Personal Statement Essay Example for Free

Personal Statement Essay The sound of the thunderous crowd in the background seemed to fade away as I approached the stage. Droplets of sweat began to run down my face as my sympathetic nervous system kicked into gear, sherona grant stand up I began to shake and become weak but gained a lot of confidence and I walked upon the stage and held my head high and looked into the crowd and turned around and received my diploma and then on to getting accepted into universities and making my mother a proud woman has been an amazing feeling so I want to continue to place a smile on her heart and a memory on her forehead to show her that I am an success story. A dream can lay waste only if there is no kick start to reality. In the sleep state there is no conscious being but once you are awoken from the formality of death, only being that you were in darkness for nine months and light is at its standing ovation your passage way is a wide and broad path either you take the path less traveled or you take the most traveled path. I chose to uphold a different light I chose the path less traveled, amongst millions I stand out because of my kindled soul encamping the dark world bringing forward a sense of light to the wilderness. My confidence does not over power my personality, I am a very relaxed person and in the humble state you can only wait upon things to take its place and move freely in your life. In the bible it states faith without work is dead and god helps those that helps themselves. I’m attending Florida a amp; m university at this moment and I do not think this is the place for me I prefer to attend a university like point university because it has a Christian environment that I need to get closer to god along with my personal experience with god. I went to a high school that had Christian values and the school taught me patience in every way possible. From the research I did I believe Point University fits who I am as a whole in the mission, values, goals statements states that Point University is a school that educate students for Christ-centered service and leadership throughout the world. They statements begin to breakdown how and what will be done to show the teachings of Christ and how the student has grown and will learn through the teachings of the teachers and how the atmosphere will flow. Academic background comes from when I first started school in Jamaica and then when I came to America I always been a person about business and never gave up no matter how hard a subject was for me. I have volunteered at plenty of place I was a volunteer at a hospital named memorial regional hospital, I was also a water girl for my schools football team and I was an active member of my church with the youth department. I have been put down and told that because of certain things I will not make it but god was judged so who am I not to be judged I will never give up my dreams that I have because of my pride and who I am which is a strong willed person. I am a person that does not care what another person has to say about me because god created me to be who I am a strong, persistent and hard working person. Point University seems to be a place where there is no playing just strictly business and support from staff no matter if you mess up. I’m interested in attending Point University to grow spiritually and finish my education in the biological studies to become a doctor. My personal motto states no matter how long it takes you to achieve a goal as long as you get it is all that matters. A change has to be made in your life and this change of wanting to attend a Christian school will be a better one for me instead of a school with no order. My achievements in my academic career have been my main focus but god should always be my number one choice and then all other things will be added onto my life. As I reflect back over my experiences, I have come to realize that medicine is not only a career, but also a lifelong relationship and strong commitment to my future. I believe that I am equipped with qualities needed to excel as a future student and as a future doctor. Whether it be the patience learned while attending school or growing in god I will come out with something worth the wait. Also the compassion radiated while learning and helping others while I obtain my career or the stamina needed to compete and learn all material given to me I know without a doubt that I am and will be a student and a doctor.

