Reading Reaction #4: The War Within

A time when I walked alone, and suddenly felt the beauty of the place was when, I was in the back of my brothers yard and I was walking on a cement, paved, path, that my family and I had laid down to walk on. It leads to a playground made for the children to play on, then back to either the BBQ area, or to the bridge over a small pond that led to the back door. While walking on it, I felt the beauty of the place when admiring the job that we did: converting a reddish brown, rock filled, and dried up wasteland into a fresh flowered and inviting yard. The feeling gave me a relief of disbelief being overwhelmed with the protruding colors of the new lively nature surrounding me.

What is the best way to study for finals?

For me, the best way to study is to concentrate on studying and make sure I have everything memorized. But, before I even start Go over every single thing that I have written down on paper, even if it's the same things written down over, and over and over again. It is still helpful, the reason for me doing so, is because it helps me remember those information even better, and trust myself that it's the right thing to do. See, sometimes when notes are written over and over again, it's more than likely that, that's important information. Even though the final might not include a question on those notes, it's still useful because it'll help remind me of another question that has something related with it. Sometimes, after studying, I go over what I've studied by giving myself read out loud questions and try to see if I can remember the correct answer. If I don't succeed then, I go over it again until I do, which does not take a lot of time at all. Say and repeat the answer as several time as possible until I am confident to myself that I have that answer jotted down and I don't have any second thoughts, for when I do, I always assume that I have forgotten it. Also, to begin with, I should always pay attention to my instructor and the hints and expectations he tells me. The areas he says that it will be on will be up to me to decide if I should believe him or not depending on how his personality has been from the first day class started all the way to when the final begins. To know a person is to learn from him/her, so cease the moment and don't forget the things that are to be expected on the final. But, the best thing is to relax and know that I got the answers to passing the final. It's not a bad thing to feel like I'm unsure, the best thing is to use that opportunity to study even more, building my confidence to a level where I know I'll be satisfied with the answers I put down. On the day that I take the final, if I go blink, I just think back to all the studying that I have done and soon all the answers will be coming back. So don't stress over with the thought that final is coming up and don't say I don't know what to do because excuses only distract myself from doing well on the test.

Reading Reaction #3: I Wish

Write a description of a place in nature. It might be a beach , a forest, a field, a mountain, a lake, and so on. In your description, try to be very specific and to use sense words.

In the mountains, a field of pine trees. Protruding one's and falttered one's. All around me were natures voice in the air, surrounding me with every single noise you can possibly think of. Attracting every sense of mine, making them so acute that I could feel every single threat of fear rushing through my spine as the hair behind my head stood up as if it were warning me of danger. Turning my pleasurable thoughts of getting a chance to spend time with nature for once in my life into delusions of fear. As scared as I was, I headed back the way I came from stomping my way back and doing it as hard as I could, for I thought that if I did that it would distract my sense of hearing from other noises and that I would be able to scare off anything that would want to commit any harm to me. Stomping my way back was hard because my fear was so enormous now that I thought that if I lost my attention on my stomping that I would be attacked by a wilder beast. Faster and faster I did, all the way back until I had reached the comfort of solid rock. From then on up until now I still shake with fear whenever I'm alone at any place. Without anyone talking to me then I will never ever be the same again.

What are your summer plans?

My summer plans aren't much to talk about because I don't really have much planned out at all. See, what I was thinking about was to just re-register for some more classes and attend school during the summer. And then whatever comes along the way, or in between the time, or during the time that I'm in school, then I will apply myself to that thing. And it all depends on what it is, which I anticipate that not much will be happening at all. Not with me, I can say. Now to go off and just say what kind of thing's I might be doing, on the other hand, would be staying home and doing homework, taking care of my nephews and nieces, and giving a helping hand whenever my father or mother needs it. Other things could be going out of town to Six Flags Marine World for some fun, but some how, for some reason, now a days, it doesn't seem as fun as it was back then anymore. I feel like I am getting old and thing's aren't how they use to be anymore. Also, I am getting very lazy now. I hardly do anything for myself and almost hardly anything for anybody else. I think I am starting to give up on my dreams and goals as well. But that is just what I think so I will never know the outcome of anything any more. Sometimes, I feel like I just want to close my eyes and go to sleep for a while and when my mind is set again, then awaken and begin my life differently, as if, to find what it is that my body, soul, and mind want's me to do. Right now, sometimes, I think to myself that I am living a life of frustration and I'm trying to break free of it.

