Taekwondo Essay: How Taekwondo Has Influenced My Life.

How Taekwondo Has Influenced My Life

by: Piyush Nawade

I vividly remember this particular day in the fall of 2013.  I was only in 2nd grade. My mom had taken me to this small dingy place in a mall to start another new activity for me.  I was very suspicious that it is going to turn out to be another boring activity like Kumon. I was wondering how to protest and cop out of it.  However here I am after three years. My suspicion was proven completely wrong. It turned out that not only it has been very exciting three years of my life here at Taekwondo, but it has also made me physically and mentally very strong and also taught me how to respect everyone - the stronger, the weaker, the elder, and the younger.  When my uncle visited me this Christmas, he actually noticed signs of discipline and courage in me.

Taekwondo has given me enormous physical strength.  I feel I am the strongest person in my family, though I am the youngest.  I can easily do hundreds of sit-ups, I can run three kilometers at a stretch, I can climb a six feet tall wall, I can kick fiercely in many different ways and l break thick boards with one kick.  I remember last fall we had a fallen tree in our backyard and my dad was cutting the fallen branches in smaller pieces so that he could dispose of them. I noticed that he was having a particularly very difficult time cutting one big thick branch.  I saw it and decided to use my strength and Taekwondo skills. I practiced my ax kick couple of times and the branch was broken into two pieces just in few minutes. 

  

Physical strength is important, but mental strength is even more important. Mental strength is when you are completely focused on one thing and not thinking of anything else.  Mental strength allows you to do things that you might think are impossible to do. When I was doing my pre-black testing I experienced this myself. I had a very stressful morning after a long run and hundreds of push-ups.  When I came home for lunch break, I was thinking of backing out and giving up the pre-black belt. I thought I was going to die if they made me do any more push-ups. However the four years of Taekwondo training gave me the mental strength, I told myself never to give up.  It turned out that day afternoon I ended up doing three rounds of “labas” and still survived. I think it was the sheer mental strength that helped me to push myself to the limits that day. 

Discipline and courage are very important to my life now.  Discipline has very much changed my life. Before Taekwondo, I was different.  I was sloppy, careless and I wasn’t hard working. After a few years of Taekwondo, I started believing in the three golden rules.   Now, because of Taekwondo, I became a student that works hard in school and in the dojang. Courage is something that changed my behavior during any form of test.  It gives me the strength to keep going and the will to succeed.

All of us can learn from younger students.  We have to show respect to our young learners.  I have personally learned this when my friend showed me how to flip in Taekwondo.  I have to give him credit for that because I don’t know how to that myself. This shows that we are not the best in everything.  We still have more to learn in life. In Taekwondo, you can learn from anybody.

As you see, Taekwondo has really influenced my life.  There are still more ways Taekwondo influenced my life.  This impact on me will change my life forever. My life has changed and so the world has as well.  I am no longer “Piyush the Weak”. I am now, “Piyush the Great”. These differences change the way someone looks at the world. Now, everyone will see me for who I am.  Doing Taekwondo has made all of these changes. All of them are for the greater good.

Fablehaven: Conflicts

There were many characters involved in the conflicts. Kendra and Seth, two siblings who always find themselves facing demons who plot to kill them, find themselves in trouble again in Keys to the Demon Prison. Bracken and Warren, warriors and adventures, work together in the book with friends.  the Sphinx who plots to open the Demon prison under his control can cause a lot of trouble. Vanessa, a narcoblix, is helping Seth to keep the prison closed.  Agad is a wizard that is one of the founders and creators of the Demon Prison. It has lasted over a millennium. Mirav, an evil wizard, uses his magic to kill. The Singing Sisters are a trio of sisters that give the asker information only if they pay a steep price. If not, they kill the asker. 

