Cover Letter

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Dear portfolio readers:

My name is Jeremy Souza and last year I finally came back to college after not wanting to continue after my first year. Once I passed English 091, English 101 introduced me to essay types that I was not familiar with such as, the memoir and the annotation essay. Working on these were challenging because having never done either of these two essay types before, I didn’t know where to begin. Essays I’ve done in the past have been about certain topics however, this year I’ve had the creative freedom to write about what I wanted. Last year, I feel that I fixed quite a few issues with my writing, with this semester, I was eager to put what I learned to the test. I hope you enjoy reading these essays.

My first submission is about persistence, which I called “Persistence Is The Key To Life”. As I began writing this essay, I had a clear Idea of how I was going to tackle this essay. First, I knew exactly how this essay was going to be structured. Secondly, persistence is about three things to me which are, motivation, positivity and failure. Motivation is a incredibly important trait to persistence. Motivation is a necessity, simply because if you’re going to be persistent, you need to have an end goal. For example, say I wanted to lift one hundred fifty pounds. Now I have motivation to get me to be persistent about my goal. I continued this pattern throughout my essay and feel that I made good points throughout it. Doing this essay was a challenging and rewarding to write.

My second submission was about a research topic, for this topic I picked “Should Immigrants Be Forced To Speak English When Moving Into the United States”. Now I picked this topic because, this to me, is truly controversial. Is it right or wrong to enforce a language on immigrants? The United States was founded by immigrants so it’s hard to say. When I wrote this essay, I was for enforcing a stricter requirement for immigrants to be able to legally move into the United States. However, I thought it was equally as important for Americans to learn a second language. Being bilingual is just too useful of a trait to not have on a local to global scale. I had fun writing and researching this essay and is by far the largest one I wrote this semester. Upon researching, I found some very interesting statistics that other might find interesting as well.

My last submission is about my memoir. This was the first essay I wrote in English 101 and I learned a ton from it. Before this class I had no idea what a memoir even was and now I have a much better understanding of it. I called this essay “Forced Persistence”. I went to Diman Regional Vocational Technical High School and that’s the event that I wrote my memoir about. It was about when Diman placed me into a shop I never even explored. This was during my eight weeks of exploring vocational shops the school offered. Not to mention, my attitude towards school at the time, which at this moment did a complete turn around for the better. Never doing this type of essay before, I went through a few rough drafts, not knowing the exact time frame when a memoir takes place.

I feel taking this course has properly prepared me for future types of writing. As mentioned above, I have never done these types of essays before and it was a challenge to complete them. Not to mention, some room to be creative for the topics, which is a very nice change of pace. The most challenging one I had to write, was definitely the memoir. I had no idea how specific it was to a moment in time. After taking English 101, I feel that I have learned quite a bit  from this class and eagerly want to learn more next semester.

I hope you enjoy reading my essays, as I found them enjoyable to write about.

Sincerely,

Jeremy Souza

 

(CCP:Idea) How Persistence Is The Key To Life

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Persistence is a very important trait in life. For starters, any hobbies anyone may have at one time required a lot of persistence in order for you to enjoy it. For example, I personally enjoy art but initially I was absolutely terrible at it. However with a lot of persistence over the years I managed to draw at what I believe a good level. While I don’t have this hobby anymore, I needed that persistence to succeed at into other things such as, school, sports,  and exercise. Most things in life require persistence. I didn’t think I needed to force myself to do anything that is, until I found myself going back to school, after taking a very long break. Looking back now, I see a few key things that make persistence what it is. Motivation, positivity, and even failure are what I believe are key parts to persistence.

