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Everyone has weaknesses, vulnerabilities, or Achilles heel’s, but we usually hide these imperfections by “putting on a brave face”. Is it really better to hide the real you behind a curtain while a puppet version goes on stage? Or should we just through our true selves into anything, no matter if we are weak or strong? Just a reminder that this is my opinion, I am not saying that everyone should do this, it is your choice.

          I believe that you shouldn’t hide imperfections, but I actually do such all the time. I will walk up to someone and put my best self out there, not the part of me that hides in his room playing video games and watching YouTube. And as we are on the subject of YouTube, and social media as well, these two are both examples of throwing out the best you. Things like Facebook and Instagram are traps for people to get sucked into feeling bad about themselves because they don’t live like everyone else. I think the best thing to do is to build an immunity against those feelings of being secluded, and just know that they probably feel just as sad at the end of the day.

          YouTube is something that I enjoy very much, I actually want to be a YouTuber someday. But the thing about YouTube is that you can always do a re-take, except for livestreams.

          In conclusion, you don’t always have to put all of you out there, but at least do it sometimes so that you don’t drown out the real you.

The Roman army was feared by almost all in their area, but they weren’t always like that. This is what their army looked like.

During war, all citizens could volunteer to fight (Note: not including women or slaves). The army was divided into groups called centuries, there were 100 men in a century, each group of 100 was led by a man called a Centurion. Each Centurion had a second in command dubbed an Optio, each century also had a Signifier, they carried the flag. Each Centurion also had a Tesserarius, they carried his passwords mentally. These centuries were placed into Legions, each legion had 5000 men, or 50 centuries. The Legions also had “auxilia” or less trained men working for their citizenship. These Legion were commanded by a “legatus”. There were usually 3 or 4 legions in an army. The equipment they used was as follows, a helmet to protect the brain and eyes, shoulder plates that also covered the sides of the neck, a body plate that connected to the shoulder plates, a woolen tunic underneath, a dagger on the left hip, a sword on the right, a javelin that would be thrown at first contact, groin protection, a skirt, sandals, and a very large shield. In conclusion, the Romans were powerful not because of their strength, but their organization.

Alexander the II of Macedon, more commonly known as Alexander the Great, was the most successful rulers of his time. Not only did he bring all of Asia and Greece under his rule, he also changed their religion forever.

          Alexander the Great was born in 360 B.C., his father was Phillip the II of Macedon. As a child, Alexander was tutored by Aristotle personally. He did many minor feats as a child; one being training a seemingly untamable war horse.

          Later in life, his father married a cleopatra of Macedon, this scared Alexander because he was only half Macedonian, meaning if she had a son, that son would be heir. She disliked Alexander, and she therefor exiled him while his father was at war. When his father got home, he was furious at his wife, he allowed Alexander back in the land of Macedon, but he then left again and was assassinated during that trip, meaning Alexander was king the cleopatra had no power over him. Alexander exiled her and his friends, against his word, burned her alive with her daughter. Alexander was furious, he actually burned their hands and then he found that his one friend led it, he burned and chopped off his hands.

          Alexander then conquered all of Asia with tactical battles that lead to many crushing defeats. After this, he returned to Macedon to collect more soldiers, but he fell ill and died at the young age of twenty three.

This paper will cover the lifecycle of the Monarch butterfly. The butterfly is one of the only insects to go through metamorphosis, a process that results in the beginning creature being drastically different from before. There are four stages to the butterfly lifecycle, the first stage is the egg. As an egg, the butterfly is pretty boring, it obviously cannot move or do anything but sit on a leaf.

          The caterpillar stage is when things start to get interesting, a caterpillar only has two goals, eat and survive. The caterpillar will first eat the leaf it lives on then move to the next, and the next etc., they will continue to eat until they have enough energy to last in the cocoon.

          The next step is to begin building the cocoon, the caterpillar will then trap itself in the cocoon, it will stay there for about two months, then the fun part begins. The butterfly will begin to break free from the cocoon, but humans must not help the butterfly, or it will never be able to fly. This is because of the protective liquid covering the butterfly, when they crawl through their hole they made, the mucus is wiped off. If a human intervenes, the mucus will dry, leaving the butterfly helpless.

