In order to be able to write, one must be inspired with ideas. One must have a mental outline before being able to put their thoughts down on paper. If there is lack of creativity, there will be lack of storyline. In order to make one’s work successful, it must be different than everything else out there; one must be unique, grab your audience attention and make sure they love the originality of the work. There are instances in which the author might start a great story, but at some point through it, draw a blank and not know where to go from there.  

From time to time, the author might either be forced, or take on the challenge of writing about a foreign topic. Naturally, we can all write a lot better about a topic that we are familiar with. The descriptions we can give and the storyline will be a lot more accurate if we had lived it, and we know the feelings that one experiences while on the scenario. It will eventually become hard for an author to keep making up details for a story, which might end up in writers block. A fast example would be a Floridian like me, who has never seen snow, writing about living in Ontario. I would have to do research and ask other people’s opinions in order to write that paper, taking my personality away from it.

Depending on the writer’s state of mind, writer’s block might occur as well. Even the most popular writers are people just like you and I, who deal with everyday situations, like maybe a breakup in a relationship, or a death in the family. Sometimes it can be more personal, like a physical illness that takes away the desire to write. Other times, when writers become really famous, and their publishers are making lots of money out of them, the publishers will push them to write more. The pressure they lay on them can build up into a complete blank, making it almost impossible for the work to be finished.

Writers block is mostly common among people who write for a living. Sometimes it last for a little while, sometimes it can be a lifetime. Regardless of the cause, writer’s block is a mental state that we have to learn how to overcome, or get over. Sometimes moving on might the best solution.

Florida is the third state with the most immigrants in the United States. Before us there is only California and New York. The majority of these immigrants come from Latin America; most of them are only Spanish-speaking making language a huge barrier for an education. Most public schools now have a program called ESOL (English for Speakers of Other Language.) In attempt to help children and adults, the government pays thousands of dollars in other to give the same level of education to these students. There is nothing wrong with having such expectations, but it is nearly impossible for a non English-spoken student to take a fully English test and achieve similar scores as an English-spoken student.

Not only is money, time, and teachers taken for ESOL classes, but even more money is taken away from regular classes to support the FCAT. The FCAT or Florida Comprehensive Assessment Test is administered in all Florida public schools in order to give the school and its teachers a grade. It is required to pass the FCAT with a score of three out of five points in order to receive a high school diploma. The test is administered in March but throughout the school year, students are forced to take practice test, and exercise in order to “master” the test. In my personal experience, I passed the FCAT my first attempt, in 10^th grade, how I was supposed to. Even after that, I was forced all through my junior and senior year of high school to take more practice test and had to cancel regular activities, like doing exercise in P.E class, because we had to practice for the test. Every single class I had, had to take at least 15 minutes for FCAT preparation. You ask what my reaction was; I skipped school every other day, if not more. Many students stopped showing up at all. School is not supposed to be about fun all the time, but it is also not about enslaving your students into taking the same test over and over again. Some people take art class because they want to learn about art, not more FCAT.

The school board should have an even distribution within the FCAT and other classes so that students enjoy going to school. If a kid hates something, they are going to do everything in their power to stay away from it. Make schools a more balanced place between interest for the students and learning and preparations for the adult life, and many more kids will be interested in showing up to class.

The perfect day for a guy, starts with a late sleep-in. When the clock reaches about 2:00pm, that’s when it starts. A big nice “breakfast” that consists of lots of eggs, bacon and bread and soda might do the job. Next thing in the list is calling up his friends and hitting the gym to try and impress some girls. When that little game is over, they go into the grocery store, buy as much chips, candy, soda and beer as if it was going out of style. While they wait for the real football game to start, they all relax and play some football in their Wii, hoping some day they would become professionals.   Once the actual game starts, they lose all sense of sanity and start screaming at the TV and talking about how much better they could have done the play. By the end of the night, you will have a messy couch, messy floor, messy kitchen and possible a messy roof, and it will all stay that way, until someone calls some kind of maid service, also known as a his girlfriend.

For a girl, the perfect day starts early in the morning. Get up, call your girls and head off to the beach, to get a beautiful and perfect tan, right after you have your healthy Special K cereal. After a couple hours in the sun, and boy-talk, and actually take a shower. Any day is a good day for a makeover.  Get your toes and nail done, and if it’s a good day, you might get your hair done and acquire a new look as well. Now, to match your new look, you obviously need a new outfit to match, so you and the girls head to the mall for a little shopping spree. Of course, you have to have your girls to approve of your outfits and accessories. While at the mall, you stop by the food court and grab some lunch. It has been a long day, but it’s not over yet.  Go home, get all dressed up, hit the club and dance your night away, and of course, no guys involved.

Even though a perfect day for a man and a woman is very different, they both have one thing in common. They want to be with their friends and have fun their own way. How many times had you heard of a guy getting a pedicure with the girls, or a girl lifting weights to show off her muscles? Regardless of what you do, we all need our perfect day once in a while.

My family’s chicken quesadilla recipe is not some crazy exciting story, but it is delicious. A lot of people wonder, why do you eat and know so much about Mexican food, when you are Cuban? Well, my dad’s side of the family did live in a small town called Monterrey, located in Mexico.

