Journal Entry 17: My Favorite Stories

            I liked a lot of stories and books especially fairy tales. Some of my favorites stories or books were Little Red Riding Hood, Cinderella, Sesame Street, and Dr. Seuss. They captured my interest for many reasons. For example, for Little Red Riding Hood, I liked how the little girl learns something in the end and  I picture being that girl myself. For Cinderella, I loved her life from being a poor girl to a princess and lived happy ever after. I loved Sesame Street because I could sing with it and I loved the character in the the stories. And for Dr. Seuss's stories, I used to ask my mom read it to me every day. I loved the stories that I could memorized it and know exactly what words go next. I think I loved Dr. Seuss because I can use my imagination and go completely crazy. And I also liked how all the words rhythm and sound so perfectly fit together so make a poem or story. I think it was the plot and also the characters in the stories that captured my interest the most. I used to get so involve to the story that I picture myself as the characters. Or when they didn't draw the character on the book, I will imagine how it looks like.

Journal Entry 16: The Influence of Others

            Throughout my life, my sister has always been my role model. She is one of the most important people in my life. My sister is two years older than me, a senior in PAS. My sister is a perfect daughter, perfect student anyone could ever had. She has really good grades in school, and seems to always listen to what my parents tell her to do. Her SAT scores are high and she works really hard. I always have to learn from her for everything. I learn from her things including schoolwork, SATs, MUN, and organization. She likes being a big sister and control what I do and tells my mom what I have to do. I sometimes work with her whenever I can't concentrate because she can make me concentrate on my schoolwork. She is like my second teacher, or a second mom. She is really a big positive influence for me.
            On the other hand, some of my friends are bad influences. Because some of them like to say that studying is not the whole thing about life, which will sometimes make me believe. I believe that life is not only studying, and thats not all I do too, I live my life. But y life is just different from the people who said that. So the positive influence has a bigger impact than the negative one because my sister lives with me and influenced me from when I was still a kid, while I just met my friends for a few years.

Journal Entry 15: Characters

            Some of my favorite characters from TV shows, movies, and books are cookie monster, harry potter, sponge bob, mickey, stitch and many other ones. Maybe it is because I am like a kid, I often picture myself like the characters, no matter if they are in cartoons, movies or even in books. Some traits of these characters are that they are all brave. Another trait is that thy never give p and they are mostly happy characters. And also they are similar to human. Maybe not appearance but the mind and their situation. Most of them are heroic too. And another trait is that they often have a strong feeling for something or someone and that they are very different characteristics. Some common patterns are that they always have a characteristic that is well shown and that also they are really closely related to us. And they don't give up easily. 

            Some similarities are that they are all fictional characters, they can all talk and are all similar to some group of people, and re closely related to people and me. For example, I love cookies just like cookie monster. I am mostly happy like sponge bob. And I don't easily give up like harry potter. Some differences are some characters are always in a happy cartoon and some are in scary and intense movies. The things that they like or their motives are also very different. They also look very different too. Some generalizations are that they never give up, are mostly happy. 

Journal Entry 14: How Does Heritage Contribute to Character?

            Heritage means something that passed down from the proceeding generations; a tradition in a dictionary. To me, heritage just means something or some traits or some traditions that is passed down by your ancestors. Some elements of heritage are personalities, beliefs, traditions, appearances. I think the most important ones are personalities and beliefs. Because I believe these two are the things that will affect you throughout your life. You can change your traditions or appearances when you grow up. 

            One of my heritage from my mom is my size. I am really short and small. And my mom is also pretty short. My height has always played an important part in my life. I sometimes get laugh at because of my height, I sometimes get bullied because of my height. And height problem has been my major problem throughout my whole life. My mom find all kinds of doctors, make me eat all kinds of medicines just to make me taller. By this time of my life, I come to overcome this obstacle. I understand that although I am short I still have to learn to stand up for myself and let other people know that I am not that easy to bully and get tease at. I also have to show confidence in myself. So this is what I learned from my heritage of height. 

