As a freshman I couldn’t wait for graduation because it meant the end of school. Now that graduation is upon I feel a lot more stress and worry than I feel excited. Part of me almost wishes that I was still a freshman. The real question is why do I feel like this? Well with graduating comes a lot more responsibility and independence which I’m still not sure if I’m ready for. After graduation comes collage and after that comes starting a life by yourself, in most cases. I guess it’s mostly just stressful to figure out what to do with yourself and where you want to be in the future. I also realize that the time I’ve had in my parents house with them making the decisions is almost over. Even with all these things though I’m still somewhat happy about graduating and I am proud of myself for making it this far, I just hope that I can continue going forward to reach my goals in life.

lBaseball is a very popular sport that is immensely loved in America and many other places. Many Americans have grown up playing baseball and through this sport have bonded closer with their families and friends. While some like to play baseball and are quite good at it others prefer to watch the game played by professionals on their favorite teams. One thing that may not have crossed the minds of baseball fanatics is where baseball has originated from. Unfortunately no one knows the actual origins of baseball but historians believe that it is based off of the English game of rounders. Baseball began gaining popularity in America in the 19th century. During the early part of the century small towns formed teams while cities formed baseball clubs. In 1845 a list of official rules was formed by Alexander Cartwright that all teams would play by. Many of these rules are still in play today and Alexander Cartwright is still said to be the father of baseball. The first recorded baseball contest was in 1845, a year after the rules were created. The contest was between Cartwright’s club and the New York Baseball club which Cartwright’s club lost. It took place in Hoboken, New Jersey. After this games much like this became more popular and in 1857 a convention of amateur baseball teams came to discuss rules and any issues with the game. The next year the National Association of Base  Ball Players was formed which was the first organized baseball league. The league  became popular and sometimes charged it’s fans admission to stay afloat. In the 1860s, during the civil war, the popularity of baseball clubs dropped a lot. When the war ended though there were more people playing baseball than ever. As the popularity of the games grew so did the cost and admission to games was paid regularly. While the players weren’t supposed to be paid many were secretly. In 1869 the Cincinnati Red Stockings became a professional team. The Cincinnati team won 65 games. The idea of paying the players started to become popular and many teams became professional while others wanted baseball to stay an amateur game but it did not. In 1871 the National Association became the first professional league. That year the NA fielded 9 teams and grew to 13 by 1875. Following the season in 1875 the NA was replaced with the National League. While the NA had been run by team players the NL was run by business men. In 1882 a rival league appeared called the American Association. Instead of fighting each other the leagues had a national agreement which called for all leagues to honor each others player contracts. Each league was also aloud to bid a certain number of players with the Reserve Clause. This meant that players couldn’t take other offers from other teams. Because of this many players left their teams and tried to start a league of their own but it only lasted for a season because they had lost too much money to do a second one. The player later on n 1890 tried again to form a league but like before it failed and brought down the America Association with it. In 1901 the American league was formed and they tried to get the NL’s best players. Because of this the NL owners turned on each other. After the court got involved the two leagues found a way to coincide peacefully. With the change of the ball in used to play the game of baseball in 1911 the game’s popularity increased dramatically. In 1919 the New York Yankees bought Babe Ruth’s contract from the Boston Red Sox. Ruth took baseball to a while new level and became one of the most famous players in American history. During the 40’s world war 2 took away a large percent of the players in baseball. Baseball had always been racially separated, though that was not a rule, until 1947 when Jackie Robinson joined the Brooklyn Dodgers. Slowly after that other teams gained  minority players and it took ten years before all teams had integrated. In the 60’s baseball could finally call itself integrated. In 1960 another rival league appeared that gained some teams but most remained in the northeast. Large cities in both the south and west wanted their own teams too. Major league owners had to reach a compromise because of the possibility of losing their monopoly. In the end they agreed to expand, going from 16 teams to 24 by the end of the 60’s. The players like this because expansion meant more jobs and soon baseball began to bring in huge amounts of money as its popularity grew. Players soon realized that they weren’t getting their fair share in money since over the years their salaries had not change much plus they were still bound by the reserve clause. Soon the players sought out to change this and with that in mind the players strived to strengthen their union (The Major League Baseball Association) in 1965.  