Journal #8 - Working Together

Working together is a valuable skill to use in important projects like the upcoming English project that I am be doing. We are going to be working with students from other schools, so this makes communication a very important piece that the puzzle that is working together. The main reason for woring in groups is to take the work load off of other people. The only problem is when you have too many people who want too much responsibility, then the people who want to be team leaders will fight over the power and will not get any work done. Another fault in working in groups is if most of the people are lazy workers that do not get much work done. Then the bulk of the assignment falls on the shoulders of one person. This obviously is not good becuase another good reason to work in groups is to get more than one persons views on a topic. Two heads truly are better than one. The clash of power between people can really cause havoc in a group of people working together. Another point that makes working in groups tough is when you have a few people that do not necessarily get along very well. Instead of focusing on the project, the people in the group will be focusing on how the do not want to work with the other person. It may be hard to get much done while the group members are side tracked. Yet another extreme to this is when the people in the group are best friends. Groups with people like this in it will most definately not get very much done because they will be talking about their social life instead of getting the project done. However, when a group of people coincide together in perfect harmony, the quality of work will be tons times better than it would have been if a person had done all of the work by themselves. The group of people would also more than likely finish in a much quicker time than a person working alone. Therefore, even though a lot can go wrong in a group, the only way to have the best result on a project is if you work in a group of people.

Journal #7 - Organized Religion

I think that organized religion is a good source of a relationship with God. The main reason for this is it not only brings you closer to God, but it also joins people together. The fact that people show fellowship relates to how people can work together to achieve something for a greater purpose. Obviously this greater purpose is worshiping the Lord. Organized religion is also an excellent way to share the word of the Lord with people who may not normally attenda church or practice any religion. Instead of people worshiping on their own and not talking to others about their faith, they can give other people who might not believe the chance to worship among others of their faith. It is a great way to show the acceptance of people by allowing anyone to worship with the church. I think that by worshiping with others, the whole experience that a person might have with the Lord are elevated. People can give their own gifts back to the Lord by singing or dancing of some sort to express their faith. By allowing people to give their own special gifts, people can experience different kinds of ways to express their faith through the church as well as enjoy their time spent at worship services. This is important because someone who may enjoy their time at worship might take more away from the message than a person who was bored and had a wandering mind. Fellowship is very important when it comes to worshiping. It is so important because people are stronger as a whole than seperate. People can accomplish more in groups than by themselves. People in these groups are able to raise money for good causes, volunteer their time, or even greater help. THe fellowship can help the human race show their faith to the Lord in many ways that are much more helpful to mankind. I think that organized religion is a wonderful thing that has been happening for a very very long time.

Journal #6 - Blame

Putting the blame on other people is a significant trait of many people. Almost every person on the face of the earth does it becuase it is apart of our human nature. People seem to do this when they fail at something because they are trying to cover up what they ahd done by turning it into somone else's problem. I think that people mostly put the blame on other people as a way of coping with their failure or possible as a way to make themselves feel better about doing something wrong. People might also blame people because they might not want to get punished by some sort of oppression. By blaming other people of our faults, we push those people away from us and may make that person feel insignificant. Putting the blame on other people can really hurt close relationships as well as hinder the process of teamwork. Working in a group, if something goes wrong and team members begin to blame their teammates, the whole team ends up failing just because no one could take responsibility for their actions. The team would have been sucessful had the person who was to blame had just taken the blame like a responsible person. Then the rest of the team could stop pointing fingers at each other, because by doing this they stop focusing on the focal point of their mission and begin focusing on hurting their own teammates feelings. I think that people can learn to work together better by holding back this natural instinct to blame other people. Blaming others can cause a lot of people hardship and pain. Blaming others is like a chain, there multiple links that hook together. If one person blames someone, then another person has to continue on and blame another person, as well as another person conitinuing on the trend for a very long time. This is why blaming other is such a bad thing, it is essemntially the same thing as a really bad lie that builds up.

