I have learned alot about myself the past couple weeks. I have learned to focus on what’s truly important to me and work at it instead of focusing on all of the negatives. I have learned to fight for what is important and work for what I desire in life like in the memoir I read “ When Breath Becomes Air”. I have become a more independent person and have focused in the important things and I am trying to become a more self sufficient, kind, loving person. My posts become more centered and meaningful in my opinion as i learned and understood and comprehended the topics i was answering and developing an answer to. I think that blog post 5 or my vlog was the strongest because it represented me and my everyday life. I was able to strongly depict the fun and enjoyment that i have in life and show my excitement for life itself. My vlog made me truly happy and therefore it was my best work. I think blog post 6 was my weakest post because I struggled to connect the quotes with the overall plot and theme on the novel. I believe that i connected the theme to my quotes pretty well but my plot connection to the quote was weak. I think that blog post 6 was also the hardest for me henceforth why it was my weakest. The connection was difficult for me but I learned and was able to read through my book and notes to figure it out. I learned to just use my resources available to the best of my ability and put my best foot forward even though i was maybe unsure or didn’t know exactly what was correct. I probably would not write a memoir of my life because i don’t feel that in my life i have had these extremely out of the ordinary experiences and stories to tell.

When breath becomes air is a heart jerking but inspiring story/ memoir. The author is a very smart and genuine person. He has a very promising future ahead of him that he has worked hard to achieve. All of this went down the drain though when he was diagnosed with stage 3 lung cancer. The author did not let this slow him down though. He fought for his life and his family and his future. I connect to this in a sense for the pure fact that i work hard for my future and what I want to accomplish in my life time. He fought through struggles in life and so have I. I just relate in general to his determination and strive to succeed in life. He fights for what he wants and fights for life. I could not relate to more determination and also look up to this more. The quotes “you can’t ever reach perfection, but you can believe in an asymptote toward which you are ceaselessly striving.”, “Human knowledge is never contained in one person. It grows from the relationships we create between each other and the world, and still it is never complete.”, and the quote “the main message of jesus, I believed, is that mercy trumps justice every time.” These quotes are deep and heartfelt. The first one shows me that i can’t be perfect but i can constantly be working to achieve it or something pretty darn close. The second quote speaks to me because i just love the fact that we can’t just learn from ourselves we need people and relationships and life to round us out and build us into ourselves and society in general. The last quote is that we must love and help anyone no matter the situation or their past. All of these quotes just gave me a good feeling when reading them.

Hope to me is the feeling and the idea of knowing that something can happen if one has the will and belief to accomplish something

Hope is the best

It’s better than the rest

Christ gives us hope

Which helps us cope

In this life that’s dope

Hope is the best

It’s better than the rest

In when breath becomes air i chose the quote is the quote saying “if the unexamined life was not worth living, was the unloved life worth examining?” On page 31 when breath becomes air. The narrator Paul kalanithi is saying this to his audience or me reading the story. In this point in the plot is in the rising action sense of him finishing his first college degree but wants to learn more. He wanted to learn about life and examine and study it. He wanted to figure out and examine the human life itself. He is talking about how he is getting job and studying more and more about human life. This quote is a rhetorical question asking about how if there isn’t emphasis on life and why it should be examined or studied or analyzed or even figured out piece by piece then what’s the point in living. He’s saying if this life isn’t worth figuring out and examining what makes the unlived life worth taking time to examine and figure out. He is figuring his life out at the moment but all he knows is that he wants to figure out life and solve the problems and parts that come along with it. This is crucial to the story not only for the reader to get a developing sense of his character and what he wants to do with his life, but it’s directing the plot to show us how whatever we are going to experience the rest of the story will be intentional and analytical. This personally relate to my ideology in school especially. When I’m in class and learning i want to understand and learn more about something not just memorize it and move on. I was to examine life and all the aspects that are apart of it.

The team was very excited to be in the video so they jumped for joy.

Lexi, hallie, Katie- hey vlog we love looking like a mess and are ready to play volleyball tonight

Hallie & Avery- hey vlog we are setting up the nets and are ready to play

Hallie, Lexi, Sofia, Emma- Hey vlog so we just found out that we have to play bacck to back games ini volleyball so we will be dead. Also  emma is injured so she will be reffing

Hallie- so we just finished playing a serving game and we are livid

Maddie- there are stupid rules

Casey- i hate volleyball its stupid

Coach Zach- all i said was butt has to be on the ground

Hallie- but she scooted all the way into  when she was supposed to be in

Coach Zach- it’s just like in a game if i tell you to stay in your zone and on your feet doesn’t mean you can’t move your feet for the ball

Jordan- i don’t pay 3,000 dollars for this

(cute clip of the team doing the wave)

(clip of us taking a water break)

(clip of us playing queen of the court)

Hallie- Hey squad wave

Everyone- hey vlog, hey

Hallie- so we just finished our strength and conditioning, jordan wave, we are kinda sweaty, kinda tired, we did relay races, lots of cardio, we don’t like cardio, no no no, ok be back more practice

