My Hockey Hoodie

I’ve owned the hoodie since eighth grade. It’s black with two strings to tighten the hood, a large pocket in front, and the words “Property of Richardson Rampage Hockey” written on the front in large white letters. The hoodie itself is nothing special. It’s rather old and torn up, actually. It’s what it symbolizes that means something to me.

I joined the Richardson Rampage hockey team in eighth grade. It was my first ice hockey team, consisting of players from all four high schools in the Richardson school district. When I joined the team, I did so only knowing two other people on the hockey team. After five years, I could recite nearly every player in the organization and tell you about their friends and family.

What the hoodie represents to me is a family. I grew up with the other players on the team, playing a few years in JV and a few years in Varsity. We went through the lowest of the lows and the highest of the highs in our years together, culminating in the ultimate achievement our senior year of high school: becoming the Texas State Champions.

I can say with certainty that if I were to list my ten best friends right now, at least half the list would consist of players from my high school hockey team. Although we’ve each gone our separate ways, we still try to get together every break to say how much worse we’ve gotten since our last day together on the ice. Until then, my hoodie reminds me how much fun I had with them throughout our time together.

Lucky

My family has had Lucky since I was in third grade. I still remember my first time seeing him. My childhood dog Zach had died earlier that year, leaving my family with a severe void. My parents promised a new dog around Christmas, and we spent months going to animal shelters and pet stores looking for the perfect dog.

It was my dad who found Lucky. He came home one day in December promising that he’d found the perfect dog for us, refusing to tell anybody but my mom anything about him. On Christmas Eve, he took us to a shopping mall and told us to wait near the entrance. A few moments later, he returned riding down the escalator with a black schnauzer-terrier mix that I named Lucky (though my brother contends to this day that the name was his idea).

Lucky is a rescue that was around four years old when we got him. Through the years, he has become one of my best friends. I still remember him jumping onto my bed each night to go to sleep when I was a child. He’s learned to fetch, sit, lie down, heel, and shake hands in his time at our house.

Now that I’m in college, I don’t see as much of Lucky anymore. Each time I return home, it seems as if his fur has grown a little bit grayer. He clearly has lost a step, though he still loves playing fetch and will jump onto my bed whenever I invite him up. As much as I’m dreading the day that Lucky leaves us, I understand exactly how much he’s meant to my family over the past ten years. He’s more than just a pet; he’s a family member.

Musings with Mr. Moreno (Part 6)

Today was my final meeting this semester with Edinson. I'd like to start off by saying that it was a truly humbling experience. Edinson has been a pleasure to talk to and has really become a good friend of mine.

I started off the meeting by asking Edinson about his literacy test that he took on Monday. He passed! Although he didn't do as well as he would have liked, he is now officially allowed to enroll in courses as a student here at TCU.

Most of the rest of the meeting was spent talking about classes. Edinson was interested to know everything about the way college classes work, so I happily answered all of his questions.

I first explained exactly how the lectures work. I told him that the classes generally start a few minutes after the hour when the professor calms everybody down, then (especially in intro classes) talks about the subject the rest of the class period. Edinson wondered whether he'd be allowed to ask questions if he didn't understand something, so I explained that professors will answer short questions in class and long questions/concepts can be brought to the professor by email or during office hours, which he found to be helpful. He also wondered aloud whether he could use a recorder so that he could listen to the lectures later. I told him most professors would have no problem with that, but that it would be a good idea to ask all of them during the first class to clarify.

The biggest point that I made was that as long as he goes to class and does the required readings, along with asking questions when he's confused, he'll receive excellent grades in all of his classes.


I'd say that I'll miss Edinson, but I've promised to help him at any point next semester if he needs it. He's truly been a joy, and I know that I'll see him around TCU now that he's a student.

"Ten Indians": My Reaction

After reading "Ten Indians", I couldn't help but compare the young Nick we see in the first few Hemingway short stories to the cold, emotionless Nick we meet later on. Hemingway turns Nick's naivety as a young boy into a series of experiences that slowly turn him into the stubborn man he becomes, with the conclusion of "Ten Indians" playing a key role in Nick's view of women.

Throughout the story, the Garner family displays a prejudice towards the Native Americans that inhabit the town in which they live. Nick takes the unreasonably rude jokes with surprising ease, even though both of his friends and their parents are attacking the girl that he has been seeing a few times a week. Hemingway even goes so far as to say that Nick "felt happy and hollow inside himself to be teased about Prudence Mitchell".

Unfortunately for Nick, the girl that he is in puppy love with has already learned how easy the art of heartbreak can be. Nick, upon returning home to his father to eat dinner, is told that Prudence Mitchell was seen with another boy threshing around in the bushes. Nick's father shows no sympathy at all for Nick, who is clearly emotionally distraught. His father's apathy, partnered with the horrible heartbreak caused by Prudence Mitchell, both contribute greatly to Nick's future self.

Hemingway's stories about Nick's youth, including "Ten Indians", mark the beginning of the end for Nick's childhood naivety. Nick rapidly learns the difficulty that goes along with growing up.

