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  • November 2023

These seven pictures illustrate a day at the beach. The first two pictures show me walking to the beach while watching the sunrise. The next few pictures convey what I am seeing while walking I am on the beach. The last three pictures illustrate sight-seeing, swimming, and watching the sunset.

This past summer, a few friends and I traveled an hour and forty-seven minutes to Virginia Beach. We went early in the morning and then decided to come back within the same day, just at a later time so we could complete all of the activities we planned on doing. We began our road trip by listening to music and catching each other up with what was going on recently in our lives. Once we arrived in Virginia Beach, we went to a restaurant called “Pocahontas Pancake House”. The restaurant had a line out of the building and people were eager to dine there. Due to there being a line out of the restaurant we had to wait for fifteen minutes; while waiting we decided to look around at the gift shop a street over from the restaurant. After a few minutes of wandering the store, we received a notification that signified our table was ready. We placed our order quickly and received our food quickly as well. I received a platter of pancakes, bacon, and eggs and it truly was delicious and worth the fifteen-minute wait to be seated. Once we left the restaurant, we went to our next adventure which was in an indoor arcade park called “Apex Entertainment”. As a group, we played games like mini golf and a virtual reality video game. The arcade was spacious and had lots of different activities everyone could enjoy. Soon our time came to an end, and we found ourselves shopping at the “Lynnhaven Mall”. The mall itself was tremendously big and had lots of different retail stores and fast-food stores; we ended up buying souvenirs, bracelets, and clothes. Unfortunately, we didn’t spend much time at the mall because we were running out of time to complete our other activities. By now, we were ready to eat dinner, so we attended a restaurant called “Chix on The Beach”. I ended up ordering a sandwich with french fries that turned out fantastic. Collectively, we enjoyed eating our dinner while watching the waves crash on the beach. We then wrapped up our time at the restaurant and began exploring the small shops around the area. We spent our time looking at and buying sweatshirts and more souvenirs. After shopping we finally decided that it would be a beneficial time to visit the beach since the sun was beginning to set. Finally, we found the perfect spot to enjoy the sunset, the water, and each other’s company. We ended up spending two hours hanging out at the beach before we decided to say goodbye to Virginia Beach. We began our trip back to Chesterfield by the way we started our trip, by playing music and having conversations on several different topics. This was an overall amazing experience and is considered one of my highlights for this previous summer!

The two pieces of writing I will be exploring are “Forever – is Composed of Nows” by Emily Dickinson and “Foolosophy” by Susan Jarvis Bryant. Dickinson’s writing represents literature created traditionally and Bryant’s literature represents writing created digitally. In the poem, Dickinson explores various elements like the importance of being present in the present and the present being everlasting. She states “‘Tis not a different time” meaning that the past, present, and future are occurring all at once; this reinforces the whole meaning behind her poem, to enjoy the present. On the other hand, Bryant explores concepts that involve the bliss of ignorance. She explains within the poem that being unaware of our reality is peaceful and too much knowledge is dreadful. Bryant states “All blissful days are built on ignorance, so I forego the chance to grow aware” This quote emphasizes Bryant’s statement that not acknowledging the reality of the events occurring around you or occurring in general, allows you to have a sort of peace of mind. She then continues to explain that knowing less is more and knowing more is a disservice to us. Dickinson and Bryant both convey their message through the same type of literature, poetry. In the poem “Forever – is composed of Nows”, themes like endlessness and the present are discussed and in “Foolosophy”, themes like not being aware can bring peace. These themes are comparable because they discuss enjoying the present moment; Bryant’s piece focuses on our current knowledge and how we react or engage with the things that surround us, while Dickson’s piece focuses on the importance of the present. The structure of these two poems is relatively short lengthwise and the poems are both structured as free verse poetry. Although these two poems have the same type of structure and similar themes, there are a few differences between these two poets and their writings. Emily Dickinson created  “Forever – is Composed of Nows” in 1830, while Susan Jarvis Bryant created “Foolosophy” was created around 2020. One of the first things I noticed while reading their writings and then comparing their work was their word choice. In Dickinson’s poem, she uses old English compared to Bryant’s piece which contains modern English. Dickinson also used lots of punctuation within her poem; for example, Dickinson used dashes within almost every line while Bryant used this form of punctuation within only one line of the whole poem. Another aspect I realized while reading their poems is that Dickinson capitalized most of the words within her poem, while Bryant capitalized her words at appropriate moments. I believe Dickinson chose certain words to capitalize in order to convey to the reader the importance they have in the entirety of the poem. Ultimately, both of these poems were beautifully written and had aligning concepts but different deliveries to their audiences.

The Little Nickel, a hidden gem located in Richmond, Virginia was an unforgettable experience. This diner is rated 4.6 stars but truly is a 5-star restaurant. I was suggested to try this diner and I am glad I decided to give the restaurant a shot. When entering the restaurant, some of the features I believed were significant were the numerous amounts of plants, neon lights, birds, and its peaceful ambiance. The atmosphere was calm, and you could see people enjoying their food and their time at the Little Nickel. I thought these decorations were significant because it was aligned with the cuisine they were serving to customers. This restaurant specializes in creating Hawaiian, Mediterranean, and Philippine cuisine and is good at making these dishes. Overall, the staff was extremely respectful and enthusiastic. Our waitress was kind and patient with us as we examined the menu and had questions about the different types of meals. At the diner, I ordered a Hawaiian Pork Bowl, which consisted of beans, pork, pineapples, rice, salsa verde and so much more! My meal was flavorful and fresh which is why I enjoyed it so much. Ultimately, the ingredients in the bowl mixed very well together and tasted amazing. The presentation of the food, how fast it took them to create our meals, the quality and quantity of the food, and the ambiance of the diner complimented each other well. A few of the negative aspects I observed while dining at this restaurant was that the diner was very small and loud. The restaurant was quite busy which made having conversations with others difficult. Although, the diner being busy isn’t necessarily the restaurant’s, fault since we did arrive at the diner during a busier time of the day. Along with it being noisy, the restaurant had really small tables. I went to this diner with two other people, yet we received a table that didn’t provide enough room for our drinks and each of our meals. I would’ve preferred a table that was wider so we would have the opportunity to enjoy my meal and time at The Little Nickel. Another downside to the restaurant was that there were limited spaces to park near the restaurant. Besides the few negative attributes I experienced, this was an excellent diner that offered great fresh food and had staff that was willing to help and make my experience at the restaurant enjoyable.

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