I’m getting better, but my nose is still somewhat stuffy. i stayed after for pre-calc yesterday to go over radian measures within a circle and what quadrant they lay in and angle of elevations and depression. it’s still a bit complex, but i think i understand it better. i like chris mccandless in Into the Wild, although he made the mistake of overestimating himself and he can be a bit too self-assured at times, i admire his independence, his adventurous nature and his desire to go for his dreams. at a young age, mccandless had loved nature much like me. he works hard in everything he does and is very philosophical. in chapter eleven, chris’s mom billie says “that mccandless liked to devote his total energy to whatever he undertook and he found his athletic calling in track. for him track was a spiritual experience, the sheer will and determination to push yourself forward. also the feeling of being free, running through obstacles, through the evils and hardships of the world when he ran. mccandless was very competitive and set high standards for himself” (Krakauer). I feel like i connect with mccandless in the fact that i am very focused and intent on my goals and i can be quite idealistic at times. i balance my idealistic and practical side for example i know it will be hard to become a genetic engineer, but i take steps toward it and keep a positive mindset and push myself. like president kennedy who was an idealistic person who looked ahead and saw many opportunities especially the landing of a man on the moon in july 20th 1969 which ended the Cold War, i tend to also see myself going along the path of my dreams and taking practical steps toward making it a reality. i agree with mccandless in his view that you should give all that you’ve got into life and you shouldn’t let the negative influences of others influence your path and also i enjoy running distance like mccandless especially cross-country (which mccandless did) because to me it is also a spiritual experience and seeing the beauty of nature is breathtaking. the sheer momentum of pushing yourself forward and running and the sheer freedom of it like nothing can hold you back, like you can go great distances and challenge yourself is elating. there is a thing called “runner’s euphoria” which is the rush of adrenaline that brings mental clarity after a hard run and it makes you feel great and look at the world with a new light. mccandless enjoyed the spirit of running because he believed he was leaving his limitations behind, letting go of all that he was not. i think after being around dave who is great at literature, my writing has quite improved and it is sometimes effortless to draft words for an essay. dave told me that when writing an essay i should engage in my topic and also see the side of the audience and try to connect with them as well. by engaging myself with the essay and also seeing how the audience might perceive it makes the essay seem easier to write and also more sophisticated. also andrew who is great at math and science has made me think a lot quicker and i find myself being able to remember formulas and think a lot quicker than i thought i could. i was ecstatic when i was able to understand the physics honors and pre-calc formulas and derive them within only five days of studying when typically it would take at least twelve days. life seems a lot more effortless these days and i feel like i’m just letting the flow of life lead me. even through harsh times and also when people are overly criticizing it doesn’t affect me as much anymore. i think mccandless has something valuable to teach us all and that is that life is meant to be lived and you should give all you’ve got toward your dreams. i think i have found a way to stay motivated in my studies because sometimes it can be hard to keep focus on studying, but i tend to make analogies for my studying to how to apply it to my life and it makes studying more fun and interesting. i like teachers who can apply their subjects to the real world, who are laid-back and can make learning fun for their students by making references to real-life scenarios. i like pre-calc and physics honors best because my teachers do this quite well. i feel like i have also learned a lot about the world in ap world history and economy and business and also in improving my essays. my ap world history teacher who also teaches psychology knows and says that the reason students hate school and don’t have ambition is because it is the same routine daily with no variation and there is no hands on applications, it’s just note-taking and the teacher talking, test taking and homework. the students don’t learn much about how their learning applies to the real world, but with my ap world history teacher she also has interactive things such as having us present to the class and do research, make posters, work in groups and we often have lots of discussion in class. the good thing abou this is that it encourages the students to actively voice themselves and think and also it makes them interested in learning since they know how it applies to their environment. i feel like my ap english teacher is a good person but she doesn’t really teach as much. she is always asking us to write essays with only a few guidelines and most of the essays we write don’t have much to do with what we will learn in the real world. i enjoyed writing the definition essay which you explained your interpretation of a word, but i’m not really sure that really will help me much in college. in college most of the essays often ask you to analyze, argue, respond, evaluate, etc. a point in a story you have read or just to write an essay based on a topic. i feel like she doesn’t really give much guidelines to writing that we need. we are often to read passages and just analyze them and then write a topic on the author’s use of writing style and his argument. it’s just straight taking a few terms and putting them in a clear-cut essay with not much thought involved. in ap world history when we do essays, the teacher allows us to explore different avenues of how to write the essay and also offers guidelines of how to add points of view or additional information to our essays, she encourages us to think outside the box and make inferences. i think in college it is more important to be able to take passages and make inferences and look at the passages as a whole instead of finding author’s style and using it in your writing. i don’t think colleges are going to have essay prompts that say “what rhetorical strategies does this author use to develop his argument?” this question is too simple and clear cut. i like the ap world history questions that really make you think and use what you know to apply to what you are trying to figure out such as the question “after reading the passage, analyze and describe how the industrial revolution impacted the slave labor and describe the changes and continuities and why?” this question allows you to look at the story as a whole and pull evidence out and also asks you to think outside the box a little, sometimes it is important to include some prior knowledge when explaining things. also my ap world history teacher encourages us to do our best, but can also be quite hard at times. you often have to catch up by yourself if you miss a day and you still have to take the test. 4:26, i was reading a chapter in ap world history about hiv in africa and the radio announced that there are organizations working on eliminating it, i think it is a cool coincidence.