AF: Roger Ebert and his wife, Chaz

AF: TEDYouth

Kids, read this, and look at the bottom where it says,

Not able to make it to TEDYouth in person? Totally fine. The event will be webcast on Saturday, November 16, from 11am to 6pm CDT. Or find a TEDxYouthDay event near you. They are happening all over the world, in the 48-hour period surrounding TEDYouth.

AF: What's good?

The Orange
—Wendy Cope

At lunchtime I bought a huge orange —
The size of it made us all laugh.
I peeled it and shared it with Robert and Dave—
They got quarters and I had a half.

And that orange, it made me so happy,
As ordinary things often do
Just lately. The shopping. A walk in the park.
This is peace and contentment.  It's new.

The rest of the day was quite easy.
I did all the jobs on my list
And enjoyed them and had some time over.
I love you. I'm glad I exist.

AF: Success on TED Radio

This was a great little moment on the radio this morning:  an hour devoted to different ideas about success.  I'm going to go back and listen to the entire show, but this short segment (13:17) by Alain de Botton* is really very good.  Play it in the background while you are doing something else, like folding your laundry.

Why I thought of you:  because you are trying to figure out what your major will be; it feels urgent to you that you figure this out, and soon.  Why?  Because our identities are tied up so closely with our work.  But honestly,  how can someone who is just 17 or 18 years old know who they are or what they will be?  You are just on the cusp.

Don't worry about WHAT you are.  Worry instead about getting a good education.  Become well educated.  Study everything. For most of us, it is mistake to look at college from such a narrow, careerist point of view.  I'm not saying that NO ONE knows what they want to be when they grow up, but I am saying that most don't, and that's fine.

*If you're trying to figure out why this guy sounds familiar...he wrote The Architecture of Happiness, a book that figured prominently in the movie, 500 Days of Summer.

Striving for Improvement

I never thought English was an important subject to slowly master throughout elementary and middle school, since my interest was captured by math at an early age, which I recognized is universally applicable in the real world every time I apprenticed my dad in any of his construction jobs. I’ve felt confident in my ability to do math throughout my academic experience, but I don’t feel equally secure about my ability to write long essays like I do in math. Simply manifesting any writing exceeding more than one page has been steadily becoming less of a challenge, as I read and write more frequent. I’ve found more motivation throughout my experience in high school and in my preparation for the major I want to pursue in college, because the demand for extensive writing in college is high as I’ve heard by college grads. I’ve put my writing-phobia aside to focus on my academic success. If you’re not confident in one or more subjects it’s never too late to begin improving, because your future depends on it.

Silent Sustained Reading

I'm not the kind of person that likes to read books. I only read books when I'm forced too and even then, I'm still not into the reading. Science fiction is usually my favorite type of book to read, but the introduction is a very slow process in the books I've read, so it tends to be boring. I tend to slowly knock-out or gaze off somewhere rather than read my book sometimes. I don't get how people read for fun, the book could be better because of the details and description of the story, but that's a con for me because long stories tend to get boring and too descriptive for me to read. How do people read for hours on a book for fun sometimes? I mean it's probably a really good book, but I would probably spend months just trying to complete half a book sometimes. I see people reading their books everyday and are really into it, but when you see me, I just read only 5 pages and not get into it. I've read many different genres and I still can't find the best genre that suits me. Hopefully, I get that feeling one day in a book that won't make me stop reading it or won't let me put the book down, but not because I'm forced to read... but to read for fun.

Other People

The Peter Elbow's chapter Other People is about how your audience affects your writing.   At first I thought he meant it literally but, he meant it figuratively. The audience he is talking about is the audience in your mind. You picture yourself in front of an audience and began getting nervous. Your audience can help you or hinder you. Elbow tells us about two types of audiences, safe audiences and dangerous audiences. A safe audience is the audience everybody wants. Safe audiences are supportive, friendly, comfortable, and your words come easier. If the audience is paying attention to you, you'll have more ideas and be able to speak more freely. A dangerous audience is what no one wants they are uninterested, you will stumble over your words, and they are just no real audience at all. You will become nervous and you will develop a protective voice. Peter Elbow tells us to ignore our audience and just think of talking to a friend. He also suggests a lot of free writing and changing your audience. 

