Race - and no not your ethnicity

Is school like a race for you? Are you striving to get it over with and just endure the entire thing? Are you racing for the goal, to go off into the "real world" and make your life? Or are you treating it all as the experience? Is it a time for you to learn, to prosper, to broaden your horizons?

Personlly I see it as a journey, one that may be tough at times, but I am always learning. My father instilled this upon me when I was younger and I have tried to live by it ever since, not just for school but for life itself. Because life is not the about he destination it is about the journey right? Some people may not like school for their own personal reasons, I understand people are (unkind words not appropriate for a diploma candidate blog) sometimes and that can ruin an experience for people.

What is your outlook on school?

stupid sleep

I wish I didn't have to sleep then I would have the time to actually work at my own pace. Not true, sleep teaches us that we have only a certain amount of time in a day to do the things you like so in essence sleep is what teaches us to be proficient with our time. Well that is not entirely true, people can ward off sleep with caffeine and other things, but it does not necessarily teach people these time management skills.

For instance if one were to realize quite late in the day that they had homework and instead of working on it they were goofing off they will have to pay the consequence of doing it later in the evening and maybe losing sleep or not doing it and getting a poor grade. But if this homework is very small and does not take a large amount of time, the person will complete it before they have to go to bed and then learn the bad habit of procrastinating before they start their homework. This ultimately is what I see in some of the remedial classes in high school, and yes I understand that some people do struggle in these classes and some do have good ways about completing their homework, but for the others who do not, I feel this is a very poor way to prepare for college.

To what extent does the work load and amount of sleep one gets determine their time management skills and the regimen they may impose upon themselves to complete work?

Or answer your own question if mine does not make sense.  

Ethical Video Games

I admit I play video games.... no big surprise. While playing one over the weekend I ran into people "Merchenting." Which is defined as buying an item below average price and selling it at a higher price to make a profit. This happens in the real world frequently and I am questioning the ethics of it, real world and cyberspace. Technically these people are only taking advantage of the system of free trade. They are doing no work, and are in essence scam artists.

Why do we run into these type of people?

What makes up the appeal of scamming?

Well scamming may be slightly harsh, but still, what makes the appeal? Personally I see it as a way to gain profit with extremely little to no work, and benefit at others response. Do people feel bad about themselves after they have scammed these people? Or do these people just have a different set of morals?

Iowa

The land of cows, corn, and cow manure.

All jokes aside, how do things change in different communities?

Over the short break that we experienced called thanksgiving break, I took a trip down to Iowa. Here I stayed at my grandparents house. To me it seemed like little to nothing had changed for them, besides the apparent fact my grandpa put a scope on his air rifle, and somebody had died in the community. They still live in their own home, what I am referring to is their web of acquaintances as a community. It seems like nothing has entirely changed for them. While on the other hand things are changing around my mom's house all the time. For instance a new budget, fixing up things, rearranging furniture  At my grandparents it seems that nothing has really changed. This is partially because both my grandparents are retired, and they are not entirely worried about their budget.
So in all, what makes you happy?
My grandparents have found what makes them happy, and have kept their lives to those standards, they may still be changing but they have found a groove.

What is the purpose to life?

Just curious, what do your think your purpose in this life is?

People have different advice in how to live your life, but what you intend to do with it is always up to you.
People question the use of others existence because that person may or may not be directly related to your path in life. If they are not, then by all means they should not exist in your perfect world, but what if you took in and embraced who they were, and learned from them? Would that make us into borg like creatures, who assimilate whole societies into their own culture to learn everything there is to know about the universe? And in this life is resistance still futile?

Reset button

What if in the world had a reset button?

This is not an, oh I got a bad grade on a test, lets reset to the moment before so I can retake it, this would be a catastrophic world changing event that would revert earth into a desolate land like it was at the its creation.

Why would someone create such an item?

For the purpose of allowing the people to choose to have a means out of an oppressive society, even if it meant total annihilation.

Would you want this item to exist?

Personally, no, people can grow from the past, in this new future there would be no memories of the past, which would probably be beneficial.

Extended Essay

As Larson says a paper is never finished, it can always be revised. On the contrary Mork says that a paper can always be finished so it can be put out of your life and out of your mind. I agree with Mork personally because if I leave something unfinished it will eat at me for the rest of my life until the day I cease to remember anything or cease to exist. I do think that that things should eventually be let go in life so things can move on.

When is it time to move on?

