Angela 1 Angela G. Bailey Professor Wilson Intro to University Writing 13 February 2015 I Believe in Writing Let me tell you why I started writing in diaries. I was 17 years old when my mother got cancer. My mother tried to take her own life by jumping out of a hospital window. Thank God it was time for her meds and the nurse was able to get her back to her bed. This was so devastating to me, just the thought that she wanted to die sooner. I did not understand why she did not want to spend what little life she had to be with her children. I started writing daily about her day and what I was feeling. I had just gotten out of a children’s home. Definitely there was so much fear in me that I was going right back to the home. Many tears flowed from my eyes that year. I did not want to see my mother leave this world without getting any time with her. After all I was in the children’s home since I was eight and a half years old. My junior year in high school my teacher took me aside as she knew what I was going thru. She told me to write my life down that I had a story to tell. I did not write my life down however; I did start a diary and wrote in it from the day my English teacher told me to start. My mother died and I made it thru the funeral but it was pure and raw emotions I felt watching my sisters scream and brothers cry like babies. All I could do was sit and watch, I never shed a tear because I had come to terms with her dying by writing about her. Fast forward 5 years down the road after my mother’s death. My brother Randy took his young life at 37 by taping his car windows and running an exhaust pipe thru his window. We looked for him for days. We never had one clue that he was suicidal. If we did we never picked up on it. We found him in the morgue. My brothers and sisters and I all knew that Randy never got over our mothers death, after all he was a momma’s boy. It took me a long time to get over his death than it did my mothers. He came to me in a dream and explained why he took or life. It gave me a sense of peace and understanding inside as to why he took his life. Maybe it was just that I made myself believe why.To this day two of my sisters have yet to get over his death. I tell them all the time to sit and write their feelings down. They may understand more why he did this horrible thing that crushed all our lives. Again writing got me through this horrible tragedy. Now I will tell you about my daughter April who tried to take her life many years ago when she was 20 years old. Thank God, she had the sense to go to the hospital afterwards before the pills kicked in she was able to tell them what she did. Took me a long while to understand how a love gone wrong can cause a girl to want to die. I asked my daughter to please write me a letter explaining how she felt and why she felt she wanted to leave life as she knows it. She gave me a 5 page letter that stated this boy was the love of .

1. Angela 1
Angela G. Bailey
Professor Wilson
Intro to University Writing
13 February 2015
I Believe in Writing
Let me tell you why I started writing in diaries. I was 17 years
old when my mother got cancer. My mother tried to take her
own life by jumping out of a hospital window. Thank God it
was time for her meds and the nurse was able to get her back to
her bed. This was so devastating to me, just the thought that she
wanted to die sooner. I did not understand why she did not want
to spend what little life she had to be with her children. I started
writing daily about her day and what I was feeling. I had just
gotten out of a children’s home. Definitely there was so much
fear in me that I was going right back to the home. Many tears

2. flowed from my eyes that year. I did not want to see my mother
leave this world without getting any time with her. After all I
was in the children’s home since I was eight and a half years
old. My junior year in high school my teacher took me aside as
she knew what I was going thru. She told me to write my life
down that I had a story to tell. I did not write my life down
however; I did start a diary and wrote in it from the day my
English teacher told me to start. My mother died and I made it
thru the funeral but it was pure and raw emotions I felt
watching my sisters scream and brothers cry like babies. All I
could do was sit and watch, I never shed a tear because I had
come to terms with her dying by writing about her.
Fast forward 5 years down the road after my mother’s death. My
brother Randy took his young life at 37 by taping his car
windows and running an exhaust pipe thru his window. We
looked for him for days. We never had one clue that he was
suicidal. If we did we never picked up on it. We found him in
the morgue. My brothers and sisters and I all knew that Randy
never got over our mothers death, after all he was a momma’s
boy. It took me a long time to get over his death than it did my
mothers. He came to me in a dream and explained why he took
or life. It gave me a sense of peace and understanding inside as
to why he took his life. Maybe it was just that I made myself
believe why.To this day two of my sisters have yet to get over
his death. I tell them all the time to sit and write their feelings
down. They may understand more why he did this horrible thing
that crushed all our lives. Again writing got me through this
horrible tragedy.
Now I will tell you about my daughter April who tried to take
her life many years ago when she was 20 years old. Thank God,
she had the sense to go to the hospital afterwards before the
pills kicked in she was able to tell them what she did. Took me

