Worst member of the sports team (journal 3)

Dear Journal,

Man was today embarrassing:

"Come on sung choo. Watch the run, watch the run! Get up closer to the line!"

Five seconds later.

"Sung choo get out now! How did you not see the 49 reverse? We went over it 20 times in practice. You know what, forget it, just sit over there and fill the water bottles."

Dang, how was I supposed to know that they would run a reverse with both their guards coming to block!

Oh god, why does this happen every game? I mean when the game starts I always play well, but after a few minutes into the game I always screw up some big play. I go from being a starter to a bench warmer. I hate sitting on the bench. Its a waste of my life. I mean its not like I play football so I can sit on the bench the whole game. So what if I make a mistake once in while? Its called being HUMAN! Give me a break.

Football use to be fun for me. Now with my status as benchwarmer, it's a pain to even go to practice let alone a game. And people have loads of fun rubbing it in my face:

"Everyone go to the spots you would normally be in a game."

"Hey Sung Choo where are you going, coach said to go to your spot in the game, that would over there by the water bottles."

Why me?

Sincerely,

The depressed guy keeping the bench warm.

New Kid

Dear Journal,

I don't know how I going to survive another 30 weeks of being the "New Kid." I mean this is only my first week at Judes a Saint in Waldum. It's already bad enough that I am new at school, but what worse is that I am joining the school during my senior year. I don't know anybody in my grade, let alone the school. Everyone in my grade has been close friends with each other for several years.

Everyday this week I sat in class listening to everyone talking to each other about things they did over the summer: "Hey, remember last week when went over to miguel's house?" asks one person "Hahaha yea that was mad funny." says another person. It made me reminisce the days at my old school, when I would sit around with my friends and just talk. The most meaningful conversation I had with anybody at this week at school was when some Indian kid attempted to talk to me: "Hey Davis, my names Thomas Dory." And then I replied "Uh, my name is Stan."


Awkward...


And since the beginning of this week there has been this tall kid, I think his name is Drew, and everyday he walks up to me and calls me a gerbil. What's up with that? Do I look like a gerbil? It just so stupid.

And if that wasn't enough, what is with these uniforms. I mean really, green and yellow. I mean I already hated green and yellow, and now I have to wear them! And everyday there are these kids, from another catholic school, that keep on laughing at me everyday I walk by their bus stop. Let me repeat that EVERYDAY.

This is going to be a long year.

Sincerely,
Stan

Journal Entry from an Obese child

Dear Journal,

I hate my life. Why am I the one that has to be fat? I mean its not fair. Why can't I be like everyone else? Everyone else is slim. It's just not fair. It's like God hates me! God had to choose me, out every person to be the fat kid. I hate being "obese."

Everyday when I walk around the school, everyone just stares at me. And I can tell by the looks on their faces what they are thinking: "Diet much?" or "Wow, make room for fatty." Everyday is just a living hell. The staring, the gigling, the smirking, the smart ass remarks, and the dumb fat jokes. But the worst part of the day is phys ed. The dumb football coach teaches that class, and he always makes us run four laps around the football field. And he knows I can't run, but he is always jogging right next to me trying to make me run by giving me stupid talk about good health. And its so stupid. Everyone is always whispering and laughing when I am the last one running. And I HATE IT!

Everyday left and right, all I ever see are the stupid stares from people. And all I hear are people and their horrible attempt at whispering about how fat I am. But the person that drives me nuts most about "how I am too fat" is my dumb doctor. "I know it must be hard to be obese but you need to stop eating fatty foods, and start on a good balanced diet" says my doctor. First off how does he know how it feels to be fat. He's as skinny as a twig. And I already know that I'm supposed to have a balanced diet. Everyone is always telling me that. And I've tried but its hard and it never always fails miserably.

I hate being fat.



I hate being me...

-Gerbal

Infatuation with a teacher

1. Concerns themselves with what the teacher may think of their work
ex: "I wonder what (teacher's name) will think about my essay."
"I hope (teacher's name) likes my project."

2. Infatuated about pleasing the teacher.
ex: "I can't wait to help (teacher's name) with (insert assignment).

3. Obsessed with how the teacher thinks of them.
ex: "I wonder if (teacher's name) thought I did well today."
"I hoped (teacher's name) liked what I was doing today.

4. Would most likely suck up to the teacher.
ex: "(teacher's name) was so right to do (insert action).

5. Will recall fond memories with that teacher.
ex: "I remembered the time when (teacher's name) was impressed with my presentation during class. I was so proud.