Motivation is essential to persistence. What is your drive, your goal? As tristanridesflat stated in his blog, “I came home one sunny evening to my father putting training wheels on what was my brand new Huffy. I was ecstatic to see this, as my older brother had been able to ride a mountain bike for years“. His motivation was to keep learning that next step with biking, even going all the way to BMX. What motivation is, as stated from stateuniversity states that, “Motivation is also the study of what pushes or pulls an individual to start, direct, sustain, and finally end an activity”. A personal motivation I’ve had lately, is forcing myself going to the gym, two to three times a week. My motivation is to be healthy and gain a bit of upper body mass. I have been forcing myself to run at least 1 mile, everyday minimum, along with other exercises, such as, squats, push ups and various other ones, depending on what I’ve accomplished that week.

I believe positivity is also another factor in determining persistence. How could anyone be persistent about something while kicking your feet along the way? Persistence is about having an optimistic attitude for whatever you goal may be. Positivity can also link to another part of persistence, which is motivation as I mentioned earlier. If you cannot be motivated and maintain a positive attitude in your goals, you are doomed for failure before you even begin. As Dominic Randolph mentioned in his article about teaching good character in students. “When that person suddenly has to face up to a difficult moment, then I think they’re screwed, to be honest. I don’t think they’ve grown the capacities to be able to handle that”. This could mean that without a positive outlook on things, a student could be overcome with doubt and stop their drive to be persistent about his or her career.

Another key to persistence is failure, without failure you cannot learn from your mistakes. You can only learn so much from a textbook, since part of failure is doing things with hands on experience. Such as, learning how to repair a car, you can read as much as you want, but you probably won’t be able to fix a car immediately after reading how to because you don’t have the experience. You need to go out in life and experience everything you can. As stated in tribou17’s blog post, “When I first stepped into class in college, I felt prepared and excited, ready to finally begin focusing my education towards what I wanted to do with my life. However, I nearly immediately began to struggle, sidled with difficulties in multiple courses coupled with stricter time constraints”. For example, you could be going after a job you really want and have to the essential credentials and then some on your resume. However if you can’t just “Wow” that employer you’re not going to get that job you want so badly. This is a lesson in life failure, which in turn you can force you to take a look of what happened, figure out how you could improve what you did and said during the interview and improve your chances for next time. As Jennie Rose mentioned on her blog wall, a book called How Children Succeed: Grit, Curiosity, and the Hidden Power of Character, by author Paul Tough stated “Critics have argued that what Tough is really talking about are life skills that can’t be taught.”. These examples show that failure has an affect on persistence.

In conclusion, I believe that their is quite a few things that make persistence what is it. Again, motivation, positivity, and failure are just a few of many things that can make persistence, such a important aspect to anyone’s life. Persistence is definitely a learned trait however, because sometimes you just need to pick yourself up, from whatever is holding you back and push yourself forward to your goal. Persistence is a life skill that cannot be taught through traditional means.

Works Cited

Rose, Jennie. “Can Kids Be Taught Persistence.” Kqed.com. Kqed, Inc. 27 July  2012. Web. 2 April 2014.

Tough, Paul. “What If The Secret To Success Is Failure?” NYTimes.com . 14 September 2011. Web. 2 April 2014.

Tribou17. “Persistence Learning how to walk again” 2014. 22 February 2014. Web. 2 April 2014.

Tristanridesflat. “Memoir Final 2014”. 17 February 2014. Web. 2 April 2014.

 

(Research Project) Should Immigrants Be Forced To Learn English When Moving Into The United States

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Should being competent in English be a requirement for new immigrants coming into the United States? I believe that there should be. Now I’m not saying they should be fluent in English immediately. However, I do believe that you should be able to speak the most common language in the country. Assimilating into a country that speaks a certain language should mean that you need to learn that language period.

As the joke goes: What do you call a person speaking three languages? Trilingual. What do you call one speaking two? Bilingual. What do you call a person speaking one language? American. Or in the case I’m trying to show, any nationality that comes in the United States. Since that’s exactly the same thing that is going on here. If you went to France and didn’t speak French you wouldn’t be able to function or if bad enough, not leave the country because no one can understand you.

