Free writing Love

When Ms Fletcher lets us free write for the first 10 minutes of class, my pencil rarely stops writing unless I am disturbed by a neighbor. I love the freedom of being  able to flow things from your mind onto a lined paper with no filter. It lets me right about things that happen in my everyday life. Sometimes I don't even know what I'm writing but I continue to because I know my ideas will all eventually fall into place somehow. Free writing was also one of Peter Elbow's methods which makes it even more significant. 

Taking the EAP

According to calstate.edu, "The Early Assessment Program (EAP) is a collaborative effort among the State Board of Education (SBE), the California Department of Education (CDE) and the California State University (CSU). The program was established to provide opportunities for students to measure their readiness for college-level English and mathematics..."

ERW students were instructed to take this test last Tuesday in class, and we received our results the following day. The test was 40 questions long, measuring several different college-level reading and comprehension skills. In class, Miss Fletcher specifically told us not to discuss our scores with other people and to simply mind your own score. However, I want to know what your opinions were on this exam? Did you feel as though this exam accurately represented your English skills, or do you know you could've done better? Was it easy, difficult?

Personally, I found the test quite useful not because of the test itself, but because of the breakdown of your weak areas afterwards. We were asked to tally the questions we got right and wrong, and it categorized each question into each reading skill that they deemed necessary for college. I, for one, scored quite low on a certain section, indicating my weakness in that area. Did anyone else have the same situation? If not, how did it go for you?

The Struggle of Writing

I don’t know why, but writing has always been a struggle for me. I can read well and I have pretty good vocabulary, but when it comes to actually writing, I’m horrible at it.  Most of the time I find it difficult to form my ideas into a coherent sentence, especially when I’m writing something my peers will read. Whenever I have to write something, I end up sitting in front of the computer for an extremely long time trying to come up with ideas about what to write. Then when I do think of something, I end up spending an excessive amount of time trying to figure out how I’m going to start my paper. I’ve attempted to free-write before starting my essays like Peter Elbow says we should, but so far it hasn’t exactly worked for me. When I free-write I end up not using anything I write in the actual essay. Writing my personal statement took me an especially long time. When I started, trying to come up with something that I could easily write about was hard. I had a difficult time writing about myself and I never felt like my essays turned out well. This happens all the time and it has made writing my least favorite thing to do. I always feel pressured to write a good essay but I’m never satisfied with the way they turn out. I don’t know if it’s just me, but writing is too hard. Does anyone else struggle when it comes to writing?

My biggest goal in ERW

My biggest goal for the rest of my time in ERW is to become a strong writer. I feel as if my way of writing is very boring and plain, I can't wait to figure out the tools I need to expand my writing on getting better. Whenever I'm writing great ideas always pop into my head but I never know how to put it down on paper. I'm excited to finally be in a class where I know my writing is going to excel. It's going to be a great journey, and I'm looking forward  to every step of the way :)

How Peter Peter Elbow Will Help us in College

Peter Elbow has taught us so much and has given us great advice on how to improve our writing. For example, in writing without thinking, he gave his readers occasions when we should write. If you write often enough to yourself, then it won’t feel like writing at all because writing all the time will help you when you need to write to an audience, like blogging or writing an essay. If we continue to do this in college, then it will be a lot easier to write a paper and you won’t dread writing papers as much. I believe that the advice that he gives us about free-writing will not only help us right now as seniors, but also in college. Free-writing will help us get an idea about what to write about if we don’t have any idea. One of the many commonalities that I found Elbow talking about was finding our audience. He stresses the fact figuring out who our audience is, will help us decide how we should write it. For example, if the audience was just my peers, then I would talk more informally. This advice will also help us in our college life. What do you all think?

Self evaluation

I like the idea that we get to ask for a grade that we think we deserve on participation and progress. I feel like I will give myself an honest grade. I mean a lot of people might give themselves a higher grade than they actually deserve though. But generally I'm pretty sure F-dizzle my nizzle (Ms. Fletcher) will set them straight and give them the right grade they deserve.

I feel like if you actually did participate and do try really hard you will get a good grade in the class. Ms Fletcher knows you and will give you the benefit of the doubt for the grades. I also use to tell the grade I thought I deserved in ceramics. I would usually do a really crumby project and ask for a B because I am not very gifted at molding things out of pieces of clay.

