Missing My Great Grandpa

    Not everyone in the world has experienced a loss of a family member, and not every family has been pulled closer by the aftermath of the death. Our family has gone through both of these experiences, with the passing away of my Great Grandpa at the age of 96.

    Last spring, Great Grandpa caught a common cold. But after a while, the cold didn’t go away, but got worse. After going to the hospital, the doctor reported that Great Grandpa had pneumonia. My whole family was trying to get all sorts of tips and medicines for helping treat pneumonia and even some traditional secret recipes, too. But even with everyone’s effort, the stuff did not help the sickness, and my Great Grandpa was deteriorating, despite all his mental might to survive.

    By now, almost every relative was taking some time off from jobs to see Great Grandpa, and to keep him occupied. My grandpa took fewer business trips in order to care for him more. Uncle was able to get a small portable oxygen tank for him, and brought a small cot to Great Grandpa’s house, so that Uncle could be there to tend to his needs. Every one of the skilled chefs in our family also made their best soups and dishes in an attempt to feed Great Grandpa, who was now losing his appetite.

    My dad flew back to China as much as possible to visit Great Grandpa and give him company. After getting sick, Great Grandpa had become severely confused. Many relatives, like my dad, came and talked to him to help him use his brain more. Mom and I also helped out by Skyping and calling Great Grandpa almost everyday, asking how he was and chatting about the regular day to day gossip.

    Summer vacation came along, and I was able to talk face-to-face with Great Grandpa. He still had his usual slow Mandarin, and still had his big smile, but his physical state had changed. He old yet fit body was gone, replaced by a slouching and sagging posture. His hacking coughs weren’t very pleasing sounds to hear, but overall, I was still happy to see Great Grandpa again.

    After several more weeks of critical sickness and lack of nutrients, Great Grandpa passed away peacefully last December, with almost the whole family crowded around the small white bed containing the even smaller frame of my Great Grandpa. Minutes after the death, right when Mom was picking me up from school, we heard the news.

    I thought that this experience with the passing away of Great Grandpa pulled the family closer by helping us learn how to live with the loss. At first, we all tried to forget the pain, and to push it out of our lives. But then, Mom had the awesome idea of pulling out pictures of Great Grandpa from before, and chatting about the stories behind the pictures. We started reliving happy memories of us with Great Grandpa.

    Mom shared these old picture with some relatives back in China, and from what we heard from Grandma, the pictures have been spreading through our family faster than Great Grandpa used to bike to the bank to check on his money. Back at our home here, Mom and I exchanged fun stories of Great Grandpa on vacation with us in Taiwan, and at one Chinese New Year Party when I was little, in which Great Grandpa had too many drinks, and started dancing crazily with one of my aunts. She was a bit shocked, but danced quite nicely with her 90-year-old partner.

My favorite scene with Great Grandpa that I shared with my mom was once, when Grandpa and I were visiting Great Grandpa last summer, he was justing waking up from a long nap. Great Grandpa was a bit groggy when he answered the door. The moment he laid his eyes on me, he yelled, “There’s a crazy Japanese guy at my door!” But luckily, Grandpa charged in, calmed him down, and told Great Grandpa who I was.

 

    Through the last few months of Great Grandpa’s life, and the years following that, everyone was

 supporting each other. Nothing can bond a family closer than losing a shared loved one. From this

 experience, I learned to never turn your back on the memory of the loss. Instead, bring out the happy

 parts of the memories and keep them forever inside you.

Haste Makes Waste

 

    Most people know of the phrase, “Haste makes waste.” This means whenever you rush to get something done, its very possible that you could waste valuable products and even time. I totally agree with this phrase. Haste almost always produces waste and irritated mood and atmosphere. My proof comes from a very reliable source, my mom.

    A part of Mom’s hastily completed work acceptable, and definitely not perfect. But a much bigger proportion holds not so pretty products.

    One example was when my mom played Online Poker Gambling or Korean drama way past her schedule of cooking at 5:30. Now, with barely ten minutes to cook the dinner steak, she made the tender beef catch on fire, and finished cooking by reducing the steak to hot, dry ashes. This haste not only wasted the steak, but also valuable time to clean up.