Journal to Me (5)

Dear Billy,

You know how many years I have had to listen to you complain? Do you know how many of my pages you wasted listing day after day all of your problems and irks? Well I am writing this letter to tell you, I quit!

I am fed up with the: "Mr George's AP class is to god dang hard." or "Damn I could have done so much better in todays game." Why don't you go cry to your mommy. The incessant whining and droning about how your life is so bad is driving me crazy. I mean is it really that hard to ask for one optimistic day. Why can't you alternate like every ninety ninth day you can be an opitimsitic person, out of the hundred pesstimistic days?

I don't know how your first journal lived through all of its 100 pages of your incessessant complaining. I keep on begging Pen to kill me somehow, like exploding or ripping into my pages. But he just laughs and says, "Sucks to be you." Everyday as I stare at your AP US History Book, I think to myself: "Damn why couldn't I have been that guy?"

I am done with this so I want to send this letter to you to formally tell you that I am resigning as your journal. And here some advice for you, don't get another notebook because he will probably break his binding after a day of listen to your ranting.

Sincerely,
Your Ex-journal

Letter From Titanic (4)

Dear mama,

How is the farm going? Is Gertrude feeding all the animals? I can already imagine the disarray the animals are in because of her. Little Lukas must be having a good laugh watching her try to milk Bessie.

My journey to America has been good so far. I am on a huge ship called the Titanic. It is supposed to be one of the biggest and safest ships on the seas. The other day, I thought of uncle Max and his sea faring stories as I stared westward at the sea. He was right, the sheer vastness of the seas is incredible. I walked around the ship five times looking for land, failing to even find a mountain peek.

And while staring at the seas, I have had a lot of time to think. I have been thinking about the last couple of weeks. And I want you to know that no matter what happens I will find the money to get papa the medicine he needs. I have already met a man who works in New York who is willing to offer me a job at one of his resteraunts. The ship's crew says that we still have a way to go before we arrive to America. I pray to God that papa can last long enough for me to send the money.

Before I finish I want to say that I love all of you.

Your Son,





(the rest of the letter is illegible due to water causing the ink to smudge)

Devil to God (3)

Dear so called God,

How you doing? Has time been treating you well? It has been really nice to me. My soul hunting business has been going real well. My little minions have been grabbing souls by the thousands lately. That must be really bothering you. I mean you want to get your little children up to heaven so bad, but you and your stupid morals make you not interfere with their lives. I on the other hand interject into their lives all I want making them succomb to my will and join the dark side.

Oh it makes laugh so much as I imagine the look on your face as you see millions of your beloved children come to hell instead of heaven. Admission to heaven must be at an all time low. With all the new arrivals down here, I have had to increase the size of hell.

The large amount of arrivals has gotten so severe that I habe had to start thinking about denying admission. But then I think to myself, "Naw that will only make the S.O.B. up there happy so I'll just let them keep on coming."

I laugh when your children call you father. They should call you failure. You created them in your likeness so that they would live as you would; instead you created the perfect tools for me to torment you. For such a perfect, omnipotent being you do a lot of stupid things.

Well I have to go greet the new arrivals. Hope you have fun crying yourself a river.

Your better half,
The Devil

Letter from nature to humanity (2)

Dear humanity,

I just wanted to write this letter to address a certain predicament I am in. It has to do with what you humans have been doing to the earth for the past couple centuries. I understand that you humans think that just because you use ten percent of your brains it makes you the dominating species, but that is no excuse to screw with the earth. I stood up with you humans for the last 5000 years as you guys started cutting down my trees and building societies off my abundance of raw materials. But now you are starting push it.

What are you trying to do to me? You cannot just come out of no where and screw with the perfect balance that I created. Do you know how long it took me to make the earth and all the creatures that coexist on it? Do you? To answer that for you, it took me a long time. And you humans just randomly choose to become the dominating species. You think that everything on the Earth is yours. Like oil, what's up with that? You are using oil and coal at such excess that you started up another global crisis. And now you guys are starting to complain because you have nearly depleted all of the oil I created for you. You guys are really starting to irritate me.

I mean don't get me wrong, I don't hate you humans, but you guys are really starting to walk a fine line. Let me tell you a story about another dominating species that walked the fine line. They were called the dinosaurs. And you want to know happened to them?