The Effects of Smoking Cigarettes Essay -- Cause Effect Research Ciga

The Effects of Smoking Introduction   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Smoking cigarettes damage the body in a number of different ways. Over several years, the American Council on Science and Health and many others have documented the effects of smoking. Everyone knows that it is bad for you, but not many know how it affects the body. There are many myths about smoking, which mainly occur with all of the teens that are smoking. Most teens don’t know that the effects of smoking are mostly permanent. They think that they can smoke for a few years and then quit without suffering any long-term effects. This is most worrying to me, because the recent finding, reported by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), claims that teen smoking rates have increased by nearly a third within the last six years. Teen smokers who believe that all of the health hazards will go away when they quit, usually have an â€Å"I can always quit tomorrow, or the next week, month or year† mentality. They feel as if they can walk away from smoking with no long term effects, which couldn’t be further from the truth. The quitting success rates of teenagers is also very low. Less than 16% of the 633 teen smokers in a study were able to kick the habit. Most teens report that they want to quit but are unable to do so, says the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. Teen smokers quickly become addicted to nicotine and when trying to fight the addiction, experience high relapse and withdrawal symptoms. Of the 46 million smokers in the United States, 34 percent try to quit each year, but less than 10 percent succeed. Cigarette smoking is the leading cause of preventable death in the United States. It accounts for almost 500,000 deaths per year, or one in every five deaths. Smoking also contributes to a breathtaking amount of diseases which includes coronary heart disease, stroke, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, peripheral vascular disease, peptic ulcer disease, and many types of cancer. Irreversible Health Effects   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  With smoking, the reversibility of health effects is influenced by many factors. For one, the amount of smoking exposure (number of cigarettes per day and the duration of smoking). The presence of other diseases already in the body, genetics and even nutritional factors enter into the equation. Quitting brings benefits no matter what age. It is a fact that quitting prolong... ...se and disability. Smokers should not believe that they can smoke safely for 10-15 years, then become of the lucky few who do quit, and then believe that they are healthy and risk free, as if they had never smoked at all. They’re at risk for many irreversible diseases and health issues. The next time someone asks you if you want to â€Å"light up,† remember: Only 20% of smokers who try to quit are successful on a long term basis; for every four of those who take up smoking, the very decision to begin itself is irreversible. Works Cited Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. What the Label Doesn‘t Tell You. 1998;   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Pgs. 47, 386-389 U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. Reducing the Health Consequences of   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Smoking: 25 Years of Progress. A Report of the Surgeon General. Rockville, MD:   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  U.S. Public Health Service; 1989 Seddon JM, Willit WC, Speizer FE, Hankinson SE. A Prospective Study of Cigarette   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Smoking and Age Related Macular Degeneration in Women. 1996;   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Pg. 276 Christen WG, Glynn RJ, Manson LE, Ajani UA, Buring JE. A Prospective Study of   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Cigarette Smoking and Risk of Age Related Macular Degeneration in Men. 1996;   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Pg. 276

African American Religion Essay

Before Africans were brought to America during the slave trade, they had their own culture and society. They had their own language and dance. They also had their own religion. History tells us that the Europeans justified their abuse toward the Africans as helping them become more civilized because the Africans lifestyle appeared primal to them and not as developed and industrialized as theirs. What is often overlooked is that even though Africans were taken from Africa and Americanized and have been stripped of their religion, culture, language and even their name, the very essence of the African as a people did not go away. Some African American slaves rejected Christianity’s religion because they saw it as the â€Å"white man’s religion†. History tells us American Slave Masters abused the Africans by whipping them like animals and by treating them inhumane. The fact that these slave masters wanted the African American to worship their god was unacceptable for some because they could not fathom why they should worship a god who allowed people to be so badly treated. Some Africans accepted Christianity’s