How can the knowledge of first-language articulation interference Essay

How can the knowledge of first-language articulation interference positively affect the educational or work setting - Essay Example With most forms of communication in educational cycles and the labor force being through either written or spoken language, it is very important that all people equip themselves with a kind of language with which these forms of communication will be conveyed. Unfortunately, we are not always privileged to take instructions at school and in the work place via the first language. Some of the factors that cause this include migration and the need to work under superiors who speak a different language. In such circumstance, the most likely option that becomes left is the need to adapt to a second language. Happily, idea of a first language would already make the effort to learn the second language easier. Again, it is possible to undertake personal research and general studies in a first language so that transfer of idea is done into the second language for further interpretation. Finally, one of the positive effects includes the fact that language acquisition is not just about the abili ty to speak and write but that the ability to gain general communication skills such as the use of gestures, manners and courtesies. Once a person can do all these in a first language, it becomes easier to transfer these other components of communication at school or at the work

Comparative Foreign policy Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Comparative Foreign policy - Essay Example On the Necessity of Individual Level of Analysis in Understanding of Case Policy Outcome 7 I. Foreign Policy Theories, Use by Foreign Policy Analysts Theories are proposed explanations relating to the workings of things. In foreign policy studies, theories refer to the major theories relating to the field of study, and they are mainly liberalism, realism, Marxism, and constructivism in some texts. Theories are essentially tools that foreign policy analysts use to make sense of the actions of states in relation to each other, and in the context of global economic, political arenas of actioni ii. As the definition suggests, theories are the distillation of insights, writings, studies and observations about the actions of states in the real world, distilled on the assumption that states act in certain ways, based on certain underlying motivations, dynamics, and historical circumstances. Theories are used on the assumption that given a set of conditions, states will act in defined ways m oving forward. iii II. Liberalism, Realism- Key Analytical Components, Comparison and Contrast Realism posits that the key characteristic of the international order is disorder, or anarchy and chaos. In the absence of an organizing principle, or a body of law to mediate disputes and the general conduct of nations when dealing with other nations, the operative principle is power. Therefore, nations act and watch out for their own interests in the main. Self-interest and self-preservation, the advancement of one's own interests, is the rule and the defining consideration when crafting foreign policy. Realism has several implications for the way the world system of politics and economics is shaped. Power is the currency, and where one state amasses power, that automatically translates to threats to the inner integrity of other states. Balance of power becomes an important consideration. Moreover, viewed from a realist perspective, the power currency translates to an obsession with proj ecting power and defense capabilities, as reflected in military might. Nations then act out and craft foreign policy in relation to that perceived and actual power residing on their military capabilities. Military power then becomes a central analytical component when reading the actions of nations in the international stage, with some superpowers such as China acting in ways that are different from those with some power, and those who have no power at all. Constraint and independence in crafting foreign policy are reliant on the size of a nation's military capabilities. At the weak end of that spectrum, very weak nations are the most constrained. Middle powers meanwhile yield considerable power, and act in ways such as forming alliances to balance out the power of the strong states. iv Liberalism, in contrast, views the world order not in terms of balance of power and military might, but in terms of interdependence, for instance through the interdependence of nation economies, and how such interdependence shapes more cooperative stances, a greater emphasis on world bodies that foster cooperation and dialogue, such as the United Nations, and nations, especially less powerful states, towing the line in terms of adhering to the rules of the global market. Market forces are relevant considerations, and so are the economic and political implications of interdependence as shaping foreign policy for different countries. The operative principle here is that of

Islam Definition Essay Example for Free

Islam Definition Essay For the past few months I have been overseas working in the wonderful country of India. I’ve observed many different things; many unusual things about this country. India has a wide variety of cultures and religions. The holiday I have learned about is called Hajj. Hajj means ‘to set out for a place’. Hajj is the pilgrimage that Muslims make to Makkah or also called Mecca , Saudi Arabia, and is one of the five basic requirements of Islam. It is a religious high point of a Muslim’s life and is an event that every Muslim dreams of being part of. Hajj is a religious obligation to be fulfilled at least once in the course of the life of each Muslim law grants, and is a series of detailed rituals. It is a Muslims obligation to be mindful of their friends and family and to all humans whatsoever. Islamic followers believe that every nation should have a unity so they can all worship God. They believe that through culture people will come together as a whole to praise God, and learn each other’s difficulties. All official duties are suppose to be completed between the ninth and thirteenth day of Hajj. There are three main pillars that are to be performed during Hajj. The first pillar is to get into a state of â€Å"Ihram† and intend to perform the pilgrimage. The second pillar is to stay at the field of â€Å"Arafat† on the ninth day of Hajj. If the person cannot complete the pilgrimage then he/she will have to try to complete it the following year. The third pillar is additional circling of the â€Å"Ka’ba† which is done after the first pillar and is performed from the tenth day of Hajj till the end of the month. These past couple months in India have been a great experience. I’ve learned a lot of new things, which has been something different for me. I would love to come back and visit all of the people that I have met, because everyone was so nice. Learning about the Hajj was very interesting to me, and I will go back and share all of my experiences with everyone back home.

