chocolater’s blog

Education has become more important to me as I am confronted with a new family dilemna. A family member of mine has been going through some depression problems due to losing his job and I need to incorporate my basic knowledge of Psychology to help my relative. My relative only trusts me for advice as almost everyone he has relied on failed to support him in his time of need and thus setting forth a whole new motivation and reason for me to incorporate Psychology and what possible gestures I can make to provide the help that my relative is in immediate need of.

To accomplish the best results, I am looking towards learning more about deppression and mood disorders. I am trying to look for information for depression as I look for possible solutions. So far, I have learned of some like prescribed pills and psychiatric therapy. As for mood disorders, I have also found some pills but unlike depression mood disorders are much more maladaptive and can have severe damaging results to one's relationship.

I am detemined to help my relative as I would be devastated to know that he is not doung well in his life. Most of his family has forgotten him and I am not going to be one of them. I will make sure that Ican help him. Through my education in Psychology, I will convey the best aid to buffer my relative's depression. I WILL HELP HIM! I WILL NOT FAIL! ( I used relative as I was not comfortable enough to talk about my relationship with him directly).

Recently, I have learned from a book that during Pres. Bush's term he passed a bill known as No Child Left Behind(NCLB)and its negative effects on the educational system . NLCB proposes the importance of standarized testing. So this meant that teachers were to teach only towards a good score on the nation's standarized testing exams. California's exam, the STAR test, I believe can dictate a way schools teach their students and whenever teachers teach for tests, it usually has a negative effect. This is so because the passion out of learning is over-shadowed by the incentives that are present if a school was to get a good score on the STAR test.

No Child Left Behind can also dictate the overall strategy that a teacher might want to approach. For instance, a teacher might want to teach the importance of a certain event in history because it changed the lives of many people. Well, say the star test added a broader test for history that included more things to learn and more events to test. This can be bad because a broader test means less time for teachers to emphasize on important topics that should be looked upon simply for the fact they were life changing. Students and teachers should be the ones picking the curriculum, not the test.

I believe that NCLB was a very stupid action on the President's part. It was just made so that the United States' test scores can compete with other European and Asian countries who tend to have great scores. I believe that scores on a test say nothing about a nation it is simply a number. It absolutely does not say anything about the overall happiness of a nation's people.

So far, I have been feeling more and more in control of my classes at CCSF. I have Had some minor setbacks, but it has been improving rapidly with my improved effort. I work a full time job, so full effort meant writing essays that usually took me until early morning to finish. It has been manageable so far even though, surprisingly, I get a lot less sleep than I had ever had.

My future advice for any working student is do not get a full time job unless you are absolutely required to. Working takes energy and time, two things that should be devoted to school. Barring those students that go to school to just socialize, all students should do their best because in the end they are going to school for benefits to themselves. 

One more advice that i can offer is KEEP A PLANNED SCHEDULE. I have found it to be very useful. Especially now that most classes use Worth Publisher's portal cards. Schedules are also very helpful because it gives one something to start on. What I mean by this is that for people like me, who usually dont know what to start on first, get the help of having a study plan and knock out assignment after assignment quickly, efficiently, and conveniently. 

During the summer I read a book by Mitch Albom, "Tuesdays with Morrie". It was about a student who had promised an old proffesor, Morrie, that He will continously come and visit his favorite proffesor. Through the years, the student gradually forgot about Morrie only to coincidentally watch a news report that had involved Morrie. As he watch Morrie he learned that Morrie was ill and very close to his death. He then remembered that he had promised Morrie that he will never forget him. The student wanted to honor his word and dearched for Morrie.

After learning of Morrie's adress, the student quickly bought some plane tickets to visit. When the student arrived, Morrie was very welcoming. He invited the student to come in and learn his final lesson, LIFE. He tells the student of how his approaching death taught him so much. He explains how he appreciated life so much more now that he is ill.

And then as I write this blog it came to me. I do not want any regrets in my life. I feel that education is a privelege to me and I should seize this great oppotunity. I have not been performing to my full potential and I am willing to correct that. I no longer want to be that mediocre student. I want to be more! I think of all my cousins in my native country andI imagine how much they would appreciate an oppurtunity like this. And I apologize for the unfinished narrative but I want to be HEARD, but not identified. This is why I had to insert this into my blog.

