Who I am today

I am currently a student at Year Up and what drives me every day to show up is the skills I plan to learn from this program. I consider myself a hard worker and very reliable because I always try to show up early for class and turn in my work on time. If people rely on me to get something done I will always complete it. I was raised in an environment where grades were everything to my mother. I was sent to a private school and always had to follow the school uniform and rules. My mother would always push me to work harder so that I would be already used to it and not slack off later in school. She had also stressed how important it was to do homework. She had set high expectations for me and relied on me to always excel in class. What motivates me is my passion for technology and the many new people I get to meet along the way of my career. Many individuals appear throughout your life but what matters is whether or not you take the step to meet that person and find out what you can do for them so that they will see you as a source of help and so you can see them the same way.

NASA Satelite crash being considered a joke?

                News of a satellite falling from space have been speculated but the question right now is where. A NASA satellite which is the size of a bus is hovering earth’s atmosphere and air molecules are bouncing off the satellite which is causing its orbit to go off course. Eventually the satellite will be pulled down by Earth’s gravity and will fall down like a flying meteor. 26 large pieces of the satellite, roughly 330 pounds are expected to survive and crash into the Earth’s surface. Many people around the world are questioning whether or not they should be concerned. NASA has calculated that there is a 1-in-3,200 chance of anyone on Earth being hurt by the satellite crashing into them (http://www.nytimes.com/2011/09/23/science/space/23satellite.html?_r=1&hp). The satellite is expected to come down on Friday around 6 p.m. Eastern time. It circles around the Earth four times in six hours which is the reason why some people have become paranoid.

                My opinion on this matter was that while I was reading the article it seemed like it was being considered almost as a joke. I read that somewhere along the article that someone mentioned that their chances of getting hit by a satellite are even greater than winning the lottery. NASA should be responsible for this and they need to do something to prevent this from even touching the Earth’s surface.  I can’t understand people talking about the satellite would want this to happen as if it didn’t interfere with their daily lives, but rather they should show a little more concern rather than talk it off like it was no big deal.

My Highschool experience

My high school experience was a mixture of good and bad moments over the four years. My freshmen year, I felt like everyone else was trying to adjust and meet new people. The teachers I had to me didn’t seem to care, they just wanted us to read the book and do the homework. There was hardly any interactive activities my first two years. My third and fourth year, high school got better because I received good teachers that actually taught and cared about what we learned in class. By that time I knew most of my classmates because I had classes with them and knew who most of them were so the awkwardness of day one went away. The atmosphere definitely felt friendly especially because of the teachers’ attitude and the many new friends I had met the first two years. Unfortunately in my school we receive the same counselor for the four years there and my counselor wasn’t my favorite at all. It felt like every time I met with my counselor to discuss about the classes I wanted to take she would put me in something I completely didn’t want to take.

Who Influenced The Way I Talk?

        The person who heavily influenced the way I talk would be my grandmother. Growing up my parents were usually busy with work so I didn’t really see them until the evening. My grandmother would take care of me from the morning till then. She only spoke Cantonese because she was born in china and immigrated to America. She spoke very little, if any English because she had learned later on through interaction with our relatives who had lived here. As a child she spoke mainly Cantonese to me so it was only normal for me to learn. I didn’t learn English until I started watching television shows such as Barney or Blue's Clues. My English was quite horrible because I didn’t know how to structure my sentences properly so I guess I spoke “broken” English. My word choice and usage were not proper at all. In Cantonese there is really only one way to say a word and in English there are better ways to say words which are synonyms. Unfortunately when I had picked up more English my Cantonese soon became broken which when I realized that was the saddest day of my life. My English now is fine but my Cantonese is “broken” so I can't speak to her well anymore. She understands very little English so I can make out some words to her but it's difficult speaking to her in Cantonese at times.