Essay: Rough Draft

Ricky Ortiz      

College Writing 1

Professor Waite

September 24^th, 2012

                                                            Skateboarding                                                             

            To this day I would’ve never thought I’d have such a passion for skateboarding or even be involved in this world for that matter. I could’ve probably seen myself playing football but skating? That was definitely something I didn’t see coming. I first got onto a board when I applied for a summer job at the Chelsea Collabrative Offices in Chelsea, Massachusetts. My job title was park ranger. We were the kids you saw awake early on those summer mornings cleaning parks and creating games for kids in the neighborhood to play.

The job was pretty easy and fun because I worked with a lot of friends so it saved me the work of getting to meet new people since we all knew each other. My good friend from school, Kevin Mendoza, always used to bring his board to work but I can tell he never really skated much, he just liked to cruise around and do a trick here and there. I was never really interested in it until one day I saw him actually doing tricks and trying to skate. Once I saw that I was hooked and I just had to give it a try. Of course I wasn’t going to do a kickflip or anything cool at that time, but I just wanted to ride it and get the feel for it. So I asked him If I could use the board and I tried riding it for the first time and I fell, A LOT. Something about it though kept me so

                                                                                                                                               

intrigued that I wasn’t even aggravated or annoyed about it, I had grown such a quick interest for it that I wanted to actually get somewhere with it and progress.

Once I had made my decision to buy a board, I used my first paycheck and bought one from a friend for fifty dollars. At the time I didn’t know how crappy it was because I was too excited on having my own so it didn’t really matter to me. Back when I started was really cool too because I had a lot of friends of all skill levels that were always willing to skate because they loved it just as much as I did. The main people I skated with was Carlos, Wii, Louis, Jackie, Alexis, and Denis.

Overall I’ve been skating for 3 years, but my first year was pretty annoying. I used to get a lot of crap from kids while I was trying to come up. People would look down at me because they thought I was going to turn out as a poser kid or in other words, a kid that does something for the look rather than for the love of it. I did my best to pay no mind to them because in reality it was all a bunch of stupid bullshit that needed to be avoided because it didn’t mean anything, so I didn’t really let it get to me, I just kept doing my thing and over time I started getting acknowledged by kids who were better than me.

Even though I had that situation under control, I still had an internal conflict to deal with, which was doubt. I knew that once you started going back on your words, It’s all over, but sometimes when I would get annoyed or frustrated, It would be hard to stay focused and persevere. At times I just wanted to quit and give up, but even on the days I did give up I always came back another time to finish what I had started. I changed from a very serious attitude, to a more mellow and fun oriented attitude. What I mean by that is that I used to be very serious

                                                                                                                                               

about skating, so serious that I was already dreaming of being a pro at 1 year. It’s a nice dream, but a stressful goal at that. So I decided to relax, and enjoy it. I’ll still be very serious about skating, but I’ll focus more on having fun and being really good at it and not to achieve the title of professional because If I play my cards right, that’ll be in time.

To this day I still stick to my board and closer than ever. Unfortunately not a lot of my friends followed the same paths due to lack of interest or life caught up with them and kept them busy with something else. Some of my old friends still skate so It’s not all bad but now that I’m getting better and making progress, It’s all about going out into the city and networking. Meeting new people and discovering new places to practice and hone my skills.

In-Class Writing 9/20

Pros:

1.   One thing that worked for me was the way the author, Langston Hughes, painted a vivid picture on how the church was swept with glee after they saw him stand up, thinking that he had truly seen god when in reality he didn't.
2. I like the way he confuses you in the beginning by saying "I was saved from sin when I was going on thirteen. But not really saved. It happened like this", then he begins to elaborate. It automatically drew me in.
3. Depicts people well.

Cons:

     1. The setting of the story isn't appealing to me.
  
    

Did this story keep you engaged?
A: No, it didn't. I lost interest very quickly.

