Can't Always Get What You Want: RESPONSE TO EQ 2

Second Response to Essential Question

I turned on the T.V before getting started on my homework, just as I do every night after a very long day of school. I suddenly hear the familiar tune of "You Can't Always Get What You Want," by the Rolling Stones. I've heard it so many times before tonight, but for the first time I actually listened to the lyrics and made a connection with them.

"You can't always get what you want, But if you try sometimes you might find, You get what you need."

Everyday, I'm reminded that no one can ever get what they always want, and their wants aren't as important as others' needs. Everyone seems so caught up in their own yearnings now days, and they forget about what's happening with the world around them. Once in a while there's a courageous and willing person to take a stand and try to get the message out to the world, but the sad thing is the whole world's to busy to hear it.

As I listen to the song again, I start to think about what the Rolling Stones were also trying to get at the listener. There's the person that think they want something, or they think need it. There's that someone that gives up if they come to the assumption that they can't achieve what they want. There's the person that strides and gives everything their all, and they end up succeeding. The world is full of the people that think they need, when they dont, think they don't want when they really do, and people that don't try when it could end up being so beneficial.

Life isn't easy, and it for sure isn't going to hand you what you always think you want. My idea of paradise doesn't have egocentric humans that put their wants in front of others' needs. It's to bad that the world is full of them now.

Stereotyping: RESPONSE TO EQ 1

Response to Personal Essential Question

One of my favorite T.V shows, The Office, is the kind of show that you either love to love, or hate to hate. It's about a hilarious, stuck-up, and ignorant boss that likes to have fun with his co-workers instead of working.

In this video it shows how much stereotyping has had an impact on our lives today, and how it has changed the world in so many ways. When someone sees someone for the first time, they make judgements based on the color of their skin or based on the way they carry themselves. First impressions last a lifetime, but I wish those first impressions we have are based upon how the character acts instead of how they seem to be.

Part of my idea of paradise is just like Martin Luther King Jr.'s dream. Racism has gotten better since his famous speech, but racism still exists. Will it ever go away? Will our generation be able to knock out the negative stereotypes that exist today?

Living in Hawaii makes me appreciate the fact that I don't have to deal with stereotyping that's happening in many other places. Although, people here still have stereotypes fixated in their minds that aren't necessarily the nicest. When I asked my brother what came to mind when I said Mexican, he replied "illegal immigrants!" When I said Philipino he came up with, "dumb." When I said black, he replied, "ho scary kine gangsters." I cannot talk about how much I've been impacted my racial slurs because no one has really offending things to say at me that would break me down. I'm used to hearing all of these things, I hear it everyday. My idea of paradise is nothing like the how things are now. I envision people looking past strangers' races, but maybe the world just needs some time.

Family Story: PART 1

Family Story

Grandpa Thomas Takashi Uyehara

Today in class we were asked to pick out an interesting family story and write the beginning of it. I shared a story about my dad's father and how their broken relationship helps me to appreciate my dad more. But that story isn't the one I would like to share, partly because I know my dad doesn't like thinking about it and maybe because I find this one to be a little more interesting. It's about my other Grandpa, one of whom I've never got the chance to meet before either.

Right after graduating from Kahuku High School, my eager and absent-minded seventeen year-old grandpa decided to enroll in World War II with his best friend, Ned. He was sixteen when the Japanese government bombed Pearl Harbor, and after that tragedy he wanted to show his country who he was. He wanted to show his country he was more of an American than a Japanese. He wanted to show them that not all Japanese were horrible and hurtful, and the government shouldn't have forced people into concentration camps. He wanted to show them he was just as good as anyone else, and he just wanted to prove his loyalty towards his American citizenship to the world.

He was the oldest of five children, and his parents wanted him to do them proud. They looked past the fact that he would have to lie about his age, and praised him for the wonderful deed he was going to accomplish. Not knowing that the next time he would see them was going to be in ten years, he left for the war. Unfortunately, his wing man, Ned, didn't pass some type of health test, and my grandpa had to leave him behind. He was alone, afraid and anxious.

He was part of the 442, 100th Battalion, private first class that was stationed in Europe, France and Italy, and there he picked up the habit of smoking. After those couple of years away from home, he had the opportunity of a lifetime to go to college in New York because of the GI. BILL. At that same time, my grandmother wanted to go on an exciting trip to the mainland with her step sister to escape everything going on in her hometown, Makiki. Coincidentally, two locals from Hawaii met and fell in love in the mainland, and they both got married and settled down in New Jersey. Soon after that, my mom was born. They decided to move back to Honolulu after my great-grandma started to get sick. My grandmother got pregnat again but her second child was born pre-mature and died soon after birth. I can't imagine the pain my grandparents went through, and my mom doesn't have any memories of this because she was only one at the time. Although, if it wasn't for this my aunty and uncle wouldn't have been born. Ten years after my uncle was born, my grandfather died from lung cancer. He never could stop smoking after World War II and it was something my grandma always wanted him to stop. My mom, aunty, uncle, and grandma all dealt with this their own ways and they lived the rest of their lives without a dad, or a husband.

From this I got that everything happens for a reason. The events that happen in someone's life makes them who they are today. My grandpa went through so much during that time of his life, and has probably had to deal with multiple best friends' deaths. He knows the true meaning of "Go for broke, " and like many other war veterans, he didn't like to think about World War II after it was done. I wish I knew more about his experiences but I know it's something that he would've never liked to talk about if he was still alive. He's the grandpa I've always wanted to meet. Growing up without a grandfather has made me wonder, "what if." But growing up without a grandfather also makes me appreciate my father more because I know none of my parents really had a father influence in their life too.

Intro and About Me

Progressively the world seems to be changing and adapting to new advances in technology with the help of the internet. This blog will be a guide to help us modernize our ways of expressing ourselves without just a pen and a piece of paper, and will modernize ways of education. Posting our work on the internet will help us to become better writers because we know that not just our teacher will be reading this, but many people we've never even met before. Hopefully by the help of this blog, I'll get used to other people reading my work and to become more confident with the work I do.

4.1.1
I'm the daughter parents tend to get short with, but the daughter they love. I'm the daughter that doesn't like to be compared to older siblings, but always finds that she is. I'm the daughter that takes advantage of the love and support from her parents.. I'm the sister who loves talking about her brothers. The sister who loves her twin brothers as seniors and doesn't want them to leave for college. I'm the sister who also misses her oldest brother at Michigan. I'm the sister that gets spoiled by all three of these male infulences in her life, but doesn't always get to realizing it. I'm the friend that tries to be there for everyone and tries to make everyone laugh, even how embarassed she may get. I'm the typical teen you see on Myspace late at night, even though she wishes to stop. I'm the typical teen you know that can sleep for hours at a time on a Sunday morning. But I'm someone that can't sleep for hours on a Sunday morning because I'm a church every week by 7:30. I'm someone who you always see falling or tripping over themselves. Yeah, what a klutz. I'm a girl who cares what people think of her and someone who realizes that this shouldn't bring her down even though it does. I'm the girl you see with her friends always smiling and hardly ever frowning, and if there ever is a frown something's really got to be wrong. I'm Sara.