Hallie- hey vlog volleyball day 1 we are at practice, we love volleyball, we are about to workout

When breath becomes air is at a point where the medical students are using bodies in order to study and learn about the different things their supposed to know in medical school. These students cut up these bodies and use them and study them like they are just material things. In the book he talks about how people donate themselves and their bodies to a bunch of 22 year old medical students. These are students jus working on these people with no feeling no emotion. They don’t even consider how this person was once a full body full of life and happiness. The people they work on were once them. He talks about how he would never ever want to donate his body to science and how doctors in general aren’t going to donate their bodies to science because they know the process and unethical emotions they don’t have when they are operating in the cadavers. I relate to this in my life because I’m getting my license soon and I have to decide whether or not I’m going to become an organ donor on my license. This is making me think about how I could do so much good for science and the future of the world in donating myself to science or my organs to others. But at the same time i have to think about do i want to sell myself to people who don’t have any emotion or idea of my story or what i have been through. Do i really want to give myself to someone who doesn’t care who I was or what I did in life? This is a tough decision for me to make, but I really don’t have any idea what i will decide or what i can do about it. Reading this makes me contemplate my decision very carefully.

My dream trip/ vacation. What would it possibly be. My dream vacation would be a trip with ALL of my friends on this very large adventure to the Bahamas. We would stay there for 7 days and nights. Everyday we would snorkel, lay out on the white sandy beaches with clear blue water and tan. We would have a family(aka friend) game night full of laughter and lots and lots of yummy snacks and late nights talking and bonding with each other. After a week in the sun my friends and I would leave and travel to Colorado the winter and spend a week skiing in the beautiful mountains. We would explore and hike all through the mountains and see the amazing views that Colorado had to offer. We would visit the small towns they have and see the cute architecture and uniqueness that Colorado has to offer that Texas doesn’t. We would eat at all the quaint and unique places exploring the new and exciting food options they have. I will visit family owned shops and build relationships. After a wonderful time in Colorado i would finish my trip off with my friends in a place that need our missionary work to inspire them. We would go for about a week and share our experiences and our relationship with god with them and show them how amazing he is. We will serve them and show them love and will build some absolutely life changing relationships with these people making not only their lives better but our own. My dream trip is overall a omg period of time building relationships with the people i love and then building relationships with people i don’t know yet. I want to show people love and be loved while enjoying and experiencing life.

In the first bit of When Breath Becomes Air Paul Kalanithi is talking about how his childhood and life in general was constantly a push by his parents and how there were always high standards for him to accomplish. This personally relates to me so much, because my own parents are pushing me an setting me to high standards for a better future. This helps me understand and relate to his childhood and how he’s going from not knowing what he wants to do with his life (which I don’t either) to wanting to study medicine and have a solid future. This is helping me understand his drive and reasoning for what he is deciding to do with his life and is setting up my basic understanding of his for the entire memoir. The only real question I have is why after his childhood of a constant working father in the medical field, and always telling himself he doesn’t want that life, does he decide that he will become a medical professional? Why go against what you have told yourself you would never do your whole life change what you believe now? I realize how he talks about the novel Satan: His Psychotherapy and Cure by the Unfortunate Dr. Kassler, J.S.P.S, by Jeremy Leven, showed him how naive he is to the world and how magical and interesting the human brain is, made him decide he was going to study and understand the brain is what ultimately made him change his mind. But ultimately there has to be some other reason for him to change his mind for instance him wanting to make a difference in the world, to make him change everything he has believed his whole life. I truely don’t have a definite answer to these questions at this point in the book but I am personally intrigued and excited to find out.

Fear is a weird thing that overcomes is all. Fear is what prevents us from experiencing life and takes away our joy at times, but fear is just a part of our imagination. We come up with these things that should or would scare us but they should not scare us. We overthink things in our future and are scared for them. We are scared for nothing. Personally my biggest fear is not having God in my life. Without him everything I experience would be extremely scary. If i didn’t have god in my life the hard times would be even harder. God is there to support me and has a plan for me. Many people fear death but death is just an entrance into our forever. So when someone asks how i overcome my fear i would tell them i overcome my fear through and with Gods help always. So if my worst fear is living life without God i have already overcome it. I told myself that God comes first always and that’s what i do. I pray constantly and about everything. I read and read and read my Bible always looking for answers to another problem or “fear” that i may have. I overcome my fears with him and if I’m scared or fearful about something I did wrong I know that God is there right behind me forgiving me and telling me to push to be a better person not only through him but for him, to show the world him. So yes technically fear is in m life and everyone’s lives but it shouldn’t be because we have this beautiful and loving God that is there with a plan for all of us and to help us through our fears if we let him. So how do i overcome my fears? I look and trust in God always.

Thanks for joining me!

Good company in a journey makes the way seem shorter. — Izaak Walton