College Application

Describe the world you come from — for example, your family, community or school — and tell us how your world has shaped your dreams and aspirations.

When I first held a baby in my hands it was like i was looking at a little fragile angel. It was one of the greatest moments in my life. Ever since I was a child I was attached to babies, toddlers and infants. On various occasions I was entrusted to watch and protect babies and little kids in general. Kids are the foundation of me wanting to work with kids for a living. I once had a job working with kids, it was my first official internship at a recreation center. I started working there because my little brother had behavioral issues so I was there to watch him, but when the Manager saw how I interacted with the kids and how in my eyes he saw my passion for being with kids, he asked me if I wanted to be an intern. I accepted knowing I would love this job. I woke up everyday that summer, bright and early with a smile on my face. All of the kids loved me, they always wanted me to play with them in everything they did. When we went to the parks they would always ask me if I would push them on the swings. they would walk pass the other workers and come straight to me and ask if I could play with them. they were  how I got my daily work out. i would push them on the swings, I would play basketball with them, I would race them, if they wanted to play on teams I was always on both teams helping everyone. This is what I love to do, I love seeing kids smile and I love knowing that I put that smile on their face. When we had toddlers or infants at the recreation center they would always run up to me and jump in my arms asking me what we would do that day, I would have a bunch of little kids around me the whole day. there was not a second I would not have a little kid around me. People always think that little kids are annoying and always want to be with the big kids. But what they really want is you to play with them and give them you attention. I was always that person and I love being that person that puts smiles on the kids faces the whole summer.

Tell us about a personal quality, talent, accomplishment, contribution or experience that is important to you. What about this quality or accomplishment makes you proud and how does it relate to the person you are?

Ever since I was a little girl I wanted to be a cheerleader. I would watch all of the movies with the pretty cheerleaders in their cheer uniforms cheering at the high school football and basketball games getting thrown everywhere and getting all the attention. My cheer leading career and my love for cheer leading all started when I stepped on that field in Alameda, California. It felt like heaven, I was one of the smallest girls in my age group so I began as the flyer. I was with the older girls and I felt safe because there was a group of people surrounding me and protecting me from hitting the ground on my way down from the cradle.When you first step into their hands you don't really know if you can trust them because you don't really know the bases. You don't know how high in the air you will go because you don't know how strong the girls are and their strength determines how high they will throw you in the air. When you first step into their hands you get a little nervous because they can drop you at any point in the stunt. But when I get thrown into the air on the basket toss I ride it in the air, and I can't do anything until I feel myself coming down back into their hands. If I mess up at any point, the stunt won't look right. But while I am in the air the flyer is not supposed to look down or around because that can also mess up the stunt, so I always look into the crowd at my father who is smiling back at me, proud that his daughter is doing what I love. In the basket toss stunt there are various things the flyer can do while in the air, they can: do a front flip, a back flip, a toe touch, a pike, and even a herkey. My main things that I do while in the air of these stunts is a toe touch. That feeling I get while in the air is unreal, I feel like I'm flying but I can't get to caught up in that feeling because I have a job to do while in the air. That nervous feeling in the pit of my stomach that I call butterflies lasts for the first couple of times you fly with the same bases. But as soon as you change bases that feeling comes back because you don't know if you can trust the new people to catch you when you come back down or be strong enough to hold you up at all. I have been cheering for about ten years, I have been a flyer for most of those years but I also base, but that feeling of being in the air looking at my father stare at me with that smile on his face is a feeling that I love and will forever remember.

My Comments on MyTable Mates Essays

I commented on Carly's, Eric's and Vincent's essays

Carly:
Okay, I read your essay and I feel that you are explaining the story to the reader. That is good but you are are not summarizing it, you explain what happens throughout the piece. In my opinion I feel that you could connect these things that go on in his life to outside things. Like the torture, and how he wants to love his brother, and the teachers being the enemy.

Eric:
It says that my comment will be posted as soon as it gets approved, so I don't know what to do about it being on his blog but this is what I said:

I feel that you could expound more on the characters and not only tell their story. I feel that their actions are important and should be talked about and disected. I also see that you combined your two blog posts, that is good but you should connect them and make them flow like any other essay.