    Another example was when my mom rushed out of the house when she suddenly remembered a forgotten appointment scheduled in five minutes time. After hastily rushing out the garage, she had no memory of closing the garage door. So, with Mom uncertain whether the garage door was closed, she had to drive back to check. That wasted expensive gasoline and priceless time that she could never get back.

    With the phrase “Haste Makes Waste” in mind, remember that it is better to work slowly and precisely than do a lightning fast mess up.

Two Heads Are Better Than One

 

    With the phrase: “Two head are better than one," I agree. It is more likely to come up with satisfactory plans or directions than just one head.

    For example, if my boss assigns me with a project, and gave me the choice of working alone or with a partner, I would choose with a partner. With more people to work on the project, the effort can be distributed and allows each other to have less of a workload. To me, taking a partner means that the two heads working on the project can cover more area of information than just one. After the rough draft of the report or slideshow is completed, two heads will also pick up more errors and lack of information in a particular section before it . Two brains can come up with more creative ideas of presenting the information of the work project.

    I have come across an issue that supports my opinion of “Two heads are better than one.” A couple weeks ago, my history teacher set us a project to build a medieval style castle, but with a different theme. After racking my brain, I came up with many ideas, like Star Wars, SpongeBob and Despicable Me. But none of them satisfied me. In the end, I chose to work with a partner. After another couple minutes of painful brainstorming, my partner advised me of the perfect idea: Harry Potter. Both of us absolutely loved the series, and we quickly agreed. Without the second head reaching a wider area of creativity, I would  have been stuck doing a bright yellow Despicable Me castle protected by jelly turrets.

    Although some might say there would be friction between the two heads, I think that’s a minor drawback. With much more creativity and much less work, I think two heads are definitely better than one.

Good Leadership Scouting

 

  

One of the few bright points in my slightly boring summer vacation was scouting. The many activities, like service projects, day hikes, and summer camp planning gave me a feeling of activeness and purpose in my life.

    Although I didn't attend the annual and traditional Boy Scout Summer Camp at Catalina Island with the rest of my troop as I did last year, I was able to find an awesome alternative.

    National Youth Leadership Training held at Camp Trask, Monrovia, was the camp I have been planning to go for a long time. It lasted for a total of five days and four nights.

One of my favorite parts of the camp was the food. I just couldn’t resist the temptation of the scout made meals. For the duration of the course, we were handed raw ingredients for all of the meals, which we used to cook our own food. Although more tiring to cook our own meals, we were able to control the amount and quality of our food. The best part of the morning meal for me was the rows of perfectly white eggs, just sitting there, waiting to jump into my drooling mouth after being tenderly treated in the frying pan by me. But not all the meals were perfect. We had a frozen hotdog dinner one Saturday night, cooked by a smart but not too experienced Scout in our patrol. I also tried lettuce sandwiches after I finished with my patrol leader council - everyone had finished the ham before I could get there. Even then, these experiences did nothing to downgrade my awesome NYLT time.

    On the first day of NYLT, all of the scouts were separated into two troops, Aqua and Magma. I was put into one of the four patrols in the Aqua Troop, The Blue Shark Patrol. Each of the eight patrols had a Troop Guide from the NYLT staff to teach and demonstrate all the different challenging activities ahead.

    Our patrol’s troop guide was a short yet agile Chinese Eagle Scout, Nicholas Chan. Although he loved talking about random Japanese cartoons during our limited free time, our whole patrol was drawn in by his humorous yet informative presentations  and summaries. From just Nicholas, we were able to learn a lot of communication and vision making skills.

    Our leadership techniques were boosted to an even higher level by the Senior Patrol Leaders and Assistant SPLs from the Aqua and Magma Troops. Although all the scouts were very tired, their great speeches, descriptive lectures, and inspiring videos captivated us.

    Two of the things I learned at NYLT that had the most impact to my life were being a servant leader and setting SMART goals. I always had an inkling that a good leader is also a good follower, but I never understood why. Now I know that an effective leader should listen to the people he leads, serve the people he leads, and share the work with the people he leads.

Good communication skills are essential for good leadership . Without being able to communicate, you can’t be a good leader, as I learned during this course. There were also the hand motions to emphasize your speech I had no idea existed until then. All these lessons circled around the two indispensable points of Scouting: the Oath and the Law. With these two guides towards life, they create a moral compass that will always point towards success.

