Character Essay

Character: the mental and moral qualities distinctive to an individual.

List of my qualities

-Nice

-Shy at first but once I know you I can start to speak my mind

-Quiet, sometimes I just like to listen although other times I can be loud when I’m with friends. *cough cough lunch*

-Hard working

-Determined

-Friendly but quiet gets in the way. I won’t talking to people first, I’ll wait for them to talk first often.

-Not cheerful during school days because I wanna kill myself (not literally, just metaphorically speaking. I don’t know one person that can stay cheerful for the whole school year.)

-Collegial

-Mostly a follower not a leader

I believe that I am a hard worker. Now that’s not to say I don’t do my fair share of procrastination but when I have to get something done, 9 out of 10 times I will get it done. There is a particular motto that I enjoy to live by which is, “hard work is the key to success”. Because of this, I have a mindset that is determined and willing to work no matter the challenge. Challenges are always good to have in life anyways. In school, I pay a lot of attention. I tend not to fool around in class because I take school serious and I see it as a place meant to learn, not to fool around. People that come to school and refuse to learn piss me off. It makes no sense for you to be here if you don’t want to learn. They will usually say something along the lines of, “Oh but my friends are there so I come to talk with them.” This is just stupid. Which brings me to my next point. How do you expect us to rid the school of harmful influences if we students are not in a position of power to do so. I mean the only person to blame for this is Dr. Castagnola, I am talking to you m8. What the hell are you doing m8. These aren’t even students they’re just kids that don’t want to learn but still come to school. Not only that but they are disruptive too. You know who I am talking about. It’s always the same group of kids in the hall disturbing class. Now my question to you is, why are you keeping these kids here if they refuse to show an interest in learning. It makes no sense man. Throwing these kids in a detention does nothing. What you should be doing is throwing them out of school. If they don’t want to learn then let them go get a job and work. All in all, this school has no logical sense because you talk about ridding the school environment of bad influences but you never actually follow through and do anything. And if the school really wanted to rid the bad influences away, then you would have to give students an incentive to do so. What that incentive would be, I have no idea but I am should the old carrot-stick motivation would work like a charm. I went off into a little bit of a tangent but that is what I honestly think.

My father had a huge influence on my every since I was in middle school because that was the time I got into the most trouble. Things like suspension for doing stupid stuff. He once told me a story that I really took to heart. The story went a little bit like this. Imagine that there is a briefcase. Inside of that briefcase, is success. But in order to open it, the key, is school. Now as stupid as that may sound at first, I began to look at it more and more. I really sometimes enjoy to listen to my father’s philosophy and thoughts because I will occasionally find something interesting like this. After listening to this and repeating it a couple more times in my head, I found it very believable and true. So, I pay great attention and I do not fool around in school. I feel that he changed me and my behavior ever since that point on. And I know that this kinda goes against what I said in the last paragraph but I have been foolish in the past and I have learned from my mistakes. I am glad that they didn’t throw me out but back then, I really had no passion for school. I was a complete and utter little shit head. As well as my parents were super disappointed with me and from that point on, I changed. Changed in a good way. I can remember back when I had to call my mom from school and tell them what I had done. It was really emotional for me and I would tear up and cry when I would talk to her and when she would ask “what’s wrong”, it just made it worse. They’re ruthless over at the middle school but I guess that it’s a good thing because I wouldn’t have the mindset I have now if it weren’t for them. I became more self-aware of myself and knew that I had to change.

It’s actually very interesting now because, talking in real time now, my sister is actually having trouble in school as well. She is currently failing like 2 subjects and she is in a pretty bad situation with my parents right now. She has showed to care for school but gets distracted easily and loses focus of what is important. Talking about this just reminds me back to the days when I struggled with math and my dad would make me write more practice problems to understand it thoroughly. This is my philosophy that my dad has instilled in me and live by it today. I hope to see the day when my sister will change as well.

