Journal Entry 17: My favorite stories

As a kid, not too many stories captured my interest, because they were basically the same story with different characters and different conflicts. The ideas were all the same to me, so most stories were boring. However, there were a few that stuck with me. One example would be the movie "Inception". This is my favorite movie of all time, because it was different, and the plot was actually unexpected, and made me think. Another story I actually liked was the manga Naruto, or more specifically, the story of Itachi. He was born into war, so he detested it, and spent the rest of his life doing what he could to prevent it. He was born into the famed and honorable Uchiha clan. He rose to the top of his clan at an early age, entering the black ops at only 14 years of age. He was made into a double agent for the village to spy on his own clan, and he found that his clan was plotting a coup against the village, so he was given the mission to slaughter his entire clan. Knowing if a clan of the caliber of the Uchiha were to revolt, it may trigger a world war, he did as he was ordered, but he could not bring himself to kill his brother, Sasuke. He pleaded the village leader to protect Sasuke, and took all the responsibility and dishonor, to make Sasuke believe he was from a noble clan, devoting his entire life protecting Sasuke from the truth.

Journal Entry 16: The Influence of Others

In my life, many people have influenced me, both in good ways and bad. Some good influences came from my brothers. They were hard-working, and smart, and wanted me to be the same way. This influenced me as a kid, and I did pretty well in school, although not as well as they did. Some negative influences came from some of my friends from school. They did okay in school, and they were smart kids, but they wanted to have fun more than study. These two ideas conflicted greatly, but in the end I think my friends had more influence over me, because I didn't really get along with my brothers, and my friends' ideas were ones I had already been feeling. So now I am more like my friends than like my brothers, which is probably why they are successful and I probably won't be. However, their lives have been boring, full of hard work and being self-centered. Their future will probably hold more hard work, and even though they will have a lot of money, they won't really know what to do with it, as opposed to me, who will probably not have so much money, but will have fun, and memories of good times. It's really a matter of opinion which is better, but I think I have made the better decision, and now only time will tell which would have been the better path for me to take

Journal Entry 15: Characters

Some of my favorite characters ever are Itachi from "Naruto", Gin from "Bleach", and Snape from the Harry Potter series. All of these characters have a lot in common. They all appear to be bad guys, but in the end you find that they are actually good, and they have devoted their entire life to protecting someone they love. Also, in the end, they all die for this person, but ultimately fail in achieving what they wanted to happen. Itachi betrays his corrupt clan and assassinates them all in order to prevent war, and saves his little brother, Sasuke, and shoulders the dishonor and hate of the act, when he actually should have been honored and remembered for it. Despite his efforts however, Sasuke finds out what the village forced Itachi to do and turns against the village, and tries to destroy it.  Gin joins Aizen, the leader of the bad guys, but in the end he was just trying to get closer to him so he could kill him, so that Rangiku, his childhood friend, "would never have to cry again". However, he fails after preparing for his whole life, and dies leaving Aizen alive, and leaving Rangiku sadder than ever at his death. Snape's story is the same, except he in a way actually completed his mission. Snape loves Lily, so he does everything he can to protect her son Harry, and saves him multiple times. In the end, he finds out Harry must die anyways, and he does. But because it is a story, and the good guys must win, Harry is randomly brought back to life, so he lives happily ever after, and Snape's life is not wasted. These three characters are the only ones I have ever really attached myself to, and I had never thought about why I liked them until now. I guess I like characters that have devotion and commitment to the one person they love more than anything else, and sacrifice anything they can for them.

