Zach Parrella
English 1A
8/11/13
McFarland
Final Paper
In our society; success, education, and passion are three important
things people aim to achieve. People understand the best way to reach success
is through education. Success is something that everyone should aim for because
being on the bottom wishing you were the one who is successful is a life full
of regret. The best way to reach success and do it happily is aiming to be the
most successful in whatever you find your inner passion.
In the novel, Into The Wild,
Chris is a college graduate who is sick of the real world and wants an escape
route. He wants to get away and Chris’s passion is not what most people around
him approve. Chris has the passion of traveling and being on the run with
nothing but nature all around him. His ultimate goal is to reach Alaska and
survive in the wild where most die. Chris died in the wild doing something he
loved and wanted to commit his life too. “I HAVE HAD A HAPPY LIFE AND THANK THE
LORD. GOODBYEAND MAY GOD BLESS ALL”(199). Those were his final words and he
died happily doing what he wanted. The movie The Passion Project tells us to go out into this world and find our
passion. Once we find our inner passion we need to build our life around it while
doing what we love. There is no point living a life if we are not passionate
about what we are doing.
In this paper you will read about
success, family, passion, my passion for football, and education. While reading
this you will read not only my own personal stories, but of others who take a
stand for what they want. Passion is
huge concept that can be shown in many different concepts and situations.
Everyone wants to be able to say they are successful and
that they have made it in life. It is something everyone should strive
for and to try to make it too the top. “In order to succeed, your desire for
success should be greater than your fear of failure”-Bill Cosby. I think
success is when you finally through all the time and hard work have made it too
the top of doing what you love. Everyone looks at success differently some
think its about money, while some will say its about having a loving family.
Everyone has his or her own unique version of success. “If the day and night
are such that you greet them with joy, and life emits a fragrance like flowers
and sweet-scented herbs, is more elastic, more starry, more immortal- that is
your success”(47). I look at success, as all my hard work paying off in the future.
All the years of truly grinding will finally pay off and I can look back at the
tough times and truly say I have made it where I want to be. I think my
success will be transferring to a University for football and getting my degree
and finding my dream job. After all the struggle and hard work I want too look
back and know all the effort was worth it because of where I am today.
My family is definitely a positive factor in helping me succeed and getting to
where I want to be in life. Family should be the number one priority in
everyone’s life. Family will always be there when you need to count on them the
most. They will love you in the good times and bad times in life. “Family is
not an important thing. Its everything.”-
Michael J. Fox. The reason family will help on anyone’s journey to success is because;
a true family will always be there to support and help. I have personally been
blessed with a great family and especially my dad has always been my number one
role model and always their guiding me in life. My family will always be my top
priority because I know for a fact they will be there when no one else will,
through the bad and ugly times that I will face. That is why I believe they are
such a great help in my road to success. I also truly think another way of achieving
success is being able to have my own family. I want to be able to raise my own
family and be able to be my children’s number one motivator to push them and
guide them to be successful.
The
thing about success is once you find yourself on top the hardest thing to do is
stay there. Distractions will come up and try too take you off of your path
that you have found so much success and triumph on. The thing is you need to
have the will power to not fall off from the top, but to push the negative
distractions aside to keep you where you know you belong. “The key to success
is the willingness to give up what’s preventing you from getting there.”-Tim S.
Grover. At the top you have to realize it is just you and loved ones, because
the rest of the world is jealous and wants your spot. They will do whatever it
takes to take your spot. I take that point of view into the way I play
football. I worked so hard to make it to the starting spot as a freshman and
get my name out their to transfer that I will let no one outwork me or take
what I deserve. I just take that attitude that I want it more then anyone and
someone out there wants to take that success away from me, so I fight to keep
it with me. Distractions and people will come and go to try and take what
is yours, but it is up to you to fight to keep yourself at the top.
Passion is something you should always strive for and chase.
Wherever you find that passion in your life you need to go out and achieve it.
Everyone's passion varies and that is what makes us all unique. “At last he was
unencumbered, emancipated from the stifling world of his parents and peers, a
world of abstraction and security and material excess”(22). In, Into The
Wild, Chris has his own
passion that many people find crazy. Chris travels into the wild of Alaska with
slight knowledge of the wild and no experience of trying to survive out there.