They became the oil that all you humans are using to kill the earth and all my hard work. I do not want to have to wipe you off the earth like I did to the dinosaurs but I might have to at the rate you guys are killing the earth. For heaven's sake you are about to start a massive climate warming that will probably result in a catastrophic flood and then a massive ice age.

Please do yourselves a favor and stop screwing around with me. Because I will bang you out just like the big bang? Take that into consideration, I beg of you.

Your eternal janitor,

Nature

letter from mini me (1)

Dear Billy sixteen years from me,

I want to say hi. Hows the future going? Any thing good happen? Hows the Pokemon collection going?Did you get µ2 yet? If you did that would be so cool to have µ2. I wanna get µ2 so much. That card is so cool. Its like holographic and it has a cool picture and other cool stuff. Mommy says that pokemon is waste of time though and I should go out and play. But I dont wanna play cuz pokemon is so cool.

Did mommy daddy go to the hospitil and bwing home a baby brother yet? I want a brother so much. That way I have somebody to play with. We can play basketball, jump rope, and pokemon. Then we can watch Barney, and elmo, and big bird on public television. That would be so fun. To have a brother to hang out with.

O yea, did you find that jacket that I lost yesterday? Mommy and daddy said that they would be mad at me until I found it; so did you find it? I think I left at school but it was not in my cubby and it was not in the closet. Hopefully big fat meany Tommy did not take it again. I dont like Tommy. He's big and fat and mean. Is he still big and fat and mean? I don't like mean people, like Ms. Camelo. I am really, really afraid of her. She's a scary teacher. Everyone thinks she's a witch. I don't like witches. They are scary like the clowns. Clowns are really scary. Are you still afraid of clowns and Ms Camelo?

Before Ms Joope, finds me hiding under the table in the auditorium I just want to say I hope the fewture is doing good. I dont like the fewture, cuz it's so confusing. Dont forget to find that jacket I lost.

Sincerely Billy

letter

Dear Billy Lai,

It's been a while since we last talked. Whether you take this letter to heart or not, it does not really matter as long as you take home the one message of this letter: I forgive you.

I can still remember how that day started: you, big patrick, little patrick and me just hanging around, like always, just riding our bikes around the neighborhood. I do not know how it transitioned to the talk about chinese people but somehow it did. I never thought that our jokes about chiniese people hurt you that much. And looking back at that day, as I play the events in my head over and over again, I still regret how we ended that day.

I still remember when you stood up and shoved me. I remember the anguish in your face as I fell and as you yelled at big Patrick, little Patrick, and me. That is the last memory of that day. The anguish in your face as you shoved me. Whether you were acting out of pain or malice, know that I forgive you. And I will always be here for you: the same spot we would always meet, back by the stream. And whether you take this letter to heart or not, know that in my heart I will still and always will call you, friend.

Sincerely,

Sean

P.S. And I hope you relize how sincere I am being because you and I both know that this is totally out of character for me. Hope to see you by the stream soon.

1. Shame, embarassment, and my acheing back; the only three things I could feel in my body.

Thanksgiving Day, the best day for any football player, fan, or coach. The day where dreams are made or crushed. I woke up on thanksgiving day of freshmen year with a fervor and excitement that I've only had a couple times in my life. I hardly slept the night before but I had enough energy to run ten miles. There was only one thing on my mind: "football."

2. Two dark, tear jerked eyes; that is the last thing I remember of her.

It had been the best seven months of my life. I remember the first day I met her; She was crying. I remember walking over to her and start talking to her. And over the weeks we began talking. She cried very often and I very often had to comfort her. But after a couple months I noticed that she had stopped crying, and for once I saw a smile.

3. And all I could hear was the relentless: Tick Tock, Tick Tock, Tick Tock, Tick Tock...

I had been studying all night. Parastroika, glastnost, archduke Franz Ferdinand, the renaisance, the enlightenment; historical facts buzzed in my head as I sat in auditorium, pen in hand.

4. I didn't have to look up to know what was about to happen, one word came to mind: busted.

"What do you mean we had math homework?" I said to Learnard. "Yeah problems 10 through 27" he replied. I frantically looked at the clock. "Crap I only have 10 minutes until math class" I said. "If you want you can borrow mine" he offered. I looked up at the clock again as it ticked. "Should I do it, should I copy it, is it worth it?" I said to myself, "of course it is."

