The characters from Stranger Things are all important and strong. Choosing which characters you would want in your squad to face a supernatural threat is hard because they are all good. If I had to choose though, I would select Eleven for her supernatural ability, Jim Hopper for his strength, and Dustin Henderson for his intelligence. The characters would not have survived if it had not been for Eleven. At the end of each season, Eleven faces a big supernatural threat. Eleven defeated the Demogorgon and saved her friends by using her powers. She also assisted Hopper by closing the gate to the Upside Down through her supernatural ability. She fights a replica of the mind flayer and saves her friends again. After the third season, it almost seems she might not save her friends after losing her powers, but she gets them back and saves her best friend Max from her death. Despite the close call in the fourth season, Eleven always survives and seems to get better at her powers and strength as the show progresses. Eleven’s powers would defeat a supernatural threat, so she is put in my number one spot on my squad. Hopper is always punching bad guys. He is not afraid to go against his duty as Chief to save those of the town. After Will’s disappearance, he almost dismisses it as a runaway but after breaking into the Morgue he discovers Will’s body is a fake. He then continues to break into Hawkins’s lab to figure out that there is an Upside Down and the government is trying to cover it up. This might seem like reckless behavior, but that reckless behavior would be useful in a supernatural threat. Hopper’s reckless behavior helps him for most of the show because he almost comes out of every fight winning it. In the third season, he almost died and lost the fight, but he survived. He was sent to a Russian prison, but he survived its brutality and fought a demogorgon. Also, Hopper is the adopted father of Eleven so if I had both on my squad, they would be useful. Hopper could encourage Eleven to push harder while defeating a supernatural threat which would make her stronger and more likely to defeat the threat. In the end, Hopper’s reckless behavior, strength, and relationship with Eleven would put him in my number two spot in my squad to defeat a supernatural threat. Dustin always comes up with unique ways to defeat each supernatural threat. In the first season, Dustin came up with “the bath” that allowed Eleven to enter the void to see where Will and Barb were in the Upside Down. Dustin along with the help of his girlfriend, Suzie, came up with Plank’s constant that assisted Hopper and Joyce in breaking into the Russian base of operations. With Eleven’s powers and Hopper’s strength, Dustin would have intelligent ways to defeat the supernatural threat in a way that Hopper and Eleven cannot do. Dustin would make my number three spot in the squad to defeat the supernatural threat. Great characters from the show have been left out of my squad, but I think these three characters would be even more useful in defeating a supernatural threat. Eleven has powers that can easily defeat a supernatural threat, Hopper can provide strength and fatherly support to Eleven, and Dustin provides the intelligence needed to prevent a threat.

One piece of technology that is often overlooked is a camera. A camera captures timeless memories in a way that other technologies cannot. I still remember receiving my first camera on Christmas and the first photo I ever took. I took a photo of loaves of bread. That might not be the most extravagant photo to capture after getting a camera, but it signifies the importance of capturing timeless memories. If I had not taken a photo of bread, I would most likely not have remembered that there was bread there that day. A camera provides a gateway into capturing memories and things that might be forgotten. Many timeless photos from history were captured by a camera. For example, Earthrise showed what Earth looked like from the moon when NASA astronauts orbited the moon in 1968. If there were no cameras to capture the momentous memory, the world would have never truly understood what Earth looks like from the moon. Earthrise showed how little we as a human race are compared to space. As a result of Earthrise’s rise in popularity, there have been more efforts to protect the planet than ever before like the Environmental Protection Agency and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration were created after the photo was taken. Earthrise humbled people and made the world a better place. The efforts made after the popularity of Earthrise would not have happened if Earthrise had not been captured by a camera. A camera has power because it captures moments in time that can change the world for the better. That is what inspired me to become a photographer. I hope as a photographer that I can inspire others through the photos I have taken with my camera. Even though I started out by just taking a simple photo of loaves of bread, I hope that one day I can capture a photo that will humble the world in a way that Earthrise did.

