Month: July 2020

Imagine liking a boy or girl in your school, depending on which gender you are, but you are scared to talk to them. What would others think of you?

‘Seventh Grade’ is about a Mexican boy called Victor at a school in Fresno, who has just started 7th grade. He has a crush on a girl named Teresa, but is afraid to talk to her. He tries to show off to her in all the classes that they are in together, but ends up embarrassing himself in each and every one of them. In French class, he wants to show off to Teresa by lying that he knew French, but instead the teacher wanted him to say something, so he was left with words in his stomach, since he didn’t actually know any French. In the end, Teresa actually talks to him and says he did a great job.

I would personally think that Victor does not have the best personality. First of all, he doesn’t try to get things he wants. If he wants Teresa to know that he exists, he should talk to her. Instead, he doesn’t talk to her unless she talks to him, and doesn’t even know what to say. Also, he wants to bluff about knowing French, but lying won’t one anywhere. He lies that he knows French, but the teacher wants him to say some French, his plan to impress Teresa backfires. Another bad trait about him is that he does not have self-confidence. Usually the people who succeed belive in themselves. Victor doesn’t belive in himself and thus ends up not talking to Teresa at all, other than “That’s me” when Teresa said hi, and some more lying after class, in which he still doesn’t tell the truth when Teresa believes he actually knew some French. He says that he read some in books and heard some in movies, though the reader can easily recognize that he has no idea how to speak French at all. Basically, the only reason he got Teresa’s attention towards him was luck.

To recapitulate, Victor’s character traits won’t get him anywhere, and he should probably change his habits or Teresa may realize that he isn’t what she thought he would be. And even if a reader might’ve thought that he was helpful by helping Teresa do her French homework, that would mean that Teresa wouldn’t be learning much, and he is only doing that because he has a crush on her.

The story, “Seventh Grade,” is about a boy named Victor who is on his first day of school. He met his friend, Michael, who had learned to scowl during the summer. He thinks that it makes girls notice him. Victor wants to impress his crush, Teresa, so he tries scowling too. He also signs up for French class because he wants to go to France someday, and also because Teresa signed up for it too.

The theme for the story is to not fake something to try to impress someone. In his French class, the teacher asked who knew how to speak French, and he raised his hand. What they didn’t know is that he does not know anything about French. He only wanted to impress Teresa. Then, the teacher asked him a question in French, and he did not know how to reply. He just made random sounds that he thought sounded like French, and he was very embarrassed.

After class, Teresa thought that he actually knew French, and told him that it was good. Luckily, the teacher didn’t say anything about it because he was able to relate to it about something that happened in the past. Then, he still tried to impress her by saying he got it by watching movies and reading books. Next, she asked him if he can help her in French sometime. He agreed, and then he actually went to the library. He learned his lesson in the end and checked out three French textbooks so next time in class, he can actually understand the teacher.

In the short story Seventh Grade by Gary Soto, the theme is don’t try to be someone your are not. Victor pretends he knows French in his French class so he can impress Teresa.
Victor is in seventh grade. When he arrives on the first day of school, he is excited to see Teresa because he has a crush on her. After saying something he thinks is stupid, he is too scared to talk to her. During lunch, Teresa sees Victor and smiles at him. Victor goes to French class only because Teresa is also going to French class. In French class he raises his hand when the teacher asks who knows French in order to impress Teresa. Later, the teacher realizes that Victor doesn’t know French but his teacher keeps his secret. At the end of the day, he likes seventh grade.
The theme is you shouldn’t try to be someone you aren’t. In this case, Victor doesn’t know any French, but pretends so he can impress Teresa. During the day, he makes funny faces and tries to make them laugh. Victor believes that making people laugh is the most important thing. He willing to do anything to get Teresa’s attention, and that results in him lying.
Therefore, this is why I think that the theme of the short story, Seventh Grade is you shouldn’t try to be someone you aren’t

“Seventh Grade” by Gary Soto is about a boy, Victor, who wants to impress his crush, Teresa. When the teacher asks him if anyone knows French, he tries to impress Teresa. However, since he doesn’t know a lot of French, he embarrassed himself. After this, he thinks he’s a failure. However, after class, Teresa thinks that he’s good at French and asks Victor to help her with her homework. All of this motivates Victor to learn French: the nice teacher and Teresa asking to help her with her homework.

I think the theme of the story is to not be overconfident. I think this is the theme of the story because he wants to impress Teresa too much, especially when he doesn’t know how to speak French and he doesn’t have a plan to overcome this fact.

At the beginning of the Ted Talk, Amy Morin talks about her friend, who lives in a beautiful house and goes on these amazing vacations. Maybe you scroll through your Facebook feeds and role your eyes. Researched have found that envying your friends on Facebook actually leads to depression. That is just one trap your mind could set for you. I didn’t know this, I thought it was very interesting. I don’t have a Facebook account, so do not have to worry about this right now, but I surely will later in life.

After a while, Amy Morin talks about the her background. When she was 23, she thought she had everything figured out. She graduated from Grad School, got a job as a therapist, got married, and even bought a house. She thought, “This is great. I have got a jumpstart on success. That all changed for her one day, when her mother was found unresponsive. Amy and her husband rushed to the hospital. The doctors said she had a brain aneurysm. In less then 24 hours, she passed away. I thought this was really sad. One day and everything turns upside down.