My personal vision has always been to become a medical doctor, but I never had goals of reaching it. Now that I have a series of SMART goals, I will conquer my elephant-sized vision one bite at a time. There are not only personal visions, but group visions, like for a troop, a sports club, and even an entire nation!

If you can see it, you can be it.

 
  

 

Every Cloud Has a Silver Lining

  

    Not everyone has had first hand experience with the phrase, “Every cloud has a silver lining.” But I have and I totally agree with this saying.

    I believe this phrase is true because it reminds me of an old saying everyone believes: “Failure is the mother of success.” The chance you had for success failed you, and the clouds covered up the sun. But the clouds are bound to move away sometime, and when that happens, failure gives birth to success. So don’t feel hopeless. There are always bright times ahead of you.

    Before I found my talent in swimming, I had been focusing on tennis as my main sport for almost four years. I was pretty good at it too, but after every intense match, I would have a serious ache in my kneecaps. With an X-ray checkup, my doctor told me that the pain was caused by the insufficient ratio of cartilage growth to bone growth, and that rest was the only cure. I had no idea which sport to take on if I quit tennis. My mom finally gave me the idea: swimming. Although the sport was still intense, there was not a lot of pressure on my knees, which helped a lot. After one year of practice with the Claremont Club swim team, not only did swimming improve my knee cartilage in the middle of my growth spurt, but it also gave me a pleasure that tennis could not bring, such as not sweating and getting sticky after working really hard. After a satisfying activity was denied from me, swimming showed up for me and made me a real athlete.

    My mom had a similar experience. When she became pregnant with me, she lost her reporter job because she could not keep up with the workload. But then, a miraculous offer from a small private company arose. It was an office job, without a lot of pressure. There was also a pretty good salary and lots of time to focus on family. All in all, this job was better for the health of both of us. The old door closed and another one opened up to a new opportunities.

   
  

 

Influential Scientific Advance

 

When it comes to which kind of scientific advance that has the greatest influence on mankind, I would answer without hesitation. Electronic devices and Internet connection.

Why did I choose these two types of technologies? Because both depend on each other to be function efficiently. Without Internet connection, electronic devices are unable to download anything or do any kind of research. Without the device, then the Internet connection has no platform to display the information we are searching for.

With the evolving development of both the technologies, it has stronger influence to us than any kind of scientific advance on Earth. The biggest change they give is the capability to access World Wide Web.

On the Web, we can research anything we want. This is helpful for adults and children alike to get answers on various topics. There is always a correct answer in the Web, as long as you know which sources are reliable. Once that skill has been mastered, this research method saves more time than the old fashioned way of filing through hard copies.

The Web also allows us to communicate in so many different ways, like sending voice messages, videos, pictures, and text messages. All the old time telephones and letters and postcards are nothing compared to these communication websites, like Gmail, Hotmail, Yahoo, Facebook, Twitter, and so much more. This helps us stay connected to our friends and our world much more closely and instantly, unlike the slow mailing  delivery speed, and no vision communication through telephones.

In my opinion, the most exciting influential gadget of the technology is games. Once downloaded, we are able to play it anywhere, anytime. Games are almost always there, ready to accompany us, should we feel lonely or bored. In the old times, when we crave action or racing games, only the occasional visit to the arcade room could quench the thirst. Nowadays, almost everyone owns their mini arcade machines, like PC’s, iPads, and many more. Although gaming occupies lots of time, it does give us a change of lifestyle from the grueling everyday work.

And of course, there are endless numbers of scattered apps, like Youtube, Netflix, and Picture Photoshop that are always ready to give us entertainment and a good laugh.

Electronic devices and their Internet connection has become a skyscraper advance in the scientific field. Not only have their creation made our lives easier and more lively, they have strengthened the thin silken web that has connected mankind for centuries, pulling all of us, alike and different, into a closer bond.

Restaurant/Buttocks Incident

 

    “Yes!!!!!!” yelled Bobo. Big and round, Bobo’s face was shining up with physical light from his happiness. It was finally summer vacation after a grueling nine months at school. Bobo could finally relax from all that homework and after-school activities. But the biggest reason of his happiness was not summer vacation - it was the fact that he would be going to China for two months to visit the many relatives and school friends still living there.

