We’re nearing the end of the school year, and gee did it go by fast. It feels like only yesterday I was just entering this school for the first time as a freshman, and now I am about to become a junior. I think that my first two years at this school have gone really well. In fact just the other day I was accepted into NHS. I’m really glad that I will be able to show just how hard I work at helping the community grow and be safe, and be given even more opportunities to do so. In my global issues class we are currently talking about the issue of juveniles and life in jail. My personal opinion on this issue is that they should be given a second chance at life. People at that age haven’t fully developed their brain, and it’s harder for them to make rational decisions. Instead of life in jail they should be given parole. In this way we can give those that have made mistakes a chance to live peacefully in society instead of in isolation where they are more susceptible to go crazy, and it will be harder to pull them out of the hole that we so commonly throw people into. We’ve watched a couple of videos in class on this issue, but I don’t think they brought home the issue that these are just kids. I think that most people probably feel the same way as I do, but it’s just a matter that they don’t know much about this topic. If more media attention was brought to it I think it would be way easier to get laws passed regarding this issue. There really isn’t anything else going on in my other classes, but I think that this has more to do with the seniors last week then us getting closer to the last day of school, though it could be a combination of both. I know that as we get closer to exam time we will be doing more review related activities so I’m going to enjoy my little break from homework while I still can. My knee is doing really well though. The other day I made it to full extension, and next week I will be visiting my doctor who will then tell me whether I can put full weight on it or not. I think that my mindset is in the right place, I make sure that I’m always doing my stretches, and I put my brace on at night. I’m motivated for it to get better, and that’s really what someone in my position needs to be thinking. Hopefully I’ll get the clear to bear weight on it, and then I can finally get off of the crutches, which I will be ecstatic about. The rest of this school year is going to go by fast, and then I will have to get my game face on for all the tests my junior year. I can’t wait. (Sarcasm)
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Today I took the AP Government and politics exam. I was really relieved because of how much easier it was compared to the tests that we did in my class. Some of the questions did cause me to really think through them and draw on my prior knowledge. I wonder how the board of education chose the topics. Do they base it on events that are currently becoming important and find some way to relate them to event of the past? Or is it just random selection of questions that they’ve already made up previous years? Because I had to sit still for so long my knee is really stiff and achy, I hope that I’ll soon get over this hurdle of pain, and be able to do more things with it. My PT said that I was ahead of the game based on my bending capabilities which makes me really happy. Looking ahead to the future it will take about six months to be able to do full fledged sports activities. The thing that really worries me though is the mental problem. During soccer games I know for sure that I will be constantly thinking about my knee, thus probably not playing to my full potential. This could be a problem if I’m ever to fully recover from this injury. I don’t know how I will train my brain to ignore my knee, but once I get to that stage I’ll be sure to ask my PT who has most likely been faced with this issue before. Lately I’ve been becoming really suspicious of white vans. This is due to the fact that in my Global Issues class we started watching the movie Human Trafficking. It is highly disturbing, and I’ve found myself wondering how even people with families and daughters are willing to sell their children, or use other people's children for personal gain or pleasure. Human trafficking has become such a serious issue, and it’s just so confusing to me why we haven’t used more measures to try and put a stop to this epidemic. In the future I hope that people become more aware and do try to at least put in a better effort to stop trafficking. This week was really exhausting for me, so I’m so excited for Saturday and Sunday to come so that I can use that time to relax and recharge to prepare myself for my AP Macro Exam next week. Studying will be a little different than my other one because I seemed to struggle more in class with this subject. I don’t know why I struggled though, because I’m good with graphs, and more than half of Macro is analyzing and interpreting graphs. Maybe it’s because of all the complicated underlying topics underneath the graphs that are what confuse me. Overall though I think it’s really interesting how politics and the economy interact and change with given events, even though I’m not very good at it. Anyway I’ll make sure to be ready for that test Wednesday by studying extra hard, and thinking through the topics a little more carefully. One word, PSAT. Sadly the day of my surgery was scheduled the day that the entire school took their PSAT’s, and mine was rescheduled for today. Honestly I’m just happy that I got