Thursday, March 15, 2012

Why Do the Good Die?

You know death to me is one of the biggest mysteries that intrigue me a lot. Even though it may be easy to comprehend the fact that a person is born, lives, and soon dies where they end up in a “much better place” than in the world we are living in; there are just so much questions that stems out of my mind whenever I hear the word “death”. Why does death come? Why do the good die? Where does one go after death? Where did grandpa go to? Will I ever meet my ancestors, those who have passed before me? Is there even an afterlife? Does heaven and hell even exist at all? Do we cross to a parallel universe? Or do we just wake up like it was all just a dream? This makes me ponder what death’s purpose.

Perhaps death really does have a purpose in life. I think it serves as a balance in life -- there are people being born while there are those who are dying. It acts as an equilibrium, nature’s own way of balancing the population of all those that inhabits earth. Imagine if death did not occur at all, the pain of losing would not exist, but the world we live in today would be overcrowded. Resources would be cut short, we would not have enough to satisfy everyone’s needs and this can eventually lead to a catastrophe. Another thing is that, I believe that everyone has a purpose in life, a reason as to why they are born. We all have some kind of a mission that we must do in life
and once we accomplish them, our time on earth is done -- no matter how good of
a person you were.

So what really happens after we die? As a Catholic, I have been exposed to the idea of Heaven and Hell. Of course, not everyone is a Catholic or is affiliated with a particular religion. Some may not even believe in Heaven and Hell. I do believe that there is some kind of “life” after death -- some kind of a Heaven and Hell.  But at the same time, I also think about reincarnation once in a while. I think that we are somewhat born again into another person or as if we have woken up from a very long dream and the cycle of living repeats itself. Perhaps we are given another mission to fulfill, but
this time, as another person. I really do believe that there is some kind of an afterlife that comes after death. However, the things that occur after death is still a huge mystery to everyone on earth. There is no definite depiction of what happens to a person after they encounter death. No one knows about it. It is like this whole confidential matter that no one is supposed to have knowledge of unless they are dead. The only way to find out is, really, by dying. The living world will never know.

Tuesday, March 13, 2012

Designing a Curriculum

Mmmmm...I’ve never really thought about a topic like this before, interesting idea nevertheless. If I were to design certain curriculums for students of my age, I would probably design a more on-hands curriculum. What that means is that students are able to engage themselves on subjects that they see fit for their future careers. Of course, the basic subjects such as Math, English, History, and Science are still applied to a student’s schedule since I still think that the student should still have, even the most basic, knowledge on those subjects. Only with the kind of curriculum that I am proposing, the students would not be limited to classes that does not really classify or compatible with the careers they intend to take in the future. Being a student myself, I have taken some classes that are not really attuned to the career path I’m taking. I want to take the path of a businesswoman in the future, but how does cooking class help me with my choice of profession? Aside from the clubs and sports that the school offers, I seriously think that our school are still lacking in extra-curricular activities and classes that would facilitate our chosen professions as well as replace some of the tedious bookwork with actual hands on activities. For example, if you are interested in music or a musician (singing, composing, songwriting, arrangement, etc) there could be a class taken and it would occur in an actual music studio where students are able to be familiarizing themselves with how music production actually works. If you see yourself as being engaged in the business world, there could be a class that takes you to class trips to business districts and be familiar with how the business world actually works. So, it’s pretty similar to going to a vocational school, but at the same time different because a student doesn’t have to only take the general subjects like math and English. They would be still able to take other classes such as a language class or a calculus class while at the same time having a business class. I also think that we should have more varieties of languages to learn other than Spanish and French. The school should include languages like Latin, Italian, German, Japanese, Mandarin, Korean, Portuguese, etc.

In all honesty, I view a basics skill class not as serious as other classes and more of like a fooling around class due to the student’s lack of motivation and understanding in such a subject. What I would recommend is that teachers should be able to have a more interesting way of teaching basic skills students rather than making them sit on desks and doing a numerous amount of work that they don’t really care much about. Teachers should be able to offer activities that let the kids be engaged on hands on activities because I think that they would be able to understand the subject more other than reading it from a book.

The day-to-day schedule wouldn’t be that much different to what it is now. The electives would stay, but there would also be an addition to the choices such as actual music class, business class, etc. I would probably have students be able to stay after school, if they want to, for an extra class that they would want to take, but can’t fit it in their schedules. So basically, students would have more electives and not be limited to just two.

As much as I hate homework, there is no denial that it really helps. I would leave the homework to the teachers, whether they want to give their students a lot of homework or not.

Sunday, March 11, 2012

In My Room

My room is really just like any other typical teenager’s room. Posters and pictures of my favorite people -- from my favorite movies, singers, actors, to tennis players -- are plastered everywhere on my wall. As a matter of fact, every wall on my room has their own individual themes. I have a wall that basically serves as my tennis shrine with my favorite players’ pictures, my very first tennis racquet hanging on the wall, and basically all my recollected memories of my tennis team. I love the sport and I would probably consider myself a tennis addict. There’s also a wall dedicated solely for my friends, most especially my best friends. I hung all the pictures we took together -- some were years ago while others were taken recently -- as well as things that reminds me of certain memories between our friendships. Then behind my door are more pictures, but this time, they’re family pictures throughout the years. On another wall are things from different places I’ve been in such as California. I like to collect street signs or license plates that have the places’ names on it for me to paste on my walls. I have a bookshelf as well as a place where I keep my cameras and my video camera since I’ve always been fascinated with filming and photography. I also have various artwork plastered on my wall. Probably one of the most valuable belongings in my room is my iPod stereo for my music. Honestly, I wouldn’t describe my room as the typical girly girl type. It has more of a sporty, laid-back, calming ambiance to it.

When we were all little, my sister, brother and I would sleep in the same room on the same bed. Well originally, my sister and I would share a room while my brother had a room of his own. However, my little brother was too afraid to sleep by himself so he would sleep in our room every single night and sleep next to one of us. Though as we got older, we finally moved out and each of us had a room of our own. My brother eventually got rid of his fear of sleeping alone and was able to sleep in his own room with no trouble. But that doesn't mean my siblings and I got rid of our old ways. There would be times when we would have our little sleepover to each others room -- mainly my room because of the size of my bed -- because we felt like it or we just watched a horror movie. Personally, I don't really mind people sleeping in my room once in awhile, but I do enjoy my free alone, time and would most likely prefer to have a room all by myself.

I would exactly say that my room is all neat and tidy or that it resembles a dumpster. It's somewhat in the middle. While I do prefer to keep it clean, sometimes I can't help but make some mess especially with my clothes. Oh typical girl problems. Trust Me.