Journal #38

I job shadowed at Hansen Professional Services, a engineering company. Going into this job shadowing experience I really was not to happy or exited. I put down chemical engineering as my number one pick, and I did not think that Hansen had chemical engineering (They did not). But I was pleasantly surprised about how much information I received about engineering and careers in the sciences in general. I was paired up with Deb Ramsey, the only chemical engineer at Hansen. She talked to me about where shes worked in her career and the kinds of projects she has worked on or have been in charge of. She oversees several concrete companies and went to Ukraine to oversee the water treatment back when the Soviet union broke up.

After we were done talking Deb took me around her floor to talk to several other engineers. I talked to several civil engineers and a technician. I talked to a few college grads from 2012. It was really interesting to hear about Hansen, and engineering from young workers. They gave me good advice about college and looking for a job in engineering. After we went out to lunch, Deb gave me a tour of the company  The have an entire library, with inter-library loans and everything! I got to see the Geology lab, and talked to the guy in charge of that. After that I talked to several more people on the floor, and I even talked to one engineer who ended up being my neighbor! I received a lot of valuable information, and I will definetly take it under consideration when I decided my career path. I am not sure If I can see myself completely in a company like Hansen. I don't know if I could sit in an office everyday, I'm more suited towards working in a lab sometimes. I like a lot of the projects the company is working on, I could see myself working on projects like those.

Journal #37

We are currently listening to a jazz quartet, "Blue Monk," with Miles Davis and Thelonious Monk. The song sounds very upbeat and pleasant. Being friends with several saxophone players, I have come to appreciate jazz music more. I an tell that this song is very hard to play, but it sounds really cool. I know virtually nothing about how to play music, but I still can tell that this must have been very popular when it first came out.. I am sure that music like this was played at jazz clubs and "speak easys  when it first appeared in the 1920's. Flappers and young men would go to these and drink and relax to the jazz and have a good time. I like listening to the jazz because it is not the same the whole way through the song. With the several different instruments, saxophone, trumpet, and what ever else, they can be several different sounds that appear. There is also a piano, and maybe a cello or a base something that provides the base beat that really makes the song go together. At this point in the song I think of a part in A Very Goofy Movie, when the kid, Max goes with his hipster friend to a club and they read poetry to try and impress a pretty girl. They snap and talk in that "cool jazz way" that is very stereotypical of us in the present day thinking back to the 1920's. I am not sure if I would choose to listen solely to jazz or even jazz a lot of the time, but every once and a while it is a nice change from the music I normally listen to. The only other jazz person I have really heard of besides Miles Davis, is Louis Armstrong, I believe he is a saxophonist also. My dad listens to jazz sometimes  so I hear it in the car when I ride with him too everyone and a while.

Journal #36

It is very important for you to be yourself. Individualism is one thing that a lot of people do not care about very much in their lives. They just want to be like everyone else and fit in; wear the same clothes, talk the same way, and not stick out. When I look into the lunch room it is sad to see how so many tables of friends look the same. Girls all wear their tight, short skirts, or sweatpants and Uggs. I see the boys all wearing their Nike or Adidas shorts with the tall socks and tennis shoes. Teenagers these days could care less about being their own person, they just want to fit in and be liked. I try and pride myself on the face that I am my own person. I can do things for myself, I dress the way I want to dress, and I talk the way I want to talk. I do not need someone to go to the bathroom with me, like most girls my age think they have to. I do my own school work and homework, and I do not just copy others. I also do not try and hide when I know information. Too many people think that it is "uncool" to be smart, and that failing is more fun to do. I get good grades and I am very proud of this fact. Having your own personality and different friends is also very important. When you ask someone to describe you, you would hope that the words they use to describe you and different than the words they use to describe other people. If the whole world was the same it would be very boring, and no one would be very interesting. I hope that in the future kids will know or figure out how important it is to be an individual in their lives. Because it is one of the most important concepts to understand when growing up.

Journal #35

We wrote a blog way back in September about the Declaration of Independence, and the faulty logic that was included in the document. And today, we just turned in a discussion post about Walt Whitman's search for Self. If I compared both of my writing styles from the beginning of the year to now, I believe that I have definetly improved. Although my Declaration of Independence blog post was rather good, I remember spending a lot of time one it (It is five whole paragraphs! basically an essay!), and my Search for Self one was not as good as my previous one about Emily Dickinson's poems, I can still see a lot of improvement. I noticed that I have gotten a lot better with using quotes as an additive to proving my point, not just slapping a quote in the middle of a paragraph and hoping it makes sense with the rest of the paragraph. I can now weave a quote into my paragraph without it sticking up like a sore thumb. I also think that I have gotten better in using the formal writing style in each of my writings. My writing seems more professional now than it did in September, this is probably because we have written so much more this year than I did in all of last year, and practice makes any writing better, and sound more formal. I fell like I have gotten better at interpreting what I am writing about, I am now able to write more in depth on each topic we are assigned. I do not just skim the surface of a topic, but I can now actually make arguments about poems, and essays that I was not previously able to do. My analyzing while reading skills have also gotten better too. I am more confident in understanding what I am reading now, then I was in the beginning of the year. All in all, I believe that I am a better writer, and that my skills will continue to improve.

