Morrie Aphorism Project

  The aphorism that Morrie shares with Mitch is, "...if you really want it, then you'll make your dream happen." (Page 47). It tells that giving up isn't going to get you anywhere in life. You keep going and you keep working hard to achieve the dream you always wanted. Every successful person in the world got there from never giving up and never just payed there thinking their life will always be the same. This is not true, everyone has a purpose in life and it isn't just going to be handed to you like you think. This is what Morrie believes in when he explains to his students that any career or thing in life will be achievable if you just keep going. That is the strongest message of them all.

  It may sound corny or even cliche but it happens a lot and it may even happen to you. In movies or documentaries that depict the life of a successful person, for example Steve jobs. In that movie it shows Steve in is garage with friends making computers. After countless fails and rejections from companies he never stoped trying to revolutionize technology. He eventually started his companies and it grew to something you see today. Despite the huge bumps on the way he was able to complete hi dream through had work and never giving up. This sort of thing happened to me except not computers. All my life I've wanted to play basketball, I started when I was five and I was using a neighbors hoop and a soccer ball. After countless hours of practicing I was finnally able to find a form I can use to make shots. I soon was able to play against people way older than me. But it isn't that easy, so many times I've lost and made fun of because I was always "bigger" than other kids my age. It brought me down but I kept going and was able to become a role model for some people.

I believe that this aphorism is true and it really is a huge part of a great life. In everybody there is something that they want and it is almost always not going to be handed to them like that. You know you want it when you don't give up on it and you keep going. This is what the first part of the aphorism shows, "...if you really want wat it...". The second part comes in when you have the dream and finally achieve it with a boost of confident that anything is possible. That is why I agree with this aphorism and is a great message to show to anybody having a very hard time not being able to compel themselves to achieve their dream.

If we let things terrify us, life will not be worth living. 

Socratic Seminar Morrie Reflection

The Socratic seminars have made me think more about why Morrie was so open with death and how he was able to share what he feels with the world and not in his house mourning his death. The seminar let me find out that Morrie was never afraid of death and he embraced it by being with loved ones and not letting any emotions take full control of him. Doing this it gave me more of an understanding of the message the book is trying to reach for the reader. Not only did the seminar helped with the book but it made me think about my daily life. What would I do if I was slowly dying  because of a disease. All of these questions start going through my mind and makes me realize the little things in life. It gave me a veiw on today's society that everyone is just trying to spread negativity in the world.

Through the seminar I noticed that I always had one goal, and that is to start a conversation about a topic in the book. It never came to be yet I still tried to participate for me to understand other peoples view. On every seminar I would listen because of love hearing what people have to day about their opinion. But the more we did it the more my goals began to change. I wanted to say at least one thing at every talk but then I made it 2 or 3. The more I listen the more I had to say and I was able to start a conversation. I personally think it was a good idea to do the seminars and im kinda sad that that was out last one.

Everyone in who participated in the seminar everyone liked to make connnection about their personal lives. It usually revolves around death since that was a majority topic since the book is talking about death. We all pitched in to the conversation and we would laugh about it. It is great to listen to each other and we listen respectfully. There are times where we interrupt each other by acccident and it happens more than you think. That usually what happens in our seminars and it's a great way to learn. I wish I will be able to do this in the future.

The Perfect Day

The days have gone by in my life that aren't always the best. But, there are some days were I never want it to end and enjoy it. I would wake up an hour after dawn fully refreshed and energized for the day. Enjoying the sunlight peeking through my window and the gentle sound of the trees swaying outside in the morning. I go and get breakfast with pancakes, french toast, and any other breakfast meals. Once done and really full as if I was going to rupture I would relax on my bed again watching a couple videos until the food in my stomach went down. I would lay for an hour just thinking and relaxing while my family is doing the same. There was no yelling, no work, and no stress.