Ms Fletcher's 40 Question Test

The test we took a few days ago in class was a very helpful test for me. At first, I was looking through it and thinking, "I really don't feel like taking this test but I'm still going to try my best." And that's exactly what I did. I got my test back and I did pretty good. I appreciated the sheet that Ms. Fletcher gave us to see what we needed to work on and that really helped me a lot. I realized that I need to work on more than I thought I had to. I also liked how it was organized. It was set up in a way where everything wasn't all over the place. The topics were organized and easy to follow/read and that made the test easier to do. I believe this test was designed to show us where we all stood for college level english right now. Made to show us the key points we are doing well in, and the key points that we aren't doing so well in. Made to get us thinking, "Okay. This is where I need more help and this is where my focus should be." I really do appreciate Ms. Fletcher for making that test for us because now I see that I need work on points I thought I knew very well, and that was the whole point of this test. So if you got nothing from this blog, get this: Don't be afraid to ask questions on the points you need help with.  

Free Writing

      My biggest weakness is writing essays. I am not good at it because I tend to get off topic, sometimes it doesn't make sense, and most of the time it is short. However I personally love free writing because I get to jot anything down, for example, talking about basketball or talking about how I am feeling. Free writing comes in handy because whenever I am mad, feeling down, stressed, frustrated or anything like that I just start writing a plethora of things down that comes to mind. On the other hand free writing benefits myself because I can keep calm and lets me have the freedom to talk about anything I please.

2014

      We are finally seniors! At first over the summer I couldn't grasp the fact that I only had one more year left in high school and to be honest that scared me! To me it is a nerve racking, excited, and scary thing all at once because we are entering the real world, are adults, and will be going to college! Anyways we came a long way, especially if you attended Mayfair ever since seventh grade! However their is no excuse to slack off or get "senioritis" just because we almost accomplished what we have been waiting for. We should enjoy our senior year not only with our friends but educationally, join sports, get involved with clubs, and volunteering anywhere. All I have to say is that we are already done with our first quarter so do not give up or discourage yourself because you know what? We can do it, just like Nike! Lets go Class of 2014!

Talk to Yourself... Seriously

When I was reading revising with feedback, a chapter from Peter Elbows book Writing with Power I noticed he was talking about getting feedback from all these people and asking their opinion. Literally. I’m not bashing him; every sentence was saying to get feedback from one of your peers. But really, why cant you just talk to your self about your paper I mean really. Ask yourself why you worded that sentence that way and why you used that word instead of the other word. I know it may seem dumb, but I actually did it with my last personal statement I ended up deleting a whole paragraph because I reread it and thought “this makes absolutely no sense” Yes getting feedback from your peers is good and all but they can easily lie to you and say that your paper is the best paper ever because they don’t want you to feel bad. When you can be you own critic on your paper and tell yourself this sounds bad and revise it yourself and make it sound better. Basically to get down to the point I don’t like revising with my peers solely because they can be lying to me to make me feel better about my terrible paper. Go criticize your own paper be harsh make your paper sound amazing. Im not saying to not revise with your peers im just suggesting that it isn’t a bad thing to revise your own paper rather than someone else but it is good to get different view points on your paper. Don’t be afraid to critique your work to improve it.

I Think We Learned Our Lesson

I think we all learned our lesson on posting late. Why do we even procrastinate for so long and put ourselves under so much pressure and stress. Its really dumb if you think about it we brought this on ourselves. I think that we are all in this mental state of mind that “Ill do it later” I was thinking that maybe this mindset is just a phase we’re all in a very lazy phase actually, and I believe that we will soon grow out of it. We all know that high school is a learning experience and to embrace your mistakes and learn from them. Well that’s what I’m doing tonight I, and many others, waited till the last minute to do all of this blogging and what happens? We get stressed out. Therefore I think that as we move onto being freshman in college we will essentially grow out of this mind set of putting things off until the last minute and actually doing everything in a timely manner. So lets all take a breath and remember not to take things because you will have a mental breakdown and it will become extremely hard to fit in all your work in a one hour time frame. I know none of this was from Peter Elbow but this does have to do with some reference to the college articles because hopefully we will have mature once we go into college and realize that procrastinating is the worst thing ever.

"Two roads diverged in a yellow wood, and sorry I could not travel both."

The title is the beginning of one of my favorite poems, "The Road Not Taken" by Robert Frost. It is basically about a traveler who is presented with two paths and he chooses the scarier one and it ends up being good.

