Gathering research about my family and its history turned out to be an interesting and insightful opportunity, through which I learned much more than I expected. When I started this project, I knew that I would not be able to find as much useful information on the Internet as some of my peers. In effect, I realized that I would have to rely on other primary resources such as my parents and grandparents to reveal the story of my ancestry to me. After I had interviewed them, myfamily history became much clearer to me. More than 2 millennia ago, around the 3rd century BC, a group of Tamil–speaking people from present–day South India migrated to the nearby island of Sri Lanka. Among these people, known today as "Sri Lankan Tamils", are my...show more content...
The Peninsula has a hot, monsoonal tropical climate characterized by a dry season from February to October and a wet season from October to January. Because of the monsoons, the region is humid and averages three feet of rain each year, which is relatively low compared to the rest of the island. The climate of the region allows for many crops to be grown including many varieties of fruits and vegetables. While interviewing my parents and grandparents, I learned about many customs and aspects of the Sri Lankan Tamil culture. Sri Lankan Tamils are devotees of the Shaiva sect of Hinduism, mainly worshipping the lord Shiva. The three main cultural festivals celebrated in the area are Thai Pongal (beginning of the harvest), Chittrai Pongal (Tamil New Year), and Deepavali (Hindu Festival of Lights). In addition, pujas (religious rituals) are performed for different occasions, such as the death day of an ancestor or the celebration of a certain Hindu deity. It was also a custom to ask the village astrologer for advice on certain decisions, such as the name of a newborn child.
Paternal Great–Grandparents In the early 1900's, Kadirasaipillai and Vairavipillai Kandappar, my paternal grandmother's parents, were born in the village of Puloly, Northern Province, Sri Lanka. They were both born into families of the Vellalar caste of Tamil society and went to school at Puttalai Vidhyalayam, the only schooling option
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When it comes down to writing essays or anything else, I would say to myself, I know this isn't going to be good for me at all. Mainly because I haven't because I haven't adjusted myself or prepared myself to think well while writing essays. I can sometimes over think things while I'm writing, and it tends to confuse me. That's kind of the reason that I do not enjoy writing till this day. When it comes down to writing essay's it can be quite simple but then again quite frustrating. Writing can be very stress relieving, because I am able to express my feelings and thoughts throughout my writing. It takes my mind off the things that I am going through in life such as school, family, friends, social media, and etc. It helps me focus better knowing that I will have someone else reading my thoughts and feelings once I'm done writing this essay. Writing is a passage way for me to go into my own world and write about what I feel, see, hear, smell and even taste. My writing, to me never seems to have a strong flow or passage because the topics never catches my interest nor attention. It's not my specialty, I tend to think too hard about what I am going to say and write. I find it to be a hard process to translate my thoughts down on paper, mainly because I haven't trained myself to do so. I can be entirely too lazy about my, work, so I may slack off on it at...show more content... Writing is a passage way f. It's not my specialty, I tend to think too hard about what I am going to say and write. or me to go into my own world and write about what I feel, see, hear, smell and even taste. As far as school goes I understand that I have to do better at writing my essays, because in life and even my career field I will have to do some form of writing. Even if it's just something simple as writing a shopping list or recipe, writing plan an important part in everything we
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My biggest area of improvement this year as a writer was my style and structure. Last year, in English I, we learned a writing technique called "The Evidence Sandwich". It was a basic claim, evidence, commentary, structure for writing body paragraphs. This was helpful when I was a freshman, but as a grew as a writer sophomore year, this made my writing sound static and robotic. As my writing progressed through the school year, I started breaking free from that structure, enabling me to add flow and style to my writing, while still maintaining the requirements for a successful body paragraph. Meanwhile, my writing started shifting from pure summary to actual literary analysis. These changes transformed my writing into more improved and polished papers. A challenge I faced this year was my writing process and my work ethic. At first I was very excited about the amount of essay writing time we had in class. However, as the year continued, I found the stress of sophomore year and all my other classes clouding my focus. This made it very hard to sit down in class and work on my essay without reaching to my other binder. I feel that if I had worked harder to focus in class and get more work done, my essays would have been much better because I would have had more material to revise ahead of time and ask Ms. Hursh questions on, and less work to do the night before the deadline. Next year, I will aim to use my time in class wisely so I have more time at home to focus on college and other junior year items.
Section 2: Analysis of my Contribution to Class This year, I added to class dynamic by being invested in my classmate's ideas. During small group discussion, I listened to my peer's ideas, and added my own thoughts until we reached an understanding of the context read. I asked my peers questions in small group discussion when I needed clarification and I explained the texts when my peers needed my help as well. Small group discussion is where I most contributed because I feel pressure and I get nervous when I speak in front of the whole class. I fear that I will say something wrong or what I say will trigger conflicting ideas back at me. Therefore, when I am in one on one or small group discussion, I feel like Get more content
My Writing Experiences My experiences in writing have been minimal. I have only learned the basics of writing, like putting together sentences, forming paragraphs with sentences, and things like that. Since I have been taking college English, I can tell my writing has improved a lot. In the future, I hope to be able to improve tremendously at writing essays, paragraphs, research papers, documents, and stories so that I have very little to no errors with drafting and final products. I predict I will be a well rounded writer when I graduate from college. Writing in the past started in kindergarten. My teacher taught me how to write my name over and over until I could write it with no errors. All through elementary my teachers taught me...show more content...
