The Narwhals checked out the website, thisibelieve.org/ and listened to essays read by ordinary people talking about things they believed in. Having already written a number of formal essays the Narwhals knew the structure but this time had the luxury of writing in first person, something not usually done in class essays. Here are some of the results.
By M.S.
I believe that books have made a difference.
Of course, books have changed the world; they made another
good use for paper. However, I believe that books will not be around in the
future, that they will all be virtual and I for one do not want this to happen.
I realize that I cannot exactly make it stop but I can do something else. I can
gather people that also do not want books to disappear forever and we can
gather as many books as we can and save them for as long as we can.
I think that the world would be gray and dull without books
to fill our minds with words and thoughts and color. The world would be like a
stormy day even when it was sunny and if we had just virtual books the color
and creativity would still not be there, because you have to curl up somewhere
and actually turn the pages to feel the story. Therefore, I think we should
stand up and say that books have a right to be in the world, and on paper, not
just virtually! Some times when I sit down I ponder the way future, I picture the
world in the future. Most people see a bright future with smiling people and
flying cars, but I see a dull future with no cars and no anything because
people used to have advanced technology so they got lazy and when they
eventually used up all the power in the world they had forgotten how to do
anything. People are walking around with their heads hanging low in a world
that is dull and gray, so if some other people and I kept real books we could at
least make a colorful world for people.
When I sit down to work on things at school, I try my hardest
no matter what, but that is only because I have a colorful world to work in.
When some people sit down to work they try, but not their best because they
have not read a real book. Therefore, I think that some other people and I
should try to get everyone to read a book if they have not already read one.
Just because I say this does not mean it actually going to happen but at least
I will try, others may not but I will. Some people may read this and say that I
am just making life more complicated, and, I am but I like it and so I will
continue to make it even harder.
I believe that books have made a difference in
the world, and will probably in the future. I believe that things will change
dramatically over the years, but I will hold it off for now and maybe sometime
in the future people will remember me as the person who changed the course of
history in books.
This
I Believe: Failure Can Lead to Success
by D.S.
We all have our moments of major
screw up, I know. But some dwell not on the failure, but what they learned from
it. The more mistakes you make, the more you hone down how to do something
until it just is a few details that are incorrect. I think that people that
make more mistakes are just as intelligent as you or I, and are just trying different
things. Sometimes, failure leads on to success if you just dig deeper, and do
not stop. Always persevere, never give up, and do not think negatively. These
messages I have gotten a lot, and finally, I get to show the results. In
addition, if you do not make a mistake, you will not learn anything. Learning
is not a one shot and done, it is a trial and error process. Some people that
got straight A’s for a while can’t handle it if they get a B. Just keep track
of mistakes, and learn from the mistakes you make, or you may end up making
them again.
If
you are under pressure to not make a mistake, do not let it bother you, unless
you work best under pressure. I myself am a procrastinator that doesn’t work
well under pressure. Honestly, if you don’t persevere, it’ll come back to haunt
you for the rest of your life. Always make that one final pushing effort,
utilize that second wind, learn from failures, and keep pushing. Eventually, you
will get used to failures, and utilize them to make success, and always keep
going until the end of the line. If it ends in failure, find where and when, and
then fix it. Rinse and repeat until success. If you continue this process, you
will have a chance of finding success where others have failed, and continuing
along the line, aware of how you got there.
If
you just give up as soon as you fail, you will never learn anything. If you
keep trying, and persevere, you’ll learn, and gain knowledge that others may
not know. You may think I don’t know what it’s like having a trial and error
process, but it even took one to write this essay. I do know about trial and
error, and I have come to accept it though it may be frustrating. Trial and
error may seem trivial, but it is not. Instead, you must make sure that you
collect as much info as you can, always making sure to not miss any from other
failures, and eventually, if you can possibly succeed, you’ll succeed. It’s
just a fact you’ve got to deal with, or it’ll get you bogged down in the
details of your failures, and will not succeed as easily.
If
you stay confident, make sure to correct mistakes, and see what caused it,
you’ll make fewer mistakes, and less of the same one.
By G.H.
I believe that virtual reality will alter our daily life,
and my prediction in the future is that simulations and videogames will be used
for much, much more than entertainment purposes.
Simulations of real life situations that are being used
today will be used for much more than just entertainment, but for education
under stressful circumstances. For instance, medical students can use
simulators to re-create surgery without having to lose a patient if they fail,
or people in culinary school trying to not burn their food in the oven, and
even people trying to get their drivers license may be able to use a simulator
to earn it. All of the paperwork saved, money saved, and possibly lives saved
will all be thanks to simulators and re-creations of real life.
This is not all good news, considering if companies making
these re-creations want better graphics, they may create military and other
intense situation generating games may become too realistic, and may take away
the gamer’s surroundings, causing him to forget that real life is not inside of
a screen or simulator or other electronic devices and leave him stuck inside
that unreal world for hours, without food, drink or social contact. In
addition, if that person spends more time walking around in a simulator than in
the real world, he/she may become antisocial, maybe even reclusive or slightly
mentally disorganized, causing possible problems in the real world.
I think that in five or ten years we will have incorporated
simulations into corporate offices, medical schools and possibly driving
schools as well as I stated in the first paragraph, but I feel like that can’t
even be close to all the possibilities, for instance space simulators, intense
situational simulators for the military to teach commanders to handle their
squad under bad circumstances, possibly even law school, trial simulators, jury
duty re-creations, and many more jobs.
