Rough Draft Essay 1

The fresh smell of the gym and chalk dust hit my face as soon as I opened the doors to the gym. I was training at Joan’s Olympic Gym for a little over a year now and working on improving my difficulty in my routines. My weakness at this point was the vault. I had the power and I knew what I had to do but I couldn’t gather the trust in myself to land my move off of the vault.

My coach Alexis greeted me “Hey Jasmine, ready for the vault today?” I wasn’t. I haven’t landed the dismount off my vault and I was extremely nervous. My palms always got sweaty thinking about the vault. My biggest fear was my blind spot when landing. Time after time I fell flat on my back on the mats. I swear there was nothing more frustrating slamming into the mats and not sticking my landing. “I guess so,” I responded gloomily. Alexis threw me a smile as all of us girls gathered for warm-ups.

After The second rotation, I ended up on the vault. I dreaded waiting for my turn on the vault. Victoria was before me and the coach wanted all of us to watch her and find what she was doing wrong. She showed us her vault two times. She ran up to the springboard, did a little stop and jumped onto the vault horse. Victoria landed her dismount with ease. Coach asked what was wrong and one of the girls said the spacing of her hands when she lands onto the vaulting horse. That wasn’t what Coach was looking for. I said “The way she slows down before she gets to the springboard makes her lose the power she needs to gain height over the vaulting horse.” I was right and it was my turn now.

Right after left foot I ran towards the springboard, and did my round off only to land on my back. “What is she doing wrong?” The coach waited for a response from the girls and the only thing they came up with is she is not landing her dismount. In frustration which earned me another chance to humiliate myself on the vault, I yelled “Isn’t clear that I haven’t landed a dismount, yet?” Coach Alexis pulled me to the side and said “If you’re going to yell, yell about achieving something. Get up and try that vault again. Don’t think about the landing, just feel it.” I got up and started walking towards the chalk bowl. After chalking up I proceeded to the vault, ran as fast as I could, did a round off the vault horse and BAM. I landed my dismount on my back again. After two more times I couldn’t land my dismount.

As a gymnast it is so frustrating when you can’t land a move. A move is made of keys parts which all result with a clear beginning, middle and clean end. In competition, points would easily be taken off when any of those three parts are messed up. The ending is most important because it shows that you can do the power moves but also finish them strong. Compared to a story, the ending always wraps things up. It leaves the lasting impression. That’s why I need to stick this landing.

Coach Alexis suggested I take a water break. With heavy steps, I walked towards the water machine right outside Coach Joan’s office where she was sitting at her desk on the phone. She smiled at me through the window and signaled for me to come in. Slowly opening the door, freezing air from the air conditioning hit my bare skin where my leotard didn’t cover. She finished up her phone call and proceeded to ask me the question I was dreading, “Why aren’t you landing your vault?” “I don’t know. When I start I have so much power but when I know I’m getting close to the round off, I tense up because I’m afraid of my blind spot. I don’t know where my feet will land or if I’m too close or too far.” Coach Joan then gives the best advice in my gymnastics career, “You have to stay positive no matter how many times you fall. When you first started with cartwheels, I remember when the coach walked you through each step until you were doing 4 cartwheels in a row. Not only does it take practice and power but you have to be prepared mentally. If you tell yourself you are afraid it will show. I want you to repeat to yourself ‘I can do this’ and keep a positive mindset so you will surely land your vault. One thing that helped me on the vault was visualize my feet landing right before I land. Now get out there and try until you make it.” I gave Coach Joan half of a smile and walked out of her office.

Hesitating I walked towards Coach Alexis and asked her if she would watch me on the vault. We walked over to the vault and I took a deep breath. I said to myself “stick the landing, stick the landing.” As I ran towards the springboard and approached my round off I looked for the mat but I wasn’t there yet so I fell again and again. After my 5^th time I said “I can do this” and there you have it I successfully landed my round off vault. This accomplishment taught me to set goals and push for them. After the help of my team, coaches and training, I had reached my goal. 

Group Activity Senses

Partner's Name: Marilyn

See	The image of Mae Mo getting spanked replays in Aibileen's head. Skeeter sees Hilly's true colors through her actions.
Hear	Aibileen hears the doorbell ring. Skeeter hears the sounds of the machine.
Smell	Aibileen says rain makes it smell swampy. Miss Leefolt smelt like pneumonia.
Taste	Mae Mo likes the taste of the hamburger.
Feel	Aibileen feels cold on the bathroom seat. Skeeter feels excitment drained after speaking to Mrs. Stein.

Salvation By Langston Hughes

What Worked well

• the author painted a picture for us
• the detailing made you feel like you were there
• caught your attention and held it
• there was a point to the experience
• the reader knew his real feelings

Didn't work well

• the ending of the story
• there wasn't dialogue that the actually author said 
• it seemed too short
• the story as a whole didn't leave me satisfied

The story did keep me engaged but I felt like it was building up to something I knew was going to happen. It was easy to picture what it loloked like for Langston and what it sounded like. I think his purpose was to give readers an insight as to why he doesn't believe in Jesus.