    After three long days of restless waiting and packing, it was finally time to go to the airport.  Although the flight the Chang family was taking would leave at one in the morning, Bobo did not mind one bit; in fact, he preferred the midnight flight. Although he was a pretty smart kid, he hated studying and tried to play his iPad during every possible moment. Bobo was totally addicted to the awesome game, Clash of Clans. Surprisingly, Bella, his sister, loved that game almost as much as Bobo. So during the long hours in the waiting room, Bobo and Bella played Clash of Clans, commenting on each other’s attack strategy and teasing each other about how it was the only game where Bobo was better than his sister. “Oh, Bella, you are such a noob!” Bobo said casually.

    After a very interesting 12-hour plane ride in which Bobo and Bella explored the many entertainment gadgets on the back of the seat, Grandpa Chang was at the airport, all smiles, waiting to hug his grandchildren. After the hellos were said with a lot of hugging, Grandpa Chang revved his car’s engine and raced onto the highway. In less than an hour, Bobo and Bella unpacked their suitcases in their old room they had shared when they were little and lived there. Childhood memories rushed back to both of them.

    The first couple of weeks were 99.999% perfect. The Chang family ate, drank, and played all day everyday. They attended many parties, invited by relatives and friends. Bobo and Bella met up with their old friends from school and had a three-day sleepover at the Chang’s big penthouse apartment. Including Bobo and Bella, there were four boys and six girls. They played video games, Nerf guns, and gossiped. Time passed super quick, and in one supersonic fart, one month had gone by.

    The perfect summer vacation was disrupted during the first week of the second month. It all started when.......

    Bobo and his family were at a Japanese restaurant having fun with two of Bella’s friends.  They had been there for a while now, finishing the delicious appetizer of sashimi salad and miso soup. It was when platters, heaped with sashimi, Bobo’s favorite food by a millimeter, were served that a sticky situation popped up at Bobo.

    A gracefully soaring piece of sushi hit Bobo square in the cheek. For someone as chubby as Bobo, he had excellent reaction time. So while the children and adults were wondering what the heck happened, Bobo was already turning toward the direction of the food missile. Two tables over, Bobo caught the movement of a teenage boy’s head finish its turn back to his own table. Bobo excused himself to go to the restroom to take a closer look at the boy.

    When Bobo saw the boy’s face, his heart almost stopped. This boy was his Chinese Kindergarten school nightmare. This bully, Max, always showed interest in Bella. But Bobo had informed Bella what kind of person Max was, and because of that Max hated Bobo’s guts. His red-rimmed eyes and constant leer always gave Bobo the goosebumps; but now, that expression was a permanent feature on display. Dazed, Bobo continued to the restroom. When he finally exited the restroom, the sight that met him was worse than before. Max had stood up and was now talking to Bella. But everyone at the table seemed uncomfortable and mad because all the adults and children knew the stories of Max’s bullying. Bobo immediately felt lightheaded and swayed a little. But after several deep breaths, Bobo plucked up the courage to have his ultimate revenge.

    Bobo snuck behind Max’s gigantic buttocks like a professional assassin. This side of the restaurant wasn’t crowded at all, so there wasn’t anyone staring at Bobo. While Bobo was stealthily getting ready, he heard Max trying to make himself sound smarter than he really was. “Miz. Chang, I’m pretty sure you know I ain’t a good student at school,” Max told Bobo’s mom in an informal and impolite way. “But I’m actually a kinda genius. Me mom give me some, uh, some PreAlgebra, and I breezed through the whole page in less than two hours!” continued Max, making stuff up as he talked. Just as Bobo was about to move, Bella and one of her friends caught sight of him through Max’s legs. Max saw the stares and followed them. But Bobo thrust his protruding thumbs right at Max’s [buttocks] before Max could move out of the way.

    Max’s scream pierced through the zen of the Japanese restaurant. Bobo quickly sat down  next to his sister and asked innocently, “Did I miss anything? Hmm... I wonder why Max is crying.” Bella had the willpower to squeeze in one last comment before doubling over with laughter, “I have no idea either!” Although inside Bobo was feeling triumphant and laughing like crazy, he just sat there between four laughing people, staring round-eyed at his sister, pretending to be puzzled and innocent.

