I remember it as if it was almost yesterday. About two years ago my dad had told me that a friend from his elementary school had offered him an opportunity to co-own at a new up and coming restaurant that he had planned to open in downtown Providence. My parents and I were thrilled at the idea of working at a new restaurant in Providence. If only we knew two years ago the horrors we would experience while working at this restaurant which would be named Nico Bellas.

Before the restaurant (Nico Bellas, named after my dad’s business partners daughters). I worked at a small diner in Seekonk Massachusetts named Micheletti’s. I would work usually Thursday and Sunday nights and it was an enjoyable place to work. Thursday nights I would bus tables and Sunday nights I was the dishwasher. I worked at Micheletti’s for about a year. One day my dad was invited by a friend of his he knew from elementary school to go out for breakfast. He would later tell my dad that he had an idea to open a new restaurant in downtown Providence. My dad worked in restaurants since he was a teenager and even went to Johnson and Wales when he was in his twenties for culinary arts. So my father most definitely had the experience to work in a kitchen. But my dad didn’t just want to work at this new restaurant he wanted to own a piece of it too. So my father and his partner made a deal where my dad was a co owner and owned a percentage of the restaurant and his friend owned the other percentage of the restaurant. The restaurant would be named Nico Bellas and the location where it still remains today is 10 Dorrance Street, Providence Rhode Island. 

The location we had chosen needed quite a bit of renovations before we could open to the public. We did some things to promote the restaurant before we actually opened the doors. I would serve italian ice from an ice cream cart and we set up tents at the Providence Festival and Pride Parade. We sold food and beverages from our tents such as popcorn, corn on the cob and various other snacks. My parents would go to events with my dad’s partner to promote the restaurant. It was a lot of fun and definitely a new experience for my dad and I. 

Once the restaurant was open I was a dishwasher and helped my dad in the kitchen. At first it was fun working at a new restaurant but over time things started to go sour. I began to struggle with homework as I would devote a lot of my time during the week to working at the restaurant and I began to miss out on hanging with friends. My dad also struggled as he now worked two jobs, and never had any time for anything other than work. He worked at a plastics factory during the day and worked at the restaurant during the night. Sometimes my dad and I wouldn’t get out until almost 2 AM because we were the only ones doing cleanup at the end of the night. We both later would have to cut down how much we worked at the restaurant so we could focus on more important things. My dad worked at the restaurant Wednesday through Saturday and I would work Thursday through Saturday. My mom would also work up front on the weekends and wait tables. It got worse, my dad’s business partner controlled the finances for the restaurant and even though my dad has a degree in business, he wouldn’t share any information about the finances of the restaurant. We knew how much money we brought in but no clue where the money would go after that. Even worse, employees weren’t getting paid including myself and my dad. Quite a few times I wouldn’t get paid until a week later because my dad’s business partner said he didn’t have money to pay me. He would also make decisions without my dad’s discretion. My parents and I became frustrated with the restaurant and my dad’s partner, as we put so much time and effort into it and were getting nothing in return. My dad had no idea where the money from the restaurant was going because his business partner controlled the money. So we decided that we would no longer work at the restaurant as we were getting nothing in return.

As of present day my dad still owns Nico Bellas with his business partner. We do not work there anymore and very rarely go there as we don’t want anything to do with that place. My dad is in the process of taking his partner to court and we have a lawyer. Everything has just taken much longer due to Covid. I now since then have been working at Chick Fil-A Seekonk for a year and enjoy working there as I have met many new people that I am now good friends with. What I learned from working at Nico Bellas is that you can’t trust everyone, even if you’ve known them since elementary school. Looking back, if we had done more research on my dad’s partner and took note of the red flags from the beginning, we probably would have been able to avoid this whole mess. Working at Nico Bellas will most definitely be an unforgettable adventure for myself and my family.

https://www.yumpu.com/en/document/read/51693449/killing-chickens-meredith-hall

Killing Chickens is a memoir about a woman who is going through a divorce and the changes as well as challenges that come with divorce. The women is a mother of two boys and they live on what seems like a farm in the mid-west. She now has to do a lot of daily chores that her partner would previously do. One includes killing the old hens in the chicken coop that no longer lay eggs. The memoir also happens to take place on her birthday and she as well as her sons try to cope with the divorce.