As I walk around the campus, I took a good look around me. What am I going to choose for a career? I then realized that I had to find out before I pursue the wrong field. So that day, I just spent the whole day thinking, even at work I was thinking. I was thinking then, I looked at my fellow employees. They looked very unhappy. I could not imagine working like them for the rest of my life. Working just to pay the bills, I thought to myself I have got to get a hold of my happiness. And then, it came to me. Human resouces, Yup that's what I should pursue.

The next day, I tried to gather more information about the proffesion, Human resouces. I had found out that they focused on employee happiness and workers' rights. This was perfect for me. I would love to make the working enviroment pleasant for everyone. And for everyone that has worked we all know just how some co-workers can be. I would like to help employees that feel opressed or picked on in their job

My point in writing this blog is that any of us can just find out what career we want to pursue. I do not wish to speak for anyone but, I know it is difficult to find out what we really want to pursue. So advice to anyone who is still undeclared for their major, just be patient. Patience let's us make better decision because you do not want to do something that you are not happy about for 20-30yrs.

Why do some people um appreciate their life here in the United States. I moved to this country at a very young age. I was very excited at all the new things that I was promised to experience. To be honest, I expected only white people here. My expectations turn out very inaccurate. I even met a lot of people that even spoke my native language. As i grew up, I experienced a lot of different things. I became involved on many afterschool programs.

When i came to junior high, things got difficult. Preteens can be very insensitive. I was not picked on but my friends were. It was hard for me to hear all the crazy and bad things they were experiencing. It soon became hard for me to take and I decided to take action. I had told a councilor but they did not do anything. This just made me feel worse about my friends' situation. Hoping that I can solve the problem myself, I confronted the kid that was picking on my friends'. The kid did not take it very lightly. He asked what I was going to about it. I did not know what to say to him. Not only that he was twice my size but, I had no plans for a fight. I then tried to make him laugh, and to my surprise,it worked. I then asked him if he could leave my friends alone and he did.

I then realized that maybe that kid was just searching for attention. I was thinking maybe he was looking for a kinship that is in friends. I then realized how much friends matter to me. I learned that they make being in puberty just a little less difficult.. LOL  But we have to be cautious on what type of friends that we have. We have to know which friends are actually friends. I am pretty sure that most of us had our share of bad friends. They are for some of us the reason for insecurity and doubt.

For me i now just keep in contact with a few, but very reliable friends. I wouldn't trade for a million dollars if I was offered. Although I know that they wouldn't mind as long as thay get a chunk. LOL Do not lose those friends no matter what!

What is education? Many consider it the key to a successful life; some just feel it is a complete waste of time. No matter how we perceive education, only one thing is for certain, and that there is no clear definition for education.

Many of us start our lives as very happy individuals. Most of us are pretty much unaware of our surroundings. Then at some point in our lives, education is introduce. Many people that were fortunate enough to have education take theirs for granted. They constantly complain about how much they hate school and how much they would love if school was over. I was one of these people. I took my education for granted.

I entered highschool as an under achieving student. I only cared about my image and never about what would benefit me in the future. My GPA was very low during my freshman year. But the sad thing was that this did not even bother me. I was fine with just blending in. I lacked motivation and the drive to succeed. The following year I had gotten worse. I had no concerns for school. And as anyone could have predicted, I had gotten to the point where I no longer showed up for school.

Only one positive thing came out of my truancy and that was my job. During my first months at work, i loved it. I was livng each day in luxury. Each day I was spending, spending on pointless material that quickly lost its value. Then one day at work it just hit me. I hated my life. I had nothing I had no education. Sure I had a job but I asked myself," Did I really want to live like this for my whole life?". I was sick of living a life tha lacked purpose. I then knew from that moment, I had to got back to school.

I quickly got enrolled back at my school. It was difficult. I had to make up many classes. it was very hard and time consuming. I even had to go evening school in order to graduate on time. But I manged to catch up and even graduate on stage. I never had any regrets getting enrolled back into school. It not only gave mr\e a diploma for college but also a new found awareness. I was aware that education was important and if one wants to live a better life one must get an education to do so.

I now enter college with a new ability, the ability to appreciate education and what education can do for me. I am now aware that not only can education help one succeed but, education can be the key to happiness if learned to be appreciated.

What do you think about Mccain's VP?