Burnt, peeling skin slipped off my sun beaten arm. A salty tear dropped down my face, and I swallowed it, soaking in every bit of bitter liquid I could taste. I squinted, the sun capturing my green eyes at a glare. I reached over and grabbed my sunglasses, protecting my damaged eyes from the harmful UV rays. Suddenly, the world came into view.…
Barbara Miedema November 5, 2016 Song Essay When people get into their cars one of the first things they do is reach for the radio. What if that radio wasn’t there? What would they do? People don’t realize but they use the radio to escape having to sit in silence with nothing but their own thoughts.…
At precisely six forty-three p.m. of a late summer’s day, the residence of Maple Street go about their various evening activities— women gossiping, men tending to their vehicles, and children buying from an ice cream vendor. Clear overhead zooms something that seems out of this world. It roars across the sky but a crash is yet to be heard. In all the ruckus, the neighbors muse at what it might have been. Suddenly, all the power is wiped off the street; the phone lines are dead, the car engines are kaput, all the lights are out, and even portable radios are down.…
In the twenty-first century we tend to distract ourselves with technology that keeps us from taking the time to genuinely think, or rather that is what twenty one pilots want you to see. “Car Radio,” written by Tyler Joseph of twenty one pilots, is based from a personal experience Joseph had where his car radio was stolen and the experiences that followed. It, and the associated music video, produce the argument that we need to spend more of our lives in silence rather than surrounded by sound. The rhetoric of twenty one pilot’s “Car Radio” is effective because of emotional appeals to ethos, logos, and pathos. Twenty one pilots establish their credibility by placing themselves in a place of power and control in their music video for “Car Radio.”…
I see shade on a hot summer day looking out into the beautiful nature Florida has to hold. I see true value in the colors as they bleed into one another in the background. Giving it pastel feels of a late evening on a summer day. The bright colors give it such a happy feel like you're somewhere tropical and everything else around you are irrelevant. You're looking past imperfections of this state and drawing in on what is truly beautiful.…
I walked up to the entrance of the evacuated home. The house could have been an enchanting two-story house; with its ivory framed windows, and front lawn. If it was not abandoned and lifeless, maybe this house would have been the dream house everyone fancied. But it's lifeless and boorish, just like the carrion of Timothy Woodsen. His body was no longer there, but the evidence was.…
Sometimes I dream that I am again standing at the pathway of the Burkley house. The chimney billowed with smoke, and the magnolia bushes in full bloom; like they once did in that spring time air which curled around your every movement. I dream of again clomping my over-sized shoes against the ever twisting stone path, catching rain drops and petals in my unkempt hair. I will not lie; I do long for the Burkley house, for the essence of my youth still stays trapped in those lengthy hallways. I often forget the blizzards that struck, the lighting that cast us in darkness, the people I met.…
It was a bright summer morning in Big Cypress, Florida. The green palm trees were swaying and the bright blue rivers were peaceful. The long and large alligators were swimming. You could see them bobbing up and down, so all of the tourists could take quick pictures of them. There was a steady flow of people going in and out of the small, worn down nature center.…
“Shes coming back right?” a baffled 7 year old asks in response to the appalling news of her mother’s death. A vibrant imagination is accompanied by a crushing pain of reality that trails behind it ; I discovered this when I heard the words “no” . 10 years later, that conversation lingers in my head and holds not a cacophonous nor euphonious sound, but instead holds the neutral tone of reality, an alarm . As routine , at 6a.m., I hear a melodious alarm followed by the pitter-patter of my aunt who is getting ready for work.…
The biggest trip of my life was to Columbia, Georgia, for Klay's Special Graduation; Klay is my older brother. I don't travel much, so that trip was big. I was asleep. It was 4:30 in the morning, or was it 2:30, I can't remember. "Time to go."…
We arrived in the middle of the night, almost in secret. When we were a couple miles away, we could see dimmed lights up ahead. The closer we got, the brighter they shined our way. They resembled the stars in the sky, but instead they had fallen onto the ground to illuminate the night. When we drew into town, everything seemed so strange to me.…
The month was November, with the trees changing color and the temperature becoming colder it was my favorite time of the year. Watching the leaves fall outside the window I waited for my bag at the airport baggage claim. I had flown out to Florida for the annual Anthro-Adventure Week. It is a program that invites all of the anthros in America to a week vacation somewhere different each year. This year we were taking a trip to the Bahamas on a cruise ship.…
All the pictures, articles, and news reports could not have prepared my soul from the heartache of what it was about to witness. Hurricane Katrina’s aftermath left nothing but devastation in her path, leaving ghost towns for neighborhoods, homes dilapidated, and with resilient locals determined to overcome. As I slowly drove down the first hauntingly, quiet, empty street, I could not help but feel my shiny car was grossly out of place. As I turned the key abruptly to quiet the engine I used to think so gently purred, I closed my eyes and pictured how this once bustling, busy neighborhood used to look and sound.…
During April of 2015, I stepped out of the car and onto the beach for the first time in Destin, Florida; the salty sea stung my nose as I breathed in a refreshing breath of briny air. The first step onto the sand was like a bed of blankets; soft and comfortable. The way the white sand glided onto my feet and squished between my toes felt like heaven. The waves were singing a delicate lullaby, pulling me closer to them. As I walk towards the ocean with the warm sand beneath my feet, the cold waves lap at my ankles, as if they want to take me away.…
Directly outside the entrance of the airport I was entranced. Leaving a skyline of dying trees and brisk weather and entering a bright flourishing tropic was a sight of wonderland. I fell in love immediately, the sun was high and bright, and the view was green, full of mountains in the horizon, just out of reach. I was astounded that I was in the big city, yet it was nothing like i’d seen before. The buildings weren’t tall or intimidating like back home, they second to the surrounding…