Sunny Youth Journal

I found the Marco Polo video very interesting. It shows me how bewildered the people were back then to this news of foreign lands. I enjoyed the video very much, and learned a lot.

In the video, he started with how Marco Polo had his works spread, by talking to a man named Rustichello, a writer, while in prison. They agreed to write down his stories, and they had them published after they were released from prison. The stories gained a lot of fame, and there were tons of skeptics.

He then talks about how Marco Polo was raised in a family of merchants, which meant a lot of travel. His uncle and father would travel the world, collecting precious goods and selling them back home, providing lots of money for their family. When Marco Polo was 17, his father and uncle took him to China. Here, they were treated as royal guests. They could observer the complexity and how advanced China was. The video also showed me some gorgeous watches that I will be checking out.

When they arrived home after 24 years, Polo collaborated with Rustichello to publish his experiences. The book was a instant bestseller, and many people were shocked by what it told. Many even believed it was made up, by how wild the book was to them.

This video showed me how that important things may not always be heeded, and that big ideas may take a very long time to be accepted by people. Not only Marco Polo experienced this, but other figures in history, like Copernicus. This video not only was entertaining, but also taught me a lesson.

Marco Polo was a merchant and traveler in Europe. His main achievement is writing the book about his adventures and also traveling to China and Exploring what China was like back then.

Marco Polo was from the family of merchants and travelers so they usually traveled around. One time Marco Polo’s father traveled to China and told Marco about all the wonderful things in China. Marco Polo was really awed and wanted to go see for himself how wonderful China was. He decided when he grew up he would go and visit China.

When he first went to china, the the king/emperor welcomed him and was really fascinated by him since he knew how to speak 4 languages and also because his culture: Christianity. After a bunch of time spent there, he was sent to Europe back again, but the next time he comes back he brings 10 priests, so the Emperor could study Christianity and increase the knowledge of his people.

So now, Marco Polo came back to Europe and he’s ready to travel back to China WITH only two priests he managed to convince. He met a lot of hardships when crossing the deserts to go to China. There were sand dunes that “lured” people in, but Marco Polo evaded that. There were bandits to rob you, but Marco evaded that using the “golden passport”. If somebody were to rob somebody with a golden passport, they would be against the WHOLE army of China. However even though Marco evaded them successfully, the priests hated traveling like this and they had to drop the priests off back at Europe.

When Marco Polo returned to China, he was greeted as a royal guest and was really popular. Many people wanted to have a good relationship with him and he was treated to the best food, the best wealth and the best things in China. After a couple years in China, he decided he wanted to go back to tell his people of the amazing wealth and power of China, also because the recent Emperor is close to dying and who knows how well the next Emperor will treat him. Even though the Emperor was reluctant, he agreed but he wanted Marco to accompany the princess to another place for a arrangement/peace treaty. The trip was really dangerous and in the end, only Marco’s family survived and the princess.

So now that Marco is returning home, what will happen when he gets to Europe? Well things did not look good for him since he was going to be sent to jail. At jail, he and his “roommate” shared stories, but Marco’s story about China intrigued him. Together they made a book about Marco’s adventure to China and once they were out of jail, they sold the book and the it turned out to be a over-night bestseller.

Marco influenced many people and also made plenty of enemies. Lots of people thought he was not saying the truth because one, they simply didn’t believe it, or two, they didn’t like the idea of another empire being significantly greater than them.

Overall Marco’s adventure told us lots of information about history, especially China, and even though we don’t know too much about Marco himself, we will always remember the adventures the he went through and the great feats that he did. His last words were “I have not told half of what I saw”.

In Flannery O’Connor’s short story “A Good Man Is Hard To Find”, a family going on a trip is murdered by a criminal calling himself The Misfit. When the family gets into in accident while driving, The Misfit and his assistants find and kill them, the grandmother last and only after they have had a discussion at length about repentance and fairness. The grandmother tries to convince him that praying to Jesus will relieve him of his sins and The Misfit is only adamant that he is doing fine on his own, insisting that he is doing fine as he is and that no matter what he does he will be punished for it. This suggests that the lesson the story teaches on the fairness of life is that life simply is not fair, but a person does to some extent control how it treats them.

An example of this is what The Misfit says about what he did that landed hin in the penitentiary: “I forget what I done, lady. I set there and set there [in the penitentiary], trying to remember what it was I done and I ain’t recalled it to this day. Oncet in a while, I would think it was coming to me, but it never come.” The Misfit has entirely forgotten what he did that first got him in trouble, but naturally, nobody believed him, and people only assumed he was a simple-minded boy lying to get out of trouble; that, and “they had the papers on me”, or in other words, legal documentation of his crime. But the fact that he could not remember what that crime was is a sign that he is, perhaps, mentally troubled, and therefore should have a lighter sentence, and it is not fair to him that he does not.