Neuroimaging Findings in Late Infantile GM1

Neuroimaging Findings in Late Infantile GM1 Gangliosidosis  Summary: Late infantile GM1 gangliosidosis is an extremely rare metabolic disorder with clinical features of seizure and progressive motor and mental retardation without facial dysmorphism or visceral organomegaly. We report the CT and MR imaging findings in one infant, which included abnormalities of the cerebral cortex, white matter, and deep nuclei. GM1 gangliosidosis is a rare lysosomal storage dis- ease characterized by a deficiency in the activity of lysosomal galactosidase, which results in increased accumulation of GM1 ganglioside and asialo-GA1 in the brain and of oligosaccharide in the visceral organs (1, 2). Patients with infantile GM1 gangliosidosis usu- ally have dysmorphic facial features, motor and men- tal retardation, seizures, and hepatosplenomegaly (2). The late infantile form of this disorder is extremely rare and has no clinical features of facial dysmor- phism or visceral organomegaly (1). Case Report An 11-month-old girl, the product of an uncomplicated full-term pregnancy, presented with complex febrile convulsion during an episode of upper respiratory infection. Physical ex- amination at first admission showed a hypotonic infant with macrocephaly (>97 percentile), normal facial features, and psychomotor retardation. Hyperactive reflexes and augmented startle response to noise were present. The abdomen was soft without hepatosplenomegaly. Examination of the eyes revealed a normal clear lens, dilatation of the pupil without light reflex in the right eye, and mild dilatation of the pupil with sluggish light reflex in the left eye. Fundoscopy showed no cherry-red  spots at the maculae. Deficient galactosidase activity and normal hexosaminidase, and glucosidase activity on lysosomal enzyme assay in cultured skin fibroblasts were documented at the patient’s second admission 3 months later for clonic-tonic seizures during another episode of acute upper respiratory infection. Radiologic investigation included chest radiography (also covering the abdomen), CT, and MR imaging, all of which were done on initial admission and again at follow-up. A bone survey was not performed owing to unremarkable somatic manifesta- tions. A CT scan of the brain at age 11 months showed in- creased attenuation of the bilateral thalami (Fig 1A). MR examinations at 11 and 14 months of age showed hyperintensity of the thalami on T1-weighted images (Fig 1B) whereas, on T2-weighted images, the signal intensity of the thalami was decreased (Fig 1C). The white matter myelination was mark- edly delayed, with only the splenium of the corpus callosum being myelinated and no interval improvement in myelination noted at the second MR study (Fig 1D). Discussion GM1 gangliosidosis is a rare inborn error of metab- olism caused by a deficiency of galactosidase activity resulting in failure of catalyzing cleavage of termi- nal link galactose from substrates, such as GM1 ganglioside, asialo-GM1, lactosylceramide, galactose- containing oligosaccharides, and mucopolysacchar- ides. The abnormally accumulated substances in the lysosomes of the affected cells in the CNS are mainly GM1 ganglioside and its asialo derivative GA1 as well as other minor glycolipids and glycopeptides. Visceral storage with oligosaccharides is variable and may cause organgomegaly. Three types of GM1 gangliosidosis, classified by age of onset, have been reported (1, 3, 4). Infantile GM1 gangliosidosis (type 1) is the most common and se- vere form, with clinical features of hypotonia, failure to thrive in the neonatal period, and clonic-tonic seizure activity. Coarse facial features, frontal boss- ing, dysostosis multiplex, hepatosplenomegaly, and hazy cornea may be present or become apparent in the first year of life (2). The late infantile or juvenile form (type 2) begins with progressive mental and motor retardation between 1 and 5 years of age. Seizures are common, and spastic tetraplegia devel- ops, with cerebellar and extrapyramidal signs. Decer- ebrate