What gives us more pleasure and satisfaction: the pursuit of our desires or the attainment of them?

Attainment of goals gives brief pleasure and satisfaction but I think that the pursuit give more long lasting pleasure. Once it's attained, we may or may not have anything to strive for. Searching for something we desire gives us a sense of being and a sense of purpose. We attain them we start looking for that next big thing to accomplish. If we were actually happy with the attainment of the goal we would be able to stop right there. The brief moment of self accomplishment deriving from the achievement of our goal is just that: brief. We as humans are always looking for ways to improve our lives and finding the shortest route to happiness. And it is in our lives that we avoid pain by the pursuit of what we desire.

While you are pursuing a goal, you are imagining the pleasure of attainment. Once you achieve the goal, the pleasure may not be as great as you imagined.

Once it's attained, we may or may not have anything to strive for. Searching for something we desire gives us a sense of being and a sense of purpose. We attain them we start looking for that next big thing to accomplish. If we were actually happy with the attainment of the goal we would be able to stop right there. The brief moment of self accomplishment deriving from the achievement of our goal is just that: brief. We as humans are always looking for ways to improve our lives and finding the shortest route to happiness. And it is in our lives that we avoid pain by the pursuit of what we desire.

It depends on the goal. Some goals once attained are just the beginning. There is such a thing as a prerequisite. Until that is attained everything else is just a pipe dream. Then there are others in which the pursuit is the true goal. For example, climbing a mountain. Once you've been to the top of a mountain, all other mountain tops are the same. The object is not the summit but the climb and the return. These are the challenge.

The SAT

The SAT holds tremendous power in determining where you will go to college. To go to virtually any college or university in the United States, you need to have taken the Scholastic Aptitude Test, a standardized exam that assigns you a score that ranks your verbal and math abilities. The SAT is not an intelligence test; rather, it is a predictor of college success. College admissions committees use the SAT to get a general idea of your scholastic aptitude. Each section of the SAT is graded on a scale of 200 - 800, with 500 being the average score. Though many colleges require the SAT for admission because it is a standard way of measuring a student's ability to do college-level work, there are many problems with it.

Colleges and universities have been using the SAT to select their students who apply to them. According to College Board, the SAT is a test that measures students' abilities which they will use to be able to do well in universities or colleges. In addition, the SAT shows how well the students solve the problems and how well the education they have gotten. The SAT consists of ten sections which consist of one 25-minute essay section, two 25-minute and one 20-minute math problem sections, four 25-minute, one 20-minute, and one 10-minute English problem sections. Therefore, the total time to do all the sections is three hours and forty-five minutes.

No test can accurately predict with 100 percent certainty what your grades will be in college. This is because many factors, including personal motivation, influence your college grades. Colleges use SAT scores to help estimate how well students are likely to do at its school. Knowing your SAT helps the college make a decision about how likely it is that you'll do well at the school, but for many their first year of college grades are different from what their SAT scores had predicted for them. The oldest and most familiar accusation against standardized tests is that they are discriminatory. The prime evidence for this charge is the test results themselves.

Thanksgiving Break Weekend

During the thanksgiving break, I had a fun time while I’m sore. On Wednesday, I had to go to this mandatory practice for badminton in Golden Gate Badminton Club at Emeryville. My friends, sister, and I played badminton for a long time since in the morning. In the morning 10 am to 7 pm straight. During the practice, we were having fun playing it. After we left the GGBC, we all were really sore everywhere and were stretching because it hurts so much. After we all left and came back home, we were tired.

On Thursday, my family and I went to a friend’s house to have barbeque at their house. We had a lot of different fried food and we brought noodles to their house. Everyone likes the noodles because it was delicious. There were steaks, crabs, potatoes, yams, etc. After we finished eating, we went back home.

On Friday, it was Black Friday, my family and I went shopping at 4 am. When we went to the shopping mall, it wasn’t a lot of people like usual Monday to Friday. First, we went to Office Max because my dad wanted to get the Acer Notebook Laptop. On the paper, it said it was 150 dollars but when we went inside the Office Max. The people who worked there said it was a fake ad. We all were mad because they shouldn’t do that. But after that, we left and went to the mall in Fremont. There weren’t a lot of people at Great Mall. We spend so much time looking for clothes to buy. After we finished shopping at Great Mall, we went to Southland to shop for clothes too. Later when we finished with everything, we went back home and eat dinner. We were all tired of walking for a long time.

