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.

Family History: Beat for Love

My family history story is about my mother's grandmother and  how what she did made a difference in my existence and location.

My great grandmother on my mother's side of the family was destined to be a teacher according to her parents wishes. Back in those days a teacher was not allowed to be married, so she was not allowed to court (date). But when my great grandfather saw my great grandmother he just had to have her, so he set out to get her. The thing was, my great grandmother did not like him because he had a big head. But she grew to like him, and her parents did not like that idea. They soon started to date and he would go over her house to be with her. Everytime after he would leave from her house she would get beat with the whip hanging over the top of the door. But that did  not stop her because he love was to strong. It got to the point where before he even came over to her house she would go to the door grab the whip and give it to her dad so he could beat her to not waste any time after he left. After they dated for a while, my great grandfather asked my great grandmother to marry him. She knew it was wrong and totally against what her parents wanted for her, but love cannot be stopped so she agreed. They could not get married in a church because this had to be a private ceremony. So he told her to meet him on the bridge and he would be there with a minister waiting. So she followed his instructions and met him on the bridge and that is where they became man and wife. He told her to not tell anyone about their marriage, to keep it a secret. Because this as an important event in her life she had to tell someone, and that someone was her sister in law. But her sister in law told on her and that changed her life forever.

When her dad heard about her being married, he went up to my great grandmother's high school (she was about 17 or 18) and told her that her mother was sick and they had to get home immediately. When they walked in the house my great grandmother immediately knew that her father lied, but before she could do or say anything, her dad jumped on her and beat her like there was no tomorrow. when the beating was done she ran away to my great grandfather;s aunts house. My great great aunt ran a domino house, and a young lady was not supposed to be there because that was a place for old men to be and play dominoes. So she sat there scared for her life hoping that her dad would not get there and find her. She waited until my great grandfather came and got her, when he got her they went to his parents house. She said she did not like it there because it was a dirty place but she could not complain because my great grandfather was well off. He had chickens, cows, pigs and horses so he was more then able to provide for his family. while living with his parents they had two sons (not twins) one named Charles and the other named John Edward. They lived a pretty good life there until one night. (We do not know if this little part is true but I was told this so yes.) My great grandmother and father lived with his dad in Arkansas in the Jim Crow era where the whites were superior. So one specific night when my great grandfather went out with a couple of guys he got into it with a white man and had to rush home. As soon as he got into the house he woke up the family and said they had to leave and get out of there right away. So they packed up, said their good byes to his parents and were on their way. they dropped my  uncle Charles off at her mother's house because they planned to go back and get him when they were settled down. So they left the baby and came to California. They got settled in and were doing their thing, when my great grandmother got word that her baby Charles and her mother died in a burning house. they said the KKK was responsible for it but they did not know, so she had to go back and confirm it to make sure. She got there and sure enough, it was her mother and her baby. So she buried them and came back to California. They stayed here and had more kids. They had my auntie Cynthia is married to my uncle Troy and had Christopher and Cameron. My untie Bebe had my cousin Drina who is married to my cousin Jason had Jade and  Baby Jason, my cousin Tina who is married to my cousin Chris and they had Dominique and Michael, My cousin Charles named after my uncle Charles who had kids who's names I do not remember. My uncle Alvin who had my cousins Belinda and Alexis, my uncle John Edward who's kids i never met. My auntie Lee Lee who had my cousin Kiesha who had Devandre, Arion and Adonijah, La' Marque who had Malaysia and Niasha. My grandmother Jackie who had my auntie Roshanda who had Markus, Mario, Mark, Montrischa, and Montisha who had Rico; My auntie Gernisha, my auntie Ga'Kia who had Khalid and Kaliyah, and finally my mother Rischa who is married to my father Ronald who had Ron Jr. ,Re'Jon, Riahna, Randyn, my sister Kiara who is married to Antonio who had my neice Kimoni and Finally me Rahni Risje' Johnson. And this is my mother's side of the family story of how i got to be in California.

