There Goes the Neighborhood

Written in the perspective of a Native American:

This is the third time a group of our tribe have almost been murdered by white men without doing anything to them at all. When they had first come, they were not as evil. They came to shore on giant wooden structures that floated across the water. Both of us were intrigued by the other, but as we looked in awe, I could see they had a different reaction in their eyes. They were generous by exchanging our possessions and food for their almost heaven-like pieces that were smooth and glossy. How unwise and reckless were we to allow them to get so close and for us to be so comfortable with them. They kept trying to ask us if we had a king, a ruler, a religious leader, anyone of high prestige or wealth. We knew not of what they meant other than our chief, but he did not live in luxuriance. They began to turn on us slowly but steadily. They became obsessed with a shiny yellow rock and sparkling crystals. We did not know what to tell them other than we did not have them. They thought we were telling them lies in order to keep it for ourselves and made us their enemy. We were no strangers to battle, nut we were at a clear disadvantage. It is as if their gods are with them, for they had tubes that spewed fire that could pierce through a man. We were forced to move back for the time being, as they had settled onto the shore by their ship and put up walls to protect them from our warriors. Some of our more brute fighters thought they could kill the settlers off with just a band of our people and our simple bows and arrows. They were sorely mistaken as already three times they have come back with at least two of our men dead and one of theirs. Our chief and people grow more angry as they are destroying our trees and burning many plants leaving barren land for them to build and live on. There has been instances were women were raped. Men killed without reason. We are preparing for war and I do believe that we will now have an advantage. These are our woods and we know them well, unlike the white men who are fearful of the unknown. From others accounts the fire cannot reach them well from far or covered by nature, which is an advantage for our bows-men. We have unity and strategy; hopefully this will be enough to scare away the white men back to wherever they came from.

Intro to Me

My name is Gisselle and I am fifteen years old living in Chicago. I am a sophomore at Whitney Young High School and love it there. I run on my school's cross-country and track and field team, and am a part of the Latinos Unidos Club as well. I am taking 5 honors classes and an AP class, which are basically what my life revolves around right now. I'd like to think of myself as smart, if not I am very hardworking, or both. My parents are both originally from Mexico and later moved here to the United States. I have two brothers. My younger one is Ivan who is 12 years old, and my older one is Erick and he is 19. I also have a pet dog; she is a Maltese named Lily. I have a giant family! My mom has 11 siblings, and my dad has 9. Most of my mom's family lives here in Chicago, but most of my dad's family lives in California or Mexico. Most of my time is spent during school, running, doing homework, or sleeping. When I do have time to myself I love to watch TV, Youtube, or listen to music. I listen to many genres of music including rock, pop, alternative, some hip hop, along with particular songs from other genres. I am a person who loves to be with people (that I like anyways). Most things are much better and more fun with friends for me. I try to be nice 100 percent of the time and am kinda fun to have strange conversations with. When I graduate high school I plan to go to Northwestern University to become a doctor. "Doctor" is very vague but there are so many sub categories that I will just have to wait and see which one I like best because I have no clue right now. Hopefully I'll get there soon.