The point is, I feel like asking for a grade is a very good method and I like it. It makes you be honest and if you are honest and ask for a good grade you might get it. You might have to back it up with some facts if you are asking for a good grade like B or better. I feel like to prove you deserve to get a good grade you have to point out how you worked hard a lot of the days in class, you got your work done, and you participated in class by giving good ideas and doing the blind read around and actually giving back feedback.

my opinion on one of ms. fletcher's post.

 

Ms.fletcher i really like this picture you posted. I like the meaning of it. For example, i like the part that says "no matter how slow you progress you are still way ahead of everyone who isn't trying." It shows a great message to everyone who isnt a fast progressor but tries bits best everyday and doesnt give up. I compare to that sometimes because i can be slow at times but i dont give up. I some how each time encourage myself to keep on going. 

 

Many people, who don’t go to college or drop out of college, don’t have self-motivation. And out of the people that do go to college and graduate with a degree, don’t use their degree. This is because they lack motivation and take the easy way out and do not strive for their dream. The key to success is self-motivation and to go to college and take advantage of the college experience. People need to have motivation to find out what makes them happy in order to lead a more successful life. If you believe in something, then that is what will drive you to your desired future. And going to college is the best way to find what motivates you and figure out the kind of person that you want to become. Self-motivation is so important, especially in college because you have freedom, which means that it is up to you to motivate yourself because no one is going to come to you and ask you if you need help. You need to get help yourself. Self-motivation is what makes you stay on top of your work and will enable you to improve your life. Here are some quotes that I believe are true and will help motivate you.

3. Strive not to be a success, but rather to be of value. –Albert Einstein

38. Successful people are always looking for opportunities to help others.  Unsuccessful people are always asking, “What’s in it for me?” – B

59. Challenges are what make life interesting and overcoming them is what makes life meaningful. –Joshua J. Marinerian Tracy

71. You become what you believe. –Oprah Winfrey

74. It is not what you do for your children, but what you have taught them to do for themselves, that will make them successful human beings.  –Ann Landers

78. Education costs money.  But then so does ignorance. –Sir Claus Moser

It does not matter how slowly you go as long as you do not stop. –Confucius

What do you all think? Do you think that reason for people dropping out is because they don’t have motivation?

http://www.forbes.com/sites/kevinkruse/2013/05/28/inspirational-quotes/

 

 

 

The Value of free-writing

Ever since I was little kid, I never really like reading and writing. I rather play physical sports outside than reading a book. I always think that reading and writing is boring. I think this is the reason why I am having difficulties in my writing skills. I had trouble writing my two personal statements. At first, I have no idea what to write and what examples should I use. I asked myself, who am I? Then I remember almost all of the presentations pointed that I should write non-stop for good fifteen minutes. During this process, I should not worry about anything. I should just keep writing whatever comes to my mind. Eventually, a lot of ideas came to my mind and I found out what I should write about. After this process, I outline my ideas and try to expand it more. Then I organize my sentences and I typed my paper. Then I had my friend and brother read my paper and they pointed my mistakes. Lastly, I revised my ideas and sentences and typed in my final draft. Of all of Peter Elbow’s advice when it comes to writing an essay, I think the “writing non-stop” helped me the most. Even though I feel that both my personal statements are really good, I know that it is still not perfect and I have still a lot of mistakes in it that I could not see. My paper is still in developing process.  I have still a lot more to learn about writing a paper. 

No Such Thing As Overdosing on Aphorisms

Hey, Period Four!

Like Everett, I feel like it's about time to break the ice and become more connected with one another. I wanted to break the ice and provide a few aphorisms and silly short sayings that I love. I always carry a few with me in case I find a friend or stranger in the dumps and they need a little reminder of the beauty of shadows and rain. They're also perfect for this class and are fun to remember because they can be pretty powerful or just hilarious.  Many of these are made by famous authors, actors, insightful internet-famous people- the works! Okay, I admit; some posters just barely relate to education, but they absolutely had to be shared with this poster set- I swear!