    The rest of the Chang family’s vacation passed pretty much just like the first month. The only difference was there was way more cracking up, especially at the [buttock] incident. Although Bobo had found himself in a very sticky situation, he handled it perfectly. (A bit too violently, though.)

A Bit Too Formal For Bobo, Until Something Happens...

 

    The short three months of awesome summer vacation flashed by before Bobo had fully started getting used to the free time everyday. There was still a little homework from his grandma, but without school work, he was able to cope with it easily. Sadly, this period of heavenly time ended before Bobo had even started to fully appreciate the vacation. And now, Bobo had to go through another nine months of school before the summer came around again. And to make things more tiresome for Bobo, he was going to junior high, where everything was way more complicated than elementary school.

    The first month of junior high had gone by at a snail’s pace for Bobo. He got lost in the maze of classes at least twice a day, due to his exceptionally bad sense of direction. He received dozens tardies from going to some random classroom that he thought to be his class, or circling the school desperately. Most of the time Bobo made it to class without being late was pure luck.

    Getting lost in mazes made Bobo feel very uncomfortable. Bella, popular as she was, had no trouble getting around. Whenever she got stuck, she would ask some guy for help, and that would do the trick. With Bobo, it was different. No guy or girl would help him, and the few people that would all had different classes than him.

    One particularly bad afternoon for Bobo in which he got lost four times in the seven periods they had, Daddy Chang announced something.

    “Everybody, this Saturday is a very important night for my career,” Daddy Chang said solemnly. “We will all be dining at a formal restaurant with a wealthy business customer of mine. We will be finalizing the details of his purchase of fifty backhoe loaders, twenty track excavators, forty all terrain forklifts, and biggest of all, one hundred wheel pavers.” Daddy continued, looking especially at Bobo, “Now, I want both of you children to be on your best behaviors. A-hem, BOBO!”

    Bobo was slightly offended, but still accepted the advice. He was exceedingly anxious about the formal dinner, for he was not used to being serious.

    The short one day of waiting felt like a year to Bobo. When it was time to go to the dinner, his dad gave him a suit to wear. It had an itchy and stuffy white shirt, a thick black formal jacket, and slightly long dress pants.  His mom also made him wear a checkered tie. After blowing off most of his sweat and warm air stuck inside the white shirt by hugging his fan for five minutes, he went out where his family was waiting, slightly impatiently. Bobo’s dad had on a similar stuffy suit, but Bella and Mrs. Chang were different. They wore matching light dresses that were thin enough to let air in yet kept most of the cold out too. Bobo envied them, and wondered, “Why didn’t tradition allow men to have a healthy breeze ‘round their privates?”

    When they arrived at the restaurant they were slightly early, and had to wait a while for Dad’s customer and his family, the Jeschers. When the four Jeschers got out of their big Mercedes sedan, Bobo felt his face rise in temperature. A very attractive girl that was Mr. Jescher’s daughter, walked right behind her very bulky brother wearing a tight suit that showed off his big muscles. But his face was lopsided and oddly squashed. His features were a total opposite of the good natured face of the Jescher daughter, Elly.  

    The children were given a separate table from the adults who wanted to converse without interruption. That meant Bobo had to sit with the mountain-like brother, James, while Bella and Elly faced them.

    The courses were all delicious. There was a little chatting, but Bobo was scared of James, who had an evil personality to match his face. After the courses were finished, Bobo got slightly more used to his dining mates. He started being his casual self again, making jokes that had Bella and Elly laughing a bit too loudly for polite manners. But James just scowled at Bobo when a joke came out. And at one time, James even made a sudden violent movement that caused Bobo flinch so much he toppled out of his chair. Both girls laughed again, although James’s scowl subdued the noise a little. When Bobo untangled himself, Mr. Chang gave him the “eye,” but Bobo didn’t care too much. He just pretended to be crying and said, “My dad just gave his ‘eye,’ and now I’m gonna be in BIG trouble!!!” Everyone except James cracked up again, but they were abruptly stopped by a weird sound. Swish-Thunk! James could not take anymore of Bobo’s jokes and punched him.  Bobo fell out of his chair for the second time, moaning. Elly came immediately to his side. Bobo was okay but dazed. (Bobo was surprised but happy to see Elly’s face close to his.) Mr. Jescher looked totally ashamed of his son as he restrained James from attacking Bobo again.  He said to Mr. Chang, “I promise to punish this uncontrollable son and force him to behave. You can count on me for that.”

