BIG SCHOOL OR SMALL SCHOOL?

            I am currently a junior and next year I have to choose whether I want to go to a large college or a small college.  This is today’s prompt.  Is small schools better or large schools better. 

            This is a very hard choice to make because they both have their advantages and disadvantages.  I personally don’t know what size school I want to go to.  But I do the advantages and disadvantages of both of them.

            Small schools may seem not good compared to the humungous colleges but it has something that big schools don’t have; the faculty to student ratio is lower.  This basically means that there if you go to a small school, there would be more teachers that could help you out.  Compared to the large schools, some where the student can’t even talk to his professor because there are too many students waiting, small colleges have teachers that can concentrate more on you.  Some students don’t go to large colleges even though they are accepted because of this ratio difference.

            Another thing that small schools are better at than big schools is the smaller student body which gives students the chance to get to know each other better.  In big schools, there are so many people that it is impossible to even memorize their names.  Small schools would feel friendlier and as if you are home because you know everyone or mostly everyone there.  You would feel like everyone is your family and they would all be really close friends until the end of your college term.

            As I am writing this, I decided that I would like to go to a large college rather than a small one because of the scholarships.  Big schools provide more aid than that of the small schools, mostly because they have a big student body and has lots of money.  Another reason is because I like to meet a lot of new people.  Some people will say that they felt left out because they didn’t know anyone there but I like it because I get the chance to meet new people.  The most important reason why I chose big schools is because of the courses they offer.  Small schools, having a small student body, don’t offer as much courses as big schools.  Big schools will have possibly all the courses and majors that you can possibly think of, as compared to small schools which will have the majority but not the minority courses.

            Something that makes me want to go to large colleges is because I went to high school on Saipan, a really small island in the middle of the Pacific Ocean.  Since the island is so small, my school was also very small.  I knew the names of everyone in our school and there was always a teacher there to help me when I needed it.  Since I went here for so long, I am sick and tired of it.  I want to try some new things, a new challenge.

            This choice comes to everyone once in a lifetime and everyone has their own reasons why they choose a particular school.  There is no right or wrong answer because everyone has different views on which is more important for them.  My choice is big schools.  

CHILDREN

            Today’s prompt is to talk about what I would teach my children and what I would not teach my children.  Surprisingly, at still a young age, I have thought about my life when I have children.  What I thought about children nowadays is that they are so spoiled compared to children in the past. 

            Children in today’s society is spoiled because their parents do everything for them.  The parents might think that this is a good thing, that they are helping their children, but this is completely wrong.  They are doing the opposite.  Doing everything for their children makes the children think that their parents will take care of everything and that they don’t have to move a finger, even after they grow up.  This is a problem because when the children are babies, it is a duty of the parent to help the children, but when they grow up, graduate college, and get a life, it is their duty to help themselves.  It will be actually better for them if the parents don’t help them a lot.  Of course, the parents should help out in things that the children can’t do for themselves and actually needs the help of a parent. But for things that the children can do by themselves, they should do it themselves, without their parent’s help.  Even if they look like they are suffering, in the long run, it will help them.

            A thing that I will definitely teach my children is manners and respect, especially to older people.  I went to Korea this summer vacation and saw people my age, 16, saying bad words and yelling at grandmas and grandpas.  This just broke my heart.  I mean, how can they possibly do that?  Those old people are probably more than 5 times their age, older than their parents, possibly the same age as their grandparents.  If my children turn out like the disrespectful students I saw, I would be so embarrassed of them.  

            Another thing that I will teach my children is good study habits.  It’s not whether you are smart or not, it is how hard you try and this can be achieved only through good study habits.  I am a student now and will still remember this 12 year experience when I am a father.  I will know the things that schools kids need help on and the things that they should not do.  For example, procrastination.  Procrastination might not look like something big, but for me, it was the scariest thing during middle school.  I always had the urge to procrastinate, and I knew it myself.  I tried my best to overcome that urge but it wasn’t easy.  Fortunately, when I entered high school, the urge to procrastinate didn't come anymore.

            The last thing is to make good friends.  Some friends are only in high school but some last a lifetime.  The friends that we make in high school or college or anytime during our life might last until we die.  Friends can be a really good thing and a really bad thing.  They can influence you into good studying habits, as mentioned before, or influence you into bad things like bullying.  I would really make sure my children makes good friends that will be a good influence on him or her.

UNIFORM

            Saipan International School is a small school that I attend.  It is located on Saipan, a small island in the middle of the Pacific Ocean.  Currently there are no uniforms for my school but it is a controversial topic.  Some people want the school to get uniforms because they can’t afford their own clothes. Some people do not want it because they want to be free.