The Misfit, once out of the penitentiary, continues to commit crimes that, again, he cannot remember, and he is sentenced accordingly to those crimes, again no adjustment being made for his lack of memory. But should there really be an adjustment? Even though The Misfit does not remember these crimes and claims that “I can’t make what all I done wrong fit what all I gone through in punishment”, seeing his punishments out of proportion to his offenses, it is him who continues to choose to commit these crimes.

So while it may be unfair that he is continually punished for things he cannot remember doing, it is completely his own fault that life is treating him that way, for it is his own, free-willed choice to continue committing crimes.

While The Misfit’s life is certainly unfair in that he is punished for what he cannot remember doing, it is almost completely his own fault that life is treating him that way. For while if the penitentiary workers had believed him, he may not have gone down his current path, it is his own, free-willed choice to continue on it, showing that life certainly is not fair but how life treats you is mostly your fault.

Curtis Zhang

6/4/20

Marco Polo

Marco Polo was a very famous explorer born in the mid 13th century into a wealthy Venetian family. When he was born, his father and his uncle were off on a journey to china and mongolia. His mother died while his father and his uncle were away, but he was still well educated and learned to speak many different languages. When his father and his uncle came back from their expedition, they told Marco about many tales of the mongolian empire and how rich it was, and they allowed him to come with them after staying in Italy for 2 years. They went and prepared to go, but it turns out that their family ship had broken down and would not work. Then they decided to go by land. I think that is very dumb, why can’t you just get the ship repaired and sail on it? Apparently not, because they decided to go on land and face very harsh conditions that lay for them on their path to china. 

On their way there, they walked through deserts and climbed over some mountains to get to their destination. They even had bandits that would attack them and try to rob them. Fortunately, the Dad and the uncle had met the ruler of the mongolian empire, Kublai Khan before, and the Kublai was interested in learning more about other cultures, so he gave them a golden pass that said if you harm these people, then the full force of the Mongolian army will fight you. The climate alone was so harsh that the two priests that had accompanied them there decided to turn back to Italy. Marco, his dad, and his uncle continued, and finally reached the place where the Kublai lived. They were treated as royal guests and were given very great privileges. There were also many riches in the places and magnificent buildings that even though his father and his uncle had told him about the many wonders of the place, he could still barely believe his eyes. After living in Mongolia for a while, they started to get afraid about what would happen if the Khan died. The next Khan might not be as willing to let them live in peace and have such power, and might have them killed. They claimed that they were homesick, and so Kublai sent them home on a ship carrying someone called “The Blue Princess” which was known for her beauty to get married to her new husband in persia. During the voyage met some disaster and only 18 of them survived, including The Polos and the princess. They made it to Persia, but when he landed in Italy, the government arrested him and illegally seized most of his money he had acquired during his time away. He was put in jail with a famous author whom he told his stories. The author wrote down his stories and it became a bestseller. 

The Majority of the people who read his stories thought of them as too fantastical to be true, and he was called a liar for the rest of his life. He died telling everyone that his stories were true, and they were proven true, but that would take them hundreds of years before they would.

Marco was a famous explorer who did not really get the reward he deserved. He was called a liar for his perilous journey east, and he was robbed of his money on his way back. Marco Polo may of not been able to live out his well deserved reward for his travels, but he is still one of the greatest explorers of all time.

A few months ago: “Man, I just wish I the afterlife is real,” the grandma complained in bed, “I’m already pretty old, and I ain’t wanna lose all my beauty.”

“I see,” a mysterious voiced boomed from above.

“Who’s there!” the grandma screamed in shock.

“It is me,” the voice responded, “The Dream.”

“The Dream?” she questioned, “Whats that!”

“Oh,” the soft yet eerie voice explained, “I am here to make your wish come true.”

“Really?!” The selfish old woman happily exclaimed, “I wanna be able to have an afterlife, so I can live forever!”

“Just remember these two words,” the voice echoed, “Physical and Spiritual.”

“Physical and Spiritual?” the grandma eagerly shouted, “What does that even mean?”

“Goodbye,” the voice soothed.

“NO! WAIT!” but the voice vanished before it could hear her.

Present time: The Misfit sprang back, as if a snake had bitten him, and shot the grandma three times through the chest. The grandma took her last breath and fell motionless onto the ground. Her body soaked in a terrifying pool of blood. The men put their guns back into a box and locked them up with numerous locks.

The lady’s consciousness was still barely hanging on, and she barely managed to say, “Spiritual.”

