What Does It Mean To Be An American?

            What does it mean to me to be an American? To me, being an American is about being free and loyal. It is about having freedom of religion, rights, and most of all, justice. Being an American is also about being your own self. It means that we are all being treated equally, no matter what race or background you are. And it does not matter what culture you are from. This all comes from our Bill of Rights, our laws.
            Being an American is not about going to baseball games, eating hotdogs, and burgers. No it is to live your life out to the fullest. You do not need to be wandering about with a flag in your hand waving it around to be an American. It means to help another, to capture a piece of every form. It is to be united as one, being able to depend and rely on each other. This does not mean you have got to live in America. Everyone has a part of “being an American” way deep inside them. My parents are from Mexico and they have been in the US longer than in Mexico and to me, they are definitely considered Americans.
            We are able to speak our minds, attend whatever church. You decide to walk into, that is according to what you believe in. If you do not attend a church, then so what? Let it be.  You are still able to celebrate a holiday that you want to celebrate. It means that you are a slave to no one. Live life your own way because you are free. You have the freedom to be your own individual. Everyone is different and everyone has their own way of doing things. You should not follow others. It is about being a leader, your own leader.
         I consider myself an American, I was born here. But just because I was born here it does not really mean anything. Like I have said already my parents are too, Americans. I’ve been living in the US for 16 full years. My mom has been here since she was 18. So basically she has been here longer than she was in Mexico. Same thing with my dad, except he has lived here longer. 

EPT Test #2

                   I agree with Margaret Med, she has a great point. We are taught to celebrate, admire, and praise the ones who do good in school. If you don't get high scores you are put down and told to follow what another person is doing. We're expected to look up to someone who just so happened to be on top, we're taught to be followers instead of our own leaders. We see this so called "news" referring to criticizing the ones who are well dressed and the ones who aren't. Why is that? Like who cares who's well dressed and who's not! But we've been taught to view that as something so important. We don't seem to care why, all you know is that it's something normal to see already, you're just used to it. Moving on now to admire the ones who are most likely to succeed. Well that's great for them, now get yourself up there and do something to be able to succeed instead of just watching them do their thing. We can admire, celebrate, and so much more to the ones on top, while we sit here and do nothing for ourselves. As Americans, yes, we greatly prize success. We also do this thing where we wish to be like someone who is on the "A-list", yes we say "I wish..." many times when instead of wishing we should actually be DOING IT, not wishing and expect for a miracle to happen. Because chances are it's not going to happen, We have to make it happen.

Autobiography

                    Recently, my older brother went off to Navy Bootcamp, he will be back soon though since he needs to fix something about his ear, which they couldn’t fix over in Great Lakes. My younger sister is in elementary, and then there is me. My name is Katrina D'metri, I’m 16 and I have been living in Los Angeles basically all my life. I have three pets. Two golden retrievers and a white-domestic -short haired cat. Her name is Aimee.

                 The way I would describe myself is extremely shy. I tend to keep a lot of things to myself... most of the time. I love to write out my thoughts, and sometimes just because. I really try to keep myself organized and on task. I get fed up and irritated so easily, but I just try not to show it. Although people say I always look mad, most of the time it’s true! I love the smell of bleach and I love sushi, maybe not all types, but most. I live with both my parents, who always ask me what my plans are after high-school, it’s kind of hard for me to figure out what I want to go. Maybe I’ll be a vet or maybe I’ll be a CEO or maybe I’ll never make up my mind. Who knows? I’m unsure of my plans. But as of now my plan is to graduate and walk stage with my diploma.
                   
                 I love Halloween time and when it rains. Horror films are my favorite and I have a little obsession with cats, buying candles, and lipstick. Most of the time I end up using 1 out of the many lipsticks I have. My parents are both from New York and have been married for 23 years or more. I’m not sure, but they’ve been together for quite some time. No, I am not in any sport. I mean I’d love to but I can barely keep up with school and stuff at home. I think if I were to go to Vielo High School I probably would have joined the swim team, just like my older brother did. I attended Jameson Irish W. Elementary from Pre-K to 5th and for middle school I attended Claw MS. And here I am now at Newport High School. I am a junior, finally I’ve only got a little less than 2 years till I get to graduate.

                On my free time I like to hang out with friends but most of the time I stay home and listen to music and draw whatever comes to my mind. Soon, I’m thinking of customizing phone cases or something with prints of my sketches. I’m not sure, I’m not sure about a lot of things. Groups like Rosie and the Originals are my favorite and I also enjoy heavy music like Black Sabbath or beach goth groups like The Growlers. I like Mozart and stuff like that too. I think it sounds beautiful.

               I have a significant other who I’ve been with for 1 year and 9 months, he’s in a band. I’m slowly learning how to play guitar- you know... it’s quite fun learning new things. In the 7^th grade I learned how to play the flute. And I learned how to play the theme song to "Pirates of the Caribbean". I enjoyed learning, but sadly I stopped and I forgot how to even hold it. Sun flowers and dark colors are the best. I used to have my nose pierced, my smiley, my tongue web and my lip pierced (not all at the same time, oh no, no). But I took them all out and all I have now are my ears and cartilage pierced. I don’t have any tattoos just like every other teen today, but I am thinking about a few for the future. Well I guess that’s all I have to share about myself. Thanks for your time.

ETP Test #1

                     Jozui has a great point. They are going against the way most advertizing is being done. Ads using celebrities / well know people "using" their products and saying positive things about the product and saying positive things about the product or whatever it is just so the business can gain more. Basically using a celebrity to advertise the product and make us, the audience want to have the product as well, JUST because they think "Well if Megan Fox says this product is great then I need to get it too." Jozui says "This kind of marketing is misleading and unsults the intelligence of the audience. "They are totally right about that. I agree with her argument.


               An example of how the marketing is "misleading" is one from my personal experience, well maybe not mine but it happened to someone that I know. Covergirl, a make up line that is well know. Most of us know that Ellen DeGeneres advertises that line and claims to say it works well for her skin and etc. Someone I know began using some of Covergirl's products and there was this one cream for your acne. it's suppose to "stop and clean" your acne from your face. But yet, on a friend of mine the cream left her face all scarred. People mislead into thinking a product is great just because a celebrity uses it and advertises it saying positive lines. That's just wrong. You can never really trust most things that are being advertised for the public.


               Now let's focus on how some advertising "insults the intelligence of the audience" It obviously insults the intelligence of the public / audience because the way advertisers think. They think "Oh if we use *insert name of celebrity* the audience will be certainly brainwashed thinking they need the product just because *name of celebrity* "owns" it and has positive FAKE feedback about it." The audience will always go with the flow and look up to whomever and will always want to be "in style" or whatever JUST because a celebrity / well known person is the one advertising it. Even I too, sometimes think I need something just because a celebrity has it. But I really don't need it I just want it so I can say "Oh look I have what *insert name of celebrity* owns too!" And I feel that, that's how everyone else feels, most of the time.