blaire sheftel

this was the second part of my final experience for my HO English II class. the assignment combined my HO Engineering II, HO Chemistry, AP World History, HO Theology II and HO French IV courses. each student contributed to the creation of a fictional city (Puerto Deseado, Argentina): in engineering we built the physical model via eco-friendly designs, in history we created a government, in theology we created a city-wide religion, and finally in this English class we had to create two things. the first of these assignments was a manifesto that I posted already and the second is the following work. we had to come up with anything that proved the city existed and could be some form of artwork that would hypothetically be displayed in the city’s archive or museum. I decided to create a short collection of poems, each written throughout the creation of this city which displayed its people and history.

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From the City of Technocrats

A short collection of poems (written in June 2021)

The first of the following four poems was written in the year 1860, two decades after the end of the Industrial Revolution. Argentina had not yet modernized and kept up with the rest of the world, which was causing unrest amongst its citizens. Rafael Girondo was a middle class poet in support of industrialization and the establishment of a technocratic government, in which elected officials are brought to power based on their scientific knowledge. Girondo expresses the importance of modernization in the following poem:

An Ode to Change (Written by Rafeal Girondo)

A stretch of fabric,

Slowly drying, shrinking, and suffocating 

those who reside within.

A window to opportunity

That separates thyself with no door,

But rather a single, unmovable, pane.

And until thy mallet is lifted and brought through the glass

Will thy legs be bound to the floor beneath.

Until thy water loosen the strings 

That binds together that cotton which perpetually tightens.

Thou cannot be free.

Without change, thou shall be immovable, and therefore, asphyxiated

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The second poem was written in the year 1863 under the same political context as the first. Movements towards an industrialized nation were becoming more popular and widespread, causing wealthy elites to protest in support of the current facist government. One of these elites was Juan Pellegrini, the author of the following poem:

The Irreversible (Written by Juan Pelligrini)

A fruit from thy tree cannot be bitten

Or the world shall fall from around itself.

Until grabbing at the walls

Which do not hold traction,

Thou cannot save

That which has been done around thee.

Impropriety is sin, as is unnecessary curiosity.

Pondering a path,

One paved with golden bricks and eternal life,

Why dost thou choose the shadows?

Why dost thou follow the serpent?

And when thy feet are bruised from the coals of the earth,

And thy wings are broken

Healing cannot be granted,

And return to the garden is a path thou shall not take.

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The third poem was written by Ivonne Valencia in the year 1893. After the Argentine Civil War between the fascists and the technocrats had ended on June 19th, 1889, the citizens of Puerto Deseado gradually diffused tensions between the opposing sides. Valencia was 19 years old when the war began, and 23 years old when she wrote the following poem:

Puerto Deseado: A City of Modern Culture (Written by Ivonne Valencia)

Puerto Deseado,

A seed borne from tradition

And watered with change,

Planting its roots so as it cannot be wrenched free

By those who might wish to disrupt it.

Puerto Deseado,

A soul which has finally been quenched

After longing for balance,

It has been achieved.

Puerto Deseado,

A city no longer of war,

But hesitant satisfaction.

Where the horizon is not yet fully clear

But the feeling of dusk looms in the air nevertheless.

Puerto Deseado,

A road lined with the gold of tradition,

Although doubted, ornate with crimsons and ivory,

A beautiful contrast to the silver winds

That now sweep through the streets,

Bringing with them the scent of new beginnings.

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The fourth and final poem was written in 1972 by Lucia Suarez, a junior at Puerto Deseado Public High School. The city has become a stable technocratic nation, especially emphasizing the ideals of environmentalism and leaving no carbon footprint behind. Suarez was given the assignment to write an opinionated report on individualism within their society, arguing or proving any topic they so choose. She decided to contemplate the legacy or lack thereof within a “city that does not exist”, given that it will leave no geographical imprint on the earth, in the following poem:

Unnamed (Written by Lucia Suarez)

If I escape myself for a day

And all that is there is the earth,

Lush, as it is, uninterrupted and flourishing.

And if I leave my home, and my home leaves me,

There shall be no imprint

Or legacy left behind.

It shall be as if we were not there, 

Each of us having worked so diligently

Only to fade into the flowers and the overgrowth,

Without a second thought.

And this is not to say we shall pollute in order to be seen

Or we shall cut down our surroundings

So a snow angel of dirt is permanently etched into the earth.

But rather that we must be called

To create something larger than ourselves,

Larger than our small nation.

We must bury ourselves deep into the roots of a greater society

So we cannot be forgotten.

So we cannot become unnamed.

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this assignment was particularly enjoyable since I never really write poetry. maybe I should get back into it? I’ll see.

<3,

blaire

this assignment is from my honors English II course from my sophomore year. it was a part of my final experience (this is what my school calls final projects because we’re modern and cool and different). the assignment was to create a manifesto for a fictional city we were simultaneously designing throughout each of our classes. the city was located in Argentina and named Puerto Deseado. through this manifesto I attempted to convey messages of modernity, empathy (for one another and the environment) and overall progressiveness.

