Descriptive Essay: Loving Life

Many people in this world have a problem, they don’t take heed in their lives or their youth while they have it. They waste their young years and then complain when their gone. Me, I like to take full advantage of the life I have while I have it. How do you do that? By doing anything you are capable of doing that you enjoy. One thing I love to do is play basketball. Basketball has been one of the things I can always rely on when I need something to do, whether its workout, have fun, let off some anger, or spend time with my friends. My most memorable basketball moment was the one day in a neighborhood league I was playing in a game there was 15 seconds on the clock. Down by one and we had possession, timeout was called. My excitement was through the roof I felt like my heart was going to jump out my chest. Before I knew timeout was over, time to get back in the game. The crowd was screaming but I could barely hear them through all the telepathic tension between our two teams. Everyone got into position and the ball was checked in. The second the ball was in play the entire crowd of screaming friends and loved ones went silent. Every second seemed an eternity as the clock winded down. It was like staring at a clock eagerly waiting for that clock hand to make its way around. The time was ticking as we passed the ball around, patiently waiting for an opening. Suddenly, a man was open for a jumpshot. With five seconds to go as soon as he got the ball I rushed to get the possible rebound. The shot went up but it was short. Without thinking I rushed to the ball, caught it, and put it up. As soon as I released the ball the buzzer went off. I looked up to see the ball spinning around the rim. Tensioned built in everyone as the ball rolled around the rim like a top struggling to stay up right. Suddenly, the ball balanced on the side end of the rim. I closed my eyes and said please don’t fall out. Then I heard everyone in the gym yell. Open my eyes to see my whole team running at me. I was overwhelmed with joy, I had made my first buzzer beater for a win.

That was one of the greatest moments of my life so far. Another way to enjoy life is not only doing things you love but things you like to do. One of my favorite pass times is going to the beach and playing in big breakers. This as a matter of fact I was on vacation and a storm had just hit. So I figured, big storm equals big waves. So I decided to go see how what the waves looked. I took my bike and started the mile ride to the beach. The air had a humid density to it and the sky looked like an old time cartoon. I rode at a relaxed pace. A strom has the potential to kick big waves into gear, but I wasn’t sure. Minutes later I pulled up at the beach. The sand was still drenched from the recent rain fall. I walked up to the beach and gasped at the sight of huge breakers. The entire shore was covered in white. It was if the ocean was pocessed. I darted toward my bike to tell my family of what I saw. Everything seemed to be in slow motion as I raced back to the house. When I got back to the house you’d would’ve thought the military had burst through the door. “ I’m going to the beach, the waves down there are huge” I said. No one really cared at the moment because it was only 10:30 and nobody was really much of a morning person, so I put my swim trunks on and left myself. As soon as my feet hit the sand I made a straight B line for the water. When hit the water I was met by a wave that immedietly knocked me to knees. It was then that I realized it was gonna be a good day. After about an hour of being thown around like a rag doll at the mercy of a tottler my brother and cousins showed up. I would’ve been just as happy by myself, but it was good to have company and them be attackesd by mother nature. We stayed for several hours and then went home. Exhausted, I layed right on the couch and took a nap.

Those are two examples on how I like to enjoy life. I’m not saying people should do what I do, but don’t be afraid to do what’s fun to you or what interest you.
    

Project Reflection

Our first project in history this year was an in depth look at immigration into America. I didn’t find this project too difficult or too easy. It was a perfect combination of both. I think that the groups were good picks. I also liked how this project took something that we already knew, but showed it in depth and showed us each something different.

I was shocked and not surprised during this project. The data we have gathered is that even though over time America has had their ups and downs with the rate of immigrants coming into America. I knew that before, but I never knew why. I have learned that their were different acts that allowed some types of people to come in and not to come in. 

I feel like the amount of U.S immigrants will decrease over time. The word has spread that America is the land of the free and of opportunity. The U.S.A isn’t that much different than some other countries, so people will start immigrating everywhere else. Eventually all the countries will have almost the same views, maybe not in his century but someday. When that day comes immigration will definitely slow down because people will have the same options as America, but closer to their home.

