Journal #27 Something Indigenous to the Springfield Area

There are many things that are indigenous to the Springfield area. There are many attractions around town that are Abraham Lincoln themed such as the Abraham Lincoln Museum and also the house that he lived in while he was living in Springfield. Many things such as restaurants and other things downtown include the Lincoln theme. Many of these things can only be found in Springfield so they are indigenous to the area. Another attraction that is definitely indigenous to the Springfield area is the water park Knight’s Action Park. It is a very cool water park that seems to get bigger every year. Even though there are many other water parks in the country, it is really cool to have one that we can call ours in Springfield. They have a great assortment of water slides, a lazy river, wave pool, kid’s themed attractions, and also a huge half pipe looking thing. There is nothing better than going to the water park on a really hot summer day in the dog days to cool off and also a really cool place to hang out with your friends. Although it not s like a top of the line water park, I still really like going there all the same. The thing that is probably most indigenous to this area is the horseshoe sandwich. It is a most delicious combination of a piece of Texas toast, meat of your choice (I always get buffalo chicken and hamburger), then topped off with a mountain of cheese and a generous helping of “secret” white cheese sauce. Even though this might sound gross to many people who have never had one, you really need to try one yourself before you judge. They bring new meaning to the word comfort food. In my opinion the best place in town to find adn get a horseshoe is D'arcys Pint. They have the best cheese and for some reason theirs are just better than everyone else's. I can not imagine not knowing what a horseshoe is because, I am so used to getting them to eat at restaurants. There are many things that are indigenous to Springfield, that make it a very unique place.

Journal #26 My Thanksgiving Memoir

A memoir is an account of the personal experiences of an author. This account of personal experience usually includes emotional growth or an epiphany by the end of the memoir. The first thing that I want to say in this memoir is that I had a great Thanksgiving Break and I could not of have a better one. I drove up to Metamora with my dad to see his side of the family. It was my uncle Dick's house so his family came up along with my dad and I, my uncle Tom and his family, and also my uncle Steve. My uncle Dick has bone cancer and it just recently came back. He is not doing too well in his health and he is struggling to get through. It was so hard to see him in bad health and not like his usual self. Also my grandma and grandpa were not able to make the trip up to Metamora, so my dad and I made sure that we saw then before we left and they had somewhere to go for Thanksgiving. Two of my cousins have kids that are between three and four months so it was really great to see them. There was also a five year old and a three year old running around the house. I got up there on Wednesday night, watched some basketball, went to bed, got up on Thursday, had breakfast, then ate lunch, and finally relaxed a little before I had to be at my mom’s house. It was so great to basically all of my dad’s family all together to celebrate and give thanks. It also showed me how much it means to people to see their family and be with them on holidays such as Thanksgiving. I especially know how much my uncle Dick enjoyed having everyone there at his house to give him company through this tough time, and that showed me just how much a warm, friendly, and familiar face can really cheer someone up. I just hope that in some way I made my uncle happy, and I think that all my family being there, myself included, really cheered him up.

Journal #25 Critical Review of The Red Badge of Courage

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We finally finished up reading The Red Badge of Courage, a civil war novel written by Stephen Crane, and honestly I really liked reading the novel because, it had a good story, characters and figurative language but, it was just a really slow read. It had great imagery and the author did a great job of describing the civil war. In the review I read it talked a lot about how powerful and emotional The Red Badge of Courage was and I completely agree with that. With all the death, fear of battle, and the general melancholy mood around him, it is very easy to see why Henry, the main character in the story, would be so emotional throughout the story. He had many emotions about him running away from the battle and, in the beginning of the story he had a fear of the battle but as the story went on he started to get rid of the fear and go into battle. Also one the things that was much praised from The Red Badge of Courage was how Crane used Henry to show how the war was instead of showing a much more large scale point of view, like if the novel would have portrayed a whole regiment as the main characters instead of just one man. This was a very effective method utilized by Crane because, this was really the first time that someone had described a war from just one man’s point of view and also because it shows some of the struggles that an everyday soldier had to go through. One thing in this critical review that I definitely did not agree with was that Crane showed a lack of patriotism in this novel. Just because Crane did not just focus on all the good things that happened during war, does not mean he is not patriotic. Crane just showed some struggles that an everyday man, turned a soldier, has to go through when he decides to enter the war. Nobody had really every written a story like this before about a war so I think that is one reason why his story got so much praise as well as being criticized widely.

