Challenging Conventions: C Period

I scramble throughout the streets trying to find someone or something to help me understand where I am. One minute I was talking to Skeetah about our dog China and the next I find myself in an area that I have never been in before. My hair was sticking to my face because of the humidity and balls of sweat were dripping down my face. As I wander I see a couple bickering. The girl has gorgeous curly hair that covers her face and long tan legs. She looks as if she's been crying, her mascara's been smudged, her big, chocolate brown eyes are red and puffy, and her voice keeps shaking whenever she talks. The boy rolls his eyes every single time she speaks. He's tall and muscular.  All of a sudden, I hear her scream, "WHY DON'T YOU BELIEVE ME? WHAT DID I DO TO MAKE YOU NOT BELIEVE ME?" "IT'S BECAUSE YOU'RE A WHORE THAT'S WHY THE BABY ISN'T MINE! YOU'VE BEEN SCREWING AROUND WITH OTHER GUYS!" "NO I HAVEN'T! YOU'RE ...

I thought that only once in a lifetime I would break my life down to the bones, forced to rebuilt the skeleton. I thought I was strong - and I am. But not strong enough. Not strong enough to do it all over again. I moved to Houston, Texas to escape the Pit. I have lived here for almost eight years, happy and free. The world will shape you if you let it. It will show you all its' secrets, but sadly some are dirty. I thought I left my old life and bad luck behind, but I came to find out that it follows me. Never had I thought that Houston would have a hurricane too. Twelve years later, irony or karma has come back to get me. Texas is notorious for being in drought, so why would flooding ever be an issue? I had I life for myself. A job, a place to call home, and I was happy being free. My life was built around my desires. Oh yes, and my daughter. She will turn nine next week. She is the reason we left the Pit. I want her to be strong, to live a life of freedom and accomplishmen...

Chris P.O.V I am surrounded by these buildings, lights everywhere. I do not understand what this huge glowing 'M' is doing in the area where the trees were. Is this not where I was in 1992? the beautiful trees have been cut down and replaced with machines asking us for our orders. People drive their cars on the smooth pavement where the dirt and crisped leaves used to fall. I walk into the Mcdonalds that took over nature, the stench of stale nuggets and fried food consumes my nostrils. What happened to the beautiful aroma of the wildflowers? I leave the building to follow a trail of sidewalk along the side of a road, there I see it. The trees, the flowers, the dirt. As I walked closer to it, thats all it was, some trees, some flowers, and a little bit of dirt. Where did the beautiful big wild go? Cut down and left for dead. They  took over the people, and the whole wild. Nothing else to escape to, we are stuck in the norm. They trapped us to stay in the single mindset of soc...

     I can't believe it Charlottesville, I just can't believe how you are treating your own people. How could a place that is so close to where I grew up be in such peril. White supremacists preaching their hate, our president not taking any action to punish those who attempt to murder others who are different. These religious and governmental institutions are the reasons that I set out into the wild all those years ago. One man thinking he is better then another because of the color of his skin. Has Thoreau taught us nothing? Has no one listened to him speak about whats on the inside not out. The truth in people can't be found in the pigment of their skin. These confederates who are dominating these protests must learn peace. Driving a car into crowds of people is not peace! Who is responsible, the KKK?  The closeted confederates who decided to ban together to prevent the destruction of racist statues? In my travels I have learned how to deal with others and their ...

In 2017 the men and women pull crowns out of afros. I see Angela Davis reading a speech from her iPhone. I see Jimi Hendrix mixing songs on Garage Band. The most beautiful people all balance crowns of black on their heads. I see girls that do not exist outside of the grip of the city–skin like chestnut, mahogany, obsidian, brown sugar. All dressed up in flesh and bone. Brooklyn unfurls like the wet tongue of a sweating dog, flops out pink and long like China’s, sunlight licking at the streets, coating bodies in a thin, glossy sheen. This is Afropunk Festival, where the people face the sun. Where people look up at the night sky, see themselves, and smile. No one is afraid of the rays eating away at their light, spitting out arms and faces darker, darker still. Like I am. Like the darkness I see on me.   There are parties on the main stages disguised as concerts. Legs bend, stomp; hips wind around corners as far as a mile down the block. People sing and people listen. The noise ...

I know I wasn't the happiest person and most welcoming person towards the beginning of my journey, but this is ridiculous. I am currently in Charlottesville, Virginia and something terrible just happened yesterday. There were these people standing in front of a statue of some sort, I think it was because the statue represented a confederate man in some place of power, and of course they were protesting the idea that it was racist. Anyway, as they are standing out protesting loudly, but peacefully, a man in a car begins to drive into these protestors! He was a confederate man himself, I believe he was part of the KKK but I am not sure. But it was just terrifying to me because trust me I know what it is like for many others not to agree with your opinion, but to feel that the other person is so wrong that you want to hit them with a car and potentially kill them, seeing that made me sick to my stomach. I like how the people were protesting though, I like that a lot. Everyone should b...

Hurricane Katrina was a catastrophe and now history is repeating itself only this time in Texas with Hurricane Harvey. Water flooded through the streets and families were being pulled from their homes by boats. It reminded me of when we had to leave our house because of all the water flooding it during Katrina. I never thought I would see another storm like Katrina and thankfully this time I knew to evacuate. Watching the news show images of kids and families in the storm takes me back to Katrina. I know how they feel and I know what they've gone through. I empathize with those who lost their homes and I wish I could help them all. Who would think just twelve years after Katrina another devastating hurricane would hit. Nothing pains me more than seeing people who were in my exact position all those years ago.

