Journal #17 - Peaceful Protests

I think that peaceful protests are an important thing to society, because fighting does not solve all of anyone's problems. By using peaceful protests as a way to get what you want, you avoid harm to any one person and you can help maintain a peaceful atmosphere around any communities. There is no reason to fight in this world, or there are at least only few times when fighting can resolve issues. During the civil rights movement, the African Americans used sucessful types of protesting that cause no harm to other people who opposed their beliefs. These events included marches that walked for many miles, boycotts, or even sit-ins. These things were great at resolving violence, because they promoted peacefullness. These people had the right idea. I think that because of the way that these people conducted themselves, they saved millions of people hardships. If these people had brought violence into their protests, they would have scarred millions of people beccause of all of the death and destruction that could have happened. Had these people turned to riots, they would not only have affected themselves, they would have also affected their family, cousins, friends, aquaintences, and anyone they will meet in the future. Violence brings chaos, and I think that we all know for a fact that chaos is almost never a good thing, infact I do not think there is any instance when chaos isa good thing.
I always wonder why people resort to violence so often. It does not accomplish anything more and all it does is hurt the people around you. By being peaceful, you prove that you are a rational human being who has at least some sophistication. I personally feel that when a person uses violence that they are reverting back to our childish behaviors. Something like this shows how truly childish millions or people are as well as shows how immature a lot of people are in this world. By using peaceful protests, people can create a much nicer enviroment to live in.

journal #16 - Self Reflection Away from Society

Getting away from the pressures of society is an important thing for many people because it is such a calming thing. You do not realize how relaxing nature can be if you are experiencing the correct kinds of nature. Taking some time for yourself is also very important because it is nice to think and sort out any problems that you might have, or possibly think about the great accomplishments that you have achieved. I personally like to take my dog for walks which is a good time for some self reflection as well as giving both my dog and myself some good exercise. I also like to take my personal thoughts to the golf course, because when you are out in the middle of the woods for four hours hitting a ball, your mind can wander. I have actually had some of my best ideas out on the golf course. This is such a great place to reflect on your thoughts and ideals. There are so many pressures in society, like for a student we have to deal with homework, projects, tests, extracurriculars, family events, church activities, and many more things that add stress. Even your social life, your friends, cause unnecessary stresses that can make you angry or uncomfortable. Getting into nature, or not even nature but just some alone time, is a good way to feel better about any situation. It is a good time to put things into perspective for yourself and the people around you. When I am walking my dog, I find so many topics to think about that help give me a better outlook on any situation that I amy have put myself into. I like to take really long walks with my dog to give myself extra time alone. I also like to take very long showers, because not only does a hot shower relax your body but it also gives you a lot of time to think and ponder about your life.

Journal #15 - Reading for Entertainment

I have honestly never been much of a reader when it comesto novels. But one piece of writing that I always enjoy to read are magazines, especial sports magizines. My dad gets Golf Digest every month, and considering my golf fetish, I also love to read about the latest tips to the game. They also always have a section in the magizine that talks about new golf courses around the world as well as the best golf courses around the world. I love reading about these courses and hoping that someday I might get to playthem sometime.

Even though I do not read too many novels, one writer that has always caught my attention is Clive Cussler. He is a writer of action novels and I like his books because they actually grab my attention because of all of the action happening in his stories. He usually has some intense plot twists that take me along for the ride. He has a series called the Dirk Pitt series, he is the main character, that contains about 20 books. I have read many of them and hopefully I will finish the series at some point because I am really ecited to know how Dirk Pitt;s story ends. I hav seen him go through so many adventures that I really would like to know how his life ends. I would almost compare him to someone who is like a James Bond type of person. I think that Cussler's writting can be really cheesy at times due to his use of very cliche references, but regardless of how unoriginal some of his ideas are, they are timeless to me because I love to read his works. Cussler makes reading fun for me, becasue when I read his books i completely loose track of time. Magizines are a little bit easier to start reading though because an article does not take very long to read. However sometimes I wish that the articles were a lot longer.

