Prologue

Dear Reader,

I call myself Cosmo; it’s the only word that seems to stick in my mind. You see, I suffer from amnesia, a loss of memory. That is the only conclusion I could come up with to explain why I lost all my memories, my experiences, everything. It feels like there is a black hole in my mind, empty, lifeless, hollow with the scent of something that used to lay there. In present day, I work and live at a bakery in California. I sleep in the second floor of the bakery, where the friendly baker keeps a warm bed for me to rest in. I don’t remember how I got here, but I do remember the first moment I woke up in that bed, clueless on what happened.

I woke up, tucked under a warm layer of bed sheets. When I opened my eyes, I was greeted by an unfamiliar man. He had smile on his face. I was scared, confused, I didn’t know what to do. “I know how you must feel” said the baker. “Do not worry, I will take care of you.” But there were some other things that caught my attention. The digital clock on the night stand read 2:40 pm, yet; beyond the thin curtains, the moon was shining high in the night sky. I thought it was I nightmare, I thought had gone mad. “There is a lot I have to explain to you”, said the baker. “You can’t remember anything, but at least you are safe.” I looked outside again, at the dark night. “The world is going through some bizarre changes, the slowing has taken over the earth’s rotation, so now the cycle of day and night is crazy!” Since when was this happening? I didn’t remember living in a world like this at all. I had a lot of questions racing in my mind, but I gathered my words and asked a simple question. “Who am I?” I asked. The baker replied, “You will find out soon enough, for now just relax.” I had a lot of thoughts running in my mind, but I closed my eyes and went back to sleep.

I then woke up on a beach, it was nighttime. I looked around, there was no one near me, just the sea and the jungle. I was wearing a dirty school uniform. I asked myself “What is going on?” But I looked up at the sky, and saw millions of twinkling back at me.  I wanted to feel calm, but not even the cosmos could not sate my hunger for answers. I stood up, and starting walking on the seashore. It was quiet, dark, the sound of crickets filled the air. While I walked, I kept looking at the stars, the giant sky rested above me. After a few minutes of walking, I spotted a shining light in the distance. I walked towards it, I thought it might be a fallen start, maybe a comet. But as I got closer, I got a sense of dread. Now I could make out what the light was; it was fire. Now, I didn’t want to continue walking towards that point, but my legs continued to drag me there. When I got close enough, what I saw terrified me. It was a flaming airplane that had crashed on the shore. My heart raced, and I blacked out.

I woke up. I was back in the warm bed. The baker looked at me and said, “I will call you Cosmo for now, if you work here at the bakery, you can live in this room, and I will answer the many questions that you must have”. I looked at my clothes, and I was back to the red shirt and jeans I was wearing in the first place. And the name Cosmo, reminded me of the starts I once adored.

#1 - A Warm World (Diary Entry)

I have been told by the baker that writing a diary might help conserve memories, so when I forget them, I can go back and read them. Today, I will write about how my life has been;

It has been a month since I started working at the bakery. The establishment has been full of friendly people, and everyone always had a smile on their face. At first, I worked at the cash register. The baker was really impressed on how fast I could calculate the change for someone who paid in cash. I don’t know how I could process these numbers in my head so quick; I didn’t even need the help of the calculator that the baker had given me. Something about the numbers resonated in my mind, and inspired my heart. When a client would hand me a dollar, the texture of the bill would give out a burst of warmth to my spine. This job felt like something I used to do all the time. It felt so familiar, yet, I can’t remember when I learned to work a cash register. It brought me joy, but it also brought me confusion. Where did I acquire this love for a job that seemed so practical?

But that was only the beginning of these strange feelings. Several weeks later, the baker taught me how to produce several pastries. I remember when he first introduced me to his secret brownie recipe. As the brownie mix was on my hands, I felt that warm feeling again. It felt as if someone was hugging me, holding me so I would never go. Why did baking portray this warmth to me? It seems as if whenever I touch a certain object, I remember a happy moment of my past. But I could never really explain this feeling to anyone, all I could do was smile whenever I felt this, because it did bring me happiness. But I couldn’t quite remember a specific moment, it just felt like a texture of warmth.

