"Parent Response"

My portfolio shows all my work with the 5 traits this semester, and shows how I have learned and applied the traits in my writing and projects. It shows my progress as a student, and my goals for my own learning.

"Angry Letter" -Essay Draft

Connie Havest
Jeans Warehouse- Kaneohe
46-056 Kamehameha Highway #A111
Kaneohe, Hawaii 96744

Aloha Connie,

Like a lot of other kids my age, I love to find good clothes, for good prices. Your customer service is friendly, and a great environment to shop in. Without a doubt, I would say your store has been nothing less then satisfying to our needs, yet an incident that occurred earlier this year, had me, as well as others involved, have second thoughts about our interest in your store.

As usual when going to the mall, my two cousins and I always go to Jeans Warehouse, and in Windward Mall, there's not many other places that have our interest, like your store does. On that particular day, we weren't exactly dressy and as usual when we all get together, we were excessively loud, and we usually get discriminated against for that, but never in your store. We had just received money, and had high intentions of spending most of it on clothing. We noticed that your store was recently renovated, and the improvements looked great. Everything was neatly organized, and the cashier desk, was moved to the middle of the store. We walked in casually, pretty much staring in awe of the improvements made, since the last time we shopped. We walked around the store maybe 2 or 3 times, checking out the sales and took some time to decide what we wanted to buy. On our 4th trip around the store, we finally decided to start getting some things. As we came back to the front of the store, beginning to grab some items of the shelves and racks, a worker at the cashier desk, cleared her throat, loud enough for the whole store to hear, and it was an obviously sarcastic "throat clear." As she did this, her as well as another worker gave us a look, as if we were stealing. Their stares causes majority of the long line of customers, paying for their merchandise, to turn around and stare at us with those looks also. As everyone stared at us, we felt embarrassed by the actions of your workers, and felt we were discriminated against perhaps because of our excessive loudness, or the fact that we took so long to find the things we wanted to buy, as if we were "scoping out" the place to steal some of your items. We felt so watched, and hurt by the assumption made by your workers, that we put all of our items back, and left the store.

Since that day, my two cousins and I have sour thoughts about your store, and have since not shopped at that location. We felt as though we were discrimination against because of the way we act, or appear. I bring this issue up, so that the same issue, does not happen again to another customer, and they do not feel the same embarrassment that we felt. We honestly had no intentions of stealing a thing, and I hope this letter helps you realize the importance of good customer service, so that your store can maintain the reputation of good clothes for good prices, and great customer service.

Mahalo,
Destrie Ranon

Journal #18- Angry Letter Topic

Angry Letter:

Jeans Warehouse- judging teens on how they appear
Furloughs- grades getting worst from less teaching days

Journal#16- Risky Business Essay Draft

In our society today, it's not rare to have issues in many teenage relationships. These issues can vary, from small issues such as someone forgetting a 4 month anniversary, or huge issues like, abuse. Unfortunately, verbal,emotional, and physical abuse occurs in many relationships. Although abuse is wrong, because of the pressure from their partners, victims believe the abuse in their relationship is their fault, so they don't recognize the cycle of abuse and don't remove themselves from the relationship. 

 In teen relationships, it is not unlikely that abuse is present. The abuser has different methods of abusing their partner.  Abusers have a cycle of abuse that they follow. The cycle starts with the "honeymoon" phase. The couple seems to be "in love" and their relationship is perfect! The next phase is the "tension-building" phase. This phase is when the couple starts getting into small arguments over minor things, causing the abuser to become very frustrated. As time goes on, the abuser begin to blame everything on the victim causing more and more tension between the couple. The last, and most 

harmful stage is the "raging stage." This stage is when the abuser explodes on the victim, hurting the victim sexually,physically, emotionally, or verbally. After the abuse happens, the abuser goes back to the "honeymoon" phase, claiming they will change, and didn't mean what they did. They will use pressure and guilt to keep the victim from leaving the relationship, and their persuasion eventually works, and the victim stays in the relationship. From there, the cycle repeats

itself in the relationship, until someone finally ends the relationship. 

