Success or Failure

How do you define success?

I think success is the feeling of being satisfied in certain areas of your life. Success is like passion because success brings happiness into your life. I think you are the only one that can define if you are successful in life and no one else’s opinion really matters. Many think that being successful is about having money to blow or owning expensive things.  I think can be successful in some parts of your life and other parts may still no be yet fulfilled.

“Success is to be measured not so much by the position that one has reached in life as by the obstacles which he has overcome.” By Booker T. Washington

“The price of success is hard work, dedication to the job at hand, and the determination that whether we win or lose, we have applied the best of ourselves to the task at hand.” By Vince Lombardi

One way you can be successful is if your personal goals are being met. I think this is the easiest way to be successful because you set your own limits and is usually something you for sure will make happen. If you are an optimistic person and you are always looking at the best in situations that’s being successful. Not letting negatives comments stop you from achieving your personal goals no matter how big or small they are. Chris J. McCandless set himself to go into the wild and live off the land with the least supplies possible. Even though he did not make it out alive I think he was successful because at the end of the day he did what made him happy. In one of his books before his death he noted in a page, “I HAVE HAD A HAPPY LIFE AND THANK YOU LORD. GOODBYE AND MAY GOD BLESS ALL!” Living in the wild was personal success for Chris because only he understood the happiness and accomplishment it would bring to his life. Others would never understand his goal but he achieved it. Like Charles Bukowski said, “Find what you love and let it kill you.” Chris did exactly that. He fulfilled his personal goals and therefore I believe he was successful.

Another way to be successful is if you have positive relationships. It is hard to succeed in anything on your own. It usually takes a team to support and encourage you to follow your passion when you are trying to give up. Positive relationships also at times help you reach your goals quicker. Chris McCandless would have never made it to Alaska if it wasn’t for all the people he met along the way. If it wasn’t for all the people that gave him rides when hitchhiked he would have never gotten to Alaska. Also as an example Jan and Bob were a positive relationships Chris had. They encouraged Chris to let his family know he was going to Alaska. Positive friends will give advice that you don’t want to hear. Good friends care about your wellbeing mentally emotionally and physically. Sometimes you need someone to check you and tell you when you’re doing something imprudent and I think a couple of people told Chris but they still supported his decision.

What helps you succeed in your community? What prevents your success?

Family is what helps many succeed. Regardless if you have a bad or good relationship family is always there for you. Even if they don’t support your goals they don’t abandon you. Family can help you in many ways being financially or mentally. In Chris’ case even though he was angry at his parents, they still supported him. When he graduated his parents expressed, “their desire to buy him a new car as a graduation present and offer to pay for law school if there wasn’t enough money left in his college fund to cover it” (Into the Wild). I think was a more than nice gesture from his parent because not all of us have the luxury of our parents being able to afford things like that. Chris parents by offering him the car and paying his college where trying to help him succeed educationally. They knew he liked helping people and tried to encourage him to become a lawyer so he could fulfill his dream but Chris had other ideas. I think his parents were mad at first because he didn’t continue his education but regardless he was their son and loved him.

Money is an extreme factor that prevents many from succeeding. Like many say money makes the world go around, it is sad but true. Money can prevent someone achieving their goals and passion. Even though being successful is not all materialistic it is a necessity for many things. For many people money is essential to be educationally successful. Not everyone receives financial aid and need to pay for their education out of pocket. Many get discourage to have to spend money in education when they need money to pay bills therefore forcing them not to fully succeed in life. Karina says, “I need to survive so I need to get enough money enough money so first they think about that. They are thinking about surviving—and passion—it could come after I guess” (Passion Project). Lack of money can in the way of success. I’m not saying it’s impossible to reach your goals if you don’t have money but it sure makes it difficult. People have to work hard to be able to succeed. Chris “was holding a full time job, flipping Quarter Pounders at McDonald’s “(Into the Wild). Even though Chris burned his money at first I think he realized the need of money to survive if he ever wanted to make it to Alaska.

"This Is My Education"

     Jeff Bliss is a student that attended Duncanville High School that voiced his frustration when he felt his history teacher was not teaching the class adequately. He had dropped out of high and after a year of dropping out he realized the importance of an education and returned. I think many kids nowadays drop out because school just doesn’t interest them at all. They see no point on it and if teachers don’t engage with them their choice on leaving school becomes pleasant. Students lack motivation because they go through the same routine every day. They need something that will spark their interest and if teachers would engage in conversations they would know what it is that drives their students. What Jeff says not all students learn the same is true. There are some students that learn by visuals, auditory, or kinesthetic and the teacher should be able to tell what each student is. In his rant with his teacher he tells her, “You want kids to come in your class? You want them to get excited for this? You want a kid to change and start doing better? You got to touch his frickin’ heart.” I see nothing wrong with what he did or say. He never lost his temper he spoke in a stern voice I think to make his point across to the teacher. I don’t think he was trying to disrespect the teacher he was just fed up with going to class and not actually learning anything valuable. This video going viral I think is great because it opens the eyes of adults that some students are serious and are eager to learn. It also shows students that sometimes you have to stand up and not be afraid. It is YOUR education and it is YOUR future if you don’t fight for it who will?