Journal Entry 14: Heritage

Heritage is a behavior or custom that your family and location passes down to you. Some of these may include religious beliefs, habits, or the sets of morals you have. I think the most important part of your heritage is your morals and beliefs, because it affects everything else about you, and shapes you into the person you are today. Personally, I have not retained much of my heritage. For example, I was taught at an early age to study hard as a student, because it will determine the rest of my life, and I have the rest of my life to have fun. I believed this up until like, middle school, but now the idea is ridiculous to me. When you are a kid is the only time in life to have fun, because you are free of the pressures of an adult, and you don't have to really worry about money, or food. Also, relative to what comes after, studying in high school is not really all that important. It's the classes you take in college that really matter, because those are the subjects you are good at or enjoy doing, and it will most likely define your job later. Another belief that was conveyed on me was that you must do whatever is best for yourself or your family, instead of friends. Although it is true that family stays with you forever, and friends are usually just temporary, it doesn't make sense to ditch your friends or not do nice things for them at a cost to yourself, because that would leave you with no friends at all. Also, friends are unlimited, there is a world of people to make friends from, so when you get in a fight with family, you have people to go to for support, until you are calmer. Friends help you through most of the tough times in your life, and I think that friends in general, not any one or few particular friends, are more important than family.

Journal Entry 13: Unpredictable Characters

Unpredictability is good for a story, but is sometimes annoying in real life. I think most girls are unpredictable, because you never know what they want. They will ask for one thing now, but later they will want the exact opposite. I am rarely unpredictable, because I react similarly to most things, usually by not caring. So if you are telling me a story, you can expect a sarcastic "cool story bro" from me after you finish telling it. Being a teenager however, there are inevitably some times when I will be unpredictable, like when I an especially good or bad mood, I will do something retarded. Much of this is different in a story, because you don't have to actually experience the unpredictability, you can sit back and enjoy reading about other people getting screwed over by it. The unpredictability is what makes a story interesting; if you can predict everything that happens in a story, there would be no point in it, because you wouldn't need the book- you can just tell yourself the story. Unpredictability is a vital element of literature, and when correctly used, it can make the plot of a story more interesting, and surprise the reader.

Journal Entry 12: Animal vs. Human

Animals are pretty similar to humans in many respects, such as what they are made out of, their organ systems, and needs. Actually, a human is an animal, so they have a lot in common. Animals seem capable of feeling many of the same emotions that a human does, such as sadness, loyalty, guilt, and so on. Some examples of this would be when a dog looks sad when you leave, waits for you at the door every day when you get home, or looks guilty when it has wet your carpet. However, I do not think animals have consciousness, and they are just reacting to their environment when they appear to be conscious. Much of animals' behaviors are simple, and can be predicted, which suggests that they are acting on instinct rather than consciousness, or free will. Also, animals lack the complex brain structures and reasoning ability that humans do. Although it is impossible to tell for sure whether animals are conscious, unless we find a way to communicate with them, I think it is most likely that they are not.

Journal Entry 11: Conflicts

John faces several conflicts on his journey in "By the Waters of Babylon". One internal conflict is deciding whether to go to the place of the gods and die, or stay away from it and live. This was a difficult decision to make, but he decided that if he left, his spirit would never be at peace, so he goes into the place of the gods. An external conflict he faces would be with the panther on his way to the place of the gods. He has to shoot the panther to prevent it from killing a fawn. One internal conflict I am facing is trying to decide between putting all my effort in school or not. It's what I'm expected to do, but lately I just don't feel like doing it anymore. I'm tired of working so hard, just so I can work harder later, but on the other hand, I don't want to be short of money when I grow up. I am trying to resolve this mainly by just thinking about what I should do, because there isn't really anything else I can do about it. One external conflict I have is when I get into an argument with my mom. This conflict is easier to resolve, because she usually stops talking if I ignore her for a while.

Journal Entry 10: Taboos

A taboo is something that you you know to never never do or say, such as calling a girl fat. Taboos have a wide range of magnitude, from little ones like chewing with your mouth full, to major ones, like stabbing your friend in the back. Taboos are not in place for any particular reason, they are just things you know by common sense, and experience, not to do, because they usually irritate or even anger people. Some of them are ridiculous, like not shaking your leg, because it will bring bad luck and cause you to lose all of your money when you grow up, but some of them are legit, like being disrespectful to a teacher or best friend. Most taboos are not necessary, and there are some where I don't even get where they come from. However, there are some where they are actually useful. Taboos are also kind of obsolete, because no one really follows some of them.