In this story I learn that on my mother's side I originate from the south. In learning about this story I see how far my family has come, we used to get beat with whips for dating, and bullied by the whites. Now I can date and choose my own future and not have to get hit by my parents about the decision I make about the type of future I want for myself. And no whited person can make me fled a town by threatening me. This story also tells me how strong my family is, we have been through a lot, and if they gave up back then to take the easy way out, then I would not be here today. but my great grandmother got beat everyday for the man she loves. I know little to no people who would get beat for someone they say they love, that is some strong loving right there,I could probably do that if i truly loved that person. and if she did not have the courage to put her trust in her husband and leave her parents at that age then I would not be here, and my family would not be in California, we would probably still be in Texas, Arkansas or some other places in the south. I do not yet know my role in my family because I am still growing and maturing, but I do know that I am strong willed, courageous and have a family who is there for me like her his family was there for them. IN a lot of ways I am similar to her, I am strong, and I am courageous. If I ever do love a man as much as she loved my great grandfather, if not more then that. I would get beat on his behalf everyday after he left from visiting. But until that day comes when I do love a man like that, I will not get beat for no man everyday after he visits me. My great grandmother is strong in many ways and that is the moral of the story, just like the title says "Beaten for Love" If love is that strong, nothing can tear it apart. And that is what I got from this story.

Tiger Mom vs. The Twenty-Six Malignant Gates

There are a few similarities as well as differences between the article "Tiger Mom" by Amy Chua and part two of the book "The Joy Luck Club" titled "The Twenty-Six Malignant Gates" by Amy Tan. The stereotype about Asians is that they want their kids to be the best and they will do anything to keep their kids on top and they will make the decisions for them and basically live their lives because they want the best for them. In the article this is proved in a major way, throughout the article she says many things to back up this stereotype but one that I feel is similar to the story is,

"What Chinese parents understand is that nothing is fun until you're good at it. To get good at anything you have to work, and children on their own never want to work, which is why it is crucial to override their preferences. This often requires fortitude on the part of the parents because the child will resist; things are always hardest at the beginning...the Chinese strategy produces a virtuous circle. Tenacious practice, practice, practice is crucial for excellence; rote repetition is underrated in America. Once a child starts to excel at something...he or she gets praise, admiration and satisfaction."

In this excerpt from the article it is saying that work, work, work; and practice, practice, practice is all it takes for a kid to be better. and not only will it benefit the kid but it will benefit the parent. She is saying that children can not work on their own and they need the guidance of their parent, and the parent has to make the decisions for them. In the section of the book titled "The Twenty-Six Malignant Gates" the mother is Chinese and she wants the best for her daughter just like Amy Chua wants for her kids. She wants her daughter to be a prodigy, then she wants her to play the piano. Her daughter does not want to do that because she knows she can't live up to the expectations her mother sets for her so she slacks off and does not do her best. She later tells her mother she does not want to do this because she is no good, (pg 132. pg 137-138, pg 141-142). The differences between these two lives that these families have is that in the article she sticks strongly to her culture and she is very stricter, and because the kids were raised up like that they did not rebel and know of nothing other then what their mother is showing them. In the book her mother lets her rebel and she is not that strict to where she puts fear and restricts the daughter from doing what she wants to do.

I feel that the article is a little stronger then how the Chinese women in the story are portrayed. In the article Chinese mothers are portrayed as strict and always on their kids backs and not fun at all restricting them from having fun and running their lives how they think it should be ran. The mothers in the book are wise and posses powers of wisdom that are very strong. The mothers in the book are nowhere near being like the mothers described in the article, they may come a little close but not all the way there.

In Class Quickwrite: Joy Luck Club POst #2

In  my opinion I feel that the purpose of the introductory piece on page 87 in the book is to show that when kids do not obey their parents there is always a consequence to pay. In the introductory the little girl did not listen to her mother when she told her not to ride her bike around the corner because she would not be able to help her if she fell off. When the girl did not listen to her mother she did just as her mother predicted, she would off of her bike before she even got to the corner. So I feel that this is saying that mothers know what's best for their children and when they are not obeyed by their children the kids will always suffer the consequences. Or when they take their mother's words for granted, they wind up in trouble or in a situation they do not want to be in.

