SUCCESS!

The prompt for this blog is to define success.  Success is defined as “the favorable or prosperous termination of attempt or endeavors; the accomplishment of one’s goals” in the dictionary.

        The definition of success may vary between people and that is correct because everyone has a different goal in his or her life.  To me, success means happiness.  A majority of the people would define success as getting rich and becoming a respected man and this is true but I think the true definition of success is happiness.  I don’t like the definition of success being rich and respected because even though one is rich and respected, it doesn’t mean that he or she is happy.  I’m not saying that all the people who are rich are not successful.  I am saying that the money does not matter in determining whether a person is successful or not.  For example, someone who is the richest person in the world and also the most respected person in the world might not have happiness because he is too occupied with making more money.  This occupation will give him stress and take away his happiness.  To me, this man is not successful.  On the other hand, a normal salary man with a happy family that works hard for his loving family is a successful man in my eyes. 

        This is why the dream of my life isn’t to be just rich.  My dream is to be happy.  It is better if I am rich and still be happy but if that’s not the case, I would choose happiness, the definition of my success.  I want to have a happy family with a stable job that can support the whole family and have some spare for fun.

        Although I believe that success is happiness, it is lying if I don’t mention money.  Even though I said that happiness isn’t just being rich, I would like to be rich.  I would like to be very rich and have a huge house with many cars that I like.  But having too much money is not really good in my opinion.  It makes the person think differently about the world.  He sees everything as money and thinks that he is above everyone which is untrue.  Having just enough money for a person and his family to spend and have fun will keep the person the same.  I have heard someone say that money can change a person.  I definitely agree with this quote and I keep it in mind so that if somehow I get really rich, I will not change and still be the same person as I am now. 

        I can’t say what the definition of success is; I can only say what my definition of success is, happiness.  Success is a word that has different meanings for every different person.  This short blog talks about my definition of success and that definition can be different from other people.  This doesn’t mean that anyone is right or wrong.  Everyone is right even though everyone has different answers to the question, “What is the definition of success?” 

BUCKET LIST

            A bucket list is a list of things that someone wants to do before he or she dies.  I have many things that I want to do in my life but here are some of the main ones.      

             

            My goal is to go on a trip to a very far place with my family. I would like to visit someplace other than Korea or the Mariana Islands.  I am sick of staying in the Mariana Islands, especially Saipan. However, I still want to go on a trip to France and just tour the country by myself. The challenge in this goal is to learn the language of the places I visit.  I need to learn a lot of languages to go to all the places I want to go and have fun.  I What I liked to do when I was young is to face different kinds of foods and cultures. So, I would like to go to 
different countries and encounter new cultures and new foods. This would teach me the foods that people eat around the world. I would also like to go to famous places in France and take pictures. This is my second goal in my bucket list.

            My second goal is to do skydiving. Whenever I go to Korea, I hear of people that go skydiving and have fun.  I know people in my family that have skydived before. It was hard to manage the time to go skydiving. If I could have, I would have liked to go skydiving in Korea. My bucket list before skydiving was trying the bungee jump, what i view as a smaller version of skydiving. Last year’s summer, I tried bungee jumping with my friends. It was fearful at first time, but after I did it, it was pretty fun. It wasn't as scary and thrilling as I expected which makes my dream of skydiving bigger.  When I was young, my parents said that they would go on a world trip with me. If I add some things to this goal, I would like to try skydiving in many places that are famous for it.  There are places in the world that doesn't look beautiful if just viewed but if viewed some thousand feet in the air, they are some of the most beautiful places on Earth.

SUPERPOWER

                Today’s topic is the question, “What superpower would you like to have?” 

                If I could choose from any superpower, I would choose the ability to read minds.  I know it doesn’t look as cool looking abilities like flying or being invisible but there are many ways to use this power.      

First of all, nobody would know about it.  If my power was the ability to fly, people would definitely see it and do something about it.  Reading minds can never be revealed to the public unless I reveal it myself, which I will never do.            The reason why I would never reveal my superpower to the public is because if they know about this fascinating power, they would maybe stay away from me or try not to get associated with me.  If you knew someone that could read anyone’s minds, would you want to stay close to them and be associated with what they do?  I think nobody would.  Another reason I wouldn’t reveal it to the public is because I want to take advantage of my powers.  For example, if I go to a casino, I would make a lot of cash.  If people knew about me and my powers, they wouldn’t even attempt to play.

The second reason why I chose this superpower is because it would be very useful to read other people’s minds.  I would be very successful in life if I can read people’s minds.  For example, I could read a teacher’s mind to see the answers to a test or I can go to a casino and win a ton of cash.  I could also read my parents’ mind to see what they are thinking or a friend’s mind to see what they actually think of me.  Many people lose a lot of money to frauds but that will never happen to me because I can read the mind of everyone and know what they are actually thinking.

