Journal 56: Big Apple

I believe that with a global network university, an enrolled student has more opportunities to interact with people of other cultures and also have a more diverse range of knowledge. With Global network university the students are cosmopolitan. A global network university such as NYU represents my ambitions of become a diverse person and also my dreams of traveling the world. The network allows students to travel the world to the school's separate campuses around the world. With each campus comes a different environment and culture to live in, and each one provides new opportunities. With each culture I would expect to learn something new, something life changing, and something that would change how I see the world. Also experiencing life outside of your comfort zone will broaden my knowledge of how to interact with others and how to reach my goals better. With each trip I would mature more and through that process become a diverse and well educated being.

Journal 55: Public Interest

I believe that is important to give back to our society, because the whole time getting raised up the society is a big element in raising us up. one who enter society as an adult after college or grad-school should always find a way to give back to the people who gave to him or her. It is a act of kindness and respect to the society as a whole. If everyone was selfish and cynical the world would be in worse situation that it is in already. No body would ever think about the well beings of others and what their society turns out to be. To contribute to the effort by giving back is a way of protecting the peace and serenity of a society.  In America all the citizens are supposed to contribute to society one way or another. You can make money to maintain the economy, take care of children to bring up the next generation, or invent or create new technology to advance the society. There are many ways of contributing back to the society and I believe that everyone should try to contribute no matter what. To contribute is to care and to care is to guaranty a better future, one without war or bankruptcy.

Journal 54: Literature and Death

Literature may be a way to overcome death but I do not believe it to the only way. You can be an actor and the movies you leave behind for future generations will be what over comes death. For artists their art work overcomes death. Literature is only one of many ways to overcome death. Even in the quote where the father is troubled after a show, wouldn't he be troubled after publishing a novel, and the book signings are over? Now a days theater plays are recorded and appreciate by those who watch it in years to come. Everything can allow a person's character or achievement overcome death. I myself find it more satisfactory to work on a piece of art but when I complete it I will a sense of accomplishment and pride. Knowing that my work in school would be shown to the freshman and sophomore of the years to come allows me to live on in the school even after I leave off to college. Maybe one day when I decide to come back and visit the students will recognize my name but not my face. That is what I think about over coming death. It no longer has to be just in literature that it can be achieved but in art, film, dance, or song.

Journal 53: Reasoning and Insight

I believe that in sight is of the most important far more important that rigor. Many things in the world are found through experimentation that follow no restrictions. Rigor restricts people from discovering new things. Even though it is important at time to avoid mistake. However that is only for things that are already complete and need no improvement. Insight allows people to express what they feel and what their perspective is. In the sciences and in art insight and innovation come hand in hand. If art was restricted there would be no Picasso, no Van Gogh, and no Salvador Dali. None of the great innovators in art would be viewed as great artist they would be viewed as trash artists who wouldn't follow rigor. Art principles are in no relation to any type of rigor, far away from that. Art is as liberal and insightful as you can get and only then are there great influential figures such as Andy Warhol. If I was ever asked to complete an art assignment under strict rules and regulations, I would produce something that is the exact opposite of the rules and go wild on it. Just to make a point that rigor doesn't create art.

Journal 52: Life of Service

Faith and learning can work together since they share similar principals. Even though I am not a religious person  I still have faith. I have faith in ideals that I believe in and faith in people who I love. To have faith in something one must put work into maintaining it. Learning to acquires one to put work into it. Having faith and a learning attitude can get you far in life. You have faith to stand firm with your ideals and have a learning attitude to learn from your mistakes and from others with more knowledge than you do. Learning new things and following your faith to help people around you help you become a better person and also make people like you. In the modern world popularity is very important, but not the kind of popularity of high school. Popularity in the adult world gains you acceptance to jobs and having a good reputation keeps you on the good list instead of the bad list. To do good for others out of your faith and service-learning can help you renew yourself and cleanse yourself of bad things. Learning to follow good faith will make a place for you in society where everyone adores you, the environment would be good for you.

