Live-in terror.

Jamie Goldstein

Writing II

Prompt #10

“I am not afraid of death, I just don’t want to be there when it happens” –Woody Allen

      Death isn’t all that bad, it’s living that terrifies me. When we die, it’s just a simple exhalation, we breath out and our soul leaves us; our heart stops, and our brain dumps every last milligram of dopamine into our bloodstream. Meeting the reaper is a euphoric experience. That light at the end of the tunnel? It your brain comforting you, it’s been with you every moment of every day of your life, and now that you’re almost gone, it shows you a marvelous ending, a bright light to help you cope with the unimaginable end. Dying is easy. We were all dead long before we were born, and frankly, I can’t remember it being all that bad. It’s living that should be our dread.

      Living is tough. We need to be successful, prominent, good. Hell, we need to be happy. Isn’t that biggest crock you’ve ever heard? You’re placed on this stupid little chunk of carbon and water, a place where seven billion other people are out to get you and you’re expected to beat the odds and find happiness? Death doesn’t sound so bad next to that challenge. Yes, the payout is nice, a spouse, maybe kids, material comfort, good friends, but what’s the point? You’re still going to die, and no matter who you are, no matter what you do, you will be forgotten. So maybe death isn’t all that bad, it’s really just a return to ease, a return to normalcy. When we go back to that infinite black soup of death, maybe we should not meet it with terror, but rather with open arms. After all it’s not death that terrifies me, it’s living.

Truth

"Of course it's the same old story. Truth usually is the same old story." - Margaret Thatcher

Truth is the only story that should be told. Too often today are we wed nonsense that we almost cathartically take in. Information isn't knowledge. The truth remains the same old story because truth cannot be tainted by the likes of false preachings. We entertain ourselves with the new stories: the lies, the deceit, the negatives. But these non-truths are not obsolete. They are necessary to realize that which is true. 

"We are all in the same gang"

Who's to say we're different because of culture, skin, or physical appearance. We all go through the same struggle of trying to succeed. Not one person doesn't try to accomplish something big in life or sometimes fail when least expected. We all desire to find our or a purpose to life. It's things like this that keep us living; not friends or family but the desire to know. The human race is the most predictable gang in life because it's all about hoping, dreaming, and competing. Whether someone wins or loses, as a collective we've already lost.

- Wilber Pion

“We are all worthy of one another.” -Edward P. Jones

This prompts puts me in position that questions myself and my moral beliefs. As a Catholic, I accept all but there and some who I believe aren't worthy of anything. This is the contradiction; who am I judge when I believe there's only who judges. Although I'm a strong believer, I think one who has done wrong I will still accept them. If one has done wrong and continually keeps going while screwing up their lives, I will judge them. Those who know but keep on screwing up their life they're aren't worthy of another or themselves. One must respect and cherish to make something valuable and worthy.

-Wilbert Pion

"If aliens ever visit us, I think the outcome would be much as when Christopher Columbus first landed in America, which didn’t turn out very well for the Native Americans." -Stephen Hawking

When Columbus and his men or any type of European landed in a foreign land they wiped everyone out. In the Americas the killing of Natives was the biggest and successful genocides in history, but yet we still celebrate and take a day off for Columbus. Children are lied to in school when learning about Columbus' and his settler's achievements. It worries me that if Aliens land, will our history not matter? Will these Aliens or whatever they are be celebrated for a genocide just like Columbus? And will we just be known as uncivilized native savages in future history textbooks and classes.

-Wilbert Pion

“Not "Seeing is Believing," you ninny, but "Believing is Seeing." For modern art has become completely literary: the paintings and other works exist only to illustrate the text.”

Really believing that something is real without seeing it is what belief really is. If one has to see something to believe it, then they had no belief at all. People don't see God, but they believe in him and that's what makes their belief strong. When speaking of belief on arts, it can be taken as the words that describe a scenery or a character that help the audience feel as if they're there. I believe the movie Lincoln has had this effect; no one in my generation knew Lincoln or how he acted. The way Daniel Day Lewis portrayed the American Icon made me believe that I knew him personally. The way he spoke, moved, and reacted set my beliefs to think that's who Lincoln really was.




-Wilbert Pion

"The world is a tragedy to those who feels, but a comedy to those who think." - Horace Wapole

This quote remind me of a picture about the brain talking to the heart, telling the heart "when is you ever going to learn." Anyway I think this quote could go both way, to the heart and the brain. If the heart is happy or in love then the heart is at comedy and you are enjoying it. If you think too much and made the wrong decision by using your brain then you probably be in tragedy with regrets. Feelings or those who use their heart more then they use their brain they aren't always in tragedy rather than very sentimental about things. Me personally I think i fall in between using the brain and my heart. I'm always thinking about what right or wrong with little bit of feelings. Not much about how i feel about a certain decision but if that the right thing to do at the moment. I believe is best to use you brain more than your heart. Sometime your heart is a sucker.