I thought these would be fun to share and help share some fun into this blog. We will be doing this all year and varying our topics so as to not limit ourselves to the articles and essay dramas in the classroom, yet still stay professionally and academically on topic (Freewriting 101). Just a bit of fun won’t hurt, right?

There might be a problem if most of our posts are in tangent to what’s going on in the classroom, so if we actually do stuff like this we probably should limit ourselves, but I doubt that would be a problem.

How do you feel about some of these posters? Did some change the way you think about a grammar rule or silly life moments? Do any of you live by quotes that just open your eyes to the world around you? Did I waste your time or give you something to think about in the future?

Decribing ERW

ERW has been a great class for myself so far. Whether it was the Peter Elbow presentations, SSR, or writing in our journals. Let me start with the Peter Elbow presentations first. Not only have these presentations help me focus and become a better listener, it has showed me the true fundamentals and key to points for writing. Each group that has gone has done a pretty good job on covering whatever topic they were given. Watching and listening to all these different presentations has also helped me become a better writer in whatever it is I write for. The second thing I have enjoyed in this is SSR Mondays. I believe having SSR on a Monday is a very good idea because most people that come back from the weekend say they do not want to do anything. Reading is that special something that really helps everybody in this world. Reading is a fun thing when you get into. You have to read to write so reading is kind of a key part for success. The third thing I like is writing in our journals. Our journals seem like, yes they are very important but at the same time are fun to use and write in. The personal superlatives were really enjoyable to write. Some of them were also interesting but you have to have those interesting topics for the fun one's. Writing for the ten minutes has also been a creative idea. It is especially good to write how we did earlier in the year in about 15 minutes into class. With writing sooner in this class I think helps more students become better writers. I think they have more thoughts and feelings on their minds earlier in class rather than later. The final work I liked to do was both personal statements we just wrote as a class. These essays made me think about was colleges want and how they want to know what kind of person you are. Even though not all of us will be attending a UC college I believe this was a great opportunity for the students that may know now what other colleges may be asking. Of course different colleges have different prompts but this was a good idea for all of us to experience writing Personal Statements for college. I cannot wait for what we do in this next quarter and for the rest of the year. Glad I am in this class and looking forward to learn more English tips.
                                         -Ryan Gaylord

SSR

I very much enjoy SSR in class because unlike at home with so many distractions, SSR allows us to take time to actually get into the book we are reading and enjoy it without thinking about everything else going on around us. Reading in general is on of the best experiences since it allows us to detach and escape into worlds of endless possibilities and just have fun, yet the best part of reading is that it allows us to think deeper in subjects that we may never have touched before or even thought about. Reading allows us to connect more with who we are at our core and to build character that otherwise would never have been built. It allows us to develop a deeper way of thinking, other than our normal superficial way of looking at life so that when we come across unexpected situations in life we are more prepared and also have better judgement and understand the consequences of our actions. It allows us to broaden our range of knowledge of how our actions could effect different people around us that we normally would not have thought about before. I just read The Sphere by Michael Crichton and I must admit it is one of the best books I have read so far. The amount of suspense build up simply does not allow you to put it down. I did not know what I was getting into when I began reading it and without even noticing I got home and read and read and read until I finished the entire book in one sitting. I simply could not put it down. It is a Sci-Fi novel but it delves into such deep parts of who we are and how we think that I would recommend this book to anyone who has the time.  I do not want to spoil this for anyone, so in short it's about a team of people who are sent to investigate an alien spacecraft crash site, yet the best part is the lesson that you learn towards the end about who we are at our core.

ERW is great in the long run

ERW is a great class and i don't think many people will start to realize that and appreciate it until they get to college. Many of my peers complain about ERW saying its too much work, its boring, its confusing, and ill admit, im probably one of the main ones complaining. But i know that this class will be money for me in the long run because many of my peers that have recently graduated HS and had FletchDog for ERW have told me to pay attention and get the best out of it because it helps so much with college English. Many of my senior friends tried to convince me to not take ERW saying "You'll be writing essays everyday" or "Regular English is better". I have a mind of my own and i am proud of myself for sticking with my plan of taking ERW because i can already see the changes its making in my writing and I am learning new great writing techniques from Peter Elbow presentations everyday. Things i would not learn in a regular English class.
-Big Mike

