Armando Gonzalez

Advisory
Chicken Soup & Letters for WWII
The second year of my high school is almost over since the first semester is over. It
almost seems too fast. There is one good thing coming out of the rigorous projects and
assignment, I am not only growing as a student but as an individual as well. For example in my
English class we had to write a narrative about a situation in which we turned lemons to
lemonade. In other words a part of our life in which we were in a bad position and made the
best out of it. At first the only thing I could think was there nothing really bad that has happen to
me and which I could write about. I immediately put myself into a stage of writers block.
The teacher later explained that it could literally about anything even a story that we
personally saw. This made me think about my oldest brother and all the adversity he not only
faced but proudly overcame it. By writing this story I am communicating ideas before this
project I would never be able to tell my brothers story without tearing up or not being able to
finish the story. I wrote a two page paper explaining how when my brother was younger he did
not make the smartest choices and how much hurt and regret that caused him when he finally had
to pay for his mistakes. He did his best then found his answer to his problem. The answer was
God. By seeing how much he changed made me want to change as well. He instantly changes in
my eyes from someone I would never want to become to someone I would love to become
because how much he had changed as a person. After I wrote the paper I was able to talk about
anything. In some way it was almost like the closure I needed to accept my brother I had
changes.

My favorite class in tenth grade also had my favorite projects. History was the best but
just because Mr. Dewaele made it fun. One of the projects we did was writing letters to someone
one from World War II. We had to pretend that we were a solider in the trenches and we had a
family back home missing us. This project made me more college ready because it allowed me to
work and improve on my writing skills. We had to do a formal letter format, which I probably
will use not only in college but in my future work force no matter what I choose to do. Before
this project the only letter I wrote was to an imaginary pen pal years ago. By doing this project it
refreshed the rudiments of how to write a letter. Without this project I would have not written a
letter until who knows when. Not only that but it would be a badly composed letter. I am
thankful for doing this project because it helped me refresh a skill I will later use in life but also
because it was fun pretending to be in the trenches writing letters to my family.