All the pretty girls

are pretty wasted

All dressed up to

get fully naked

Young teens

selling their souls

to reach a higher high

THC, PCP, and LSD

just to speak their mind.

Among an afternoon rush

of talking stomachs

Alabama's indecisive weather

and my computer screen

I wait for the bell to pierce my ears

These people talk with dry mouths

and empty stomachs

using their mouths more than

they use their ears.

The sun soaks into my skin

as if it had a devious plan in mind

to burn my flesh right off it's bone

my mussels ached, throbbed, then settled

at the top

looking over

Birmingham

Steel city

industrial

rich bastards with

their wealth

around the sun

the sun itself

follows them

shameless

of

their mindless effort to destroy

our environment

and build over priced houses

for the disadvantaged to live

in

they lack conscience

empathy

was absent

I sat above Birmingham

praying to whatever

above the blue skies that

I didn't

have to go

back.

Helicopter Parents have not allowed their children to grow up knowing failure and this has created a generation of kids who are not resilient. As a result of helicopter parenting, students (upcoming freshmen in college) were not as stress tolerant as they used to be. Due to helicopter parents coddling their children it has reduced the amount of work effort their children put into regulating and challenging themselves. Helicopter parents hover over their child’s academic work in order for them to succeed. This leaves the child unable to bounce back from failure and go on to succeed independently in the future.

Students entering into the adult world with parents that hover over them are less likely to be able to cope with stress. A few parents took their need to be over involved farther into their child’s school life. This escalated into wanting frequent updates from their child’s academic teachers.

“High school teachers received irate text messages from parents protesting an exam grade before class was even over. ( Gibbs pg.3)"

The students need to be able to experience stress first hand in order to learn how to cope with its affects. A coping mechanism would give the students a better chance to better themselves academically. This would also help the students not give up quick, and so easily when stressed out in general. Many colleges were concerned that the upcoming freshmen would not do well when in stressful situations...

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I have not completed my paper. I am not quite done making my other two points. I wanted to share a small piece with you here on Prose. I put the in text citation but when I post the rest I'll add the work cited. Hope you enjoy, and give me any feedback you have on what you read.

- Anything having to do with man made lakes. At Oak Mountain State Park it is considered a "beach".

- Boats.

- Whenever I see swim/scuba gear

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I was in Middle School at the time of this tragic event. My friend Nadia and I had always gone to Oak Mountain State Park for her families frequent..Persian Parties. I was a guest but they treated me like family. It was fun and we would meet new people there. Hanging out on the beach. We would walk up and down the nature trails. This particular day we rode our bikes around the park. The idea that we should rent paddle boats struck us and we intended to do just that. Standing in line we met another family. Two young sisters and their older brother were ahead of us. A conversation arose and we all started to speak to another about why we were all at the park and where we went to school. The conversation lasted about an hour or two before we gave up waiting. We were all so distracted with concersation. They were so sweet and everything went wonderfully.

We had all planned to hangout sometime soon within that day. The family went on to get their paddle boats and Nadia and I settled down at a park bench to eat. Later on we hear fire trucks and police sirens racing up the mountain and enter into the beach. We rode our bikes to the edge of the shore line and looked out. One of the sisters was standing in her boat looking down into the water. Another was trying to swim back to the boat. The brother was no where in sight. They returned to shore minutes after and began the man hunt. The park was closed for the rest of the evening. We went home, and the police department found his body the next day. This event changed my life forever. I remember the smile across his face and there's. We all left with empty faces. Triggers are sometimes ones that stay with us for the rest of our lives. This day was in 2012 and his name was Lamemphis. I wont forget him or his family.

I watched the sunset paint the sky with a yellowish glow, a pink tent, and a few orange streaks. It constantly changed as five thirty rolled over to six o'clock. I watched the clouds roam by. Slowly toying with my mind as if I were forming animals in thin air. I walked barefoot there and bare foot back. Only to find a little tiny bug had joined me along my journey. It was quite the trip. One I didn't travel alone.