Life without Life

It’s about 2 am on October 27, 1986 when the lights in my garage began to fade away. I walked slowly towards the uneven shelf east of the room to grab my lantern.

“Hurry it up son, this engine isn’t going’ to build itself” my dad says. It was possibly the first thing he said all night. Me and my dad were working on our Nissan Skyline GTR 34. We thought of having a father-son project that it would bring us closer together. Ever since mother died when I was twelve, we vowed to stick together in any situation. There hasn’t been a day when I haven’t thought about my mom. She was struck and killed by an officer that wasn’t paying attention when driving. Me and my father go down to the cemetery once a week to talk about how much we’ve been able to learn about ourselves, but there was this one thing I didn’t know about my dad. One night my father told me he was going out at 3 am and it was my birthday, I was very much confused. I thought about my dad all night, but when finally the hour hand on my watch hit three, he was already gone.

I looked outside to see if he was walking or driving the old pickup truck mother used, but there was no sight of him. Mother’s truck was apparently in the garage collecting dust. As the strong wind lifted my hat off my head and flew into the back area of the garage I noticed that our Skyline was gone. I sat on the hood on the old pickup and began to think what would he want with that car. I look on his email on his laptop to see if there were any big events and I see the most shocking advertisement. I see a street racing email that has the date 10/27/1986. I was seriously nervous. Why would he do this now, on my Birthday?

It’s 5:50 in the morning when I’m getting a phone call from the police department stating that my dad has been seriously injured because of street racing, but that wasn’t the worst one, they also stated the he will be doing some time in Federal Prison because of his abusive way of driving. I was devastated. I felt like god didn’t want anyone to look over me, help me through hard times. I never thought that both of the people I loved most would automatically become the first to exit my life without leaving a last word to remember. I’m lost in my head, not knowing what to do. I couldn’t pay attention in high school, so I dropped out. I needed a fresh start, therefore I left town. I found success in California where I became a person with still no job, but with a start. My dad on the other hand, told me he was doing just fine. Me and him talked on the phone for twenty minutes. After his arrest I found myself an interest in California and a lot of people lived it, it took place in many abandoned or regular roads at late night. It's time to start your engines.

Unbroken (Theme)

We all sit here and think about life, how it works. Louie Zamperini from the book “Unbroken” by Laura Hillenbrand has done a lot in his childhood that had a small chance of damaging his life. As a young child Louie was in the shadow for a while. At the age of five, he had began to smoke when walking into kindergarten. In his eighth year in his life he had began stealing alcohol bottles from his parents and drinking them under table one night, and stealing food from his local peers in his neighborhood. Louie was the type of child that was hard to read (meaning to understand) why he did such things. what could have possibly cause Louie to behave to horribly when not taught. But then, everyone has their own story of which why they did certain things. When entering High School the horrible behavior from Louie then begins to change with the help from his younger brother Pete who is determined to help Louie strive for success. A possible theme that would fit the way Louie has changed along the way growing up, “Never let  the pass effect the person you are today or could be”.

The reason of which the theme matches up with Louie’s story line is because at first he’s done a lot of things that could’ve killed him at a young age, but when he entered High School he was shot with the words “you can’t participate in any sports nor any social activities because of your behavior in the past” says the principle of Tolerance High School in California. This specifically means that because of his bad behavior as a young child the trouble has followed him up into High School. High School was in fact the place where Loie was judged in many bad ways, even the principle, that’s why he couldn’t join any clubs. Due to the persuasion by his brother Pete to the principle, Louie was able to join any sport he wanted, so then he chose Track.

When Louie had first joined the track team that’s when he became a different person. Many people viewed him as a person that tends to work hard to get into a successful place. When Pete came along they both made a commitment to stay by each others side and to work hard. With Pete pushing Louie down the successful path to being victorious, Louie got faster everyday. He was literally dropping his time by at least two seconds. At track meets nobody was able to catch him. In his races he was able to keep his time below five minutes. Because of his successes all of his peers had forgave him for all of his wrong doings in his childhood, even the principle was able to forgive him. This shows that because of his change nobody was able to judge him in a bad way and respect him. In addition, this shows that he didn’t let the past affect the person he could’ve became or was. This is why I believe the theme is “never let the pass effect the person you are now or could be”.