Reflective Essay : Things To Keep In Mind for Successful Dormitory Life

          It has been about ten months since I started to live in the dormitory. For many of the students including me, they had never experienced any similar things such as this. Few of them left the school because they could not adapt to this but mostly, everyone is doing fine. I learned new knowledge and studied new subjects, but I learned things that are more important than my grades or exams. Most of them came from my life in the dormitory. In each room, six people share one room. This is the only place where students can get freed from teachers and EOPs. Because the rooms have so different characteristics compared to any area of this school, the life inside the room is also very important. I want to tell you is what I learned during this first year: things to maintain a positive dormitory life.

           Harmony is one of the things that students need in order to be stay well with other people. It also applies same at the outside of this school. But it is much of a greater deal because the person has to live with two other people who are very different from him or her. There was one room on the first floor last semester which atmosphere was terrible. One of the people in the room was having conflicts with the other five and it was just not pleasant to see. The separation between roommates and homemates are terrible. They are the ones that you have to live with everyday and not going well with those people will make the dormitory life miserable. They should try to accept others and be more reluctant to other people’s behaviors although they might not like or used to it.

           Similar to harmony, tolerance is also an important key to the successful dormitory life. Every student has different habits and ways of lifestyle. Some might wake up early whereas others might wake up late. Some people would like to listen to loud music when others prefer classical music. Because everyone is not the same, everyone should have tolerance to other’s actions or behaviors. Sometimes, your roommate would cross the line and did things that made you mad. However, you should try to understand why that person did that instead of starting a conflict. Then roommates will understand the things so that he should avoid things in order to prevent frictions between other people. The atmosphere of room depends on the tolerance of the people in the room. Therefore, they should always try to look at with different perspective to at least try to communicate better with the members of the room.

           Unlike harmony or tolerance, this one is about the person’s attitude. The students here are isolated from their parents and other people who take care of them. This type of situation might help the students to act and make decisions on their own which is great for developing independence. However, it is like the double-edged sword. If the person just could not control or not even try to control his lifestyles, then I recommend him to quit the school. That is why the self-control is the one of the factors of the positive dormitory life. Nobody stops you from playing computer games or watching cartoons or sleeping all days. However, nobody pays the price of those actions but you. Developing a regularly life by using moderation is so important because that is the only way to use the time wisely in this busy life of KMLA.

           There are many other important things that people should keep in mind in order to live well in the dormitory. But whatever the lesson or the moral is, you should maintain a great and close relationship with the members of your room and can moderate your behavior on your will If you can both of them, I can bet you that based on my one year experience, you will go through an enjoying and terrific life in KMLA.

TED video - Ric Elias : 3 things I learned while my plane crahsed

“Three things I learned while my plane crashed”. The title captivated my attention. This clip was only five minutes but it was long enough to move my heart. Ric Elias is the speaker and he talked about the three things that changed in his life. Those changes were not novel or provocative. However, they are actually profound and so important because they can be applied to everyone. As I was heeding, his words affected my attitude.

           The three changes he mentioned were urgency, relationship, and “being a good dad”. To explain details about them, the urgency here means not to postpone anything to some point at the future because the future might not come. The saying “I collect bad wines” articulated what he wanted to say. This part of the speech made me to reflect myself. I thought I was very diligent but come to think about it, I am very lax person after all.

           Ric Elias also strongly spoke about the relationship between other people especially one that you love. He said, “I regretted the time I wasted on things that did not matter with people that matter.” This phrase truly shows the importance of amity and the relationship between inside the family. I was disparaged after I heard this phrase because it was concise yet astute. This made me to contrite about my past when I was having conflicts with the “people that matter”.

           The last thing he talked about was “being a good dad.” At first, because I am not a dad of a son or a daughter, I felt somewhat apathy to what he said. But then as I watched this video second time, I realized that this statement was relevant to me. Although this part is very similar to the second part, he wanted to emphasize the importance of the family. When he thought that the plane crash was inevitable, he was not afraid of his death. Sadness was the only thing in his mind and it was because he could no longer see his children grow up. Because I am staying at a boarding school, I can partly relate to feeling of not able to see his family.

           Ric was very candid during his speech which is the reason why this speech is so laudable. People do not know what will happen in the future. One thing that is sure is that nobody will live an incessant life. To not condone any regret later on, people should learn from Ric’s changes in his attitude. I believe a pivotal change would happen if you really enhance yourself by accommodating those lessons.