E. PEREZ

Team VS Gang

           "A team is where a boy can prove his courage. A gang is where a coward goes to hide."

        A team is where a boy can prove his courage, his strength and his endurance. He can exercise his mind to become a better person and his body to be disciplined with and without his team. A team is there to encourage and support without ridicule. Whereas a gang is where a coward goes to hide. He is too afraid of itself and seek power from his equals on the same level of ignorance. With no real meaning to life.  Affiliated with people one in the same and the only way to truly prove himself is to act quickly by holding  a gun, not noticing his thumb is aiming back at the true coward.










                                                                                                                             _Lino

Only hitter can never be a judge..

“Only hitter can never be the judge. Only the receiver of the blow tell you how hard it was, whether it would kill a man or make a baby just yawn”  Edward P.Jones

    Who can judge? Who does not? I would like that our society be without any judgments. But let’s imagine the man who returned home after hard working day to relax among his beloved ones and there he had realized, that his only brilliant, lovely thirteen years old girl was raped on her way home just 2 blocks away their house. What to you expect him to do? I understand, that our country has very strict legislative system and we strongly believe in its power. However, can that heartbroken father wait for jurisdiction? Can we judge his for his decision to make a punishment of that rapists? Only hitter can be a judge, only him…

Natalya Perfilova

The hitter can never be the judge. Only the receiver of the blow can tell you how hard it was, whether it would kill a man or make a baby just yawn- Edward P. Jones

No one know what you are feeling deep inside unless you tell them.  The hurt, the pain and emotional rollercoaster that is experience can only be felt by the other person if they tak a similar ride.  One has to walk in someone else's shoe to feel the pain they may be feeling.  Sometimes, we judge people by their outward appearance or expression but it may not always be an accurate assessment of how they are feeling on the inside.  Even harsh words spoken to another human being can be damaging.  The effects may even be longterm and we may treat it as trivial.  Let's always be mindful of what we say or do to another person...

"No one ever likes the right person" -Brett Easton Elliss

-__- He's right. I got this girl, well....... it's more like she got me, dangling from these wires. I'm the puppet and she's Geppetto. The thing is she doesn't want me how I want her, but she wont let me go. I know what I am to her, trust me I know, I'm the backup plan. As in, "if every other relationship with every guy on the planet fails, at least I have Terry on hold."I try to cut our attachment by leaving her alone, but weeks would go by and out of the blue there's a text on my phone. It's her, reminding me that she still exist's, reminding me that I'm not good enough for her to love, but dumb enough for her to control. The sad part is, I love it. Not the part where I am belittled, I love the fact that she needs me. Even as a backup, she values my companionship to a certain degree where she cannot ignore it. But how long can this last? How long until the puppet master finds a new puppet? How long until I, Pinocchio long to be not a boy, but a real man?                                                                                                                             -Terry Moore  

"Education is simply the soul of a society as it passes from one generation to the next."- Elbert Chesterton

Education in the simplest of truth's is basically the ability to impart one's wisdom to others. It is the best weapon in a word that demands survival of the fittest. You may never have the brawn's to be the strongest creature on this planet, but with the strongest brain and the knowledge to comprehend how things work, who say's you need to? Let's take a look at the Spartans. Some people think that they were just a group of muscle head's who did nothing but fight all the time, but their society prospered because of their great education system. Think about it, at an early age they sent their sons away in the wilderness to an all boy's boarding school. The board of education system was so hardcore that the boys had only two options; graduate or die. I think it's safe to say that all of their soldiers were highly qualified. In our society anyone can join the Marine's or U.S.Army without having gone through the rigorous training courses the Spartans went through. Education is the key to our survival, and if we dont take advantage of this gift we'll find it hard to be successful.                                                            
                                                                                                                                                         -Terry Moore

Unprohibited.

Jamie Goldstrein

Writing II

Prompt #11

“Communism is like prohibition, it’s a good idea but it won’t work.”

     It’s stupid, really, to think that you can stop us. We drink. We smoke. We are consumed by the chemical experience. Yeah it’s illegal, but who cares? This is New York Fuckin’ City. You see kids smoking up on the streets. As if a little childhood prohibition is gonna stop us.

     We’re loud, impetuous, we sleep around and yet we don’t sleep at all. Your silly little rules are nothing to us. The collegiate world vomits up last night’s booze in the face of polite society. It’s not your fault. There’s nothing you can do. It’s us. It’s our choice. 

