My writing has matured exponentially over the past few months, likely for the simple fact of how often I have been writing and receiving positive feedback for my work; I have (happily) been reminded of how much I love to write, and I want to continue pursuing it as (hopefully) something more than a hobby. I feel like I write in a way that not only communicates a point, but that expresses what I believe and feel in a genuine and beautiful manner.

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English classes have always been my forte (next to music classes, of course, as I used a musical reference here). Of the recent works I have been given the opportunity to write, my favorite has been a persuasive essay, not only for its purpose and style, but also because of its content. I personally love to question others’ ideas, but even more so I enjoy questioning my own ideas and ideals; as I wrote my persuasive paper, I was able to research concepts that widened my point of view, and, I believe, made me a more mature and reasonable person. Not only did it affect me as a person, but it left an effect on how I write stylistically; from this paper, I learned that writing small works is nice, but writing meaningfully is what makes something truly great.

The persuasive paper left the largest impact on my writing and my life, but everything I write tends to leave its mark and changes me somehow. I believe that I am similar to every writer almost ever: passionate about my work, but also terrifyingly critical. The sheer number of periods of “writer’s block” I experience is astounding, but I try to find inspiration to keep me motivated. As a student, these periods of “block” are difficult, because I struggle to write what I am told when I just want to write for fun; while this has been (and likely always will be) difficult, I care too much about my writing and my grade to not complete my work eventually. As a person, I have realized that words are beautiful, precise, and meaningful; while I continue to grow in stature and in skills, I plan to expand my vocabulary and pursue writing in a way that helps me to never settle for less than what I think is best.

Because of everything I have written, thought, and conversed with people about, I feel that I am changing as a person and accomplishing the goals that I have set for myself in addition to the goals that have been set for me. In everything I have done, I do not have a specific “thing” in which I can take the most pride, but I am proud of everything I have accomplished. In terms of the opposite, however, I have experienced various events that have forced me to live in regret, even if just for a short while. In my writing, my regrets are not as obvious simply because I can return to my past work and make any revisions I would like. For me though, my biggest writing regret is that I have not taken as much time to write creatively and share my voice with the world (an issue I plan to resolve when, and if, my life ever decides to slow down a little bit).

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I don’t know if I can think of any singular piece of advice that I now know but would have been better off knowing at the beginning of the year. Although, there are various lessons that I have learned that have helped me to grow as an individual; if I had to narrow it down, my advice would have no direct connection to writing, but an extremely important indirect connection. I have been continuously reminded over the past few months that I need to stay open-minded and, simply put, I need to listen to what other people have to say. Directly, this does not affect my writing in terms of grammar or skill; indirectly, though, it drastically affects my tone, style, and personal ability to communicate what I believe to others.

I want people to hear what I have to say, and I want to be confident enough to share my voice with the world. To me, there is nothing more important. When I write, I don’t want to hide, rather, I want my flaws, my struggles, my imperfections to be perfectly clear, because in them the world will truly hear me for who I am.

Therefore, my goal is to write in a way that exposes my faults so the world can see my light, a light I am going to make sure always shines bright.

Am I becoming the person I want to be? What a question. I don’t know if I really have a perfect answer, but another question: What kind of person do I want to be?

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Easy start, I want to be a teacher. Everyday, I get closer to this goal. I have been accepted into college (I am officially a UNI Panther!) and am ready to get out of high school; however, there are definitely aspects of high school that I will miss (like good teachers, good friends, good memories).

I want to be a peacemaker. I have begun to label myself as a pacifist, and everyday I am reminded of why: I do not like it when people turn to fighting as their first, second, and last resort in any given situation. Not only do I not want to be like those people, but I don’t want to encourage their behavior. This means everyday I try to get better at a very important skill: conflict resolution. Whether directly talking to someone or acting a certain way around them indirectly, I want people to know that I am not out to be a part of problems, and I definitely am not trying to start them.

