Lewis Hamilton

Lewis Hamilton is my inspiration. Lewis started his racing career when he was 8,. He began carting in 1993 and quickly began winning races and winning hearts. "Hi. I'm Lewis Hamilton. I won the British Championship and one day I want to be racing your cars." Dennis wrote in his autograph book, "Phone me in nine years, we'll sort something out then." This is the conversation that began his career. This conversation sparked when Lewis met the CEO of McLaren-Mercedes Motorsports. He gave Lewis his phone and address so that when he was old enough to drive legally, he could call him and Ron Dennis (CEO) could offer him a job in the formula 1.

In 2001, Michael Schumacher made a one-time return to carting and competed against Hamilton along with other future F1 drivers Vitantonio Liuzzi and Nico Rosberg. Hamilton ended the final in seventh, four places behind Schumacher. Although the two saw little of each other on the track Schumacher praised the young Briton, "He's a quality driver, very strong and only 16. If he keeps this up I'm sure he will reach F1. It's something special to see a kid of his age out on the circuit. He's clearly got the right racing mentality." -Michael Schumacher, speaking about Hamilton in 2001. This was Lewis’s first encounter with the racing superstars of that time period.

Later in his career he entered formula three. Hamilton began his car racing career in the 2001 British Formula Renault Winter Series. Despite crashing on his third lap in the car in testing, he finished fifth overall in the winter series. He was very successful in formula three and because of that he moved up to the GP2 series. Due to his success in Formula Three, he moved to ASM's sister GP2 team ART Grand Prix for 2006. Hamilton won the GP2 championship at his first attempt.

He holds many records including; youngest ever driver to lead the World Championship, youngest F1 world champion, and many more. Hamilton is also the first driver of black heritage to compete in Formula One. Lewis Hamilton's contract for the McLaren driver development program made him the youngest ever driver to secure a contract which later resulted in an F1 drive.

Lewis is a perfect example of grapping opportunities and not to let them fly away. He is also demonstrating to not give up and put your ladder up high, so that you want to achieve the highest you possibly can. Most of Lewis’s opportunities came to him because of luck but some believe to call it destiny, either way it inspires me to grasp every opportunity that comes my way. I also believe that I should always stride to accomplish as much as I can and when I try to accomplish something, I give it my all. I will do this is almost everything I do; in homework, projects, relationships, jobs, etc. Lewis is not the only person that accomplished so much when he was young, but I chose to do this project about him because he and I share the same thing; A need for speed.



Robbert van Doorn 10C

Ambar de Andrade

Dear Chiara,


How have you been? I hope well.

It’s been a long time since I’ve seen you. I think I’m truly starting to miss you now. With all that has been going on, my only hope is that you at least receive this letter. New York is amazing, I love it, and it inspires me every day. I am working as a journalist now; I have to write every day. I know, it’s the ideal job for me, I can’t stop writing. The situation that’s been going on is eating my soul. I know you still live with dad but, I really can’t understand how he’s capable of still holding those poor people to work for him. You know I always told you that treating them like that was going to come back at us, and now it truly is coming back to us Chiara. I’m scared for Sally and Pete. I feel useless and frustrated all the time. I miss you guys so much. Pete is in the Union army, which puts me in the most horrible position. I can’t imagine losing him Chiara, what about Sally? She wouldn’t have her Dadda anymore. This is the hardest times of my life, and I feel that it cannot get any worse. Chiara, I know you feel the same way I do about the slaves that dad has in his farm, why don’t you try to put some sense into dads head? If something happens to any of you, my world would blow into pieces. Please do something, or say something! Make dad stop… Is mom handling the situation? I know mom is very nervous, so she must be going crazy. I miss you guys so much…It pains me to think that I can’t come near you guys.
Pete just left to fight in the Gettysburg battle. He’s been sleeping with the soldiers at the army. He tells me the food is horrible and disgusting. I don’t know what kind of weapons he’s using, he refuses to tell me. I’m dying alone in this house of frustration, anger, and pain. The feeling of insecurity on whether my husband is coming back to me is excruciating. I had to wash his uniform yesterday; I wanted to rip the blue evil piece of cloth into a million pieces. Pete told me he thinks that it’s the first time he’s seen so many people together, he says there’s about 94,000 soldiers fighting together with him during this battle. Can you imagine how all those men’s wives and mothers are feeling right now? Just like me: horrible and useless.
Well my dear sister, I love you so much, and I miss you too much. Say hi to mom and dad for me, if dad accepts my greetings anyway. Take care of them Chiara, I love them to death. Don’t forget to take care of yourself; don’t be brave like you always try to be. Hide and make mom and dad hide with you. I hope you write me back.

