"Don't cry because it's over. Smile because it happened."

“Don’t cry because it’s over. Smile because it happened” by Dr. Seuss, this quote can be used for many things; February 6, 2009, P.S. I Love You, Kerri Strug, "The Great Gatsby," The assassination of Martin Luther King Jr, the death of Steve Irwin, and the song "For Good". But what do these things have to do with this quote? The answer is that all great events have sad or happy sad endings. This quote reminds us to remember what these people or ideas have taught and given us and to keep on learning from them.






February 6, 2009 is one day that I will never forget, and this is because it is the day that my grandma died of peritoneal cancer. My grandma was 72, out of all my grandparents she was the most active, whether it was line dancing, walking, or traveling to different places, she was always moving. So when I heard she had cancer, peritoneal cancer, I was devastated because I knew that she would be in a hospital bed for most of the time being. She was on bed rest after she went through surgery, and was allowed home for a week during December. But then things turned for the worst, she had infection and was swelling in her arms and had to go back to the hospital.

Peritoneal cancer is a rare cancer that develops in the peritoneum, a thin, delicate sheet that lines the inside wall of the abdomen and covers the uterus and extends over the bladder and rectum (Gynecologic Cancer). The thing about peritoneal cancer is that it’s hard to determine what it is because it acts (has similar symptoms) like ovarian cancer. Peritoneal cancer rarely shows any symptoms until the late stages, and even then they are rather ill-defined. Symptoms of this cancer can range from frequent urination, to nausea, diarrhea and constipation, weight loss or gain for no apparent reason, lack of appetite, and even lower abdominal pain (Riitters). The causes of peritoneal cancer are unknown. Like most types of cancer, it is more common in older people (Primary Peritoneal Cancer).

I had a lot of support from a wide range of people during this time. I needed as much help as possible because I didn’t know how to deal with such a tragedy. What I learned during this time was to keep an open-mind to the help I was given, even if I didn’t like what I was being told. The advice that stuck in my mind the most though was to never forget traditions and to keep on commemorating on all the good things that we use to do. To keep traditions going is what I am going to do for my grandma; to keep on remembering her shows that I will keep growing from the things she has taught me.

P.S. I Love You

Holly is beautiful, smart, and married to the love of her life – passionate, funny, and impetuous Irishman Gerry (P.S. I Love You). But when Gerry dies from a brain tumor he leaves Holly facing a doubtful future. Luckily for Holly, Gerry has planned ahead and on Holly’s 30th birthday party she receives a cake and tape recording from Gerry. The message on the recorder tells Holly to go out and celebrate instead of staying in and mourning. As months go on Holly receives a series of messages with different instructions. The letters are filled with various stories and instructions, and one of them even contains a plan that sends her and her friends on a trip to Ireland (P.S. I Love You (2007)). While Holly’s mother and friends feel like she is living in the past, the truth is Gerry is guiding her to the future while proving death isn’t the end, but a new beginning (P.S. I Love You).

In this movie we find out that Gerry dies of a brain tumor but never really see him struggle with it, no symptoms or anything. Yet, brain tumors typically start with headaches that can progress in how severe they are. Other symptoms of brain tumors can be seizures, mental or personality changes, mass effect which causes the tumor to grow within the skull, and even focal or localizing symptoms (Brain Tumor Symptoms). There are many more symptoms that can determine brain tumors and even then you may not be sure if you have a brain tumor because there are sometimes no signs or symptoms, until it’s too late. The cause of primary brain tumors is unknown. This is because they are rare, there are many types, and there are many possible risk factors that could play a role. Exposure to some types of radiation, head injuries, and hormone replacement therapy may be risk factors, as well as many others (Brain Tumor - Adults). For every 100,000 people in the United States, approximately 131 are living following the diagnosis of a brain tumor. It is estimated that, during the year 2000, approximately 359,000 people in the United States were living with the diagnosis of a primary brain or central nervous system tumor. Specifically, more than 81,000 persons were living with a malignant tumor, more than 267,000 persons with a benign tumor, and more than 10,000 persons with a tumor of uncertain behavior (Facts & Statistics). The number of people with brain tumors is a surprising number and the survival rate isn’t very high. Brain tumors range in many types and are usually classified by where it’s affecting the brain to how sever it is.

