Thankful for a Classmate

Over the past three years in my high school life, I have grown to be thankful for a number of my "real" close friends. A number of those students are in my philosophy class. Perry has been a good friend of mine for virtually my entire life, Tyrone and Dominique have been my teammates for four years, and I have grown to be pretty cool with Kene, Xavier, Zach, Rachel, Nicole and Hannah. I enjoy the conversations that we are able to have in class as a whole. However, if I were to choose one classmate that I am thankful for, I think it is obvious that it would be my twin sister, Vicky.

Vicky has been my closest friend for my entire life. We live together, so we spend a lot of time together. I view my family as literally the most important thing on the planet. We joke and say that we are the same person, have the same brain etc… And in some ways, it is true. We are quite similar, and I think that we have helped shape each other in to the people that we are today. We talk about everything, we joke about things, we have a great time whenever it is we decide to do something, and almost anything else good you can think of. These are just a few of the many reasons that I am thankful for my twin sister, Vicky Thompson.

Open Letter to Cormac McCarthy

Dear Cormac,

I recently finished reading your novel, “The Road”, and I must say that I am quite impressed with your work. A father and son in a post apocalyptic setting is a curious topic to say the least, however, I think you made it work quite well. I was drawn in to the characters as a reader. It was almost as if I cared for them personally. I was also impressed with the journey you chose to show. Their experiences of often not having enough food, and constantly worrying for their lived on the road are strong pieces to have in the story.

            That said, I think what I enjoyed most about the book was your writing style. Your lack of quotation marks, your many uses of fragments, the words that you made up to use in the story, etc… I read your novel for a senior year philosophy class, so we analyzed all of these things. It made for a highly enjoyable class reading experience. Each of us in our class had our own ideas about why we thought you chose to do this, but if I may ask, what prompted you to write in such a peculiar style? More so, what inspiration did you have for writing such a sad story about two people living in the post-apocalyptic world? I think that knowing the answers to these questions will provide a little bit of closure on a wonderful reading experience.

Sincerely,

Sam Thompson

Whitney Young Magnet High School