    The dinner ended with the mood considerably heavier than it was when it started, even though the discussion for the construction had been successful. But in the parking lot, Bobo snuck up behind James and jabbed both thumbs into James’s sides, right above the hip bones and yelled, “TASE, LOSER!!!”

James went straight as a board, and had a small spasm and yelled in surprise. When James tried to catch him, Bobo, ducked under his swinging arms and ran up and squeezed in between Bella and Elly, trying to look round and innocent, just like in the Max incident. Everyone had seen what had happened and couldn’t stop laughing at the spasm James was having.

As the two families said good bye to each other, Bobo and Elly slowly approached and hugged. These two non-matching people had become good friends in one short night. Maybe a little more than just friends.

Chubby Pussy Cat Bobo Chang

 

    Bobang Chang, more commonly known as Bobo, is a chubby 11 year-old boy who recently immigrated to the U.S. with his family. With a perfectly round face, Bobo weighs almost 150 pounds. On that round face sits a squat little nose, pudgy eyes, and a big mouth that is always turned upward in a smile. Bobo’s pudgy eyes match his dark brown, almost black hair. All in all, his features give people the impression of a good natured kid.

Although Bobo’s face features do not suggest this, he is already 5’5”. Bobo was not always the tallest in his class. Since first grade he had been barely scraping four feet. He stayed barely four feet tall for almost four years. Then, during the end of fourth grade, Bobo finally started growing again. But he did not just grow slowly, he actually hit his growth spurt! Now, towering over everyone else, his body size has gone from almost obese to chubby. Usually, Bobo’s outfit is always the same style; a pair of baggy sweatpants, a size Large V-neck t-shirt, a nice sweatshirt to put over it, and a comfortable pair of tennis shoes for his rather wide feet. Although his parents are pretty wealthy, Bobo likes to wear plain clothes.

The Chang family is pretty much a normal family. Bobo, his parents, older sister, and grandparents all live in their small mansion. Both parents are PhD’s, but not very busy and support the family easily. Bobo’s dad works slightly more than his mom to allow her to spend time with Bobo and his sister, Bella. Bobo’s grandparents mainly stay home and cook meals for the family when they do not go out to eat. His grandma is really smart, so she helps the kids with homework. Bobo and Bella have totally opposite personalities. While Bobo just wears plain clothes, Bella is all about the latest fashion. While the style of her clothes attracts many boys, Bobo doesn’t appeal to  the girls at school. Bella is a slim girl, a total reverse from the chubby Bobo. But despite all the differences, Bobo is as close to Bella as a sibling can ever get.  Bella even gave Bobo another nickname, Pussy Cat.

There were many factors that led Bella to call Bobo “Pussy Cat.” Bobo was a timid boy from the moment he was born. He never wore clothes that weren’t mainly the colors black, gray, or tan. Until he reached his 8th birthday, Pussy Cat would have nightmares from rated PG movies. And even though he is already eleven years old, he’s still scared of the dark “ghosts” that hide in the shadows of every corner. Until only a year ago, he was still scared of those baby roller coasters that went only five miles an hour.

What kind of voice would you expect from a chubby, good natured looking kid that is called Bobo? Still a baby voice, right? Well, you are dead wrong! Surprisingly, Bobo’s voice is in the middle of changing and cracks a lot. But even though he is going through the process of maturing, his face is still clear of pimples. When he speaks, he uses perfect grammar and has no hint of an Asian accent. This section of dialogue will show you how Bobo introduces himself to one of his dad’s friends: “It is an honor to meet you, Mr. X. A-hem! Please sit down (A-hem!) while we wait for my father’s return.”

