoming a part of Special Spaces has been one of the most meaningful, fun, and fulfilling experiences I have had in high school.

I didn’t believe in aliens until I was abducted by them. I was put in some kind of contraption and I’m not sure what happened exactly, but it’s clear that I’m not where I was. Everything in 2016 is different, I don’t know if I’m in a different state or not but people are dressing differently and acting differently, and the cars, the cars are all different! I’ve been here for quite some time now and have noticed a lot of differences from where I lived in Oceanside, California in 1940. I’ve been transported to the year 2016 and there are so many things that have changed and evolved and among them are political, economic, social, and cultural changes.

Of course the norm for me is that of any citizen living in zone three.

It was a small thing, the bright green of youth. I planted it on the 3rd, in my freshman year, with the Green Thumb Club at my high school.

I personally found trying to find a single “Social Norm” to break challenging so I chose to do two instead. The first was to end my phone calls with I love you, and to talk to a stranger in the bathroom stall next to my own. Which is how I confessed my undying love to a coworker. Working at a casino, employees have to call surveillance for anytime they move around with money or have to be escorted to the vault. I’m a pretty lively person but going into work, I started to get this bashful nature about myself especially the closer it came to performing both of the social norms I gave myself to break.

I hate when people mess with me by irritating or annoying me. Also I hate being talked about me behind my back too. It bothers me so much that I can probably be mad, and upset for a whole day and not say anything to anybody. However, I do not do that a lot I just keep moving forward on what I have to do. I do this because I would not get myself into trouble by fighting or calling names, but instead I’ll try to be as positive as I can be.

This parable is one of the strangest of the strange. Commentators are all over the map in their opinions of what we should

I chose to break the norm of either smiling at strangers or giving them a neutral look when you make eye contact. I decided to give every stranger I passed a confused look like they had just spoken to me in another language. I must admit, this made me feel a bit goofy. I was on the fence as to whether or not to do this in the first place but I decided I just had to. The responses I received were quite comical. A few people asked if I was alright, and one person even asked if I had a problem with them.

Walking into the coffee shop where everyone else , including me now, confronts people in their lives and continues to discuss important topics. The decorations around me are plain and simplistic, nothing special about this place whatsoever. I wait patiently for my invite to show, mentally preparing myself for the conversation that I want to have so desperately. I think of the topics I want to bring up and the ones I want to focus on more than others. Nervously, I continue to wait and talk myself out of thinking that they wouldn’t show at all. A few minutes filled with deep breaths later, finally they’re here. I walk over to the table we agreed to meet at, and sat politely before greeting them and waiting for a response. I cleared my throat and looked at my lap, trying to refrain from saying anything I’d regret. Taking a deep breath, I tried to remain professional while addressing the topic. Finally, my attention was brought to the person seated in front of me, to the world in front of me. With all the courage I could muster I stared dead into its

the biggest struggle for Americans these days seems to stem from poverty, drugs, broken homes, rasicism/discrimination and so on. how lucky i am that i was raised in a loving, upper-middle class familyi’ve never had many friends. throughout elementary school, i’d spend every recess on the swingset because i didn’t want teachers seeing me wander alone and then make others kids play with me. their pity made me more uncomfortable than being alone. as time went on, things seemed to only get worse. middle school was horrible. i would come home everyday and just try not to cry. i’d never felt so alone in my life.

So, I made a wrong turn today - literally. My brother called to cancel plans while I was driving, and I ended up somewhere in the DEEP south. (cue banjos) But I am wholly confident that God uses every of my wrong turns for his good.

Growing up with a father in the military, you move around a lot more than you would like to. I was born just east of St. Louis in a city called Shiloh in Illinois. When I was two years old my dad got the assignment to move to Hawaii. We spent seven great years in Hawaii, we had one of the greatest churches I have ever been to name New Hope. New Hope was a lot like Olivet's atmosphere, the people were always friendly and there always something to keep someone busy. I used to dance at church, I did hip-hop and interpretive dance, but you could never tell that from the way I look now.

By taking a look at Van Gogh’s Starry Night, and further researching into it, we are able to notice the meaning behind it. Van Gogh’s first creations were earth-toned scenes of nature and peasants. However, after his well-known breakdown, he was put in an asylum, and his art style changed severely (National Gallery of Art.). One of the paintings he created in this period of poor mental health was the famous Starry Night, a painting made with oil on canvas (MoMA Learning) with heavy brushstrokes that, in my opinion, look similar to the ocean waves. The most common interpretation of the meaning of this painting is associated with Van Gogh’s isolation and insanity. However, the meaning of this painting is deeper than that. Each detail in Starry

us as humans ever really felt peace? I don't mean like Netflix and Wine and a cozy blanket I