            I want my school to stay the way it is, no uniforms.  The reason I want it this way is because I believe that all students have individuality.  Each student has his or her own life and a choice in which clothes to wear.  When I see schools with all the students wearing same clothes makes me feel like they are trapped in the school.  On the other hand, when I see schools that have students with different styles and colors, they look more happy and free. 

            Schools exist to educate, not to stop students from expressing themselves.  Uniforms do not have any effect on studying so therefore has no meaning.  Would having uniforms make students smart?  If the answer is no, it shows that there is no need for uniforms. 

            People say that a school needs uniforms to unite its students together and possibly argue that it will bring up their studies.  I think this appeal is stupid because clothes do not bring people together.  I think that people can unite together while wearing their own clothes because people don’t unite based on appearance but based on personality.  If two or more people like each other’s personality and want to be friends or make a group or a club, I think it is perfectly possible, without uniforms.

            Another reason why uniforms should not exist is because it actually disturbs studying.  While studying, if a student feels uncomfortable in his or her clothes, it will affect his or her concentration.  The uniforms I have seen so far all looked uncomfortable.  They are uncomfortable because the school needs the students to look nice.  Some schools actually have a tie included in the uniform and wants the students to wear to for the whole school day.  When studying, students need to wear comfortable clothes that does not disturb their concentration.  The most comfortable clothes is, of course, his or her own clothes.  There is no clothes that are more comfortable than his or her own clothes.

            Our school is like the last school that should have uniforms because our school is an international school that consists of students from many different races and cultures.  All the students in our school have different homes, different skin color, different accents, and many more.  It is the center of diversity. This colorful diversity is what represents our school.  If our school got uniforms, it would be destroying what it stands for.

BRING BACK SOMEONE FROM THE DEAD.....

            If I can bring back one person from the dead, I would bring back my cousin that passed away two years ago.  His name was Lee Sang Hyuk and he was only twenty two years old.  He passed away due to motorcycle accident.  The reason I want to bring this person back from the dead out of all the other people in my family is because he died when he was too young.  He was just starting his life after finishing college and completed his time in the Korean army.  When I heard the news that he got into an accident, although I wasn’t really close to him, I felt really really really bad for him.  I don’t usually go to funerals of people I am not close to but for him, I went.  Luckily he passed away during my summer vacation, allowing me to go to his funeral without flying overseas.  I am not really close to him because we played when I was too young.  My parents tell me that he sometimes took care of me when I was a baby but I cannot remember it, making it feel like we are strangers.

            If he actually comes back from the dead, I would serve fried chicken for dinner.  I know this isn’t the most ideal dinner to serve for someone who just came back from the dead but for us, it is.  It is the most ideal dinner to us because it brings back memories from the time when he was alive.  He lived alone and his house was next to a restaurant that specialized in friend chicken.  Whenever I went over to his house when I was young, we went to eat fried chicken.  This food is not chosen because of its taste but because of its memories.    Even though I was really young that time and do not remember most of the things from that age, I remember that he brought me to that restaurant at least once a week.  This shows that me going to that restaurant with Sang Hyuk was fun for me at that time.

            I would like to eat dinner with him now when because I am older now.  We can actually have fun together unlike when I was young.  When we meet now, we can go to much more fun places other than restaurants.  We can go to amusement parks because my parents told me he took me there when I was young. I don’t remember this maybe because I was too young and could not ride any fun things.  Sang Hyuk couldn’t have rode fun things too because he needed to watch me.  If he can come back right now, we could actually do the things we need to do at the amusement park.  We can ride the biggest rides and not worry about taking care of the baby. 

            This is the person I would like to bring back from the dead because I don’t have a lot of memories with him.  I feel like he was good to me but I didn’t have the time to be good back to him.

COMPUTER GAMES

Today’s prompt is to discuss whether playing computer games is a waste of time.  Computer gaming is becoming a big issue in our society because it is being played more and more by kids and surprisingly adults.

            This is a waste of time when we do it even though we have a lot of things to do.  For example, there is a lot of homework and a student pushes his or her homework to play computer games.  This is called procrastination.  I experienced this a lot when I was in middle school.  I had a lot of times when I didn’t do the homework or forgot about the homework because computer games was all I had in my mind.  After I came into high school and there was much more work to do, I changed and decided to quit computer games completely.  This boosted up my grades by a lot.  Another thing to remember is that when you are in high school, there is not enough time to do everything while playing games.  Also, playing games stays in our minds and prevents us from doing homework or concentrating on doing homework. 

            On the other hand, enjoying games once in a while for fun isn’t a bad thing.  For example, when your friends come over to your house for the weekend and playing computer games for about an hour or two isn’t such a bad thing.  If it controls your life and computer game is all you think about, you got a problem.  Playing for an hour or two just for the fun of it is actually a good thing rather than a bad thing.  It can help relieve stress that you got from the school days or even just make you feel entertained.  It can be seen as watching or movie or playing a sport. 

