... and I did not have much in common, but one thing we did share was our Algebra II class that followed the lunch period. Most days Chris would still be studying while I was on the way out of the cafeteria. One day in particular, the bell that marks the end of the lunch period had just rung, and I was heading out for Ms. Henyon's math class. I saw up ahead of me, Chris frantically flipping through his Algebraic Concepts text book. I approached Chris and asked: "Did we have any homework we were supposed to do?" "All we had to do was study for the test today," Chris replied. As usual, I had forgotten another quiz; either that I had chosen to neglect it. Whiche ...

... the bus, and when I think about it, I turned as red as a juicy apple. When we promptly arrived at the school at 7:30 AM, I saw a thirty-foot tall brick building that looked like the size of two football fields put together. This made me even more nervous. Inside the gigantic school, I felt like a midget compared to the older kids, who seemed like giants. Finding the rooms where my classes were being taught was like solving a maze. The building had three stories and each level had over twelve classrooms. I had a different teacher for each class, unlike Oxford Middle School where I had only a couple of teachers. The teachers did not seem as gentle and caring ...

... I always had very good grades in school. But, I wasn’t a nerd. I loved to make friends. One of the many differences between America and China is the fact that computers and the Internet were not easily accessible there. But once I came here, I immediately fell in love with web surfing and online chatting. I love flirting with guys, however I understand the importance of studying so I tend to have little time for that. Therefore, I gave them a Chinese riddle. I said I would talk to anyone who could answer it. The riddle is: What can walk without legs, eat without a mouth, pass through a river that has no water, and die without a soul? The answer is Chinese chess. ...

... experiences. Many students who don’t participate in such activities often lack team working and people person skills. Participating in school and community services projects has also helped grow. By doing such projects I have been able to get an excellent feel for what the real world is like. This enables me to make more conscientious decisions as a student and even after I graduate. I feel it has given me a lot of necessary experience that will help me accomplish my future goals and prepared me for the real world t. Some of the advantages that spreadsheets have over hand held calculators are; it is very inconvenient to deal with more numbers and as your ...

... done wrong, or done badly, my family still shows this unconditional love to me and to each other. The second part in a family is respect and trust. Trust is something that can take years to build, but can be broken very easily. By breaking trust with a family member one is also breaking respect of the family. The two ideas go hand in hand. My parents respected me enough to tell me that I was adopted, instead of lying to me and having me find out later in life that I wasn't their biological son. This respect that my parents gave me, in turn gave me their trust. And I gave them the respect and trust that was given to me. Without sacrifice, a family canno ...

... cause of 30 percent of Americas fires". The O.D.F. considers the purchase of a dragon plain stupidity. However, dragons should be acknowledged as good housepets because they are very useful. Dragons are very useful to lift heavy objects. They are the strongest animals on earth. Dragons have been known to be great help for moving families and incredible help for the elderly. Forty percent of dragon owners are considered to be at an elderly age, and find dragons quite helpful in their last years. Ninety five percent of those people wish they had a pet dragon to grow up with. Dragons also are very helpful when it comes to lighting fireplaces or barbecues ...

... there was slavery. With this slavery came accounts of cruelty and disillusioned violence. Without help from first hand accounts of slaves such as Frederick Douglass and Olaudah Equiano, we would have never emerged from this dark era in American history. American music is the envy of nations around the world. From Led Zeppelin to Snoop Doggy Dog, American music continues to diversify and grow. American bands develop large masses of followers in nations of all different ethnic backgrounds. From Asia to Germany, American music continues to influence the music styles of the rest of the world. Proud American men and women joined the armed forces to serve th ...

... and outside into my front yard. I find the rest of my family there, along with my neighbors and their son, my best friend. I just stood there in horror with the rest of my family and friends. We had no idea what had happened. The next morning I really don't remember very clearly, but what I did was reading the news paper and coming across an article about a house burning down not to far from mine. I really didn't know what exactly to think at that time until it all clicked upstairs. The noise the night before had been the house burning down and the natural gas line exploding. Later in the article it said that our block of houses wouldn't have any natural ga ...

... vacuumed!! When I saw what had happened to my blocks I got mad, I wouldn't eat dinner that night. The next time I refused to let her move them and I got into a lot of tantrums over this. My mom tried to draw the positioning of the blocks onto graph paper, so she could put them back later, but it did not work out. The trucks and the blocks just continued to get me into trouble. My windows would be open in the summer, we didn't have air conditioning, and it was very windy. My door would slam in the night. The rest of the family would not get any sleep. So, my mom came in to close the windows a little and she would kick over my blocks and cars. In the morn ...

... park. It takes you straight up in the air about 300 feet and then drops at about 65 miles per hour. We all made excuses not to go on. {Beating down upon our backs}, all we wanted to do was find some shade from the sun and get something to eat. So we went into a pizza place and ate. After dinner we went on all our favorite rides. As we were walking around all of our friends were asking us if we rode Demon Drop. Instead of getting ridiculed the whole way home, we decided to ride it. We had just enough time. {Strapping us in} my heart started pounding. As we slowly lifted off the ground it started to beat harder. I could see far out over Lake Erie as we ste ...