The Decision Making Process Essay Example for Free

The Decision Making Process Essay Abstract As a senior, the decision on whether or not you want to go to college comes out being the hardest decision some students make. I have made the decision that I want to go to college. Going to college will get me where I want to be. Not only that, but it will further my education. The decision that I need to make is whether or not I want to play volleyball in college or not. Colleges have given me several opportunities to do this. However, it just comes down to me making the decision. Not only just a decision, but the right decision. This decision will have an affect on several different things throughout the rest of your pathway. This is why it is important to make the right decision. Introduction When you make your decision this way, you think it out before you make your final decision. Two ways to make a decision include rational and emotional. When you make a rational decision, you think it through and when you make an emotional decision, you just up and decide without thinking it through. Seven steps will lead to a smart and successful decision. First, you must define your problem. Next you will gather information, which becomes an important step. Third, you will identify your choices. Fourth, identify advantages and disadvantages of each choice. This will also be a big part of your decision-making. Fifth, you will finally make a decision. The sixth step, making a plan to get there. Last but not lease, you will evaluate your decision. Define Your Problem I have made the choice that I want to attend college after I graduate from high school. The problem that I have comes down to whether or not I want to play volleyball in college or not. I have loved playing volleyball ever since I started when I was little. I would love to continue to keep playing after high school. The only thing that stumps me is the fact that once you join a college sport, it then becomes a job. This choice remains to stand the hardest decision for me. I want make the best decision I can because if I don’t, I know I will regret it. I will use the seven steps to make the best decision. Gather Information Next, I must gather information about me problem. We all know that college is the complete opposite from cheap. Many students have to pass up the opportunity on going to college because of the cost. Scholarships come in handy for this. If I would go to college and want to play volleyball, it will still cost me a lot of money. However, if I can get a vast scholarship to go play volleyball for a college, I’m more likely to jump on that opportunity. According to the Chadron State website, the estimated cost to attend CSC to fit my needs, it will cost me $5,032.20 per semester. This is including room and board and also a meal plan. Now on the other hand, if I were to get an offer to go play volleyball somewhere, some of that money would be waived. This is defiantly an advantage in the long run when I am paying college off later on in life. Paying off college will take awhile if you don’t apply for scholarships. However, if I apply for scholarships and receive them as well as get a volleyball scholarship, it would be to my advantage. List Options When you look at my options, I could have several different ones. It just depends on which choice I am leaning closer to. If I do want to play volleyball in college, I would have options to which schools I want to go to. It will narrow down to which schools accept me. Not only that, but also which schools will offer me a scholarship. I think it would be awesome to receive a full ride to one of my top choice; however, I need to have a backup plan. My other options consist of if I don’t get a scholarship to the schools I want to go to, if I will even play volleyball in college. Advantages and Disadvantages There remain several advantages and disadvantages to each of my choices. One of the advantages that I consider the biggest stays getting a scholarship. Like I said earlier, college stands far from cheap. Yes, you can apply and receive scholarships, but that will not cover everything. If I would receive a major scholarship to go play volleyball and also receive other academic scholarships, paying for college would become easier. Another advantage is playing a sport would push me to keep my grades up. This would also force me to maintain a certain GPA to stay a member of the team. Therefore, I would have excellent grades. On the other hand, playing a sport in college can also come with some disadvantages. One of them includes that the sport becomes your second job. You leave for college sooner so you can train for your sport. You also have late practices, leaving little time to study. The disadvantages won’t faze you if you are dedicated to that sport. Make a Decision and Explain Why Having much time to think this through, I have made a decision. However, there are some twists and turns to my decision. It will depend on what all happens in the future. I feel that I am dedicated enough to the sport to play it in college. After attending try-outs for one college, I have found out it’s at a whole different level. I will have to not only prepare myself physically, but