Creative Writing Assignment Rough Rough Draft

Moving to Hong Kong wasn’t my idea of perfect, but I didn’t have a choice. My father’s company relocated him here so I had to move with him. Shanghai wasn’t a great place either, so I guess this provided a new opportunity to make new friends. Back in Shanghai, I could never really fit in because people there thought that my family was too western. My parents were born and raised in Vancouver and had moved back to Shanghai when I was three years old. At home, we spoke both Chinese and English, thus making people who visited our house feel awkward. That was all in the past now and I wanted to make the best out of my situation. It is a universal fact that first days of school are never easy, however, I was used to this as I never had any friends. This helped me forge a shameless attitude that allowed me to greet people openly and let them know me. I really wanted to make friends so I started a conversation with the first person I met. It was in my first class and his name was Steve Prascal. He seemed very outgoing but slightly insensitive. However, I just assumed that Steve was being straightforward when he assumed I had no friends. He introduced me to his group of friends who luckily, like me, all played football. I quickly learned that Steve’s friends were just like him. They were a loud bunch that all had haughty expressions on their faces as they walked through the hallways. That was why I was surprised to find out when Steve and his friends asked me to play some football with them and eat dinner afterschool. I willingly agreed for I was never invited to hang out with anybody. After playing some football and eating dinner, we got went to Steve’s apartment. There, the gang planned on vandalizing Steve’s neighbor’s homes. I had no intention of stirring any troubles in a new city, so I decided to go home early. Steve and his friends called me names such as ‘loser’ and ‘candy-ass’ until I realized that they were the first friends I ever made. I stayed behind to live up to the expectations of my newly made friends. Steve handed me two boxes of eggs, flour, and a gallon jug of water. We scurried from one floor to another, throwing eggs at doors, pouring water and flour at doormats, and ringing their doorbells. The more floors we reached, the guiltier I felt. By the time Steve and his friends called it a day, I felt dreadful as I realized how I allowed myself to submit to Steve’s sinfulness, just to maintain a few morally corrupt people as friends. I felt I created a huge hole in my in my ethics and I wanted to fill it in firstly by making better friends. The next day, I avoided Steve and his circle and was lucky enough to make a new friend who seemed to have his morals set straight. His name was Chris Church and he was a devout Catholic from New York. Like me, Chris didn’t seem to have any other friends; nevertheless, he was a diligent student who avoided trouble. We became acquaintances when I sat next to him on the bus. He was extremely kind and offered to help me get settled into my new school. Despite his helpfulness, there was something extremely peculiar about him. I got to know him; the more I felt that a religion should be irrelevant to the morality of a person. Although religion did promote righteousness, I felt that in many times, it had its flaws. As nice as Chris was as a person, he was a bit too conceited about his religion. He appeared to discriminate those who were atheists, and I was surprised to find out he didn’t expect much out of me because I was from Mainland China. This comment would have been offensive to other Chinese people; however, I ignored it because I felt keeping my friendship with him was more important. He kept talking about how people he disagreed with or disliked were definitely going to go to hell unless they changed. The more he said things like that, the more I thought to myself about the notion of religions. I started to feel that many people, such as Chris, accept or take up religion, simply fearing what would happen after death. Though it is reasonable that this happens because death is the big, inevitable unknown, I felt that this might be the primary motivation for people to act kindly and ‘love thy neighbor as thyself.’ I could not confront these thoughts, so I decided to stop hanging out with Chris. It drove me insane. Having failed two friendships already, I felt like I was back in Shanghai. Even the locals of Hong Kong singled me out; they accepted Caucasians while I was discriminated against for being ethnically from Mainland China. This however was uncommon. The Cantonese viewed Mainlanders as barbarians who lacked manners and pollute Hong Kong. Many Chinese lacked the etiquette that the British had, angering most people of Hong Kong. The locals also despised Mainland Chinese because hordes of mainlanders went to Hong Kong simply to give birth and allow their babies to acquire Hong Kong citizenship. It was such a shame that one race could detest another, preventing cooperation and understanding at such a modern age of time. Furthermore, my parents were of no help. My father was constantly working, trying to provide for the family in Hong Kong, a city much more expensive than Shanghai. Additionally, my mother recently took up a job in order to help my father. It was like I was basically living alone, basically without any friends or family. I felt terrible because what could have been a great opportunity for me to start a new life where I could fit into a community was destroyed.

Weblog 17

Weblog 17 What is Cassius suggesting and how does he build his argument? Cassius is supporting Brutus’s view on Caesar’s rule in Rome. Both believe that Caesar should not be the sole ruler of Rome. Cassius supports Brutus by primarily by proving how ordinary of a man Caesar is. He feels that it is not worth living a life where one must bow down to another person, who was born of equal rights and abilities. Cassius even went as far to give an example proving how weak Caesar could be. His example portrayed him and Caesar as two men of equal conditions jumping into a river where Caesar had to eventually call for Cassius’s help to prevent himself from drowning. Cassius then tells Brutus that he is upset at how he has to be his servant as Caesar acts like a pompous jerk towards him and other people. Cassius goes on by giving another example of when Caesar was sick in Spain. He described how weak Caesar was and how he was like a sick girl as he groaned for water. Cassius then tells Brutus how shocked he is by the fact that such a sick man has the ability to be the ruler of Rome and its Empire. Cassius says that he feels every man should have the right to lead a free life, free from subjection to a single man. He also adds his belief of how men themselves are the ones who can control their lives and should do so by taking action, disproving the concept of destiny and fate. Furthermore, Cassius supports Brutus by adding how, in reality, names have no difference in significance and that the names ultimately have the same function. Cassius then criticizes society on how people can allow one man to rule them all. He says that people have changed and that before, nobody would allow a dictatorship in the Roman republic.