Like other people, I also have special songs that have a unique effect on me compared to other songs. Even if these songs are weird, they still have an effect on me.

1. Twinkle Twinkle Little Star – This song has special meaning to me mainly because this was the first song I learned to play on Violin. I also associate this song with elementary school, since I used to hear this song at Violin group lessons. This song also has special meaning to me because my previous Violin teacher had showed me a more beautiful sounding Twinkle Twinkle Little Star compared to my beginner Violin skills and also made me want to improve upon my Violin playing skills.

Most the of the videos for this song were weird, so I picked this one since It didn’t look as weird/creepy compared to the others.

2. 2 Tigers(两只老虎) – This song is in Chinese and I used to sing it with my mom and sometimes my grandma. This song reminds me of my childhood and is about 2 tigers where one doesn’t have eyes and one doesn’t have a tail. This song also uses simpler Chinese characters/words, so I was able to actually understand the words from a young age. I used to also sing this song when I was bored, so this song also helped me pass time.

This video probably gives the best representation of the song for people who don’t know about the song.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1Nu-hF8Zg-4

3. Little Apple(小苹果) – This song is also in Chinese was more memorable for me, since this song also has a fitness like dance that goes along with it. I also remember this song because It was popular for a time and one of my classmates couldn’t stop humming the tune of the song. This song also me of middle school, because when I was in middle school, my parents wanted me to exercise a lot, I began having fears of having to do the fitness dance and sing the song at the same time.

The link below is the fitness dance of the song but I also have a link with the live dance here, performed by a kpop group, if you’re curious to see how It sounds with people screaming in happiness at a concert.

4. Blank Space by Taylor Swift – I’m personally not much of a Taylor Swift fan, but this song has a special meaning to me because my brother etched the song into my mind when he kept playing it in his car. Whenever I think of Taylor Swift or Blank Space, I automatically think of my brother and my sister, who was also into this song. Whenever I hear this song, I normally end up remembering the fun times I had with my brother and sister when I was younger.

Below is the link to the music video for Blank Space

5. Fire Emblem Theme song – Sure, some people might say this isn’t an actual song, but it still holds a special meaning to me. The first family game I enjoyed was probably Super Smash Bros Brawl on the Wii. I used to play with my brother and sister where we would have fun together. I remember in the game, I used to play as Marth or Ike, because they looked cool(cape, sword, and blue hair) and my brother used to play either one of them(he was the best out of us 3 siblings at the time so I thought he was good because of the character he chose to play as). I later learned that they were from Fire Emblem, and I started playing Fire Emblem games. I slowly began to gain interested in the series. This series also allowed me to gain more interested in the plot, characters, and art of games, rather than solely focusing on the game play and action.

Below is a video from which I remember the theme from, but the theme is probably more popular in Super Smash Bros Brawl, so here’s the link to that theme. The theme from Super Smash Bros Ultimate probably sounds more refined, so here’s the link to that one. All the themes don’t vary very much, so there’s no need to listen to all three.

Thinking and pondering,

I sit in silence as if void

about the road for life

You will be you as I will be me

Disciplined, kind, quiet

No less, no more.

Some might argue,

but I would disagree.

Experiences can be good or bad

Experiences are what shapes people into who they are. Like others, I also have an important experience that shaped me into who I am. My important experience happened back in 2016 when I was in eighth grade. I was a carefree eighth grader at Kennedy Junior High that always went to school, because that was what I was taught when I was younger. However, because I was told to go to school, I literally just went to school. I sat in the classroom with little attention to what was actually happening. The teacher might talk about the book we were suppose to read–that I indeed did actually read–and say something important that just goes in one ear and out the other. This all started in preschool where I would literally fall asleep in class, wake up, then fall back asleep. However, this all lasted for nine years, until the Fall of 2016.

