Book Report part 1

Last week I started reading the book Gang Leader for a Day by Sudhir Venkatesh. Sudhir learns a lot as a student growing up about issues like gangs, but to get a closer looks he semi-joins a gang. His main mission was to learn about how African Americans live day by day, but when he walks into a drug house, he is quickly chirped.  The man Sudhir first meets, is J.T., the gang leader. As they chat Sudhir gave him a survey to fill out and as JT reads it he starts laughing. The next day Sudhir came back with a case of beer, and was then quickly accepted.  The 2 of them become friends and Sudhir learns that JT wasn't always part of a gang and in fact he went to college on a sports scholarship, but due to racial problems didn't succeed as much as he thought he would. Due to racism in the working world, he dropped it to join a gang.

After reading the first two chapters of this book, I was really surprised on how easily Sudhir got accepted. Of course the first day he was called names and was on the verge of being beaten, but then the next time he visited, it was like he was one of them. I never imagined that a guy like Sudhir could just mingle in with a gang. Also When JT explained his life story I was beyond shocked to find out that he went to college and was on a scholarship for sports. It may be wrong but when I think of people who are in gangs, I don't think of people who were on the track to be successful. This book already has twisted my views of how life really is, and exposed a little bit about what racism does. It keeps me engaged and I'm beyond excited to find out what happens next.

2:15 AM

Alright so this blog is really gonna be something random. Right now its 2 15 in the morning and I can not fall asleep for some reason, so I'm just gonna throw out some topics that are on my mind. To start off, there are so many complications in life, and in just the past few days I have seen so many. The first one I saw, or more so heard about is the story of a girl in my church youth group. During bible study yesterday she did a rehearsal to a speech that she had do for class at Warren High School. The main question the speech had to answer is, what do you believe in? Right away you could probably jump to a ton of materialistic answers, but the way she attacked to the question was amazing. Instead of taking that approach she talked about her belief in God and all the miracles that got her to believe in that. One of the miracles that she saw in her life and really stood out to me, was when she started talking about a mission trip she took back in 6th grade. The speech went on as followed...

"In 6th grade I got in a soccer injury, while playing in a tournament for a travel team. I ended up getting stitches in my eyebrow, my jaw was misplaced, my eye and forehead black due to internal bleeding, and my teeth began to turn grey due to the cell nerve damage. As time went on I began feeling not only self-conscious, but I began to loathe myself. I got to the point where I would not smile, sing, or talk, and for 2 years I would cry myself to sleep. No doctors said they could fix my black gums, grey teeth, or eyebrow shape. And I continued to hate myself and go through life feeling unworthy. That summer was when I went on my first mission trip to the city in Michigan, with let me add, the most bars per square mile. That month was when I learned what true beauty was, because I was fortunate to be able work with a single mom who had 14 children, some hers, some she took in, and most with some kind of disability. I grew to love this woman while watching her struggle an ugly divorce, more than a handful of kids, and lawsuits on those who had raped her, stolen from her, and used her. I remember my last day with her she told me I was a beautiful girl; it was this phrase that showed me true beauty. The day of my return, my mom picked me up and said a doctor had called and said that they heard my story through mutual friends and knew how to help. Trusting this doctor, I had surgery my freshman year, realizing this was an anonymous miracle."

Now after reading that tell me that she just got lucky and at the moment she heard she was beautiful, a doctor randomly heard from another random person that there was a girl who didn't have sufficient funds and always was beating herself up about how she looked, that needed surgery that he can provide. Now I could turn this blog into one about how great God is, but quite frankly she already did that in her speech and my goal isn't to steal her thunder. Really what I want to talk about is how there are miracles around us all the time, but we often miss them or take them for granted. 
There are little miracles everyday, not all them as great as the girl in my church's youth group was, but even the small ones can turn a persons day from very shitty to not very shitty. For instance today I was having a horrible day, I started off the day by over sleeping, rushing to get ready, then rushing to school, and in result missing breakfast. So now the day already sucked, and to top it off I get assigned a project in early bird gym, assigned a new blog in issues, find out I have a math test tomorrow, and to top it all off I have an essay do in English on Friday.  So now I am beyond tired and I just cant wait to get home and nap... Well when I get home my Grandma immediately calls and the next thing I know, I am on my way over there to help them fix their Christmas lights.
Finally I finish and when I am leaving my grandma tells me, help clean the house, your mom had a bad day and needs all the help she can get. Being the great kid that I am, I once again push my nap back, and start cleaning my room for her and organizing EVERYTHING.  Then it hit me, I opened this picture book in my room and pictures from all my mission trips were in them. Looking through I saw people I was very close with and all the residents that I bonded with and helped for a week. Looking at them made me realize how foolish I was. My resident in Oklahoma, was a young man who was heading great places, until he had his car accident. It left him paralyzed and made him lose most of his memory. Seeing this picture of me and my resident Ron, made me realize how lucky I am to still be alive and what a Miracle it is that nothing like what he had faced has happened to me. Ron everyday was out helping us and engaging in everything we did, just because he embraced every minute because he knew that everything he had was a gift of God and was a miracle. 

And thats a rap...

of course forte gets injured in the first round of da playoffs... So id like to sum up my season with this.........
It was a good effort for me this season...id like to thank all my fans for their support, id like to thank my family, and of course id like to thank the players who put their heart and soul into the game in order for me to go 9-3. id also like to apologize to all my fans, I'm sorry we couldn't pull in a championship for you guys this year. Although throughout our the season I have found many flaws in our commish ( Josef Hahn ) , and often compare him to Roger Goodell, I'd like to thank him for pulling this league together and giving everyone a shot to win some cash. As the youngest player and only high schooler, I would like to thank all of you college kids for accepting me into this league. once again thank you and I'm sorry...we'll get them next year.
-Stankyfranky624

Does Money Bring Happiness?

Everyone says that money does not make people happy, but as far as I can see, people who have money get to do whatever they want, and typically are very happy. I understand that some people are not happy because of their job, but I am pretty sure it is their job that is making them unhappy and not their money. With money comes power, which is the only downside of money. Having so much money makes it easy to abuse your power and because of this people become very unhappy. Prime example number one is Lindsay Lohan, she started her acting career at such a young age that by age 20 she had so much money and the power to do what ever she wanted with it. The way in which she abused her money caused her to go to jail and be unhappy. Her life spiraled out of control because she had so much money and used it to by things like drugs. I don't care what anyone says, money does bring happiness. The real thing that I can see that doesn't bring happiness is power.