3. a long while to understand how a love gone wrong can cause a
girl to want to die. I asked my daughter to please write me a
letter explaining how she felt and why she felt she wanted to
leave life as she knows it. She gave me a 5 page letter that
stated this boy was the love of her life. I knew it wasn’t because
he was her fist boyfriend. She did not want to go on without
him in her life. I was appalled that she not once thought about
me, her sister, or her father. Instead of yelling at her and getting
myself all tore up all I could do was cry and write about how I
felt. I did let my daughter see what I wrote a few years later. I
felt she needed to know my feelings without my yelling and
making her feel worse at the time.
Then just 2 years ago, I get a call that my oldest brother tried to
take his life with a drug overdose. I sat day and night at the
hospital with him. I bathed him, held his hand continuously. I
was the only sister that stayed by his side. All the others I
suppose expected it since he had been on drugs for so long. My
brother lived to get out of the hospital just to die a few weeks
later from natural causes the coroner said. I do not believe it
was natural causes but who am I to argue with a specialist. I
have written about all this in my diary. Writing about it puts a
sense of understanding. As I write about such tragedies in my
life I feel I know I am meant to stay alive and take care of my
girls. I have no desire to die any time soon.
Where would we be if no one liked to write? We would not
have children’s books to read to the little ones at night. What
about learning what is going on in the world? Sure we could all
sit and watch TV however; I feel we only get a glimpse of what
is going on in the world. By someone writing it gives us the
knowledge about other cultures, countries, and different people
of the world. We learn about so many adventures that others
have taken. We would never learn what happen in people’s lives

4. that made them act the way they act. I believe in writing
because I feel it is very soothing and comforting when I sit
down to put my thoughts on paper. I have always written down
my thoughts of losing my brother to suicide, my father to
alcoholism, my mother and daughters suicide attempts, another
brother’s death due to drugs according to the coroner.
I write about my daughters every day. I truly believe writing
can save a life. They may also see that it can be a big stress
relief. Writing can be extremely calming. As I write in my
diaries I feel close to the subject I am writing about. I feel that I
answer some of my questions that I had before I started writing.
Writing is a way for me to deal with life and the struggles it
brings to me.
We all have read books that have been written that are just
boring. We all have read books that are very exciting and a
breath of fresh air. Without writing to me it would be a boring
world out there. What I do know about writing, is that it saved
me from doing something to myself that would be very
detrimental to my family, my health, and to the people that love
me. Writing is the key in my life. I pray it will be the answer
for others that have never tried writing to deal with pain.
Mahmoud El-Assuli
Ms. Jennifer Wilson
ENG. 1010
April 3rd 2015
Movie Analysis of ‘The Blindside’
The story of Michael begins with him being depicted as a
homeless child who comes from a broken family. His mother
was also heavily on drugs, and his father is never really present
in his life. Michael was raised in Tennessee in Memphis. He
grew up in housing development in the inner city that city, and