          In conclusion, butterflies are very intelligent and persistent creatures that struggle for survival their entire life. Also NEVER help a butterfly out of the cocoon, because if you do, they will be butterwalks.

The Roman Games were a cultural staple for the occupants of Rome. The one I will be covering today is the arena, in the arena battles were fought against multiple soldiers. One of the soldiers would be from the previous battle, he was the victor of that previous battle. The rest were challengers trying to win the title of champion. To simplify this, one soldier is defending their title, the others are attempting to earn said title. If the people watching are bored, they could release different creatures or spring traps for fun. If a soldier thought they couldn’t beat the others, they would raise their hand and put up two fingers. The king would have the audience decide to either save the man, or watch him die.

          If you, as a warrior were able to win in combat for a while, you would go up against the king’s best men. This was a larger risk, but you would receive a much higher reward. Prisoners of war would be tossed into the arena; they could win freedom if they killed all other men. This usually didn’t happen, due to the prisoners having no armor or weapons. Once, platforms were put around the arena and made eight feet tall, then the battle was started as usual, then the arena was flooded with water. In conclusion, battles always varied due to how they were fought, people had a twisted sense of humor and entertainment in Rome, and that Rome was a city you didn’t want to be on bad terms with.

As enemy artillery fire hammered down upon a small garrison fort, Union soldiers in the fort scrambled up ladders, ran over dead comrades, they even fell down flights of stairs, all because one confederate soldier had grabbed a cannon and was firing to keep the unions from spotting the rest of his regiment coming from behind.  This story written above was one of the many battles during the Civil War, but just like the one above, not all were tide changing. This essay will cover the major hair raising, spine tingling, skin of the teeth, turning point battles. But first, the beginning statistics:  

Population

United States population: 18.5 mil.                     First shot: April 12, 1861

                        Estimated casualties: 1,500,000

Confederate population:

2.5 mil. + 3.5 mil. Slaves

Enlistment

US: 2.67 million

CS: 1 million

Industry

US: 101,000 factories

 1.1 million workers

20,000 miles of railroad

CS: 21,000 factories

111,000 workers

9,000 miles of railroad

Land

US: 21 states

CS: 11 states

Now, that is a lot of large numbers, but in a war, all but the casualties were pretty small during that era. But enough with the boring numbers, time for the cool part.

            The first battle of Bull Run was the first battle in which Confederate or Union soldiers would spill one another’s blood. (the first true shots never killed anybody, but two Union soldiers blew themselves up.). The Union walked into this battle thinking they were going to crush the rebellion before lunch that day, and they had a good plan too, they would lay a large portion of the troops next to a bridge so that when the enemy crossed the bridge they would have to either fall back to the end of the bridge, or charge and take heavy casualties. The Union knew they would fall back, so they sent 20,000 soldiers through the woods so that they could come from behind. Now this would have been perfect if not for the most infamous unit in the war, the First Louisiana Special Battalion. They were on the confederate side, and recruited from seedy prisons, wharfs, and docks of New Orleans. They all were equipped with 12 in. bowie knives, all under command of Major General Chatham Roberdeau Wheat, this man was so tall, if you went to a dictionary and looked up giant, you would see this man. The hulking six-foot-four, 275-pound behemoth is the reason the unit was called Wheats Tigers. The first group of 5,500 Unions was under the command of Ambrose Burnside, Burnside ordered his men to charge Matthews Hill, Wheat then ordered his men to the opposite, bottom of the hill and to take cover. Gunfire was exchanged for one hour until the Confederates formed into defensive positions on Henry House Hill, the neighbor hill to Matthews Hill. But the Tigers were in a bad way, the Unions now had all their artillery in position and were devastating the Tigers. Then, a large chunk of shrapnel hit Major Wheat in his chest, tearing into his lungs. He lived until being mortally wounded in a later battle. The Tigers now joined forces with the rest of the army, under the command of Stonewall Jackson. Jackson then ordered a charge, the charge caused the Unions to fall back, they then retreated because all of their artillery was now the Confederates.