With all my love,

Ambar.

Civil War Letter to Jacinta

Dear Jacinta,

I miss you so much. I still can’t believe that it had be this way, you fighting for the South and all. I wish it didn’t have to be this way. I’m sorry if I hurt you or any of your new friends back at Antietam. I just had to. General McClellan was yelling at all 90,000 of us to open fire. I guess the major reason we won is because a friend of mine—I swore not to say who—found your side’s fighting strategy. It was a pretty lousy plan to be frank. I’m happy to be alive though, I mean I wasn’t at the front shooting like almost everyone else. No, I was on the side manning the cannons. Gosh, I was there for so long, so long that my blue jacket (which I had cleaned two days before) was nearly gray and black from all the gunpowder. You should’ve seen Stonewall. He was yelling like a madman, running everywhere making sure there were enough cannonballs at each station.
And General Ambrose is just horrible though. He makes us practice in the cold every morning, and he beats people who make the stupidest mistakes. I already have whiplash marks on my back. I guess the only good thing about being a soldier and all is the free food—not that it’s any good. My bacon was good this morning but some of the men have been getting sick from the meat, and the cornmeal isn’t bad, but I do hate those crackers they give us to stuff our bodies with fiber. My bed—we’ll it’s not really a bed, but there are six of us living in one hut and I sleep on a bunch of hay, but at least the tent is big enough to get a little fire going to keep the cold out.
Anyways, I can’t wait to see you Jacinta. It’s been a really long time. I just wish we didn’t have to be on opposite sides. Not that I would fight for the Confederates or anything—I really hate the thought of slavery—but I just wish we didn’t have to fight. I hope to see you soon, not in a fight but for drinks or any good occasion.
Your friend,

Elie Weinstein

Battle of Gettysburg

The confederacy is doing very well under the commands of Robert E. Lee. They are leading our unit of about 71,699 strong. In total we have had 23,231 casualties in total (4,708 killed 12,693 wounded 5,830 captured/missing). We are using some very efficient and dangerous weapons, including; railroad artillery, land mines, ironclad ships, and new battle muskets. I hope that you can come up with ways to compete with our superior weaponry. Just to give you a heads up for when we meet in battle, we are the ones wearing Linen battle shirts with black silk trimmings. Just so you know what to look for when you are looking for us.

We have some good food at our base, it often consisting of meat, coffee, sugar and hardtack - a type of dried biscuit. The meat is often salted or dried so it would last a bit longer. Fruits and vegetables are rarities on the battlefield, but we can come without them. Real men only eat red meat and biscuits. Because the soldiers were often in the field, they needed to carry food with them. That’s why we give them a special bag; called a haversack, which is made of canvas with an inner cloth bag that could be washed to get food debris cleaned out once in a while. But even with this amazing design, the bags are often quite contaminated and foul smelling, but who cares.


Cleanliness is typically not high on the Civil War soldiers’ priority list, and that is what real men believe. We are not like the union soldiers that you command, we are not sissy girls running around in skirts, we are men. Here on the confederate side of the battlefield we sleep on rugs and homemade pillows and sometimes even the ground. Our soldier is a young man in his early 20s, unshaven, unkempt, gaunt, but tough from months of difficult living.

