A Racial Encounter

It was the first day of 8th grade. Everything from the school, the hallways and the people were unfamiliar to me. I remember walking down the endless hallways until I found the main office where one of the advisors introduced me to another new student. The advisor told us that we would be in alot of the same classes so we could help each other since it was our first days in a new school. I introduced myself to her and she told me her name was Marra. She was the first white kid that I'd met since I had started middle school. For the past two years at my old middle school I had never known or even seen any white kids in the hallways. My new middle school was completely different since the majority of students were white and jewish.
Marra was from Pennsylvania and I don't really remember if she was Jewish or not. She was tall, skinny, well dressed and overall a pretty girl. As we walking down the hallway to our first classes she told me alittle bit about herself and about how nervous she felt. I felt the same exact way. When she told me where she lived I quickly realized that her family must be wealthy. I was afraid that she might turn out to be a snuck up snobby rich girl but the more I talked to her the more I realized that that she wasn't.
She turned out to be a down to earth sweet girl who wasn't that complicated to figure out. She was a genuinely nice person and even though we looked completely different when it came to skin color it didn't seem to matter when we talked. We both agreed that starting a new school just seemed strange and that we were glad to have each other around so atleast we wouldn't have to go through this alone. She became my first friend and we stayed friends all that year. Meeting her helped me clear some of my misconceptions and also was another example for me that I should judge people for who they are and not what they look like.

I'm here because...

I’m here because of my busy and memorable childhood neighborhood. Before I turned 5, my parents and I moved away from the house we had shared with my uncle and aunt to our own house in Queens Village. It was a 2 story long rectangular shaped house that was built the same as all the other houses on the block except for the differing colors of paint on the walls. There was barely any space between each of the houses except for the small space that could be used as a driveway. Every half an hour you could hear the bus screech to a halt at the bus stop that was a block away. Both sides of the street would usually be lined up with cars day and night. On one end of the street was Jamaica Ave and on the other was Hillside Ave. Both were equally busy with the traffic on the roads, the buses running everywhere and people always walking down the streets going into one of the many convenient stores.
From my bedroom window I had a very interesting view which was my 5 story ancient looking middle school. My middle school was on the block right behind my house so it definitely made getting to school on time a lot easier. The school was made of various ethnicities such as West Indian, Middle Eastern, Asian Two of my cousins lived 6 streets away from me. Another two of my cousins lived just 2 blocks away from. My cousin who is my age lived 3 streets away from me and we would see each other every day at school. There was family all around me which made the neighborhood feel even more like home.
When I moved to Long Island it took me months to feel comfortable with the new neighborhood and our new house. I actually really like how peaceful and silent the neighborhood is. It is remarkably clean and I rarely see cars parked on the streets. When it came time for me to pick the college I was going to I was influenced by my old neighborhood. I had the choice of going to Adelphi or going to St. Johns University. I decided to take campus tours of both. Adelphi had a quiet, clean and small campus but it almost seemed too boring since my neighborhood was already quiet.
I had known from the beginning that my first choice would be St. Johns not just because it was a good school but it also was close to my old home. It reminded me a lot of my old neighborhood. If I had still lived in Queens it would have been a 15 minute drive but from where I live now in North Woodmere it can be more than 40 minutes. That was a small sacrifice that I would be willing to make to go to a school that was more diverse, busy, a little hectic and that had an almost familiar feeling. At least I knew my way around my old neighborhood which I would have to pass every day I went to St. Johns. I will always consider Queens a second home to me because of all the family, friends and unforgettable places that are still there. Times may change but my old neighborhood will always hold my childhood memories.

Importance of Religion

I was raised in a family where religion was always an important part of my life. My family and especially my grandparents have always been very religious people. When I was about 4 or 5, I used to go to with my grandma to the hindu temple which is called a mandir every other day. I use to know many of the religious songs, chants and prayers by my head but over time I have forgotten many of them. Nowadays I only get to go to the temple once or twice a year for the holidays. Every couple of weeks and usually during the summertime I get to go to lots of religious functions which are great not just for the delicious sweets I get to eat after the rituals but also for the feeling of spirituality I get from listening to the religious mantras and verses. After going to so many functions I can say that I know the rituals by heart now. Every year, around the time of my birthday my mom arranges a small religious work at our house to bless our family and to bring good fortune for the future. We all sit and do the rituals together. On that day and the day before that we aren't allowed to eat meat or anything with eggs in them. For all the religious holidays that we celebrate we don't eat meat or things made with egg on those days. It's not really that hard to do since it's only for a day. We have a small room for prayer in the house which is called the altar room. It is covered with big pictures of some of the hindu gods and goddesses. My mom and dad pray everyday. Even though I don't pray everyday I do try to thank god when good things happen as often as possible even though I probably still ask for things more. Religion has not only given me spirituality but has also shaped my morals. My parents are both very religious and I believe that it has given them strong morals in working hard and trying to do the right thing. They have passed on these morals to me and I feel like religion has given me an idea of how to do well in life.

Literacy Autobiography

My first thoughts about words, reading, writing and speaking languages were that they are essential to expressing our feelings, ideas and stories to others. Without them we wouldn't be able to communicate our thoughts with anyone. I enjoy reading and writing as long as I find the topic is something that interests me otherwise it can become unbearable. Learning new languages or just understanding a few words in a different language can always be helpful in life.

My earliest memories of language or words were listening to lots of music since I was about 3 or 4. I use to love watching disney movies and I especially liked listening to the songs. I had sing-a-long tapes of some disney songs and I would memorize the words to the songs.

English is the only language that I can speak fluently but I do understand some other languages. I understand some Spanish because I have taken spanish in school for a couple of years. I also understand some Hindi because of watching lots of hindi movies as I was growing up. I don't think I have an accent but my parents do have a slight Guyanese accent. Their accents have become weaker through the years but are still there.