also mentally. I have come to a choice that if I receive a big scholarship, I will play volleyball in college. I know that it may be difficult my first year. Havening to manage not only my studies but also volleyball. I have thought about this long and hard and realized that I am capable of doing this. I am doing my best to get recognized by my top colleges for volleyball but if it’s not my top choice that does, I will evaluate that college and make my choice. My choice is well thought through and I am able to make a wise final decision. Make A Plan of Action Making a plan of action becomes the most important step. Several people have goals that they want to reach in life but they never have a plan of action to get there. When people don’t have a set plan, most of the time they never reach their goal. My plan of action can become a little flexible. My first step, I have already completed. That step remained applying and getting accepted into colleges. I have gotten accepted into UNK, CSC, Colby Community College in Kansas, and University of Wyoming in Laramie. My next step, to determine which school will give me the best offers based around my nursing major. Then, I will narrow it down to two schools. My last step stays that if one of those colleges offers me a scholarship to play volleyball, I will go play for them. Having a set plan will help you get to your goal. So make sure you make a plan of action to reach your goal or it’s possible you won’t get there. Evaluate The Decision I think attending college on a volleyball scholarship will remain the best decision. I feel that way because it will become much easier to pay for college. Also, I would love to continue playing volleyball. This would stay the best choice for those reasons. If I am able to do so, it will hopefully give me a whole new experience. It is much different than high school level. This remains why it would benefit to play volleyball in college. Conclusion In conclusion, the decision making process has several steps to it. First, you must define your problem. Next, you need to gather information about your problem. Then, you will need to list your options. Fourth, you have to find the advantages and disadvantages about each of your choices. Fifth, you must finally make a decision. Sixth, you must make a plan of action. This step can become the most important part because you need to make a plan on how to get there. Last, you need to evaluate the decision after it has happened. Decide whether your decision was a good or bad choice. References Retrieved from http://www.csc.edu/

Bond between Mothers and Daughters in Amy Tans The Joy Luck Club Essay

Bond between Mothers and Daughters Explored in The Joy Luck Club      Ã‚  Ã‚   Throughout the novel, The Joy Luck Club, author Amy Tan explores the issues of   tradition and change and the impact they have on the bond between mothers and daughters. The theme is developed through eight women that tell their separate stories, which meld into four pairs of mother-daughter relationships.    The Chinese mothers, so concentrated on the cultures of their own, don't want to realize what is going on around them. They don't want to accept the fact that their daughters are growing up in a culture so different from their own. Lindo Jong, says to her daughter, Waverly- "I once sacrificed my life to keep my parents' promise. This means nothing to you because to you, promises mean nothing. A daughter can promise to come to dinner, but if she has a headache, a traffic jam, if she wants to watch a favorite movie on T.V., she no longer has a promise."(Tan 42) Ying Ying St.Clair remarks- "...because I remained quiet for so long, now my daughter does not hear me. She sits by her fancy swimming pool and hears only her Sony Walkman, her cordless phone, her big, important husband asking her why they have charcoal and no lighter fluid."(Tan 64)    The American daughters, on the other hand, the other half of the inseparable pair, tell stories of how their mothers tradition, culture, and beliefs, helped them come to many realizations about themselves. These realizations are both positive and negative. Jing-Mei Woo tells the story of how her mother wanted her to be the next Shirley Temple. "My mother believed you could be anything you wanted to be in America. You could open a restaurant...You could become instantly famous.    'Of course... ... Heung, Marina. "Daughter-Text/Mother-Text: Matrilineage in Amy Tan's The Joy Luck Club." Feminist Studies (Fall 1993): 597-616. Tan, Amy. The Joy Luck Club. New York: Ivy Books, 1989. Huntley, E. D. Amy Tan: A Critical Companion. Westport: Greenwood P, 1998. Ling, Amy. Between Worlds: Women Writers of Chinese Ancestry. New York: Pergamon, 1990. Maynard, Joyce. "The Almost All-American Girls." Rev. of The Joy Luck Club, by Amy Tan and The Temple of my Familiar, by Alice Walker. Mademoiselle July 1989: 70, 72, 180. Miner, Valerie. "The Joy Luck Club" The-Nation. Apr. 24 '89 p. 566-9 Schell, Orville. "Your Mother is in Your Bones." Rev. of The Joy Luck Club, by Amy Tan. The New York Times Book Review. Mar. 19 1989: 3, 28. Wang, Dorothy. "A Game of Show and Not Tell." Rev of The Joy Luck Club, by Amy Tan. Newsweek April 17, 1989: 68-69.

