Change of Mind: An Eternal Life

For the past several years, I've been deathly afraid of death (irony!). I simply couldn't take the fact that one day, I will just disappear from the face of the earth...forever. Forever?! That's a very long time and I can't imagine going through something for an eternity. I was just scared of the unknown. Of what ACTUALLY happens once I die. Will I still have my spirit and carry it on forever in an eternal realm? Will I be in a place of pure happiness? A place where I will just forget about time and not know that it's for eternity? All these questions cloud in my mind and sometimes, I get the weirdest feeling in my body whenever I think about this subject.

And throughout this whole time, I've always wanted to live forever. I just wanted to see what the world would be like in the year 5348. How humans would change. How technology would change. Food, cultures, music, etc. It was because of the fact that I was scared of death and didn't want to experience that reality.

However, I recently changed my mind. One day, during Humanities class, we were talking about philosophy and the future and how in each generation we are embarrassed of the previous generation of their thoughts, technology, innovative ideas, etc. Then we got into discussing about how in 2050 we will have the technology to allow a person to be able to live forever. I thought it was absurd. I couldn't believe it and I don't think it will happen. BUT, the reason why I've changed my mind about living forever is because of the fact that once we have this advanced technology, it is predicted that people will just be mushed together into singularity and that everyone will be just one conscious. I cannot live a life like that. I love individuality and uniqueness and this is how our lives currently are. I don't want to be labeled as a "concept". "One person". Psh. No.

I think there is a reason for everything that happens in life. It is a constant chain reaction. There is a reason why we die. So I just feel that it would be wrong to have the capability of living forever when that's not the purpose of life.

Connection: Humanities to Psychology

So far, a quarter of the school year (in addition to a couple of weeks) has passed -- which means that there are only 3 quarters left of high school!! However, this year is not a bundle of joy as everyone makes it seems. Yes the school year as a whole is great, but the work part isn't that great. My schedule is so full that I don't even have a lunch this year! I'm taking soo many classes, but all these classes are informative and I feel like many of them intertwine and connect to each other -- such as Humanities and AP Psychology.

While I'm taking these two courses, I constantly see connections between the two. If I learn something from psych, the same concept comes up a couple of periods later in Humanities class.

For example, when I learning about the brain and all it's structures and functions, my teacher, as well as the textbook, mentioned that "the brain is like a computer." In other words, the functions of the brain are similar to those of a computer; storing information, deleting "files", updating our "hard-drive", taking external information from an outside source and interpreting that information, and the like. However, when we discussed this concept in Humanities, my teacher from that class completely disagreed with that metaphor. He claims that the brain and a computer are two completely different, separate things and that those two concept are clearly not the same.

Currently we're reading and discussing about the book Sophie's World in Humanities class and the majority of the book is consisted of philosophy. And even though a lot of these ideas are about the purpose of life, in psychology class we're discussing about consciousness. These two things might be different concepts of each other, but they both lead to an enigma of why humans are placed on earth and what happens in the afterlife. Psychologists haven't discovered where the conscious derives from our body and philosophers aren't 100% sure if there is a spirit separate from the body. This is one of the unanswered questions both philosophers and psychologists are still trying to figure out and they won't give up anytime soon.

I like the fact that I'm taking both Humanities and AP Psychology this year because not only do I learn about one idea, fact, or concept twice, but I receive the opportunity of learning these topics in two completely different perspectives.

Best of Today: School

Every time I walk into Mr. Allen's Humanities class, there's no way that I can walk out of that class without learning something new. One day we would be talking about vertical listening and apply it to songs that we would listen to, and the next we would discuss about what kind of graph does life follows. Today, however, I learned an interesting fact about the history of educational institutions (a.k.a. school).

As a class we were discussing on how Socrates discusses about philosophy to the public rather than lecturing it. And then Mr. Allen goes on by asking the question of why do teachers lecture students during school. Eventually, Mr. Allen tells us the whole story of why schools were established in the first place: The reason why school starts at a certain time, why we have scheduled classes, why we have bells in the beginning and end of every class, why we have lunch breaks is all because of the fact that back then, Western society wanted to train us to be well qualified factory workers. I was utterly shocked when I heard about it and then it clearly all made sense to me. Mr. Allen went on by saying that society didn't want us children to be working in such harsh conditions in factories, so were else were they supposed to put them other than school where they can train them to become great factory workers.

