This is a Title

Dear Sidney:

Where are you now? Are you where I wanted you to be at your age? I have no reason to believe that what you have been through getting where you are at now was anything less than impossible for you. I know how difficult motivation can be for you. Keep pushing onward though since I know you have it in you. Practice until your hands hurt so that you may possibly attend an art school if that is still what you so wish. Study until you have memorized the information so thoroughly you could teach your own professor. 

The vast amount of possibilities that are open to you may be terrifying, but you must forge forward and blaze trails that you never would have imagined yourself creating. The fear you feel must be taken in stride. Do not look back in life and wish you would have straightened your back and walked forward. There is every reason for your goals to elude you, but I believe that the achievement of accomplishing those goals outweigh the horrifying possibility of leading an average life. 

Art school will lead you nowhere, you will never make it through college, if you do make it through college there will be no jobs for you to have, your student loans will not be paid off until you reach the end of your life, and going to college will ultimately ruin you. Who are they to tell you that no matter which direction you take your life in that it will end in disaster? It is your life and you may do what you wish. Put yourself through these challenges now and you will be more content later on in life. Choose your path wisely as the paths are just truly beginning to open for you. 

Yours sincerely,




Sidney Handyside

Love, Companionship, and the Human Experience

Love and companionship are important aspects of the human experience because without them humans would just be mindless animals with one goal in mind. Their sole purpose would be to survive and nothing else. Every task put on them and every action they take would be thought of with only them in mind. In a way, without love they would be considered selfish. Love is important to the human experience because humans cannot just gain material objects and feel fulfilled or satisfied. To feel completed they need the affection or attention of another human. It is very possible for a wealthy person to be lonely and feel depressed despite their fortune. Finally, companionship is vital to the human experience because with two humans working together, more is learned. More can be accomplished, advancing anything from technology, to scientific knowledge, to discovering more about humans themselves. To be human is to grow and expand the knowledge of the working universe, and having a partner makes the work easier and much more tolerable. Humans need companionship from other humans, or even animals, to stay human.

Frustration and determination.

A situation in which one might feel repeated rejection would be in searching for a job. Sending multiple job applications and not having any calls returned can become very frustrating to a person over a period of time. This person on a mission to find a new source of income could easily be filled a feeling of worthlessness or feel unwanted. Although this person may have a difficult time dearching for work, they still continue to send in applications because being determined is what will get them the job in the end.

Responsiblity and Ambiguity

     After coming home from a restaurant, person A places their leftovers in the fridge for later. Coming back the next afternoon, person A finds that their food is missing. Person A investigates with the other members of the household and finds out that person B ate person A’s food. Whose fault is it? The leftovers were unlabeled and left out in the open, but yet the food was not for person B to eat. In this case, person A is at fault for not labeling their food. If the food had been labeled, then person B would have been at fault. To be able to determine who has responsibility in a situation that is unsure, it depends on the situation. Every situation is different and cannot be treated equally. If something bad happens and I am trying to figure out if I am to take responsibility or not, I weigh the reasons against me and for me, then I try to calmly decide.

All My Hard Work

          Since my only hobby is art, it is not surprising that the most amount of effort I have ever put into anything was into a drawing. One day I decided I would create some small drawings for practice, and I ended up working on that particular drawing for days. It was simply a picture of a freckled girl facing the observer, but I was so proud of that simple picture that I even entered it into a contest. The most difficulty I had creating that drawing was drawing the nose and mouth. Shading those two parts of the face proved to be a challenge for me. I very much believe that all the effort and time I spent on that drawing was well spent, as it turned out to be, in my opinion, the greatest thing I had ever created. Since I finished that drawing, I have been working to improve my skills and I have been steadily improving. 

Exploration

To explore the unknown, people have traveled to new parts of the world. Christopher Columbus sailed across the Atlantic Ocean and discovered an entire continent previously nonexistent to the people of the world at that time. Technological advances help mankind explore the unknown as well. As the submarine was invented and developed, humans could dive farther into the depths of the ocean to discover new life living at the bottom of the ocean as well as new territory like trenches.

            Individuals have devoted themselves to a life of exploration and discovery because they want to contribute to mankind and further mankind’s knowledge. These explorers want to make their mark in history so that they will not be forgotten. A goal to reach gives them a purpose in life so that they feel they have meaning.

            With such devotion to discovery and exploration, these people put their relationships on the line. Even their health may suffer from their studies just as Marie Curie did from her studies. 

Speak the truth, even if your voice shakes.

No matter how difficult it may seem, tell the truth. Certain situations may seem like they call for lies to spare one's feelings, but humans are not as fragile as they are made out to be. For instance, if a woman asks a fellow woman or a male if a certain dress looks appealing on her, tell the truth. A woman’s emotions hang in a careful balance, and if one tells her something unpleasant she may become very upset. If one does not think the dress is flattering on the woman though, she must be told. Although it may hurt her feelings in that moment, it could save her from being hurt by the harsh words of others later on. Another example would be one side of a relationship cheating on the other. If an outside party is aware of this lying, that person should either speak to the one cheating, or tell the person being cheated on. The lack of loyalty may break one of their hearts, but it is better to know. Telling the truth can harm feelings, but it keeps feelings from being hurt as well. Lying, on the other hand can lead to one feeling betrayed and forming trust issues, can hurt one’s feelings worse than the truth, and can push dearly loved ones away. Being dishonest with others is never okay, and the truth will always conquer a lie created in an attempt to save one’s feelings. As the saying goes, the truth will set you free. 