What do you like most about the town where you live (or your hometown)? What would you change about it?

What I like most about my town is the fact that everywhere you turn; you're so close to nature. Just like how my older sister, three older brother and my parent's use to live when they were back in Laos. It makes it seem to me as if I am living a life they use to because I never got the chance to experience what it was really like to live with nature. Even, still, I don't think, I even experiencing what it would be like. Along with the chance of being able to live near nature or still having wildlife around the area where I live is, I think a great opportunity for me. I like hunting, fishing and camping, and doing all the great outdoor stuff that anybody and everybody would love and enjoy doing. Even though I am banned from it for at least two more years, I hope someday I will be able to do that kind of things again. I'm still really pissed off that I was the one who was banned out of the three of us. It was my younger brother, my older brother, and I. We went hunting and considered left behind and my family was not able to find me all the way until midnight. After that, my parents were not comfortable letting me go again for at least three years. Well, I have already served one year out of the three years they have sentenced me, but I can't wait 'til the time comes again when I will be able to go out into the wilderness again. To tell you the truth, I was a great hunter and my older brothers know that too, but with my parents' wishes, I respect them even more, so I was willing to sacrifice my hobbies for what they wanted me to do.

What three things would you bring with you to a deserted island? Why?

Three thing's that I would bring to a deserted island would be a life's worth of water, a life's worth of food, and last but not least a life's worth of people. If it's a deserted island, of course I'm going to bring a life's worth of water. I would not want to die from dehydration or anything. I don't need alcohol or anything 'cause that'll even dehydrate you even faster. And any drinks that would have a sweetness in it, I don't need those either because after drinking them, it makes you have a dry throat, and the fact that it is too sweet would cause you to drink even more. I would bring a life's worth of food because I wouldn't know how long I would be on that island and I wouldn't want to die of starvation. Looking at the picture, I know that I'm going to become hungry pretty fast and soon. With nothing on the Island for food, i would have no place to search for food. Now, last but not least, I would bring a life's worth of people. I wouldn't want to be bored to death. It's more like let's party, since there is nothing in the world to bother us and we don't need anything else. The food and the water supply would never run out because I would have people shipping them in all the time. It would be more of like a secret island just to get away from life.

If you had the time to volunteer, where would you volunteer? What would you do? Why? (If you do volunteer work, describe what you do!)

If I had the time to volunteer I would volunteer at saving people who smoke. Now what I mean is that, I would find scarier facts to scare the people who smoke away from smoking. Even if I had to lie about it because come to think of it, there are smokers out there who are not really happy about smoking. It was not something that they planned to do except that it just arrived or happened and you can't get away from it. It's funny ,but I think it would be a great idea to do. Even though it might seem to be a dumb idea to do that, I would do it anyways. Now, I know that there are other ways to accomplish the task that I wax thinking of, but I've seen enough and waited long enough. There are millions of billions, or even better billions of people out there in the world who are dying from not just cancer, but many other factors that are from the cause of tobacco and nicotine. To tell you the truth, I am one of them. Everyday I scare myself by learning more and more about the outcome of smoking, and I hope there are people out there doing the same thing because that shit really works. It scares the shit out of me, but once in a while I do grab a smoke once here and there, but every time I do the thoughts of the outcome comes to my mind and sometimes the affects are so strong that I usually end up throwing it away after it being lit. The place where I would volunteer would be just around public places where people smoke. And the thing's I'd do would be to make fun of them, or just tell them the basic facts about smoking even though while I'm in the process of smoking one myself. Make it seem like I am a crazy person and hopefully make them realize it and one day for them to think to themselves that "I don't want to make it seem like I'm the type of person he is," and one day for them to be able to quit. Basically being a bad example for them to grow up knowing that thing's I do are bad.