The Fairy Queen is the Queen of all fairies and unicorns. She really is a unicorn. She is very powerful. She only uses her power to help the light side win. Newel and Doren are satyrs. They are best friends. Seth is their best friend too. They go with Seth to go on adventures. Graulas is an evil demon who plots to unleash all of the demons forever. Nagi Luna is another demon. She acts under false intentions. She pretends she helps the Sphinx but, she has the same intentions as Graulas. The Astrids are a group of magical guards to the Fairy Queen. Hugo is dirt golem. He only obeys orders. Other from his orders, he has strong feelings for Seth. Coulter was Grandpa Sorenson’s best friend. He was killed by Graulas when he destroyed the main house. Raxtus was a friendly dragon. He helped Kendra and her group along the journey.

There was one main battle at the end of the book. The Demons were coming out of their prison. All of the people and creatures that wanted the Demons back into the prison were prepared for war. Seth and Kendra were killing demons left and right with the most powerful sword, Vasilis, the sword of lightness and darkness. The conflicts leading up to this major battle were very important. The sword Vasilis was retrieved by Seth. He asked the Singing Sisters for the location of the sword. He had to pay a major price to just know the location of it. He was traveling with Vanessa, Newel and Doren, and Hugo. Another conflict was with Kendra. She was traveling with Raxtus, the Dragon, Bracken the Unicorn, and Warren. Their job was to protect the Eternals. If the Eternals were killed, the Demon prison will open. Kendra and her group failed to protect them. 

Another problem was Graulas. He was a demon. Seth was tricked into healing him and Graulas was set free. He stole important things that were needed to open the prison. Graulas overturned the Fablehaven treaty. Fablehaven was gone. Graulas later killed Coulter. Seth thought that all of this was his fault. The Sphinx was one big problem. He first wanted to open the Demon prison on his terms. To control them. When Graulas stole most of the keys to the Demon Prison, the Sphinx became an ally to the light. He still wanted the Demon prison opened, but he didn’t want the Demons to destroy the world. Another demon outside of the prison was Nagi Luna. She had another Key. She was pure evil. Before she stole one key, she was the Sphinx’s mentor. Later, the Sphinx learned that she wanted to overthrow him. Agad was one of the good wizards. He was one of the wizards that created the Demon Prison. Mirav was an evil wizard. He used his magic to destroy.

There were two sides to what everyone’s motive was. One side was to delay the Demon prison’s opening as much as possible. The other was to rule the world with powerful demons. These two sides fought and tried very hard to reach their goals. In the end, the Demon prison was breached and a new prison was created for them. 

The theme was, no matter how much evil there is to overcome, Light and Dark always make a good team. In the book, Kendra was the light she always has a plan, always follows the rules, lets the side she believes is good, win. On the other hand, Seth is the Dark. He is a shadow charmer. Even though he is reckless and makes most of the mistakes, he always has good intentions. Seth always tries to fix what he has done wrong. Partnering up with Kendra, they made a good team. 

The Theme of Friendship in The Enemy Above and My Friend The Enemy

The Theme of Friendship in The Enemy Above and 

 My Friend The Enemy

War is bad. It tears families apart and kills many people. World War II was a very bad war and over 6,000000 people were killed. The main reason for the war was the Holocaust. The Holocaust was when many Jews were killed. In both, The Enemy Above and My Friend the Enemy the main characters lived in the time of the Holocaust. The theme of friendship is shown in both books. This is important to move the plot of the story.

In The Enemy Above the reader learns how friends can rely on each other in the face of danger. When Daniel and Anton are sent down the cave tunnels to find a different way out, Anton gets trapped under rocks. He tells Daniel to get other friends to help him get out. Together they help Anton out. The same theme is seen in My Friend the Enemy. When Peter and Kim are in the plane to get souvenirs, there are guards beside the plane. The friends have to devise a plan to get out of the plane. This is important to the theme because it shows how friends can work together when danger is nearby. 

In My Friend The Enemy the readers find out that sometimes family and friends choose to sacrifice their well being to protect others. The author shares this lesson when Eric, a German pilot, shoots a gun into the air to protect Peter and to frighten the bullies. Eric is captured and put into a camp. That sacrifice is true friendship. In The Enemy Above the same lesson is shared when Anton is about to die and Bubbe sacrifices her life. This is important to the theme because it shows how a family can sacrifice when in danger.  