Chris needed to get out and follow his dreams. He realized that after
graduating from college. “The trip was to be an odyssey in the fullest sense of
the word, an epic journey that would change everything”(22). Through the
struggles of traveling and hitch hiking into the wild of Alaska, Chris chased
his dreams and even died trying. Whatever your passion is go out and chase it,
Chris had a crazy passion that most of us would not be striving for, but he
went out and did what he really wanted to do in his life and that should be an
example for all of us. Chris did not want to settle for less and at least dying
doing something he actually wanted to do. Many people are too afraid to go and
do what they actually want in life. They are too scared to take that leap of
faith and take that chance to fulfill their life with their passion.
What is so unique about passion is that everyone finds it in
something different. That is what makes the world so interesting because
everyone is chasing dreams in different areas. People's passions and goals can
be crazy and people will go out and say that is impossible or you will never
achieve that dream, but that's why you challenge that statement and prove to
yourself and everyone else that it is possible. “It is easy, when you are
young, to believe that what you desire is no less than what you deserve, to
assume that if you want something badly enough, it is your God- given right to
have it”(155). You deserve whatever it is that you want in life no matter how
impossible and hard it sounds. Chris's passion was definitely different then
most common people. He just wanted to get away from everything in his life and
take that challenge to survive in the woods of Alaska. Everyone believed he was
crazy and would never make it. After reading the novel your just thinking wow
this kid is crazy why would anyone want to even try and take this challenge
without even being an expert. All odds against him Chris still went out and
tried to achieve his passion and doing something that made him happy to be
alive. Even though he died out in the woods he was still doing something he
loved. No matter how crazy your passion might seem go out their and chase it.
If you don't later on down the road in life you will look back and just have
regrets.
Passion and Privilege are two
different concepts, but can easily run together. You can choose what your
passions are and what you strive for in your life. Privilege is something that
most people are just born into and many strive to get that. People who are not
born into the privilege will use their passion and strive to be the greatest in
that area to earn that privilege. “The privilege of a lifetime is being who you
are”-Joseph Campbell. Everyone wants to be on top and when you are on the top
you have the privilege that everyone wants and you were once that desperate
person using your passion to get to that very top. Many people who are born
into privileged homes cannot prevent it, but at the same time many take it for
granted and do not know the real world around them and the hungry people
striving to get where they are at. Many are less fortunate and use a passion in
athletics, school, arts, etc. to get them where they want to be and earn there
right to have privilege. It is a grind to get where you want to be in your life.
Whatever your passion is run with it because that will make you the happiest
and take that as far as you can because you can take that to the top.
Whatever your passion is that
you need to go out and attain it. Your passion can be anything it is whatever
makes you the happiest. It is something you cannot live without. “Hours slide
by like minutes. “The accumulated clutter of day-to-day existence-the lapses of
conscience, the unpaid bills, the bungled opportunities, the dust under the
couch, the inescapable prison of your genes-all of it is temporarily forgotten,
crowded from your thoughts by an overpowering clarity of purpose and by the
seriousness of the task at hand”(143). That is what you should feel when you
are so caught up into your passion, the distractions of the world are blinded
to you while you are so deep into your passion. The movie the, Passion Project, really spoke out to me
by saying you need to just chase your passion and let nothing get in the way. In
the interviews one person said, “passion is something you can wake up in the
morning and feel good about what your are doing.” What I really got from
the film was whatever you do find passion in it and take that and run with it.
There is no point to be doing a job or anything that you find yourself
miserable in. Take that inner passion and make that your life because you will
enjoy life way more and look forward to each and every day. Everyone has their
own unique passions and that is what makes all of us different, but what
separates strong from weak people are the ones who will do anything to achieve
what they are passionate and take sacrifices to get there.
Football is the reason why I came to Chabot to pursue
my dream of playing at a four-year college. Right now it is the top thing
getting me through school and staying on top of all my work, so I can make it
out of here. Without football school would definitely be more of a challenge to
motivate myself to want to be a college student. “ It is the experiences, the
memories, the great triumphant joy of living to the fullest extent in which
real meaning is found. God it’s great to be alive!”(37). Football is that thing
that really is the reason for my best memories and great joy of living. If
football were not there it would be a struggle to really want to go to school
it would be a big deal breaker for me. Its something I love to play and the
thing that is keeping me in school and working hard to make my goals a reality.