This whole "major" thing has brought me to a fork in the road. My entire life I've said that I wanted to be a lawyer. However, as I fill out my college applications, I am so reluctant to click Pre-Law as my major. All adults tell us to do is, "pick something you love" but what if I do not know what I love yet. I wanted to be a lawyer because it seems like a job that brings in money and power. I really don’t know if I will genuinely enjoy this because Mayfair does not offer any classes on just pure law. The alternative could be for me to pick a fun major but it would be less prestigious. The question in my mind now is either to choose to be wealthy but struggle to go to work every day or love my job but worry about paying my bills every month. Both bring unhappiness but I prefer the lawyer version. I'd rather be sad about my job and happy with my free time then be happy at my job and have no spending money. I know this is a naive way to pick a major but I really am lost. I really do not understand how colleges expect us to know what to do with our entire life right after graduation. I personally do not want to decide the rest of my life at 17. But I also don't want to be one of those "lost kids" in college who wastes their parent’s money with no goal (my parents have no money so it would be money I worked for). It's hard to figure out the road less traveled because both roads have been taken over and over. Instead of the road less traveled, I need to find the best road for P.J. and as of now I don't know which one it is.

Group Evaluations.

Can I speak on the fact that I find this whole group evaluation process is pretty much stupid? I find it kind of dumb that we have to write a whole page on what our partner has done. I understand the point that we should evaluate how we split the work and stuff, but a whole page blabbering on about what we've done is stupid as hell. I don't feel the need to write about the work that my partner has done. If we turned in the project completed, I don't think a written statement is needed. I am having so much trouble trying to figure out what to write for this Group Evaluation. To simply write a whole page on him is completely idiotic.

To be completely honest, this whole class is a hot vapid mess. I feel as if we never know what we're completely doing in this class. Fletch will tell us something, then my group will have a discussion and all be so lost on what we are actually trying to learn and pursue. I find it very careless that ever day when I walk into the classroom, there is no sort of agenda on the board. I do not like having no sense of what I am doing. There's never any specific due dates. There's never any sort of consequences for the talking. It's just overall messy. Don't get me wrong, I love this class and what it stands for. I just do not think it is very well executed. Ms. Fletcher is a wonderful teacher, I'm sure of it. But, maybe she's not the teacher for me. Does anybody else think that this class is sort of messy? Or am I the only one bold enough to say something?

AF: Glitches in the Common App

Here is an article about the glitches in the Common App this year!

Knowledge Truly is Power

Is college really the holy grail? Does it honestly give us as much of an advantage in the real world as we think it does?
     “College’s Identity Crisis” is an article from the New York Times written by Frank Bruni. This article questions why we put such significance on a college degree and if the other options out there like the military or being a mom are comparable to time in the classroom. Should these other paths receive the same recognition or reward similar to that of a college degree? Many people now are leaning in favor of real world experiences being recognizable; in fact, some college professors would like to give credit for off campus experiences to help students gain their degree faster!

In addition to this, Bruni explains that the United States recently engaged in a worldwide survey that revealed that out of twenty-three counties, “we [are] closer to the bottom of the pack,” and “our young adults in particular [preformed] unremarkably.” That was shocking for me to read! Maybe we need to focus more on higher education not only for ourselves, but so that we actually stand a chance against other nations. Furthermore, how can we expect to advance as a country when many people choose to stop educating themselves after high school and settle into mind-numbing jobs?

I really believe that getting a higher education and receiving a college degree should be stressed more. It is important to be educated or skilled and able to keep up with the growing demands of them time. Don’t you agree?

Ms. Fletcher was Right

In the beginning of the school year we were pretty much cruising through this course and the Ms fletcher warned us that it is not an easy class and not to get to comfortable with being super chill in her class. Those weren't her exact words but it was her point. Well I was just chilling relaxing acting real cool and had no worries because we were just reading and annotating. Nothing real difficult. Eventually Mrs Fletcher assigned us worked and it still seemed like a piece of cake cause it was nothing hard so I wasn't really worried. Consequently, everything seemed to pile up out of nowhere and I felt like I couldn't breathe fresh air. This course got really stressing but only cause I wasnt using my time wisely , I think! Writing really isnt my specialty but I know this class will help me in the long run. What do you guys do to not let things get piled up like me? Do you guys get stressed over this class too or its just a breeze? Is English someone else's weakness?