In Exile Poem Analysis (Arthur Nortje) Line By Line

English 101D First Assignment Unique Nr: 826883 Dedre Immelman Student nr 5012-960-0 In Exile  Poem Analysis (Arthur Nortje) Line By Line Question 1 The poem â€Å"In Exile† was written by Arthur Nortje in the 1960 – 1970 period. There could be different interpretations to the meaning of the title â€Å"In Exile†. Arthur Nortje won a scholarship to study at the Jesus College at Oxford University. Arthur became one of the privileged few â€Å"chosen† to further their education outside the borders of South Africa. Can he be seen as truly in exile? I will argue that the title of the poem is relevant and is a reference to the personal feelings and experiences of Arthur Nortje during his time spent in England and Kanada. This poem was written during the time period 1960 to 1970 – during this time South Africa had a volatile political situation and many a young activists fled the country. As mentioned, the poet did not flee the country but this title can be seen as an identification with those fellow South Africans in exile as well as a emotional reference to the feelings one experiences when you leave your country of birth and need to settle new roots in the soil of a new country. In Exile† indicates that something or someone is unsettled and not in their place of true origin. They have moved away – either voluntarily or by force. The title does not indicate whether this exile is a positive or negative experience. It does however refer to an action because exile indicates motion. One other aspect worth conside ring is the fact that the poet was born from a mixed couple and classified as colored. This could have left him with a feeling of alienation and the social implications could have left him with a feeling of being in â€Å"exile†. Question 2 The poem could be seen as a lyric description of the poet’s feelings. The poet is writing about 2 things – his country of origin and his feelings of desolation and possibly anger towards his birth country. Secondly, he is painting a picture of a landscape in his new adopted country. Nortje often uses imaginative landscapes to compensate for his personal dislocation and feeling of isolation. It also refers to South Africa and the political isolation characteristic to certain groups of our population during that period of time in our history. The communicative aim of the poet is to tell the reader more about the feelings of isolation he experienced and how wounded his soul was. It also refers to South Africa and the political and emotional context of fellow anti-apartheid or rather non-white patriots during that time. He is strongly relying on connotations in the reader’s imagination to bring his story across. A picture is painted of a current landscape but the poet makes you realise that you can’t see the beauty of a new picture without dealing with the hurt of the past. Question 3 The poet is relying on the readers understanding of the political and economic situation in South Africa during the time period in which this poem was written. In the first line â€Å"Open skies flare wide enough† – this is the first reference to the power of memory because the word â€Å"flare† could be a reference to the noise and action when a grenade explodes during war. The flare is often seen and heard when the grenade explodes. In the second stanza, the poet refers to â€Å"boots passing through† – this could be a reference to the unseen soldiers of apartheid South Africa passing through the townships at night to make sure no non-whites were out in the street. If you have experienced South Africa during that time, the boots passing through will remind you of oppression and fear or on the other side it might remind you of protection and hope. The words â€Å"wrong pigment† gives the reader an indication of a situation where people are judged simply because they don’t have the correct appearance – their skin color is unacceptable and thus they are unacceptable. Question 4 The poet is referring to storm clouds in his past and also to clouds in the history of South Africa. He was declared â€Å"colored† in the time when this ethnical group faced many adversaries and oppression in South Africa. He is using a picture of a landscape to refer to the political isolation in South Africa during that time. It could also be a reference to the repetitiveness of the storm clouds – they have been there before and they will probably be there again in the future. He has experienced hardship in South Africa and he is probably experiencing hardship again in his new country. Question 5 In view of the title and substance of the poem, it seems like the description of the boots passing through is a reference to the South African Armed Forces and specifically soldiers marching. It could be a reference to the enforcement of the group areas act – people were forcefully moved from their homes by soldiers. The