Bloggers;
This is the last old thing i’m going to post on my blog. This one is 4 pages long, however, like my previous one, i want to know your ideas. I think that this one turned out rather well, and i hope that you guys think so as well. However, i hope that you will be able to be honest with me, and give your thoughts to this writing. Wow, this was from Western Oregon, and i’m glad that next semester, i’m taking some writing classes…

Michael Babcock
WR 115 Essay #5
March 10, 2007
Separation

If you have to do something in order to fit in with your friends, is this good? Ask your self this, because it must have happened to you once or twice. A friend is doing something you know is wrong and you think you have to do it to fit in. Is this healthy? In the following essay, we will take a look at two different essays and see how the authors of these essays dealt with fitting in.
In “My Daughter Smokes” by Alice Walker, the author reminisces about her father smoking. The author’s main concern is that her daughter will turn out like the author’s dad did, out of breath all the time, and eventually end up dyeing. She then wonders why her daughter did end up smoking, “There is a deep hurt that I feel as a mother. Some days it is a feeling of futility. I remember how carefully I ate when I was pregnant, how patiently I taught my daughter how to cross a street safely. For what, I sometimes wonder.”
In The “Black Table” Is Still There, by Lawrence Otis Graham, the author described to the reader his going to lunch during middle school. How he found it odd that all the blacks sat with each other, and all the geeks sat with each other. He did not relies that there was segregation all threw out that lunch room. Something that he was astonished to find was the fact the black table was still there. “During a recent visit to my old junior high school in Westchester County, I came upon something that I never expected to see again, something that was a source of fear and dread for three hours each school morning of my early adolescence: the all-black lunch table in the cafeteria of my predominantly white suburban junior high school”, said the author.
Smoking is something that Alice Walker would personally know a lot about. Her sister smokes, as well did her fauther. She is able to see the effects of smoking just by looking at her family around her. When her fauther died, she saw that smoking is not the best thing that someone can do, and yes, it can kill you.
When the author of “The “Black Table” Is Still There” returned to his middle school, he saw that there was still the people who seperated there selfs according to there religan, color, and even there sex. It was apparent to him then that even during his middle school years, there was always segregation, and if the world kep going the way I was, there would always be. No, it did not mader that it was 25 years later, people still sat with those who they felt the most confertable with. Is doing something that could hurt those around you, and even your self good?
Durring my reading of “My Daughter Smokes”, I felt very close to the author. Being someone who grew up around family and friends who smoked, and seeing the damage it causes to those around them and even what smoking does to them, makes me not ever want to smoke. Even if my best friend threatened to not be my friend anymore, I would never light up. Smoking can kill, and in my case, smoking did kill a family member.
In the essay, “The “Black Table” Is Still There”, I can directly relate to it. Being blind, people often think that I need to stick with those of my kind. When as a matter a fact, sticking my self with those who are blind is relatively borring, no blind person can drive, no blind person can comment on the movie we are watching. Seperating my self from all the sighed people could be the worst thing I could do. Doing something others would like is not the thing to do. People need to consider feelings of those around them, even if they think it will not hurt any one else.
If you ever feel that doing something to get along with others is the thing to do, if you want to smoke just because your fauther and or friends are doing it, even if you feel that separating your self from people who are different then you is the thing to do, consider those around you. If something is hurting you, it is almost gurentied to be hurting someone else. In he essay “My Daughter Smokes” the author lets us see how smoking killed her fauther, and in the essay “The “Black Table” Is Still There”, the author explained that people do still separate them selfs from each other. So, to answer what I asked above, If you have to do something that you do not feel confertable doing to get along with others, is this right? There is one answer to this, and that is no, it is no right, and you should never have to do something that you do not feel confertable doing.