They hired Marvin Miller who was a veteran labor organizer that had helped the United Steelworkers Union for years. Marvin soon realized how bad things really were. The minimum salary for a ballplayer was 6,000 dollars and had only gone up 1,000 dollars since 1947. Players were surprised at how poorly they were paid, this lead to the bargaining argument in 1968. This gave the players more leverage because before team owners had a ‘take it or leave it’ relationship with the players which didn’t give them much choice in anything. The union was then able to file complaints with the National Labor Relations Board when they felt that they were treated unfairly. The team owners did not like that fact that the union was meddling in their affairs and that the players were standing up to them. One of the players named Curt Flood refused to go to training camp in 1969 unless he was given a 5,000 dollar raise. He was then traded to Philadelphia in response and he refused to go because he liked where he was. He then went to court and said that the reserve clause was illegal and that eh should be able to negotiate with other teams. He was in the end overruled but this made other players think. In 1975 two more players challenged the reserve clause by refusing to sign their contracts. They two went to court and soon the free agency was made. Players were still bound to their teams for the first couple years of their careers but after that they were free to go where they wanted. This made the owners happy and they spent the next couple years outbidding each other so that they could get the players that they wanted. And of course the players were happy because they got more money. Some owners soon became upset at this arrangement because after a player left their team they got nothing in return for the money that had been sunk into that particular player. The players argued that that was unfair but because the two sides couldn’t reach an agreement the players walked out in the middle of the season in 1981. In 1972 there had a strike when the decision was being made between the owners and the players. A decision was eventually reached that owners would get a modified compensation plan and the players who weren’t eligible for free agency would have their salaries decided by an arbitrator. Baseball was suddenly becoming more complicated and the relationship between players and owners was becoming intense. In 1985 problems between owners and player struck again when the owners noticed that while arbitrators were supposed to keep salaries controlled they had instead sky rocketed. The owners sought to fix this but the players said no and after two days the owners relented so that the players would come back. The free agency soon dried up and players found no bidders so they were forced to re-sign with their teams for a lower salary.  This continued for a few years until an arbitrator accused the owners of working together illegally to keep the salaries down. The players were the awarded damages. This left the player-owner relationship even more tense and in 1992 the biggest battle broke out. The owners forced one of the commissioners to resign because the labor contract was about to expire and they didn’t want him meddling in the negotiations plus they didn’t want to negotiate. Because of the strikes and lockouts that occurred every time that the collective bargaining  agreement expired the players started the next season without contracts. The owners wanted a cap on salaries so that teams could survive and the arbitrators and free agency were taking all of their money. This cause the players to go on strike again in August. The world series was cancelled that year for the first time in 92 years and the fans were disgusted and heartbroken. President Clinton set up a mediator to fix things but nothing happened so the owners took things into their own hands. In 1995 the owners had made their own teams and they played that season without the ‘real’ players. The players then got restraining orders which did not allow the owners to use the teams they had made. They were forced to work with the old agreement until a new one could be made. Two years later in November of 1996 a labor agreement was reached and if this has solved the problems of the industry is still left to be seen.