noise of their boots must have left many fearful. Alternatively it could also be referring to the political unrest of that period in South Africa. Non-whites started standing up for their rights and the government tried to squash it by using the military to enforce their apartheid laws. Question 6 The poem is primarily about a person in exile remembering certain images from his home country whilst referring to new experiences in his adopted country. Nature is used to describe certain emotions and feelings. If we look at verse 14, reference is made of paradise. It is poignant as the overall concern of the poem is about negative experiences from both the past and present. However, the speaker uses the word paradise to tell us that we can choose to remember the good things about our past. Our memory and associations can help us remember the good things about our past. South Africa is not all doom and gloom – there are positive experiences as well. Question 7 The word benign, indicates that something/growth is not cancerous or negative. Benign indicates that it is good-natured or favorable – doing very little harm. The speaker could be referring to actual hunger or a spiritual hunger for a little sunshine that is hidden behind a cloud. The cloud is not life threatening but it is keeping the speaker from reaching his full potential or target. There is hope that this cloud can be overcome as it is benign. If one looks at the content of the poem, it is clear that the speaker is looking at a beautiful landscape and he is trying to see the positive aspects of both the picture and his life. However, he has a benign cloud covering his picture. The reader needs to answer the question â€Å"if it is possible to see the sun with this benign cloud of the past obscuring it? † Question 8 â€Å"In Exile†, by Andrew Nortje speaks to the reader from the first word in the title to the last word in the last stanza. If one looks at the content of the poem, it is clear that the poet is painting a picture of a landscape in front of him. He is making reference of open skies with strands of clouds, winds sweeping through the towers of buildings and his clothes trembling in the wind. He is also thinking about an imaginary picture of the sea. However, from the first stanza, the reader is reminded of a different landscape in another â€Å"exiled country† The poet is painting a somber picture of skies where we get flares making us anxious, soldiers passing through with their boots making noise, wrong pigment leaving you without hope or opportunity and bad memories clotting your vein of memories. At the end, the reader draws the conclusion that one can’t build a new picture of beautiful sunny days and wind still situations without making peace or taking into consideration, the memories of the past. I think the message of this poem is positive. In the beginning everything reminds the speaker of his horrid past – even blue skies with thin wispy clouds remind him of South Africa and the fear and anger he experienced there. He has definite negative feelings towards his country of origin. However, as time passes one gets the feeling that the speaker is growing into the understanding that one has to deal with the past in order to survive the present. He realises that one’s soul will decay even in exile if you don’t stop the negative memories from the past and start building a new picture with a positive attitude. One can never leave the past behind but you can turn the malignant memories into benign clouds. The poem is a free verse with no specific rhyming except in the 4th stanza. It is interesting that we only have one incident of rhyming and that is in line 17 and 19. The poet refers to â€Å"wrong pigment† that has no future and this gives the reader a strong indication that he was feeling rather negative and angry about the classification of people according to skin color. He uses 5 stanzas with no specific and they differ in length from 4 lines to 6 lines each. I think the effect of this single rhyming verse is very important. It clearly indicates the importance of the fact that once the poet was judged and classified as colored – it stayed with him and impacted his whole life. The poet used personification to help the reader understand the untold story of his past. In the first stanza the reader is told that the open skies made the poet anxious and that clouds are tracing patterns of the past. The reader gets the first indication that the poet is feeling estranged and sad about his past. He is telling the untold story of war and anxiety, things that happened in his past. The poet is using alliteration in certain instances to emphasize the stories f the past. â€Å"My heart is hollowed with the boots passing through† and â€Å"garments gather† are examples of alliteration. If we look at the language used in this poem, there is a change in tone in the poem. In the first 3 stanza’s a