Journal #14 - Ideal America

The ideal United States to me is a place where there is no corruption in the government. We have seen lately on the news that there have been people, such as our former governor, who had been corrupt. This casues bad things constantly because of their influence on the public. Everybody seems to want similar things in this world, obviously one of these things is money. There are a lot of poor people in our country and this is something that needs to be stopped. However, we would have to change our whole system around of capitalism, because there is almost no way to make everyone financially equal. Obviously a great addition to America to make it the perfect place would be making everyone peaceful with one another. This would take all hate crimes away as well as violence that could cost someone their life. The fact is though that being free allows people to do what they want, and if this involves violence then I guess this is just something that we all will have to live with. This is why sometime freedom needs a definition, because by allowing some people to be free, we allow people to cause havoc and chaos. This is obviously not something that law abiding citizens like myself like to deal with on a daily basis. But there is nothing that we can really do about it. So I come to realize now that there is no realistic way to achieve an idealistic America in which all people are free. I wish this were not true but it really is true. There are always going to be people taking more control than they can handle and there are always going to be people who hide in the corner because they do not want any responsibility. But there needs to be a better way to keep the power in the right place without letting horrible things happen such as corruption in the government.

Journal #13 - My Favorite Sport

When many people think of a sport, they do not think of relaxing. This is what golf does for me. Just being apart of nature for a few hours can really blow off some steam. I especially like the part when you hit a ball as far as you can hit it. But it is more than that, Golf is applying yourself to the situation. Such as if you hit a bad shot, you can not just get mad and hit the ball harder, you have to stay alm and put a good swing on the next shot. Getting mad hurts you in golf where as in a sport like football it helps you. This is one reason why I like golf and why I am quite good at golf. I am naturally a calm person, to the point where I would not have much of a killer instinct that a person might need to football. Golf is also more of a mental battle thatn a physical battle. Obviously, walking a few miles with a somewhat heavy bag on your back is not too physically demanding for a healthy sixteen year old. But that is not even close to what it takes to be a good golfer. I like the fact that having a strong mental game is most of what golf is in the first place. Technique is a main feature in golf as well as some athletic ability. I like that you can practice a lot and be better than someone who is flat out the best athlete on the course. The main thing that I love about golf is the fact that you are being apart of nature. I love walking through these heavily wooded areas looking for my ball, in the midst of a nice day. There is a great feeling that comes over me just for being apart of that. Another thing that I love is the quest for the perfect shot. When you get to the point where you are pretty good, you will probably only hit maybe one of these shots in a round. But when you hit the perfect shot on the sweet spot with good form, it makes you feel like a pro. Just attempting to hit this shot is something I love to do.

Journal #12 - Declaration of Change

I see people doing things that they are not supposed to be doing everyday of my life. I do not like seeing this because I am a person who likes to abide by laws and do things the righteous way. In some classes I have, I se kids acting out and bring annoying just to get on a teachers nerves. These kids do not work hard and slack all of the time. The make a living from being useless and annoying. I would like to see these people turn their lives around and start working hard to become the best person that they can be. This would be nice to see, instead of these people continually make others feel bad about themselves. I almost want to help these people help themselves, but the would never even give me the chance if I tries because these people do not even care abou their future. Change is essential for these people to be sucsessful. I have a cousin that had struglled fitting in as a freshman in high school. This is when he got involved with drugs, more notabley pot. He is such a nice kid, but his "friends" started getting into some trouble and he followed them. He had one of the greatest turn arounds I have ever seen! From the time that he aws caught smoking pot as a freshman, he got his grades back to getting straight A's by the time he was a senior, as well as an all state tennis player. He is even playing tennis at Dennison College right now. He is an amazing person and this is all because he changed his ways. This is a great example of what I am talking about. These people who get in trouble constantly can still change their life around to the point where they are great kids. They just need the push of some positive influences. Change is a good thing because it can turn around someone spiraling down towards bad things.

