About Us

Hey! I’m JV and I am a Junior at GCE. I love doing makeup, I also love music and going to concerts and festivals. I like meeting new people and experiencing different things. Writing is one of my favorite subjects and I want to continue becoming a good writer. For the issue I have written two short stories.

Hi! I’m AG and I am currently a senior at GCE. I really love animals, I have three pets, two dogs and a baby kitten. They’re all great. My favorite class is the one this journal is for- Book Bound. I enjoy reading all different types of fiction books. I like writing as well, for this issue I have written one short story, and included some original images.

My name is JB, I am a trapeze artist and I travel for 10 weeks in the summer with Circus Smirkus. For this literary journal we chose to write about thanks and what it means to us. My contribution to the this journal was the cover page, my own original image that reflects an aspect of thanks along with a poem. We chose the topic of thanks because it is that time of year. This journal gives the reader an extensive breakdown of what thanks in this season may entail.

Hello! I am GN and I am a senior at GCE. I have recently developed and interests in rocks aka geology! There are surprisingly not as lifeless as many assume. I dislike classifying things as favorites, but I have a passion for science and I am very thirsty for learning how and why things they do so. I love the song Ew by Jimmy Fallon featuring will.i.am. For our literary magazine I wrote two essays and provided an image.

 

Acknowledgements

A special thanks to the writers and photographers of our external submissions

and to everyone who helped make this possible.

 

Table of Contents About Us……………..……………….……………….……….………………….………….……......1 Acknowledgements…...………………………….…………………………...……………….……2 Thanksgiving Lesson…..………………………….……………….………………...………….….3 Thankful?….……………….………..…………….………………...……………………….….….....4 No Thanks….……….…….……………….……………….………………………………..….….…..5 Food………..….………….………….………………...………………………………………..…..…..6 History of Turkey……..…….……………………….……………….………………………….......7 Thankful………..………...……………….……………….………………………………..……..…....8 Why Thursday?…….…..…………………….……………….…….……………………………...….9 I Am Thankful For….…..……………………….……………….…….……………………….……10 Image 3?………..….……..……………….……………….……………………………………...…....11 Ode to Thanksgiving….…..…….…….……………….…………………………………….……...12 Thanksgiving Collage ……..…….…….……………….…………………………………….….…...13 Thanksgiving.........……..…….…….……………….………………………………....…..…….......14

 

Thanksgiving Lesson By: AG

“Mom, I don’t get something,” Joshua said plopping down next to his mother on the couch. “What?” his mother asked him, looking up from the book she was reading. “Why don’t we celebrate Thanksgiving? All my other friends do, and we even have a break from school for it.” Joshua’s mother turned to him. “Well, what do you know about Thanksgiving?” “I learned in school that Thanksgiving started when the pilgrims first came to America and the Indians helped them get food, and one day they came together and had a huge feast. And the pilgrims were very thankful for the food which is why the day is called Thanksgiving,” Joshua recited proudly. “Wrong.” Joshua’s face fell. “What do you mean? My teacher said so!” “That’s not what really happened. You were right about it starting with the pilgrims coming to what we now know as America, but what really happened when they came here is they captured the Native Americans and made them their slaves. Then they gave smallpox to those that escaped. When they traveled to what is now known as Massachusetts, they only found one Native American left-- Squanto. He had earlier been a slave to the pilgrims so he knew English. He helped the pilgrims get food and they made a treaty together, which is why there was a feast. But then more pilgrims came and didn’t honor the treaty; they captured and killed many of the Native Americans and the result was a great big bloody war.” “Whoa, so the pilgrims killed all of the Ind--Native Americans,” he corrected himself. “They didn’t actually become friends in the end? Why do they lie to us at school?” “That’s a good question. Maybe you should ask your teacher tomorrow,” his mom encouraged. “I will,” Joshua said getting up and walking towards the door. His mother turned back to her book. “Mom... I’m glad we don’t celebrate Thanksgiving.”

 

Thankful? AG 11/20/15

 

No Thanks By: GN

Thanksgiving seems to provide a kind of national pause for Americans, as they recollect the year’s blessings,

give thanks, and eat apple or pumpkin pie. On November 26, many Americans sit down with their families

around tables overflowed with plenty of food. As great as Thanksgiving seems, I don’t care much for it. Nine out

of 10 Americans celebrate Thanksgiving, and up to 13 percent of Americans dine alone on Thanksgiving,

according to a survey by Gallup. My family and I are not alone in not partaking in the celebrations, even though

it feels like it sometimes.

As first generation children of African parents, my siblings and I never celebrated Thanksgiving since my

family was not accustomed with the holiday. There is something arbitrary about celebrating America’s

controversial roots. The celebration and its traditions of roasting turkeys and making stuffing doesn’t seem to

urge the country to remember the implications of white settlement on indigenous cultures. Many immigrant

families embrace the tradition, but mine never did and I am okay with that. Instead of roasting turkeys, I eat a

normal meal like any other day and stay home.

It had not occurred to me that what my family was doing was different from the norm, until I went to high

school. When I first told friends that I had no plans, I immediately received outpourings of sympathy and had

to awkwardly keep batting off dinner invitations. I’ve met a bunch of other people who don’t celebrate

Thanksgiving for reasons similar to mine, and for the most part they are fine with it.

I recently started being honest in conversations about my lack of plans. I try placating classmates, teachers, and

friends with exciting details of what I’d do instead, which are “cooking”, ordering in, eating out at a restaurant,

or Netflix and Chai-tea. I still received sympathetic dinner invitations, and occasionally lied to avoid having to

explain myself. Just a week ago, I told my friends that I would be having a small dinner and house-hoping to

friends and family. I didn’t want to see pity in others’ eyes.