Into The Wild

SUMMARY:

     Into The Wild Jon Krakauer is about the death of Christopher Johnson McCandless who turned up dead in Alaska in April of 1992. Chris grew up in an upper middleclass home with his parents and sister, Walt, Billie and Carrine. From a young age Chris was different than other kids he tried to excel in everything he did. He played instruments, liked hiking, and had a thing for helping out others. He was a great son and student but had trouble being told what to do. Chris did not want to attend college. He thought it was useless but attended just to please his parents. He attended Emory University but as soon as he graduated he cut all ties with his family. Chris decided to travel and create his own adventures. He did this for two years, the last great odyssey he wanted to achieve was to walk into Alaska and live off the land with the least supplies possible. This journey turned out to be fatal and Chris did not make out alive. In this book the author is trying to have an insight on why Chris decide to do this and why did he disappear from his family. Family members and friends he made along his trips are interviewed. They try to help the reader know who Chris really was. Christopher Johnson McCandless impacted many people’s life.

     The way Into the Wild by Jon Krakauer intersects with what we’ve discussed in class is privilege. The book shows how a person born into a privileged class can have advantage. Born into upper middle class has its perks. One great benefit is having an amazing education. Upper middle class schools have money for extra curriculums that public schools are not able to afford. Children in upper middle class are able to explore different things becoming knowledgeable and intelligent. The author explains Chris’ childhood and how “after receiving a high score on standardized test, Chris was placed in an accelerated program for gifted students”. Not all public schools offer programs for accelerated students. Sometimes kids that are gifted have to stay in a class which is too slow and I think it can affect a gifted student. Instead of helping a gifted student progress his knowledge he is left behind and is never able to fully expand his education. Upper middle class parents are able to afford sending their kids to college. They expect their children to succeed and they know their children’s education will not stop in high school. When Chris tells his parents he does not want to attend to college they did not want to hear it. His dad says,” A college degree is not something we don’t take lightly, OK, and we worked hard not to be able to afford to send our kids to good schools”. They had the luxury to send their kids off to school and encouraged their kid to go to school. My parents sort of encouraged me to continue college but they said with at least graduating high school it would be enough. Even if you are privileged being born into upper middle class doesn’t mean you are necessarily happy. In this case Chris seemed not to care about money, class or race; he wanted to follow his passion.

     Another way this book intersects with what we’ve talked about in class is passion.  The passion some people have for the wilderness can be bizarre for others. It’s like the stillness and emptiness of the wild fulfills them.  Many upper middle class probably don’t support this passion because being in the wild means to disengage from all materialistic things. The passion Chris had for the wilderness “in a sense, was too powerful to be quenched by human contact”. He liked time to himself where he could read and reflect; the wilderness offered him that.  I think we all can relate with him because who doesn’t like alone time, the thing with Chris was that he liked being alone for extended periods of time. When passion makes a person extremely happy it makes them want to share that happiness.  The conviction you feel for something makes you want every one you encounter experience the same emotions.  Chris shared his passion with Ron Franz in a letter reading, “The very basic core of a man’s living spirit is his passion for adventure. The joy of life comes from our encounters with new experiences, and hence there is no greater joy than to have an endlessly changing horizon, for each day to have a new and different sun.” Even though Franz was already an old man Chris wanted him to experience the wild. He knew Franz was a man that was living a daily routine but he wanted him to experience the wild at least once. Many can’t comprehend Chis’ passion for the wilderness because it was much more like an obsession, but if anything made you tremendously happy wouldn’t you be obsessed with it too?

Same Love

This video is about homosexuality in our society nowadays. There all these stereotypes of sexuality. How this

video relates to what we've learn in class is that it's difficult for society to accept change;  if it's whites accepting colored people as equal or heterosexual to accept homosexuality. If a little girl is athletic she's looked upon as boyish. If a little boy is emotional, he is considered feminine. We are never going to be able to please society because there's always going to be something wrong either by your race, sexuality, gender, or even the mere fact of how you dress. This song says, "I might not be the same, but that's not important. No freedom till we're equal, damn right I support it". Sometimes people are afraid to even support homosexuals because even if you're not people start to tease you. I'll be honest and say that saying "you're gay" as a joke has become such an everyday thing we don't stop and think of what we are really saying. Words can hurt someone so much whiteout even trying.  Even though you're not gay it's great if you support and try to open other people's eyes.

