The BEST teacher I ever had.

My favorite subject has always been learning about the gospel. I love learning and shaping my testimony in every way. Brother Richins was my seminary teacher my last year of High School and he taught me to be confident in what I believe and always stand for it. Everyday I went into class I was excited to learn something new and rewarding. He loved hearing other people talk about their experiences and while we ranted on our struggles or joys he would sit there and listen. Just listen. He didn't make us feel like idiots when we might of said something wrong he knew we were learning and encouraged us to never stop.

"Put the person in a SCENE." -Brother Dayley

"Are you okay? Is their anything you need to talk with me about?" That was my Seminary teacher every time I might of been having a bad day. He just knew. Maybe it was because I wouldn't say anything to retort anything he said or I wouldn't give my best answers but he knew. I felt overwhelming comfort to talk to him when I thought I had no one else to talk to. Especially when I wasn't sure about what I thought about in the Gospel. He always encouraged me to be the best me I can become and to always turn to my Father in Heaven because he's always here for me. He taught me to remember my family and that they would do anything to protect me against the waves of the world.

Opening Lines.

"Opening your personal narrative (and any other type of essay, really) with a good, engaging sentence is essential."

My checklist

• issue up front
• scene
• curiosity/ambiguity
• dialog/quote
• ladder top&bottom
• blunt/short
• establishes
• contrast/conflict
• tone
• connection/relate
• imagery/description
• tense
• expectation

Thinking about the Other Pg:88

"The concept of the Other has developed over centuries through the work of philosophers such as G.W.F. Hegel, Jean-Paul Sartre, and Emmanuel Levinas, writers who asserted that to know oneself one must know others as well."

First of all, I would like to know who these philosophers are and what they taught, it may help "others" to know them.

Second, I like the last of the sentence "writers who asserted that to know oneself one must know others as well." I've found that when I forget about myself and get lost in others and lost in service I learn more about myself. This world isn't just meant for you. We are all daughters and sons of our Heavenly Father. We must love each other to finally love ourselves.

Button interpretation.

About a month ago, sitting in the hot, humid airport of Managua, Nicaragua, with about 4 hours till my flight leaves to the United States, I couldn't help but go to every gift shop on my floor. I walked into one that look promising, the gifts didn't look too expensive or generic. I finally got to the one gift that I was looking for my parents, when in reality all I wanted to do is be in America with real 2% milk. I told myself to stop thinking about myself and then I caught myself staring at a beautiful painting of the country that I just spent two months of my life, a country I have grown to love.

Comma Splice

I have to be honest with you, I'm not quite sure what a comma splice is. My english teachers in High School never thought it was important for the students to know the correct punctuation, grammer, etc. It was just important for us to write.

A run-on sentence that is continued by commas. Splice: put together. Jams the two sentences together.

Coordinating Conjunction:

For

And

Nor

But

Or

Yet

So

Idle words.

• words that contain no value.
• no impact
• space fillers
• wasteful
• lack of purpose
• "politician" intent

My Heroes.

Heroes in my eyes institute change, they go out of their way to help someone in need, sacrificing almost everything for one or more person. They inspire people to become better, they become role models to some and you look up to them like no one before. "A hero is someone who has a special gift that God has given them and uses it."

My heroes may be cliche and maybe not worldly but my heroes are my three older brothers. Ever since I was born they have been by my side fighting every battle I go through right beside me. Each of them have different qualities but make me who I am today. Riley is the oldest, he isn't perfect but in my eyes he is the most courageous man that I know. He's tread through deep waters called life and never lost who he truly is. Jordan, the second oldest. He's the old softy. He's been through much pain but it has never changed his loving personality. Alec, the youngest of the boys. He's the smart one, a little bit of a super genius. He's taught me to never give up when people say I can't go on.

My family has gotten me through almost everything but my brothers. They are the ones I look up to. They drop and sacrifice everything for our family. They are the best thing in my life and I one day wish that I can become the hero that they are today. My life would be different without them. My heroes.

"That's all the writer has, the words on the page."

-Brother Dayley

Jack Sparrow.

Essence of the captain.

1. confident
2. drunk
3. sympathetic
4. dangerous
5. cocky
6. carelessness
7. new and better voyages
8. sneaky
9. deceitful
10. cunning
11. adventurous

The man that others think that he only worries about himself. He is someone who people read wrong. Even though just a fictional character he portrays a lot of people today here in this world.

Firefighter.

The fire engulfs the whole house and I wonder how I could even enter into that building. I've been trained for this. I enter into this fiery building and instantly I can feel what is making this fire rage on and on. Then the adrenaline kicks in and my bodies forced without my minds approval to get whatever I came in here to get. I then see one little girl hiding under her mothers bed, legs sticking out, crying. I then think of my own, how helpless she is when she's in trouble. I then pick her up explaining that I'm here to save her. While running outside of the house with the smoke around me, the girl coughing, her mother looks so thankful that I could be her hero. At times I don't feel like a hero. But one day I would like to be someones.

ZAP!

"My 5-paragraph-theme theme"

"But with only five paragraphs and one topic you're not tempted to go beyond your original idea.." When I was reading this I wanted to get other opinions. Not just mine and Ed White. I asked some of my room mates what they thought of 5 paragraph essays. They answered that if they had enough "juicy" material to condense it into 5 paragraphs and make it impressive than sure. I'm always just worried about continuing into some tantrum that makes no complete sense. Probably what I'm doing right now. My thoughts are debated in my head back and forth. I like the thought of only 5 paragraphs because it seems so easy and ZAP you get your point across and the other half debates that I have more information in my head than I realize. I'll have to tell my head to pick sides and decide on just one side. It seems only sane.

Writing & Reasoning.

"We can't solve problems by using the same kind of thinking we used to create them." -Albert Einstein

In my Humanities class I have to decide who my hero is and even though Einstein isn't my hero he was a very heroic man and took views that explain my new class. I think that I can tie into both of my classes and say to write what you're really feeling could qualify you being a hero. At times in my writing career that doesn't have a very long resume, I stop putting some of my true beliefs for the fear of my teacher disagreeing with me. I can know say confidently that I can fully put what I believe. My views, my writings. Unless I'm completely wrong about what I think about this class. At least I've learned something so far.

Angels on a pin.

Journal #2- extinguishing my imagination flame.

    Plenty of times in High School I thought that my teachers, at least some of them were trying to extinguish my imagination fire. Honestly, I'm not the most creative person in the world but I would like to do things in my own thoughts or ideas instead of stifling my ideas. When a teacher gives me one way to answer one thing, one way I want to be different and think of something completely different. I might just have a personality complex and I have this need to be different. When I studied the meaning of this Articles title I understood that their are "fruitless" answers to everything in our lives. So, here I am taking sides on my first article in this class, to show my strength. I have my own brain and it produces different and sometimes odd answers. Creative thinking to a different angle, because we all have one.

What do I want to learn?

Love for Life

     Life in some peoples eyes can be a scary thing, maybe even dull. I want to learn to love it. Look at each day with a positive attitude and be ready to look at the things around me and be grateful for what I have at that time, even if it isn't very much. The people in a small town in Nicaragua taught me that even if we don't have much we have our life, our family and beautiful things around us. Life is something to love. Finding joy in my journey.