            Some things to think about when playing games is that you won’t get that time back.  Computer games are mostly played by students which means that students spend their time playing games when they could be studying and raising their grades.  This time of the life is a very important part that can’t be redone.  So if you are a student and is playing games rather than doing homework or studying, think about it once more and realize how important the time you are playing games is.

            Computer games is also a waste of time because you don’t get anything out of it.  Even if we play games a lot and become a high skilled player, there isn’t anything that we can get out of it that will help you in society.  It just takes your time, and doesn’t give anything in return.  This situation is similar to that of you giving a stranger money and not receiving anything back. 

            After you read this, think about how you could use your time wisely in your life.  I’m not saying that playing computer games is always bad and should be punished, I am saying that if computer games start to dominate your life, you are wasting an important part of your life for nothing.  You are giving up important parts of your life and not getting anything back.

BEAUTY

Today’s prompt is to define beauty.  According to the dictionary, beauty is defined as the quality or aggregation of qualities in a person or thing that gives pleasure to the sense.  Everyone has a different view of beauty because everyone has different sense and taste.  There are also many forms of beauty

            The first type of beauty is the beauty that most people think of, physical beauty.  The word “beauty” doesn’t have a specific meaning.  It just means it brings pleasure to the sense.  Everybody has a different taste which also means that everyone has a different meaning of beauty.  This also applies to me.  I have my view of beauty and I know the most of my friends have different taste. 

            Another type of beauty, the more important, is inner beauty.  I believe that a person is truly beautiful if that person has a beautiful inner spirit.  This includes how she thinks, her personality, and how honest she is.  If a person is really beautiful outside but very corrupt on the inside, she is not beautiful.  The reason people get scammed or robbed is because they can only see what is on the outside and not the inside.  If they know what the person looks like on the inside, there would be nothing such as robbing or scamming.  I know that it is impossible for a person to have a complete beautiful inside.  It is the nature of humans to get bad thoughts and not always stay beautiful.  But having the thought that a bad thought is bad and trying to not listen to it is good enough to be considered beautiful.

            Something beautiful does not always have to be a human.  It could be an animal or scenery ANYTHING that brings pleasure to the sense.  When I was in Korea, I went hiking with my friends and tried going up to the top of the mountain.  When we climbed all the way up the mountain, the view was amazing.  It was beautiful.  The view was amazing because we could see all the other mountains and also how small our village is.  I felt like I was very close to the clouds and the winds were so strong that I felt I was going to fly away.  This was the feeling I felt when I was on top of that mountain, the feeling of beauty.  Another example of beauty I felt was when I first came to Saipan.  I don’t like Saipan right now because I am sick and tired of it but when I first came here it was a paradise.  The sky was full of clouds, the ocean was emerald blue, and the air was so clean.  There is also a lot of rainbows in Saipan which really caught my eye.  He rainbow was so clear as compared to Korea’s and it still stays in my memory, even after more than 5 years.

            Most people might consider the physical beauty to be the most important but it isn’t if we look at it the other way around.  Imagine a person that is really beautiful but thinks only about bad things to do.  I wouldn’t like her.  Would you?  On the other hand, if someone is not the prettiest person in the world but has the kindest heart in the world, I would like her.  As you can see, physical beauty has its thing but it is actually the inner beauty that truly matters.

STRANDED!!

Today’s topic is the question, “What 3 things will you bring if you were stranded on a deserted island?”  This question is a very common question that we have thought about in our lives at least once.  The three things that I will bring is food and water, a girl, and some weapons.

            The first and most reasonable answer is of course, food and water.  It is proven that a person can only last a week without food and three days without water.  Having a large supply of food and water is probably the most important thing when stranded on an island.  Food can be earned by somehow using the resources on the island such as hunting an animal or fishing or getting fruits off a tree but getting drinkable water is almost impossible.  Food and water can solve the problems when I am hungry and thirsty but also can solve my emotional distress.  It is understandable that a person will suffer emotional problems when stranded on an island.  Food can solve this problem by sort of entertaining the person and taking the bad thoughts out of the person.

            The second thing I need is a girl.  Even if there is all the things a person needs and more, without a friend or someone to talk to, he or she won’t be happy.  Staying on a deserted island is a tough thing and it would definitely help if a girl was there to talk to me and to stay next to me.  It could actually be a good time, only the two of us being on an island together.  Not only will she keep me company, she will give me motivation to live on which is the most important.  She can help with my emotional conflict but also with the work.  Even though a girl is weaker than a boy, when she is faced with a tragedy of being stranded on an island, she will do the best she can do to survive.  She can help me with getting food and water, making shelter, making a fire, or anything that needs to be done.  Even though it doesn’t help much, it will be better than nothing.

