2018.06.20 Writing II Final

Writing Final

        “I know that it is traumatizing for you to stay without your parents and brother, but you still have us, your grandpa, friends and lover. It’s not selfish to make your decision this time. Either your choice is to leave or stay, I’ll be on your side.”

        One of my favorite movies called “If I stay” describes a talented young musician who lost her parents and her little brother after a car accident. She lay in the hospital in coma for days and her condition was worsening. Yet she found herself was able to look upon the world from the third person perspective. After knowing the bad news of her family, she couldn’t suffer the tremendous sorrow and even wanted to give up living. Eventually her grandfather came to her and said those words above to her.

        I started to think about the issue since then. From news, social media, sadly to say’ it is quite common for us to see people facing this kind of dilemma. What if, someone has been taken care of the physically challenged for years and years that he or she finally felt exhausted? Do they have the right to give up holding on hope?

        The answer may be yes. With the kind heart, they have already done their best. Maybe the patients themselves prefer to end the pain but they just can’t say. People mostly are not willing to let the last thing in Pandora ’s Box go. If there is still a tiny chance, we might eager to put faith in it and pray to whoever you believe in. However, with the professional indications of doctors and the agreement of the family, I think it will be alright to let the patient go. I believe in the kind heart of the people; therefore, this move shouldn’t represent any evil things. Patients sometimes can be free through a mercy.

☆ 

A trailer of the movie "If I Stay"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qFO2aPa904A

Third Culture Kids by Bilal Ahmed- Summary&Respond- second ver.

    The author, Ahmed, first introduces to us the term TCK (third culture kids) with the origin of it and a more detailed definition. They adjust their identities to reflect the new society with parents, but not having full ownership in all of cultures they built relationships with.     

    Ahmed himself is a TCK. He is from a middle class family in which due to his parents’ job, they would relocate from time to time quite frequently to nations. He then emphasizes the difference between immigrants or refugees and TCKs. They both mix their original culture and the foreign culture into a personal third one yet differ in wealth. With the support of money from parents, TCKs are carefree of financial worries. Moreover, since TCKs have the background of flexibility on moving houses, they often take the advantages to become an easily-adaptable citizen. They don’t like fixity and rootedness.

    Last, the author argues that TCKs still have the strong connection with their family. In order not to act abnormally, TCKs must accept their special identities and make the direction for their happiness clearly. If not, the loss of giddiness would lead to weird behaviors.
    I think adding the author's own experience makes the special identity more understandable to us. For that I went through my childhood in many different places, the circumstances of the TCKs are at some degree similar to mine. My parents were busy working when I was little. Therefore, during day time then, I was taking care of by different relatives. I got used to switching growing up environment. That is, meanwhile I consider that also a training  to develop high ability of adaptability. Although I barely can remember those memories then, it definitely help me in some ways to grow up as a more independent individual. I am so graceful that my parent didn't just leave me behind. Instead, they are still showing love and cares to me.
    Now I learned more about TCKs. If I luckily bump into the opportunity to meet one of them, I would really like to ask them to share their colorful growing up stories with me. I shall share mine to them. The exchange of cultures and friendship isn't the magnificent beauty in the world?

A Tax on Unhealthy Food by Michelle Embrich- Summary

    From the very beginning, Michelle Embrich suggests that a serious overweight problem is occurring in the United States. Over two-thirds of adults are overweight or obese from the research in 2014. This health crisis leads to more cost on health care and insurance for people. Therefore, Embrich then make a propose to put a tax on unhealthy food, including food high in fat and high in sugar. 
    Taxes on similar unhealthy products have been implemented. It is quite useful on discourage smokers to spend more money on smoking. Also, a research does show that if a tax of 18 percent were put on soda and pizza particularly, the average American could lose five pounds.
    However, the difficulty is, American mostly don’t like government to interfere in their life. Unsuccessful case as the attempt to ban oversized sodas in New York City restaurants made people upset. Sixty percent of New Yokers considered it a bad idea according to a poll by NBC. 
    But still, adding taxes on unhealthy food is much acceptable to Americans when they pay more to eat unhealthier. Only if people started to realize by 2030 the annual health care costs in the country would be doubled to $380 billion will they agree with the policies and save their own lives.