Journal #24 The Red Badge of Courage 9-20

After I read the first chapters one through eight in “The Red Badge of Courage”, I next read chapter nine through twenty. In these chapters much of the story plot is revealed and you learn a lot about the characters. Jim Conklin, one of Henry’s friends, just died from the wounds that he obtained in battle, so Henry and the tattered man he is with are deeply saddened. Henry feels as though he needs to get in the fight so he heads to the battlefield. He sees all the blue coats retreating so he asks one of them why they are all running, but they man will not answer Henry’s question, he just hits him in the head with the butt of his gun. Henry then returns to a new regiment to get his wound taken care of. He said that he got shoot in the head so all the troops see Henry as a brave fighter. They think this even more when they see him in battle because; he does retreat when he sees the enemy, staying in his position firing wildly. The captain of the regiment is very impressed by the courage that he showed and thinks that he is a fine soldier, when really he was just blind firing. He goes to another battle that he expects to lose. As his regiment marches the man holding the flag is shoot and killed so Henry sees it as his duty to further carry the flag. He rages on with it, having the troops in his regiment follow up behind him. In these chapters there really was not much use of religion but, there was a lot of use in figurative language by personification and dialect, use of nature by being it in the woods, human nature by the choices that Henry has to make, society in the army ranks, American dream in that Henry is an ordinary man doing a great thing, and a realism hero in Henry. Overall, this story includes many realism elements into it.

Journal #23 The Red Badge of Courage and How it Shows Realism

“The Red Badge of Courage” is a classic war story that was written by the author Stephen Crane. It is a Civil War war story and even though the author was born after the War ended, he did a great job of including details and descriptions of the people and places of the Civil War. He was fascinated by the war and he does a great job to make it seem like he was in the war even though he was born after it ended. During this time period, Realism was becoming very popular and elements from that literary time period show up in this work. Crane does a great job of using imagery in his work, such as describing settings and people not with only one sense such as how they look but he does a great job of making it feel like you are really there because, of how describes things using all of the senses. This imagery is very important to the Realism time period and so is some other figurative language such as alliteration. Right after you start reading this story you can already see some alliteration by how he describes things to give them human like characteristics. Also one of the biggest things of the Realism time period was how they portrayed a hero. The main character, Henry, is not the modern hero that we think of because, he is just a normal kid who is going off to war but in the Realism time period he is because, they classify their hero as someone ordinary who is put in extraordinary situations. Henry is definitely this because, he is just an ordinary kid but he is put in the extraordinary situation of being in one of the bloodiest wars every. I really liked how Crane used this ordinary kid to tell of a war story. Overall, this book shows many important elements from the Realism time period and is very important to American Literature overall.

Journal #22 Field Trip

I really liked the Veteran’s Day field trip that the whole school got to take on Friday. I learned a lot and all of the places that we went to had a very special meaning. The first place that I visited was the Camp Butler National Cemetery. It was very interesting to see how far back the cemetery went in its roots and how it got its start. I had no idea that the camp was used as training ground for soldiers during the Civil War. One of my dad’s closest friends is buried at Camp Butler so that was really nice to pay my respects to him and my dad also really liked that too. I liked how they had a computer to help you find the veteran that you were looking for. I really enjoyed visiting the camp and it gave me an idea of some of the soldiers who have served and died for this country. The next place that my group visited was Camp Lincoln. This was really cool because, this place is not open to the public so it was a pretty special thing. We got to go to shop where they repair vehicles, guns, and electronics. It was extremely cool to see some of the vehicles that they use up close and also get to go inside. I never really knew how much armor the vehicles really have on them so that was really neat to see. I got to see a humvee, a vehicle that rescues vehicles, and also some kind of tank thing that had wheels. That was amazing to climb in the tank thing. Next were the guns and I extremely enjoyed that. I got to handle some neat guns and even pick up a RPG confiscated from Iraq. We then saw some of the electronic stuff that they use. After Camp Lincoln we had lunch then headed to Oak Ridge. I really enjoyed seeing all the memorial stuff they had and it was very well done. Last was the Air Force National Guard. I loved seeing the air planes and everything. Overall it was a great experience.

