Sunburst
Happily Ever After
By Shaelynn Plasters
Life isn’t always rainbows and sunshine; sometimes it is dark and stormy. During these times, you are being shaped into becoming a stronger person. You learn to survive. You learn your strengths and weaknesses. And when the storm passes and the sun comes out, you are a better you. The two girls in the picture were born into a storm with no say but they survived and soon enough the storm was over.
Shaelynn and Kiera, the two young girls in the image aside, did not find sunshine until they were adopted. In fact, their lives started rather different. As young children, they listened to their parent’s screams and fights on a daily basis. They remember being locked into their bedrooms and only coming out with their parents’ permission. If their parents felt like it, they would feed them but almost more than half the time if they were not locked in their room, it was Shaelynn who had to cook something. Cook? She cooked? Yes, Shaelynn started cooking at the age of five and of course it probably wasn’t good but food was food when you rarely got it. They never really met any of their family members as their parents would not allow it. Their parents weren’t really parents but they managed to survive.
After all that these two girls had gone through, in a sense, was actually preparing them for what was about to happen next. It almost prepared them to survive one of their worst days of their live. The day that they can both explain to you perfectly, if they were comfortable enough with you. The day their biological mother passed away. The day their birth father was taken to prison. The day the police took Shaelynn and Kiera to their aunt’s house. The day that their lives changed forever. However, with this life changing event, they did not understand that they would never see their mother again. She was gone and as 5 and 6-year old’s, they did not understand that so they waited and they waited. In that time, they were taken to foster care, where their lives changed once again.
A new city, a new family whom they have never met, a new school; it was scary. They were scared and confused. Everything was so different. They weren’t living in the city. They were now living on the outskirts of town on a farm. There were rules. They were fed food. They weren’t locked in their bedrooms. They had siblings and no neighbors. They were loved and they were cared for. For three years, they were in foster care with their loving parents who are also are in the picture above. In those three years, they learned to love and to be loved. They learned discipline and everything else a child should learn from their parents. They finally past the biggest storm of their live. They found their sunshine and their lives weren’t finished yet. It was soon to get even brighter; full of more sunshine. Full of more love and happiness. They were about to experience their happily ever after.
Adoption day! Shaelynn and Kiera are being adopted by their foster parents, Elaine and Brian. It was the best day of all four of their lives. The girls experienced true love as they watched their parents give up their retirement for them. They got to experience their second chance in life. Two girls that have wanted a family for so long, finally had that. A married couple that wanted two more kids, finally had that. All they have ever wanted, was here. The storm was over and their happily ever after had come at last.
I swear
I love
My Somalian Queens
they made it
out the mud
&
are exquisite like scenes.
They went thru so much you see
A war in 92
.Swept most of them clean .
They escaped hard labor
&
wanted a clean slate .
So their kids
can appreciate hot food
on a clean plate
That’s when They decided
to come to the STATES
&
made it CLEAR
They wanted to stay the same .
THEY CAME FROM AN AFRICAN CULTURE
THEY’LL NEVER CHANGE !
WHEN THEY Arrived
they went through more pain,
Then their kids were learning different ways .
“ THE AMERICAN CULTURE IS NOT THE BAD THEY SAY ”
GIRLS DIDN’T WEAR THEIR HIJAB AND BOYS ARE SMOKING DOPE .
You’re moma keeps crying
“Ya Allah I Raised them without their dad”
She busts in the kitchen
spending the money she has
but you prefer mcdonalds and wendy wraps . She starts to lose her cool
when she sees her baby boy coming from jail and not school .
SHE REPEATS IT OVER AND OVER AGAIN
I DID NOT LEAVE MY FAMILY BEHIND
FOR YOU TO ACT A fool.
CAN you please pray to god,
bc you never know when your going to die
it can happen out the blue .
YOU THiNK SHE GREW UP IN A PLACE
that’s strange ,
but she’s tryna keep you away from the shaytan;
THey’ll lead you astray .
shes just your moma
She just wants you
successful with commas.
-Safiya Sharif
“If you were born with
the weakness to fall you were
born with the strength to rise”
Book Review
By Amber Peacock
Milk and Honey written by Rupi Kaur talks about how she dealt with sexual molestation, love, loss and abuse. This book is an inspiration to so many women in America. This book was first published in the year 2014, but became more and more popular over the years. This book has 4 chapters; The Hurting , The Loving, The Breaking and The Healing. This was written from the point of view of a women who was abused sexually as a child and an adult.
The first chapter really shows us, the readers, the sexual abuse she endured by her father and various other men in this women’s life. In the second chapter, the women is telling us about her adult life and her relationship’s she has with men. But she does focus primarily on one man she falls in love with and begins a relationship with.
In the third chapter however, that relationship comes to end. But, in my opinion, this chapter is the most powerful chapter in the book because the woman really starts to talk about the sexist treatment women are given from men.