Journal #34

Walt Whitman's concept of Self encompassed three separate smaller versions of self: the soul, the way you see yourself and the way others around you perceive you. When applying this concept to your own life, it really makes you think about who you really are. So, who am I? When thinking about just my soul, or my spiritual self, I have changed a great deal in just a few short months. I have recently become immersed in the culture of Christianity, and it is wonderful. I now attend church weekly, and actually listen to the pastor and get a meaning out of each sermon and try and apply it to my life to become a better person. I am trying to become a better person through Christianity, but it is hard. I will be continuing to work on bettering myself probably for the rest of my life, and I am really thankful for my friends to have brought me into the church. When thinking about the way I perceive myself, I think I am a good person. I think that I am fairly smart, both in books and on the street. I believe that I am way funnier then I probably actually am, but that is okay: confidence is a good thing to have in some areas. I have quite a few friends that I really care about, and would tell them anything or do anything for them. I look at myself as working through some issues in my life, and those will get better with time and trust. When looking at my life and self through others eyes, I hope they like what they see. I get along with almost everyone I meet, and I am able to make friends easily and quickly. I hope other people think I do not come across as mean or annoying, and I do not believe that I do. I know my parents raised my to be very polite and respectful to everyone, and I know that adults and other people notice this and appreciate it. Thinking back to my Self in its entirely  I believe that I am a good person. I have my flaws in each area of Whitman's self, but I am trying to solve thees and make myself a better person.

Journal #33

Bring a Junior in high school, I am in many advanced and/or AP classes. These types of classes can cause me quite a bit of stress. I have homework all the time, and there is always the constant fear of the AP test come the beginning of May. To try and reduce this stress I do a number of things. I try and be very efficient with my time. I like to plan when I will be completing each assignment so I will not be swamped and have everything to finish in one night. Except for tonight. I made the unfortunate decision to put off all of my homework from the four day weekend until tonight. Oops. I normally try and do not do that though. Another thing I try and do to avoid and or reduce stress is step away from school. On Sundays I try and not do any homework  or maybe just a little. I have church in the mornings, and then I go out to lunch with my friends afterwards. I go to FCA later in the afternoon  and then my youth group at my church after that. It is nice to have a day to be completely focused on something other than school. It helps me refocus my attention on what is really important in my life. Another stress reliever is that I reward my self after finishing my homework or studying for my tests by watching an episode or two of my current favorite TV show, Dexter. I am trying to watch the whole series, so by finishing my homework early I am able to fit in an episode every night, or at least part of one (they are all over fifty minutes long). I have quite a bit of stress in my life, and I try to do these things and more in order to manage this stress, and make my life a much easier and happier life.

Journal #32

Personally, I have never revolutionized anything. Then again, I am only sixteen years old, and have to rest of my life to do extraordinary things in the world. But many people in the past have done this, and it has made our world better time and time again. We have had many great thinkers in the world going back to Socrates and Issac Newton, and even more recent with Thoreau and Emerson or influential authors of the 21th century. These thinkers have some up with many ideas that have shaped the way society runs today. If we did not have thinkers like this is is very plausible that we would not be living in a free independent America. Great thinkers of the time decided that we were better than just being ruled by another nation, like England and the various kings of the era,  and decided to be their own nation. Whether it be social rules, or educational idea and theorems these thinkers have changed the world for the better. Other people who have revolutionized the world are inventors. Could you imagine a world if Alexander Graham Bell had not invented the telephone? I definitely could not. Or if Benjamin Franklin never voiced his ideas we would not have things like libraries, or glasses, or fire houses. These inventions and more have changed the way we live and have paved the way for even more inventions to change our lives for the better. Besides inventions and ideas, purely just people have changed the way we live. People like Martin Luther King Jr., fighting for the African Americans, or John F. Kennedy, deciding that we could put a man on the moon in ten years, changed American's views on what life is like. Many people have revolutionized the world and will continue to do so well into the future. Everyone wants to have their ideas remembered for changing the world, these people have accomplished this feat.