Now I'm glad that schools don't function that way anymore. Yes we still have to start/end at a particular time, have scheduled classes, hear the bell ring at 5 minute intervals and the like, but we have so much more freedom including in the school year. Freshman year may not have been as laid-back, but senior year definitely is more relaxed by choosing your own courses that you want to participate in. Also, with have this freedom of choice, one is allowed to explore different fields of creativity. And from then on, you are able to choose WHATEVER career you want to partake in and become whatever person you want to become in YOUR future.

iMedia: De La Cru

Fall Sports Assembly 2010

In all four years of my high school career, I've participated in the De La Cru Hip Hop dance team that's held at GBS. I've been on the JV team freshman year, and on the varsity team since sophomore year. Dancing is truly my favorite hobby out of all the hobbies I acquire and I want to carry that on throughout my life.

This is my last year being on the team, and even though it's going to be very sad and painful to leave the group, I know that that is motivating me to do my best this year. As I view this video, it really shows the progression we've been through, throughout many years (even before I was on the team).

To take a look at DLC's history, it started out being the hip hop portion of the Orchesis dance troupe. Then two teachers (I believe Mrs. Moulakelis was one of them) took DLC out of Orchesis to make it into it's own group. In the beginning, the team only included Hispanics and students of Latin origin so it wasn't very diverse. And as the years proceeded, it's reputation and diversity improved. 

As a freshmen, DLC was just a dance team, nothing special. But throughout my 4 years of high school, I've seen how much this dance team has evolved. Our reputation grew, the number of dancers from different ethnicities grew, and our popularity grew as well. This just shows how such a little group, that has been disliked and unknown, can grow up to be a beautiful form of art that is enjoyed being viewed.

This just reminds me of the times I watch America's Best Dance Crew and they show dance teams that started out without any official dance studios or that don't have any money to buy themselves costumes, but with determination, motivation, and optimism, they were able to achieve their dreams of becoming one of the best dance teams out there in America.

I can say that we did the same; we don't have a dance room to ourselves, we use the cafeterias as our practice rooms, we make our own costumes, and we practice our dances without mirrors. But through all of those challenging obstacles, in the end we were able to become one of the best entertaining clubs offered at GBS.

Best of Week: Born into Brothels

I never realized how a simple documentary can change one's perspective of the world dramatically. Just by watching a factual movie filmed from the opposite side of world makes me think twice about my life.

In the past two days, we've been watching Born into Brothels in which a group of children of prostitutes around the ages of 8-12  are filmed and observed in India. It is a very serious topic but it also interesting to see how this kids interact with their world and surroundings. In AP Psychology, we've been taught the word resilience which by definition means a quality allowing children to develop normally in spite of severe environmental risk factors. And I definitely agree what these children are resilient to what they're born into.

The part that hits me the most is how these children become so happy and entertained by just one little thing, such as taking pictures. This whole new world of photography creates lots of fascination and engagement that they forget about their horrid worlds that they're living in. They're moving on, trying to get the fact that live in the brothels out of their way of their lives. They want to be educated, they want to be clothed and fed, they want to have a few more coins in their pocket, and its motivation and optimism that they might live better lives that keeps them moving.

And this is how I try to live my life. I know that living with one parent is difficult, but I should be thankful that I at least have one parent. Sometimes I forget that I should be happy with just all the things I have and that I shouldn't complain, so movies like this documentary helps me remind myself how I shouldn't take my life for granted. I know for a fact that I will never forget this concept of thinking.

Metacognition: QE Essay

Woah, woah, woah, I am done with the QE Essay?! The minute I handed my finished, proof-read, edited, final draft of the QE Essay to Mr. Allen, I felt at like 50 pounds of stressful weight just come off of me. Now less pimples will form on my face. ;)

As you can tell, this essay created a lot of stress for me due to several factors. This paper was the first essay I've ever composed in my life that included a very different version of the types of papers I'm used to writing. Mr. Allen was looking for a very specific structure but in those structures, his instructions were very vague, especially when it came to Section II. I'm accustomed to teachers telling me specifically on what to write about and what they want from me. The instructions posted on how to write this essay was a little unclear for me and I wasn't sure if I was doing it correctly.