5. We need to talk...

It was a bright saturday morning. I looked at the calendar; it said October 25. And right below that in bright red it said, "first month anniversary." It had been one month since we met. It had been one of the best months in my life. I ecstatically got changed and ready to see her. Gift in hand I walked out the door ready to start the second best month in my life.

1. I woke up and immediately began to frantically search for my backpack in the darkness.

I scrambled through the stacks of papers in my bag, searching for the salmon paper. The paper that was worth 50 points, that was my key to getting an A in chemistry and beating Dory Tom. I turned on the light and looked at the problem dotted paper. "Crap."

2. When I hit the ground I heard the sound of a stick snapping.

It was a sunny day. I had just got out of school when Andrew Median came up to me. "Yo Mike wanna head over to Nippermore and play some football?" I immediately answered,"Yea sure let me get my stuff." We quickly headed off to Nippermore with Tommy Dondon, Sebastian Jacks, and Davis Block.

3. I was laughing hysterically, probably the most I have ever laughed, in amazement and disbelief that what we made worked.

As I sat in class doing my english homework, Mr Plyers stood up. "Excuse me class as you know the science fair is in a month, and many of you are required to do it this year for honors. So I just wanted to make sure that all of you honors students started preparing, like picking out your partner and topic." I immidiately looked up at dory, and we knew what each other were thinking: "Hovercraft."

4. I nearly went into shock when I saw the whitest flash and heard the loudest noise in my life.

I stammered out of bed. Trying to feel my way as my eyesight and slowly returned. I felt disoriented and confused. "Mikey are you okay!" my mom and dad shouted amongst the loud rumbling of thunder and the plopping rain.

5. When I looked at the clock it was 2 am already, and I could not believe I let this happen again.

"Mikey go to bed!" my mom screamed from the living room. "Alright," I said,"after I finish this." I stared at the blank paper. Then I looked up to the clock as it yearned to me to go to bed. I pulled out the dreaded red book. I began to skim the book looking for something to help me get started. All I saw were thousands of words dotting the page as I strained to keep my eyes open. My mind sorted through thoughts of where to begin, and all that came to mind, “why me?”

Cliff hangers

1. Shame, embarassment, and my acheing back the only three things I could feel in my body.

2. Two dark, tear jerked eyes; that is the last thing I remember of her.

3. And all I could hear was the relentless: Tick Tock, Tick Tock, Tick Tock, Tick Tock...

4. I didn't have to look up to know what was about to happen, one word came to mind: busted.

5. We need to talk...

YOU GOT CRACKED!

When I was a freshman I was very excited to start high school. It was a chance to start clean at a new school, with new experiences. One of these new experiences was playing football. I was extremely excited to play football but I pretty much did not know anything about football. So I signed up for football and we began practice in August. Soon after school started and life began to become hectic with lots of homework, projects, tests, and quizzes. And as the season progressed football started becoming a very routine thing. Every day was very routine at football practice. We would do routes, falcon pursuit, a run through of plays, and depending on the day practice for offence or defense.
One day at practice my mind just began to wander off. I started thinking about school while the JV team was doing a run through with the varsity. And soon I started an open dialogue with some of my teammates about the day and what we had to do. I lost track of what was happening in the run through. So later into the practice when the entire team was practicing plays from the run through I was called upon to play as an Outside Linebacker. And when we started the play I soon became disoriented. My mind wandered frantically on whether I should cut through the eight hole or should I go back to the flats. Being the irrational and loquacious person I was, I neglected to hear and remember that we were supposed to be dummies and just walk it through while the offense went full speed. So I chose to run through the eight hole at full speed, which was where Mr. James Nadif who benches my weight 2 fold was supposed to run. Twenty seconds later I woke to the laughter of forty people and a migraine the size of Texas. When I think of that day I think everyone was laughing at me because they thought I got “dangled” due to my lack of strength. But I sometimes wonder if they knew I got “cracked” because of my negligence to listen to instructions.

Me Talk Pretty One Day... YEA!

1. Sedaris created a humerous story from a potentially boring experience by adding funny details about the french class and making fun of himself as if he were another person. This deadpan style of writing helped create many funny parts to the story. The funniest parts included: when he wrote his classmates and his own poor dictation of the french language, and at the end of the book where he asked the teacher to criticize him more, out of glee from understanding her.

2. The speaker reveals information about himself indirectly through his thoughts and reactions. For example the speaker makes it quite clear, through his thoughts and reactions to the teacher's unflattering remarks, that the speaker is a very self concious person and is easily affected by remarks or comments from others: "After being singled out as a lazy kfdtinvfm, I took to spending four hours a night on my homework, putting in even more time whenever we were assigned essays" (Sedaris 276).