In order to understand why experience transformed me, you would have to understand my childhood. In my childhood, I lived under the same roof as my dad, mom, brother, and sister. My brother, however, was in college at the time so he was only home for the summer and holidays. Because of this, whenever my parents weren’t home to take care of us, we were driven over to my grandparent’s home. My grandparent’s home was me and my sister’s day care center. There, we would interact and play with our grandparents. While my grandma knew some English due to being a nurse, my grandpa didn’t due to never taking a job in America and also due to developing Alzheimer from old age. In addition to my grandpa’s poor English, my Chinese (please note: some people use the term “Mandarin”, because that’s the name of the official Chinese dialect which most people speak, but I’m using “Chinese” because that’s what I’m used to saying. Some people do get mad when someone says “I speak Chinese”, because it’s technically incorrect. In this blog, when I use “Chinese”, I’m really referring to “Mandarin”.) speaking skills were very poor. Because of this, my grandpa and I never had a decent conversation due to the language barrier. The most Chinese I ever spoke at the time was probably when we entered my grandparent’s house and said, “Grandpa, grandma, we came back” in Chinese.

A Stormtrooper holding his blaster in his right hand, which is something my grandpa would approve of.

To this day, I only vividly remember two memories of my grandpa: one of them is when I cheerfully ran up to my grandpa and showed him a Lego Stormtrooper. After a short examination, he pointed out my Lego Stormtrooper was holding the gun in his left hand, which I didn’t realize, and began interrogating me why he was carrying the gun in the left hand rather than the right. I quickly switched the placement of the gun, and my grandpa told me to always use my right hand rather than the left. I then began to remember my lefts and rights extremely clearly due to the intimidation I felt when he questioned the gun placement. I knew that he had been in the Chinese military for a living, so I thought he would punish me in some harsh way. My second experience, the one I remember most vividly, was when my grandpa called me over while he was watching a Chinese news network. I walked over to the couch my grandpa was sitting on and wondered why he wanted me. He gestured me to sit down right beside him and said that he wanted to talk to me. I sat down, and looked at him in his gleaming eyes. He looked back. Silence. “你為什麼不跟我講話?” my grandpa suddenly asked, breaking the silence. My grandpa used simple Mandarin to speak to me, which translated easily into “Why don’t you ever talk to me?”. Being shy and not able to speak Chinese well, all I did was shrug. My grandpa then spoke to me for a while on why being able to know Chinese is important. I listened intently but couldn’t fully grasp what he was saying. Even to this day, I don’t remember what he said besides “Knowing Chinese is important”. To be honest, I remember extremely little of my childhood and only remember at most 10 memories.

As I grew up and started middle school, my grandparents decided they wanted to spend the rest of their lives in Taiwan, where they fled to after communism rose in China. In middle school, as noted earlier, I went to Kennedy Junior High. Let me say this right now: I don’t remember a thing about sixth and seventh grade. Why? Because I was so carefree I even forgot what kind of grades I got or what I did in my life during that period of time. However, in the Fall of my eighth grade, I would never be so carefree. It was during the weekend. My dad was in Taiwan visiting my grandparents and my mom was working on the weekends to earn more money for the family. I was playing games on my computer like usual, and my sister was watching videos on YouTube. It was approaching 12:00, so I knew my mom could be coming home for lunch soon. The door to the garage suddenly opened and I heard my mom come home at an earlier time than usual for lunch. As me and my sister were about to greet our mom, we saw her crying. Asking her what happened, she took one minute to calm down and managed to tell us that our grandpa had passed away. Prior to this moment in time, my grandpa had been admitted to the hospital after losing his balance and injuring himself. He was later examined and deemed OK to return to a normal lifestyle, but later admitted back to the hospital due to worsening health issues. It took us a minute to realize what happened, and when we did, we just sat there crying. Remembering all the experiences I had with my grandpa, I realized none of them could ever happen again. Whenever I’d return to my grandma’s home, I’d be saying “Grandma, I came back”, cutting out grandpa from the greeting. For other’s there might be a grandpa. But for me, there is no grandpa. I learned that there is a set amount for everything: there is a set amount of ti

An overhead view of Taipei, which is the capital of Taiwan

me for you to be able to embrace something before you lose it, and it’s up to you to decide whether you want to embrace it. I learned this the hard way when my set amount of time for having a grandpa had ended and I didn’t decide to embrace the experience of having a grandpa. With the passing of my grandpa, it was decided that the whole family would go to Taiwan. However, needing to take time off from school, I had to tell my teachers. I remember talking to my math teacher with my mom, parent and teacher conference style, and my mom crying as she told my math teacher about everything that had happened. I was holding back tears and my math teacher comforted us with kind words. Later, we discovered my grandpa had died when the doctors didn’t know which medication to give him and what amount. They also decided he was going to die anyway, so they wouldn’t actually perform any medical procedures in fear of getting sued if he died. When my uncle, a doctor, told them which medicine to use, the Taiwanese doctors didn’t understand, so my uncle gave them the bottle of medicine himself. But, it was too late and my grandpa couldn’t recover.