It is true that this cycle is reasonably easy to recognize and has many red flags, for a victim to recognize, giving themselves time to get out of the relationship. But the fact is, because of the pressure from their partner, victims don't see the cycle. When the victim is pressured, they cannot get themselves out of the relationship. The abuser in the relationship uses guilt  and threats to keep the victim in the relationship. Although some would say that regardless of pressure, the victim should remove themselves from the relationship immediately. But doing so is not as simple, as it may seem. Unless the victim knows the cycle of abuse, and knows how to resist the abusers guilt, then the cycle and abuse will continue, and abuse in teen relationships will remain to frequently occur.

"Journal #15"- Risky Business info!

Revised Thesis:

Because of the pressure from their partners, victims believe the abuse in their relationship is their fault, so they don't remove themselves from the relationship.

Con:
If the victim feels they are being abused they should remove themselves from the relationship, and not care about the pressure from their partner.

Pro 1:
Victims cannot always remove themselves from the relationship, because the pressure from their partner is too strong. They use things like threatening and guilt to keep the victim in the relationship.

Pro 2:
Because of the pressure from their partner, the victim cannot recognize the cycle of abuse their partner has. When the abuser has the cycle of abuse, the victim is somewhat brainwashed(pressured) into believing they are not being abused, and doesn't see the cycle of abuse.

"Journal#10"- College Essay Draft,For "Pacific Rim Christian College"

Pacific Rim Christian College-

“… includes a description of your conversion experience, an assessment of your current spiritual growth, and an account of your call to ministry.”

Sunday, May 30, 2009, the date still lingers in my mind, like a pop song that often gets stuck in my wondering mind. But not at all an annoying, wannabe pop song, it's kinda like a Michael Jackson song, something that you can put on repeat, and never get sick of! May 30 was perfect, blue skies, clear of gray clouds, the sun shinny as bright as ever. A perfect day for Him to change lives.

We sprinted across the hectic road, melting Jamba Juice yogurt oozing onto our hands, finally making it to an unfamiliar beach, Kailua Beach Park. I had just come from 7 crazy hours of volunteering at church, and surprisingly still had a huge amount of energy. I suppose it was the pure excitement that had me feeling like I had just drunk countless cans of soda. You see today was the day I had been anxiously waiting for, for awhile now. It was my water baptism, the day I officially become a Christian. When I first visited New Hope Windward, there was dancing, upbeat music, flashy lights, and attractive videos. After being there for about 5 minutes, I automatically thought, "There is no way this is a church!" When I was a newborn child, I was baptized as a Catholic, and I was accustom to being quiet during church, and singing songs off provided sheets of song lyrics. You see, most everyone that knows me, would describe me with one simple, 5-letter word, "CRAZY!" Don't get me wrong, I'm definitely mature, just like most high school students, but I love to have fun, and entertain others, so at the end of the day, everyone has a smile on their face. I've personally found that when I'm having fun, I tend to learn things easier, faster, and better. Growing up in a Catholic church wasn't exciting enough for me, and I personally didn't learn much. When I say this, I don't mean to offend anyone, everyone have different ways of finding Christ, and that just wasn't mine!

I was about 13 years old, when I first attended New Hope. Part of the reason my mom would take me and my siblings to church, was for a small meal after service. Now again, anyone that knows me knows that I absolutely love food! My mom often tells me that I should be a food critic when I finish school. Free food all day, everyday, sounds great, but I don't believe that's my calling in life, and I'm secretly always looking for the true purpose God has put me on Earth. So the true reason I started attending church, was for the food, but to get to the food part, I had to go to the church part. Eventually, I actually started listening, learning, and started understanding things about God. The services were so upbeat, crazy and funny, and of course entertaining. Our pastors, Pastor Dave, often reminds me of myself, crazy, energetic, funny, yet mature, loving and lovable, caring and wants to share his knowledge of God with everyone, kinda like me! Even though I was excited about my new understanding, I never really shared my religion, with my friends. I was too shamed, and scared that my friends would tease, or reject me for how I felt bout God. That was different in July 2008, when I finally got involved in church!