Citation

While going through my EE this weekend I ran into a bout of trouble. While re editing portions of the paper I found myself in need of a large revamp. In such revamp I took to redoing a few paragraphs and subsequently while before I had forgotten to cite every piece of evidence I had taken, I again started to type from memory of what all my facts were. Thus not technically getting any information from the sources directly while typing it for the second time I lack the credibility for taking the information from credible sources.

My question is when is it ethical not to cite something if you have it burned into your memory? For instance like in math class you have learned many things from textbooks and other sources but in real life you do not have to "cite" your source but you may have to back up your information somehow.

I know that this paper is on a completely different level and does not even pertain to the question at hand I just needed to type something that was not my EE, I.A., Written Task 2, or Spanish homework, so I apologize for the lacking of content in the passage. Truthfully my brain is a little fried.

Anticipation

While looking at my email today I again noticed that I have not been accepted to one of the colleges that I have applied for. I then check the date and see that it is still less than 3 weeks from when the general date of response comes and just get more inpatient and more stressed. 

Why does waiting for thing create stress, anticipation, uncertainty and cause a change in feelings? 

Substitutes

I know substitute teachers are a last minute thing at times, also just a place holder for attendance and an authority figure. My question is; Why do people continue substituting  if they do not like the kids they 'Teach'. I am of course referencing that awful substitute which, I can safely say that we all agree that she was not a prime candidate sub for any class, but why does she do it? For instance she was a substitute for French class and she got extremely upset with the kids and called them horrible, why would a person continue to sub for children she doesn't respect or treat with respect? I can see if there was a need to control the children who are "miscreants" and "bad eggs" but seriously I feel teaching should be left to those who love it, and are good at what they do. Okay I can continue ranting on her poor behavior and lacking of proper communication skills with students, but overall, I am just overall perplexed on the matter of how she became a substitute let alone a teacher. Maybe in years past she was a better person/teacher but I am glad that the school has precautionary measures that can be placed if many complaints come in about a certain sub.

Overall I would just like to ask two things. One; Who is your favorite teacher in your life? Two; Who should be eligible to be a teacher/substitute? The second question must be taken with a grain of salt because I know that substitutes are always in demand and there needs to be numerous subs for the entire school system in case of meetings and such.

Oh the Weather outside is....

IT SNOWED TODAY!!!

Sorry for my enthusiasm to those who dislike snow, I apologize this may not be the blog post for you.

Today it snowed for the first time this season, I was quite enthralled with this when I learned about this new turn of events in school. This ultimately made my day slightly better, which was quite needed I think we can all agree from that *cough* substitute. I love the winter because it wipes out the entire image of the world with a light blanket of pure white, obscuring everything and making the world your playground. Also it has other benefits, sitting by a cozy fire cuddling in a blanket, snowmobiling out in the Minnesota wilderness, building snowmen, just hanging with friends in a snow fort, amongst many other things.

My question today; What are you feelings about winter? Since everyone has had different experiences with Minnesota weather I was curious as to who liked, disliked, or was just indifferent to the matter.

Self image

While looking at picture of myself today I looked at them and spotted the flaws instantaneously and in consequence I did not like the pictures in total. While others think some of the pictures are good I still feel that they are not adequate and are not worthy of being posted. I am just wondering; How critical are we of our own images?

Video Games

Video games have become a large part of society in all generations. Some people say video games are ruining the new generation and becoming more of a nuisance and distraction.  Some also do not see any of the appeal of video games, selling them off as a complete waste of time, which they do consume large sums of time to undergo and become a "pro" at. This was enlightened to the public of the TED community through a video http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dE1DuBesGYM . This shows that video games give a sense of accomplishment that some may not get in their daily lives by doing quests, tasks, or other things. What I would like to ask is when will Web 2.0 or 3.0 or whichever Web will be incorporated into daily life so much where the lines of life and reality will be skewed? And at that point when will the Web become more appealing than real life?

Colleges

I know this is still on everyone's mind, my question may be answered relatively quickly but I was wondering. Why do colleges in Europe and other places seem to be a lot less expensive? Some granted will always be more expensive because of their legacy, but general colleges like the university of Minnesota are a lot less expensive. This may be because they offer different things, but I have not looked into them much. So that is just the question pending right now, Why do other countries seem to have a less expensive education program?

What's in a name?

Recently while trying to name a stuffed teddy bear, I ran in to a bout of trouble, I for the life of me can not come up with a name. The bear in question is a boy, red scarf, big black beaded eyes, tan face, a small R printed on the right foot from 'Toys R Us' store, and a small smile.
Any suggestions for a name?