Journal #21 I Dream I That I Thought was Real

Everyone dreams, but not everyone remembers them, and I happen to be one of those people. I only remember dreams rarely, but I wish I really did. Since this journal is about a dream that I thought was real, I would first have to remember the dream. I only rarely remember them so I will have to talk about a dream that I had awhile back, but that I can still remember. It was my seventeenth birthday and I got a brand new Ferrari Enzo from my dad. I was so ecstatic about my new car so I decided to take it out for a test spin. It just so happens that my birthday is on November 20, so the first snow of the season was still on the ground. Since I had this brand new car and there was snow on the ground, the only logical thing to do was to get a driver who I believe has a lot of experience and is the best driver I know. That person happened to be Mr. Langley. So I sped down 125 to pick up Mr. Langley so I could drive my new car some more. I picked him up, and he was so excited to be riding in a Ferrari, that he jumped out of shoes. Mr. Langley being the professional thrill seeker that he is, decided that the best thing to do was fish tale down the road to have some fun. Since he controls my English grade I gave in to his command and decided to fish tale. We did for about five minutes and nothing bad happened. It was a lot of fun and I was so glad I picked him up. It was getting late, so I dropped him off and headed home. On the way home, I hit some black ice and lost control. I was not injured but, sadly my Enzo was crashed. It was a very tramtic for me and I woke up screaming and yelling in a cold sweat. I thought it was real and it was definetly a night terror.

Journal #20 My Favorite Tall Tale

A tall tale is a story that is based on the life or adventure of a real person that gets exenterated to make them have supernatural powers or out of this world characteristics. Some of the most famous ones out there are the stories of Johnny Appleseed, John Henry, and Paul Bunyan. I personally am not that much of a fan of tall tales anymore. I used to very in to them whenever I was younger and liked stories like that but, now if I do decide to read for fun, which is not very often, I like to read more revalent books that are more close to the stuff that I am going through in my life. The tale tales are just not as entertaining anymore because, I know that these people could really do the things they did or have the traits that hey supposedly had. One example of this is Paul Bunyan who was supposedly like twenty feet tall and had a giant blue ox. Someone could ever be twenty feet tall, and an ox could never be around ten feet tall like how they portrayed him in the tall tale. If I were to pick my favorite tall tale it would probably have to be Johnny Appleseed. He was a man who went around and planted apple seeds, all around the country. I am sure that how many he actually planted is not true, but I like that it is true that he went around and planted apple seeds. Looking back, Johnny Appleseed was not my favorite tall tale because, it was not as interesting as the other ones but, now it is a lot more interesting to me because, some of the story is believable. I think the big thing with tall tales and me now is that I like to read more of logical books, and tall tales are not very logical at all. In my younger years I liked the crazy stories but, now some of them are just plain silly.

Journal #19 Vengeance

Vengeance is a huge part of today’s society. Everyone has such huge egos and people’s reputations are such a big part of their lives that getting vengeance is a big part of not only current American society but, also in the whole world. If someone embarrass you, makes fun of you, or makes you look bad then you are very likely to try and get even with that person or try and get vengeance. At my school I see this a lot. One person will make fun of the other one, so the person who got made fun will get vengeance by talking behind the other persons back. You can see this in everyday society too. A lot of times whenever someone murders or kills someone else, it is because, that person wanted to get revenge on the other person. In the Middle East, one group will bomb or hurt another so, the other group will seek vengeance on the group that hurt them. Yesterday there was the Massacre at Fort Hood. A military man did not want to de deployed into fighting again, so he took vengeance on the people around him because, they were trying to make him do something that he did not want to do. Vengeance and holding a grudge are horrible things to do. Trying to get back at someone solves nothing and only makes matters worse. Getting vengeance on someone may make you feel good for a short while, but after that the consequences of your actions or the guilt from what you did can make you feel horrible about yourself. In the story “The Cask of Amontillado”, Montresor seeks vengeance on Fortunato, and even though he is successful in his vengeance, fifty years later he has some guilt about his crime that he did. Even though you may think that everything will be a lot better after getting vengeance, the chances are that you will just feel a lot worse about yourself and actions.