rigidity follows, and death occurs between 3 and 10 years of age, usually precipitated by recurrent bronchopneumonia. Dysmorphic facial features, hep- atosplenomegaly, corneal changes, and bony abnor- malities are usually lacking, and, when present, are due to a mild degree or absence of oligosaccharide acc umulation. Cerebral GM1 ganglioside storage is also less severe in type 2 than in type 1 disease (1, 2). A, Cranial CT scan at age 11 months shows increased attenuation of the thala- mus and decreased attenuation of the basal ganglia, which were isointense with adjacent white matter. B, T1-weighted axial MR image (600/ 20/2 [TR/TE/excitations]) obtained at the same time shows increased signal inten- sity of the thalamus. The white matter my- elination was markedly delayed. Note that only the splenium of the corpus callosum is myelinated. C, Corresponding axial T2-weighted MR image (2800/90/1) reveals hypodensity of the thalamus and normal signal intensity of the basal ganglia. The cerebrum showed almost no myelination of the white matter except the splenium of the corpus callo- sum. D, Follow-up T2-weighted MR image at 14 months of age shows persistent delayed myelination of the white matter. Note that no cortical atrophy is seen at this stage. Children or adults with chronic, or type 3, GM1 gan- gliosidoses may have a slowly progressive disorder in which dystonia, dysarthria, ataxia, myoclonus gait dis- orders, and extrapyramidal signs occur (4). Bony changes are minimal. Cherry-red spots at the macu- lae, which are found in about half the patients with type 1 GM1 gangliosidoses, are not seen in patients with type 2 and type 3 disease. The disorder can be diagnosed in several ways, including lysosomal enzyme assay of low galactosidase activity in peripheral leukocytes or cultured skin fibroblasts, detection of abnormal urinary oligosac- charide excretion, and rectal biopsy (2). Prenatal di- agnosis by measurement of enzyme activity in amni- otic fluid and cultivated amniotic fluid cells has also been established (5). Neuropathologic reports on GM1 gangliosidoses have shown diffuse neuronal storage with ballooning of neuronal cytoplasm in the cerebral and cerebellar cortex, basal ganglia, brain stem, spinal cord, and dorsal root ganglion in type 1 and type 2 forms, and a tendency for selective storage in the basal ganglia with neuronal loss and gliosis in type 3 disease (6, 7). The cerebral white matter is gliotic and there is loss of myelin in type 1 but not in types 2 and 3 GM1 gangli- osidoses. Neuroimaging findings in patients with type 1 GM1 gangliosidoses have been reported only in a few cases. In one case, initial thalamic hyperdensity was found on CT scans and hypointense signal of the thalami was seen on T2-weighted MR images at a later stage (3). Persistent delay in white matter myelination on serial MR studies has been described in another case (8). In type 3 GM1 gangliosidoses, the symmetrical abnormal signal intensities were more selectively seen in the caudate nucleus and putamen on T2-weighted MR images (9). To our knowledge, neuroimaging findings in type 2 GM1 gangliosidoses have not been reported previously. The CT and MR findings in our case are identical to those reported in patients with Tay-Sachs disease (GM2 gangliosidoses). This may be understood be- cause the structure of gangliosides GM1 and GM2 differs only in the terminal N-acetylgalactosamine, and they are stored together with cholesterol and phospholipid; the neuronal staining reactions and ul- trastructure are identical (7). The thalamic hyperden- sity seen on CT scans in Tay-Sachs and Krabbe lyso- somal storage disorders has been presumed to be due to calcification. Calcium deposition in the thalamus can also explain the hyperintense T1 signal and hy- pointense T2 signal on MR images, although frank calcium deposition has not been reported pathologi- cally (10). Other investigators have suggested that secondary lipofuscinosis, resulting in deposits of pigmented degradation products, occurs in the thalami and cause this