     We’re going to be stupid, because you know what? We fucking earned it. I didn’t study so goddam hard in high-school, I didn’t put off my entire social life with dreams of the big college world to do the same shit I’ve always done. Do your homework. Go to sleep early. Eat those GODDAM vegetables. You know what my social life in high school was? Fucking nothing. 

     It’s high time those days ended. So yeah, I’m gonna be irresponsible. I’m going to do what I do and fuck you if you’re not ok with it. 

     It’s stupid really, to think you can stop us. We’re young. We’re the new administration. If you’re not cool with it, well, we just don’t give a shit.

3/14 Class

"Communism is like prohibition, it's a good idea but it won't work." - Will Rogers

And it's a damn shame (the communist thing -- I don't think Prohibition was a good idea at any point during its lifespan, not in theory nor in implementation). Why is it we can't have a society where 'give' is the primal instinct rather than 'take?' Do we not trust one another enough? That must be it, the achilles heel to any forward thinking, out-of-left-field-but-just-might-work wave of change that comes our way; fear. We can't give instead of take because inside out anxious little minds we're all sure that someone somewhere will be taking instead of giving, relaxing and enjoying the trickled-down fruits of our labor the way a hyena enjoys the leftover meat from a lion's kill. I suppose that's our problem -- one bad apple spoils the bunch, and we're the most wary, nervous bushels of fruit that have ever existed in the wide span of human history.

-Reid Williams

3/5 Class

"Make your next move your best move"

Recently I've been so caught up with planning that I've hardly actually done a damn thing. I don't live in today, I don't live in tomorrow -- I live in the ever-elusive "two or three weeks from now, once I've written this and gotten around to that, etc." To stay on the ball I've postponed living for pretty much the entire semester. Over the past few days, though, I've been feeling my head come out of the fog a bit, been able to, if only slightly, pay attention to my present and not my always-postponable future. So this prompt couldn't come at a better time for me, really. I'm young for but a fleeting moment, and every day in this city that whizzes by like the A train will never stop and turn around, never come back and pick me up like some convenient public transportation. I aim, from here on out, to constantly and consistently make my very next -- not my next next, or my 3-4 nexts move, but my actual approaching present reality -- the boldest, bravest, most only-chance-in-a-lifetime decision I can.

-Reid Williams

2/26 Class

"There was this funny thing of anything could happen now that we realized everything we had." - Raymond Carter

This is what it's like to be riding on high in New York City. I always say to friends and family, and let me gon on record saying that this is an original quote and hopefully one day will be widely known and attributed to me, that New York is like a wave. When you have the energy to fight and paddle and get on top -- when you're feeling what Carver describes -- the wave carries you as far as you want. But when you don't have that energy, New York is going to throw you around in the surf, smash you against the ground, disorient you, and, if you stay out of the game for too long, drown you. This place is a city for the optimists, despite popular belief, the tough ones. For people who feel every day what I imagine to be a peak of happiness and positivity for Mr. Carver.

-Reid Williams

Class 1/31

"Where do you put your hands on somebody who hurts everywhere?" - Charles D'Ambrosio

A corny response would be "on their heart" or "their soul," some attempt at beating the physical metaphor with an emotional response. But a better answer, I'd say, is to put your hands out. Make them seen. A hurt person is a scared person, a defensive person. To crowd them, to touch them, to reach too far out to them is, in a way, aggressive. Even presumptuous. Why would I, or anyone, assume my/his/her hands contained the ability to heal another's mysterious wounds. As far as I know, a person's wounds could've been caused by a friend who "wanted to help" and was let in close enough to the victim's heart to do damage. So I hold my position; put your hands out. Show someone in pain that you are there, that you want to help. A large part of pain is the loss of control it brings, so, to someone confused and in agony, giving them the ability to take control, to seek help, might be as important as the help itself. Touching someone is sometimes too much, but displaying a kinship of existence is an entirely different story.

-Reid Williams

Borneo

"War does not determine who is right

Only who is left" - Bertrand Russel

   How is it we know history? We dust off an ancient tome from the deepest cave of Borneo. Bones of men lay scattered across the cave entrance. An untouched goldmine for archaeologists and anthropologists. Perfectly preserved, a journal of sorts found beneath the rubble of a once living man. This pile is different from the others. Amulets and pendants of gold lay here. The dusty remains of his hands still grip tight upon his sword. His trusted weapon had held the attackers off but even Excalibur couldn't hold back an army. Perhaps he was the leader? a bandit? the owner of this glorious tome. Was it his journal? We would never know. He was the last man standing with the only written text that would open the portal to a historical event. This one ancient tome decides who is good, evil, right and wrong. Out textbooks tells of a great hero defending his tribe from invading outsiders. Real history would tell us of a thief who had stolen from the great library of a once existing civilization. Everything in history is told through letters and words. Words wrought upon by those with bloody hands and a the last beating pulse.

