16.

A risk taken in my life was to stay with my boyfriend who is in the marines. Being attached to him because I had known him since 9^th grade and becoming my best friend later on in 10^th grade made it harder. He was always there for me when I felt I had lost everything and also when I felt lonely. The day he chooses to leave was unexpected and I was unprepared for it because he was scheduled to leave four months later. He called me to tell me he had only a couple hours until he had to say goodbye for three months. Everything happened so fast that day I could not set into the reality of him leaving, until he was gone. Staying with him instead of moving on was one of hardest experiences and decisions I had made because I was unprepared.

I had just lost my girl best friend who I would go everywhere with, later finding friendship in him, I had to completely separate form him, I felt lonely. I knew I had other good friends but they were not the people I could share memories with. I would constantly think about him worried because time a mysterious and no one knows what will happen during 3 months. I was completely lonely I had no one to relate to, no one to comfort me or who understood me. I did not want to break up with him because I knew I would not find someone as respectful as he is and knowing how other guys are I knew their could not be someone like him. I wanted to just focus on personal improvement when he left, but I was afraid that if I wouldn’t think of him I would forget about our memories and connection would fade away. I did it anyways but I would have a good time at school being distracted from him, but when I got home I was drowned in his memories. I sat for the first month in my room after school crying until my eyes looked swollen, and at times I felt anger because he had chosen to leave and I felt he did not consider my feelings. Most people told me I would not be able to do it however, I continued working on myself and continued with my life knowing he would constantly be leaving

1.

Red is described as the color of eternal love, hate, and pain which are all deep emotions.

Red is a powerful color used to feel things abundantly. In love, red is the highest last stage to describe how intense your love is for someone. It is roses or flowers given to you as a thank you or appreciation showing someone truly cares. It is the feeling of butterflies in your stomach when you get your first kiss, the warmth in your heart. It is your heart beating faster racing for love, your lungs gasping for love. Red is romance.

            Red is also evil which turns to hate, it is the troubles of the world. It is extreme anger in your heart that deprives you from happiness. It is a gallon of hate being poured inside your body. The feeling of heat running accelerating through your veins causing you to shake. It is the sound of whispers in your head calling for revenge. Red is flames in your soul. It is burning, hot, danger, when trouble comes your way. Pain, an uncomfortable pinch in your skin. It is a red liquid oozing out of your skin, out of an open soar, a cut. It is fear, sweat dripping from your face. Red, it is an extreme emotion.

2.

Competition is healthy when it pushes people to do their best efforts into getting something and makes you aware of what you are capable of doing. However competition becomes unhealthy when a person becomes carried away and risks everything they have in order to be able to beat everyone else. Competition is faced during our lives most of the time and is difficult to be avoided. It can be competing for a job, a spot in college, a trophy, a person, or a spot in a school play. I believe it is something in our nature we do to survive or obtain what we want in life like animals compete for food mates and power.

Competition becomes unhealthy though when it turns you back to people you love, and when it brings out the worst in the competitors. Cheating for example can be a result of wanting to win a competition and can start problems within the competitors because it is unfair. A negative result of competition is betrayal. When “best friends” are competing for the same guy they will at one point turn their backs to each other because one of them will end up losing to the other one. This can affect self-esteem as well because the person loosing may wonder why they lost and become self-conscious by comparing themselves to the person who won. Hate can also be developed when competitors have lost and can be expressed through revenge. The girl loosing who competed with her best friend to get a certain guy might seek revenge and try to betray her friend by trying to steal the guy or making him cheat on her.

Competition is not always unhealthy but can become a negative experience when it brings out the worst in competitors, creates more problems, and divides relationships.

3.

The articles and videos we have read and watched during class are eye opening to the problems of our society. I have taken one of the videos about beauty and compared it with our community and people in my school. The video about what the perception of beauty in the United States is, demonstrates beauty is secretly being used as a weapon towards woman, lowering woman,and making them seem like objects through the media. This causes men to be lead into liking a woman because of their appearance more than personality and develops a relationship based on looks which can lead to negative results like mistreating woman. Men learning to treat woman as an object could not take the relationship seriously and not have feelings for their girlfriend or wife because they mostly are led by an appearance which can develop an abusive relationship.

During school I have noticed many guys are interested only in girls who are attractive or closer to what the media shows to be attracting. What is wrong about this is that they only go out with them because they are pretty but do not know how their personality is. Many guys I’ve heard talk about their girlfriends and just say how “hot” their body is “or how she has “a big butt or breast” or also exposing what they’ve done with them and out loud, but I have never heard any positive comments about their personality. Me who are influenced by the media and have set their standards by it have shown to not be respectful to woman and since it will become worst men will lose respect for woman causing more murder or conflicts because they are degrading woman.

4.

