In Part III of The Dance, Trevor Noah is at a dance where his friend, Tom. Tom made Trevor get on a stage and rap because he had told the crowd that he brought an American rapper. None of the crowd spoke English, so he did his friend a favor. Even though he knew none of the lyrics, he did it for his friend.A true friend will do anything for his friends, no matter how embarrassing. Young Trevor Noah reminds me of me now. I have very crazy and funny friends. On numerous occasions I have been brought to the spot light in order to have my friends back. I had a Track meet one time and one of my friends had a predicament. Let me say all of my friends are good, nice, warm hearted guys. We just make mistakes here and there.I have a friend that has saved me from numerous bad situations ,and I owe him many favors for that. So one of my friends was talking to two girls at the same time. Both of them happened to be at the track meet. My friend, let’s call him Peter. Peter was already chatting with one of them, and the other girl he was talking to was going to turn the corner. I had just ran a 400 and a 200 back-to-back. I was very tired, but I saw Peters life flash in his eyes- I knew I had to do something. So I started talking to the girl so she wouldn’t see Peter, and so Peter could slowly walk away. The original girl happened to say his name and the second girl decided to turn around. Now in this part of the story isn’t one of my best moments, but I don’t regret doing it for my best friend. I threw up. It distracted the second girl in order to save my friend from ruining his reputation as a nice girl. I embarrassed myself in order to pay a favor to myself, like Trevor. My favorite quotes from Trevor Noah’s Born a Crime are: “This is my country. Why should I leave?” (Noah 31) , “He loved the ladies, and the ladies loved him” (Noah 35) ,” I chose to have you because I wanted something to love and something that would love me unconditionally in return” (Noah 63). All of the quotes are from the beginning of the book because he talks the most about his mother and what he learned from her in the beginning. The last quote is my favorite because it just shows who is mother is, and how she functions. She just wanted something to love for the rest of her life.

The proper definition of gratitude is being or having the quality or thankfulness. I completely agree with the definition. Gratitude isn’t something everyone has, sadly. It’s like kindness and appreciation put together to show the expression of gratitude. Gratitude is present in the majority of people and when it’s expressed, its like you get to understand who the person is when they show this feeling. I feel like gratitude is present in me at this point in time. When I was younger, I feel like gratefulness is something I completely lacked. There are pictures of My Family and I together on a very nice, expensive, well put together vacation where everyone is smiling and I am as angry as could be. I would throw giant temper tantrums if I didn’t get something I wanted. When I was around 5 or 6 my family took me on a week trip to Disney. Since I was so young I don’t remember much, but I’m reminded every time I ” misbehave” of this story: I was so mad that I didn’t get a Mickey Mouse hat with my name on it that I vowed to be angry the whole time. In reality it was about 4 hours, but to a kid, it felt like forever. Now that I am older I have a tremendous amount of gratefulness for my parents and everything they’ve done for me. Recently I told my parents when we went to New York how appreciative I am for what they’ve done for me. I explained that I know that I’m not the easiest person to handle, but as I grew older I have tried to show them gratitude and hopefully one day I can give my kids the same experiences as I got when I was a kid. Just without the temper tantrums.

The way Trevor Noah talks about his friend, Teddy, reminds me of one of my friends in childhood. I had a friend very similar to Teddy, and this puts me in the shoes of Trevor Noah so much more. Trevor Noah talks about him and his friend as being mischievous and always together. My friend was named Raphael, Rapha for short. Him and I were always together. We went to school together, walked home together, ate together. We were never apart. Trevor Noah talks about how his mother always made fun of Teddy for his teeth. My father did the same thing to Rapha. Instead of large teeth, my friend had very large ears. This made me connect to the story and be much more interested. Although Trevor and Teddy stole alcohol, we stole much simpler things. During lunch we’d “borrow” a bag of chips while no one was looking, and snack off of those for hours. One thing that personally connects me to him and Teddy is their financial situation. Both of them are very poor. Alike Trevor and Teddy, so were Rapha and I. In Puerto Rico, the economy is very different. You are either very wealthy or very poor. Although I went to a private school, it was because it was the closest and safest school around. I can connect to the struggle of Trevor and Teddy having a tough life, but always having each other and doing things to occupy themselves. On page 153 Trevor Noah says “We’d throw rocks through windows, just to see them shatter.”, when he said this it reminded me of a “prank” that got both Rapha and I in trouble. We were hiding behind a trash can with balloons filled with mustard and other condiments. We proceeded to throw them at passing cars and run off like kids do. He accidentally picked up a rock and dented the oncoming car, which both us had to pay for by doing chores for months on end. I still don’t hear the end of that story from my parents. Trevor Noah having, and including this friend helped me relate to the book on a deeper level. It also brought back some funny memories that I haven’t thought about in a long time.