it over with, but it was exhausting to sit in a chair that long taking a test. Now that I have successfully taken this, I will be able to focus on more important things, more specifically AP exams that will be taking place next week on Thursday. I’ve been studying really hard the past two weeks, and I think that I have gotten into the correct mindset for taking these exams. I’m aiming for a score of four if not a five, well on my AP Gov test at least. With my Macro test I’m slightly less confident. Monday in my Global Issues class we talked more about the Rwandan genocide, and watched a YouTube video on it. Watching all of the pain and damage inflicted by both sides, the Tutsis and Hutus, was really unforgivable. I find it interesting that in the movie we watched last week, Hotel Rwanda, they made it seem like it was the Hutus that were the main cause of all the violence and the Tutsis never struck out without some cause. In the YouTube video though it explained how Tutsis caused just about as much as the violence as the Hutus did. This proves that a person should never rely on just one source of information, because it will usually be biased or miss super important information. For my AP Gov class we are studying for the exams intensely. Though I don't think that I’m getting as much out of it as I should. I think that I use a different study method than what we are currently doing, so it is harder for me to retain the information that we go over. Usually I study by reading information over multiple times, and the way that it is being done in class is just watching videos. In order for me to study correctly I will definitely be using the crash course book and reading certain topics over a few times to make sure that I have them committed to memory. This same method will be used for my studying in Macro as well. My hope is to complete both books by Monday of next week, then use the two remaining days to skim through the topics that I struggle extra with. Every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday I wake up early to go to my PT. I’ve been informed that my bending isn’t where it should be so I’ve been tasked with the job of constantly bending it. Now after a while it really aggravates my knee, which isn’t painful, but uncomfortable. I hope that I can get it to a ninety degree bend by Friday (this is my goal). After that it will only get easier and less and less uncomfortable. Well my goals are set, and my stress is high, but I know that I’ll get through it somehow. My surgery was two weeks ago and I am still getting used to everything that accompanies being a cripple. Monday was the first day back to school after getting the procedure done, and it was absolutely awful. I was hardly able to pay attention at all, and I also realized all of the makeup work that I was going to have to do the next day. In my global issues class we started talking about Genocide. Genocide literally translates to killing a race. We started a movie explaining about all the different genocide’s around the world, and how they even happen. It’s really scary to think that a person is capable of incurring these acts of murder and brutality. The class finished the movie Tuesday, but I decided to skip school because of all the pain I was in due to Monday. I’m giving it another go today, and so far it has been going a lot better than Monday. Maybe it’s because my surgeon took off the ace bandage on Tuesday so I have more movement and it is not getting as cramped as it was Monday. I’m really trying to look at my situation in a positive way. My nurse told me that the worst of it was over and that I’ll only get better from here on out. PT starts tomorrow so I’m looking forward to actually being able to do something to help my progress. Today in global issues we continued with the topic of Genocide and took a bunch of notes on warning signs that a genocide is about to happen. The warning signs made me think of a bunch of countries that are going through some of the same things. It’s kind of scary to think that something like the holocaust could actually happen again. I really hope that we identify it quick and try to put a stop to it before it grows out of control. In my AP Gov class we talked about polling and how accurate they are. I find it interesting how wrong some of them can be if done incorrectly. This lead me to believe that there is no sure fire way to predict the election results, or any results in general without counting all of the votes in the population. Now that I’ve figured out how to be in school without ending up in a bunch of pain I will start coming consistently. I’m a little worried about getting in and out of my dad’s jeep though, mostly because it’s just so tall, and I find it hard to swing my leg in without experiencing excruciating pain. So I can’t wait to try! Tomorrow is going to be interesting, it will be the first time going to school twice in a row, so we’ll see how my leg tolerates it. In global issues we will be starting the movie Hotel Rwanda so I’m pretty excited for that. Maybe that will help me mentally. “Hey it may hurt but at least you're going to watch a good movie!” Well we’ll see how it goes. In my Global Issues class this week we did a lot of discussion based talks. We are still talking about some of the same issues as we did the previous week, but now we are more focused on the ethics of whether or not to implement EIT’s. Our teacher Mr. VanOrman told us to get on a certain side of the room based on what we thought about the issue, and