Leonardo Da Vinci, a True Renaissance Man

Da Vinci is a true renaissance man because he was rebirthing art, science, and many more of his ideas. The renaissance was known as 'rebirth' and curiosity and Leonardo was a man with both of those characteristics. He discovered new kinds of art creating a mixture of modern and ancient kinds of art he also invented new objects and invented new sciences. In the curiosity part he fits in perfectly because of his curiousness towards new kinds of discoveries. He also started asking questions and had his own way of writing because he never went to school. This didn't matter because he always found answers to his questions because of his curiousness.

Freedom

"Unity" by Sonia Jimenez

"After climbing a great hill, one only finds that there are many more hills to climb"~ Nelson Mandela

Nelson Mandela was a man that not only had to go threw a lot of difficulties but he also never gave up. He wanted the right to vote, to have freedom, fundamental rights, and wanted to accomplish many more things. The same problem that was going on in America at that time was also going on in South Africa. 'Racism' This was a big problem at that time and Black people had no rights so Nelson Mandela wanted to change this. People didn't accept and after many tries Mandela got sent to jail for five years. Again he tried ' he never gave up' and then got sent to jail again. After twenty seven years of jail he finally got let out on is 75th birthday. After many years he had finally got what he had worked for all those years and he got surprised. Mandela had gotten elected as the first black president. To me this quote means when you have solved one problem don't be expecting you are done because you're not there are many more on it's way.

Love

Love Birds- Elaine Lanoue

Love thumping loud in your heart

Wearing nothing but a thin breakable cloth

Blowing softly through the wind.

In the book The Alchemist, Santiago shows his passion for love. When he finds the love of his life he wants to stay with her forever and never leave. "From that day on, the desert would represent only one thing to her: the hope for his return. "Don't think about what you've left behind,"the alchemist said to the boy as they began to ride across the sands of the desert."(Coelho Pg 118) He is forced to leave and when he leaves to find his destiny he is so eager to turn around and go back to Fatima but the he doesn't listen to his heart and the alchemist helps to not be as eager to go back to Fatima. Fatima and Santiago share they language of love in different ways. They say I love you and they mean it, they smell each others scent before the meet and fall in love, and they send kisses through the wind. They use everything to show there love to each other.

Do What You Need to Do

Envisage by Thaneeya

At this point in my life I don’t know what my destiny is. I believe that to be able to find my destiny I will have to believe in myself and not let other people determine my life. For example when you are a child you might want to help people in Africa but other people tell you to get this out of your mind because you won’t earn any money but in the end it is not important because if you don’t follow that dream and you become a lawyer or surgeon you might not feel happy because that is not what you wanted. When you find out what makes you happy it is important to fulfill what you are striving for. For now I don’t think I have to know my destiny, because the world is open, I have time, and there are so many new things to discover. If you think now you know your destiny, you might miss your real chance of finding your destiny.

Not the Treasure, but the Journey

“I’m surprised,” the boy said. “My friend bought all the other sheep immediately. He said that he had always dreamed of being a shepherd, and that was a good omen.” (Coelho pg.27)
Through out his journey, Santiago learns a lot about omens. He experiences a lot of good and bad omens, which influences his journey. Santiago who is first a shepherd boy goes in search of a treasure that he dreamt about many times. He begins his journey in Andalusia (Spain) and moves toward the Egyptian Pyramids. During his journey he meets lots of people, overcomes obstacles and finds love. Santiago successfully achieves his destiny by being courageous, by using his adaptability, and by using his spiritual views.

During his journey, Santiago gains courage. Santiago was brave to go looking for a treasure that might not even exist and leave his past behind. The boy doesn’t know what is coming but he uses his intuition to move on toward his destiny. On his way he meets the alchemist. “Who dares to read the meaning of the flight of two hawks?” he demanded, so loudly that his word seemed to echo through the fifty thousand palm trees of Al-Fayoum. “It is I who dared to do so,” said the boy. (Pg. 104-105) Although Santiago knows he is in danger he still has the courage to stand up for himself. Eventually, he wasn’t in danger, but the alchemist wanted to test his courage. Later while on his way to the Pyramids the alchemist and the boy get stopped by one of the tribes. The alchemist spoke to the head of the tribe and told him, that Santiago, who he told them was the alchemist, would turn himself into the wind. If he couldn’t do this he would ne killed. When the day arrived he still hadn’t accomplished it, but he tried. And, eventually he turns himself into the wind by knowing how to summon the strength within himself. While Santiago is very courageous on his journey, he also adapts well to new situations.