Though simulators aren’t all that will change, we may have
holographic computers that have so far only been a prop in movies and
videogames. We could have better defense systems for protection against nuclear
weapons, better identity theft and hacking protection, even new pilotless
planes and boats, serving drinks and food via robots and/or other usage of
technology. This can actually be a problem, considering the jobs that will be
taken over by robots and computers, but considering the safety it will add to
flights, consider the fact that if robots flew planes, there probably would have
been no nine-eleven, no crashed flight to Malaysia, all the more lives saved in
the future will be worth it.
Life at home won’t be the same either, with the SmartHome
systems used today may connect to your car, driving you wherever you told it
to, activating everything by voice, leaving more space where the steering wheel
would be to add in other things like extra cupholders, a TV or many other
things.
I think that there will be many other things that will come
along, and many will be built to make our lives better, safer, and simpler.
Stress-relieving devices allowing people to live happier and longer will be
invented, and maybe computers that work for the user, allowing them to have
more spare time to see their family and other things.
This is why I believe
that virtual reality will alter our daily life.
This I Believe. By L.W.
I have been at the same school for many years now. At school,
I see my friends every day. None of the kids in my neighborhood go to my school.
I do not see the kids in my neighborhood at school, like all the other kids do.
When I am home, I don’t see any friends, and can’t do anything with other
people. But where I am at right now, I have many friends.
I have been making new friends at my school but when they
leave, I usually don’t see them again; but with one of my friends, I do. Nathan
and I have been friends all our lives. Nathan’s family, coincidentally, moved
into our old house. Then we went to the same daycare. Then we both went to
Seabury, a school in Tacoma, WA. Nate was with me at Seabury for three years. Now
he has been gone for two years.
Nathan and I met at daycare when we were one year old. We
were so young that we did not really understand what friendship was really
like. I don’t really remember details about what happened at day care, only
that Nathan, Jackson, and I, all toddlers at that time, always played with each
other. We went to kindergarten and did not see each other all the time, so our
friendship could’ve ended there, but when we both went to Seabury, we started
to develop our friendship again.
At Seabury, it is easy to be friends when we see each other
every day at school and this is where Nate and I really made a good
relationship between ourselves. As friends, we always would help each other out
and worked together. Our friendship was no longer parent driven. We were more
independent and built our friendship together. We knew everything about each
other and saw each other a lot.
My friendship with Nathan has changed, but we are still
friends. Now we don’t see each other for long periods. Nathan and I sometimes
have sleepovers, playdates, and phone calls. Whenever we see each other, we try
to get along well, and I know that we get along differently and have different
interests. So this I believe that people can still be friends even though they
have not seen each other and have changed, but they get along differently and
do different things.
At my school, people are constantly coming and leaving. It’s
hard to make long lasting friends at Seabury, but some I can contact by Email,
Phone, or text. At home, I can talk to friends on the phone. But then they stop
calling or make new friends. A lot of friends come and go but Nathan is
different.
By M.P.
By M.P.
I believe
that people should try to do everything they can to keep from polluting the
earth. Pretty soon, maybe 200 or so years from now, the earth may be
uninhabitable. But if everyone tries hard not to pollute, that time may be stretched
to 300 years or more.
It makes me
sad to see an area on the side of the road or in the middle of a park where
people throw their trash. Paper cups, plastic cups, papers, utensils, cigarette
butts, and straws are all blowing around in the wind like ghosts. It makes the
world seem like an awful place, where people throw their trash wherever and
whenever they please, which is pretty much true. If people threw their garbage
into a trash can, or better yet recycled and composted, think about how much
cleaner the world would be.
By recycling
and composting, most Americans save about 40% of their trash from going in
landfills. But Americans still make a lot of garbage. From just one state,
enough trash is thrown away each year to pile a street three feet high with
garbage for over 500 miles!
Americans
make up about 5% of the world’s population, but throw away almost a third of
the world’s trash! Many people do not own a recycling bin, and throw away
anything in their house that they no longer want, including broken appliances,
too-small clothing, and unwanted toys (which can all be recycled or donated).
When people
first started to settle in the US, landfills could be anywhere, in your
backyard, in the river, or behind that mysterious bush that probably led to
lots of empty land. Nowadays, landfills are lined with plastic to keep harmful
liquids from seeping into the earth, and have gas monitors to keep track of any
harmful gasses. Many landfills have parks or golf courses built over them.
Even though
many people are doing a lot to be more earth friendly, not
enough people are! On an average day, Americans throw away about
694 plastic water bottles a minute! If
everyone had brought a reusable water bottle instead, those 60 million plastic
water bottles a day would be reduced to zero.
The Environmental
Protection Agency estimates that Americans recycle about 30% of our waste, but
75% of it is recyclable. We could save about 25 million trees each year if
every American recycled even a tenth of their newspaper. If we composted the
21.5 million tons of food that we Americans generate each year, it would save
enough greenhouse gas to be like taking 2 million cars off the road! People are
definitely not doing enough to, as an ad I saw puts it, “make the world suck
less.”
Not too long
from now, the world may run out of landfills and places to dump their trash,
and it will just pile up, killing off the population as it does so. In the
1340s-50s, the bubonic plague, or Black Death, killed 75 million people in
Europe, Africa, and Asia. It was caused by the garbage piled up in the streets,
which attracted rats, which had fleas that carried the disease (the lack of
sanitation didn’t help either). We would not want something like that to happen
in the future.
It is
impossible to completely stop throwing away garbage, but we can reduce it
significantly by recycling and composting. There are many odd things that you
probably didn’t know you could recycle (if only through special programs), such
as packing peanuts, wine corks, and makeup. If people really recycled
everything they could, the US would save about 4,579 million pounds of trash
each year. That is what I believe in.