In the middle of a white night, I awoke from another nightmare. I kept going back to that same island in my sleep, but I don’t want to write about it now. But I do want to share with you the thing that brought the most warmth to my heart at the time. I looked at the clock, and it was 2:00 am. I got out of my bed and sneaked outside the bakery. I headed for the beach, walking on the empty streets. I had escaped to this location several times already, because it brought me happiness. When I got to the beach, I sat down and looked at the sea. It was sunset, but it was also dark enough to see the stars twinkle above in the sky. I sat along in the beach, and felt the sand with my palm. It felt dry, but at the same time it was glowing with warmth. This was not like the beach in my nightmares, but this felt like a beach that made up one of my memories, somewhere in my mind. Yes, I could not get myself to remember who I was before I awoke in the bakery. But, certain fragments in this life brought back a feeling of warmth. I could feel it in the texture of the sand, the brownie mix, and the money at the cash register. I have certainly met this feeling before, in a time I can’t remember. I looked up at the skies, and breathed in the atmosphere that the infinite galaxies gave out.

#2 - Adversity in 100 words (Word Art)

#3 - Unity (Poem with Haiku Stanzas)

Memories faded,
My past is unknown to me,
Who was I before?

Woke up in a bed,
It wasn't my bed, but where?
Where did I belong?

Looked up to my left,
Saw an unfamiliar face,
The window darkened.

It wasn't my home,
This person took care of me,
Nowhere else to go.

Couldn't find my hope,
Couldn't remember a thing,
Where did my mind go?

But worries faded,
The person was a baker,
The baking struck me.

His light hand reached me,
He patted me on the head,
Made me feel happy.

Soon I learned to bake,
I managed the store with him,
People were friendly.

When the days grew long,
We people stayed really strong,
Unity happened.

When my nightmares came,
Visions of the flaming planes,
People consoled me.

The lack of darkness,
The lack of darkness in nights,
was terrifying.

The lack of lighting,
The lack of lighting in days,
was petrifying.

But we, the people,
We cared for one another
We were always there.

The stars in the sky,
Like us, they are always there,
Stars will always glimmer.

Memories might fade,
But hearts will never decay.
Unity will last.

#4 - How to beat adversity (Video)

#5: Cadan Sky (Medical Report)

Medical Report for Patient #76, Cadan Sky

Events that took place before the patient arrived at the hospital were confirmed by police.

Patient Cadan Sky was found unconscious on an unidentified island, near the Santa Rosa Island. Authorities can confirm that the patient was involved in a recent plane crash. Information about the passengers was found within the airline's database, giving the police the names of everyone who boarded the flight. The patient's name was discovered within the database, along with the identity of his parents, which were confirmed to have died on the plane crash.. Upon further examination of the people in the flight, the investigators described that the event might have been caused by foreign real-timers who successfully took control of the plane and intentionally caused it to crash. These allegations are based on the details given by the small percentage of survivors, who made it to the hospital carrying mayor injuries.

At arrival, the patient was in critical conditions, and had to be treated immediately. Damage was mostly found on the patient's head, which was why doctors believed that this could have been the cause of the patient's loss of memory. Patient #76 was tall, had dark-brown hair and was estimated to have the age of 15.  Post-surgery, the patient was interviewed to determine his mental condition. Unfortunately, the patient failed to recall any details of significance, such as his own name, family, origin, or anything that happened before the plane crash. The only detail he could describe was the sight of a flaming plane, laying on the beach. Nurses and Doctors had to take a while to decide what to do with patient #76, since he could not recall the name of any relative who could come to the hospital and take responsibility of him.

Patient Cadan Sky was kept in the hospital for a total of three weeks, while the hospital could find an adequate home for him to live in. Afterwards, 43 year-old Thomas Jaden offered to take care of the teen in exchange of a small amount of financial support from the government. As a proud owner of a bakery near the coast, Mr. Jaden was committed to take good care of patient #76 until further notice from the government. For now, Mr.Jaden has been ordered to call the patient "Cosmo", and has also been instructed not tell him about the plane crash.

Despite the improvement shown over the few months, recent check-ups show that the patient still suffers from severe memory loss, and the doctors confirmed that the damage to his brain was terminal. Patient #76, Cadan Sky, is expected to pass away at age 17.

End of report.

Nurse in charge of Cadan Sky's report: Martha Jaden

Notes

1. My first genre was a diary entry, written by my character, Cosmo. The purpose of this passage was to give the reader a first-person view of Cosmo's emotions, and what he thought about the world around him. The passage also aimed to add to the theme of my project; this was done by showcasing how Cosmo was specially motivated by the people around him and was also shown by the way Cosmo admired the sky, despite not being able to remember much about his past. All in all, this passage wanted to show Cosmo's inner-strength and his hope.