Journal #18 My Biggest Fear

Beeing a male in today’s soceity, you are supposed to be a “tough guy”, show no emotion, never cry, and have no fears. America sees guys that show emotion as outcast and not real true men. Taking this in to consideration, I do have some real true fears that are in my every day life. One of my biggest fears that I have is death. I know that everyone does die in their life time but, it still scares me to think about it. It is just hard to think about dieing, and going to heaven or not depending on your beliefs. I believe in heaven and it is my life’s ultimate goal to be in heaven but, there is still that fear of what if I do not make it to heaven by living the life I should. That is a very frightening thing for me to think about. I am not scared of the usual things that some people are scared of such as spiders or snakes or things like that. Also many people are scared of being buried alive or dieing some specific way but, I am just scared of death and what comes after that. My belief is that you have to live the puriest life possible and be forgiven for all your sins or you will not get into heaven and be sentenced to a life in hell for eterninty. I have tried to live the purest life I can possibly live my life so far but, there is always that fear of the unknown because, I will not know until my time of judgement in my afterlife. What I think is right might be a sin in God’s eyes so I have to follow the Bible as closely as possible to try and live a life that is truly good enough to get into the gates of heaven. That is my biggest fear in this life and all I can do to get over it is to live the best life I possibly can.

Journal #17 Peaceful Protests

I think that peaceful protests are not only important to the United States but, also very important to the whole world overall. There is so much violence in this world that whenever someone or a group of people have a violent or extreme protest it just adds violence into the already chaotic world that is not needed. Back in history, there have been many peaceful protests that have really helped for rights for people. Today peaceful protests are still popular with protests such as boycotts. Unfortunately, people also protest in violent ways in the present day world. One example of this is the war going on the Middle East where the Shiites and Muslims protest something very violently and with chaos. These very violent protests are not only dangerous for the protesters and whom they are protesting against but; they are also dangerous for the people around where they are protesting. In history, two very famous peaceful protesters were Gandhi and Martin Luther King, Jr. These two men used non-violent and peaceful protests to get their point across and try to get the rights are things that they wanted. Gandhi wanted the British to leave India, so they could rule themselves. Gandhi demonstrated his dislike for British rule and how the people of India could run themselves, by using peace and trying to use as little of violence as possible. His famous quote “be the change you wish to be in the World” exemplifies everything that he stood for and is one of the most famous quotes of all time. Martin Luther King, Jr. is a more recent peaceful protester trying to get African American equal rights in America. In his time in America, black people and white people were segrated and forced to use different bathrooms, restaurants, etc. so they would not be close to white people. King tried to get equal rights by using peaceful protests, but these quickly turned violent because, of people attacking the protesters. Peaceful protests are very important and reliable; hopefully people continue to use these peaceful protests to get their points across.

Journal #16 Importance of Self-Reflection and a Break from Society

Taking a break from society and to self-reflect is very important to someone’s life. If you never self-reflect then you will never fix your mistakes you are making or fix some of the problems you are having. Self-reflecting is so important to your relationships with other people. If you upset someone and it is because you made a mistake, then you need to self-reflect on yourself to try to see what you did wrong and what you can to make it better. In addition, when you self-reflect it lets you do something better then next time you try something. Fro example if you drop a pass in a football game then you if self-reflect you can find out what you are doing wrong and catch the ball next time it is thrown to you. Self-reflecting is very important to every sport you participate in. I already talked about football but, other sports such as baseball, basketball, hockey, soccer, swimming, or pretty much any other sport. Like in baseball if you make a bad pitch, self-reflection will let you not throw a bad pitch like that again, and do better on the next pitch. If you miss a shot in basketball or hockey, you can think about what you did wrong to try to improve on that next time you take a shot. I think it is also very important for someone to take a break from society for a little while. So much goes on in daily life that sometimes you just need some time to give yourself time to take a break. If you just to do everything everyone tells you all the time and never take some time for yourself, you will probably have a mental breakdown. That is why the weekend is so great. It gives you a break from your routine, and some time to do what you want to do or maybe get some things done you been trying to get to for awhile now. Without self-reflection and escaping socitey, life would be much more complicated.