Plato’s philosophy on the theory of the soul was divided into three parts; reason, will and appetite. He believed that one could truly tell that the soul was divided into these parts when the parts clashed together. According to Plato reason is the biggest part of the should that, with help from will, controls appetite. Plato believed that the body and should were two separate things and cone the body died the should would continue to live on forever. Plato though that after the should left the body that it would go the realm of pure forms where it would contemplate the forms until it was reincarnated in a different body. He also though that once the soul was rein incarnated that it would retain a small portion of what it had learned in the realm of pure forms. He tried to prove this by getting Socrates to teach a slave boy about geometry by asking his a few questions. This showed Plato that in learning the soul was actually recalling some of the information that it had learned before it was placed in its new body. According to Plato when the soul and body are combined the body hinders the souls abilities to recall the ideal forms. Although Aristotle Was taught by Plato he criticized many of his theories. He believed that the mind and body are one thing. He also believed that the mind cannot think without intelligence. Unlike Plato he though that intelligence came from the minds capability of intelligence. He thought that the psyche was the form part on intelligence. The psyche and the body form a bond that is known as theomorphic. While both of these philosophers had many interesting theories it is hard to say who is right or wrong. A person can only determine which one that they like best. These two philosophers are some of the most influential and will be sure to inspire many.

During my Easter vacation I watched a lot of movies that I had been meaning to watch but I had not had the time to. One of these movies was Seven Pounds which stars Will Smith who plays a man who collects tax debts. He’s lost someone really important in his life and because of an accident he has taken the lives of others. He has a hard time coping with the guilt he feels and after the accident he tries to do what he can to help people that deserve it. While he does all of these good deeds he ceases to live for himself and practically stops enjoying life at all. He then finds someone that he grows attached to and the watched is made to believe that he will be able to overcome all of the things that have happened in his life. But that is not the case and commits suicide by being electrocuted by a box jellyfish which is supposedly the deadliest animal in the world. His last wish was to donate all of his organs to people that need them so that he could repent for the lives that he took. 

Overall this movie was terribly depressing but at the same time it was exciting and it was easy to go along and understand the story as it unfolds. Will Smith did an amazing job which I have found that he does with all of the movies that I have watched that star him. This movie is definitely a tear jerker and really gives that watcher a look at just how deadly guilt and traumatic experiences can be even when a person seems like they aren’t very affected by it. The movie also shows how far some people are willing to go to fix what they’ve done and how even when a person does something good for someone it can do more bad than good for that person. I would recommend that everyone watch this movie because it’s really moving and the story really pulls you in. 

For the future I plan to go to SRJC for my first two years of collage before transferring to SSU to get my CPA. I also plan to get a degree for paralegal too. I’ve wanted to work in these fields ever since I was in the seventh grade because my mom said that I would be good at them and that they pay a good amount of money. Jobs in these fields seem like they might be easy to me and because I like things that involve numbers I figured that I would like accounting. As for paralegal I wouldn’t mind doing paper work or whatever else to assist lawyers because it sounds like it wouldn’t be too hard. I want to go to the JC because not only will I save money but because of all of the stress of leaving home for collage and planning out where I wanted to go I didn’t make my decision in time which is why I have decided to take this route instead. I had also planned to only take one year at the JC but I was told that if you only go for one year and then transfer that it won’t be very likely that you are able to. While in collage  I want to get a job so that I am able to rely less on my mom and more on myself while saving money for after collage. After I graduate I plan on trying to  find a job in one of these fields and I want to move out of my parent’s house.

As I’ve come closer to graduating high school I’ve realized a few things about my high school career. For on it has gone by very quickly and each year has its own special memories. I’ve also noticed that each year I’ve changed more and more into a different person in maturity (Hopefully) and of course age. I’ve also managed to stay on the honor roll throughout high school and my dreams for the future have not changed. One thing that I’ve really noticed though it that I started high school having certain struggles with one or two subjects in class and now at the end of the line I am facing struggles in a certain subject again. In freshman year I struggled with both the science and engineering classes which I had written off due to the fact that I was still adjusting to being out of middles school. This year I decided to take a fourth year of math even though only three are required to graduate. At first I only had a little trouble in this class and then I started to get poor marks on my tests, which is still going on now. If not for this class I would have the highest GPA that I have ever had in school. I am not sure why this class is causing me problems considering that I’ve always had the least problems in math. I do hope that before I graduate that I can at least bring this grade up to something that is more my standards. Otherwise this year has been the easiest out of all. I only hope that a case of senioritis won’t hit me before graduation week. I’m also hoping that a wave of sadness won’t hit me either because this is the last time that I might see many of the people that I have have grown to care about as we drift off into our own lives.

