Sucess

How bad do you want it?

Seriously. 

How bad do you want it?

Eric Thomas once said, “When you want to succeed as bad as you want to breathe

Only then will you be successful”

I’m talking about sacrifice

Not the sacrifice that Jesus made when he was nailed to a cross and died for our sins ever so long ago because

We are just talking about basketball

I mean, how bad do you want to succeed

How bad do you want that starting spot on the team and to come home and find

That letter from the college of your dreams saying they want you

I mean are you willing to lose the luxuries of lazy afternoons

To miss out on Saturday night parties

To go home with twisted ankles and sore shoulders

To give it everything you’ve got

I’m talking about passion

Knowing that there is nothing proving that you will reach all of your goals

And being ok with the unknown and still continuing to work for it

Toni Alfonso said, “It is far better to shoot an air ball than to not shoot at all for fear of missing.”

Are you willing to go through tons of air balls and turnovers just to get that 

one good shot?

To get yelled at by coach just to eventually get the pat on the back

To work everyday to slowly build yourself up

Do you want it kind of bad?

Or really bad?

The Electric Train Set

The Electric Train Set

Passion is like an electric train set

Around and around with what seems like no purpose and nothing to look towards

Getting faster and faster in that infinite circle around the Christmas tree

Its small metal wheels turning one after another

Continuing to keep inching its way along the track with what seems like

No destination

I mean, how can there be one?

If the track is just in a circle what is there to reach?

And don’t you think after countless trips around the railroad

The wheels would ware down?

The black paint will begin to chip away and the once sharp edges will become

Smooth wedges

The passion will begin to fade and start to slip away only to be regained

And one day, that train will eventually run off its tracks

One day it will break free of the entrapment of the circle and get to explore

It will build up just enough speed to make it over the tracks and onto the

 Smooth, wood floor

Get to finally improve and actually make it somewhere

But don’t get me wrong, there will be obstacles

That small electric train will have to dodge

The little hands of toddlers reaching for their makers and crayons

The furry paws of the family dog racing to get the leftovers of dinner

The black leather shoes of  dad who just came home from work and more than anything… just want to sit down

The peep toed heels of mom trying to clean up the house

Before leaving for her late night meeting

All of them really just want the train back on the track

They don’t believe it could make it anywhere

All posing as roadblocks to end the train’s journey

To destroy all that it has worked for

Thinking that it would run into the edge of the cabinet and get stuck

And fail

You see, they’ve never experienced passion like the little electric train

And if the electric trains survives all that

There’s one last thing to avoid

Maybe the worst of all if it does in fact encounter it

The ever so feared…dead batteries

When the passion is lost

When the goal becomes uninteresting and the drive to improve becomes inexistent 

When all the electric train has worked for seems to become a blur and disappear

There was never any guarantee

After all the train was searching for a station that might not even exist

But the little electric train must realize what it truly wants

If it wants to be stuck on that redundant track forever or if it wants to be free

And to reach its goals

If it wants to give up or to pull out every last bit of power left in the batteries

To use its passion as a drive to keep going

For the love of success

And to one day 

Reach the station

"Umbrella"

I decided to choose "Umbrella" by Rihanna for my song analysis because I already like the song and love Rihanna! The first thing I noticed was the point of view and who is speaking. Rihanna writes, "You had my heart, and we'll never be worlds apart." She is writing in first person referring to her own heart. She also uses second person in talking to you. I find that it creates a more relatable and personal song and think it is a good technique in song writing. 
I secondly noticed interesting diction used throughout the song. Some lines would end with a sharper sound, and some would end with a duller sound such as "forever." I think that Rihanna uses sharper sounds when she makes statements of reassurance and commitment such as , "These fancy things will never come in between" and "You're part of my entity, here for infinity." On the other hand, she uses duller sounds on more certain and positive lines, such as, "Know that we'll still have each other." It is obvious that Rihanna puts a lot of work and thought into her writing and is successful because of it.