My Academic Struggles, Accomplishments, and Aspirations

     The academic life of a student is not as simple as one would think. Students face their own flaws and the difficulty of overcoming obstacles to reach their goals. As a student, I have a continuing battle with my struggles. Mine are hardly any different than any other student's struggles, but they still exist. Though these setbacks are difficult to face, I can push through them and achieve the aspirations I have set for myself.

     My career as a student has been filled with struggle to maintain my success. One of the biggest struggles that I face is my lack of motivations to begin working on an assignment. Once I begin on the paper, I have no problem finishing it. All I need is the push to begin the work. Another problem I combat is that during my class time I have trouble staying focused. I have a tendency to stare off into the distance, immersing myself in my imagination rather than the reality at hand. Finally, my last struggle is staying organized and remembering all of the assignments given to me. It is a terrible habit of mine to receive a worksheet or instructions and to immediately forget that the work existed. Although I have flaws in the assignments and schoolwork of my academic career, my accomplishments still shine though to show my hard work as a student.

     In the time I have been a student, I have accomplished more than I would have imagined. I have never received anything less than merit roll on a report card, and I work hard to keep that statement true. I have a natural instinctive need to try my hardest and get the best possible grade that I can. My behavioral record is clean as I try my best to uphold the rules the high school has established. I know the line between having fun and being disrespectful towards another student or teacher. I am also accomplished in the way that, despite my forgetfulness, I turn in nearly all of my schoolwork. I have a missing assignment only a few times per grading period. With all of my accomplishments I hope to achieve the goals I set for myself in the future.

     To achieve my long term goals, I must first succeed in following through with shorter term goals. To finish high school with flying colors, I must continue to receive the grades that I determine to be up to par. I may even need to improve myself, and raising the bar would be the easily said but difficult to do solution. To receive better grades I can look at my struggles as a student and work to improve them one at a time. One way to improve my grades, and another one of my academic aspirations, is to improve my study habits. Studying harder means that my understanding of the material given to me would be more thorough and in depth, which would lead to improved test scores and academic success. Another smaller aspiration that would contribute into accomplishing my first aspiration would be to procrastinate less. I consistently put off my work until I fall into a near panic over the blank sheet of paper in front of me. I never seem to have the drive to finally begin the first sentence of the assignment, and I hope to improve that by setting aside special time dedicated to my schooling while I am at home. Through my aspirations I will continue to improve as a student and work to my larger aspirations.
   
     I have plans set in place to deal with my flaws as a student, and with the flaws tamed I can go on to reach my academic goals and add to my academic accomplishments. I can accomplish what I wish to, and I will work to improve myself as a student to achieve more. My struggles do not keep me from what I want. There is an entire world of students, and I compete in it. I will push myself and I will compete to be one of the best students the world has to offer so that I may reach my aspirations.

Cyber Bullying

All our lives we have heard about and seen bullying, but now there are new ways to torment someone unjustly. Now bullies can attack a victim without even saying it to their face. They can hide behind a computer screen, a mask, without the usual consequences of bullying someone face to face. These bullies harrass others because they were once hurt by others. They hated the feeling, but when they attack another they do not consider the pain that the other person is feeling. They only think of how it feels to assert oneself as better than another. It is easier to bully someone over the internet than to do it in person because you cannot see the emotions the victim is expressing and cannot feel a connection to them. When one is bullying another they want to avoid feeling the pain of the victim at all costs, so distancing oneself makes it easier to hurt them. If I were to witness bullying taking place, I would step in and give a short, curt, definite comment on how I feel about the situation, telling the one bullying to stop such actions. I have found that the quicker and more to the point you keep the interaction, the quicker it is to end the bullying. You allow for no compromise and no way for the bully to attack you for showing weakness. Bullies are only human and if you see them as such it is easier to deal with them. They feel just as we do, and it is not hard to make them regret their actions. Although this does not excuse their actions, it can help undo a portion of the damage they have caused and possibly even prevent future bullying from that person once they have been singled out. Bullying is unacceptable, and will not be stood for in today's world. Stand up for someone if they are a victim of bullying and do not let it continue.

What Belongs to You

Nothing gives the right to people to claim things that do not belong to them. They think that taking what does not belong to them is justified by trying to do good with what they take, or by the idea that the previous owner was not using the property to it's full potential. For example, the United Nations gave land to the jews around world war two that belonged to the palestinianians first. This was wrong because the UN tried to give away land that was not theirs. A more simple example would be a juice box. If one had a juice box that they did not intend to drink right away, that means that just because someone else would drink it right away does not mean that they have a right to take the juice box. It may be justified in that one person's mind, but it is not right. Taking property from another person is not right, and I believe this also holds true for taking taken property. If property has been in another's hands for so long, it eventually just becomes part of their life. For example, houses been torn down in africa for being built on the property of another. Since these resisents had been there for so long, the land became theirs. No action had previosly occured to take back this land, so the ownership changed. Tearing down these homes was wrong. The residents had lived there for all those years, and should not have been uprooted like that. Although people do not have the right to take what is not theirs, it is just as wrong to take what was part of one's life away if it did not originally belong to them.

Hayao Miyazaki

If I could meet one person from the past or present, famous or not, it would be Hayao Miyazaki. Miyazaki is a Japanese animator who creates visually beautiful movies. If I could spend the day with him, I would simply work in his studio with him and then go eat at whatever his favorite restaurant would be. Given the chance, I would try to learn as much as I could from Miyazaki since I look up to him as an artist. During our meal at his favorite restaurant, I would tell him about how I admire him, and I would ask him questions about his life. My favorite movie by him would be Spirited Away, which is one of my all time favorite movies. I have been learning from his work since I was 11 years old and have always wanted to meet him. Of all the people I could choose to meet from the present and the past, I would choose to meet Miyazaki.