There are several things in life that make me quite happy. The things that seem to stand out the most is when I receive kind responses from family and friends after I do a kind thing for them. The feeling of appreciating and being appreciated, is the type of rewarding feeling that seems to always feel fresh. While winning a sports trophy, or money from a competition can be quite satisfying, its fresh feeling of happiness does not last long where as simple everyday kindly deeds always stay genuine.

                               I am normally not one to fully judge how people live their lives, however there are several social issues that do give me a wake up call. The biggest issue I have is the misuse of technology. However, while most say its children being addicted to their smartphones or iPads, I think there are even bigger issues. Some included are cyber bullying, and hacking. Before computers were a common accessory, bullying was something that would easily be resolved in school by simply proving it to a teacher. Once the issue is resolved you are likely to be left alone. However, cyber bullying does not work that way, unfortunately. Once an embarrassing or demeaning post about a person is published, everybody in the world could see it, and that person's reputation would forever be ruined. The sad part to this is the fact that bullies like these are wasting their time putting others down, rather pulling themselves up to their potential and to contribute to society in a meaningful way. That way the student won't be arrested, the victim would never be victimized in the first place, and the two could live happy successful lives instead.

Adam Griese

Sravan Motamarri

John: Let’s talk about the insanity of individuals. Some of them know they are and others just do not. Tonight we have a very “special” guest. Ladies and gentlemen please give a loud round of boos to Meursalt.

Meursalt enters in an orange jumpsuit escorted by two guards. He is greeted with boos and awkward claps.

John: Before we begin lets- How do you have a cigar already?!?

meursalt just smokes

Meursalt: They did not let me have any in prison.

John: You’ll set of the fire alarm!!

Meursalt: Then let’s just do the interview outside.

One guard takes the cigar away and Meursalt just shrugs.

John: As I was saying Meursalt has been sentenced to death for the Murdering of an Arab. I would like to ask you MJ, was this a hate crime?

Meursalt: No as I told the court, a weird flicker of the sun on my eyes on the beach made me do it- it’s complicated I don’t really think about it too much.

John: What do you mean you do not care, you just murdered him in cold blood.

Meursalt: I never knew him, so there was no hate involved, and since I did not know him I don’t feel sad for his death.   

John: What about his family, friends, or kids?

Meursalt: None of them came to my cell to talk to me, so it does not affect me.

John: Does anything ever affect you?

Meursalt: Having no cigars affects me.

John: Cigars? Nevermind. What about your execution? How do you feel about that? That puts a slight wedge on your smoking schedule doesn’t it.

Meursalt: To be honest John everybody has to go sometimes and we don’t usually choose the circumstances of our death. As for me, it does not matter to me whether its painful or painless, as soon as I am dead, it’s all gone.

John: What about you life or legacy? How about the people you have affected or affected you.  

Meursalt: My legacy does not affect me, because you legacy is what you give to the world after you  are dead, which still does not affect me, because I am dead. To be honest, not a lot of people influenced me or tried to in my life.

John: What about your parents?

Meursalt: My father left when I was too young to remember.  As for my mother, she never really helped me achieve anything important.  In fact, she died recently and at her funeral the most unbearable thing was the sheer heat of being outdoors.

John: Talk to us a little bit more about your mother and your upbringing.

Meursalt: As I have said before, she had not affected my life in any meaningful way. In fact, when I got a little older, she became dependent, and after providing for her for a while, I decided to put her in an old folks home.  

John: Okay, so you did not have any parental influences in your life? What about friends?

Meursalt: I’d say my closest friend, was my neighbor Raymond.

John: What was Raymond like?

Meursalt: I guess he’s okay. I know he likes to talk to me a lot. His troubles with his girlfriend were bothersome for my routines, because he would always want to involve me somehow.

John: What kind of troubles are we talking about?

Meursalt: You could say she had it coming, but she was cheating on him, so he would beat her and he would ask me to testify in court for him, which as you could imagine, takes me out of my routines.

John: Your best friend beats his girlfriend?  

Meursalt: I wouldn’t say best friend, he was just kind of there.  

John: Is there anybody else in your life that is important to you?

Meursalt: I guess there is this girl Marie, but she revolves most around me and I don’t really revolve around her.  

John: Elaborate please

Meursalt: Well we went on our first date, the day after my mother died, because she asked me to and since I had nothing better to do that day, I agreed to join. Later on she asked if I would but I did not see any benefit in it.        

John: Isn’t happiness a benefit of getting married?

Meursalt: Not to me. sips coffee. The only things in life that mean to me are my physical pleasures.

John: Well that’s all today folks. And on that depressing we will end this show now good night.

audience awkwardly claps and starts throwing things at meursalt.

•  

AMDG

Sravan G. Motamarri  

January 9, 2014

“Don’t dwell on what you did wrong. Instead, focus on what to do next. Spend your energies on moving forward toward finding the answer.” Denis Waitley

“Man maintains his balance, poise, and sense of security only as he is moving forward.” Maxwell Maltz    

Greetings Mr./Ms _________________________________________________________:   

As this semester, has passed on, in a blink of an eye, I have noticed several positive things about the class as a whole. So far we have seen many videos, connecting to morality, empathy, sorrow, and many other things connecting to our literature. The difference between this English class compared to my previous ones, was that there was a lot more participation during class discussions. Several people voiced their opinions on certain matters, because of how they were shown.

Instead of simply digging through the literature, we watched videos, saw films, and even did reports of different topics, related to it. This different approach had a positive impact on the students and should be used by more teachers if they want more student interest or participation. However, I have noticed that some people were brought down and may have felt ashamed of themselves when learning such lessons this way.

I have to be honest; when watching some of these videos or topics, I have often questioned my own morals and whether they were good or bad. I sometimes delved on the past and felt ashamed of certain things I have failed to accomplish. However, as the semester moved on I learned to move on and learn from my mistakes rather than having them hold me back.

During sophomore year, I did not take school seriously enough. I passed all my classes, but I knew I did not work to my potential. Junior year however, I worked gut wrenchingly hard and achieved exceptional grades. However, since colleges look at both years, my mediocre grades in sophomore year are likely to lower my chances.    

Even though the situation I put myself in has made life less simple, I have learned to not let the past dictate how I live and perform today. Learning to live with past mistakes, has allowed me to see that I have potential to improve myself. If I did not commit these mistakes this early, who knows if I would commit them at a more critical time later in my life. This should not just apply to me, but everyone who has ever made a mistake. Never let the past hold you back, there is no going back. Move forward and make your own future better. If you demonstrate improvement, then it will be easy to redeem yourself, just like I continue to try and do.  

Thank you for taking you time, to consider my message to you. I hope that you learn from you mistakes rather than letting them hold you back. Remember that as long as you live, there is always room to improve. Nobody is perfect, but try being the best that you could be. Overall, I think every single of you are special and destined to accomplish remarkable things in life, whether subtle or public.

Best regards,

Sravan G. Motamarri.

The song I chose to sing was Sunday Bloody Sunday by U2. Even though this song is about bloody sunday in Irealnd it shows the point of view of an observer who is seeing hte horrors of war and how he has to carry several of its burdens. Some burdens the song includes time, and the suffering long days of how long they have to suffer in this mess of war, as did the soldiers in the things they carried. I plan to teach this song by first giving a recap of the story itself. Then I will describe the things the soldiers had carried varying from physical, to figurative, to universal. I will be performing this song live in front of this song. If anyone else knows the song they are more than welcome to sing along.