Journal Entry 13: Unpredictable

            One experience I had that I acted unpredictably myself happened this summer. My family and I went to Hwa-lian during the summer and we went to our friends to the river to climb up the river. Climbing up the river was fun since we are able to stop and play with the water or water fall along the way. I had always been a girl that is scared of everything, such as scary roller-coasters, or haunted house. I had always been the kind of girl that stands there and watch my sister experiences all the scary things and all the cool events. But this time I had decided that I will not be watching again, I will actually do it. So we went to climb up the river, and along the way we go through a lot of water falls. And the people that brought us up the river told us that we can jump down the water fall and also make some tricks. My parents expected my sister to do it all alone until I said I wanted to do it too. My parents were both shocked, and even I was shocked too. The water fall was really really high. And most of the people that went with us were scared and didn't go, even my sister was kind of scared. But I did it. And I found out that I actually liked it. So I did it many many times.
            From this unpredictable experience, I learned that you will never know if you really liked something or you don't. And it never hurts to try. This unpredictable experience affects my real life that after this time, I will try many new things and not be afraid and just stand there without doing anything. It can affect the plot by changing the plot completely and make the story fun to read because it is not the reader has expected.

Journal Entry 12: Animal vs. Human

            I believe that humans and animals are not that different from each other. After all, humans are animals too. I believe that some animals are like humans while others are not. I believe this because we are all living things on earth, we are not that different from them. Some humans like chimpanzees and monkeys tend to be and act like humans in many ways. But there are also animals like elephants or cheetahs like are completely different from us. Some animal behaviors that are similar to humans are making tools, knowing relaxation and playing and some other ones. People are often classified as animals that know how to make tools, but we recently found out that a lot of animals actually knows how to make tools and use them too. And for knowing hot to relax and play, we saw a video showing how a panda was playing with a stick like kung-fu, that is knowing how to play.
            I loved to go to the zoo when I was a kid. I would always stare at the animals and observe what are they doing. Even now, I love any kinds of animals. I sometimes even consider majoring zoology when I go to college. There are a lot of street dogs and cats in Taiwan, so I can often see them when I am walking down the street. I see all kinds of animals in the zoo including monkeys, pandas, bears, birds, and tigers. I also see a lot of birds flying in the blue sky and watch them standing on a pole during night. I see them sleeping, eating, playing, and often searching for food. And I also have a dog in my house so I see her everyday. Some qualities are they also reproduce and help each other. They also love human's food like my dog.

Journal Entry 11: Conflicts

            One internal conflict in the "By the Water's of Babylon" is when John have to decide whether he should cross the river to the Places of Gods or go back to his village. If he crosses the river, then he will find out what is over there and see if the book is right. But if he goes back to his village he ma be safe but he will never know what is across the river. An example of an external conflict in the "By the Water's of Babylon" is when the dogs chased him and he had to run away from them because they wanted to kill him.
            One external conflict in my life is the pressure of the outside force. Since my sister has good grades and does well on SAT tests, my parents expect the same thing from me, and often compares me to my sister. I know my mom has tried her best to not to compare us, and I know it is kind of hard to not to. But she still does a lot of times. And also, my father thinks that I am the bottom in my class. He thinks that I am stupid and that I can't go to a good university. I conquer this conflict by trying my best on everything and be really hardworking and also try my best to tell them that me and my sister is different. My internal conflict in my life is that I don't know what i want to do for the future and what I am going to major in. Most of my friends know what are they going to do for the future, and also my sister knew what she is going to major in when she was in 8th grade. I didn't conquer this conflict yet.

Journal Entry 10: Taboos

            In my culture, which is an asian culture, there are many taboos. These taboos are often practiced by the more elder people rather than the teenagers. One example is that when someone gives you a gift, you cannot take it at once. You have to first refuse for at least two times, no matter how much you want that gift, but if the giver insist, that is when you can take the gift with all the thanks. And also, another taboo is that when we eat with our families or friends, we are all suppose to fight for paying for the meal. It will usually cause a big confusion, but that is our taboo. I remember when one of my father's friends didn't fight for paying the meal, my parents and all the other friends immediately assumes that he is disrespectful and also that he is poor and living in poverty even though he may not be. Another one is that you can't write your name in red. The elder people always say that we can't write our names in red, it is bad for out luck. Other people sometime try to know and understand you by if you follow these taboos or not. So taboos in asian culture is a very important thing, that is the thing other people use to judge you.
            I think these taboos are created to show respect to others and show discipline and that you came from a family that teaches you. I think some of the taboos are necessary while others aren't. For example, refusing gifts are sometimes respectful, but you don't have to do it so many times or do it every time. But some taboos are not necessary or helpful at all. For example, writing your name in red. That doesn't make sense at all, because no matter what color you are using, your luck doesn't matter. You won't be in a serious injury just because you wrote your name in red.