I need to learn to quit thinking as much on what I want to write about and how to write about a topic and just starting jotting stuff down in outline form as it comes to mind. Run–ons and fragments I need to be able to spot and fix right away or I really need to not have any in my papers at all. My goals are to write papers and not have to reassure myself that maybe I need to do more research or have more data or even have to rethink my whole topic over. I would love to have the knowledge to be a tutor someday and teach other people how to properly write papers, paragraphs, essays, and maybe even books. To have excellent skills in writing will definitely be a great advantage in my nursing profession. In nursing, I will have to do lots of charting on my patients. I will have to do health presentations on various subjects such as exercising, how our society eats, and sex education if I want to be a course instructor. Researching information on all of those topics I will have to make sure I do an excellent job on and collect accurate information and statistics so that I can compare to other sources. Dictating to the doctor means that I will need to write properly so that he understands what I am saying. Other nurses will have to be able to understand what I am talking about by my writing skills when doing shift changes. I will have to be very precise so that other nurses will not
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There are three very important aspects that play a major rule in my life. They can be categorized as intellectual, social, and spiritual. My intellectual self is interesting because I am mainly right–brained which means that I tend to use my creativity more than my mathematical skills, also making me a visual learner. My social self consists of friends, family, and my surroundings. I spend most of my time at home with my family. Whenever I am with my friends, I observe their behaviors and listen to their opinions. I am more of an independent type of person. Being with different people has influenced me into appreciating different cultures and beliefs. I have learned things that have now been incorporated into my own set of beliefs and...show more content...
I find that I can only recall long–term memories if they are important to me, or if they are dramatic experiences. A few examples of my childhood memories are my mother reading to me, my grandfather playing his guitar, and my dad relentlessly teaching me how to ice skate, no matter how many times I fell. The people who affect my social life the most are my family and friends. I have an extremely close family that has played a major role in my life. They are whom I spend most of my spare time with. My family usually gathers every weekend for dinner. I am also very open to different religions, cultures, and practices because I know many people with different backgrounds and beliefs. Since I've been influenced by various people, I've learned at a very young age to never judge people by how they look, dress, feel, or act. I am very fortunate to have learned these lessons, because many people still do not understand the importance of accepting differences. In a group, I prefer to listen to what others have to say, and then contribute to the discussion. I try to listen so I am able to compare them to my own thoughts. I enjoy working in a group, because it gives everyone an opportunity to incorporate their own ideas. My social self is most greatly influenced by my family and friends. I believe that my spiritual self is the most important out of the three. Although I have a certain religion that I belong to and practice, I believe in a bit of
I started Tang Soo Do when I was 4 or 5 years old. I was scared and I did not want to go onto the mat. I was told by my moms that I had to take martial arts but I did not want to. I stayed with my martial arts training and learned a whole lot of things. For example, I learned about courage, confidence, leadership, and more.
I was afraid because I did not know what Tang Soo Do was and I thought it was dangerous because of the pads. I thought that the pads were hard and if I kicked the pad then I would break my arm or leg. I was afraid of the boards because they looked so hard and I thought when I kicked the board then I would get a splinter in my foot, elbow or hand. When I tried to break the board for the first time, I did not break it but I did not get hurt and I did not get a splinter. It took...show more content...
I was afraid because the moves for Bassai looked hard but then I remembered the first time I broke my first board. Then, I remembered each form I practiced and practiced then I got better. Tang Soo Do means to try when I am scared and when practice will help me get better.
I like being a leader and each new dee I got to be a leader and help kids that were not seniors know what to do. Tang Soo Do is about being a leader and helping other kids. I learned the history of Tang Soo Do. I learned how to kick, punch, forms, board–breaking and self–defense. Tang Soo Do is very important to me because of the self–defense that I have learned can save me from danger. I learned self–control, respect, focus, courage, honesty, humility; this helps me be a good person not a bad person. When I was little, I would copy other kids but now because of my martial arts training I know how to control of myself.
I learned the meaning of respect. Respect is do not talk when someone is talking, cooperative with my brother, listen to my moms, teachers, and
My Day I wake up every morning with a shock, my mum knocking at the door and shouting,
"Time for a shower." I'm always tired in the mornings and find getting up for a shower really horrible, though it does a good job of waking me up and after it I'm ready for another day at school. Well that is what I think but I usually end up in bed asleep right up until 7.45 am. Luckily I have usually packed my school stuff the night before.
My house is quite big and there is lots of room to get away from the rest of my family. I have a computer in my room and I spend quite a lot of time on...show more content...
Another couple of friends arrive at this house too and we all get together and walk to school. This walking to school together gives me a good opportunity to make after school arrangements. Once at school (the walk takes about 15 minutes) I go to my tutor base and catch up with my friends who don't walk to school with me. After a short rest I make my way to my first lesson on a Monday usually English.
English requires a lot of work and its quite interesting. All year it's work, work, work, which is hardly surprising seeing that it's GCSE year. I'm going to need to work hard because qualifications are a necessary part of any career and I definitely want a career not just a job.
After the first two lessons I usually eat my lunch. It may seem strange that I eat my lunch at break but it takes so much time queuing at lunchtime just so I can sit down and eat some food that I would rather eat my packed lunch early freeing up time at lunch for other activities. The only downside to this is that you have lots of people surrounding you begging for food. Most people would probably just say "No", but I have real problems with saying "No" and more often than not half my food is devoured by these hungry beasts.
Once break is finished I work until the real lunch time and then I hang around the common room or go to the library and do