5. he even dubbed it the Hurt Village. The idea of having Michal
start out as a poor child who is not cared for works positively to
pass the message across to the viewers.
Since he has a very complicated state of the family, he is
seen going in and out of foster homes, and when he becomes a
teenager, he is thrown out by the people he lives with. Luckily,
he is enrolled in a private school that also happens to be
Christian. The coach was also looking for a player his size. He
goes to a similar school as the Tuohy kids. This is a very
effective tool in terms of cinematography
Michael is depicted in this movie as a quiet person who is
a bit more like a child in his personality. This is so because he
even goes ahead to play with children in kindergarten who
sometimes either refuse to play with him or ignore him.
Eventually, Michael becomes friends with one of the Tuohy
sons. Since Michael has no money or anything at all, he lives
on snack containers that have some food left after an event has
occurred in school. When Mr. Tuohy learns of this, he pays for
a meal so as the young Michael can have some food.
The delivery of this movie continues to improve and
capture the audiences mind. On one day during the winter, as
Michael is walking down to the gym in the school where he
used to sleep, the Tuohy family sees him and invites him over to
their place for the night. As Michael tries to leave their house
after the night, they asked him to stay for dinner. The children
of the Tuohy household accept for Michael to stay over for
dinner. This meant that Michael would stay in this house
throughout the day until dinner time. Mrs. Tuohy soon offers
Michael a bed and a room where he could stay.
The audience gets even more caught by the movie. Here
the writers and directors capture the audience's mind and start
walking in the shoes of the characters. Mrs. Tuohy starts to
investigate on Michael's life, checking records and test results
as she continues to offer him more and more favors that catch
his eye. She finds out that Michael is very good at protective
skills but much worse in every other aptitude tests of careers.

6. Mrs. Tuohy uses these findings to sell the idea of playing in the
field to Michael. Michael was in the past unable to grasp the
rules and regulations of the game of football and its hang, and
to even help him understand what the role of a player like him
would be useful for in the field.
When Michael get the hand of the game and gets to understand
the game of football well, he starts to play for his team and gets
real good at it.
Mrs. Tuohy gets Michael further involved in her family affairs.
During the photograph of the Christmas card of that year, she
invited Michael to be in the Tuohy family photo. Some of Mrs.
Tuohy's friend find out about what she is doing with Michael
and make fun of her. She takes offense in this move and asks
them to stop making fun of what she is doing and respect it. She
felt so disrespected that she even threatened to stop seeing them
if they continued with this sort of disrespect.
When Michael goes to university, an opportunity for him to
play in the school team presents itself. Michael, however,
requires to get better grades for him to make the team. The
Tuohy family pays someone to tutor him so his grades could
improve and hence he would make the team. The tutor that was
given the job to make sure Michael gets good grades in school
is a woman who speaks her mind, and is also kind to Michael.
She is very determined to ensure that Michael succeeds because
she also wants Michael to make the team.
In one of the lessons, she tells Michael a story about the
University of Tennessee being rumored to burry parts of dead
bodies under the football field of their school. Michaels
believes this story without a doubt. As a result of this rumor, he
goes ahead to join the Old Miss team, despite the fact that his
eyes were focused on the University of Tennessee team.
Thoughts of adopting Michael Cross Mrs. Tuohy's mind. This
then pushes her to go and visit Michaels's mother to have a
discussion about this matter. At first, Michael's mother refuses
and is very rigid and against this move, but eventually she
agrees. She, however, warns Mrs. Tuohy is telling her about the

7. many times that Michael ran away from home without having
said that he was going to leave. Michael's mother even prepares
Mrs. Tuohy telling her how they had even named Michael, the
runner due to his inability to give warning that he wasn't going
to come home. She even tells her that one day, Michael is just
going to leave her.
Mrs. Tuohy also has to deal with some people who came
and started insinuating things about her that were not pleasant
to the ear. Mrs. Tuohy's strength and courage and lack of
cowardice is properly brought out when she threatens these
people and shows them how brave and courageous she is.
When Michael's grades become high enough for him to
choose which team he wants to be on, he chooses the Ole Miss.
This is the team that Mrs. Tuohy had been a cheerleader in,
Sean Tuohy, the one who was holding the negotiation with
coaches wanted to play for. This raised the suspicions of some
people who thought that Michael had been conditioned to pick
that team by his tutor and Mrs. Tuohy. An Investigator starts
out on this story to figure out the dynamics of this story through
an interview.
Before the interview is over, Michael storms out and goes
to find the mother that bore him in Hurt Village. The guys who
had earlier confronted Mrs. Tuohy approach Michael and were
even hospitable to him offering him beer. These guys suggest
that Michael is either sleeping with Mrs. Tuohy or her daughter,
and maybe that is why he picked to play for Ole Miss, instead
of Tennessee. This annoys Michael and makes him switch to
being protective of himself. The mean man threatens to hurt
these two ladies himself if he did not withdraw from this team.
Michael engages him in a physical altercation, pushing him
around and knocking away his gun.
Michael later realizes that he is now part of the Tuohy family
and that was the reason he picked the team he picked over every
other. He even explains this to the investigator. Michael
proceeds to become a professional player (IMDb).
This movie is one of the best movies in terms of delivery and