Journal #11 - logic/reasoning vs. emotion for support

This topic kind of confuses me, probably because I was not at school today when he assigned it. But anyways, logic and reasoning is a very strong tool to use when trying to support an argument or any unjustice. There only seem to be a few things that emotion does a better job of supporting. One of these things is religion. Logic and reasoning have virtually nothing to do with religion. This is obviously because religion is based off of faith, not scientific fact. In religion, the only factual proff is the bible. Things such as miracles have no meaning in the logic and reasoning side of the spectrum because they are "theoretically" impossible.
Logic and reasoning have good uses in the real world. By using these concepts, you will make smarter decisions more often. You will do this by predicting patterns or behaviors of people to make the best possible choice at hand. For example, on the golf course today I had put myself into some sticky situations by hitting some bad shots. I had some decisions to make, go for the green or lay up and avoid the risky shot. I ended up laying up and saving a par on the hole. Had I not done so, I could have easily put the ball in the hazard and took more strokes than intended. By making smart choices like that, I saved strokes which kept my score in the eighties. By reasoning through the hole, I gave myself the best possible chance to shoot well. If I had applied emotion to this situation, I would have been a little bit ticked off and would have tried to go for the green. If I had done so, I would have had put myself into even more trouble. This is why thinking and logic are so important. But do not get me wrong, emotion is important too. Faith is a very important thing to many people, including myself.

Journal #10 - School Spirit

School spirit is a very imortant thing becuase it brings the student body together. Dressing up in school colors gives the students something fun to focus on instead of dwelling over school. I think that being competitive between classes is a very good thing because it makes each class want to win it for their own class. Such things as fundraisers are wonderful to compete in because along with stragtey, the only good way to win is to bring in the most money. By competing in such events, everyone wants to donate because not only does the moeny go to a good cause but it adds an exciting aspect to donating. Homecoming week in school is a very fun and exciting time, because it is easy to get pumped to support your school. You want your team to win so badly that you can not help but scream an cheer for them. I think that activity day is a wonderful time for school because you are allowed to defend your class by competing in games. All of the competition is uplifting towards the overal aspect of school spirit. This is a good thing to have on a friday afternoon because it gets the students who attend the homecoming football game all pumped up to cheer for their team. I am honestly very excited to try to beat the seniors this year at activity day, because we have a very competitive class and think we can win. Hopefully people do not take things too far as to threat people or boast. However, regardless of what happens it is a lot of fun. I want to compete to defend my class because I want to be apart of the first class to beat the seniors ever. At least I am pretty sure that the seniors have never been beaten before. Homecoming is a wonderful experience that joins the student body together to support a common cause, also known as our school!

Journal #9 - Ethics/Values

Having morals and values is very important to being an individualistic person. By having and living by your values, you prove who YOU really are. My parents have taught me many things in my life, and they have touched on having good quality values many times. They have shown me how important it really is to have basic principals that you live your life by. These values are even as simple as honesty. Just simply sticking to the truth is a good ideal to revolve your life around. Another good quality to think about is modesty. This is very important because the farther away from this you get, the less and less people will want to be around you. By being modest, you are putting others thoughts and ideas ahead of your's because you are sincere. You do not praise yourself for being amazing, however you still have a strong self esteem. By keeping in touch with positive values, you can keep yourself from getting into tight situations. You also should have a good idea of right and wrong when sticking to your set of values. Values give people something like a set of rules that you can follow to live a life that you can be proud of. Using values is a good way to keep you life running the way that you want it to be going. By looking at some of Ben Franklins virtues, you can tell what kind of person he was as well as what kind of person that he wanted to be. He had amazing qualities listed in his thirteen virtues that would help a person lead a very moral life. A person who could live by all of his virtues would be a great role model for others and a person that you want surely want in your life. By hanging around with people like this, it has a direct positive effect on you. Certain qualities of others can rub off on you. This is why when thinking about what your values are, you need to consider what kinds of people you are friends with and think about if those people fit around what your values represent.