For about a month, the church had been asking for people to help on the Multi-Media team, I gave little thought about joining, but thought I wouldn't fit in, but I ended up volunteering anyway. My first day of volunteering had arrived; I woke up at 4 o'clock A.M., forced myself out of bed, and reluctantly, made my way to the movie theaters in Kaneohe, where the church was located. When I got there at 4:30 in the morning, I was surprised with the people; they were loving, and so energetic. I was puzzled, how could people be so happy to be at church at 4 in the morning? The whole day, complete strangers, as they call, "loved on me," and welcomed me with open arms. They expressed that it was the love, and spirit of God, that kept them coming every Sunday, and kept them so happy every morning. After months of volunteering, I soon experienced what all those people were feeling, and my relationship with God got stronger and stronger. I finally felt the strong urge to convert to Christianity, and begged my mom over and over, to let me get baptized, and when May 2009 came around, she finally granted my wish.

The experience was so spectacular. Getting baptized was one of the biggest and best decisions in my life. Words couldn't even explain the experience, it was refreshing, and I felt like a new person. When I came out of the water, I didn't feel ashamed of my religion, but proud. Maybe it was just my naive mind, but at that exact moment, I felt God was calling me to get into ministry, and that my calling in life, was to serve Him for the rest of my life.

Since my baptism, I have gotten even closer to God, and have continued to volunteer every weekend. I have learned to speak openly about God, and use Him and my religion in everyday life. I can now easily express my love for Him, without shame, or being scared of what others think of me, and truly love speaking about Him. I'm currently interested in sharing my love for God with other, which explains my interest in studying the bible and having have the honor of helping God lead people to Christianity, I guess you could say it's my passion and dream.

My friend once told me, "Destrie you have a lot of knowledge, and one day you'll share that knowledge with the world!" I believe that sharing my knowledge of God, is my true calling; to bring people to Christ, and change their lives, forever.

"Journal #9"-Ophelia Speaks

My novel is a "coming of age" story, because I takes the stories of teenage girls, that are growing up and "coming of age" and are telling about their experinces and trails. In the reading it tells about girls going through, abuse, diseases, intoxication, family issues, friend issues, sexual issues, and overcoming obstacles. In the book, theres a story called "A Sister's Tragedy" and the sister describes watching her older sister going through a disease and how she has to grow up and take care of her little brother. For this girl, she had to be responsible and take care of herself, and her sibling, so she could be strong for her parents and older sister, displaying her "coming of age."

"Journal #8"-College Thoughts

Since we've been talking about colleges, I've had my mind set on UNLV. I'm not sure if it's just my excited to leave the island and be on my own, but I have a really strong urge to attend school there. But because of my passion for church, I've recently thought also about attending Pacific Rim Bible College, here in the islands.

LINKS:
http://www.prbc-hawaii.edu/
http://www.unlv.edu/

"Journal #1"-Response to Mrs.S

Dear Mrs.S,
I agree with you on the ideas part, sometimes I notice that my ideas in my writing aren't as strong as they could be, and this year I hope to get my ideas clearer than clear!! Like you said I could make my my arguments stronger with incorporating sources, and I agree, I'll try to do that more this year. I'll work on improving my ideas:)
Thank You.

Destrie

"Coming of Age"- Poster Draft

For this poster, I thought of things in my life that are priority and that have helped me come of age. I tried to interpret that through the pictures I used, because all the things in the poster, have helped me come of age. I used one picture of when I was a child, to show the past, then recent pictures, to show how I've grown, and then my dreams,to show coming of age. I also showed Family,Friends, and God as my support system in helping me grow. As for the "photoshop techniques," I just layered things, and tried to find fonts that are fun, but stick out there.

"Journal #3" -Venting!

I miss the conversations that started out as early evening conversations, and turned into early morning conversations. The conversations we used to have that had absolutely no meaning to them, but meant the most. I miss chilling with you everyday, and acting like a little kid. I MISS MY BEST FRIEND!! I strongly dislike the fact that you go to Radford, and I go to Moanalua. Since middle school ended, we've only seen each other 2 times, and we talk on about a monthly basis. I know I shouldn't complain, because some "best friends" never talk, or see each other, but I've become so accustom to seeing you everyday for about 2 years, that it's terribly hard for me not to even talk to you everyday! I hate to feel that were drifting, farther and farther apart, but I can't escape that feeling, and it sucks a lot! I miss you so much, being without my best friend in high school, is like being without a flashlight in the dark. I envy the girls who have their best friend in the same school as them, because when they have a bad day, they have their best friend right there to comfort them. As for me, I have to send you a text, praying that you have the time text back. I still remember the note you wrote me in my yearbook at the end of 8th grade, "it still hasn't hit me that your leaving me, in the high life!" I never actually knew what you meant, until I actually got to "high life" and realized you weren't standing next to me, to experience it with me, and it broke my heart. I know that sounds weird, but pretty much from the moment we met, we were inseparable! We'd chill before school, during school, and after school, and countless, never-ending phone conversations! To this day, I truly believe that your the sister God forgot to give me, and the one person that brings the best out of me. The one person I can trust to never hurt or judge me. But recently, I can feel our friendship drifting and drifting, and this scares me more than anything! If I was to loose you as a best friend, it wouldn't be a "whatever!" thing! Then I think of our personal promise we made, to be best friends forever, and I have faith that no matter what, our friendship will never end.