8. success in passing the message of the movie. It is therefore very
successful and efficient.
Works cited:
IMDb. "The Blindside." Review (2015): 1-3. 4 April 2015.
<http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0878804/>.
El-Assuli
1
El-Assuli 2
Mahmoud El-Assuli
Mrs. Jennifer Wilson
English-1010
13 February 2015
This I Believe
The ‘I believe story' that I am going to examine in the paper
follows the story of a business man who is facing serious
trouble in his business. This is after debts in his business adding
up over the time and bankruptcy was coming up as expected.
The business man was overambitious in his business after
developing modest business plans and going out to take up huge
loans without promising ways of repaying his creditors. The
suppliers were also threatening to take legal action after Mr.
Talal failed to pay for the things he had been supplied with.
Heavily troubled from his current mess, Mr. Talal went to the
park and sat down on a bench trying to reflect and possibly find
the way to proceed concerning his situation. As he was was
deep in thought on how best he was going to save his company
from bankruptcy, an old man approached him and said, "I can

9. see something is bothering you." After listening to the business
man, the old man was moved by his story perhaps relating to his
situation he told Mr. Jemeza, "I think I can be of some help".
The old man then asked the business man what his name was, he
then reached for his briefcase pulled out a check book and wrote
down some amount before shoving it in his hand and saying:
"Take this money, we will meet here exactly one year from now,
and you will be able to return it to me at that time." After the
encounter, he turned around and he disappeared just as just as
he had appeared.
Mr. Talal looked at the check that was handed to him with the
amount of five hundred thousand Riyals, Riyal is a Saudi
currency. Even more shocking he soon realized that it had been
signed by King Abdullah, who was one of the wealthiest men.
Mr. Talal in disbelief sat down and wondered about this miracle
before examining how he was going to solve the problems and
debts he had with the money he had got. Instead of cashing in
the check, the business man kept it in his safe. He did not want
to be premature with the business decisions he made, so he took
some time off to reflect on his existence to better draw strength
and on how to find solutions to the issues that his company was
going through and to save it.
The business man soon was refreshed, and with a new found
hope he started getting his business back on track but he still
did not cash the check. He started seeing profits coming into his
company and even picked up more deals that made him clear of
all the debts that the company had. After a few of months, he
was back on his feet making profits as he had been making
earlier.
After the exact one year period, the business man went to the
park just as the old man had requested him. He was carrying the
same check he had been given by the old man because he
wanted to return it. As the business man sat on the bench the

10. old man appeared, and just when the business man was about to
talk to the old man his story and hand over the check, a nurse
came running and held on to the old man. The nurse said: "I am
glad that I have caught him." She then explained: "I hope that
he has not been a bother to you. He always runs from the house
and tells people that he is King Abdullah." Talal was taken
aback with the events that were happening and also he wondered
how for a whole year he has been working so hard in trying to
bring back his company to its feet while he thought he had a
half a million riyals.
For the business man, he was still coming to terms with how he
was capable of pulling through the problems and debts his
company was in and going back to being successful. He realized
that it was not the money, but the believe in oneself, good
planning and hard work.
In this story the belief that one can bring back the his business
back from its downhill by the business man was the major goal
of the story. Many times people believe that money is the
solutions to all the challenges they might be facing in life, but
lack of good planning and mind frame on might easily lose all
the means they have. As they saying goes a fool and his money
soon get parted. The confidence of being able to find ways out
concerning the debts and problems that had hit the company was
the greatest achievement that Mr.Talal realized.
The check that was given by the old man was just an idea of lost
confidence that Mr.Talal suffered. This was in terms of
providing guidance so as to achieve what was needed in the
company. I also believe that the pressure the business man was
facing slowed him from rightfully figuring out what was the
best solution for the company’s problem.
Confidence was restored mentally by knowing that he had the
security to salvage his business from the downhill that had
happened. This has showed the motivation that he had lost after

