Journal Entry 14: Why Risk Your Life?

Why do people risk their lives for others? I think it is because they want to protect the others. For example, Harriet Tubman led black slaves to freedom. Although she is already a free woman, she came back to the U.S and brought the slaves away from the cruel law. She risked her own life for the others. This is called sacrificing. This reminded me of a "sacrifice" I made last year. Last year, I got a powerful disease called H1N1. I went to the hospital and because the season was changing, a lot of people were sick, so the waiting area was crowded. While I was waiting for the doctor, I saw an old man. I knew he was sick too and he needs the chair more than I do, but I could hardly even stand up. At last, I decided to go stand and I gave the chair to the old man. I believe when the others need more help then we need, we should help them no matter what person they are.

Journal Entry 13: Freedom Fighter

First of all, I think slavery is very unfair. Slaves are treated like properties instead of people. If you own a slave, you could do what ever you wanted to "it". Slaves have no right to talk and no ways to express themselves. If I were able to change this, I will do what ever I can to help the slaves. If my country has slavery, I will try to find a way to gather a group that can help them get away and reach freedom. This is a short story of how I did it.

I am a worker of the government and the government has been complaining about the missing slaves that began to disappear since last month. They sent me to check things out...
This day, I pretended to be a guy who wants to send slaves out of the country. I went down to the street looking for people who might have sent the slaves away. Since the government made a rule that anyone who helped slaves should be killed, no one was interested. Just as I'm about to give up, I saw a person wearing a hat who was walking down the street. I walked up and tried to talk to him. When I stood beside him, he was shocked and he tried to walk away faster. I felt strange, so I followed him. Soon he began to run and I chased him till he stopped. I walked towards him and took off his hat. I saw a person all covered with dirt. I notice that he was a slave and I asked him what he is doing here. He was too frightened even to talk. Then I realized why.

" You are a run away slave, that's why you were so nervous right?" I asked

"Yes, you treated us like we were "things". Now what are you going to do about me?" he shouted like he wasn't afraid at all.

" I won't hurt you, in fact, I wanted slavery to end so badly that I was searching on the streets for someone who can help me save the slaves." I lied.

"Really? Is that true?" he asked. "We have a team."

" A team? How does that work? I thought slaves can't communicate with anyone." I said.

" It started a month ago. Come I can bring you to our meeting area with other slaves." so he told me to follow him.

He brought me to an old park and told me everyone was inside. I saw a lot lot slaves resting in the area. Then, a woman in a pink hat came out and welcomed me. I came out with an idea that she was the "commander in chief". I followed her into a small room fulled with maps.

She said "These are our maps of the roads we can escape. The next team to escape is the blue team. They have already stayed here for over 2 weeks. We must think of a fast and safe way for them to go."

I asked her "Why are you helping these slaves, I mean, from the look of your clothes and how you dressed, you are quite rich right?"

She answered "Don't you have the same feeling as I do? You know, to save the slaves?"

" Yes of course, sorry about what I asked, let's continue," I replied nervously.

"Well I believe we can go this way," she said as she pointed a long street that runs to the end of the northern border of our country. "But the problem is that how do we get there?"

"I can help you because my house is just beside the border." I said thinking that I can tell the government and capture them all at once.

"OK, then we will do it tomorrow! Have a good sleep tonight!" she shouted out loud and walked to her bedroom.

After that, I went back home to take a rest and told the government where they will go tomorrow. The government said that they will send a group of army and arrest the slaves tomorrow when they reached the border.

The next day, I joined the team and we rushed to the border of the country and the group of army suddenly came out. I pretended that I was surprised. Then the "commander in chief" shouted out loudly to tell the slaves to run back to where they came. The commander herself was captured and shot by the head immediately. For a minute, I felt guiltiness rushing through all over my hold body. "Why is she giving up her life for the slaves?" I asked to myself. Then I took a look at the slaves running and crying with pain, as they get killed on by one by the government's army. Now I know the answer. The slaves weren't THINGS. They were also human beings. I found out that what I did was actually wrong.

After the massacre, I went back once again to the other remaining slaves and told them what happened. I told them we were captured accidentally and only I have managed to come back. They all believed in me and we prepared a route for all the remaining slaves. The next day, we traveled through the border and never came back. All of the slaves found families in this peaceful country and they lived happily ever after.

Journal Entry 12: To Be A Slave

  This day, I woke up with my family captured and sent to an unknown island. We were forced to become slaves. We were separated and we only got enough food to stay alive. We are beaten if we don't work enough. I know this myself, that this kind of day will kill me sooner or later. This day when I finished work at night, I were inside my cell with no windows and only one small door. I heard a person's footstep approaching...