In the story "Rules Of The Game" her mother was very proud of her daughter's chess skills and she loved to brag about her to people she encountered. One day the daughter confronted the mother and said,

"I wish you wouldn't do that, tell everybody I'm your daughter... Aiii-ya. So shame be with mother?...It's not that, its just so obvious. its just so embarrassing... Embarrass you be my daughter?...I jerked my hand out of my mother's tight grasp and spun around knocking into an old woman. Her bags of groceries spilled to the ground...I took off , I raced down the street, dashing between people, not looking back as my mother screamed shrilly, 'Meimei! Meimei!..'"

in this quote the narrator Waverly Jong was embarrassed by her mother and she took her mother's praises for granted and she ran away. She did not run away for long, but she was out of her mother's sight and she could have gotten hurt. In a way she did get hurt because when she did finally make it home her mother said,

"We not concerning this girl. This girl not have concerning for us."

 So from this quote her mother basically disowned her and said they had nothing to do with her. That was her move and now the next move had to be made by the daughter. so all in all the introductory meant that when you listen to your mother, good will come to you, but if you do not listen to her then bad will greet you on your way to disobedience.

Quickwrite #2

 "Family and honor should take priority over the rights of the individual family member."

In the chapter of the book titled Scar, I feel that the way An-mei's mother would respond to this is she would be on both sides of this argument. I say she would be on both sides of the argument because she did run away from her family to be with a man while she was a widow, which was against all tradition in her family. but on the contrary she  did cut a piece of her skin to put in the soup when her mother was on her death bed. So her mother would say that family honor should take priority over the rights of the individual because when it all comes down to it they are the leaders and they are the ones who you will eventually have to go back to when you are in need. Just like she did, she wanted to see her kids because she hadn't seen them since she left and she was a disgrace to her family so that did not help her situation at all. But she would be on the opposing side of this because she knows that at some point in their lives they have to be on their own and do what they have to do in order to live their lives. Just like she did, she made her own decision to run away and marry a man who already had two wives of his own. All of this happened while she was supposed to be a sad widow.

I feel that An-Mei would be on the pro side of this because she grew up with her grandmother who we all know is all for this because she is a traditional person. And like we discussed if you are taught something at a young age and you are exposed to other people's opinions, you start to believe that it is your own opinion even when we all know that it isn't.

Response To Chinese Mothers

From the article that I read in class, I found this little excerpt interesting:

In one study of 50 Western American mothers and 48 Chinese immigrant mothers, almost 70% of the Western mothers said either that "stressing academic success is not good for children" or that "parents need to foster the idea that learning is fun." By contrast, roughly 0% of the Chinese mothers felt the same way. Instead, the vast majority of the Chinese mothers said that they believe their children can be "the best" students, that "academic achievement reflects successful parenting," and that if children did not excel at school then there was "a problem" and parents "were not doing their job." Other studies indicate that compared to Western parents, Chinese parents spend approximately 10 times as long every day drilling academic activities with their children. By contrast, Western kids are more likely to participate in sports teams.

In this paragraph from the article it is a study and it is kind of funny because this is what people call a Chinese family. When we go to school with Asians we expect them to be really smart, and to get all As and to not have a life of free time to do what they want to do. This study in her book proves the stereotypes that are created for the Asian Americans are true. i find that this study is really crazy and if I was her kid I would run away or demand my freedom. I could  not stay in the house for hours and do nothing with my life other than homework, violin practice, and no sleepovers.

I understand how people say that they were raised like that, and because they are like that the will not rebel. With this way of raising their kids their kids will grow up to be boring, and people who don't know what to do. When they are not able to do what they want to do and when they do not have their own voice and their own opinions. They have the opinions of their parents instilled in them because that is how they were raised. i do not agree with this way of raising my kid, but I do know that this is how some people raise their kids.

Animal Farm and Egypt Connections

The connection that I see between the revolution Orwell described in his book, Animal farm and the events in Egypt, Tunisia, Honduras etc. are that when the animals in Animal Farm protested, many of the protests if not all of them resulted in deaths of the animals, like the animals that confessed to Napoleon that they were talking to snowball on the down low. Now in Egypt and other places the protests also result in people dieing. An example of deaths was when the man burned himself alive or the hundred or so people who dies as a result of the government fighting back. In Egypt I found that people are risking their lives by laying on tires of the tanks posted on the streets.

Another connection between Animal Farm and the uprisings in Egypt etc. is that the protests start in one place and they spread to another place. Like the protest started in Egypt and within days it spread to Lydia, then Tunisia, then Honduras and they say it is going to Yemen. In the book Animal farm they started their revolution on their farm, then the word spread to other farms by word of mouth, or in their case the bird Moses spread it to the other farms, and from there it kept going around.

