What Happened When My Teacher Told Me Off

This post is about what happened to me today. My history teacher made me so mad at him that I HAVE to write a post about what happened.

My history teacher basically humiliated me in front of all of my peers. I was reading my book in class, and he got really mad at this. You know what we were doing? We were just looking over our tests that we took last week, and I was already done doing that. He practically yelled at me in front of the whole class, saying that if I continue what I'm doing, then I won't get a 5 on the AP exam and I wouldn't get an A on the next test. In fact, he didn't have to yell. The whole class was listening in to him telling me what a worthless piece of shit that I was. After he finished his lecture, nobody would work with me when we got into group discussions. I was nearly in tears because no one would look at me, let alone talk. I have, seriously, never been so humiliated in front of any class for any reason. In this regard, no teacher has ever said something so degrading to me before. Not even my parents have ever said that I would not succeed on the AP test. Although this teacher didn't say that I would not get a 5 on the AP test, it was totally implied. Anyone that was present could hear what he meant behind his sentence. This further proves to me how low this school has sunk in choosing the right teacher for the job.

I was so embarrassed and ashamed when he started yelling. I mean, I haven't done anything seriously wrong that deserves punishment. Only now do I know that teachers are not necessarily “good” until they are proven so. For example, I thought that this history teacher was amazing until he told me off today. I was in total shock because I believe that I have been doing pretty well in his class so far. Although I might not be one of the top students in the class, I am still a good student. Its not right for other people to do what they want while others can't. Also, this history teachers plays obvious favorites when he says, “Even if I'm a chimpanzee, you will ace this course.” I mean, what's the point of saying that? Seriously. And the “fights” that occur between him and the teacher across the hall. Absolutely childish and immature. This takes time away from class and shows how immature this teacher really is on the inside. Its one of the things that are just plain ridiculous. Teachers should not act in such a manner that would cause their students to look down on them. Sure, these supposed “arguments” generate a couple of laughs from the crowd, but what are the students really thinking? I'll bet anything that none of the students are there because they think that this particular teacher is amazing or anything. They are there because they want to earn the college credit and save themselves some time when they enter college. I am there for that reason, so that at least makes one of us.

Also, this teacher always says of how hard this course is going to get and how we would hit some walls when we are trying to learn. He literally says that in just about every class. I mean, stop wasting your time telling us how hard life is going to get later in the year and get back to teaching. He just tries to scare us into thinking how hard AP US History is going to get. But from what I have experienced thus far, this class isn't so hard to pass. To be honest, I was pretty nervous when I started this class, but I have not gotten a grade lower than a B. And if I can do it, I know everybody else can because I have started from the bottom of the bucket and worked myself up. No matter what this particular teacher does or says to me would ever put me down because I know better. I know more than to just believe in what one person says to or thinks about me. I'm better than they are and I'm above such pettiness.

To be telling me off in front of the whole class is just ridiculous in my opinion. Truth be told, I could sue him for harassment and discrimination but I don't want to waste my time doing that and I might need his letter of recommendation. That's why I haven't taken action against him. But seriously, my history teacher is tactless. Why couldn't have he just pulled me over and talk to me privately? That would have made everything so much better. Instead, he comes over and humiliates me in front of everybody. Completely unacceptable. This proves my point on how degrading and uneducated this type of people are. I mean, look: educated and refined people always respects the rights and well-being of the people around them. These kind of people take care of others. But no, my history teacher purposefully made me blush with shame for the remainder of the period. I sat there in a shock, not daring to believe what just happened. Did a TEACHER humiliate me? Did a TEACHER force me to sit a period of shame for about an hour? Never, in my worst nightmare, did I imagine a scenario like this. I was totally unprepared.

You know what made this situation worse? I was left alone. My classmates, my FRIENDS, left me. I was left alone to work by myself. This forced me to tears. Literally, tears were in my eyes until I blinked them back. In my hour of need, my friends scattered and sat in their own little group. I chose not to cry because I have not cried in school for years and I want to keep it that way. But seriously, how cool is that? This is officially the worst day of the week. And its only Monday.

OK, so this does it for my rant of the day. I don't do this often because usually nothing as dramatic as this happens.

-Gina

What would you do with three wishes?

