By: Jaspreet Kaur

Introduction
Growing up I was never sure of what I wanted to pursue as a future career. I can remember the first job I ever wanted was to be a cashier at a supermarket when I was ten years old, then from the ages of twelve to fifteen I wanted to become a lawyer, then I wanted to become a therapist, and finally I have decided to pursue a career as a physician assistant. I swore away from the medical field for years, I can remember always saying “I would never do anything that contains medicine.” and here I am today, dreaming of pursuing medicine. The main question that still remains is “How can we lower the pay gap between male and female physician assistants?”.
I hope this article reaches all the PA students, Med students, the faculties who are in charge of the biology/health sciences departments. To all the women and men who are in the medical field, people look at the statistics on the gender pay gap between both female and male physician assistants. I would love to show every intrigued reader statistics, research from different states, surveys from PAs, the different specialty salary discrepancies, and also negotiating.

Statistics
In 2018 the AAPA monitors have shown that the pay gap between men and women PAs in terms of base salary has been lowered tremendously in the past twenty years. Now this is a big win for women in this profession. The statistics also show us how in the late 1990s the pay gap was terrible, in the 2000s it worsened tremendously, but then in 2012 is where the female PAs were getting paid the average salary. The crazier part of this is women were not getting the same type of bonus that the men were getting. The difference in the bonuses was 3,000 dollars. Furthermore, the overall base salary between men and women PAs was around 6% even after taking into account the amount of experience, on-call hours, patient care, their specialties, and bonuses. (American Academy of PAs 2018).
Covid
Covid was an interesting portion in our entire lives, now let us note what the compensation was like for PAs during Covid. The AAPA also reported that in 2020 the hourly wage went down to 60 dollars, while in 2019 it was 62.73 dollars. In comparison to this the average compensation salary also went from 145,000 dollars in 2019 and 144,000 dollars in 2020. Another fact is the bonuses decreased by a thousand dollars. Moreover, In 2020 telehealthcare was proposed by PAs and showed a magnificent growth in usage. Opposed to 2019 which showed that users did not use telehealth as much as they did in 2020. The statistics in 2020 were 63% and in 2019 it was 10% (Stone 2021).
Covid was a struggle for me in 2020, I lost my father to covid and I resented hospitals for letting this happen. But as I matured and grew I saw that no one was at fault, no one knew how to contain this disease at the time, and everyone tried their best. I know the doctors, physician assistants, nurses, and all the staff members tried their best to save my father all while trying to navigate this new confound disease. So I would personally like to thank every staff member.

States
Moving on, allow me to discuss a few states such as California, New York, and Connecticut. According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics a physician assistant in California makes around 144,520 dollars, this is calculated throughout the employment of PAs in May 2022. In New York the average PA makes around 135,620 dollars annually and it is also based on state employment of PAs like California. But on the other side of the spectrum, Connecticut is based on location quotients of PAs in May 2022 (Bureau of Labor Statistics 2023). Now if you are like me, you are probably wondering what a location quotient even is. Basically a location quotient is a ratio that is used for areas distribution of employment, ownership, and class size (Bureau of Labor Statistics 2023). All of these states would be super competitive considering the salary, we all want a good salary do we not?
Specialties
In the medical field there are a tremendous amount of specialties, some are family medicine, internal medicine, emergency medicine, pediatrics, dermatology, gynecology, and more. The Women’s Health Issue used a survey and then did a qualitative analysis on these findings. The survey that was used was the biggest census survey which included AAPA and non AAPA members, there were 19,608 PAs that participated in 2009 for this survey (Coplan et. al 2011). In this article the researchers wanted to be precise about the gender pay gap which is why they focused on the “three mostly reported specialty areas, as listed in the 2009 AAPA PA Census: Family practice, emergency medicine, and orthopedic surgery.” The characteristics that were taken into consideration were years practicing as a physician assistant, number of patients a week, hours worked per week, and total on-call hours each month.
MANOVA and ANOVA were used to conduct this qualitative analysis. MANOVA is a multivariate analysis of variance, and the purpose of this is to decide whether multiple levels of independent variables on their own or combined with one another can actually produce an effect on the dependent variable. Now ANOVA is an analysis of variance and it is used to compare different means of different groups (Statistics Solutions). MANOVA results indicated gender did significantly affect the chosen practice variables, and ANOVAs outcome showed that male were scarcely choosing PA as a career. In addition, men physician assistants reported more funding that was available to them “from their primary clinical employers for professional development” in contrast to the female physician assistants. The concluding results showed that male PAs continue to earn more than their female counterparts, while controlling for practice variables including specialty, experience, number of hours logged, number of patient visits, and on-call hours performed (Coplan et. al 2011).
There is a more significant percentage of female physicians, alongside female PAs who work less hours and see fewer patients as well. This is super interesting to hear because your initial reaction might be “well why?”. I like believing this is because female healthcare providers are immediately meant to produce a family and take care of that household. It is virtually like they are the glue holding their family together. The same female providers acknowledge their families and careers are a crucial benefactor to their life which is why they habitually assume a greater responsibility (Coplan et. al 2011). As a female I care about having a successful career and a prosperous family. With the support of my family, I have the chance to focus on my education and prosper in the medical field. I know I owe it all to my parents to make them proud of the only daughter they have.

