Term 1 - Creative Writing
In a place where everything seems just right, lived a young lady known as Marga. Her face, her hair, everything about her was perfect. Everyone around Marga found her beautiful and even went as far as calling her "The Goddes." She had everything any girl would've ever wanted. But that wasn't the case for her. Not all people knew how she was feeling. No one ever dared to talk to her because they were "pathetic" and "out of her league." For that, no one ever asked her how she was candidly feeling if she was doing fine. She was not ok, she never was.
Few years have passed, she is now a grown adult. Everything about her stayed the same except for how she was feeling. She felt much better compared to the past few years. She was always cheerful. She always spends quality time with her family and her friends. She was happy. But those delightful days didn't last long for her. She has just gotten the news that one of her closest friends has sadly passed away caused by a car accident. She has once felt the emotions that she has long forgotten. Even though she had other friends, this one friend of hers had a special place in her heart. She has just soon found out that she had feelings for him. All these years, they have been there for each other and never left each other's side. She starts to regret the fact that she has to know how she was feeling way too late. The person who she loved and adored is now gone.
At his funeral, she looked like she was the most affected one. No, she wasn't saying anything. But in her mind, she was screaming at the top of her lungs. She just kept crying and crying about why he has to leave so soon. She didn't even get the chance to know what he was also feeling towards her. If he also loved her. She thought to herself that she has to keep fighting, even without him by her side. All she can carry with her are the happy memories that they made together.
After a few months, she is now living as happily as she can ever be. Everything around her is bright and vibrant. The feeling of losing her friend was still there. But everything gets better as days pass. One day while shopping in a mall, she saw a man standing by an emergency exit door. She could only see the silhouette since the back was so bright. When the light started to fade, the man began to look like her friend that passed away. Tears began to recede from her face like a waterfall, reminiscing all the beautiful memories they had together. She walked to the man excitedly and hurriedly. As she gets closer and closer to the man, she has assured herself that it was the love of her life. Marga hugged him tightly as if there was no tomorrow. They both became emotional and shed tears of happiness. The scent that he gave out made her want to hug him even tighter.
He told her that it was time to go. As those words flow out of his mouth, everything stopped. That was the time where she had just realized that everything was just a dream. She heard voices calling out her name rather loudly. The man offered his hand to her. She placed hers on top of his with trust. Once they held hands, everything turned dark and silent.
She opened her eyes to witness people at a funeral. She was all alone and confused. Overwhelmed by what had just happened, she started walking closer. Getting a close look at the person in the picture, she saw her young self. The smile that she had on the photo touched the sides of her ears. She looked happy. The confusion started to fill her emotions. She went ahead to question the people around her, but no one answered. Being ignored by every person she asked, the confusion grew bigger and bigger. Then, she stopped and recalled everything that has happened. That was when one thing made so much sense.
This whole journey she had was just her trip to the afterlife. It turns out that while she was still in high school, she decided to end everything. She committed suicide by running on a busy road and getting hit by cars repeatedly. The friend or lover she had was her guardian angel, guiding her to the afterlife safely. She had trouble letting go of everything. She had the chance to go to her funeral, hear everyone who mourned for her death. Even though it was overwhelming, the time has come. The time has come for her to leave.
Term 3 - The Apartheid
Throughout the time of Apartheid, a lot of discrimination, abuse, and equity were set out to the black inhabitants of South Africa. In the film “The Power of One '', directed by John Avildsen, the scene where Pk and Gideon went for a run around the whole township to the city. Gideon is the person who boxed against Pk to somehow make peace and stop Apartheid. That was the only way Gideon and his people could think of to make everything equal and fair between the two races.
In the scene where Pk was running towards the kids, asking where Gideon is, we see the use of Lighting. The type of lighting that they used in this scene was natural light which means that that was how the place actually looks like. No extra lighting was used to make anything look better or stand out. This was used by the director to make the audience see what the place where Gideon was staying truly looked like. This helps us understand why Gideon was begging Pk to box him. This also helps us see what he and his people are going through and how they are being badly treated by the government. We can compare the difference of lighting to when they had the boxing fight to where Gideon lives. There we could see that they used man-made lights which were huge but the place still seemed so dark. The change of lighting in the two different scenes also gives us two different perspectives of the slum. In the boxing match, it gave out that gloomy, unhappy vibe. But in the scene where Pk visited Gideon to go for a jog, it gave us a different perspective which was bright and cheerful.