After laying for a couple hours me and my family start packing for our bike trip in a trail that goes through the forest and across rivers. Once outside we soak up the sunlight and mild temperatures as we head into the car with our bikes. When we arrived everyone was full and energy and ready to race with our bikes down the trail. My parents are behind us looking at the river while me and my sibling head out to the tail where we rode our hearts out. We enjoyed the scenery with green everywhere and birds chirping in the distance. We see animals in the forest and stop to watch them for minutes at a time. After we finished the trail and everyone exhausted from the ride we get put the bikes back in the car and leave.

We arrived and every one had an appetite after all biking we set up the grill and start cooking. Me and my sibling waiting impatiently out side in the back yard setting up tables and chairs. While setting up we smell the delicious food cooking and we pick up the pace. Now done with the work my whole family grab a basketball and play a game.  Everyone was sweaty after that so we start getting buckets of water and we throw it onto each other. All of us laughing we check the food and it is finished. We all dry off as much as we can and we all sit down together. We eat and our neighbors join in with us and we all have a blast playing basketball and talking.

At dusk everyone was full and tired we grab another grill and start a bonfire. We grab marsh mellows and Hershey chocolates. Everyone enjoyed their goey dessert as we all stayed out their for hours until we all were falling asleep. We put out the fire and everyone goes inside getting ready for bed. I took a shower and put on my pjs and laid in my bed covering myself and dirfiting to sleep. This is a perfect day.

Tuesday With Morrie Bucket List Blog

When I started reading the book it seemed very sweet. It described a life of a professor and I thought he just did not care about what other people think and he had fun like he wants to. As I got further into the book it made me very sad that he was getting older and with a new chronic disease he gets called ALS it kept him from doing the things he loved. I was feeling better when family members were by his side helping him. When they depicted him getting weaker and not being able to do anything I just couldn't believe he could live any longer than that. I wouldv'e liked to die already if I was in a state when I'm not able to do anything at all but sit there and do nothing. Yet he never was depressed or mad he just kept on living life and I find that very inspirational. I wasn't that far into the book and it already makes me think about death and how I should live life to the fullest.

Many people have goals in which they want to complete but not many people are able to achieve everything. There are many sad cases where they die quicker than they wanted to. I personally have goals that I hope I can complete in my lifetime. Many of them are when I'm an adult and I want to have a successful life with an amazing family. I still will have death in my mind so my job is to keep that though from overtaking my life.

Bucket List:
- Graduate school
- Have a successful job
- Have a family
- Be able to help my family
- Have a healthy lifestyle
- Help in with the community
- Help other people who need it
- Start or fund a charity
- Grow old
- Have a living funeral
- End my life peacefully

3rd Quater Reflection

The TIQA format was the best stragedy I learned in this class. This type of organization let me understand what I needed to fix or insert in my writing. It has made my writing easier because when you look over my blogs at the beginning of the year you can notice that my writing is all over the place. When I learned the stragedy I was able to put everything in order and not confuse the reader. It gave me the ability to create thorough writing. There is another stragedy that is like the TIQA, it is called ANT. The TIQA format gave organization to the body paragraphs and not the introduction. Normally before I learned that I just wrote something that seemed like an introduction. Both of those stragedy's overall have helped me a lot with writing making a little bit easier to cope with the amount of writing I have to do.

Besides writing I have been reading a lot more. My 15 book challenge has been doing quite well but their is always more I can read. That is why I joined battle of the books, I thought it will give me a really good boost in my challenge. Joining that event has made me realize that books aren't all that boring because the truth is I never really enjoyed reading. I always thought that reading was a waste of time and I never found any joy of doing it. Then I came across a few books that I have really enjoyed, for example Shark Girl. This book combined poetry with the story and I found it very intesting. The book gave a great story and also encorprated poems to help the reader understand what the character was feeling. That is why It might be one of my favorite books.

