My Special Belonging

If I were to ever be in this situation which I pray I will not, the special belongings I will bring under the assumption that the essentials such as money and laptops were already brought are the ones below: 

1) something that resembles home- I am not a particularly well-organized person and it is shameful for me to admit that so far I have kept nothing. Yet if I were to ever have to leave home forever, I might as well pick up something that most intrigues my memory at that moment. 

2) Family photos. Family photos are a great way to remember the past, as exclusively painful as they are, they are difficult to part with. I will probably grab a photo randomly so I can remember what life was once like. 

3) As many notebooks as I can pack with me. Now that I have left home, it is time for my life to begin a brand new chapter. I want to document every part of it, I don't want to look back at this process as simply fog of misery and tears. 

What I will most miss about home is probably my parent's room where it was very comfortable. Throughout the years, my parent's rooms has pretty much became an extremely comfortable public place. It was large and very cozy. Most of all, it is very bright. When I do leave home for college, that place might be the place I will miss the most. 

Theme to your favorite song

The song I will discuss here is called Songbird sung by Eva Cassidy
For you there'll be no crying 
For you the sun will be shining 
'Cause I feel that when I'm with you 
It's all right I know it's right 

And the songbirds keep singing 
Like they know the score 
And I love you I love you I love you 
Like never before 

To you I would give the world 
To you I'd never be cold 
'Cause I feel that when I'm with you 
It's all right I know it's right 

And the songbirds keep singing 
Like they know the score 
And I love you I love you I love you 
Like never before Like never before 

Like never before




My interpretation of the theme of this song is an old fashioned cliche: Love conquers all. The subject of this song is love. The lyrics stated a girl's feelings for a guy whom she loves. According to her,  everything will be alright when he was standing next to her and her love for him was so strong that she was willing to give everything she has to him. This song isn't anywhere near a narrative, the writer( song writer) is basically referring  her feelings to a physical event. For instance, in her first sentence: "For you, there will be no more crime". It is saying, because of you( in this song, is referred to her lover) , there will be no more crime. From there she threw in another reference of her feelings to a physical event. Afterwards, she immediately stated the reason why . The reason was because when he was with her and so everything will be alright. The chorus used Songbirds as an analogy of their love and she also repeated of how much she loved him throughout the song. The song than used the same paragraph structure to finish the rest of the song. From the above, it was obvious that the subject of this song is about love. I, however,  would like  to again explain why I think the theme is what I have stated: Love conquers all. First of all, the girl stated as long as her lover is with her, everything will be alright.  In this case, love conquered all the difficulties one can encounter in the cold harsh reality. I think the chorus is obvious and will require no further explanation. The second part of the song stated that for him she will give the world and everything she has...In this case, love also conquered everything: the world. 

Folk song about revolution- When Johnny comes home again.

" When Johnny comes marching home" is an infamous Union song during the american revolution. The song carried out a steady militaristic beat that resembled the steady footsteps of the Union solder as their blue and red stripped flag waved victory. The name " Johnny" is a symbol of the solders from the North, while " Billy" is the symbol for the South. The first part of the song stated how when Johnny comes marching home, a symbolic language for when the Union solders gained victory, how the people rejoiced and welcomed him the best that they could. The second part of the song is similar to the first, it stated how the villagers will make wreaths and will throw him a Jubilee( a kind of anniversary) and celebrate with him by giving him 3 cheers( hip hip hooray three times) . The rest of the song than recited the events happening on each year during the civil war. In 1861 was when the war begun and in 1862, both sides were fighting hard and loosing a lot of men. In 1863, Abe( Lincoln) ended slavery. IN 1864, supporters for Abe grew and many came over to fight.  IN 1865, people predicted there to be a rebellion strife or a fundamental disagreement of the rebellion. THere are a couple of old fashioned vocabularies and old sayings such as " We will give the hero three times three". This, to a typical teenager today may be kind of confusing. This sing basically symbolizes the Union's victory during the war, I liked it because I like the chorus and the strong beat at the background.

Duty or friendship?

