Ms. Kelly Goebel

Goebel 1

PBJ

Jane just got back from school and wants to make a quick snack. She darts through the front door, releases her backpack on the ground and rushes to the kitchen. She opens the fridge, and sees peanut butter and jelly in the door of the fridge. Jane takes one big step over to the counter so see if she has bread. Jane sees the bread and thinks, “Yes! Now I can make an easy snack.” Jane swiftly unties the bread bag and removes two pieces of white bread. When she has the two pieces out of the bag she re-ties the loaf of bread. As Jane picks up the two slices of bread, she shuffles over to the trash can and begins to peel the crust off the two slices of bread. The crust that she is peeling off frantically is falling in the trash can. Jane shuffles back to the counter and sets the bread down.

Jane returns to the fridge, where she retrieves the grape jelly and creamy peanut butter. She goes back to the counter and sets the peanut butter and jelly down. Then Jane skedaddled over to the drawer and pulls out a big gold knife. She opens the jar of grape jelly and plunges the gold knife into the jar. She scoops out a hunk of grape jelly and begins to spread it softly on one slice of bread. Then Jane opens the jar of peanut butter and dips the gold knife, which already contains jelly, into the jar and scoops out a large chunk of peanut butter. Again, she begins to softly spread the peanut butter on the other slice of bread.

Impatient to eat, Jane throws the knife into the sink from where she is standing. She re-caps the peanut butter and jelly, then puts them both back into the fridge of the door. She slams the fridge door closed, and runs back to her Pb&j. She places one slice of bread in each of her hands and eagerly smacks them together. Jane has just come home from school, and is prepared to eat her quick snack. Jane chomps into her sandwich, and gallops over to the couch where she begins to watch TV.

PBJ Polished Draft

Jane just got back from school and wants to make a quick snack. She darts through the front door, releases her backpack on the ground and rushes to the kitchen. She opens the fridge, and sees peanut butter and jelly in the door of the fridge. Jane takes one big step over to the counter so see if she has bread. Jane sees the bread and thinks, Yes! Now I can make an easy snack. Jane swiftly unties the bread bag and removes two pieces of white bread. When she has the two pieces out of the bag she re-ties the loaf of bread. She feels the bread to make sure it’s not hard. As Jane picks up the two slices of bread, she shuffles over to the trash can and begins to peel the crust off the two slices of bread. The crust that she peels off frantically fell into the trash can. Jane shuffles back to the counter and sets the bread down.

Jane returns to the fridge, where she retrieves the grape jelly and creamy peanut butter. She goes back to the counter and sets the peanut butter and jelly down. Then Jane skedaddled over to the drawer and pulls out a big gold knife. She opens the jar of grape jelly and plunges the gold knife into the jar. She scoops out a hunk of grape jelly and begins to spread it softly on one slice of bread. Then Jane opens the jar of peanut butter and dips the gold knife, which already contains jelly, into the jar and scoops out a large chunk of peanut butter. Again, she begins to softly spread the peanut butter on the other slice of bread.

Impatient to eat, Jane throws the knife into the sink from where she is standing. She re-caps the peanut butter and jelly, then puts them both back into the fridge of the door. She slams the fridge door closed, and runs back to her Pb&j. She places one slice of bread in each of her hands and eagerly smacks them together. Jane has just come home from school, and is prepared to eat her quick snack. Jane chomps into her sandwich, and gallops over to the couch where she begins to watch TV.

Nonfiction Essay

August of 2011, it was time for him to leave. My brother was finally going away to college. Nick would be the first of my mom’s four kids to leave for college. He got accepted to Missouri State University in Springfield, Missouri to major in marketing. Nick was really excited about leaving for college, but my mom, not so much.

Nick and my mom left early in the day to head down to Springfield. From Affton, where we live, that’s a four hour drive. I was not prepared to be crammed in the car for four hours. I had school the day he was leaving, so I didn’t leave until after school. Danny my other brother and his friend Nugget were who I got to ride down to Springfield with. My mom and Nick arrived about an hour or so before us, and when we all got there, we met up at the dorm to carry Nick’s boxes upstairs. We sat outside for a few minutes because the door had a security system on it that Nick didn’t know how to work. I was amazed when I finally realized that my brother was basically living on his own. He didn’t have anyone there to tell him what to do anymore. All he had was two roommates and himself.

