Student’s Writings

Family by Quinn Guilfoyle

“FAMILY…functional, dysfunctional, uniquely personal.” – Don Riesett, Writing Mentor & Teacher

I am Irish. Nothing special. My grandpa was an orphan straight out of Cork, Ireland, but he was adopted and brought to the U.S. when he was still extremely young. So no, he doesn’t have an accent and is pretty much an average American guy. My grandma is Welsh and Irish too, but her family moved to America as well. That’s on my dad’s side though. My mom’s side is Italian and somehow a little bit of Native American, but I think when she did her ancestry test, they just put that on there to make people feel special. Anyways, I think my mom feels pretty connected to Italian culture, especially the cuisine. 

One of the parts of Irish culture that I really like is Halloween. If you didn’t know, Irish people created Halloween as a celebration to welcome the fall harvest. Originally, they used turnips as jack-o-lanterns. Halloween has always been my favorite holiday because of this, and the fact that me and my brothers’ birthdays are in October. One part of Italian culture that I really value is the importance of family and loved ones. I really love my family and cherish them deeply.

The culture I feel most connected to is probably American culture. I’ve lived here all my life and America is all I really know. I like American food, I like American holidays, and I like American values. I really love living in America and being American. I think we are all very lucky to live in such a diverse country where we can feel connected with people from all over the world. I always say I’d like to live in another country, but I think I’d really just like to stay here. I still want to travel, but America will always be my country, unless Trump gets elected. 

Anyways, I want to say I’m lucky to know where my family is from, and that I can celebrate culture with my family. I’m especially thankful for my mom and grandparents because they help my brothers and I feel connected to both Irish and Italian culture, especially since my dad isn’t here to do that. Our family has so many stories and things to share.

                                                                                                                                                          Quinn Guilfoyle

                                                                                                                                                          10/18/24

It’s Not Easy by Mohamed Cisse

“The students were reminded by none other than Kermit the Frog that ‘It’s not easy being green.’ They were then asked to consider what about their lives is ‘not easy.’ The students’ essays on this topic were excellent. Here is an example.” Don Riesett, Writing Mentor & Teacher

It’s not easy being an African American Muslim. The many obligations, traditions, values, and holidays I have to go by. The way people take a glance and judge me. The inconsiderate buffoons that think I’m what you call “Hood”. All of these factors have been both a blessing and a pain at times. But what’s really hard about being an African American Muslim? If you have this question, then I’d advise you to sit back, relax, and listen to the experiences I will share with you.

First, I will define my meaning of being an African American Muslim, which is myself being born in a country in West Africa, Mali, and following the religion of Islam since birth. When I first moved to the United States at such a young age, I didn’t really know what to expect because I was surrounded by people of the same race, religion, and language. It didn’t help that the only three languages I knew at the time were my tribal languages,Fula and Bambara, and the main language in Mali, French. But as I started attending school, I learned how to speak English.

I like being born in Mali, from the foods, traditions, and sports for the most part. As an African American in a mostly white school, I was treated differently. I would always get picked on for my dark skin and stereotyped for coming from Africa. My old classmates used to ask me if I had water in my country or if I would hunt lions in the motherland. At times these jokes made me angry but I learned to ignore them and embrace my ethnicity.

I also was criticized for my religion. I follow Islam and I love every single aspect of it . From the inspirational prophets and the beliefs of Islam to the carefulness and kindness of other Muslims. I was surprised that in the seventh grade my teacher called me a terrorist. That was the most out of pocket thing I experienced in my life. The disappointment and loss of respect my classmates had when hearing this was crazy. Luckily, she was fired the next day.

But at the end of the day, I have come to realize that my race, language, religion, and the other things that make me who I am is something I cherish dearly, and no one can take that away from me.

Mohamed Cisse
9/27/24

It’s Not Easy by Hector Rivas

“The students were reminded by none other than Kermit the Frog that ‘It’s not easy being green.’ They were then asked to consider what about their lives is ‘not easy.’ The students’ essays on this topic were excellent. Here is an example.” Don Riesett, Writing Mentor & Teacher

It’s not easy being the oldest brother in a household where the parents only speak Spanish. Whenever someone needs something translated, I have to try my best. When my brother’s dad needs help at the Toyota dealership I have to go. Even though I hate arguing, sometimes I have to translate his comments in a nicer way. When my mom is in a drive through, I have to be the one who orders. There have been countless times where I have ordered my mom the wrong thing.

