"This I Believe: The Best Place to Live" by Olivia

This December, Advanced Composition students studied, wrote, and recorded audio essays. Students wrote and recorded their own "This I Believe" essays inspired by the weekly This I Believe Podcast. While we're publishing the text of each essay below, we strongly encourage you to listen to each student's audio essay for a more intimate experience.

I remember being taught in elementary school that America is one big “Melting Pot”. I understood my country was diverse and that’s what made it unique. As a student I’ve had classes with kids of various races and ethnicities, and have been raised in an environment that doesn’t see color. However it was native for me to think this was the case for everyone else around the world.

I remember being told before my family trip to China in the summer of 2012 that there would be a major cultural difference. My parents warned me I would get stares, and while walking around Beijing, China I experienced it first-hand. Not only did people stare at me, but some people even followed my family and I. Throughout my whole trip in China, Chinese people as young as 10 and as old as 40 would come up to me and my sister and ask to take their picture with us, making me feel like a celebrity. This was outrageous to me and I began to realize how isolated China was from the rest of the world. Yes, I dressed and talked differently but I never thought that people would look at me with surprised eyes and confusion. Especially being half Asian, I can’t image what they would do if I had blond her and blue eyes. A difference I noticed was that, In general everyone had the same hair color and dressed in the same darker shades of color. The lack of uniqueness in fashion and style was unusual for a big city in China and is significantly different compared to an American city like New York City. The most shocking incent however occurred later in my trip when my family and me went to the Great Wall. It was a very hot day and my dad took off his shirt. Being half Arabic, he had quiet the amount of body hair and judging by the horrified looks my father was getting, this was not something common for Chinese people. One woman, when seeing my father, screamed and grabbed her child to shield them away from my father.

My trip to China made me appreciate America and its diversity.  Something like this would never occur in the United States. Americans welcome diversity and respect uniqueness and in China diversity seemed to be rare or limited.  It was surprising to learn that a culture could be so isolated and unaware of other cultures around the world. This made me love my country even more. I realized there was no other country in the world with as many interracial marriages or integrated schools.  I feel fortune to have grown up with diversity and to eventually have kids that will grow up in the same environment as well. I finally understood what it meant for America to be one big “melting pot”. My country is built on diversity and for that reason I believe the United States is the best place to live.

"On Travel" by J.K. Rowling

After getting off my fourteen-hour plane ride I was feeling anxious. I had no idea what to expect, but whatever it was I was ready to hate it. The smog of the city hit me like a wall with the sun beating down on me. The humidity of the air surprised me, because it finally hit me that my family and I were nowhere close to home. Resistant to any change that would take me away from the summer with my friends, I was mad at my parents. Little did I know going to China would be the best experience of my life.

Immediately after walking around the city I noticed the cultural difference: for one, the amount of people-after arriving in Beijing, China, I found out there were twenty-one million people living in the city; New York City has seven million. Everywhere I went, people would stare at me with big eyes like I was some kind of foreign mystery they had never seen before, and most of them probably hadn’t. I was told before the trip people would not be used to the way I dress or carry myself, but I had no idea it would be to this extent. Some people would even ask to take pictures with my sister and me, making us feel like celebrities.  I could only image what they would do if I had blonde hair and blue eyes. I learned how fortunate I am to grow up in community with so much diversity.

"Open Roads" by Naomi Jean Lewis

The road stretches before us with no end in sight.

Trucks rumble behind me, and other families with other stories drive on far ahead.

The speed limits are higher than I’m used to seeing

But I don’t drive the speed limit at home anyway.

I fall in love with golden fields and open skies as my sister falls asleep.

Her cowboy hat hangs behind her and her snowboard slides on the backseat.

She’s still asleep when I drive past the first few wind turbines.

            Hey, Kristen, I say, shoving at her shoulder

            Look at this.

            That’s cool, she says back, and closes her eyes again.

I keep driving, and the turbines keep coming.

The engine growls louder as I coax Ellie

(My sister’s name for the black Honda Element, not mine)

Up a hill and over a crest

            Kristen.

Displayed before me is a sea unlike any I’ve seen.

Giant white monsters rear their heads.

Thousands and thousands of wind turbines dot the golden fields.

They’re not packed tightly but everywhere I look they stand tall.

            Kristen. I don’t know why I need her to see this,

But there’s something about powerful entities

Resting like remnants of another world in the middle of America.

            Kristen, please.

Kristen is awake now, watching the army of turbines stand at attention.

She doesn’t say anything, but I know she feels the same way I do.

We pay tribute to the newly created gods of the earth in silence.

We soar down the road at a speed that makes me feel invincible.

We pray for something we can’t put a name to.

 I drive with one hand wrapped around the wheel and the other on the gearshift.

The turbines don’t stop coming- there are more on the other side of the road.

The sun setting behind them blinds me as the light sets the world aflame.

(They look like angry deities, standing in the midst of Armageddon)

As the sun dips behind the plains, the turbines become barely visible.

(People have forgotten the old myths they used to fear)

The monolithic, man-made creations vanish as fast as they appeared.

My sister goes back to sleep.

We have four more hours before we can stop.

(Although the turbines still exist, miles away, they are gone from our minds.

They were never an army. There was only a cemetery the an empty field.)

(We forget that we have always created our own gods.)

"My Favorite City" by Forrest Gump

This week's pieces of the week feature our senior tutors, some of whom represent our very first HWC tutors. We wish them the best of luck in all that they do, and especially in their writing!

My favorite city in whole world, hands down, is definitely the Big Apple, the one and only New York City. Most of my favorite sports teams are also from New York. I have been to New York around forty to fifty times in my lifetime so far. I have traveled to the city a handful amount of times, but always go into Long Island whenever I visit because of family. Everyone on my mother's side of the family lives on Long Island except for my Uncle and Aunt. All of my mother's best friends from when she was younger also lives on Long Island. Whenever we visit, the trip consists of visiting our family and also our extended family which is larger than our actual family, crazy, I know.