The theme of friendship is important in both books. There are many types of friendships shown in both books. The Holocaust was a big part of the books and World War II. The war was bad and the Jews were killed. The starter of all this was Adolf Hitler. He inspired all of the war. There should be no war. War is bad.

Animal Farm

Even from the start, Napoleon was a well-known pig. He even had “a reputation for getting his own way” (Orwell 9). You can see that he keeps this habit as he grows older. Once Snowball becomes a leader with a great idea, Napoleon forcefully steals his place, becoming the only leader. He trained dogs to chase Snowball out of the Farm. Napoleon wanted to rule. Still, Napoleon killed the animals that still supported Napoleon. He even changed the seven Commandments which made up the animal’s lives.

Napoleon changed the 7 commandments whenever he wanted. Commandment 4 was, “No animal shall sleep in beds.” Napoleon let the pigs sleep in beds because it was comfortable. Commandment 6 was, “No animal shall kill any other animal.” Still, Napoleon killed the animals that still supported Snowball because he wanted to have no traitors. Commandment 5 was, “No animal shall drink alcohol.” Napoleon shared alcohol with the pigs.

Animal Farm is a political satire, where Napoleon has complete control over Animal Farm and Joseph Stalin has complete control over Russia. Orwell wants to convey that Communism often leads to problems. A satire contains a message about world politics. In a satire, the author attacks a serious issue by presenting it in a ridiculous light or otherwise poking fun at it. George Orwell points out the folly of mankind by using certain animals and therefore certain animal traits, often unflattering, to represent the animalistic behavior of men. For example, how Mr. Jones treats the animals. Napoleon was Joseph Stalin and Snowball was Leon Trotsky. Old Major was Karl Marx. Squealer was Stalin’s news agency. Pilkington was Great Britain and Frederick was Germany.