To finish up this journal, I think what bugs me the most is that I don't know what the future holds for our friendship, and I'm afraid of what may happen, but I hold on to faith that we'll be best friends forever, and like Eleanor Roosevelt said, “Many people will walk in and out of your life, but only true friends will leave footprints in your heart”, and you've left a huge footprint in my heart(:

"Coming of Age"-Essay Draft

I slowly walked out to the familiar car, in the lightly lit up parking lot. It was around 9:00 p.m. My legs ached with every step, and my head pounded harder than a hammer. I jumped into the cold air conditioned car, to my mom’s voice, “How was practice?” I didn’t even have to respond for her to know the answer. I’ve been training for the past 6 months, preparing for the biggest test of my life, my second degree black belt test. I’ve been in karate for nine years, and nothing made me more nervous then tests. I started attending 5 classes a week just to prepare for this test, and pretty much drained all of the energy I had in my body.

When my instructor informed me that the 2^nd degree test was in December 2008, my first wave of emotions was excitement, to get my 2^nd degree belt, then nervousness unfortunately took over my body. I automatically knew that I had to buckle down, and get serious as ever, or I would fail. The fear came back to me, an event that occurred almost 7 years ago, that I never mentioned to anyone. The event was my 1^st degree black belt test, the first time I took the test, and I failed, and had to take the test a second time. I was scared that the disappointment from nearly 7 years ago would come back to me. Despite my fears I emotionally and physically prepared myself for the big day. Pushing myself to heights I never pushed myself to before. I trained to the point where I had aches all over my body, and even injured my leg, but throughout my training, I pushed through all of my challenges physically and emotionally because I knew it would all be worth it in the end.

When the big day finally came, I felt an ocean of emotions. Words couldn’t start to explain the way I felt. I arrived at my dojo that night, and it was time to take the test. During warm-ups my fear came back, so I ran over to my cousin, who was also taking the test and asked her for a quick pep talk. She told me something like “its okay Destrie, you got this, just relax.” Relaxing was the last thing I wanted to do, but it was time. My brain was running at 100 miles per hour, and unfortunately wasn’t about to slow down anytime soon. First thing we did was the basic karate moves, I passed that with ease, followed by 4 “katas”, and number of sparring rounds. I was pretty confident that I passed, but wasn’t 100% positive. The moment of truth was coming up, the presentation of belts. Row by row, the belts was given to the students that passed the test. Thoughts ran through my mind, and finally my agony was over. My name was called, indicating that I passed! When I was called up, my instructor gave a speech about how I improved, and worked really hard for 6 months, and how it all paid off and how proud he was of me.

Although I didn’t noticed this until I recently looked back, this experience has taught me to have perseverance for something I really want, and when I push through all the trials and tribulations, I can achieve any goal I set. This was defiantly a lesson I will remember for the rest of my life.

"First Blog"- Writing Experiences

My writing experiences include writing essays and taking English courses through out my school years. I haven't had much experience with writing, beside school assignments and writing basic 2-3 page essays. When I came to Moanalua, I learned a lot of different writing traits I should use to write a good essay or story. Before high school I wasn't aware of Sentence Fluency, Word Choice, Voice,etc. Since I've been through the meneMAC course last year, I've learned a lot about good writing, and has made my writing stronger, and more interesting. I've learned how to "show" my story NOT "tell" it!

My goals for my writing is to continue with showing my stories and not telling them, and to bring my voice out more when I write. I want people to be able to read my writing, and tell all my emotions and point of views that are in the story. I also want to apply my 6 traits A LOT in my writing, so that I have noticeably great writing!