Becoming or Identity(Short Story First Draft)

ACE-Handyman

I am a handyman, a person skilled at a wide range of repairs, typically around the home. These tasks include trade skills, repair work, maintenance work, both interior and exterior, and are sometimes described as "odd jobs", "fix-up tasks", and include light plumbing jobs such as fixing a leaky toilet or light electric jobs such as changing a light fixture. Since I have been in this business for quite a few years already, I can be considered as quite an expert.

I am quite educated and speak with an English accent. I consider myself as quite a gentleman, as I am one of the few handymen who have the privilege of being able to go to a university. Whenever, I see a lady cross my path, I would take of my hat and say “Good Morning, lady!” The smile that I got was worth it.

I take great pride in my clothing; my favourite style is casual wear, as it somehow makes me feel more like myself. Furthermore, since my job requires me to do a large variety of works, I might get dirty so casual wear suits my personality and job well.

I am a very sporty person, as I was in the football team in my youth. I normally work out in the gym at least once a day, each session lasting two hours. As my job usually requires me to carry a lot of heavy things, I dedicate myself to training the muscles in my arms. Within three months, I have already bulging muscles in both my arms. A look at these arms of mine would make a girl swoon.

I love reading during my spare time. Normally, the books that interest me are fantasy, action, etc books. I also listen to music, mainly classical and rock. Occasionally, I would listen to Korean pop.

I would like to make a holiday trip to Australia, as I would like to admire the beautiful countryside, it would be a welcome break from my hectic lifestyle.

I have always dreamed of having an Audi, and am currently saving up for it. Of course, as every other Singaporean, I have a weakness for good food, any food, as long as it is tasty, appeals to me.

So this is me, a common yet interesting handyman.

ACE-Diary of a prisoner

Dear Diary,

Here I am stuck in this smelly and brutal prison with goodness knows how many other poor souls like me. Prisoners like me are arriving everyday in swarms, there’s just no end to them. Since I was kidnapped from my bed by masked men, I had endured a twelve hour journey to the middle of a desert---this prison. One of my fellow prisoners told me that this is what they call a ‘political prison camp’ and are used to house those thought by the government as anti-government. Ok, I admit, I had been writing a few articles criticizing the present government on their views towards military spending. However, never in my life did I ever imagine that I would be labelled as a ‘political opponent ‘ just for this, and that such things could happen in such a democratic country such as America!

Here at this camp, the prisoners are treated as if we were slaves, we were worked to death every single day, doing all sorts of heavy labour, I was beginning to wonder if the guards had any orders to work us to death. Speaking of the guards, the guards here are worst than Adolf Hitler, all of them had machine guns and at the slightest sign of disobedience, they would give the unlucky person a good beating, or even kill him.

Every day, we were expected to wake up at 5am. Breakfast consisted of just a piece of bread and a cup of water. Work started at 5.15am, those who were not fast enough at getting ready were whipped. We worked all the way till twelve noon, stopping for a quick drink before continuing our work. Bedtime was at 1am. Under these conditions, many prisoners dropped like flies, dead. But this was no problem to the guards, as they had an endless supply of prisoners coming in to work for them.

I had made up my mind that I am going to escape from this godforsaken place with a few of my fellow prisoners, we had sworn that if we had managed to escape, we would use all our influences to reveal the cruelty of the present government and unseat them. Lately, we had obtained guns from two guards, Tom and Jack, whom we had befriended, as they sympathised with our cause. I pray to God that we will succeed.

Zi Jie

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Short Story - Prejudice

Prejudice. What is prejudice? Prejudice is the preconceived judgment toward a people or a person because of race, social class, gender, ethnicity, age, disability, political beliefs, region, sexual orientation or other personal characteristics. There are many forms of prejudice such as discrimination, racism, etc. Let me use the below story to give you an example.

Martin entered a small café with a few of his friends. He failed to notice the ‘Whites Only’ sign on the door. As he entered the café, one of the waiters looked up. “Hey you, nigger, what are you doing in this café. Didn’t your bloody eyes see the sign at the door! Get you and your bunch of black friends out of the door this instant and don’t let me catch your nigger faces around here again or else…” The shop owner let out a tirade against Martin, angered at Martin daring to enter a “Whites Only” café. Martin and his friends felt anger rushing through them. They had been treated like this for a long time already and this was the straw that broke the camel’s back. With a roar of anger, Martin and his friends charged at the waiters, overturning the tables and chairs in the process.

“Think that you’re so superior now, huh? Let’s see how you will feel when we smash this place to smithereens, bitch!” Martin and his friends were determined to give the shop owner and his waiters a beating they’ll never forget. However, in doing so, they have crossed a sacred line, they had insulted a white man and had also beat him up. This could possibly give them all death sentences. Customers in the café went screaming out into the streets. One of the customers took out his mobile phone and called the police. Within moments, three police cars were on the scene, sirens wailing. Martin and his friends were overpowered by the policemen who had stun guns and did not hesitate to use them on ‘blackies’. Handcuffed, Martin and his friends were brought back to the police station. There were no trials, no hearings. Three days later, Martin and his friends were shot by a firing squad.

This was the 19^th century America, when discrimination in the form of racism was common. Black people were looked down by White people. Privileges and special rights were taken away from the black people and Black people were treated as if they were trash. Racism continued until a man named Martin Luther King held protests in cities of America and racism was abolished.