religion and faith by identifying with Jesus Christ, the son of God who according to the Bible was innocent of sin and yet he was beaten, bruised and crucified for the sins of the world. Some African Americans wanted to remain faithful to their heritage yet did not agree with the conjure practices. Seth Holly’s character is a good example of conforming to the economic prosperity of America which was founded by Christians. White Christians enforced Christian beliefs, values, and some practices based on the Euro American Christian interpretation of Christian text. Seth developed a kind of hatred for his own people proving that he has adopted the practices of white America in the early 1900s. â€Å"Niggers coming up here from that old backwoods†¦ coming up here from the country carrying Bibles and guitars looking for freedom. † Seth says. â€Å"They got a rude awakening† (6). Seth signifies the African American who resents assimilation to the white American culture. But, at the same time, he too attempts to connect with his heritage by simply allowing Bynum to live in his home and bless it with his conjures rituals. Seth also participates in an African dance ritual called the Juba. Bynum’s character is introduced by practicing conjure rituals. He cuts open pigeons and spreads its blood onto him as a type of cleansing to communicate with spirits. Bynum represents the African American who chose to remain faithful to the religion of his heritage. Others who have chosen the faith of Christianity view conjure rituals as evil, witchcraft, or demonic. Some African Americans wanted to remain faithful to their heritage yet did not agree with conjure practices anymore. Loomis walks in on the juba dance and goes into a trance after dinner at the boarding house. He had a vision of skeletons emerge from a body of water. â€Å"Loomis: I done seen bones rise up out the water. Rise up and walk across the water. Bones walking on top of the water† (53). Loomis recognizes through the vision, his state of ignorance to the knowledge that will lead him to the new way of thinking. Bynum serves as a supporting character reacting to Loomis’s trance. â€Å"Bynum: They walking around here now. Mens. Just like you and me. Come right up out the water† (56). Loomis’s trance and Bynum’s interpretation of it is a turning point in the story. The skeletons coming from the bottom of the sea in Loomis’s vision represent the slave ships, the disorientation experienced by the slaves during emancipation, and the confusion of his release from Joe Turner. Both Loomis and Bynum have tapped into their ancestral religion. The difference between the two is that Bynum represents the African who never renounced his religion and Loomis is the African-American who turned from conjure religion and converted to the faith of Christianity. After Joe turner took his life away from him, Loomis questioned his Christian faith and his identity. By walking in on the ancestral ritual of the Juba dance, Loomis literally walked into what he had actually been looking for, his religion, consequently, his ancestral identity and this is why he fell into the trance. Throughout the play conjures is encompasses four generations; Bynum’s father, Bynum, Loomis, and the neighbor boy Reuben. Reuben’s vision is of Seth’s mother by the pigeon coop, she encourages Reuben to release the caged pigeons. Wilson writes in a way that leads the reader to believe that Loomis needs to find his missing wife. Martha Pentecost is not the one who was lost; Loomis was the one who was lost, wondering around from town to town, searching. Loomis came into the state of belief when Bynum helped him translate his vision. That vision represented Loomis going back to his ancestral conjure religion. Loomis needed to find Martha Pentecost simply to say good-bye to her and their life former together. Up until this point of the story, I believed that Loomis needed to find his wife so they could live out the rest of their lives as a happy free family with their daughter. However, it is made pretty obvious this was never Loomis’s intentions. â€Å"That goodbye kept me out on the road searching,† Loomis says, â€Å"now that I see your face I can say my goodbye and make my own world† (90). Martha Pentecost, a woman of Christian faith, represents the African who assimilated into white America’s culture and Loomis needed to find her to say good-bye to her and the Christian faith. Martha stands by her Christian faith by accusing Loomis â€Å"you done gone over to the devil† (91). White man’s religion believed that conjure was evil or the way of the devil. Loomis finds it easier to reject her for her Christian beliefs. â€Å"Loomis: Great big old white man†¦your Mr. Jesus Christ. Standing there with a whip in one hand and a tote board in another, them niggers swimming in a sea of cotton† (92). Loomis proves with his statement, his version of a bible story that differed from other African Americans but was similar to that of the white man who believed that they were on a level below God and the African’s were beneath them, African’s were one third of a person. Loomis now believes that if African’s are going to be free then they have to take charge of their own destiny. Martha Pentecost represents the African American’s religion, she