appearance in GM2 gangliosidoses (11, 12). In our case, the CT study showed not only tha- lamic hyperdensity but also hypointensity of the basal ganglia, which were almost isointense with adjacent white matter (Fig 1A). The MR study verified the CT findings of abnormal thalamic attenuation but not the hypointensity of the basal ganglia. MR is the only imaging technique that is capable of demonstrating the arrested myelination of the cerebral white matter in serial examinations (Fig 1C and D). Conclusion Although the neuroimaging findings of GM1 gan- gliosidoses are unique in our case, these findings could also be identified in GM2 gangliosidoses and, to some extent, in late-stage Canavan disease. Patients with late-stage Canavan disease may have dense thal- ami on T1-weighted images, as well as white matter necrosis, resulting in cavitation, and brain stem and cerebellar atrophy, which are not observed in GM1. Other neurometabolic diseases that often manifest with macrocephaly include mucopolysaccharidosis and Alexander disease. These disorders have distinct neuroimaging features and they should be distin- guished from GM1. A definite diagnosis of this rare disorder can only be made by obtaining lysosomal enzyme assay results of deficient galactosidase and normal hexosaminidase. References 1. Gascon GG, Ozand PT, Erwin RE. GM1 gangliosidosis type 2 in two siblings. J Child Neurol 1992;7:S41–S50 2. Suzuke Y, Sakuraba H, Oshima A. Beta-galactosidase deficiency (beta-galactosidosis): GM1 gangliosidosis and Morquio B disease. In: Scriver CR, Beaudet AL, Sly WS, et al, eds. The Metabolic and Molecular Bases of Inherited Disease. New York: McGraw-Hill; 1995:2785–2823 3. Kobayashi 0, Takashima S. Thalamic hyperdensity on CT in infan- tile GM1-gangliosidosis. Brain Dev 1994;16:472– 474 4. Tanaka R, Momoi T, Yoshida A, et al. Type 3 GM1 gangliosidosis: clinical and neuroradiological findings in an 11-year-old girl. J Neurol 1995;242:299 –303 5. Tasso MJ, Martinez-Gutierrez A, Carrascosa C, et al. GM1-gangli- osidosis presenting as nonimmune hydrops fetalis: a case report. J Perinatal Med 1996;24:445– 449 6. Bieber FR, Mortimer G, Kolodny EH, et al. Pathologic findings in fetal GM1 gangliosidosis. Arch Neurol 1986;43:736 –738 7. Lake B. Lysosomal and peroxisomal disorders. In: Graham DI, Lantos PL, eds. Greenfield’s Neuropathology. 6th ed. London: Ar- nold; 1997 8. Kaye EM, Alroy J, Raghavan SS, et al. Dysmyelinogenesis in an animal model of GM1 gangliosidosis. Pediatr Neurol 1992;8:255–261 9. Uyama E, Terasaki T, Watanabe S, et al. Type 3 GM1 gangliosido- sis: characteristic MRI findings correlated with dystonia. Acta Neurol Scand 1992;86:609 – 615 10. Brismar J, Brismar G, Coates R, et al. Increased density of the thalamus on CT scans in patients with GM2 gangliosidoses. AJNR Am J Neuroradiol 1990;11:125–130 11. Lowden JA, Callahan JW, Gravel RA, et al. Type 2 GM gangli- osidosis with neuronal ceroid lipofusinosis. Neurology  1981;31:719 –724 12. Stalker HP, Jan BK. Thalamic hyperdensity: a previously unre- ported sign of Sandhoff disease. AJNR Am J Neuroradiol 1989;10: S82

Wedding Speech Delivered by the Groom -- Wedding Toasts Roasts Speeche

Wedding Speech Delivered by the Groom I’ll have to keep this speech short because of my shins . . . Nicola has threatened to kick them I go on too long. The humor here is that you think I’m joking. I’d like to start by thanking you all on behalf of my wife and I, for sharing our special day. Thank you all for your kind wishes, cards and presents. I can’t wait to see how many stick on shower radios we get, and exactly how you wrap a wheelbarrow! Nicola and I have been worrying about this day for weeks and it means a great deal to us that you managed to make it. We hope you are all having a great time. Thank you to Barry and Marilyn for making this day possible. Without their help and support, none of us would be here today. I have to thank them both for bringing up such a beautiful and intelligent daughter, I’ll leave you to argue over which trait comes from who. Thank you t...