Journal Entry 9: Analyze a Folk Tale

            In the "Coyote Kills the Giant", the coyote was eaten by the giant but he didn't know. He saw other people starving and they told him that they are all in the giant's stomach. The people told him to give up and just wait until they all die because there are no food in the giant's stomach. But the coyote didn't give up and cut the giant's stomach for food and soon killed the giant. The phenomenon of this story is to never give up and be confident with yourself. The coyote didn't give up when all the other animals were starving and told him to give up. He came up the way to find food and also eventually killed the giant.
            I choose the story of the three little pigs. The three little pigs went out and build their won house. One with straws, one with sticks and one with bricks. Straws and sticks were easier and faster than bricks. The wolf comes over and started to blow at the first house, it fell over and the pig ran to the second house. The wolf then came over and blew at the second house, it also fell over so both of the pigs ran to the third house. The wolf care over again and tried to blow the house but it wouldn't work. So the three little pigs were safe. The phenomenon of this story is that you get what you get depends on how much effort you put on the thing or the task. Although bricks were hard and slow to build, the third pig still used that one so that he can have a safer home.

Journal Entry 8: Buddhist Doctrine

            Both my mom and dad are Buddhist, but they are not devout Buddhist. They believe in the Buddha and a lot of the sayings, but they also have their own opinions in life. So I was taught from when i was young to have my own opinions and don't believe in everything one says. I don't have a religion now because I think I am too young to know what to believe in. Most of the kids that have religion is because of their parents, but I believe people have different opinions. I believe in some sayings and beliefs in Buddhism but not everything. I don't believe that life is suffering. Although life has suffers, and it seems like we are constantly suffering, I don't believe that life is only suffering. Some people only think of the sufferings and how bad their life is but never really look into their life and learn to treasure their life. People like me who is very optimistic will know that life is way more than just suffering. You have to think of your families, your friends, your success and also your good memories. I do believe in Buddhism that ignorant and attachment cause sufferings. People often feel sad or angry when they are wanting too much things while they should slow down and treasure what they already have. Happiness isn't getting what you want, but wanting what you got. But I don't believe that overcoming these causes with stop suffering. Because we are all people, and it is human nature to want things. And if you take away the sufferings in our life, then what is the point of our life? You have bad days because you have good days. If life has absolute no suffering, then it will be a really boring life.
            I believe that some of the Buddhism beliefs can be used in my life. For example, I need to learn to stop wanting so many things but look at the things I already have and treasure them. I live in a happy family where I don't have to go out and work or get worried about the money. I have a good education in this american school and learn a lot. I also have lots of friends who care about me and understand me. Of course I will have bad days or days that all I want to do is cry. But that does not mean that my whole life is suffering.

Journal Entry 7: Taking Risks

People are willing to make sacrifices or to take any risks for the people they love and care about. Some of the examples of sacrifices are time, energy, money or even life. Parents sacrifice their freedom to be with their children. Rich people sacrifice money for the poor. Friends sacrifice their time to comfort or to accompany their friends.

            Many people have given up something or taken a risk for me. For example, my mom sacrifices her sleeping time to make sure that I don’t fall asleep when I am finishing my homework in the midnight. My best friend sacrifices time just to comfort me or make me happy by talking and chatting with me.

            I am lucky that so many people are willing to sacrifice for me but I also sacrifice for them too. I sacrifice my energy and time to comfort my friends. The most important sacrifice to me is when I sacrifice my time and energy to kids that I teach. I teach these kids who have parents that don’t have time for them or don’t know how to answer their question. I have to check their homework and teach them whatever they don’t know. After teaching them their homework, I have to play with them patiently. By watching them being happy and laughing, I believe that my sacrifice is worth it. I believe that my sacrifice is nothing compare to their smile and their happiness. When I watch them smile or laugh, I don’t feel pressured or annoyed anymore. 

Journal Entry 6: New Place

I chose the place – school.  As everyone knows, this school is a really new one. This has only been the fifth year of the school. I was here from the start of this school when I was in sixth grade. So I knew exactly how it felt like standing in the middle of the construction and all the new things they built. I remember the first time I came into the school with my mom. I felt that the school was new, small, and lonely. It has white walls and brown doors. All I saw was the boring classrooms that look exactly the same to me. I could smell the paint on the wall and saw dust on the new arrived desks. It was boring and meaning less to me at that time. But after being a student at PAS for five years, I can now look at our school in a completely different way. Now wherever I go, I see paintings on the wall, friends walking down the hallway. I can hear the laughers and voices of my friends. Wherever I go, I always remember the memories that happened at that special corner. This school no longer seems lonely anymore, it seems warm and welcoming, as if it is saying welcome back to school to me. It feels like home to me and to all of the students in our school.