The essay moves between many different details as it progresses. For example, it begins with details about the women and the first chicken she kills. She elaborates on how she kills the chicken in the coop and she struggles to break the chickens neck as it fights her. Also how she feels the chickens heart beating as fast as hers as she struggles to kill the chicken. Another detail is her emotions throughout the essay. She pretends to be happy when speaking to her sons in an upbeat tone. But inside she feels sad, confused, and a sense of feeling lost. At points, she states she feels powerful after killing the second chicken.

After reading Killing Chickens, it is an interesting perspective on a memoir. I enjoyed how the memoir was a family oriented theme, but not in a sense of a happy family. Instead it was more about the difficulties that families can face when they go through conflict. Also with this memoir specifically how now the main character is faced with new daily tasks after her husband left her and, how him leaving her impacts her life greatly.

My hometown was a wonderful place to grow up. It had everything you could ever want in a small town. Rural countryside with beautiful farms and fields and a shopping center no more than ten minutes away always full of people.

Laci had a rather eccentric style. She would always come into class wearing an outfit straight out of the 80’s. Her clothes would be neon or pastel colors and she usually wore clothes that were baggy.

Mr. Brown is the worst teacher I ever had. He taught computer science and was a very quiet and odd man, who would show you how to do something on the projector but never really instruct you on how to do it. When you had a question he would reply, “Ask three classmates before asking me.”

The room seemed very institutional, beige walls, bright LED lights, linoleum tile floors. It almost felt like a prison. Going to high school sometimes was such a dread sitting in class for an hour and fifteen minutes, nodding in and out of consciousness.

It was the fourth quarter and last lacrosse game of the season, we were tied with the other team. Coach Zach, a short stubby man with a scruffy beard and loud booming voice shouted at the team. He wanted us to win more than anything as we were the underdog team and it was his first year of coaching a high school lacrosse team. He knew it wouldn’t be easy to score that one point but if played smart we might just be able to score that point. After he told the team what play they were going to do. They went out and got into position, sweat dripping down their faces and anxious at the outcome. The ref’s whistle blew, we won the faceoff and got possession of the ball, Caleb passes the ball to Chase who runs the ball down the field doing his best to dodge the defense men, but is blocked so he passes the ball to Nathan who is an attackmen and is right in front of the goal, he makes a shot and scores. The whole team cheered and Coach Zach cried tears of joy.

For my theme I am choosing family/relationships. The relationships we have growing up with family and friends is what shapes us into who we become as adults. I feel that this topic will work for me the best and I can create some good ideas with it. Especially with my Portuguese and Italian family.

My name is Nathan Tedeschi. I am 18 years old and a freshman in college. I was born in Atlanta Georgia but grew up in Seekonk Massachusetts and currently still live in Seekonk with my family. I work at Chick Fil-A Monday, Friday, and Saturday while also finding time to manage my studies. I’m currently enrolled in the two year engineering transfer program from BCC to UMASS Dartmouth. I would love to have a career as a mechanical engineer because I have a passion for cars and working on them and would enjoy a career of designing and developing cars. Another interest of mine is writing. I have always thought of myself as a decent writer and enjoy writing. Especially when topics are engaging. Writing for me is much easier to grasp than math. Reading for me personally is a pastime I occasionally enjoy. I like to read articles on my phone and in the past have enjoyed summer reading books that we used to do in high school. After reading, Ten Ways to Think about Writing I found a new way of looking at writing and steps to take at writing a good piece of literature. I like the idea of taking the many rules of literature and breaking them down into three main principles to remember when writing. Writing about what you know and want to know, showing, and adapting I find are great things to remember when you are stuck on what to write. Another piece from the article that I agree with and personally like when reading a story is the ability to visualize objects through writing. The little green ball is a great example used in the article as we all know what a little green ball is but I may have a different interpretation of that little green ball than my peers. Using imagery in writing and being as descriptive as possible really makes it easier for the reader to visualize what you are writing. The third point I totally agree with is making sure you are keeping your reader with you. Instead of switching from one topic to the next with no context when writing, it is better to transition from one topic and give a sort of heads up of the next topic that you are presenting. Also reminding the reader what you are writing about. These three examples from the article stuck out to me the most and I will likely try and use them in my future writing. I am excited to get started especially as the topics we are writing about have some freedom. Also I like the idea of using blogs and having my writing public for others to see.

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