Reading Response

This week I started a new book called "In These Girls, Hope is a Muscle" by Madeleine Blais. In the first pages of the book, a player describes a game where a team is totally out of sync and lose the championship. She describes the quiet bus ride home and feelings of disgust. The detailed explanation made me revisit these horrible losses throughout the season and remember what it is like to lose hope.
When you're as passionate about a sport as I am about basketball, you know that the worst feeling in the world is losing. It's just absolutely horrible. When your team loses, it feels like everything you've worked so hard for disappears. Eventually you get over it and work even harder, but for that bus ride home and sleepless night, all you can think about is what you could have changed. I'm sure that in the book, the mood will change and move  towards the topic of recovering and keeping hope.

Literacy Narrative

I have chosen to continue working on my literacy narrative, "One Comment." I chose this over my other writing for two main reasons, I enjoyed writing the piece and because I want to continue to develop my voice. I love telling stories, so this writing task was not especially difficult for me. I'm actually kind of excited to revisit this writing.
The two traits of good writing I want to work on are voice and word choice. I've been told that I write with pretty good voice, but there is always room for improvement. I find that voice adds to any piece of writing, especially when telling a story in great detail. Word choice is also crucial to a good paper. Although, that is one thing I struggle with. I don't exactly have a huge vocabulary, so I want to work on developing it and improve my literacy narrative.

Jane Goodall's Plagarism

If I could use one word to describe what has happened in the writing of Jane Goodall's new book it would be "unfortunate." Think about all of the things Goodall has accomplished in her scientific studies of chimps and the worldwide recognition she has gotten. So much respect is lost for her because of her plagiarism. Goodall will be looked at very differently from a professional stand point. She truly messed up badly.

Goodall's plagiarism is very serious. Not only will it lose her respect, but it is also illegal. She stole someone else's work, and that is not ok under any circumstances. “This was a long and well researched book,” Goodall said in an e-mail, “and I am distressed to discover that some of the excellent and valuable sources were not properly cited, and I want to express my sincere apologies. I hope it is obvious that my only objective was to learn as much as I could so that I could provide straightforward factual information distilled from a wide range of reliable sources.” After reading this quote, I can tell Goodall didn't intend any harm, but that still doesn't make it permissible. I think she should first write apologies to all of the authors she stole work from. Next, she should go back it edit the whole book again and fix any errors in not giving credit to others. Only then should she be allowed to put her name on the book and share it with the world.

Yes or No to NC?...

In my quest to figure out whether "Nervous Conditions" should be a part of next year's syllabus, I thought the most logical thing to do would be to take a look at what the main purpose of this course is.  One thing stressed a lot through out the year is this one questions: "How do culture and community influence who we are?" I've decided to look into "Nervous Condtions" and find out how this question is answered throughout the book.

First off, let's look at the surface of it all. Culture: "The arts and other manifestations of human intellectual achievement regarded collectively." Obviously the environment of NC is very different from the one we live in. Let's think about location and customs. Tambu and her family live in Africa, and as we all know, have many different customs. I'd say that the most prominent of them all is the cast system. The men are given the education, ability to drive, money, and basically everything else over women. Just think about how much that effects the women and how their lives are lived.

What about community? It is defined as "a group of people living together in one place, esp. one practicing common ownership." This is closely related to culture. It all has to do with who you surround yourself. When Tambu is around her family, she participates in the cast system and customs because she wants to fit in with her family and show respect. Nobody wants to be the odd man out, so I think community and who you are with makes a huge impact on how you live your life.

Because this question is answered so clearly throughout NC, I would say that it should be a part of next year's curriculum. Personally, I didn't exactly love this book for it's plot, but I do think that it was a good tool for answering our question and led to a lot of deep class discussions. Most importantly, it gave students a new way of looking at our world in a way of understanding just how fortunate we are. At least, it did for me.