Learning a second language is beneficial to anyone. As you’re driving on the highway, you do not see signs in Spanish or Portuguese, you see them in English. That’s not to say that Americans can’t also benefit from learning a second language of their choice. Knowing a second language shows that you have other interests around the world, instead of just your own country. It’s much better then being catered to everywhere you go, just because you refuse to learn another language.

Speaking multiple languages is a very useful thing in this world. However it is especially useful in the United States. For example, Fall River is heavily populated by Portuguese. So knowing both Portuguese and English is very useful for any business to have, not to mention everyday life. I currently work at a grocery store, you wouldn’t believe how many people just flat out spoke such poor English, that you cannot understand them at all. When they need help they just literally say, “You speak Portuguese?” and I firmly respond., “Not in the least”. They then continue either keep asking for someone who speaks their language, or they walk around confused for 30 minutes. Now here I could learn Portuguese to make both of our lives easier. However the majority of the United States does not speak Portuguese, and I honestly have no interest in that particular language. If I was in Portugal, Iwould take it upon myself to be at least tolerant in Portuguese. Since expecting people to know you’re language, when they could speak one of many, isn’t very likely to happen.

In other English speaking countries such as, England. England is also going through the same problem when it comes to Immigrants. Now obviously they have differences in laws from the United States. However the way they deal with this problem does hold some value to those residing in the United States. David Cameron, the prime minister stated in his speech, “Real communities are bound by common experiences forged by friendship and conversation“. Which in my opinion is true. Cameron goes on to make another very good point. In the same speech, Cameron also stated,“So real integration takes time. That’s why, when there have been significant numbers of new people arriving in neighborhoods, perhaps not able to speak the same language as those living there, on occasions not really wanting or even willing to integrate, that has created a kind of discomfort and disjointedness in some neighborhoods. This has been the experience for many people in our country – and I believe it is untruthful and unfair not to speak about it and address it”.

In another article, someone named Havovi Cooper who actually is a immigrant in the United States. Cooper is a grad student and speaks a medley of languages, while also holding on to his traditions from his home country. However Cooper is actually in favor of enforcing laws to learn the local language. As Cooper stated in his article, “One of the few immigration laws that makes any sense to me is the one requiring immigrants to learn and speak English before they can attain citizenship“.

Assimilating into the country you’re trying to get into is not a bad thing. Being bilingual is actually a extremely useful trait, for local or even cross country business jobs. Cooper also stated in his article,“I would not readily trade my shalwar kameez (baggy trousers and knee-length tunic) for a miniskirt, but I would definitely want to add another language to my repertoire as it would increase my chances of applying for my dream job—on-air reporter—which will inevitably require fluent English“.

essay 4 picture

Above is a interesting poll I found on Gallop, they have graphs that show even at the lowest percent, fifty nine percent of people in the United States think English is essential to learn, with the highest percent being seventy two percent. Americans born in America think learning a second language is essential and fifty percent think it’s a important skill to have for anyone. Even Florida’s Senator, Marco Rubio stated, “You cannot flourish in our economy, you cannot flourish in our country if you’re not proficient in English”. This was when Rubio sent a amendment for the immigration reform, in June 2013, for stricter English requirements for a greencard.

percent of americans who think english is required

Other facts include what other languages do you know other then English. First one being Spanish is at sixty percent of all Americans, French at eighteen percent, German at twelve percent and from there on its five percent and lower for any other languages. These statistics are not surprising since America was founded by immigrants. That being said, we wouldn’t have been able to make this country what it is today by speaking different languages all the time. A mutual understanding must be made to meet half way, just as you would do other things in life such as, friendship and relationships. So basically the most common language in America, English.

In conclusion, the statistics provided should allow some insight on how important of a topic this is. Why it’s my personal belief that immigrants, should have more of a regulated English requirement when entering the United States. It’s a very debatable topic, both pro and con. In the end, all immigrants and American born citizens should know English and another language of their choice.

Works Cited

Cooper, Havovi. “Immigrants Should Learn English” Business Week. Web. 6 May 2014.

Jones, Jeffrey M. “Most In U.S. Say It’s Essential That Immigrants Know English” Gallop. 9 Aug 2013.