If I could choose to be anyone in history I would not want to be a different person, but I would like to be alive at the time Jesus alive in earth and teaching about God and how to obtain salvation. I would have liked to be a part of his followers because since I enjoy studying the bible and find the bible correct when it comes to teaching about the state of mind of men and also shows to be “beneficial for teaching, for reproving...” Being Jesus’ follower would make me capable of learning further about the mysteries in the bible.

Being alive around Jesus’ time and being one of his followers would teach you as well about what are the best decisions to take, and to live your life in order to be happy. If I would have any questions about what the bibles scriptures say, I would not have to worry about getting the wrong perception because I would be able to get the correct answer form Jesus. Jesus would also help us find happiness and calamity in ourselves he would give us advice we could not doubt because they would.

Another of the experiences I would get from being a follower of Jesus is being able to witness the incredible things he has done which are recited in the bible. I would go back to that time to witness of many of the prophecies that have come true and to be able to understand  why they happened and analyze them carefully because being there you are able to I would also be able to help people know about God so they can have some type of guidance in their lives. Going back in time and be a follower of Jesus and talk to him would be an experience that would help me understand the teachings of the bible. 

5.

Half of $1 million dollars would be wisely spent in Haiti to help recover from the earthquake in 2010, and the other half would go to educating poor areas in Africa, about the importance of sex education.

Haiti has not yet recovered from the destruction the earthquake and needs as much financial aid as they can obtain in order to feed the population. Trash and unnecessary debris are covering the affected areas Medicine is needed to cure people that were affected by the pollution and materials are needed to clean areas affected by dead bodies. There is scarcity of food which is forcing people to turn violence to obtain food to survive. Therefore aiding Haiti with half a million dollars would calm violence and feed the starving children and affected people of the earthquake.

Africa would benefit from sex education because each year the birthrates are escalading and more people are affected with HIV as well as other sexually transmitted diseases. While birthrates are increasing the number of people who are not able to sustain family’s needs is increasing as well. More families are dealing with more kids and need more food and water to survive. Since purified water is not at reach of most families in Africa many children and elderly are being affected the most and die as result of dehydration or drinking polluted water. Educating African kids as well as adults would bring awareness of the consequences sexual activity may have for them as well as the responsibility they will confront by reproducing at a high rate.

6.

.

 A personal change I made was being able to focus more in school in order to get higher grades. I started to use my time wisely by not talking to people when I had work to get done. It was boring at first because I would be tempted to leave my work and just go talk to someone. Other times the people that sat around me would start telling me a story or something that had happened to them and I did not want to be rude or mean so I just tried to do my work and talk at the same time. It would not always work out though because I am not good at doing multiple tasks at the same time.

I also achieved raising my grades by focusing on the lessons teachers gave us and asked more questions for classes I had done as well as I wanted to the previous year. In math class I chose to sit at the first row of desks so I could be attentive throughout the class period and not be distracted by looking at the students in front of me if I sat in the back.

Doing my homework for all classes everyday also helped me keep the information memorized in my head. I spent around five hours every day completing homework assignments and also reading some of the text book lessons helped me stay ahead of the work teachers gave me. Studying before tests was essential to raise my grades because it was another way to refresh my memory and be prepared.

7.

An invention I would introduce to a primitive culture would be refrigerator and a stove. I would introduce these two objects in order to let them have access to safe food. Introducing the refrigerator will also help them preserve their food and not waste more of it. This would also benefit a primitive culture by being able to feed more people. Bringing a refrigerator would limit the chance of diseases developed from spoiled food and increase the health of a primitive culture. The refrigerator would also bring more time, and decrease the time being used to dry meat or any other process a primitive culture may use to conserve their foods.

            Primitive cultures would also benefit from owning a stove because they would have a safer cleaner meal and would not have to light up a fire which is time consuming. A stove would not only be time saving however it would bring a safer environment to the children. Mothers in a primitive culture would not have to worry about their children being around the fire, as well as playing around it and having a risk of being burned. Primitive cultures would benefit from refrigeration and a stove through the increase of the health of cultures, and bring a healthier lifestyle by making the food they eat safer.

8.

 

The quote that describes me is, "the body is just borrowed. How you choose to carry yourself is what defines your true beauty”. The meaning of this quote is that the appearance does not matter or is not what defines people as being beautiful or being ugly. What does define beauty is how you choose to demonstrate to people who you are and what kind of person you are which is describing the part “how you choose to carry yourself is what defines your true beauty”.

This quote fits me the best because I believe if someone is pretty in the outside, but have an attitude or bad characteristics, their beauty will be ignored because it is decreased with an ugly personality. The quote can also describe me because I do not let my looks be what I am most confident for I actually don’t believe looks matter also because you want people to like you for who you are and not approach you or like you because your clothes is pretty or because they just care about how you look.. It may also give people more of an opportunity to get to know you than to just judge you before.  

