bieng hurt

i run cross country for the Wartburg Knights. that is something that i am very proud to be able to say to people when i first meet them.  the truth is that that statement is not completely true. yes i am part of the team and attend both meets and practices but i am not able to run at all.  about a month ago i felt a little bit of pain in my hip so i stop running and went back to the trainer.  since that initially time feeling pain i have tried running four different times and every time it hurts in less that ten minutes of running. i have been going to the trainer everyday and have yet to really get any better no matter what treatment we had tried.  so last Thursday i went to a doctor to see what he thought the problem was with my hip.  he told me that my IT band was tight because my butt muscles were weak. i was told the only way that i will feel better is to do more exercises to strengthen my hip and butt muscles.  so i hope that through these exercises i will be able to get better and run like i was before my injury that has sideline me for a month and at least two more weeks.       

Going home

for the first time since i went off two college i went  home this weekend.  the reason i went home was that i need to see a doctor about the pain that i have in my hip.  i was told that my butt muscles are weak and i need to strengthen them by doing exercises.since this was my first time home it was really weird and made me think about how i have been liking college.  i realized that so far i have liked having more freedom to do the things that i want to do.  also i like having more personal room and the ability to stay awake and do my own things. i miss my family and my moms cooking.  more importantly i miss not having my brother as someone who i can always talk to and have as a friend. driving home from college was not fun because it was six hours and really boring with no one to talk to about anything.  overall i have decided that i like being a t college but i waish the cooking was better. 

Social Change Wheel

Before class on Wednesday i had never seen the social change wheel.  after looking at it i decided that i would fit under three different groups.  these three groups are Direct Service, Socially Responsible Daily behavior and community building.  all three of these groups are groups that are easily fit into my life with out much effort on my part.  this sounds really bad when i say it like that but it is the true.  personally i feel that i would like to do more than just the stuff that fits easily in my life.  i would like to do more things to help make change in my community and world.  there are many things that i fell that i could do even with most of my time being taken up with school. i hope to join the Habit For a Humanity soon and just help out more in the community.

What makes a leader

What makes a good leader? that is one of the questions that seems to be asked in every classes that I take.  each time there seems to be a different view of not only what makes a good leader but also what even  a leader is.  from all of the different response i have heard from both students and teachers but also from personal experiences i have an idea of the characteristics of the leader that i what to be following.  A good leader has to be one who takes charge and leads by example this is important because if you just yell and scream at someone to do something than it will never get done.  also a leader must be able to motivate his or her follows to do what the leader wants to see them do.  a good leader is also a good listener because if you do not listen to what your follows are saying than you might get away from their ideas.  final a good leader must be able to overcome a setback or defeat and still have faith in their cause. in my life i have lead a group many times in class but most of these leadership positions i my mind really are not true leadership positions unless in is a large group project. the biggest leadership position that i held was i was senior patrol leader of my boy scout troop which is the highest scout held position.  in truth i did not want most of the group leadership positions in school or i really did not want to be the senior patrol leader but once i took the position i felt it was my duty to try to be as good as leader as i good.  i never had a problem being the leader it is just that if i can avoid the spotlight. i would rather be the one who did the work in the background and got some credit but was not the star of the show.  that said i strongly feel that a group can not survive if they do not have a leader so many times if no one wants to step up and lead i will  become the leader because i do have confidence in my ability as a leader.  i am not trying to brag or sound self center i am just saying that a leader will not do well if they are confident in their ability.  a leader gets lots of credit for the groups success but a good leader will always remember that the whole group help not just the leader.

religion

in my life the one thing that seems to be something that is always being debated.  this simple thing is religion. i believe that religion is one of the two cause of all wars.  when you think about it all wars are fought over religion or land or both.  there are many different types of religion all of which have different believes and gods.  i am not here to tell you which religion just to stop and look and the religions a little more.  ever one things that each religion is different and does not have anything in common with other religions.  this is not true all of the christian religions are very similar with only a few different beliefs but their fundamental ideas are the same. same actually goes with  Christian Islam and Muslim religions all are based of of the same god they just differ one how they interned who Christ is.  the other religions all still share the same basic idea in that hey all try to explain what humans do not understand like death and creation.  in many case science that tries to prove that their is no god ends up fall short in some way.  the big bang theory has never been able to prove what cause the big bang just what happens after the bang.  i personally believe that their is some force that guides the world but really do know much about him.      

