Football Accident

Period 5 11/1/12 Unthinkable When I look at my life, and I think about the hardest things for me to overcome, I would have to say, the ultimate being, telling my mother and father that I would be sitting out of football my senior year of high school. Most would say how could this possibly be something that you would find challenging, but then you don’t know my mother and father. I started playing sports, football, in particular, at the age of 7. I was kind of a chunky little kid, even had a funny gait when I ran, but you couldn’t tell that if you talked to my parents. To my mom and dad, I was a superstar.I started playing flag football through the YMCA program, and then moved up to Pop Warner. Here’s the crazy part. My mom or dad came to every practice, and every game, rain or shine. I think I was the only kid that knew one of my parents would be on the sidelines, whether at practice or a game. Now to be honest, those were tough years for me, as most times, my pa rents would be watching me sitting on the bench, because I did not get to play very often. During those years, I put on a brave face and never let my parents know how embarrassed I was and how I felt I let them down.The crazy part was, when my parents met with other player’s parents, they talked about me like I was the star of the team, never made me feel bad for not playing in a game. Again, come rain or shine, they were always there for me. Those were tough years for me. Every coach found a reason why I just wasn’t ready to be a starting player. Then something really incredible happened during my 7th grade year. This didn’t start off incredible, in fact, it was quite humiliating. Everyone that wanted to try out for the 7th grade football team met after school one day.Here were all the players and parents that I had been playing with for the last six years, and as the kid that sat on the bench most of the time, you can imagine, I was the odd man out. All these parents bragging about their own kids, the great plays, the touchdowns, but there stood my mom and dad, proud as ever. They were with their superstar. As the three of us stood there together, my father later told me that it was one of the most intimidating days he’d had in a long time, looking at the parents of the kids that got to play. My mother told me to do the best I could do, and my day would come.My dad always said because he wasn’t a coach or assistant coach on these teams, I didn’t get a fair chance, but in my heart, I just didn’t think I was a great player. Good, yes, but not great. Tryouts came and went, and once again, I assumed I would be a bench warmer. As I said earlier, this turned out to be an incredible year, and something happened that I never expected. Now that I look back, I still have to ask myself, â€Å"Did that really happen? †   Ã‚   All of the kids I played football with throughout the years were, of course, picked for the starting positions.Some of these very kids have made headlines in the last couple of years, but let’s get back to me. One cold dark evening, my Hedrick team was playing the Talent Bulldogs and one of the kids that normally played the wide receiver position was sick that day. The coach asked me to step in and give it a try. I can’t describe the butterflies in my stomach. My hands and knees shook and my heart began to race. I finally was given a chance and I was terrified. Well, guess what? Not only did I catch the ball and run it in for an 80 touchdown yard touchdown, but I did this game and game again.After gaining the starting wide receiver position, I gained the starting linebacker position and proved my dominance once again on the field. At the end of the season, I was voted Most Valuable Player for both offense and defense for not only junior varsity but for varsity as well. Now, with that said, you can only imagine my parents. Their son going from a bench play er to the number one player on both teams. My parents would run down the sidelines, whooping it up as I ran the ball. They finally had the superstar they’d been waiting for. Over the next few years, my playing improved, and I had moved to high school ball.Playing varsity for north as a freshman, and just like before, my parents did not miss a practice or game, even if it meant driving a few hundred miles. My parents and especially my dad kept waiting for my next big break, my time to shine. Then in my junior year, I found myself transferred to a new school, tried out and actually made the Varsity football team. My parents were so proud of me, and I was proud of myself. I don’t know who was more excited, me or my parents. My parents were on Cloud Nine, talking about nothing but football and Friday Night Lights.It was an exciting time of my life. The coach tried me out at Outside Linebacker, because of my speed, strength, and my ability to get around the offensive line. Then the unthinkable happened at practice. I was sent in on a blitz, and hit the offensive lineman with my shoulder. It felt like my arm had been ripped from its socket as I writhed on the ground in pain. The trainers ran over and rushed me to the hospital. I never would have guessed in a million years what a fateful day that would be. My shoulder was completely out of its socket, the tendons and ligaments torn.The most important year of my life had just been stripped away from me. Not only was surgery required, but months of physical therapy. My orthopedic doctor told me I could no longer play football without risking irreparable damage. I never told my parents this, and the doctor never told them. I kept that dream of Friday night lights in my parent’s hearts until I should have been signing up for football camp. This is when I had to tell them what the doctor said, and there would be no football in my life, no letter, no photos, and no glory. To me, this was the hardest da y of my life.On this day, I knew I was breaking my parent’s hearts. Everything they had looked forward to for my senior year of football was gone. I played the game, but they had lived the sport. Something died this day, maybe just a dream of mine, but it seemed so much more. Like a part of me was left on the field that sad day that I suffered my injury. To this day I day dream of the achievements I could have over came if I had no suffered that injury. Maybe one day when I have kids I will be able to live my football career through my future son†¦ but until that day comes I’m stuck watching in the stands

