Journal #33 - Whitman

Throughout the Whitman poems that we have read, he has focusedon the Self and what the Self is. In the language of the self, we read that Whitman is writing about the self as well. According to this article, Whitman's writting comes off as egotistical and very self absorbed. I think that this is a common way to portray the self because that is how many poeple are in this world. Whitman writes this way though because he is discovering himself. The reason that he is coming off as egotistical and self centered is because he is simply writing about himself. I do not even think there is a way for him to not sound self centered unless he changed the subject to someone other than himself. The author of this article talks about some people who say that Whitman is an example of this egotistic problem. They say that this represents a problem that many poeple have. I had recently thought of this in one of our reflections, I ahd said that Whitman had given a good example of what not to be like. I think this is also what the people in the article are saying. I think this because they talk about how Whitman was in all ways a good person, but he discovered this side of him through his poems. I think that these people have a very good point and that they have described Whitman's purpose for finding the self very well. Whitman did a great job of finding the self, but what he ahd found was something that was not very good. I think that once Whitman had discovered the true self, which was not very ideal, he had began to regret what he had done. But he had done what needed to be done, and by finding out what the self means he gave way to the inspiration of other people. He inspired people to be the best they can be by both being like his character as well as contrasting from his character.

Journal #32 - Reporter in War

It would be really scary to report a war from the trenches. You would have nothing to defend yourself with, which would add to the scare factor. It is a job that almost seems unnecessary because all I think that it does is add to the amount of casualties that could come from a war. It is somewhat important to report however because then you are showing the people who are back home how the war is going. The war would be a great toll on the mind of the person who is reporting because of all of the death that is going on around them. This would also change the story in the eyes of the viewer, because the reporter might twist some of the details to sound either more or less gruesome.

You know how there are people who come back from war and end up with some mental challenges to overcome such as that stress syndrome thing. I have a feeling that a reporter in the feild would be experiencing things like that. I think this because a reporter has not been trained in ways that the army members have been. A person reporting on a war would be so shocked with the gruesome events that take place that I do not think that they could even give an accurate account of what had taken place. The reporter who would be reporting in the field would have to see many people die if they were in the middle of combat. This would have obvious effects on the reporter. A reporter in war would have a tough time.

I honestly do not know what to imagine when I think of being in a war, because I have obviously never been in combat. It is hard for me to describe what a reporter would undergo during a battle. But after capturing the footage of many people dying, I am sure that it would change the way the a person would thiink about a war.

Journal #31 - Persuasion

Well, today while Mr. Langley was gone from english class, someone stole my friends seat. A girl sat down next to me, whose name will remain anonymous. My friend Jace and I had to persuade this person to leave his seat. As my best friend of ten years, the seat was rightfully Jace's. But this girl preceded to resist. Luckily Jace was trained by Mr. Langley in speech class for being an effective persuasive speaker. Jace came over and worked his magic on this girl to get her to leave. He was not about to back down. Jace could not go back because he was surrounded by girl talk in his original seat. All Jace wanted to do was type his blog in the presence of his best friend. But this girl who is to be remained unnamed, was not going to leave this seat. Then all of the sudden, I witnessed the greatest persuasion of human kind. Jace opened his mouth and immediately words began to form. She did not know what to do except hit jace several times with sharp weapons that she had concealed in her oversized purse. Conveniently Jace was a ninja, rendering her attacks useless. After her attack, Jace somehow persuaded her to leave the seat with his skillful use of speech class. Somehow, Jace had actually payed attention in class and learned something that could be useful to society. This girl finally left her seat without a fight because Jace had used his Jace charm. Jace never backed down, never quit, and trusted his heart. Jace took his place by my side, as she walked away angrily.

This girl was actually just Hallie, who in no way did nothing wrong. However, all events taking place in this blog are based on a true story. But this act of persuasion was a feat that no other man could have accomplished besides Jace. Some of actions in this blog may have been exaggerated.