Outline

I.               Orientation

a.     My soft purple leotard, water bottle, and extra hair ties were neatly packed into my gym bag. 

b.     Joan's Olympic gym run by Miss Joan herself, is where I trained and attended meets for 4 years. My coaches were Alexis for beam and vault , Sarah for floor and Kassie for the uneven bars.

II.             Complication

a.     It wasn't my first year in gymnastics anymore and I still couldn't land my vault or cartwheel into a round-off. 

b.     I was afraid of falling off the vault or not having a safe transfer from the vault to the table.The springboard and the speed I ran at would produce too much power. 

c.      My cartwheel round-off move for my floor routine was extremely difficult to land. My cartwheel had to be perfect and I had to get over the fact that I wouldn't see my landing until I after I actually landed. 

III.           Resolution

a.     I spoke to my coaches about what skills I needed to complete before I was comfortable landing my moves. By taking apart the move and focusing on each part, I was able to learn the move in steps instead of just one big move.
b.     Imply narrative effect.

Future Mae Mobley

Think into the future about Mae Mobley. What do you think she will have to say about her childhood?

I believe that Mae Mobley will have a lot to say about how she was brought up by Aibileen. Aibileen mentioned before that Mae Mobley was different from her mom and needed attention but that she would probably grow up to be like her mother in some aspects. Mae Mobley was brought up on love and attention from Aibileen so I'm extremely curious to how Mae Mobley will act in the future. I believe that Mae Mobley will say that she didn't get attention from her mom. She's obviously been neglected by her mother and if it continues Mae Mobley will definitely remember it. Its hard to what exactly she would think because she is still young and we don't know if her mom will turn around and actually show that Mae Mobley is her child. Mae Mobley's outlook on her childhood will depend on the choices her mother makes.

Expectations of Women

How have expectations of women have changed ?

Expectations of women are pretty much the same as they have always been. It really depends on who you are asking. Men tend to think that women are still the cook-clean housewife stereotype but some men like the fact that women work for themselves and make their own money. Not only men think this but women do also. Depending on how you were brought up , you have different opinions on certain expectations. Now women have more rights and more oppurtunities to get jobs. Skeeter gave us an insight on how men were payed more than women but now women can make just as much as men. The rights for women are more equal to men than they every were before.

The time period of the book also brings another category to this answer. Whether the woman is white or black effects what are expected of them. White women just managed the house and socialized whereas the black women were the ones who cleaned, cooked and took care of the kids. The white woman just had to make sure that she looked good and her family and home were percieved as elegant.

In Class Writing

Aibileen and Minny are best friends in the novel. Skeeter and Hilly are also really good friends but their relationship has a lot of differences compared to Aibileen and Minny. Minny and Aibileen always stick up for eachother and would never do anything to sabotage one another whereas in Skeeter and Hilly's relationship, Hilly's actions always benefit herself.

Like best friends should, Aibileen and Minny talk every day and always help one another out any way they can. They understand eachother and are the people they are because of eachother. Minny helped Aibileen through Treelore's death and Aibileen helped Minny land a job after she was fired. When Skeeter and Hilly were in college together, Skeeter would always curl Hilly's hair every night. They meet and play bridge with Elizabeth and that's when the differences between these set of friends are noted. Before learning the background of Hilly and Skeeter , you wouldn't think they were friends when they met to play bridge. Skeeter had questioned Hilly's motives about the colored toilets and Hilly threatened her. Hilly said she would remove Skeeter from being the editor of the League. That's where Hilly's true motives show. Hilly doesn't respect what Skeeter has ever done for her because she is threating to take away the only thing Skeeter has. Aibileen and Minny have a much stronger connection and supportive of eachother. Skeeter and Hilly merely tolerate eachother.

Homework #2 Skeeter

Skeeter is not at all satisfied with her mother opinion of her. Mrs. Phelan is always comparing Skeeter to married girls or girls with jobs because Skeeter has neither a job nor husband. Skeeter was always picked on because of her height so she always felt like she wasn't going to be accepted by anyone. Her mom called her diploma just a pretty piece of paper. Skeeter wants to be a writer and if her mom found out, her mom would be very upset. Skeeter chose not to tell her mom about one boy that she ever liked because he was drunk so he had no intentions of ever being with her. Skeeter feels pressured and doesn't want to live the way her mom wants her to. 

A time I felt pressured was during a gymnastics meet. I wasn't always training like some of the other girls on our team so I didn't have the same level of difficulty. I was more a basic gymnast with an artsy floor routine. My coach really tried to help me gain a higher skill level but I just couldn't do it. When i started high school I couldn't take the pressure of all the school work and gymnastics so I had to quit. I am still very passionate about gymnastics even though I don't do it anymore. 

Aibileen's Dialect

     Kathryn Stockett effectively distinguishes between characters through the way they speak and interact with each other. One of the main character's, Aibileen, is shown to have a real southern way of speaking. Her english and grammar isn't like the people she is working for. She speaks more in slang terms that the other uses for all of the help.

     This type of writing is extremely effective because it brings you back to the time period that the book was written about. It helps you distinguish not only between the people speaking but also what class they fall into. Some readers might consider this to be a stereotyping blacks at that time but it can really just give you a feel of what that time period was like. The book wouldn't be as interesting if both the help and the families they worked for spoke the same.