Journal 51: Best Laid PLans

I have always romanticized things that I plan to do. I would dream about exactly how I am going to achieve my goals and believe that it would be the way that things will turn out. However it is hardly ever what I think it will be and never do I learn the lesson. I was assigned to produce a important video for my school. I planned every that I needed to film, when I needed to film it, and of whom I am to ask to participate. Finally the "shooting" week rolls along and the people who I asked to take part of the video slowly show up, only to tell me that they can't make it. My plans are ruined I had to squeeze in time where I had none just to cooperate with the people who are suppose to make time for me, not the other way around. I was really disappointed. What I thought was going to be a breeze with everything going to plan went all wrong and I had to end up  rushing the final product. good thing it turned out alright. I had to work after school on the video and editing took a lot more time that I thought it would have too. Even though I know that romanticizing is bad I still do it because only then would I have the motivation to do something, there is always a chance that things will go as planned.

Journal 50: My World

Asia, Shanghai, Taiwan, and bit and pieces of America, these are the places that make up my still developing world. I have lived in Asia all my life and only visited the United States once in my life for a school trip. Asian culture runs in my blood naturally and along with it is later injected american culture I've received from classmates and teachers in the schools I go to. The country I live in now is were my whole family is from and where I grew up, apart form Shanghai. The people here are as friendly as it gets with the exceptional few, who are arrogant and mean. It has a very stereo typical Asian society in schools and social areas. In schools everyone is super competitive and everyone is focused on their academics. Art students here are seen as children who can't do well in academics and have to choose the path of an artist or designer. However that is not true. Many art students still maintain a high GPA and hold high positions in school clubs and councils. My community is like a little piece of America trapped in a large piece of Asia. Only a selected few know the cultural mix and are like me.

Journal 47: More Art

I haven't yet seen a piece of art that has greatly influenced me in my own work yet. However the ways that some other people work have motivated me to either work as hard as they do or to not slack off like some others. Also I believe that having joined the musical production and getting involved with all parts of the production I have opened my mind a lot more to different forms of art. By piecing the different things that I have taken in from various experiences I create my own style and a larger impact. Each movie I watch now I try to learn something from it. It can be the theme or how they change the atmosphere to best suit what they are trying to portray. From viewing other people's art work I try to learn the techniques they use to create it and also why they created it. I like to take bits and pieces of what I like, change it and then combine it all together and create something new. I don't like living under another artist's shadow I want to stand next to them and see our shadows race. I know that I am far away from any well known artist out there but I'll start small in my own school and slowly expand my range of notability.

Journal 49: What I Am Proud Of

In my life one trait has gotten me past a lot of rough times. The trait is optimism and forgiveness. I am a very optimistic person and I also forgive people easily but know to keep my distance. There are always things in life that go wrong when you least expect it to. The only thing that you can do then is to think to the future forget the pain of the even but remember the lesson. Optimism along with my willingness to forgive allows to move on and laugh it off. Holding grudges and having a gloomy mood all the time is good for no one. People around you can feel it and they tend to leave you along even though you want company. You only get more miserable as you stay gloomy and refuse to let go. I consider myself lucky to have these traits and I try to help others who are lacking these traits. I try to feel happy all the time because it help my performance in all different fields and when i get angry things aren't pretty. That is the one trait I hate the most. I hate it when I loose control and get angry. When I do I feel that I loos control of what my mind and body does. This is another reason why I learned to control myself and let my optimism dominate.

Journal 48: Busy Busy Busy

High school life never stops for you. Everyday new challenges and work awaits you. Sometimes its the same old thing, and some times it surprises you. Rarely are the things that needed to be done something I enjoy. However when ever I am done with the homework needed to be done I have time to sketch and draw. Drawing is something I enjoy a lot. Even though it make take a lot of time to complete a portrait of a favorite celebrity, the end product always gives me a sense of achievement and pride. I start out by searching for interesting images of people and pick out the one that appeals to me the most. I open my old and battered sketch book and open to a new page, blank and ready for a long process of sketching and erasing. The eyes are what I usually start with because I think it one of the main things to pay attention to. By doing the eyes right I can make the whole portrait come alive. The eyes are the windows to the soul after all. then I work my way down the face nose, mouth. Then back up to the eye brows adding more emotion with each subtle curve here and there. No the outline of the head, then hair, and more details. By the end it would have probably taken me a couple of hours to finish. My eyes are aching form staring at the picture and sketch book for too long and my fingers aching from holding the pen or pencil. I sit back and just stare into the eyes of my creation, with a smirk on my face. I feel accomplished.

