STUDENT WRITING: Reflective Writing: LEARNING FROM EXPERIENCE by ROGELIO CAZALES

Learning from Experiences

While sitting on my couch, I recalled when I was sitting in a tree outside the house watching my grandparents and my parents preparing dinner. No matter how far away I am from my ranch or my relatives, I´ve always kept in my mind all the stuff I learned there such as helping others or giving a hand to whomever needs it. When I came to the United States, I started to see that nobody gives a damn about others. Everyone is so involved in their own business. One time I saw a pregnant woman in the middle of the road having problems with her broken down car. She was waving her hands trying to attract a good Samaritan, but I think she acknowledged her situation; nobody helps anyone. Some cars just dodged her car, others just honked at her, and some rude guys just flipped her off because her broken car was causing a delay in their hectic life and daily routine. Perhaps many people would call me old-fashioned; I think manners and cordiality are the same here in this big box country as on my small ranch. When I stopped to help her, she was amused and had a question mark on her face. She asked me why I helped her. I just replied with a simple –you needed help.

Also, I noticed that there are no differences when talking about religion. Here in the United States many people rely for interior peace and well-being on a religion. In my home-town I saw lots of people going to church to the Sunday sermon. When the priest started to address the people, they began to nod to everything he said. When the whole sermon finished, I would hear all the people muttering and punishing themselves because they weren’t good enough for God. One day I heard one couple chattering in the distance about what the priest said. They were talking about the commitments they broke the previous week because they didn’t have enough time to go to the last sermon. But here is the real question for me; how can someone feel bad just because they don’t have time to go to a Sunday sermon? I think many people have their heart set on being good practitioners. And being a good practitioner means going to church every Sunday, and of course, giving their time to the church instead of working in the fields the entire Sunday to give to their children the money to buy school supplies or just in order to have more money to buy more food. Living here in the States for one year has let me think about and discern some aspects of this country. Here religious people give to God everything they have; their time, their money, and maybe their life. And the same thing happens on my ranch.

Another important and similar aspect I noticed is the huge importance that some people here in the United States give to superficial things or frills. There is an enormous difference between the priorities that urban and rural people have. For instance, some people here in the United States are supposed to have a tier-one life while in rural areas life is lived day by day. Also, here in the States people give an extraordinary importance to clothes. Clothing has a huge roll in people’s thoughts. You are classified according to the clothes you wear. The same thing happens on my ranch. There were lots of people trying to get designer clothing. I knew they used to work in the fields with me, but they tried to be another person, a rich person. I think they tried to fit into other social spheres. When wearing those fancy clothes, my friends forgot everything they used to be; their morals, their beliefs, their values, and in some cases their parents. I saw those people changing their behavior according to the people around them. I think hypocrisy is increasing due to the fact that material things and family values are being overtaken by materialism. Human beings just made up a way to cover all the important things with a thin layer of egocentrism. But we can´t blame other people for everything. The main problem is that people find material things more appealing than family. And also, parental figures are not doing anything to stop this awful situation.

I learned many things living on that ranch. Many of them I learned with bad and painful experiences. So, once I started seeing how some people complain and weep about everything in life, I recalled the whole shebang I soaked up. We are not supposed to make a fuss over all the mishaps that happen in our life. I acknowledge that there are rich people and ostentatious rich people and a huge difference that marks people’s guidelines and the way they treat other human beings. As a personal opinion, I’ve tried to coexist with those ostentatious people, but I think somewhere deep inside of me, I just can’t deal with it. I have seen many people acting in a despot way. They step all over other people’s thoughts and feelings. This situation is a never ending circle.

I think that people must look at their past experiences and examine their past very carefully. We don’t have to be born on a ranch or in a poor family in order to help other people. Values must never go hand in hand with money or clothes.

STUDENT WRITING: Reflective Essay: FIRST IMPRESSIONS by LAILA ALSAIHATI

“When I first saw you, I thought you were arrogant. Therefore, I never thought of talking to you as a friend,” one of my friend’s friends said to me.

In the court of life, it is normal to get judged by others. You don’t have to be a plaintiff in order to get judged by others, they will judge you even if you are the judge himself. A person has to be like a lawyer to survive in this court. People judge others by their height, their features, and their appearance. If a woman is walking with high heels, it means she is looking for attention, wearing red lipstick means she is in love, and holding a Burberry bag means she’s rich.

There is always a reason for everything that God does. God creates us with different shapes, different morals and different prints! All of this has its meaning under what’s called physiognomy, psychology, and parapsychology. People who study this will know how to explain why this person’s nose is long and how this affects his manners, or why that person’s tone of voice is soft. However, people who don’t, judge people by how they look.

I’ve always walked with confidence; head up, shoulders down with straight steps. Exactly like my father whom I have always admired. My father is an outgoing and independent person who sees himself from his perspective first. He always thinks and holds himself accountable. He tells me, “My smart girl, always think about your mistakes before anybody else does and bear in mind that if you want to be successful, trust God in what he teaches us, examine yourself in how well you do what God teaches you in his holy book, and apply that not only in a religious way but also in how you treat yourself and others.” Some people have thought that I look down my nose at them. Others have thought I have no decency. I’ve been judged a lot and not just because of the way I walk, but also because of how I look. I have a sharp look that makes some people think that I’m cocky and stony-hearted although I smile a lot. Also, when I talk about something serious I act realistically, so people think that I’m a humorless person. From my perspective, I think a person should joke when it’s time to joke and appreciate a person when he talks about something serious and needs for the person he is confiding in to take things seriously. I remember when people have told me after they sit with me that they thought wrong about me, and I reply, “Now, you know.” When people tell me that, I try to see it from their perspective. Therefore, I think if there is something wrong with the way I look and I end up by finding the fact that I did nothing wrong, I don’t look at people disdainfully, I don’t frown upon them, and I absolutely don’t raise an eyebrow to anyone.