Present day New York City From Chris' Point of View New York city is horrendous. There are way to many people. The "hustle and bustle" of the city is appalling. Everyone has their heads down on their phones. The smell of weed and ammonia permeates my nose. There are lights everywhere and a constant hum of engines and machines. The streets are crowded with people walking, so absorbed in their lives and jobs to pay attention to their surroundings. The conformity of it all is heartbreaking. All of these people trapped in the routine of city life. This city is overflowing with people, cars cause traffic jams in every street, yet the city offers more than just grueling routine. It is full of shops and restaurants. The consumerism a plague on the city. Even the suburbs of Virginia were better than NYC.

Twenty-five in the future, nothing, and everything has changed. People still live every day of their shitty lives the same, doing the same thing every day until they die. Everyone talks to people they don't like so they can get the money they don't want so they can buy things they don't need, and for what? Some sense of validation? Some bizarre need for approval? Sounds fun.     There are more ways to be complacent with life these days. Everyone has access to a constant flow of information, and everybody knows everything about everyone else. No mystery, no secrets, people put their whole lives out there to judge. I respect them not caring what others think, but why leave your entire personage where everyone can see. There's no adventure anymore, no secrecy. At least the kids I'm sitting next to are sharp. Kingswood Oxford Students, actually. I respect their education and them becoming knowledgeable, but the principle of the institution is dumb. Pay a lot ...

It is 2017 and I have just arrived from 1992. Although 25 years have gone by it seems that I haven’t changed in the slightest. Not even my appearance, I still looks like a gaunt, bushy hair 24 year old. I has arrived into one of Kingswood Oxford’s Form 4 English classes and right off the bat I notice that everyone is dressed up because it is picture day. I gets very angry because everyone is wearing the same thing and conforming to one arbitrary rule. I also sees a book that each student has… it is called Into the Wild by Jon Krakauer . After just a few minutes of class I realize that the book is about me! I am outraged! Although I admire Jon’s experiences as a mountain climber I know that Jon can only speculate what I was thinking during my adventure. I am also outraged by the fact that Jon used my story to create a book that killed trees. On an even higher level I am annoyed because this book that is about me challenging conventions is being taught and used in conventional schools...

Civil discourse and mass construction. The world of 2017 is one in which I do not want to live. People protest basic human rights and ideologies in the streets, while rich men stay in power oppressing others. Society has evolved far beyond the toxic world I lived in. People are born free and should be entitled to live outside the arbitrary rules of society. Forests are being destroyed to make room for land to be exploited by businessmen, the only true beauty in the world is being eradicated. It disgusts me how people are able to do this. Nature is the only true gift to man, it is the only space in the world where a man can be left alone with his thoughts and obtain the thrills of adventure. Fewer stories emerge of adventurers and more stories of researchers who discover solutions for the evils they produce. Simplicity is key, if everyone were able to be an individual, life would be better for all. Those who oppose individualism simply haven't felt the thrills of self-sustainment. T...

If I could put Chris' McCandless in a time machine and transport him anywhere in 2017, I would bring him to Beverly Hills. Everything in Beverly Hills is material and fake, which are the things that Chris hates most. All Chris would see is money, and people living in a society where nature is unknown and few people are truly happy. As Chris states in the book, people should look for happiness in the natural world, not people or material objects. In Beverly Hills, the closest to nature he will be is the palm trees on the sidewalk. He would see cars that cost more than his college education, but he would drive his beloved yellow Datsun over any other car on Rodeo Drive. Although Chris would hate this setting, he could relate to one thing; people trapped in their own lives. He would think of all the kids with wealthy parents who want to control their entire lives. Those kids were Chris before he left for the wild.

Present day New York City If Chris was placed in NYC he would be a outcast in a society of sellouts. He would be a redneck in a society of lawyers, bankers, and business men. Every type of person that my father wanted him to be is in this NYC. And he would hate it. Judgment lurks behind every single corner, and soul less men and women walk around aimlessly every single day without purpose. Doing the same thing every single day. He wouldn't think that is life. What new experiences are their in a place where the world is stuck in a standstill? He would view NYC as a place where no people are worth talking to, since they are all zombies that have been drained by society. He would need to escape, to get away from society. This is no place for him, to many people would be looking at him, judging him when they don't know him. He would think that society today has all these expectations, of what it is like to be normal, what you should be like to live a happy life. He would think...

Back in my time, it was Katrina.  Now, it's Harvey.  Winds as strong as can be roar through the city of Houston, and rain keeps pouring and pouring until the water level reaches the sky.  Although I am farther east, I feel like the storm is directly outside my window and I am trapped.  I see on the television that this storm is stronger than what I previously experienced, but it doesn't feel any worse.  I suspect that's the case because I've already faced my natural disaster.  Now they say another one of them is coming up the east coast, the highest recorded storm in the Atlantic Ocean.  As I look around, times have not changed too much; people are still not prepared or aware, a mistake Papa, Randall, Skeet and the rest of us made.  There are still hurricanes, families like us, and not much has changed at all.

If Esch was transported to Huston Texas (After Hurricane Harvey) today, she may not see much of a difference between it and Hurricane Katrina. It would be like she was simply in another place where Katrina hit. She would be in the shelters along with many people who also have had their homes drowned under water, and their lives ripped away in the wind. She would be outraged that after 12 years, not much has changed about how hurricanes are dealt with. (Evacuation or preparation, then damage control afterwards) She would also hate knowing that another more powerful hurricane is headed for Florida, named Irma. Esch would not like Texas and Florida right now, and going through the aftermath of a category 5 hurricane again, knowing that another place has one coming.