I was sore for four days in the row starting from Wednesday to Saturday. Finally on Sunday, I was all back to normal, no pain at all.

Writing a college essay

Writing a college essay can be a very difficult task. However, there are techniques to help make this task easier. The writing process is a three stage approach to planning and creating a college essay. These stages are known as prewriting, writing, and revising. If a student follows this process, one will write a good paper.

The first stage of the writing process is called prewriting. There are four prewriting techniques that help writers to understand the topic and purpose of the writing assignment. The techniques are brainstorming, diagramming, making a list, and preparing an outline. In brainstorming, you generate ideas for your writing. A writer might write their impressions, or write a list of ideas for an essay. It helps you to get a clearer picture of what you are trying you say. Diagramming is helpful for people who think in a visual way. One can put your idea in a circle and branch off examples. The other technique is making a list. One list as many items it can that has a relation to your topic. Their goal is to make details and to gather as much material as possible so you have something to start with when you go to write your paper. The last technique is preparing an outline. The thesis statement is clearly stated on the outline and a specific outline format. Outlining gives you a sense of organization and allows you to see quickly if you have enough support for your ideas. After if one is done with prewriting, one moves on to the next step.

The second stage for the writing process is called writing. In the writing phase, you make decisions about developing and organizing your ideas into writing and discover what you know about the subject. Insights gained from the prewriting phase help shape ideas into meaning for yourself and others. One may prepare a rough draft, focusing on the purpose of the writing and choosing a suitable form for a specific audience. You need a thesis to work with first. The thesis will be your guide while you write your essay. An effective thesis statement should not be an obvious opinion that every reader already shares and focuses on an idea that can be supported evidence rather than emotion.

The third stage of the writing process is called revising. One clarifies and refines their writing in thesis stage. After one has finished one draft of the essay, they should begin revising your paper. Revising might involve change the written expression, so that it clearly conveys the ideas, sentences to create and effect, and inserting punctuation and correcting spelling to assist the reader. Two examples of revising are editing and proofreading. When one edits your paper, one is looking for mistakes in grammar, mechanics, punctuation, and usage. Proofreading comes after one edit in the final copy for any mistakes in typing or handwriting. Revising might also involve redrafting.

As you can clearly see, the writing process is a three step approach that makes writing easier. If you follow these steps, you should be able to write a good college essay.

Dinner Award Party

The tennis season was over. We had our dinner party with everyone such as the coaches, parents, captains, varsity, and the JV team. We had to wear formal clothes to the dinner award party. Almost everyone was wearing a nice outfit such as dresses, skirts, and tops. The dinner was at Harbor Bay Club Lower Deck. When everyone has arrived, we talked for a while. After that, we went to find a sit with our friends so we can talk while eating the foods.

My friends and I said the food was delicious especially the macaroni and the mango dessert. All of the people that went had a fantastic dinner because we were all bloated. Also there were pictures of all of us on the screen so we all saw it. After that, our coaches gave awards to all the people such as JV team and Varsity team. The JV team was first, then the Varsity team. The JV team got a certificate and a metal. Some people in the Varsity got a letter A and a certificate. And some people got a trophy and a certificate. We were all cheering for each other and had a fun time.

After that, our captains gave a speech to all of us, parents, and the coaches. Also our captains gave a photo frame to all the coaches that were signed by all of us on it. When it was done, our captains: Michelle and Sarah gave a speech such as thanking all the parents that support the team. Also thanking the tennis coach that help us improve a lot by giving us drill. Also thanking the teams that we were like a family to them. My friends and I thought it was really emotional when they said that. It looks like they wanted to cry because they are seniors and it is their last year here.

When the speech was over, we all hang out and had an excited time. During the tennis season, I really had a great time learning new skills.

New Purpose Statement

In the beginning, my goal was to be in the tennis team and improve my essay. Therefore, I am in the tennis team and improving my essay every single week. Usually I write about SAT prompts or things that are happening to me. When I looked back to see what I wrote the first time, I said that I was going to write about tennis and SAT prompts. Most of my writing is mostly about SAT prompts.