Only time I have liked being a translator for my mom was when I was in middle school. I feel bad now but I used to tell her I was doing ok in school and she would just believe me. I promise that I have changed my ways and I will only tell her the truth.

I have talked about the translating part but now I will tell you how it’s not easy being the older brother. Some of you might have seen them walk into the building once in a while. Jeremiah, who is four years old, comes into the building and always takes a bag of chips. He may seem kind and adorable, but he is the complete opposite at home. He will kick and smack you if you don’t give him what he wants. Any time we walk into a Walmart, he knows where the toy car section is. My mom always has to spend at least five dollars buying him cars to keep him happy. If he is ever too quiet, then you know he is up to something bad. One time I left my bedroom door open and he walked in. He found a Sharpie laying around and decided to use it to draw on my TV. I didn’t notice until a couple hours later when I wanted to watch something. I turned the TV on and saw big squiggles all over the Screen. I have learned my lesson now and always leave my door closed.

Matthew is around 11 years old and he has a serious fortnite addiction. He kept saying he was going to win money from the Fortnite tournaments. Thankfully, it seems like that phase is over and he has not been playing as much since school started. Now the only issue is that he has trouble with getting his homework done. Yesterday I realized how bad I am at actually helping someone with their work. I kept trying to show him where the answer was but I got so frustrated and told him that I will just do the whole page for him. There are definitely some places where I can be better and I will try to improve on it.

Hector Rivas
9/27/24

It’s Not Easy by Jordan Smith

“The students were reminded by none other than Kermit the Frog that ‘It’s not easy being green.’ They were then asked to consider what about their lives is ‘not easy.’ The students’ essays on this topic were excellent. Here is an example.” Don Riesett, Writing Mentor & Teacher

It’s not easy being diagnosed with depression and anxiety at just 13 years old. I am currently 14 but I’m pretty sure I showed signs before I was actually diagnosed. It sucks to wake up some days having almost no energy for reasons I don’t know why. I had to get medication because I couldn’t sleep some nights. No matter how hard I tried my brain wouldn’t shut down for the night. Some people on social media think it’s quirky, cute, and aesthetic to have a mental illness. As some who experienced it firsthand, it’s neither of those things. The reason I don’t tell a lot of people about it is because they might think I’m pretending or lying to them.

Even little things like having small interactions with people or going to a new place has my brain spiraling and thinking of every possible situation where something could go wrong. My anxiety triggers my stress and then it goes off into a huge mess. When I’m upset I usually end up completely shutting down. I don’t say anything to anyone. Not even to a close friend.

People that don’t completely understand my situation might think that I’m rude because I space out a little. I’m mean because of my resting face. I don’t care about what they have to say because I don’t give an opinion. I’m overreacting because I have really strong feelings about something. I’m a poser or a pretender because I don’t explain my entire life story from start to finish about how I got diagnosed.

Explaining depression and anxiety in three words. It’s not easy. Your heart is about to beat out of your chest from a panic attack. Your brain is about to explode from overthinking. Your eyes are about to fall out from crying. Your hair is going gray from stress. Your throat tightens up from public speaking.

Most of the time it’s hard but I try really hard to not give up. I still have a lot of things to experience. These days life isn’t easy for 99% of the population. I’m still a work in progress.

Jordan Smith
9/27/24

It’s Not Easy by Khori Mitchell

“The students were reminded by none other than Kermit the Frog that ‘It’s not easy being green.’ They were then asked to consider what about their lives is ‘not easy.’ The students’ essays on this topic were excellent. Here is an example.” Don Riesett, Writing Mentor & Teacher

Starting a new community isn’t easy. Being a freshman, I’m going through many challenges. I have to be precise with my work which is very time consuming. I can’t go to a lot of events with my friends and I feel alone most of the time.