American Revolution- Revolution or Civil War? Essay

There is a lot of debate and disagreement on whether the American Revolution was an actual revolution, but rather a civil war. A revolution implies that there was a total change in government and rule of a country, and a civil war is a war that occurs in a country between groups of people from the country. There may have been a vast amount of tension between the colonies and the British, but the occurrences during the American Revolution had little to do with the changing of the government. There were many things that the colonies were expected to do and pay for. These were called colonial grievances. The colonies were expected to pay a lot of money for tea, sugar and stamps. The money would go to the British. The area they were allowed to live and stay in was also very restricted as they were not allowed or able to move westwards. This is because the British wanted to control the colonies and this is easier to do if the people are restrained to a smaller area. The colonies also had no one voicing their opinions and needs in the British Parliament, so all the decisions concerning the colonies were made by the British. The soldiers had power over, and controlled the colonies. The colonies began to feel anger towards the British because of their lack of rights, freedom and say in the way they were governed. Resentment grew and these made the colonies more aware and open to the idea for fighting against the British. The colonies wanted to be able to govern and rule themselves. The tension in the colonies was not enough to cause a revolution, but rather a civil war. The Boston Tea Party was when the Americans dressed up as Mohawk Indians and threw all the English tea into the harbour. They dressed up as Indians to symbolise how they were more American than British, and as a disguise. The throwing of the tea into the sea symbolised how they were not willing to pay taxes and were not willing to be ruled and overpowered by the British. The Americans were fighting against the British because of the tension that the colonial grievances had caused. The tension would affect any group of people and therefore, it makes it a civil war rather than revolution. As the tension grew, the colonies got tired of trying to fight the government without any change occurring. The colonies the thought that by using armed conflict, they would be able to get their point across better. They used Lexington to secretly store weapons until they would have enough to stand against the British. The British found out about the storehouse at Lexington and began to march to Lexington so that they could end the gathering of weapons because the British didn’t want the Americans to rise up against them. The colonies were not aware of the British moving towards Lexington, so Paul Revere rode through the night on horseback to warn the colonies. The face-off between the colonies and the British increased the already intense tension, and made the Americans want to govern themselves even more than before. The Boston Massacre was a real depiction of how much tension had been building up amongst the colonies and the British. A guard was standing outside the Customs House and the colonies began throwing snowballs at him. The colonies then started throwing rocks at the guard, rather than snowballs. The British guard then called for backup and more British soldier’s arrived at the customs house. The guards then opened fire on the colonists and killed 5 people. After all the events had occurred, people from the colonies joined up and drafted the Declaration of Independence. This document stated how they wanted to be a free country and be able to govern themselves. The declaration of Independence states that all men are created equal, but all women were not given the right to vote, and neither could slaves. Only men who owned land had the right to vote. This shows that they war the Americas were governed did not totally change, hence it is not a revolution, but rather a civil war. So even though there is a lot of debate and disagreement on whether the American Revolution was a revolution or a civil war, there are many points that show that it is not a revolution, but a civil war.