Hm...this is a really a tough call, especially when one understands the grave consequences of his or her decision. I hope that I would never have to make such a tough decision, but I knew at some point in life I would have to. Life seemed to have a mind of its own, and when a person's life was just hitting off way to smooth, dilemmas and turbulences like this one will occur. Now to answer this question, I would probably say it depends. There is no absolute equation for my action, it all depends on the situation. I would weigh duty and friendship on a mental balance and whichever sinks will be which ever I'll keep. Some issues I would try to weigh as I make my decisions are 1) Is the person really important to me. I know that this seems cruel, but as history has proven, humans are selfish animals. 2) Is the duty important to me. What will I lose if I don't do this. 3) What effect would it have? These are a couple of things I would spend time thinking of before I make these decisions.

Under Pressure

People often confront fear and pressure with trembling limbs and shaking shoulders. When the stakes for a particular item was high, people experiences the heart-pounding fear that as many described " the most painful endurance of a lifetime". Despite of their vivid description of being under pressure, most people generally seemed to perform far better under stress when the stakes are high. You would expect to see the test results of a kid's midterm being far better than an in class work that will not be graded by the teacher and you may also expect a student to study for his or her studies exams as diligently as they ever could the day before the tests when weeks ago they mindlessly studied with extreme low efficiency. Being able to perform under pressure is actually one of the defining characteristics for success in some careers such as Performing, Engineering...etc. Some qualities that enabled people to perform well when facing heart pounding fear or stress were pride, wanting to succeed, and calamity. One had to pride his or herself to a certain extent to ensure that he or her actually had a shot at whatever challenge laid ahead. One had to want to succeed, bad. Yearn for succession will be the major force behind one's trembling body, you have to want it. LAstly, One had to possesses  calamity so they won't literally pass out in the presence of pressure. This is a " well duh" statement so I won't spend further of my valuable time and yours elaborating on that topic. I've had many experiences of coping well under pressure. I remembered when I was in fifth grade, I had to make an impromptu speech in front of the whole school. Even under the immense pressure, I managed to do pretty well on that one. There are even more examples of well stress coping in books and literatures. Taking Artemis Fowl from the ingenious Artemis Fowl series, being a thirteen year old criminal mastermind, Artemis had to confront many dangers that could bring an adult down to his knees with calamity and a winning smile. Needless for me to say, he was excellent under pressure and probably liked it a lot. Sometimes I wished I could be like Artemis, always so calm even during the most heart pounding situations.

Cannot do it again

I've been missing out on a couple of blog posts already since this semester, and I am determined to not do it again. I also realized that I haven't been writing as much as I used to lately, and my writing skills were in deep decline lightening fast. I couldn't write what I had in mind and my writings were far from my expectations. From now on, I should work to improve my writing and read read read! I also noticed my organization was also taking a deep plunge, I started to stuff papers in books and I live my life with a lazy attitude. I should change that, I have to. I know that I don't need to do journal today, but I figure that it will be best to send the word out. Not to anyone in particular, maybe more to myself. It's a handwritten( or sort of) promise, there's no going back. :)

Vengeance

Experiences of feeling as if someone has taken away something deeply important to you can lead to revenges. I've once watched a TV show in which an ex-ballarian seek revenge on the bus driver who caught her in a car accident and costed her legs. There were many other more common examples, Quinn, a popular cheerleader, suspected her boyfriend to secretly admire Rachel, a girl with far less superior social status. That was when she started to be mean to Rachel and tried her best to destroy the girl. Her revenge however, only lead to an increase affection between Rachel and her boyfriend. This lead us to our next question, How could an obsession with vengeance lead to tragedy? Revenge is not a logical emotion , it is out of hatred. So revenge, just like any other irrational emotions such as love, can lead to tragedy. It is particularly easy to end revenge with a note of tragedy since the emotions for revenge are negative, and the character often had to battle with their conscious while they were performing the action.