Salary discrepancies
Looking at this figure provided by the AAPA we can see that Years of experience is the X-variable and Median Base salary is the Y-variable. The discrepancy is clearly visible when you read this chart, but allow me to explain it a little bit. We are presented with a bar graph, let us analyze the graph and look at the 20 or more years; women receive 115,000 dollars annually, and all PAs receive 119,000 dollars, and men receive 123,285 dollars. There’s no specific specialty behind this but it is still a salary discrepancy based on gender.
Promptly we can move into a territory I have not discussed is salary discrepancies within teachers. Two practicing PAs have written a research article called “Salary Differences of Male and Female Physician Assistant Educators” and they are Jennifer Coombs, PhD, PA-C;Virginia Valentin, MCMS, PA-C. The entire purpose of this article was to willingly see if there efficiently was a unique difference between male and female PA faculty salaries. The research they used to lead the findings were from the PAEA’s 25th annual report about PA education from 2010. The compared variables for male and female faculty in the analysis were clinical work, degree, rank, and position. Its noted that salaries were reported without any benefits and in dollars, clinical work was accepted with the amount of income retained; specific hours worked towards the clinical and an amount of income received that was unreported; degree was listed as bachelors, masters, or a doctorate degree, and lastly rank was lecturer, assistant professor or full professor (Coombs, Valentin 2014).
The results have come back, 168 men and 309 women indicated full-time employment. The average male salary was $92,066 a year and a female’s salary was $86,599, clearly depicting male faculty members making $5,467 per year more than a female PA faculty member. 280 full-time faculty members documented they worked clinically and received some sort of income. 178 people who worked clinically were women. To see if a difference was even made they used the faculties education level, with a bachelor’s degree the male PA faculty earned $18,288 more than a female colleague. Male faculty with a masters degree earn $2,304 more and doctorate degree males earn $7,167 more. Even by rank the wage difference between male and female educators is -$1,882. One of the authors further says that if this gap increases in the education sector about leadership gap (Coombs, Valentin 2014).
Overall, this study provided readers with so much insight on a pay gap within PA educators. It truly is interesting considering that there are more female educators than male educators and male faculty members make more than their female counterparts.
Negotiating
Negotiating is a skill all women should learn. The National Library of Medicine believes that one of the reasons why there is a gender pay gap is because they lack negotiating skills. They conducted a workshop where the participants learned negotiation microskills and terminology, identified strengths and skills to improve their skills, how to apply their negotiating skills, described the role gender plays, and applied their skills in a role-playing deal. The results from this study showed a significant improvement in the learners’ negotiation skills, strategies, how and when to use them (Simmone et.al 2020).
Another Article described potential solutions to fix the discrepancies in salaries between Male and Female Physician Assistants. They stated “Employers should be clear whether there is room for open negotiation when offering a salary…” reading this just provides you with the information of asking your employers questions and talking to them in a respectful manner while talking and asking questions. This would provide women with the stability of knowing how to adjust their salaries (Smith et.al 2017).
Concluding Remarks
While writing this creative/research piece I was enlightened with new detail everytime I clicked on an article. In my assignment 2 I expressed that the best possible solution to fix this problem would be negotiating and I still stand by this. We need to continue holding workshops for all medical health care workers who are women to help them achieve these skills. I wish by the time I graduate from my undergrad and PA school that this matter will be taken care of, but if not I will learn negotiating skills to get the best offer I could get. Thank you so much for taking the time out of your day to read my piece.
Bibliography
Bettie Coplan, Alison C. Essary, Thomas B. Virden, James Cawley, James D. Stoehr, “Salary Discrepancies Between Practicing Male and Female Physician Assistants”, Women’s Health Issues, Volume 22, Issue 1, 2012, Pages e83-e89,ISSN 1049-3867, https://www.whijournal.com/article/S1049-3867(11)00159-9/fulltext
Hooker, R. S., JAMES F. Cawley, and Everett M. Christine. “Current status: A profile of the physician assistant profession.” Physician assistants: Policy and practice (2010): 62-100. (book) https://books.google.com/books?hl=en&lr=&id=YTAjDgAAQBAJ&oi=fnd&pg=PA37&dq=physician+assistant+in+india+wage&ots=XOpRFsoChM&sig=BvL5rsA3bpPbjOjhDF3cJjGpN-w#v=onepage&q=physician%20assistant%20in%20india%20wage&f=false
Smith, Noël, James F. Cawley, and Timothy C. McCall. “Examining the gap: compensation disparities between male and female physician assistants.” Women’s Health Issues 27.5 (2017): 607-613. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1049386717302657?casa_token=F3q0cZYG2hIAAAAA:sYJugRmyzrb5xBQniYefY7C49uhQgA5p1jpEA9U8o1b3vZXqLCCeed1bbfqEZXc-uWNMjyhqKQ
Simone AM, Simone M, Block L, LaVine N. Contract Negotiation Skills: A Workshop for Women in Medicine. MedEdPORTAL. 2020 Jun 18;16:10910. doi: 10.15766/mep_2374-8265.10910. PMID: 32656331; PMCID: PMC7331958. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7331958/
Women Are Paid Less than Men in the PA Profession – Aapa, 2018, www.aapa.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/11/SR-Realtionship-Between-Salary-and-Gender-for-PAs.pdf.
Lani, James. “ANOVAS and Manovas.” Statistics Solutions, 9 Aug. 2021, www.statisticssolutions.com/anovas-and-manovas/#:~:text=An%20ANOVA%20is%20used%20to,ANOVAs%20or%20a%20single%20MANOVA%3F.
“Physician Assistants.” U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, 25 Apr. 2023, www.bls.gov/oes/current/oes291071.htm.
Stone, Kathleen. “PA Salary Report 2021: Compensation Impacts of the Pandemic.” Healthcare Trends PA Salary Report 2021: Compensation Impacts of the Pandemic, CompHealth Blog, 24 June 2021, https://comphealth.com/resources/physician-assistant-pa-salary. Accessed 20 May 2023.

