To My Boy

I have learned many lessons in my time that will help guide me through my life. However, I think one experience that will definitely stick with me forever is attending Missouri Boys State. At Boys State, our motto was, “A Week To Change A Lifetime,” and it truly was. We learned about integrity, honesty, pride, and what it means to be in the American Legion. We also learned about the political system and how our government works by making our own government. Boys State is a program run by the American

It has been five years since the accident where the snake spit in my eyes. I can still see perfectly. As I sit here watching my best friend getting closer and closer to death, he looks at me and says, “Little Yellow Head, it is time for me to teach you my ways”. Gideon begins to lead me out towards a small bush out a few miles past the family house. He slowly begins grabbing different kinds of weeds, herbs, and flowers. He puts them all into a small grinding bowl, mushing them into a fine powder

But, the other boys on this island obviously don’t care what I think if I did happen to say anything. One by one, the littleuns start to join in. My face is full of distaste, and I have thought it all through, yet I still don’t know why this is reasonable. But, then I overhear that the reason for this is survival. The boys are putting the awful looking slime all over their faces so they aren’t as noticeable to the pigs when they go hunting. I decide to be a bystander and follow the boys as they hunt

James Joyce’s, Araby, is an emotional short story that centers around a nameless boy living in Dublin, with his aunt and uncle, who has a consuming crush on his friend’s sister. His love for her leads him to the Araby bazaar, and there he comes to a realization about his immature actions. This event is the basis for the entire story, but the ideas Joyce promotes with this story revolve around the boy’s reactions to his feelings about his crush. Joyce spends much of the story describing the boy’s

Retreating to an island for an extended period of time would be a dream for most, or so you thought. An issue was bound to occur when an abundance of privately schooled city boys are trapped on an island with no adult supervision. Exactly that took place, time passed and the boys weren't themselves they had lost their innocence. The boys were now gruesome and violent as golding says “(Jack) was just waiting for a moment to decide where to stab him" (Golding 31). They now were focused on the killing and

Sitting down on the porch with my Honduran coffee in hand, waves of nostalgia washed over me. Staring into my coffee, flashbacks ran through my head. The old, yellow school bus rocked back and forth over the worn, dirt path on its way to the orphanage that would be my home for the next week. The scolding Central American sun beat down on the bus as I began to question why I chose to spend my service requirement here. I tried to imagine the following week which would be internet-less, family-less

Stephen Dobyns (1941) Kansas THE BOY HITCHHIKING on the back-country Kansas road was nineteen years old. He had been dropped there by a farmer in a Model T Ford who had turned off to the north. Then he waited for three hours. It was July and there were no clouds. The wheat fields were flat and went straight to the horizon. The boy had two plums and he ate them. A blue Plymouth coupe went by with a man and a woman. They were laughing. The woman had blonde hair and it was all loose and blew

It seems as if every little boy in the world has the wish to become a young man like his father, to grow up and hear the coveted words, “You are your father’s son.” To these such boys, a father is not simply the man who helped give birth to him and not just the man sitting across the supper table. He is a tall statue who deserves to be admired. He is a role model, an idol. My father was that and so much more in my mystified eyes. Not one of these little boys, who had barely been molded by the heartless

unusually empty street she noticed a boy, about the age of 12, sitting alone outside a store front. The boy was wearing a sad expression on his face and Mrs. Johnson knew what to do. She went up to the boy and gave him 6 of the brightest, happiest pictures that she had taken that day as well as 6 suckers. The boys smile grew wider and wider as the gifts were presented and exclaimed “Why thank you ma’am. I can’t wait to eat these suckers!” With that the young boy quickly ate two of the suckers. “Don’t

The Boy and His Family Relationships In a sort of short story style, Marie Howe illustrates a depleting family relationship between a father and his children in the poem, “The Boy,” through its many symbols. With no discernible rhyme scheme, the plot develops, climaxes, and concludes alluding to a short story but in poetic form. The speaker, discovered through clues within the poem, is the younger sister of the boy and she is listening and learning from the examples set by her brothers. There is