Emphasizing The Personal Statement's Importance in High Shcool

I knew the personal statement was needed to be accepted into a University of California, but it was not until we read Ms. Cho's own personal statement that made me realized just how crucial the personal statement was to deciding whether or not any one person would be admitted into a college of their choice. Looking over Cho's transcript, we all were clearly able to see her academic strengths and weaknesses as well as showing that she was a hard working, well-rounded student involved in many extra-curricular activities and had an internship (or was it a job?).  I personally thought her essay showed how much she had grown as a young adult, but Ms. Fletcher's analysis made us all realize that Cho had a few issues with her family that she needed to deal with before she would be mentally prepared for college life. I never had such a powerful epiphany before regarding essays, and that was when I realized that the personal statement was the final decision that determined our entrance into our dream universities or colleges.  

Looking back at this, I noticed that the personal statement has only been briefly mentioned throughout high school, and we are told to focus on our studies and extracurricular activities to build our strength of character. These are also important, of course, but I feel like setting a priority on recognizing this important detail should be introduced earlier in our high school years. Does anyone else feel the same way? Did you also feel that slap to your face when Ms. Fletcher provided her insight on Cho's personal statement? Did this just make the stress of being able to write an impacting personal statement that much harder?

Blogging

I consistently am seeing posts on the blog about subjects from class such as Peter Elbow or the Personal Statement, which I expected, but what do you all think of the actual blog? I see it as a good opportunity to get to know the rest of you a little bit better and see your views on the day to day assignments of class. My Dad says that in some of the online college courses he has taken they were required to blog similarly to how we are. The only part I am having trouble with is that I do not know many of you very well. When I comment on one of your posts it is almost like I am a stranger talking to another stranger with little past interaction. However, overcoming that is a good way to break the silence, so to speak, and then maybe we may share a "hello" or 'how are you" from time to time. Besides the social interaction of the blog it is good practice to use these indirect forms of communication where we can have small discussions because it lets us see what the rest of the class thinks. I for one find it interesting to read how similar of issues the rest of you face as I do. Sometimes I forget that we all go home to different houses with different available distractions or partake in different extracurricular activities that tie us to different people. However on this blog we are on even terms.

The clock is ticking...

As the quarter is coming to an end we've experienced twenty-five percent of what this ERW class is all about. How do you guys feel about the 3P grading system Ms.Fletcher has us on? It's astonishing that you can have such a low grade and with one assignment being entered that you could have such a big grade improvement. That's as always good ,but you have a little anxiety about it because your grade is always fluctuating. I'm also liking how she doesn't really collect everything until the end , but only checks if we have stuff done. I get that English teachers have a big work load because they have so much plied up because that have to read over two hundred papers and sometimes people just slip right through going unnoticed if your writing doesn't stand out. So I get that Ms. Fletcher rather us turn thing in all at one time , rough drafts in the folders and final drafts in the metal basket. It's effective! I felt a lot of stress this week because we has so much due in so little time and this is the one class that I don't want to slip in. I lesrned that i need to stick to deadlines and make sure i get things done Before hand so that im not rushed at the last minute because i didn't finish something. Seniors we need to remember that this class matters and your writing matters so speak up if you are not liking something that's going on. Your voice needs to be heard and I'm sure the Fletcher wants to hear what we thing, she does try to give 2/3 us and 1/3 her. Like Peter Elbow says in Writing with Power, positive and negative feedback is always good to people to improve in every aspect not only in your writing but also in the class. Keep writing Seniors we only have seventy-five percent left of the school year left until graduations. 

Feedback

Yesterday when we were told we had to turn in our final personal statements, I felt very stressed and confused not knowing what to write for my final statement. Ms. Fletcher made it very clear on what had to be done, but I still felt confused. When I sat down at home and looked at my personal statement drafts, I did not know what to change or add. I felt like my personal statements were as good as they could be, since nobody commented on it. I feel like we should invest more time into giving feedback. It is very beneficial to all of us and I think it would release a lot of stress, knowing what to put and if our statement was adequate. Hopefully later on in the year we can take time and work on feedback.

