Thornton Academy – AP Language 2018-2019

Although facing hardships is something everyone can relate to, everyone deals with them in extremely unique ways. Lives are shaped depending on whether people fight to hold onto hope or whether they let it slip through their fingers. Throughout the course of history, the human race has demonstrated an outstanding ability to overcome adversity in even the most despairing situations. Alfred Nakache is a prime example of how strong faith and the human will can be. He started off as a Jewish swimmer, but turned into someone representing much more.

Nakache was an Olympic athlete that competed in the 1936 Berlin Olympic Games and the 1946 London Olympics. It was what took place in those 10 years that makes Nakache’s story unforgettable. He faced traumas one right after the other. In 1941, after beating a German opponent, he was no longer allowed to compete at the national level. Journalists claimed that because he was Jewish he should not be able to compete or hold any records. Then, in 1944, Nakache, his wife, and his 2 years old daughter were deported to Auschwitz. Once they arrived, his wife and daughter were murdered. He spent the next year being tortured until his release in 1945. 

Despite having become mentally and physically destroyed, Nakache did not give up hope for a better life. He pushed himself to bring training again and was soon part of a world-record setting swim team. He accomplished setting the world record less than a year after being released and also later participated in the 1946 Olympics. He survived what is perhaps the greatest tragedy in history; it is almost impossible to fathom that someone experienced so much pain and then had the strength to overcome it. His life story is full of sorrow, yet it does not fail to inspire. Alfred Nakache serves as a reminder to never give up and to hold on tightly to hope, for you can’t survive life without doing so.

For those obsessed with the holiday season and Christmas in particular, there is an age old debate surrounding real versus fake Christmas trees that comes about annually. There seem to be ride or die believers on both sides of the argument, but in realistic terms, the best tree option has to be fake.

To start, fake Christmas trees are cost effective. Instead of spending money on a new real tree each year, families could instead purchase one fake tree and re-use it for multiple years. If the average family spends fifty dollars on their Christmas tree annually, over the course of just five years, 250 dollars could be saved. This is especially important during the holidays, when expenses are high and funds tend to be tight.

Additionally, making the decision to purchase a fake Christmas tree has the potential to be a much faster process, than a traditional real tree. After the initial purchase of the fake tree, individuals no longer need to make a trip out of their home, drive to a location, choose a tree, etc., in order to have the ideal living room center piece. The tree would already be stored away somewhere in the person’s home. If a family really wants to save on time and can get creative, they can even keep the tree pre-decorated and stored up-right, so preparing the tree the following year could be done in as little as ten minutes.

Finally, fake trees ensure cleanliness. There are no live pine needles quickly dying and dropping all over the floor. Nothing to sweep up or clean up after, during the delivery or removal process, which tend to get excessively messy each year.

Though traditionalists may argue otherwise, it is obvious that fake Christmas trees are recognizably superior to real Christmas trees. At the end of the day, they are cost effective, quick and easy to put up, and extremely clean. Fake Christmas trees have all the glory without the hassle. This is a winning situation that allows the feeling of the holiday and the aesthetic of a real tree to enter someone’s home, without creating a hassle. Fake Christmas trees are undoubtedly number one.

Death, despite being as much of a common part of life as going to the grocery store, is such an incredibly daunting thing. It is a spectacle that many fear and that some feel utterly nonchalant about. It seems to be the unknown factor that is the most terrifying thing about dying. No one knows what happens to us after we die, except for those who have already passed (but they aren’t much help, are they?). The thought of complete nothingness, the simple act of ceasing to exist, is something we as people cannot quite comprehend. It seems to be one of the greatest commonalities among the human population to fear things that we cannot quite wrap our brains around. When we know everything about something, there is not really anything to be uneasy about. We know the outcomes, the facets, the ups and downs.

Many religions, as I see it anyway, are not only meant to give people structure and purpose in their life but also give them a concrete thing to look forward to once theirs has come to an end. Not everyone chooses to have faith as a part of their life, and it is those individuals who are simply left on their own to hypothesize about what may come at the end (if they so please).