Unflattering Detail

Everybody has an unflattering detail about themselves, whether it is a physical trait, a quark, or a habit. And for most people this involves a long, embarrassing story to accompany it. I for example have the unflattering detail of being extremely forgetful to the point where I remember things literally at the last minute. One such story that perfectly envelopes this story is when I was in second grade.
It was the second week of school, and of course seeing that I just got back from summer vacation I was unfocused and unprepared for school. That morning I had woken up late, forgotten to bring in my homework, and I forgot to bring my lunch money. So I was in already in a depressed mood. And the day progressed at a very slow pace. By the end of the day, I was so eager to go home that I forgot about my backpack at school, which had my homework folder, hat, jacket, and sweater. My parents were already upset at me because I had a very low grade in school, and now that I forgot my backpack that made things worst. And seeing that I had to wait for my parents to pick me up from my cousins, that denied me the option of picking it up after school because the school closed around three but they picked me up at four.
So I was left with the only option of telling my parents of what happened and plead to my parents. But being a very timid little boy, I was too anxious to wait so I decided to call them. But since I was so very anxious I forgot my own house number and instead called my neighbor’s house phone. When I called no one picked up and it went straight to the answering machine. Then I just released my anxiety out pleading to my parents not to yell at me and telling them that it was an honest mistake that I forgot all my stuff.
When they arrived to pick me up, I found out that did not get the message so I explained to them what happened and gave them the same plead not to yell at me. And thankfully they understood and just gave a quick reprimand and speech about why you should not be in a hurry. So I completely forgot about the message I had left. The next day was Saturday. And it just happened to be the day of the block party. And of course when I got there I found out that I was the main topic of conversation. Thus, my forgetfulness plagued me throughout day and ended in near destruction of my self confidence.

Shooting an Elephant Questions

Question 1:
The story “Shooting an Elephant” surrounds a British officer on patrol in Moulmein, Burma. The story consisted of two disparate themes: tension of colonial rule over the Burmese people and conforming to peer pressure. These two themes are intertwined through the British officer, who was a lukewarm supporter of British control of the Burmese people. He resented the British control of the Burmese people, but unfortunately the Burmese people stereotyped him as a British supporter for colonialism and had shown great resentment to him throughout the period he served as an officer in Burma.
The author chooses to intertwine these two themes through an incident where an elephant manages to free itself from its restraints and goes on a rampage after being stricken with must. The officer spends the day tracking the elephant down. And after a while finds the elephant in a field, after its bloody rampage, eating grass serenely in the field. He had planned to just watch the elephant after he found it but he had drawn great attention from the Burmese people when he had called for a large hunting rifle. Now with a large crowd of people behind him, he felt the will of the people behind him to shoot the elephant. And conforming to the peer pressure, he shot and killed the elephant. This bending to the will of the Burmese may have been due to the theme of resentment of British control. Both he and the people resented British control yet the people also hated him for he was a British officer who enforced British control. So wanting a chance to prove himself to the Burmese he bent to their will and shot the elephant.
Question 2:
He revealed unflattering details by first stating what he should have done versus what he did. Then prior to telling the reader what he did he gives an explanation of the precarious situation he was in and his reasoning for why he made the choice he did. For example: “But at that moment, I glanced round at the crowd that had followed me. It was an immense crowd, two thousand at the least and growing every minute…They did not like me, but with the magical rifle in my hands I was momentarily worth watching. And suddenly I realized that I should have to shoot the elephant after all” (Orwell 224). Finally he admits the blunder: "But in all reality I was only an absurd puppet pushed to and fro by the will of those yelleow faces behind" (224).

10 easy lesson to becoming popular

1. BE YOURSELF! Don’t change your personality to impress others. People will like you for who you are.
2. Be open. Don’t always be the person leading the crowd. Take some time to listen to other people around you and make informed responses.
3. DO NOT BE PASSIVE! If you are passive you will get nowhere. Don’t always be a spectator, have meaningful conversations with people.
4. Don’t be aggressive! No one likes to be bossed around by some know-it-all snob.
5. Be active in extracurricular activities, after school programs, and in your community. You will meet new people and improve upon yourself, your school, and your community.
6. Do not be rude to other people, especially if you do not know them. Always be polite and well mannered to others. Present yourself well to others.
7. Be optimistic. You should have a positive outlook on life. People like happy people, not pessimistic downers.
8. Accept others for who they are. Even if you despise somebody, accept them as who they are and don’t dwell on their bad qualities.
9. Work hard. People like people who work hard and achieve great things.
10. Never, ever, ever, give up. Nobody likes a failure, but everyone likes a fighter.