On the 3-year anniversary of her death, a few friends invited Amy and her husband to see a ball game. Coincidentally, it was being played in the same auditorium where Amy had last seen her mother. Amy and her husband had a great time at the ball game. On the drive home, they discussed how great it was to remember her mother. When they got home, Amy’s husband said he didn’t feel well. A few minutes later, he collapsed. Amy had to call an ambulance. A few hours later, an doctor took Amy and her husband’s family into an private room. He explained her husband had died due to an heart attack.

Amy explains that to be mentally strong, you have to give up bad habits. Being mentally strong is like being physically strong, you have to go to the gym and stop eating junk food. So how do you get rid of those bad habits?

sleeping is a living rule for everyone, since we all need to use our brain and learn new information and skills almost everyday. But this is a part of the reason children (who learns language, social, and soft skills at a extremely quick pace throughout their early brain development)need more sleep than adults. While adults usually need 7-9 hours of sleep per night, Infants need roughly 11 to 14 hours, elementary school age children between 9 and 11, and teenagers between 8 and 10.

Unfortunately, a person can’t just sleep whenever they want and then stay up when ever they want without being unhealthy, The best sleep habits is to sleeping consistently, that allows all of us, no matter of our age, to meet our sleep needs every night, and keep on top of life’s challenges every day.

For a long time, the set amount of sleep a person needs was thought to be 8 hours. While this isn’t completely untrue, the article How Much Sleep Do You Really Need? shines some new light on the subject.

Sleep is very important for a person’s health, both mental and physical. A quote from the article states,”Sleep restriction is associated with poorer attention and thinking … sleep deprivation disrupts mood … [and] insufficient sleep can even affect the microbiota in your gut.” Sleep is a time for the brain to rest, and lack of sleep can interfere with this rest.

The actual time someone needs to sleep however, is a much harder question to answer. The author states,”Not only do healthy sleepers differ from each other in how much sleep they need, but healthy sleepers also change their sleep needs over time.” The answer turns out to be that, instead of a neat and simple 8 hour rule, the amount of sleep a person needs varies from person to person. Children, for example, need more sleep than adults, while seniors need less sleep.

There is no definite answer to how much sleep you need, because if varies wildly, depending on who you are, you’re age, and what you did that day. All you can do is to find out how much sleep your body needs, and adapt your sleep patterns.

In her TedxOcala talk The Secret of Becoming Mentally Strong, Amy Morin says that to live a better life, you need to change yourself. This reminded me of a book I had recently read(and strongly recommend you read). The book’s name is Humankind: A Hopeful History, and it is written by a Dutch historian named Rutger Bregman. In the book, he talks about many things, but the main theme is the argument that humans are good people by nature, despite the majority of the world’s institutions being based on the idea that humans are bad by nature. In the epilogue, he gives some words of advice on some things we could do that would make our life better, and I would like to share some of them with you.

The first is to assume the best. Bregman writes that people have a negativity bias, which magnifies unpleasant experiences over pleasant experiences. He says that when you’re in doubt about a person’s intentions, you should always assume the best. Most people do mean well, and if you don’t give them a chance to present feedback, you’ll never know that.

The second is to try and understand other people, even if you don’t agree with their ideas. Bregman says that we should try to understand other people, because humans are based on reason and intellecuation, and understanding each other helps with the development of trust.

The third is not to be ashamed to do good. We are all taught throughout our lives to be humble, and to not brag about good stuff we’ve done. Scientists have discovered that people often fabricate excuses when they do good to make sense of why they are doing. But, as Bregman points out, people are naturally inclined to do good, and that is something that people shouldn’t try to hide from.

These are some of the tips mentioned in Humankind: A Hopeful History. I have taken some of his advice, and it’s actually quite effective. There are plenty of changes we could do to make our lives better, and we shouldn’t be afraid to make them. Like Amy Morin said in her Tedx talk, “it all starts with just one small step.”

In the story, The Rules of the Game, the entire novel is about a little chinese girl named Meimei. Meimei’s mother is your average strict Chinese parent, and sticks to very traditional standards. She also is very stubborn, and refuses to accept new ideas from her daughter. This strictness can create pressure, which urges Meimei to improve; but too much can make her feel limited and become frustrated at her mother.

Meimei’s mother is always telling her daughter about how great Chinese methods are. This can help Meimei feel good about herself, and proud to be Chinese. When they received a chessboard for Christmas, Meimei’s mother told her children that rules are important. “‘This American rules,’ she concluded at last. ‘Every time people come out from foreign country, must know rules. You not know, judge say, “Too bad, go back”‘” (Tan 3). Rules are a necessity, or else there will be chaos and you will be laughed upon. Meimei’s mother is trying to show this to Meimei.

A fault of Meimei’s mother is being stubborn. When Meimei won a chess match but lost eight pieces, her mother scolded for losing so many. Meimei tried to reason with her that you have to make sacrifices to win, but her mother wouldn’t listen. “‘Ma, it’s not how many pieces you lose,’ I said. ‘Sometimes you need to lose pieces to get ahead.’
‘Better to lose less, see if you really need'” (Tan 4). This can be very frustrating to Meimei, because he mother didn’t even give it a chance.

Overall, strictness can create a good environment for improvement. But more is not better in almost all cases. Being too strict can create negative feelings of not meeting expectations, so people must remember to always be careful about being strict.