            The last thing is a weapon.  A gun or a sword or anything that can protect me is needed when stranded on an island.  A deserted island means that there is a lot of wild animals that inhabit that island.  I need a weapon to protect myself from these wild animals.  People might say that animals might not attack so a weapon is not really important but just think about it.  If an animal that has never seen a human before sees a human for the first time and he or she is coming into their house, they will attack by instinct.  If stranded on an island I promise you that you will run into problems involving wild animals.  These weapons can also help me fish for food.  Fishing is almost impossible with bare hands. 

            These are the three things that I will bring if I was stranded on an island.  What would you bring?

            

WHAT DO I WANT ON MY TOMBSTONE?

The topic for today’s blog is what I want on my tombstone.  This topic was a little different from any of my other blogs because I have never thought about what I want on my tombstone.  I have seen tombstones before in real life and know what they look like and have on them but I don’t like them because they all seem the same and nothing different in particular.

            What I want on my tombstone isn’t very specific, I just want mine to be very different from others.  For example, I would like pictures of my life from a child all the way up to the time when I died.  It would be like a timeline shown in pictures.  The reason I want this is because I had felt the feeling of reading a tombstone of someone and wanting to see what the person looked like.  This would make my tombstone really big but I am okay with that because it would make it special.

            Just because I want my tombstone to be special, it does not mean that I don’t want the normal things.  The normal things on a tombstone includes a full name, the date you were born and the date you die, and some comments about that person.  These things are essential things on a tombstone and I agree that these things should be on my tombstone.  Some things that I want alongside my name and my family’s names are the names of my friends.  I consider my friends as family so I think that they deserve a place on my tombstone. 

            I would like if there was a list of all my accomplishments on my tombstone.  Just having my name there would not show who I am.  It would show my name and which family I belonged to, but it wouldn’t show who I was as a person.  For example, if I donated most of my money to charity, I would like it if people knew about it by reading my tombstone.  It should say something like “This man was a great and generous man because he donated a large portion of his money for charity”.  People who see this will know what kind of good things I did and have respect for me and my children who will still be alive.  Even though I want the good things that I did on my tombstone, I do not want the bad things on there.  This would just have a negative effect when it is not needed.  I would be already dead and nothing would change the past.  I think there is not a single tombstone that shows the bad things of the person that is buried there.  Even if the person is a murderer, I think it won’t show what he or she did but just talk about the good things about that person or excuses on why he had to do the things he or she did.

            Everyone would want something different on their tombstones and I think that it is the opinion of the person who was buried there that should determine what would be on the tombstone.

TELEVISION VS PHONES

The topic for today is whether or not I think the television has a greater effect on humans than the telephone.  I think the television had a greater effect a long time ago but now it is the phone that is dominant. 

The main reason why I think this is because many people watch television on their phone.  Phones nowadays are very advanced and can play live television almost everywhere you want.  The question, to me, is basically asking if I think television is better or television and phone is better.  Same as the question, “is 2 greater than 1?”  The answer of course is 2, or the phone.

The advantage that the television has over the phone is of course screen size.  Watching a movie with a phone and watching a movie on a television is significantly different. The visual and the sounds are so different.

Another thing that makes the telephone have a greater effect on people than the television is because a telephone can choose what to play or watch.  For a television, there is a certain time and day for everything but for the phone, we have a freedom of choice to choose what we want to do.  It is like a personal phone unlike the television is just like a connector from the broadcast center to your home. 

The telephone also has a greater effect on people because television isn’t portable.  Nowadays, people spend more time outside their house than staying at home.  Taking this fact into consideration, people have more time to play with their phone compared to the time watching TV.  More time on something means that it will have a greater effect and influence compared to something that is not used as often.

We can see that the telephone has a greater effect by looking at where society’s attention is.  There is a lot of people waiting for phones compared to people waiting for TVs.  The current rivalry between Apple and Samsung, which is a very controversial issue, deal with phones.  Society’s view is a lot more on phones than on TVs.  If television had a greater effect on people than the phone, the controversial topic should be on televisions and not on phones.

Television does not have a great effect on humans because it is just what it is, television.  People accepts what just comes on television without having an opinion or change on it.  On the other hand, phones can be modified and controlled by humans.  For example, if something comes out on television, people do not doubt what it is saying and believe what is just there.  On the other hand, if there is something on the phone that we do not like, we have the ability to change what it says.  This shows that people have a choice on what to do with phones and therefore, phones have a greater effect on humans compared to the television which is just what it is.