The 3rd quater was one of the hardest things to deal with in my life. The work wasn't that much of the problom although that's what made it tough. During the 3rd quater I entered the most time consuming stress ever. Since there are now 10 plus people in my house things started to get really hectic. Before my sister will be at work and right when I come home her kids are here, all 4 of them and they are all 7 years and younger. So I usually have to take them in and put them where they usually are. I worry about that until my mom gets home at around 5:30 or 6. Now that was decently easy I usually start working around five. During that time I get distracted a lot, sometimes my fault but other times its about siblings are something else. There are some fights between my family members and I was involved and my siblings so I'm kinda always thinking or sometimes stressed out. Hopefully since my sister is leaving with her kids that I would be back to normal and finally be able to improve in the following next quarter.  

NIght Blog

Elizer was a Jew in Transylvania, he was very religious and he loved it. One day while he was practicing his studies he was told about the war, although everyone was very optimistic no one seen it coming.Throughout the Holocaust it changes a lot of peoples thought on everything. Some things could be religion, faith, humane. For Elizer he was luckily placed with his father but had no idea if they would die or not. This has changed Elizers faith as he almost jumped into the electric fence, killing him before he was burned alive,  "I gathered all that remained of my strength in order to break rank and throw myself onto the barbed wire." The hope he had of living seemed slimmed and he just wanted to die fast instead of being burned alive in a slow and painful death. The only thing that kept him from breaking through was his father. Thankfully he was able to catch his breath when the "angle of death" let both him and his father go to the barracks.

Throughout the Holocaust people have forgotten how to care for other people in the camp. The reason for that is because they consider it "Everyman for themselves" for a better chance of survival, " listen to me kid. Don't forget that this is a concentration camp. In this place it's Everyman for himself, and you cannot think of other. Not even your father." They wouldn't care if they beat up their own family members for food. There are many cases that people have killed their owppn father for food. Elizer didn't know why people should do that because he will never beat or kill his own father, Elizer was one of the only one with human emotions. Elizer soon relized why people did that when his father became terribly ill and all he can do is try to give him his food since they didn't give any to his father. Other Jews will say, " Stop giving your ration of bread and soup to your old father." They told his this bet Elizer didn't fall in and he helped his father until he died.

As if it was a miracle to Elizer he has been given news that the war about to end but he soon finds out that Hitler is still keeping his promise. He will murder every single Jew, he was mildly successful. The camp had hundreds of thousands of people and by the end their were only a few thousand left. Despite that Elizer managed to stay alive until the resistance reached them and he finally saw something that wasn't from the nazis. He felt as if he had never seen the world with other people besides SS officers or other Jews. He had felt freedom, " Our first act as free men was to throw ourselves into the provisions." Through the whole expierence Elizer was able to be a free man again.

The whole book shares his expierence and it really must've changed him through the whole novel. He has learned ho to make his own descisions and to know what somebody else might feel. He has learned how to keep his faith and keep going. That is one of the reasons he was able to survive. It wasn't to beat or kill everyone you see survival, it was to help yourself and someone you care about because that person might keep you alive at the end. 

Argumentative Articles (AOW)

                                         The Most Pressing Argument 

While reading many articles, there were arguments that made me think of which side I was on. The one that really pressed against me was the article about Snowden. I think it was really dangerous for Edward Snowden to expose the government because anybody can see it. This includes terrorist, enemy countries, etc... This puts many Americans in danger but all he had to do to prevent it was to let the government do its thing. Even though it let Americans know about there privacy being invaded. No one wants the government to easdrop on your conversation. Exposing it let people know about it so they can stop the invasion of privacy. Imagine talking about something personal while the government was listening. You wouldn't want it anyone listening either.

                                       Which Article Effect Me More?

Although that article about Snowden compelled me to think more about the argument it doesn't effect me too much. The article that really effects me and other people is the argument about eating less meat to help climate change. Doing this changes most of my diet and by doing this change so rapidly it can really anger some people, especially if its a religious meal they eat that contains meat. Me personally, I eat a lot of meat in my diet and me having to go almost vegan would make me avoid food almost completely.

Although not being able to consume meat anymore it at least helps the environment. Many people who give up meat so we can live on the earth without any type of disaster happening. Saving the earth is one of the things we have struggled on for decades. No one wants to give up their cars or companies but changing your diet will decrease more than 51% of green house gasses released into the air.