2. This genre was interesting to create, and I felt that it would add a lot of meaning to my project's meaning. I knew that this image could describe the exact theme that my project is trying to convey, but did I just slap random words in there? No, the word choice for this genre was essential, since I had to choose the correct vocabulary to leave a certain message in the readers mind. The word "Adversity" is in a different color because it will imitatively tell the reader that it is a major part of the project's theme. The other words are smaller than the word adversity, but that doesn't mean that their meaning has any less of a significance. Words like resolve, will-power, hope and unity are slightly smaller than the word adversity, and represent the ways to defeat it. Other smaller words such as lost, empty and dark; describe how adversity can feel like. Words such as galaxies, time and stars were chosen to be the surrounding theme of space, and to reference the novels that we read in class. Finally, all of these words have the shape of a star, to fit in with the astral mood of my project.

3. I think I have only done one haiku poem in my life (before this project), so I wanted to try something new. It was a fun challenge to add to the story of my character and to convey the theme of my project in such short haiku stanzas. In the end, I believe that this poem added a lot of sentimental value to my character, Cosmo; and also added a lot of value to the theme of unity. This is because the poem could described what the character felt in this universe, while explaining what a big role people had in the event of adversity. The poem showed how little concerns that Cosmo had could be quickly fixed by the people around him, and that is what unity truly is.

4. This genre was the most fun to make out of the entire project. Personally, I really enjoy creating videos that can convey a message without using many words. The music in this genre was really important, because it really matched the mood of my project, so I immediately knew that I had to use that soundtrack on the clip. Also, pictures of different moods appear on the video, but I intended the pictures to appear in a certain order. The music starts out as serene and mystic, therefore, I used pictures that represented good memories first. But as the music progressed into a more aggressive and loud song, I used pictures that represented adversity. When the song returns to quiet, I end the video with the message, "People will fight adversity, together, forever." This statement conveys the theme of my project, because it refers to people coming together to fight adversity.

5. For the finale of my project, I wanted to reveal the other part of Cosmo's story. Due to the character having amnesia, the reader did not know what happened before Cosmo found himself in an unfamiliar home. Therefore, I decided to make my final genre a medical report. That way, Cosmo's story becomes really significant because the report connects his story to the theme of my project. As described in previous genre's and in this genre, Cosmo faced adversity because of his memory loss. Despite this, a recurring theme in all of the genres is that people are always there to help Cosmo with his adversity. Even though the ending can be considered somewhat tragic, the reader can understand that the answer to solve adversity is unity. Even when Cosmo dies because of the damage done to his head, his image will always be remembered in the Cosmos.

Reference Page

Information Sources:

• "Example of Medical Report." Medical Report. N.p., n.d. Web. 10 May 2016.
• "The Age of Miracles (novel)." Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation, n.d. Web. 11 May 2016.
• "Lord of the Flies." Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation, n.d. Web. 11 May 2016.

Music Source (Youtube Video):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fd6FPBL2wlE

Image Sources:

(These websites were used for their images, rather than their information)

• "5 More Happy (Halloween) Moments Of The Week - HooplaHa Only Good News." HooplaHa Only Good News. N.p., 30 Oct. 2015. Web. 11 May 2016.
• "How Celebrity Proposals Are Redefining Engagement Ring Rules." AskMen. N.p., n.d. Web. 11 May 2016.
• "Lord of the Flies." Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation, n.d. Web. 11 May 2016.
• "האתר להכשרת מטפלים בפסיכותרפיה הוליסטית." לימודי הילינג – מידע, מסדות לימוד ועדכונים אחרונים בתחום. N.p., n.d. Web. 11 May 2016.
• "Tag Archives: Black & White." Inside NanaBreads Head. N.p., n.d. Web. 11 May 2016.
• "Tears Of Joy: Why Happy Moments Make Us React With Sad Emotions." Headlines Global News RSS. N.p., 28 Nov. 2014. Web. 11 May 2016.
• Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation, n.d. Web. 11 May 2016.
• "Karl ReMarks: Study Confirms That Lebanon Is Indeed the Centre of the Universe." Karl ReMarks: Study Confirms That Lebanon Is Indeed the Centre of the Universe. N.p., n.d. Web. 11 May 2016.
• "30 Super HD Space Wallpapers." 30 Super HD Space Wallpapers. N.p., n.d. Web. 11 May 2016.