Growing Roses is Concrete

Jeff Duncan Andrade in his speech talks about children growing up in urban areas. Children that grow in urban areas go through incidents in their daily life that a normal person would never have to endure. They see many deaths and homicides in a year; a child can lose someone close in their lives. Kids are expected to go to school and not talk about their life problems. School wants kids to care about excelling in state tests and what not, but their basic needs are not being met. I think many kids nowadays have many more problems than any time before that school comes irrelevant to their life. Due to personal or family problems kids have to grow up fast. When kids don’t have a role model that has actually succeeded to going to college it makes it hard to believe in themselves. I think in urban areas children’s parents have to work a lot or are too busy to show affection to their children. The feeling of not being accepted or loved might make the child’s confidence level be low. I think low confidence can be a problem in school because a shy kid won’t ask questions or ask for help. The teachers should be welcoming and in engage with each student. Why should student care about learning if the one teaching shows no care for the student? Andrade says, “Urban schools are not failing. They are doing what they are design to do. If they weren’t; if they were really failing then we would be doing things radically different”.  He believes the system is aware that students are disengaged in school but yet do not do anything to change the curriculum. It seems schools are preparing young people to be failures because that’s what they were born into. I think the reason kids are not graduating is because the government don’t want the minorities that live in urban areas to be educated.

Discuss…

1.       Who truly cares about creating more efficient students?

2.       How does his speech relate to privilege?

3.       If more cities followed Andrade’s teaching system do you think it would actually work and more students would be engaged in school?

Deal Breakers

Attending college can be challenging at times, obstacles present themselves in the most inconvenient times. Even though I am currently in school there have been times where I just don’t feel like I can keep going. One deal breaker that I think many go through is financial difficulties. Even though there is financial aid not everyone qualifies. Most often also as students we are not aware of all the different kinds of financial help the school offers. I think classes are expensive especially if you are a full time student not only are the classes expensive but the material used in class are also. Due to my parents’ income and mine I wasn’t able to receive financial aid. That’s one of the reasons I wouldn’t go to school full time since I had to pay out of pocket. I dreaded attending school because of its cost. Last semester when I got into my math class the teacher told us the materials we needed for class. I was shocked that I had to buy a $130 calculator plus the $100 textbook. In all honesty I was so angry I wanted to just drop the class but I didn’t. I just think it’s ridiculous that I had to pay for something I will never use again. It’s is difficult at times because sometimes you have to put other financial things on hold to get an education.

Another potential deal breaker would be my family’s opinion on me attending school. Like always parents want you to succeed in all but I think cultural ideas seem to be stronger than education. As a Latina family is extremely important. Family can either support your dreams or crush them. Sometimes my mom’s comments discourage me. In my culture girls usually end up married or knocked up by 18. If you are 21 or older without haven’t been in any of those situations is like there’s something wrong with you. If you choose to go to school and say I don’t want to start my own family until I’m done with my career family are confused. Family members make comments like “oh time is ticking”, “no man will want you when you’re old”, and “you don’t want to have kids at an old age”. Comments like these can really get into your head and make you think twice. It’s like family is over everything even more important than an education.

As far as dealing with financial deal breakers the best way to deal with it is to be informed. Visit the financial aid office and to get all the information needed. It would be great if the options for financial aid help were more clear and understandable. For the opinions of family member the only thing is to ignore it. Not everyone is destined to do the same thing in life. I want to better myself so if ever do decide to start my own family I have something great to offer. Like the quote “without sacrifice there’s no victory” says you have to give up something to gain something even better in the long run.

Privilege & Passion

Privilege is an unearned right that someone has, most preferably born with it. Passion is something you feel an immense love for. The relationship between privilege and passion is that everyone is born with both. Passion is a feeling therefore nobody can give it to us or take it away. Passion is an amazing privilege that no matter your sexuality, race, gender or class can get in the way of it. Most of the time passions can be the most simple things. People have the right to choose, to explore, to pursue and accomplish what makes them truly happy. In The Passion Project, Karina a student says, "I think I'm passionate about a lot of different things. I'm passionate about writing, I'm passionate about education, I'm passionate about dance, I'm passionate about art." People have the ability to choose what their passion is and that is the relationship between privilege and passion. You don't even have to be good at something for it to be your passion as long as you feel a strong emotion towards it, it is okay. I think that you can have endless possibilities on what you love and it's great that anybody is entitled to it. Everyone have the privilege to follow their passion it all depends on you to find it and pursue it.

Passion Project Thoughts

The Passion Project from Sean McFarland on Vimeo.

The Passion Project is a film created by students in Chabot College. In the film they discuss their opinions on passion. They talk about what passion means, what their passion is individually. They talk about the hardships and obstacles on achieving your dreams. They discuss how school plays a major role in finding yourself. Sometimes teachers themselves fall in a routine and forget the reason why they became a teacher. I do believe a teacher should inspire their students to explore and find a passion.They say how it's confusing at first to know what you like. I can relate with almost everything every student was talking about. I believe passion is something we set aside and most often forget. It's hard to follow your passion when you have to prioritize your obligations in other aspects of your life. I think the older you get the more you find yourself and you see your life passing by, so you remember your aspirations again. This film comforts me in knowing that I'm not the only one that have put my passions on hold. Many students are going through the same experiences but we just don't know about it because we are too busy with our own personal lives. This film shows me that I should be more engaged in school and community.