Tuesday's with Morrie 4/28/16

     Based off of the six Tuesday chapters that I have read in the book Tuesday's With Morrie so far; I think that the topic of death or emotions had the most impact on me. Although the one that most inspired me was The Fourth Tuesday: We Talk About Death. This is because I feel like it had the most aphorisms in and basically just a big message. One of the main aphorisms on pages 82 and 83 were "Once you learn how to die, you learn how to live." and "If you accept you are going to die, you learn how to live." They both basically have the same meaning: if you accept and learn how to die, then you'll learn how to live.

      The topic of death is important because it is something that is going to happen eventually to everyone. It even says in the book; "Everyone knows they're going to die, but nobody believes it." (P.80) Morrie thinks that the best way to prepare for death, is to always be ready for it. I agree with this because everyone thinks that it's not going to be them and they're not going to die until they're old; but the truth is that anyone can die at any given moment.

     In the book, Morrie is called "a religious mutt". This is because he takes different ideas from a variety of religions. This is why he over emphasizes the idea of learning how to die before living. In this chapter and others, Morrie is receiving lots of letters, and he's giving people with similar situations advice and also telling his own life lessons and experiences (to them). This chapter about death is one of the many Tuesday's of lessons.

Tuesday's with Morrie - Bucket List

     I have many reactions after reading what I have read so far in the book Tuesday's with Morrie. I was shocked at first when I heard that Morrie was diagnosed with ALS, and he still decided to keep on teaching as he had been for more than 30 years. Morrie was a very happy person that had a positive outlook on life which was surprising to me because many people are negative in this world. It was especially shocking to me that he was positive; having a disease, and he couldn't do what he loved: to dance and swim.

     One thing that I read in the book that I did not expect was the jealousy that Mitch had for Morrie when he saw him on television. While he was randomly looking through channels, he saw that Morrie was getting interviewed, but that actually led to him reuniting with Morrie. I didn't expect to see that Mitch would be jealous. He is envious because he sees all of the friends that Morrie has, and how he had developed a lot of real relationships with people; unlike Mitch who lost touch with many of his friends.

My Bucket List:

- Graduate high school and college
- Learn a new language (and actually use it)
- Ride in a hot air balloon
- Visit all of the major cities in the U.S.
- Learn how to drive
- Go to a real fashion show
- Meet my favorite celebrities/bands
- Ride an elephant
- Get a tattoo
- Ride in a helicopter
- Hold a baby panda
- Go to Coachella
- Swim with dolphins
- Visist a black or pink sand beach
- Hike/rock climb out of state
- Dye my hair again
- Get an Alaskan Husky

3rd Quarter Reflection 4/6/16

     In my opinion, I think that the most difficult part of 3rd quarter for me was just to keep up with all of my schoolwork and turn it in on time. I tried to manage my time wisely in order to overcome this problem. I think that the area that I made the biggest improvement in English Language Arts was my writing. I feel that I improved in this because we have wrote a lot in class and it got better with practice as I went.

     Out of all the books that I have read this quarter; my favorite book was called A Child Callet It by Dave Pelzer. It was my favorite because it was very interesting to read and it was a book that was able to sent the message of child abuse across to the readers by showing the real life cases that Dave (the author) had to go through as a child. This book was all about the mistreatment and abuse that Dave suffered through for years as a child living in his home in California.

     My research skills have improved greatly since quarter two since we have been doing a lot. One assignment that helped me improve more in my research was the argumentative writing essay. Also, I have learned much about the world while researching and while working on the article of the weeks'. So far, in my 40 book challenge, I have only read three books so far; but I have been reading more over the past few weeks as I have finished a book in only a day. Something that I've been proud of this quarter was turning in most of my work on time and not getting any falcon fouls.