Passion for the Air

I am from the north, and though I can't speak for everyone up north, one of my passions is flying. Yes, flying. No, I don't sporadically sprout wings whenever I want and take a little spin around the clouds. I am a private pilot, authorized to fly single engine small aircraft, with or without passengers, to anywhere in the United States. My love of flying is also what made me pursue Aerospace Engineering here at Tech.

Most of you, if not all, have flown on a commercial jet. Some of you may have even been lucky enough for a window seat. Have any of you ever looked out that window and looked down on your planet? On your home? If you have, you were flying at 35,000 feet and the view was most likely a blanket of clouds. Can you imagine looking down on the world from say 200o feet? Let me tell you, there is a world of difference.

The difference is that small details are visible. You use railroads and major highways to navigate your way in a small craft. You can see boats moving down a river, or bicyclists crossing the road (but if you do, you are far too low and need to gain some altitude, fast). I remember once while taking off, I saw one boy mowing his lawn on a sunny day in a white tee. As I circled the area performing my maneuvers, his formulaic mowing was actually a distraction.

And there is another thrill altogether when you realize you are in control. When you are fully encompassed in flying your craft. When you are making corrections for wind, turbulence, magnetic fields, and gyroscopic precession. Flying takes every ounce of your attention. Yet that's only when you are doing the difficult bit, such as landing or correcting. Otherwise, you can set your trim, and fly straight and level for a while, just looking outside. That view, is enough to make one passionate.

-Akshaya

Something Tough

Toughness is what shows in a person throughout a difficult situation. The way that individual responds to pain, either physical or emotional, portrays his/her toughness to anyone viewing the situation. Something that I have encountered throughout my life that has required a kind of toughness is football. Not just because of the pain during weight training workouts or contact drills, but mental strain that the sport puts on every player that buttons-up their chin strap and steps onto the field.
Being a quarterback, I have always been expected to be the leader. The hardest aspect of football to me has been to master the mental aspect of the game. The mental toughness it takes to shake off an interception and join the huddle confident on the next drive is unlike anything I can describe. The toughness it takes to get up after being sacked from behind, the most painful hit in football, and walk into the huddle and encourage the lineman is one of the toughest tasks I have encountered in my 18 years of life. The mental power that football requires often surpasses the physical toughness of the sport. Pushing yourself while doing sprints even when your body wants to quit, making a big hit even though it is going to hurt, knowingly sacrificing your body for the benefit of the team; all are required by the sport of football.
Although I do not believe that football is as tough as the life Anney had to lead, or the events Bone went through at all; I do believe that it is a sport that can only be played by tough individuals. None that aren’t would ever be able to make it through a single game.
-Jordan Conant

With the NCAA basketball tournament coming in the next few days I though t a relevant topic to discuss was passion. Although I would never consider myself to be a good basketball player, I love March Madness. The nest few weekends I will be glued to my t.v. watching nothing but basketball. Not only do we get to see Georgia Tech in the tournament, but it gives us a chance to see other teams that maybe we haven't been able to see yet. It is really one of my favorite times of the year.
This is where I'll lead into the topic of passion. I don't know if you watched the SEC basketball tournament this past weekend but if you did you more than likely saw a sea of blue in the stands. This would be the Kentucky Wildcat fans. This tournament was a perfect example of the passion some people have for basketball. It wasn't just college kids from the university or older alumni, but it was also whole families of Kentucky Wildcat fans that probably didn't even attend the college. It doesn't matter though that they didn't go there, they are from Kentucky and the Wildcats are their team.

It's not only in basketball thought that you see this passion. Go to any southern school (especially the SEC)on a Fall Saturday and you're going to see some passion. On game days, Auburn becomes the largest city in the state of Alabama due to the fact that people want to see the Tigers play. Take a look at "The Grove" on the campus of the University of Mississippi on Saturdays. It has often been described as the best tailgating school in the country.

My point isn't just to say that only people in the south have a passion for these things, but to only explain what some of their passions are. If you are from the South what are some passions that you see, and if you are not from the south what are some passions back where you're from?

Are we forgetting Bone?

Are we forgetting our resident bastard, who so kindly is narrating her life for us? Are we forgetting the abuse she is going through? Or are we forgetting how, despite her hardships, Bone refuses to bring any sorrow to her mother's eyes? She plainly says so herself. "More terrified of hurting her than of anything that would happen to me." (pg 118)

I admit that I find your definition of tough very appealing. In fact, that used to be mine. But now I feel that Bones should be considered the toughest. She chooses to take on any hardship herself to avoid letting the one she loves feel pain. She is, in essence, sacrificing her peace, her mind, and ultimately her body so that her mom may have the pretext of being happy. I think that is what makes one tough.

Anney is indeed doing the same. But the sacrifices she makes are more for the material happiness of her daughters. Food, clothing, these kinds of amenities are undoubtedly important. However, Bone is sacrificing for her mom's peace of mind. So she can live happily without worrying about her daughter being molested. Now I know I use the the term "live happily" loosely (I doubt they are happy being poor and unable able to eat) yet I still feel that Bone is the stronger of the two.

-Akshaya

Toughness

I think there can be many definitions of toughness. I certainly agree with you Nicholas that Anney is the toughest character in the book. I can't imagine living a life that she is living. Being so young with two daughters and having lost another baby, having an abusive husband. You've got to be tough to deal with that.

The first thing that came to my mind when you said tough was a story about Ronnie Lott. Lott played safety for the San Francisco 49ers back in the 80's. During a game he somehow managed to get his finger cut pretty deeply. He came off of the sidelines for one play where he told the trainers to just take it off. They wrapped his newly shortened finger with tape and he was back in the next play. To me that is the first thing I think of when I hear the word toughness.