Third Culture Kids by Bilal Ahmed- Summary- first ver.

  The author, Ahmed, first introduced to us the term TCK (third culture kids) with the origin of it and a more detailed definition. Not only they adjust their identities to reflect the new society with parents, but not having full ownership in all of cultures they built relationships with.  

    Ahmed himself is a TCK. He is from a middle class family in which due to his parents’ job, they would relocate from time to time quite frequently through nations. He then emphasized the difference between immigrants or refugees with TCKs. They both mix their origin culture and the foreign culture into a personal third one yet differ in wealth. With the support of money from parents TCKs are carefree of financial worries. Moreover, since TCKs have the background of flexibility on moving houses, they often take the advantages to become an easily-adaptable citizen. They don’t like fixity and rootedness.
    Last, the author argued that TCKs still have the strong connection with their family. In order not to act abnormally, TCKs must accept their special identities and make the direction for their happiness clearly. If not, the loss of giddiness would lead to weird behaviors.

Sleeping Walking

     It is usually said that in dreams everything can be possible; the power of imagination is so mighty that the well-known ''dream came true''sentence is widely used. In deed, not only the dreams come from our creative thoughts but from the deepest subconscious
mind as Freud claimed. Consequently, some weird or confusing scene may happen in the dream, which we cannot explain just from the visualization we have but from the underlying feeling we might not notice at all. Take myself as an example, during my high pressured time when the college entrance exam was near the corner, horrible nightmares such as being chased along a road by many a living death often ruin my sweet bed time. Moreover, sometimes dreams will directly present in the real world, that is, sleeping walking.
     Sleepwalking cases generally consist of simple, repeated behaviors, and there are occasionally reports of people performing complex acts while asleep. My younger brother is one of the "sleepwalkers." Through the period we shared a room sleeping in a steel bunk bed, it was common that I went to bed after my brother because I had to study late. Accordingly, it was quite frequent for me to hear a lot of strange incomprehensible word coming out of his dream. At first, I would be frighten if his burst out murmur from nowhere in a loud noise at a silent midnight but time after time he talked to Morpheus I got used to it. However, one day my brother sit up on his bed and called my name. At my desk studying as I noticed his call so I turned around and looked up to the upper deck of the bunk bed. I thought he was awake due to his opened eyes. 
"... Why did you @%^!*& ...?" he said a scattered sentence that I can barely understand what he meant. 
"Are you aw...?" I was confused so I asked him if he was awake or not, but he didn't even let me finish my question and fell asleep again.
"What the..." with a huge question mark on my head I continued to burn my midnight oil.
This experience was not the oddest one. 
Another day when I just closed the light and lay on my bed, he "waked up" with many creak noise and climbed down the steel stairs. The most creepy of all is that he began to turn on lights from our bedroom to the living room. So bright all the places were that my sleepy eyes almost got blinded and then he returned to our room standing by his desk straightly. I could tell that he was sleeping walking through his not fully opened eyes so I hurried him to get back to sleep. Surprisingly, he did exactly what I ordered. Although I was reluctant to leave my cozy bed, I still moved my tired feet to turned those lights accidentally opened.
I remember one time he climbed down along with his quilt which was held tightly on two of the corner in his hands. He just stood by his desk and nothing else happened. 
"Seriously? Here it is again!"I mumbled to myself.
Then I guided him to get back to sleep, and meanwhile I tried to come up with a reasonable explanation to his abnormal act but in vain.
Sometimes if I open my eyes in the midnight, I will see his eyes staring at me. No lights opened in our bed time so all I could see is a pair of shinny but scary eyes. Every time was I terrified to nearly cause a heart attack.
With no doubt that he couldn't remember anything at all when I blamed him in the morning. Only sentences like "really?","that's cool!","I don't know." I would receive.
It sometimes a kind of fun but on the other hand, I don't know what strange or crazy things would happen to freak me out eventually.

