The message that I have taken away from "Ambition Over Adversity" by Tupac Shakur was to stick your chest out and to keep your head up high through the darkest of times and the brightest. The lines " Take one's adversity learn from their misfortune." Sticks out to me because my father often talks to me and says not make the mistakes that he has made throughout his life and the regret that he has to this day about mistakes that he has made. We have this talk often because he says that I have so much of him in me, but I'm staying on the right track. Another part of the poem that really hits me is "Believe in Something, Believe in yourself, Turn Adversity into Ambition". To me that me to stay strong, be the best person that I can be while being successful with a killer instinct to be the best. That in no way, shape or form does that mean that I backstab others to get to where I want to be.

The poem "The Rose That Grew From The Concrete" by Tupac Shakur speaks overcoming conflict and proving others wrong by a rose growing in a concrete crack proving the laws of nature wrong by growing in concrete. I compare this to me every time I'm or when somebody else is being doubted. I was being doubted by my friends because of my weight a few years ago to keep up with them in basketball, football and other sports like that when we would play outside. Then in September 2015 I lost like 10 pounds and got injured and gained it back. So when I had the time and recovered I lost 20 pounds and was slimmer than 90% of my friends. This poem also impacts me because my parents always told me to keep my head up high and to listen to God and to silence the haters that put me down.

The poem "My Baby" by Bethany Burmeister speaks about a very controversial topic. This topic is abortion. Abortion is something very wrong in my eyes because it's taking away a life. What if the kid that you're killing is the person to end racism or to be the leader of the free world? I never have had any personal experiences with abortion but this is a touchy topic for me to dive into because how horrible the concept of the idea is. The lines "I didn't know what I was doing" proves that the speaker already has deep regret about having an abortion. The speaker also states that "I killed my baby girl, I didn't know what else to do. Se will never enter this world, She'll never know what I knew." The things I took away from this part of the poem is that she realizes what she did by murdering a life with no chance of fighting back. This poem speaks out to others and spreads to stop this war on abortion and to give these fetuses a chance to change the world.

The poem "Don't Cry For Me" by Deborah Garcia Gaitan talks about losing a loved one. I know very well because my brother passed away just days after my first birthday. The lines "It was my time" really stings because he was only three years old and he had so much to live for. This will always sting and there is not a day that goes by that I don't think about my brother. I really believe that it wasn't his time to go. He had this big grin, but would never speak. But the line that really comforts me is "All my pain is gone, and Jesus took my tears." For me that means that Jesus will always be there for me through the good and bad times when others may not be there for you through your struggles of life. This poem really makes me miss him, and I believe that everybody with a lost loved one should read this poem to comfort them through these stressful times.

The poem "Loss and Gain" by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow speaks about the loss of an opportunity in life and that it will end up being a setback for a comeback. In the lines "What I have lost with what I have gained, What I have missed with what attained, Little room do I find for pride." To me, this line mean that whatever you have lost, God will always provide and you have to stay humble while swallowing your pride with humility in your heart. This reminds me to when I lost my spot at my youth group because I was too stubborn to swallow my pride and so I left for 2 1/2 months. When I returned, I swallowed my pride and faced the problems that I was facing and put God in the first place. This poem should be an inspiration for all people to show that everybody is not invincible and to know when to swallow one's pride.

The poem "Music to Me" represents a person's love for music. I can relate to this poem because of how much music I listen to on a daily basis. In the line "Music to me can be loud." I can heavily relate to this because I usually have music blowing up in my earphones and when I get home, I hook my iPad up to the Bluetooth speakers in my living room and blast Tupac on them for 3 hours before my mom gets home from work. I just love music in general because it shows what others like and see what mutual interests you have with others so you can connect over a favorite artist or song. The other lines that stood out to me were "Music makes you full of sorrrow, Music makes you full of joy." To me I can connect to this because it is a fact that music can change your emotions and feelings towards another subject or person. This poem I believe relates to every music lover out because you need an open mind in order to understand and open your eyes to new and evolving problems in the world today.