Becoming A Woman And Accepting It Essay

Becoming A Woman 1 At first reading, Elizabeth Bishop’s â€Å"In The Waiting Room† is a world full of wonderful imagery. I did not care what it meant, I just enjoyed the way she described what she saw in the National Geographic while waiting in a dentist’s room. I can perfectly see in my mind when she wrote about â€Å"the inside of a volcano, black, and full of ashes; then it was spilling over in rivulets of fire †¦ Babies with pointed heads wound round and round with string† (Bishop, 1977). The second reading, I began to wonder what she meant with â€Å"But I felt: you are an I, you are an Elizabeth, you are one of them †¦ Why should I be my aunt, or me, or anyone? † I thought maybe she has an identity crisis or something like that so I reread it again. This time, the phrase â€Å"I said to myself: three days and you’ll be seven years old† stuck on my mind. And that’s when everything clicked. I felt that with her seventh birthday coming on (for me, this is an idiom for a woman’s rite of passage like her eighteenth birthday or another significant event), Elizabeth feels she’s finally becoming a woman. When I say becoming a woman, it’s the transition from being a carefree girl to an adult female with responsibilities. She’s quite agitated by it, not quite sure if she could be like her aunt and the rest of the adults. Elizabeth is anxious and is not ready to become a woman, but whether she likes it or not, she’s a woman already. Thus, she said, â€Å"I knew that nothing stranger had ever happened, that nothing stranger could ever happen. † After questioning how she became a woman, Elizabeth finally accepted that she is one. In the end of the poem she said, â€Å"The War was on. † If you were a kid, a teenager, or someone who doesn’t care for responsibilities, a war is not something you’d think about. But Elizabeth now does think about it. She has finally accepted she is a woman with responsibilities, still scared about it but willing to face whatever that might come her way. Well, at least, that’s how I see it ? Becoming A Woman 3 Reference Bishop, Elizabeth. (1977). Geography III. New York: Farrar Straus & Giroux.

Corporate Personhood Essay

Corporate personhood is the concept that a company or business has legal recognition by the court; it simply means that the corporation has the power or ability to enter into contracts, to hire and fire its employees, to sue and to be sued, to make speeches freely and to hold property just like any other individual (Diamond, 2012). Corporate personhood was recognized first in the year 1886 by the Supreme Court of the United States in a ruling during a case between the Santa Clara County and Southern Pacific Railroad. The main reason that they were targeting then was to give corporations the legal rights of people in order to maintain minority rule and to avoid democracy. In this essay we get to discuss the challenges that have come with corporate personhood, its impact on other businesses and the community at large. We also get to look at the current affairs and state of corporate personhood. In comparison, of the two articles which are, The endangered public company and the Occupy Santa Clara Corporate personhood recognized, we get to see some of the points in which the two articles concur and those that they differ. We are also going to look at the Strength and Weaknesses of their decision or arguments. The title endangered public company comes into use because the corporations are being targeted for closure, some people are of the mind that corporations have been given too much power and they end up ruling us instead of us controlling them (The Economist, 19 May 2012). Corporations are doing a lot of damages and injustices to other small businesses and due to the fact that it cannot be punished or fined. It avoids justice which many people think or feel is not fair for the community. Everyone should be answerable for the mistakes they commit and no one is above the law. In one of the articles that critics are challenging corporate personhood, they are against it and would wish for it to be made illegal and all the issues regarding the corporation be directed to a particular individual, but the railroad barons and lawyers get away with their mischief’s by giving corporations personhood, we also get to see that people are accusing Mark Zuckerberg, the founder of Facebook directly, ignoring the fact that he is not Facebook as Facebook is now a separate entity that can sue and be sued. Although, Zuckerberg acts on behalf of Facebook; he cannot be held accountable for the deeds done under the umbrella of Facebook. (The Economist, 21 May 2012) In both of the articles, corporate personhood ends up being recognized as legal though some critics don’t like it. It is however, important that we get to see the strengths and weaknesses of a corporation personhood. Some of the benefits that a business or the individuals owners of the business may get from being in a corporate are. The ability of the corporation to carry all its liabilities incases of any calamity; in case of bankruptcy or any other unfortunate occurrence, the corporation will be responsible for the damages and not the individual owners. The railroad barons can now sit in comfort for the blames will not be put to them but directed to the corporation, Zuckerberg can also relax for the actions taken by face book are not answerable by him (The Economist, 21 May 2012). The ability of the corporation to sue and be sued; the corporation can take any person to court if aggrieved in any way and it can also be taken to court just like it is with Facebook, individuals have taken it to court for the treatment they have received in the social media, it is also clearly seen I the article of Occupy Santa Clara Personhood reconsidered that a number of corporation have been taken to court for one reason or the other, it is evident that most of the corporations always go scot free immediately their lawyers quote the decision made by the supreme court in the case of Santa Clara County Vs. Southern Pacific Railroad. This is because the court have to always uphold previous decisions or judgments’ made especially if it were made by a court that is of a higher authority that the one currently in question. A corporation can live forever, in case of death of any of the owners it just continues operating, a simple process of change of ownership is all that is required, and although the founders of the South Pacific Railroad are long gone their corporation is still functioning. Despite the fact that a corporation can be sued, an individual cannot take it to jail, this is because it’s just an abstraction, and this is seen clearly in the issue involving the railroad barons. (Diamonds, 2012) Despite a corporation being of enormous advantages and benefits, they also carry with them their disadvantages, Some of the weaknesses that can be viewed include the fact that the legal formalities of establishing the corporation are quite many and tedious, an organization will have to adhere to more sta te and federal rules and regulation. The fact that a corporation is expensive to form also gives it a negative touch, not every individual can just come and decide to form a corporation. The other issue is that since a corporation can be sued and taken to court, if found guilty of the charges levied against it the repercussion might be severe if the shareholders had not prepared themselves well for the consequences, the corporation might be rendered bankrupt or may be put under receivership which may not ogre well with the shareholders. Corporation personhood is an issue of great concern and many people in the current generation are trying to find a way to overrule the decision of the Santa Clara case that haunts many legal suits, they are of the opinion that the 126 years that corporation have been terrorizing people is enough. Historian Morton Horwitz is among the individuals who have been trying their level best to overturn the ruling of the supreme court of the year 1886, (Meyers, 2002) though it is evident that the court ruling at that time was aimed at protecting the interest of a big business and protecting the barons it will still be hard to overturn it because its benefits have been seen in the long run. So many countries have adopted the same and they have ripped the fruits of corporate personhood. It may have its side effects but for the record, corporate personhood is one of the best things that has ever happened for the benefits it has brought with it far much outweighs the negative aspects of it. People may magnify the negative aspects but it is evident that without corporate personhood there are a lot of things that would not have been achieved, starting with the railroad. References Meyers, W., (2002). The Santa Clara Blues, Corporate Personhood versus Democracy. Retrieved from http://www.iiipublishing.com/afd/santaclara.html Diamond, S. F., (2012, April 12). Occupy Santa Clara! Corporate Personhood Reconsidered. Dissent Magazine. Retrieved from http://www.dissentmagazine.org/online_articles/occupy-santa-clara-corporate-p

