Social withdrawn Alexandria Pierce makes a deal with her best friend Madison that is meant to make senior year a better one. She reluctantly agrees to get a date with the boy who destroyed her car mirror, Landon Singleton. She can't contend for too...
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The way I worked Thanksgiving weekend I felt like I was holding myself together with dental floss. In my AP literature class, I sat next to Madison as we text back and forth to each other complaining about how frustrating the class is. I text her about kissing Benny at the kickback and as soon as she reads my message her eyes bulge and she looks at me mouthing seriously? I vigorously nod my head and text her about how I felt like I was floating when I kissed him. She quickly responds with I didn't know you liked him after you told me how awkward you felt when he came over and confessed his feelings.
I read her message and simply shrug my shoulders at her and don't respond. I did feel awkward, but it was because it felt sudden, and I didn't know he looked at me in that way.
Well do you like him? She texts me. I think about it because I never did tell him if I did like him I just knew for sure the way he kissed me was nice. I text her about my mixed feelings about my situation with Benny because I did express to him how I only wanted to be friends, but he kissed me anyway...but I think I liked it when he kissed me. "Alex what do to have to say about the Ballad that Camilla just read?" Ms. Glenn asks. I sigh not caring if she heard because she was obviously calling on me because she knew I was not paying attention.
"I thought that it was wonderful." I say dryly.
"Oh really, how so?"
"I felt like I could connect to it." I say even though I don't know what it was about.
"Wow, I've never heard a student who connected to The Rime of the Ancient Mariner do tell more." I give her a stale look because she was picking at me knowing that I did not know what the ballad was about.
"Events that happened in my life reminds me of the ballad. That's all I would like to say,"
"Well, I'm not one to pry about a student's personal life. But I can't help but be curious because of how much I love the symbolism in this ballad." She starts to walk back and forth in front of the classroom as she goes into depth.
"Symbolism is a big part of this ballad which is why you have to pay attention to what's being told. From the men on the ship's point of view it's just a bird that is flying around but the bird meant so much more. The bird is an Albatross, and it was "of good omen'. The death of the bird symbolized karma—this proven because of the events that takes place afterward.
The albatross was soon avenged, and the ballad's true meaning becomes vivid. The old man's shipmates began to suffer a slow death and the sun began to beam down on him and his shipmates due to their action of killing the Albatross. The sun symbolizes a higher being's vengeance. The use of symbols enhances the meaning of the story—when you do badly to the good, things will turn unexpected, and a lesson will be learned."
I sit there and listen to her take from the ballad, and I'm amazed at what she got from reading it because I hadn't thought that deep into it. "So, I think what everyone should take from this is when someone or something comes into your life do not destroy it without knowledge of the good it has. If you do the outcome could affect your life drastically and your karma will be bad karma."
