Journal 39: Free Write

There’s only one week left before the spring break arrives. Yet, senior’s spring breaks are differ from other grades because we are having the graduation trip in Bali, which makes every senior felt very exciting. In addition, the day before our graduation trip is senior prom. In other words, the coming two weeks is more like senior weeks. We would have a lot fun because it is time to get rid of the heavy pressure from Ms. Pamela, SAT, TOEFL, and application essays. I haven’t went to Bali in my life, so I wish the future five days in Bali will be memorable and wonderful. Also, I believe the prom in next week Friday will definitely be fantastic, because all the seniors will enter the banquet different way. Later, we will enjoy the diner and dances together. However, joyful things always come to an end. After we come back from our spring break. It is about time to prepare for the AP tests. Then, Ms. Pamela will give us more and more pressure, because she’s expecting a 5 on our AP tests. After that, I guess it is time to face my future, which is study and live in United States of America.

Journal 38: What Next

If everything goes well, I believe I would not be in Taiwan for four years or more, because I would be a college freshman in the United States of America next year. I asked myself, how do I feel now? I have to be honest, part of me felt very excited about this, because I finally achieve my goal after three years of high school in Pacific American School, especially the suffering senior year. This is finally the time that I face my future goal. On the other hand, I felt extremely nervous about the coming college life. Just imagine people from different countries or the places I haven’t been before are going to study together for another four years. This coming situation makes me felt extremely intense. However, feeling nervous cannot change anything. Thus, I believe the best way for me to solve this problem and fit into the new college life is to improve and strength myself. As for improve; I think English will be the most significant language in the coming four years. If I do not have enough and solid English language speaking skills, how could I survive in college? For strength, I wanted to take some part time jobs before I go to the states, because this is another way for me to gain more working experiences and interactions among different people.

Journal 37: Almost There

Time has passed way too fast than I thought originally. The topic today reminds that there are only two months left before I graduate from high school. Thus, how do I feel right now? Part of me felt excited about this, because I did not have a "proper" summer last year. All the seniors are suffering in SAT, TOEFL, and college essays. We do not have a single moment to play and have fun. So, I not only hope that I can get a job this summer, but also I would like to have a lot of parties before I go to the states. The other part of me felt nervous about graduating. The reason is that although study in the states is an honorable event in my family. However, I am the first one in my Chang's family who will study college in a foreign country. Therefore, I felt intimidated about my future. I am the kind of the person, who worries about the future too much. Nevertheless, I am also the kind of person, who is willingly to take challenges. Hence, I still want to go to the states to finish my college, and enjoy the pleasant and abundant four years of college lives. 

Journal 36: What's a Book?

           What is a book, the definition of the book is a set of written, printed, illustrated, or blank sheets, made of ink, paper, parchment, or other materials, usually fastened together to hinge at one side. I think the statement of Ralph Waldo Emerson means book can sometimes be everything and by nothing sometimes. How so, take books written in foreign languages for example. Mr. McCool raised told us how do we feel when we see a book written in Korean? Thus, I believe all of us would not understand what is the message that the author trying to convey in the book. For us, this is only a book with strange symbols and marks. However, what if a Korean sees this book, he/she probably can understand the contexts and the ideas of the author immediately. So, these two examples demonstrate book can sometimes be everything and nothing. “The eye that sees it is all”, I believe the “eye” means human’s eyes. We see and identify things through our eyes. Therefore, eye is the tool that sees everything. Every single person sees things in different point of views. When eyes can identify things that has meaning to us, then that is the moment when everything is clear to us.

Journal 35: By Writing We think

           According to the quotation by Henri Frederic Amiel, I believe he wanted to convey the message that everything has been done for a reason, and everyone is responsible for it. For instance, “by teaching that we teach ourselves”, I think this means that when we are teaching others, we also learn new thing during the process of teaching. Another example is “by writing that we think”; therefore, this example is similar to the previous journals we written before. This means when we are doing the think; meanwhile, we are also doing the writing. Thus, the thinking thought and the writing action are basically processing in the same time. However, can they be done separately? I do not believe that they can be done separately. The reason is that if a person does not have the thought in the beginning, how can he/she complete his work by writing on a paper or typing on a laptop. On the other hand, if a person wanted to finish the writing first. Yet, it is impossible for this person to complete the work without the think process. In fact, I even believe that these two exist because they support each other. Our thoughts need to record down in order to be complete. In contrast, our writings need thoughts to motivate.

Journal 34: What I think

“How do I know what I think until I see what I say?” This is an interesting sentence by E. M. Forster. Take the example from Mr. McCool today in class. If there’s a new student in British literature, how can we analyze this student’s level or intellect? There’s few ways to obtain his/her level. A teacher usually will give a test or an oral quiz in order to acknowledge this student’s level. Thus, this is exactly what the quotation means. There is no way for us to understand what we really know until we have actual evidences to prove it.

For the second question, I do believe that writing can help me clarify and understand our own thoughts. The reason is that writing our thoughts on the paper actually makes us review and rethink again what we thought originally. In order words, thinking in our minds or brains is still not enough to complete the whole thinking process. The last step before completion is to put your thoughts in to actual words or forms.  For example, before Americans became independent. They already have the thoughts, which they wanted to be an independent nation. However, besides the conflict with British government, they need to complete one more thing before they reach their goals. They needed to create the Declaration of Independence, and this is not only want they did in the history, but also this is how they became independent successfully.