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We shall build a city of understanding and unity, empathizing with thy neighbor and being open with our emotions so that thy neighbor is able to empathize with oneself. The first step to doing this is understanding: to communicate our emotions, it is essential to be aware of them via proper emotional intelligence and education. Our schooling shall be focused on problem-solving and empathy, building a foundation of emotional understanding amongst citizens from a young age, and furthering it throughout their early adolescent years. This will allow the second step towards a truly empathetic society, communication, to occur naturally and effectively. This communication will deeply connect our community, teaching us that as citizens and humans we are inherently deeply intertwined and that this form of connection is the key to collective prosperity. Finally, a city of empathy will be established, and within it, a community of highly emotionally intelligent and communicative citizens will flourish.

As individuals, we shall be open and vulnerable with one another, ensuring an environment in which mistakes are accepted and emotions are analyzed from a young age. In order to build a community in which it is important to understand one another, we must begin with the understanding of the self. We shall each approach life with the mindset that there is an explanation for every situation, and that both negative and positive outcomes should be explored. This shall not encourage hesitancy, but promote analysis and responsible reasoning. On an individual level, we shall each build this sense of awareness within ourselves so that a deep examination of emotions becomes a natural reaction to mistakes or bad decisions. We will become a civilization of understanding, which begins at the individual level. In closing, we shall transform ourselves into a city that understands each other and connects via the human experience as well as remains unique on an individual level with analyzing specific emotions and situations.

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this final project was probably my favorite out of each of those I have completed at the end of every year i’ve been at Trinity. I enjoyed the opportunity to write creatively, which I don’t often do, and overall attempt to express my own personal values through my own reflection onto the city we as a grade were creating. the project overall was a little complicated so I hope I explained it well!

<3,

blaire

this is an essay I wrote for my very first assignment in my sophomore HO English II class. the prompt was simply to describe yourself currently and who you would like to be in the future (a topic which, in my opinion, is way too vague and existential to ask a class full of freshly 15 year olds). although I did spend a few days worrying about who I was and asking myself what about me really set me apart from others (if anything), I finally constructed this essay which, looking back on it almost two years later, I am incredibly proud of. while I do not like the portion about field hockey as I feel it is badly implemented and slightly interrupts the flow of the work, the wording I chose and the way I thought about the prompt now impresses me.

Change and How it Defines Me
I am defined, not by one specific situation, but rather by how I have reacted to a combination of them throughout my life. My own individuality has formed through a series of difficult experiences, each of which has shaped me into my current self. For example, I would like to say I have a small list of adjectives that I believe describe myself, but how is it I found these adjectives? How is it I know they apply? I have formed my perception of myself from observing how I’ve reacted to past experiences. I learned that I am creative by looking at situations that allowed me to demonstrate my creativity. I learned that I am a perfectionist by stepping back and removing myself from a circumstance, only to realize that I approached it with an “all or nothing” sort of attitude. In summary, I am how I react to the world.

Past experiences play an important role in this way of defining myself, and when trying to narrow one down, the game of field hockey came to mind. While learning this sport was both enjoyable and difficult in and of itself, playing the game after learning the basics was the most challenging and rewarding; I found that even after understanding seemingly every play and possible strategy, there was always something more to know. This, in a way, applies to how I have viewed myself in the past, and still view myself today as I continue to grow as a person. My perception of who I am is constantly changing, as I am experiencing and learning new things about myself. However, this idea of constant change isn’t always positive. For example, because I enjoy the game quite a bit, I also invest a lot in practices, games, and overall working on and developing my skills. So, when I experience a day in which my skills are just a bit off, which is inevitable, I take it much more to heart than I should. Most of the time I find myself forgetting what it feels like to be good at the sport, and assuming I have lost all my skill. Although obviously, this is not true, I tend to hyperfocus on the small inconvenience I am having and accept it as a permanent reality, assuming that my skill has changed forever. While of course the next day I resume my usual playing level and I remind myself that off-days do occur, I think they work as an effective example to show how I, and my skills, are constantly changing. This challenge to accept the fact that my skill level fluctuates also reflects the daily changes in my character as a person as I experience life.

In my future, I hope to maintain this theme of learning, maturing, discovering, and growth. Where I would like to go in my future is not a specific place, nor can it be reached at a specific age, but rather it is a mental state I would like to achieve. Like the game of field hockey, I would like to constantly be expanding my mental skill level. When I graduate high school and college, my goal is to continue to educate myself each and every day. I hope to be in a place surrounded by people and experiences that challenge me as a person and continue my mental growth. There is no town, state, or even country that I am certain that I will end up in, but I trust that as I age I will find one. And that place, wherever it may be, is where I would like to end up in due course.

Overall, who I am as a person can be expressed using the comparison to field hockey. This sport has taught me how to experience and accept change. By putting myself through different situations and observing the outcome, I learn more about my character. Who I am is a direct result of how I’ve evolved throughout life, similar to the changes that occur in my skill level when playing field hockey. This theme of change is something I would like to remain a constant throughout my future as well. For growth, how it is shown, how it originates, and how it continues, is the very definition of myself.

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i think the date I made this was around early september 2021, for reference. I’m interested to see how my writing might grow more from then until now, and further into the future.

<3,

blaire