“Have you ever seen Stranger Things,” asked a friend. “No,” I replied. “Well do not watch it, it is scary,” said my friend. Of course, I did the exact opposite of what my friend told me to do, I watched Stranger Things. My dad and I watched it the next night. The next thing we knew we got through four episodes in one night. That is when I realized that Stranger Things would become my favorite TV show. Stranger Things is scary, but it is well worth the watch. The show takes place during the nostalgic 1984 in the fictional town of Hawkins, Indiana. The series makes sure to have every nostalgic detail of the 1980s. It has 80s music, dungeons and dragons, 80s clothing style, and more. It immerses the viewer back into that timeframe making it a unique and interesting show. It is like the Goonies, ET, and Stand by Me which were popular movies of the 1980s. In the show, a young middle schooler named Will goes missing. Throughout the first season, the characters try to figure out where Will is only to discover strange things happening in the town that might have the answers to why Will went missing. The chief of Hawkins, Jim Hopper, is tasked with finding Will in a town where people who go missing are rare. Hopper discovers Hawkins’s lab which has been doing strange research. He starts to think that the lab might be the source of why Will went missing. Meanwhile, Will’s middle school friends Mike, Lucas, and Dustin try to find Will only to discover a strange girl from Hawkins lab with a shaved head who might have answers to Will’s disappearance. As the show progresses, it has some strong characters that make the viewers feel attached to them. Steve is one of the characters that viewers love the most. The writers make the viewers hate him in the first season but love him in the second. Steve has a compelling character development when he decides to set aside his popular status in high school to become what many fans call, “the babysitter.” Steve becomes friends with another lovable character, Dustin. They quickly go through many adventures together throughout the show where Steve is constantly in charge of him or Dustin’s friends. Stranger Things also created compelling themes of friendship, love, depression, motherhood, and fatherhood. After Will’s disappearance, Will’s mother Joyce becomes obsessed with finding Will and even goes to the lengths of being called crazy. Joyce symbolizes how mothers would do anything for their children. Jim Hopper also struggles after losing his daughter to cancer but finds himself being a father again by the second season. Hopper struggles with trying to raise another daughter and with the fear of losing her like he did with his first daughter. In the fourth and most recent season, we see some characters struggle with depression as a new villain feeds from their struggle so he can become stronger. One character finds herself surviving her depression through the love of her friends and family that she thought she had lost. In conclusion, Stranger Things has compelling stories, themes, characters, and more that make viewers want to experience the nostalgic 1980s in this wonderful TV show. I hope that you do not listen to my friend but instead turn on Netflix to Stranger Things. The show is an experience that will not be forgotten but cherished.

“We took their rum, Their pigs and cattle and the soft clothing. Now look what we’ve become.” (lines 29-32) - A poem, “The Prophet”, from The Land We Dreamed by Joe Survant This poem describes how the Native Americans were greatly impacted by the frontiersmen in Kentucky. The Native American Prophet expresses his concern that his people are losing their customs and practices by assimilating to the practices of the frontier people. In each line, the Prophet describes an underlying meaning that the Shawnee tribe is losing their culture and assimilating to a new one by using the words “we took,” “rum,” “pigs and cattle,” “soft clothing,” and “look what we have become.” The phrase, “we took,” symbolizes how the Shawnee tribe has assimilated to ways other than their own. It is interesting to use “took” because he could have used different terms like adopted or stolen. I think Survant specifically used “took” because it is used as a negative connotation rather than adopted which is a more positive connotation. Stolen would not have been as accurate since they did not take them but just used those practices. “We took” creates the solemn and harsh tone of the story. Rum is an example of how the Shawnee have become more like the frontiers people. Rum was something that they never had until it was introduced to them. The rum does not make them understand what they did wrong. The “rum” figuratively makes them lose their understanding that this is not who they are meant to be. Pigs and cattle were not originally from North America, but they were transported across the Atlantic Ocean by the settlers. That is why traditionally Native Americans did not raise livestock