Suddenly, a brute force of wind pushed her spirit out of her body. The grandma was physically dead but spiritually alive. The grandma’s spirit looked down at her dead body in confusion. Next to her body, she saw Bobby Lee, one of the Misfit’s friends, and the Misfit having a conversation.

“Oh boy! Ya little bastard!” The spirit violently screamed, “I’m gonna beat-cha up for killin’ me!”

“Quiet!” the Misfit said to Bobby, ‘Ya hear that sound?” Bobby looked at him like he was nuts.

“Oh ya! Yer gonna hear me now!” the spirit gleefully shouted.

“Shhh,” the misfit hushed silently, “I heard it again.”

“Oh, yeah I heard it too,” Bobby added, “What is it?”

“It’s me, and I’m back for revenge!” the spirit erupted. She held up all her strength and charged directly at the Misfit’s head.

“Youch!” screamed the Misfit, “Somethin’ like a big wind just smacked my head!”

“Are you going insane!” Bobby said to Misfit.

“Nah I’m not! This is real!” He responded.

“HEEHEEHEE!” the spirit thought in her mind. Now I remember those two words that the dream thingy told me, they were spiritual and physical. If spiritual tranforms me into a spirit, that means physical should turn me into a human again!

“Physical!” the spirit shouted. All of a sudden, she was sucked back into her body like the power of a million vacuums. As she popped into her physical body, she started glowing and vibrating simultaneous for a second or so, and she was now a human again. This time, her body strength and health was significantly improved from when she was an old lady.

“YO!” the Misfit screamed, “That old lady’s back somehow! What in the hecking flopperdinkles!?” The lady jumped into the air, and threw her fist directly at the misfit’s face. He ducked just in time, and used his elbow to hit her directly in the face. The lady flew backwards, only to regain her stance within seconds. This time, the lady swung her foot at the Misfit, but Bobby jumped in and grabbed it with all his might. The lady fell back to the ground, and the Misfit pounced over and pinned her down.

“How in the world did you come back to life!” the Misfit asked.

The lady had no time to explain, and she quietly whispered, ‘Spiritual.” Immediately, her spirit form was flung out of her body. The powerful force blasted both men back many feet.

“What kinda wizardry is this!” the Misfit complained.

“Quick!” Bobby replied, “Go open the box and get our guns!”

As soon as the spirit heard this, she charged at the box, pushing it off the car and far away.

“Physical,” the spirit said. In an instant, her spirit was sucked back into her body and she pounced on the men before they could react. She hit Bobby in the chest with her elbow and also slammed the Misfit on the car with her foot. Both men were extremely confused and weak.

“Spiritual.” the lady called once again. She turned into her spiritual form, and floated over to the weapon box where the guns where stored. Without any effort, she simply phased through the walls of the box, and grabbed the guns. By engulfing the guns inside her spiritual self, she managed to phase the guns outside the walls too.

“Physical.” The spirit said. The spirit was flung back into its physical body, and the guns fell into her hands.

“BAM! BAM!” With two perfectly aimed shots, the lady killed both the Misfit and Bobby Lee.

“Next time!” the lady warned, “Never mess with me!”

After watching that video, I have some special thoughts I want to share. Although it was talking about history and Marco Polo’s story, I think there were many other things we can learn from it.

I think he decided to visit the Mongolian Empire, it was a brave decision. We all know that it was really hard to travel to another country at that time. It told us, we need to be brave, try to get new knowledge, and face the challenge. Although Marco Polo seeing how rich Mongolian Empire was, how advanced it was, and how many entertainments it had, he wrote it down without any bias only with his objective judgment. From that we can learn, when we are inspecting somethings that we don’t know, we should seek truth from facts. We should learn from others’advantages and rethink our disadvantages, then we can improve ourselves. And also be humble about our progress, that will make us improve incessantly.

For the first time, Marco Polo published his book ” The Travels of Marco Polo”, there were many people thought he was a liar. Because they couldn’t believe there was another country that was much better than in Europe. And still to this day, there still many people didn’t understand ” seeing is believe”. For example, famous movie stars are arrestive, when they do something, there must be some discussions about them. And then some people will think they are doing bad things only according to a few pictures.

Therefore when we are learning or hearing something, we should believe the truth and have our own opinions. And not be fear to try new things or learn new stuff.

Everybody has different morals and beliefs. Some people are Christian, some are catholic, and the list goes on. Nonetheless, everybody has a different set of rules and creeds than everybody else. Personally, being a catholic has not affected my morals and how I think. However, in “A Good Man is Hard to Find,” by Flannery O’Connor, “The Misfit” believes that all good people and bad people will end up in the same place, so why not just have fun in life?