Finally, the last chapter is all about the women healing and overcoming everything she has been through and creating new friendships with other women. I absolutely love this book, it is one of my all time favorites. This book is very empowering.
Poetry
Book
Recommendations
The Cowboy
by Eddie Mesa
One day while sitting on bale of hay in the barn next to a old cowboy down south at the ranch. I was wondering what kind of life a cowboy had. So we started a conversation about the kind of life he lived being a cowboy. He started off by telling me it was hard life but he wouldn’t want to be doing anything else. I asked him what the word cowboy meant and told me his old dad said it was honest and honorable man. He went to tell me more stories about being a cowboy. Everything he knew was because of his ol’dad. He said he remembered when his dad was alive they would get up early and it was still dark and by the time the days end of rounding up the cattle and feeding they get in at dark. Rounding up cattle and feeding they get in the dark. People do not realize its hard long days of being out in the heat or cold. Its not all about just riding a horse and having fun. The cowboy lifestyle is real and it will be around for a long time. Cowboys have big hearts and are honest people. I could just tell by having a good talk with this old cowboy.
Dark Eyes Wide Open
By Lizbeth Gutierrez
I was driving, the lights of the cars blinding me the night darker than usual. The trees of the forest whispering my journey. I drive all night long looking for him, the only thing in my mind and what mattered for me the most. I felt sad, mad that I couldn’t help him. His past as dark as his eyes, full of violence, drugs his family left him when he was a kid. You can see all those things in the way he acts, how he talks, friendships, relationships. When I got the call, my heart dropped I wanted to scream, break everything I couldn’t handle this emotion they were too much for me. I drove for hours just to get where he was, his mother the same person was there crying like she cared about him. I rolled my teary eyes at her. When I finally saw him in that hospital bed all asleep, bruised, connected to all those machines to help him survive. I was used to seeing him smiling even in the worst times. I touched the glass, that was the closest that I was of him. I stayed all night, the doctors told me that they were doing everything they could, and I knew that they were but I needed him here with me smiling laughing like the old times.
A month past by I was still there I went to see him every day even though I couldn’t touch him. His mother left like the first time. A couple weeks passed by and I was finally able to be with him, touch him, I did his hair like when we were younger, he didn’t like to have his hair messy. I read books to him, he hated them but I thought if he could hear that someone was with him would wake up faster. I took care of him as well I could, I loved him even when he hurt me I was still loving him. I slept besides him when I felt a light tap in my shoulder. When I opened my eyes, I saw him his dark eyes open and smiling like he always was. I couldn’t believe it, he whispered me name and thanked me for being there with him. I wanted to hug him, but I was afraid of hurting him.
I woke up all the sudden and realized it was a dream, I was still there curled up in my chair with tears on my eyes wishing this whole dream was true, wishing he was still here. His brother called me, I went with him when I looked down it was him in that horrible casket, my heart was broken the love of my life there, I couldn’t believe that I was not able to tell him how I felt. I fell to the ground crying trying to wake up from this nightmare, I was dying inside I felt empty, broken, I was dead. Nothing was going to be the same again. My first love, the only true love that I had was gone.
Call it Brilliant and
Memorable
Book Review
By Shannah Rudiger
Coming of age stories taking place in the 80’s are stories that shape who we are even if people believe they are overused. They are stories that stay with us and become stories we retell later in our lives. The novel Call Me by Your Name takes on a new way of a coming of age story within the 80’s. It is a very mature novel and you can see yourself within characters of it.
The novel by Andre Aciman tells the story of 17-year-old Elio a boy who learns about himself and his own sexuality with Oliver, a summer guest at his family’s mansion on the Italian Rivera. Elio is a very intelligent young man who understands so much with the world but not about himself and his own needs. Elio is very bright as he understands multiple languages and understand various subjects that most his age wouldn’t understand. Oliver is an American college graduate who is working on a manuscript and is invited to Elio’s home in Italy to complete it.
At the very beginning of the novel there are tensions between Elio and Oliver. It seems that Elio doesn’t know what to make of who Oliver is other than a typical American who is there for the luxuries that Italy has to offer. Elio does soon realize he is there to work and enjoy his time in Italy and soon notices things about Oliver that only really a lover would notice. You see Elio’s personality in that he is someone who can notice all of this about Oliver and begin to realize his attraction to him but deny it at the same time. Elio doesn’t know what to make of his attraction towards Oliver which I feel makes him all the more relatable. It is because of this that you see Elio for the young man that he is in that he is still unsure of who he is.
The beginning of Elio and Oliver’s relationship is very slow in that Elio tends to avoid Oliver seeing as Oliver is confusing Elio’s feelings. When they do interact at first Elio is offering to show him around as a courtesy, they do interact in small ways at the beginning of Oliver’s stay such as when they all eat breakfast together or when they pass through their bedrooms that are connected. It is when they have small private moments that they really get to know each other and aren’t putting on an act of hiding somethings about themselves. They have moments when they flirt with each other, but when they do it they never realize it and they realize it is something they do to each other naturally. It is times like these that you know their feelings are mutual but they never fully disclose it. The relationship maybe a slow but from the moment you see them come together and be with each other it is something special.
