A Temple and Community

The members of my chosen community are all religious people to say the least.  They range from weekly members to ushers, deacons, pastors and so-on.  Some of us have been members of this community since birth, and some for only months.  Whatever the case may be, we’re all family; we love and care for each other in the same manner.

Interaction between each other is done usually in a genuine manner with each other.  There are some people who don’t get along very well, but every week, we all work on making ourselves better so that we will be a stronger community, thus making a stronger team.

In order to become a member, that person must have a desire to belong to the church, or else they wouldn’t waste their time in the first place.  I attend a Christian church, so it’s beneficial for this person to know who it is that we worship, and if they don’t know completely, they can be taught in new member’s classes.  Some members have been a part of the church since birth, so joining the church isn’t necessary.  They are joined through their parents, and eventually undergo various ceremonies, like a christening.  One thing I like about Christianity is that it’s not a forceful religion.  This means that if someone decided they wanted to leave due to lack of belief or wanted to join another church, there would be no kind of reprimand for doing so.

I enjoy fellowship inside of a small, positive building of people who all just want to better themselves.  I enjoy my church because it is the perfect place to go to turn a life around.  Anyone who is truly in the belief knows that it takes complete faith to experience, and when that feeling is finally accomplished, it can be felt.  Many people don’t believe because they don’t trust something they cannot see, but there is always space to turn around as well, no matter the age.  That would bring up my next reason for enjoying this community: No matter past experiences, a person can rejoin and try to turn their life around. 

The many thorns of Myself

The things that I learned about myself over the past seven weeks will change me forever. The first thing I learned was I actually was able to do homework without procrastinating and cramming it out at the last minute. I also discovered that I have a potential that I never even noticed in myself. I was so accustomed to under-achieving and not caring about the things that I learned, but I guess that was based off the fact that I simply wasn’t motivated enough to push myself and work harder than I’ve ever known to be possible. 

I surprised myself two major times last module. The first time was winning the Elevator Pitch competition, and second was being awarded Top Performer in my section. In both of these events, I had no clue that I was going to receive these awards because I didn’t find myself capable to earn at that level. It seems like the past 3 years of community college really took a negative toll on my confidence.  I was disappointed in myself when I earned the many infractions on my account. I only have 185 points as of now, and I know that I can do much better.

PLUS/DELTA of myself

Plus(+)	Delta(Triangle)
1.    Earned “Top Performer” in BC 2.    Won Elevator Pitch 3.    Didn’t procrastinate as much 4.    Paid attention 5.    Used professionalism 6.    Was given much praise for blog posts 7.    Got to know many people	1.    Should study more 2.    Talked too much 3.    Missed small things 4.    Pay more attention to detail 5.    Be more unbridled

Not a "product", but a "quotient"

As a child, I chose to live by some wise words which my mother gave to me: “Instead of being a product of the hood, live to be the quotient.” I didn’t know what that initially meant, but it didn’t take long for me to realize that being a division of the neighborhood would allow me to stick out and make my own identity. 

I grew up in Inglewood, California, which was once a rather nice place to live. I was born one year before Los Angeles really went into a pit of crime, drugs, and violence. By the time I turned five years old, Inglewood was nothing more than a part of an epidemic. My neighbors, luckily, were very nice people. I got along with all the kids on the block, and was fortunate enough to be the last generation of children to be able to play outside without parents worrying about anything that could go wrong in the process, other than some scraped knees and broken toys.

Inglewood has a handful of sections, some worse than others.  I often visited 93^rd, and Hindry, which was somewhat close to LAX Airport.  This part of Inglewood wasn’t like my block.  I often heard gunshots and yelling from abroad.  My brother even had a traumatic experience when he was in middle school. He actually ran into a dead body one night while taking out the trash.  I was really young, so I didn’t find out about this until I got older myself.  I’ve gone outside to play with friends and noticed blood streaked across the cement, most likely from the night before. These are things that become normality to many who live in these environments.

I am who I am despite of the neighborhood I live in. It’s because my mother trained me in a certain way that I dedicated my future to being the type of person I choose to be, and not what society wrapped around my eye.  Some kids at school made fun of me because I was more “proper” than they were.  This was satisfying, because it reminded me that I was moving in the right direction.

Some things just can't be fixed...

I wasn’t sure of what to expect after reading the title of this article and reading one paragraph.  Once I realized that it was about credit corporations, I instantly knew what was coming up next.  I remember learning about credit back in high school in my economics class.  I saw a documentary that spoke on how the companies make their money through scams, some legal and some not so legal.  Reading this article just revived some of the things I had forgotten from before.  Living with a hole in your pocket is never easy, but when you already have no money to your name, it only makes life worse. 

Credit card corporations trick consumers into believing that this "borrowed" money is like a dream, which is actually a nightmare that many have no clue of.  They amplify the opportunity divide because they constantly prevent low-wage workers from creating cash flow in some way so that they can be a part of the elite earners of the world: the middle and high class workers.  These companies are succeeding at keeping the lower class of people down and out to the point that some people are stuck with a bill for the rest of their lives.  What makes matters worse is the fact that interest rates can continuously increase for people who can’t liberate themselves of the debt already amid their lives, thus digging a deeper hole and further exacerbating the opportunity divide.

Who do we point the finger at when it comes down to the bottom of it all?  In my opinion, the credit card companies are responsible for creating the stipulations and consequences which put the consumer’s financial status in jeopardy, so they should be responsible for assuaging the whole issue.  I think that changing all interest rates to a low, fixed rate instead of something exorbitant would be a nice start.  If people’s debt can be slowly fixed, this nation can also become affluent like it once was as well.