Journal 46: Art and Life

Art has always been a part of my life but I never got serious until the freshman year of my high school life. In the previous journal I have already explained why I went on the path of art. I like the freedom and I love the feeling of creating pieces of art. I hope the art colleges will clear up my doubts about my profession in art and also lead me to a major I feel confident about. I am 100% certain that I'll be going for an art major but I do not know which major to take. Frankly I want to do a little bit of everything. That is why I hope that during the freshman year I will have opportunities to take as many classes of different fields of art. From before my high school education, art classes were all very routine and planned unlike what I experience and know as art now. It was dull and boring. My high school classes of art made me want more, craved for more. I enjoy feeling of painting a blank canvas with varsities of color to create a image that was in my head. I enjoy the feeling of shaping a piece of shapeless clay into an abstract or realistic image that was in my head. Everything I create comes form me and me only no other influence. Art leaves me with my creativity, making the world my own.

Journal 45: About Myself

People always ask me why I became an art student. Isn't art for people who are poor in the academics? Every time I hear that the first thing I do is wonder why people are so judgmental on art students. Not every art student have poor grades. Only those who have poor grades become art students because they believe its a lot easier. The truth is I feel that it is a lot harder than being an academic student. Why? Because art students take the same required courses normal students do and then they have to make out time from SAT and TOEFL practices to produce their portfolio.
I became an art student not because I had no choice (most who have no choice don't become good art students because they aren't serious about it), I became an art student because I have a deep passion for art. In ninth grade I truly experiences what art was.  I walked into the art room of my new school expecting the same regulated environment of set colors and materials. However I opened the door to the smell of acrylic paint and materials here and there. It felt so free. I fell in love with the environment immediately however that was not the cause of me becoming an art student. It was what I experienced later on in the class. As many people say "once you get a taste of freedom you only want more". Art was like that to me through that class. It was freedom. The freedom to express myself the way I want and the only way for me to acquire more and more freedom through different mediums and materials, 2D to 3D. That is why  I choose art, because it satisfies my want for freedom and it is what makes me happy.

Journal 44: Past Experinces

My family's economical situation made it impossible for us to live the way we did before. We had to move back to Taiwan and my sister and I needed to mature more and faster then others. I never cared about money and wondered where it came from. Then because of the move I met my freshman year art teacher along with my freshman year musical and drama teacher. They both inspired me to go with the art path, to follow what I like and not what others think I would like. The drama teacher taught me how to not be afraid to express myself in front of others. My art teacher taught me how to be confident in my own choices. My major is in the Art/Design field but I have yet to decide what specific path I want to take yet. The first year of college I really want to that a variety of classes to really find the major I am most interested in. I don't want to be in my junior year of college and hate what I am majoring in. I want the first year to be eye opening so that I will not miss out on any available chances.

Journal 43: Intellectual Vitality

Through my high school life I have experienced many events that have boosted my intellectual vitality. At home on the internet i also add more to my intellectual vitality. During my freshman year of high school the art class the teacher showed me a way out of the foggy road I was on before. I never knew what I wanted to do before but after taking his class I realized how much I loved art and want it to be a part of my daily life. He gave me courage and inspired me to work.

Dear roommate:

My name is Patrick and I am a art student. So stereo typically I am bright and optimistic character and that is also the truth. I can laugh almost everything off. I like my work place to be tidy and clean, anything that goes out of order while I work can really mess me up

Journal 42: School and Major

I choose RISD not based on its ranking, I chose it for all the facilities it owns and also the opertunaties that it offers. I wan to go there because I agree with its mission and admire all its members. Also the majors that the school offers along with the courses and freedom of choice makes it another big reason why i want to apply for RISD. Being accepted to RISD I would like to make use of as much of the facilities as possible and to also contribute back to the school. Redecorate school halls and make installations around campus. However RISD is not the only school I would be appling to. Other school's such as SAIC, SVA, Parsons, and a few others would be schools I will be applying for. For each school there is a reason for me applying there. Weather it be the facilities, teaching methods, environment, or curriculum. SAIC would be my second choice because of its city location in Chicago and also because I have many friends there that continue to boast about how good their school is. It a lot of pressure but I have done my own research and found it to e a pretty good school overall.

