Anger & Stress

Anger gets me the worst. I am usually either quiet, or if not I am happy. I like my life style, and I love the people around me. I confuse myself because my heart tells me I am happy, but my thoughts yell for me to be angry, to be frustrated, to be stressed. I find hatred seething into my sight with no given warning or reason. It is blinding and obscures my vision to a point where I have to cry to get out the frustration. The anger is something new that I do not understand yet and I do not know how to react to it. Sometimes I feel it escalating out of control when I am in public, and I silence myself and act normal. It is not hard to act. I do not hide my personality and problems behind masks, I just be who I know I am. I am not an angry person. I know that I have a happy personality, and that is what makes me question myself even more.

I assume I do not have a mental illness, such as depression, ADD, or being bi-polar, since I have never experienced such anger and stress until this year. I believe it may be large life decisions like college, yet feel suppressed and frustrated because my choices for college are not mine to make. That does make me feel angry, but it’s more natural because I am given a reason to be mad. Otherwise, my life does not provide me any other reason. I will just see a person I do not know personally and just feel my emotions fly to unreasonable proportions. I become mad at them, my mind convincing my self that they deserve my anger and they should know it. I want to emotionally attack them and damage their self-esteem. I think these horrible thoughts and always realize what I am doing. I know it is wrong and am better off without the random thoughts of anger, but I feel as if it is uncontrolled instinct every time.

Then there is being tired. Since it has started to become cooler out, school and my second job started, I have lost a large amount of sleep compared to my common amount. I drag myself around in the morning, nodding my head on the brink of sleep during late night shifts at my first job, and skipping my homework assignments until the next day. The dark skin around my eyes seemed almost natural at first, until they expanded to a slight dark, pale, blue atop of my skin underneath my eyes. I yawn in the middle of the day, find myself loosing focus during my last class everyday, and putting off my chores. I can easily connect my anger to my lack of sleep, but I know that when I have great amounts of sleep in a past experience my attitude was different. I am a happy person, I do not understand how my attitude towards the world is spiraling in a different direction that I want it to.

Toy Story & Friendship

In a small Fruit Market, a war wages between the Pears and the Apples. The history of the war isn’t well known because it ages so far back than the current generation of the story’s characters. Two main characters, Mac, the Apple, and Bosc, the Pear, meet at an agreement of wanting the war to end. They both choose to adventure through the vast market to each Fruit race in attempt to find what started the war, and hope that it will be the key to stop it. The story revolves mainly on how the two main characters, Mac and Bosc, connect with one another, forget their differences, and decide to overcome the war with each other's help. A similar relevant story to this plot is the story of Disney & Pixar’s Toy Story.

Toy Story is a well known and loved Disney movie full of many morals. The main moral presented is the power of friendship. Woody is a cowboy who lives with a young child named Andy, and is constantly played with. When another toy shows up, named Buzz Light-year, Woody becomes old and close to replaced by Buzz. The story is different from ‘Fruit Market’ in a way as there is no exploration of history and different cultures, and not an actual war, but more of a war between Buzz and Woody. Once replaced momentarily, Woody becomes vengeful, wanting to rid of Buzz and become the favorite toy for Andy again. As soon as Woody attacks Buzz, he also puts himself in danger.
As Buzz and Woody loose sight of Andy during the plot, their arguments seem to only become more frequent in the beginning of the rising action. They constantly fight as if wrapped up in their own small war to want to be with Andy the most. But, as the story and plot line progresses, the two see that they must work together to accomplish their task. This is portrayed strongly in the ending scene when they work together to reach Andy’s moving van. Woody is able to plan out their technique on how to reach the moving van in attempt to return to Andy. While Woody crafts the plan, Buzz is able to ‘glide’ them to the van when they are launched in the air. Their teamwork just grows stronger and stronger through out the movie.

The Legend of Tyler

In the December of 1996, my father received a gaming system called the Nintendo 64 as a Christmas present with several games included. He played constantly when he was home and I, being only two years old, would sit drooling in his lap, watching. My first several years of life I watched and grew up with the games. Once I had begun to develop more with my age I became enticed with the Nintendo, wanting to learn the controls and how the games worked. I played the game that captured my interest the most: The Legend of Zelda, Ocarina of Time. I spent my time learning the defined lines of good and evil and the significance of diversity. What I was able to learn from an aged game shaped my morals and who I am to this day.
In The Legend of Zelda, the main hero of the story, who you are, is Link. He is a young boy who is destined to save the land of Hyrule from an evil man named Ganondorf. These two main characters were chosen to each hold a third of the Triforce. The Triforce had three pieces, in which each represents a symbol. Link held courage, Zelda (not a large participant through out the story) held wisdom, and Ganondorf held power. The Triforce’s symbols, and how the character’s react to situations all portray an understanding of morals. You, the player who decides what to do, are taught what is right from wrong. Link is given decisions to help townsfolk, explore a dangerous map, or even just listen to what other characters have to say. You are only allowed to proceed with the game if you do what is right for other’s and be brave. I lived up to helping others and being kind, knowing that that is the strong and right thing to do. Then there was Ganondorf. Ganondorf tainted the power he was bestowed with, and became greedy for more. Ganondorf murdered, tricked, and destroyed many people and places through out the game, and being young had given me this fear of him and his wrong ways. I was able to learn how evil can grow from too much reign in life and only causes problems. I still remember the game in a way of how I can do better in life by being bold, kind, and caring, instead of taking advantage of people and becoming lustful for more.
There were several races that were acknowledged in The Legend of Zelda. There were the Hylians, Zoras, Gorons, Korkori, and Dekus. These five races all where shown as physically unrelated characters, but all had many things in common that showed me diversity. The Hylians where more human like, having more expansion through out Hyrule, while other races where designated to one district. The Zoras, graceful and kind creatures, lived only near the Hylian lake. The Gorons where strong, stubborn, and simple. They lived near a volcano in the rocky mountains where they would eat delicious rocks all day. The Korkori were small, weak, and hidden from the rest of the districts in a forest, while the Dekus lived in swamps and grassy lands. My mind separated each race from each other almost instinctively by the way each race had isolated themselves within their own lands. They all had problems that you, the Hero of Time, could only fix. In the end of the game, each race helps you to defeat Ganondorf in a final battle. I had learned the simple given fact that everyone should help one another, and as I grew older I realized that the game creators had given different cultures and races to show that working as one in society is a favorable community.
Today in the present, I still pick up a controller and play The Legend of Zelda. I enjoy the game exceedingly due to how it relates to me and my own morals. The Legend of Zelda is a powerful game that influenced me to how I am today and my decision making. I advise young children to learn what is right from wrong at an early stage so that they can grow up as loving, nice people in our world. They would all learn the same as I did, and I want to thank the creators of The Legend of Zelda for teaching me.Thank you.