There are many people who lose best friends due to collision of opinions.  This could never happen if I can read people’s minds because I can tell what my friend’s opinion is and match my opinion with him and we will never have arguments and fights.

The most important reason why I chose this power and not the others is because this power does not mess or interfere with my body.  For example, if you can fly, there will be a time where you can get really hurt or even die.  The power to read someone’s mind is never harmful or deadly.  If I had a power that could fight or do anything physical, the people of the society will expect me to help the society.  I have no problem with helping society but I don’t want to use my whole life doing that.  I would like to enjoy my life with the power to read other people’s minds.

               

CELLPHONE USAGE IN SIS

                Today’s topic is “Cellphone usage in Saipan International School.” 

                In my opinion, I think cellphone usage is completely fine if it doesn’t disturb others.  Cell phones have now become a big part of our lives and it is surely important.  My school, Saipan International School, currently has a rule that does not allow students to use a cellphone at any time of the school day.  I think strongly that this rule should be changed so that students are free to use their cellphone in school.

        

        The first reason why I think that cell phones should be allowed in school is because everyone has emergencies.  There might have been an accident or

some other emergency that the student needs to know.  If phones were allowed in school, the student could have received a call or a text message telling him or her about the emergency.  On the other hand, if that student could not use his or her phone during school hours, she would have known about the emergency a while later where she would be not much of a help.  Another example is when practice for a school sport has been canceled.  This is a personal experience that I dealt with in previous years.  I was supposed to have a soccer practice after school but it was cancelled due to weather.  I needed to tell my mom this so that she can pick me up but I couldn’t since my school doesn’t allow cellphone use.  So I had to wait until afterschool to call my mom.  She told me that she thought I had practice so she made other plans that end the same time as my practice.  I had to wait for another hour afterschool for my mom to come pick me up.

                Another reason why cell phones should be allowed is because that’s the only way that parents have contact with their children.  Some parents feel anxious about not being able to contact their children.  They feel uneasy because they might be somewhere where they should not be or be with someone bad.  If a parent talks to his or her child on the phone, it makes them feel more stable and more trusting toward their children.

                Most of the people who agree on banning cell phones in schools almost have one identical reason; it interferes with study.  It is true that it may interfere with studying but it is the student’s job to manage how he or she will study and how he or she will study.  If someone chooses to play on his phone the whole school day, he or she will suffer later, either in college or in life.  What I am saying is that playing with a phone is a student’s choice and it is the students who choose what they will do with their life so we should leave them to do what they choose to do.

                Cell phones should be allowed in school but not while anyone takes a test.  Cell phones these days are very advanced and a student can find the answer to a problem probably in less than a minute.  If phones were allowed during tests, I guarantee that students will cheat.  Other than that, cellphone usage might actually be helpful in learning.  Teenagers are so used to using cell phones that they can search up a topic or learn about something in a cellphone.  Rather than using a book to learn, cell phones might be a good tool to research a topic. 

                Although there are reasons why a school should restrict cell phones, I think that cell phones should be allowed due to the reasons stated above.

What are three things that will make my life perfect?

Today’s blog topic is the question, “What are three things that will make my life perfect?”

When I saw this topic, I immediately thought of money.  I know this sounds bad and not moral, but everyone needs money.  Imagine living in this harsh world without a single dime, almost impossible.  People may say that money just makes people corrupt and it is not needed in life but I think differently.  I know that money isn’t everything in the world, but it is an essential thing we need in life.  If we have money, we can get almost everything we want.  Without money, I can’t do the things I want to such as traveling, eating, or even playing a sport.  If I imagine my life without a single dime, it would be a meaningless life, spending everyday doing nothing and eating things that I don’t want.  Not a good life.

            Another thing that is essential in life is love.  It may seem not really important but it is.  For example, the kids in poor countries where their parents left them have no life but finding food for the day.  That is not life but survival.  When I see those kids in posters and ads, I feel happy because I know that I am being loved.  Of course, my parents and I have some fights and arguments but deep inside, we love each other. 

            Another love is not parental love but love for the opposite sex.  If someone is really rich but doesn’t have anyone to love, his life will be boring.  The same goes for the girl.  If a girl doesn’t have anyone to love for life, it will be boring.  Even when someone is in pain, physically or mentally, a lover can heal him.

            The last thing that is needed in life for it to be happy is friends.  When I went to Korea this summer vacation, I really missed my friends and found out how big they were in my life.  When I got bored in Korea, all I thought of was playing with my friends.  I also always play on the weekends with my friends.  This is what keeps me going on schooldays.  When I feel tired, I tell myself that after all this studying, I will get rewarded with the weekends with my friends.  If there was no weekends with my friends, there will be nothing that keeps me going.  When I am not in a good mood because of certain things, it is always my friends that cheer me up and make me forget about it.  For example, I was really depressed because I failed a test.  My friend came up to me and told me that there is always another chance, another test to bring my grade up.  This made me see the light and made me try harder.  This thought that made me try harder completely brought my grade up and it was higher than before.