Nick shared a room with Chris Williams, who I know very well. Chris and Nick have been best friends since we came to Affton in 6th grade. There was also another room that Sam lived in. I didn’t know Sam, but he was my brother’s roommate so I did meet him. Sam was very quiet compared to my brother and Chris, so I was scared for Nick and him not to get along. But to my knowledge, they never had any problems. So all of us are in the dorm helping Nick and Chris unpack. Nick had my mom hang all his clothes up and unpack all his things. I sat there and

thought to myself, how is he going to live on his own if he can’t even unpack his own things? Nick is capable of living on his own, he’s just lazy.

We sat in the dorm for awhile and we began to talk about how the dorm looked like a prison cell. It had white brick walls, and huge windows that didn’t open. There were two beds, two closets, and two desks, but the room was not very big. I felt so crowded sitting in there while everyone was in there, so I got up and walked out to the kitchen. I sat at the kitchen table for awhile until everyone was done moving around in the room. Then I went back in to see how everything looked. The room looked really good the way it turned out to be set up.

We sat in the room and conversed for awhile, and then we got ready to leave. Danny was in the hallway, and he pressed the button for the elevator. We stood there for at least five minutes and the elevator still hadn’t come. There was a man walking around, patrolling floor five of the Hammons House, where Nick’s room was. My brother Danny has a really loud voice that carries. Danny was in the hallway talking to Josh Salih, who was also at Missouri State, and he was being loud because that’s just how his voice carries. The man walking around asked Danny to be quiet because it was ‘quiet hour’. Danny just laughed, because we were at a college campus, and he asked us to be quiet because it’s quiet hour. I guess he doesn’t realize that the dorms full of teenagers and young adults will probably never be quiet. By time the man walked away, the elevator was finally here, and we went down to exit the building.

My mom wanted Nick to come out to dinner with us, but he said he wanted to explore the campus, and get to know people. So my mom, Danny, Nugget, and myself all went out to eat at Ruby Tuesday’s. By this time, it was pretty late and there was barley anyone in the restaurant. We just ate our food, and talked about Nick being on his own at college. We ordered our food, and then ate. After we ate we were so full, we were ready for bed.

My mom, Danny, Nugget, and myself all stayed in the Holiday Inn Express, which wasn’t even a mile away from Nick’s school. My mom and I shared a room, while Danny and Nugget shared a room. My brother Danny went to his room and tried to hook up his Xbox and realized that the TV in the room didn’t have a hook up for his Xbox. So Danny came to our room and was telling us how there was no hook up and he said he was going to Wal-Mart. We all went, but me and my mom didn’t go in, we just stayed in the truck. Danny and Nugget went into Wal-Mart and bought a TV just so he could hook his Xbox up and play at the hotel. He came out with the TV, put it in the truck, and we went back to the hotel. Danny and Nugget went to their room to hook the TV and the Xbox up. Ten minutes later, Danny was knocking on our door again. I opened the door, and he came in and said, “The damn Xbox still doesn’t work. It’s the hotel that won’t allow access to the Xbox for me to play it. So I just bought this TV for nothing.” He was sort of mad, but he was laughing at the same time. I was cracking up because I thought it was hilarious that he went out of his way to spend all that money on a TV, which still didn’t let him play Xbox. I was so tired I just laid down as soon as I got in the room. I was starting to fall asleep, and then someone texted me. So I just laid in bed for awhile and texted, then I finally fell asleep.

Saturday morning, I woke up and got in the shower. My mom was already awake when I woke up; she said we were going to go over to the campus in a little while. So I got ready for the day, we waited for Danny and Nugget to come to our room, and then we went over to the campus, and went to Nick’s room. He was just waking up, but he got up and got ready. We all went to Wal-Mart again, but this time Nick was with us. My mom went shopping for Nick’s dorm as far as food went. Chris also went out and bought some stuff for the dorm. I remember being at Wal-Mart what seemed to be forever! Finally, my mom was ready to check out and we left.

After Wal-Mart, we went back to the dorm to take the food in so it wouldn’t go bad sitting in the trunk of the car. We sat inside for a minute, just to cool down from the heat. My mom wanted to go out to eat with Nick before we left. We were leaving that day, and we had a four hour drive home, so we had to leave at a decent time. Nick decided he wanted to go to the restaurant Cheddar’s to eat. Those restaurants were very rare, and we didn’t see them very often. So when we had seen Cheddar’s in Springfield, we thought it was only right to go eat there.