Journal #5 - True Colors

After taking the true colors quiz, I learned that my color is Gold. Upon looking at the reasons why I was known as a gold, I agree with the quiz. One of the main attributes of a person who is gold is the fact that they are very responsible. I like to think that I am a responsible person who is very prompt and committed. The gold people are also known to be neat and independent. I have always been a very good worker when I am independent compared to team working becuase I like to do things myself. I like to have control of situations and make sure that if I am wrong that it is my fault that I am wrong. The gold people also are typically known for their traditional values. I like to follow in the tradition of my ancestors because it is all that I know. You cn expect me to be on time, think rationally, and be practical with my thoughts. I also am polite as well as making sure that I stick with my promises. In the power point presentation, it says information on how to relate and how to not relate with a person of a certain color; I agree with several of the bullet points that the power point talks about. It says not to expect a person like me to challenge the laws or any established rules, which describes me exactly. It also says things like not to use profane language around me as well as forcing me to take risks. The gold color really describes me becuase of all of the points that the power point makes. It also says things like to not demand too much immediate change or to not expect someone like me to be spontanous. These are all very true and make a lot of sense becasue I tie a lot of those values into my own life. The true colors makes a lot of sense.

Journal #4 - Categorizing People

It seems that people like to separate others into different categories. Personally I do not like this very much because it could make it hard to fit in for some people, but this is just the way society is. People at my age tend to put labels and stereotypes on people. Such examples of stereotypes in a high school could be the jocks or the nerds. The list of names goes on and on, and this is not a good thing. People do fit into certain groups better than others as well as people being friends with people who are interested in the same things as them. I personally do not like to categorize people, but I still do it subconsciously. There are certain groups of people that I do not hang around cause I either do not want to do what they do or maybe I do not feel like I would fit in very well with those people. I mostly identify people with the extracurricular activities that they are involved in, because this usually represents what a particular person is interested in. Identifying people can be somewhat important because you can relate to people by knowing what they are interested in. By identifying people, people can learn to be more friendly amounst others. One can also learn a little bit about a person by identifying them, oviously becuase you can tell what they are interested in. I can tell the people in drama club are more than likely intersted in singing or acting. I can somehwhat safetly assume that people involved in beta club like to contribute to the community by helping others. Simple observations like that can help you learn a little about people. Hopefully when other people identify others they are not passing off judgement. This is not very good becuase it gives people in our student body a low moral or self esteem. So of course people need to be careful while identifying people.

Journal #3 - Losing Everything

Obviously it would be absolutely devastating to lose everything tht I own. But I think that I would be able to stay calm and collected. I have always been a pretty calm person, considerding only a few people have truly seen me mad in the first place. I think this way because losing everything you own would not be the end of the world. Even though I would be without nothing, I would still have my family and friends. Now if you would take away my fmaily and friends, then that would be a totally dfferent story. The people that make up my whole social life are the gateway to my emotions. Losing all of my family would be heartwrentching and would take a lot of will power to get over. That would be of great difficulty to get past. Refrenceing a poem just read for english class, the woman in the poem lost everything that she owned because her house had burned down. She did not think that this event was the end of the world because she believed that ths was the will of God and that He is correct with his will. She thought logically to herself that the house was God's in the first place, it was not techincally even hers. So she realzed that should not be mad because it was God's house that burned down and not her house. This kind of thinking is crucial to keeping a positive mind and good thoughts going through one's head. I definately think thatI would be calm, but I would have so many emotions going through my head that I can not for sure know if I would be mad or not. The case of losing everything you own is a good palce for people to overreact. People might let their emotions get the best of them before they even have time to think about what has even happened. If someone were to overreact to an event like this, then they would not be staying calm and would not have a clean mind. Losing everything is not the end of th world though.

Journal #2 - Significance of Written Documents

Written documents and set rules have a great deal of importance in today's society. If mankind did not have any of these papers and writtings, the human race might take advantage of each other and there would be no order within society. For example, if the United States of America did not have our constitution, the U.S. citizens would be in mass chaos. There could be a lot of looting, stealing, or other great causers of chaos. With no rules, the world would work much differently. People would not have respect for other people's property. Safety is another great reason why mankind have these written rules. The world would not be a very safe place because countries all over the world would be in a state of civil war fighting over certain rights. Peace would be very hard to come by. Take for instance rules in my household, if I were to disobey my parents rule I would be punished for my actions. But if we had not set up a system of rules for me in the first place, I would retaliate back at my parents becuase I would feel that them punishing me would be unfair.

These rules are also significant because they show unity. These documents can be binding between nations to show a long lasting relationship between two countries. This is important because it provides security to the nations. By knowing that countries are working together to find a greater cause for something, this takes away thoughts that the other countries would wage war on them. It helps people as well as countries focus on the right things. With the organization of people comes people working together to develop items and ways to better our lives. These documented rules are typically somewhat easy to follow, and they have so many great effects on society. Mankind has used these rules for hundreds and hundreds of years. Maybe this could be one of the reasons that the human race has developed so much over the last two thousand years?