19. Using the theme you chose from Assignment 18, write your own song lyrics, poem, or short story. As we may all choose to write different type of prose, we will not be spending entire classes on the structure of a short story. I have inserted a few helpful videos and you are encouraged to do your own research on the technical aspects of your chosen writing. Whatever you choose, it should reflect YOUR personal thoughts and/or feelings about the theme. More than any other writing so far, this will require you to be thoughtful, work hard, and decide for yourself how much is "enough". One of the best tips I can give you is to write about yourself or the things you care about. Find a way to connect one of the themes into your own life rather than random topics. If you love baseball include a theme from Hotel Rwanda into a baseball story. If you know about hip hop, or India, or muscle cars... connect one of the themes to a story about your passions. It will make your writing process easier because you have a base of knowledge and motivation about the subject. It will also make the writing more authentic as your "voice" will be more natural. Long boarders know how long boarders talk... I don't. When I try to pretend to be a long boarder it is obvious and awkward. As always, your reading and commenting on others work as a part of our network of "experts" will be a large part of your success in June.


Growing up mother always told me" do well in school or else i'll end up on the wrong path like the kids that live on the streets on Eastside Vancouver"... Thats exactly what happened. Here's a summary of my life. Hi my name is Paul Douglas Jr, I lived in a happy home (well it seemed like it) life was great, a perfect home, perfect family, and perfect life. My mom was a housewive she loved being at home with the kids. My dad was a hardworker, he provided for the family... In my mind life was wonderful but in my parents eyes it wasn't, their marriage was falling apart, couple of months later the news hit us, the one news that can possibly change your life the " We are getting a divorce, and this is not your guy's fault" We lived with our mother, she had to start working to provide for us, she did double shifts and worked HARD. She was rarely home. In highschool I had a tough time adapting to new people, life got hard... I just couldn't bare the feeling. So I decided to hang out with the wrong people... yeah the ones that are into doing drugs, stealing cars, and trouble with the law. Everyday of my life it was the same routine... Skip school to get high and be a druggy. Sooner or later my other noticed the difference in my behavior , how I was acting with everyone at home. When I went to school my mother decided to raid my room, she went through everything, last thing to go through was my bed, my mom tossed over the bed and found the reason what was changing her son... Lots of drugs. I got home that day and I see my mom waiting in the family room with all the drugs laid out on the table, my heart was pounding, I was nervous and most of all scared. My mom asked me to be seated on the couch across her, she asked one question " why?" I was thinking of a good reason but nothing came to mind, all of a sudden I hear weeping and my mother just said it straight out... " Paul I feel we need to send you away to your fathers home..." Hearing that made me furious, why should I have to leave if I am going through teenage stuff, I stormed out of my house and decided that its my life I'll do whatever I want too, so I called up a couple of friends and asked of they wanted to get high... We went to a park and found a drug dealer who sold us some good sh*t, it got us high as f**k all of a sudden it hit me, I don't need to live with no one I can support myself by dealing drugs I could make a fortune... So the dealer who implied us with drugs I asked if I could start working for them. The next days took everything that belonged to me and left to the underworld the drug dealing world, I started off small with weed and sooner or later I started to deal crack, cocaine, heroine etc.. I was making big bucks... But then I started using all those drugs instead of selling I was ripping off the boss, one day the boss called me in and his men had their guns to my head... The boss gave my 48 hours to give back all his money, and I owe a lot of money... I agreed but had a plan that I would run away and leave... The next morning I left I went to Richmond and decided to stay there... But I never knew that I have people watching me, the boss sent people he was 2 steps ahead of me ... His people took me back to the boss and the boss had enough, and the boss pulled his gun to my head... The boss counted " 1-2-3 BOOOOM" my life flashed before my house, I saw how my life was as a child how happy I was and by the choices I made led me to a path of destruction this was bound to happen... I was left in the street dying until someone found me, I was rushed to the hospital all I saw was nurses and my brothers and my mom, until I went to the operating room, life has giving me a second chance, I was alive and recovering , I decided I didn't want my mom to suffer she dd everything to make us happy and our lives easier. I decided I was going to go to rehab and clean up. Now I am clean and volunteer to tell my story to young adults. When life gives you a second chance take it cause you never know where life's going to take you.