Religion

    I've always been exposed to Christianity my whole life, even though my parents became Christian when I was in fourth grade. As a toddler, my parents sent me to a Christian preschool because they thought Christians would be nice people. There I remember going over the picture bible numerous times. Stories about Adam and Eve, Noah and the Ark, and Jesus. As an ignorant child, I thought nothing of it. They seemed like fictional stories, but I was told to believe. As time went on, Christianity faded from my life. However, I was brought to church by a friend in third grade. I went just for the social aspect, but I still paid attention to the lessons and sermons. Eventually, I chose to accept Jesus and became a Christian. As a Christian, we are told to share the gospel and get others to believe in Jesus. However, I know if someone tried to convert me into a Buddhist, whatever they said would go through one ear and out the other. Christians are often seen as these passive aggressive people who want to shove the bible down your throat and convert you into a Christian, just like in Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God; Edwards demands the reader to convert or suffer eternally "in the flames of hell"(Edwards 120). Converting someone to a different religion should not be aggressive. Imagine if someone told you that whatever you believed in is wrong and that the beliefs you've grown up with have all been lies. Most people wouldn't want to listen to what they're saying. I know I wouldn't. Although a quarter of American adults have converted their faith, it's still not a majority. It's fine if someone shares the basics of their religion with someone else, but to demand submission is simply preposterous. 

Article about religion statistics:
http://religions.pewforum.org/reports

Those window commercials are so transparent

ABC: American Born Chinese

    As someone who might be considered an "ABC", life is pretty interesting. Although some may find it weird, outside of school, I only hang out with asians. It's not because I hate other races, it just happens to be that all my parents' friends are also asian, and their kids are asian. Although I've never experienced discrimination as bad as Brent Staples has, I've definitely experienced it. For example, if I were to compare my life to Brent Staples, my version of being racially profiled as "an accomplice in tyranny" (Staples 205) would be being considered a nerd. People sometimes rail me for taking Chinese when I AM chinese, but Americans take English classes; why can't I cash out on my previous hard work? It's not like people are born with vast knowledge of their culture's language. I went to Chinese school every saturday morning from kindergarten to eighth grade. Hard work brings results, and I think an A or two is well deserved. Maybe I'm being self righteous but whatever. Sometimes people discriminate or berate others based on a certain tradition of their ethnicity, when in reality, they themselves have a similar tradition. People are often too quick to judge others. For example, Key and Peele's uses a comedic hyperbole to illustrate this issue.

Although cliches are frowned upon, I truly believe that you shouldn't judge a book by its cover. I know I've often felt bad for judging someone, then finding out more information on the situation. As Gandhi once said, “The only difference between man and man all the world over is one of degree, and not of kind, even as there is between trees of the same species. Where in is the cause for anger, envy or discrimination?” 

I just can't wrap my head around those hat commercials.

Hunger. A Motivator for Success

    As depicted in Wall's The Glass Castle, hunger (physical or metaphorical) can be a direct motivator for knowledge. Jeannette's physical hunger has a direct correlation to her hunger for knowledge. Due to the fact that her parents often fail to provide food for the family, she strives to distance herself  from such situations. Whether its rooting "through the bathroom wastebaskets for food" (Walls 232) or getting a job, physical hunger pushes her to adapt. In this case, adapting means gaining knowledge. She soul desires knowledge to be able to find a job in New York and abandon the life of poverty. Although Jeannette tries to avoid it, hunger is what drives her to eventually move to New York and live a stable life. Also, looking at a real world scenario, 53.5 percent of Harvard undergraduates come from families that have an annual income of less than $200,000 (Lanning). That's not poverty level, but there are bound to be quite a few individuals that are close. This shows that success is not bred from past success. It can be formulated from the hunger of knowledge, which is often stemmed from hunger for a better life. Sometimes those who live "the good life" often lack the required hunger for knowledge in order to find success. Due to their current satisfactory lives, they subconsciously assume that as long as they don't fail out of school, their lives will be just as successful and luxurious. However, this is not the case. Their parents probably worked their butts off in order to achieve such a state of nirvana. The present doesn't represent the future, so people should strive for knowledge, even if they're not hungry (physical or metaphorical) at the moment.






Article about Hardvard student income: http://www.thecrimson.com/article/2012/1/26/diversity-lack-figures-evidence-harvard/

Have you seen the drilling comercials? They’re really deep