Final Goodbye:

                This year has been quite the experience to say the least. Not only have I gone through things that I thought I would never be going through, but I have gotten to challenge myself in way that I didn’t know possible. As the school year is wrapping up, I can say that it’s gone by too fast. I find myself looking to tomorrow while I am still in today. Instead of taking the time to be thankful for the day and the time that I have now, I am pushing forward wishing for the next day. I have learned to take a step back and slow down though. Now I am taking it minute by minute and knowing that I don’t have to have control all the time.

                I loved this class, not just because I it was my only class with my best friend, although that was a major bonus, but I loved it because of the new friendships that I’ve made. People are always in a rush and they often forget to take the time to get to know someone’s heart, not this class. We were able to slow things down and really get to see each other in our purest forms through our writings. Sometimes i was embarrassed to share my papers because mine have such raw emotion in the form of the paper. I gained the courage to share and started reading to my group. After I was done reading, I would look up to see my group in tears, or on the verge of laughing hilariously. No matter what, there was always feedback from my group and they gave me just what I needed.

                I enjoyed walking into class and getting a peek into Ms. James life and her catastrophes at home or at work. She’s always a pleasure and somewhat of a “free spirit”. I am not too much of a go with the flow personality, but in her class I learned to be. I was anxious about what the next class would hold and most of the time it was a surprise to us all. Some days it was doughnuts, other days it was a guest speaker. I can say though, that this is the class to take again if I had the chance. It was a fantastic way to end senior year with this class.

The City of Kites: Flying High

                I was so excited to research the city of kites when I found out that we could do a topic of our choice from things mentioned in our letters from our friends in China. Two of the girls whose papers I had mentioned they were born in Weifang, which was known for the festival of flying kites. I found a great online resource that was straight from the source. This person was originally from Weifang (born and raised) and talked in depth on their traditions. The article was posted in Chinese and then translated into English. The article says that the tradition of kite flying is over one thousand years old but has lasted up until now.

                The first descriptions of these kites were recorded and originate from the Tang Dynasty. The kites were made first from bamboo and into frame and then covered in paper and silk. The records say that they were made into birds to honor the great birds of the skies. Now days, there is a huge ceremony that takes place the night before the actual day. They host it in the soccer stadium and it is broadcasted onto tv so everyone can be a part of this big day. There are all sorts of different performers like singers, acrobats and stage shows.

                Then comes the kite flying! There are competitions in which the kites are flown and rated by judges. Tons of people come and watch this. Just think of how cool it would be to have something like this in Springfield where everyone comes together to participate in this! Afterwards, there are awards and the closing ceremony. Then an hour long fireworks display choreographed to popular music. Then, a museum takes the best kites and puts them in a showcase so anyone can get a taste of what the kite festival is like, even if they weren’t there.

                All in all, it sounds like the kite festival is very neat. It is such a big piece of China’s history, I would have loved to hear more about it from the Chinese students themselves. I love seeing what is important to others across the world.  It is interesting how even their simple traditions can still impact us all the way in America.

Presentation Summary

Overall, I really enjoyed this project. While at some times frustrating, it was definitely worth it in the end. I did my project over teaching. First i started with the statistics of teaching and I dug in to find out just why teachers are quitting so early on in their teaching careers. After this, I did some more research on teaching and found that many teachers quit because of their placement in the school system or sometimes because of the pay rate. Doing this service learning has really had an impact on me. I have found my passion and my place.

Global Perspectives

  Getting to go on the field trip to MSU was so much fun! Not only did we get to learn more about current events and ways that people are aiding others, but it was great to spend time with people outside of the classroom. In the east ballroom, we heard several speakers talk about extreme poverty. I took a few notes during the discussion and come to find out, many people are living on less than $1.25 per day. In 2009, more than 52% of people were living in what's called extreme poverty. In order for us to eliminate significant poverty we need to take a stand. Already, people are getting involved with this by doing fundraisers and different types of these things.
Income is directly related to productivity. Employers are going to adapt to more technology. "Think globally, act locally"
Poverty not only effects people in far away countries, but right here in the USA we have extreme poverty. To eliminate this, we need to be able to live within our means. 
     Next, we went and watched this really neat documentary called The One Who Builds. It was all about this man who started an organization to help people who have escaped a hardship in their home country, come and start a new life in America. What these people did was supply the refugees with a home and everything else that they needed, including helping them find work. These people literally undergo a life change and they need help into this transition. That's where Omer comes in and takes these people through everyday life and guides them into this new life. He checks up on them and just lends a helping hand out where he can. He says that they always stay busy so about every two hours he tries to take a 5 minute break. 
  Watching this was very eyeopening because it made me realize that we have it so well. Even though we struggle with simple things, their are others less fortunate that we are called to help out. I think that each event we went to directly related to service learning because all the people that we heard from put their plan into action. It will be so exciting to maybe one day see one of our own putting their plans into action as well!