As a child, I have been raised to work hard in school and be respectful towards others. It has made me to be the person I am today, and I believe that hard work and being a good person will be rewarded in some way. “The Misfit” believes that all humans have the same fate, so he should spend his time doing whatever he feels like doing. In this case, “The Misfit” chooses to murder random people. On page 12, “The Misfit” claims, “You can do one thing or you can do another, kill a man or take a tire off his car, because sooner or later you’re going to forget what it was you done and just be punished for it.”

There are countless religions in the world, with countless followers to them. Some of the mainstream religions are Christianity, Catholicism, Hinduism, Buddhism, Islam, and Judaism. All of these are different religions, but they have a similar backstory. All these religions believe in a God, and they believe that there is a place for the good people and bad people in life. “The Misfit” was arrested for a crime that he claims he can’t remember. When “The Misfit” told this to the mother of Bailey, grandmother of John Wesley and June Star, the grandmother immediately jumped into prayers. This put “The Misfit” off, and on top of everything else, meaning “The Misfit” was an atheist.

Now, “The Misfit” may not be an atheist, but due to his beliefs, he has to be some sort of atheist. Clearly, according to page 13, “It’s no real pleasure in life.” doesn’t have anything joyous in life besides shooting people. Unlike the grandmother, who even though does not show it based on the previous pages, she loves her son and grandchildren.

All in all, religions around the world have their own beliefs; such as: thou shalt not steal, restrain anger, and there is only one God. Throughout all these religions and their beliefs, some of them are similar. That is because most religions branched out from other religions. Religion plays a pretty big part in “A Good Man is Hard to Find,” by Flannery O’Connor. The main villain, “The Misfit”, is an atheist who chooses to murder people for fun because he doesn’t believe that people have different fates. It shows in his beliefs compared to beliefs of other religions. Even though “The Misfit” is a respectable man, according to the grandmother, she only said that to spare the lives of her and her family; showing how truly evil he is.

One of the ideas presented by “A Good Man is Hard to Find” by Flannery O’Connor is that different people have a different moral compass. However, it does not mean that morality itself is subjective. Unlike a personal set of values, morality is a universal concept that is based on fundamental logic. Every single human throughout history has lived with the same morals, although some may stray from them or have different interpretations.

I couldnt finish in time

In “A Good Man is Hard to Find” by Flannery O’Connor, the old lady is selfish and the Misfit is cautious.

The grandma is selfish because she twists her words. When she is beginning to talk with the Misfit, she tries to convince him that he was a good man with the sole purpose of convincing him to help get her out. She doesn’t actually care about him. Also, what the old lady deems as good is what lines up with her own beliefs. She doesn’t realize nor care that perhaps people have different opinions and sometimes she is wrong. Later, when the Misfit is talking about his life, he says “ You can do one thing or you can do another, kill a man or take a tire off his car, because sooner or later you’re going to forget what it was you done and just be punished for it.” He also adds, “I call myself The Misfit because I can’t make what all I done wrong fit what all I gone through in punishment.” He talks about how unfair life and people was and gets very philosophical. The old woman comforts the Misfit, not because she sympathizes with him, but because she wants him to spare her life. She also brings up how he “wouldn’t hurt a woman” multiple times throughout the short story, further proving that she doesn’t care. Therefore, the woman is selfish.

The Misfit however, is cautious and got in trouble for something he didn’t do, which led him to his current life. He believes that you can’t trust anyone because of his personal experiences. Though he talks about his past life with the old lady, he still doesn’t trust her. This is proven when The Misfit shoots the grandmother because he touched her. He was jumpy and when he felt that someone was touching him, he reacted out of instinct. Therefore, the Misfit is cautious.

The old lady is selfish and tries to twist her words, but the Misfit doesn’t trust her. In the end, because she tried to fake-console The Misfit, he shoots her and her selfishness was the reason for her end.

By now, you probably know about the coronavirus that is going around the world. However, you might not know what a coronavirus exactly is. The current pandemic is caused by SARS-CoV-2, or COVID-19. This is a type of coronavirus, same as SARS and many others. There have been more than 150 types of coronaviruses found in the world but only some of these are deadly. Zoonotic pathogens are the diseases spread between animal and humans. It has caused many diseases in the past too. Many viruses were found by testing the saliva and droppings of bats. Scientists find many diseases from bats and even though it’s a dangerous job, it’s important as it could prevent a future pandemic. In a cave that researchers studied, they tested 464 bats with 759 samples. In them, they found 6 new coronaviruses which isn’t as surprising because of the amount that already exists. One thing that worries scientists is humans passing the virus to bats. They fly around so more places could get infected with that virus. Coronaviruses are also involved with respiratory and gastrointestinal infections so cover your mouths and nose to protect yourself from the current pandemic.