Obama's Re-Election

I have been for Obama ever since the beginning and the couple of days before when they were counting up the states that would go Republican or Democratic I kept thinking "please U.S. vote for Obama". I knew that they wouldn't hear me I still had my hopes.

Obama has done a very good president for the past 4 years. He had to fix a country that was breaking and he did his best, which is actually a lot for only 4 years in office. Well now that I am not in the U.S anymore and considered kind- of international my view of the U.S and the president has changed. The U.S is the boss of the world and now I have to think about what Obama and the U.S will do to the place I live, Brazil.

I know the president has a lot of things on his mind and privileges and I don’t really think he will do anything to help Brazil, but I know he will influence the whole world in a good way which in a way will end up affecting us. I think that Obama will have an impact on the world. He knows that he has a lot of work to do in the Middle East. For example in this quote that the French President Francois Hollande stated, "Your re-election is a clear choice in favor of an America that is open, unified, completely engaged in the international scene and conscious of the challenges facing our planet: peace, the economy and the environment." 

Obama's re-election in the United States has created strong feelings — from optimism to skepticism — around the world. Many countries believe that Obama would be a very good president not only for the U.S but also for the whole world, and I really do believe that to.  

This article here has international views on Barack Obama's re-election.

Time Management

Since we had the meeting with Ms. Terrell I have really put thought on my time management. Usually when I have homework in school I have everything planned out and what time I am going to do it. When I am at home I just get so excited and want to do anything that isn’t homework. I always think “oh I’ll do it after eating, or after I watch just this one show.” I always do something fun before homework and end up having to start my homework at 8 or 9 at night sometimes finishing and other times waking up super early to finish it. 

When Ms. Terrell came and spoke about how time management is super important and that later on in 11^th and 12^th grade time is going to be rare, I started thinking that I should start getting ready. Imagine I barely finish my homework now when its “easy” so imagine in 11^th and 12^th grade. That’s why I am starting to get my act together.

I made 4 goals that may not be so big but that will help me anyways.  The first one is to keep a weekly planner. When Ms. Terrell made us make a planner of all our homework and tests that week it seemed like a good idea so I went ahead and tried making one at home. So the day I came back from school hearing all those things about time management I went straight to my room without stopping to eat or do any stupid little thing (that was a big accomplishment for me) and started on my weekly planner. Ever since that one day a weekly planner has been common to be in my position. That one planner that I have always thought was useless and a waste of time has actually helped me so much. My grades have increased so much that my parents were even shocked at it. It was all thanks to that one little planner in which one day I thought would never help.

The second goal I made was to not procrastinate. This one is a lot tougher than the planner. I always set in my mind that I am not going to wait to start a project on the day before turning it in. Whenever I think about starting that one project I always get distracted. Homework is just so boring that I find a way to escape it and then I look at the time and say “oh well it’s too late to start now, so tomorrow I do it”.  Well my solution was that when I have a project that is due next month I start it on the day I get it and finish a couple of days later. To not get distracted I put aside a time to play and a time to do work. That has actually been working and the impressive thing is that I did my work when I was supposed to.

 My third goal to manage my time was to make a routine. Whenever I get home from school I eat and then go straight to work. That may seem like a silly goal but a routine helps me get organized. Having a routine allows me to always to kind- of do the same thing at the same time. It puts the important things I have to do first in first place and the non-important (fun) things after I finish all of my work. It doesn’t have to be boring and have the same thing at the same time every single day but it allows me to kind- of know when to do my work.

Watching this video has added another goal to my list of how to manage my time. Whenever I get home I make a list of everything that I have to do and circle the most important or biggest one to do and finish. This goal has made me realize that if I try to do the little and not so important assignments first, then I have to do the more challenging ones I have with no energy or want to actually do it. I think this is one of the most important goal because it has allowed me to quickly and efficiently get rid of the tough assignments without having to use up all of my energy.   

I haven’t had any problems managing my time so far. It has been a weird transition from going to starting my homework in the middle of the night to actually having to do it during the day. Other than that nothing has gone bad. My goals have remained practically the same, but now since I actually have more time due to those goals I have more time to do whatever I want. Even on this project I managed to be able to finish it before the day before it was due. That has been a huge accomplishment for me and I know that from now on all of my projects will be like this one. 

 Having goals and being able to manage my time really has helped me and my grades. Seriously before I had that class about time management I didn’t really care about when to start my work or when to finish it. I didn’t think that in the future my free time would be scarce if I didn’t manage it and I am so glad that I actually started now before it was too late.

College

Before the college recruiter came I haven't really thought about college. I always thought, oh I have another 5 years to go or another 4 years to go, but the college recruiter got me thinking. Thinking about college does bring some fears out of me. I always think about how I might fail the SAT or how I might disappoint my family if I don't get good grades. I keep thinking about how I might not get into a good college and how that might affect my career later on in life. Also I keep thinking if I am good enough to be able to get into a good college.  In Miami my friends were always panicking about not being able to get into UM or FSU. Whenever they said that I always thought “how can getting into UM be hard?” I mean they should aim for bigger and better collages like Harvard or Yale, that’s what I always did. My mom always said if you aim big then you will get big. Its kind- of confusing but it makes sense. If you try for something that is amazing and do your best, even if it seems impossible, you will always get better than aiming low. Now being here I actually have hope for going to an amazing college. Everyone aims big and it has even give me more hope. 

When I do go to college I know I will try my best and always look forward. I won't let my fears interfere with my studying and I will become part of the "family". My major goal when I get into college is to become a leader and to do my best for myself and for the college itself.  Being an aware Academic Leader will give me an advantage for many reasons. College recruiters want people who will not only help the students but that will also help the college itself. They want people who are leaders so they can know what they want and to help the others around you. You have to be strong and not break down in tough situations. You have to serve as a role model, not someone who follows behind.  To be a leader is to be someone who strives to be better and will work their hardest to reach there and to help others along the way.

What Is Academic Leadership?

This man is someone who is trying to achieve

  something new even if it is against what everone

is following. He is a leader in some way.

From the two weeks we have been in academic leadership I have learned many new things. So far I think academic leadership is a place where you learn new things to help you in the future. It is a class to make you see your future and help you with being more of a leader, not so much a follower, and were you learn to make your own decisions, good or bad but preferably good. So far we have learned that even if you had a horrible past you can still make it better no matter how late you think it is. You can achieve anything you want if you just try and believe that you can. Some people abuse academic knowledge by using it for themselves and changing the words of the other to help themselves. If someone did something as Mitt Romney did to Jared Diamond I would get very mad. If I did all the work that Diamond did just for someone to take all the credit which is bad enough, but to also change the whole idea just to please him and help him. I would think it is very wrong and would get mad if I did all the work to prove something. Creating academically intellectual leaders can prevent people taking advantage from other people because the people will know what is right and what is wrong. They won't want to take another's work and change it to help themselves. If all the people were academically sophisticated then they would know the difference between right and wrong. It would help make a stronger democratic society by allowing the people to know what is right and what is wrong. It allows the people to make smarter decisions and so that the leaders also know what is going to help the society grow and also make it stronger. Academic leadership is a class where you learn new things to grow stronger.

There is a big difference between a boss and a leader.
A leader has to be someone intelligent and that thinks of others
not just himself. A boss on the other hand is someone who just cares
about himself and not about the people around him.