Journal #15 What I Read for Entertainmet

First, off I will just start by saying that I am not a real big reader. I pretty much only read for school projects or for English summer reading. On that note, I read a little bit for fun or entertainment. I am a really big sports fan so my dad has a subscription to both Sports Illustrated and ESPN The Magazine. I love to go over there and have a new sports magazine to read. The articles usually go beyond what you see on the surface of a sports story, and I think that the stories, articles, and features are very well written and entertaining. I prefer ESPN more than Sports Illustrated because, the articles are a little bit more deeper in ESPN than SI. SI does a lot of stories about the current teams and league updates, while ESPN does a lot more about individual players and the problems they are faced with or are facing and also they a lot of stuff about players who battle thorough adversity to become a great player. I think this feature a lot more than reading about the NFL midseason report, that I pretty much already know the jest of. With the much more in depth player articles, I think it not only makes you feel like you are closer to a player but, it also makes you feel like you closer to a professional league or team because you know the players more closely. I also think one reason that I like ESPN more than I like SI is that SI is a weekly thing, and ESPN is every two weeks. It makes the anticipation to greater to receive my magizaine if I have to wait for every two weeks. I not only enjoy sports magazines but, I also really enjoy reading magazines that deal with new car news or something new that concerns science. My mom is really big on the news magazines but, I would much rather read about sports, cars, or science. Overall, I think magazines are the biggest thing that I read for fun.

Journal #14 My Ideal United States

Even though we are the land of the free, America is still not perfect and never will be. Even though it is a very good nation, and one of the best in the World, it still has its indiviual problems along with the global problems that every nation deals with. One of the biggest problems facing this country is racism and sexism. Many people segregrate against people just because, they are of a different race or sex of them. Every person is born equal to everyone else and this is not fair. A person may or may not just because, of the color of their skin or what gender they are. Generally non caucassion people and females are the ones who get segregated against the worst, but everyone gets sterotyeped sometime in their life. Also I think my ideal United States would be to end hunger and violence. I know this is a cliché but, it would trully make this a better country if people were not starving and all the violence in our everyday lives were not their anymore. Another thing I would change in this nation would be to end cruelty to animals. There are many people who tortue animals or use unfairlly to make a profit. Just because the animals cannot protest the mistreatment does not mean that it is write. This would make a better living enviroment for everyone overall I think. Also I believe that if we ended global warming and the power crisis we would be a better nation. We pollute our Earth so bad by our cars and other forms of power, that it is ruining it. Not only does this harm the Earth but it also effects a lot of generations that are to follow us in this great nation. Realistically all of these problems will probably never be solved in my lifetime or many others, but just solving one or two of these would make a huge difference.

Journal #13 My Favorite....

I have many favorite things in this world but, one of my most favorite things to talk about with someone is my favorite sports teams. My favorite professional teams are all from the city of St. Louis. My favorite Major League Baseball team is the St. Louis Cardinals, my favorite National Football League team is the St. Louis Blues, and my favorite National Hockey League team is the St. Louis Blues. Recently St. Louis has been a very good sports town so it is very easy to cheer on my favorite teams if they are winning. The Rams won the Super Bowl in 1999 and made it back to the Super Bowl in 2001. In the last couple of seasons, they have become the laughing stock of the NFL winning very few games, and being winless this season. The Cardinals won the World Series in 2006 and made it to the World Series in 2004. They looked very promising this year but, they played very bad and got swept in the first round of the playoffs. That was a major dissapointment because, many people that the Cardinals were gonna win the World Series or at least make it to it. My favorite hockey team the Blues has a lot of potential this year with a very young core of players. Up until I think 2004 the Blues made the playoffs for 24 straight years, but then they did not make it for four straight years. Last year they made the playoffs again but, got knocked out in the first round. Since they have been bad the last few years except last years, they have got some really good draft picks. Along with these draft picks and free agency, they have built a very good young core of talent that should be very good in the next few years. Overall, it’s a lot easier to root for your teams when they are winning but, they are my parent teams so I always root for them.