It is almost unthinkable for most Americans to visualize Thanksgiving without envisioning a grandiose poultry

dinner among family and friends. I understand that people were raised that way, but I was not!

For anyone out there who doesn’t celebrate Thanksgiving and feels alone because of it, I urge you not to! After

all, there are 41 million others, including myself. Embrace it and enjoy your alone time!

 

Food By: GN

Food, GN (2015)

            

 

        

History of Turkey By: GN

Thanksgiving dinner is not complete without a tender and moist turkey. 88% of Americans surveyed by the National Turkey Federation eat turkey on Thanksgiving. An estimated 46 million turkeys are eaten each Thanksgiving. Turkeys are the most American of birds. The holiday bird is American in a way many people don’t expect, in that it descended from immigrants. The commercial Turkey served at Thanksgiving descends from a Mexican species and were discovered by the Spanish during the Spanish Conquest and transported back to Europe. “Genetic studies show that M. gallopavo gallopavo, the South Mexican wild turkey, is the ancestor of all today's domestic turkeys” (Smithsonian). Natives in South Central Mexico domesticated wild turkeys primarily for their feathers about 2,000 years ago. During the Spanish Conquest, Spanish explorers then brought domesticated turkeys back to Europe. The European Colonization of the Americas allowed European settlers bring domesticated turkeys to the states. In America’s melting pot, the turkeys that arrived with European colonists were subsequently mixed with some of the Eastern wild turkey populations thus producing a more appetizing product. Ancient wild turkeys were no butterballs! But breeding birds for the dinner table has come with a cost: a loss of genetic diversity. These results comes to no surprise as it is often the case that selection in domestication reduces the level of genetic variation. Works Cited:

Brian Handwerk. "Your Thanksgiving Turkey Is a Quintessentially American Bird: An Immigrant."

Smithsonian. N.p., 24 Nov. 2015. Web. 15 Dec. 2015.

<http://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/thanksgiving-turkey-quintessentially-american-bird

-immigrant-180957382/?no-ist>.

         

 

Turkey Soup by: GN

 

                

 

                

Thankful By: JV

Thanksgiving is one of my favorite holidays. It's a time when all my family can get together and enjoy being with each other. I celebrate Thanksgiving every year; as a child my parents would tell me that Thanksgiving is a time for family. When I was little, every year I would go to my grandmother's house to have Thanksgiving dinner. I would be with my cousin, aunt, uncle, and grandma, and I love this holiday because of that--being together with the people I’m close to. And I love how my family is growing and we continue to have new members. It’s crazy how each year can be completely different and how each of us go through so many changes.

 

Why Thursday?

By: JV

Why be thankful, why go shopping,

why eat so much food, you can do that everyday, so why on that Thursday?

what’s the point who made it who said so?

 

I Am Thankful For By: JB I am thankful for the vast canvas of world I live in. Ready to be painted by this generation and the ones to come. But there are things on this canvas I can not ignore. There is hatred on this canvas. Leaving small holes were ever the brush of hatred is stroked. I am thankful for the vast canvas of a world I live in, and those who choose a different brush. One of hope and kindness. Despite the color of the hand that paints it.

 

Ode to Thanksgiving By: GG Thanks? Giving? My birthday Thanks for giving…

for giving me a birthday present? Forgiving me on Thanksgiving?

Turkey! Cranberry! O Thanksgiving!

 

Thanksgiving Collage by: DR

 

Thanksgiving by: MB

Every year at Thanksgiving, we are cautioned not to concentrate our gratitude on a single day,

but to be thankful all year round. Make a list of the things you are grateful for. Post something on

Facebook. Thirty days of gratitude. One hundred days of gratitude.

But what about the Grinches and Grouches of the world? How do you think they feel,

surrounded by hearts swollen with thankfulness? Aren’t we being insensitive, showering our

contentment all over people who would rather be grumpy?

Take my friend Cassandra. She finds the cloud in every silver lining. She walks along, looking

down, followed by her pet peeves. Why would anyone want to spoil that mood by remarking on a

beautiful day? Doesn’t she have the right to be free from sunny Pollyannas spreading their smug

cheerfulness all over her gloom?

Or think about the Doomsday predictors. Come to think of it, Cassandra is kind of their leader.

They have warm homes, plenty to eat, and – whoa! – love those desert boots! But the world is coming

to an end, because, well, the world is actually coming to an end, what with war and global warming and

So it’s time to get serious. Should we be thankful or worried? Focus on the joy of today or the

pain of the future?

Joy, which can actually be achieved through focusing on what you are grateful for, is important.

Even if somebody wants to go through life in a sour mood, like Cassandra, no one wants to spend a lot

of time with her. Even I, who have known her all my life, finally decided to hide her Facebook posts. That

much gloom and doom, that unyielding cynicism, wastes my time. Every day I don’t give thanks for my

family, my friends, a good book, or my funny little dog is a missed opportunity. Constantly filling the

needy shell of someone who doesn’t know what to be joyful about, who is incapable of sharing my joy,

drains me. Lack of gratitude becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy.

 

But it’s equally unwise to focus only on one’s own good fortune. Marie Antoinette famously

said, “Let them eat cake,” because she was completely ignorant of the kind of poverty that would make

people riot for bread. We who have clean water, abundant food, sturdy shelter, and warm clothing, not

to mention swimming pools, automobiles, and smartphones, should be doing something to expand

access to all of those things. We who have freedom of speech and democratically elected leaders should

be working furiously to preserve and expand those rights. And we who have the education to

understand global warming should be working to reduce our own carbon footprints as we sound the

alarm for the world.

Yes, I am thankful, for my family and friends, good books, my funny little dog, and a thousand

other things. And I’m thankful for everyone who does what they can, however little it may be, to

improve the things that will, if we are successful, make us all grateful.