NEWSPAPER ARTICLE ABOUT THE PLANE CRASH: 
http://articles.cnn.com/2009-01-15/us/new.york.plane.crash_1_air-traffic-controllers-bird-strike-pilot?_s=PM:US

Fingerstyle (related to August Rush)

Justin King - Phunkdified



Eric Mongrain - Air Tap



Kotaro Oshio - Landscape



Jung Sung Ha - Sweet Child O'Mine

Review - August Rush

       "August Rush” is the best film that satisfied my ears. The movie director did not need to create new, separate sound tracks because the music that came out in the plot was so amazing. Also I liked how this movie portrayed the music as the best tool to communicate and create a harmony.
       Evan Taylor was a music prodigy who was in an orphanage. He did not know where his parents were but he had a belief that one day, he would find both of them through the power of music. Actually his parents were both deeply related to music, too. His father, Louis Connelly was the main vocal and a guitar player in the band made of all of his brothers. His mother Lyla Novacek was a talented cellist. So this boy decided to go to New York in order to find his parents. While he was on his way, both his parents looked for each other. I will not tell you the ending but it is pretty predictable. By the way, the name August Rush is the name the Evan used as a fake name.
       What I really liked about this movie is the lessons of the story. It is kind of weird to say lessons but more of things that the movie wanted to tell. It deals about the true meaning of the music. “But I believe in music… The way that some people believe in fairy tales.” I think that music is the only thing that everyone can communicate. Music is the place where people can escape from when bad things happen. Also this movie depicts the importance of the family. The plot is maybe too idealistic but I liked the idea that the family should not be separated. In the movie, Layla did not even know his son's real name but she tried everything to find his son. Her actions truly show her love toward her family which we should learn from. 

       Many scenes where the characters played their instruments were great. Especially to me, the two parts where the acoustic guitar came out interested me. First part is where Evan first touched the guitar. His performance was so great because he played it in a very different style compared to normal guitar player. The other part is where Louis and Evan play each other’s guitar. They did not know that the other was the one that they were looking for. That scene really showed the connection between two by using music.
       Most of the critics did not like this movie whereas normal audiences liked it. I believe that this happened because those two different groups had different purposes of watching this film. Critics would have a thought in their minds to evaluate. However, the audience would just watch it for entertainment. I guessed that critics would dislike this for the predictable ending, unrealistic flow of the plot, weak structure and many characters that aren't developed during the run-time.  On the other hand, the audience would liked it because it had great soundtracks, a happy ending, and a plot almost like a fairy tale. The normal audiences probably was more relaxed and lenient during the movie compared to the critics.
       This movie's structure was not the best, I think. Maybe for some people, it is kind of too sugary and unrealistic like a fairy tale. The ending was predictable for me. However, the use of the soundtracks in this movie was so memorable. I thought it would be nice to just watch the movie without watching but listening. Just like what Evan said, “All you have to do is open yourself up. All you have to do … is listen,”So maybe if you want to spend your time watching a relaxing, warm movie, I recommend you to watch this film.

Three Words (Mr. Moon)

 Boat, Tree and Bird
       
         I drift without plans. A tiny boat on a huge ocean, nobody can be seen around the boat. The boat follows the current of emptiness, regardless of the direction of the destination. The currents are so hard that they overcome the boat’s force. The boat ended up nowhere, left alone in the middle of the dark ocean. Also, I do not move from where I belong. A small tree on a grassy hill, no one comes except the winds. The winds act like as friends but none of them stay. I fly above everything. Nobody stops me if I cross a wall, a fence, or a border. I only have the wings of freedom but I have everything I need. Like a water, nothing can restrict me.

Reading Journal 1 : THE BODY

             Due to lack of concentration, I did not catch who wrote the story which was in a different font. As mentioned in the book, it turned out to be Gordie’s. That was really interesting. Although he wrote this when he was in the college, the story has so many similar characteristics to his childhood. Goldie lost his older brother Dennis which made his parents not to care about him. In the story, the main character Chico lost his brother Johnny in the accident. The relationship between Gordie and his parents were not comfortable. There is a scene in the book which Goldie fought with his parents. Maybe Gordie had unpleasant memories in the past that they still have effects on him which is similar to childhood trauma. .

             Death is not a pleasant thing to be close with. However, Gordie had faced it when he was only a kid. At that age, he was probably not mature enough to overcome the death of person who was close to him. That might caused him some sort of trauma that made him never forget about the death of his brother. Although I did not read up to the part where the boys actually find the dead body but at some point they will. That might aggravated the shock he got from the unfortunate event.

             I also saw a dead body and it was not a pleasant experience. When I was about eight years old, my grandmother died in a car accident. So later on, her body was sent to the hospital which my uncle worked at. Before the burial, there was the last time to see her so my parents and other adults went inside the room. Accidently, I went inside that room which I was not supposed to do. The first things I saw were the pale feet. I still remember the atmosphere. Although the temperature was normal, it was so cold. It felt like the air was pressing down. Although I was taken out of the room immediately, I still cannot forget about it.