I want to be the person people go to when they need help (reliable, kind, trustworthy, non-judgemental, etc.). I am not going to lie and say that I am always perfect in the traits I just listed. Truth is, I mess up a lot and end up not being the person other people need me to be. On the other hand, I try to be the best version of me so I can help others as much as possible. For that, I feel that everyday I learn from my mistakes and make myself a more reliable, kind, trustworthy, non-judgemental (etc) person.

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While these are just three parts of who I want to be in life, they are important in deciding whether or not I am becoming the person I want to be. I am not perfect, obviously, but I’m not a failure either. Everyday, I want to learn from my mistakes and move forward in life.

For that, yes, I am becoming the person I want to be.

In 2017, I went on my third mission trip to Guatemala, and I remember almost every second vividly. The trip was organized by a group from South Dakota (see http://www.leahskids.org for more information about this group) through an orphanage called Casa Angelina (see whatmattersmm.org for information about Casa Angelina). After a day of sightseeing and getting settled, the group was loaded onto a bus and we made the journey through the mountains to the small orphanage. As we drove through the gates that surround Casa Angelina, the kids grouped together and ran up to the bus, waiting excitedly as the doors opened up.

Just as I had the previous two years, I stepped off the bus and took the hand of a small child with a huge smile on their face. This time, his name was Carlos; he took my hand and led me away from the bus so we could start a game of tag. Before I knew it, I was chasing and being chased by 4 or 5 young boys, all of whom had the biggest smiles on their faces. We ran around and around and around, until it was time for me to go inside and the kids to go to school. Before we split up, Carlos ran over to me and gave me a hug that I’ll never forget.

Guatemala, specifically the children, will always have a special place in my heart. At Casa Angelina, the children are taught to love themselves and love God, something their lives before being rescued would have never led to. Carlos, and all the children at Casa Angelina, were taken from terrible situations and given a second chance. I will never go through what many of them have had to go through, but being a part of their story, even for a second, brings me so much joy.

Brenda. Erika. Marvin. Julia. Carlos. Blondie. Gabby. Esmeralda. Nelson. On a screen, here in America, these are just names. But thousands of miles away, in Guatemala, at an orphanage full of love and second chances, those are children, children that have touched my heart and helped me see life in a new way. Circumstance doesn’t dictate how much joy our lives can produce, it merely limits us on the joy we believe we can feel. These kids prove that joy can come from anything. I love them all dearly, and miss them more than I can express. Two years is too long, but a walk down memory lane gives me hope that one day I’ll go back again.

Review of ChapStick Medicated Chapstick:

“I love this lip balm. It’s my go-to lip balm when my lips are chapped, flaking, and sore. I get chapped lips in cold weather, hot weather, when stressed, basically all the time. One coat of this on my lips instantly makes them feel soothed. And usually within 20 minutes I can already feel the healing effects that it has. I have about 10 of these saved up, just in case it gets discontinued one day. It’s super cheap, a great value and a must-have for anyone with extremely chapped lips. Only downside is the smell, but it’s faint and fades after a while.”

 

ChapStick Medicated Chapstick is, in my opinion, the best brand of chapstick available on today’s market. When people look for a stick of chapstick they want to use, they often think to themselves the following questions: will this heal my chapped lips, will this soothe my lips, will this leave my lips feeling soft and moisturized? In the review above, these three factors, as well as price, were considered when questioning the effectivity of this brand of chapstick. The review was also beneficial because it brought up what the person felt to be a fault with the product, thus giving the reader a sense of the pros and cons of the product.

This review was effective and overall aligned with my opinions regarding this chapstick. The reviewer used, in my opinion, ideas regarding logos and pathos by stating the effects the chapstick has as well as how it may make a person feel when they use it on their chapped lips.

We all have those “things” that have to be a certain brand, whether it be toothpaste or sportswear. For me, there are various products of which I prefer to use the brand-name version. Oftentimes, the reasoning is rooted in past experience; other times, it is simply because we refuse to try something new. The following four products/brands are some examples of preferences I have when it comes to brand-name items.

