Sally’s Comments (group member since Jan 31, 2010)

Sally’s comments from the MHSHS Reading Group group.

The Day I Never Had
By Sally Li P7

“Let’s go kids, the bell rang. Come in the room,” as my advisor, Ms. Gomez, told my class when the bell rang at 11:56 a.m. for the start of 6th period. “Come on Miss Bleu.” My name is Aqua Bleu and advisory is one of the best classes because we sometimes get time to ourselves so I was really willing to move my feet a little faster to get into this class. We all took our seats and waited for Ms. Gomez to give some announcements about the week like she always did and tell us about what we were going to do that day.

“Well class, today I’m going to try this new exercise with you guys,” she told us about our daily agenda.

“What are we going to do?” someone shouted out.

“Well if you had let me finish you wouldn’t have had to ask that question,” Ms. Gomez said. “Today I’m going to try to do this relaxation exercise with you kids where you would put down your heads and I’ll turn off the lights. Then I’m going to say a series of things where I want you to imagine them in your heads. Understand?”

“Yes!” the class shouted out including me because this was one of those days in advisory where we had a relaxing day of silence and peace. I couldn’t wait to put my head down, zone out and relax. Ms. Gomez turned off the lights and told us to put our heads down on the desk. Everyone was following her instructions and did what she said. Some giggling happened near the back of the room but it stopped in a matter of seconds. Having the lights out made me very sleepy and relaxed which was probably a good reaction since this was a relaxation thing but maybe being sleepy wasn’t such a good thing because this was school.

“Close your eyes. Focus on your breathing. Most of us sometimes don’t realize that we breathe sometimes so just focus on breathing. Breathe in. Breathe out. Start to forget your plans for today and things you have to do. Let loose of your whole body from top to bottom. Clear out your head and relax the tension that is in your arms. Relax your shoulders…,” Ms. Gomez was telling us these series of things she said she was going to say. All this talking from her was in a very soothing and soft voice which was very comfortable for the ears to listen to like the waves of the ocean on a warm sunny day. As Ms. Gomez was saying these instructions, I was trying to do as much as she was telling us to do as possible. Sooner or later I got really relaxed from this and I was just listening to what she was saying now and making images in my head like she said. This probably made me even more relaxed because all the things she said were nice things like candy for the mind. She kept on going, “Think of a happy place. A nice, calm place that you would want to be right now. Focus on that place….”

“BEEEEEEEEEEP!” went by the bell. It was time to go to the next class. “Okay class we’ll try this next class,” Ms. Gomez told us as we got ready to leave the class. That class went by very fast and it didn’t even feel like a full period. I was very relaxed from the relaxation exercise, maybe even too relaxed which was causing me to not want to go to the next class but I had to go, I mean this was school. My next class was algebra which I don’t really like because I’m personally not good with numbers.

As I walked into the room it seemed as if I was late since everyone was already in their seats. I looked at the clock and it read 12:47 p.m. which meant it was after the late bell but I remembered that the bell didn’t ring. Ms. Greene, my algebra teacher, said, “You’re late. Let’s go. Get in your seat.” I was confused how I was late already but I got to my seat which was hard to get to because my seat was a midst in the center of the room. I was surprised that I was late when in the halls I wasn’t even wandering around even though I didn’t want to go to algebra. There was a Do Now on the board so I stopped thinking about how I was late and started on the Do Now as soon as possible just in case Ms. Greene was going to call on me. “Okay class, books away. Only a pencil and an eraser,” said Ms. Greene. Do we have a test today? I questioned myself. Then to make sure I asked the person next to me. “Hey, Mary. We have a test today?” I whispered over.

“Yes Aqua. She told us that like a week ago!” Mary replied. This was a total shock for me. How was this even possible that I didn’t know that we had a test today? I could not believe that I was going to do this test without any preparation. Ms. Greene started to pass out the tests and my palms started to sweat because this was a test and not a quiz. A quiz would be lighter on my grade if I failed it which would not be much of an affect on my normal A student record.

After a while all the tests were passed out and I was already trying to work on it. I didn’t know half the answers to the questions and the other half I just didn’t even have a concept how to even start, which was even more ridiculous. Since I didn’t know how to do these at all I thought I’d rather guess since this was a multiple choice test. I was halfway through the test and I looked around the room to see who was done. As I was looking around Ms. Greene yelled, “Aqua! What are you doing? Cheating?”

“No. I was just---” I tried to explain but she cut me off.

“Was just cheating right?” Ms. Greene continued to yell. I couldn’t believe this was happening to me because I had never been accused of cheating before. She came over and took my test and ripped it in half. “I have to make a phone call home to your mom now to talk about this,” she warned. “First late to class then cheating on a test?”