identifies that Loomis needs to â€Å"be washed in the blood of the lamb† (92) and â€Å"you done gone over to the devil. (91) Through class lessons I learned that African American slaves compared themselves with stories in the bible to instill hope of a life free from oppression, violence, and bondage. Jesus according to the bible was innocent of sin and yet he was beaten, bruised and crucified for the sins of the world. The hope of reigning in heave with Jesus is considered the ultimate reward for suffering life’s trials and tribulations. It is the faith of the African Americans who accepted Christianity religion. Blacks trusted in the Lord instead of man. America was Egypt in the exodus story and as long as the enslaving and oppressing took place America would face the same wrath as Egypt. â€Å"Stand still and see the salvation of the Lord. † The bible was depended on in justifying and motivation rebellion for the blacks and used as a tool to keep blacks enslaved by the whites. African Americans used sermons, song, and prayer to convey and teach their message of travail and triumph of Israel. Some African Americans could not get past the treatment from the white people that called themselves Christians and as a result they rejected Christianity. Selig’s role suggests that the link between characters is the acquisition of material goods. Selig admits that his ancestors have always made their living pursuing African Americas; his great grandfather transported slaves from Africa, his father captured runaway slaves and returned them to their masters for a reward, and Selig locates displaced people for a fee. Selig attains his ecstasy through consumer capitalism, through the selling of material goods. African Americans are objects for exploitation and exchange in the new economy. He binds African Americans to the economic system, demanding payment of his services and products which necessitates subsistence labor by taking them from one construction site or work site to another, similar to a temporary employment agency today. You pay for an employee to work for some time, but Selig is getting paid by the person looking for work or a ride to a chance of freedom. Selig cannot find a person that has not purchased a dustpan from him because he keeps the names of his customers. Seth is determined to achieve material success, he has very little patience for African Americans migrating north looking for the same prosperity that he desires. Seth is very demanding of his patrons, insisting on advance payment in full, and is preoccupied with maintaining a respectable house. â€Å"It’s hard enough now without all that ignorant kind of acting. Ever since slavery got over with there ain’t been nothing but foolish-acting niggers. Word get out they need men to work in the mill and put in these roads†¦ and niggers drop everything and head north looking for freedom. (5, 6) Seth wants to blend in with the white man’s world; therefore he keeps a link with Selig by negotiating the manufacturing and sale of dustpans. Seth does not have any idea of what it would be like to be a slave, as he was born free in the North and was educated. He demonstrates his education with his math calculation when dealing with the boarding house patrons and the quick notation of him letting Selig know that he is trying to overcharge him for the dust pan materials. Educational differences played a role in tension with Southern blacks, most of who were forbidden from learning to read, saw religion as a matter of oral tradition nd immediate experience and emotion. Northerner blacks, stressed that one could not truly be Christian unless they was able to read the Bible and understand it. This play denies individual worth and identity for some of Wilson’s characters. To be defrauded of the products of one’s labor or to see that creation diminished, like with Jeremy and the guitar contest, is to be denied a reflection of individual worth and identity. If people have been separated from this truth of individual worth and identity through oppression their capacity to bond with one another, form friendships, or couples, families are undermined. Social alienation in Wilson’s characters are expressed in their stores of broken relationships, uncertainty, or suspicion that they feel toward one another. â€Å"Seth: Something ain’t setting right with that fellow, Bynum. He’s one of them mean-looking niggers look like he done killed somebody gambling over a quarter. †(20) Connection between oppression, alienation from self and inability to form bonds with others is displayed in the character of Loomis. Joe Turner’s ability to oppress Loomis carried a judgment of non-worth. â€Å"Loomis: He told me I was worthless. Worthless is something you throw away. Something you don’t bother with† (73) Turners judgment of worthlessness forced Loomis to accept the reality of the white man’s power; he was marked as â€Å"one of Joe Turners niggers and forced to forget his song. †(71) Being alienated from himself and displaced with his relation to the world, Loomis is unable to establish bonds with people around him. The oppression encountered by Wilson’s characters is material or economic, that oppression is spiritual as well in the capacity to deprive the individual of a sense of himself