Being a working woman in American society is not easy. The gender pay gap between men and women has been a major issue for many years, but the specific area I want to dig into is the physician assistant profession. Some people might not know what physician assistants even are, so to debrief physician assistants are the doctors assistants. Physician assistants can assist in surgeries, physicians can create patient treatment plans, physicians can be in any specialty they want, and physicians are always under the supervision of a doctor. Women have always earned less than men even if they have worked more hours than their male associates. This is why women physician assistants need to resolve this issue. In the articles “Current status: A profile of the physician assistant profession.” by Hooker, R. S., James F. Cawley, and D. P. Asprey and “Salary Discrepancies Between Practicing Male and Female Physician Assistants” by Bettie Coplan, Alison C. Essary, Thomas B. Virden, James Cawley, James D. Stoehr discusses these issues. 

Both of these texts show progress of the gender pay gap over the years, statistics, specific specialities physicians generally choose, and race. Hooker, Cawley, and Everett wrote a section dedicated to explaining the history from different countries in a book about physician assistants. . Also while reading this chapter you do not see any portrayal of emotion and the reader does not see any bias being presented from the authors. This is a more of an ethos approach simply because they provided proper citations and statistics which proves their credibility. Coplan, Essary, Virden, Cawley, and Stoehr start off with a strong statement of how women in the United States who work still earn less than their male associates. While reading the entirety of this article I had seen logos and ethos presented throughout this with all the percentages and the ethical approaches. Which is why the ability to negotiate is a powerful skill to master which is a solution that Hooker, Cawley, and Everett have brought up.

The physician assistant profession was first mainly male dominated from 1965 all the way up to the 1980s. Dr. Eugene Stead was convinced that males will do better as physicians but this was a short lived statement because by 1974 the percentage of female physicians increased 16% (Hooker, Cawley, Everett 44 2010). You can see the evident gender bias and discrimination expressed by some male doctors. Many students who have the academic records to go to medical school decide to go to PA school because it can be more flexible to manage their lifestyles better. It was also reported that married men make more than single men and single women make more than married women. When the authors say this they are not specific if this is just a general statement or whether it is a fact for physicians as well. Women physicians also earn less than male physicians when considering on-call hours, years as a practicing PA, community size, and location. With this lacking a percentage it weakens their claim, which then weakens their ethos that is built up on their evidence and statistics. The power of negotiating is discussed, the authors state “Other considerations to explain the differences may relate to initial starting salaries, the ability to negotiate for raises…” (Hooker, Cawley, Everett 46 2010). Throughout this chapter there has been lack of statistics to strengthen their facts and when discussing other countries they were concise on the information being given. I had only hoped that they would provide more information when talking about other countries. 