Journal 41: Leaders in the Making

In the skating world many reefer to Andrew Reynolds as the "Boss". He is a leading figure in the skating industry and even he himself doesn't skate much anymore he owns many companies that are closely related to the skating world. Now suppose that I am the one giving advice and basically directing the "Boss". What will I do? First of all I love the brands that he own but I only wished that there were more products and newer looks to things. I would advise him to change it up a little while keeping some traditions. Produce more products and not to limit on only jeans, T-shirts, and sweaters. Accessory is a big bushiness and I would advise him to begin design departments for more accessories and to begin production. Then I would love it if he was to skate and create more videos this would also earn him some money if he produces an other CD with his skate team. To merge with more companies and form alliances is also an other thing. All the fans love seeing brands come together and creating shoes or clothes. Many times people buy it just because of the merge.

Journal 40: Spring Break

Spring break... wasn't exactly what I remember it to be. I remember spring break being the week during the middle of second semester, when everything is loose and relaxing. Out of the 9 days we had I spent half of it in classes and the rest at home excluding two days of fun I had. Even on the day I went out with my friends I was constantly reminded of academically related things, either by my parents or my own subconscious mind. I finally went to a concert I wanted to go to but unfortunately had to go home early for class the next morning. I was sleep deprived and tired all spring break, I had no idea why. I felt that I didn't get the spring break I wanted but I guess I got the spring break I deserved. Juniors still had to work over spring break, homework from the teachers and SAT vocab and practice packets to do. It was hard to concentrate on the school work while on break. Always thinking that we had more time left. Its a week of free time, no sweat. So I always end up piling the work till the end of the break and do them all at once. Doing so produces poor quality work. All and all it was a alright spring break not a perfect one.

Journal 39: Lucky You

If I was to win the lottery I wouldn't drop everything that I am doing in school and just go and live a easy life. I know that if I am to do so I'll soon end up broke, lazy ,and unhappy. I would save it first and still go through high school and college paying for the tuition myself. I would give a portion of the money to my parents for raising me. Then when I graduate from college I would work as a designer and during my vacations I would use the money to travel around the world. Then possibly create my own design company with the money and experiences I have. I would have a early retirement and live off the money my company makes and what ever is left form the lottery. It would be such a easy going and if at some point I wish to give up everything and become lazy I could but I hope I won't. Being rich doesn't mean you can just not work and sit on your ass all day. You already have the money but now you have to work to mature and work to gain the respect of others. So that others don't just see you have the lucky lottery winner but as someone who works hard no matter what.

Journal 38: Opportunity Cost

Opportunity cost; the price I have to pay for choosing one thing over the other. Many times I have a choice of things to do and many times I choose A knowing that I will waste time for which I can be doing B. Its a difficult choice because either way I will lose the opportunity to do one or the other. What if I was to choose to not stay after school and hang out with friends. I could go home finish my homework, watch a little TV, and go to sleep earlier. So why do I choose to stay after school? Pier pressure? Do I just want to have fun and don't care about school or is it because I don't think sleeping is important? It can be any of these reasons. However I do not regret my choice. Having a social life is also important to a child's life. Having a good social life can boost a child's confidence and help him through hardships. Even though I choose to stay in school to hang out with friends, I still get my work done on time and maintain my grades. The only thing I am sacrificing is sleep and that is something that I have already learned to deal with. There are times when I think back and wished that I had got home earlier but most of the times I am happy with the result of my choices and I accept my opportunity costs. 

Journal 37: Test Prep on Writing

I think the way that test such as the SAT is set up is really unhealthy. Unhealthy because it obscures the whole process of learning. The SAT is suppose to be a test of knowledge you already have and not of what you can learn in a two month period. Especially the way to write an essay. There is a formula for writing an essay on the SAT and if I was to use that same formula on a essay for a class in high school I would only get a low score. It is because the SAT essays are graded under a minute and the only thing they are looking for is structure, connection from your examples to the subject, and hand writing. They don't care about weather what you are writing is right or wrong. The essay that is produced by this process lacks creativity and the spark that makes essay worth reading. If this is the only thing people get to learn in high school their college professor wouldn't be happy.  Essays are suppose to display a personal view on a issue. It suppose to unique and interesting. Essays are not suppose to be formulated line by line. By doing so the point of writing a essay is lost and there is no reason to even test our knowledge any more knowing that people can prep for it.

