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.

Journal #6 Blame

Whether people like it or not, blame is very big part of our society. Blame is a very dangerous thing to do and can impact many people directly and indirectly. People not only blame other people for big conflicts but, they also blame them for small things just because they do not want to deal with the consequences. Whenever someone blames someone else they are “stabbing them in the back” because when the person blamed someone else, they gave them all the consequences even though the person never did anything. Even if the person who got blamed proves they are innocent, their reputation may still be tarnished and people may look at them a different way now. This is also reflected in The Crucible, as it is a very big theme in this book. There is so much blame going on, that it is almost too much to believe because, it seems as though in Acts I-III everyone is blaming everyone else when they are accused of something. The blame starts of when Tituba blames four other women of the community for trying to get Tituba to be one of the devil’s agents on Earth. When the other girls involved in the voodoo see that they can get out of punishment by blaming other women, they took full advantage of it. They saw the chance to get revenge on someone they did not like. When they blamed the other women they did not think about the possible consequences that could come out of the situation. They essentially played God and choose who would either have their reputation ruined, or even possibly be hung because, they will not admit to being a witch even though they are not. When someone blames someone else, they do not think about the other person they just think about themselves and getting out of trouble, not all “hell” they other person will go though even though they are falsely accused. To blame someone else is a sign immaturity.

Journal #5 "My True Colors Personality"

Last night after I wrote my reflection paper due today, I took my true color personality quiz. The quiz consisted of around 30 questions to determine which one of the four true colors I was. Green means someone is conceptual, blue means compassionate, gold means someone is conventional, and if someone is orange it means they are courageous. The quiz tested me on questions such as relationships and reactions to certain situations and environments. Out of the questions, I had 13 answers that were orange and 12 answers that were gold. My true color of orange told me that I am courageous, adventurous, and I like to entertain and persuade people. I believe placing me in this group is correct. I love to do crazy things and to get my adrenaline going but I follow rules and do not do things are against the law or against my morals and values. I would try to live in the now, not what happened yesterday or is going to happen tomorrow. Essentially that is what being an orange is all about. Living in the present and enjoying things instead of dwelling on things you cannot control or are very worried about. Knowing what an orange is, could tell about you about the person I am. I am a huge procrastinator, and very spontaneous. If I am doing something and someone tells me about something else that is going on, I will probably stop the thing I am doing the thing I think will be more fun. Although I am an orange that does not necessarily mean that I completely am and do everything an orange is supposed to do. Like an orange is supposed to be getting into trouble a lot. I really do not get into trouble because, I try to follow rules, law, my morals as close as I can. That means that I have a little gold in me because, gold people tend to not get into trouble that much. Therefore, even though I am an orange, I still have other colors in me.

Journal #4 Categorize/Identify People

Whenever you first meet someone, you always have a first thought or impression on him or her. This can be either or good thing, or most of the time it is a bad thing. Your first impression of someone is given by his or her appearance. This usually includes clothing and how someone looks. The name labels that people use are usually jock, nerd, prep, goth, clown, or loner. These labels are not good because, you are just categorizing someone by the way they look not because of how they are on the inside. Though your label may to right, you do not really know if it is true until you fully get to know someone. I also think that labels are not good because, just because someone is a jock and plays sports it does not mean they do not care about their grades and get bad grades. A person may be a jock but get good grades so does that mean they are a nerd too? That is the big danger of categorizing someone. The labels do not include everyone and are usually not true so they are stereotypes. You will never forget the first impression of someone and this is usually not good. The chance of your first impression being completely right is not very good at all. You could label someone as a nerd and then come to find out he is a really cool kid, and you are so glad that you got to know him and find out about him. Categorizing can also be a good thing though. If you label someone as a druggie because, you know they do drugs, then that impression will help you stay away from the wrong crowd. If you know who does bad things and you do not believe in doing those things, then categorizing a group can be good because, it keeps you from falling into the wrong crowd. Categorizing is a very dangerous thing to do but, it does have its positives.

Journal #3: What If I Lost Everything?

I cannot even begin to fathom what it would be like if I lost everything. When I say everything, I mean all of my material possessions. My life would be changed so quickly, in such a short period of time if I lost everything. One of the main ways that I could lose everything I own and cherish would be a natural disaster. Since I live in Central Illinois where I am not remotely close to an ocean, and I can never remember an earthquake ever happening, I think the only possible natural disasters feasible would be a tornado or fire. Losing everything by one of these disasters would be horrible.
By losing all of my possessions, I mean all the everyday items that I have and use. These include my car, house, television, cell phone, iPod, computer, and anything else I would have still owned. Losing these things not only affects my life and me but it also affects my mom, dad, brother, and sisters. They would lose their house too and my mom would have lost many possessions she has invested in. My family and I would have to start all over, but at least I would still have my family to be there for me and I could be there for them. Whenever someone is in a time of need, like if I were to lose everything, it would just pull my family closer together. Even in a time of great devastation to myself as well as my family too, we would be there for each in everyone’s huge time of need. With the many negatives that come with losing all my material possessions, I would still know that I had the memories that those possessions gave me and I would also still have my life. I would be so thankful to be alive because, even though I lost everything that I had and owned, I would still have my life so I could try and get back to the normal life that I had.

Journal #2: The Importance of Written or Documented Rules

Rules play a huge role in our society today. Without with any written or doucenmted rules, our world would be much more different because of the many factors they play in our lives. One of the most important sets of rules to the United States is the United States Constitution. This set of rules is the groundwork to which our country is made. Our fore fathers wanted a new and free country but they also wanted structure so they created the United States Constitution. This gives us our freedoms we enjoy but it also gives us structure to our lives. Without any rules or structure, the United States would be complete chaos with war, murder, crime, and no consequences for people that do these horrible things. The Constitution helps to guide our lives with things that we have that many other countries do not and it also gives us rules of things we cannot do so that our country is structured and organized.  Written rules also play a big role in my home life.  My parents got together and made a set of written rules that my siblings and I have to follow.  Some of the key rules include cleaning up our rooms, turning off everything whenever we leave a room, and also putting dirty dishes in the dish washer and taking out the garbage whenever it is full.  These rules and the other written rules on my fridge help keep my house clean and also save my family money.  Without these rules my siblings and I have to follow my house would not be as clean, not be as organized, and not be as nice as it is.  Rules play a huge role in everyday life no matter where you are.  In school, at home, or out somewhere running an errand, there are rules to keep people more safe, stuff more organized, and a guiding tool on what’s right and what’s wrong.  Without rules my life and I’m sure everyone else’s would not be near as good.