Journal #30 - True Self

Finding who your true self is can be an important task that is quite difficult. There are things that I have done to find who I am, which that main thing is trying new activities. By getting involved in different things, I can determine what I am good at as well as what I am bad at. Not only can I find out what my strengths and weaknesses are but I can also find out what I like or dislike. This is why I did things like basketball and an trying out being an officer in certain things. I found that when I played basketball that it was a lot of hard work and I did not have as much desire to play as other kids, so I quit playing. But on the contrary, I like being involved as an officer in both Spanish Club and Beta Club. It feels good to be involved as well as giving back to the community through volunteer work. By getting involved in activities, I have found out a lot about myself. Learning about your true self can also happen by metting new people and going new places. This is why someday when I go to college I want to join a study abroad program. This would give me the oppourtunity to meet many new people from different countries as I expand on my education. I will get to see new kins of places which will broaden my horizons. Finding yourself is a tough and lengthy task however, because each person is very complicated and takes a lot of time to understand. But it is something that each person will find over time, which is why you can not give up on the quest to find yourself. Likes and dislikes are important for a person, but it is not everything. The people that you spend most of your time around can determine who you are, so chosing your friends is an important task. But your enviroment does not describe who you are either. You determine who you are, and nothing else does. So just be yourself.

Journal #29 - Tested by Nature

Nature can be a destructive force, and sometimes can almost cause death. There was one incident that I was involved in when my brother and one of my friends were almost killed. We were playing a game named kick the can about a year or two ago. The house that we were at had some woods and an old tree house in one of the trees. It was night time during the summer and we were in the midst of an intense game. I was hiding across a pasture when I heard a massive noise that could have been heard around the world. Everyone in the game left their hiding spots and ran towards the noise immediately. As I was running across the pasture towards the noise, I could only think of bad thoughts because I knew where everyone was except for my brother. Some of my friends were already at the scene of the accident as I was arriving. When I saw the wreckage, I was in shock. The tree house had fallen into a thousand pieces and a giant pile rubble. When I got to the scene, I saw my brother emerging from wreckage. The other person who was in the tree house was pinned underneath a large pile of wood and my brother had to lift the giant piece of wood off of him. A nail was on the piece of wood that almost pierced his body. This was such a close call. Not long after they escaped out of the wreckage we were all standing nearby talking about how crazy that was. We were amazed at how they were both almost killed by nature because the wood in the treehouse was old. We all left the scene with a good laugh as well as a good experience. I hope that I never have a close call experience quite like that one, but at least we all can learn from this event. I am glad that it happened though because it gives a good story to tell.

Journal #28 - Winter Break

Christmas break is always a great time of the year, unfortunately i was very buisy during my break and did not get to enjoy the true relaxations that some other people had gotten. What I did on my first day of christmas break was I had to work at Barnes and Noble. I had made good money over break, but it was really annoying to have to work so much. He first day was an 8 hour shift, so i went home and slept that night. The first sunday I went to my aunts house in Athens and we celebreated christmas with my mom's side of the family. This was a buisy day and I did not get home until the later evening that night. I worked 8 hour shifts at work the next two days and did not get to relaw much either of those two days. THen I was gone in St. Louis for the Illinois Braggin Rights Game, which was a dissappointing performance by the Illini in a horrid lost. Then we came back on christmas eve and my grandma came over. THe rest of the night was spent preparing for the upcoming christmas day. Then christmas was the first real day that I had gotten to relax during our break from school. I spent the day relaxing, but then I realized I had to work the next day. So then I worked the day after christmas. THe next day my cousins from chicago came down and spent the night with us, but of course I had to work from 5 til close that night so I barely got to see my cousins. The next day was the last monday and one week left of break. I luckily had gotten the next four days off of work and got to have fun with friends as well as some relaxing time for me. I then worked on the last friday of break for 8 hours. I left for chicago on friday to not only see the Illini lose to Gonzaga by 2 in overtime, but I also got to eat at Harry Carry's. This is probably the best steakhouse I have ever eaten in. THe steak I had was so juicy that it melted in my mouth. Then I came home on the last day of break, so I spent the rest of that day preparing for school. So not much time was spent having a good time on my break, but I accomplished a lot and spent some quality time with my family.