More Evidence Needed to Support George Ritzers McDonaldization Thesis :: George Ritzer McDonaldization Thesis

More Evidence Needed to Support George Ritzer's McDonaldization Thesis The McDonaldization Thesis presupposes some familiarity with Ritzer's earlier work, The McDonaldization of Society (1993), in which he defines McDonaldization as "the process by which the principles of the fast-food restaurant are coming to dominate more and more sectors of American society as well as the rest of the world" (1). These principles include efficiency, predictability, calculability (or an emphasis on quantification), and control (especially via non-human technologies). Taken together, they constitute the formal (functional or instrumental) rationality that undergirds McDonaldization. In the present work, Ritzer continues to sound the alarm by depicting McDonaldization as "a largely one-way process in which a series of American innovations are being aggressively exported to much of the rest of the world" (8). Although the author acknowledges that the McDonaldization thesis is rooted in Weber's reflections on rationality, specifically the notion of the "iron cage of rationality," he prefers the "simplicity" of Mannheim's thinking on the subject. The latter, for example, locates the fundamental irrationality of highly rationalized systems, such as McDonaldized ones, in threats to the ability to think; whereas, the former emphasizes threats to human values, an area the author deems unnecessarily messy for the purposes of his theoretical analysis. The author further justifies this position by noting the cognitive demands of the present post-industrial system in which human beings live. Indeed, it is the dehumanization resulting from the simultaneous increase in functional rationality and decrease in substantive rationality, which rationalized systems demand and perpetuate, that animates the author. The author introduces the concept of the "new means of consumption" to illustrate the ways in which not only business, but cultural, practices are threatened by McDonaldization. Defined as "those things owned by capitalists and rendered by them as necessary to customers in order for them to consume" (91), examples of the new means of consumption include fast-food restaurants, credit cards, mega-malls, home shopping television networks, and cybermalls. The critical point for the author is that each changes the ways individuals consume. For example, the exportation of fast-food restaurants and American eating habits, with their emphasis on food as something to be consumed as quickly, efficiently, and inexpensively as possible, alters the way people eat and, thereby, "poses a profound threat to the entire cultural complex of many societies" (8). There is a distinct normative dimension to the concept of the new means of consumption, which is evident in the author's insistence that they "constrain" individuals "to buy more than they need" and "to spend more than they should" (119).