  This person came to the other side of the wall and said "I can bring you away from here!" Even though the wind was blowing strongly outside the room, I stood up and walked outside. When I was outside, I saw an Asian, with dirty clothes and mud all over his body. I noticed that he is a slave and he must have been risking his life to come and talk to me. I asked him "Where are you from?" The man said "I can't tell you until we reach the boarder because other people will hear us!" I thought: If I went escaping with him, I might get away from this slave system, but if I were caught, I will be tortured or even killed. I decided to ignore him and go back to sleep. He saw me going back and he said "There are four of us. We're trying to escape before tomorrow night. At night even though our owner found out we're gone, they can't do anything because it is too dark outside at night. I'll wait for your answer tomorrow in the center park of the country." With his fast and quiet footsteps, he went away into the foggy darkness. I went in and thought about his words. If I went away with him, I can live a better life, escape from slavery and reach freedom. But if I were found escaping, I might get tortured and sent back to slavery or even get killed. Plus I don't even know who he is...

  The next day, I finished my job and went to the park. I saw the person I met yesterday and three other people who look familiar. I realized that they were my family and I shouted out with happiness and threw my arms around them and gave them the biggest hug I can do. I asked the person who came to me yesterday " Why didn't you tell me you they were my family?" He answered "Because I was afraid you will shout too loud like what you just did." They said "We have a map to the nearest boarder of the country. There, we can go to a huge land that is fulled with freedom. Let's go!". We traveled South as fast as we could. The weather became warmer and warmer as we traveled South. Five weeks later, he reached the boarder of our unknown country. We kept walking until we saw a huge island with a huge sign. On the huge sign, huge letters were written on it. It read "Welcome to Canada."

Journal Entry 11: More Freedom

People in most of the countries now days have the freedom to do what ever they want as long as it's not against the law. For example is people can't smoke, drink alcohol or drive until they are over eighteen years old. There are also restrictions other than the law. For example, playing video games all day isn't against the law, but your parents will stop you doing that. For me myself, I am under eighteen. I can have my own time, play my PSP for a few minutes, watch T.V and even go on Facebook. Things that I can't do are smoking, drinking alcohol and driving. These are the examples of restrictions and freedoms in my life. There is also another kind of restrictions which are things I don't want to do, but I have to. For example, doing my homework, doing chores and taking exams. This is why I think I'm lucky to be free enough.

Journal Entry 10: For the Sake of Freedom

For me, freedom means to have your own rights and own privacy. In my  life, I think I am quite free. Even though my mom cares a lot about me, she gives me a lot of my own time and is not so strict to me. I've never felt freedom taken away, but I got my PSP taken away from me once. I remembered I was arguing with my mom and dad, so they took it away. At that time, I was really I sad, I think my freedom was taken. But now, I think it was ok, because my parents gave it back. The people have fought for their freedom for centuries. People rebel if their freedom was taken away. People would risk their own lives for freedom. If I were the person whose freedom was taken, I would fight back and earn my freedom back.

Journal Entry 9: If You Were Billy

If I were Billy, I would still go to the boardinghouse of the landlady, because it is a lot cheaper and closer. I might not notice she came out immediately because I am too tired. When I ask her what is the price, I might think that it's a little bit cheap, but I will not have suspected her. When I see the names of Mr. Mulholland and Mr. Temple, I might not notice immediately, but I would not let the landlady interrupt my thoughts. If I keep on thinking, I might not have drank the tea and I can find out faster what's wrong with the landlady. I might realize that the landlady has been preserving the bodies when I heard that she preserves her pet and Mr. Mulholland and Mr. Temple are still on the second floor. At this point, I might find some ways to get away from her so I won't end up like Mr. Mulholland and Mr. Temple.

Journal Entry 8: After The End?

  After Billy heard what the landlady had said, he realized that the two people who were on the guest book was the same people that has been missing for more than a year. Noticing that something was wrong, Billy threw the cup onto the ground and decided to run through the front door. But suddenly, he felt dizzy and couldn't even stand still. He was poisoned.  He remembered the taste of bitter almonds inside his tea.

" What have you done to me," he spoke in a voice like he's going to pass out every other second. "What happened to Mr. Mulholland and Mr. Temple? You killed them didn't you!"

"No I didn't, I only fixed them so they can stay with me forever. Don't worry, I'm sure you will like to join them don't you?" said the landlady with a smile on her face.

Knowing that there's no hope for himself, Billy pushed the landlady as hard as he can with his last bit of energy. Although Billy was weak, he was still stronger than the old little woman. The landlady fell into the fire place behind her and began to burn.

"No, stop this!" shouted the landlady.

"I know that there's no hope for me, because the poison is deadly, but I will not let you hurt anyone anymore!" shouted Billy before he closed his eyes forever.

Now, the landlady was running around the place and trying to get out from the fire which she can't. The fire just went burning and burning, till the landlady was dead. Now in Bath, we can even hear the screaming and crying sound of the landlady sometimes during midnight.