Angry Letter

2825 Ala Ilima Street

Honolulu, HI 96818

November 14, 2012

MAC Cosmetics

1450 Ala Moana Blvd Ste 2072

Honolulu, HI 96818

Dear MAC Cosmetics Administration,

I have always been a satisfied customer of your makeup products. It’s a great high-end company that sells excellent quality makeup.

However, I have recently encountered some problems with an inappropriate attitude with most of the sales associates. It may just be that the employee’s were having a bad day, but it has happened to me more then once and at different MAC Cosmetic locations as well. When walking into the store I am automatically greeted with a hello, but the tension and the vibe is very intimidating. Although I may be still a teenager, it is no right to constantly stare me down thinking I would steal some something. I called one of your locations asking about what your job description is as a sales associate. They said told me that you have to be a well-rounded person as well as have good attitude and an open mind. With my past experiences at MAC, the sales associates haven’t shown these types of qualities. 

Not only was I the only one to get this type of attitude towards myself, but others as well. I have checked yelp reviews for MAC Cosmetics around my area and others too were irate by the way they have been treated at your store. Although not all of them were bad, these are just a few random quotes I pulled out of some reviews. “Most of the time, I am just ignored when I wander in there.” “And what’s up with all the attitudes?” These are just two of the many unpleasant reviews that your store has been getting.

I completely understand if some of the times your workers were just having a “bad day”, but that has no right to interfere with their work ethic. They came into this job so be a sales associate. To be a well-rounded worker with a good attitude towards customers.

Please keep up with the good work with making the MAC Cosmetic’s store a good affordable high-end quality brand makeup. But I do advise you to just talk to your staff members about their attitude towards the customers.

Sincerely,

Lina Nguyen

Risky Business Rough Draft

            With the generation now days, it’s the new “it” thing for teenagers to get drunk or high. But such thing is illegal for a minor and if caught with such item, you can get arrested. That's why teens are turning to household items, manipulating their purpose to get a high or drunk. Since drugs and alcohol are hard to obtain, teens are turning to household items to abuse to get the “buzz” because they’re cheaper and more easily accessible.

            With this topic not being too talked about, some might not even think this is a problem because they’re focusing on the more mainstream topics that teenagers suffer from. For example, alcohol, weed, and drugs. When people hear that teenagers are abusing household products so get the “buzz”, they don’t really take it in and consider the fact that this is a really dangerous problem that may get them killed. Also, some people may even think that this isn’t as bad as other growing problems out there such as alcohol abuse and drug abuse. Even though those things are illegal or have an age limit, it doesn’t necessarily mean that abusing household items isn’t as dangerous.  Because household items isn’t illegal and its very easy to attain, kids are turning to the fact that they can search on the Internet to learn how to abuse such items. For example, hand sanitizer. The California poision control system received at least 60 reports of teenagers drinking hand sanitizer since 2010. Although, 60 people isn’t a very large number, it still should be overlooked. Kids have figured out that there is a very high alcohol content in the item and they go on the Internet to learn how to separate the item to only get the alcohol. While other kids drink the sanitizer straight up.

            Abusing such items also causes some major health effects that may damage you both long and short term.  Some short-term effects it may give you are dizziness, hallucinations, anger, dazed, excessive tiredness, slurred speech and feeling light headed.  Although you may not think these side effects are not that serious, there are some long-term effects that may also occur when doing such things. For example, severe mood swings, depression, becoming suicidal, unable to concentrate, easily agitated, personality changes and memory loss. Then of course with excessive usage of abusing household items there is also the risk of brain damage ad death.

            So why do kids experiment with such things? Of course, for some it may be the main reason, is because kids want to “fit in”. With the generation now days, teenagers think it’s cool to get drunk or high because of media influence. Especially rap music, it talks about the great things and come with doing these types of drugs. Another way teenagers get sucked into doing these types of things are because they want to fit in with their friends, be in with a certain group, or they even get peer pressured in to it. From abusing these household items, teens like the “effect” they get from it and they feel as if they’re more “grown up”. Another reason why teenagers abuse household items is because they are easily accessible and its sometimes very affordable. Since its very easy to walk into a drugstore and buy these items, its not that hard to obtain. And sometimes it may even be at your home. Some items that may be abuses are whipped cream cans, aerosol, cough syrup, nutmeg, hand sanitizers and man more other products.

            Some may think abusing household items still isn’t a problem after reading this, but it is. With kids experimenting and willing to try new things, teens shouldn’t be worries about not trying something just to fit in because in the long run, its better for your life and you might just save your own. 

Brainy pix

College Essay

Indicate a person who has had a significant influence on you, and describe that influence.

When given this question to others, the most commonly found answer would be their parents. Either it is their mom or dad. But not mines. Yes, my parents have been an influence in my life, but the main one who has had a significant influence on me is my auntie, Auntie Kelly. Growing up with my father and five other kids in Vung Tau, South Vietnam. Life wasn’t exactly easy for them growing up as kids. Vietnam isn’t necessarily a rich country. So growing up they didn’t have the most coushioniest life ever.

When she reached the age 10 my grandma and grandpa decided to move their whole family to Honolulu, Hawaii hoping it was going to be a new opportunity for them.  Growing up as a kid for me, I would always stick with my auntie. She even said her self, “ Lina was a magnet to me. Everywhere I went, she would come with me.” Although not all the things she does it the best example ever, I still push those aside and learn from the good ones. Being a single mother and an independent storeowner, I learned many things from her.

   I’ve learned to have a lot of responsibility. Since I was constantly with her as a little kid, I would always help out. Throughout the years, my auntie has had quite a few stores. From having a space at the flea market selling jewelry, a store located in downtown selling jewelry as well to her own company named Island Girls Shoe Company. By her having all these stores, I eventually would have little jobs here and there that I was able to do. By having these small jobs here and there, it taught me some responsibility. For example, I had to make sure I was doing what I was supposed to do and not fool around.

Also, with my auntie being a single mother, it shows me how much stronger she is handling everything by herself. Watching her supporting herself and her daughter is amazing. How she manages to keep up in her busy schedule from work to her 5 year old daughter is just truly impacting. 

Word Choice Graphic

Lina: The middle aged women frantically ran to safety when she heard blaring booms coming at her. The ear-piercing explosions came from an unknown alien spaceship.

College Stuff

^^ For University of Southern California- http://www.usc.edu/

1. University of South Dakota- http://www.usd.edu/
2. New York University- http://www.nyu.edu/
3. Columbia- http://ps.columbia.edu/

sorry.. i didn't finish.. :)