I was reading Gulliver's Travels by Jonathan Swift the other day, and some thoughts crossed my mind.
Gulliver’s travel to Lilliput describes the small men of the world. This is way the lilliputians are six inches tall. The lilliputians have a serious dispute with the empire of Blefuscu over the matter of cracking eggs. In the novel, the king passes a decree that eggs should only be broken on the small end. He does this because his grandfather made a mistake, so the king had to make it look right. This represents the rulers of the world who are more concerned with themselves than the welfare of the world.
Another interesting characteristic of the lilliputians is that they have small minds to go with their small bodies. They only believe the kingdoms of Lilliput and Blefuscu to exist. They are not interested in what else there may be around them.
With Swift’s description of Lilliput, you would think he was a very pessimistic person. It sounds as though he thinks people are doomed to self-destruction. He shows that this is not what he believes with his description of the Brobdingnags.
When Gulliver ventures to Brobdingnag, his role is quite reversed. He is the small-bodies, small-minded person, while the king of Brobdingnag is gargantuan. This represents the king’s wisdom.
Gulliver describes to the king how wonderful it would be for their kingdom to have gunpowder. He tells him how they could just blow their enemies up, and not have to worry about them.
The King of Brobdingnag thinks that Gulliver is quite a fool for these remarks. The king sees no reason why he would want to blow his enemies up, and that gunpowder sounds like a solution for small men.
This analogy represents that the world has great rulers also. Many rulers would never revert to violence as a solution to their problems. The Brobdingnags are the hope for the human race. With these virtuous people, the world cannot fail.

A “tribal affiliation” is very important in every person’s life. A “tribe” can help a person feel like they belong and are a part of something. Without these tribal affiliations, a person could feel like they have nobody with whom they could be accepted.

There are many different tribes in my life. Some of these include my family, church, sports teams, and peers in school. Each of these tribes helps me in some aspect of my life. If one or more of these tribes broke down, it could be difficult and life-affecting.

My family is the tribe with which I am most affiliated. I fit in the most with my family because they have the most in common with me of any tribe I belong to. Some people’s families break down through such ordeals as divorce. If something like that happened to my family, it would be very difficult to cope.

One of my tribes has already broken down. My Jr. Jazz basketball team was defeated in the tournament, so the team is no more. I am somewhat upset about the breakdown, but I can cope because I know there will be another team next year.

I do not think I am very affiliated with the “Bruin Tribe”. I do not participate very much in extra-curricular activities, and therefore am not a prominent member of this tribe. I am a member, however, of smaller tribes within the Bruin tribe, which consist of my friends.

A tribe is very important to a person’s well-being, and the breakdown of one can be a very dramatic change to one’s life.

Reading

I have enjoyed reading ever since I could do it. It has long been a favorite pastime of mine. I used to gather a large pile of picture books every night to read before I went to asleep. You could say that I enjoy reading thoroughly.

Some of my favorite books to read when I was young included The Big Bad Pig and the Three Little Wolves, The Big, Hungry Bear, and the Shiloh trilogy. I probably enjoyed reading so much because I had been read to from a very young age. When my brother and I shared a room, he would often read me Goosebumps books before we went to sleep.

Reading can be both very beneficial, and very fun. However, television has almost replaced reading in the lives of many people. Instead of reading a good book on a rainy day, people will now most likely turn on the TV. While, TV is not bad, it does not stimulate the brain the way reading does. I find that reading can be much more exciting than television, if you will give it a chance.

Many people believe that they just don’t like to read. I think that if they sat down, and put in the time to read a good book, they would find it very enjoyable. Many people are too lazy to read. While reading takes a substantial amount of effort, television takes none at all. Because most people are lazy, they will opt for the television. This is a shame, because many people could learn many valuable lessons from reading good books.

Up to this point, I have had a very trauma-free life. I must be a very lucky person. While the worst thing that ever happened to me was probably falling off a rope swing, I have heard of others who have gone through some amazingly difficult challenges. These people are incredible for their will to carry on and their durability to hardship.

When I think of hardship, I think of the victims of 9/11. These people did not deserve the punishment which they felt. I do not know how these people got through this hardship. They must have had very hardy personalities. The victims who did live it can all tell stories of miraculous escapes. However, many did not live through this terrible ordeal. The death toll was in the thousands.

For all those around the country who had friends and family killed in these attacks, the grief and pain must have been almost insurmountable. These people must have had great inner strength to carry on day to day.

If I encountered such a hardship in my life, I do not know how I would cope. I would have to take life day by day, and try to keep my head up. The pain and grief would be so intense, I may want to just lie in bed and cry all day. However, that would not help me move forward.

To overcome hardship, a person must take life a day at a time, and try to be happy. The more that one does this, the easier it will become to encounter trials in the future.

My high school experience has been very intense and action-packed thus far. It has been an exciting journey of homework assignments and tests. In many ways, my high school experience has been what I expected. However, it has also been different in some ways.
When I was a young boy, I always looked at high school students as the coolest people in town. They could drive, date, and stay up late. As I grew closer and closer to my actual high school experience, this perception lessened. However, they still seemed so much older than me.
Now that I am in high school, it doesn’t seem like I am. I remember seeing the high schoolers driving to school and thinking, “Wow, they’re old.” Now that I am that age, I don’t seem old at all. It seems like just yesterday I was going to my first day of 7th grade.
My high school experience has been like what I expected in many ways. In most ways, it is just like junior high. The only major differences are that people can drive, and I am no longer the oldest in the school.
The differences though, are what stand out. When I was little I thought high school would be so cool. However, upon further investigation, it’s not everything its cracked up to be. Not that high school is extremely boring or anything, but I don’t think there are that many differences from Junior High.
Up to this point in high school, I feel pretty successful. I haven’t procrastinated as much as I did last year, and therefore have had a lot less homework. I think one of the reasons that high school hasn’t been such a challenge, is that I took some pretty difficult classes in Junior High..
I have many goals for my high school years. I want to make the honor roll every year in high school. I also want to take many AP and concurrent enrollment classes to build up a lot of college credit. When I first started 7th grade, I had goals like, making the basketball team, and being “cool”. Those things, however, don’t matter to me anymore. When you look at the big picture, where is being popular, or being on the basketball team going to get you?
This is why I have tried to concentrate on the more important goals, primarily academic. Many kids in high school don’t think that doing well in school is that important. Just call them popular and they’ll be happy. I don’t believe this philosophy. Doing good in school is important, and that is my main goal as I continue my high school journey.