Patriot’s Pen

This is my Patriots Pen essay about what I would tell the Founding Fathers if I saw them.

What is patriotism? Ask yourself that. Is it wearing an “I Love America” shirt on Fourth of July while fireworks burst in colorful explosions in the ink black sky? Is it putting your arm up to your heart and singing the National Anthem every day? Or is it the men who leave their families behind and sacrifice their lives for our country, just because they unconventionally love it? That is true patriotism.

            I’m in Independence Hall next to all the Founding Fathers, the bright July sunlight shining into the quiet building as the last person scrawls their name in perfect cursive. Would I want break to our country’s forerunners that would they worked hard for would just eventually fade into something that is in an American’s daily life? For example, lazily reciting the Pledge of Allegiance every morning during school or taking off your hat at a football game reluctantly as someone’s angel voice pierces the air. If any of us lived in a less blessed country, we would realize how special America is. In Africa, their leaders would rather kidnap children and cause bloodshed. In America, at least the government only steals your money.

            After hearing information like that, how do you think the Founding Fathers feel? Would they work so hard to make a country if they knew people would just eventually take it for granted? If the Founding Fathers knew how America was today, we probably wouldn’t have America. 

Conflict Resolution

This is my Conflict Resolution piece about the book Where the Red Fern Grows which is about a boy and his two dogs and his experiences with them and why they were so special.

A little boy has finally saved up money to buy hunting dogs. After training them to hunt very well, he wants to take them to a raccoon hunting competition. He will fight against the powers of nature such as weather, animals, unfortunate mishaps. Its all person vs. nature in this one.

   Once he has entered the competition with his two dogs he has to put up with cold weather right away. He captures a decent amount of raccoons during the day, but at nightfall it starts snowing. The boy starts to get super cold. Eventually a snowstorm arrives and he loses his dogs. Next morning he wakes up and goes searching for them. They are circling around a tree with the last raccoon they need to win. After awhile, they kill it and head back to camp. Waiting there for them is a gold trophy and a box full of money. Him and his dogs had successfully won the competition. They lived happily until one night one dog dies from a mountain lion. The other dog dies of depression in a way. The end.

And Another Thing...
Picture this. You are minutes away from your whole entire planet being destroyed? What would you do? Would you spend your final dying moments with your family and friends? Would you panic and end your life before something else beats you to it? Would you try your best to survive? Or would you just sit there helplessly hoping to be saved?
   These are some questions running through Arthur, Ford, and Tricia's mind as gigantic alien laser beams beat down on Earth. Aliens called Vogons were instructed not so long ago to destroy the Earth. All for what? So they could make a hyperspace highway. Who knew it would affect these unfortunate Earthlings? People wanted to make a highway, but Earth was in the way. Cause. Millions of billions Earth people die from killer alien mercenary people. Effect. If this event never happened, Arthur, Ford, and Tricia would've never gotten  to travel around space and have adventures, which means the story couldn't continue. 


 This is Tristan Zirkle's cause & effect writing piece about the book And Another Thing in the series The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. It is about people who survive Earths destruction and have adventures around space.

The Maze Runner

This is my retelling of the book The Maze Runner.

   A teen name Thomas is thrown into a mysterious place with a maze with no memory of his past, where he is stranded with hundreds of other kids like him. Just days later in the teenager- ran establishment, an unknown girl named Teresa appears, and upon her arrival weird things with the maze start happening. People say time is running out and they have to escape the maze. Thomas leads a ragtag group of kids out to the real world and soon figures out that maybe life was better in the maze...