Comradeship and the Horrors of War

“Only the dead have seen the end of war”

~Unknown

    Books are just words, on endless pages that go on forever and ever. But when you read a novel one feels as if they are there with the character because novels bring out the true magic in literature. A good book engages our interests and a great book changes us profoundly. In All Quiet on the Western Front, one can feel the rumble of those big guns and a reader can picture it as if they were one of Paul's comrades because this book captures the true essence of the horror of war and the comradeship that’s made in the war to end all wars.

    The Red Sox are 1st in the AL East with a 19-9 record and are playing better baseball than they have in two years. With J.D. Martinez and Rapheal Devers returning to their former selves and Alex Verdugo and Bobby Dalbec adding two new heavy hitters to the squad, the team looks better than ever. After a trade with the Dodgers we also acquired Enrique Hernandez who while starting off cold has turned into a promising addition to the team. While the losing of David Price and Chris Sale has put a dent in our pitching lineup, we have made up for it by scoring 122 runs this season and only letting up 90. While most sports castors had us finishing below .500 this year our hot start has surely proved them wrong. However this season is very long and things can change in an instant and nothing is written. I hope we can continue this success throughout the season and maybe even make a playoff appearance.

Patience makes everything better 

Patience is bitter, but its fruit is sweet
~Jean-Jacques Rousseau

  Like fine wine, it gets better with time. After a slow start, All Quiet on the Western Front blossoms into a great novel that makes the reader break through a hard outside shell before getting to a soft inside of fine and compelling literature. Reading All Quiet on the Western Front has elevated me as a reader in so many ways. It not only has taught me to be a more vigilant annotator, but it has also made me more trained in finding the small details that add to a book. I found this book to be a gripping story about war and the men who fought it. 

~Alex Chayrigues 

And its effect in my life

We must not only learn to tolerate our differences. We must welcome them as the richness and diversity which can lead to true intelligence
~Albert Einstein 

 At first glance, I am all that is not diverse in this world. I am white, straight male who, having lived in both Newton and then especially in Concord, has had little contact with people of another race while also going to a private all-boys school. I essentially live in a shell of a world in which the differences between me and the  people I interact with on a daily basis is little to none. While my life seems to have no diversity, I try to keep an open mind so as not to be overcome by the ignorance that plagues many with a lack of diversity. 

By Alex Chayrigues

Memories of Block Island

Shaping my life in the little ways

We didn’t realize we were making memories, we just knew we were having fun.

~Unknown

Alex Chayrigues

Haiku Portfolio

“Older men declare war. But it is the youth that must fight and die”

~Herbert Hoover

The army’s marching in a line

The glistening of the bayonets shiny and fine

My squad sitting under an oak tree, peelling a clementine rind

I think about humankind

How we can kill in a place so divine

I can see the smoke rising from the sky

Thinking about how I will probably die

After so many bullets fly

How many men never got to chance to say goodbye 

And when everything settles and the blood dries

We will still be sitting there thinking “why”

I think “why am I fighting people I don’t hate”

But generals far away have already chosen my fate

And when I try to run it will be too late

But we are just pawns no more than bait

But it will never end because it’s a human trait

That we feel the need to desecrate 

People who we want to dictate 

As I shoot to kill the gun projects a popping sound

That’s when I see a man hit the ground

I saw the pain it his face it was resound

But I figured out something so profound 

That he was human too, and it's so renowned

But this is something I only found, 

Only after I shot a round that lay him to the ground

 I thought about how his family would have cried 

And that’s when I lost my pride

Not a minute later a bullet hit me in my side

And I was thinking about that man when I died

    “The best thing about memories is making them.”

     -Unknown 

    I have reached my final year at this great school where I have spent the last four to five years. I have cherished my time here and I will never forget the experiences I had. But in this final year we are already at March break, when it seems like it was yesterday that I was playing volleyball and the leaves were falling from the trees. I can’t believe that it’s almost the end of the line already; I still remember taking my tour here on a rainy day so many years ago. My time here has brought me so much joy and I wouldn’t trade it for anything. So, this is a bit of a solemn moment because this chapter of my life is coming to a close.

Words can never die

In the end, we will not remember the words of our enemies but the silence of our friends- Martin Luther King Jr.

   While one’s time on this earth is limited, their impact could be forever. This is no greater amplified by when MLK spoke to the nation at the capital in 1963. To this day people still use his speech of a reminder of how important it is to use words to better the world. Even 100 years from now people will know who MLK was because sometimes even when someone is gone their words will never be forgotten 

   In 1963 Martin Luther King Jr marched along the capital with thousands of others to protest racial injustice in this country. On that day he gave his famous ‘I have a dream’ speech, which proclaims that unity and treating every human being with dignity will always triumph over hate.

    I have heard this speech many times, and time after time I get goosebumps because this speech is so powerful and with a message so strong it reminds me of the true power words can have. While this speech inspired me and many others, it also comes with a bit of bitterness because the same thing MLK wanted 50 years ago is still being fought over in this present day. Only a few times in my life have I been really touched by someone’s words, this being one of them. The world will forever be inspired by MLK’s words and while he unfortunately was killed a couple of years later, his message will always be in the minds of many.

   In the end, the great figures of history have come and gone and while they may not be here physically there words will always  live on in our memory.