Chapter 12: My Communities

Where I live is in the country, so I don't live in "community", but just about half a mile down the road there is a mobile home community.  The book also defined community as "a group of people having common interests."  So I guess you can call Tae-Kwon-Do a community because the common interest is martial arts. I was part of a speech and debate community for 4 years.  And last of all my family, common goals and we live together.  The community of Tae-Kwon-Do was a great experience.  Through my 7 years of martial arts, Tae-Kwon-Do has given me an instructor's collar, perseverance, boldness, and integrity.  Being able to teach little kids what I know and loved was a great thing that I gave back.  I've quit Tae-Kwon-Do because of college, but when I go back, I don't think there's anything I would like to change.    

Chapter 11: Money Personality

Since I was very young, my mom has taught my siblings and me how to use money.  When ever we wanted to buy something, we would have to wait for a week then once that week was over, if we still would want to buy it, we could.  I still have that mentality today.  When ever I think of buying something, I will say to my self, do I really need it?  I'm not a big spender, but if were to buy something, it would be something I really needed.  I don't have a personal bank account, so I don't have a credit card.  If I did have a credit card, I would be so careful with it because I have heard enough stories of people going into debt because of a piece of plastic.  Over all I think I handle money very well, I don't treat my self to Starbucks or Ices, but when I do buy, it was thought over carefully.            

Chapter 10: Addictions

I guess you can call me addicted to video games.  Whenever I go over to my friends house, we talk a little bit, but mainly we play video games the rest of the time I'm there.  During the day I do think about the games I've played or going to play as well.  Luckily I don't have access to playing video games whenever I want.  My mom has a policy when she and Dad go out, my brother and I can play xbox.  It's such a good system because I would get a break from games for a whole month then the next month, I would be able to play for 3 to 5 days in a row for 5 hours each day depending on how often they would go out.  So as I've said before, I'm "addicted to games" but with my mom's policy, I'm restricted from being totally addicted to video games.  

Chapter 9: Discrimination and Prejudice

Have I ever been discriminated or had any prejudice against me?  Not really, but when I was little, I would wanted to play with the big kids, but they say no I was too young or little.  If that is discrimination then I guess yes then.  Have I ever acted Prejudice?  Yep, I don't think you can't have any prejudices thoughts.  When I have this feeling of prejudice I would either get mad or think that I'm way better than that person.  I don't show that I have prejudice against this person on the out sided, but I would think those thoughts in my head, but that's not good either.  I'm working on not having any prejudice ideas.  

Chapter 8: Powerful Writing

C. S. Lewis wrote 7 books on a fantasy world called Narnia.  In his 3rd book, The Horse and His Boy, there's a point where Shasta, who is the main character, got split from his friends and had to spend the night among some tombs called The Tombs of the Kings.  Here he met a cat who lived at the tombs.  Here is a price from the the book: "The cat stared at him harder than ever.  Then it started walking away, and of course Shasta followed it.  It led him right through the tombs and out on the desert side of them.  There it sat down bolt upright with its tail curled round its feet and its face set toward the desert and toward Narnia and the North, as still as if it were watching for some enemy.  Shasta lay down beside it with his back against the cat and his face toward the Tombs, because if one is nervous there's nothing like having your face toward the danger and having something warm and solid at your back."  I really liked how C. S. Lewis used the personal felling of having someone near you when you are scared.  It was so well written that I felt like I was Shasta.  At least for this part, making a personal connection with the reader is a good tip for me to improve my writing skills.      

Chapter 7: Test Anxiety

Do I experience test anxiety?  Yes I do, but I suppress those feelings because that would hinder my thinking during the test.  I usually get freaked out by the announcement of a test, but once I have a week of so of studying, I loosen up.  I'm wanting to major in Computer Engineering and that requires lots of higher level math courses.  Even when I dual enrolled, I took Pre-Calculus and the tests were very challenging.  But I got through them because I took a deep breath and tried my best.  I'm not a good test taker, when I feel that I did well on a test or quiz, I would get lower than I expected and vise-versa.  So I'm always afraid that I would get a low score no matter how hard I studied.  I don't really know any strategy to over come this, because I study really hard for the test.  I guess just study harder.