Reflection: Culminating Senior Project

My Sentence:
She was the girl that taught me that winning isn't everything and that I should be going out and enjoying life rather that worrying about making it big because having this attitude of making it big makes you big headed and that attitude will take you no where in life.
Was I better today than I was yesterday?

I used to be those kids that were mad when they lost a game and I would always blame it on everyone but myself. I would see all that was wrong but I would not do anything about it. Why if it wasn't my fault? I was too good to make mistakes. I know now that that was all wrong. It shouldn’t always be about winning. I should do things because I enjoy doing them not because I want the feeling of being a winner. And because I learned this late I wanted to show the younger generation before it was too late for them. I wouldn’t have became aware of this problem if it wasn’t for constantly seeing fights at my public park between kids that were best friends. They got so mad about a bad call by the ref or even if they lost and they would get taunted and then a fight would break out. All that violence wasn’t necessary and could have been prevented if the parents of the kids had taught them what I did. Winning isn't everything because too much winning makes you cocky and if you are cocky and thinking you are amazing at everything and you take that attitude to the work place you will be put in your place. I taught them the their only goal shouldn't be to make it big in the NBA or MLB because if they surround their lives on that idea then they will get no where in life because they will have BSed their way through school barely getting by to focus on sports. It's good to have dreams but always think about the reality too.

About the TEDtalk

I'm in the process of working on my TED talk and I know what I want to say, but when it comes to creating a script the words don't come out. I've talked to Jeremy and he had some great ideas for me to do it about but I forgot those idea! I've sent him my script so that he can revise it and write down the ideas he had for me to do my project about. I want to focus on showing the kids that its not all about winning and that they need to go out and have fun. That there is no need for them to jump to violence if they are losing and if they are winning they need to not be cocky. I don't know how to write that though. Give me some ideas guys, please.

Tedtalk

This ted talk is about a little girl explaining that adults need to listen to children because we can be right to. And its not like she is insulting them or saying that adults suck because they don't listen to the children but she amuses people as she is trying to get her point across. I want to make my ted talk amusing so that it catches the attention of kids, but also the adults. I need to be able to make my ted talk simplistic because it is going to be for kids to listen to and I think that is what Adora does.

Dun Dun...Dun!

I finally met with Susan and she said that my idea was crap, not in those words though. I thought that the project was suppose to be about ourselves so I did it on wanting to get over my fear of public speaking but that wasn't what Susan wanted. She said I needed to impact my community and when she asked me I had no idea what I wanted to do. By coaching I wanted to teach the kids not only baseball but something greater. A life lesson. I want to show them that winning isn't everything and how to be good leaders, since we did go to a meeting thing last year at Susan's house and talk about that, and also that Pink book we had to read over the summer should be a perfect starting point in how I coach. But how to I make them learn what I want to teach them? Hoe do I know that everything I show them will really stick and that they will go through with it for the rest of their lives? I don't. And I've been thinking and kids now a days are more violent than they were back then. My little brother plays football for the park that I want to coach baseball at and there is a fight between the kids like every game. I think, am I really ready to handle all of that? What if the kids pick a fight with me? Help me figure out how to do this classmates and teachers. What should I do?

Failure! New Starting Point.

I got my proposal from Ray and didn't do so well. He said I wasn't specific but how can I if I haven't even narrowed down what I want to do. I'm not sure that I can even accomplish what I want to do. I want to coach a Little League team so that somehow that way I can slowly but surely lose my fear of public speaking. That's what I really want to accomplish with my project. But why does that matter? It matters to me, but I doubt anyone else cares about my problems. They will just call them like Andrew Prince says, "PP" which stands for a personal problem. It may be a personal problem but it's a pretty big problem. I'm not going to be successful in life if I'm scared. Fear conquers all those who allow for it and I don't want to be defeated. This should be an easy thing to accomplish but for me it isn't.

Previously I said that I wanted to focus on how children are getting more obese by the day but in reality that's not what I want to accomplish. Although that is a major problem, my fear is greater and needs immediate attention.

The Idea Process

I was talking to Elber not to long ago about what I really wanted to do for my senior project and he said anything as long as I had fun. That just made me more confused. He said that a good idea was to shadow a doctor. And I have asked my doctor and my dad's doctor if I could do that and they said they wouldn't mind at all. So now I'm split in between the two: coaching a little league baseball team or shadowing a doctor, which is what I want to be. Elber also mentioned that doing the latter would look better on my resume and colleges will think it's great. So when deciding should I choose fun or future? I'm more confused now than before I ever started thinking about the project.

Sliding Into Fitness

Nowadays, students are less and less involved in physical activities. They eat fast food for most parts meals and that is something that is affecting their lives. The United State is 3^rd in fattest countries of the world with 66.7% of its population over-weight. That isn’t something to be proud of. We need to encourage our young children to go outdoors and engage in some sort of physical activity. I know its cliché but they are the future of tomorrow. They need to be healthy and physically fit. I not only want the children of tomorrow to be fit, but also to have fun while doing it, because it never works if you aren’t enjoying what you are doing. You have to be having fun. The children need to realize that they can’t eat hamburgers every night, and I suppose that isn’t entirely their fault, but they need to be knowledgeable of what they should and shouldn’t eat. They need to be aware that exercising isn’t bad. Yes, it’s hard but in the end it’s worth it because they are doing it to improve their lives. They need to do it for themselves.

I’ve played baseball since I was 7 years old, and I’ve always loved it. And it is one way that I keep in shape. At my local park, every year there are less and less people registering their children to play baseball in the spring. They do have a fee, but if you sell your raffle tickets then you don’t have to pay because they pay for you. But I don’t think that money is the issue nowadays, it’s that little kids are too fat to play sports: little 7 and 8 year olds will be extremely over-weight. Whose fault is that? I blame the parents. Instead of stuffing their kids’ faces with food, they should be encouraging them to play a sport. And those that think that their kids are too fat to play don’t know that it is never too late: better late than never. Coaching a little league baseball team will be difficult because I have no experience in instruct. That will be my main research for my project. What are good ways to show these kids how to play the game without being mean but too nice neither? For my local park all that is needed is a volunteer and you need to find a sponsor to give money to order uniforms for the players and to buy equipment. A bucket of balls costs $30 and usually the children buy their own bats, helmets, and cleats. So all I would need money for is balls as long as I find a sponsor but the park also helps in finding them. The most I will spend is $50 and I can always put that in myself.

Although I’ve never taught a team how to do something, I always help out my little brother. We can spend hours outside practicing how to properly throw the ball or run the bases. I’m very patient. I know things don’t always come naturally to certain people so I can’t get frustrated easily. I did play baseball for 4 years and softball for 3 so I’m qualified experience wise. I know tricks that can make it easy for the kids to understand. And since I’m sort of a little kid on the inside I will be able to comfortably bond with the players. And if I’m having trouble I can always ask Mr. 3000 himself. Craig Biggio, a former Houston Astro, coaches my cousin at St. Thomas High School and I can observe his ways of teaching and even ask him if he has any advice for me. Or also I can ask our ex-fellow, Andrew Prince. He played baseball for all his life and even in college so he out of everyone should have advice and tricks that I don’t know about. I don’t have his email or phone number but I do have him as a friend on Facebook so we can communicate through there.

First Blog!

:D