because they were only hunting bison as the main source of food for years. Bison was not considered cattle until after other species of cattle settled into the Americas. This reinforces the Prophet’s point that the pigs and cattle do not belong among the Native Americans as it does not represent their culture. Soft clothing contradicts the Native Americans’ traditionally dressed skins. Both genders of the Shawnee tribe would traditionally wear leggings and moccasins. Men would normally wear a shirt and women would have an overblouse. The shift to wearing soft clothing where men would normally wear pants and shirts; and women would wear dresses made of soft material was not traditional for the Shawnee tribe. “Now look what we become,” creates a feeling of helplessness. The Prophet realizes that he cannot undo what is done. It foreshadows what will happen if they assimilate into a new culture and lose their old one. Survant's underlying meaning in this poem is the Shawnee Indians assimilated to the ways of the Americans. Survant uses the predictions of the Shawnee Prophet to emphasize the importance of how their culture and practices will be lost because of the practices of those from the Western culture. The rum, pigs and cattle, and soft clothing are all examples of new amenities the Indians are becoming accustomed to. This creates a feeling of sadness for the Prophet because they used to be so much more than that. They had endless bison to hunt, their own clothing, and they enjoyed what they had before these new amenities. The uses of “look what we have become” and “we took” show how helpless and sad the Prophet is because he realizes they are forgetting their old ways. This is the Prophet’s last chance to give the Shawnees a call to action before their culture is gone. In the end, there is nothing the Indians can do to reverse it as they are letting it happen. When they do realize it, it will be too late.

Hufflepuff? What is that? People may ask this question while watching or reading Harry Potter. Hufflepuff is stereotyped that it is the worst house to be in. Gryffindor is where most of the heroes are Harry, the Weasleys, Hermione, Dumbledore, Sirius Black, and so on. Slytherin is stereotyped as evil with Voldemort, Snape, Malfoy, and more. Ravenclaw has wisdom and is highly stereotyped for its smarts. What about Hufflepuff? Where did that house come from? That is where my journey begins. I still remember the first time I was introduced to Harry Potter. My friend showed me the third movie, and for the first time, I saw Harry Potter. Then, I did what everybody does, figure out which Hogwarts house I was in. I wanted to be a Gryffindor because that is what everybody wanted to be. I would try to untruthfully answer my questions and get the answer I wanted Gryffindor. Eventually, I came to realize that I was truly a Hufflepuff after taking every quiz imaginable from BuzzFeed, playbuzz, and more. I then found the full original Pottermore sorting quiz online that was considered the “canon” one. According to Pottermore, I was a Hufflepuff, and ever since then, I have found the value in being a Hufflepuff. First of all, I get hangry which means I get angry and hungry at the same time. That pretty much sums up what a Hufflepuff should be. Well, not really. I take pride in my hard work, and it is the reason why I am successful. I struggled through school but through my hard work, it slowly became easier. That hard work eventually led me to get into university and become a part of the honors college. I am very spiritual like most Hufflepuffs and believe that there is a God. I try to show the love of Jesus any chance I can get. After God, the most important people in my life are my family and friends. I would do anything for my family and friends. I would be there when they are sad and need someone to talk to. An important thing about Hufflepuff is that they push themselves to not only think of themselves but of others. Sometimes they try to help others more than themselves. That has happened to me before where I try to fix a friend's problem more than I try to fix my own. I can be a leader if needed but I find myself working best when I am a part of a team. Being a Hufflepuff made me realize that I do not necessarily have to be the leader of the team to be the most important person on the team. It is just as valuable to participate in a team and get things done when you are part of a team rather than being the leader. Also, Hufflepuffs are widely known for giving second chances. There have been times when if a friend of mine messed up by hurting me, I would forgive them by giving them another opportunity to learn from the mistake and try again. A lot of the times I find myself saying “It is okay,” “You are all good,” and “I forgive you.” I may not be strong enough for Gryffindor, smart enough for Ravenclaw, or talented enough for Slytherin but I am still proud of being a Hufflepuff. As the sorting hat would say, “HUFFLEPUFF!”