Journal 12

As the bone chilling air enters my room and hits my nostrils i awake to an alarm, time to get ready for school. This day begins like any other, I grab my clothes and towel then enter the shower. After getting out of the shower I finish dressing and head to the kitchen to eat breakfast, as usual i eat my Raisin Bran with a cup of coffee, enjoying every sip. As i finish my breakfast i check the daily news and brush my teeth. After brushing I grab my supplies and leave my home, as I open the door the cold air hits me, but as I love the cold I embrace it. I walk to school as it's not far enough to need to drive, I enjoy the weather and think about how my day might go and about the news. As i get to the stop light I see one of my fellow IB students and we chat as we wait for the light to turn red so that we may cross. When we cross we head up the steps to our 0 period class, which is history. We enter the warm room, most likely at 66 degrees Fahrenheit compared to the 44 outside. The students talk amongst themselves as they wait for class to begin, then they begin to work on their class work, but still there is light chatter across the room, chatter of school work or current news.

Journal 13

Dear, Future Roommate
                                                                                                                                                                          I am an IB student of Castle Park High School. I am studying to receive a science major, the sciences have always fascinated me and they have always been easy for me.I hope we get along, because there's no point in living with someone you dislike, it affects the both of us. I have had accelerated and advanced classes and was part of the rigorous IB program. I am amiable and i do not like to judge people until I have met them, i like making new friends and find it helps broaden ones views of themselves and the world. They also help offer multiple perspectives on subjects you feel strongly about. I am a quiet person and I respect private/personal space. I am of Mexican descent, but race is of no issue to me, its more of a way to separate everyone. I love to have fun but work when I need to, and i have a strong will, i do not like to give up, there is always an answer.

                                                                            Your   Future Roommate                                                                                            R.S

Journal 14

I agree with the quote "He does not possess wealth, it possesses him." because humans have that insatiable greed, no matter what they have, they always want more, but this is not always true as there are some that do have enough. Wealth changes people, some one from the lower can become wealthy but he will not stay modest for long, he will not continue to talk with the other poor. Many times through out history we see millions die due to the rich wanting to keep their wealth. But in a sense the nation is possessed by wealth, money is needed to buy the most abundant resource on the planet, water, and it is needed to feed yourself. But there are some cases in which wealth possesses man, and in these cases he becomes greedy. Man would much rather make, and have money than to give it away for a good cause, many people that do give money do it for publicity others because of connections with the cause they donate to.

Journal 15

The most valuable contribution that i could offer a college campus would be my skills in problem solving. I always think of the outcomes of every solution and pick the one that has the least negative effects. I also have good deductive logic, i can connect different objects or ideas with others even if they are not explicitly connected. So I believe that my best contribution would be helping the college and others solve problems of any kind, personal, or political. As a child i always helped my older brothers come up with solutions, and if I could not i would help them at least find a temporary solution. I have always had a slight fondness for solving or helping someone solve a problem.

Journal 16

I significant experience to me was being with my grandfather, i learned very much from him. He taught me to work with tools as he was a carpenter. His death was a very powerful blow to me, i was only 5 but because of what he taught I missed him more. But i did not cry, no, not one tear, this was because i loved, and lionized him that i didn't want to cry i was happy that he was out of his misery. When I was 5 my grandfather died of cancer and to this day I remember all that he has taught me when I was little. I did not mourn him because I will always remember him and that's all that matters to me, i find no sense in crying over spilled milk. His death taught me that no one will live forever, no matter how much you care for, and love them. No one, and nothing is forever, is something i learned at a very young age.

Journal 17

There's a local matter that's important to me and it is all the negative publicity castle park is getting from the media. This bothers me because as an IB student at castle park I'm part of the top 10% and all of the scandals at the school can minimize our IB program. It also causes others to overgeneralize us, i have seen comments in news articles of people saying they're not surprised of a ghetto school. This disappoints me because they have such a hate, and they're so closed minded they don't even bother to obtain more information or learn more on the matter. I also think how this will affect me when i try to apply for college or university, and when I apply for a job, this doesn't only affect me or IB it affects the whole school, everybody becomes a ghetto kid from castle park not who they really are.

Journal 18

If i could change two things about our campus I would change the head of the ASB and i would remove mandatory saturday schools from tardy sweeps. This is the head of the ASB's first year at our school and she came with her own opinion of us, not a good one. She says that we don't respect our adults and that we are all ghetto. She overgeneralizes us she has a bias towards us and that impedes her from actually getting to know us. I would remove mandatory saturday schools received for being tardy because the process of giving the student the slip makes him/her lose more class time than if the teacher marked them late, Another reason is because a good friend of mine was given saturday school for being late to PE class even though the coach did not arrived 15 minutes after. My friend told me how this saturday school went and they were forced to sit quietly and stare at the wall, if they placed their head down they would get sent home and the saturday school would not count. The reason for this unpleasantness was due to their belief that the students would hate it and they would go to school and get an education. But how does that apply to my friend who was late to PE, he doesn't need PE to get an education.