NO UNIFORMS

Throughout history, people in America have fought for civil liberties like freedom of expression, religion, and assembly. These rights include the freedom to dress however a person chooses. But in recent years many schools have begun to adopt a uniform policy. This policy goes against the fundaments of an individual’s rights. Not only do they go against the rights of the individual but they subdue the individuality of a person. Students must be allowed to make their own decisions on what to wear because it is a freedom that they are inclined to have from legal documents and natural rights.
The right to dress however a person likes is derived from the idea of freedom of expression. And the freedom to express oneself is an idea ratified in several legal documents. These documents include: the Constitution, the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, the European Convention on Human Rights, and the American Convention on Human Rights. All of these documents promote self expression, yet schools across the United States demand students to wear uniforms. Some schools even suspend a student if their uniform does not meet their uniform code. If everyone is legally granted the right to freely express themselves, then why are students being punished for a display of self expression at the hands of schools? To force a student to wear a uniform and to punish them for not conforming to these demands are wrong and unconstitutional. Even worse it goes against the unalienable rights people have.
By depriving children the natural right of expressing themselves, they are being stricken of an opportunity to define themselves as who they are as people. The choice of what to wear is a right derived from the unalienable rights that Thomas Jefferson had mentioned nearly two centuries ago: life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. The choice of what to wear is a freedom that all people share. And if schools force students to wear uniforms they impede on these unalienable rights. Without the choice of what to wear students lose their uniqueness that adds to the diversity of a school. Clothes are a way to show heritage, tradition, and culture. It is a representation of who they are and what they stand for. And students have the right exercise this freedom of expression no matter what opposing views may say to this.
Opposing views to the idea of allowing students to wear clothing of their choice, say that it promotes the judging of others and creation of cliques. But in all reality this happens no matter what one wears. It is a mere fact of society that humans are judgmental creatures. So why deprive a student a chance to express what they stand for and who they really are, when in all factuality they will be judged no matter what they wear? There is no reason why a child must conform to the idea that they must suppress their self expression because a school says that it is for their own protection. They should not become drones just to heed to the warnings of the schools. Student should be allowed to wear whatever they choose even if people oppose it.
Students at all schools should be allowed to wear clothes of their choice. It is freedom outlined in multiple legal documents and it is the natural right of the student. Opposition to this may say that the choice of what the student should wear belongs to the school for the prevention of discrimination but the choice belongs to the student and solely the student. It is not for the school to decide what a student should wear but for the student to decide what he or she is to wear.

Being human, people often judge others. But in many circumstances the people that they judge is often themselves. This evaluation of their self esteem leads to two standpoints: high regard or utter disappointment of oneself. It is common belief that those with high regard often succeed in life and carry themselves well in society; while those with low self esteem involves themselves in questionable activities. But Lauren Slater would argue otherwise. She believes self esteem has no bearing on the life of a person. In fact she would argue that people with high self esteem are more hostile and arrogant then people of lower self esteem. But Lauren Slater though making a great argument fails to portray self esteem as it is really.
Lauren Slater poses the question: “Why, as a culture, have we so conflated the two quite separate notions a) self and b) worth?” (810). She answers her question saying that entrepreneurial history of America and the power of language to shape beliefs are what to blame. But to blame entrepreneurs and language is erroneous. Culture has “conflated” self with worth because its nature to judge others, including oneself. By judging themselves, people gain a deeper understanding of themselves while getting a better grasp of others. They can make decisions to improve themselves based on their self esteem. It arises in culture not from language or money hungry businessmen but from the very fundaments of humanity.
Lauren Slater proposes that, “self control should replace self-esteem as a primary per to reach for” (812). But how can a person devote oneself to “self control” if he or she has no self esteem. Without self esteem people lack the push to achieve, the need to better themselves, and the urge to go beyond what they are capable of. In essence by depriving society of self esteem there cannot be any self control because society has no reason to strive for it.
Lauren Slater can try to prove the self esteem is just a byproduct of “language and entrepreneurs” but self esteem is not a quark of society. It is the heart of humanity. It is the driving force in people to better themselves and the human condition.