As the movie goes on Holly learns what “Don’t cry because it’s over. Smile because it happened,” means. In Gerry’s final letter to Holly he lets her know that, “You can take care of yourself without any help from me. It's to tell you how much you move me. How you changed me. You made my life, Holly, but I'm just one chapter in yours. There'll be more. I promise. So here it comes, the big one. Don't be afraid to fall in love again. Watch out for that signal when life as you know it ends. P.S., I will always love you (Memorable Quotes)." This last letter that Holly receives from Gerry allows her to see that it’s okay to move on from the past and that she should be afraid to love again.

Below is a trailer from the movie

Kerri Sturg

At the age of 8 Kerri Strug competed in her first gymnastics meet. She worked hard and quickly reached higher and higher levels (Strug). This climb came naturally to Stug who loved gymnastics, and at the age of 12 Kerri decided how much she truly loved the sport. The Olympics no longer seemed like an impossible dream, but Kerri knew she wouldn’t make it without a good coach. That coach was Bela Karolyi, and Kerri couldn’t train with him unless she left Tuscon, Arizona (Strug). In 1991, 13 year old Kerri went to Houston to train; working out 6 to 7 days a week for 8 hours each day. Kerri knew that most gymnasts’ careers are short because they usually peak at the age of 15 or 16. On the last day of Olympic Trials, for the Barcelona Olympics, Kerri was confident that she would make the Olympic team; but during Kerri’s floor exercise she fell. For a while, she was certain she didn’t make the cut, but when all was said and done, she landed the fourth slot on a six person team, becoming the youngest U.S. athlete (Strug). At the Barcelona Olympics the women’s team won bronze and Kerri was pushed out of the All-Around competition. Later Kerri’s coach Karolyi announced he was leaving gymnastics, making the next three years of Kerri’s life difficult. Kerri moved from coach to coach; then at a meet in Europe Kerri tore a stomach muscle taking 6 months for it to heal. During this time Kerri decided to go back home and to finish school. When Kerri began to compete again she took another blow in her gymnastics career. She was on the uneven bars when her grip slipped and she swung backwards off the bar, she pulled her back muscles, taking another 6 months for recovery (Strug). Then on June 30th, 1996 Kerri earned a spot on the 1996 Olympic team.

Some sports look grueling – ice hockey, soccer, basketball, for example. Others, like gymnastics, appear effortless and soaring. But in the first national study of gymnastics injuries, conducted by researchers at Nationwide Children’s Hospital in Columbus, Ohio, 16 years of data show that there is nothing easy at all about gymnastics; making gymnastics among the most dangerous sports for girls (Park). “Many parents do not typically think of gymnastics as a dangerous sport,” said study senior author Lara McKenzie, PhD, MA, principal investigator in Center for Injury Research and Policy (CIRP) at Nationwide Children’s Hospital. “In fact, many parents consider it an activity. Yet gymnastics has the same clinical incidence of catastrophic injuries as ice hockey (Pediatric Gymnastics). McKenzie and her team collected data in a 16-year period (from 1990 to 2005) examining children from ages 6 to 17. Five of every 1,000 children, ages 6-17 – about 27,000 children in all – who participated in some form of gymnastics sought medical care in the ER each year for a gymnastics-related injury (Park). Half of the injuries in 6 to 11 year-olds involved fractures or dislocations of the upper extremities, while lower extremity strains and sprains accounted for just over half of injuries in 12 to 17 year-old athletes (Harding). Older gymnasts are getting injured more often is due to trying new tricks with more difficulty. Yet, the number of injuries fell from 28,700 in 1990 to 21,500 in 2005 (Harding). This can be due to more safety precautions being added to the spot, whether it be more padding for landing or changes to the equipment. There are more things being done to make gymnastics a safer sport. Steve Penny, president of USA Gymnastics, says his organization is hoping to create a USA Gymnastic University, whose goals will be to educate and certify coaches on training and safety practices (Park).

