How big of an issue is this? Big

How do you know (what evidence is there)? Many focal points in debates

What communities does it affect? The United States

Which communities does it negatively affect the most? Cities that are polluted

Am I a part of or do I empathize with these communities? Yes

What are their perspectives on the issue? They want change

What are other opinions on the issue (informed, uninformed, and misinformed)? We need to change our way

Why is this issue important to me? Yes

Why should it be of importance to my classmates? It will affect their lives and even their grand children

Bowman, Jeffrey, and Tracey M. DiLascio. “Counterpoint: The Death Penalty Is Necessary.”

Points of View: Death Penalty, June 2019, p. 3. EBSCOhost, search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=pwh&AN=26612346&site=pov-live.

Pearce, Matt. “Counterpoint: Defending the Death Penalty.” Points of View: Death Penalty, June 

2019, p. 6. EBSCOhost,

search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=pwh&AN=12437718&site=pov-live.

How big of an issue is this? – Fairly large

How do you know (what evidence is there)? – Long excessive history of the issue

What communities does it affect? – Communities that have the death penalty not legalized

Which communities does it negatively affect the most? – Communities that do not have the death penalty legalized

Am I a part of or do I empathize with these communities? – Empathize with the communities

What are their perspectives on the issue? – Ban the death penalty

What are other opinions on the issue (informed, uninformed, and misinformed)? – That it is inhuman and unconstitutional

Why is this issue important to me? – Moral decline as an society

Why should it be of importance to my classmates? – Moral decline as an society

*Begin your Works Cited page, citing the (credible) sources you use to answer these questions. Post your work to your blog.

Pick one issue you may be interested in writing about for Essay 3. Identify communities it affects and potential solutions.

Moral Decline

More people are losing their morals, and it is pleging society

Solution unknown

Essay 2 reflection: How was the experience of writing the second essay compared with the first? In what ways do you think your writing may have benefited from this assignment? What style(s) of writing do you prefer? What topics do you enjoy writing about?

My experience writing the second essay was much easier compared to the first. During the first essay, I was scared I was doing the whole paper wrong, but I received an A on it which boosted my confidence writing essay 2.

I think my writing benefited from this essay for an abundance of reasons. I was able to write what was in my head, compared to essay 1 where I had to plan out what I was going to write. Also, during essay 2, it allowed me to be influential in regards to writing my argument so it made me feel empowered, helping me write better.

I prefer personal styles of writing, because I feel like I can come across better than an professional style of writing.

I enjoy writing about arguments and personal experiences that have helped me grow into who I am today.

Brett Guillaume

Janel Spencer

WRT 101S

5 November 2019

How My Parents’ Divorce Helped Me Prosper Into Who I Am Today

I grew up with both my parents in their dream house they bought out in Vail, Arizona. Vail is a very small community located outside of Tucson. I would describe Vail as a very quiet place—if something were to happen in the community, everyone would know about it. The house I grew up in, and still live in today, is four bedrooms, and is located on 2 acres of land in a very small neighborhood. Walking into the house from the front door, you are immediately greeted with the living room and a big arch dividing the living room from the kitchen. It is truly a masterpiece of a house.

I would describe my childhood as great. I am very fortunate to be where I am today, however, I wouldn’t be who I am today if it wasn’t for my parents’ divorce. 

I remember the day like it was yesterday: my parents sat me down during the end of my summer break and explained to me that they were going to split up and eventually divorce. I remember my stomach shrinking in, realizing what my parents meant at the time. I was still fairly young—only 14 years old going into my freshman year of high school. I could remember them fighting almost every day after my mom arrived home from work. However, I couldn’t comprehend why they didn’t want to be together anymore. My father moved out of our house in vail up to our other house in Pinetop. I was left in Vail with my mom. However, it wasn’t always like that.  My mom let her new boyfriend move into the house only weeks after my father moved out. My father is very vocal about his opinions and every night I would call him, and I remember never telling him what was happening at the house, because I didn’t want to light a fuse. Deep down in my heart I hoped my parents would get back together, but as the days progressed, my dreams crashed down in front of me, leaving me heartbroken.

As a result of my parents’ divorce, when I started my first semester of high school, I got terrible grades. I remember failing my economics class halfway through the semester and receiving D’s and C’s in most of my classes. 

At the end of my first semester of high school, my mother moved out of our house in Vail and moved to Corona instead, allowing my father to move back into the house. I remember telling my dad that day, “I don’t want to go to school anymore…I just want to drop out.” I could see the disappointment and anger in my father’s face after I told him those words.

See, from my father’s previous marriage, he had three kids, a girl and two boys. All three of his kids dropped out of high school, and he was depending on me to be the first kid of his to complete high school. Granted, I didn’t think about how my father would feel about the situation. I immediately heard his raspy voice that he received from smoking cigarettes all his life, “You can’t do that,” he yells at me, “you can’t let what happened between me and your mother bother you for the rest of your life.” One thing leads to another, and as a result, I received an hour long lecture, and during the lecture I learned a lot, and soon realized that I have to complete school for me, no matter how hard it was going to be. My father really got my gears turning in my head, something that hadn’t happened in awhile, because I always thought of myself at not smart. School has always been hard for me because I have Attention Deficit Disorder (ADD). But I wasn’t going to let that and my parents divorce ruin my future. I had to do what was right for me, looking back on it now.

My second semester of high school, living with my father, I received mainly B’s and C’s, a huge improvement from my first semester. I remember feeling great towards school living with my father, he always kept me going, and I love him for that.

