FREE: A Dream Deferred

"What happens to a dream deferred?"

What happens to a person when they have a dream? When someone has a major goal in life? When someone aspires towards something? They tend to strive. To go to their limits to achieve that goal. They live on excitement, they live on motivation. But what happens when that dream is no longer there? When that dream gets cut off? When that dream gets deferred?

When I was 10, I went to a camp called the Mosaic Project. It was a week long program in the Napa Valley, originally designed for the disabled. We slept in cabins, sang songs around the campfire, and learned about life skills such as empathy. It was the first, and most amazing experience I've ever had. We had cabin leaders there. They were teenagers assigned to supervise us kids. I swore to myself, one day I would definitely return to the Mosaic Project as a cabin leader. Having that goal in mind, I was beyond excited. My mom on the other hand didn't understand my goal. She didn't know why I wanted to leave home for another couple weeks, she didn't wanna spend the money, or drive me up to Napa. With that knowledge, my dream was gone. Knowing that the chances of accomplishing that goal were slim, my excitement soon turned to disappointment. Disappointment to me, is the main consequence of a deferred dream.

What do you think happens when a dream is deferred?

CE: 1 Out Of 18.

Thursday afternoon, a toddler laying in the middle of the street, unquestionably injured after being ran over multiple times. If she was obviously harmed, why was she still laying unconscious on the road?

Yue Yue, a Chinese toddler, was ran over repeatedly Thursday afternoon in Foshan, Guangdong Province, China. You'd think after seeing such a young life on the line, someone would've immediately helped her, right? Wrong. 18 pedestrians and cyclists passed right on by without calling an ambulance, or even helping Yue Yue off the street. Thank goodness Chen Xianmei, a 57 year old nearby, had the decency to move her off to the side of the street, and called for help, saving her life.

When I heard the news, and heard that over a dozen people passed by without helping her in the slightest way seemed so incredibly wrong to me. It made me think, "Is it that hard to be a good person nowadays? What has the world come to?" It's shocking that only 1 person out of 18 people chose to stop, and chose to save a life.

Though it's sickening to know that so many people are so heartless nowadays, it's refreshing to know that there's still some kind-hearted, generous people out there in the world.

FREE: Appearance.

Appearance. One dilemma everybody shares. Whether it's a pimple, or the way you dress, appearance seems to be an issue everyone has to deal with, some more than others.

Before I used to think appearance was an extremely big deal. Having to look presentable anywhere I go. Even if it's to the grocery store, or to a family member's house, I'd always have to put myself together. But as lifes progresses, the need to "dress to impress" becomes less and less important to me. Now when I think about it, who am I trying to impress? Nobody. As long as I feel comfortable in my own skin, why should I feel the need to impress anyone else? Unless I have one of those high school puppy crushes, but I don't at the moment. Lately I've been noticing that I've been downgrading the way I present myself. Not meaning that I don't care how I present myself now, it just means that I don't put as much effort into looking nice everywhere I go. Instead of spending a couple hours a night looking for something to wear, I'll settle with anything I can find in about 30 minutes that looks decent.

What I've come to realize is that appearance isn't everything. Just because you look nice on the outside, doesn't mean anything else. You shouldn't spend so much time worrying about such a topic, because appearance isn't everything.

RP: Cellphones? Unnecessary.

"But yeah, I'll get a text and just look at my phone and throw it on my bed or something." - Vicky Hoang

I completely agree with Vicky. To me, technology is starting to bore me. Before, whenever I got a call or a text message, I'd pick up or text back right away, or as soon as I saw it. When my bill came, my mom would always ask who I text to have hit over 15,000 messages that month. But lately, I've been getting really lazy with all that. If someone calls me and I miss it, chances are I won't call back, unless it's someone important like my mom. If someone texts me, 99.99% of the time, I won't text back. I'd read it, then re-lock my phone and toss it back to wherever it was. Honestly, it's not because I don't want to talk to the person, it's because I'm too lazy to even reply.

I remember when I first got texting, I was so excited. I wanted to text everyone, I wanted everyone to text me. At a point, I felt that I couldn't even live without my phone(exaggerating), but I did think that. And even though I felt such love towards my phone before, I find that as time goes on, my phone becomes less and less important to me. Sure, it's a good thing to have incase of emergency. But now, I can probably say I could go without a cellphone.

Before if you asked me, "Do you think you can live without your phone?" I'd probably reply, "NO." But now, if you asked me the same question, I'd reply, "Yes, cellphones aren't necessary to live."

CE: Sick.

An underground issue that has finally surfaced. Priests sexually abusing minors? Yes, priests. The reports have increasingly been flooding in, in Europe and the US. Have these cases been brought to justice? After years of sweeping these reports under the carpet, the world is beginning to take legal notice to these sickening actions.

 "When at age 15, I called the diocese to report the rapes they hung up on me." - Megan Peterson, 21.


Disgusting. Revolting. Disgraceful. All words I can think of to describe not only the priests accountable for these actions, but also the figure of authority who was supposed to be responsible of handling the result of those actions. It's one thing to be the abuser, but what makes you better if someone has chosen to confide in you, and seek your help, and all you can think to do is hang up the phone. Shame.


In my mind, I thought priests were supposed to be against those gruesome actions. To be against those merciless people. I never thought of them to be the ones hiding behind such crimes. And for them to be sexually assaulting minors, and still being able to wander the streets freely is ridiculous. The world has taken the first step of recognizing the situation, but let's take the second step. Let's get rid of these sick, twisted people, and put them behind bars.

RP: School Makes You Cool.

"The choices that some people make really confuse me. You're offered free education, something that isn't available to everyone and yet still decide to take it for granted." - Peter Nguyen

In the country we live in, we're fortunate enough to have a free public education. And in school, we're given numerous opportunities to improve the chances of our futures. With a deal like that, you'd think each and every member of the student body would be thankful for a such an education. But instead, you observe many students destroying their futures instead of building them up, because they think they're "too cool for school."

I agree with Peter's statement. Many kids nowadays have such a negative attitude towards school. I'll admit, I've had my fair share of days where I didn't feel like going to school, or where I'd complain about how I hate school. But in all honesty, I love school. Besides the fact that it's a place offering me a free education and a chance at a better future, it's a place that allows me to associate with people foreign to me, even allowing me to create life long bonds with some of them. It disappoints me to see the negativity and disrespect towards school from some students. Disrespecting school rules because they're, "too cool for school." Disrespecting teachers because they're, "too cool for school." And even disrespecting peers because they're, "too cool for school."

When I see people with that attitude, it completely changes my perspective of them as a person. Honestly, it makes me think of them of a person that I frankly don't wanna be associated with. Coming to school with your mind set on not wanting to be there, or being there to disrupt the learning environment of others in UNcool. But coming to school ready to learn, with a positive respectful attitude, makes you incredibly cool.

FREE: Pride.

Orange. The color assigned to us sophomores. Tomorrow is the day of our homecoming game, also the day where each class wears their class colors. I wonder who really has pride to be a sophomore.

Last year, being a freshman our color was a bland shade of gray. &to avoid being boo'd & pennied, I chose to show up at school in a neutral white. I can honestly say I wasn't proud to be a freshman that day. But this year, it's a completely different story. Weeks before homecoming, I went shopping for all things orange. An orange tee shit, orange socks, and even orange face paint. I know this year I can show my school spirit & pride to be a sophomore. I don't have to hide anymore, and I can finally walk around with my war paint on. I'm ready for tomorrow, to get up in the morning, put my orange on, get through the day, the pep rally, and even to see our class float. Already ready, I can't wait for Alameda High's homecoming day :)