What I Like About This Class

  About the College Research Essay Writing class, there are still things that I like. The part that I like the most is having period when we can do our own work. Mr. McCool would teach for the first 30 to 40 minutes instead of the whole class. Time is important, especially for me at this stage, the most crucial and busiest point of high school life. I not only have to handle school work, but also things about college application. I only get to sleep for 3 to 4 hours every day since I become a senior. What’s even worse is that I’m not able to finish all my homework on time even though I stay up late at night. Thus, claiming more of the class time and be able to turn in all my assignments is essential for me to keep up my grade in senior year. In addition, universities in Canada take into great account of score in the 1^st semester of senior year. I definitely can’t let bad grades ruin my future, so I need to learn to use and manage time I have wisely and perform well in every class.

   Another thing I like about this class is the view. Because there are windows in the class, so I can look outside and enjoy the view whenever I feel tired or my eyes are sore.

What I Don’t Like About This Class

    College research essay writing class isn’t an interesting and fun one. What we do for class routine schedules: roots quiz and Mr. McCool’s lecture. I don’t like about the lecture is that I think it is too boring. Mr. McCool should provide more fun visual materials, so that we wouldn’t fall asleep easily. Because the class period is right after lunch, so students tend to feel tired easier than in other time. Thus, the teacher should teach lessons through more interactive methods or tell more jokes to wake students up. Moreover, Mr. McCool should spend some time to discuss problems that we have in grammar workbook. Although we have learned everything before, we forget after time. Also, I don’t really think it’s necessary to deduct points when we have 1 inch rather than 1.5 inch while having writing assignments. We follow the instructions, and why do we have to have such serious punishments. Except these problems, I think this class is pretty good. Seniors are busy, so time seems more valuable to us than at other stages of our lives. Because we can have free period to do our own work while we can still learn something, this class is actually pretty well.

My Main Character

  My main characters are Edward and Elizabeth. Edward is merely a regular high school student studying at Dunkun High School. He isn’t the popular kind of person at school. Instead, he is beaten up by other high school boys almost every day. Moreover, he is always teased by mean girls. The reason he becomes the target of being picked on might be his outfit. He dresses in an unusual way that makes him look like a weirdo. He likes to mix different colors of clothes and makes himself look extremely colorful. However, it’s too uncomfortable for other people’s eyes to see the image. This is why people want to bully Edward. In addition, he wouldn’t fight back no matter how bad he is treated. He is afraid that he might get beaten harsher, so he just seals his mouth for the treatment he gets at school.

Another major character is Elizabeth, the dancing queen of the Dunkun High School. Elizabeth is so beautiful that over half of the boys at school are crazy for her. She has milky white skin, dark hair, and a slender body. School to her is like a stage. Every day, she wears different kinds of fashion clothes. Sometimes, she dresses up like a princess. Other times, she dresses up like a super star. No matter how she dresses up, she could always catch people’s eyesight. Not only she is pretty, but also she has great personality. She is friendly and kind, and everyone wants to be friends with her. She wouldn’t only make friends with popular people. Instead, she tries to have as many friends from different social groups as possible.

Where Am I?

The setting of my story is mainly at the Black Forest. The Black Forest got its name because no light can be seen, not even the dimmest one. Even the glaring sunlight is always blocked by the thick trees growing at the region. The trees are enormous that they can almost reach the sky. Moreover, these trees have huge leaves, which can be used for people’s roofs. Whether the sun comes out or not, the region is never bright for 24 hours the whole day, the whole week, the whole year, forever. The forest is just like an enlarged playground or backyard especially set for the giants.

   Inside the Black Forest lives various species, including animals, human, elves, vampires, anything one can imagine. Although there are so many species, they are organized. Each divides into groups among themselves. The most dangerous species, the Tyra Wolves, acts as leaders for all other kinds. The wolf pack gets the food sources by hiding behind the dense trees and attacking victims suddenly. With their quick movement faster than wind and the strategy of using trees as camouflage, the wolves never allow their stomach have chances to be starving. Because of their strength undefeated by other groups, it is suitable for the Tyra Wolves to be the leader.   

