Blog #5 "The Struggle Is Real"

This week I've been working on my faith, and as always, and it shouldn't come as a shock that it's been hard. I have had plenty of temptations this week that disobey God's will, and a few of them being kinda personal, so I won't mention them; but anyways, the point still stands. This week has given me many opportunities to cheat, although I've been studying hard so that it's less of an option, which is good. I was also able to obey God's commands for me more and more, because I have been straying away for the past year or so. I hope that I'm able to do well for the rest of this quarter cause if I get any grade below an A, my mom is gonna kill me; I swear, sometimes I think my mom is secretly Asian. But I think I'll survive with lots of hard work and resisting the urge to gulp down an entire container of bleach. I hope.

Blog #4 "Homework vs. Social Life"

Aright, so this week has been pretty chill, and I haven't had any major problems up to this point in the week; although you never know, it's only Thursday. The only thing I have been struggling with is progressing to my next belt in MMA; man, those tests are hard. If you do one thing wrong, you fail completely. I have one test left until my next belt, but I've failed twice so far at it. It's extremely frustrating, it really is. I can only do the test once per week, so my new belt keeps on being delayed, and the most frustrating part is the reason for why I'm failing: It's because I'm spending too much time on studying and homework rather than practicing for my MMA tests. Message to all teachers: Us students have other priorities in life other than school. Let up. Please, your ruining my life.

Blog #3 "When the going gets tough, the tough get going!"

Talk about a hard week. This week has been hectic, with all the quizzes and tests the last couple of days that we've had, and I've also been having some struggles with my faith. With all these quizzes, temptation pops up all over the place to cheat, to take the easy way out and not study. This has been really challenging for me, especially since all of the tests and quizzes have been extremely difficult. I've been praying every day for strength, and so far I have been able to resist, and not cheat. Now the result of this has been me failing about half of them. So the real battle now is going to be continuing to study hard so that the temptation to cheat never arises in the first place. I realize how detrimental cheating can be, and how much trust you can earn from being honest and faithful. It's been challenging with many obstacles, but I feel proud of myself: This was a big obstacle for me to overcome. I feel like I'm actually using my brain!


1 John 1:6 "So we are lying if we say we have fellowship with God but go on living in spiritual darkness; we are not practicing the truth."

Nilesh's 3rd Party Moral Inventory


1.   A good person is someone who is trustworthy. A good person is someone who cares about others as much as themselves. They should be honest, truthful, and forgiving. They should be selfless and have control of their negative emotions. A good person doesn't need to be perfect, but they just need to realize that everyone has flaws, including himself/herself.


2.   Andrew has been a student at Archimedean for a while and I really haven't gotten to know him that well. But, the best part about him is that he takes you in like family and treats you like a long-lost friend. Another great personality of Andrew is his ability to make the best out of any situation. Andrew is clever, and can make any boring situation fun. He is also hilarious and can make the best pranks. Moreover, Andrew will always listen to others and help them in times of need. Overall, Andrew is a great person who will put other's needs above himself.


3.   I really doubt Andrew has any virtues to work on from what I've observed. But he claims (and a few others) that he isn't a very honest person. That is a virtue than can be improved on by completing all the responsibilities necessary. For example, there is no need to cheat if you studied all the material previously. But that is a virtue that Andrew will easily overcome (Just cut down on the Pokémon GO).


4.   Andrew and the rest of high school will be presented with many opportunities to improve. With good advice and the willingness to improve, he can improve all his virtues. Andrew can slowly improve on this virtue by being truthful on the little things. Then work your way up to telling the truth on larger situations. It's always better to keep a clean slate than lie your way through.


5.   Though I make it seem that it is so simple to improve on your virtue, it really isn't. you will be presented with many situations that make lying seem like a good option. For example, when you don't study for a test, cheating might seem like an option. But, it is better to just do badly on one test and use that grade as fuel to improve on the next test. The consequences for not cheating are just not worth one C or D on a test. But hopefully you will never have to deal with such situations.




                                     

Blog #2 "Enthusiasm, yippee!"

The virtue I tried to focus on this week was enthusiasm, and trust me when I say, it is EXTREMELY difficult to be enthusiastic about school. I think especially today was a challenge at the awards ceremony, mostly because sitting at a table for 4 hours without really knowing what's going on and it having nothing to do with you is quite boring. Uuuuh... I meant it was really fun and exciting, yay! I really did try to lighten it up though, by talking to my friends at the table and have conversations and play games that would keep us from using the tablecloth as a communal blanket so we could sleep. The reason that description is so descriptive, is because we were so tired that we actually contemplated whether or not we should us it as a sheet or something... Anyways, improvement is slow, but at least its improvement, right? I think next week I'll work on honesty lot more than I have been because with Geometry and Algebra and all the pop quizzes we've been having, it's really challenging to resist the temptation of cheating.

EXP #1 "The Ultimate Disciple"

Enthusiasm: Enthusiasm means to be extremely excited and to have a feeling of active interest in something that you enjoy. The reason I chose enthusiasm to work on, is so that I can be more involved in things that i do in my everyday life. At places like church, school, home, and doing things like small groups, homework, projects, and chores. I feel as though enthusiasm is an important virtue to have in life because it adds passion and motivation into a daily routine. This virtue, I hope, will help me to engage more profoundly in all aspects of my life in the future. My enthusiasm is not at the level I want it to be right now, and by working on it for the rest of the semester, I think that I will be at the level I wish to be or maybe even higher than I thought I would be. I think that trying to participate more in all my activities and trying to be positive while doing them, even if it's something that I don't like, will help boost my enthusiasm 

Faith: Faith means the strong belief or trust in someone or something, and in most cases, that faith happens to refer to God. And that also happens to be my case. Faith is very important in order to follow God, and without it, your relationship with Him has no base. I struggle with my faith, it seems, almost every day; whether it be the decisions I have to make, bad habits I feel the urge to keep doing, or having to decline sinful offers, it is certainly difficult to stay on the path God has set for me. My plan to get better is to read the Bible, talk to my leader at church for advice, and most definitely pray for strength and endurance. Faith is an interesting thing: When it wavers, so does your connection with God.

Honesty: Honesty is the quality of being fair and truthful. I chose honesty, because for almost my entire life, that has been one of my main struggles. Lying is so much easier than telling the truth, is it not? But what I've learned, yet still fall victim to, is the punishment you receive when you get caught up in the lies. Ever since I can remember, I have lied, but so much so, that I would lie about a dirty dish laying around not being mine, or that I did my homework when I actually completely forgot about it. It may sound normal, but that caused me to become accustomed to the guilt that followed lying; because of that, I no longer felt guilty about lying. And a few years back, I realized what a dangerous game I was playing, just lying for no reason at all. I realized back then and I realize it still, and that is that I will never stop lying completely, because that's impossible for any human to do, but I'll try my best, through the support of others and through the strength of God, to restrain the urge to tell lies.