(Item/Brand : Why It Is My Preference)

Teen Study Bibles: I prefer this brand of Bible because it relates to the lives of teenagers and adds extra insight and reasoning that will help connect the Bible to modern-day life

Crayola Products: I prefer to use crayola products because they remind me of my childhood, mainly (they were all my family would use when I was younger), and they have always proved to be reliable and fun to use

Bath and Body Works Products: I prefer to shop at Bath and Body Works because they have perfume, lotion, and body wash in scents I know and like

Extra Gum: I prefer this type of gum (specifically the Spearmint flavor) because it is the gum I grew up chewing and have grown accustomed to, but also because I feel it has better flavor and lasts longer than other brands I have tried

When you think somebody is wrong, you and that other person should talk to each other about what you disagree about; persuasive is just a big word to say that you want to tell someone else why you are right and they are wrong. But you shouldn’t just keep saying, “I’m right, I’m right!” You have to make the other person have feelings (sad so they agree with you, happy so they agree with you, or something like that), you have to use facts about why you are right, and you have to find people who agree with you and use their words to make you look smarter than the other person. Then you can’t say that you made it all up, you have to tell everybody that you found people who agree with you and you let them help you be more right. When you feel like you’ve said all you can to prove that you are right, you have to think about why the other person might be right and then work even harder to prove them wrong.

 

Arguing is difficult, that is, arguing well is difficult. Anyone can sit down with someone and blatantly disagree with them to a point where their argument becomes repetitive and invalid; to establish a well-formatted argument, the arguer needs to have some type of system in order to convince and persuade their audience. A system such as the Toulmin Method is necessary in order for the arguer to keep their argument confined to a central point and then on track throughout their entire work (whether a speech, paper, or conversational argument). In the Toulmin Method, the arguer is guided to present a point, reasoning to defend that point, and then even more reasoning to defend why that point is factual. Without a method such as this, an argument becomes weak and unable to defend a point; when this happens, the arguer becomes more similar to people who repeat their opinion until it becomes invalid.

As we are beginning to write this persuasive essay, I have struggled to find a topic that I think meets the standards at which I want to think and write. After contemplating about controversial topics (but not too controversial), I settled on a leading question: “Is morality without religion in vain?” In other words, can people still be moral if they lack a religious aspect guiding their life and their decisions? At first, I was confident that morality was dependent on a religious standpoint, but, that depends on how you view morality. As I have thought about my topic more, I have realized that the world has evolved and changed– whether that be within politics, economics, or even the general hierarchy of social status– into a new place where morals can become a tricky subject. I do not know what my paper will turn out to be, nor do I know who will agree and/or disagree with me; above agreement/disagreement, however, I just want to get people thinking. With this paper, as I strive with all my papers, I want to spark discussion and deeper thought into the question, not only for my readers, but for myself.

In order to make my paper be as efficient and clear as possible, I will likely focus on evidence based around the idea of pathos. Oftentimes when I write, I focus on pathos because I like to make my audience feel something and have something to relate to their own life. With this paper specifically, pathos will help persuade people by giving them an idea to relate to and think about in their own life. Hopefully, religious people and nonreligious people alike will question what their morality is based on, whether it be some holy book, some tradition, or even the pressuring of modern society.

According to an ancient Greek proverb, “All things good to know are difficult to learn.” This statement, in my opinion, is utterly ridiculous. At first glance, at least to me, it seems like a reasonable concept to grasp; however, the more I think about this phrase, the more it does not sit right with me. The proverb is oddly vague and nonspecific, and I feel like it does not cover a full concept, but rather that it needs continuation. There are multiple problems I have with this phrase, most of which include its oversimplification of the problem (the problem being people who do not put in effort to learn “important” information).

This directly leads into what I believe to be the first oversimplification: “all things good to know” is a relative term, meaning each individual first gets to decide what information is important for him or her to know. The phrase “good to know” is one which is spoken by millions of people whenever they are told a useless fact, whether out of sarcasm or sincerity. The point still stands that these facts are “good to know.” That’s just one example, but another would be to look at the specific dreams, goals, and aspirations of certain individuals. If an individual is passionate about being a doctor, their information that is “good to know” is vastly different from, say, a janitor’s information.

