iMedia: Failure

 

“I have missed more than 9,000 shots in my career. I have lost almost 300 games. On 26 occasions I have been entrusted to take the game winning shot, and I missed. I have failed over and over and over again in my life. And that is why I succeed.”

               

                This is a famous Nike commercial. Michael Jordan said a few words, but I learned a huge lesson from these 30 seconds commercial.  Nowadays, teenagers want to accomplish what they want without trying hard. When I look at the famous people, I am always jealous of them and want to be like them in the future. I never thought about how much effort they put in their work to become famous in their field. Also, it looks like they just became really famous one day, but in their pasts, they had many failures. I remember someone saying, “There are no secrets to success. It is the result of preparation, hard work, and learning from failures.” This commercial reminded me of this quote.

                I am glad that I saw this video before I left for college. I didn’t really experience huge failures in my high school career. I think there should be more things that I cannot always be successful. Sometimes I can make mistakes, or do something wrong, but I cannot just give up right away because I have to learn from them and persevere. I think sometimes people learn more lessons from their mistake and failure.

An Inconvenient Truth: Darwin’s theory of Evolution

               Since I learned about Darwin’s theory of Evolution, I wondered how this can happen and something did not make sense to me. Darwin’s theory says all life is related and has descended from a common ancestor. Even birds, bananas, fishes, and flowers are all related. He estimated that humans branched off from a common ancestor with chimpanzees several million years ago.  This means all human beings today belong to the same subspecies, Homo sapiens. The animals change their characteristics to help them survive in their best suited environment. Gradually, the species changed over time. This was also the case for humans.

                I could not understand and believe the fact that my ancestors were an animal like chimpanzees. If our ancestor was a chimpanzee, how can chimpanzees be alive today? Why didn’t they change their characteristics to humans?

                It bothers me more because at my Sunday school, I learned that God created humans while creating the earth. If the evolution theory is true, then who wrote the bible? And where did the chimpanzees come from? There should have been something that created the first chimpanzee to evolve into a human.

                The school and the church say totally different things about how humans were created. I think this is why I got more confused because I heard different opinions from both sides. If I had to choose between evolution and creationism, I would choose creationism just because I think this makes more sense to me. I believe that there should be some spirit or object that started the earth and human life.

                I wish there is a right answer to this question. The fact that I do not know where I came from really bothers me. I wish someone could find the real solution for me.   

Blogging around

 Nolan made a big decision last week. He decided to go to U of I next year, and he really liked the campus. He is looking foward to go to U of I next year and he is going to use the skills that he leanred at GBS.
          
          "I am glad that you decide what school you want to go next year and you feel good about going. I also made a decision a few days ago, amd I am really looking foward to go to college. I am also afraid to go to totally new place just by myself, but I think we are going to have fun and have more experience. Good luck nex year~"

Joe said he really like doing Do you mind question we do everyday in class. He thought about some of the questions, but he did not have chance to answer them before. Some of the questions are challenging but he likes the part that everyone has their own unique answers.

       "I also like Do you Mind questions. I thought about some of the questions but I never had chance to think deeply before. Some questions are a little bit challenging, but it makes me to think about my past and future. I think doing Do you mind questions make the class more fun and know more about everyone in class. "

Best of week: Water shortage

             The best thing that we did in class was Marina’s TED presentation. She talked about the water is drying out in the rivers and we will not have enough fresh water in the future. Her presentation was related to the topic that I learned in Environmental Science class. There is only 2.966% of fresh water that is inaccessible, but people do not realize water is a limited resource.

            I thought about how much water I use just one day. I take shower, drink water, use toilet, brush my teeth, give water to plants, and do laundry. I did not realize how much water I use every day and just take it for granted. Sometimes I just throw away drinkable water, take shower for long time, and do not turn off water while I brush my teeth.

            Marina’s TED presentation and Environmental science made me to reminded me and thinks about importance of water. Therefore, I decide to not waste water as much as I did before. I should turn off water when I do not need, take shorter showers, upgrade to a low flush toilet, and turn the tap off while I brush my teeth.

Best of Week : Consilience

         The article, Consilience, was related to my TED video. Edward Wilson’s major point was that the arts and science are together, and that art comes from human nature. My TED presenter, Mae Jamison, also said combining art and science are important in our future. Many people think art and science are separated and they do not find the connection between them. I liked the quote from the article. “Neither science nor the arts can be complete without combining their separate strengths. Science needs the intuition and metaphorical poor of the arts and the arts need the fresh blood of science.” This means if we do not combine the idea of the arts and science, any kind of work will never be completed. The artist should able to use art in the other field, and the scientist also should be able to use science in the other field.

            After I watched TED video and read the article, I learned that the arts and science will process the creative mind. This idea made me think that even little objects that we see in everyday life came from the work of art and science. Any new technologies are work of combining art and science because the designers have to design and the scientists have to make that technology work.

            This idea gave me an idea of what I should be thinking of doing in the future. Since I am undecided for my major, I can apply this knowledge to find the best job that fits me. I will have more opportunities if I know how to use them in real life.      

Blogging around

Metacognition: First Semester in Humanities

                Ashley C. compared how her thinking changed from the first day of humanities class and the last day of the first semester. She expected easy and fun relaxing class but she was glad that she had chance to think in a new way through this class. She was glad that she took this class.

“I had the same feeling as you in the beginning of the year. I thought I was the only one who was falling behind because I thought this class was different than other English classes that I took over last three years. However, I also think this class makes me to view the problems in different perspective. As I look around and look carefully, I found so many post-modern things and the “adjacent possible”.  “

                Captured Thought: Walking in the Halls

          Adie L. was curious about what side of the hallways people in England walk? Since they drive on the left side of the road, she was not sure they walk in left side or right side. In U.S., it is normal to walk on the right side, but it is normal to walk in left side in England. She thought it was interesting thinking because it was outside the box to think about people with different culture.

          “I think this is very interesting question to think about. I also never thought about this. I am glad that you find the things that are outside of the box.”

Final Lit Circle

           After I read the book, The Post American World, and Kathryn’s blog, The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks, I found the connections between them. When we discussed in class, I thought there were no connections between these two books because they were talking about different topics. However, as I thought deeply, there were some similarities in these two books.

Zakaria’s major claim was the “rise of the rest.”  He was basically talking about how America is not getting worse, but other countries, China, Japan, India and Germany, are growing at a very fast rate. China and India are the countries that economy would grow at its fastest pace in the last few decades. Especially, China’s income per person across the globe would rise at a faster rate than any other period in history. The book, The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks, was talking about how HeLa cells were growing fast and impact in the medical world. HeLa cells are growing much faster than normal cells.

Even though, one book is talking about the country and the other book is talking about the cell, I thought they were similar. Even in last few decades no one thought that China would become one of the most important country in the world.  Also, China is the richest country in the world. They have very large population which means they have many workers, and it results better economy. HeLa cell is like China. It grows much faster than normal cells, and therefore produced results faster. Even thought the cell is small, it impact people’s lives and it is one of the most thing from human body.

The both books showed that how unexpected thing could affect the lives and world. Unexpected things could change our live one day. We need to have interest in a variety of things and we need to continuously observe the changes that the world is going through.