Atonement

Atonement is basically redemption or reconciliation for the bad that one may have done. I do believe that you are able to achieve atonement for past sins and mistakes because everyone makes mistakes, and if no one was able to be forgiven for those mistakes, then they would live their life in permanent regret. Their life would be miserable and they would probably continue to sin. Everyone should be given a second chance, at least. In order to the atoned though, the person must make some sort of an effort to fix the wrong they have done. Otherwise, if they act like they do not care, they will not be forgiven. I personally have a habit though, of if someone does something bad to me that hurt me, or something of that nature, I do not wait for them to try and fix what they did. Instead, I simply forget about it. It never truly fixes anything, but to me, it takes too much energy to be mad at someone. I would much rather just forget it ever happened. This is bad for both me and the other person, because the other person may not feel like they did anything wrong, or worse, if they do feel like they did wrong, they may feel bad that they never made it up to me. It hurts me because I never truly forget I never bring it up to that person, but if a person continues to hurt me, I begin to be sick of it, and will get upset. Instead of working it out with them earlier, I let everything build up inside, which is not a good thing to do.

Amir seeks atonement for not helping Hassan, being jealous of his father's love for Hassan more than himself, and for framing Hassan, so that in the end, he lost his closest friend. In all cases, I think you can put what he has done under the category of envy. When he was watching Hassan being raped, I think he was scared of being hurt, but in away, he wanted to get back at Hassan for being more well liked by Baba then his own son was. I think that in a way, he could gain atonement, but it is going to take more than just becoming "good again". I think, in order for Hassan to give Amir forgiveness, Amir would have to, in a way, be willing to stand up for Hassan, and do basically whatever Hassan wanted, just as Hassan did for Amir when they were younger.

Have you ever made a mistake that you regretted? Briefly describe the incident, how it made you feel, and how it affected those involved. Were you able to make-up for what you did? Why or why not? How?

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The one biggest mistake that I think I have made that I regret the most is that I didn't try harder in high school to get better grades. Honestly, high school is not hard. I always just didn't feel like doing whatever it was that was assigned. At the time, sure, it didn't affect me much, and I always sailed by, but recently, I haven't been able to do that, and I know I won't be able to do so when I am in college. Now that I have applied to college and realized I don't have the grades in order to go to colleges I wanted to, I feel pretty bad. I am also worried about my future. I don't think that am prepared to work in college because I am so used to slacking off.

The Chase

Shots ring out behind me, as I sprinted through the jungle. Where I was, I could not tell you.

All I needed was a sign.
A plane.
A river.
A town.
Anything that could help point me in the direction of safety. Or at least out of the hands of the mongols chasing me.

I can not see my hand in front of me, the brush is so thick, but I think I can hear the sound of a river; It's low, steady rumble clashing with the miscellaneous gun shots, that are slowly growing stronger.

I am more tired than I have ever been, but I force my feet to move faster; each pounding step in sync with the racing of my heart.

How did I get myself into this situation? Only one year ago, I was happily living at home, in Alabama, without a care in the world, and looking forward to life after graduating from college. I easily could have gotten a job, anywhere almost. So, what in the world made me decide to enlist in the marines?!?! Sure, it was noble, fighting for your country, but why would I, someone with no military background or training, throw everything away to voluntarily put my life on the line all to blindly follow what my government asked? That is a good question. I have to admit, nowhere else, would I ever have gotten the experience or skills I learned from y one year in the marines, but still...

Woah! It got extremely bright all of a sudden. Is that a stream? It is! Finally! Alright, so, f I follow this upstream, it should take me back to camp, right? God, I hope so. I hope the rest of the guys find this too, but no use going back. They are all too close now...

I think that a lot of peoples' decisions are based on morals they hold close to their hearts or that are serious to them, and what decisions they were faced with in the past, and how what the consequences were from those decisions. I personally, make a lot of my decisions based on how my friends and family, or anyone in general, will be affected. I hate hurting people, so most of my decisions may not necessarily be the best for me, but I usually try to compromise. For example, when I had to make my decision on where I wanted to go to college, I had to choose between the college of my dreams, that I had always wanted to go to, but it was also way out of my price range, and a college I liked, but it was A LOT less expensive. In the end, I decided to go with the college I only liked because I did not want to stress my dad's finances.

Afghanistan's Finest

• Mix:
• 10-15 mountain ranges
• 3-5 plains
• 34 provinces
• 33 million people
• and 1 religion

• Add:
• 1 civil war
• 1 serving of European influence
  
• 2 groups of Soviet soldiers
  

• Remove Soviet soldiers, and add 2-3 terrorist groups
• (Taliban and Al-Qaeda flavoring is ideal)

• Finally, add 2-5 battalions of American armed forces and mix.
  

The mixture of Taliban, Al-Qaeda and American forces gives makes this recipe a bit unstable, but it sure gives it a nice kick!

Best if served cold, but in the months of May to August, served warm makes the dish all that more authentic. We recommend serving with a nice big glass of oil (petroleum is best).

Sink or Swim

Overall, I did not do much over spring break, but it was quite relaxing, especially Easter Sunday though. Yesterday, my father and I went to our close friends, the Echevarria's house. They have three sons, the youngest of which is my father's godson. Patrick is thirteen years old and is a typical, crazy, obnoxious boy, but I always enjoy spending time with him because he always likes to have fun. While we waited for dinner to be ready, all of the guys started talking about fishing because the season had just opened recently. Patrick said that he really wanted to go fishing, but he did not want to go alone. All of the older men though, wanted to finish watching the Masters. Now, while I enjoy playing golf, I could never understand how men brought themselves to sit around for four days to watch people play golf. I guess it is a guy thing, but still. Now, throw in a goalie at the hole and some screaming fans, and maybe, just maybe, I could be able to bring myself to watch golf. Otherwise, no way. So, while the men of the house watched Tiger blow his chances, I offered to take Pat fishing. Now, I have been fishing my entire life, because my dad is an avid fisher, but I have always gone deep sea fishing and never actually fished in a river or at a lake, so this was going to be quite an experience. Pat was extremely excited in order to finally try out his waders that he had gotten for Christmas, and me only ever have gone deep sea fishing, trusted his judgment and figured he was supposed to have waders. I was wrong. We spent five straight hours at the reservoir and did not catch a thing. I thought maybe I was doing something wrong, or using the wrong bait, but then it hit me that maybe, just maybe, it was because my little godbrother was splashing around in the water and scaring the fish away. At first I was frustrated, but then I realized, it was fine if we did not catch anything, because at least we weer having fun, no matter how many dirty stares we got from the other anglers. Overall, it was relaxing and fun, and while others may have thought of it being a waste of time, I definitely thought otherwise.