Journal 36: Cheating

I think what's happening in the world today with all the "cheating" is immoral and despicable. I don't like it but sometimes I do it myself making me a hypocrite. In Taiwan and China cheating is not only used in education but in everything else. Cheating in businesses making the economy corrupt. Cheating in produces threatening the health of the buys by leaving important ingredients or replacing them with fake ones. Cheating is applicable to almost everything in life include college admissions. This is the thing I have the most issue about. Many people are getting into universities and college that they do not deserve and by doing this they take the opportunity away from people who actually worked hard for the opportunity. Cheating is only acceptable to me when its a matter of life and death and that cheating is the only way to survive and live. The habit of cheating is not something people are suppose to learn in order to survive in society but it has exactly come to in society today.

Journal 34: Race to College

The issue around racial advantage has been around for a long time and in many forms. It started up with racism and whites thinking that they are superior to blacks and many other races. Slavery has been put to a end but racism still here with us today. Colleges are allowed to use the race of a person in the judging of their admission and too many people it seems unfair. The colleges shouldn't just assume that if a person is of a dark skin tone that they are raised in a poorer family and that they had to fight for their opportunities.  Just because the other candidate is white doesn't mean that they are raised in a extremely well environment and opportunities are just given to them. It very much could be the direct opposite, black candidate was raised in a wealthy family and the white candidate in a poorer family. That is why I think that race and ethnicity should't be considered into the acceptance of students. It should work around where and how they grew up and not what shade their skin is. Yes, many time blacks live in a less beneficial environment but many times it is not the case. To include race and ethnicity in the process of admission is racist.

Journal 33: My Activity

I have never taken swimming seriously until the summer of 2008. I swam everyday and almost half of the time I was in the pool. I have been swimming since I was in the elementary school; however I never took it seriously. I didn't know any other stroke other than the breast stroke. I swam all summer and began learning the other strokes myself. It wasn't easy but in the end the hard work paid off. School started and I joined the swimming team. All the effort I put into learning the strokes and building my stamina paid off during the practices and even more in the competitions. I noticed how hard work pays off. I have never been a hard worker but learning from this experience, I was determined to change. I work harder knowing that it will result in a better out come. I have grown from Swimming.  

Journal 31: How to Impress

To impress someone or to get there attention is not a simple thing to do. In my writing I always try to make it interesting and too captivate the reader. Using swimming as my extracurricular activity it may not be easy to make people interested in pure swimming. That is why I think putting in the lesson I learned or a idea I want to pass through. Mentioning more personal anecdotes with a meaning full out come is the one thing that catches people's attention.
From swimming I learned of the result of hard work and how being a hard working person always pays off. There have been times when I wanted to quit swimming and to just get lazy. However I pushed on and realized that the amount of work equals to the amount of outcome. I wasn't a hard working person and I think learning from swimming changed me as a person. I became a much more hardworking person and changes in my grades and work have changed as well

Journal 32: Free Write

This week seems too be going on for too long and its hard to bear. Especially since BEIMUN is beginning next week on Wednesday. I just can't wait for another trip to Beijing with all my friends and sleeping over at the same hotel. I can still remember how much fun we had last year and all the funny scene that occurred during the conference. The late night room service and also all the former classmates from my school in Shanghai that I got to meet again. Last time I was less prepared and I remember how nervous I was. However this year I am completely prepared to take on the debates and to be confident with the stands I take. As a group we have started a count down and we are only 7 days away from today. Everyone is excited and anticipating this trip. Yet people worry about who they are to be grouped with for rooming. I am nervous too. I am hoping not to room with a specific someone who seems to be the person that everyone else is avoiding. I feel bad for thinking that way but there is a good reason why we do that.  All in all BEIMUN is in a week and I can't wait to get on that 7:45 plane and fly to Beijing.

Journal 30 : Extra Curricular Activities

I have never taken swimming seriously until the summer of 2008. I swam everyday and almost half of the time I was in the pool. I have been swimming since I was in the elementary school; however I never took it seriously. I didn't know any other stroke other than the breast stroke. I swam all summer and began learning the other strokes myself. It wasn't easy but in the end the hard work paid off. School started and I joined the swimming team. All the effort I put into learning the strokes and building my stamina paid off during the practices and even more in the competitions. I noticed how hard work pays off. I have never been a hard worker but learning from this experience, I was determined to change. I work harder knowing that it will result in a better out come. I have grown from Swimming.  