                       Web. 6 May 2014.

Rubio, Marco “Marco Rubio English Amendment Would Tighten Language Requirements In

Immigration Reform”. The Huffington Post. 11 June 2013. Web. 6 May 2014.

Watt, Nicholas. “David Cameron Says That Immigrants Should Learn English” Theguardian.com

                     13 April 2011. Web. 6 May 2014 .

(Memoir) Forced Persistence

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I went to Diman Regional Vocational Technical High School. When you go to this school you have two weeks of academic classes and two weeks of shop class in a month. You can choose one of many kinds during your high school career, such as auto body, auto mechanics, drafting, culinary arts, plumbing, and many more. During your freshman year you go through eight shops the first two months you’re there. Having to pick one by the end of December. While I never actually picked the one I ended up with, in the end I didn’t mind at all. At first however, I absolutely hated House and Mill Carpentry because I never went through the shop itself so I didn’t know anything about it, not even the absolute basics. Secondly I had a feeling I wasn’t going to like it. However I stuck through it because honestly what choice did have?

I didn’t take school seriously back then, so I basically did it to myself. After the placement results came in I was in House and Mill Carpentry for the rest of High School. I still remember going into the House and Mill Carpentry shop for the first time, the smell of saw dust everywhere. Still wishing I had gotten auto body like I planned. The teacher I got for that class was just not fun to be around. I barley learned without him criticizing your every action you do, this was the same for everyone in the class. Fortunately for me though, the instructor for the freshman class got transferred to the house project of the shop almost immediately after I joined it. Right after that we got a new teacher who was actually the junior instructor at the time, and he was actually the complete opposite of my former teacher.

This new teacher always used phrases that you could remember. For example, “Righty tighty, Lefty loosey” if you ever got confused on how to tighten a bit or a clamp for example. I didn’t think or realize it at the time but this teacher is who started to get my persistence going in this trade. I didn’t have initial interest of doing the project we had to do which was make a coffee table. I wondered what I was going to do, because I was already at a disadvantage compared to everyone else. Not to mention I had no real interest in learning anything from carpentry. Except safety rules, I never want to hurt myself or anyone else due to being ignorant about the machines.

First a couple of weeks go by with this new teacher. While I actually enjoyed having him as a teacher, I was always slacking finding ways not to do work all because I didn’t want to be there. I would either purposely mess up on something I had to do or use the excuse “I’m to scared to use this machine”. While this caused me a lot of grief from the teacher and some students. I just didn’t care because I didn’t want to be in that shop, somehow hoping I could be transferred to my shop of choice, Auto Body.

A few months into the shop, I began to realize how I needed to get my rear in gear or I was going to fail. This is where my persistence began to come through. Every day I kept asking my teacher questions such as, How can you tell what a good piece of stock is good for a coffee table? Or what kind of bit do I need to get this finish? Despite my late start, I managed to catch up to everyone else all because of my persistence. My coffee table was finished and passed with a c+ with my horrible start. I was happy I stuck with it.

After freshman year, I knew I didn’t want to continue with this trade. However I was happy that I stuck through this for multiple reasons. I learned valuable experience that I wouldn’t have got if I wasn’t placed in this program. Also I will be able to fix any problems that could arise and save myself a lot of money, whenever I managed to buy my own house. My persistence gave me insight on how important and useful carpentry can be. My persistence in this situation was invaluable.

Rough draft of essay 4

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Should being competent in English be a requirement for new immigrants coming into the United States? I believe that there should be. Now I’m not saying they should be fluent in English immediately. However, I do believe that you should be able to speak the most common language in the country. Assimilating into a country that speaks a certain language should mean that you need to learn that language period.

 

As the joke goes: What do you call a person speaking three languages? Trilingual. What do you call one speaking two? Bilingual. What do you call a person speaking one language? American. Or in the case I’m trying to show, any nationality that comes in The United States. Since that’s exactly the same thing that is going on here. If you went to France and didn’t speak French you wouldn’t be able to function or if bad enough, not leave the country because no one can understand you.

