The Sixth Tuesday

          Based on the 6 Tuesdays in Tuesdays with Morrie, the Tuesday that has inspired me is the Tuesday we talk about death. The aphorism “Once you learn how to die, you learn how to live”p.82 , really inspires me. It inspires me into living my life to the fullest. It inspires me into always being positive and happy, to always maintain a positive mind. It also inspires me into not stressing out about little things that will not matter in the long run. 

           The major aphorism in the chapter also inspires me into trying to understand what it is like to die. I want to understand how it feels like to know you can die at any given moment. It makes me wonder about any regrets I have and if I would go back and try to fix them. I wonder if I would try to be the most positive, happy person I could be, like Morrie, or if I would completely shut everybody out. This also makes me think about what other people would think of me if I were to have a terminal disease. 

          Knowing how to live after knowing how to die can be applied at any age. I would say that children know how to do this better than adults do. Children do not base their decisions off of consequences. They do whatever they want to do and have fun. As a child, you live your life to the fullest. Once you get old, that no longer happens. Adults restrain themselves from new, exciting risks in fear of any negative consequences. Adults however, can change that and possibly learn to live life to the fullest. 

Bucket List Blog

          Only 40 pages into Tuesdays with Morrie and I know this book will be one of the best. Morrie has so far been extremely inspirational. He already has had an impact on the way I look at the people in my life. This, along with the conversation in class, has showed me that it is better so say all the things you need to say before it’s too late. Once the opportunity to say something passes, it's gone and the feeling of regret often follows. 

          Morrie also has a vigorous character. Even though he is struggling physically with ALS, he is mentally and spiritually healthy. I think that the fact that he accepted the fact that he is going die is astonishing. This is not an easy thing to do. I also think that this is what helped him not be afraid of dying. Tuesdays with Morrie also has the developing theme of not taking life for granted. Perusing the things you want to do in life is important because the fact is, if you don't then you will most likely regret it. I wouldn't want to life a life full of regrets. I want to do a lot of things in life and enjoy them while I can. 

Bucket List: 

- Go to the Eiffel Tower

- Go to the Men's World Cup 

- Go to the Women's World Cup

- Go to a Bruno Mars concert and meet him

- Meet Alessia Cara and go to one of her concerts 

- Meet Alex Morgan

- Travel to Puerto Rico

- Live downtown 

- Hug a lion 

- Buy my mom a house 

- Meet Dylan O’Brien 

- Buy my dad his dream car

- Open a clinic for the hearing impaired

- Learn complete sign language 

- Play for the UIC Flames

3rd Quarter Reflection

          Quarter 3 has ended and we are now moving into the last quarter of the year. We are now moving into the last quarter of middle school. We are moving into the last quarter before high school. I can't believe how far we have came and how much I have progressed. 

          I think I have made my biggest improvement in my writing for English Language Arts. The TIQA format has been a big contribution to my improvement. We were not taught this format this year. We learned this type of formatting since seventh grade. However, I did not realize how much faster and more efficiently you can write a paper using this format until we did the argumentative essay this year. The essay was overall written in TIQA format, and even included 2 TIQA in one paragraph. The essay turned out to be good. It wasn't until I compared this years essay to last years that I realized how much my writing has grown and progressed with the formatting. We are also currently taking the Reading/Language Arts PARCC test. This test includes a writing portion where we have to analyze literature and write an essay. I found that from using the TIQA format so often, I naturally started writing the essay with the TIQA format. I was able to write a good essay in a good amount of time. 

          In this quarter, the thing that I have accomplished that I am most proud of is my Night vs. "Life Is Beautiful" blog. I took a lot of time in making that and put in a lot of hard work. I first started with making an outline and included the evidence I was going to use. From there I did a rough draft. After that rough draft, I went back and revised for diction, understanding, and added my analytical thinking. I must've revised it at least 3 times before finally submitting the final draft. I ended up getting a good grade on it. I was really proud of it and felt as if my hard work had paid off. 

          I think the most difficult part of 3rd quarter was analyzing the poem assigned to me for Butterfly Project. I consider poetry as one of my weaknesses. It was hard and took a while to figure out what the true meaning of the poem what. I had to make various annotations to come to a final conclusion. I also had to do research on some of the things the poem was referencing. I struggled and would say that it took me about 3 days to fully understand the true meaning of the poem.