Back to what I was initially going to say. When parents name their children, they are giving them an identity, something that may not last a lifetime but is intended to do so. How do parents carry such a burden? I know some people just look at a baby and can see the name in it's face, some name from tradition, some name out of remembrance, and some name children as, well, lets leave it as nontraditional names. I am just bewildered by the fact that people have the power to give someone an identity, and some of these people do not take that responsibility seriously. I just wonder, How much power do parents, doctors, and others who watch over children as they grow up?

Perfect balance

What is perfect balance?

Obviously this can be defined in science and physics, for some reason I was wondering if you have an object say a pyramid which is cemented together with bonds that will not corrode and bricks that will not diminish. Say you had that pyramid and stood it on the tip of the four sides and spun it. With some things in life you need to begin with a good sturdy base, but with others you just pick something up, maybe from the highest level or a higher level and you build on that and learn of what you should know from the base structure of the system. I am just thinking abstractly, What if such a skill was built from the top down? or if the pyramid was inverted bottom up from top to base?

Thinking futuristic/Scifi-ish would you think that it will be possible to "materialize" things into a structure from a remote point, making buildings in a matter of seconds, or other structures in minutes? Obviously these materials would have to be present at the site, but having them all ready, could it be possible to manipulate them to conform to a design from a control panel?

Emotions

Why do emotions play such a large role in our lives?

For instance whenever I am really upset about something my stomach gets horribly upset, and I feel like I were to if I was sick. This can work in the opposite effect, in the sense that positive thinking  and good feelings can help a person feel better physically. It just boggles me how much the mind can affect the body.

DIstractions

While talking to  another classmate today, we came to the concusses that we are kind of unhappy that though computers have been such a advancement in available technology, we would prefer to go outside and try and get away form computers. On the contrary side to society which in the schooling system are trying to push the advancement of schoolwork to be done online. Though this is great for helping integrate school into the new era of technology and making assignments more convenient  At the same time people try and push exercise and getting outside.

What I am trying to ask is that, When will we be too integrated with computers, at least desk top/lap top models that it over takes us?

When that happens I believe that technology will have progressed  to the point where computers are integrated into our entire society and more convenient to use.  Web 2.0 may be a normal part of our lives, downloading clothes and accessories, and that is what life will become.

Circumstances

Does the world run off of circumstances? 

I understand that some feel they can make certain things happen, for example being proactive with homework to be able to go out on the weekend, but I feel that most things that happen in this world are by either fate or chance whichever you wish to call it. Yes human beings can determine their own fate, but this is off of complete chance of the experiences that one has had in their lifetime before that. 

Urg this blog post just took a spin off of my original direction... Oh well, onward into the unknown!

Do you believe life is planned our for each of us, or is life just a conglomeration of chances that make us who we are today?

Human beings have contemplated for centuries weather there is an underlying story line in which everybody unknowingly plays along to which determines where we go and what we do with our lives. Others believe that there is no ultimate meaning to everything and all just happens by chance. I personally am partial to both of these. The first because I have had these so called "premonition" in which I am dreaming and the dream seems to realistic and I awake a bit confused as to if that was actually a dream or not. Later in the week or as later as 6 months to a year, have found out from experience, I will have an exact segment of time which is exactly the same of that dream and even if I realize it is happening I can do nothing to stop it, I may try but that is just conforming to what the dream was about initially. Ultimately in that sense I have been persuaded by myself that there is some sort of underlying story line weather concrete or malleable. On the other hand I have a hard time believing everything was created for a sole purpose to live its duration, interact with others, and die as a repetitive timeline and a never ending cycle. Instead there must be some oddities in life where we come by them by complete chance, some may argue that those chances are actually fate speaking in its many ways, but some believe that they are random acts who shape us and mold us as a person. In essence, there is a timeline, with a set expiration date stamped on all of our foreheads from the day we were born, from that point on our life is in our own hands and we create our own road to the end. This road is influenced by many and all aspects of life, but in the end we only have so much time, in that time we discover who we are, weather it was predetermined or not, and then when we do that we live our lives as the people we are, and in the end, our expiration date finally comes, and ends what is to be our existence on this earthly plane.

Alone

Nobody is ever alone in this world, there will always be someone caring for you in some way shape or form. Some people say that the world hates them and they are alone I don't think that is true. If one can see that people will be there for each other as long as they are treated and feel like equals, and accept sometimes it takes a while for us to recognize these things, then one can never truly be alone in this world.