Experience in High School Essay

Each teacher can recount numerous highs and lows in their teaching career. Personally, I experienced many great moments while teaching. These were days when I ended so happy and enthusiastic that I knew I had selected the right profession. On the other hand, I had days where I definitely questioned teaching as a career. These were days where the students seemed uninterested, too talkative, or even worse a blow up occurred and nothing got accomplished. Thankfully the average combined with the positive days outshine my negative days. Through my 14 years of teaching and working in education, one event stands above the rest as my absolute best teaching experience. Through it I learned so much about teaching and dealing with students. My hope is that the student involved was at least partially changed for the better from the experience as I was. I also hope that there is something in this story that can help inform and inspire you. Let’s call him Tyler. Tyler was a troubled student. He was enrolled in my senior American Government class followed the second semester by Economics. Surprising as it was to many former teachers, he had made it to senior year. However, he had spent a couple of years in and out of full inclusion classrooms. He had numerous behavior management issues. I don’t remember his exact IEP at this point, this happened about 10 years ago, but I know that he had impulse control and anger management issues. He had been suspended many, many times in previous years. The previous year he had been mainstreamed with a co-teacher in some classes. However, for 12th grade, he was in my room without a co-teacher. I knew he had problems before the first day. His ESE coordinator came and visited me during planning week to have a talk about him. My style of teaching is such that I am very stern in the beginning, allowing students to get away with very little. I have always done this on purpose believing that it is easier to soften up as the year goes on than get harsher. I learned this the hard way my first year of teaching. I decided that I was not going to change the way I taught or interact with him in particular because of his issues. He sat in the back row. I had never used a seating chart with students on the first day when I was just getting to know them. Every time I talked at the front of the class, I would ask questions of students, calling them by name. This helped me learn their names while getting the kids involved. Unfortunately, every time I called on him he would respond with a flip answer. He knew the answers when he listened but he didn’t want to be called on. If he got an answer wrong, he would get very angry. About a month into the year, I was beating my head against the wall trying to connect with Tyler. I could usually get these kids to be involved or at the very least to sit quietly. However, he was just loud and obnoxious. Tyler had been in so much trouble through the years that it had become his modus operandi. He expected it and he expected his teachers to know about his referrals and suspensions. For every new teacher, he’d push and push seeing what it would take to get a referral. I tried to outlast him and work things out my way. I had rarely found referrals to be effective because students would return worse than before. One particular day, Tyler was talking while I was teaching. In the middle of teaching I said in the same tone of voice, â€Å"Tyler why don’t you join our discussion instead of having one of your own.With that, he got up from his chair, pushed it over, and yelled something I can’t remember other than including the words, â€Å"You B—-! † Well that was definitely referral time. I sent him to the office with a discipline referral, and he received a week’s out of school suspension. Now so far you might be asking how this could be my best te aching experience. So far it was actually one of my worst. I dreaded that class every day. His anger and mumbled words under my breath were almost too much for me. The week’s out of school suspension was a wonderful hiatus, and we got a lot accomplished that week. However, the week soon came to an end, and I began dreading his return. I knew from talking with his other teachers that he would be back angrier and with a chip on his shoulder. I devised a plan. On the day of his return, I stood at the door waiting for him. As soon as I saw him, I asked him to talk for a moment. He seemed unhappy to do it but agreed. I basically told him that I wanted to start over with him. Further, I gave him permission that if he felt like he was going to lose control in class he could step right outside the door for a moment to collect himself. From that point on, Tyler was a changed student in my classroom. He listened, he participated. He was actually a smart child and I could finally get to see this in him. He even stopped a fight between two other students one day. And you know the most ironic part of it all? He never, ever used the privilege I had given him to leave the class for a moment. I believe that just giving him the power to decide for himself made all the difference. At the end of the year, he wrote me a thank you note about how good the year had been for him. I still have it today and find it very touching to reread when I get stressed about teaching. In the end, this experience changed me as a teacher. Students are people who have feelings and who don’t want to feel cornered. They want to learn but they also want to feel as if they have some control over themselves. I never made assumptions again about a student before they came into my class. Every student is different; no two students react in the same way. It is our tasks as teachers to find not only what motivates each student to learn but also what motivates them to misbehave. If we can meet them at that point and take away that motivation, we can go a long way towards a more effective classroom and learning experience. Essay So far, my