Procastination

I deal with procastination every single day, not only for school wise but during my daily routine. I procastinate on everything it's ridiculous! It's a horrible habit that i seem to never get rid of. My parents tell me that one day it is going to "bite me in the butt", they insist that i need to get rid of it fast. I've tried but it's just so hard to stop procastinating. Mostly when there's so many things to do and time just seems to be so short. I've procastinated almost all my life but lately procastinating has been tough. There's just so many things that have to be done such as, college applications, homework, chores at home, church class, babysitting, and trying to fit family time in all that. It just gets hard at times and all you want is a break; however, that break turns into another break and another and it all just leaves all this piled work that is crambed into a sleepless night.

Sharing

I dont know about everyone but for me sharing was one of the hardest parts of doing these personal statements for me. Its hard for me to read something i wrote to someone and get critized on what i need to fix, especially when i thought my paper was perfect in the beginning. Its even harder when your telling someone about your life, stuff you normally wouldn't tell that person. As much as i perfer to skip this step, I dont think i ever will because its really beneficial when writing something. I noticed my essay was far from perfect and it needed to be severely revised and im gald i did it :) i also enjoyed  hearing other peoples stories and getting to know them, and what they go through everyday and their struggles they have overcome. It made me a better writer reading other peoples personal statement. It gave me ideas on what i can write about the next time and more creative ways to start and end my essays. Im glad we shared our wrok and even though we might not have the chance everytime we write something in ERW i will definately go out of my way to have someone read my work and do the same for others!

Elbow and Personal Statements

Peter Elbow is the man! I love that we were introduced to him. His book Writing with Power helped me when it came to writing my personal statement. As I mentioned before in one of my comments on Kinsey’s blog post I always had trouble with writing my personal statement from previous years, but this time it is different. Elbow is one of the factors that cause writing my paper easily. I also think it’s the fact that teachers in previous years made it seem like we have to write something drastic in the essay, like a family member dying.  The overall writing process is easier now. From listening to the past presentations on Peter Elbow the methods I would like to etch into my writing is free-writing, looping, priming the pump, and writing without thinking. Not that all methods presented aren’t helpful, but these certain methods I find more beneficial to my writing process.

Another thing that I want to mention is that I actually had an easier time writing my second personal statement than my first one. I think it is my choice in prompts. I honestly like the Common Application prompts more because it is easier to write about the topics. I don’t know about you, but I found that the Common Application prompts were straighter to the point causing me to have no trouble sharing my feelings on paper. If you guys were wondering I wrote about the second UC prompt and for the Common Application I wrote about a place where I find myself to be perfectly content.

Now that we are turning in our final essays, what have you learned from writing your personal statement? Have you seen yourself progress as a writer? Did Peter Elbow help? Lastly which was your favorite prompt to write about?  

Fears

Is it just me or am I not alone in this interminable cycle of un-productivity. I get home and become subjected into this state of sluggishness where I take my time to do what needs to be done. I don't know whether it is due to the fact that it is senior year, or that I have so much to do that my brain is on overdrive and gave out. College apps, personal statements, math homework, chemistry test, English vocabulary, SATs, extracurricular activities--- everything is just compacted into a span of three months and I feel so overwhelmed. 

Everything seems so crucial to the success of my future. I'm actually terrified at this point in time. I feel like I'm playing Tumble Tower and one small mistake can result in all my hard work crashing and burning. 

Hopefully I'm not the only one that is constrained by this apprehension, but reading all the articles in the packet Ms. Fletcher gave us only made me more confused about the current situation. 

The Opportunist

   At this time, all that is going through our heads is one thing: college. Some look at college as a necessary extension after high school, and some simply see it as job training. The problem is that neither of these views are accurate. College is an Opportunity. 

  My dad is someone who does not take no for an answer. So when he told 9 year old Isabella that she was going to college soon, I didn't question it. Now that I am older, it has become the most frequent topic that we talk about and one thing he said to me stuck with me ever since. 

   He told me, "College is not school, it's an opportunity".