Until you come to the shortest horror story. "The last man on Earth sat alone in a room. There was a knock on the door..." 

That is a very isolated highly improbably experience but until that point, there will always be someone to care for you. If you treat people right they will treat you right also, in reference to the "Golden Rule". 

Why do some expect things from people when they themselves do not deserve them, from how they treat others? In essence, why do some people expect things they don't deserve?

Racism

At what point do things become pointless, or lose the meaning in which they initially were intended to bring?

In English class today we had that.... and now his name escapes me..... talk to us about racism and micro-isms. Also what got introduced to the class was the spelling of woman which some people spell womyn because it is taking the man out of the word, which initially means derived from man. At what point do these "radicals" try and change a language to take "man" out of it? What if they were fed up with every single "man" that was inside a word and changed all of the A's with a different vowel?

At what point do campaigns or reforms in life become "pointless" in lack of a better term?

Imagination

Is it our greatest asset or our downfall?

Some say imagination is humans true downfall, that it creates fear inside of us, fear that is irrational and worse than what actually occurs. Personally I feel that this imagination can get us through tough times, and help humans prosper but it acts a double edged sword. Though imagination can help create things in ones mind it also can destroy, distort and devastate ones mentality on a situation or outlook on life.

I say that there are more up sides to imagination in life, I would guess many agree. Why must the mind make fear and madness reign supreme at times also? Ultimately, which do you think is stronger, positive aspects of imagination or the fearful madness of imagination?

When is somebody okay?

When are you okay? Are you okay right now? How do you deem being okay? Truly this is different in everybody's mind and different for their situation. When is somebody okay though? Is it when they are happy? When people are content? When people are alive? When is somebody "Okay"?

Words have such different meanings behind them depending on how they are used and how the user intended to use them.

Worth

When is it worth your time?

At what point does something become worth your time? Some people say that a job is worth your time when you are learning something, or getting a substantial monetary amount for the work you are completing. Also another perspective is that something is worth your time when you are enjoying yourself and having fun. I completely agree with all three of these statements which together make a lifestyle that people strive to achieve. In the eye of the beholder something fun may seem worth while, but from an onlooker viewing the overall picture it may not seem that way. Who deems these things "worth while?" Is it someone who is successful at time management? Someone who knows how to have fun? Someone who is wealthy? The person who is doing the activity? Who has the ultimate power to deem something worth while?

In what sense it is worth while completely determines the outcome of every question I have asked, so for this scenario the activity would be one that influence your overall well being, however vague that is.

Treatment

People treat others differently depending on their relationship with said person. This is completely acceptable in the fact if you talked with your boss the way you speak with your best friend you would most likely be fired in some cases. My question is, At what point do people start to treat others differently? I know the general basis of progressing relationships with people, but at what point do you hold people in higher regard, or expect more out of them? Just food for thought if anyone is hungry.

Sleep

Sleep is essential to the body for rest and rejuvenation. Though what if the human body stopped needing sleep and functioned continuously flawlessly. Though this subject may not be truly possible, at least in our life time, would you choose to not sleep? Being considered that the choice of sleeping or not sleeping would not be detrimental to your overall health, mental abilities, or wellness. Would you choose to sleep when you preferred? Or would you just chuck the whole idea and never sleep?

This came to me while thinking about a quote of whom I do not remember said,  "I'll sleep when I'm dead." Personally I would rather not have to sleep, I feel though it may be important to the body to have those hours resting, I feel that I would rather continuously function and not miss out on the world.

My question to the Diploma Candidates: What would you choose if you had the ability, to sleep or to no sleep? That is the question.

And now I will retire to my sleeping chambers and proceed to nap for a good six hours.

How much do we really know?

Everyone only knows what they are told, and what they experience, and you can count belief into the mix also. I can not help but think about the Borg, well since my mom was watching Star Trek earlier, and their collective. This presence of a for modern day terminology "the cloud" stores all of their data within their central base, the Unicomplex, not unlike the apple cloud technology which stores data in a designated sight with the ability to access it from anywhere. I was wondering what if the humans had a system like that hardwired into our brains? That would be pretty nice, though I feel the power may be abused. So at what point can humans handle a large amount of power, though it may correct some, others can become heroes.

At what point does one person have too much power?

