Analyzing Turning 10

In this poem Billy Collins is talking about how oblivious to the negatives in life you are at young ages as well as how much more magical it is because you have more imagination and don't know as many facts about the world. He captures his growing up by going through ages and what he believed or acted like at each age in his life. I think what makes this poem effective is the last paragraph when it talks about how he used to believe if he was cut he would shine light, but now he scrapes his knees and bleeds. That shows the sad change from the happy imagination of a younh kid to realizing the sad realities of the world. This poem fits into my life experience a bit because I remember each time I learned or experienced something troubling in life for the first time and felt disappointment and sadness to know that things aren't like fantasy movies or that Santa Claus ect. aren't real.

Definition essay questions

Are there any fresh ideas enlisted in this definition? How would you have defined this idea? Are there ideas similar to it that you could choose to define?
I think the definition of the Yankee overall was a fresh idea to me because I had never heard that before. If I defined it I would have thought just a big American patriot type person, or the baseball team. I can't think of any similar ideas I could choose to define because im not very knowledgable in that subject.

There are allusions here: (1) to the musical Damn Yankees!, (2) to the Bible (the parable of the Good Samaritan), and (3) to a poem by Robert Frost. Do these allusions add anything to the essay or to your understanding of things? What if you didn't "get" the allusions?
I understood third allusion because it has a direct explantion of the connection and what he was adding it in for. But the first one didn;t really have a purpose other than maybe to be comical or just, explain that maybe people would think of that musical as the most famous yankee thing. I dont understand the bible allusion at all probably because I'm not religious at all and havnt heard bible related things since I really young.

What techniques of development does the essay use in the process of definition? Do you think the writer dwelt too long on what a Yankee is not before moving on to what a Yankee is? I think the writer started out more loosely talking and being vague then moved towards a specific story and closer definition of a Yankee. I dont think he stuck too long because saying what somebody is not can sometimes define as well or better what someone is.

Can you point to (write down) one sentence that functions as thesis statement in this essay?
To most Americans, though, the word Yankee means either the pin-striped New York baseball team or the Northern forces in the American Civil War, the soldiers from north of the Mason-Dixon Line. In time, though, the idea that the word Yankee suggests has shrunk geographically until it is on the verge of extinction.



spring break:
I went to Puerto Rico for a week with my parents and my girlfriend. We stayed out in Dorado which is 20 minutes from san juan. Everything there is legal at 18 haha so it was really fun and eventful. Saw lots of beaches and nice restaurants