or his unique song. The reawakening of Loomis after his encounter with cultural wisdom is not the self discovery of an average African American but creation of a new source of cultural wisdom, a new African holy man. Wilson uses many metaphors throughout the play. The song is a metaphor for Loomis’s identity and the African American cultural identity. Music is a large part of African American identity, so it makes since that in search of one’s identity they are searching for their song. The boarding house serves as an inn for traveling folk, but the tenants actually receive a form of healing during their stay. Tenants get direction and guidance from Bertha and Bynum. The shiny man that Bynum is in search for signifies African American independence. The man that Bynum met on the road was an independent African American, just as Loomis was freed by his past when he cleansed himself in his own blood. â€Å"Bynum: Herald Loomis, you shining! You shining like new money! †(94) Loomis has dismissed that the blood of Christ can wash away his sins and make him the man he used to be, but by washing himself in his own blood he has sacrificed the old life to begin his new journey on his terms. Bynum’s shining man has been found, meaning his work is complete; he has passed his powers on to the next generation, Loomis. â€Å"They tell me Joe Turner’s come and Gone† is a song that is sung by Bynum, when I first read the story I thought that the meaning was came and now he is dead however, the second time I read the play I realized that it meant that Joe Turner has come and snatched the men and now he is now gone. August Wilson uses symbolism in the play as a very important part in conveying the meaning of the story. Wilson’s use of symbolism is demonstrated through Mr.  Wilson’s use of the road, Martha Pentecost, and Herald Loomis. Symbolic importance is give to the word freedom. The word freedom has instilled hope into the lives of African Americans: during slavery, hope for the release from bondage; after emancipation, the right to be educated, employed, and to move about freely; twentieth century, social, political, and economic justice. Freedom has always stood for the absence of any restraint, because God made all men from his image. There are a number of characters that travel around searching for their place in the world. Mattie, mentions that she keeps on looking, seems like she just keeps starting over, I ain’t never found no place for me to fit. † (76) Reuben tells Zonia, when he finds out that she is leaving the boarding house in search of her mom, â€Å"when I get grown, I come looking for you. †(84) Jeremy does not seem to care much when he loses his job because, â€Å"don’t make me no difference. There’s a big road out there, I can always get my guitar and find me a place to stay. I ain’t planning on staying in one place for too long noway. (64) Martha & Reverend Tolliver moved the Church up north because of the trouble the church was having. When the Civil War finally brought freedom to previously enslaved African Americans, the task of organizing religious communities was only one element of the larger need to create new lives, to reunite families, to find jobs, and to figure out what it would mean to live in the United States as citizens rather than property. August Wilson’s play, Joe Turner’s come and Gone, examines African Americans search for their cultural identity following slavery.

Economic Growth And Its Implementation - 1740 Words

Economics 160 Fall 2015 Term Paper 1 Author: Andrew Tannous California State University Northridge INTRODUCTION According to capitalist ideals, free markets combined with a limited government will result in growth, freedom, and a prosperous economy. The Mystery of Capital outlines the importance of capitalism in economic prosperity, but Hernando DeSoto explains that capitalism alone is not enough, we also need to look at something else that allowed the West to prosper under capitalism. Richard McGregor, in The Party: The Secret World of China’s Communist Rulers illustrates Chinas graduated â€Å"cherry-picking† of capitalist practices that resulted in small economic successes, however the Communist Chinese Party fears the delivery of freedom to their people. The Chinese elite fear freedom because it could lead to the end of the dictatorship in China, and end their rule. This fear cripples economic growth for China, and will not allow capitalism to thrive in their economy. These two novels explain two core concepts in understanding capitalism and its implementation. Hernando De So to explores why capitalism succeeds in the West and fails in underdeveloped countries. Richard McGregor’s novel The Party speaks to Communist China and other communist counties that fail to produce economic growth. The core opposition that fuels the differences between capitalism and communism is ultimately freedom and choice. Capitalist governments are often democratic, protect private ownership, andShow MoreRelatedLocal Economic Development For The City Of Johannesburg South Africa1428 Words   |  6 Pagesstrategic implementation plan below represents recommendations for the local economic development for the city of Johannesburg South Africa. 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