Service Learning Recap

Letters to China

 I got a lot of interesting questions from people who responded to my letter. Some of them ranged from "what did you mean that you made it through the entire year in one piece?" I think that some of the references that we make here in America are often times misinterpreted. We have a lot of idioms in our sentences that the Chinese probably don't understand because things are often times lost in translation. It surprised me to see how blunt some of the students were in their papers. I feel like generally speaking, I am careful to tread water when asking a question to someone; whereas they come right out and ask what they are truly thinking.
   I think that the students who read my letters really saw me for who I was/am. I also feel like when I wrote that letter I was writing it at a different part in my life. I know it's only been about two months since we wrote those, but a lot has happened since then; a lot of healing. I know that I have a wonderful life and am blessed beyond belief, sometimes it is nice to have other people point that out to you; although I would never want to lessen someones view of their own life and make them envy what I have. That's one of the harder things to not do when you are reading about someone is to compare their life to your own. We all live differently and cannot compare ourselves to others for when we do, we set ourselves up for failure.
  The letters made me sad and also extremely overwhelmed with joy. Many of the women who responded to my letter made me feel beautiful, but not in the way you would normally think about beauty. On paper, I am able to pour my heart out and people I don't even know get the chance to see that side of me. In reality, we are all layers, but on paper, our hearts are revealed. When the ladies told about my bravery, my ability to love and be loved, and my "unique personality" I was floored. They saw me in my purest and most raw form without even knowing me. People you see every single day in the halls don't take the time to get to know you because they don't care. It amazes me the difference in the culture and the respect levels. It is sad by the means it takes for them to get to the level; what I mean by that is their world is so restrictive that they learn to appriciate everything while we take and take, never giving back.
  The responses left me feeling broken-hearted over how much I take for granted. I live a beautiful life and I am glad I get to share it. I also wanted them to know that it isn't all beautiful though. For it to be that way, we all have had to go through the ugly to see the beauty in any situation. Even over-seas, we are all just people who are trying to find our purpose and desperately fighting to find a way. It is encouraging to know that.

Shaping The World

  This topic is really near and dear to my heart because I have a desire to serve others. I am not quite sure if this is a "talent" or "passion" but it is something I enjoy doing. Part of serving is getting to know people; whether it's the people you're serving or the people that you are working with. Often times, we shy away from meeting new people and going out of our way. I hate this mindset that we seem to possess and I want to break these constant limitations we give ourselves. I want to learn about others and build these bonds, this is what links us together and we all need someone to care and love us. I feel like people volunteer for themselves, which is so crazy considering the very point of volunteering is to give your time and efforts to other people. Many times, people do acts of service to get the recognition of what they have done, but not out of the goodness of their hearts.
  In a way, I feel like we all give and volunteer in different ways every day. We say hello to people in the halls everyday and smile at people we don't know. Even though these things are small gestures, we can impact other peoples' lives. Sometimes it's true that you never know what you've got till it's gone. I remember walking the halls and having this girl always say hello to me, and occasionally I got upset because it almost seemed like false humility. She was a senior and when she left, I felt like school wasn't as friendly. It's amazing that a smile or a hello that seemed so meaningless could have meant the world to you.
  We see stories in class of kids our age who have done amazing things that have impacted the world, but we don't recognize the people in our school who are making a difference right now. I think that we need to give these people some sort of recognition around school. Show that you can make an impact in someone's life without realizing. Building each other up in school can do nothing but good things, we need to knit Parkview closer with one another. You are making a statement and an impact, you just might not know it yet.