My new goal is to be in the badminton team because it's similar to tennis. I find that badminton is really fun. Also I am going to continue writing about SAT prompts. Continuing writing about SAT prompts can help me improve my essay. Also I am going to continuing writing about happy events. When I am writing about an exciting event, it makes me write more and more. Also I want to use difficult words on each of my essay. I don’t think I’m going to make it into the badminton team because this year is difficult. It’s difficult because the varsity people are really good and they have a quick reaction to hit it back. The varsity people are usually senior. Another goal is that if I don’t get into badminton team, I want to join track. Track because I want to run fast and not get tired.

Do memories hinder or help people in their effort to learn from the past and succeed in the present?

I strongly believe that memories help people in their effort to learn from the past and succeed in the present. The very essence of an individual depends on their experiences and the memories of those experiences. A person without memories is like a bird that must learn to fly each time it takes off from its nest and learning through failure every time.

Memories are obviously necessary for people to learn from their past. Without memory insight could not last for more than an instant, and humanity would be doomed to repeat its mistakes indefinitely. But, while most memories are useful, some can develop into obstacles. Memories of traumatic events can often inconvenience the person, who will change one’s behavior to avoid thinking about these events. The most damaging memories of all are the ones that are misunderstood. The ones when the person learns a lesson they are better off, not learning and doesn’t even know it.

At birth, a baby knows nothing about the world, one has just entered. Everything is new for the baby. The baby must learn to recognize his mother, father, siblings and relatives, to differentiate between hot and cold, to get his parents’ attention when required, and to sleep at night. As the baby grows up, one learns to crawl, and to say ‘Mommy’ and ‘Daddy’. Throughout one’s life, from childhood to adulthood, one must learn about the world around him through ones own experiences. For example, if one falls by taking a long step while walking, the next time one will remember to take short cut way, and steady steps. Therefore, he learns by trial and error throughout one’s life and his memories help one to develop mentally, physically and emotionally.

In conclusion, our memories are what define us and how we perceive the world. Without the memories of past experiences, we wouldn’t be able to progress successfully in our life’s endeavors.

Live to Work or Work to Live

Money is not everything that makes up one’s life; happiness is what gives people reason to live. Having a job with a desire is the key to have people wanting to wake up every morning happily go to work. Without an interest, the natural for working is completely for the money. Although money can buy people everything they worth, but it can not buy happiness.

Even if one earns a lot of money in a job that they do not like, they will not be successful. Earning lot money does not matter at all. What matters is if one enjoys the job. If one is not interested in the job, one might end up doing a bad job. Then one will start to hate it, because one will have to face it everyday for the rest of one’s life. No matter how much money one earns, it is all about passion and interest. Money does not always bring happiness to your daily life.

If one find a job, one really likes, one will want to wake up in the morning happily and will be ready to go to work. For instance, my friend’s parents wanted him to be a doctor in his future job. He tried to take courses, but gave him too much pressure. Then he finally dropped the course. He figured that medicine was not his interest. His real interest is to major in English. He loves English that he writes a poem everyday. As a major in the English language, he learns more facts and shares have knowledge with others. He proves that choosing a path that is meaningful is the goal to happiness and a better life.

In conclusion, living to work is what truly brings happiness to everyone. Having a passionate job that keeps you active, will make your future better. Money will not be enough to keep you interested. A job that brings happiness with help one succeeds.

Do We Need Adversity To Help Us Discover Who We Are?

Everyone has to try their best in life to get what they want in return. I think that ease does not challenge us and that we need adversity to help discover who we are. Without adversity in life, we will not feel what is significant to us, and what we really want in life. Going through numerous hardships is what turned me into the person I am now. I feel it’s the challenges in life that make us look at and evaluate things. When things go easy, I think people tend to roll with it and it’s easy to take things for granted.

Realizing that even if I had all the things I wanted in the world, my parents could give me; I would turn out to be really dependent and reliant on my parents. I would not know the feeling of earning the things I want with my own hands. Before, I would always ask my parents for money whenever I needed money to hang out. But when I had a summer job, and I earned my first paycheck, I felt really great. I felt really proud of myself because I used my own abilities to earn everything I wanted. That was the first and actual time I did not have to rely on my parents. If I did not experience the first time of actually earning something on my own, I would have probably still end up relying on my parents until now.