Views of school

I know people view school in different ways, from the mundane work, to exhilarating new learning experiences every day. I will truthfully say some days I feel like there is some mundane work involved in school, but there is also some in life. When I look at work as being mundane and useless, I think back to what my dad has always drilled into my mind, if you are being forced to do something or it is a necessity to do the task you might as well do your best and try and learn as much as you possibly can from the experience.
How does everyone else view/deal with the "mundane" tasks in life? Someones mundane could be another person's life long goal.

Rumors

I know this is an age old topic of don't start rumors, and they always end in bad things. What I want to get at is where in truth a rumor comes from. Or if someone created a good rumor and tried to spread it about someone would it be viral in the same sense as a bad rumor is spread. I just would kind of like to try and do something with the diploma candidates to see if we can do this social experiment, just for a fun project.

So the question of today is, How is the best way to spread a rumor?  

IB

So most of the class has heard the discussion that happened today, in which I saw IB and maybe others did too, to be catering to people who knew how to jump through the most hoops. That may be a misconception or an over generalization but I feel that IB rewards those who do the easiest papers in general for each area. Taking the easy road to focus on more pressing things this may be a good skill to learn in life, but when I joined the IB diploma program I felt that it was supposed to be a rigorous course in which I saw the diploma candidates as people who took the higher road, taking the more difficult tasks and completing them while juggling everything else in their lives. Though I will not denounce the rigors of the IB diploma and everything that is learned and gained, it is a little ridiculous that it does create the easier path and rewards the ones who take it. For instance with the Extended Essays, with people shying away from the topics of lab reports and the area of math all together all because "They don't score well" I think it is ridiculous how they have the same rubric for every subject. Though a general one may be a good idea, I feel that they should have a small variation for each different area, at least in the science and math areas. There are other aspects but for now I'll put the subject to rest.

What do you all think about this thought of the IB diploma program and all its glory?

People group unrelated things

Today while talking to a friend I expressed that I had this very odd entity around me today that completely and utterly royally pissed me off for no apparent reason, though I got over this and think I found the root of the problem that is not the focus. This along with another of the IB dipcans being upset about something or having "snappy" feelings and remarks back to people today caused my friend to say, "It seems all the dipcans are pissed off today" Which I looked back and saw that 2/16 seems to be a small percentage to constitute "all" . I would like to pose the question: When is the point where a few turn into all?

In essence from who you are will completely change this because people use the term more loosely then others. This statement in total just threw me for a loop because I knew, well it seemed that most of the Dipcans today were in a fairly decent mood.

Einstein's dream

While thinking today, texting and talking with a few of my friends. I started to think, When is one truly happy? In one of the chapters of Einstein's dream that we read for Tok there was a village that was trapped in a single bubble of time where everything was frozen still. The people in this town were living in a single moment of time where they were not moving forward or on with their lives they were in this moment of time trapped.

I was thinking at what point are we truly happy? Would someone be accepting and happy if they were trapped in a happy moment of time? Would they be able to not move on?

I would like to ask to the diploma candidates, Would you individually be accepting of being trapped in this bubble of time of pure happiness?

I personally would need to be ever progressing, I would prefer to be happy while doing this but I need to be ever evolving in myself as a person.

Ohhhh blogging

While talking with my friend Andy over Skype. While doing some homework we started discussing what I should blog about, because frankly I am out of ideas for today. So we came upon the issue of breaking somebody's trust in their knowledge.

When a person believes that something is fact or true it goes unquestioned until challenged by another. When this other person challenges this knowledge some immediately reconsider what they know based on the background of the knowledge and their way of knowing this knowledge. To what standard of knowledge or how "smart" does someone have to be for an individual to change their mind on something they believed to be fact? What qualifications does this person have to make this person question themselves? Does the other person even play into this effect, or does the only persuasion come from the insecurity of the person? Or in total is this just in some ways misinterpreted when the person is just striving to learn the correct knowledge?

So lots of questions about my question I am just curious on a personal level why some act the way they do.

Perspectives

While working on my personal narrative tonight I fell in the awkward spot of not remembering the exact words of what my parents told me when they were getting divorced. I eventually got these details but it was interesting, to my mom it seemed as if she was more emotionally detached from the event then was my father who it is still on his mind to this day.

How do your thoughts, past, emotions can cause a person to perceive a moment in time differently than another who witnessed it.

