Personal Narrative: No Excuse For Plagarizing

At the tender age of five, my family decided to put me into gymnastics, one of the most challenging sports, both physically and mentally. Gymnastics revolves around obtaining perfection—an unreachable goal for anyone, especially a five-year-old. Albert Einstein defines insanity as doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results. Performing the same routine in front of a panel of people who will judge even my smallest flaws fits this definition to a tee. Welcome to the world of competitive gymnastics. What compelled my parents to put me in this sport, I will never know, but I have never regretted their decision.

I don’t think that I had any misconceptions at all. Fall auditions were required every year, yes, but they mainly addressed who would get the solos for the first concert. For every piece with solos after that, besides the Corelli and the final concert this past year, the solos automatically went to Fangbo without him having to audition. Regarding work ethic, my work ethic was strong as concertmaster for Philharmonia and for both years in Chamber. I played in all of the out of school performances, musicals, attended rehearsals, participated in Solo & Ensemble, and consistently practiced all of the pieces. I was completely dedicated to orchestra and gave 100%, even with my difficult class load last year.

The social norm I broke is making too much eye contact, or staring excessively, at my teachers. While sitting in class, I stared at my teachers more than I stared at my paper or looked around the classroom. It is usually normal for students to stare down at their desks and not look at the teacher a lot.

I grew up as one of the hardest things to commit to, black and alternative. My meaning of alternative is being interested in goth fashion and heavy metal music. From what I was told, being black is listening to hip-hop and dressing like everyone else around them or what is the social norm. Clearly, my definition of alterative is contrasting on what it means to be “black.” I say it's hard to commit because coming from a closed black family, I felt pressed to let go of what I felt about myself just to make them happy. Questions like, ‘’Why are you trying so hard to be different?’’ or ‘’Who told you that was okay?’’ Still replay in my head whenever I decide to wear something that I would feel most comfortable in. Not long ago, I got into an arguement

Well, ordering 1 plate for 2 people is certainly a good way to save some money. I agree that this can be easily done in America. I've actually become accustomed to the smaller portions here and like it. Tokyo has been hotter than I had originally expected. I'm a little surprised actually, since I didn't expect it to reach Florida temperatures. Last week, one day it was 37C here. It hovered around 33 to 34C the entire week. I don't think I've ever sweated so much, even in Florida. It was getting pretty bad. We just bought a second a/c unit. I couldn't see sleeping here at night without air conditioning. It's too unbearable. I imagine Minneapolis must be cooler than Tokyo. I know that you should have some nice Autumn seasons there with the leaves

Of course the norm for me is that of any citizen living in zone three.

In the United States we can be so self-absorbed and have no regard for other people and their feelings and well-being, it is a distinguishable norm for American society at this point. We always ask ourselves “What do I want?” or “What can I gain from this?”, but we never ask ourselves “What do they want?” or “What can they gain from this?” This is where Japan separates itself from the United States. The people in Japan hold such high esteem for everyone they know and meet, while we can hardly treat the person next to us with even the smallest amount of admiration and generosity.

I personally found trying to find a single “Social Norm” to break challenging so I chose to do two instead. The first was to end my phone calls with I love you, and to talk to a stranger in the bathroom stall next to my own. Which is how I confessed my undying love to a coworker. Working at a casino, employees have to call surveillance for anytime they move around with money or have to be escorted to the vault. I’m a pretty lively person but going into work, I started to get this bashful nature about myself especially the closer it came to performing both of the social norms I gave myself to break.

It is a somewhat unspoken agreement that people all have, and breaking this agreement is frowned upon. The bathroom is a very unsocial place. You go do your business and then leave, it is very simple. The social norm that I broke was talking to someone in the stall next to me, and continuing to have a conversation even when it was clear they did not want to have one.

The reason i started painting and drawing in the first place is i found that i am truly happiest when creating. I thoroughly enjoy the struggle of drawing and painting scenes or ideas created through imagination. Creating art was never about money to me, it was about seeking happiness and a sense of purpose.

Over the past week, I went into an elevator and stood with my back to the doors as I face everybody. I had the perfect opportunity to test this out when my cousin was in the hospital having her baby. Before completing this task, I felt nervous and shy to violate this social norm. During this task, I felt very uncomfortable and embarrassed, like I was doing something wrong. But after, I thought it was so funny that I was so nervous. I got many different reactions while completing this task. I received many blank stares, confused looks, and many looked like they were going to burst out into laughter. And some people didn’t even make eye contact with me and to say the least, it was an awkward situation. After this experiment was over, I explained

It’s easy to think that if you are using others work no matter what you are cheating, but when you look at the facts you will start to organize that life has been changed and people have circumstances. Think about taking away young people’s circumstances like part-time jobs, organizations, and sport teams don’t you think that the level of writing will increase. People’s opinion of what originally is have been changed. If two people have the same idea doesn’t mean that one of them copied from the other. The thing that we should understand is that the more pressure that there is the more chance of cheating that it would be. However in my opinion, plagiarism would be one of our major problems in the future.

    We are told from the time that we are young to take responsibility for our actions, but there are some kids out there that blame their responsibilities on others. Even though they don’t want to take responsibility for their actions someone else has to take responsibility. When being able to be part of the stories you learn things that you wouldn’t ever be able to learn without being part of it. I have learned things the hard way just to find out that I shouldn’t have been doing it in the first place. Here are some thing that I learned from this situation.

This was another choice that I read while in Cuba. Going into my trip I didn’t really know what to expect from country that still remains somewhat taboo. The version of history I was taught told me that Fidel Casto and all he stood for were detestable. Socialism was a dirty word even though I can honestly say I probably couldn’t have properly defined it until very recently. The phrase “history will absolve me” was the closing line of a four-hour speech Castro gave in his own defense after being put on trial for his role in the Moncada attack. The actual record of his defense was not recorded however, the basis of his argument was that the people had a right to rise up and protest against a government the found to be illegal and unjust. The

From a young age, I was referred to by numerous as a difficult child. Everywhere I went I would constantly be boisterous and disruptive. Of course, I didn’t act disruptive intentionally, I simply couldn’t help saying everything that came to my mind the minute it came to me. Due to this behavior of mine, I had trouble staying involved in activities, such as sports and scouting. Without these hobbies, I had trouble fitting in with the other kids. What made this even harder was that I moved every two years, which meant I had to make new friends every two years. However, all of this changed when I moved to Huntsville, Alabama.