What was its purpose?
A: To share his story of how he was "saved" but not really due to his lie when he was younger.

Homework: Outline

1. Skating
    a.  The funny story of how I got into it
    b.  Tell about the friends that were there from the beginning and of those who still hang around now.

2. Overcoming frustration and condescending tones
    a. People trying to bring me down.
    b. Kids that are better than me when I first started would tell me to quit because they told me I couldn't get anywhere. Proved them wrong though, haha.
    c. Those tough times when I wanted to give up but kept going on for the dream of making it somewhere

3. Present day
   a. Since I started at a younger age (15) I learned to not care about what people have to say and just keep doing what it is that I love to do. (fun)
   b. Letting my ambition and determination push me forward and never forgetting to have fun with it.

In-Class Writing 9/18

I think Mae Mobley will be shocked about her childhood due to the fact that her mother, Ms. Leefolt, wasn't really much of a mother and she was practically raised by the help, or in this case, Aibeleen. Its evident that Mae Mobley is more affectionate with Aibeleen than Ms. Leefolt.

Homework #3

1. A time that I wish I would've been honest was when my grandmother first asked me if I was religious. I nodded in approval but in reality I don't believe a damn thing about the subject. I think its all BS and what not but at that time I was very young so I didn't want to hurt my grandmother since she really wanted me to be.

2. A time when I felt that I was growing away from a friend was in middle school, my friend Ricardo. That kid was like a brother to me but in High School we grew apart due to the fact that he had moved and started working because he had to take care of his family and eventually dropped out to help them.

3. I'd say a time when I was made to feel isolated or different was when I went to church for the very first time. I didn't like the vibe and my aunt was trying to teach me something that I didn't even believe in so I left abruptly because I couldn't deal with it.

4. A time when I lost someone I loved was when my grandfather died. What killed me the most was that before his death he confessed to me that I was his favorite nephew.

5. A time when someones behavior differed from what I expected was when I went out with my buddy Wii to skate a new spot in Boston. I thought he would complain about being there because he complains about everything but he actually had a good time. What a relief.

6. A time when I disappointed someone has to be when I skipped school and my mom found out. She was so shocked because she thought of me as a saint because of the way I keep out of trouble.

7. A time when I surprised someone was my buddy Macho. He was shocked to see how fast I progressed in my skating since he was there since day one when I couldn't even ollie.

Homework #2 "The Help"

Homework Option #1

Hilly and Skeeter's relationship is quite awful. Skeeter is more "humane" then the other girls (white women), and she comes off as more friendlier then the others. She actually speaks to the help, and finds the comments said by Ms. Hilly and her friends as racist and wrong. She's basically a good soul in the wrong crowd. Ms. Hilly likes to influence Skeeter to go out on dates with men, and do things that she doesn't normally do so she can "fit in" with her crew since Ms. Skeeter isn't married and she actually talks to the help.

One of my friends from my earlier teen years was like a best friend to me, practically a brother. Unfortunately, a lot of things in his life went downhill and he resorted to drugs to escape reality since everything wasn't going so well. When I tried to help he pushed me away and locked himself in. After numerous attempts over time, he still was the same but he became a severe drug abuser. After a while we just grew apart once I realized he had become twisted beyond reason.

I think the way that the author, Katheryn Stockett, makes Aibeleen talk in the story is not a stereotype but just simply displaying how black folk commonly talked back then. Even in my own experiences I have come across my fair share of black people that still speak with this accent and most of them were in the east coast, which leads me to believe they were probably in southern cities/states at one point in their lifetime.  I think the idea of the author using this southern dialect is a good idea because it automatically injects the reader into the world she's trying to create thus making it easier for people to paint vivid pictures in their minds as they go along the story. At first I didn't really like the dialect because my mind would auto correct sentences and grammar because of the english text I'm used to reading, but once I gave it a couple of pages, the southern english just settled in more comfortably making reading the book a lot less annoying.