I think what this book so special is that creates this story you can actually see happening, it isn’t far-fetched unlike many other romantic novels. When I first read it, I had knowledge that it was a same sex love story, but if I hadn’t known that I would’ve thought I was the story of two people falling in love. This whole story really shows a young man and discovering himself, a true coming of age story. Elio is confused with himself in that he doesn’t understand his attraction to a man, but as he grows through the book he accepts himself and runs with it. Accepting one’s self is something that takes time and Call Me by Your Name helps show it doesn’t have to be the end of the world. The novel shows the transition of a young and precocious boy to a boy accepting himself and everything that comes with it.
The novel is very philosophical and teaches you at various moments. Such as teaching you to love yourself as you are to teach you languages like Italian and German. One of my favorite lines from this novel has German in it “zwischen immer und nie, for you in silence, somewhere in Italy in the mid-eighties.” The whole entirety of the novel is beautiful and while my review probably doesn’t make full sense I do recommend people should read it so they can understand. I will say that after reading it the word later will never be the same to you. The whole thing is a great coming of age story so don’t miss out on it. You might even relate to some of the characters like I did with Elio. It a brilliant novel and really teaches you about yourself and longing and will really touch you.
Do you have something to contribute to The Sunburst?
~My Love For You~
If they were to ask
how much you mean to me,
I’d say the world
As I take a walk out in nature
The trees see me swaying and saying
I love you more than I love blueberries
And more than I love chocolate covered Strawberries
I can say we go together like the moon and stars
If this doesn’t tell you how much
Meaning you have in my life, then I don’t know
What will, if you happen
To pass by those trees at the park
By a pink bench, they will let you
Know, your meaning towards me.
~Anonymous~
Student's viral poem asks 'Why am I not good enough?'
Things That Make You Go Hmmm.....
Is Your Intuition Real?
By Guadalupe Sanchez
Do you ever have a hunch that something is going to happen before it does? Do you ever get a feeling someone likes or hates you, and you end up being right? Do you get goosebumps when you enter a dangerous situation, or get a feeling someone’s watching you, and sure enough someone is staring right at you? That is your intuition, or gut feeling as many reference it. But is it real? Is your conscious mind making quick decisions, or is there something already instilled in you that gives you all these strangely accurate hunches?
Western philosophers such as Plato, Carl Jung, and Descartes all referenced intuition as real. Although in different ways; Plato referred to intuition as “a fundamental capacity of human reason to comprehend the true nature of reality” whereas Descartes and Jung believed intuition was more of a spiritual matter, defining it as “pre-existing knowledge” already instilled within us.
Other philosophers such as Sigmund Freud, like many, completely discarded the notion that intuition is real and backed up by facts, claiming it as a ridiculous theory. Freud believed all knowledge was based off of observations, or an “intellectual manipulation of carefully made observations”. Many people in our modern society believe something similar. They believe intuition is fake, and group it with things like zodiac signs or ghosts. But intuition has a surprising amount of studies and research behind it defending its stance that it is in fact, real.
According to science, it’s very much real. The infamous card deck experiment proves it. Subjects were asked to pick cards from two stacks; which were rigged. One stack had cards that gave you major wins but also major losses, and the other stack gave you small wins but nearly no losses. Subjects started to report a hunch after picking around 80 cards, however, that was reported by their conscious knowledge.
Intuition is much quicker and smarter than our conscious senses will ever be. The subject’s palms started to sweat when they reached for the rigged stack after only 10 cards.
On top of that, research has also shown that people are happier with decisions made quickly and by their intuition. Cars, spouses, clothes, are all more satisfactory when picked by our gut feeling. But our intuition serves a greater purpose other than just making you buy a sweet ride; intuition is a basic human survival instinct still in us from our early evolutionary days. When you are faced with danger, or a situation where your life is at risk, your intuition thinks miles faster than your conscious self ever would, and ends up saving your life. Next time you are doubtful about a decision, go with your true gut feeling. You might end up in a relationship with the right person, or it might even end up saving your life.
Sources:
C.G. Jung. Psychological Types. Bollingen Series XX, Volume 6, Princeton University Press, 1971.
Walker Punerr, Helen. Sigmund Freud: His Life and Mind. Transaction Publishers. pp. 197–200. Retrieved 28 December 2014.
"Plato: Education and the Value of Justice".
L. Mursell, James. "The Function of Intuition in Descartes' Philosophy of Science". The Philosophical Review. 4. 28. USA: Duke University Press. pp. 391–401.
“The Science Behind Intuition.” Psychology Today, Sussex Publishers, www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/radical-remission/201405/the-science-behind-intuition.