Adios Mexico


Finally,
A day so perfect
That the cow bells
Created a beautiful melody
That made my soul zapatead
With my chorizo burrito in my hand
I looked out the window and saw Ana Maria selling her roses
“Roasas, Rosas seis por cuarto”


I suddenly felt sadness
As I saw Juanito, Gerardo, and Hector
Kicking the soccer ball down the street
And breaking Sra. Rodriguez's priced pot
“Ninos, Mis flores!”
Laughter echoed through the tiny pueblo as the boys ran

I knew I wanted to leave
It was for the best
But I will say that leaving Mexico was not as easy

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What it means to be American is to have the freedoms given to us by the Constitution that other places in the world do not have. The constitution gives Americans the right to express their ideas, opinions, act freely, and more without the government restricting those powers. I think the American dream is different for everyone but overall is the chance to live your life with the three human rights of  life, liberty and pursuit of happiness. Additionally, I feel it means that you can achieve anything in America no matter what background, social class etc. because there are no limitations on what you can achieve here. For immigrants the American dream often means the chance to live a successful, stable, and safe life without the less problems like poverty, war, and government instability from their native country. This dream will generally allow them to have a good paying job, own property like a home, get an education, and have a promising future for you and your family with the help of hard work and dedication. America will provide Americans with generally equal opportunity to be prosperous but you have to be a determined hard worker. ​

​One fact about " The Crucible" is a 1953 play by an American play write Arthur Miller. It is a historical fiction play on the Salem witch trials in a community with strict Puritans. Many connections and parallels to the Salem witch trials and the Red Scare(the 1940s and early 1950s).  While reading the Crucible felt pity for the others that have been impacted by false confessions or have been put in a difficult situation regarding false confessions. Similarly, to how Tituba, Sarah Good had to falsely confess to save their lives. John Procter and Giles decided to have their life taken then to falsely confess.  A new idea I learned while reading "The Crucible"  was the idea of hysteria. Before learning about this play I did not realize that hysteria had many side effects both mental and physical. A personal decision that I will make based on my reading and understanding of "The Crucible" is to be more aware of the problems or ideas that were present in this play. I will make this decision because the issues in this play like false confessions and hysteria are still present in our society and often have negative results.​​

In our childhoods, our mindsets start to develop and change over time into our adulthood. The theory of having a fixed or growth mindset can contribute to our success in the future of our lives. According to an article by Eduardo Briceno, in the past, people thought a growth mindset was about high expectations of being perfect.  In reality, they were describing the opposite, a fixed mindset. In the article titled “Growth Mindset: Clearing up common confusions” by Mindshift,“ it explains a growth mindset is based on the idea that talents and abilities can be improved and developed. Instead of hiding from one’s weaknesses, he or she should acknowledge and embrace imperfections to contribute to having a growth mindset. No one's mindset is completely one or the other; it is more of a mixture of both and changes over time.
The children's story, Grayson and Felix shares a valuable lesson about staying motivated when people try to bring you down. Grayson is the mint colored shark with the growth mindset and Felix along with his sidekick, Fred are the gray sharks with fixed mindsets. Grayson is the mint colored shark, which is a mixture of blue and green. The green showing he is always growing, and blue meaning he’s open to new challenges. Fred and Felix are shades of gray, symbolizing their dull fixed mindset, that doesn’t allow them to explore new things. As time goes on in the story Felix and Fred are getting frustrated that their efforts aren’t ‘good enough’. Where as Grayson is finding new strategies to catch fish in addition to becoming more determined to prove himself as time progressed. The story of Grayson and Felix will have a valuable contribution to the kids that read it. They will see how the shark that was up for a challenge, stayed motivated and overall wanted to grow successfully in the end.

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