The Stranger Paragraph Three:  

While I am not going to compare being a second semester senior to residing as an inmate in a maximum security prison, I will say that there are some similarities between the two.  As a second semester senior, I would be lying to you if I told you that I was not counting down the days until graduation.  However, my inclination to leave is not because of my hatred for school overall, but rather I am excited to start a new chapter in my life.  This is the first time in my life where I will be solely responsible for both my successes and failures.   This last week was extremely hard to get through for me because I am constantly wondering whether I will succeed in college.  Everything else seems secondary, and thus I am preoccupied with the notion that my life might or might not turn out how I would like it to.  I think I can speak for the rest of the second semester senior s when I say that this is what they are thinking about as well.  However, unlike Meursault, who will either rot away in prison for the rest of his life or be executed, this senior class’ livers are just starting to take form.  There is no bigger adjustment in life than moving on from high school.  While I still care about my grades, because I believe in finishing strong, I think that most seniors are so overloaded mentally to the point where they have no more energy to put their best foot forward, in terms of completing work.  Thus, having this time to think is almost dangerous, because thinking too far ahead can be damning.  Second semester seniors do not feel trapped behind prison bars, but rather feel like inmates who are just released from prison, simply wondering if they can fit in and be accepted by this world. 

Self-reflection paragraph: 

What a journey!  At the beginning of the year, I was extremely nervous about college writing, as I was unsure if I could make my papers long, but not repetitive, but dense with information and analysis at the same time.  However, I now am feeling more confident about my ability to please college professors with my various papers that I will be assigned throughout my college career.  Throughout the year, I think my diction has improved and that I have started to vary my sentence structure much more.  While I do need to work on making big and bold statements in my thesis, I think have improved in this area overall as well.  Another aspect of my writing that I need to work on is saying more, while not using so many words to do so.  Wordiness has plagued my writing for years, and often is my primary writing weakness.  In my opinion, the paper that helped me realize what a college paper looks like was my paper on the lack of academic integrity in Division I NCAA athletics.  I feel as if I did a good amount of research and coupled that with great analysis.  College papers require analysis from multiple sourced and then combining that with one’s own opinion.  This was my favorite assignment of the year, as it combined my deep love of sports with my love for writing.    

Second paragraph:

To shoot or not to shoot?  The fact that Meursault even has to decide which is the right thing to do, when he confronts the Arab on Raymond’s behalf, ultimately illustrates the peculiar character that he is.  He seemingly lets himself be manipulated by Raymond into holding the gun, and then inexplicably crossed a line that cannot be uncrossed, when he murdered the Arab in cold blood with five bullets in the chest.  The worst part of his actions is not that he does not realize the severity of them until he becomes alienated from everything in life that he once had and liked, such as his “friendship” with Raymond and his wife-to-be Marie.  Meursault shows his frail nature, when he states that the sun is the reason he shot the Arab.  When he makes statements such as “the sun was overpowering” or “blinding”, he implies that he was the victim in the scenario, which he was not.  While his murder was not premeditated, he deserves to pay the price for his horrid actions.  Not only is he frail physically, but he is also weak mentally.  “I thought that if I said no he’d get himself all worked up and shoot for sure” (Camus 56).  Meursault had the opportunity to convince Raymond to walk away from the proceeding skirmish, but decides he does not want to overstep his boundaries and cause harm.  But his inaction is the reason he will either be executed or sit in a prison cell for potentially the rest of his life.

First paragraph:

Monsieur Meursault’s lack of personality is purposefully displayed in order that the reason question his every decision and lack of emotion overall.  Meursault’s complete lack of emotion after learning his mother (Maman) expresses the fact that he simply does not know how to act properly as a human.  At times, it feels like he is programmed like a robot to tell the reader his every activity, regardless of whether it seems trivial or not. Meursault goes off on many a tangent like this:  “The sky was green; I felt good.  But I went straight home because I wanted to boil myself some potatoes,” (pp. 26).  It seems as if Meursault is attempting to overcompensate for the time he previously spent traveling to his mother Maman (whom he had put in a retirement home over two hours away) by noticing every tiny detail in life, instead of doing what any normal human does after a death to a close loved one or kin, and that is to GRIEVE!  While every human is entitled to grieve in any way that he or she pleases, Meursault attempts to go back into his daily routine as if “nothing had ever happened.”  He chooses to worry about his boss might be irate that he took so many days off from works, instead of worrying about seeing his mother’s face for the last time ever.  Meursault’s lack of emotion comes off as disrespectful to his mother’s legacy, as it seems he is more concerned about how the coffee at the vigil tastes than how the actual funeral procession is going.

reflection:


I think I accomplished a lot in this third quarter.  My best piece of work is probably the paper I just turned in, which entails the numerous problems with universities and how they choose to deal, or rather to not deal with student-athletes, and instead leave them up to their own devices.  They let student-athlets fail academically, and instead worry only about their athletic performance.  I think that this behavior must be changed and that universities have to alter their school of thought when dealing with student-athletes.  I think that I made this point very clear in my paper and am excited to see the marks on the revised version.  I also believe that this paper is preparing me for college well, as my paper is about 8 pages in length and is not pure repetition of my overall point.  I think that this is one of my better papers, and its was very easy for me to write, as I have always been interested in college athletics recruiting, and how some universities do not always allow their student-athletes to succeed, both in and out of the classroom.