            These are the three things that make my life perfect.  I just can’t imagine a world without at least one of these things.  But these things can’t be earned just for free and needs a lot of effort to achieve.  I hope you can achieve all these things too.

DO YOU THINK PEOPLE WERE NICER IN THE PAST RATHER THAN NOW?

The blog topic for today is “Do you think people were nicer in the past rather than now? Explain why or why not.”  This is a hard question to answer because people are always not all completely kind.  There are kind people and unkindly people.  There was not even one society in history where all the people were kind.

In order to answer this question, we need to think broad.  In general, I would choose the people in the past as kinder people than people nowadays.  There was a lot of sharing and love in the past if compared with the present.  They shared their belongings such as food with neighbors and family.  I am not saying that people today never share and never love each other.  I am saying that a large majority was loving and caring in the past and a small majority is love and caring in the present.  For example, people in the past would try to share as much as they can with people around them.  Now, many of you might think that if people shared as much as they can with other people, there will be nothing left for them, but this wasn’t a problem because the other people shared with them too.  People nowadays try to get as much as they can for themselves and not for the people around them.

I think that the reason people were kinder in the past is because of communication and technology.  People in the past communicated by talking in person and telling a lot of stories.  People nowadays have very nice technology such as TV, laptop, phone, or iPod which prevents them from talking a lot with people around them and sharing their experiences, getting farther and farther in relationship.  

                An example of an older person being kinder than people today is my grandparents.  Every time I go to Korea, I visit my grandparents’ house in the countryside.  I got my answer to today’s topic from this experience.  Every time I go there, I feel that I should act better when I am in Seoul.  This is because there is so much difference in the way people act towards each other.  When I go down to the countryside, they give me unbelievable amounts of things starting from food up to money.  I don’t really feel that people from the past is kind until I arrive in Seoul.  When I arrived in Seoul, I had to ride the subway to go back home.  While doing this, everyone on the subway pushed each other so that they could go to the front.  I also did this as a habit, thinking only of myself and not of the other people around you.  But then a thought came to me, the thought about the people in the countryside.  This whole experience was a good one for me.  It made me realize how corrupt we are in the present society.

                This is why I think that the people from the past is kinder compared to the people today.

WAIT FOR NEXT BLOG!

               

FAVORITE SUPERHERO

             

             

Today’s blog assignment is to talk about my favorite superhero.  I personally think that a “super hero” is defined as someone with a kind heart that does all he can do for the good.  Some people think that a superhero has to have special powers or abilities but I disagree.  Anyways, that depends on what you personally think.

             I had a hard time choosing my favorite superhero because I’m not really a fan of all the heroes and villains and saving the world.  After thinking about it, I came to the conclusion that my favorite superhero is Batman.  Although I don’t know all about Batman, with the things I know about him, he is the best.

             The first reason why I chose Batman as my favorite superhero is because he doesn’t have any powers.  Now, many of you will be thinking that this is bad, but I think the opposite.  I think that he is more a superhero than superheroes with powers because he has to try harder to accomplish what he is doing.  Superheroes with powers can just use their powers to save the day but Batman is just an ordinary man that spends his time building things and thinking of ways to get rid of the bad guys.  What I am saying is that Batman puts way more effort into saving the day than the superheroes with powers, which makes him a real hero.

             Another reason that I chose Batman is because of his machines.  I really like the way they look and how they work.  For example is his motorcycle; it can shoot guns, flip around, jump, go really fast, etc.  He makes these things even though he is just an ordinary man, same as you.

             I also like him because he doesn’t care about the fame and has a simple goal of getting rid of evil.  A good comparison might be Iron man.  Iron Man has many similarities with Batman because they both don’t have superpowers, likes to build things, does their best to get rid of evil, and is successful in doing that.  As mentioned above, I like Batman over Iron Man because Batman doesn’t care about the fame.  Iron Man does care about the fame, which takes him off my list of heroes.  Iron Man takes into consideration about what the internet says, what people say about him, how he will look cooler, and things like that when he builds machines.  Batman just thinks about how he can get rid of the villains better which makes him the true hero and also my favorite.

             The last reason why I favor Batman is because of his costume.  I think that his costume is the coolest out of all the superheroes.  His costume basically is color black and mimics a bat (therefore called batman).  My favorite color is black, which also had an influence in me choosing Batman. 

             I was a little disappointed that Batman didn’t come out in the movie Avengers.  I really enjoyed Avengers because it had all the heroes I knew fighting the villains.  I felt that the heroes in Avengers weren’t complete.

             Anyways, this is why I chose Batman as my favorite hero.  I hope each and everyone one of you has a hero that you personally like.  Thank you and wait for my next blog!