My Mini-Saga

     Edward, a junior, decided to ask the girl he liked out. They date at the Black Forest and enjoyed everything. When the moon was full, Elizabeth suddenly bit Edward on his neck, and wolf pack attacked him unexpectedly. Since then, Edward mutated into a wolf-vampire, killing everyone without any tolerance.

The Worlds We Know and Don’t Know

    Fiction are made up stories, which can’t happen in real life. Some plots in the fiction are elements or worlds that we are familiar with, and some are of author’s imagination or worlds that we don’t know. Take one of the world’s best selling books, Harry Potter, as an example. Two worlds are being presented in this book, which are that of the common people and the magicians’. I believe everyone knows well about the world of the common people. However, nobody knows what’s going on in the magicians’ world. We are aware of the fact that magic can’t exist in the real world. However, fiction stories allow authors to put as much creativity and imagination as they can. After reading Harry Potter, my curious mind was filled with the author’s extraordinary talent of coming up with such fancy ideas. In the magician world, I found out there were lots of interesting and fun stuffs around. I’m sure that life would never be boring if I had magic power because I could do anything I want by then. I really hope that I can live in a world where there exists magic power. However, this is never going to be possible. In order to satisfy my thought and imagination, reading fiction would be a good solution.

What I learned from Creating an Oral History

For the creating an oral history project, my group had three people: me, Julie

Tsai, and Victoria Chiu. We used paper-scissor-stone to decide the order of interviewing. My interviewee was Julie Tsai. Interviewing and presenting her taught me that she had been through severe hardships during her life in America. When I met her, she was a humorous and funny person. It was hard for me to imagine that she was bullied by her classmates and ignored by her tutors while she was studying 6^th grade in the States. After hearing her story, I learned that I shouldn’t be defeated when I face difficult situations. Instead, I should overcome the circumstances, and there was a chance to become an optimistic person.

The most difficult aspect of doing this project was to come up with questions. I had to ask questions that could let Julie bring out her interesting personal anecdotes, and this took me a while to think. Comparing to Victoria’s questions, mine were too broad and lack of meaning. Also, answering questions was pretty hard. When Victoria asked me “How would you describe yourself?” I didn’t know the answer because I never thought of this kind of question before. However, Victoria’s questions helped me to discover myself when thinking how to answer. The easiest aspect of doing this project is to listen to interviewee’s story. I only had to take some notes and enjoyed her talk, which was a relaxing job to do. Next time, I will think more thoroughly for questions I’m going to ask when I do a similar project.

What I learned from writing a reflective essay

I chose to write about the first friend I made in Pacific American School. Writing about her taught me that my personality had changed and becoming friends with her was such a nice thing. In general, I learned about the importance of cooperation and I discovered I am actually a funny person who has the ability to make everyone around me happy. Also, I learned that one can gain lots of benefits from a positive relationship in which one’s true friend really tries to help you.

    Compared to other essay I have written, the most difficult aspect of writing this essay was to come up with a subject. We meet lots of people every day, and all of them might have some effects on us. However, we have to write about the person who has the most significant influence on us. The thinking process was hard and time consuming, but it was the most important part. After the outline was ready, I think the writing part became easier. The writing only had to follow structure of the outline and be careful about grammatical errors. When I write a reflective essay next time, I will go more in depth for my thinking process. So, I can find out who is the one helps to shape my characteristics.

Know Then Thyself

 I think I don’t really know myself well because when people ask me to describe myself, I can’t. I don’t know what unique personality I have that sets me apart from others. However, by expressing one’s personality is helpful for understanding own more. Finding out the difference between me and others allows me to know myself more.

    I express my individuality through my appearance. Girls at my age usually wear skirts, high heels, have make-up, and long hair. However, I am not like that. I have short hair, and I haven’t worn skirts since I was five years old. Also, I wear T-shirt and pants all the time. I wear sneakers rather than high heels because I think high heels make feet uncomfortable. In contrast, sneakers are comfortable and always look good with any kind of clothes. My outfit represents my only style.

   I am satisfied and happy with my style at the present time. When I stand in a crowd of high school girls, I wouldn’t be hidden. My physical appearance makes me stand out and people can spot me quickly. In the past, I think there is no difference between me and others. However, it feels good that I find my style which fits me well now.