Olivia's Essay

Olivia Denison

Mr. Salsich

English 9

21 November 2008

Words, Hatred and Courage

Your impact on people

When you say something just to joke around, do you ever think about how some people might take it seriously? Have you ever seen someone hurt another person physically just because of who they are? What would you do to stop this? Would you have enough courage to stand up to that person and say stop? This happened to Stump Olsen, who is gay. While she was growing up, no one was there to say stop to those people who verbally, mentally and physically abused her because of her sexual orientation.

TS Stump Olsen recently came in to talk about her experience as a lesbian in high school; her experience was like no one else’s. SD When she told us that she got beaten up and called names, my first reaction was how could someone do that? However, I quickly realized that most people do not accept those who are different. CM Olsen said instead of focusing (participle) on schoolwork, she had to focus on how to get from class to class without getting attacked. At least twice a week she would get jumped, and no one said anything about it, not even the teachers. CM Every time she was attacked, she would secretly hope that the “gay” would get beaten out of her so that the next day she would not be gay anymore. I thought it was really sad that she felt that she had to conform. SD I was deeply moved when she mentioned her family. Olsen’s parents have not spoken to her or had any contact with her since she “came out” to them fifteen years ago while in college. Olsen still looks in her mailbox for a birthday card from her parents or siblings, even though she knows she will not get one. CM Also, Olsen has not spoken to her older sister and younger brother during the past fifteen years. I cannot even imagine what it would be like to have no contact whatsoever with your family for that long just because you are different. CS There are people who would wish to do harm to those whom they view as being diferent. It seems as though no one ever steps in and says, “Stop!”

TS Discrimination comes in numerous forms; you could not like someone else’s religion, how a person looks, or their sexual orientation. SD The discrimination that Ms. Olsen faced was against gays and how some people act toward them. CM People can view things differently and people can treat others differently. CM Some people just cannot tolerate a person being different so they have to hurt them, which is not right (absolute). SD Ms. Olsen was discriminated against and even though people and teachers were aware of it, no one ever did anything. CM If she had a better relationship with her parents, she could have told them what was happening. Instead, she kept it to herself without anybody to support and protect her. CM It is unfair to pick on someone and especially wrong to hurt them physically just because they are different than you. CS It is terrible for someone to have to experience what Ms. Olsen did and it is hard to imagine that it actually happened.

Some people cannot accept that some differences in other people are not by their own choice and cannot be changed. Tolerance of these differences must be learned. People can think these differences are strange, but they should not express how they feel toward that person, no matter how much they want or feel the need to. No one should ever hurt anyone in any way just because they are different.

Self Assessment

Writing Issues I’m continuing working on.

The big things for me are punctuation and smoothness. I’ve been trying to work my transitions with using words like however or for example instead of just repeating myself. I’ve always have had trouble with punctuation, especially with commas which makes me write run on sentences which I have trouble identifying. So I’m working on identifying punctuation and run on sentences.

Some strong points I see.

I feel like I made some good points in my essay, especially in my first body paragraph. I also feel like I checked it over really well for mistakes, even though I probably missed some.

Some weak points I see.

I feel like that my second body paragraph is a little short but I think I have good points but I could have elaborated on them. I also don’t think my conclusion is that strong, but I could be wrong.

Grade I would give myself.

86