Coplan, Essary, Virden, Cawley, and Stoehr starts off the article with an impeccable statement “Despite years of progress, women in the United States workforce continue to earn less money than their male counterparts”. During the 1960s the first physician assistants were ex-military and corpsmen and then over the years women started populating the physician assistant profession. This article informs us that in 1983 and then in 1985 Carter and Oliver found the salary inequities between the genders, but fails to provide us with the percentage of just how much disparity there was between male and female physicians. The progress the authors noted from 1992 to 2009 was that male physicians who are practicing family medicine earn five thousand dollars more annually than their female colleagues who are also in family medicine. They also found that the salary difference between male and female physician assistants shows a $14,685 difference in base pay, but failed to mention the year. The reader can admire the authors starting to add actual numbers and statistics with their numbers to make their facts concrete. There were proper findings that explained the ANOVA tables based on age, ethnicity, degree, location, type and source of income, hours worked, and etc. In the article there is a section for each of these discoveries that further explains how they arrived at their answer. 

Overall, negotiating is a skill that many women lack. If women were to step up and negotiate like men, showing their employer exactly what they can bring to the table would undoubtedly decrease the gender pay gap. One source that Coplan, Essary, Virden, Cawley, and Stoehr mention is the AAPA which backs up this solution to the problem. But the limitation that is reached with this is that none of the articles actually tested this solution, they just briefly mention negotiating as a solution. Which still leaves us with the question, how can we make the gender pay gap equal between physician assistants?

Bibliography: 

1. Bettie Coplan, Alison C. Essary, Thomas B. Virden, James Cawley, James D. Stoehr, “Salary Discrepancies Between Practicing Male and Female Physician Assistants”, Women’s Health Issues, Volume 22, Issue 1, 2012, Pages e83-e89,ISSN 1049-3867, https://www.whijournal.com/article/S1049-3867(11)00159-9/fulltext 
2. Hooker, R. S., JAMES F. Cawley, and Everett M. Christine. “Current status: A profile of the physician assistant profession.” Physician assistants: Policy and practice (2010): 62-100.  (book) https://books.google.com/books?hl=en&lr=&id=YTAjDgAAQBAJ&oi=fnd&pg=PA37&dq=physician+assistant+in+india+wage&ots=XOpRFsoChM&sig=BvL5rsA3bpPbjOjhDF3cJjGpN-w#v=onepage&q=physician%20assistant%20in%20india%20wage&f=false 

From the time that women have been able to work, they have been paid far less than their male employees. So the main question I have is how can the gender pay gap between female and male physician assistants decrease? I also want to find out what the pay gap is in different countries to get a different lens and how much the pay gap has lessened over the years. Throughout this research process I know I will need medical journals, academic reports on medicine, statistics, and proof from female and male physician assistants. I think the obstacles I could run into while I am conducting research is an overflux of material and not knowing what to use and what not to use. 

This topic intrigues me because this is the career path I am going for. I want to know why women get paid less in this profession. I care heavily about the gender pay gap because it does not make sense to me one bit. Why should women get paid less than men when they could do the exact thing men are doing. In this profession as well as every other profession that exists. I hope to mainly reach the Pre-PA students, actual PAs, or even anyone in the medical field. This topic can go for every career, not only PA, which is why I believe everyone should be intrigued. There could be answers in this paper that solve unanswered questions in another profession. 

A walk around the park, 

Dogs, children, babies, adults 

All going for a stroll in the park. 

The wind grazing her face reminding her of her adolescent years, 

Her friends ran to the playground,

And that’s when she saw him.

He was with a group of boys whom she recognized, 

But she had no clue who this mysterious figure was 

She looked away immediately, 

The both of them sneaking in secret glances.

He was stunned by the beauty in her eyes, 

Our gazes interlocked,

Hearts were fluttering, as I passed by her. 

It was like love at first sight. 

The wind that rushed through her hair

Giving her an angelic silhouette. 

And that’s when I knew she was my saving grace. 