I always thought of Vail Academy as a college preppy school, so I decided to transfer to Empire High School after my first year at vail academy. I didn’t know it at the time, but this was one of the best decisions of my life. I meet tons of interesting people, and even saw a couple people that I went to middle school with. During my time at Empire, I received no grade below a B, and I finished my senior year with about a 3.5 gpa; something I never thought was possible from me. Also, during my time at Empire, I decided that I wanted to attend college. I could have went straight into a four year university, but I thought Pima Community College would be the better solution for me, giving me a feel for college.

I am really excited to say I made it through my parents divorce—something I thought that would never happen at the time.

My parents divorse has made me into the man I am today, and in a lot of ways I am thankful that they did get divorced, because it was better for them, and would help my develop skills I would never see as if it didn’t happen.

I see a lot of kids that have gone through what I’ve been through give up, because something they once thought was stable crashes down. But the truth is you can’t live like that, you have to move on and learn from your experiences and grow.

So I am telling you, the reader, that no matter what life throws at you, you will always overcome it, just like I did with a little bit of emotional support from both my father and mother.

5 titles for my story:

How Divorce At A Young Age Saves A Child

How My Parents’ Divorce Helped Me Prosper Into Who I Am Today

Hardships In Life Carves Someone Into Who They Are Today

How Did Things Come To Be This Way

How Did My Life End Up Like This

What did you learn about others from your experiences? What did you discover about yourself? What did you learn about the world and your part in it? (How to survive?/How to be true to yourself?/What’s most important to you?/How to fulfill your needs?/What’s needed of you?)

I learned that other class mates had a different path to who they are today through totally different stories from mine. I learned that the world is somewhat a hard place for a young child through reading my own and my class mates stories. Everyone has a different way of living, someone can have a easy paved life up to college and many other students can have a completely different outlook on life leading up to college. Also through reading my classmates papers, I learned that they all have their different needs and they all have something important to them to keep them going in life.

Brett Guillaume

Janel Spencer

WRT 101S

17 October 2019

How My Parents’ Divorce Helped Me Prosper Into Who I Am Today

I grew up with both my parents in their dream house they bought out in Vail, Arizona. Vail is a very small community located outside of Tucson. I would describe Vail as a very quiet place, if something were to happen in the community, everyone would know about it. The house I grew up in, and still live in today, is four bedrooms, located on 2 acres of land in a very small neighborhood. Walking into the house from the front door, you are immediately greeted with the living room and a big arce dividing the living room from the kitchen. Truly a masterpiece of a house

I would describe my childhood as great, I am very fortunate to be where I am today, but I wouldn’t be who I am today if it wasn’t for my parents’ divorce. 

I remember the day like it was yesterday, my parents sat me down during the end of my summer break and explained to me that they were going to split up and eventually divorce. I remember my stomach shrinking in, realising what my parents meant at the time. I was still fairly young at the time; only 14 years old going into my freshman year of high school. I could remember them fighting mostly every day after my mom arrived home from work. However, I couldn’t comprehend why they didn’t want to be together anymore. My father moved out of our house in vail up to our other house in Pinetop. I was left in Vail with me and my mom. However, it wasn’t always like that forever, my mom let her new boyfriend move into the house only weeks after my father moved out. My father is very vocal about his opinions and every night I would call him, and I remember never telling him what was happening at the house, because I didn’t want to light the fuse. Deep down in my heart I hoped my parents would get back together, but as the days progressed, my dreams crashed down in front of me, leaving me heart broken.

As a result of my parents divorce: when I started my first semester of high school I got terrible grades. I remember failing my economics class half way through the semester and receiving D’s and C’s in most of my classes. 

At the end of my first semester of high school, my mother moved out of our house in Vail and moved to Corona instead, leaving my father to move back into the house. I remember telling my dad that day ‘I don’t want to go to school anymore…I just want to drop out.’ I could see the disappointment and anger in my father’s face after I told him those words.

See from my Father’s previous marriage, he had three kids, a girl and two boys. All three of his kids dropped out of high school, and he was depending on me to be the first kid of his to complete highschool. Granite I didnt think about how my father would feel about the situation, I immediately heard his raspy voice he received from smoking cigarettes all his life.

“You can’t do that” he yells at me “you can’t let what happened between me and your mother bother you for the rest of your life,” he explains. One thing lead to another and I received an hour long lecture, and during the lecture I learned a lot, and soon realised that I have to complete school for me, no matter how hard it was going to be. School has always come hard for me because I have Attention Deficit Disorder (ADD). But I wasn’t going to let that and my parents divorce ruin my future.

My second semester of high school, living with my father, I received mainly B’s and C’s, a huge improvement from my first year of high school.

The place where I work is very run down, and needs renovation on the building. Part of it is due to where the store is located in town, Speedway and Swan, but also part of it is due to the culture of the store. The first time I walked into the store, it looked because, vibrant colors and overall a pleasant experience. The more I started to observe things and pay close attention to other things is where I soon released that the building was in dire need of renovation. The black tiles on the ground had most of their wax layer removed, revealing how worn down the floor really was. The cash registers never seemed to work; only reliable 75% of the time, which is very bad for a companies main source of money. The break room looks like a bomb went off in there. The chairs are filthy as well as the counter that people actually eat on. The lockers in the break room are are bent and fading different colors as if they have been left out in the sun to long. The men’s bathroom has little luxury compared to the females bathroom, I can go on for hours.

Vail Academy was the home to all the smart kids that genuinely enjoyed school and every thing it had to offer. The building was very nice and small, powered entirely by solar panels and wind mils. I meet a lot of friends at Vail Academy during my first year and final year there. I remember going of of the campus and going onto the big grass field they had for lunch some days. It was always weird hearing the cars speeding by on the freeway, I never quite experienced anything like it before. Their lunch room was stunning, they had three big glass garage doors that would open up for people to come and go from the doors, instead of having to use the generic door.