 

Learning a second language is beneficial to anyone. As you’re driving on the highway, you do not see signs in Spanish or Portuguese, you see them in English. That’s not to say that Americans can’t also benefit from learning a second language of their choice. This shows that you have other interests around the world, instead of just your own country. It’s much better then being catered to everywhere you go, just because you refuse to learn another language.

 

Speaking multiple languages is a very useful thing in this world. However it is especially useful in the United States. For example, Fall River is heavily populated by Portuguese. So knowing both Portuguese and English is very useful for any business to have, not to mention everyday life. I currently work at a grocery store, you wouldn’t believe how many people just flat out spoke such poor English, that you cannot understand them at all. When they need help they just literally say, “You speak Portuguese?” and I firmly respond., “Not in the least”. They then continue either keep asking for someone who speaks their language, or they walk around confused for 30 minutes. Now here I could learn Portuguese to make both of our lives easier. However the majority of the United States does not speak Portuguese, and I honestly have no interest in that particular language.

 

In some interesting polls I found on Gallop, they have graphs that show even at the lowest percent, 59% of people in the United States think English is essential to learn, with the highest percent being 72%. Other facts include what other languages do you know other then English. First one being Spanish is at 60% of all Americans, French at 18%, German at 12% from there on its 5% and lower for any other languages.

Still a work in progress.

Should the U.S. enforce English courses for new immigrants?

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Sources for later.

http://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/politics-jan-june13-immigration_06-21/

 

http://www.businessweek.com/debateroom/archives/2008/08/immigrants_should_learn_english.html

 

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/08/09/immigrants-learn-english_n_3733140.html

 

http://www.gallup.com/poll/163895/say-essential-immigrants-learn-english.aspx

 

Things to use later

 

As the joke goes: What do you call a person speaking three languages? Trilingual.
What do you call one speaking two? Bilingual.
What do you call a person speaking one language? American.

Essay #3 Draft

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Jeremy Souza

 English 101

 Professor Pappas

 April 3rd, 2014

DrinkingBird_LG2

 

 

 

 

This toy can go by many names, the most popular being the “Insatiable Birdie”, however it canalso be named, drinking bird, mechanical water bird and the dipping bird. Dr. Miles V Sullivan was given

credit for the “insatiable birdie” in 1946 mostly because it was patented in the US, Sullivan did notactually create this toy. It was originally found in shanghai in 1922 by Albert Einstein. I did find that, it

was made in a toy shop in shanghai. However the actual creator of this isn’t mentioned on any credible source, however there are a few who can be given credit for this invention or toy. Takao Sakai from

Tohoku University, could have introduced this Chinese toy. The “Insatiable Birdie” is also mentioned in

Yakov Perelman’s Physics for Entertainment explaining its basic purpose.

 

 

This toy is can be aimed towards children or adults, but this is debatable because the body of the bird is made of glass and could be dangerous to children. It can be more for adults simply because it

shows a basic law of thermodynamics, and some for chemistry and physics. However children can alsoenjoy it because, it is entertaining to see how it’s moving on its own. It could also maybe persue them on

a path to science. The fluid inside can also stain everything very easily if it breaks, it can also be hazardous to your skin if it’s exposed. The early models were often filled with a highly flammable

substance. The fluid in later versions is nonflammable. Dichloromethane can irritate the skin on contactand the lungs if inhaled.”

 

 

At first I wasn’t sure how this toy worked, but I found out.“It moves on its own because, the differencebetween ambient temperature and wet bulb temperature is what drives its movement. It is not a perpetual

motion machine, it is a heat engine. At room temperature, a slight change of temperature difference causesthe bright red chemical to climb to his head. Suddenly top heavy, the insatiable birdie falls over. The felt head,

soaked in the water from the cup, cools the methylene chloride, and it drains back to the bottom. Thebird rights itself, and repeats its process all over again. It works due to evaporation, the expansion of gases

and equilibrium. It’s very interesting that something that looks so simple, actually applies of a lot of scientific laws,chemistry and physics especially.