I know it would be a deal breaker because I cannot see myself just being an
average student and just going to school. Football is not the only reason why I
am still in school. I am in school to get my degree and one day go out and find
a job that I will love. The thing is for football it really makes any athlete
actually try and want to go to school and make something better out of himself.
Being a student athlete is also like a full time job, we have hours of watching
game film and practicing not only that but playing games and our bodies taking
a beating. Then over everything we are full time students who have to keep a
certain GPA to stay eligible to play and for junior college athletes to
transfer. It takes a special person to be committed to the game of football.
Why it would be a potential deal breaker for me if it went away because of all
the memories you make and the bond you form with coaches and teammates and how
you will do anything to become the best and win. It is the reason why I am
trying so hard in school to maintain good grades and pass my classes, so that I
can transfer to some of my dream schools and through football get my degree.
This game is more then just a game as of right now it's my life and nothing can
take it away. Check out this link of my freshman season highlights to see how
much I really love playing this game. http://www.hudl.com/athlete/879320/zach-parrella
People underestimate the time a student-athlete puts into
the game of football. During the season we practice everyday, have film
studies, and a game at the end of the week and are also full time students. It
is hard to really put everything you have into this game. The kids who want to
go on and play college football or any other sports do not really understand
the true life and commitment to your team and coaches. It is almost like a job
when you think about it, but your playing for free and you got to ask yourself
is this really something you want to put most of your time into. “Being a student-athlete is a full-time
job, it is not easy.”-Jabari Howard. Jabari knows this lifestyle very well
because he is a cornerback for UC Davis. Playing sports in college is a true job;
it is a lot harder then what people think. “You’ve got to go out and show them that I’m a different
creature now, then I was five minutes ago, cause I’m pissed off for greatness.
Cause if you ain’t pissed off for greatness, that just means you’re okay with
being mediocre.”-Ray Lewis. This quote should be the mindset of football players who
truly wants to take their game to the top. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NVf4EogGp44
(Check this video out about Ray Lewis speaking about how much passion he
has for the game of football.) From a personal standpoint I love it because
it’s the game I enjoy the most and it gives me something to do. Another hard
thing to adjust to from coming out of high school is that at your school and
league your one of the top players everyone was below you. A hard transition in
college is the speed of the game and the fact that now your playing against
men. Many of the people who are going to try and take your spot or the opposing
team will be bigger, faster, and stronger than you and you have to find that
inner-self to come out and give them all that you have and give them the
beating, rather then receiving it. Some people will just never get that inner
passion out of them and they will take the beating and hate it so much and end
up quitting. Or when things get hard and they believe they should be the
starter and give up rather then fighting to take someone’s position. I believe
true passion is being able to show coaches that you are better then the guy
starting and giving it all you have to get that spot and when you finally do
get the spot you do everything you can do be the best there and fighting off
anyone who even thinks they can take your spot. Passion is fighting for
something you want or believe in. If football is what you want then you need to
do everything in your power to fight for that and take what’s yours and if you
do fail and you can look in the mirror with no regrets because deep down in
your heart you know you gave everything you have and did whatever it took.
College is a very difficult thing for most people in our
generation to stay on top of things and be committed to their work. Many people
fall off because of distractions and other important things going on. College
is tough and is easy to fall behind in all the work. That is the one of the
toughest things for me in school is just making sure I stay on top of all my
work and studies. Falling behind is what really makes student’s give up or drop
a class and that is something I've been trying not to fall into and stay on top
of my stuff. The problem when students start getting behind in their classes
most automatically give up on the class and themselves. I personally struggle
with this if I start getting behind, I just feel like there is no way to get
back on top of it. This is the same for many other students and why many people
do dropout and just simply give up. I do not want this to become a reason why
college would end for me and stop me from getting my degree. To prevent this at
night I put away any distraction and really focus on doing my schoolwork and
not falling behind. I started really trying to focus like that by actually
having no distractions and it has paid off. In high school I had a GPA of 2.3
and now in college I have maintained a 3.1. I will not let distractions and
falling behind take me out of college and attaining my dreams.
