Who are YOU?

Answer the following:

1. A book that made a lasting impression ; made me think ; etc. is _________________ because........... (150 words minimum)
2. Who are you, and where are you going? (150 words)

1. Phoenix is a series by Osamu Tezuka, known as "the Walt Disney of Japan" for his numerous works and revolutionizing the animation industry in Japan. The series spans thousands of years and dozens of characters- each book alternatively takes place in historic Japan or the distant future. Despite how distant these times may relate to each other, every book is centered around one character: the immortal Phoenix, who is said to grant immortality by drinking its blood. Reincarnation also comes into play, one character seen again and again, from past to future, recognized by his comically large and bumpy nose. 

The second book in the series,  Future, depicts an apocalyptic, radiated Earth, and after the five last cities have destroyed each other in war, three survivors are left to live within a lonely scientist's animal cloning lab. The Phoenix visits one of the three survivors, gives him immortality, and the task to recreate the human race. The cloning lab is eventually destroyed by an earthquake and the now immortal Yamanobe, who eventually lives hundreds of thousands of millions of years. He grows desperately lonely, even as the Earth slowly heals, and tries to create some form on companionship- through robots, cloned animals, etc. After literal billions of years, when radiation is far gone from the Earth, he realizes he must create life from the very beginning, by pouring a simply mixture of oxygen, carbon, and hydrogen that will become the new primordial ooze. He then watches, over three billion years, as life evolves and humans slowly come back to make primitive societies. By then he has lost his physical form, and is visited by the Phoenix one last time to become one with the universe and reunite with his lover, who had died soon after the cloning lab was destroyed. 

2. I am Zachary Quinn Jones. I am an artist. I am a man. I am going forward, because that's the only direction life can go. I am going to graduate and hopefully get into the colleges I want to go to. I don’t think I’m truly sure of where I’m going, though, because no one can predict the future. I want to be going away from Tennessee one day, and towards somewhere where I can actually be myself. 

I currently live in Mt. Juliet, Tennessee, and it’s my fourth and final year at the Webb School. I am currently down to owning only eleven Madagascar Hissing Cockroaches, due to the tragic deaths of Big Salad and Flintstones Gummy Vitamins Complete Supplement For Healthy Heart And Mind. It’s a good thing I will never die. Anyway, I hope to become an animator later in life, or at least make a living in art.