An example of doing it incorrectly and where confusion took place was when Section I was due. In the very beginning, I thought that this paper will ONLY consist of 3 paragraphs (as explained in the instructions of Section I). So all I wrote for my first draft of Section I are the opening paragraphs, without the question and explanation of why to explore that question. After I got that part back and saw my grade, I realized the big mistake that I made. It was my fault that I didn't ask Mr. Allen to distinctly re-explain the rules.

Then Section II came along. We had several days to complete this section. I understood that we were supposed to incorporate 5 sources used in class in our essay and only use 3 quotes. But the challenge I had to face with this section was to carry out the question throughout this section. It was pretty difficult because as I was writing this section, I thought that I was just repeating myself over and over again in order to keep the question in mind while the readers would read it. In addition, I had to take more time in order to write this part, therefore I used a late pass to extend the time to write this essay.

Finally, Section III. The conclusion. The instructions were also a little vague for me. Overall, it was just the problem of pleasing Mr. Allen with my essay and writing what he wants us to write, even though he didn't say much on how he wants us to write it.

This definitely was a challenge to write this essay. However, I realized that this has to be written and I just can't simply avoid this assignment. I had to face the approach of actually sitting down in from of my laptop and just typing away.

And only reason why I finished this paper on time is by seeing the due dates for the different sections and allowing myself some time to write those different components. Even though I technically used an additional day to write the essay, I was able to finish a completed paper on time! 

On the bright side, I did identify some positive outcomes from this assignment. It demonstrated a unique style of writing and I'm sure most of us in the class have ever written an essay like this. It also showed me how to express the concept of creativity on a piece of paper. I never realized how hard it is to describe creativity and then actually writing about it...well that never came into my mind.

I'm glad that I was faced with this kind of assignment because it opened doors to  a whole new world of originality.

Blogging Around

Sharon Meyer: (Best of the Week: Ask for Forgiveness, Not Permission)
I absolutely love your blog! I remember the day that the blog was due and I couldn't think of anything that we were taught that week, so I looked at yours and I wanted to do that topic, but I chose not to cause I know that mine wouldn't be as good as yours if I copied it. That was definitely a great lesson that Mr. Allen taught us: Ask for forgiveness, not permission. This really shows how people are cautious about their actions and aren't as adventurous and open-minded as they should be if they didn't think of the consequences. And I totally agree with you that everyone should start acting like that in their lives, especially in school where there are a lot of rules to follow. Sure there are MAJOR consequences for MAJOR actions that shouldn't of have been done, but students should start doing the things that they think are right that could be viewed as wrong.

Sharon, I say that I tag along with your vow as to not ask questions about my actions and just proceed with them. I want to be more open-minded, more risky, and then learn some moral lessons from those actions. We shall both take the challenge together and see what the outcomes of this will be. Let us ask forgiveness, not permission! :)

 Kara Quill: (Carry It Forward: Forrest Gump)
I realllllly love your blog Kara! The moment I saw Forrest Gump, I was like "OH MY GOSH! I need to read this blog!!" (since we already had this discussion about how much you love Forrest Gump :D). I totally agree with your reasoning and I can totally relate to what you are saying.

Life really is like a box of chocolates and I received a lot of boxes in my life. I never would of thought that I would be living here, in Glenview, with my brother and my dad. I never imagined myself as any kind of leader, therefore I never thought to be a P.E. Leader or Peer Group Leader. It's just that along your lifetime, you experience many events that have a ripple effect and constantly changes the course of where you want to go in life.

I learned from my dad that I should always be optimistic about things that occur in my daily life. If something bad happened, I should get over it and move on. It's in the past, I can't change it so I have to learn to deal with it. And this helped me a lot when my mom passed away. I'm totally fine now and I learned to accept the fact that she's not physically here anymore but I still have a father and a brother to love me. And I count everyday as a blessing. I am happy for the friends I have (including you :D), the education I receive, and the family that will stick with me until the end.

People need to realize that they just waste time when they are depressed, sad, or make big deals out of little problems, because that won't make their lives any easier or more fun. Be happy, have fun, and LIVE YOUR LIFE!! (so cheesy...)