The next scene to talk about was when they had just finished jogging around the whole town to the main city. We could see that they used the Mise en scene. This aspect was only enough to include everything that they wanted to into the scene. This aspect was used by the director to keep our focus on whatever is happening in the scene. Everything in the scene was getting equal attention which therefore means that the audience is picking whatever message the director is trying to give. The effect of this aspect on the audience is that it helped them understand everything in a deeper way. They notice every detail, how different both races were treated, and how the other one seems to be more in power. Furthermore, we could link this scene to when Pk and Gideon had just finished talking to each other in front of the water fountains. Gideon walked out after being called an insulting slur by a white man in the shop they were standing outside of, that happened after him and Pk had an argument. Gideon started walking when a ‘white’ lady was walking with her children. She told them to back off when someone like him, referring to Gideon, walks by. It showed how they gave Gideon the dirty, disgusting look which was the purpose of the chosen aspect.
The last aspect to talk about is the Setting. This aspect could be seen throughout the whole part of the scene when they were jogging. The transformation of the two places can easily be seen which is enough to say that they are extremely different from each other. The director’s purpose of doing this is to show which race is in the upper hand, aka in power. He also made the setting of both places extremely different to the point where Gideon’s place is considered a slum. The effect that it had in the audience was powerful. We realise that the black South Africans don't get the same luxury that the Afrikaners get. In fact, they get fewer essentials than an average person would. This could be linked to when they were jogging. We could see that when they were still in the town where Gideon stays in, it already looked crowded and polluted. But when they got to the main city, everything was spacious and tidy.
All, in conclusion, we can say that all of these aspects helped the scene deliver the message that the director is trying to give us. It all became easier for us to understand what they are trying to comprehend and what the plot of the scene was. Although it was just that small bit of the story, it made such a big impact on the audience to how meaningful it was.
Term 3 - 4 The Lake
In the story The Lake by Rad Bury, a memorable idea is that though time has passed, we can never forget the memories that we had with the people that we admired the most. No matter how long it has been, it will stay with us forever. This was memorable to me because it reminded me of the people with who I used to spend time. That even though you don’t have any source of communication with them or even remember them, the memories would always be there.
Again, the memorable idea is that though time has passed, we can never forget the memories that we had with the people we admired the most. The first memorable idea from the text was when Harold had his last visit to the beach with his mother. That was the last day of them at that place since they will be moving away. Harold felt like he needed to be alone for some time. He asked his mother if he could go run to the other side of the beach. After agreeing to him, he began running with arms outstretched like wings. He looked back to his mother, only seeing her as a brown speck. From there on, he knew he’s all alone by himself. Harold went down to the water, letting it cool up his stomach. Standing on the water, he felt the urge to look for something, felt the urge to look for ‘someone’. This is the feeling he never let himself get the best of him, but being alone, he couldn’t help it. He started calling out a name dozens of times, “Tally! Tally! Oh, Tally!” He called out the name, again and again, hoping she would start making walking out of the water. The overwhelming feeling of finally being able to let things out made him feel relieved. But the pain of not being able to see ‘her’ will always, and forever will be there.
The second memorable idea from the text was when Harold and his wife, Margaret, were making their way back to the place he grew up in, Lake Bluff. Before getting on the train, he explained that as a memory, a train works both ways. It can bring rushing back all those things to you and can take you away from making more memories. Getting on the train, all the memories that he had come rushed back to him. The more time they spend on the train, the faster it feels. After a while, they have finally arrived. Harold doesn’t recognise a single face around him. All that was left were the memories. They stayed there for two weeks, revisiting all the places together. The days that they spent together were happy days. He randomly thought that “ I thought I loved Margaret, at least I thought I did.” That thought, that phrase was said because of one memory.
Lastly, the most memorable idea reminded me of when Harold went back to the place he grew up in. He visited the place where he lost a loved one. He walked down the sand where a lifeguard was standing, holding a grey sack. Harold was asking the lifeguard to open the grey sack while tears fall down his eyes, hoping that they have finally found ‘her’. When the lifeguard opened the sack only partway, what he saw was enough. Enough to identify what was in there, enough to identify her. He said to himself, “People have grown, I have grown. But she has not changed… she will be young forever and I will love her forever, Oh God I will love her forever.” After saying those words, he proceeded to the water’s edge, where a sandcastle lays. He stared and knelt beside the sandcastle and from there he knew, she left it unfinished for him. He finished building the sandcastle, built it like how they used to when they were still young. Once he was done, he arose from the sand, making his way back to where his wife Margaret was waiting for him. While walking back, he saw a ‘strange woman’ smiling at him. A strange woman with the name Margaret.
All in all, the story ‘The Lake’ by Rad Bury has a lot of memorable ideas. It helped me realise that things are not and will never be easy to forget or get over. Even if months, years, decades have passed, it will always be there. It won’t be easy to forget the people that you spent most of your time with. Even if you’ve met new people, loved new people, there will always be ‘someone, whom you’ll remember.