Journal Entry 9: Analyze a Folk Tale

"Coyote Kills the Giant" is a folk tale that attempts to explain that wood ticks are flat because they were flattened by the giants teeth as they were escaping from it. Although folk tales are amusing to read, they are never accurate, and they are predictable much of the time. Probably the most known example of a folk tale would be the tale of the tortoise and the hare. In this folk tale, a hare and a tortoise have a race, to see who is faster. During the race, the hare is so far ahead and so confident that he will win that he stops under a tree and takes a nap. While he is napping, the tortoise catches up, and passes the hare. When the hare wakes up, he sees how far ahead the tortoise is, and runs as fast as he can, but the tortoise still wins. The belief this story explains is "slow and steady wins the race". This basically means that it doesn't matter how far ahead you are in something, if you pause to take a rest, then someone who is working slowly but steadily will pass you, so you should always try as hard as you can when you are doing something.

Journal Entry 8: Buddhist Doctrine

I think the Buddhist Doctrine is right in many of its perspectives on life, but I do not agree with the ways it suggests suffering can be ended. The Buddhist Doctrine states that life is suffering, and suffering is caused by ignorance and attachment to material possessions. I agree with this part, because much of life is suffering, and one of the main causes are attachment to things such as money, houses, cars, and other possessions. However, I do not believe that following the Eightfold Path would remedy this, or that "ending suffering" is even a good thing. First of all, I do not think that attempting to get everyone to follow the Buddhist Doctrine is a rational way to end suffering, simply because there will always be people who will not follow it. Also, even if everyone actually did follow it, it would lead to peace, but it would not really be something to celebrate, because everyone would be the same, meditating all day, too busy being "at peace" to be happy. Although suffering is bad, it is necessary so that when something good happens to us, we can appreciate it and be happy.

Journal Entry 7: Taking Risks

For the people we care about most, we would sacrifice many things to see them happy. Throughout my lifetime, people who have cared about me have made many sacrifices. For example, my friends sacrifice a lot of time to do things with me even though they may not like doing them. Also, they give up time, thought, and emotion on making me feel better when I am in a bad mood. Similarly, I have made many sacrifices for the people in my life who I care about. I make simple, small sacrifices, like paying for friends when they want something but did not bring money, as well as larger ones, like giving up time, and opportunities for them. For people we truly love, we will care more about their happiness than our own, so to see them happy, we would sacrifice anything. For example a mother would go through anything, even die for her child, as would a guy for a girl he is in love with. Sacrifices are, simply put. just something we do as a way of showing others how much we care about them.

Journal Entry 6: New Place

An example of a place that was once unfamiliar to me, but is now a part of my daily life is the Pacific American School. When I first came to this school, I thought it was kind of like a prison, with all the walls made out of concrete and everything. Also, I thought all the students here would be stereotypical Asians, and that I would not get along with any of them, and I would just rot here. Because I was disappointed that I had to leave my old friends, my first impression of this new school was that it was crap, and I would never come to enjoy going here. However, now that I have become more used to the school, and gotten to know the people here, I have realized it is actually a pretty good school, and the people here are really nice and fun to be with. It isn’t really much different from my old school after all. Even though I still miss my old friends, I don’t feel as miserable here anymore. 

Journal Entry 5: Journey

A good example of a journey from a movie would be the star wars series. Not only does Luke go on a journey of great distances physically, it was a great emotional and spiritual journey as well. Luke started out as a normal farm boy and learned from Obi-Wan and became a powerful Jedi. During his journey he gains character, and Jedi skills to defeat Darth Vader, his father. On the way to him, he builds his skill and character by outsmarting Jabba the Hut and defeating Darth Maul. An example of a journey that I have had in my life was when I moved to Taiwan. I had lived in the United States for my entire life, so moving here was a big change for me. Everything was different, from the buildings to the traffic. However, I am slowly adapting to the way of doing things here. It's a good thing I can at least speak the language. This experience will definitely have a lasting impact on me, probably for the rest of my life.