At school, his grades are all at least an A. Some credit should go to his awesome tutor grandma. One of his favorite subjects is Algebra, because it is the easiest to learn. Bobo has a natural sense of numbers. He likes science even more than math, though; especially the biology section. Bobo is very interested in how everything in the human body works. The other subjects are all pretty easy and enjoyable, even PE, unless it comes to running a mile. The sad part is that since Bobo is kind of a nerd, he doesn’t have a lot of friends. Only two people does he consider to be his true friends.

One of the reasons Bobo is kind of chubby is because of his interest in food. He really has no favorite food. He loves anything edible. He enjoys all cuisines: American, Indian, Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Italian, French, German, you name it! But if picking a favorite food was a matter of life and death, then Bobo would decide on sashimi as his number one.

EXPLANATION

Personally, I think parts of Bobo the Pussycat are very similar to me. This guy reminds me of what  I was like when I was still in elementary school. This character was easy for me to create, for it was based on an earlier version of me.

International Food Festival

Year 2000

Year 2001

Year 2014

 

One of the best Boy Scout events of this past month was the 35th Annual International Food Festival on April 12th at the Claremont Colleges. This was my first time attending this event, and I was very curious about the different types of international foods. Our job during this service project was to change the trash bags and man the First Aid Booth. When I was taking a short break with my food tickets from the troop, I found out that there were more than 23 booths representing different countries, selling exotic foods. There were also many professional performances by different clubs and organizations, such as Africa Soul Dance, 5C Korean Pop Dance, Mariachi Serrano, and Psycho Taiko, which is Japanese Drumming.

Everyone in our patrol, The Eagles, was present. I went to this event because my mom told me that it was worth the time and that both she and my grandma had participated in it. I was already interested in the international food, so it didn’t take too much persuasion from my mom. When we drove to the Colleges at around 11 o’clock with Darren and Wesley, I was eager to start working, although the others didn’t seem so enthusiastic.
    Throughout the whole three hours of service, I kept pretty busy, apart from a couple minutes of eating. I changed more than 30 trash bags, although I did not participate in any First Aid acts apart from treating a weird looking cut on a college student working at the French booth. With twenty tickets from Mr. Raus, our Scoutmaster, I bought lots of diverse food. My favorite was the sausages and boba milk tea from the Taiwanese booth, which was doing a roaring trade with the Claremont community (Go Taiwan!!!). I also visited the Italians for some rich and creamy tiramisu. Another of my favorites was the Vietnamese egg roll with some savory fish sauce. I considered getting another, but after a quick debate with myself, I decided that I would use the last five tickets I had to get some bulgogi (BBQ pork) from the Korean booth. My mom was stuffing her face even more than me!

This experience gave me many things. This service obligation was only three hours long and after that I was already bone tired. I could only imagine how tiring doing physical labor for a living would be. That has motivated me to work even harder to stay away from these types of jobs. Another thing I found out was that I had just participated in a tradition in our family. For three generation, our family has attended this International Food Festival. My mom first took part in this festival in the Chinese Booth when she studied at Claremont Graduate University. Then, the next year, my grandma helped my mom in the booth because my mom was pregnant with me. I felt very honored to have participated in something that has become a tradition to this family. That was why I felt that this event was delicious and traditional.

This was probably one of best the service projects in my time as a Boy Scout. If this service opportunity comes up next year, I will totally go, not only for the service hours, but to keep up the family tradition. Well, I had blast there even when I was changing the trash bags, and I recommend it to anyone who is interested in international food!

Success, Big and Small

 

    There are so many different ways of describing someone’s success. Most people, including me, think of success as achieving a goal. The way my definition of success differs from others’ is the size of the achievement I want to reach. For different people, the expectations are varied.

    At my young age of twelve, my expectations for success aren’t very high. For now, success to me is to turn in all my homework on time, and to pass my classes with at least a B. Another part of success in my childhood life is to achieve good times in swimming, and to give it my best effort. To reach beyond my level of success is to squeeze into the lower levels of the Junior Olympic swim division. One of the best parts of my success is actually a pretty small thing. It’s basically to become better at the addictive iPad game Clash of Clans. A more specific and short term goal is to max out all my defences and upgrade the Town Hall to Level 8. For now, all the goals of my personal success are minor, but still important to me.