Portfolio Management Master Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Portfolio Management Master - Essay Example Thereafter the effects on smaller securities will be masked by those of larger portfolio. (Gruber 26). This is not to imply that returns will increase with sensitivity to the said factors. Because some factor that are prices cannot be diversified yet are persuasive, they will definitely affect the price returns as opposed to those that are unpriced yet can be diversified. Therefore the distinction of priced and unpriced factors defines the first role of APT in portfolio management. An example of this role in deciding to buy steels that are not persuasive to current prices, is for the APT manager to decide how to buy knowing they will not get extra returns. (Gruber 26), (Anonymous 337 - 352) Secondly, the manager must ensure that there is enough knowledge of choosing steel stocks to cover the extended risks and must also ensures that this risk is spread across several securities. Thus, the APT process must guarantee trade offs as prices make returns sensitive. This means that there is neither a good or bad decision, rather, risk return aim are the most guiding factors. (Gruber 26). Thirdly, APT will influence choice of portfolio depending on income. ... (Gruber 26) Therefore by use of Arbitrage Pricing Theory, the management will lay out a portfolio that considers several factors of influence under the prevailing market conditions. Thereafter priced risks will persuade the investor to take the greatest risk similar to CAPM. Risk will vary with sensitivity of the influences. However the market portfolio has no significance role in the decision of market performance. (Gruber 27). Hypothesis: Whenever the CEO of a company retires, an excess return can be made by buying the company's stock. This hypothesis can be tested by research into the retirement of famous CEO of companies that are listed in the stock exchange markets. Examples of key CEOs who have retired are Lee Raymond from Exxon Mobil (XOM), John Kanas from North Folk Bancorp, Robert Nardelli from Home Depot, Stan O'Neal from Merrill Lynch. A list of up to 50 CEOs who have retired from listed companies will need to be made to make up study of individual retirement and stock sale cases. (Oduma 1) Next research will need to be done to establish which which stocks sales went up or down as soon as the CEO of the respective companies retired from the listed companies. The assumptions to be held are that the stock quantities are stable as well as there price fluctuations. If more than 50% of these results reflect this statement, then the hypothesis can be said to hold. If not then the hypothesis in null. (Oduma 1) A long side this research, there will be need to identify factors that have previously led to increased buying of company stock. In this case, the issue of CEO's retirement will need to