I think when people hear the word tough they think off a biker gang or a boxer or something along those lines. Although those are good examples I believe that one of the greatest example of toughness would be Dr. Martin Luther King. During the Civil Rights movement King was constantly being threatened to just shut up and give up. He had much opposition, but he never gave up. He had a goal in his mind and he wasn't going to let anybody stop him. Toughness isn't always a physical description as it can also be a mental description.

Tough

I heard this song by Justin McBride a few weeks ago when we began reading Batard Out of Carolina, and it reminded me of Anney Boatwright when I listened to it. The Boatwrights have been through much hardship in their lives, but they continue to work hard and do what they can to survive. They know who they are, yet they put on this tough image so that people are afraid to make fun of them. For example, Bone's uncles are regarded as some of the toughest men in the county, especially Black Earle. They are said to be tough because they drink all the time, get in fights, and do not take any disrespect from anyone. They are said to be tough because everyone is afraid to mess with them or their family and they have "quick tempers". However, I feel that Anney is the toughest character in this book and this song reminded me of that. A few choice lines from the song read:

Tough is ur fingers bleedin when it's a 100 degrees and you're still underpaid
You keep on goin when you know you've had enough...now that's tough

This portion reminds me of the Boatwright women always working hard for their men and children and never complaining, but the next stanza seems to describe anney perfectly:

Tough is a single mom workin three jobs so her kids can eat
Readin bed time stories when your body's beggin you to go sleep
Givin all you got for what you love...now that's tough

This may seem strange, but I believe Anney is the toughest character in the book. I think this because she has always given everything she has to her children since they are all she has in the world. She made a bad decision and had a child at a young age, but she has always worked extremely hard to give her children the best life possible. I feel that giving all of your effort to another person is much tougher than being physically feared. For example, Anney says to Glen, "I was never gunna have my kids know what it was like. Never was gunna have them hungry or cold or scared. Never, you hear me? Never!" She works all day and never complains just so that her children have a better life than she did, and I think that is tough.

So my question is what is your definition of tough? Do you feel that Anney is tough or who do you think is the toughest character in this book?

Nicholas Keith

Reading

I have mixed feelings about reading for pleasure, although I suppose it depends on what I am reading. Throughout my educational career, reading has seemed to be more of a chore than a pleasurable experience. I have found that I rarely enjoy the books I am assigned to read in school, but I am not quite sure why. I'm sure part of it stems from my confusion with literary analysis. Most of my memories from English class in high school are about my teacher discussing some obscure, underlying meaning in a passage written by the author. Where I saw a girl rebeling against her mother, my teachers saw an underlying contempt for society and hatred of self in just a normal teenager. To be honest, I often wondered if the authors actually meant all of these interpretations in their books or if the teachers just made them up and overanalyzed everything. However, I do remember two books in high school that I thoroughly enjoyed reading: To Kill A Mockingbird and Animal Farm. These were by far my favorite novels because they were about historical topics that I was interested in.

On the other hand, I find much more enjoyment in reading when I read for pleasure out of class. Especially during the summertime, I love sitting outside with a good book and a glass of ice cold water. My favorite books are fast-paced action thrillers where the story progresses quickly and there is not too much unnecessary detail. My favorite author is Vince Flynn, as I have read most of his works. However, I have often wondered if my lack of motivation in reading for school stems from the fact that the assignment seems like more of a chore than my own choice. This diminishes intrinsic motivation in reading, and I think this could have some factor in my different feelings of reading for school and reading for myself. Intrinsic motivation is the personal reward that comes from performing a task. This can be diminished if a person is paid to do the task or is forced to do it. I believe that this theory of intrinsic motivation has something to do with my difference of feelings, and this is something I will try to work on in the future.

Nicholas Keith

Reading is FUN!

I've always enjoyed reading. I don't know why exactly, but I've always preferred reading to playing outside when I was a kid (might have something to do with me being at Tech). There was a great joy in leaving your contemporary settings and traveling through time and space, captivated by the fabrications of a stranger.

But there is such a thing as loving books too much. When one decides to take a book and read in a corner during recess, or perhaps maxes out his library card every week with books, you can border on obsessive. Reading is fun and great, but only up to a certain point. Once you let books run your life, you won't really be sure what your life is. You start wondering if your life is nothing more than a fabrication made for the amusement of some higher being. Literally translate that to: your life is a story created by you for someone else to read. Kinda like an autobiography, but instead of you writing the story, you are living it.

Once you start considering your life a story for someone else's pleasure, it's time to step back and go play in the sun. Something has to be said for running around, getting bruises and scars, and bringing back a boatload of dirt onto the newly vacuumed carpet. Books are great and an amazing escape, but they have their place and time.

Akshaya Srivastava

Pleasure from Reading?

There have been few things in my entire life that I have completely hated, but reading has always been one of those things. I always felt that reading was the most annoying and painstaking activity that any teacher could possibly assign. Therefore I rarely read by choice and never became fond of many books. When I came to Georgia Tech a lot of things changed. The work load from every class increased and especially classes in which I had always excelled in (such as math, physics, and chemistry) became extremely difficult. Adding football practices and workouts to this already heavy work load and my schedule was packed. Little sleep, and lots of stress have been all too common since coming to Tech and I have learned how to appreciate rest.
It is in these times of rest where I have recently begun to enjoy reading. Sitting down with a book, looking into the life story of another (whether fictional or real) has become somewhat of a getaway for me. It is almost like I can escape all of the stress and commotion in my life and be surrounded by feelings of the story. Has reading always been a pleasurable activity for you? Do you feel the same stress relief that it provides me?
-Jordan Conant
p.s. sorry this is so late! I thought I was next week!