    One of the places where I feel particularly successful is at school. All six of my classes have some challenges, but I am still able to cope with them pretty well. My average grades right now are around an A, which is well above my success bottom line. The elective I am taking, Web Design, poses few challenges. The codes needed for passing the class are pretty simple and I always find a bit of time to play some games after the assignment is finished.

    Another place where I feel successful is in afterschool activities. My main afterschool events are swimming, piano, and writing. Swimming has turned out to be better than I thought. When I do my best, and put everything I have into the race, I can make it into the Blue Division (the second highest division), which I think is pretty good for someone who only joined the team half a year ago. I started piano a pretty long time ago, but it was only recently that I improved. Over the past three years, I have won almost a dozen trophies from various festivals. Some credit should go to my excellent piano teacher, who lives right up the street. For your writing lessons, I won’t say I am an expert at writing yet, but I still feel successful because I have learned to not hate writing from studying with you. Now I approach each essay with care and determination, not hatred.

    Qualities that I think are markers of success would be determination and not giving up until the goal is reached. Another great quality for success is consistency. It is better to have a steady pace at reaching my goal than to have a fast pace toward the goal for a short time, then end up not going anywhere at all. Another is to have a positive attitude toward any goals that I have. Being annoyed at not reaching my target is not going to help me get anywhere.

    For some people, having lots of riches is being successful. Although having money is part of success, it is not a major part. With too much money, I might not be very lighthearted and carefree. That grumpy personality might not allow me to make a real family and have close loved ones. I think of a successful adult as my dad, who owns a stable corporation with not an astronomical, but still good, income. Being the boss of the company is not very taxing, which allows him to spend quality family time with my mom and me. Apart from us he also has many close relatives and family in mainland China and Taiwan. Someone with a stable and manageable job, good amounts of vacation time, and relationships with loved ones is the kind of person I think of as a successful person. Things that lead to this kind of major success are the smaller things that I am doing now, like learning at school and playing sports.  

    No matter if the successes I have achieved are small, like getting an A at school, or big, like starting my own company, they are all equally important. Keep in mind that only you can define success for yourself and to always set a goal of success to reach!

Letter to Principal About Letter Grades Against Pass/Fail

Dear Mr. Martinez,

Hello, Mr. Martinez. I am Justin W. and I am writing to talk to you about an issue you may have heard about: the replacement of letter grades with just a simple Pass/Fail system of assessing a student.

My advice to you is to keep the more precise system of letter grades. I shall weigh the pros and cons of using the letter grade system. This will allow you to see that the positive effects of the letter grades are far greater than the negative ones.

Mr. Martinez, my first point of view supporting the letter grade system is that this way of evaluating students is more accurate. Without the letter grades, there would be no difference between a lazy, barely passing student and a hardworking “A” student. With the letter grading system, the hardworking students are separated from the barely passing ones, making the good students feel confident that they are well above the passing score. The barely passing students also get the idea that they need to improve their grades. This leads into my next point.

This next point is motivation. If the letters were replaced by the Pass/Fail system, there would be an overall drop in percentage grades, due to the lack of motivation. With the letter system, there is a major difference between “A” and “D” grades. With that, the good students know that they are doing great and above average, and that they need to keep up the awesome effort for the grades to not drop lower. The mediocre students see their grades, and know that they have to work harder to raise them. Mr. Martinez, you should know that some people might argue the Pass/Fail system would allow the mediocre students to feel better about their grades, because only a “Pass” would appear on the progress report.  However, it could be very likely that the student would not know that he was only barely passing, and would not work as hard. This lack in motivation could easily change the Pass to a Fail.

My last point in convincing you to keep the letter grading system is related to the previous point. With more motivation and competition to see who has the highest grade, students try to improve and beat the kid one letter grade higher. The “F” students try to pass the class.  The “D” and “C” students strive to get slightly above average. The “B” students try to get to the top of the grading system, and the “A’s” try to stay there. If students were assessed with a simple Pass/Fail, they wouldn’t know when to improve, and even if they did, they wouldn’t have the motivation to do so.

So, Mr. Martinez, as you can see, the letter grading system strongly outweighs the Pass/Fail one. With the letter grade comes a definite increase of overall GPA. I really hope you can see this situation from my point of view. Thank you very much for taking the time to read my letter.

Sincerely,

Justin W.