I remember in elementary school that I had to practice cursive writing all the time. My teachers always told me that when I got older that I would be expected to write in cursive for my classes. I was better at writing in cursive then than I am now. I had my own workbook only for cursive writing. I wrote very slowly when I wrote cursive words to make sure it was as neat as it could possibly be.

A time when writing went particularly well for me was when I wrote a poem on about following in a person's footsteps in high school. I used microsoft word to shape words in poem into a footstep. I just imagined how difficult it is to live up to everyones standards and to live up to expectations. It's something that I think most people could relate to.

I have never fallen in love with a piece of writing before but there have been books that I really liked. When I was in middle school I used to like to read R.L Stine books. I read many of his fear street series books not so much for the horror aspect but because I found they were full of suspense and mystery.

I believe that all my English teachers have helped me in some way with my writing especially my 11th and 12th grade teachers. They pushed me to be more descriptive with my writing and to analyze the meanings behind other pieces of writing more than I did before.

Diaries, online writing and poetry have helped to develop my writing by improving how I express my feelings and opinions. Writing letters and online writing have improved how I write opinions to get my point across. Poetry and diaries have helped me to develop how I write my feelings and emotions on certain topics.

Reading has helped me to expand my vocabulary and has showed me diiferent styles of writing. I like to read stories that have alot of suspense, mystery and conflict between characters. I like reading stories about characters around my age because they always have traits that I can relate to.

I like to write when I have a fully thought out idea in my mind. It doesn't really matter where I write as long it isn't noisy. It is easier for me to write when I am alone rather than when with other people around. When I get an idea I usually write it out with paper and a pen. I believe that I write better with less distractions around me.

My strengths as a writer and learner are that I am a good listener and that I focus on getting my tasks done on time. I want to learn how to be more creative in my writings because I sometimes have trouble expanding my ideas into longer interesting writings.

A small lie

Sharda Lochan

English Composition

9/6/09

It seemed like it would be a nice day when I woke up that morning for school. It was the middle of spring and the sunlight shining through my windows onto my bed told me it was time to get up. I was halfway through the second semester of my senior year of high school and I knew it was just going to be another typical day of classes. I had about half an hour everday to get ready for school before my mom or dad would drop me to school. As tired as I always felt every morning, I knew I had to hurry myself up if I didn't want to be late. There was only one problem. I felt sick, really sick.

I had felt fine the night before but as soon as I woke up that morning I felt nauseous and my stomach hurt but I didn't know why. Either I had eaten something bad or I just was really hungry. I told my mom that there was no way I could go to school but she told me to go eat breakfast and that maybe I would feel better. Ofcourse my mom wanted me to go to school since it wouldn't be the first time I went to school not feeling that great. I still felt nauseous when I hurried to make myself some toast bread and hot tea. After eating and drinking my oversized cup of hot tea, I felt alot better. The nauseated feeling was gone and I still had 30 minutes before school started but I thought to myself that it wouldn't hurt to miss a day.

My mom had asked me if my stomach was feeling better. It was feeling perfectly fine but ofcourse I said that I still felt bad and that maybe I needed some rest. My mom was in a hurry since she had to drop my brother to school so she said okay and that I should take some medicine and get some sleep. I didn't feel too bad about missing a day of classes since knew I wasn't missing anything I couldn't catch up on. I went straight back to bed since I definitely was still tired and I slept until noon. The time at home went by so much faster than my day of classes would have. I knew missing classes was wrong but knowing I got an extra day of much needed sleep without missing much work seemed like a good tradeoff.

Part of my culture

Sharda Lochan
English Composition
9/2/09
My indian bag expresses my many interests for different aspects of Indian culture. My religion is hinduism which is the reason why Indian culture has influenced my life since as young as I could remember. When I was younger I used to watch hindi movies all the time and hear alot of indian music. Even though I don't get to watch as many hindi movies as before I still love listening to the music and seeing the indian dances in them. I love getting dresses up in my indian outfits and jewelry when I have to go to religious gatherings. I believe I have seven indian outfits right now. Two of them are saris which are great to wear for big occasions and the other five are called shalwars which have a long top and pants which are easier to wear if I don't feel like being fatigued with handling a sari. I also love getting to wear indian jewelry every once in a while. I probably own about a dozen set of bangles because I just like having different color sets for all my outfits. I also like indian styled earrings not just with my outfits but also with many of everyday wardrobe. I do have some clothes and jewelry that I wear regularly that have some indian influence when it comes to colors, print and embellishment. There are also small items in my room such as jewelry boxes and picture frames that have indian looks to them.
I also like indian foods and sweets since that is mainly what I eat almost everyday. Most of my family and my mom are very good cooks so they can make various indian items. I don't like the food from indian restaurants but that is only because it tastes different from how my family cooks. Even though the foods are similar in name they can taste completely different because there is a difference in taste between indian and west indian food.
My indian bag's design shows some of the aspects of Indian culture like the many different and rich colors which are characteristic to indian clothes and art. The intricate patterns and small embellishments are also characteristic to the clothes and accessories. The elephants that are on the bag also represent a part of indian culture as they are seen as signs of good fortune that give blessings for a prosperous future. My house has dozens of elephants spread out throughout the house and I'm pretty sure that almost every room has some kind of item that either is an elephant or has an elephant on it because of this belief. This bag represents that indian culture has played an important part in my life and will continue to do so. It not only is part of my religion but also something I am deeply interested in. Ever since I was a child I have liked indian movies, songs, dance, food and clothes. I still like all these things and as I get older I probably will want to learn more about the culture. My biggest dream is traveling to many different countries and I hope one day I get to visit India.