11. the company had jumped into debts and other problems in the
company. Since the time the businessman was given the check
by the old man and after looking at the name that was written in
it, gave the business man a boost of confidence which he had
lost. The low self-esteem suffered by the Mr.Talal had made
him have the belief that he could not get through the issues and
difficulties the company was in. If an individual has got low
self-esteem, then the level of confidence of the person is also
translated in everything they do
Confidence is brought about by the type of esteem a person and
must begin with a self-assessment. For a person to have self-
confidence, they must behave accordingly, believe in oneself,
plan effectively and put the right amount of work to achieve the
goals. In conclusion, confidence gives a person strength to do
something that they might think it is impossible to do..
This I Believe Essay Assignment Sheet
From 1951 to 1955, This I Believe, a five minute radio program
hosted by Edward R. Murrow, aired on the CBS
Radio Network. The show encouraged both famous and
everyday people to write short essays about their
personal beliefs and then read them on the air. A print version
of the show later appeared in newspapers across
the U.S., and in 1952, a collection of This I Believe essays by
100 influential Americans was published in book
form.
In 2005, a new version of the show began airing on National

12. Public Radio (NPR). Like the original series, the
NPR show ran for four years, concluding in 2009. In 2006, a
collection of This I Believe essays titled, This I
Believe: The Personal Philosophies of Remarkable Men and
Women was published. A second volume, This I
Believe II: The Personal Philosophies of Remarkable Men and
Women, was published in 2008. Although the
radio show has ended, the series continues in digital form on the
This I Believe website at
http://thisibelieve.org/. The website contains more than
100,000 This I Believe essays, written by people from
all walks of life.
Assignment:
You now have read six This I Believe essays, three written by
teachers and three written by students. You have
also evaluated these essays, identifying the thesis statements
and topic sentences and examining the types and
quality of the supporting evidence. Your assignment for Essay 1
is to write a This I Believe essay of your own.
Like the sample This I Believe essays that you read, your essay
must focus on the broad topic of education. For
your reference, the following is a list of the beliefs set forth in
the sample essays:

13. 1. I believe in writing.
2. I don’t give grades; no teacher should.
3. I believe that all kids can learn.
4. I believe in my job [as a high school English teacher].
5. I believe in adult education.
6. I believe in educational second chances.
7. I believe in abolishing the SAT.
8. I believe that education has the power to transform a person’s
life.
9. I believe that music education is vital.
10. I believe in education.
11. I believe that education is a very important part of life and a
necessity for success in the real world.
12. I believe that music education and music performance is the
right of all citizens.
13. I believe in the power of a liberal arts education.
14. I believe in the importance of a liberal education.
http://thisibelieve.org/
You may use one of the above beliefs as a “jumping off point”
for your own essay, but you cannot merely copy

14. the ideas set forth in the sample essays. You must formulate
your own points of discussion and use examples
from your own experience. Preferably, you will choose an
original belief as the topic for your essay.
If you would like to read more sample essays, you can log on to
thisibelieve.org, hover over the word “explore,”
and then click “browse by theme.”
You should now see a long list of themes. Click on “education
and knowledge” to see a list of essays that
address these themes.
Be advised that these essays address “education and knowledge”
to varying degrees. In other words, some of
the essays directly address the issue of education, and some are
only loosely- related to the topic.
The essay’s assigned length is 1000 words. As always, be sure
that all margins measure 1 inch and that you use
the Times New Roman 12 point font. You should also follow
MLA formatting guidelines regarding heading,
page numbering, etc.
Source for This I Believe History: Wikipedia.org