            As you can tell, the Union was definitely wrong in their assumption of thinking that the battle was going to be over anytime soon

            The next large battle was Shiloh, this battle was named such because of the nearby church, named Shiloh Church (this ironically is the Hebrew word for place of peace). The main leader on the side of the Confederates was Albert Sidney Johnston, the leader for the Union Ulysses S. Grant. At this point Grant had just crossed the Tennessee River, he set camp at a place called Pittsburg Landing so that he could meet up with another commander. Johnston then took his men through the nearby forest for the element of surprise, this part was crucial because Grant’s force was much larger than his. The Confederates went completely unnoticed and they dealt heavy casualties on the Union forces. The Unions fell back to Shiloh church where they held the line for several hours. Johnston, realizing that the battle hung on this position, rode out and lead his men, he was then grazed in the leg by a bullet, unbeknownst by Johnston this bullet hit his major artery, killing him in minutes. His successor finished pushing back the Union forces, but he didn’t capture or kill them. This was his downfall, that night, that other Union commander named Don Carlos Buell arrived with 20,000 men. In the morning, the Confederates were in full retreat.

            The next and deadliest battle is the Battle of Antietam, this battle was one of the only fights fought on Union soil. Robert E. Lee had now taken over the Confederate army, his opposer was George McClellan, this man was extremely cautious. He was so cautious that when he received the battle plans for the attack, he proceeded with such caution, it cost him the battle. The Unions aimed to split Lees army and then decimate each group separately. One division under the lead of D.H. Hill set fort in a place called Turners Gap. When he saw the sea of blue soldiers charging towards him, he said “I don’t remember to ever have experienced such loneliness. “

            Hill held the position for nearly all day, but the lines eventually broke, and he told his men run for their lives. At this point, Lee figured out his plans had been discovered, and he pulled everyone back to Sharpsburg. He then positioned Stonewall Jackson in a cornfield to hopefully rush the Union, but the Union shredded the units with artillery fire. The division fell back to a church where Jackson called for help, he was heard by John Bell Hoods Texas brigade, the men ran out, broke the lines of the Union, fell back, so Jackson could breath, and then the remaining soldiers went back to camp to have their first hot meal in three days. But elsewhere the line broke and left a gaping hole to Sharpsburg, but the Unions didn’t use this golden opportunity because McClellan was too cautious to go through with it, even though he had over 10,000 men in reserve a mile away. This infuriated Lincoln and he stripped McClellan of his position immediately. The Union lost their chance to crush the Rebels, they would, of course seize one eventually. But this was also a blow to the Confederacy, because they didn’t win the battle the countries that were interested in helping the Confederacy pulled out.

Everybody has heard of the battle of Gettysburg, but most people don’t know a whole lot about it. Gettysburg was actually and accidental battle, the division of A.P. Hill went into Gettysburg and ran into Union soldiers the Unions fell back to a group of hills and then stayed there and brought more soldiers. The rebels then led a charge known as Pickett’s Charge. The Union grouped all their soldiers in the direct path of the charge, not expecting the Confederacy to be leading a separate charge on the mostly unoccupied hill. But the rebels ran into a problem, the charge had pulled back and now they were surrounded. The Confederacy did indeed push the Unions back, but their losses were to great to be replaced. This is where the Confederacy began its fall.

            In conclusion, I would like to say that the Confederacy had a large disadvantage, they just didn’t have the numbers that the union had. If they had greater numbers, we would probably be learning about the Confederate States of America in Geography as well as history.

Teamwork has existed since the beginning of time; it was a necessity to survive. But now that we have evolved through time, is it always a necessity? Schools nine times out of ten force teamwork upon children, but there are two types of teamwork. The first type is where you pick your group, this is usually preferred by kids. They like it because they get to hang out with their friends for school purposes. The downside to this is that the group won’t be as productive. The latter option is when the group is randomized, you usually will end up uncomfortable and insecure in this group. But you get more done. The third and rarest of all, working alone. I prefer the third option most, I like this option because my ideas aren’t ever shot down, I don’t get a lower grade due to some other kid’s mistakes, and all the work isn’t pushed on me. Most groups are split into two categories, the slackers, and the people who take all of the work and say you did nothing. Both are equally annoying, above it may look like I like the second category less, that’s because I do. Dealing with slackers is easy, you have credits at the end. The second category is extremely difficult to work with, due to it’s their word against yours. Groups are no longer required in this modern day and age, yes they are sometimes needed, but not as much as the Public Education system leads us to believe.