In the book the Animals were hungry for food and freedom, in Egypt the Egyptians are hungry for money and freedom. They both want something and because they can't get ti their way by being civilized animals and people, the only thing left for them to do is to protest until they get what they want and start a revolution so they won't have to follow orders from a person they don't respect or believe is a good leader for them.

This part is kind of true for Egypt but it is definitely true for Animal farm. IN Animal Farm the animals got what they wanted in a way. They wanted freedom and food, so they got their food and freedom. But they did not plan on having the pigs being accustomed to the human ways, walking on two legs, talking and playing poker and living in the house. In Egypt they are fighting for their freedom,and from what I hear about the president stepping down, they are only getting closer to what they want.

In both the book and Egypt they revolt for similar things, they use similar ways to come up with their plans to revolt. the only difference is that one is a book and the other one is real life.

Chapert 11

Gina posted our chapter 11 on her blog.

Should Teens Be Able To Vote

I chose the con side of this debate. My reasons for saying teens should not be able to vote are, teens are heavily influenced by others, teens are from the age thirteen to nineteen which is an eighth grader to a freshmen in college; also the maturity level of a teenager is low.
  When a person votes for a person to be president, it should be their own opinion and reasoning of why they believe that person should be president. A teenager who is easily influenced by their peers, their parents, family members or any other person does not need to be allowed to vote. If you really think about it a teenager is from thirteen to nineteen. Now the present age for voting now is eighteen. We are not yet thinkjing for ourselves. We are influenced by everything everyday, we live with our parents our whole lives and we listen to what they have to say and start to believe them. Now when we go out the house and hear people say things that disagree with what we were taught and what we "believe" we do not agree with them. OUr decisions we make are not full decisions, they are thought that were not formed by ourselves, they were formed by others.
  Our maturity level is not high. A great example of this is when I was sitting in PE class, what I saw from the freshmen that I was with. The things that they said, the things that they talked about were not smart and well thought out. My friend Amber Gomez pointed it out to me, they are the future and the things that they do and say is a good reason of why they should not be able to vote.

Your brain doesn’t fully mature until you reach about 25 years of age.

This is a prime example of why teens should not be able to vote. Going back to what a teenager is, I do not feel that an eighth grader should vote for president, they don't even know enough about politics to have their own opinion. We all know that teenagers want their voices to be heard, yes I am apart of that teenage group but I kow that I along with all other teenagers of the world are not old enough, mature anough, and independent minded enough to know who they want for president.

Political Power

In my opinion I feel that people don't go in to politics with corrupt thought on their mind. I feel that they get so caught up with the power that they let it get to their heads. When the power gets to their heads they manipulate their power and that corruptness grows on them. I feel that when a person has no power and they think about if they have power they would do the right thing. But they only say this because they have not yet contained that power. But when they finally get that power, their earlier thought of not being corrupt get thrown out the window and they become power corrupt.

An example from the book when the pigs started to become corrupt is at the en of chapter two when the pigs get the milk of the cows. In the book it says:

"...and when they came back in the evening it was noticed that the milk had disappeared."

In this quote it is evident that the pigs begin to get the power that they always had but limited them when Major was alive. They begin to get thing that the other animals wanted but could not get because they were not as smart as the pigs. They were illiterate, but the pigs dominated because Major was a pig and he was leader so they felt it was natural for pigs to be the leaders.

I think George Orwell's response to this question would be the same as mine. I say this because the pigs did not start off as power greedy but when they held the power, when they got the last say, when they got to make decisions for themselves and the other animals they took that to their heads. The pigs are just using the other animals to progress in their own power of everything.

This is just like the government, I feel Orwell would say that it may not be peoples intentions to be corrupt but they end up that way once they get the power to lead others or once they just have the power to do what they want done. Like the pigs did, they made sure they got the apples and the milk knowing the other animals wanted those benefits as well but they "persuaded" the animals that they needed it because they were smarter.

