Jianyi Hu (Kenny)
Professor: Simmons
ESL 186: Essay 1, Final Draft
February 25th, 2014
Life Experiences are pieces of Puzzle
People’s life experiences are like pieces of puzzles. Each piece seems small and different. People enjoying making the puzzle, also people get stuck as well. Due to each individual’s personal insight, the pieces of puzzle gather and become a different scene. The Film, Akeelah and the Bee directed by Doug Atchison, “Waiting in Line at the Drugstore” by James Thomas Jackson and “The School Days of an Indian Girl” by Zitkala-Sa all describe how main characters gain various perspectives from different experiences while struggling and working on their obstacles. In the fact, the importance is the insight gained from the experiences. From the articles people have different perspectives from losing of a loved one, being coached and fear.
First of all, losing of a loved one is not only about loss, but also giving people the strength and an ineffable power to move forward in their lives. From the film, Dr.Larabee has the experience of losing her daughter. When Dr.Larabee coaches Akeelah, she reminds him of his daughter. Dr.Larabee mistakenly calls Akeela as his daughter’s name. Accepting the loss of someone is an extreme hard ship to undergo for people. On the other hand, Akeelah does not want to join the International Spelling Bee. However, when her brother encourages Akeelah “Do it for Dad.” (Akeelah and the Bee), she has the determination and courage to join the competition. Akeelah knows if her dad were alive, he would encourage and support her. People honor the wishes of their loved one by doing what they would have wanted them to do if they were still alive. My friend had a horrible attitude towards his parents when he was young, but after he experienced the loss of his dad, he became more mature. Once he became more mature and he cherished everything he received from his parents. He took over all household chores from his mother and spent more time with her instead of going out with his friends. I still remember my friend said his father isn’t dead as he is always in his heart. Alternatively, being coached is not just an experience to study, but also to learn respect and get stronger. For example, I had been coached three years when I was on basketball team. Each teammate had a beef about our coach being too strict. Even though we got injured from excessive practice, our coach did not allow us to have days off. However, later we realized we gained an unimaginable amount of happiness come through when we won the competition, and our feelings were overwhelming for our coach. We respected, admired and appreciated all our coach did for us. In the film, Dr.Larabee is not the only coach for Akeelah. There are 5000 thousand more coaches around Akeelah who help her learn the vocabularies. Akeelah learns from Dr,Larabee the skills to remember the words. Further more, she learns more from people who surrender with her. The perspectives that Akeelah notices are people’s love and caring. In addition, through the article “Waiting in the Line at the Drugstore”, James Thomas Jackson is coached by the books he borrows from the drugstore. “My
