Mrs. Griffin's blog: October 2013

Introductory sentences for Soloist essays

1. In the scene where Steve first meets Nathaniel, his preconceived notions about homeless and mentally ill people greatly affect his expectations for Nathaniel.

2. Nathaniel tells Steve, "I've had a few setbacks," and Steve's response is, "Me, too." This dialogue is symbolically important.

3. The filmmaker uses a montage of seemingly unrelated visual images when Nathaniel is playing or listening to music and these images have a symbolic and literal purpose.

4. Nathaniel's mental illness affects his friendship with Steve a lot.

5. Beethoven is used as a recurring symbol and he is a very important figure in Nathaniel's life.

6. Steve tells Nathaniel, "I want to write a column about how a guy like you winds up on the street." Although this statement is simple, it is also very complex.
7. Music meant a great deal to Nathaniel throughout his life.

8. Steve's columns about Nathaniel touched many of his readers and moved them to offer to help Nathaniel in many ways.

9. Steve's attitudes toward homeless and mentally ill people changed a great deal throughout the film.

10. Homelessness and mental illness are explored at the personal and policy level in the film. These two areas are related, but are also disconnected.

11. Nathaniel's outburst in the film, when he attacks Steve, is significant to their friendship and causes Steve to change his behavior.

Interview Example

New Richmond High School’s 2013 graduate, Kara Burns, is a well-rounded, driven young woman who said she naturally pushes herself to exceed. Last year, Burns achieved the highest GPA average of the 2013 senior class and was titled valedictorian. Throughout her high school career, Burns said she has driven herself to extreme measures to achieve the the high goals that she had set for herself. “Excelling is my expertise, which I believe will take me the farthest in life.”

For many individuals, motivation serves as a major obstacle, but not for Burns, who said that motivation has, for the most part , always come naturally to her. “I believe it just developed over time. I believe that swimming impacted my drive the most, though. It wasn't until I started swimming in grade school when I realized that I could excel at something. It really made me competitive and driven.”

In order to be driven, one has to have something that pushes him or her to do the best that he or she possibly can. For Burns, she said it is her desire to exceed. “My desire to exceed is my primary motivation. I always push myself to do better, and ask myself, ‘Am I capable of going farther?’ I am always looking for ways to improve myself to be the very best that I can possibly be. I am constantly looking for new challenges and setting higher goals for myself to achieve. I aim to surpass my own, and others’ expectations.”

Burns has set numerous goals and challenges for herself, which she said she has successfully accomplished by staying strong and not giving up. “Some of my previous goals were making to districts in all four years of my high school swimming career. I accomplished this by pushing myself to the maximum at practice and not giving up. Last year, my goal was to be valedictorian of my high school class. I undertook four AP classes, which involved countless hours of studying and homework. I had absolutely no spare time, but eventually I achieved my goal, and I was satisfied.”

Still driven and strong hearted, Burns said she continues to set high goals for herself to achieve while she is a student at The University of Cincinnati in pre-med track. Today, her current goal is once again, a challenging one, but Burns has strong faith in herself. “My current goals right now is to maintain a 4.0 GPA in college in order to increase my chances to be accepted into a graduate program of my choice. I am currently studying very hard and devoting much of my time to school. My plans for the future are to be enrolled in a medical school to be well on the road to become a pediatrician.”

Burns’ father; John Burns, also has great hopes and dreams for Burns. ”My dreams for Kara are for her to do her best and be satisfied at whatever she chooses to do. I have great faith in her and believe that she can do whatever she puts her mind to. I think that her goals are very ambitious, but attainable. Based on her motivation and drive, I believe that she is capable of achieving all of them.”

Burns said that she has a lot of supporters in her life, who do not ever let her give up on herself. Burns says that her parents are her number one fans, though, and guide her through stressful times. “They support me in whatever I do and don't let me give up. They tremendously help me out by allowing me to focus on my studies while at home, and are very understanding.”

Burns’ father has great faith in Burns and will continue to support her. “I believe that Kara does everything 110% and the amount of time that she puts into her goals clearly shows. She knows that her future will require a lot of time and effort. I try to help her out as much as I can by supporting her financially, emotionally, and by supporting her needs. I promote her ambitions as well, and am always willing to help her out.”

One might think that it would be easy for anyone to identify what made him or her to be so driven and motivated, but not for Burns. “Sometimes I don’t know why I aim so high. I can’t really explain it, I just have a competitive spirit, it’s who I am.”

Burns’ father agreed. “Kara has always strived to be the best. I don't believe that we really enforced it on her, it just came naturally to her.”

Burns’ unique attribute is a very desirable quality, which will bring anyone far in life. Burns said that she believes that her high level of motivation not only affects her life, but the lives of others as well. “I feel like the most beneficial part of this quality is my ability to push not only myself, but other people as well, so that they can be the best that they can be by setting high goals for themselves. Although self motivation is not a problem for me, I know that it comes as a challenge for others, and I enjoy helping people aim for high goals. I continually motivated the members of my swim team to push themselves to their maximum in order to achieve their full potential. Sometimes when the practices would get though, people tended to get discouraged and give up, I continued to support them and told them to keep going; it may hurt now but surely it will pay off in the end.”

Burns’ words of wisdom to all are; “Believe in yourself, don't settle for anything less than your ultimate goal, work hard; it will pay off, and stick to the course, even when times get rough. Yes, there will be times when you will have to take little steps at a time because your ultimate goal may appear to be out of reach, but in reality it is possible.”

Burns believes that self-discipline is key to accomplishing goals. “You have to be able to keep yourself on track and focused. You cannot let yourself give up when tasks begin to get difficult, you must push yourself to keep going. Some days, I felt like there just were not enough hours in the day to complete my school work; regardless, I trudged on and somehow worked through it.”

Burns said with this valuable attribute, come major disadvantages as well. She said being driven takes a lot of dedication and hard work, which does not leave her a lot of free time. “Unfortunately, with this quality, comes a lot of stress. It also restricts my available free time to participate in social activities, which is sometimes just what I need to clear my mind and refocus. I try to allow a few hours for myself to go out on Friday and Saturday nights to spend with friends, but it is quite difficult to fit in.”

Stress is difficult to handle, said Burns, and is very easy to get caught up in. In her cramped days of studying, often a little break is a necessity for Burns to get her mind back in focus. “I put more pressure on myself than anyone else does because i am a perfectionist and will accept nothing less of myself.” When Burns cannot take the pressure any longer, she says her escape is exercising. “Exercising is the only thing that keeps me sane! No matter the amount of work I do, I always find at least a half hour of my day to go out for a run. When I become overwhelmed, exercising helps me to refocus my mind and concentrate.”

Burns believes that if one wants to succeed at something, he or she has to be willing to give up a lot of time and put in a lot of effort. “Trying to be the best at anything involves an extreme amount of work. It’s almost an obsession which I can't help, it is just who I am. Yes, I do have to give up a lot; including time spent with friends and family, along with a clean room and sleep, but in the end, the feeling of satisfaction is well worth it!”

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