 I thought about it for a while and just thought, okay he means it not forced on us but we should go. But it has come to mean so much more than that. What I've noticed is that college, in the mind of teenagers, is depicted in two ways:

1. You have to go. There are no other options. 

2. Don't worry about it, I'll figure something out on graduation day.

The problem is that not many see college as an opportunity. Our education is given to us, up until the 12th grade. School is forced on us and we cannot wait to get out of the never ending cycle of early mornings and annoying teachers. So, once we graduate, most see it as freedom, and anything else that is being taught to us after that is just an obstacle in the way. That's the problem.

Yes, we have to pay to go to college. And yes, we have to put most, if not all, of our time into it. But what most fail to see is that it is only going to benefit us. College is not just money wasted, or time consumed, or stacks of loans waiting to be paid. College is the opportunity that most of us need to get us started in this huge world that we are about to be aimlessly thrown into. It will be hard, and it will most likely be expensive. But, when you do whats hard, life is easy. But if you do whats easy, life is hard. 

Take the opportunity to get your education now, so we can get our lives started.   

Second Personal Statement

My second personal statement was more difficult to me because I thought the prompt meant to describe the world around you. Not describe how the world around you has affected you. So I wrote a lot about my parents and their childhoods and the struggle they went through. I didn't say though how all of that has made me the person I am today. I didn't say how their sacrifices for me or my siblings has affected everything I am today. Ms. Fletcher helped me out a lot by editing it and making me notice that my PERSONAL statement wasn't about me at all. So I have been making some changes to it and hopefully it turns out to be all about me and the man I am today.

Peter Elbow Presentations

For me, free-writing has been the most helpful method so far. I have never used the free-writing method before. It helped me a lot especially when I'm writing an essay and I don't know exactly what to write about. It helped me write my second personal statement. I had trouble writing the second personal statement because I could not decide which prompt I want to write about. I mean, I had an idea but I wasn't sure if it will be on point. So I got a piece of paper and wrote down whatever comes to mind. I ignored the prompts for a second and just write for at least 15 minutes. I also tried not to think about grammar and just focused on getting all the good ideas out. I didn't think about how I will write the essay, I just wrote down all the things that had happened to me in the past. I also remember from the presentation that it is all about the process and not the product. After I free-wrote, I read it, looked back at the list of all the prompts and finally made up my mind. When I finally started typing my personal statement, I had the free-writing paper to guide me so it didn't take me that long to write it. Free-writing is very convenient and I will most likely use it to write essays for other classes. So, is there anyone else who find free-writing very useful? If not, what other methods do you think was the most helpful so far?

The quarter coming to an end: Our grades

Am I the only one who is a little scared about the quarter coming to an end? I sort of have a good idea about my grade but then again I could be completely off. My grade changed from a 64 percent to a 100 percent in one day. This was because Ms Fletcher accidentally graded my test wrong. To me that is a little unstable, one test should not change my grade 36 percent. I understand that the class is graded on participation and that is hard to grade, but I would feel a little better if we got an estimation on our grade a little bit before the quarter ended so we would be able to try to change it. 

Don't get me wrong, I like that the class is graded mostly on participation. It is a different format than the usual but I would like to know my grade on a week to week basis. A good idea would maybe be to collect our notebooks every Friday and check what we have written. That way Ms. Fletcher can see our progress and participation a lot before the quarter and we could get an accurate estimate on our grade. I feel like that would take a lot of stress off of her because she is doing a little bit of work every week. I personally only want to know my grade a little bit beforehand because if I get a bad grade on my progress report or quarter or especially the semester grade, I will not see day light for a long time.

SAVE and Invest in your OWN Retirement

Hey period 4! I apologize for this lengthy read, but I hope all of you read it. It is about saving money for our future. Now that we are headed to college and crossing into the life of independence and full responsibility, we need to be aware that starting early does matter. Thanks to my mom for discussing finances with me. :)

According to Walter Hamilton of Los Angeles Times and new studies, "The average millennial (people in their 20s or early 30s) graduating from college today will not retire until age 73 because heavy student-loan debt will prevent him or her from saving enough money for an earlier retirement...by the time the college bills are paid, the average millennial will be 33 years old and have only $2,466 saved for retirement...student debt will cost the average millennial $115,096 in "lost" retirement savings."  We haven't reached the stage of student loans or graduating from college yet, but be aware! Save, save, save. As soon as you get a job start putting money away to build up your retirement. If the company you work for has a retirement plan you need to understand how it works and contribute the maximum that you can afford. Every time that you get a salary increase, add more to your retirement so you are paying yourself. If there is no retirement plan then you need to open up a ROTH IRA (individual retirement account). The earlier you start saving the more money you will have for retirement.
http://www.irs.gov/Retirement-Plans/Plan-Sponsor/Types-of-Retirement-Plans-1

Don't carry any credit card debt. Pay it every month and always pay on time!