The U.S. gymnastic team had a lead over the Russian team and it all looked like the U.S. had its first gold in the team combined exercises all sewn up. That is until Dominique Moceanu fell down on both her vaults and Strug’s first attempt also ended in a fall (Brown). When Kerri fell after her first attempt at vault she got up and began to limp back to the start. Barely able to walk Strug made her way to the runway ready to go again. She sprinted down the runway hit the vault and stuck the landing before collapsing in pain, securing the gold for the American team. Knowing that her career was over she made the best ending by smiling on the podium with her team, while receiving their well deserved gold medals.

Kerri Strug at the 1996 Atlanta Games

"The Great Gatsby"

“The Great Gatsby” takes us through the life of a man, Jay Gatsby, trying to make his life in the upper-class setting. Nick Carraway, the narrator; a younger man from Minnesota, moves to the city, New York City, to learn the trades of the bonds business. Nick moves in to his new house in West Egg district, a wealthy outdated area for the new rich, and moves in next to the mysterious Jay Gatsby. One day Nick meets up with his cousin Daisy who lives in East Egg, a trendy rich area. Daisy is married to Tom who was a classmate of Nick’s back at Yale. Daisy introduces Nick to Jordan Baker, a gorgeous young woman, who Nick falls for. Every other weekend during the summer Gatsby throws extravagant parties that hundreds of people go to. One night Nick receives an invitation from Gatsby’s chauffer to attend one of his many parties, Nick accepts. The party is magnificent and lavish, but Nick notices that not many people know or even seen Gatsby, all he hears are rumors. Then Nick starts talking to a man who claims to recognize him from the U.S. Army’s First Division during the Great War. As their conversation moves on the man tells Nick that he is Gatsby and this is where their friendship begins. Nick invites Daisy over without telling her that Gatsby will be there, this brings back their old love for each other. Daisy later invites Nick and Gatsby over to her mansion and then they depart for a hotel in the city. Tom suggests that Gatsby and he should switch cars. Once at the hotel Tom starts to become suspicious of Daisy’s relationship with Gatsby, even though he is the one who is having an affair with Myrtle (Myrtle is married to George Wilson who owns an auto shop), he confronts Gatsby and says that Gatsby’s fortune comes from bootlegging and other illegal activities. Mad and frustrated by what has just happened Daisy and Gatsby take off in his car. While driving Myrtle gets hit by Gatsby’s car and when George hears about it, he recalls seeing Tom in the car that Myrtle was struck by. George all disgruntled goes to Tom wanting to kill him, but Tom sets him straight and tells him that it was Gatsby’s car that hit Myrtle. So George goes over to Gatsby’s house and finds him floating on a raft in his pool, irrational George shoots and kills Gatsby and then himself.

The American Dream is it corrupt or is it truthful? This statement can go many ways, one person may say that the American Dream is corrupt because it is unrealistic and impossible to attain. While another could say that as long as you try at it you will eventually reach it. In the 1920’s the American Dream played a big role in many people’s lives. At the beginning of the 1920s, the United States was converting from wartime to peacetime economy. After a few years, the country prospered. In this decade, America became the richest nation on Earth and a culture of consumerism was born (Roaring Twenties). Many immigrants were coming over to America to achieve their American Dream of living a better life with equal opportunities. Immigrants to the United States had been much maligned since the New Immigration of the 1890s. Cities had swelled with immigrants from South and Eastern Europe, taking jobs from “natives” Americans and space for further geographic growth (N.K.).

“Gatsby turned out all right at the end; it is what preyed on Gatsby, what foul dust floated in the wake of his dreams that temporarily closed out my interest in the abortive sorrows and short-winded elations of men”(Fitzgerald,2). Nick finds that Gatsby’s dream is one that is joist yet ridiculous and is sympathetic and aware at the same time that this dream is unattainable. Nick reflects back on Gatsby’s dream of getting Daisy as one that was corrupted by wealth and deceit. Not being sad that his best friend died, Nick realizes what made Gatsby so “great”, that Gatsby was able to make his dream reality.