Class Discussion Blog

I read through the papers in class and I have come to the conclusion of the worst one and the best one. The one I feel is the best is What You Do vs. Where You Go. My reason behind this is I feel that the author supports her arguments that she gives well and she doesn't go off topic and she m,akes sense with her writing. She talks about how people think that celebrities went to all these top schools and that is how they because famous, when in actuality they did not go to an elite school. They in fact went to a non elite school, and with that they became famous for what they wanted to do ith their lives. One of her quotes is about some famous people who went to non elite colleges who people thought did attend an elite school,

The “oohs” and “aahs” follow as the audience learns that Steven Spielberg, Steve Jobs and Bill Gates dropped out of college, that Oprah Winfrey is an alumna of Tennessee State and that Ken Burns graduated from Hampshire College. If even a few stressed students and their anxious parents benefit from this information, it is a worthwhile exercise.

In this we can clearly see that people clearly expect that the famous and wealthy got their education at a wealthy, high propped school. When in fact oprah Winfrey went to a simple school like Tennessee State.

The article that I found to be, not the worst but not the best either was Access To Money and Power. My reason for this being my least favorite is that I do not agree with what he is saying. Because what he is saying is that if you go to a less selective college then you will not become a wealthy person and you are spending a lot of money there and stuff. He may have statistics on what he is argueing but I do not agree that a person who went to Harvard has any type of a better chance at being wealthy then a person who attended Cal State Bakersfield. 
In conclusion I feel he has a weak and bias arguement and I do not agree with it.

Response Post: Lhadze's False Relationships

I was looking through the freshmen blog posts and I came across one of Lhandze's posts titled False Relationships. She had a very interesting thing she said and it was:

Its horrible and I was mad about it. I don't even know why people cheat! I did everything I could and this is how they treat me. It's a huge gap in your life when this happens. You feel unwanted, and you almost rust, and feel broken.

In what she said, I really focused on one sentence where she said, " I did everything I could..." I do not agree with the fact that she said she did everything she could to please him. Like why do you have to do everything? Why can't he try and please you sometime? But I can also see where she is coming from, no guy has any right to cheat on any girl and vice versa.
When she says tat she feels broken, unwanted, and you almost rust I wonder how anyone can make you feel that way. I have never been cheated on before but I know for a fact that no one could ever make me feel like that. I would never allow anyone to make me feel like that. It gives them pleasure to know they hurt you and it only shows that you are weak. Now because I know that I'm not weak, I know that this won't ever happen to me.
I know that it may hurt for a little while  but they ways she said she felt make it seem like this will be a forever thing, like all guys will cheat on her and like she has no reason to live or something.
Well I just hope that all girls don't feel like this if they ever get cheated on, because this doesn't sound like fun. It sounds a bit over exaggerated but it isn't me so whatever.

The Hard Way or The Easy Way?

Okay so I am going to talk about relationships today. Well I was talking to one of my friends today after schhool and we were talking about what we would put up with in a guy, what type of guys we like etc. My response to this was, I like guys who cute, who are taller then me, light skinned or dark skinned either one works for me, they have to be respectful and nice but at the same time can handle a situation when it is time for it. My friends response was, she liked dark or light skinned guys and taller then her and cute. I asked her, "What if he was sexy as hell but he had a stank attitude and was disrespectful and called her out of her name in public and infront of his friends?" She aid, "Oh I dont care about that just as long as he is cute and if he say something disrespectful to me infront if his friends like call me a "bitch" then I will be like Nigga please, so then he will be embarrassed infront of his friends and not me."

I looked at her like she was crazy. The point of this little story is to point out what girls would put up with just to be in a relationship. Ypung girls now a days will let a boy disrespect them, call them oput of their names, and their response to this is well I was being a bitch, or well he doesn't mean it, or he is just doing that while his friends are around. When I hear a young girl say this, all I can think of is what kind of relationship they will have when they are grown. I really dont get it, why will girls go through all this stuff with a guy?

Now I wouldn't even go out with a rude, stuck-up, disrespectful, self obsessed guy. But if a guy were to disrespect me in public or even if we were alone it wouyld be over right then and there, and if he hit me it would really be on we would be fighting or he would get beat down by all my uncles, brothers, dad, and boy cousins. But I will not put up with disrespect from a guy because that is a waste of my time and I could be doing something productive with my life. I just wish all girls would have this logic and end their relationship before it gets out of control. Well I guess they will have to learn the hard way.