 

 

This toy follows a few basic laws of chemistry and physics. It has to do with Chemistry because the liquid inside the bird is what allows its motion. Physics shows what basic laws this toy follows. One of

 these laws is “The Second Law of Thermodynamics states (paraphrased) that energy can neither be created nor destroyed in a closed system.”

 

 

As stated by Ron Schenone on his blog, he states “The famous drinking bird actually demonstrates several scientific principlse with the assistance of an ordinary glass of water. The dichloromethane contained inside of it has a low boiling point that allows the Famous Drinking Bird to operate as a heat engine at room temperature. Other concepts demonstrated include: the Maxwell–Boltzmann distribution, the combined gas law, heat of vaporization, the ideal glass law, torque andcenter of mass, wet-bulb temperature, and capillary action of the included wicking felt. “

 

The liquid in its body is methylene chloride, which has a very low boiling point, and therefore evaporates quickly. It is important to note again that, this is not a perpetual motion machine. This has to

be refueled, or recharged, after the water is gone. Just as you replug your phone when the power is low,or refueling your car when its empty.

 

 

In conclusion, this simple toy has a lot more going on for it then it appears. This isn’t a widely popular toy anymore by any means, with it’s goofy top hat and feather on the body that have no real

purpose. It is still quite useful in showing some of the basic laws of thermodynamics. Along with other ones such as, chemistry and physics.

Works Cited

 

 

Schenone, Ron. “Famous Drinking Bird is for Adults Only.” Lockergnome.com.

Lockergnome, Inc. 13 February 2014. Web. 3 April 2014

 

 

Farabee, M.J. “Laws of Thermodynamics” www2.estrellamountain.edu

 

18 May 2010. 3 April 2014

 

 

 

 

 

Essay # 3

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What is the purpose of this toy?

 

 

Who made it?

 

Dr. Miles V Sullivan was given credit for this in 1946 because it was patented. It was originally found in china by Albert Einstein, no sources were found trying to find its creator.

 

Whos the target audience?

 

This is debatable but it’s supposedly for adults

 

Where was it discovered?

Albert Einstein discovered this in 1922, when he was on a trip to shanghai.

 

Why did they make it?

 

What is this used for?

What does this have to do with physics?

 

The goop in his butt is methylene chloride, which has a very low boiling point, and therefore evaporates quickly. At room temperature, one or two degrees temperature difference causes the bright red chemical to climb to his head. Suddenly topheavy, he falls over. The felt head, soaked in the water from the cup, cools the methylene chloride, and it drains back to the bottom. The bird rights itself, and it starts all over again.

 

The drink­ing bird is a heat en­gine that works on var­i­ous laws of ther­mo­dy­nam­ics. It works due to evap­o­ra­tion, the ex­pan­sion of gases and equi­lib­ri­um

 

What law does this prove?

 

The Second Law of Thermodynamics states (paraphrased) that energy can neither be created nor destroyed in a closed system

 

Would you buy one of these?

 

Why is the “body” of the bird red or blue?

 

How does it make a back and forth motion on after one dip?

The difference between ambient temperature and wet bulb temperature is what drives its movement.

Is the top hat just for show? Or does it have a purpose?

 

Just for show since it is actually a toy

 

Is it safe for kids?

 

This is debatable because the body of the bird is made of glass and could be dangerous to children. The fluid inside can also stain everything very easily if broken.

 

Early models were often filled with highly flammable substances. The fluid in later versions is nonflammable. Dichloromethane can irritate the skin on contact and the lungs if inhaled.

What other toys have the same purpose of the drinking bird?

Slinkie

 

Whats the liquid inside the drinking bird?

 

The fluid is typically dichloromethane, also known as methylene chloride. Earlier versions contained trichloromonofluoromethane.