The fear of death seems an almost unnatural one, really. It is something happens to everyone, no matter who we may be. But there’s such anxiety that circulates around the whole idea, and I believe that mainly comes from our inability to imagine anything that is not being alive, that is not experiencing the present that we are in at this moment. We cannot understand that someday we will not have thoughts, we will not cry, we will not sing, we will not be.

This past weekend, my family and I started our traditional  Christmas cookie production. Each year we make between 20 and 30 dozen cookies of all different types, over the span of the two weeks before Christmas.

This past weekend was the first weekend to start it off which meant we needed to make at least 12 dozen cookies. We decided to start with our pumpkin and white chocolate cookies topped with cream cheese frosting, which is one of our favorites. The recipe makes 10 dozen cookies but, the dough takes a bit to make and it has to chill in the fridge before being put on the cookie sheets or it will be too sticky.

We made the dough and it chilled but we ran into our first problem; the dough did not chill correctly, so it was much stickier than usual. We started the line of 8 minutes on the top rack and 8 minutes in the bottom rack, letting them cool on the cooling racks, and the two frosting helpers who frosted the cookies after they had cooled down. This process lasts for a couple hours until we’ve started the next type of cookie.

We got a late start on our cookies so we were still baking and frosting cookies at 11:30 pm. We still had two other types of cookies to make so we were in a panic mode at that point. We called it quits around midnight, but this year was still a successful start to my favorite tradition with my family.

As we approach the holiday season, many are starting to make their journeys back home to their loved ones. Whether this be to the living room, the next town or to another country for many this is an important time of the year, not only to count our blessings and to spend time with family and friends, but to also reflect on the past and look to the future. However, is the spirit of Christmas supposed to be seen only at a time when there is a tree in the living room or lights in the windows?

Although this general spirit of Christmas is seen across the globe many different cultures celebrate it in their own way. For example, in England the holiday lasts for 12 days, while in other countries the holiday is designated to a single day. But should we confine this cheerful spirit of giving and celebration to one day or month a year?

I think not. In one of the most prosperous and leading contries on the planet we have so much to be grateful for. While this year we will wake up to scrumptious food and presents many will just be grateful for waking up alive. The actions we take throughout the year should be those that reflect giving, thankfulness and celebration. You cannot only brighten your own life by doing this, but also brighten and touch the lives of others. It is surprising how one simple, little act of kindness can impact a person or a family.

So as you sit down at the table on December the 25th of this year, and look around you at the beautiful people that fill your life, I encourage you to think how full life would be if you felt like this everyday. In the end, we should not be asking why share the Christmas spirit all the time, but why not?

Under the nose of a proud nation, a crisis just as deadly as the HIV/AIDS epidemic has been quietly but violently progressing for more than two decades. In 2015, 52,404 Americans died from a drug overdose. That number is higher than the number of deaths at the peak of the U.S. HIV/AIDS epidemic in 1995, which amounted to 43,115 deaths. Although the high death rates from overdoses did not appear overnight, the opioid epidemic, which began in 1995, contributed largely to the rapidly increasing drug crisis in the United States.

      The roots of the U.S.’s opioid epidemic lay with Perdue Pharma, the pharmaceutical company that first produced OxyContin as a prescription painkiller. Modified from oxycodone, OxyContin was a pill advertised as having the same painkilling effects as other opioids, while being a less addictive and safer alternative. The U.S. FDA (Food and Drug Administration) failed to investigate these claims, therefore approving the drug for the market. Doctors prescribe OxyContin heavily, and people begin to become addicted. It wasn’t until 2007 (12 years later) that the government formally filed charges against Perdue Pharma for stating false claims about OxyContin. In reality, it was just as addictive as other opioids. The company executives were charged a fee and ultimately served no time in prison. However, by then, it was too late for millions of Americans who  were already addicted.

    Unfortunately, OxyContin was just the beginning of America’s opioid epidemic. Users who could no longer afford the pills turned to heroin and other cheaper alternatives that offered the same effects as oxycodone. Heroin, however, was much more dangerous than OxyContin. As a result, addicted Americans fell deeper into the cycle of addiction, overdoses began to occur more frequently, and, subsequently, the United States was ushered into one of its deadliest epidemics in recent history.