This relativity then leads into the second point I find to be an oversimplification: the relative information that each individual finds “good to know” then changes the difficulty of how it is to be learned. Looking at the latter example in the idea prior to this one, a doctor would have a much more difficult time learning “good to know” information than a janitor would. On a similar note, but regarding students instead, the information a teacher finds to be “good to know” rarely corresponds with that which the students are truly interested in learning.

This lack of interest brings up a completely different question: if there is no interest, is the information really “good to know” in that situation? Rather, what really makes information good to know? This enigma is part of why my point earlier about relativity makes sense. The learning process– and the difficulty of such– cannot be determined until there is a common answer to the questions previously brought up. So long as people are interested in different aspects of life– “things” as said in the proverb– the information that is “good to know” can only be relative based on each individual’s thoughts, ideas, and opinions.

Even if we do find this common ground, I do not feel that there has ever been– or will ever be– a connection between importance and difficulty. Math, a class which most all schools place emphasis on the importance of, is very difficult for some; for others, math is exciting, simple, or even fun. This concept makes it very clear to see the relativity that clouds over the truth of the proverb “All things good to know are difficult to learn.” While we all may need to learn certain bits of “good to know” information, the learning process (which I did not go into depth about) is different for every individual; as a society made up of billions of different people– each of whom has a different idea of “good to know” information– it is ludicrous to claim that the difficulty of the learning process has any connection to how “good to know” the information is.

In today’s society, the number of suicides that occur in one year have skyrocketed…. This is a PROBLEM! Children should not ever be pushed to a place in their life that suicide seems to be their only option; it is sad that suicidal thoughts are not prevented as much as they could be, particularly in school-age children. Schools need to have a larger part in reducing the increasing number of suicides, because students– children– are at a high risk for suicidal thoughts.

It is a school’s job to support students on multiple levels: academically (obviously), physically, and mentally/emotionally. It honestly does not take a school much work to support students who are at risk for suicidal thoughts and tendencies, they just have to show they care. It should be a general requirement for teachers to have training in recognizing behaviors that reflect that a student suffers with anxiety, self-harm, or suicidal thoughts/actions; there should never be a case where a student is afraid to talk to a teacher, so teachers need to remain open-minded and compassionate at all times.

Students come to school expecting to learn “boring” information like math, science, and history, but they should be pleasantly surprised to find an environment of caring, respect, and overall kindness. Creating a safe and welcoming environment is perhaps the most important action a school can take to do their part in reducing student/child suicides. Teachers have to be the face of change because they work directly with the students; when a teacher shows they care, they create a warm environment, and maybe, just maybe, one (or more, more is definitely good, too) student will be moved to share their pain with someone and seek the help they desperately need.

Southeast Valley High School, and the entire district, in general, has a weak English literacy program; this is a problem not caused by any one factor, but by a combination of miscommunication, stubbornness, and differing educational philosophies. My claim is not that the teachers are bad, because that is not the problem at all; my claim is that students do not know basic English fundamentals because they were never taught the basics of writing. I know this for a fact because I am a student that has gone through 12 years of English without ever focusing on foundational learning. To solve this problem, there will have to be effort within various levels in the educational process:  administration, teachers, and students.

Once aspect that makes the different educational programs function well is a willing group of people in leadership (the administration– superintendent, principal) who communicate their ideas, plans, and goals with the teachers (because teachers are hired to carry out the ideas, plans, and goals). Teachers then need to carry out the plans in a way that is effective and easy for the students to understand.

Students are a main issue when trying to create educational change, because they are the ones who have to learn the information; if students do not put in effort to learn, there is no chance of any curricular change. I think English education needs to be changed from the bottom up, because seniors cannot be expected to know information they were not taught as freshmen. A more standardized system needs to be established so the entire district can benefit; I think it would help build a stronger program if students and teachers were evaluated periodically throughout the school year to test whether or not information is being relayed in an effective manner.