Trying to talk to people outside of this community is very difficult. I always see my friends having a wonderful time at their high school, no stress from homework, going to football games, going to the mall etc. Every time I hear my friends talking about their high school experience compared to mine I always think to myself, “dang it’s not easy to be me” Here,I am worried about if I’m going to be on the homework list while my friends around me are worried about clubs, school dances, sports etc.

While the teachers have been saying I’ve been doing good with homework, I’ve had a major setback today and it made me think, I feel so out of place because my friends aren’t stressed like me and the people around me at this school are doing a lot better than I am.

So I say all of this to say it’s not easy.

Before I came to this school, a lot of people were telling me it’s not supposed to be easy. You learn from your mistakes. It’s part of life. I’ve had many conversations with older people who went to this school and they explained the challenges they went through.

What inspires me the most is that every time each of them said they had a challenge, they also said how they’ve overcome it and how it made them the person that they are today.

I see these people and they look brilliant. They look put together and they have amazing things going for themselves. But overall, they mostly just look happy.

I want to be like that. I want to have amazing things going for myself. I want to be brilliant, but I mostly want to be happy. So I’m going to continue to try my best and I’m going to continue to try to give myself some grace because it’s okay to make mistakes.

Khori Mitchell
9/27/24

It’s Not Easy… by Madison Hansel

“The students were reminded by none other than Kermit the Frog that ‘It’s not easy being green.’ They were then asked to consider what about their lives is ‘not easy.’ The students’ essays on this topic were excellent. Here is an example.” Don Riesett, Writing Mentor & Teacher

It’s not easy being me. Now I could list probably 10 reasons why it’s not easy to be me. For now I’ll just give you one of the major reasons. I am the first in my family who is planning to go to college and get a degree.

My mother went to Mervo and did part-time cosmetology so she could become a cosmetologist by the time she graduated high school. She then worked in salons until she had to quit to take care of me. I would get sick a lot when I was little because of my asthma, and in pre-k I missed 30 days of school because of my asthma. She started working from home and took some of her customers to her hair station in our basement.
My father was really smart in school, mainly when it came to math and science. He went to Poly. He wasn’t a fan of school and dropped out in the 10th grade to start working with his older brother. He is now a contractor and does home improvement. He is really good at his job, but wishes he had finished school so he could be making more money than he does now.

One of my older cousins, who I used to be really close to and looked up to, really disappointed me when she dropped out of school her senior year. I realized she wasn’t a positive influence to look up to and I shouldn’t be like her, so from her I learned what not to do. She was really good at school until she was 15, then she started losing motivation and gave up on everything. Now, she works at a doggie daycare.

I have two younger sisters that I try to set an example for even though I don’t live with them. I am closer to my sister Mariah who is 15. She tells me that she looks up to me and knows she can do better because of the example I set for her. That means a lot to me. I have always felt I owe something to my siblings because I’m the oldest and I need to do good for them. Even some of my friends look up to me and tell me that they wish they were like me because of my work ethic and mindset.

My best friend helped me realize I shouldn’t let people tell me what I can and cannot do. When I first told people I wanted to be an Ultrasound Technician, some told me that it is harder than nursing, and made me question myself. When I told my best friend that she told me that I should go for it because I am self-disciplined, don’t procrastinate, and I have a lot of motivation to get things done right away.

My boyfriend, Joel, gets upset at me sometimes because he says my expectations for myself are too high. I disagree with him because I expect myself to do the best so when I do less than that it motivates me to do better. I don’t expect the bare minimum for myself because then I will succeed every time.

When school first started I took a break from everyone. I realized I was talking to so many people and listening to everything about them and I wasn’t paying any attention to my own wants or needs. I went mute. It affected everyone around me because they thought something was wrong. Myshell thought I didn’t care about what she had to say, Joel thought I was detaching from him. And my parents were worried because I barely would talk. But mentally I was exhausted and I couldn’t help anyone and be a good friend.

I have been under a lot of pressure to succeed from all of the people around me. But I am my biggest enemy in a way. I don’t really care what someone else has to say about me but if I do less than what I planned to do, it really affects me in a negative way. I put a lot of pressure on myself to do well because I want to do good for my family, friends, and my boyfriend. It’s not easy being there for everyone and myself.

Madison Hansel
September 27, 2024