Our soldiers carry a flint-lock rifle or a musket, also known as Confederate Spring fields. He kept his ammunition in a cartridge box attached to the right of his belt. He also carried a small rolled-up blanket, a haversack, a cloth-covered canteen, a tin cup, and a small frying pan. As the war went on, more and more Rebels carried Enfield rifles which they had taken from dead Union soldiers. Once a Confederate had acquired such a rifle, he would wear its bayonet in a scabbard attached to the right of his belt.

I don’t agree and disagree with the cause of this war since it was never planned. It occurred simply by circumstance. The only reason id don’t agree with it is because it took many lives that did not have to be taken. Our two sides were just very violent. We would destroy any part of our enemy, if it were a woman, or a dog, we would kill anything that bellowed to the opposing side.

I would not want to change sides though; I would never want to fight for the union. They are fighting for the freedom of the slaves, but if the slaves get freedom, they are still not entirely free. They can earn money but they also have to pay rent and pay for their own food. They are also living the same lives they were living when they were slaves since they cannot get a better job. They cannot get a better job since most of them are illiterate and don’t know anything else besides the job they did when they were a slave. I want them to be free but if they are given their freedom they won’t have such an “upgrade” in their living conditions. Mr. Gaurav I would like to hear from you soon, but until we meet again,

My best,

Robbert van Doorn

April 5th, 1862 [Night before Shiloh Battle]

Dear Kelly,

As promised I’m writing you this letter. It’s hard to believe that they’ve separated us, from our homes to the battlefield, on opposing teams. I’m not sure which is worse. It’s been two days since I’ve been placed into the Army of the Mississippi; strangely enough I’ve only had one night of no sleep. Of course, knowing me I got up from my spot and walked around, I even counted all of my fellow army members. It was a long walk but in the end I ended up counting around 44,968 people, including myself. Big army huh? I bet my army is bigger than yours too.

Anyways, enough about that, today I was honoured to meet the two greatest leaders of all time. They share my views regarding the treatment given by the Northerners concerning the taxes. They also completely agreed with me when I told them that we should keep slavery around. Funnily enough we even talked politics, every time I talked to you about politics you called me stupid for saying it wasn’t fair on us Southerners, looks like I WAS right. Oh yeah, I bet you’re wondering what the names of my ah-mazing leaders are. Well their names are: General Albert Sidney Johnston and General P.G.T Beauregard. They also gave me a Colt Navy Model 1861 and a Starr Revolver (.44 Calibre), amazing pistols. But you can’t tell anyone about the Starr Revolver, apparently those are smuggled into the Confederate side, I trust you! OH OH OH. Also, apart from those two pistols, they gave me a M1860 Spencer Repeating Carbine, it’s a 7 shot rim fire that loaded by magazine.

As I’ve told you, I could not sleep the first night what-so-ever. Either I miss home or it’s just not the same. Our uniforms are grey, which my mum had to make at home for me before I left; I hope it’ll keep me warm enough. No one in the army has shoes, nor do I, so I don’t feel left out, but my feet hurt a lot, and it might get cold and everything... oh my goodness. Our food isn’t exactly luxurious, it’s pretty small but I suppose it’s doable. I just hope that being a Confederate soldier will toughen me up, it’ll toughen me up more then you with your little luxurious dinners with the Union soldiers.

You might not agree with me here, but boy oh boy, I do really think that the Union states are stupid for not just agreeing with us Confederates. Just because they think that they can take over in the politics, and tax us, and then take away our slaves, doesn’t mean that we’re going to agree with them just because they say so. Who do they think they are? I would NOT what-so-ever want to fight on different sides. You little spoiled Union soldiers, just watch out, we’re going to fight for what we deserve.

Those black people aren't even worth the money that we pay for at the markets, and then you guys are saying that they are humans too? Get real, we're the only humans out there. Whatever, right now I'm just too angry and upset to get my feelings together. Besides, the camp is getting pretty restless, apperntly there is some surprise attack supposed to be coming up tomorrow... whoops, didn't mean that bit. Well, yeah.. gotta go! Gotta check my guns, etc for war! I'll write again soon, you write back! (:

Lots of love and I hope to see you alive and well soon!
Sara
Aka the South Rebel.