 

Sources

 

http://pediaview.com/openpedia/Drinking_bird

http://shelf3d.com/nyczz9NsFgs#Evaporative%20Cooling%20-%20Science%20behind%20the%20dippy%20bird

http://wn.com/the_drinking_duck

http://article.wn.com/view/2011/02/28/Analysing_the_Drinking_Bird/

http://www.theguardian.com/science/punctuated-equilibrium/2011/feb/28/1

http://www.lockergnome.com/homestead/collectibles/2014/02/03/famous-drinking-bird/

http://www.waynesthisandthat.com/birds.html

http://www2.estrellamountain.edu/faculty/farabee/biobk/biobookener1.html

How persistence is the key to life

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Persistence is a very important trait in life, but why is it exactly? For starters, any hobbies you may have at one time required a lot of persistence in order for you to enjoy it. For example, I personally enjoy art and initially I was absolutely terrible at it. However with a lot of persistence over the years I managed to draw at what I believe a good level. While I don’t have this hobby anymore, I needed that persistence to make way into other things such as, school, sports,  and exercise. The point I’m trying to make is that you need persistence throughout your life for everything. I didn’t think I needed to force myself to do anything, that is until, I found myself going back to school, after taking a very long break. Looking back now, I saw a few key things that make persistence what it is, for example, motivation, positivity, and even failure are what I believe, are key parts to persistence.

 

Motivation is essential to persistence, simply because what are you persistent about exactly? What is your drive, your goal? One thing you may think about once you’re out of high school might be, for example, what is my goal? Some could say, “I’m going to be a doctor”. A doctor would be a huge indication of motivation and persistence. Six long years of schooling at minimum, and that long term of persistence of doing your best with your degree so you can become a doctor one day. As stated from stateuniversity.com, “Motivation is also the study of what pushes or pulls an individual to start, direct, sustain, and finally end an activity” (1). A personal motivation I’ve had lately, is forcing myself going to the gym, two to three times a week. I have been forcing myself to run at least 1 mile, everyday minimum, along with other exercises, such as, squats, push ups and various other ones, depending on what I’ve accomplished that week.

 

I believe positivity is also another factor in determining persistence. How could anyone be persistent about something while kicking your feet along the way? Persistence is about having an optimistic attitude for whatever you goal may be. Positivity can also link to another part of persistence, which is motivation as I mentioned earlier. If you cannot be motivation and a positive attitude in your goals you are doomed for failure before you even begin. As Dominic Randolph mentioned in his article of the NY times about teaching good character in students. “When that person suddenly has to face up to a difficult moment, then I think they’re screwed, to be honest. I don’t think they’ve grown the capacities to be able to handle that”(1). This could mean that without a positive outlook on things, a student could be overcome with doubt and stop their drive to be persistent about his or her career.

 

Another key to persistence is failure, without failure you cannot learn from your mistakes. You can only learn so much from a textbook, you need to go out in life and experience everything you can. For example, you could be going after a job you really want and have to the essential credentials and then some on your resume. However if you can’t just “Wow” that employer you’re not going to get that job you so badly. This is a lesson in life failure, which in turn you can take a look of what happened, figure out how you could improve what you did and said during the interview and improve your chances for next time. As Jennie Rose mentioned on her blog wall, a book called How Children Succeed: Grit, Curiosity, and the Hidden Power of Character, by author Paul Tough stated “Critics have argued that what tough is really talking about are life skills that can’t be taught.” (1). Showing that failure has to be learned from, and that persistence is a life skill that cannot be taught through traditional means.
In conclusion, I believe that their is quite a few things that make persistence what is it. Again, motivation, positivity, and failure are just a few of many things, that can make persistence, such a important aspect to anyone’s life. Persistence is defenitly a learned trait however, because sometimes you just need to pick yourself up, from whatever is holding you back and push yourself forward to your goal.

 

The New York Times, inc. The New York Times. 2011. Web. 14 September 2011.

Blogs.org, inc. Blogs.org.  2012. Web. 27 July  2012.