9.

If I was given the authority to establish a holiday I would make a holiday that would celebrate all races and cultures. In this holiday people would be able to dress to school with original cultural costumes and there would be a parade for all types of ethnicities to unite and to celebrate everyone’s customs and to show others about their cultural background. This would keep all cultures from being alive because their practicing their own culture once a year and it keeps traditions going and alive.

Many cultural ideas could be learned and passed to people who have lost part of their customs. This would also be important because all the different ethnicities could come together and have a peaceful and fun time together enjoying each other’s differences in foods, dances, as well as dances that are mostly cleaner than the modern dances people have come up with.

            Different languages can also be learned and it could be easier to tell the difference between races because you will become familiar with the other cultures. This could also be taken as an opportunity to relate with each other and see how everyone is different and does things different but are still inside the same. It can help lower racism because people will understand each other and their bacgrounds.

11.

A question that Universities should ask students, but will not be asked, should be about their personal life and how they managed to get through high school. They should ask this to see what kind of person they are and how people react to different situations and to see what they did to overcome a difficult situation. This would determine whether the decision they made to overcome an obstacle is showing them as perseverant. If it does demonstrate they are perseverant they should be accepted because it may also determine if they will or will not give up on their college experience with more homework.

They could also learn about the person’s qualities and choose the people with the best ideas to help improve our society. Choosing a caring, humble person rather than one who is greedy because if they are greedy their mind will be set up to only benefit themselves and not care about others which in contrary to a humble caring person who actually thinks of others as well and may have new ideas that can benefit the wellbeing of people in our society.

They should also ask about how many hours of homework or studying the students spent doing on a regular day to see if the student really cared about their education and if they have an idea of how the student will do in college or a taste of what college is like. It can also determine if they will have a greater chance of giving up, because during high school they did not adjust or prepare with a high amount of homework, and maby they will not be able to take the increased amount of homework college offers to students.

10.

        The best advice I have ever received was given to me by my dad. Since I do not really talk to him much and it was the first time I had asked him for advice, it was also something special having him listen to my problems as well as to what I had to say.

Since there are many people in the school that are into drugs and want to live a wild teenage life I had told my dad I felt uncomfortable at times because the other students mostly talk about partying and what they do with other girls, which shows they are lacking respect for woman. I told my dad about it and he responded to me by saying to know that I am better than that and to realize that the way they are living is not the right way. He told me “imagine them, look at them 15 years from now, If they are still living the same way, some of them will end up in difficult situations, but don’t  let it affect you because you’ll look back and they will realize they were wrong and by then it’ll pay off and you’ll already be successful”. He also added “don’t let the system make the rules for you, you make the rules for it” I liked the second quote he added because it showed me that just because everyone’s living a certain way it shouldn’t make you feel out of place, but you should continue doing what you do so you can show independence ,how you are going to take your way and rather be unique than follow everyone else.

12.

“Beep, beep, beep” this had been the third time I snoozed my alarm, and I felt as tired as I was before I went to sleep. I was not in the mood to get up or wake up, the warmth of the blankets was all I wanted on this cold morning and my sleepiness was taking over again so I figured it was best to get up before I was late again. I looked at my cell phone to check the time and it was kind of late already, 6:45.

I got up from my bed, opened the closet and picked out a sweater and some jeans and headed to the shower. I was in a hurry because I did not want to be late again so I got in the shower before the water warmed up. I felt chills when the first drop of cold water hit my fresh out of bed skin, but I could not afford to be late again and get a Saturday school. I needed rest, and Saturday was one of the only days I got the opportunity to do it. The water had finally warmed up; I had finished shampooing so I got out.

Wrapped in the towel, I did my makeup and let my hair down, I then checked the time it was 7:10.”Pamela, ya esta tu desayuno”, my mom had said. I ran to the kitchen and back to my mom’s room eating my quesadilla. I quickly blow dried my hair and told my mom to go to the car already. I sat down and she finally got in the car too.

My mom dropped me off and I only had two more minutes to make it to class. I moved my legs as fast as I could, then looked at the clock again I was down to less than a minute.

13.

Pamela Chairez

December 3, 2011

Dear roommate,

My name is Pamela I came from Chula Vista which is located in San Diego. I come from a Mexican family of five people, which consist of my parents an 8 year old brother who talks very much, and a 19 year old sister who is very funny at times. My dad’s family is from Durango which is in Mexico and my mom’s family is from Sinaloa which is from Mexico as well. My great grandfather migrated from Spain and settled in Sinaloa where he had my grandma. His wife died when my grandma was born. Then my grandma moved to Tijuana and married a Mexican man named Maximiliano and had my mom and two more. I never had the chance to meet him because he was an alcoholic and was a violent man so my grandma asked him to leave when my mom was young. When my mom was older she married my dad. My dad’s great grandfather was Portuguese and he was part of Pancho Villa’s army. Skipping two generations my grandfather was born. My grandfather married to Bertha Cenizeros who was a Durango native, and then my dad was born.

