Why keep a diary?

To me, to keep a diary is to keep my memories. When I was small, my mother used to force me to keep a diary in English so that I can practice how to write in English. However, because I really don't know what to write, I wrote "I am happy today." everyday. Now, when I look through what I wrote, I felt really funny and recalled my feelings when I was writing the "diary" When I was in middle school, I kept a habit of keeping a schedule book. Although it is not a diary, I almost wrote down what I did everyday. And now, when I flip through the books, I can recall what I did in that year, in that month, and at that day. I don't know what the purpose of writing a diary is when I was small, so writing a diary is a painful thing to me. Now, because I found fun looking through what I wrote, I know that the purpose of writing a diary is to keep my good memories fresh, and I found fun writing it.

Should we LIVE for TODAY?

For me, I would choose to live for today. Time passes really quickly for me. When I first turned into a senior, I actually felt that I was just a small kid and just transferred into PAS. However, the reality is that I'm going to college within one year! When Mrs. Pamela asked us to write the resume for the college application, I found myself not recalling any extracurricular activities or academic rewards that I won. I felt shameful and regret about not using my time wisely, but to stay at home all the time. Before I go to high school, I actually though that I should save my time for studying, but I now changed my position. I think that people should use their time wisely when they are still young, so that they won't regret about not enjoying enough. My parents always tell me that "although I now think that life as a student is full of pressure, the pressure actually significantly increases after we go out to work, or when we can't get a job." Of course we need to think about our future and make some plans, but I think that we still should live for today and enjoy our life.

What is the role of death in life?

To many people, especially for children who are still young, death is far away from them. However, I had a deep understanding to death when I was in middle school.

I still remember, at the February of my 8th grade, my grandmother passed away. That day is a Saturday, and I still remember in that morning, when I was cleaning my room and when my mother is preparing lunch, I heard my father's voice coming from downstairs. My grandmother was lying on the ground, her face was pale, and her body was stark. The ambulance can only carry two family members, so I stayed at home all by myself the whole noon. My mother said that my grandmother passed away naturally without any pain, and this is something fortunate.

My other grandmother passed away also just a year after. She was sick and having huge pain. Although the hospital can continue her life, my uncle thinks that it is too painful for her.

Both of my grandmothers passed away when I was in middle school, and I had a close look to death. I know that death is not far away from me, but happening every day around me. Death may be painful, but it can also be peaceful or even an emancipation from pain. Death is not only the period of our lives, but also something that will happen around us.

What Should We Expect From Our Leaders?

Intelligence, morality, courage, eloquence, and charisma are 5 most important qualities that build up a good leader. Nevertheless, I think that the most important quality is charisma. Charisma is something that attracts people to gather around the leader. Even if a person has intelligence, courage, and eloquence, if that person has no charisma, nobody will support him. If a person has charisma, even if his intelligence is not so good, is not brave enough, and gives poor speeches, other people can help him. His followers can help him analyze situations, push him to do right decisions, and do speeches for him. At my point of view, as long as a leader has charisma, he can own good followers, and his followers may help him build up the qualities that he lacks. Since I’m not familiar with those great leaders in the real life, I’ll give an example from fictions I’ve read. In Infinite Terror, the protagonist, Zheng Za, is a man with poor intelligence and eloquence, but has charisma. He is very stupid and made many mistakes at first, but people were attracted by his charisma and gathered around him, and help the whole team to survive.

Sonnet Reflection

Difference between memorizing Beowulf and the sonnet is actually not small.
For Beowulf, because it's a story, when I am memorizing, I can think about the plot of the story and recall the lines. I can memorize the epic by memorizing the actions. In Beowulf, there are more actions than descriptions. Moreover, I think that Beowulf is easier to understand.
For sonnet 130, although it's shorter, because it focuses on describing the mistress, I found difficulty memorizing. In the sonnet, there are some hard words it's hard to memorize every word that's used to describe the mistress. Another thing is that I feel that the meanings of the lines used to describe the mistress is harder to remember. I searched for the definitions and meanings of every word and every line, but it's just hard to memorize with the original words.
One critical reason that I think most people didn't do well on the sonnet is that we preformed in Beowulf at the beginning of the class, but did the sonnet at the end of the class. I used to use the study hall just before British Literature class to memorize the sonnet, but it's obvious that I've forgot most of them after the class.

Can you ever be too ambitious?

Being ambitious is a good thing. For my opinion, I think that people can be successful only if they are ambitious. However, people sometimes fail because they are TOO ambitious. Many people get too ambitious because they are too proud or too confident. They don't know themselves well, don't know their real ability, and don't know what they are going to face, so they get too ambitious and fail. However, I don't think that I will ever be too ambitious. To be ambitious, I need to have a goal, to have something that we really want to do. However, although I have dreams that I want to achieve, I never set my goal so high that I can never achieve. I know my ability, I know how well or bad I can do, so I really don't think I will ever get too ambitious. Moreover, I am not a person that is ambitious. Although being successful is a good thing and a good dream, it is not what I most want. What I most want is a peace and normal life.

Beowulf vs The 13th Warrior

In the epic, there is only a monster and a hero. The monster, Grendel, kept coming to attack human, and Beowulf only needs to wait for it to come and kill it. Even when the other monsters, like Grendel's mother and the dragon, came, they appears one by one. But in the movie, there are 13 warriors, and the main character goes with them only to bring them "luck". And there are a lot of monsters that appeared. The monsters, unlike Grendel, threw fires and rode horses. And in the movie, the warriors even went to search for the cave and went into the cave to kill the monsters.
In Beowulf, although Beowulf also brought some men with him, the story is mostly 1 vs 1. However, in The 13th Warrior, the battle is a group of people fighting against a bunch of monsters.
One part that I think is most different is the fight between one of the warriors and one of the villagers. When they're digging, the warrior threw mud onto the villager's back, which I don't know if he did it in purpose (looks like he is). And they had a battle. The warrior at first can't fight back, but when the villager is giving the last hit, the villager is too imprudent and was killed by the warrior. In Beowulf, there is nothing like this.