Though I can see how this happens every day to small and large events alike I was just curious to see some situations, from anyone who reads this that a very strange perception was made of an event or object that you saw/felt and nobody else did. I don't want to be prying or anything I'm just curious for those situations where when looking at an abstract picture or listening to a song in which the lyrics sound like "A bathroom on the right" and the actual sequence is "A bad moon on the rise". So this is just a little spot to show those funny moments of miss perception or individuals perceiving an event differently than others.

Lack of questioning for a lack of a better term

After dinner at my dad's house today he sat me down for a chat. It seemed pretty serious with the "I want to talk to you" and the concerned tone in his voice. Turns out he had nothing to worry about, there were just some misconceptions relayed to him from my mother.

My mom was helping me brainstorm topics for my personal narrative and caught some negative comments about my brother (or so she felt they were negative) come from me. They were only meant as a frustration of not wanting to write about my brother because he is not a significant event, he is a significant person which has changed before and after but he is not a specific event that caused that change.

My father on the other hand was told that I was frustrated with my brother and didn't like that everything led back to him. This was the interpretation of my comments from my mom. My father sat me down and told me that some people when told a subject that is concerning or thought intriguing about another will let it fester in their minds instead of questing the individual on this matter. Or something to that extent, but we are all wired differently in the mind. Why do some wonder and act, and why do others wonder and keep wondering?

Why not question?

I just wonder why people don't question or peruse things that concern them. Are they afraid of the answer, don't care, or just simply lack the drive to question further on the subject? Or is it just how they were taught and know no other way of dealing with the situation? Just a curiosity about the daily acts of human beings.

Doors Doors Doors

When you think back on certain events do you see the symbolism in them?

Today while hanging out at a friends house doing history homework I for the greater purpose unknown to all mankind randomly decided to walk through three consecutive doors. The first of these doors lead our of the room, the second into the bathroom, the third back into the room in question that was just exited by myself. I thank proceeded to sit back exactly where I was seated with a bewildered look and unbroken stare from my friend studying history with me.

With the following expected question of "What in the world did you do that for?" I calmly and honestly replied "I truthfully have no Idea." I then proceeded to look at it from a taken aback viewpoint of almost another entity in my mind. I saw that by walking through those doors I was changing the entire mindset in the room for myself, almost a small break if you will from studying to get back on task. Then my mind of TOK started to work on the thought that truly the other person assumed I walked through all three doors. But the flaw in that is they never saw it happen. For greater purposes it is impossible to my knowledge to go through walls or pass though objects without making contact. This assumption was pretty acceptable as fact.

I then pondered a question. What do other people think about such events in their life?

The random events that people see happening, or see them as random acts of others or themselves. Do they actually analyze them, or just write them off in their head as a random occurrence and an odd event? I was just stuck in a perpetual wheel of "What do people think?". What do the the people who have not had such experiences of TOK and other classes akin to it think about such events? I would love for people to post on these thoughts as outsides form TOK but unfortunately we are all the crazies of the IB diploma who have had these such experiences.

Then just now I started to experience another realization about these doors in question were the doors in my mind between my ways of thinking. From looking at a situation as random, to getting past that into another mindset of symbolism, into the next mindset of curiosity of the world around me, and finally back into the realization everybody is different.

There are so many aspects of life that can continue to boggle the mind and aspects of the mind that can boggle the mind itself. In essence the mind has a complexity that is endless and creative. Though I could keep going I have a slight headache from history notes, I'll continue this personal discussion later.

Views of everyone

Today while I was talking to my dad about writing my personal narrative he started to suggest some things that came to his mind that maybe I could write about that seemed like experiences that were predominant and life changing that we had shared. We got on the topic of our Europe trip that we took with the high school band. He was speaking of all the great experiences that I had while I was over in Austria, Germany, and Italy. He spoke of how specific moments where I didn't realize he saw some in the light he did were important to him. For instance all of the different ways of living we saw in the different towns he saw it as an early look on life in a different country. I saw it as another stop on the trip though interesting, not as superb as his views on it. This went on for some time. Then I started to process how, I really wish I could have been on that trip now, it would have been a completely different experience.

For my father his experience consisted of riding on a bus alone with people he had never met so he could accompany his son to a different continent for his first time. He had traveled before so he knew the little ins and outs of the world. He saw it as a great father son trip and he was extremely glad to go on it with me. On the other hand I saw it as a trip with my friends also to spend with my dad but it just didn't appeal to me because I couldn't have the freedom to do something outside of the schedule. I just found it interesting how the same moment has such a different impact on different people even my father and myself who are very close.