Edgar Allan Poe: Conflict Leads to Deception

Conflict Inspires Deception-Edgar Allan Poe

Conflict inspires deception. To avoid or eliminate conflict, people lie, steal, and cheat. Sometimes their deception leads to greater conflict, however. In many cases, there might be a situation where it is necessary for someone has to deceive another. In some of Edgar Allan Poe’s stories, conflict is a great cause of deception. Poe experienced turmoil and deceit in his life and might have been in many great conflicts as well. In his stories, the conflict between the two main characters often causes someone to deceive and kill another character. Two of Poe’s stories, “The Tell-Tale Heart” and “Hop Frog or the Eight Chained Orangutans”, both deal with deception, but they do so in different ways.
Both stories possess different conflicts that inspire deception. Hop Frog deceives the king and his seven ministers. Hop Frog came with a girl named Trippetta. The King throws a cup of wine in her face and Hop Frog became very mad. This is where Hop Frog made his plan of deceiving the King. The King’s generals brought them to the king as presents. They made Hop Frog a jester. They also made fun of him. This makes it clear when the narrator says, “His walk alone could make the king laugh, and Hop-Frog was constantly made fun of”(5). He was teased by everyone. When the King threw wine at Trippetta’s face, it makes Hop Frog even more furious. In “The Tell-Tale Heart”, the old man’s eye makes the speaker insane. The old man didn’t do anything to provoke him but, the eye freaked him out. The narrator says, “He had the eye of a vulture --a pale blue eye, with a film over it. Whenever it fell upon me, my blood ran cold”(2). The narrator deceives the old man, even though only his “vulture eye” was troubling him. Each main character deceives and murders someone for different reasons. The King had incited the conflict. If he had not thrown the wine in Trippetta’s face, he wouldn’t have been deceived and killed. The old man didn’t deserve to be killed. It was not his fault he had that kind of eye. Hop Frog had faced a man vs. man conflict. In “The Tell-Tale Heart”, the narrator was facing a man vs. man and man vs. nature.
The main characters are deceitful in different ways. Hop Frog tricks the King and his ministers. They want a costume for the masquerade ball. Hop Frog comes up with an idea. The King and his ministers will go as orangutans to the ball. Everyone gets scared. Hop Frog examines the King and his ministers and then burns them to death. In “The Tell-Tale Heart” the main character lies and hides from the old man. He observes his eye for nights and then finally kills him. In paragraph 10 and 16 a new conflict arises: the man’s heartbeat. This becomes clear when “My head ached, and I fancied a ringing in my ears”. The narrator doesn’t realize that it is the old man’s heartbeat. He also deceives the police and lies to them saying nothing happened. His confidence clear when he says, “I smiled--for what had I to fear?”(Poe 15). Then he hears the heartbeat and thinks the police hear it, too. He gets scared and then tells the truth, deceiving himself.
Poe can easily convey the message of deception for, he has been in many situations involving this. Poe deceived his foster-father when he rejected the idea of Poe becoming a writer. He wanted him to be a businessman. Poe ran off though, and went to a writing school. Poe probably wrote “Hop Frog or the Eight Chained Orangutans” because he had those horrible feelings about his foster-father,  just like Hop Frog thought that the King was an evil man and deserved to die. In the end, Poe ran off to writing school and Hop Frog ran back to his own country.
Deception is produced by conflict. Hop Frog’s friend is bullied and so he deceives the King. In “The Tell-Tale Heart”, the old man’s eye scares the narrator. That is why the narrator deceived the old man. There were two different types of conflict in “The Tell-Tale Heart”. One was man vs. man and the other was, man vs. nature. In “Hop Frog or the Eight Chained Orangutans” the main character faced the conflict, man vs. man. Both stories ended differently. Hop Frog got away from his crime and the police had arrested the narrator in “The Tell-Tale Heart”. It’s a universal truth that conflict can lead to deception, either for the good or bad. Based on Edgar Allan Poe’s stories, it can be very dangerous. The King’s arrogance led to his death, and the man’s eye led to the same fate, as well.

Harry Potter - Crossword Puzzle

Christmas 2017

   

My Christmas-2017

     It took a long time to get to my cousin's house that was in Florida. I went by car. Since we live in New Jersey, it took seventeen hours to get there. It was my brother's first time driving a car for so long. We stopped many times to sometimes switch drivers, stop for food, or to fill up the car again. I watched two movies that I had downloaded on my phone to pass the time. We started early in the morning at 4am. We stopped at McDonald's and Wendy's on the way. We reached at my cousin's house at 10pm at night.

     I have two cousins. The little one is Yash, who is four, and the big one is Mahi, who is a year younger than me. There was a Christmas tree by the door. We had a lot of fun playing together. Two days later, it was Christmas. I had only asked for books but, I got some more stuff. I got books, How to Draw with Colored Pastels book, Calligraphy and Lettering Book, and a super violent game called DOOM VFR for my PS4. Yash got an Xbox, a Plant vs. Zombies game for the Xbox, and some books. Mahi got How to Draw with Colored Pastels book, Calligraphy and Lettering Book, an Xbox controller, and some books that she wanted. For most the time, we played on the new Xbox.

     Harshal, my older brother, couldn't enjoy as much as we did. He had to do a lot of work. Harshal also created videos. Mahi and I worked on the Pastel and Calligraphy things we got for Christmas. It was cool. We learned so much stuff. We also went to the AMC Theaters to watch the new movie, Wonder. We watched many movies at their home as well. We watched some Indian movies in the living room. Since their house is so big, they have a theater room in the house, as well. It was like a real theater experience. We watched many movies there. 

     My Uncle got some fire-crackers that we could play with. I played with them a lot since, they are very scarce in New Jersey. We went to some restaurants including, Olive Garden. It was a very sad time when it was time to leave. We again woke up early in the morning at 4am to leave. The car ride was very long. We reached home again at 10pm at night and we went to sleep.