Lao Tzu believed in had a philosophy that said that one should understand circumstances by understanding their nature or principle, and the shaping a person’s actions according to this information. This was called Taoism. Confucius believed that people live their lives within parameters firmly established by Heaven, which for him meant a Supreme Being, nature and its fixed cycles and patterns. While he believes this Confucius also believes that men are responsible for their actions and the treatment of others. He says that we cannot do much to change our fated span of existence but we can determine what we accomplish in our lives and what we are remembered for. Confucius acted like his teaching were lessons transmitted from antiquity. His social philosophy highly revolved around compassion and love for others. Han Fei Tzu’s philosophy can be broken into seven sayings; a country’s strength depends on law, promote followers of the law, beware of promotion by reputation or partnership, civil decay follows punishment of the innocent, efficient administration depends on upholding the law, let the law select leaders and the law treats all alike.

The only like trait that all three of these philosophies share is that any person following them must follow closely to the laws and world around them in order to survive. Lao Tzu’s and Confucius’ philosophies are both similar because they both require that a person look really close to their surroundings and follow along a basic set of laws or restrictions while living their lives. Fei Tzu’s Philosophy is more geared towards following the law of  the land and how law works for everyone. Fei Tzu’s also seems less down to earth and seems to somehow give a person less freedom while the other two give a person a sense that they can do whatever they want as long as they are aware that they have certain concepts and boundaries to keep in mind. Overall each of these philosophies has its own good and bad parts. Personally Fei Tzu’s policy isn’t really philosophy at all because it seems like more of a list while Tzu’s seems the smartest to live by and Confucius’ seems the easiest.

There are many tragedies and problems that go on in the word that many people do not know about or at least there are many tragedies and problems in the world that I do not know about. It is pretty easy, to me, to live somewhere and not know what goes on outside of where you are. Below is a tragedy that I learned about when I was looking for a topic for a project in my Contemporary Literature class. Learning and writing about this tragedy made me realize how good my life actually is and how lucky  I am to live where I do.

The Hmong people originated from the mountains surrounding southern china but were pushed from China into Burma(Myanmar), Laos, Thailand, and Vietnam. During the Vietnam war many Hmong people were secretly recruited by the American CIA to fight communism. Many Hmong people fought against communist-nationalist Pathet Lao during the secret war in Laos. Sometime after, in the 1970s, communists seized power in Laos . Many Hmong people fled Lass in fear of being prosecuted for helping America and they resettled in the U.S., French Guiana, Australia, France, Germany, and Thailand. While fleeing many were attacked and those who did go back to Laos were not able to live peacefully for long.  

The Hmong population is totaled at somewhere between four to five million.  Three million of which reside in Peoples Republic of China, while 790,000 are in Vietnam, 450,000 are in Laos, almost 250,000 in the U.S., 150,000 in Thailand, 15,000 in France, 2,190 in Australia, 1,500 in French Guiana, 600 in Canada and 500 in Germany.

Pathet Lao, meaning Land of Laos, is a communist movement that began in the 1950s and is the equivalent of Vietnams Viet Cong. The movement was formed by a prince during the first war between France and Vietnamese communists. Pathet Lao was committed to the struggle of communism against colonialism. The Pathet Lao with the support of the North Vietnamese was able to take over north and east Laos in the 1960s. After the communist forces took over Vietnam and Cambodia, the government in Laos collapsed and the Pathet Lao fully took over Laos.