Politics - Martin Luther King Jr.

Michael Luther King (later changed to Martin) was born on January 15, 1929 to pastor Martin Luther King Sr. and former school teacher Alberta King. King attended local grammar and high schools in Atlanta. In 1944 King enrolled at Morehouse College - in Atlanta. Not planning on entering the ministry, King met Dr. Benjamin Mays, a scholar whose manner and bearing, convinced King that a religious career could be intellectually satisfying as well (The Life of Martin Luther King Jr). King moved back to the South and married Coretta Scott and became a pastor at a Baptist church. King made his first mark on the civil-rights movement, here, by mobilizing the black community servings a 382- day boycott of the city's bus line (The Life of Martin Luther King Jr). During this time King dealt with harassment, violence, and even a bombing of his house; because of this the U.S. Supreme Court declared segregation unconstitutional. King summoned together a number of black leaders in 1957 and laid the groundwork for the organization now know as the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) and began helping other communities organize their own protests against discrimination (The Life of Martin Luther King Jr). Three years later during a protest, about segregation of department store facilities, in Birmingham; police used violent tactics on the protesters. Martin Luther King was arrested and while in jail he wrote “Letters from a Birmingham Jail.” When King was let out, later that year, he was a prime speaker at The March on Washington. King’s speech at the March on Washington became one of the most famous speeches today. He used the “I have a dream” theme he’d used on prior occasions, drawing on both “the American dream” and religious themes, speaking of an America where his children “will not be judged by the color of their skin but the content of their character” (Ross). Time magazine named him as its Person of the Year for 1963. A few months later he was named recipient of the 1964 Nobel Peace Prize (The Life of Martin Luther King Jr). While lending support for a sanitation workers’ strike in Memphis, Tennessee, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., was assassinated April 4, 1968 on his balcony at the Lorraine Motel.

Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 protects individuals against employment discrimination on the basis of race and color, as well as national origin, sex, and religion (Bal). The 1960’s marked the end of racial discrimination, The Civil Rights Act of 1964 also made it easier for Southern African Americans to vote, go to theaters, restaurants, hotels, and many other public places. Title VII made it unlawful to discriminate against any individual in regard to recruiting, hiring and promoting, transfer, work assignments, performance measurements, the work environment, job training, discipline and discharge, wages and benefits, or any other term, condition, or privilege of employment (Race/Color Discrimination).

Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s ideas and legacy still lives on today, whether it be through books, movies, or stories. King has and will always influence many people today through what he taught us about racial justice, how to deal with situations in a nonviolent way, and to accept everyone. King is a great way to represent the quote, “Don’t cry because it’s over. Smile because it happened,” without King it would have taken a longer time for discrimination to be brought down.

Steve Irwin - Impact on Society

Steve Irwin was born on February 22, 1962; to parents Lyn and Bob Irwin, who had a passion for rescuing and rehabilitating local wildlife. In 1970 the hobby became a full time operation, as the Irwin’s opened the Beerwah Reptile Park, later known as the Australian Zoo (Steve Irwin). Soon Steve took interest in his parents’ fascination with wildlife animals. He first learned how to catch and handle his beloved crocodiles from his father and once received a python as a birthday present (About Steve Irwin). Irwin learned many methods on how to handle such reptiles, like crocodiles, snakes, etc, without harming them; so he could later let free them in the wild or into their family park. Steve Irwin took over management of the facility in 1991. In that same year he met a lovely American, Terri Raines, on vacation from her own wildlife rehab center in the U.S. Marrying eight months later, the pair opted to go crocodile trapping for their honeymoon (Steve Irwin). While trapping crocodile on their honeymoon, it was filmed and was later made into the first episode of The Crocodile Hunter. Four years later, the series was picked up by the American cable network Animal Planet. At the peak of its popularity, the show aired in more than 200 countries (Steve Irwin Biography). In 1998 the Irwin’s introduced the world to their new family member, daughter, Bindi Sue Irwin. Then in 2003 they enlarged their family with a son, Bob Irwin. Then Steve stirred up controversy in 2004 for feeding a crocodile while holding his infant son. Many were shocked by the images of Irwin and his son Bob with the snapping crocodile and accused Irwin of child endangerment. Irwin was never charged in regard to this incident and stated that his son was never in harm's way (Steve Irwin Biography). A few months later Irwin came under criticism again; while filming a documentary Irwin allegedly broke both international and Australian federal laws by coming too close to a pod of whales and even sliding down snowy slopes with a group of penguins (Steve Irwin). Then on September 4, 2006 while filming a segment for a documentary called Ocean’s Deadliest and was pierced in the chest causing Steve to go into cardiac arrest and pass away.