As the name infers, quesadillas are made with cheese (yes, cheese is queso) and a tortilla. Normally, one puts the cheese on the tortilla, folded up, but it in a hot pan, wait for the cheese to melt and you are ready to go. In my family, we have to make everything complicated of course, but it is well worth it.

First things first, we need to gather all the correct ingredients to make the perfect quesadilla. Either type of tortilla works here, you can get the corn tortillas, which are a lot healthier, or you can get the flour tortilla, which is a lot tastier. You will need chicken breast, peanut oil and of course cheese. The cheese must be “OLE CHEESE” which is specific for quesadillas.

First, we have to get the chicken breast ready. Cut the chicken breast into thin slices. How thin? About half the size of a typical chicken finger. We are going to be frying the chicken, so you might want to put some peanut oil in a pan and start heating it up. It is crucial that we use peanut oil. I know it is not the healthiest out there, but we are not going to be seasoning our chicken, and the oil is what’s going to give the flavor. Once all your chicken is cut up, and your oil is hot, go ahead and put the chicken in the frying pan, and fry until golden. While we wait for the chicken to be ready, we want to start slicing the cheese into long, but thin slices.

Once the chicken is ready, get it out of the pan into a plate with a paper towel on it, so the excess oil can get absorbed. Grab the pan, and carefully throw the oil out into the sink but do not wash it off with water. Let the oil drip as much as you can, and with a paper towel, wipe off the excess, but make sure a very thin layer of oil still remains on the pan.  Let the pan heat back up, and lay a tortilla down on the pan, with one of your slices of cheese on it. Once the cheese starts to melt put one of your chicken strips on top of the cheese and close the tortilla in half.  Once the tortilla gets crispy, pull it out of the pan and one chicken quesadilla is ready.

                It is true that legalizing prostitution would have a great impact in society. Some of these impacts might be good, just as some might be bad. If prostitution were to be legalized and treated like any other profession, the government could take advantage of it by taxing the income, just like they do to the rest of us. It might not be millions of dollars in difference, but any amount of money would be good to stimulate the economy, especially in times of crisis, like right now. It is true that some people might spend their money in the wrong places, like paying for sex, rather than buying food, but we have to trust that the consumers are adults and will try to make the right choice.

                 Hearing the word ‘prostitute’ for many people that makes straight reference to diseases and STDS.  It is understandable that most people have this type of mentality, and the likelihood that there might be an increase on STDs could actually benefit. If it was the case, that STDs were being spread faster, the government might put more money, and time into researching for the cure of the diseases, and maybe even the cure for HIV. The spread of STDs is not the best way to spread sexual awareness, but it might be what the society needs to get more of the government’s attention and monetary funding.

                In this country, legalized means controlled and secured. If prostitution was legalized there would be a great decrease on crimes that are involved with that profession. The people, who decide to engage in the profession, will know they are more secure in a way. They will know that they are not going to get killed, or harassed by customers if the government is also taking care of them. Jails wouldn’t be crowded with people that really don’t have much reason to be there, and instead they would have people who really deserve to be there for bigger and worst crimes. By controlling prostitution and having a set place on where to do it, like the places they call “Bunny Ranch” our streets would look so much safer and cleaner. No one will have to be sneaking around or making the streets more dangerous.

                There is no way that anyone could ever stop prostitution. The best thing to do when a situation is such is take advantage of it, and try to benefit society from it. Legalizing prostitution might have its ups and downs, but at the end it will be more beneficial than harmful. “If you can’t beat them, might as well join them.”

After fifteen long minutes of going up and down and in and out of doors, I finally found my classroom. There were some familiar faces from middle school and some others that I had never seen before. The teacher was very welcoming and could sense the tension that most of the new kids were bringing into the classroom, so she did her best for us to get to know each other a little better and make the class less awkward. Very nice overall, except she forgot to explain what a block schedule was. Thanks to that slight inconvenience I ended up in my first hour class twice, completely skipped second hour, and went to third at the wrong time.

Finally, the time in which my nerves could take a rest; lunch time. That was when I rejoined with some of my old acquaintances from middle school and we all got to vent a little on how horrible the hell hole that some people call high school is. While I was in line waiting to get some food, I met two very cute senior boys, that so happened to be in my P.E class. They asked how my day was going, took some pity for me and after lunch lead me to the rest of my classes.

For what was left of the day, everything went well. I kept meeting more new kids and recognized some more from middle school. I was able to understand how the block schedule worked, soon enough to not have a repeat of the first day.  The classes weren’t too hard but they were a little different from what I was used to. I had to carry the heavy textbooks around, which ended up in having to get a locker, something I had never used before. Everything new came along every day, but I had to learn how to cope with it and let this new journey take its course.

On my first day of high school, I saw many people whom I might never see again for what’s left of my life. I also met some people who had made a huge impact on me; most of them are still by my side leading my way through the crazy, crowded halls of not just high school, but of life in general. Some of them are my best friends; some of them were my teachers but regardless of what I call them, no matter how old I get, I will always be their “Freshie.”