-Ricardo G.

Fight for the right to rest.

Jamie Goldstein

Writing II

Prompt #10

“War does not determine who is right- only who is left.”

This is a fight to the finish. I’m sweating, shaking, I can barely think but my fingers mash the keys faster than my brain can form its thoughts. It’s not about writing a good paper anymore, its about finishing it. This isn’t my war for good grades, it’s my war for sleep. My eyelids are like anvils and my pulse seems irregular. 

Am I having a seizure? A stroke? Maybe death is just a midterm paper for social foundations II. Whatever- As I said, I don’t even care how I do anymore, I just need the words to be gone. I need to stop needing to think and in this war I will not lose. I cap off my seventh page with a resoundingly awful finisher, but this is war, and I’m not looking to play nice.

My stomach growls. Hunger. Shit, I think I forgot to eat this week. Oh well, I guess I’ll just go to dollar pizza. Fuck, where’s my change? No way in I’m breaking my last twenty on two dollars of pizza. Wait! there’s a quarter under my bed! 

5th Ave to 9th st, 8th, 6th Ave, half a block further, almost dying, heart racing. This is a war against hunger. PIZZA! Tear into that sucker. Two minutes, two slices, done. Run back. Printer’s finally done. Hit the bed. Sleep. SHIT, I can’t. Why did I drink 16 ounces of Redbull?

Fuck.

Well, I guess it’s war, and tonight, I lost. The work wasn’t right, but my sleep wasn’t left.

Uncertainty.

"War does not determine who is right - only who is left" ~ Bertrand Russell

During a time of war, we often question the motives and reasons that led to this point. Fighting for freedom? Fighting to defend themselves? Fighting to defend the defenseless? But do we really know what we're fighting for? We're told we're fighting for our loved ones. We're told we're fighting for our country. That's a good thing right? I mean...patriotism is good isn't it? Generally, we may think so but that doesn't mean it's always right. Just because we stick a label on something and call it "patriotism" doesn't mean that's what it actually is. How do we determine what's right anyway? The concept of what's right and wrong are so skewed during times of war we often get lost in the explosion of what's moral and what's not. The United States isn't always right (as much as many redneck, gun-loving Texans may like to believe). Neither are these other countries that we're constantly fighting. We may never know who was right. We may never even know the whole story. All we do know is who won, who lost, and who's left. Since history is always written from the perspective of the winners, we only get a twisted, biased, glorified opinion on what really happened. How will we know who was genuinely right and who could justify their actions? Well...the losers are dead and they can't tell their side of the story and the winners just exaggerate and boast and blow everything out of proportion. In the end, everything is up in the air. We can't generalize one side of the war toward a stereotype and clump the others into another category. No one is truly right. Everyone has their own reason for why they choose to not only to take someone else's life but also to sacrifice their own in the process. No sane person makes the decision to take another human being's life like that with no justification.

War.

So who's right?

I guess we'll never know.

|| M.K. ||

Foreigner

What is an alien? Something different? Something unknown? Something foreign? Something that puts us at a standstill and takes our breath away. Something that we will submit to because we think we not have a choice. As when Columbus landed in America, he was foreign to the native Americans. They felt they were inferior so, they just went along with it. In doing so they vanished. As we take a look at the world today the government is a well known alien, possibly on a personal  basis. They are making decisions, plotting ideas, enforcing beliefs and us Americans just take it.




                                                                                                                                        _Lino

Captain Morgan

Make your next move

Your best move

     It's every decision you make that counts. It was your mothers decision to have you. Was it a good one? Maybe in your eyes. You are sitting here, thinking of your future weekend ventures. Get drunk, get high; college stuff you know. It's clear to you that its not productive but who cares? It's only freshman year. I'll get serious later on and save my best move then. It's ok right? Only freshman year...It's fine right?

Wrong.

What will you tell employers if they ask you of your 1st year endeavors? "Well Sir, my liver has explored the inner depths of the sea with Captain Morgan. My mind has traveled far into the outer stratosphere."

Your opportunities? Internships? Jobs? You tell yourself its impossible. You tell yourself there are another 5000 people on the same list. 5000 people your competing against. Who are you in these 5000? But DON'T forget each and every one of those 5000 will think to themselves, "Shit, there are 5000 other people on this list." Take the advantage of confidence. Put on your suit and get dressed. The weak don't stop when pressed, you can only climb above the best.