We thought we should have it interesting so people wouldn’t be bored, but also show that we know our facts. Korah came up with the prezi.com presentation and its was super cool. We wanted to have some visuals but still have words so we could stay on track. We followed the 10 word rule and overall I think our presentation was a success.

Group work was challenging because we didn’t know what the other people were doing and when it was done. It was also challenging that we didn’t really understand things the same as our group members. I know I was confused on the push and pull aspect of the project but after my group members explained I understood it better. Another challenging thing is trying to get done on time. I know mine was a little late and I didn’t find this project easy or too challenging.

I would get all of my work done early so we could have time to check it, add, or practice the presentation. Other than that I honestly wouldn’t change anything. I think our presentation was great and our facts were good.

I liked this project and I am excited to see what else we do this unit. I know it was a little difficult because we didn’t have you in the room with us while we were working on it, but I feel like we essentially did good.

Project Reflection

  The first project we were given In American History was one which we looked at immigration to the U.S causes over many decades.We broke off into groups of 3 and studied the decades 1830 to 2000. I was assigned the years 1890-1940 and already had a pretty basic idea as to why people would move to America during this time.I knew that the Holocaust would be a big factor but one thing that shocked me was the Russians who were escaping religious persecution in the Soviet Union. This event really surprised me because the targeted group was Christians. Prior to this project I thought that Christianity was the top religion therefore people couldn’t be persecuted if they were Christian. At this time period Atheism was the doctrine of the Soviet Union. This really changed my view on how people approach religion.  

The last two decades (1990-2000) the highest number of immigrants moved to America. Based on that trend I can predict that factors going on in current world news would cause many people to immigrate to America. For instance, I am aware of the problems in the middle east, so maybe those factors will contribute to an increase of immigration.

 Working on this project showed how we have grown since 9th grade. I was expecting certain people to procrastinate or not give their all. I was surprisingly shocked at how easy it was to get in contact with my group members and how we all cooperated with each other.I think we all stepped our game up knowing that the 11 grade year would be particularly hard.
 Once we gathered enough research it was hard to figure out how to present our work without repeating too much of what other groups would say or putting our audience to sleep. We had a lot of information and very little time and space to match. We didn’t want to put a chart up and read off it because no one wants to look at charts after doing a whole project on spreadsheets  and probably organizing their own work in charts. The idea of using a prezi was brought up by me because I remember watching a prezi presentation over the summer. As an audience member I liked how everything was animated and it almost felt more like a very interesting TED talk, rather than a high school keynote presentation. Looking back, I feel like we choose wisely because we were the only ones in the class who did a prezi which makes us stand out. We really just wanted to be remembered because everyone was going to present that same information and when people reflected on this project we wanted to be one of the groups they would bring up.


 I do regret not remembering all the information we were suppose to relay verbally to to the class. Once we began to present it was as though we all forgot the valuable details we meant to say. However, I feel as though our basic ideas were grasped by the class because it was all around the same research that everyone else did. So, if I could do anything differently it would have been to give more details during the presentation as if we were presenting to an audience who didn’t do this project.  

 Once we were first introduced to the immigration project it was hard to picture what our final work would look like and how we would even go about this long journey of research we had ahead of us. Now that we were able to successfully tackle not understanding a project to actually finishing it, the bar for all our other work is set higher. I feel like once I have completed something I didn’t think I could, any other thing should become easier to handle.  

With that said I am excited about any other challenging work we will have in the future and how I am able to confidently start something when I have no idea what my outcome would be.