The grass is always greener on the other side

No, I have not envied someone else's life before. I know that made me an oddball, cause everyone present a quality that the majority doesn't have. Anyone can see that. I suppose I could have too, if I was looking. Ever since a child I was extremely imaginative( though I was careful to disguise that well), I live on a line between reality and imaginative wonderlands. Whenever life doesn't go well for me, I dream of another character who possesses everything I lack. If I were disliked by my classmates, I dreamt of a popular cheerleader who roamed the school, if I were chastised, I dreamt of a girl whose life was perfectly fine. Due to this, I have a tendency to look " in" than " out". Even when I do look out, I don't tendency envy people on their qualities. Probably cause I don't really think about this aspect this much. The closet I ever got to envying someone was my respect for a girl when I was in first grade. She was pretty, smart, and popular and I wanted to be like her. So I created a story and imagined myself as her, pretty ridiculous huh?That lasted for like one day before I forgot about it. As hard as life can be sometimes, I am happy to be myself.

Helen on 68th Street Quick Write

I'm not a big dreamer, meaning that I don't have a huge resolution and a plan for my whole life ahead of me. To me, setting resolutions are like drawing squares around a person. He or she will be, from that moment on, be limited and do only the things they think they are capable of. At least that's how it works for me. I don't live big dreams and tends to focus on the the current issue like my one page response essay due tomorrow instead of things like my yearly salary in the future. I said I didn't thoughtfully hope or wish for a brand future yet, but that doesn't mean I have never attempted to wish for smaller things. I've wished to do well in class and I sort of did, I've wished to place in  a speech contest and did. As in for the bigger things and my self-expectations, I hope my logical thinking to improve, to be able to be neat and tidy, to be able to not be so clumsy, and to be happy and confident in being myself. So far none of these have came true yet, but I'm working on them. I had a giddy feeling that I am coming close. These hopes and dreams tells me that I am inserting effort to improve myself and perhaps I should put in more.

Quick write 3- Thank you ma'am

The questions asked were challenging to answer because most people never gave it much thought. Most people instead of wondering why and how, simply put their hands together blind-headedly whenever a hero does a heroic deed. This quick write gave all of us a chance to think about this question, what makes a hero a hero? Where did they get those tough spirits from? How can they face challenge with a brave face? How can they survive all means and become winners? And most importantly, what makes these people so tough? In my opinion, heros are not "tough". They are neither fearless nor unstoppable; they are made of flesh and bones, just like everybody else. What really makes someone "tough" is hope. A hero has to believe in him or herself enough to have the courage to grit his or her teeth during the extremely difficult times. A hero has to believe in his or herself always. Faith alone will grant strong spirits, and therefore, the hero appeared " tough" and will be able to accomplish the mission impossibles. Heros turned out to be good because they really truly believed in themselves and will not allow fear to scatter his or her clear direction. A hero must never give up hope. " If everyone can be a hero," you may ask. " why do others go wrong? Why are there only a limited amount of heros?" The answer to this is fairly easy, people don't have enough faith in themselves. When they don't, they lose to the ones with more grim determination and faith. After so, they started to think that they were worthless and useless. Believe it or not, after a while, their body started to reflect these ugly thoughts and the person really became a worthless pile of meat. Anyone can be a hero. REally, anyone can. The only difference is how much you faith you have in yourself. Faith is the key matter of all.

Christmas Memory Quick write

Friendship is just one of those things that is hard to put into words. Here,  I'll try my best to sum up many different interpretations into a general statement: Friendship is a natural affection that occurs between two or more people, animals, or things. Taking Isabel and Grace from the novel Gracling as an example, the two characters became friends due to the fact that one of the most important person in their life died of the same " coincidence". This tied the two characters together and formed a bond stronger than ever. A bond that can endure the most severe weather, and will not shatter under the ruthless pounding  of the gleaming  swords. As for me, I wouldn't exactly say I have an oldest friendship....but I do understand the the reason for friendships to have different endurances. Friendships can become ephemeral when friends see illy of each other. Why? THere are a lot of possible reasons; jealousy, hatred, boredom when hanging out and extreme opposite views on a controversial topic that everyone cares about. Another possibility  for friendships to be ephemeral is when friends separate, by will or not. Isolation is one of the worst things that could be done to friendship, which explains why people fear the word so much .
 Sad to say, most friendships are ephemeral, they come and go. Leaving nostalgic people looking wistfully into their pasts. THere are a group of people, however, that treasured lasting friendships.  How? Well, first they have to really get used to each other's company and love each other for who they are. THey also have to have a connection  with their friends  when they were apart. Above all, all friends have to value this friendship and be willing to sacrifice for the good of the others.