I have a friend who has never seen me. One day I was talking to her and I asked, “Maram, what did you think of me the first time we talked?” She said “I thought that you had a strong balanced personality.” The reason why I asked her was because I wanted to know what her first impression of me was since she had never seen me at all. Of course, she wasn’t going to tell me awful things, but I asked because I know how honest and upright a person she was. After that, I was convinced that the problem was the sharpness in my eyes, which I have nothing to do with. I’m not a rebellious, nasty, grubby person. I don’t despise people, but the thing is I love myself! I honestly don’t care about what people say about me because what I think about people who judge others like that is that they are simple, small-minded, uneducated, and unaware persons.

I’ve studied parapsychology so I know that outsides and personalities are two sides of one coin. Parapsychology has opened my mind to a lot of different things. Parapsychology looks beyond what people think and what people usually nourish their souls with. When I combine what my father told me, what I’ve studied, and what I have learned in life from my experiences, I think that I may be qualified to make a good first-impression judgment of people especially because I studied parapsychology. I can tell by a person’s manners, just by looking at him, hearing his voice, or feeling his aura. I know that parapsychology isn’t considered a science internationally, but I got a degree in it and I believe in it.

I’m known for two important things. The first thing is that I’m a perfectionist. The first time I heard this word in English was when a teacher described me as such. Teacher Robert told me, “You are a perfectionist,” so I asked him, “Is this a good thing?” I went home that day and translated the word. It turned out that a lot of people described me with this word before. I admit that I am a perfectionist. It is, also, important to me to get to know the people whom I meet for the first time well, so I can decide whether I can count on them in my life or not. However, I’m also known for giving chances. I will give a person a couple of chances by seeing how he acts in different situations before I judge him because even though I know how to judge with my experience in parapsychology, that doesn’t mean that I’ll get it right every time. I don’t want to be stuck with somebody whom I can’t communicate with in my life because I see him as a bad person. I care about my comfort and if it turns out that this person that I just met is somehow hard to live with, I will for sure put at least red lines in my relationship with him and be careful how I spend my time with him.

This court is as all the courts in the world, but it has its unlimited rules. Sometimes, people can make mistakes in it without going to jail because their mistakes aren’t considered crimes as in a normal court of law. Crimes in the court of life can be in people’s hearts by thinking wrong about others, suspecting, and judging them without proof. You should not care about what people say if you want to live your life and do whatever you want. “Give people your deaf ear,” in other words, keep calm and walk with confidence.

STUDENT WRITING: Concept Essay: LA MADELEINE by DANIELA INFANTE & JM

La Madeleine: A French Country Café

La Madeleine is “a concept like no other with an award-winning menu and untapped potential in the bakery-café category,” says Chris Cheek, vice president, franchise development at La Madeleine, a country-French, fast-casual concept (Cheek).

La Madeleine had its beginnings some 30 years ago when Patrick Leon Esquerré came to the United States from France. Here, he did not find the aroma of fresh-baked baguettes and espresso, so he decided to open a café that offered just that (La Madeleine). Cheek claims that the brand is unique and that there is no one else doing country French in a fast-casual environment. He states, “Our approach to food, training, and interacting with our guests begins with our belief that we are in the hospitality business. You approach guests—not customers—as if they are dining in your home (Cheek).

La Madeleine’s mission is to recreate the food of the French countryside. The bakery offers authentic French sauces, marinades, and dressings. These used to be made from scratch but are now outsourced in order to reduce the size of the kitchens and have better quality control. The same goes for La Madeleine’s breads and pastries. In addition, the bakery’s food also emphasizes crepes, quiches, salads, sandwiches, and soups.

Interested in owning a franchise? This is not easy. There are many requirements if you want to be an owner. First, you must have experience as a multi-unit operator. Then you must be able to prove that you have the financial and operational resources to develop a multi-unit territory. This translates to resources of more than $2 million and a net worth greater than $5 million in liquid assets. For this, La Madeleine will provide qualified franchisees with “a world-class concept and extensive support to help them grow their business and the la Madeleine brand” according to Cheek. The Company will also assist in the areas of real estate, marketing, operations and training, purchasing, construction and culinary expertise (La Madeleine).

El Paso's first La Madeleine will open at the Fountains at Farah in a few weeks. This 600,000 square-foot shopping center on the East Side was opened only last year and is now adding some new flair to the city’s up-scale eatery options with the addition of this franchise. As for me, I’m a great fan, so I’m happily awaiting the opening to enjoy the best bread ever!




Works Cited
Cheek, Chris. "La Madeleine - Restaurant Franchising." QSR - Limited Service, Unlimited
Possibilities. n.d. n. page. Web. 7 Mar. 2014. .
"La Madeleine French Country Cafe Launches Franchise Program." FranchiseWire. N.p., 27
Sept 2011. Web. 8 Mar 2014. .