We all traveled to Taiwan, where we held a ceremony for grandpa. We took a bus up the mountain to where there was a small town, which dealt with funerals. We had the ceremony in a big room with lots of chairs for all the family members and friends of my grandpa. We heard letters from family and friends and everyone say their final goodbyes. I remember my dad, sister, mom, and me sobbing while my brother sat there holding back tears. Days after the ceremony, we all traveled to the place where the cremation of my grandpa would take place. We first traveled into a room which had two family members who had not yet been cremated and my grandpa. There was one portrait for each person, and when we prayed to my grandpa’s portrait, we saw his eyes of his portrait almost gleam and sparkle. It was as if he was looking through the portrait and my family continued on to buy the vase for the cremation. We watched him later be cremated, where we sat at a table for hours to wait for him to finish. The next day, we would travel to the top of a mountain where there was a burial site for military members. After placing the vase with the ashes of my grandpa in his designated drawer slot, we sealed it according to tradition, which would make it where no one could ever open again.

Wuzhi Mountain Military Cemetery, the place where my grandpa’s ashes remain, is the most prominent military cemetery in Taiwan

At this point, you might be wondering how this experience changed me. Well, after this point, I began to work much harder in school and on almost everything I did. I also stopped playing games on my computer, which created time for more important activities. After this, I also stopped smiling happily as much and began to smile in a “that’s nice” attitude. I try to learn from every mistake and reflect on why it happened. This happened mainly from learning that the death of my grandpa was caused from a few doctors stupidity. Now, I look more stern than before and sometimes, I get mad when I end up doing something stupid or making a mistake that was easily avoidable. I now also try my best in learning Chinese, because I now understand what my grandpa had tried to tell me earlier. I also try to get better at Chinese, so I’m able to interact more with my grandma so when the time comes, I won’t regret not interacting enough with my grandma. Before, whenever I did anything, I never put effort into it. But now, I put effort into whatever I do in order to embrace life and experiences before they go away.

Most people tell stories in first person view. However, in “Speaking of Courage”, Tim O’Brien uses a third person view to describe the events that happen. In “Speaking of Courage”, Norman Bowker speaks of him coming home from Vietnam and also about the traumatizing experience he remembers from Vietnam. Even though it looks like a normal chapter, this chapter differentiates itself from the rest due to the PTSD Norman receives from the experience. Norman suffers by remembering Kiowa’s death when Norman was sinking in a sticky substance and unable to help Kiowa when suddenly Kiowa is decapitated and dead. Norman, not being able to cope with the death of Kiowa, gets PTSD and also thinks of himself as cowardly. I wouldn’t say that Norman’s cowardly, but realistically he didn’t do much in the war. Even though Norman received seven medals,

A picture of Tim O’Brien

the medals he received could be seen as participation medals due to how commonly it was handed out. Norman also points out he could’ve gotten the Silver Star, a medal which indicates great courage in battle, but didn’t due to how scared he was. Norman may have wanted the Silver Star due to wanting to be able to say that he did something could because of the war. For example, many military members with medals will show them to family members and tell them stories. However, in the case of Norman, he wouldn’t be able to tell much of a story due to not getting a medal of great importance. Tim O’Brien was able to get something out of the war by writing “The Things They Carried” which many people read and raise awareness about the terrible conditions and events they had to experience.

PTSD is a problem for Norman Bowker

As said earlier in this blog, Norman suffers with PTSD. Norman repeatedly thinks about Kiowa and his death and tries to think about it in a way to comfort himself. This is shown when Norman circles around the lake repeatedly despite seeing life pass by him. This part can also be seen as people moving forward in life while Norman is stuck “living” in the past. Even though peoplesay that Norman could’ve been saved, I’d generally say no since I believe that it mainly came down to Norman’s reaction toward Kiowa’s death. Norman constantly believes that he could’ve done more to prevent Kiowa’s death and pins the blame on himself. However, had Norman forgotten at least the details of Kiowa’s death, I’m sure Norman would’ve been able to continue comfortably in life. Some people say that Norman could’ve been saved if someone helped him, but I believe it might’ve not worked. Previous to the Vietnam war, PTSD wasn’t really brought to peoples attention until World War 1 under the name of Shell Shock. At the time, people had the understanding of people getting freaked out after being near artillery fire and seeing the result of the destruction. However, I’m sure at that point and before in history, people would have seen victims of PTSD as cowardly people due to not being able to live with what happened in the war.

