Invisible Children Reflection

After having a long conversation with David, the child soldier from Uganda, he told me, "God loves you and I love you." It caught me really off guard and I didn't know how to respond at the time. The whole presentation about the child soldiers made me cry, literally.  It's always been a passion for me to be someone in life, to be able to help those in need. Coming from a strong Christian background, I do believe that God put me here on this Earth for a reason; His reason is for me to do good in His name. You don't have to be religious to help other people in the world, but I feel like if you do have a strong religious view, it makes the whole experience a lot more powerful. Going on the road to help spread the word about the dilemma in Uganda is important, and as much as I support the cause, this method isn't the way that I feel is suitable for me. For me, I would want to use my knowledge to help people. Joining UNICEF or the Peace Corps would be my dream job. For some, it might not sound so appealing, but to be in the backbone of changing the world, I would do anything that I could.

The Yoders

When I read Jane Yoder's story, I didn't think much of what she had said. Yes coats do keep us warm in the winter and having boots to wear every day is something to be thankful for, but I was really curious as to what this really meant to a regular teenage kid like me. Then I thought about everyone else in the world, like the children in Libya and Africa that might not have boots or coats, like Jane. In the beginning, it said that she was from Evanston which isn't a ways far from here. Even though we are in the stereotypical, "North Shore", there still was a time in history, that we didn't have anything. Looking at the time and the environment we live in now, we need to be more thankful for everything we do have. We have a free education, food, clothing, housing, and resources. After reading her story and reading her son's excerpt, I think very highly of him because he has so much respect for his mom and what she had gone through. A quote that really touched me was, " I've never gone to bed hungry- I wish I had. I haven't, and I probably never will." I think that if students, especially in the North Shore start appreciating what they have more, then they will be able to fan out and help those that don't have what we have.

Hard Times- The Great Depression

The Great Depression was all about the struggles that the American People had to overcome. As the Stock Market crashed in 1929, people panicked and didn't know what to do to get out of the hole. In this case, Robinson played it smart like my father would have. I wonder what in Robinson's past, or anything at all had made him want to save up all the money that he had instead of "having big money". My father's family was once a wealthy family back in Taiwan, they had nannies and servants. When my grandfather's health had suddenly dropped and my grandmother passed away, my father and his siblings had to go on the streets to beg for money just to eat. That is why he works like crazy to save up money for my mom and I. The scars of his past made him afraid and every penny that he could save, he would. I think the lives of the people in the Great Depression were very traumatic. People committed suicide because all of a sudden they were left with nothing and over night, the most wealthy had fallen just like everyone else.  I wasn't surprised at all at how harshly the depression had affected the American people. I think that the only thing they had left was hope, hope that God was playing a joke and He would turn things right around.