Going back to school topics, I have never seen the profit gained from cheating. I know a bunch of people that cheat but I don’t tell. Snitches get stitches am I right? I feel that if a student ever told on a teacher then, that student wouldn’t be seen in a very nice light. He would get a lot of hate and not a lot of people would want to hang around someone who can’t keep a secret. But that’s just my theory. So I guess it’s like a trust thing. I had this other theory too that this was probably brought on us during our younger years because it makes the most sense around that time of age. Kids that can’t hold secrets usually get pushed outside the group and are seen as uncool. While kids that can are seen as trustworthy and stay with the group. The kids outside of the group get casted out and tend to be sad because they can’t hang around anybody, they feel distant I guess. I also believe people to what they choose to do according to the consequences that follow. Students tend not to tell because if they did then they would potentially create an enemy. If they didn’t tell then they could make a friend. Or the last choice, do nothing which would have no effect. But like I said, a person that cheats in my opinion will gain nothing from it. I mean sure he’ll pass the test but he won’t understand for himself. To me, the number on my paper just reflects how much I knew about the topic. If I received a low number that simply means that I don’t understand it fully enough. Now as simple as that sounds, many people would just give up and say forget it, I’ll never understand. And my response would be, well you won’t with that attitude. You have to be positive and have a clear mindset to achieve something. If you’re always saying no, I can’t do this then shit you won’t but if you say yes, I can do this then, and only then, will you be successful. Just my logic.

I remember when I helped a person cheat on a test too, although now I don’t. It was last year in Italian class and it was a grill and she didn’t study at all. She leaned over and began to peek at my paper and ask what I wrote for question 2. I feel like the only reason I helped her out was because number one she’s a grill and number two, I was super shy. I know, I know. Shy in front of a grill OMG. But that aside, it was pretty pathetic that I would ever help a cheater. I am a firm believer in the concept that if you studied, then you should get a good grade but if you didn’t then you should get a bad grade. If anyone ever tries to cheat off of me, I try to ignore them and pretend like I don’t hear them. Not the best method but it gets the job done.

I like to be collegial but the fact that I am shy and quiet gets in the way. I don’t talk a lot to other students I don’t know well. I talk a lot with the friends I know because we have grown as a relationship but with someone in a classroom I am talking with for the first time, it gets akward. The only time you will ever see me loud and boisterous is when I am with my friends. This English class is different though. You are allowed to talk with other through Google+ which is on the internet because this is a flipped classroom. This opens up new doors for me because I can talk to my peers from the luxury of my room. I don’t really have to talk face-to-face but I am not a complete social outcast. At least I hope not.

Probably the biggest and most noticeable trait about myself is the fact that I am not a leader. Which really sucks but oh well. I am a follower and I have accepted it, life will go on. I just don’t have the traits necessary to be a leader. But being a follower has a couple good things about itself. I am good at doing what I am told to do. Because I don’t call the shots, I have to listen to others and I don’t really have a problem with that. I am perfectly fine doing what others tell me to do. I feel like I don’t want to be at blame so I just do what others tell me so when something bad happens, I can just point to them and laugh in front of their face. Just kidding. As a follower, I feel that I can also decide for myself when I believe something is considered right or wrong. The concept of right and wrong or good from bad is a tough one. It requires a lot of critical thinking and the correct mindset to do so. I believe that I can think for myself and I will follow reason with logic. For instance, I had an arguement with my mom about AP classes and whether or not I should take them. She said yes and I said no. We would go back and forth until one of us would just quit. But afterwards, I would think about it in my head and would almost talk to myself and decide if I was right or not. After doing so, I would come to a conclusion and in this case, I would end up taking AP classes for next year. Even though it requires more work and effort that needs to be put in, I know that it will have great results for me later on.

This brings me to talk about AP classes. I am currently taking 1 official AP and 1 Pre-AP class. Both are hard to me and take a good portion of my day when I come back home after practice. Sometimes, I have to come home, eat, do homework, and go to sleep. Everytime this happens, I question myself and ask what I would be doing if I hadn’t taken AP’s. My life would be so relaxed right now, it would be a joke. But I digress. Even though I find AP’s to be really difficult right now, I show a great amount of focus, attention, and dedication to my work. I don’t quit. If I fail, I will come back prepared and engage to become better. I am willing to do the hard work no matter how difficult it is. I like to remind myself using a quote I remember hearing from a motivational video I watched. The video talks about how you should never quit and give up but the one piece I really like is when the narrator says, “no one ever said that it was going to be easy.” I find this small little quote very powerful and I say it to myself every time I am having a hard time doing something mostly when I run. But it works in all aspects, even in school.

This is who I am.