Compare and Contrast: Courtney vs. Tiakay

Courtney Paige Groen is one of my good friends that I’ve had since kindergarten. We have a lot in common but we live two very different lives. In this essay you will read about how two friends can have a lot of differences, but still be very good friends.

It was the first day of kindergarten, a bright sunny morning. The gym was packed full of students from pre-school all the way through the twelfth grade. One by one the grades would be called off. The students would say good-bye to their sad parents, knowing that their baby is growing up. Pre-school was called first, then kindergarten. It was time to go. It was our first time being away from our parents for seven hours at a strange place they call school. It was a scary feeling. We followed Mrs. Jasper all the way from the high school gym to the room we would spend ten months in almost everyday, which was in the elementary.

 We got all settled in and Mrs. Jasper was telling us the rules we needed to follow from now on. I knew a few kids from pre-school, but not all of them because we got split into two groups for every other day classes. I saw Courtney and I knew we were going to be good friends someday. Throughout the years our whole class were friends. There weren’t many cliques because we weren’t a big enough class to have any. Courtney and I were friends but we have gotten to be closer as the years have gone by.

I’m going to compare and contrast Courtney and I, so I’ll start with our similarities. We are both freshman girls that attend Central Minnesota Christian School. We play volleyball, basketball, and Junior Olympics volleyball together. Courtney and I love shopping at American Eagle, we pretty much just love to shop. We both have our ears pierced and have one sibling. Both of our siblings are taller than us. If you ever see Courtney and I together we are usually watching or talking about America’s Next Top Model, a TV show we watched together every Monday and Wednesday afternoons for two summers. There are a lot more similarities but I’m going to start on our differences.

Courtney is short, but I am tall, well, compared to her I am. I have long dark brown hair and she has short light brown hair. Courtney has blue eyes and I have green eyes. I have one sister that is older than me and she has one brother that is younger than her.

One of our similarities is that we both play volleyball, but we play different positions. I am a left front and Courtney is a right defensive specialist, which means she doesn’t play front row. Along with a lot of girls we have boyfriends, but she is dating Weston Hanson and I’m dating Justin Bieber. We live in different places too. Courtney lives in the country near Renville and I live in the town of Willmar but I also live in the country with my dad.

Courtney’s family attends Emden church and my family goes to Evangical Free church. Courtney had braces for two in a half years and I have never had braces before. We have a lot more differences but too many to list, and saying all the differences make me feel like we are too different to be friends.

In the summer, Courtney plays Pepsi league, which is a summer basketball league for girls. Every Wednesday night there are games going on. She spends her summers hanging out with friends, babysitting, playing basketball, staying at her cabin on Green Lake, going to open gyms for volleyball, and much more. In the fall, she goes to school and then after school goes to volleyball practice or games. She always does her homework and has only failed one test in her entire life. In the winter, she goes to school, basketball practice and games, and snowmobiles. In the spring she is all smiles, but that’s her all the time. All the girls know what spring means, Junior Olympics volleyball. JO is a volleyball league for girls in school, but not supported by the school.  There are tournaments every Saturday for about 6 weeks. It’s a lot of fun, but not the waking up early to travel.

I like spending my summers hanging out with friends and family, babysitting, being lazy, and pretty much not getting anything productive done. I go to open gyms for volleyball and Minnesota Twins baseball games. Fall means the beginning of a new year and spending all my time focused on volleyball and school. In the winter, I sleep, eat, and snowboard. I also go to the girls and boy’s basketball games and watch the Minnesota Wild hockey league and Minnesota Gophers basketball and hockey. I also play JO in the spring too. Courtney and I are on the same team this year and we have been doing really well so far.

My point of this essay was to show that just because people are different, doesn’t mean they can’t be good friends. You shouldn’t judge people by the way they look. You need to know them before you predict anything.

Persuasive Essay: Do Phiten's really work?

            Phiten’s are the most original, in a good way, things I have ever seen.  Phiten is a brand that makes titanium filled bracelets, necklaces, rings, headbands, arm sleeves, and ect. They are known for relieving pain, stopping pain, loosen you up, and make you less tired. The question is: do they really work?

           

Phitens come in all different sizes, colors, and styles. Mostly athletes wear them because they believe they actually work and help them play better. Then there is the athletes that wear them because they think they are good luck. They win one game when wearing them and that must mean they are lucky. But there are a lot of people who aren’t convinced by them. Dr. Orrin Sherman, who is chief of sports medicine at the New York University Hospital for Joint Diseases said, “ There is no science and physiology. There is just no way the chemical structure of the body can be influenced by magnet that small. It’s all superstitious with no scientific basis.”  He also noted that people who have contact with magnets with more power, show that there are no effects on them. He also stated, “for the Phiten to work, you have to believe in the placebo effect.” I am still trying to figure out myself, if it really works. There are a few reasons for doubting them, but plenty pointing that they do work.

We do have to consider side effects though. There are magnets next to your head when you are wearing a Phiten necklace, and there have been studies going on about magnetic fields causing cancer. Does this mean that anyone who wears a Phiten is more likely to get cancer? In California, progesterone is a chemical that causes cancer. On the official Phiten website, progesterone is listed in the legal disclaimer section. It is in some of their products, but it is listed in the information if it does. The titanium in the Phitens is carbonized and put into elastomer rubber. There aren’t enough facts that state that the Phiten brand does cause cancer though. There hasn’t been an actual study on a human being that after wearing a Phiten for a long period of time, they get cancer. I think that scientists are just trying to prove that there is something wrong with them to stop the popularity of them.

People shouldn’t judge the brand until after they have tried a product themselves. I think that Phitens do work. But maybe I think they do because I believe that they work. When I wear one, my muscles feel relaxed and I don’t feel any pain. I actually stop getting headaches when I’m wearing one. If you haven’t tried a Phiten yourself, you definitely should. I think scientists and people will argue about this for a while about if they actually work or not, but you should really try one of the products yourself.