Vincent:
I feel that you could expand on the analyzation of the character Reynie Muldoon. You should also expound on the things you m,entioned that he did that u did a brief mention of. you could give us the readers a bigger picture of the book and its characters.

Essay Rough Draft

In our lives we all get a little confused but we all need to communicate better with each other to get things cleared up. With the help of talking to people about what is going on. In my opinion and this is proved by the two books that I read, if people don’t talk about what they are feeling than people get unnecessarily hurt and they don’t know the whole truth which causes major problems

In my book there are a few characters that I would like to zoom in on. This little part that I will explain contains confusion among new forming couples in my book. There are two women who are apart of a group called The Sisterhood Of The Dropped Stitches for four girls with cancer. It was a way for them to get away from the world, knit and have support from people who understand what they are going through. The two girls Carly and Marilee have been cancer free for six years now and have been setting goals for themselves. Marilee's goal is to have three dates by their deadline, and Carly's goal is to get a foreign cat. Carly has already accomplished her goal, but something goes wrong. Marilee has not yet met her goal and the deadline is the following Thursday. Carly and Marilee are like sisters so they would not do anything to hurt the other person. Marilee used to have a huge crush on Randy before the cancer came into her life, he asked her on a date but she rejected and she has regretted that ever since. That is until she met Quinn she thought she still had feelings for Randy after six years.



Carly knows that Marilee likes the grill guy and in order for Marilee to meet her goal she has to go on that date she has been wanting for six years. But what Carly doesn't know is that Marilee has gotten feelings for Quinn so when Carly's cat goes missing they invite Randy to help just to make a date out of it for Randy and Marilee. Instead Carly and Randy match up and Quinn and Marilee match up. Marilee goes on a few more dates with Quinn but she doesn't count them as dates and that hurts him because he later finds out that her and randy went on a date when Randy got rejected by Carly and Marilee counted that as a date. Quinn avoids and ignored Marilee and she doesn't understand and when Marilee and Carly finally talk Carly finds out that Marilee doesn't like Randy and she is free to date him and she talks to Quinn and they all end up happy.



In this little snippet of their lives we see that there were examples of miscommunication, loyalty, jealousy, Friends before feelings, not letting a guy get between your friendship. I feel that the biggest one in this story in the miscommunication that occurred. If they all just opened up and stopped hiding their feelings then none of this would have happened. if Carly would have just talked to Marilee about Randy she would have known that Marilee had feelings for Quinn and no more for Randy. And if Quinn would have just talked to Marilee about the situation and find out what was really going on instead of being a baby and pouting and ignoring her because at that moment he didn't get what he wanted.

In the book "Sisterhood of the Dropped Stitches" there was a lot of miscommunication. The characters talked to each other but they did not communicate to each other on how they were feeling about certain events that went on in their lives. An example is from my previous post when they did not talk to each other about how they were feeling about a guy. When this occurred people were hurt and sad but they did not talk about it which kept confusion in the air.
In the book "Speak" that I am currently reading there is a girl named Malinda who is the main character. She has a similar problem as the guys and girls from "Sisterhood of the Dropped Stitches". But her problem is she chooses not to talk and communicate with others because she does not want them, to now how she truly feels. Her view on the situation is, that the less people know about me and my life and how I feel, the better things will be for me. But this is not the case because she is classifies as one of the weird kids at the school which puts her into a deeper depression, and her teachers and parents are calling her out on how she does not speak at all. With them calling her out, she gets into trouble at school for being quiet about her feelings. IN this story the message that people get when she does not respond to them is that she is ignoring them and she does not care about what they are saying.

The similarities in these two stories are that people tend to try and read how you feel by your actions and your facial expressions. In most cases they read your face completely wrong which causes the confusion. This all goes back to miscommunication. IN the first story, if they just talk to each other about how they feel about one another then people would be clear on the situation. In the second story if she just opens up to one person about how she feels, or even write it down in a journal or she could express her feelings through another form of art. If she just did something instead of keeping her feeling bottled up in her body all the time, she would free herself from a whole lot of drama from others and pain inside. 