Journal #12 Declaration of Freedom

I am writing about the Delaration of Freedom. Being free is one of the most important things a person can have in their life. What do I classify as free? Having the options of freedom of speech, assembly, press, and basically have in your possission ways to express your opinion in mnay different ways. In the United States of America we are very lucky enough to have all of these freedoms. Many middle eastern countries and nations do not have these freedoms. Woman in these countries and nations have to wear something to cover their faces and they do not have the right to openly express their opionion in some way. Not only woman but, also men in these countries can not express their opinions openly. The leaders in these countries are scared of what could happen if they let the people make their own choices and believe that the people could cause a rebellion in the government. Since they are scared of the people, they do not let people have such freedoms of speech and assembly. The governments of these nations produce the newspaper and also produce the t.v. shows that the people of these nations are allowed to watch. In America, our forefathers created the Declaration of Independace so that we could have these freedoms and luxuries. We can read whatever newspaper we want, or watch whatever televison show that we want to watch. If I choose to start a club of some sort than I can hold meetings whenever and wherever I so choose to hold those. Even though the government may not like what I am holding the meeting for or not agree with it but, they mostly have to let me do whatever I want unless, it is a terroist or some illegal organization I am associating with. I like the freedom we have in the United States and I can not imagine what my world would be like without the freedoms I currently have.

Journal #11 Logic/Reasoning vs. Emotion

There are two main ways to support your main point in an essay: logic/reasoning and emotion. If you are writing a persuading essay then you will more than likely be using one of these techniques or maybe even both. I personally believe logic/reasoning is the best way to support your side of the story if you are trying to persuade someone. If you use logic/reasoning then you can actually have proof to back up your point. Usually logic/reasoning then it is usually factual and you can back up your point. Plus I also think that usually logic and reasoning persuades the reader more because, you actually have facts to back it up not just emotion. Using emotion can also be a very powerful way to persuade someone to see your side of the argument or to persuade them. If you are powerful speaker and writer with your emotions then emotion is probably a much better route to take when you are supporting your essay. Also through the years many generations used these two types to support their arguments. The Puritans infamously used emotion over logic and reasoning to support their arguments. Their religion was so strong that they used it to support their arguments they made. The used emotion and religion to try and persuade or support their topic or argument that they are trying to make. They used their emotion towards religion and how they believed everything came from God that they use them in almost every written work they produced. They used religion and emotion to support their arguments in novels, stories, poetry and any other works that they did. The Enlightenment was famous for having people very logically and reasoned very well. The people of the Enlightenment carried this over to their support in their literary works. They included very logical and reasonable support that is usually backed up. With these two main types of support, you can use either one logically for support, it just depends on your preference.

Journal #10 School Spirit

School spirit is a great thing to have. It is great to show support for your school and show that you care about your fellow class mates, sports teams, and also the school itself. This week we are having spirit week for Homecoming and there are many ways to show school spirit during this week. Each day has its own theme and if you do that theme then you earn your class points. Each class competes to see who can get the most points. The themes were hat/jersey on Monday, cowboy/cowgirl on Tuesday, mis-match on Wednesday, class color on Thursday, and spirit day on Friday. Along with the spirit week days to earn points you also earn for your class float in the parade as well as various activities during the Friday prep rally in the afternoon. There are many activities during the prep rally and participating in them shows that you have much school spirit. These activities include the tug of war, baby bottle chug, partner dress, refrigerator box run, and also the balloon stop. Doing on of these or a whole bunch of these of these activities show you want to participate for your class as well as you showing school spirit. To show school spirit is very important. You should be very proud of your school and proud to go there. Having a spirit week not only shows school spirit to the fullest but, it also gets you excitied to go to school and try and beat all the other classes. The teachers show school spirit because, they do not usually give homework during Homecoming week so that the students can have as much fun with the week as possible and show their school spirit. Along with not giving homework the teachers also showed school spirit themeselves by dressing up.

