Morrie's Aphorisms - Final Project

My Aphorism: “Don’t assume that it is too late to get involved.” (p.18) 

     What Morrie meant by "Don't assume that it is too late to get involved" was that the positive effects of getting into the decision of getting involved. For example, if it is the middle of the school year and you have just gotten there and already see everybody with their own friends, you might think it would be too late for you to be friends with anybody because they already have their own friends. Morris's aphorism could be taken into a variety of different situations, but the point of the aphorism was to get you looking at the positive effects of getting involved is.

     The aphorism reminds me of when I first transferred into Heritage Middle School. There were about 2 or 3 moths left in the year and everybody made friends with everybody else. I felt as if I couldn't get a lot or many friends versus they already had their groups. I then tried to befriend them by getting involved with them. I started talking to them more about random things and right now I am friends with a bout everybody.

     I agree with Morrie on the side of the positive effects. However, this aphorism could be taken the wrong way and influence people into thinking doing bad things are good. An example would be that somebody is trying to get into a fight with somebody else, Morrie's aphorism could be taken to the wrong extent and end up starting a fight. That person might think, well I shouldn't think it's too late to get involved in this fight, which is where Morrie's aphorism's flaw is.

Socratic Seminar Morrie Reflections

     The past four Socratic seminars influenced my thinking about Tuesday's with Morrie by making me think about my own life. The reason is because during the seminars people would usually make personal connections to the book, which would also make me think about my personal connections to the book. After looking at my connections to Tuesday's with Morrie I noticed that I had a lot of connections to the book. One of the connections was that I had a family member who died of ALS before I was born. I found out by telling my parents what the book was about. After I told them the part about Morrie having ALS they told me about one of my grand-uncles who had died of ALS a couple years before I was born.

     A trend that I found about myself was that I had more content to discuss about than the last seminar. I gained experience from the last Socratic seminar to make the next seminar better. My goals were basically to participate more in the seminars. I would make it easier to participate more by, once again, writing more content to discuss about. It helps because the more content you have to discuss about, then you will be able to talk about more things, therefore allowing you to participate more.

      The trends I noticed about the class was that it got more participation and the discussion got more personal and went more off topic. It wasn't a bad thing that we got off topic because the students were making connections to Morrie, or the book in general. One thing that made each seminar better was that everybody made each other participate or help each other into the discussion. Also, since people made connections to their personal life more people felt comfortable with it and it helped them join e conversation.

Tuesday's with Morrie - What 'Tuesday' Has Inspired You?

      The Tuesday that has most inspired me is the second Tuesday. The second Tuesday is focused on feeling sorry for yourself. It impacted me the most because I think it is one of the most important things to do in your life, plus it is a human emotion that everyone has. Feeling sorry for yourself is important because it can help get rid of the stress you may have. If you are really feeling down and nobody else is feeling sorry for you then you would feel as if you are all alone. Feeling sorry for yourself gives you a feeling of reassurance.

     I think feeling sorry for yourself is one of the most easiest but hardest things to do. Feeling sorry for yourself is easy because it is a basic human emotion. It can happen without you even noticing or you might want to fight that emotion but it can happen by itself. The hard thing about feeling sorry for yourself is that you can't do it all the time because you will just be dragging everybody else's emotions down. Morrie said, "'Sometimes, in the mornings,' he said. 'That's when I mourn... But then I stop mourning.'... 'But then I concentrate on all the good things still in my life. On the people who are coming to see me.'" Morrie has a technique to stop mourning and feeling sorry for himself, which is focusing on the good things and other people in his life.

     One other thing I'd like to mention is how Morrie said he was lucky on knowing he had a terminal disease. In other words, he thought he was lucky that he knew he was going to die. Morrie said, "'It's horrible to watch my body slowly wilt away to nothing. But it's also wonderful because of all the time I get to say goodbye.'" The reason is because many other people die without knowing that they were going to die. Since they die without the knowledge of them dying they can't say goodbye to anybody. However, since Morrie knows that he is going to die he can say goodbye to all of his loved ones, friends, and family.

Tuesday's with Morrie - Bucket List

     I thought that it was pretty interesting on how the narrator says that Morrie was different, and then it shows how he was different than everybody. Something that showed he was different than the usual person is that he had a funeral for himself but he was still living. Usually somebody wouldn't do that, the usual routine was to just do a funeral when the person was dead.

     Somethings else that peaked my interest is how brave Morrie is. I think he is brave because he would go on and ask random students to help him hold a beaker while he was using the bathroom. Not only that, I was surprised that the students would accept his request. I'm sorry to say this but if he would have asked me to do it I would have rejected, but I would call another student to do it for him.