There is a series of interesting 

games about sleeping walking. 

http://www.ocity.eu/__img.php?f=014mobil-100-22-015_f0-31-400020110517184787-5-61-71

In the game, the player has to help

the sleepwalker to get home safely

just like what I've done to help my

brother to get back to sleep. lol

Green Card 1991

Green Card     

     From the beginning of the story, both of the main characters got their purposes to put the marriage on a show; the man, George, wanted more opportunity of work in the U.S. In order to apply for permanent residence, of course, he had to get the “green card.” On the other hand, the woman, Bronte, was longing for an apartment in which she could have her dreaming green house in Manhattan. The problem is that they initially didn’t realize how big the troubles they had trapped themselves in. Not only did they have to keep their fake relationship working in front of the officials of the immigration but they also have to start to face with the differences between them.
     Moreover, the gap of different culture, life pattern, personality, and point of view caused many a conflict. Just like a common newly married couple, problems which hadn’t been noticed came to the surface after moving into together. In this film we can see evident contrast between man and woman. The former one is rational and the other one is more perceptual. It’s sure that differences became the obstacles in the relationship, but I think that is one of the trials towards love. If one love someone, virtue and beauty would definitely be loved while weak point and bad habits also must be embrace.
     In some case, even the shortcoming can be turn into a good on after influencing on each other like George and Bronte did in the film. With the romantic and happy times they had gone through, gradually they fell in love with each other. George saw the beauty Bronte had both on her outside appearance and her inside characteristic; meanwhile, Bronte found out that George was funny and reliable. However, it’s not the ending of the story. Although they realize each other’s affection before George leave, there would be plenty of problems if they truly married and that’s the biggest point in the film that marriage is not as easy as we think it is.

Argument Ver.1- Classic or Casual

Classic or Casual

        When times pushes the evolution of human thoughts, we can have our mind variable and acceptable to embrace cultural differences. It’s natural that former frame of regulations cannot limit human’s infinite possibilities. Nowadays, some rules set before were gradually broken down for they are not anymore suitable in the society currently. For instance, the abolishing of curfew in college dormitory, the legalization of same-sex marriage nationwide in the U.S. and the going or staying of death penalty issue are some of the popular topics. New ideas are pumping out around the world. In Taiwan, a controversial question about wearing uniform is catching public’s attention recently.

        I do have a deep impression of this issue and keep wondering about it, because throughout my school life before college the question against uniform never occurred in my mind. From elementary school to senior high school, most of students in Taiwan public schools  have to wear uniform from Monday to Friday. The idea of wearing uniform in school is to put each of students under control. Similar to a tiny military camp, no one in school can be unique; you have to be the same like others as the uniform does. Do what the schedule ask you to, follow what the teachers said you should, study hard and care nothing else, which would make you to be a well-behaved student. No exceptional can be allowed for that sometimes differences cause disputation and it do no good to academic performance in the eyes of some educators or parents . Therefore, several rules may be set up to punish student who doesn’t obey to the dress code. In the past, if you do something wrong against the rules, it’s no doubt that one should be disciplined. Nonetheless, now it comes to the argument that is it really considered a  disorder needed to be punished.

　　Some think uniform at school is unnecessary at all, which is to say, students have their free will to wear what they want to as long as it was not against law. While some regard uniform as a simpler way that students don’t have to worry about their dressing every day. Needless thinking may cost extra time anyway. For me, I tend to be the side of the latter one. Yet I’m not saying that incomplete dressing should be punished; instead, school could consider opening a day or two to let students to take a breath out of rules and show their own style. Flexible policy of uniform may not only ease some tense under pressure to continue the order, but also present the diversities and energy of the youth. Wednesday is my senior high’s casual day. Everyone including myself enjoy a day out of uniform while some lazy ones still pick uniform out of closet. I appreciate how my school runs the rules and I hope it can be a great tradition to pass along generations.

     After entering into university, we are no longer regulated by uniform rules. It comes out, unexpectedly, making me somehow miss my uniform. I started to appreciate the convenience uniform used to give me when I’m wondering in front of my closet every morning. Uniform gives us identity. We usually can recognize which school of the uniform due to the uniqueness of it; that is, we should be proud of the school badge on it. If I see our school uniform shorts in university, it’ll make me miss my hometown and I also get a chance to make new friends from the same senior high background. Such an ecstasy it is that strangers are connected with uniform!

     What is your opinion toward abolishing uniform at school? Is it for or against?

No matter which side you choose, you should keep you uniform well if you have ones. They must contain a lot of colorful stories in school days; treasure it or you may regret it.