If the largest empire of your time said give us your land while they had a spear at your throat, you would probably squeak an almost inaudible yes, Greece had other plans, the small city-states of Greece banded together and stopped the Persians from taking any of their land for a long-term period of time.

          The battle of Marathon was an astonishing victory for the Greeks, Persia was landing in the town of Marathon so that they could just walk up to Athens doorstep, but the docks were all broken so they went to a nearby beach and saw a force of 10,000 Athenians waiting for them. The Persians thought it was no big deal, they rushed the beach and the Athenians ran and hid in their small wood forts on top of the hills. The two armies had a stalemate for five days and Persia was getting annoyed, so they decided to just storm Athens by sea, as soon as they loaded up their cavalry, the Athenians attacked. They delivered such a crushing blow that the Persians were forced to retreat. The Persians lost a whopping 6,400 men, whereas Athens lost only 192 soldiers.

          The battle of Salamis was after Thermopylae, at Thermopylae the Greeks were betrayed by a local shepherd, the Greeks lost 2,000 soldiers and king Leonidas. The Persians were heading to the Hellespont to deliver the final crushing blow to Greece, but they ran into the Resistance in the straits of Salamis. The Persians had so many ships that they couldn’t maneuver well, or get clear shots. Nearly all of the fleet was sunk or sinking, the king called a retreat and they booked it back home.

          In conclusion, Persia then just stayed on the sidelines, unless they were certain they could win, this definitely saved them during the Peloponnesian Wars, and until Macedon invaded them, nobody really messed with them, it like the saying “ don’t poke a sleeping bear, unless you are ready for a trip to the E.R.”.

In the year 599 B.C. Cyrus II of Persia was born, or more commonly known as Cyrus the Great, he would go on to create the largest empire of that era, he would lay the foundation for a dynasty that would last hundreds of years.

          Cyrus’s father was Cambyses the II and his mother was Mandane of Persia. Cyrus became king of Persia at the age of 40, he would then rule for 30 years. Although he was king of Persia, there was still Median oversight, in 553 Cyrus led an attack on the Median capital, capturing his grandfather and extending the reach of his kingdom almost to Greece.

          Cyrus then set his sights on Lydia, the king of Lydia Croesus, sieged the Persian capital Pteria and enslaved all inhabitants. At that time Cyrus was attempting to convince Ionia, who was a part of the Lydian empire to revolt. The Ionians declined and Cyrus leveled them. When Cyrus got to Pteria he battled with Croesus’s men, he won the city back, but with heavy casualties. Croesus then retreated back to Sardis. Cyrus then besieged Sardis and killed Croesus.

           Cyrus, now leader of a massive empire struck down upon Babylonia, with the same results as the last. He then freed the Hebrews and funded there rebuilding of Jerusalem. But all great leaders eventually fall, and Cyrus was no exception. In the year of 530 B.C., Cyrus was slain by an opposing enemy at the age of 70.

          But he didn’t die for nothing, he created an empire that would change all of history. In conclusion, Cyrus the Great was called such for a reason, the only man who would crush his army, was Alexander the Great.   

Most people despise advice, this is because, we humans, want to figure it out on our own. Is that good, or bad? If you were stuck on a video game level, would you want your sibling or friend to give you some tips, or have them keep quiet? Each side has good and bad points, so, I will cover these points, and then share my opinion.

 If you take advice, you are working with others, showing that you care what they say, and you are being humble. If you don’t take advice, you are being self-reliant, growing independence, and you are learning that sometimes, people won’t help you. The bad part about taking advice is, that you are growing dependent, and not learning on your own. The bad part of not taking advice is that you are being rude and not hearing them out.

I have learned from experience that working with others and hearing them out can be difficult, and sometimes not worth it. I am usually a lone wolf, but I would still hear the tips others gave. I wouldn’t always put their advice into action, but I would hear what they have to say and recognize that they were trying to help. So, if someone does give you advice, hear it out, thank them for helping, and then you decide if you want to use the advice or not. In all, advice from people should always be heard out, but if you use it or not, is up to you.