A Millionaire’s Best Friend

One awesome thing that you can take advantage of is compound interest. It may sound like an intimidating term, but it really isn’t once you know what it means. Here’s a little secret: compound interest is a millionaire’s best friend. It's really free money. Seriously. But don’t take our word for it. Just check out this story of Ben and Arthur to understand the power of compound interest.
Ben and Arthur were friends who grew up together. They both knew that they needed to start thinking about the future. At age 19, Ben decided to invest $2,000 every year for eight years. He picked investment funds that averaged a 12% interest rate. Then, at age 26, Ben stopped putting money into his investments. So he put a total of $16,000 into his investment funds.
Now Arthur didn’t start investing until age 27. Just like Ben, he put $2,000 into his investment funds every year until he turned 65. He got the same 12% interest rate as Ben, but he invested 23 more years than Ben did. So Arthur invested a total of $78,000 over 39 years.
When both Ben and Arthur turned 65, they decided to compare their investment accounts. Who do you think had more? Ben, with his total of $16,000 invested over eight years, or Arthur, who invested $78,000 over 39 years?

Believe it or not, Ben came out ahead … $700,000 ahead! Arthur had a total of $1,532,166, while Ben had a total of $2,288,996. How did he do it? Starting early is the key. He put in less money but started eight years earlier. That’s compound interest for you! It turns $16,000 into almost $2.3 million! Since Ben invested earlier, the interest kicked in sooner.

Here is the link: http://www.daveramsey.com/article/how-teens-can-become-millionaires/lifeandmoney_kidsandmoney/

It is Negative to Think it is Negative

Failure and not going to college is ideas that our society seems to look down upon, but should we really think these ideas to be so negative? The answer is no. While I was reading the articles assigned to us, I took interest in two articles from the packet and the two are: “Want to Get into College? Learn to Fail” and “Not Going to College is a Viable Option”. These two articles take a contradicting point of view on the topics that the public eye think so poorly about and find so negative.
The first article “Want to Get into College? Learn to Fail” expresses that colleges and university admission officers find that a person who learns to fail is more likely to be accepted than someone who portrays himself or herself as a perfect person. Honestly, when I reading this article I was thinking to myself how awesome the article is for talking about such topic. I believe that failure is a positive aspect in our life. Perez states in the article, “The lessons of failure can’t be taught in a classroom; they are experienced and reflected upon.” This is so true, our flaws and mistakes allow each and every person to grow and learn. It is what “makes” a person. As humans we should make mistakes because we learn from them and we can use these experiences as references in the future. Lastly, I enjoy the fact that Perez states, “Failure is about growth, learning, and overcoming, and moving on.” Something I think we should take from this article is that failure is good and people shouldn’t allow misery to take control of their life because of a failure. Failure something we grow and learn from and all we have to do is overcome our failure and move on realizing that the failure strengthened our character.
The second article “Not going to College is a Viable Option” conveys the idea that not all students have to go to college to be “successful”. The article mentions multiple jobs that don’t need four-year degree and even alternative choice instead of going to college.  I was raised upon the idea that college is the only choice after graduating high school, which is what I have and still am striving to accomplish. I like the fact that this article mentions the alternative choices for it is helpful to some people because they don’t really have a clue on what to do for the next step, causing the person to think college is their next step. This article should be shared to all seniors because it allows the seniors to think if college is really their next step. I think that if a person chooses that college is not fit for them, it should not be frowned upon.  All that matters is that a person has a clue on what he or she wants to do in the future and strives to attain the success he or she wants in their life. Think deeply if college is really meant for you because it is better realizing it now than realizing it isn’t later causing you to waste so much money and time on something you aren’t happy doing.