After my mom and dad were married I was born second out of three children in La Mesa, San Diego. I was named Pamela which means honey in Greek. I am a very sweet person, I like to go out to eat with friends, go to the beach or to the snow which would only be in winter time. I am fun to be with and talkative at times, however theirs other times where I tone it down to focus on what needs to be done. I am also a very good friend I like to help people out so if you would ever like to hear some advice you can always come to me. I look forward to getting to know you as well and having a good year sharing the room.

14.

In my perspective the quote means humans are not wealthy, but are controlled by money.

For example we are always working extra harder in order to benefit ourselves financially in the future, such as students in high school may strive for better grades to get into a better university and to get a better job which will create a better living or more money. Working overtime is another way we show to try to obtain more money. Money will always have most people enslaved by trying harder and doing as much possible to try to get their way into getting a higher amount of profit.

Humans have also became corrupt because our desire to have more money. Money causes greediness, selfishness, jealousy, competition between others, violence and wars where countries are fighting for land to have money obtained from the oil and expensive resources. Corrupt people are controlled by money because they disobey an order in to obtain money. This shows they are putting money as their main priority because they are risking their job for an amount of money.  Conflicts are also created because of money so it’s not only beneficiary, but it is also one of the foundations that cause problems in our society. Malnutrition starvation is problems which derive from lack of money, due to people being unable to pay for food. This would also lead to diseases and aging faster because people stress every day in order to obtain more money. Letting money be in control of our society causes our lives to revolve around simple green paper and enslaves us to it.

                                                    " Money is the root of all evil"

17.

 

Having my boyfriend enroll and become a marine has been a difficult experience that made me realize a lot about being in the Military. Being in the military is a job that many people do with pride and is highly respected, however I do not agree with recruiters being able to come to high schools and talk to students into becoming marines or join any other military group. Since my boyfriend joined the military I noticed he had some problems that had to do with him joining. His mom did not want to talk to him anymore because of her religion being against it, but also he realized joining was keeping him from the people he mostly loved and wanted to be with. Which made me realize at the time he signed up for the military he was yet unaware of the difficulties he would encounter but also it was also an act of immaturity that would change his life.

    I believe recruiters should not come to high schools to recruit seniors because even though they are 18 they are still not mature enough to understand what they want in life and what the best is for themselves and for their family. Recruiters that are going to the high schools are not shown to be affected by their experience in the military but also underscore the financial side of what people in the military obtain which is appealing to the students. Students are attracted by the financial side but they are yet not experienced enough to know that the money is not always what matters the most in life. Being in the military will certainly deprive them time from spending with any of their family and will miss most of their last teenage years. They will also miss quality time and achievements of their families and friends.

Students are driven to join the military because they are convinced they will obtain financial help however what happens when a family’s husband and dad is taken to war and killed? The family will get a certain amount of money, but there is no one who could be able to replace the love of the husband or dad that was lost. The military will also not be responsible for helping the children psychologically which may deeply affect them causing the children to lead into a bad direction. The wife she will have one of the hardest times having to raise her children on her own as well as dealing with the fact that her spouse will no longer be with her. Students are not yet aware of what is best for them therefore recruiters should not be able to come to high schools and convince them to join any kind military.

18.

      

If I could change two things about the school campus I would choose to change the schedule. A change in schedule would limit the amount of time students miss when they arrive to school tardy. Another change I would make is change the ASB principle.

        I would change the schedule and have school start at 9:00 am because many students are tardy in the morning. I think starting school later would decrease the amount of students who arrive to school late. This would benefit teachers because students who are late distract the teacher as well as the class while they are walking in. Teachers also have to stop lessons to get papers students missed because of their tardiness which decreases the amount of time students have to learn. A change in schedule could make a difference in how much students take in from the lessons being taught.

            A change in ASB principle is necessary in order to have a  as a new ASB principle aimed to have preference of seniors before the lower classes. During the first assembly of the year some seniors and juniors were throwing items to each other’s sections .All juniors were punished by being asked to leave, however the senior class which was being disruptive by throwing pencils to juniors did not have to face any consequences which shows the ASB principle is not the most qualified to work in the job since she does not treat the students equally. The ASB principle who had previously worked with Chula Vista High school is also comparing our schools students and ideas with Chula Vista’s. This could bring ideas or traditions from Chula Vista High School to Castle Park and eliminate some of our Trojan traditions. Trojans would be excluded from these experiences such as having the ability to be part of the senior lawn during senior year. Eliminating our traditions would be losing a part of Castle Park’s which have been valued for the past generations and have evolved into what now makes Castle Park staff and students.