I dare you

“I dare you to do __ and ___. If you don’t do it you are a coward!” Out of boredoms, people often dare each other to do things that they may feel uncomfortable of doing it because it’s dangerous or embarrassing. Personally, I think daring people is an immature act. Immature people often take daring as fun and amusing, but instead it’s just an excellent way to ruin one’s day. I never quite remember myself being dared and accept to do it. Often times I’m just a bystander who watches a poor victim of a daring game embarrassing himself in front of his friend. I remember once when one of my friends dares me to cross a street when the stop sign is still green. I of course rejected the offer and instead dare him back to do it. To my surprise, this person actually accepted the offer and went across the street. He was almost hit by a bus and if he was like a second ahead of himself, he would be in the sky by now. After he successfully crossed the street, he was happy and dared me to follow him. I rejected the offer despite being called a coward or a chicken. I hated people when they take dare lightly. Some dares may result in a unexpected consequence and ruin one’s life with life and death situation.

Welcome back

        What did I do during my winter break?? I pretty much slept for the first week of my holiday. Every day I would stay up til 2 o’clock in the morning and slept till 12 in the noon. I didn’t do much, besides doing my math homework and some other subject’s assignment. I went to play basketball at UMC with couple of friends and watched a movie called Megamind. It was really awesome. I went to Japan on the 23, and it was great fun. I went with my family on a tour. The first day was pretty much spent on the plane and bus ride to the hotel. However, the hotel has hot spring and the dinner was awesome. The second day we visited an extremely famous temple, which the temple is cover with gold foil and beautiful drawing and carving. The next day was horrible. I was stuck on the bus for like 9 hours because of the snow and traffic jam. The highway was close and the road was blocked due to traffic accidents. It was said to be the biggest snow they have seen for the past 10 years. We missed a lot of famous sites however we got to have snow fight while waiting on the sidewalk since the bus is not moving at all. The rest of the trip was awesome. I did tons of shopping and eat tons of Japanese food (No Chinese food by the way). I didn’t do any New Year countdown.

America

        American dream!!! “America is a free nation full with opportunity and fortune. Everyone has the same chance as any other to succeed!!” Everything occurs by chance, but is it really possible that EVERYONE has equal opportunity as other to succeed. I strongly disagree! The world itself is cruel and merciless. Everyone is born into different families with different social status, wealth and background. Those who are luck to be in a rich family are more likely to succeed. You will have a great advantage from the beginning of your life compare to other little babies who are born in family that is not so rich. You will be given extremely good education, learning environment, and good nutrition. Although rich family may not necessary have that good of a family relationship that the baby, often times, is raised by his or her nanny, this baby has great advantages in a sense of education and opportunity. With a better education and relatively good wealth, the kid is able to go to a better school, being hired into jobs through parent’s relationship with big business owner, etc. Although you may argue that often time these rich kids are not as hard working as those poor kid that they have no motivation to work hard that they already have a perfect life, these poor kids will have to work extra hard in order to achieve what the rich kid can with a relatively small amount of work. Life is unfair, nothing is fair.

Harsh Words

Many words related to people’s race, family, character and background that provoke strong emotion are often referred as harsh word. These words are often bad words that condemn your race, background or personality or just sarcastic statement that often let people feel uncomfortable with. Words that usually make me angry are words that sarcastically criticize me or my family due to stereotype. Also words that condemn me as an individual with profanity and hostile slang words make me mad. Besides the wording, the tone of your speech can also be harsh. When a person is sarcastically saying a word that usually has a neutral meaning, one might feel offended by it due to their misunderstandings or it’s deeply related to their strong emotions. For example, if someone sarcastically say that you are a genius, the first thing you are thinking of is not that he or she is complimenting you, but instead saying it so that the word has a second meaning which is condemning you. Finally words that’s related to people’s political view or nationality may provoke strong feelings too. For example, it may be offensive to say that all Asians who are speaking in mandarin are considered as Chinese. Some people may interpret the “Chinese” as calling them as citizen of China.

Mockingbird So Far

To Kill a Mockingbird, by Harper Lee, is about a woman’s childhood. The narrator is a young girl nicknamed Scout who lived in Maycomb, Alabama along with his father and brother. The story was set during the Great depression, when people were generally all pretty poor and still discriminating the African American. The chapter starts out describing Scout’s background that she lost her mom when she was only 2 and she spent most her time playing with her brother Jem and neighbor Dill. In the summer, the children would play games such as imitating the Radley family, a infamous family that is disliked by the Maycomb community, and playing dare games. Due to Scout’s precocious knowledge, being able to read difficult stories at a young age, she found school to be boring that it was too easy for her. Scout’s father Atticus Finch is the main focus of the story that through Scout’s perspective, the reader will discover how Black are treated during this time period and realistically depict how not all White are racists. Atticus is a well respected lawyer of the community, who treated everyone equally despite their race. Atticus discussed how black is like a mockingbird that does no harm to human, yet people are trying to kill it.

Response to the Veil

When the congregation first saw Mr. Hooper entering the church with a black veil covering his face, they were murmuring to each other and wondering whether the man is really the minister they have known. Although the minister spoke in a normal, usual tone, people were scared and terrified by his sermon, which seemed more powerful and dark. As if the congregation were paranoid, they felt like the minister is creeping into their minds, trying to discover their sins which they may not even consciously know about. The congregation acted this way because usually black veil usually symbolizes mourns for the dead and to cover their sadness so it won’t affect the other. With a minister wearing a black veil on a happy Sunday, the whole joyful atmosphere is disrupted with a strange atmosphere. Like most puritans in the past, they are extremely paranoid when it comes to the issue of guilt and sin. They think they might have committed sins that they don’t even know about and constantly want to go to church and allow the minister to free and purify their soul with his preaching. In a present world, people may just feel awkward like the congregation but never be scared of being creep upon by the minister.

Parable

One day in the medieval period, a rich knight is searching around the country for a good sword. This knight is a greedy man and loves anything that shines. When a black smith shows him some really nice swords, he rejects all of them because they are all made of iron with a silver metallic appearance on it without any attractive decorations. After meeting with more than 100 black smiths, he finally sees a sword he has always dreamt of. This sword is made of 100% gold on the blade, with red ruby decorated on the handle and fancy designs of dragons on the hilt. As the knight held the sword under the sun, the golden blade makes him feel invincible and magnificent. On the other hand, an experienced knight is also searching around the country for a good sword. Wanting to please him, all the black smiths he has met are trying to sell him fancy swords with diamonds and gold on them. However, the experienced knight rejects the offers and buys a seemly ordinary sword made of iron with a simple and plain design. One day, during a civil war, the 2 knights face each other face to face on the battle field. Before the fight, the rich knight arrogantly declares, “Ha, what an ordinary sword, you shall die under my almighty golden sword.” With only 1 round, the rich knight’s golden sword quickly becomes dull with a chipped blade. Soon enough, the rich knight is defeated by the experienced knight with a simple and ordinary sword.