Regrets Of An Accomplished Child Pamela Paul Summary

As a teenager I think that taking risk and making decisions that we don't fully think about or don't think in the consequence is in our genetics and its part of our culture and society and it has and it will always be. In "Into the wild" by Jon krakauer Chris McCandless makes very risk decisions in his teenage years that affected his life in a good way or bad but that wasn't he wasn't thinking about when he made like us but his decision were much larger than any that I have made.

n the novel The Glass Castle by Jeannette Walls, Jeannette realizes that she was basically living and was being raised on her own since her parents weren't always there. In the novel The Other Wes Moore by Wes Moore, the author Wes Moore realized that he wanted to change his life when he realized how fast everything was going, such as his life and school. The other Wes Moore wanted to change his life because he was tired of often running in the streets since he realized how the drugs were ruining his life. We often see how they are realizing or regretting the decisions they made which leads to them wanted to change that.

Taking risks can lead to good things. Did you know in the movie Sandlot there were a lot of risks? This movie is about some kids who play baseball in the summer. This game was no ordinary baseball game because it continued where they stopped the next day and so on. The main character they nicknamed Smalls had always wanted to play baseball and Benny showed him how and he was the new underdog in the group.

While reading Ken Bain’s book “What the Best College Students Do” of the five different types of students he describes, I feel like I fall under the label of one having mediocre grades but achieving success. I make good grades, however I do not necessarily believe my grades always reflect my hard work, determination and effort put in, similar to his theory on false hope in standardized testing. Throughout my school career, I have consistently made A and B grades. I can remember only one C grade, which was a quarter grade, and very disappointing, but a lesson learned. At the same time though, and as Bain helped me realize through his text, grades are not everything and making a C is not something that is going to kill me; there is simply more to school than a letter grade. In fact he points out through most of the 1800s schools only used two grades, pass or fail. As seen nowadays, schools have since adopted the letter grade system.

For example, in the book “The Glass Castle”, written by Jeannette Walls, Jeannette is a woman who finally is living “her dream life” after all the trouble she went through as a little girl. Growing up in a family who had always been dysfunctional somehow affected her mentally because that set her real goals in a position she had clear. Consequently, she had an education, found a job she truly loved, and had a loving husband (everything she once wished for). The effects of all of these accomplishments were that she still wasn’t happy with the life she lived. She wanted her parents to live a life in which they would no longer had to search for clothes in trash cans and could go home to a warm dinner every night. The results of trying to convince her parents to change that part of their lives was in vain because they refused to live a comfortable life. They were happy living a homeless life. Jeannette understood that trying to change who her parents were was hopeless because they didn’t feel the need to change the way they were managing their lives. Jeannette tried to solve an obstacle in her parent’s life, but in the end she let them live the way they wanted to because she knew that that was how they were truly

Beowulf set his ego aside and hurdled into the face of danger in order to defeat a greater evil and liberate the people of Heorot from the demonic grasp of Grendel. The crew aboard the Challenger brought America together and helped us insure the safety of future astronauts. Tom pushed his body to the edge to live the life he dreamed of. Risks are imperative in life. Even beginning life, they are our instinct. We learn to crawl despite the bruises on our knees. We learn to walk no matter how many falls we endure. As we become further aware of the world around us, somewhere along the way, we experience failure; at that point, many people attempt to eradicate most risks from their life. But where would we be without our sense of exploration, our willingness to try new things? In order to push one’s boundaries, move forward as a society, and give purpose to life people must be willing to take risks.

Taking risks allows you to push beyond your limits. We all have a comfort zone where we'd like to stay and think we are entitled to certain luxuries. When you take risks, you can change that way of thinking, establish new limits, improve your ability to succeed in society. Jeannette lived an adventurous life, and many nights didn’t even eat. She was still the head of the schools newspaper and still received amazing grades. Who would have known that a little girl that lived in a old broken down house on 93 Little Hobart Street would have received a full scholarship to an Ivy League College. This was accomplished though her desire for freedom, she had the will to reach out for what she desired. All she had to do was put her mind to it, and she could become the richest person in the world if she wanted to. The inspiring Benjamin Franklin once stated, “Those who surrender freedom for security will not have, nor do they deserve, either one.” We took a poll on regular elementary school students, and asked them what have they learned on their own. They all stated similar answer which related to the following, “Many times we learn the trick and the trade of real life, but some of my friends are confined to staying inside and being secure. I always want to go outside and learn something new.” The parents that put a burden on their children by making them stay indoors are

Failure is a part of life. While many see failure as a negative thing, I have started to see it as a situation that can make you a better person. Failure drives me to never make that mistake again. I first realized this when I took my first AP class and AP exam and received a score of 2. This journey all started sophomore year when I took AP World History. I quickly learned that I needed to actually read and take notes to be able to succeed in the class. It took a few poor grades on essays and tests for me to understand this. Despite this new revelation, I still struggled in the class. When it came time to start reviewing and preparing for the exam, I put an immense amount of effort, but not as hard as I should’ve been. Exam day came and

Risk Taking: Teachers promote trying new things and introduce students to new ideas and activities. Students are encouraged to take risks and gain a higher level of thinking.

Another equally sized group may not feel the need to shoot high. They will opt for the easier choice. While this may work for some, it brings great stress to others. Recently, Andres, a boy enrolled in Advanced Placement class, was given the option to do a five paged extra credit assignment. His grade would not be affected if he didn’t do the assignment. The easier thing to do would be to not do the extra credit work and focus on other things. However, Andres knows that he would feel guilty over this. By ignoring the opportunity to better his grade, he would also be ignoring his potential. To Andres, as well as several others, having failed at a huge task is normal. Yet, doing an easy task with optimum results is wrong. Many people feel that

We could encourage the best qualities of youthfulness - curiosity, adventure, resilience, the capacity for surprising insight - simply by being more flexible about time, texts, and tests, by introducing kids to truly competent adults, and by giving each student what autonomy he or she needs in order to take a risk every now and then” (Gatto 4).

Through out my high school career I never took my education seriously. For most of the four years it was a big blur. I’m not quite sure if it was because of me or if I found myself blaming my surroundings or teachers for my lack of focus and strive to learn. A failure can mean different things to everyone else. Maybe there’s just different types or categories of failures. These failures are meant to teach us something, or motivate us to simply not make these mistakes again.

We see risk taking being defined as exposure to the chance or injury of loss; a hazard of dangerous chance. But what if there was another way of redefining risk taking? What must one overcome to be able to define their own accomplishments and or failure as taking risks in their lives? In the collection of unit 5 of the Close Reader by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company, we as a class clearly got to understand the importance of risk taking and how risks can affect one's life in the decisions they choose to make. The stories of Beowulf, Blackheart, and lastly Are Genetically Modified Foods Scary? a perfect example of what the cause and effects are for risk taking. The importance of

Failing a quiz, test, or even a class bring reality into their line of sight. It helps them to learn that it is time to become responsible, and that it is time to take the steps to become an adult. Every student will fail in some way, it is inevitable. I am not saying it is an impending doom, but it will happen. It might not mean failing a class, but can be growing a part in a friendship, putting on that freshman fifteen, compromising your morals, or hitting the snooze button one too many times. Everyone will fail in different ways, but most will find a valuable lesson to

The word “risk” means the possibility of suffering a harmful event. Risk taking can bring either positive or negative result because anytime we take risks in life, there is a possibility of loss which can cause tension. There are a lot of people who take big risks and appear not to be affected by them. But, many of us feel very uneasy when faced with risk-taking; we may become worried about the risk. Although some people are content in life by just playing it safe and not courting any