Creative Writing - "Boy"

This was my creative writing assignment for one of my classes. Directly inspired by "Girl" by Jamaica Kincaid. Let me know what you think.

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Grip the bat this way so you don’t miss the baseball like you always do; break in your mitt as soon as you buy it; come home right after practice and clean your room; put your video games away, you ungrateful brat; don’t forget to break in your mitt; do all your chores quickly and don’t take any breaks to have a cookie; listen to your mother and don’t ask me questions; do your homework so you don’t become an unsuccessful bum having to live off me and your mother for your entire life; help your sister with her homework when she whines; eat your broccoli; read a passage from the Bible once a night or you’ll go to hell; I thought Jesus forgives all?; don’t ever question anything I say; don’t be afraid to injure the other team’s best player if it leads to victory; remember to keep your stance wide and your eye on the ball; second place is the first loser; don’t disappoint me; don’t let down your mother; failure literally isn’t an option, we aren’t afraid to abandon you; find a nice girl to date; stay out of the kitchen, always act like a man; be a gentleman, respect her if she says “no,”; tell your mom to get me a beer; never change the channel when I watch television; but I’m sick of watching sports; I think your mother is putting too much of that strange estrogen vitamin in your meals; the apple doesn’t fall far from the tree; never bring your family apple picking, it’s bad luck; there is such a thing as a good time to lie; Democrats are ignorant because they never have any good things to say about anything; go to a college that is known to all the neighbors, but only if they think it’s a good school; follow your dreams; your mother and I firmly believe that majoring in Accounting is clearly the wisest choice for you; I don’t even like math; I’m guessing that you don’t like girls either?; stop worrying about the future, you’re only 11; I’m 13; stop being ungrateful; accept that life is meaningless because everyone in the world will eventually die; heaven might not be real; try to live life without regrets; choose Wendy’s over McDonald’s because it seems classier; get used to riding a bike because I’m definitely not buying you a car; you never even taught me how to ride one; well go learn on your own; are you going to be a failure or success in life?

Religion: Dissecting People's Obsession

This topic of Religion is meant to help myself put my questions, thoughts, and ideas into actual writing. I write this to express my feelings, and receiving some answers or suggestions would be great. This is NOT about me choosing to leave the Church.

This is not meant to offend anyone. Thank you.
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In my eyes, there is some use for religion if you still do not completely put all your faith into it. In some instances, it's human nature to want to believe something is true, especially if it provides an answer for a question..in this case, the question is Life and the answer is God.

Why are people so willing to blindly, completely believe the words of the Bible? Yes, many people are genuinely touched by His words and preachings, and I completely understand and respect this. But to me, is there just a deeper, human need for answers that drives people to believe in a religion? Are they just living on hope that the religion is truth?

Before I start, I want to state that there is absolutely nothing wrong with relying completely on faith and hope. It is just my opinion that sometimes, that just isn't enough for me.

Think back to a great book or movie that you read or watched, one that has many twists and turns, yet ended with a gigantic cliffhanger. Didn't that feeling of not knowing what happened, what could possibly happen, and what might not happen just completely bewilder you? Didn't it drive you slightly crazy?

That's the innate human need that I'm talking about. The need for an answer. The need to discover the unknown. That's why the biggest question in the Universe, "what is the purpose of life?," yields the biggest answer. Or should I say, "answers." The world's various religions can be seen as a way to fill that human instinctual longing for answers and conclusions. It gives people a sense of purpose and meaning.

Because what's worse than the feeling that life is purposeless?

Another cliffhanger that life provides us with is the subject of death. I won't talk about this topic too extensively..as it makes my mind wander too far to the point that I actually get scared. I digress. Religion gives us the concepts of Heaven, Nirvana (I know that you don't need to be dead to reach Nirvana, but still), and Reincarnation. All possible answers for the question of death. These alternatives are comforting to believe in.

But my main thinking of why people are obsessed with religion? The feeling of community that religion brings. People are apart of something bigger than themselves. They are surrounded by like-minded thinkers who, for the most part, are willing to act selflessly to help others. It's a great atmosphere.

It doesn't matter which religion is "right," per se, all that matters is that people are being shaped by good morals and just being good people overall.


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Props go out to friend Jaypee C., cousin Michael C., and girlfriend Gerre Mae B. for giving me great, honest opinions and comments. I've used some of their input to shape this entry.

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Some topics (but not limited to) that I hope to cover in the upcoming days (in no particular order):

1) Other Religious Alternatives
2) Guilty Conscience About Lack of Faith
3) Catholics Against Homosexuals

City Series: NYC

I'm on a bus right now to Philadelphia, my second home. After about half an hour of traffic in NYC, I'm finally on the Turnpike on a beautiful aesthetically pleasing ride, while the weather outside is furiously scorching. At 10:30 AM.

Driving past the NYC skyline is always inspiring for me.

I have the world in my backyard. A city sprawling with corporate types, hard laborers, hipsters, bums, immigrants, and everything in between, lies a mere 15 minutes away from me. The city is so enormous, that it is almost unrelenting. An island, a rock, just completely filled with nonstop blocks of storefronts, apartments, and schools. The wide streets form a a grid navigated by energetic and fearless yellow cabs and equally energetic and fearless pedestrians who's second nature is to casually jay walk. Somehow, getting trampled by a pedestrian becomes a serious threat.
 
The buildings here are probably the closest things to actually living up to the name "skyscraper." The Empire State Building can almost poke a hole into the blue dome ceiling above us all.

The energy here is just different. If American culture values and relies on competition to be successful, as opposed to the all-for-one/one-for-all mindset that resides in Japanese culture for example, then the Big Apple is the damn Olympics. Cultural melting pot. Busy and non-stop. And cut-throat competitive.

Japan is Wimbledon.

They call New York City the World's Capital. I call it my backyard.

Too bad that means the Hudson is my swimming pool.

You're all invited.


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Have a nice, safe weekend everybody! Stay hydrated and give your mom a hug and a kiss.

Erick