Sometimes one has to travel a journey that forces one to take paths that stray off the main roadway. I believe it is these stray paths that are often unexpected and difficult. That make us stronger and give us the will to forge ahead in order to get ourselves back onto the main roadway in the journey of life.

While life can be difficult with some events that are unimaginable and maybe even beyond belief, looking back, as a person who one highly look up. Even though something may not be fun at the time and very challenging, the wonder of discovery and success in the end makes it worth it. It is from challenges that strength emerges.

Ease is comfortable and we are accustomed to be. Unfortunately, this stagnate change and character development. Though adversity may place heavy strains on us, it is clearly a fundamental obstacle that we must overcome on the path to true self-discovery.

Do people learn who they are only when they are forced into action?

Heroes discover their strength ability to help others when they step up to a challenge. A challenge will help one improve oneself by taking an action. I believe that people discover who they really are and also discover what they really have by continuously challenging themselves.

When I was young, I thought running was very difficult because I would sweat, breathe hard, and get very tired. I didn't run after a while, until I reached middle school. P.E. required everyone to run and by then, I was forced to run everyday. As I started to run I felt like I was going to die. After a period of time, the training helped me a lot and I started to like running. Now, I don't have trouble with running. Instead, I have a desire for running. As long as one steps up to the challenge, anything can be done.

In order to improve oneself, there always must be a challenge. Without a challenge, one will stay the same for the rest of one's live. Competition is all over the world, which means that one must compete against another in order to achieve one's goal. Competition is always a challenge and to beat one another, one must step up to the challenge first. If one does not take action, then one will stay the same level and always let others win. With a challenge leading to competition, one will certainly find their strengths, and know what one can do better the next time.

Heroes take action to defeat their challenges. They turn their weaknesses into strengths with courage and the ability to strive for the best for oneself and others. I think that if I did not step up to my lack of running skills, then I would probably still have trouble running. Although, I was forced into action; I discovered that running was very easy for me after I was trained.

Tatum

Some examples will highlight the process. Several years ago one of my students conducted a research project investigating preschoolers’ conceptions of [4] Native Americans. Using children at a local day care center as her participants, she asked these three- and four-year-olds to draw a picture of a Native American. Most children were stumped by her request. They didn’t know what a Native American was. But when she rephrased the question and asked them to draw a picture of an Indian, they readily complied. Almost every picture included one central feature: feathers. In fact, many of them also included a weapon—a knife or tomahawk—and depicted the person in violent or aggressive terms.

This is how I annotate this by underlining the important things in this paragraph. Several years ago one of my students conducted a research project investigating preschoolers’ conceptions of [4] Native Americans. For this sentence, I wrote a question mark on top because why do they need to ask the preschoolers for answer when they don’t know anything about Native Americans. The sentence that is underline is that how do they know how to draw when they are at that age. I bold the word stumped because I don’t know the meaning of it. Well, I think the thing that I annotate is important because the main idea was about a research project and the preschooler. Also the word that I did not know what it means.

Match

Today was the tennis match against Acalanes High School in Lafayette. It was an away game. When we arrived in Lafayette, we saw Acalanes High tennis players warming up. We had to warm up because it can help us on the game by rallying. We were all focusing on the tennis game because we were kind of nervous but some of the people were not. The people that are not nervous, they just played it like rallying on the court. We are a team that supported each others.

During the match, we played different players because there were a lot of people in Acalanes High. First, we all started at the same time because there was enough court for us to play. We all had a partner to play double because everyone has to. After when we finished with the doubles, we can play single if we want to because it was just for fun. There were people that played single because some people wanted to experience how it's like. The others just wanted to have fun with their opponent. When I was finished playing doubles with my sister against the opponents. I went to the other court to see what happened if they are winning or not. When I saw Katherine and Kimberly playing the game, one of their opponent was so happy and enthusiasm. Katherine and Kimberly's opponent was not mad because they were trying their best on it. Finally Katherine and Kimberly won and Kim wanted to play single. She played against the person that was so enthusiasm. When they played each other, Kim won again and she was so happy about it.

Overall Alameda High won because we had 7 out of 5. We were happy about the winning points because we all did our best effort. After we finished the whole entire tennis, we left and went back to Alameda High School. In the van, we were discussing about the game and the enthusiasm person too. We were talking about the enthusiasm person because she was cheering on Kimberly while they are opponents. After that, we all went home because we were all tired of playing tennis in a hot weather.