So now, we are on our way to Cheddar’s. Again, my mom rode with Nick, and I rode with Danny and Nugget. We pull up to Cheddar’s and I run in to get a table because it looked very crowded. When I walked in, there were crowds of people everywhere. I didn’t even know where to walk to get through to see if there were available tables. Finally, I did get through, but there were no tables open so we had to wait. We waited for about a half hour. Nick left, while we were waiting to run over to Best Buy and get an apple cord he needed for his MacBook. By time he returned, we were sitting at the table. He came back to the table and we began to order.

At lunch, we just sat and conversed about Nick being on his own, and about his school experience. He seemed really excited, and I couldn’t wait till I could experience it. Nick was happy to be rooming with someone he has known for so long. Nick and Chris planned on joining the Phi Delta Theta fraternity. So after talking and eating our lunch, it was finally the time to say goodbye to Nick.

We were all in the parking lot, giving our last advice to Nick that we had to say to him. I just gave my brother a hug and told him I loved him. I wished him the best of luck with college. My mom on the other hand was an emotional wreck! She was crying rivers of tears; I didn’t know what to say to her. I tried to tell her, she shouldn’t be sad, because he was the first one of any of her kids to go to college. But why my mom was so upset, I understood it. My father died when I was one, Nick and myself were the only things she had left of him. So to see Nick be on his own and so far away was really hard for her. We all said our goodbyes and headed on our way.

In the car, all I could do was comfort my mom and tell her to think about how happy Nick was. I remember staring out the window for a long time, because all I seen was fields for a long time. I remember passing the Ozarks, and Six flags. Finally, I seen the exit off 270 to Tesson Ferry, I couldn’t wait to get out of the car. Nick going away to college, taught me not to be afraid to go out and pursue my dreams. Also, it taught me that family is the most important thing in my life, and blood will always be thicker than water.

Selected Poem 1

Title: Kid who hates school

School is so boring,

It puts me to sleep.

The teachers are roaring

Students don’t fall asleep

The teachers lecture

For minutes and hours

Me hating school, is just a conjecture

But some people in there need to take showers.

People annoy me,

So it’s never really fun.

I just want to flee!

And finally be done.

When the bell rings for dismissal,

It makes me want to whistle.

Selected Poem 2

Title: Sudden jerk

Sitting at a stop light

Minding my own business

All of a sudden the car jerks

I didn’t know what hit us

She gets out of the car to see

The guy behind us was in my rear bumper

She jumps out of the car so fast

She yells are you crazy, you piece of trash.

Selected Poem 3

Title: Sally

Sally was an old lady,

She thought everybody was shady.

Three daughters and a son,

That was her only fun.

Sally was an old lady.

Selected Poem 4

Title: Cardinal Nation

The Cardinals really suck,

Their throwing this game away.

We need to wish them luck.

The Cardinals really suck.

I’m glad I didn’t bet a buck

Cause they need to figure out how to play.

The Cardinals really suck

Their throwing this game away.

Selected Poem 5

Title: HATE

Hate is a strong word,

People use it without care

The people are usually absurd.

Maybe not, if their having an affair

I tend to use it a lot,

But never really mean it.

Only when I’m making a plot,

I'm going to commit.

People will soon see,

To use a less harmful word.

Hate hurts me,

And all the nerds.

Next time you use hate,

You better be thinking straight

Short Story

It was a sunny day in California. Where Derek and his dad Steve had lived all of his life as far as he could remember. On Saturday Derek and his dad had plan a trip to the lake a few hours away from their house to fish. Derek enjoyed doing all the father and son things that they did together, but sometimes he wondered why it was only him and his dad. Derek was old enough to know that he had a mom; he just didn’t know where she was. He decided that today was the day to ask his dad about her. “Dad, what happened to mom”, said Derek curiously.

“She is no longer with us son” said his father.

To an eight year old, he was confused, what did this mean was his mother alive or had she died. Derek never asked his dad about her until now. His dad never brought her up; he never even spoke about her or her family. He did not pursue this subject with his dad, because it was clear his father didn’t want to talk about her.