After class I was packing my things to leave when I found out that my phone was missing from my bag. I took everything out of my bag and I couldn’t find it anywhere. This day was starting to get on my nerves but still I was so lucky that this day was about to end. I rushed out of the room before Ms. Greene could say anything more to me. I walked out and the assistant principal walked towards me and I start to get nervous because it seemed as if I was in trouble. “Why is your phone clipped onto your belt and out in school?” Mr. Jones asked me.

“My phone? No I lost---” I said realizing that it was in the case hanging onto my belt. “Oh sorry, I hadn’t realized it was there. I thought I had lost it.”

“Yeah sure. Come with me to the principal’s office,” Mr. Jones told me.

He brought me into the main office where I was so scared that I was sweating like crazy even though there was an air conditioner. Mr. Jones made a hand motion to tell me to go into the principal’s office. As I was walking over my legs got shaky. The nervousness got to my head and I was thinking about all the different consequences that were probably going to happen to me. I got inside and I sat down on one of the chairs.

“So, Aqua Bleu. Late to class, cheating on the test, and phone out in school?” Ms. Reed, the principal said. I was scared to talk so I just kept quiet and let her talk. “These are never like anything you do and you choose to do them now?” As she was talking I was half zoned out. How could this be happening to me at all? I thought. First I was late to class without even knowing, then being accused of cheating on a test I didn’t even know I had. And finally, now that I had my phone out without knowing I had it out and even knowing I hadn’t lost it. This day was going down so badly and probably one of the worst days that could ever exist. “Are you listening Miss Bleu?”

“Yes, Ms. Reed.”

“How come you turn out to be like this? This is not like -----”

“BBEEEEEEEEEEEEEEPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPP!”

Suddenly everything seemed darker and my view seemed to be looking at the desk and with my head on my arms resting. My head seemed a little down and tired like I just woke up. I shook my head and sat up. I saw that I was still in my advisory room with my advisory class. This was becoming too confusing to me because I thought I was in the principal’s office in trouble. “Okay advisory. Have a nice day. Half the class fell asleep during the relaxation exercise including you, Aqua,” Ms. Gomez pointed me out jokingly. “But that’s okay it means you guys were tired and was getting relaxed.” So that was all a dream? I thought to myself. I am so grateful that that was a dream because I was getting into so much trouble for no reason! That was like a day I never had and I wish I would NEVER have.

In "The Kite Runner" by Khaled Hosseini the one who was most likely to be a modern day tragic hero would be Baba. Like most tragic heroes he started out at the top where he was wealthy and powerful. From the beginning of the novel he starts at the top and then slowly falls and goes lower. I think Baba was the tragic hero of the novel because he started off rich and wealth with a nice lifestyle and then his wealth starts to drift off. His lifestyle begins to become a mediocre life and he ends up getting lung cancer which caused him to die.
In comparison to "Things Fall Apart" by Chinua Achebe I would personally think that Okonkwo was more of a tragic hero because Okonkwo's "fall" in life was a lot bigger. Baba drops from being a rich man to dying slowly was less of a drop than Okonkwo. Okonkwo seems to have lost more things in his path of being a tragic hero and his death was also more of a suicide.

When did Amir accept his cowardice and how horribly he treated Hassan? Does he ever truly achieve atonement?

I believe that there wasn't just one moment where Amir realized he treated Hassan badly but many different times when he thinks back at how he treats Hassan and how Hassan treats him. Even though there was more than one time where Amir realizes he's a coward and how he treated Hassan, the raping of Hassan by Assef was where, I thought, Amir had been thinking the most of how he was a coward and not going out to help Hassan. As Amir was just standing in a distance looking at how Hassan is being mistreated by Assef, he debates with himself whether or not to go and help. Amir's final decision was to not go out and help because he thought that after all, Hassan was just a servant. Before the final decision when Amir was still debating he thought that not going out to help was being a coward which he didn't want to be but the thought of going out scared him. As his decision came to be, he left thinking himself as a coward and how Hassan was such a good friend but that now he himself isn't even brave enough to go stand up for Hassan.
Amir has achieve atonement when later in the years where he gets the letter that Hassan wrote to him describing his happiness. Amir reads the letters understanding that Hassan is now living a happy normal life with a family of his own. Hassan is such an easy going person so this letter probably had meant forgiveness because the tone he wrote in, in the letters was a happy tone. Hassan also forgave Amir probably because he has a nice family now and he still thinks of Amir as a good friend.