I was surprised to see a majority of the class was pro implementation of these sorts of interrogation techniques. Only me and about five other people of a class of twenty were against EIT’s. We were then instructed to choose five reasons to argue our beliefs. The three our group came up with were 1. Inhumane 2. Doesn’t always work 3. Takes too much time The discussion didn’t really get anywhere, since everyone was pretty strong with their beliefs. Yesterday we started learning more about lone wolves, or people who do terrorist acts alone, or by themselves. Mainly we focused on the Oklahoma Incident. This bombing happened in April of 1995, and it involved a white supremacy fanatic setting off a bomb situated next to Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building. One hundred sixty eight people died, including children who were staying at the daycare located in the building. We watched a video today, and it was just so hard to wrap my head around. That somebody from our country would be capable of setting off and bomb and killing people just because they were angry that the government was trying to regulate the people's possession of guns. It’s just so awful to think that there are people living in our very own country that would be willing to commit acts similar to those of ISIS or other terror groups. It’s scary to me, but also kind of depressing. In my AP gov class we started watching a documentary called Fed Up. The reason that we are watching this movie is because of government regulations, and interest groups, and how they cover things up and lead the public to believe things that are untrue. I’ve only watched about fifteen minutes of it, and I’m already super suspicious of things that the government has been covering up due to food processing and what goes into regular foods that we ingest daily. The intro said that it was going to somehow directly relate obesity to cancer, but I’m a little skeptical of the data they have. I think it will be a pretty informative movie though, and I’m looking forward to knowing more about what the government does behind our back, if not a little worried about becoming a conspiracy theorist. This week seemed to go by really fast though, and I’m looking forward to a little one week break. It will also be my birthday on Monday so I’m definitely ready to turn sixteen. I think that this was a really productive week, and I know from all the homework that I’m getting today and tomorrow there will be plenty to do over my break, which I am not looking forward to, but oh well. This week in Global Issues we focused on the subject of ISIS and other terror organizations. Starting on Monday we talked about the general term ‘terrorism’. I learned about some of the reasons why people do terror acts, and the difference between Freedom Fighter and Terrorists. It’s very interesting how people always seem to get these two terms mixed up, or they think that they mean the same thing. The truth is that Freedom Fighters protect civilians and want to overthrow a leadership, or oppressors. Terrorist don’t care for human lives, and will happily discard life as long as it brings them closer to their goal. On tuesday we started to talk about ISIS, and how they were formed from Al Qaeda. We watched a video about the founder, and first leader of ISIS. His name was Abu Musab al-Zarqawi. As a kid he grew up in poverty, and oppression, and eventually found himself in prison where he was introduced to radicalism and came up with the idea of ISIS. A really interesting fact that the video revealed was that at first Osama Bin Laden turned Abu Musab al-Zarqawi away because he thought that he was only a lowlife thug. Wednesday was very interesting for we went in depth about interrogation techniques and whether they are torture or not. In my opinion, based on the videos that I watched and the knowledge that I already pertained on this issue, I think that some of the methods they used were torture. For example water boarding, which is a method where they take a cloth and put it over the person's mouth, then drown them by pouring water over their the towels. Watching the videos, it just seems so inhumane, and disgusting that we as a cultured people would be brought down to the low level of terrorists. After we finished talking about these methods, and the moral issues with implementing them we moved on to Osama Bin Laden and his involvement in 9/11. Everybody already has the basic understanding of what happened on that terrible day, so we focused more on how Osama Bin Laden was able to hide for so long. I think that he wasn’t forced out of hiding sooner was because of how loyal the people that he kept around him were. The only reason that he was found out was because one of his messengers slipped up and accidentally used a URL at an internet cafe. Today we started a movie called Zero Dark Thirty, which almost perfectly projects the events that led from the 9/11 attacks, to the killing of Osama Bin Laden. I think that it is pretty good so far, and shows a pretty good perspective of the interrogators, and how it messes with their lives. I really like learning about ISIS, because it’s a very important issue in our world today, and it feels really good when you are able to intelligently talk about this problem in adult conversations. Overall I’m really enjoying this class and can’t wait to learn about more issues dominating our world today. |
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May 2017
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