Jaspreet Kaur 

Prof. Ding 

Writing II 

17 March 2023 

Rashomon 

1. Give a brief outline of the plot (action) of the film.
   1. In the film Rashomon there is a couple who is attacked by a bandit. While this attack takes place the bandit takes the honor of the wife while her husband has been tied to a tree stump. There are four versions of this story, the bandit who raped the wife, the wife, the husband through a medium, and lastly the woodcutter. 
2. What are the main symbols in the film, what do they represent
   1. The main symbols are the sun, the forest, the knife, and the baby. I think these are the symbols because the sun is blinding the wife while she is being assaulted symbolizes how everyone can become blind when there are certain things going on. The forest symbolizes isolation and quietness, and escape from the real world. The knife was seen to me as a power statement for the wife, the knife was the only thing she was in control of and it was almost like it resembled her dignity. And lastly, the baby represents purity and a new life without war and fear. 
3. What are the main philosophical questions (ideas) being raised by the film? How are these themes still relevant today?
   1. The main question being asked to me is who is actually true? There were only four people at the scene and each of them have a different story, but some parts are aligning with each other. How was he so obsessed with the samurai’s wife and still assaulted her? Why did she want her husband dead and run off with the bandit?
   2. The theme that stuck out to me is a woman’s honor. The wife would have rather died than people find out that she’s “been with two men” is shocking, but not at the same time because it has been like that since the olden days. Even now immigrant parents do not want their daughters’ virtue to be ruined. 
4. How is the structure of the film important to the telling of this story?
   1. The structure of the film is important to the telling of this story because it leads to all the different stories. You are able to see the similarities and differences in this story. You can decide for yourself who is telling the truth and who is not. 
5. Whose story did you find most trustworthy and why?
   1. Well I’d like to start off by reiterating there are similarities in the four stories displayed to us. The bandit raping the wife, the samurai being tied up, and the samurai dying. I think the woodcutter’s story is the most trustworthy simply because he was the only one not trying to get involved with the “court”. He also really had nothing to lose which is why I think he would want the truth to be out there. 
6. Consider the final scene when the Priest chooses to hand the baby over to the Woodsman. What is Kurosawa trying to say with this gesture?
   1. Although the Woodman did have some holes in his story, you could see he had faith in humankind when some did not. I think that is why the Priest handed over the baby to the Woodman and to show that he trusts him. 
7. Rashomon is an adaptation of a short story written by Akutagawa, consider what elements are present in the film that enhance or diminish a story like this. Are there aspects to the story that might be better served on the page, why?
   1. In the first story where the bandit gets defensive about falling off the horse was unnecessary because it did not make a comeback at the end of his story at all. It would’ve been better if it was left on the pages. The wife and the bandit laughing like maniacs or when the wife cried hysterically added to the film because it showed how they were losing it. For the bandit I just immediately thought something was wrong with him when they introduced him. And then the woman I was surprised that she started laughing maniacally like the bandit, but when she was crying in hysterics I expected it because a womens’ virtue matters more than the woman herself. 

Jaspreet Kaur 

Prof. Ding 

English 2150 

5 March 2023 

Greed 

Fall was my favorite season where I received my biggest life lesson. Every Sunday morning we went to the gurdwara. As my father and I were walking home from the Gurdwara I saw a quarter on the ground and pointed it out to my father. I turned to him and said “Could I pick up the quarter?” to which he responded “No, Jas do not pick up any money you see on the ground, it will only make you greedier”. I bit my lips and stormed off into the house not understanding why he did not let me pick up the quarter. 

As a kid I would dread going to the Gurdwara because it felt like a waste of time when I could be fooling around with my childhood friends. I was running away from Sikhism like I was running towards the swings in the playgrounds. My friends were also Sikhs like I am, but it never took away the knots forming in my stomach when we talked in our mother tongue. 

My Punjabi culture led me to become self conscious about who I was. When anyone brought up the topic of culture, I felt my cheeks turn pink because I did not want to share my Punjabi roots. I would make sure I did not smell like the rich flavors of the curry my mother would prepare for and I tried convincing her to not lather my hair with Amla oil. 

My father was a turban wearing Sikh and my mother is a salwar kameez wearing Sikh. Whenever I was in public with either my father or mother I would always shy away from them. My fathers thick accent while trying to speak English made me cringe inside. My mother always tried to insert herself into the conversations so she could learn how to speak proper English and I would try to run away. Also, my father was a selfless, humble, and contempt person. Him being content and humble is why no one would ever categorize him as a selfish and greedy person. 