Whats Life Holds For Me

I wonders when change would come and make life different for me it was just like it was yesterday, I was on my mac going on to youtube just wanted to know what new videos were up from my favorite youtuber smosh After that I watch a lot of other video and i thought to myself "what if I could do that" and then I went on iMovie not knowing what I would make but just wanted to try to be funny and fun on camera and I did a video and then edited it to see what it was like and when I looked at it I thought it might not be good enough. a few weeks later I had a friend over at my house paling games and then I went on the computer and ask my friend if He would watch a video I made, he said "ok" and I showed him and he said to me "this is good are you going to put this on youtube and I did put it on and I got 100 views in 1 week and i fought it would not be good but it was good but it was good when I saw the comments and the likes I thought I may or may not have good talent because I thought I could never do anything like this in my whole life. 3 weeks passed and I went on the computer again I checked how the video was doing and I saw it had about 700 views and I thought at the moment that "ok I am getting more popular on the internet I might just might want to do this in my life" I was young at that time not knowing what the future would holed but just go what my heart says I might just might be able to do that. I started to make more videos and vlogs on there and I was getting better and better at recording and editing my videos and at the time I did improve for my videos I did not write how it would go at the time. When I got to high school I learned how to write good essyes and I worte more and I learned that I could make scipes and mini show on the internet. I made my own stories with rescarch and the life lesions in my stories and I became better at writing. On day near Christmas in 2011 I was just chilling with my friend and me and my friend was wondering what we can make next on youtube we had lots of ideas and music idea but I said we could do a TV internet show. He thought it was a good ides and then for the last six months I started making characters and scripts for episodes and I showed to him what we were doing and him and I wanted to be funny and we still continue to make this but we hope what I have done in the past I might get my show high views and great reviews by critics in the future

Media Influence

1. The media has a lot of influence on our perceptions. They want us to tune in, so they can sell their ads to the millions of people that are watching. The way people write about our candidates and preserve them. They make can either make them out to be bad or good. Some of the candidates to it themselves, publishing many ads against each other to bolster polling numbed and ultimately win their respective campaigns.


2. The media can have a great affect on the media. We shouldn't let them have any impacts because at the end of the day, you're going to be making the choice on who to vote for and nothing should manipulate your choice on who you want to vote for.


3. Well, I've seen an article on Fox News reporting that Barack Obama was married to a Pakistani Man. So I think the media is biased and shouldn't be. I feel like they're only in this for the money and not the American people. There are only a few news places that actually broadcast the news to broadcast it, not to favor someone over another.

Media and the Election

The media definitely influences the election in the sense that it has the power to negatively portray candidates.  A seemingly harmless sentence, can be taken out of context and replayed over and over until potential voters change their opinions on a specific candidate.  The  media is important for transferring valuable information to people who may or may not be too lazy to search for information themselves. As a part of America and therefore having the same rights as all Americans, the media should be allowed to broadcast,write, videotape, and upload whatever the see fit. In my opinion, it takes away from the overall meaning of the campaign when all they run is slander, instead of focusing on positive aspects of the point of views of candidates. There should be media stations, or news companies that focus on presenting factual information, without forcing opinions on potential listeners.

Reflection

I guessed what surprised me the most about this project was that a lot of the reasons for my time period 1890-1950. What surprised me is that the push and pulls were very similar as well as very different. Some of the similar reasons had to do with the economy, war, and thinks of that sort. And the different ones had to do with the problems in individual countries. Also the demographics of the people that came also. It seems like up until a couple decades ago most of the immigrants were coming from Europe. Now they all are coming from everywhere in the world. 
I believe that over the next couple decades, better education and opportunity will be the reason for immigrants. America has one of the best education systems and people can get jobs here in almost anything so I predict this will be the pattern and reasons for them to come. If you look at immigration as of now our economy is not the greatest, but I think the idea that America gives other people is that want to come to this country is freedom and you can do more in this country than in other countries. 
We decided to make charts with as little words as possible. We did this because it is easier on both us the presenters and the people watching the presentation. This way we can be more engaging with the audience as well as present our project. Having a million words on the slide can be distracting as well as tacky. So to keep it clean and simple this is the method we chose to do.
For me personally, having to come together to present all of the information was the hardest part. Sometimes we did not necessarily agree with the information and reasons that were given. So we had to put our own opinions aside and trust that our group member knew what they were talking about.
If I had to do anything differently it would be the time period that I had research. I say this because to me from about 1950-present is what catches my interest more. Not saying that the time period I did was boring, but it just was not what I really wanted to do. I would aslo only do a push or a pull reason and not both. For me I feel like some push and pull factors are not that important. For example: If one decade immigration spiked up a million, and in the next decade it went down a million I would only want to know the push or pull for those two decades not both because they wouldn't be important. Overall though I am pleased with our final product.