Sophmore Reflection...

Half the year is done. I wish i could turn back the hands of time and live it all again. There are so many things I would do differently. You never who you affect when you do or say certain things until it is too late. This year has had so much drama. I have lost friends and made friends. I have been up all night debating topics, wrestling with my own thoughts. I have grown more in this one semester than I have my entire life. When I first started tenth grade, I hated it, every aspect of it. The hallways were dark, the teachers did not know me, and the food seemed to taste worse than before. I wanted so badly to be a Junior high student again. To walk down that long, hill of a hallway towards Mamie's room and straight thought the door. I saw myself grabbing the first dry erase marker I could find and writing in big print "I love Mrs. Cuzzort." I told her about my hatred for this school after about the second day and she simply said to me " You will like soon enough, it just takes time." Sure it will, I thought. However I now realize she was right. As much as I love and miss the Junior High School I became so accustomed to. I could not go back. I have to move on and now that I have I can fully enjoy the High School. Although it has dark hallways, rude seniors and much more homework. I love it and I can not wait for the rest of this year.

Was it fate..or was it just me?

The conspirators in Julius Caesar believed it was fate that Caesar be killed. Was it really fate or was it a sorry excuse for murder? In Shakespeare's time fate played a major factor in every one's life. Your child has small pox and is going to die.... its fate. You go to war get stabbed and are in critical condition.... its fate. Nothing can just happen according to fate. If fate wants something to happen it WILL happen, but was it fate that stabbed Caesar? Was it fate that schemed behind his back and betrayed his trust? No, it was not. Did the conspirators have a choice of whether or not they would kill Caesar? Of course they did! They were not held hostage and threatened. They believed they could do better than Caesar could and they planned to prove it. This was a plan they created on their own and they dealt with the consequences of what they did. Therefore, fate determines nothing, we do. We make our own decisions and no one can MAKE us do anything.

Leadership and Julius Caesar

The Tragedy of Julius Caesar is a play by William Shakespeare. Julius Caesar, determined leader, was brutally murdered by the people he trusted the most. They claimed to have only killed him for the good of the country. They, the conspirators, believed that Caesar had let his position take over him and that Caesar was mad with power. Other people however believed Julius was a great leader who was just determined enough to run the country. Leadership is a funny thing. There is a very thin line between a good-natured leader and a power-hungry dictator. Good leaders are firm but nice. They know how to get the job done without stepping on too many toes. Bad leaders are overbearing and mean. They get the job done as well, but at what costs? There are always power struggles when you have a bad leader because everyone thinks they could do a better job and in some cases, they could. However, a power struggle can also happen with a perfect leader. Determining if a person is a good leader or a bad leader depends on your moral standings. If you have any. What is bad for one person might not be bad for another.

Think Win-Win

Habit four of Sean Covey's book The Seven Habits to Highly effective teens, Sean Covey states that "Think win-win is and attituede toward life, a mental fram of mind that says i can win and so can you."According to him not everyone has a win-win attitude. In face there are many different attitudes people in todays society thinks with. Such as the win-lose attitude, the lose-win attitude, the lose-lose attitude and of course the win-win.

The win-lose attitude,totem pole, says "I don't care how good I am as long as I'm a notch higher than you are." The world has trained us to think win-lose but win-lose always backfires. The totem pole always has one loser left on the bottom and the winner to rub it in his face sits at the top. Everyone thinks win-lose sometimes but its important not to stay in that way of thinking because you become filled with pride.

The doormat, lose-win, say's I dont like to fight so I'll let you win. Yes, this attitude is perfect for situations where you don't care either way, but you should always know when to back down and when to stand strong. If your attitude is lose-win you will always be following everyone else just to please them. Everyone steps on a lose-win person. That is why it is called the doormat.

The lose-lose or downward spiral attitude thinks "If Im going down, then you're going down with me!" Lose-lose occurs mostly when two win-lose people get together. Lose-lose is nothing you want to be associated with in any situation. Then of course win-win says I can win and so can you! When you have a win -win attitude all your relationships flourish. At times it can seem almost impossible to have a win-win attitude but it always pays off in the end.

Paradigms

According to The Seven Habits of Highly Effective Teens by Sean Covey paradigms are perceptions about the way things are and are usually untrue and incomplete. Paradigms,of yourself, usually hold you back. An example of that would be when i was in elementary and middle school.
I was rather shy and quiet. I had friends but I was too scared to talk to other kids, especially the popular kids. I thought if I was outgoing they would not like me and the would think i was odd. I was afraid I would be made fun of. Eventually, in the fourth grade, I made friends that made me feel comfortable enough to be myself. They were fun and loud and people still liked them. Since fourth grade i have become much more of a people person. I am not shy or quiet in the least and I make new friends everyday.
The paradigm I had about myself is that people would not like the real me. However, I came to find out the people i cared about liked me being myself and once I got used to it I did not care if other people didn't like it.

Sci-fi the..genre??

In Pre-AP English I read a Sci-Fi book titled The invisible man by H.G.Wells. The novel was written mostly for more mature readers. The vocabulary was very advanced, a little too advanced for my taste. However, i found upon completion that i loved the book. I have never been very "into" the genre of Science fiction but i have been exposed to it many times. Before this assignment I thought Sci-Fi was only for the so called geeks who watch Star Wars and Star Trek. I have now come to realize that science fiction, like any other genre has its good books and its bad books.

Meet Lynn...

Lynndroida, mother and a wife is also a robot.She was created on the planet Shardon in the city of teeopolis. She was sent to Batestown to rid the citizens of all "evil-doers." "Those who lie, cheat and steal must be corrected," she always says. Whenever she sees someone doing wrong her eyes open wide and her smile fades into a harsh grimace. The platter she carries with her detaches from her hand and flies towards the criminal as fast as a speeding bullet. The platter temporarily stuns her captives and she then forces them to drink her delicious lemon ice tea. The ice tea she hand makes with love and her most top secret ingredient. What does this ice tea do? I will tell you this much, the tea does not ....harm the victim. Lynn was sent here to do good not evil. However whats bad on Shardon is not necessarily bad here on Earth in Batestown. I hope the Shardonites know what their doing.