We hear of shark attacks and people getting stung by jellyfish but rarely do we ever hear about a stingray attacking/stinging a person. Deaths from stingrays are rare; one US study reported 1500 stingray injuries in America each year (Macey). Stingrays have a defense mechanism to them protect them; this is known as a barb. It looks like a serrated knife and the length can vary, the sting ray that pierced Steve Irwin was around 12 inches long (Macey). The numbers of recorded stingray-related fatalities have surfaced in the media, ranging from "about 30" worldwide, to "fewer than 20," to "only 17" (Engber). These reports could and couldn’t be true because there isn’t much interest and there are hardly any attacks caused by stingray.

Steve Irwin will never be forgotten, from his catch phrase “Crikey” to educating us all on wildlife. Steve ran several organizations and contributed to many charities. “Don’t cry because it’s over. Smile because it happened.” goes great with Steve Irwin because after his death many people mourned, but without Steve Irwin we would never have seen or learned so much about wildlife and the dangers they are in.

"For Good"

Wicked, is the untold story of the witches of Oz (About Wicked). It shows how each witch became and what they had to go through. The song “For Good” is one of the last songs in the play and each witch, Elphaba and Glinda, talk about how they have “been changed for the better because they knew each other” (Wicked Lyrics). No matter where they go or what happens to them they will always have the memories and their lives will never be the same.
This song connects with the quote, "Don't cry because it's over. Smile because it happened." because Glinda and Elphaba realize that nothing matters anymore, all the bad things are in the past and they realize that they have to leave but will never forget the impact each had on the other.

For Good Lyrics

ELPHABA
I'm limited:
Just look at me - I'm limited
And just look at you -
You can do all I couldn't do, Glinda
So now it's up to you
(spoken) For both of us
(sung) Now it's up to you:

GLINDA
I've heard it said
That people come into our lives for a reason
Bringing something we must learn
And we are led
To those who help us most to grow
If we let them
And we help them in return
Well, I don't know if I believe that's true
But I know I'm who I am today
Because I knew you:

Like a comet pulled from orbit
As it passes a sun
Like a stream that meets a boulder
Halfway through the wood
Who can say if I've been changed for the better?
But because I knew you
I have been changed for good

ELPHABA
It well may be
That we will never meet again
In this lifetime
So let me say before we part
So much of me
Is made of what I learned from you
You'll be with me
Like a handprint on my heart
And now whatever way our stories end
I know you have re-written mine
By being my friend:
Like a ship blown from its mooring
By a wind off the sea
Like a seed dropped by a skybird
In a distant wood
Who can say if I've been changed for the better?
But because I knew you:

GLINDA
Because I knew you:

BOTH

I have been changed for good

ELPHABA
And just to clear the air
I ask forgiveness
For the things I've done you blame me for

GLINDA
But then, I guess we know
There's blame to share

BOTH
And none of it seems to matter anymore

GLINDA ELPHABA
Like a comet pulled Like a ship blown
From orbit as it Off it's mooring
Passes a sun, like By a wind off the
A stream that meets Sea, like a seed
A boulder, half-way Dropped by a
Through the wood Bird in the wood

BOTH
Who can say if I've been changed for the better?
I do believe I have been changed for the better?

GLINDA
And because I knew you:

ELPHABA
Because I knew you:

BOTH
Because I knew you:
I have been changed for good.