-Ricardo G.

Swim

"There was this funny thing of anything could happen now that we realized everything had"

 -Raymond Carver

Take your step forward. It's true anything can happen. Life is the challenge of realizing whether or not you can make it happen. The day you were born, you were destined for something. Whether it be garbage man or leading scientist. Is it destiny? fate? What granted you passage to the present. Some roll through their lives floating down the river. Others swim against the current. Some climb out and start walking, or running. Others build a boat to flow down or invent an engine to stream up the unknown. Life, an infinite possibility; one what should be forged by your own hands. You look back at your life... Seeing your failures and successes, the mistakes you've made. These things you've done. Without your physical body, all these choices and thoughts that were enacted at your specific chronological order is who you are. And you look at today, everything that could happen, happened.

-Ricardo G.

You do not want to be the first,right?

You don't want to be the first,right? You want to be second or third. You do not want to be Facebook
is not the first in social media. They are the third, right? Similarly, you know, if you look at Steve Job's history, he has never been the first"

Being first does not mean to be the best. Trying to achieve the first place you could stumble and step on somebody....so you need to be careful, because in this case your championship would not make sense..
Being first requires big responsibility in front of the others for all your words and actions.
Steve Jobs was the ordinary men, who has never been the first, he just knew what he wants and did it.
He made a revolution in Apple technology by converting it from huge expensive graphic mashines into easy, affordable and amazing devices. He left his trace in history, and who cares now if he when that first, second or third...
  I am a second person, even though having all leader's quantities. I can be very good in supporting and helping someone, but not the one who make the decisions. I am the first for myself and my beloved ones. I am the first for my child and it means that the main goal of my life is achieved.

Natalya Perfilova

Tear me open.

Jamie Goldstein

Writing II

Prompt 9

“Make your next move your best move.”

Hit me with your best shot; you have one more move to make. It’s not you, it’s not me, it’s us. Fuck you. Just hurt me already. I’m so fucking tired of you being nice. Blow me down; cut me in two; burn me, shred me, set me ablaze. Knock me over with the gust of your indifference. Tear me apart in the vortex of your interminable wounds. I want to feel something from you. Give me the best pain you can muster. Let me fear your worst.

Cremate me in the firestorm of your past. Let me be your crucible. It won't hurt me. I won't flinch. I want to bleed for you. Give me the pain that you cannot bear. Let the monsters in your closet devour me. Let me sacrifice myself to the gods of your torment. 

I need you to talk, but would you please shut the hell up? There’s too much fucking static buzzing in my skull for me to think right now. Give me something to write on. I bare my soul for you and we pretend like it’s not there. Write me that love song in blood, not ink. Stop hurting yourself. Maybe don’t. Maybe you need to feel something. I do, but I don’t fucking cut. 

I need some new pains, these old ones don’t quite scream like they used to. Christ I’m scared. Shit. Just let me do something stupid. Just let me fucking do something. 

I want to scream out for something good. 

I want to scream for you, and everything you’ve stood for.

I don’t need you to save me, I need you to blow me away.

So knock me down, you have one more move to make. Hit me with your best shot.

Next Best Move

“Make your next move your best move”

What? I’ve been have a rejected sort of week so I guess I should take this advice with my next step but only after so many rejections can you still muster up the courage to make any sort of movements, yet alone a best move. I’ve been rejected by a field hockey club and the NYU soccer team, both of which have never even saw my play in either sport. Last fall I didn’t make the dance team and to be honest they look like stuck up pricks with their NYU bedazzled leotards and jazz shoes that I didn’t even want to be on the team. But I was so desperate to be a part of something that I tried almost begrudgingly. But clearly simply my name reeks rejections. Is it my first name or my last name? Or a combination of the two? Either way, it doesn’t matter because I’m still up in my room in the north tower piling on the pounds and getting exorbitantly out of shape to the point where I get winded and out of breath and also, embarrassingly enough, I get a headache when I take the stairs. Pathetic, I know. Either way should my next move be the best move? Or should I just forfeit, and keep my pride and dignity intact? It’s never been like this struggling to even get a chance to prove myself. It’s immensely discouraging. You can gather a lot of information from a silly email and none of it from the words. And it would be a lot to swallow my pride and push for the opportunities again. This is awful, in my head, I want to give up and surrender and blame the controlling extraterrestrials and the external spiritual beings who puppeteer all the goings on of the universe.  Should my next move be my best move? Right now, due to my ginormous, cumbersome ego, my best move may be under the covers of my bed and let the waves of sadness wash me away.

Katherine Benjamin