My Greatest Fear

     Fear is something everyone has to face at some point in their life. Whether it is something as stereotypical as a spider crawling out from underneath your bed or being afraid of crashing while on an airplane. Every single person has their own personal fears and some people can overcome it and move on while others have to deal with it for the rest of their lives. My greatest fear would be to disappoint my parents again. I say ‘again’ because this is a fear I have come face to face with in the past. Disappointing my parents is one of the worst feelings I have ever felt in my entire life. After what I put them through, they started to believe that they were doing something wrong with raising me. I have never seen my parents so upset with me that they have cried. Having my parents not talk, look, or even acknowledge that I was present was something I wish I never had to experience. Not only would I sit in my room alone and think about my life, which would result in crying, I would regret every choice I had made prior. Even though I know that I learned from my mistakes I still had to go through my most dreaded fear. Nothing would ever change the way my parents felt at that point in time and what they thought of me. That is why I can say this is something that scares me into being much more careful and making smarter decisions. I hope I never have to feel that way ever again in my life and more importantly, never have to put my parents through it again.  

Significant Quotes from Life of Pi

                In the novel Life of Pi I found three significant quotes so far in my readings. These quotes are very important moments in Pi’s life and are all meaningful in different ways. I found I had a better understanding of Pi afterwards and a deeper meaning into his life.

The first quote I found in Life of Pi is:

            “The water, having crossed all of Paris, came in foul enough. Then people at the pool made it utterly disgusting” (11).

This quote is Mamaji, Pi’s father’s good friend of the family, telling another story about the city’s oldest pool, Piscine Deligny.  Not only did Mamaji have a passion for swimming pools and competitions but Pi loved listening to these stories. This quote shows Mamaji’s educated knowledge about another pool in India. It is very fascinating to hear about how the public pools there are cold and dirty and that the people only make it dirtier. This also shows that Pi’s memories left of Mamaji, who was someone very special to him, are these amazing stories he used to inform him with. Pi will always remember how he was named after Mamaji’s favourite pool, Piscine Molitor.

The second quote I found is:

            “ It’s all right with me, brother. Anything’s better than ‘Pissing’. Even ‘Lemon Pie’.” As he sauntered away he smiled and said, “You look a bit red in the face” (26).

This is a significant quote because Pi talks a lot about how people would always mispronounce his name. Piscine Molitor Patel was the proper way of saying his name but no one was ever able to pronounce it properly. Therefore, people would result to calling him ‘Pissing’. This quote is Ravi, Pi’s brother, asking him about his new nickname. It shows that Pi would not only get angry but embarrassed as his face turned red when Ravi only asked him about it. Something as simple as a name being pronounced correctly seems like it shouldn’t take much effort but even his teachers would call him ‘Pissing’. His brother seems to be making fun in this quote as well because it’s a very silly nickname even though it is harmless but Pi seems to become very upset. Pi even writes his name on the blackboard one class because he is so fed up with people saying it wrong. Now I can tell that Pi can become very sensitive towards certain things.

The third quote I found is:

            “I come here all the time. One might say it’s my temple. This is interesting...” He was indicating the pit. “If we had politicians like these goats and rhinos we’d have fewer problems in our country. Unfortunately we have a prime minister who has the armour plating of a rhinoceros without any of its good sense” (29).

This quote is Pi’s favourite teacher Mr.Kumar speaking. It is a very important quote because not only did Pi love his biology teacher but he never knew he could have so much in common with him before he spotted him in his father’s zoo.  Mr.Kumar would come to the zoo not just to look at the animals but he would read every bit of information there and approve of every animal he saw. He would leave the zoo feeling scientifically refreshed. This quote is comparing the rhino and goats exhibit to the prime minister. Clearly Pi’s teacher has a strong compassion for animals and wishes that people could be as simple and smart as them.  I believe that this teacher inspired Pi to love animals even more and have a deeper understanding of them.

            In conclusion to these quotes, I believe they have shown that there are many things and people who make Pi’s life interesting and inspire him. I believe that all these moments in his life are setting him up for the start of something amazing.  

LOL , TTYL , L8TR, CYA, BRB

     Computer language and texting abbreviations are becoming more and more common as time progresses. This type of new language is usually seen being used on electronic devices such as cellphones and computer social networking sites. This type of conversation which simplifies our word span is being taken out of the electronic world and being used in what should be formal pieces of work. I believe that this way of communicating is not exactly something that should be frowned upon and should not be banned immediately. Although I do also understand why people would be upset because of this new generation that is slowly taking over. Some students do not enjoy reading literature and learning about history if it is about something that doesn't interest them. Often the way things are composed are in such a way that makes it harder to understand. Computer language makes the dread of reading something boring more interesting when it's put into a familiar state. Also it makes it easier and quicker to read and comprehend that piece of text. On the other hand, those who appreciate and love the style and authenticity of an original piece of literature are obviously going to be upset with the modern generation trying to change and get rid of the real meaning behind reading a passage just to make their lives easier. I can understand where those people are coming from because the literature they had to read when they were our age was meant to be read from it's original text to fully understand what was happening. They would most likely think that people these days who are trying to do this are just lazy and are being disrespectful. Really people being lazy is not usually the case and they really do want to understand the meaning of the literature but just in a simpler way. It can be very beneficial with time especially because students these days have a lot more homework and cannot remember each and every little piece of information given. A summary of a passage of literature in computer language and texting abbreviations is much more time efficient then reading pages of literature that will most likely go in one ear and out the other. I think not only will students be more willing to read the simplified writing but also understand the main concept quicker. Students writing their own pieces of literature will also be able to produce something much faster if they are using a familiar style of writing. The people who think this should be prevented have a point to take into consideration but if we all had the time to really appreciate the tiny details of each piece of literature then we would.