I thought this would be an interesting question for me to write about. I have often thought over this question and thought carefully of what I would do if it were possible that I could be granted with three wishes, three things in which I can easily change my life with.

My first wish would of course that my grades would pick up and that I will earn A+'s all the way through high school and go to a great college. This is what most teenagers want and I am certainly not an exception. My dream college would be either NYU, Boston University, or Columbia. A scholarship wouldn't hurt either. With this wish, my parents would be happy and I would be grounded less often because of my grades. You know how Asian parents are. My mom is like, the re-incarceration of the Tiger Mother. She is so hard and so competitive with other students with grades. Seriously, with all the AP's that I am taking in high school, I wouldn't be surprised if I graduate from college in three years instead of four. But I guess that all Asians get to go to graduate school early because of their studies and all that. With good grades and a good college to go to, my life would be set and I will actually be able to see my friends more often. Instead, because of my grades at the current level, I am trapped at home in a virtual jail cell for hours on end. The only time that I get fresh air is when I'm walking to school. To make it worse, I have the worst math teacher in the world who fails the whole class at just about every quiz that we take. How will this affect my GPA? This teacher is making life harder for us all the way that she is going at it. I officially hate math now. Last year, math was tolerable because of Mr. Aprato. He was the most amazing teacher that you can pray for! But now that he's retired, just about every regular Math Analysis kid is doomed with the teacher. If you are curious about which teacher this is, send me a message either on my e-mail or on Facebook and I will tell you. That's how much my life sucks right now. Bad math teacher and all that. This is why I would wish for good grades and good college first because this is important to both my family and me. With good grades, all of this would disappear and I would walk around a free teen. And with good grades, I can actually be proud of myself and be able to assure myself that I am worth the trouble.

My second wish of course would be able to spend the rest of my high school years back at my old school, BHHS. Now I know that it is a hopeless fantasy of mine to go back to Beverly, but you know, hope isn't something that anyone can just take away from you. Memories have already been made, and hard as my mom may try, she can't do anything to erase or to change the memories that I have made back in that school. Sometimes if I try hard enough, I can actually remember the smell of an office or a certain corridor. But I usually don't try to remember those things because I realize that the harder I try to cling on to those memories, the harder it is to actually remember them. BHHS is my dream school in the fact that you don't get the feeling that anyone is forcing themselves to be nice to you. No one is separated in cliques and everybody is very open-minded. I always think that South Pasadena has leaned towards the more conservative side. Even though there is a healthy mixture of cultures at this school, I feel as if the Asian population is slowly taking over and the very culture of this school is turning Asian. There is nothing that I wouldn't do or sacrifice to go back to BHHS and be with friends that I miss practically every day.

My third wish would be that I could live life as I see in my favorite TV shows. You know how sometimes you see life on TV or in movies that you desperately want to live but know that it is virtually unachievable? I wish that life could be like what I watch in Nikita or in Salt. I have always wanted to be an assassin or be a top secret CIA agent. My mom naturally disapproves of me being a CIA agent mainly on the grounds that its a dangerous job and you can die on a mission. She used to claim that CIA agents were executed as soon as they retire because they know too many secrets. This myth later got debunked when I asked a real life CIA agent if this was true or not. Anyway, if I'm too stupid to go into medical school, becoming an agent and going behind enemy lines would always be a career option. You never know. If this third wish was granted, I would either be a neurosurgeon working in the ER or a CIA agent. These two jobs have always appealed to me my whole life. I never really dreamed about going into any other field of work.

So if I could wish for any three things, I would wish the wishes above. These wishes would affect me forever, and I would like these forever moments to be remembered with joy. I want to proudly say which high school I graduated from, which college I graduated from. Although college has not been reached yet, at least I want to be proud of high school. I don't really see that happening right now, but at least I have made a couple of friends at this place. I would also like a job that I would be passionate about, something that I want to do. My parents have been really lenient about this since they let me choose what profession I want to enter. They are unlike most Asian parents that force their children to become doctors or lawyers. I want to become a neurosurgeon or a CIA agent because I truly want to do these jobs.

This post is mainly about what I would wish for if wishes do come true. I realize that wishing for things don't really make much of a difference in real life. If wishes were real I would be the happiest person in all of history because life would be great. Heck, if wishes were a reality everyone would be happy and successful. But sadly, wishes do not come true. Life is dependent on you yourself only. If you put effort in what you want, nothing will be able to stop you from achieving your goal.