Journal 29: Valentines

What is love? Love is to care for someone and to be there for the ones you care about without the wish of anything in return. Love is a sacrifice and many times it hurts. There are many forms of love and even more ways of which one can show that love another. You love your family, your friends, you pets, your toys, your life, your partner, and each type of love is the same yet different. I prove my love to others in many different ways. I usually show it by being a good friend and to help the people I love whenever I can. Sometimes I may seem to not be helping at all, but only because I know that they don't need help and that by doing it themselves they will learn more. I have never experienced what others called "love at first sight" and frankly I don't believe there is such a thing. "Love at first sight"; you only like what you see but you have no idea whats inside it. Its just like when you go and buy a video game when you look at the front and back cover you like it a lot. however when you ply it it may not be what it looked like and now you see it for what it truly is. People are the same its only through time you get to know someone and only then can you truly love someone.

Journal 28: Sources?

The current issue that I am writing an essay on has a abundant amount of information on the internet as well as on paper. I myself know a bit about the issue but I am sure the more information would help. The information I can gather up from the news and internet can greatly help me to convince my readers. It is because how I matured after the economical crisis and that I began to learn more about the world around me. If I write the essay without such information I would seem like I didn't mature at all and that I haven't learned any thing about the world around me and that I am a lazy person. Colleges don't want to see that I am lazy therefore I should search up more information on my essay topic so that it can help me convince my readers of my growth. Since the event has occurred four years ago it is very likely that most of my information would be on the internet and old newspapers. Since old newspapers are harder to get by my best bet would to be searching about it online with Google or Yahoo and once I find information I need I would bookmark it for later use and also check if the information is valid.

Journal 27: Personal, But Not Selfish

The economical is a global issue that effects millions around the world and more.  My family was a group that was effected and it changed all of our lifestyles. We Shanghai to Taiwan for our family to be together and the be able to afford the life expenses. It wasn't a easy transition for me and only later did I realize that many other families like also did what we have done too. My parents began to tell me about the economy and the situation we are in. I use to be the kid who ask for money from parents and believe that I deserved the money and that the money seemed to grow on trees. Yet after this economical crisis I found how the money actually came; from all my father's hard work and savings. They use very little on themselves but a lot more on my sister and I. My realization of this truth was a bit late but I believe that I can still use it as a valuable knowledge. I still many times see other kids in school so seem to use money like it falls form the sky and take material things for granted.

"Oh no my Iphone broke! Oh well I just tell my mom to buy me a new one, but I lost my contacts! Nooooo!"

I really pity these people because once they lose their parents as "patrons" of their lives they wouldn't know how to save money. I think from learning and changing from the economical crisis I can help others understand the situation better and hopefully change some of these spoiled kid's attitude towards money and life. 

Entry 26: The Worst

My was almost perfect other than that one night and day of having a unbearable headache. It started the night of December 28, 2011. I was sitting down during a party and as I stood up a throbbing pain started to twitch in the center of my head. I felt nauseous and wanted to puke, so I rushed to the bathroom and sat next to the toilet bowl expecting fluids to gush out of my body any minute. I soon felt a little better but knew that I had to go to sleep because the lack of sleep I had seemed to be the cause of the headache. I found a bedroom and went in as the party continued outside. The noise of drowned out as soon as I closed the door and I went straight to sleep. However falling asleep wasn't easy because of the pain and people coming in and going out of the room. Some stayed and rest like me and we began a conversation thinking hat it would clam our nerves down from the party or in my case the headache. Without realizing, I fell into a deep sleep and woke up the other day on the cold marble floor instead of the warm bed I fell asleep in. Someone had been moving too much while sleeping and kicked me off of bed. I woke up cold and my head still throbbing with pain. I went out and others were sitting on the sofa talking about lunch and how they were going home. I found my friend how was going to take the MRT to the main train station and we left. The process in between leaving and getting on a train to get home seemed longer than ever and the train ride itself seemed to take ten times as long. As soon as I got home I jetted straight to my bed and fell into a comatose hoping to wake up riding of the pain.