Brainstorming for Hoop Dreams Essay:

If UNC Chapel Hill, one of the country's premier public universities, has at least 10 percent of their football and basketball players reading at only an elementary school level, how bad is it at lesser schools, or rather schools with not as elite an academic reputation as UNC Chapel Hill.  Would Arthur and William fall into this trap or excel past the minimal academic expectations for Division I athletes, especially in basketball and football.  I ultimately think they would, because they have been somehwat "pampered" in terms of academic expectations.  Arthur leaves St. Joseph because his family cannot afford tuition, but I think he would have ultimately left because he could not keep up with his "rigorous" academic schedule and expectations.  

Because schools like UNC and Berkeley accept players who are above par athletically, but not on par academically, they are not filling the school with student-athletes, but rather just athletes.  Because of this, student athletes who excel in the classroom, but only to a certain extent on the field/court/pool, etc., are moving down to play in Division III of the NCAA.  Now, certain D3 schools in tennis can actually beat some D1 schools, because some players recognize that they would not receive the best education at certain D1 schools.

Maintaing  college football and basketball players' GPAs has been a tremendous difficult for powerhouse football programs such as Ohio State, Alabama, Tennessee, and Texas, and powerhouse basketball programs such as Oklahoma State, Oklahoma, Kentucky, and Kansas.

This is mostly the sad reality for the majority of the best of the best teams in D1.  The players are threatened to lose their scholarships if they do not meet the coach's playing standards, but most do not have to worry about the consequences of literal academic failure, as most coaches do not care about the student aspect of the term student-athlete.

Essay topic:

For my Hoop Dreams essay, I will focus on how William and Arthur are caught up in the many unfortunate broken promises related to achieving the infamous American Dream. I will focus on each of their goals, and how they were potentially misled by authority figure.

Convoy discussion post:

I thought that the discussion was very entertaining and educational, especially since I am interested in working in the sports industry in some capacity, as sports are and will always continue to be my biggest  passion.  I obviously want to work for not only the experience, but for good to great compensation as well, and I know that those jobs exist.  I look forward to more group discussions, as all the guest speakers so far have been quite informative about what happens in the world of the business of sports and recruiting in sports.

Free reading book post:

In my book so far, a woman from the Norwegian police force is sent to Hong Kong to fetch a man who has gone off the gris, since catching an infamous serial as an officer of the crime force in Norway.  From where I left off in my book, it seems like the man is going to take the job offer to catch the new serial killer that is on the loose.

Discussion questions for Hoop Dreams:

1.  Why do you think Arthur and William do not make more of an effort to see each other after Arthur transfers from St. Joseph?
2.  Who do you think is a better coach and why, between the Marshall and St. Joseph head coaches?
3.  Do you think Arthur can succeed in his less than ideal school environment?

Free read choice:  

I picked "The Leopard" written by Jo Nesbo as my free read book.

Hoop Dreams homework question:

Recruiting in basketball is completely cutthroat, even at the high school level, as depicted by the head coach giving a scholarship to the better player, while letting the lesser player be kicked out of school.

1.  Why do you think this atrocity is allowed, and do you think it is possible for this process to be changed?
2.  Do you think high schools or Division 1 universities should have a policy that does not let unqualified students attend their respective schools, no matter how exceptional they are in terms of athletic ability?
3.  Do you think that Curtis' experiences as a highly touted high school basketball player helps or hurts Arthur? (pp.92-93)
4.  Do you think that St Joseph is too harsh on William and Arthur, as they make them mop the floors each to day to help them make up for their lack of tuition payments?
5.  Why do you think Big Earl disappears when Arthur does not make the varsity team?
6.

First post for Hoop Dreams:

Although I saw part of the "Hoop Dreams", I did not remember any of it today when reading the book. I really enjoyed the film, and am now thoroughly enjoying the book.  I really like how the author is writing the book from two point of views, one view describing William Gates and the other Arthur Agee.  Thus allows the reader to see the many obstacles both of these boys had to overcome to reach their goal of playing for their dream school, St. Joseph.  I am excited to see how this book develops and if Arthur will join William as a standout player on the varsity basketball team as they progress through their high school careers in their quest for a state championship, a feat that even Isiah Thomas did not accomplish before his long and famed NBA career.

Goals for second semester:

I have a few goals that if achieved, will no doubt allow me to feel confident when I first set foot on whatever college campus.  First, I want to to rid of the wordiness that is sometimes prevalent in my essays.  This wordiness takes away from the overall flow of the essay as a whole.  Second, I want to be able to write an introduction that is less broad, but still captures the reader's attention without giving away the bulk of the essay.  Finally, I want to be able to write a conclusion that sums up my essay, is creative, but does not simply restate my thesis in the introduction.

While I do plan to relax a little bit in terms of hard studying, I do plan to keep up my level of work in which I exemplified during the first semester.  Over the break, I read a book that really caught my interest titled “Foul Trouble.”  This book, written by John Feinstein, is about two friends who are exceptional high school basketball players.  One named Danny is ranked 93^rd in the nation, while the other is the top recruit in the nation.  The book shows all the dangers that lurk for highly sought after high school athletes, as it is quite tempting to take the offers of insane amounts of money that would violate the rules of the NCAA.  I thoroughly ejoyed this book and look forward to reading more and more as the semester progresses.  I am also excited about the new independence I will receive when it comes to essays.  I think this will allow me to write about the topics I think can best display my knowledge.  I am also looking forward to reading the book “Hoop Dreams,” as I have heard good things about it.