Wednesday, September 30, 2009
Facing Fears
The greatest concern affecting me right now is fear. The greatest cause of my fear I feel right now is the most common fear in all of life, fear of the unknown. The reason that fear of the unknown is so great is because of the power of our imaginations. Generally speaking our reality is not as dire, or horrific as the thoughts our imagination can create. When you’re a kid make believe monsters can be frightening, but through growing up you learn that monsters are not real and you stop fearing them. I believe that the best way to confront any fear is to define the fear, and devise a plan to control your fear.I am scared about the possibility of going back to jail for 30 days. Having to face thirty days is scary, but I believe the ramifications of having to do the time could be worse. If I have to do these thirty days I will certainly miss a trimester of school, which has potentially catastrophic ramifications. I am doing really well in school right now probably the best that I have ever done. I feel like I am on a roll and I have no interest in losing momentum. I applied to school before my criminal history began, and the school has no knowledge of my criminal history. If I was forced to withdraw from classes the school could investigate my history and potentially dismiss me from school. All the fears I have deal with potential consequences.My fears have been adequately defined, so now I need to devise a plan to control my fear. The greatest source of my fear is the unknown. I believe there are two ways to minimize the fear of the unknown. You can either stop caring about the unknown, or you can try to learn about what you don’t know so that you can prepare yourself. I believe the best plan of action for me is to try and minimize what I don’t know, by learning as much about my fears as I can. If I know what I am facing, I am better able to prepare for potential consequences and that gives me a feeling of empowerment. It is my belief that knowledge is power. The more informed a person is in any situation the greater there chance of making sound life decisions will be. This is why I ask questions, and try to find out as much about what bothers me as possible. The knowledge I gain from asking questions and researching gives me a comforting feeling that I am doing as much as I can to give myself the best opportunity to make correct decisions. My other option for minimizing my fear is to simply not care about the fear and put it out of my mind. This option may temporarily eliminate fear, but it does not help to solve your problems. If you always ignore your fears you have no chance of ever solving them, and while your fear will go away temporarily it will come back. When the problem comes back you will have learned nothing from ignoring the problem, and you will not be able to eliminate it until you face it through knowledge so that you can learn to conquer your fears for good. Knowledge is power and the more knowledge you have the better you will be able to control your life.
Doing Right Situation
Below is a story about 3 boys spreading rumors and lies about each other. Please read the text below and think about how you would resolve the situation.
Story
Sam knew something was weird the second he got to class on Tuesday morning. He saw kids whispering and pointing at him. Some were looking at him funny. He sat down next to his best friend and picked up the graded report the teacher, Mr. Crosby, had graded over the weekend. Sam looked at the ” A-“ and forgot about the rest of the class for a minute. He had worked hard at that report and was thrilled it had paid off. He looked up and saw a bunch of kids staring at him. While the teacher cleaned up the white board, Sam whispered to Dylan, “ What’s going on?” Dylan, looked down and said quietly, “Conner told everyone you copied your report from the internet.” “ But, that’s a lie!” Sam said. “I never cheat and everyone knows it.” He was hurt and angry. He couldn’t focus the rest of the morning in class.At recess he went up to Conner and asked him if he had really told everyone he had cheated. “ It’s no big deal,” Conner scoffed. “ I only told a few people. Lighten up. It was just a joke.” Sam turned and walked away. He wanted to yell at Conner, or hit him, or something. He just wanted to make Conner feel as bad as Conner had made him feel.For the next two days, Sam avoided Conner but Sam and Dylan made up as many lies as they could think of about Conner to get back at him. They told kids that he was jealous of anyone who did well in school because he almost failed fourth grade last year. They told the girl Conner liked that he still wet his bed sometimes. But it wasn’t helping. Sam was still just as mad at Conner. In fact, all he thought about now was Conner and what he had done.On Friday, Mr. Crosby had all three boys stay to talk with him during recess. He told them they had until the end of recess to work out whatever it was that was going on between them. If they had not all forgiven each other by the end of recess, they had to go to the principal’s office. Then Mr. Crosby left the classroom.The three boys stared angrily at each other waiting for someone to say something. Sam didn’t know what to say. All he knew was that he was tired of being mad and hurt. What could he do to make it stop? And what did Mr. Crosby mean by all forgive each other?
Questions
Do you think all three boys need to apologize? Why or why not?Who do you think is the most guilty of doing wrong. Why?Do you think it will improve their friendship if Sam forgives Conner?Have you ever been in a position like this? What happened? Would you make the same choices if you were in the position again?Is there someone in your life right now that you might need to forgive for something?What does it feel like to forgive someone? Why do you think that is?
Story
Sam knew something was weird the second he got to class on Tuesday morning. He saw kids whispering and pointing at him. Some were looking at him funny. He sat down next to his best friend and picked up the graded report the teacher, Mr. Crosby, had graded over the weekend. Sam looked at the ” A-“ and forgot about the rest of the class for a minute. He had worked hard at that report and was thrilled it had paid off. He looked up and saw a bunch of kids staring at him. While the teacher cleaned up the white board, Sam whispered to Dylan, “ What’s going on?” Dylan, looked down and said quietly, “Conner told everyone you copied your report from the internet.” “ But, that’s a lie!” Sam said. “I never cheat and everyone knows it.” He was hurt and angry. He couldn’t focus the rest of the morning in class.At recess he went up to Conner and asked him if he had really told everyone he had cheated. “ It’s no big deal,” Conner scoffed. “ I only told a few people. Lighten up. It was just a joke.” Sam turned and walked away. He wanted to yell at Conner, or hit him, or something. He just wanted to make Conner feel as bad as Conner had made him feel.For the next two days, Sam avoided Conner but Sam and Dylan made up as many lies as they could think of about Conner to get back at him. They told kids that he was jealous of anyone who did well in school because he almost failed fourth grade last year. They told the girl Conner liked that he still wet his bed sometimes. But it wasn’t helping. Sam was still just as mad at Conner. In fact, all he thought about now was Conner and what he had done.On Friday, Mr. Crosby had all three boys stay to talk with him during recess. He told them they had until the end of recess to work out whatever it was that was going on between them. If they had not all forgiven each other by the end of recess, they had to go to the principal’s office. Then Mr. Crosby left the classroom.The three boys stared angrily at each other waiting for someone to say something. Sam didn’t know what to say. All he knew was that he was tired of being mad and hurt. What could he do to make it stop? And what did Mr. Crosby mean by all forgive each other?
Questions
Do you think all three boys need to apologize? Why or why not?Who do you think is the most guilty of doing wrong. Why?Do you think it will improve their friendship if Sam forgives Conner?Have you ever been in a position like this? What happened? Would you make the same choices if you were in the position again?Is there someone in your life right now that you might need to forgive for something?What does it feel like to forgive someone? Why do you think that is?
Introduction
Hi my name is Christian Bovine and I am excited to be a part of the Do Right blog. I am a 23 year old Chiropractor student living in Los Angeles. Some of my hobbies inlcude basketball, soccer, video games, hanging out with friends, and snowboarding. The Do Right blog was created so that we can learn what it means to Do Right. I will be posting examples of situations and questions that are designed to help us define what it means to Do Right. I will also post problems where a choice needs to be made and I will ask you what you think the right thing to do would be. I look forward to leading this blog and I value all of your opinions and participation
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