In life we often jump to conclusions and never really know the truth until much later, but we need to talk and stop hiding what we feel from people we care about. So when people communicate with one another, everything is clear and no misreading of facial expressions and actions can occur. Which in the end makes everyone satisfied with the results of the occasion.

Speak & Sisterhood of The Dropped Stitches Comparison

In the book "Sisterhood of the Dropped Stitches" there was a lot of miscommunication. The characters talked to each other but they did not communicate to each other on how they were feeling about certain events that went on in their lives. An example is from my previous post when they did not talk to each other about how they were feeling about a guy. When this occurred people were hurt and sad but they did not talk about it which kept confusion in the air.

In the book "Speak" that I am currently reading there is a girl named Malinda who is the main character. She has a similar problem as the guys and girls from "Sisterhood of the Dropped Stitches". But her problem is she chooses not to talk and communicate with others because she does not want them, to now how she truly feels. Her view on the situation is, that the less people know about me and my life and how I feel, the better things will be for me. But this is not the case because she is classifies as one of the weird kids at the school which puts her into a deeper depression, and her teachers and parents are calling her out on how she does not speak at all. With them calling her out, she gets into trouble at school for being quiet about her feelings. IN this story the message that people get when she does not respond to them is that she is ignoring them and she does not care about what they are saying.

The similarities in these two stories are that people tend to try and read how you feel by your actions and your facial expressions. In most cases they read your face completely wrong which causes the confusion. This all goes back to miscommunication. IN the first story, if they just talk to each other about how they feel about one another then people would be clear on the situation. In the second story if she just opens up to one person about how she feels, or even write it down in a journal or she could express her feelings through another form of art. If she just did something instead of keeping her feeling bottled up in her body all the time, she would free herself from a whole lot of drama from others and pain inside. 

So when people communicate with one another, everything is clear and no misreading of facial expressions and actions can occur. Which in the end makes everyone satisfied with the results of the occasion.

Sisterhood Of The Dropped Stitches Post #1

In my book there are a few characters that I would like to zoom in on. This little part that I will explain contains confusion among new forming couples in my book. There are two women who are apart of a group called The Sisterhood Of The Dropped Stitches for four girls with cancer. It was a way for them to get away from the world, knit and have support from people who understand what they are going through. The two girls Carly and Marilee have been cancer free for six years now and have been setting goals for themselves. Marilee's goal is to have three dates by their deadline, and Carly's goal is to get a foreign cat. Carly has already accomplished her goal, but something goes wrong. Marilee has not yet met her goal and the deadline is the following Thursday. Carly and Marilee are like sisters so they would not do anything to hurt the other person. Marilee used to have a huge crush on Randy before the cancer came into her life, he asked her on a date but she rejected and she has regretted that ever since. That is until she met Quinn she thought she still had feelings for Randy after six years.



Carly knows that Marilee likes the grill guy and in order for Marilee to meet her goal she has to go on that date she has been wanting for six years. But what Carly doesn't know is that Marilee has gotten feelings for Quinn so when Carly's cat goes missing they invite Randy to help just to make a date out of it for Randy and Marilee. Instead Carly and Randy match up and Quinn and Marilee match up. Marilee goes on a few more dates with Quinn but she doesn't count them as dates and that hurts him because he later finds out that her and randy went on a date when Randy got rejected by Carly and Marilee counted that as a date. Quinn avoids and ignored Marilee and she doesn't understand and when Marilee and Carly finally talk Carly finds out that Marilee doesn't like Randy and she is free to date him and she talks to Quinn and they all end up happy.



In this little snippet of their lives we see that there were examples of miscommunication, loyalty, jealousy, Friends before feelings, not letting a guy get between your friendship. I feel that the biggest one in this story in the miscommunication that occurred. If they all just opened up and stopped hiding their feelings then none of this would have happened. if Carly would have just talked to Marilee about Randy she would have known that Marilee had feelings for Quinn and no more for Randy. And if Quinn would have just talked to Marilee about the situation and find out what was really going on instead of being a baby and pouting and ignoring her because at that moment he didn't get what he wanted.