"The Man Who Was Almost a Man": My Reaction

First off, I'd like to point out that this blog post was influenced in no way by the fantastic presentation given by Tyler, Brandon, and Austin on Wednesday. As much as they discussed the decisions that contribute to one becoming a man, I've been considering writing as much about Dave since my last post about "The Guest". Excuses aside, their presentation touched on what I found to be the main point in "The Man Who Was Almost a Man"; Dave's inability to distinguish the difference between acting like a man and actually being a man.

Dave's issue begins when he confuses owning a gun with manhood. In Dave's mind, the act of buying and possessing a gun indicates adulthood. He thinks that the adults in his town will stop looking down at him as a boy after they realize that he owns something so powerful. Unfortunately for Dave, being a man is much more than having power; being a man is about knowing exactly what to do with the power that you have.

Ironically, Dave's incident with the gun proves how much of a boy he truly is (as opposed to proving himself a man, which he was trying to do). Dave, like any other young boy would do, allows curiosity to get the best of him. He decides that owning the gun is not enough, and that he wants to shoot it. Unfortunately, shooting a gun with closed eyes never seems to work out well for anyone involved. Dave shoots Jenny the mule in the ribs, which soon leads to her death.

It is at this point that Dave must make a decision: admit his mistake and pay the consequences, as any true man would do, or choose to run from the problem and create excuses for his actions. As the Mighty Ducks stated in their presentation, Dave's future down either path is dramatically different. Down one road is consequence, forgiveness, redemption, and respect. Down another, disappointment, abandonment, and regret.

Dave proves beyond a reasonable doubt his adolescence when he chooses to run away. His inability to understand the differences between boyhood and manhood lead him to make a horrible decision. A young boy roaming the country with only a gun stands little to no chance of even surviving, let alone living a fulfilling life. While I understand Dave's longing for respect, his child-like attempt at earning it led him away from his friends, his family, and his entire life.

Musings with Mr. Moreno (Part 5)

Edinson and I met for the fifth time last Wednesday in my apartment. We originally planned on meeting in the hallway next to the BLUU auditorium to go over some of his english study papers, as it is usually empty and quiet. However, we were forced to move to my apartment in the TBPW apartment area because of an event that was taking place.

Upon entering the apartment, I introduced Edinson to my roommates Jake and Robert. I told Edinson that Robert had played violin all through high school and they discussed their respective times playing for a few moments before my third roommate Christian walked in. After more introductions, Edinson pulled out his study material and we got to work.

The material that we worked with was pretty basic. Each question had a sentence with four parts underlined. The student was asked to discover which of the four underlined parts was a grammatical error within the sentence. Edinson worked through the questions with relative ease in the beginning, but the questions got more difficult as the workbook wore on. My roommates and I even found many of the questions difficult, proving that the test truly is a test of english ability that goes beyond the level of simple competency. Edinson laughed when I told him that I might have trouble with the test that he has to take after only a year of speaking english consistently.

I haven't gotten in touch with Edinson since he took the competency test, but hopefully he did well. In my opinion, he's improved each time we've met. He really seemed to understand all of the points that were covered in the workbook, so I think there's a good chance he'll be cleared to enroll in classes next semester.

"The Guest": My Reaction

"The Guest" was my introduction to existentialist author Albert Camus. Before my reading, I was familiar only with the well-known existentialists: Kafka, Nietzsche, and Dostoyevsky. Camus' story is by far my favorite existentialist work (I don't consider myself a fan of existentialism), as the main character is relatable to me.

The reason I enjoyed "The Guest" was the moral dilemma Daru was forced to face. As an empathetic person, I completely understand the position he was in. Why turn in a man who has done something that somebody else says is wrong when you have no opinion one way or the other? Daru has no obligations to either side in the revolution, making it unfair to ask him to condemn a prisoner or choose to defy the orders given. Either way, Daru is forced to make a decision he absolutely does not want to make. One of the author's themes seems to be the idea that the only decision that can't be made is the choice not to make a decision. As much as Daru tries not decide one way or the other, he essentially chooses to give the prisoner his freedom by allowing the prisoner himself to choose.

As for the reason the prisoner chooses prison over freedom, there are many potential options. Some have suggested that the prisoner himself believed that he deserved his punishment. Others believe that the prisoner wants to ensure the safety of his family and loved ones by turning himself in. After reading "The Guest", it is my belief that the prisoner chose to turn himself in because he didn't want the responsibility of leading an Arab rebellion against the French. Sanducci tells Daru early on that the prisoner's village is beginning to stir and wants him back, which led me to believe that the prisoner was an important figure in the rebellion. However, throughout the story he seems to be voluntarily submissive to both Sanducci and Daru, rather than a rebel as we have been led to believe. In my opinion, the prisoner chooses prison because he thinks that as a free man, he will become a symbol of rebellion throughout Algeria.

"The Guest" was a truly enjoyable read for me. I found it to be an excellent example of the moral dilemmas that arise in times of war and rebellion, although I hope never to be forced to consider such a dilemma firsthand.