Las Vegas for Vacation

I want to go to Las Vegas because it has a beautiful view at night. The places I want to visit are the hotels, malls, theatres, arcades, casinos, etc. I want to go on a helicopter to anywhere because I want to see beautiful views. When it is at night, the views are pretty. Looking at the night view is awesome because it is beautiful. It is beautiful because there are a lot of different lights and enormous buildings.

Going to different places is a wonderful experience because I can go to the movies, restaurants, and shopping. Movies are good to watch because it can make you relaxed and it can entertain me. The movie I want to watch is Le Reve because it’s about romantic dance. Restaurants are a magnificent place to try new foods. The restaurant I want to try is Sushi Roku because my favorite food is sushi. Shopping is a great way to enjoy because you can buy whatever you want. Another store that I want to visit is the M&M’s World because there are different kinds of chocolate. M&M World in Times Square is New York City's largest candy store, and offers merchandise such as themed clothing, watches, and piggy banks.

I want to visit the different arcades because of the many fun games you can play such as car race, motorcycle race, DDR, etc. DDR, (Dance, Dance Revolution) is a dance game that required you to move your feet when you see the arrows.

Las Vegas is a beautiful place you can view because you can see the different lights. Going to different places is a great experience that you can try new things. Trying new things such as food, clothes, and movies are great. It is great because you can find something new to wear, eat, and watch.

Cruise to Mexico

Christmas is a holiday break that you can spent time with your family and had fun with them. My family, aunts, and I went on a cruise to Mexico on December 22 to December 26.

My family, aunts, and I went to Pairs Restaurant because everyday had different food such as French cuisine, Japan cuisine, and American cuisine for lunch. There were deserts for lunch and it tasted really good. I ate different kinds of desert and the deserts were awesome. For breakfast, we went to Paris restaurant to eat because that’s the only place that we can go for breakfast. They had eggs, bacon, pancake, etc. For dinner, we went to a place called Destiny Dining Room because that’s the place we had to go. They had different menus everyday for dinner. My favorite desert in Destiny is called Black Forest. Black Forest is a desert that is really good because the taste is not really sweet. The Black Forest had layers of chocolate cake with whipped cream and cherries between each layer.

We went to see different places in the cruise such as arcade, casino, rooms, etc. The places were really beautiful and big. There were a lot of teenagers club and dances club. There were plenty of adults club. We had a fun time playing ping pong ball because we played against each other. At night, we went to Normandie Lounge to watch different shows because the people in the shows are from Hollywood. We played Bingo because we all tried to win. We had a fun time playing Bingo but we didn’t win at all. If we had won, then there will be prizes such a champagne and money.

Christmas is a wonderful holiday that you can spend time with your family such as going to a cruise, have fun, watched shows together, etc.

Tennis

Tennis is a way to have more strength and flexibility. Tennis can make me have muscle on my shoulder and arm. I like tennis because I want to be athletic and be in the team. Tennis has a lot of things to do such as running, practice, and be ready to play.



I want to be athletic because it can help me on running. Tennis is base on how to be in a ready position and how to hit the tennis ball. The ways to hit the tennis ball is to serve, forehand, and backhand. Tennis is fun because it can make me run more and get dehydrate.



My goal is to be in the JV team or Varsity team because I like sports. Also I want to run more because in tennis, we have to run for the ball. I want to reflect and analyze in tennis because it's the way you learn. For tennis, sometimes we have to run one lap around the school or run around the court for tennis. For tennis, I have to improve on keeping the ball low because it's easier to make the opponent lose.



Tennis can make people have fun and enjoy playing tennis. I like tennis because I get to run a lot and play tennis. If I can run the pacer, then I can be more athletic because pacer can help me. Pacer is when people run back and forth in P.E.. Also I like to practice because I could improve the way I hit the ball. Running is a way you can be athletic because all sports have to run such as basketball, tennis, badminton, etc.



The other goal is to improve my essay because when I write, the words seem simple. Also vocabulary are important because if you use it in your essay, then your writing can be strong. I want to write a short essay with specific details in it. I want to use difficult words in my essay because sometimes it is useful.