In life we often jump to conclusions and never really know the truth until much later, but we need to talk and stop hiding fwhat we feel from people we care about.

Family History Similarities: Immigration GO!

In reading the posts of family stories from my peers, I came across two blog poss that were similar in the form of families immigrating to the US. In the family histories of Alex Tang and Peter Chen both of their families immigrated to the US.  These stories show how far our families and different races have gotten as far as race and rights.

In Alex's story he talks about the struggles his family had to go through in order to find a place to live after his grandmother died in 1998 and the house that she owned was sold so they could split the profit they got from it with the family. The struggles they went through were, 

"This story shows me and my family going through some very tough times, the death of a family member. We lost our home and were nearly homeless, my dad and sisters had to get multiple jobs. It was all pretty bad, but we managed to persevere and get our selves out of this situation. Instead of splitting apart, going into crisis, and giving up we came together as a family and became stronger."

 In this you see that Alex's family has been through a variety of things that any other person would have given up on. The significance of this story is that it was recent and he was about three when this happened.

In Peter's story he also goes over the struggles his family faced with the immigration system we have. He goes into depth of what immigrants have to do in order to live in the United states.they have to have someone here with a stable income and they have to go through a bunch of processes.He became a legal US resident at the age of four-teen. He is now fifteen so this is also a very recent story that affected his life greatly.

"I immigrated to the United States when I was about 14 years old, but my parents told me that they turned in the application forms of immigration to the staff before I was born, actually both of my parents did know my mom was pregnant at that time. That means it took 14 years to get a stamp at my immigration passport. I always feel funny about how my parents turned the application form in before I was born, since they don’t have any information of me yet and it took such a long time to add my name onto the list after I was born."

In this it is a very significant story that is recent and if it was not done he would not be here, he would not have been able to immigrate here. Peter's parents did not know his mother was with child so they did not get papers for him. Luckily they did or he would not have been here with us or his family.

Cycles: The Joy Luck Club

In the book The Joy Luck Club there are many cycles that occur. One of the cycles that I will focus on is the cycle of tradition. In the book there is a lot of traditions, when the girls are young they are brought up in the Chinese tradition as they get older they stray away from the tradition but after they experience life away from tradition for a while they all stray back to the Chinese tradition they grew up in.

One tradition that we see in a lot of Asian families according to "Tiger Mom" and examples in this book is the strictness as well as persistence they display to keep their children on the right path. In the book the example is when Jing-Mei Woo's mother wanted her to be the best and wanted the best for her and become a prodigy.

"'Of course you can be prodigy, too.' My mother told me when I was nine. 'You can be anything. What does Auntie Lindo know? Her daughter, she is only best tricky.'"

In this quote we see that she wanted her daughter to be the best. She felt that her daughter was better than her niece. And her daughter being better than her niece was the most important thing ever. Later in the story the mother has her daughter try all different kinds of talents until she is embarrassed by the daughter at her piano recital because all the pressure and false dreams presented by her mother wa too much so she gave up and did not try at her practices. this is one of the things that let her to stray away from  her tradition.

Another part of the book that shows that they always go back to the tradition of the Chinese and back to where everything began in at the end of the book. This one was also told my Jing-Mei Woo, she went back to China to find her mother's twin daughters. In the end she went back to where everyhting began. Her mother died and she fulfilled her mother's born mission to find her daughter.She lives with the tradition her mother shows her for most of her life but she does not know how different it will be for her when she actually gets to China.

"The minute our train leaves the Hong Kong border and enters Shenzhen, China, I feel different. I can feel the skin on my forehead tingling, my blood rushing through a new course, my bones aching with a familiar old pain. And i think, my mother was right. I am becoming Chinese."

She feels a change within herself as she enters China. She has never felt as if she was fully Chinese even though her mother is Chinese and she grew up in a very traditional Asian home. In this book there are a lot of examples of cycles that are showed. Some of them agree with the traditional asian culture while others seem random and only connect to the characters in this book. This is only one of many cycles in this book.