Students in Mrs. Katie McIlvanie’s seventh-grade ELA class recently wrote paragraphs in response to the question “What can cause a sudden change in someone’s life?” Prior to writing their responses, they studied three texts sharing the common theme of transformation or change: an informative article titled “At the Crossroads,” Robert Frost’s poem “The Road Not Taken,” and Israel Horovitz’s dramatic version of Charles Dickens’s “A Christmas Carol.” Students were required to use any one or all three of these texts to provide text evidence in support of their response to the prompt. 

By Elizabeth Boll

Parents: Gregory and Kirsten Boll

One cause of a sudden change in someone’s life is a choice. A choice you make can make a change in your life, such as when Hobo Nick decides to leave everything in “At the Crossroads,” when Scrooge becomes a better person in A Christmas Carol, or when the narrator chooses one path over the other in The Road Not Taken. To start out with, in the article “At the Crossroads,” the text states “He left it all, his job, his family, his friends and he bought a one-way ticket to Jacksonville, Florida.” Hobo Nick makes the choice to leave everything and go on a cross country trip during which he could encounter many dangerous situations. The choice to make this trip resulted in a sudden change in his life. In addition to that, in A Christmas Carol, Scrooge says “I will honor Christmas in my heart and try to keep it all the year. I will not shut out the lessons that they teach.” This shows that after Scrooge is visited by the three spirits, Scrooge makes the choice to be a non-grumpy person, bring back his Christmas Spirit, and spread his love and Christmas joy with everyone else. The spirits made him realize what he had been to his community. Ultimately, Scrooge is making a choice in his life to become a happier person with Christmas spirit, which is a sudden change in his life. Last but not least, in the poem The Road Not Taken, the author states, “I shall be telling this with a sigh. Somewhere ages and ages hence. Two roads diverged in a wood, and I — I took the one less traveled by. And that made all the difference.” This proves that a sudden cause in someone’s life can be by a choice you make. The person taking the path led into two roads that diverged. The narrator takes the path that has been less traveled on. That can be a sudden change because you might not know where this journey will take you. You might never come back to where you started, and it could change your life. To sum it all up, a sudden change in someone’s life can be by a choice you make, such as in “At the Crossroads,” when Hobo Nick leaves everything, in A Christmas Carol, when Scrooge wants to become a better person and have more Christmas spirit, or in The Road Not Taken, when the author decides to take the path less traveled on. These are all examples of sudden changes caused by a choice you make that might change your life forever. 

By Avery Monroe

Parents: Joe and Niki Monroe

Many different things can change your life such as taking time to reflect on yourself. To begin with, the novella A Christmas Carol shows that when we take time to think about our choices and decisions in life, to reflect, then our life, and the lives of everyone around us, gets better. Sometimes if you just look at your life you need to make some changes about your attitude. When Scrooge gets taken by the three spirits to see his past, his present, and his future, he reflected upon his life. After going through his past, his present, and his future, he says to the Ghost of Christmas Future that he “will do better” and “will not forget.” This shows that without having the spirits help him by showing him his past, his present, and his future, he would have just continued on his old ways and not reflected on how he can change. On a similar note, an article titled “At the Crossroads” shows the same reflection. Hobo Nick is tired of doing the same things every day. In the text it states, “Nick was in a rut. His life was repetitive and boring.” Nick even went on to say in the text that “It got to the point where I couldn’t deal with everything anymore. I felt a lot of pressure, stress and anxiety and I decided to get out.” He therefore packs up all his belongings and goes on a journey by foot across the country. This journey helps him reflect on his life, and he was able to look at himself and discover more than his old suburban life was giving him. Finally, the poem The Road Not Taken is about reflection of choices. The poet states that each path that he looked at had its own ups and downs. He looked at each carefully, and then he “took the path less travelled.” Then at the end of the poem it states, “And that has made all the difference.” This proves that the decision that you make matters and that it is important to reflect on your choices whether it is to like your decisions or even regret them. Ultimately, all three pieces of text show that your life can be changed by reflecting on your life — to look at your life and decide if you are overall content with your life or if you do not like how things are turning out for you. You have the ability to change your life to what you want it to be.