On his journey, Santiago adapts to change quickly. He abandons his life in grassy Spain with beautiful flowers and grass fields behind, to go to Egypt where there is a humid desert with nearly no plants. He adapts to different environments very fast and respects it. “He was so ashamed that he wanted to cry. He had never even wept in front of his own sheep.” (Pg. 37) Later in the café a man pretends to help Santiago and then runs of with all the money he had. Santiago had nothing left and couldn’t do anything. But quick enough he started to help some people and earned money. He also worked at the Crystal Merchant for a long time and earned a lot of money there. He helped the Crystal Merchant sell more and so Santiago also earned more money. After he meets the alchemist he goes on to look for his treasure. Towards the end of his journey the alchemist leaves him to go look for his treasure on his own. Santiago has to get used to not having help from the alchemist but soon get used to it. And, eventually, he knew what to do by himself. Santiago successfully adapts to change, and he is also a very spiritual person.

While on his journey, Santiago learns more about spirituality. Santiago has been dreaming of a treasure in Egypt continuously. The last time he has this dream is before he starts moving on asking a gypsy woman about the treasure in Egypt. He was in a church in Andalusia. The church was eventually where the treasure was. “Suddenly, one of the hawk’s made a flashing dive through the sky, attacking the other. As it did so, a sudden fleeting image came to the boy: an army, with its swords at the ready, riding into the oasis. The vision vanished immediately, but it had shaken him. He had heard people speak of mirages and had already seen some himself: they were desires that, because of their intensity, materialized over the sands of the desert. But he certainly didn’t desire that an army invade the oasis.” (Pg. 95-96) When the boy sees the two hawks he can immediately connect it to something bad in the future. Santiago sees the hawks when he is meditating in the desert and following them. When suddenly the one hawk attacks the other he gets this visions. He only gets visions when he wants them to happen. He didn’t understand because he didn’t desire this. Also people say an oasis never gets attacked. Santiago talks to the wind, sun and god. He can do this by knowing the Soul of the World and the Language of the Universe. These two things are connected, he is able to communicate with gods words. The Language of the universe is a passage to be able to talk to god. He communicates with his heart to find his treasure and help get threw the difficult times in his journey.

At the end Santiago fully accomplishes courage, adaptability, and spirituality. When Santiago has found his treasure he decides to keep his promises and give one third of his treasure to the gypsy woman. After he has done this he goes back to Al- Fayoum and will hopefully live the rest his life with Fatima. The love of his life. The moment he steps into the desert there is a soft blowing wind with the scent of his love. When he gets closer to his destiny he meets the scent, Fatima. The treasure was at the church. The book starts with him at an abandoned church and Santiago dreaming about his treasure. All the time the treasure was at the church. As he learned, it was not the treasure that mattered it was the journey.

Sound of Music Central Station Antwerpen (Belgium)

I Believe

I believe in a lot of things, but one thing I believe in, is that everything happens for a reason. If it’s something bad or good it still happens for a reason no matter what.  Living overseas has helped me. I live in Malaysia and have had the opportunity to travel a lot. I've been to many places like Burma and have seen a lot of poverty there. I have seen little children that don't have the opportunity to brush their teeth and go to the dentist. I've seen children with babies on their back that are sent to beg by their moms. Although people are very poor, they are still very hardworking trying  to earn money for their family. 

On the other hand where I live I am very lucky. Compared to a lot of other children I am in heaven. I have all the things most kids want: a house, a good family, and good education. When I look at my friends, I see they are concerned but usually only focused on the environment which is also important. However, they don't think of people that have very little when they are buying the new latest thing in school. Although I really want to help other people that don't have too much money, I am at that age where I don't want to be different from my other peers . So of course I tell my mom that I have to go shopping again because no one wears the shoes I have anymore. So I have to buy new shoes AGAIN.  I see many of my friends with these styles and cool brands and they don't even realize that they are so lucky with all the things that they have, and they keep on buying new things. I compare myself to the people in my home country and see that people in Holland work so hard but they have to pay so much taxes that they can barely spend money on the things we spend money on here.