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Ida B

In the book Ida B., a young character named Ida who begins to lose what she had close to her. Her mother becomes diagnosed with cancer, her precious orchard is cut down, and she is now forced to go to a public school. Through out this story Katherine Hannigan creates a well developed change through Ida’s personality and thinking process and a strong conflict with an ending resolve. Hannigan is able to show Ida B.’s perspective strongly throughout the plot and show how the conflicts and problems in the plot affect change.

The first thing that Hannigan shows the readers is Ida’s original personality. She is happy, carefree, diligent, and positive. Ida is home-schooled by her parents, showing that she is very close to them in the beginning of the book. She is loving and very enjoyable when she is with them. Also Ida’s only friends in the book is the orchard of trees and brook by the house. She consistently goes to the trees and talks to them as if they were real people. Then there is conflict. Her mother is diagnosed with cancer. This creates a large problem that the main character, Ida B., must overcome somehow. Following her mother’s cancer, Ida B. is forced to go to a public school and their family sells part of the orchard, which is cut down for new neighbors to move in. Ida B., devastated with the new lifestyle, decides that she will hate school, hate the children there, and hate everything that even exists. She closes herself off from the world, even her parents, because of her hatred, and plans out a way to scare the new neighbors away.The main conflict of the book slowly transforms into how Ida B. reacts to the original problems. Everything becomes worse because of her decision to close everyone out of her life. Even her parents. She is almost shy to talk about her problems to her parents, showing that she has repressed her feelings from even her own parents, her past’s closest connections. Ida hardens her heart so that nothing can get in, until she begins to connect with her teacher. Miss Washington is a kind teacher who tries hard to get Ida B. to open up at least a small amount. She has Ida read stories to the class and this is when Ida begins to adjust to her life again. Ida begins to see how everyone deserves a chance, she can not decide to hate them, and she must apologize for being so rude to the classmates before. Ida sees inside herself that it is okay to open up to others, and when she slowly begins to she becomes happier.

My Personal Compass

          In class we have drafted and outlined our own Personal Compasses. My own consisted of four main topics: Instinct, Independence, Creativity, and Perspective. Each of these traits help push me to make my own decisions and contribute to my own morals. My Personal Compass is overall what I live by.
          The first main trait I had decided to place on my compass was Instinct. This is a natural thing that everyone has, even animals. We all have natural reactions that tell us what is wrong and right. I follow my instincts more than anything else in my life. Whenever I am in a situation of picking between two separate choice my instinct almost immediately tells me which I would rather choose and go with. Also, almost every time I follow my instinct, the end of the entire situation turns out for the better. Instinct leads you to the right path almost every time, and it has always positively influenced my life.
           Another trait that I put on my Personal Compass was Independence. Independence is a more secluded, yet helpful, way that I am able to have. I see it as a way of being proud, self-sufficient, and more self associated. Being independent can allow someone to be able to work alone in situations without needing help. I use my own independence often to do school projects because if someone who presents poor work wants to be my partner in a project, then I will able able to say no and work alone with out an obstacle in my way. I see independence as a beneficiary trait because when I am older, and no one is there to help me up,  I will be able to control the environment I live in by myself. Although I admire the functions of Independence, I believe that the offers of help from others is always a good thing to accept as long as you know the limits of responsibility.
    My third personal piece is Perspective. Perspective is how something is seen and understood. Everyone has a different perspective, but some of them may be similar. I see perspective as a way that I can connect to other’s thoughts and emotions. I want to be able to understand why people react to certain situations and not just assume why. I try to use different perspectives everyday of my life and I plan to broaden my horizons. Perspective helps me make better decisions that benefit not only me, but also others. If you are able to see from many perspectives than I feel as if that would help craft you into a better person who can help others.
    Lastly, my strongest personal trait is Creativity. This is how I define myself and compare to others. I see my imagination as unlimited and constantly changing. It helps me come up with different choices, express myself, and even influence other people. Everyone has creativity, but they all have different ways of showing it. I feel as if creativity is what makes me stand out from the crowd. I have my own imagination, with my own thoughts that no one will be able to fully understand. I don’t see it so much as a bad thing, but more of my own personal bubble which I can keep to myself. Everyone has their own personal bubble.

     Today in class, me and four other students (Sydney, Daniel, and Chandler) all connected our Personal compasses together to show that not only we are all connected, but that we also can share our seperate veiws. This is our Crafting Video for our Personal Compasses