History of Art Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

History of Art - Essay Example The British Museum is a house of art that houses a wide collection of world art and artefacts free to all visitors. Giovanni Antonio Canaletto drawing of London at around 1751 Image Location: http://www.britishmuseum.org/images/ps355425_m.jpg The picture shows a favorite eighteenth century view of London from high ground. The cathedral is the tallest building in the drawing, as it is seen high in the sky. The middle ground on the right hand edge of the picture presents a building with its walled forecourt, which the artist calls The Founding Hospital at the north of the tow. These make the landmarks of the town among the mass of smaller buildings surrounded by a number of parish churches. The fact that the drawing served as a model for the engraver explains the careful outlines and the slightly labored appearance of the drawing. Although the artist’s characteristic of penwork is evident in the free drawing of the plants in the foreground, which brings out the liveliness of ske tches and drawings which represented a finished work. The visual evidences the artist presents about London are evident in the drawing. Even the color used represents the period during which the drawing was made. Lucas Van Leyden’s Copperplate Engraving of Christ Presented to the People Image Location: http://www.britishmuseum.org/images/ps141709_m.jpg The engraving shows a group of people gathering in a crowd, with some holding swords. The picture shows dressing codes of people during the era when Jesus was crucified. The buildings too represent palace buildings of the time. To bring out the presentation of the time, the artist has used linear perspective to create a detailed sequence of space between multifaceted and magnificent buildings (Griffiths 1510). The background of the engraving shows a clear appearance of clouds, which show the sky background of any good work of art. This work of art also shows the characteristics of a good picture in the way the grounds are arran ged. The foreground, middle ground and the back ground all show differentiated arrangement of views. The sizes of the buildings differ according to the grounds. The engraving is clearly a representation of the period brought out by the artist. Thomas Gainsborough‘s watercolor of A cart Passing along a winding road Image Location: http://www.britishmuseum.org/images/ps219472_m.jpg The image according to its title shows people with a cart journeying on a road with trees depicting a windy weather. These are visually evident characteristics of the image. The artist has used paint to bring out the theme of the picture in the drawing. The watercolor paint used over black chalk heightened with white bodycolor brings the light and shade, which are the most noticeable features in the picture (Royalton-Kisch 1999). The light pool brings illumination to the road, the horses, and gaps appearing between the trees. The picture shows a clear image of nature as the title depicts. The artist b rings out work of landscape artists who can make a good representation of landscape. Wenceslaus Hollar drawing View of The Tower of London Image Location: http://www.britishmuseum.org/images/ps219443_m.jpg The picture, as is visual has a ship in the foreground, in the middle foreground are small boats and at the background is the tower. This drawing was made in pen and brown ink with watercolor over black lead. The foreground shows

Media Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Media - Essay Example In the article â€Å"New media, counter publicity and the public sphere† the authors provide the overview of the work of Habermas and his main ideas. In the works of Habermas, where he depicts the ups and downs of the public sphere, the special attention is paid to the special place of the public that criticizes media. He noticed that because of some changes, which happened due to the development of mass media, the public sphere had to change as well. It is unacceptable to allow media to create certain pattern of the vision that is imposed on the society. Moreover, the horizontal communication was changed to the vertical one. Dawney and Fenton state that â€Å"in other words, horizontal communication between citizens is increasingly replaced by vertical communication between mass media, greatly influenced by both the state and capital, and consumers. The space for participatory communication is severely constricted† (Dawney and Fenton 2003:185). Habermas would like to p reserve the rational essence from becoming the ideological one. The public sphere is the unique field for citizens to communicate equally and it is the direct way to form the democratic society. Habermas presented his own vision of the public sphere of the 20th century. ... In the modern society media actively communicates with people. We can see that non-mass media has been developing in different forms. Habermas raises important issue in his work trying to find the answer to the question, whether the independent public fields are able to create a debate with the help of mass media. He also notices that such independent public fields influence the mass media in general, but only in special conditions. According to Dawney and Fenton, â€Å"Habermas recognizes not only the existence of alternative public spheres but also their capacity for challenging domination. While he maintains that his analysis of the public sphere infrastructure still pertains to a mass media largely subordinate to the interests of capital on the one hand, and the state on the other, he has in the meantime revised his pessimistic opinion of the public.†(Dawney and Fenton 2003:187) It has become clear that we are going through the crisis and need to find the solution. It was mentioned above that Internet provides a great variety of opportunities making necessary information accessible (Sunstein, 2001). World web makes its possible to find any information very quickly and represents a perfect platform for advertising. It represents a perfect tool for communication and information exchange. However, despite all the pluses, the word web has it minuses Pluralism is one of them. It is essential to remember that Internet can be used in different purposes and it can be used by everybody. The fact that modern society is created by the mass media and not vice versa is the most dangerous (Verstraeten, 1995). It should be said that the political public fields arising as a part of the independent public fields can cause the fragmentations in the