description is given of a nature scene or rather that is the first impression. On closer inspectio n, the reader learns about the fear experienced in â€Å"open skies† in Africa, clouds reminding you of the horrible past and wind reminding you about the horrors of the past – of boots of soldiers creating fear, anger and sadness. It seems like we are lost in the picture of the past. A perfect paradise seems impossible but then in the 4th stanza, the poet states that we to meet certain conditions in order to keep your soul from decay. In order to see your new paradise, you need to realize that you have to stop the vein of bad memories and build a new positive picture of your present life. The writer reaches a turning point in the last stanza. He no longer only seems to remember the ugly pictures of the past. He is building or describing a new nature scene by building a new picture on a sand slope. It is still very vulnerable and the grains slide away easily. However, his past is now only a benign cloud that obscures the sun. He can choose to look at this new positive landscape or picture of the sea and get hope. His past will always be part of him even in exile; however, the reader is brought to the point where he or she can choose to look at the sun through only a benign cloud. I think the use of the words â€Å"the soul decays in exile. But wrong pigment has no scope† are very important when analyzing this poem. It seems to be a turning point. This is the essence of what is hurting the writer and causing him to feel estranged and in exile. He realizes that he will not move forward as long as he only thinks about him being colored and that his soul will die if he doesn’t move on. I think the writer has succeeded in using imagery to relate the untold story of South Africa and his walk through life. He has told us about his pain and anger and the feelings of abandonment experienced in South Africa. At the end the reader is brought to the realization that in order to make peace with ones past, and see the new beautiful landscape of life, one has to move forward to a point where the hurt and anger merely becomes a dark memory, shaping the way you look at your future.

Book Review of Coming of Age in Mississippi Essay

Coming of Age in Mississippi is an autobiography by Anne Moody. It is the story of a black girl growing up in Mississippi at a time when racial discrimination was taken for granted and the NAACP movement had no formal name. In her autobiography, Anne Moody displays the hardships of living in the rural south while the Negroes were just starting their fight for equality. Her story is amazing. Life was difficult for all poor Southerners. But for a poor black family with little hope and living with the constant threat of harm and loss of life, her optimism is awe-inspiring. I found this book to be very moving and easy to read, though the structure of her writing was very distracting. Anne Moodys story is incredible. She†¦show more content†¦She became frustrated at her own people because they would not stand up for themselves while there were horrible things were happening to blacks. How can you not sympathize with someone who believed so much in equality and freedom that her picture was on the Ku Klux Klan black list? She worked so hard for Negro equality that she risked her life day in and day out and came close to starving to death just trying to recruit other Negroes to join her cause. Her family begged her to stop helping with the movement in fear of their lives as well as hers. Moody could not even return to her own town out of concern for her safety and that of her family. Anne Moodys book is a remarkable testimony, but there were a few things in the way she wrote, which were distracting to the main story as a whole. First of all, her style makes it seem as if this whole time she had kept a diary of her life and for the book she just went back through and edited it to make complete sentences. Although her family was very, very poor, she did not focus on that. This almost makes the reader feel as if Miss Moody grew up in a black family with an adequate income and decent education. Her writing shows otherwise with some comments here and there. For instance: on page twenty-five Moody was mad with her [mama] because we ate beans all the time. Had she taken the money, I thought, we couldShow MoreRelatedAnalytical Review Of Anne Moody s Coming1438 Words   |  6 Pages America s Civil Rights History Analytical review of Anne Moody’s Coming to Age in Mississippi Plot Summary The novel, Coming to Ages in Mississippi traces the lives of an African American family, their various experiences, struggles, and contrasts of ideas, as well as depicting the racial discrimination that characterized their environment. It then shows struggles by the black community in fighting for racial discrimination. 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