 

 

 Once when it was a cold winter and I already had boots, I  wanted 'Uggs.' I wanted them so badly because everyone in Holland had them and it was snowing and -5 degrees celsius. So I was very, very cold.  They cost nearly two hundred eighty Euros in Holland. I still wanted Uggs. So I kept whining and whining telling my mom I really wanted them. And then my mom said something I didn’t expect she would say, "Why don’t you buy them yourself, with your own money?" I didn’t have the money right then but I still wanted to look at shops to see if they had my size but they never had my size.  My mom said, "Maybe they aren’t right for you." But I wasn’t going to give up. I  started saving money, I did some chores and saved birthday money. I tried to earn as much as I could. Finally I had enough money, I looked through all the Uggs they had, and found the pair I wanted. And click, click, click I bought them. I was proud that I had saved so much money and not give up. When the Uggs arrived I thought they were more special than if my mom had given them to me. 

 

I really wanted to go on starship. Which is when you go on to America and go to space camp and do other activities you go for two weeks. It wasn’t really a trip that would help me in the future because I am usually not very interested in science or math. My parents thought it was a lot of money for a trip that I wasn’t very interested in doing in the future. So my parents decided no. I was very upset because a lot of my friends were going and I really wanted to go too. After a while I started realizing that it was good that I didn’t go and I was actually quite happy that my parents said no. For two reasons. If I would go on starship I wouldn’t have been able to do other trips like go to Jakarta with touch rugby. Because starship was so much money I wouldn’t be able to do a lot of things that I wanted to do.  I would also have to catch up on a lot of school work and I am not very good at catching up. 

It is good to believe in something for yourself can set a goal and work on it. You can see how much you have yourself and you can see that you are very lucky with what you have. It is unbelievable how we still ask for so much while other people are happy with so much less. I remember children happy playing with  a balloon and playing with bubbles seeing smiling faces. But nowadays we need so much or we won't be happy. -If the Earth would have a population of a hundred people, eighteen people of the hundred would struggle to live on one dollar per day or less. Appreciate what you have. And do your best for a better world.- Miniature Earth

Matt Harding Essay Reflection

What surprised me is that he doesn’t only do the dancing in different countries for himself but he does it so people that feel and are different can finally be the same and equal as other people. He does this dancing so that people can connect from all over the country and come together as a community.

Why we judge people by how they look?

When Susan Boyle came on stage everyone judged her by how she looked. It was because she was old and ugly that they didn’t like her. Even the judges thought she was disgusting and that she wasn’t going to make it. People were laughing at her and making disgusted faces and they made sarcastic whistling to make her think she was cool. But she still had this dream of becoming a singer and she didn’t care what people thought. And then she started singing and people were amazed. Also at the end Amanda the judge was saying that people were unbelievable and that Amanda herself and the other people shouldn’t of judged her by how she looked.

It seemed like Paul Pots gave up his dream at a young age, and started working for a mobile shop. When he thought he could live his dream again he went to Britain’s Got Talent to show what he could do. At the beginning he didn’t feel confident but when he left I’m pretty sure he felt that he could do it and he didn’t have to be unconfident.

Paul Pots reminded me of another boy that was once on the show Britain’s got talent. The boy was ten or eleven and was not confident because of the way people bullied him. He didn’t have any friends because they thought he was different because he sang opera. When he came on that stage he sang and everyone got tears in their eyes. Simon told the boy that he could wipe out all of those bullies. So at the end of the day he left the stage with first or second price in his hand and left with confidence. Take a look at him below:

“All our dreams can come true if we have the courage to pursue them”-Walt Disney

My Characteristics

Who am I?

I chose the image on the left to represent the tree in my poem. How it spreads and journey's. Sunflowers also bring joy just like the sun brings joy to people.                                                                                                    

Who I am?

I am the sun

Sparkling through clouds with my bright rays,

Energizing cold people on a white frost winter's day,

Promising the summer's joy,

In skies of blue.

 

 

I am the clown

Tripping, falling,  juggling balls in my striped trousers and white, red face

Throwing colorful ball and handkerchief

Watching, working and playing for the laughter on faces,

That makes me too laugh.

 

 

I am a rope,

Made out of different parts,

Flexible as feelings,

I twist and tie and break and heal

I knot and open and bind and unlock

 

 

I am the tree,

With roots deep in the dark sand,

But my branches, spread, grow and twist through many countries,

Where I have journeyed,

For a short time.

 

 

I am a dog,

I will always stand by you,

When feelings are hurt,

I will sit next to you to comfort you and your feelings

Like the sun helps people,

I will help you

 

 

Who am I?

 I am me.