high school experience has been one of many choices being made. Throughout these past three years I have had to make many choices, many of which have impacted my relationship with my friends, teachers, and coaches. However, no decision was harder than one I made this year in this past soccer season. This decision was not exclusively my own but one I shared with my father. This dilemma involved pulling me, the captain of the varsity soccer team off the team because of a problem between the coach and me. My father came to this decision because the coach was using me, whom he had made a captain and a focal point of team, as a scapegoat for the team’s losses and hardships. This was a very tough, and complicated situation in which myself. This decision to leave the team, a group of my friends, was probably the most difficult one for me to make; however, I feel it was a good one. Despite the fact this decision was not exclusively mine, I still feel that my father lofor my best interest and I am grateful for that. Though this decision was difficult, it did open many other doors for me. I refused to dwell on the fact that all I had worked hard for had been taken away from me in one fell swoop. Instead, I tried to show resiliency and bounce back by joining clubs and making the honor roll. Even though I had achieved success on the soccer field as a player, it was not a healthy situation in which to keep myself in. Although I am a person who has always been able to take criticism, my coach’s behavior and words had degenerated to a level where it was affects my own self – respect and dignity. Both my dad and I agreed that we could not allow this to happen. After I left the team, I contemplated whether or not my father and I had made the right choice or whether I should have abide by my dad’s decision or go against it. It came down to a talk with the Athletic Director that further persuaded me to stay off the team at least for the remainder of†¦ oked out The years I spent in high school were truly memorable to say the least. Looking back on those days now as a much more mature, responsible, and overall better person, I believe that the experiences I had over those three years are responsible for making me the person I am today. Paradoxically enough, it seems the least enjoyable aspects of my highschool career were the most important in shaping me into the man I am today. Until recently my hometown high school, Bedford, only had tenth, eleventh, and twelfth grade in the high school building, despite the fact that high school curriculum begins in ninth grade. I was in the last class coming out of the three middle schools to not have spent ninth grade in the highschool. So as far as I am concerned, the true â€Å"high school experience† didn’t begin for me until the fall of 2004 upon entering the tenth grade. The majority of us tenth graders at the high school on the first day of class, it was our first day ever even stepping one foot into the school. For me and a few other students, it was on the contrary. Our middle schools did not offer Chemistry, and so we would go to the highschool for first period and then go back to the middle school for the remainder of the school day when we were still in ninth grade. This gave us the advantage of knowing where to go and the fastest way to get there once that dreaded first day of high school came rolling around. As for the rest of the student body, they weren’t so lucky. I’ll never forget seeing all of my good friends staring at the map with a look of complete and utter confusion. So I just did what any one of them would have done to me: give them a hard time. It was all in good fun. We talked about our teachers, and how they gave each one of us the whole welcome-to-high-school-now-get-to-work line in our respective classes. Those of us who weren’t too close over the summer caught up on the times and what we did, where we went, and blah blah blah. It wasn’t really†¦ y High School Experience When people start high school they’re usually so excited. They can’t wait to experience everything that comes with being in high school, I mean who wouldn’t? Everyone says that high school is the best four years of your life. Now that I’m months away from graduating, I can’t say they were my best years but I can say they were my most educational years, of course I wouldn’t say that they weren’t fun because they were. When I say educational, I mean I’ve learned so much about myself and so much about life. I learned what the words family, love, betrayal, law and life meant. All these events changed me, and I’m glad they happened because I wouldn’t have learned all these lessons. My personality hasn’t changed; I’m still a carefree girl, just with a little more wisdom and a lot more strength. I started off school with a horrible attitude because my parents sent me to a different school. They sent me to a school where I knew about two people, I was so angry at my parents Is this Essay helpful? Join O that I decided to rebel until they would transfer me to Eastlake. When I went back to Eastlake everything was good again, I made new friends and I even had a boyfriend. My priorities were never really about school or getting good grades, it was always about my friends and my boyfriend. I would ditch on a daily basis just to spend more time with them even if we didn’t really do anything exciting, just as long as I didn’t have to be bored in a classroom. My ditching got so bad it got to the point where my teachers didn’t even know my name, or they thought I transferred out of their class. As a result to all this ditching, I had horrible grades and I was way behind on my credits. I regret ditching because I ruined my chances of going to a university; instead I’m going to a community college. I realize now that I ditched for no reason at all, it was a waste of my time. I look back and think that ditching is just so ridiculous, there really is no point to it unless you want to ruin your future†¦.