-Gina    

Pictures

These are a few pictures that I thought would be nice to post up on my blog.

Life in metaphors and similes

Lately I have done some controversial topics in which I have expressed my views. I have decided to take a little break and refrain from addressing more serious controversial issues until later. In this post, I would like to make a list of life from my point of view As the title suggests, I will try to phrase my views of life in form of either similes or metaphors.

1. Life goes by like a one way trip – it goes forward, not backwards.
2. Going to school is equal to voluntarily locking yourself in a mental institution.
3. Teachers are human even if they don't seem so at first.
4. Life isn't a movie. Get over it.
5. Failing is a part of living.
6. Competition doesn't exist only after you “grow up”. It exists as soon as you enter high school.
7. Not knowing what you want to be later in life means that you have some serious psychological issues.
8. Crazy teachers happen to everyone once in a while. Don't feel as if you're the only one “doomed” to a bad teacher. Anyway, you only have that teacher for one year.
9. Don't do something that you'll regret later. It's not a good feeling. And if you really do something that you regret later, don't dote on it. It'll hurt a lot and in the end, its really not worth it.
10. Don't lie to anyone. You'll lose all of your friends and it'll get you messed up for a time. But I guess this mistake would fall into the “something you regret later” category.
11. True friends don't abandon you and ignore you for months after you make a mistake. Fake friends leave you and then talk behind your back. I had to learn the hard way.
12. Life is a like a box of chocolates. You never know what you're going to get.
    
    
    I know that a lot of these sound like cliches and are cliches but they're very true nonetheless. I will be posting some random stuff in the next couple of days, and then tackle the more controversial topics that have been mentioned above.
    
    
    -Gina
    
    

When should parents let teens make their own decisions?

I thought that this topic would be a very interesting one since I'm a teen and I have pretty strong views about this topic. Parents, in the eyes of teenagers. are often very troublesome and just can't seem to mind their own business. I have often felt this way, and sometimes I get very mad when my parents go out of their way to “mold” me into this “perfect” Asian child. Now, I know that my parents did not force me to play the piano or the violin, but I kind of wish they did. I mean, I see everybody else play the piano like they're something and then I look at myself and see that I can't play the piano. So, you know, its like a paradox. I want to learn how to play the piano but can't, the kids that don't want to play the piano have to play it because their parents force them to.

What is the definition of a teenager? A teenager is someone who is approximately 13-17 years old. Now, teenagers are semi-adults and can make many decisions for themselves. I would think that our parents would be very irritated if they had to make every single decision for us. Since we are able to make these basic decisions for ourselves, why not have us make every decision for ourselves? We teenagers are able to make healthful decisions for ourselves.

Now I know that parents are going to say stuff like, “Oh, my child is going to go do drugs and be this wild child if I don't boss them around.” Well, I can tell you that that is a huge bucketful of bullshit. Yes, I just swore and there's nothing that my parents can do about it. All of us know that drugs and alcohol are bad for us and that we should not consume these products at this age (and in the case of drugs not at all, like ever). For the kids that have tiger mothers at home, I truly feel sorry for you. Which means that I feel sorry for myself. The main reason why parents are so unwilling to let go of their kids are because they always feel as if they are doing what's best for their child. That's true for most parents, but do realize that the hard truth is that parents will not be with their child forever. Do parents want their child to not be able to make their own decisions after they (the parents) are gone? I don't think so.

All of this brings us back to the main point. At what age is it appropriate for parents to let their kids go and let them make their own decisions? I believe that kids that have reached thirteen have reached the supposed “golden age” and are able to take responsibility for their actions. Thirteen is an age where teens are able to see the world for what it is and are able to make decisions for oneself. When I reached thirteen, I felt that I did not need my parents to make all of the decisions on my affairs anymore. Now I'm fifteen and my parents are still bossing me around like I'm a load of unwanted dung.

I believe that I share the same way of thinking about my parent's overbearing attitude. What I'm saying is that teenagers should be free to do what they say and say what they think without fear that their parents would say no. Teenagers are able to create a world in which they are comfortable in.

-Gina