Elizabeth Booth

I think my life will change extremely in the next ten years. In ten years, I’ll no longer be in high school and I’ll probably not have any friends that I have now. I’ll be 24, almost 25 and working an my doctorate in Sports Medicine/Physical Therapy. I will most likely not be in Ohio either. I’m hoping to go to Marshall which is out of state and I also hope to study abroad a little bit. I probably won’t look the same either. Ten years can do a lot to a person’s appearance so I most look the same as I do now. Lastly, I believe that my life will drastically change in the next year.

I believe the Nobel Peace Prize is extremely related to the world today. The prize is given out to people who have done things that have changed/improved the world. For example, Martin Luther King Jr. fought for equal rights in the United States. The prize is also is not given someone who is deceased. The prize will sometimes skip a year, just like after Gandhi’s death, which can symbolize a missing laureate. The prize also takes a year to decide who the recipient will be. The committee for the prize will carefully go through all the nominees, around 300 in past years, for a year before deciding on the winner. Furthermore, I do trust the Nobel Peace Prize is connected to the world around us.

Being thankful means being glad that something has happened or not happened, that something or someone exists.

I feel like I’m thankful for a lot of things and there is not only one thing that I can say. I’m thankful for my family (even though we argue). I’m thankful for my friends for being with me though everything in the past year or so. I’m thankful my family friends don’t have to suffer anymore (even though I miss them lots). And this list can go on and on forever.

But what I think I’m most thankful for is not  being where I was this time last year. I have grown as a person in the past year so much and I can only keep growing. Because things can only get better, right? I sure hope so.

Maycomb Tribune: Mr. Underwood

“No one is born hating another person because of the color of his skin, or his background, or his religion. People must learn to hate, and if they can learn to hate, they can be taught to love, for love comes more naturally to the human heart than its opposite.”

Racism is prejudice, discrimination, or antagonism directed against someone of a different race based on the belief that one’s race is superior.

Recently, the town has been very uneasy with the upcoming trial but with Tom Robinson being moved to the Maycomb jail on Sunday morning the town’s uneasiness has only escalated. Today I will be recalling the events on Sunday night, the day before the trial.

With the blanket of anxiousness above the town, Atticus Finch decided to stay the night with his client at the jail. Sometime around 10 o’clock that night, four cars came in from the Meridian highway moving slowly in a line and stopping in front of the jailhouse. Men slowly got out of the cars and headed toward Atticus who was sitting in front of the jail reading the newspaper. The men were there to kill Robinson.

Tom Robinson has been charged with raping a white woman. The men believed that Tom’s offense was so unacceptable that they don’t believe he has the right to a trial.

Soon after then men approached Atticus, Jean Louise Finch (Atticus’s only daughter) came walking out of the shadows. She was followed by her brother, Jeremy Finch, and their friend Charles Baker “Dill” Harris. After Atticus had told the friends multiple times to go home and with them refusing, one of the men had become impatient from waiting and picked Jeremy up from his collar. Jean Louise was very upset from this and kicked the man.

After being told once more to go home, Jean started a casual conversation with one of the men, who could have been identified as Mr. Walter Cunningham Sr. Her conversation involved talking about his son Walter Cunningham Jr. and how she goes to school with him. The exchange was short but end with Jean saying “…that you all would right it out together…”.

The group of men ended up leaving with nothing happening.

If we can learn anything from this confrontation it is that, we can all learn to love a little more in our lives.

“It’s a great feeling, it’s an incredible feeling, to be a bit part of this,” Mr. Nelson said, “The film was hard to make, it was emotional to make, it was also an honor to make.” At his screenings, he urged audience members to send postcards to the attorney general of Mississippi, where Till was killed, calling for the case to be reopened. Its estimated that 10,000 postcards about the case had been sent out by people who attended his screenings. The film took over a year to make. It was an Emmy winning and Peabody Award winning film. Overall, Mr. Nelson was very pleased with the film.

The men only had nice things to say about each other. Mr. Beauchamp said, “I don’t want to talk bad about him – he knew I was working on this film. PBS turned me down many times; he’s a known documentarian. But I guess it was helpful that his film was done: it brought a lot of attention to this case.” Mr. Nelson said, “I’ve met him.” ,when he was asked about Mr. Beauchamp. The men seem to only have polite things to say about each other. Mr. Beauchamp did say, “It’s a competitive issue,” when speaking about Mr. Nelson. The men don’t seem to be best buds but the do seem to be kind to one another.

Mamie decided to leave the casket open at her son’s funeral so that the thousands that filed past could see what had been done to him. The 14-year-old black Chicagoan boy was beaten, shot, and thrown into a river in 1955. Famous pictures of Till’s mangled body were later posted in Jet magazine. Till was killed because he whistled at a white women in Money, Mississippi. This event was a flashpoint for the civil rights movement. Two white men were suspected to be the killers and were tried but were found not guilty. Nobody ever went to jail for the murder of Emmet Till.

I believe the person who has inspired me most in life is Malala Yousafzai. At the age of 17, Malala become the youngest recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize. She is an advocate for children’s and women’s rights. She has diffused her message throughout the world and won’t stop till there is change. Like any activist, she has experienced many opinionated people in her career but she will never relinquish her goals. I believe she has created a breach for women and children to get the rights they deserve. I hope to follow in her footsteps and maybe change the world one day too.

I think the thing that scares me most in life is failure/letting someone down. This fear is known as atychiphobia. Sometimes this fear can become quite a dilemma for me. I try to efface this fear as much as possible but its hard. Imagine trying to go though life as circumspect as possible because you’re scared you are going to muddle your life up. This is something that is perennial for me and I don’t see it going away anytime soon. It can be cumbersome sometimes but I try my best and it has never stopped me from doing what I want and I will always strive for greatness and perfection.

If I had a mix tape of my life I would have a few different songs on it. My first song would probably be Unsteady by X Ambassadors. This would be on there because I feel like it sums up my life perfectly. Life is tough sometimes and you may need someone to hold on to. My next song would be What A Wonderful World by Louis Armstrong. This would be on my mix tape because it has a great message. The song tells a great story and kinda tells you to only look at the positives in life and live life to the fullest. And my last song would be Instead by Ryan Amador. I like this song because it is so beautiful and talks about all the bad times in life.