Disillusionment

This is related to the topic, I promise.

I spent my first five years of life with my grandparents on an island. I remember thinking they were awesome and I especially liked how they spoiled me. Now, they are still awesome and spoil me, but that is not the manner in which I am disillusioned. I also thought that my grandfather was a little tall and that my grandmother was really tall. I suppose I was mistaken because I was a little kid so everything was taller than me. However, now I am much older as well as taller, and I am cognizant that my grandfather is shorter than my grandmother who is only my height. I actually first realized this about two years ago. I remember asking my mother if my grandparents had shrunk, because I had earlier learned that this is possible. She was a little confused, and told me that they had always been this height. Contrary to what you may be thinking, I was not a stupid child. It is true that as you get older the cartilidge between the vertebrate in your spinal cord wear down, in effect a small amount of shrinking occurs.

Handicapped and Advantaged

Well to some being my age in the ninth grade may seem like an advantage. I mean come on you get to graduate and still be so young. To others my age seems as bad as a disease. They immediately think of how it would suck to not even be able to get your permit until junior year. How I would still be a minor when I go off to college. On any given day, if you asked me how I feel about my age 75 percent of my response is likely to be pessimistic. For the last few journals I have focused on my age, so let us move on. Another disadvantage that I have is my personality. I am generally a very kind person, which is good, and because of this I like to help others. However, when I help people I often take a lot upon myself,especially in group work. The thing about me is that most of my disadvantages can be seen as good qualities. Like my jealous and competitive spirit. I can not handle feeling left out so I often get irritated when I shouldn't and this makes me a somewhat unhappy person. My competitiveness, I guess, is not really a bad thing. I like to succeed and win so this drives me to do great things. Another advantage yet disadvantage that I have is being a perfectionist. I love to do great work but sometimes I take that a little overboard. In all, I think I am relatively equally balanced when it comes to handicaps and advantages.

Research Paper

Topic: Sexist Tendencies/ Stereotypes

Thesis Statement:

In the past it has been clear that the general public has had lesser views of women, than men. Today, though women are recognized as equals, many people continue to return to their roots and make unnoticed sexist remarks.

Subtopic Ideas:
- In the workplace
- Media
- Sports
- Within the Family
- The origin
- Parents
- Environment

Helpful Sites:
- http://www.ecclectica.ca/issues/2006/1/index.asp?Article=24
- Talks about sexism from an early age from fairy tales and other children’s literature
- http://www.medialit.org/reading_room/article41.html
- Slightly subtle sexist things
- http://www.medialit.org/focus/ster_home.html
- A larger part of the previous website, a bit on women’s images in
media, but does have other examples of sexism

*Ms. Chiang, I am not sure if my paper is too broad. What do you think? I am having trouble finding online resources so do you have any suggestions?

A-Z

At the age of ten I had been in the sixth grade for three months and was attending a new school. Before I went to a school in Texas,which I had attended for almost three months, this is where most of my friends remained. Catherine, Katie, Jessica and Margaret were all close friends that I lost when I moved here. This community is a bit different from Texas.Everyone associates Texas with cattle, cowboys, and horses.For the approximately five years that I lived in Texas I saw enough cowboys that I could probably count on one hand. Going to a new school is always a tough experience. Having moved four times I have never had true consistency in my life.
In the moving process, making new friends is essential.Just adjusting to a new school was also difficult.Knowledge that I had acquired over my previous three months at my old school was almost irrelevant in this new school system because the curriculum was different. Lame differences like this weren't the only annoying things. My lunch was also strikingly different.Not too long after I began attending this new school,I started bringing lunch to school instead of eating the cafeteria food. Of course when I came to my new schooI was somewhat shocked that the food was so bad because my old one had outstanding food which I had grown used to. Putrid the food may have been, lunch time was a great time to chat with friends. It's quite awesome that I am now in the ninth grade with awesome friends. Remarkable really, I feel a sense of consistency returning. Somehow I am surviving high school and all the hectic activity that comes with it. This month my birthday passes. Unremarkably, I only have thirteen days left. Very rarely am I here in the summer because I go to visit my grandparents in Tobago .While I was here in the early summer, I tried to do as many things with my friends as possible before I left.X-men, along with many other movies entertained me and my friends this summer. One day with my friends, I would like to visit Japan where the currency is yen. Hopefully, we would not encounter any zedonks on our trip.

Cadaver

Well, this is nice getting to type our journals.

Life is a special thing and it should be lived to the fullest. Some people don't do that and they end up missing out on a lot of great times. I don't want to be like that, I want to live and experience all things worth doing. When I die, as is inevitable, I want my last minutes spent remembering all the good I have done, not what I have left undone. I want it to be peaceful, as a natural death not one of pain and suffering. I want to close my eyes for that final time knowing that I have achieved at least half of what I aimed to. When I reopen my eyes not on earth but in heaven, or wherever it is I end up, I wish to be happy, at peace, and to feel light as if a weight has lifted off my shoulders. This would be my nirvana.

At the same time as I am experiencing complete and utter joy I am mindful that my friends and family would be in a state of mourning. It is not to say that I won't miss them, as I am sure I will, but it is true that they must carry on. As for my disposal, funeral, cremation, or science, I do not know. My mother wishes to be cremated but if I can stand to leave my family with my ashes I am not sure. If I donated my body to science my family would have no way of "visiting" me and easing some of the pain. True, if they did "visit" they'd just be talking to decomposed bone and muscle, but it's the idea that counts.
A funeral can be a weary occasion yet one for the mourners to comfort themselves. They always seemed like uncomfortable situations to me. If I were to die before I made a will I suppose my family would have a traditional burial, which would be fine but not something I myself would have attended if I were alive. I'm not sure how I'd ideally like to be disposed of but as long as I am remembered my preference is none.