Liberal education in schools

Since we have been discussing in class about  liberal educations and the benefits of a liberal education one major question that i have been think of is if liberal education is a better way to learn than why are all schools up to college level all the non liberal education?  First in my mind i define a liberal education as an education in which the student learns because he or she wants to learns the topic and not because the are forced.  in my high school we were taught my the teachers in the traditional way which is that the teachers just tell the students the information to the students and their is no discussion on the topic.  The students are like buckets just being filled up with water or in this case knowledge.  I feel that the reason that the schools teach in a non liberal education to students below the college level comes non to two different things.  first is that at that level it is not very practical to implant the liberal education system.  This is because the it takes a different approach and more time for a teacher to teach in a liberal way because in stead of just giving out facts and then testing the students the teacher has to guide the student in there own learning.  also another trouble with implanting this system is because it would be tough for the states to measure the improvement of schools.  the other overall problem with making lower levels in to a liberal education system is that it takes a certain attitude to be a liberal student and most high school students do not want to be their so even if it was a liberal education system they would not treat it like it was.  

time management

As you can see by when ni am posting this blog i still have work to do on my time management skills.  when i was in high school i had little to know time management skills for two reasons.  First all of my time was mapped out so that i went from one thing to an other with out much free time to do what ever i wanted.  Second there was the fact that my parents keep me in on time and pretty much did my time management for me.  As i know have been at college for close to a month i have realize that i need to get a little bit better on my time management skills.  i would not say that i am the worst person in managing my time but i am far from the best.  i biggest issue i feel that i have in managing my time is to not procrastinate until the last minute.  i set time out for activities and when i am going to do homework and study partly because i run cross country which force me to use my time wisely.  i one problem is i feel that i have time to do ti later and keep pushing everything back until the dead line is here and i have to rush and feel as though i did not do my best work.  i have gotten better though and i am working hard on trying to not procrastinate by setting deadline in my mind and on a planner that are in front of the real deadline causing me to finish early and then giving be more time to fix my mistakes.

Liberal education

After doing the readings in class I am starting to get a new idea of what a liberal education is.  Before I did the readings I really did not know much about a liberal education.  I originally thought that a liberal education was more along the lines of liberal arts. I had this believe that to be liberal educated meant you got a degree in a liberal arts field and had taken course in many different subjects as well so that you were a more rounded learner.  These reading have taught me that my idea of a liberal education was even close to what a liberal education truly is.  According to Giamatti a liberal education is the the study of something for its own benefits and not because you want to get an a on a test or a good job later on in life.  To me a liberal education is a little bit more than just how Giamatti states it.  I personal feel that to be truly liberally educated you no not have to have a love for learning but rather you must want to learn because it is want you are truly passionate about. I feel that i had been a liberal educated student in certain subjects and in other class have just got a normal education.  In history I have always study extra not because i want to be the top student or even get an A on the test ( i usually did though) i study extra because i loved study history and want to learn as much as i could about the topic.  At Wartburg i feel that there are some classes that push a liberal education while others just educate you almost as though you are in a factory.  I think that Wartburg tries to liberally educate its students but it is so hard to actually make students be liberal educated.  the first problem is as hard as the college and professors try the students are the ones that decided if they are going to be liberal educated.  if the student wants to be educated in a open minded fashion than it is really easy to educate them liberal because they want it.  on the other hand if they only want to go through college to get a degree than there is no way you are truly going to be able to liberally educate those students.  i feel that the best way to go through life is to try to be a liberal learner because you will be able to learn things better and fast because you want to learn them not because you feel you have to.