Journal #9 Ethics/Virtues

For a person to have ethics/virtues is very important to that person I believe. My ethics and values are very important and I do not think my life would be as good if I did not have these in my life. Some of the most important virtues to me are trust, friendship, responsibility, honesty, respect, and kindness. Trust is very important to me because, trusting someone is very important so you can build a relationship with people. If you do not trust that other person it will be very hard to have a strong relationship with that person because, you do not trust them. Friendship is a huge virtue in my life. Friends are there for you and are basically your support system. When you’re with your friends you feel accepted and have fun. If I did not have friendship then I would be very lonely and my life would be much worse off. Responsibility is very important because, you need to take responsibility for your actions. You need to know the possible consequences and rewards for your actions. You need to make good choices so you do not let down your friends, family, school, or sports team. Honesty is a “keystone” virtue to me and many other people. Honesty is like the main virtue that all other virtues build on. If you are not honest then you can not have much trust in a relationship or a very strong friendship with someone. If you are not honest to your parents then your parents will not trust you and they will not let you have as many opportunities or freedoms as if you were honest and they could trust you. You need to respect other people and also you need to respect yourself. If you do not respect yourself then other people can not respect you. If you do not respect other people then you will not be liked by many people and not have strong relationships. Virtues are an essential part to my life and many other people’s lives as well.

Journal #8: Working With a Partner

If you have attended at least one year of a public or private school, there is a very good chance that you have worked with a partner somewhere along the way. I enjoy working with a partner greatly, and think it is a great way to share ideas and produce some very good work between the two people. When you work with a partner you have more fun, and I also think that it gets you thinking more and you are more creative. It is a lot more fun to work with partner rather than by yourself. If you asked everyone what their favorite way to do something is, with or without a partner, then my guess would be that the conscious would be working with a partner would be more popular. For many projects teachers apply the method of using to partners. I think by letting students it lets them have more fun, be more excited about the project, and also get to know someone that you maybe have never really talked to before. If you are more excited to work on a project and have fun doing it, then you will probably produce better work and have a more creative project then if you just did it by yourself. There are also some negatives that involve working with a partner. If you are with someone who is very controlling and think that the “world revolves around them” then you will not have much input and the other partner might want to do everything their way. If your partner is lazy, then you might have to end up doing all the work while your partner sits back and doesn’t do anything. Also, if you are doing a project with one of your close friends, then you may be having too much fun and not accomplish everything in the project that you wanted to or that is required. Overall, with all the positive and negatives, I think that the positives definitely out weigh the negatives in working with a partner

Journal #7 Organized Religion

Religion and organized religion specifically is a huge element in our modern society. There are so many branches of organized religion that pretty much everyone in the world belongs to some kind of religion or church even if they do not attend regularly. Christianity is probably the biggest branch of organized religion and there are numerous different churches that fall under Christianity including: Catholic, Lutheran, Methodist, Disciples of Christ, Presbyterian, and Jehovah’s Witness. There are also other religions that do not fall under Christianity like Atheist and Agnostic. These Churches do not believe in God and Jesus Christ as our Savior like the other Christian churches do. Other religions that have a big impact on our world are Jewish, Buddhist, and Hebrew. Almost whatever someone’s beliefs are there is probably a church that has many of the same beliefs you have and practice those test. This is why there are so many varieties of churches and why such a high percentage of the world does belong to such a church. Organized religion affects us more than just going to church every Sunday. There are many schools, both high school and college, that teaches religion as well as the other subjects. There are many Catholic schools that teach all the regular high school classes as well as a religion class. These usually are more expensive than public schools but, well worth it to many people to have God and religion taught to them and their child during the day. Notre Dame is a very well known college and also one the most well known that has a religious influence. The students get a college education with a Christian influence on it. Brigham Young University or BYU is also a major university that has a huge religious impact on it. Fighting over religion is also a big part of society. In the Middle East wars rage because, someone does not like the religion of someone else. In the 1940’s Adolf Hitler killed millions of Jewish people just because he did not like what religion they had. Whether we like it or not religion has a huge impact on our world.