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In the first semester of English 12, we have read and viewed many stories/articles that represent qualities of effective leadership. They have given me a new perspective on things. I’m going to give you five examples from first quarter to explain how they have influenced me and how they have helped develop my story. Four of those examples are stories and the last one is the class novel I read. Then I will list off examples from second quarter that have encouraged me to think critically, serve generously, lead purposefully, and live responsibly. They have challenged my thinking and made me realize many different things.People see things different from others. What I mean is, each person sees things in their own unique way. One person may look at something in a completely different way than someone else. For example, one person may see a glass of water half full and another person may see it as half empty. In the story Starfish, this little girl is walking along the beach throwing starfish back into the water when a man jogging stops and asks her what she’s doing. When she replies, she tells him she’s throwing them back in the water. He tries to convince her that it’s a waste of time, and it’s impossible to throw all of them back, but she is persistent and keeps throwing them back because at least it’s helping. The man gets inspired by the little girl’s persistence and throws one starfish into the water. This story influenced me because no matter what people try to tell me I don’t stop doing whatever I’m doing just because they don’t think it’s helping. If I believe in something, then I will keep doing it. If I know it’s helping, then I’m going to continue doing it. It challenged my thinking because if everyone had the same mindset of this young girl then this world would be a much better place.Another story that influenced me was the article “Stop Teaching Your Kids to Fear Disappointment”. It basically tells readers that some parents teach their kids to be afraid of disappointment by ensuring them that they do not want to be disappointed or by just not letting them be disappointed. I have been disappointed many times but I am not affected permanently by it. I don’t necessarily like being disappointed but I am not fearful of it. I am thankful that my parents allowed me to be disappointed over things because now I know how to cope with it. It encouraged me to think critically because a lot of kids are spoiled nowadays and never have to worry about being disappointed. Being disappointed is a part of life and I think it’s something we all should experience so we don’t take all the good things we have in life for granted. One story that I could somewhat relate to was a story about high school drama, bullying, and overcoming people’s opinions. Whitney Kropp was a student in high school who didn’t exactly fit in. She was bullied throughout school and didn’t have many friends. A couple fellow students thought it would be fun to pull a prank on her and nominate her as homecoming queen as a joke. When Whitney found out about the prank, she had thought of suicide and was left feeling like she didn’t matter to anyone. She got support from many people and decided to go. When her story got out many people found it very inspirational and donated a dress and shoes and offered to give Whitney a free makeover. She arrives at the dance and leaves everyone in shock. After her story got around, she had many fans who supported her which gave her the confidence she needed. This story is really inspiring because of the fact that so many kids are bullied in high school and the suicide number has been increasing over the years. Personally, I know many girls who have self-harmed because of getting judged by society. Most of the time, the reason they did it was because of a boy. It made me think critically about how girls are so insecure nowadays and will do anything for attention to get people to like them. Girls need to have more self-confidence. We need to build up each other’s confidence, not bring them down. Nobody is perfect so why judge one another? Today’s society spends more time trying to tear people down rather than bring them up.A story that I found really inspiring was Johnny the Bagger. It is about a boy who is mentally disabled and works at a grocery store as a bagger. He started putting pieces of paper in peoples shopping bags that had “a thought for the day” written on them. Pretty soon people wanted to go to Johnny’s checkout lane just so they could get his handwritten, inspirational quotes that brightened their day. Not only did this make other peoples days better but it also greatly influenced Johnny’s day as well. So many people cared about his little notes and it made him feel really good. This story influenced me because it showed me how such a simple act of kindness can make someone’s day better. It encourages me to think about the little things I could do to make someone The novel that I read was The Other Wes Moore and I found the book really intriguing because it was based off of a true story. I’m not so sure if the novel influenced me so much as interested me. It was really fascinating that two people with the same name could live almost completely different lives with just a handful of things in common. One of them turned out to be successful and the other ended up in prison for the rest of his life. They both made mistakes in their years of growing up but only one of them learned from them. It made me critically think about living responsibly or else life could get rough. It all depends on the choices you make.A story we learned in quarter 2 that made me think critically was about “Goodwill Security” and it was about how their security level is very minimal. People were donating their stuff and goodwill is supposed to sort through it to make sure there are no personal documents put out with the items for sale. A news crew documented and took videos of themselves finding social security numbers and income statements and other very personal information. Not only did they find a whole bunch of personal documents but they were also able to buy the papers without even having a problem. This made me think about both sides. The people donating items should’ve looked more thoroughly before they gave their stuff away with their personal information included. The employees at Goodwill should have honored their security code. If people’s personal information would’ve been distributed, then Goodwill would’ve been in a lot of trouble. This just proves how careless and lazy people are.Another story we watched in quarter 2 was “Americans Don’t Know Their First Amendment Rights” which was a camera crew going around asking random citizens questions about their first amendment rights. Almost every person they talked to would answer every question wrong. They all gave ridiculous answers, and this is how our country is represented. People who have lived in the United States their entire life could not answer simple questions about their First Amendment Rights. This made me critically think about the concept that most people don’t know anything about their country. They know more about the newest Starbucks flavors than they do about their first amendment rights.In conclusion, everyone has different opinions and only certain things influence certain people. The stories that I listed above may not impact you but they influenced me. I found some really inspirational and others I could relate to because I have experienced similar problems or had to deal with friends who experienced the same problems. Being influenced by these stories, I will change the way I see things. I will not be the one to tell someone else to stop doing what they believe in. I will not be the one to teach others to fear disappointment. I will not be the one to degrade someone to the point where they no longer feel like living. BUT I will be the one to perform simple acts of kindness to make someone’s day better. Everything we learn and experience changes who we are as a person. We just have to be open-minded. This generation is very close-minded. They don’t care about much anymore. ................
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