In war, everyone gets effected somehow. Whether it be a man or a woman, an adult or a child, everyone is changed somehow. In “Sweethearts of Tra Bong”, Tim O’Brien shows that war can change a person in many ways through a girl named Mary Anne. Mary Anne, a beautiful young girl fresh out of high school, travels to Vietnam to see her boyfriend and becomes a sight for sore eyes to the soldiers there. When Mary Anne arrives she does things that can be classified as girly or a quality of life: pink clothes, earrings, makeup, and a happy personality. However, after living there for a period of time, she transforms dramatically due to the living conditions and the war’s consuming personality.

A boat arrives on the coast of Vietnam

When Mary Anne arrives in Vietnam, she’s happy and cheerful despite being confused of her surroundings. She also became curious and interested in learning what Vietnam had to offer and what the men did to survive as well as how they fought. Because of this, Mary Anne slowly becomes consumed as a person by the war but it’s concealed by her curiosity to learn. At first learns about militaristic things, such as how to take a gun apart, how it works, and how to do first aid. Later, she secretly becomes interested in the traditions of the Vietnamese people and secretly took a part in them. Mary Anne also changes physically and cuts her hair to make it shorter due to it getting in the way. While this action may seem as if it was for convenience while she was living in Vietnam, this action actually brings her closer to Vietnam. In the beginning, as noted, she was perplexed and wasn’t familiar with her surroundings. However, she later becomes  accustomed to the mysterious Vietnam that no one really knew much about. This is most obviously shown when Mary Anne is caught with a tongue necklace around her neck as she participates in traditional Vietnamese activities.

The Vietnamese jungle, where anything could change extremely quickly

These little things that happen under the eyes of everyone in Tra Bong cause Mary Anne to be consumed by the war even though she wasn’t intending to when she came to Vietnam. Anyone can be devoured by the war, but it depends on how interested in Vietnam they are. Rat Kiley notes that no one truly knows about Vietnam and it’s shrouded in mysteries. I believe that because of the lack of understanding Vietnam has on people, no one could stop Mary Anne. Marry Anne seemingly just wanted to learn about the war because she was there but ended up going under a huge transformation because no one knew that Vietnam could change a person so much. After a while, Mary Anne is nearly the opposite of who she was when she first came to Vietnam. She had short hair, military clothing, no earrings, no makeup, no bubbly personality, and finally sported a tongue necklace. Mary Anne transformed quite a bit compared to when she first arrived. But is she a predatory killer? Not quite, but could be due to the massive impact the Vietnamese jungle already has on her. If she indulges further in learning about Vietnam, she could end up losing herself entirely and become violent, killing soldiers if she desired to. Because of this, she may also give people PTSD.

People involved in war can suffer from PTSD

Generally in war, people can get PTSD, which can leave a terrible aftertaste due to the cruel things they saw and heard while in the line of duty. Wars also happen in multiple settings: In a military base that no civilians go near or a city bustling with people everyday. War can easily effect anyone but has the most effect when the person is there to experience it form themselves rather than seeing it through a form of social media.

Even though disasters and catastrophes result in terrible things, they also result in some good things. Disasters have the ability to unite people and bring them closer together. In times of national emergency, disasters are able to bring everyone closer together to help one another and get past the hard times.

Collage

Courage. Many people have different views on the word courage. In the book The Things They Carried by Tim O’Brien, O’Brien defines the word courage as something stored within the human body to be used for a boost of bravery when most needed: “Courage, I seemed to think, comes to us in finite quantities, like an inheritance, and by being frugal and stashing it away and letting it earn interest, we steadily increase our moral capital in preparation for that day when the account must be drawn down” (O’Brien 38). O’Brien defines courage in this way due to the amount of courage O’Brien had accumulated over the years but released in a short moment in order to encourage himself to participate in the Vietnam war. Later, O’Brien accumulates more courage within himself in order to get past the hardships in the war, such as coping with the deaths of friends and comrades.

