Journal 10 by Christian Poncsak

So far my active reading and habits of annotating the book have been my best so far because it has been  made me think the most about the characters and where they came from as well as what makes them how they are. The events and people in the book have really made me think about how in life there are all sorts of people no matter where you come from you have to respect others for who they are and what they do. My strengths within Holding On is being able to look at the character's perspective and open my mind to thinking how they are thinking. I'm trying to relate more to them in the sense of feeling how they might have felt during certain turning points of their stories.  My weakness within the stories would have to be conducting more research on issues or topics or even places that I don't really know about. I mean to conduct the research but I'm always short on time it seems so it can be hard to do more research.  

Two profiles that I found the most compelling were the first two profiles within Holding On from pages 48-82.

The profile titled, Father Louis H. Greving from pages 49-50 had been extremely intriguing in the sense of showing how a lot of handwork can get you somewhere in life and to never be defeated even by illness. What I found very compelling within this profile was the building of Grotto's and how much intricate work had taken place as well as how the continuation of building them still takes place ben after the person had passed away. Another intriguing profile I had come to find was the profile of Geneva Tisdale on pages 51-54. The story of her and working at Woolworth's in Greensboro was interesting and compelling especially towards the end of the story when the manager Miss. Holt had decided to reopen the restaurant and have her, another waitress by the name of Susie Kimber, and another waitress by the name of Anthea Jones who is now deceased to be the first one's served. What I loved though about the story of Geneva or  "Jane" as people called her was that she was a hard worker her whole life and was dominant in her thought processing for instance when she first started working at Woolworth's she was the Sundae girl who made ice cream sundae's but soon held her ground and told the manager Miss. Holt that from ow on she was going to be on the sandwich board because they couldn't keep anyone on the sandwich board and she was tired of constantly going back and forth from multiple jobs. I love at the end of the third paragraph on page 52 she said, "I put myself in my work. Always have." It shows that she doesn't think about the petty things in life especially when it came to the boys that couldn't get anyone to serve them at the lunch table.

I've conducted research on Woolworth's in Grensboro to better understand the history as well as the importance of the restaurant. I've come to learn that four young men in the year of 1959 came into the restaurant after having a close discussion of challenging "segregation." They had been students at North Carolina A&T University. The breaking point for them had been one one of the men by the name of Joseph McNeil was denied bus service from Greyhound from spending the holidays in New York. As I researched I found a key date that had stuck out to me. On the date of February 5 of 1960 on a Thursday more than 300 people participated in the protests against the four men not being served at Woolworth's. Protestors filled up the restaurant and they came from N.C. A&T, Bennett College, and Dudley High School. Three white women from University of North carolina had part taken in the protest and another restaurant by the name of S.H. Kress & Co had become targeted for segregation by the Student Executive Committee. The organization and time period of the protests brings me to attention that it's okay to fight for what you believe in even if it may mean you loose your life which the four men had in mind when they acted on challenging segregation.

https://www.sitinmovement.org/history/greensboro-chronology.asp