Bucket list:

 - Go travel out of the country (Out of the Americas)

 - Get at least a bachelors degree

 - Have a career or professional job that I would be proud to have

 - Help my family out as much as I can

 - Get a decent home in a good neighborhood

 

3rd Quarter Reflection Blog

     The area I think I have most improved on in English Language Arts is turning my assignments on time. Yes I know that there were some assignments that I turned in late but last quarter I had even more assignments that I have turned in late. I think it is a major improvement because before, I would not be able to turn in assignments during class and have to take it for homework. Now, I work a little faster and I'm now able to turn things in on time and not suffer later.

     Something that I have done this quarter that I am proud of is actually reading a book, not for an assignment however. I was bored one day and I didn't want to play video games or be on any electronics. So I just scavenged my house for a book, luckily I found one and it is called Black Beauty. I have been reading it for the past couple of weeks and I have been quite intrigued by it. 

     The most challenging part in 3rd quarter was doing the Anne Frank slides for the Holocaust Unit. That was the most challenging because when I would forget to do a couple slides then I would suffer later because I would have to do even more work than what I would have had to do. I made it easier for myself by doing it earlier so I wouldn't have to suffer later.

     A strategy that has been the most beneficial to me is getting things done early. For example when I was doing my Holocaust slides I started out not doing so well, like forgetting to do something then paying for it later. After that I thought that it would have been way easier to do more things than I needed to do later. That way I could have free time or could do any other work I was missing, or even do more.

     Other than that 3rd quarter has honestly been the easiest quarter in comparison of the others, one reason is because I made things easier for myself. Another reason is that I tried my hardest to commit to school.

Night

     Elie changed quite a lot from before and after the Holocaust occurred, or even during the Holocaust.  However, I see only one way he changed that is most noticible. The most noticible way he changed was by his belief in God or his religion. In the beginning Elie wanted to be more in touch with his religion and wanted to learn more about it. "Thus began my initiation. Together we would read, over and over again, the same page of Zohar. Not to learn it by heart but to discover within the very essence of divinity." Wiesel first asked his father on who can help him learn Kabbalah but his father says Wiesel is too young to learn it. After his father rejected Wiesel's answer he asks Moishe the Beatle if he could teach him to know more about his religion. That is when Wiesel began his initiation.

    About midway through the book, when Wiesel is in the concentration camp he says different things about God and starts questioning God. This is the time when times have gone completely hard and that is when Wiesek asks God on why he is not helping him and why he isn't stopping anything. "for the first time, I felt anger rising within me. Why should I sanctify His name? The Almighty, the eternal and terrible Master of the Universe, chose to be silent. What was there to thank Him for?" Wiesel is asking why God is being silent or is not doing anything and he also says that there was nothing to thank god for since he wasn't helping or doing anything about what is being done to the Jews.

     Towards the end of the book Elie sees that the Rabbi's son tried to ditch him or get rid of him to get a better chance of survival. Elie then realizes that it was an easier way to survive but he really didn't want to do that to his own father. He ends up praying to God to not let him do what Rabbi's son did to his own father. Throughout the entire book he ceased to pray and to believe God was helping them, but now that he has seen somebody turn on their own family he does not want to do the exact same thing.

Night Blog

     After reading this far I wonder if Wiesel's mother and sisters made it out of their concentration camp alive or even reunited with Wiesel and his father. I wonder this because I know that Wiesel made it out alive or else we would have not been reading the book in the first place because he wouldn't be able to make the book if he was dead. So since we know he made it out alive that is why I'm curious if his relatives made it out alive too.

     The most important event in the story Night is when Wiesel and his family leave their hometown and go to a concentration camp. I think it is the most important event because this is where their lives and prespectives change by a lot. When they were first turned into a ghetto in their hometown they still had smiles on their faces and felt not a lot of change in their life, after they left they had a shot new prespectives of everything. Wiesel goes throughout a series of hard events, Wiesel's family is put in a compacted cattle car with most of the people from their town crunched up in there, Wiesel's family gets separated, then everything gets worse from their on. Little by little their humanity or civil rights get taken away and it breaks them down.

     One big way I see the main character Wiesel change is his loyalty to God. As time goes by he loses his faith in God and starts to question Him. "Why should I sanctify His name? The Almighty, the eternal and terrible Master of the Universe, chose to be silent. What was there to thank Him for?" Pg #33 This quote goes to show that Wiesel didn't think God was doing the right thing and God wasn't doing anything but watching them suffer as they go through these rough experiences. Another way he changes is by him not saying anything when his father gets beat. When his father gets beat Wiesel says he didn't do anything but he thought that before they went to the camps he probably would have tried to help his father. Now he is just accepting everything that is happening and is changing the way he is as a human, the Nazis were taking away his humanity.