The Secret war took place in Laos and as its name hints the war happened in secret. It officially started around the same time as the Vietnam war in 1961. The countries involved were U.S., Thailand, Laos, and North Vietnam. The cause of the secret war was the differing political views for the future government in Vietnam. Thus war caused great upset to was areas that became the battle fields for this war. The U.S., Thailand, and the Royal Laotian party teamed up while the Pathet Lao and North Vietnam teamed up. 

During this war the Hmong people repeatedly risked their lives to rescue American pilots from enemy sides and defended the American outposts in Laos. They also attacked people that were bringing Pathet Lao and North Vietnam supplies via the Ho Chi Mihn Trail that crosses from Northern Laos into Northern Vietnam. 

The Hmong male population suffered greatly from this war and towards the end of it children were recruited, briefly trained in the strategies of war, and sent into battle.  In 1975 the U.S. withdrew their troops from South Vietnam, also taking with them their funding and supplies which the Laotian Government and the Hmong people had come to depend on which left their government weak. This led to the Pathet Lao eventually taking over and persecuting the Hmong people because they were seen as a threat.

Many Hmong in Laos have been and are still even now being worked to death in camps killed and Thailand has agreed to send all Hmong people back to Laos to be prosecuted and any who were not returned to Laos were luckily taken to the U.S. which accepted more than 15,000 refugees. At this time human rights are not being applied in Laos. Though this issue has been discussed in the national society no one has made a move to stop the killings and it does not seem like anyone really cares except for other Hmong people that are not in Laos. Not even America has lent a helping hand and continues to trade with Laos even though they requested the help of the Hmong people so long ago. 

On June 4, 2007 10 people were ordered to be arrested by the U.S. federal courts for plotting to overthrow the Laos government. The group had bought and smuggled weapons into Thailand that would be used by Hmong resistance forces in Laos. While attempting to obtain these weapons one of the people involved had approached U.S. federal agents designed as weapon dealers which lead to the whole groups arrest. At first the group has been denied bail because of the connections that the group may have. While this has gone on many rallies in support of the group have been held to raise awareness of the poor treatment that the Hmong people are receiving in Laos. Because one of the members of the group, Vang Pao, was an American ally many people felt that they should all be released. On September 18, 2009 all charges against the group were dropped and they all went free.

On Wednesday, December 3, 2009, the Illinois Department of Natural Resources dumped 2,200 gallons of deadly poison into 5.7 miles of a canal to prevent Asian Carp from entering Lake Michigan while the electric barrier, that usually kept them in, was being serviced. Tens of thousands of fish were slowly suffocated as the poison slowly depleted the oxygen from their blood causing them to float to the top.
Asian Carp were originally brought here in 1970 to help to clean aquaculture and wastewater treatment facilities’ retention ponds. If these carp were to escape it is feared that they would crowd out other species of fish and threaten the balance of things. Though keeping balance is important there were other ways that these carp could have been dealt with that wouldn’t have cost them their lives.
Personally I think that it is sad to think that none of these carp knew that swimming somewhere new would end their lives so slowly and hopefully if the situation arises again they can be dealt with in a way that does not harm them. If there were ways to avoid their deaths I wonder why the other methods weren’t used. Apparently though, from what I read, if the other methods had been used it would have caused shipping delays but, that doesn’t seem like a good enough reason to kill so many animals. Hopefully next time someone will realize that thousands of fish might be a little more important than a small shipping delay.

My dream job is something that I can do with ease. It’s not necessarily easy for other people but, only for me. It should also be something that I enjoy and don’t mind doing everyday for numerous hours. It should be something that is high in demand so that I never have to look for work and think about the possibility of being laid off. My dream job should have maximum benefits and a great retirement plan. The place that my dream job takes place in should be a nice building that has great views. The people around me should be nice and they should always get their work done. My dream job should have a high salary so that I can live comfortably. It should also have me doing minimal traveling because I like to stay close to home.
Basically my dream job is unattainable but, I will try to find one that’s close to it. So I guess it would be same to say that my dream job is getting a job that is close to my actual dream job, if that makes sense.