Everyone has courage in them

Like O’Brien, I also believe courage is something stored within a person over time. I also believe courage is something expended in time of need in order to get a person past their comfort zone and grow as a person. However, to me, the definition of courage is being able to stand up for someone or do something despite fear or the consequences that may result – even if it’s out of your comfort zone. For example, if someone was getting bullied into handing someone money against their will, a bystander would show their lack of courage by not helping the victim. However, if someone had courage, if they ever saw someone getting bullied, they’d help the victim despite consequences which may result from helping the victim and at the same time step out of their comfort zone. I also see courage as something everyone has. Not everyone is able to stand up against bullying, but everyone is capable of pushing themselves to do something. Some people might only be able to encourage themselves to talk to a random classmate for help while some people might be able to dive for greatness despite possible injury or disturbance.

The word courage also has the synonyms of boldness, bravery, nerve, and pluck. In all of these words, the common theme of standing against danger and pain with confidence and bravery exists. In other words, courage can also mean strong determination in the face of hardship. With this definition, a display of courage would be shown if a person maintains a strong intention to win a tournament or competition despite the challenging opponents or obstacles that lie ahead. In a school setting, acts of courage range from sitting with the lone person at a lunch table to standing up to the unfair treatment of others from an individual.

Courage, the ability to keep moving forward despite hardships, can be seen in many scenarios and seen in daily life. Courage can range from small or big acts and is commonly stored within a person to be expended when needed, as suggested from Tim O’Brien in The Things They Carried. When will you perform an act of courage?

Hi, I’m William Li and I’m currently 16 years old. I live in a family of 5: my dad, mom, brother, sister, and me. We all live together and my siblings are both older than me. My brother is 30 while my sister is 19.

Hobbies

My hobbies used to include playing video games and reading, though it has now shifted over to playing violin, playing games, and watching anime.

When I was 10 years old, I managed to beat Pokemon Sapphire on my sister’s Pokemon account on the Game Boy Advance. After this, I became more interested in Pokemon and slowly became a fan(for a period of time). I also got into Fire Emblem, but only when I was into strategy games. I do not actually own the game and played it on GBA Rom. Like Pokemon, I also enjoyed the story line and mild complexity of the game.

First Pokemon game I’ve ever played.

More recently, my brother roped me into the Pokemon Trading Card Game. He talked to me about competitive Pokemon and brought my along for a Pokemon tournament. I somewhat enjoyed the experience due to the friendly environment and all the kind people there are and the friendly game play being able to say “your Pokemon fainted” rather than “I killed your Pokemon”. Me and my brother now play in a tournament almost every weekend. Between me and my brother, I probably have more skill and luck while my brother has better cards due to being able to earn good money from his accounting job.

Sophomore year, I somehow got into watching anime. I was watching YouTube and got really bored of it, and remembering there was a popular anime going on, I decided to hop onto Crunchyroll.com, an anime streaming website, and watch a few episodes. I realized anime was actually not that bad and is normally entertaining and sometimes funny. Now, I normally watch comedy anime when I’m bored or when I need to lighten up my day. I’d say anime is probably what got me through Sophomore year stress-free.

Interests

I’m mostly interested in getting better at playing violin. More recently, I’ve been interested in Pokemon, Castlevania, and Fire Emblem. At home, I’ll sometimes play on the Nintendo Switch, Nintendo 64, or Game Boy Advance.

Sports

I’ve played Violin since 1st grade

I used to play tennis and badminton, but now run cross country and sometimes play ping pong with friends.

I started playing tennis in elementary school after my parents wanted me to do a sport. My brother and sister had already played tennis and I decided I should give tennis a try. However, after a while, I got tired of it. In junior high, I decided to play badminton, since my sister was already playing it and we could do the after school club for badminton. I enjoyed badminton quite a bit but had to stop in high school due to no boys badminton team at NNHS and no place to play badminton. In high school, I’ve ran cross country for the first 2 years but stopped for junior year due to nearly injuring my hip and successfully injuring my left knee and ankle.

School

At school, my favorite class is probably Orchestra and maybe Physics. I’m generally more interested in sciences and tend to dislike English classes more often than other classes. I tend to do well in science classes and math classes while social studies and English classes tend to be harder.