In Trevor Noah’s Born a Crime, he talks about rather being with his friends than being with kids he didn’t know and fitting in. I can relate this to myself because I experienced the same thing when I first came to Kingwood. I used to live in Puerto Rico, and slowly felt myself blending in with the culture; so when Trevor says ” With the black kids, I wasn’t constantly trying to be. With the black kids, I just was.” he means he’d rather be with his friends or his color than be with people where he has to act like someone else. When I first moved here I had to make the same realization, and talk with my parents. It was me seeing that I fit in more with people who have the same history as me and experiences. It’s hard to connect with someone who doesn’t know who a Chongo is. I found myself hanging out with different people and acting like someone I wasn’t. When Trevor talks about this it made me realize how similar him and I are on a personal level. It lets me understand his perspective of where he’s coming from and ties me to the story more. I can also relate to him and the story from the standpoint of language also. He uses language as a safety net in situations. His mother like mine taught him different languages in order to get far in life. Although I don’t know 6 languages, I can speak enough Spanish to get by. My one question so far is why his mother felt like she needed a child so desperately. He explains the reasoning by saying ” I was a product of her searching for belonging”. She felt unwanted in the world and in a way needed a reason to live, and that was Trevor. In that aspect I can understand, not from personal experience but from his mothers past I can understand why she felt the need to have a child.

My story starts about 16 years ago in a small town named Kingsville. I was born on April 23rd at 11:30 PM, to Jose and Cassandra Rincones. They are a big part of my life and have molded me into the young man I am today. Many people have made me the person I am today, along with the situations i’ve been placed into as I grow older. When I was 7 years old my family and I packed up our lives and moved to Humacao, Puerto Rico. I met people there that will forever have an impact on my life. I had a very educated Spanish teacher who taught me numerous life lessons, and is someone I felt I could confide in anytime I needed it. So at 10 years old you’re just excited about the world and it’s wonders so being someone i was with everyday made me talk to her a lot. She was honest with me about every single question I asked. Whether it had anything to do with Spanish. She taught me how to respect a girl at 10 years old, and how to make Mallorca (a Puerto Rican sweetbread). She and I had a very similar sense of humor that we continue to share to this day, and that is what made us such good friends. The most useful, and realistic advice she ever gave me was that you may make mistakes in life, but no matter what, always speak for what is right . She also always told me ” If you ever think of something funny, you have to say it. Win, lose, or draw…”. She is in her early 70’s now and is someone I still keep in close contact with to this day. I am very grateful for her and she has made me the person I am today.

The way Trevor Noah describes his family reminds me very much of mine. His mother is a very hard headed, religious, strong woman. She reminds me very much of my own mother who is very self driven in the way that she can do anything she wanted with no help from a man. Most people get annoyed by the mother’s smart responses like ” So i should have left you in the car for them to kill you?”, but when you deal with comments like that all your life you find humor in it when it’s upon someone else. Trevor’s mother  also has a large sense of pride that I can understand. My parents take no embarrassment from who they are, or what they look like. They work hard for the things they want and will always find a way just like his mother. She also reminds me of my grandmother who I call Abuelita. She was very independent and she’d watch out for herself and live for the high. She’d suffer the consequences of her actions and carry on doing what she did best, which was living. His family is also very religious, which I can relate to and deepens my understanding of where he is as a child and how he experiences life.  His family and mine are very alike in certain aspects, so when he talks about his family and what they’re like I can see myself in his shoes in a way. My question after reading the first two chapters is why hasn’t Trevor’s mother lost her faith in God after what has happened to her and what she has been through? The best answer I can come up with is that her faith is what got her through those rough moments, and at times she felt its all she had. God gave her the child that she always wanted and the life she lives everyday.

Hey Rattpack fam, today we’re going to be talking about fears. Fears are something everyone has and not everyone is capable of letting go. I was terrified of heights. Like it is one of my least favorite things to see. I become stiff and you can hear the fear in my voice when i’m up high. If i know i’m in a safe place then i’ll be completely fine. Roller coasters are something that involve science and mechanics, so I trust them completely. Water towers or buildings are a different story. As a teenager, danger is something that always gives us a rise and for some reason heights give people a rise. If I was higher than ten feet I would have a mini panic attack and just have to get down. I was faced with a challenge when one of my friends asked me to go rock climbing at Red Rock Canyon National Park with his family. I love the outdoors and camping, but i’m terrified of heights. I didn’t want to miss the chance to go to a beautiful place like this so I went. The whole way there I was nervous to go up the wall and just have a panic attack and ruin the whole trip. I decided not to tel anyone about my fear until it as absolutely needed ( granted everyone new once I looked up and saw how high up we were going up). As we began to ascend the wall i started to get really sweaty palms and shake-y. When I looked down I didn’t realize how high we were and shifted my foot which hit a little rock that hit my friends foot and made me realize that I couldn’t be scared because if I was I could hurt someone. I had to man up and get up the wall so I didn’t hurt anyone. Once I calmed down, I started to have fun and got a rise out of the height I was at. At a certain point, if you look out, you can see everything for miles and my fear of heights just faded away. I am now longer afraid of height because I conquered them by just “maning” up and going for it.

Thanks for joining me!

Good company in a journey makes the way seem shorter. — Izaak Walton