Our religion teaches us to give to people who are in need of help. This is called Seva which is to give without looking or expecting to get rewards for your selfless act of service. I’ve done Seva for as long as I can remember and the blissful feeling of being surrounded by the hymns of our prophet’s words is surreal. Which is why subconsciously Sikhi has been embedded into every nook and cranny that my brain could have. I am proud to be Sikh, I am proud of going to the Gurdwara every Sunday, and listening to the gurus retelling stories about the ten prophets. Being in harmony with the hymns relaxes me and reminds me of why I should be contempt with my life. Simply because we are all one, no one person is different from another person. 

On the other hand greed is one of the five sins in my religion. Greed is this intense passion for worldly items. It tends to make you a self-centered/selfish person which makes you forget your duties as a Sikh. It all comes back to me now on why my father told me to never pick up that quarter on the ground. If I had picked up that quarter I would have wanted more and I would not be thankful for where I am in life so far. This was the biggest life lesson my father left me with.

The opposite of giving is greed. No one realized death would be a prominent factor in my family and yet it was. My father gave everything his all, but death was so greedy it decided to take him. On April 20th, 2020 my father passed away due to the uprisings of covid. All I ever saw my father do was pray to God and be one with God. He gave his all to God and he was ready to go home. 

All the things I used to be embarrassed about are the things I embrace. I hope the air I am surrounded with when I cook resembles the rich flavors of my mothers curry. I make sure I put Amla oil in my hair to ensure thickness and growth like I once did. I am reminded of this lesson every time autumn rises. I talk to my childhood friends and relate to shared experiences of struggling with greed. We discuss why it is so beneficial to be contempt and grateful with where you are in life. Which is why I want to be remembered the same way my father is remembered by everyone that matters the most.

It was a windy, cloudy, and chilly fall afternoon. For as long as I can remember we always went to the Gurdwara on Sunday’s. My father and I were walking home from the Gurdwara -which is a holy place for Sikhs- that is five blocks away from my house. We arrived at our block when I saw a quarter on the ground, I pointed it out to my father, and he immediately stopped us. I turned to him almost immediately and I asked “Could I pick up the quarter?”. He responded with “No, Jas do not pick up any money you see on the ground, it will only make you greedier.” Not realizing what he meant by this at the time, I became upset, and stormed off. Years went by and now I’m realizing what he meant by those words. I am not someone who comes from wealth, I am just someone who comes from contentment. With this I believe being content with where you are at life is a way of truly living life; of course you should have high expectations for yourself and attempt to achieve them, but do not be unhappy with where you are at life. 

A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini page 359 “Later that morning, Mariam packed Zalmai a small lunch of bread and dried figs. For Aziza too she packed some figs, and a few cookies shaped like animals. She put it all in a paper bag and gave it to Laila. ‘Kiss Aziza for me’ she said. ‘Tell her she is the noor of my eyes and the sultan of my heart. Will you do that for me?’ Laila nodded, her lips pursed together.” And on page 391 “‘I’ll follow you to the end of the world, Laila.’ She pulls him close and kisses his lips. She believes she has never loved him more than at this moment. ‘Thank you,’ she says, her forehead resting against his.”

Prom night: 

We’ve finally entered the hall for prom and we enter to find our names on the plaque card that tells us where our table is. I am sitting next to my closest friends and all I am wondering is if they are okay and if they are enjoying prom so far. I look at them in complete adoration, soaking up this moment knowing it will be one of the best nights of my life. I look at my friend Abheyjeet and I tell him “I am so happy to be here with you right now, we have grown so much as two human beings. I am so proud of you.” My friendship with Abheyjeet bloomed very late in my high school career, senior year to be exact. I could not have been more thankful for him and I knew from that night he would be my friend for the rest of my life. I was also seated with Bikram, who is a dear old friend since freshman year of high school. I had hoped we would go to prom together, but that was not the case. Regardless, the love and affection I have for him is different from any other. The stolen glances between the both of us while we danced together here and there. I knew since that night we would stay friends for the rest of our lives. Needless to say, I was right, it was one of the best nights of my life.

I noticed that I had to analyze the text I was trying to copy and make sure the emotions that I am reading in the copied text are the same as my memory. In the text, I could see the deep rooted love Mariam has for both Aziza and Laila. So I wanted to implement that in my text in the ten minutes I had. I think I did this to the best of my abilities by trying to describe how I felt and the love I was trying to portray. I think there is a good sense of organization to the recreation of my own story. It follows the rhythm and theme of pure love in my friendships.