Wendt's essay, "The Cross of Soot" captivated me with its beautiful imagery and meaningful dialogue. I feel like there was an amount of transformation that took place for the boy between the beginning and the end of the story. On the first page I was struck how well the boy imagined his fortress, "The image of the fortress of clear in his mind, but his hands could not release it into the mud which oozed through his fingers, refusing to be tamed into shape. I think that sometimes when we travel or especially when we move to a new place we have high expectations of what it will be like and we are often disappointed when it doesn't live up to those expectations. For me, I have always had this dream of moving to New York City and as I am making moves towards the next step in my life I am trying to stay realistic so that I don't ruin the experience of living there. Coming back to the story, in the end the boy has a small, but significant, I would encounter with faith, not religion. He knows that the man Tagi is never coming back, but Tagi has left a cross on the boy's hand that he will have forever. I thought it interesting that Tagi decided to tatu the cross onto the boy's hand instead of the star like he had requested. Faith must have been an essential element in his life for it was noted in the text that he carried a Bible around with him. When it is described that "the boy sat for a long time clutching his hand as though he was holding something precious," I immediately thought of a quote from Remember Me. The quote goes, "The fingerprints don't fade from the lives we touch." Tagi left his fingerprint on the boy by drawing a tatu on his hand. Although I have never been to Ireland, I would like to go their someday because I am Irish and hopefully someday soon I hope to get a tattoo that has a Celtic design. I love that I am Irish and I want to celebrate that by getting a tattoo. I would want to design it myself because I like to draw and I think that the tattoo would have an even greater significance on my body if I had created it myself. However, I am overwhelmed with even beginning this project because Celtic knots can get very messy! I have said to myself that I would get my Celtic knot on my back or by my shoulder blade. Although I wouldn't be able to see it easily without looking in a mirror, just knowing that it is there is enough for me. My sister and I are are twins and she recently got two more little tattoos to make a total of three tattoos. Because we are twins, I feel left behind and it's funny, but I want to get caught up. Not that I want to get three tattoos right now, but I really want to get at least one. A couple of my cousins have larger tattoos. One has two sleeves, one on each arm and the other has a large cherry blossom tree on her back. I would never go to that extreme but there tattoos say so much about their personality. I was thinking that I might want to get my tattoo done in Baltimore to make it a significant event in my senior year. When I look back I can go, "Oh yeah, well I got this tattoo when I was a senior in college." Tattoos definitely mark time.