Photo

Page 476, Item 8.4: An Iraqi Shows Her Inked Finger after Casting Her Ballot in a Polling Station in Baghdad, 2005.

The first thought in my mind was happiness. The happiness someone feels when a best friend gets happily married, when a close friend loses weight and wears new clothes that fit perfectly, or when a coworker gets a promotion with a pay he or she rightfully deserves. Throughout high school many of my teachers emphasized the distress and hardships these women face on a daily basis, explained in books such as “A Thousand Splendid Suns” which took an emotional toll on me. So when I saw this woman with a smile on her face, it practically brought me to tears how in the midst of oppression and violence these women have found courage and strength to express themselves and be happy. The peace sign she is making with her fingers is a gesture that represents her journey to freedom. This instills me with hope for the future generations of women in these countries, and I’m pretty sure she feels hopeful, too.

Advertisement

Page 265, Item 5.3: Got Milk?, 2004.

It amazes me how long they’ve had these advertisements, but also how much they’ve spoken to me ever since my great aunt had to get surgery. Right now she has a metal pole attached to her spine because she refused to drink milk in her earlier years. Osteoporosis is when your bones begin to lose their density due to lack of calcium, and other essentials that milk provides. I’m surprised at how many people dislike milk and never drink it, and not only because one of my favorite drinks is chocolate milk. So when I looked at the stunt bicyclist in this ad, I felt that he was healthy and strong, two things I hope to be when I’m older. These ads always remind me to watch what I eat, since the food you consume greatly affects how your body is in the future.

Essay

Page 257: Kruiti Parekh, “India: A Culinary Perspective”

First and foremost, I love the way this author wrote. His sentences flowed and his detail made me enjoy reading it. In content, I had the vibe that the author was proud of his culture, despite how much they glamorized it in America. This restaurant, located in New York, is now one of my most recent additions to the list of places I would like to visit one day. Most restaurants I’ve been to dramatize the “pretty things” of foreign countries, to the point that they lose grasp of the importance of the culture within the people. In this essay, the author flawlessly describes how this restaurant embraces culture, art, and emphasizes the true beauty of India. Now that I think about it, I think I’d rather take a trip all the way to India.

Painting

Page 42, Item 1.17: Mark Ulriksen, Little Dog, 2000.

An emotion that spurred out of me was grievance from a loss. One of the hardest adversities I had to overcome was leaving my dog, Mia, in Miami. Every time I see a small dog, I think of her, and have to hold back tears. She was the only one in my household who would greet me whenever I walked through the front door, the only one who would volunteer to sleep beside me in my bed, and who would never turn down an opportunity to jump in the pool with me or take a long stroll around the park. She was so loving and loyal that there are days when I want to drive back 8 hours solely to see her again. She is my first real pet, and I adore her more than anything in this universe.