Jeff Bliss from Duncanville High
took a stand to his teacher because he was sick of the bullshit job she was
doing and not truly trying to give the students the best possible education
they could receive. I really like this video because first it is shocking that
he actually stood up to his teacher the way he did he was angry, but he made
sense because he was not trying to cuss her out or just scream at her. He made
valid points of what he hated about the class and what she could actually do
better for her students. Most kids will just talk about how much they hate the
teacher or class to their friends, but no one will really take a stand like
Jeff. “You got to take this job serious, this is the future of this nation…
this is my country’s future and my education.” What Jeff said right there is
exactly true because us students are the future and we need to be taught
correctly to make a difference. I really agree with what he did because I think
most students will agree that you want to attend a class where the teacher will
actually make an effort to go out and really teach you and make it interesting.
Students want teachers to make a class worth wanting to go to and learn in.
Teachers should watch this video, so they will not teach a class that would
make any of their students feel the need to call them out like that. “If you
want a kid to change and start doing better you got to touch his freaking
heart.” Jeff took a stand because he wants him and his classmates not to be fed
bullshit, but to actually get the most out of their education to help them in
life. I respect Jeff because most students would never take a stand for
education like he did. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dSxElvdd0R4 Check out the link and see how
much attention Jeff got after his courageous speech to his teacher.
Education is one of the most important things for anyone who
wants to make it in the world. What students learn in the classroom will stick
with them for the rest of their life. Education now a days is one of the keys
to success and it should be taught in a way students can actually take
something out of it. Educations to me should not only be learning the materials
we need to know but also how to make it in life and to know what goes on in the
real world. “Education is the
most powerful weapon which you can use to change the world”-Nelson Mandela. Students should be able to critique
education because they have the first hand experience for many years of
schooling. Education should be something you actually want to learn in new
creative ways, not something that a teachers forces down your throat with no
passion or enthusiasm. Teachers who just pass out handouts or read from a book
will have no impact on a student’s life. The student will get something from a
teacher who is truly passionate and loves what they do, it will make the
student love to learn from that teacher and get something out of the class.
From a personal experience my last and now current English teachers in college
are truly passionate about what they do and bring that passion into the
classroom. It actually makes me look forward to going to class and learning from
them. Not only did they teach us the subject, but also help us out for life
ahead. Us students want a type of education that we can actually benefit down
the road.
Today's youth play a very important role for our society
because they are the future of our nation. Many communities suffer from a
lack of support system to help these kids through growing up. With a lack of
support the youth can easily become lost in this world. Without the support of
teachers, parents, and others to our youth how can we expect them to know what
is right and wrong. “Good
habits formed at youth make all the difference.”-Aristotle. Jeff Duncan gave an excellent speech on how he has a support
team who help the youth in his community in Eastern Oakland. One great thing I
took from Duncan was how he said all teachers’ talk about are test scores and
assignments when they should be mentoring their students not only in studies,
but life. Jeff referred to the kids as the rose that grows from the concrete
from Tupac. “Did you hear
about the rose that grew from a crack in the concrete? Proving nature's laws
wrong, it learned to walk without having feet. Funny, it seems to by keeping its
dreams; it learned to breathe fresh air. Long live the rose that grew from
concrete when no one else even cared.”-Tupac. I loved how he referred to that
because a rose growing in the concrete is impossible, but that is how people
look at the kids that he mentors that they would grow to be nothing. Duncan
explains through his support system he has many teens that no one thought would
go to college now in four-year universities and colleges. Through the violence
in Oakland there was a study proven that youth growing up in that community
have been developing CPSTD which is also common with our troops coming back
from Afghanistan. There is no wonder why the youth have trouble staying focused
in school when friends, family, and neighbors are being murdered left and
right. It is also very difficult to focus in school because you can have fear
that you could be the one who dies. I love that Jeff has a great support system
to help guide the kids to college throughout out all the struggles of their
community. Without a support system to keep the kids out of all the mess the
communities will just get worse and worse. This is why our nation needs more
people like Jeff to take a stand and help our youth. Watching this speech made
me also link it to that Jeff has a burning passion for our youth and to guide
them out of the hood and to success.
In conclusion life can take us many different routes some
are planned while some can be unexpected. The goals everyone has of receiving
education and being the most successful are phenomenal achievements. The most
important is living a life you can be passionate about. My passion and goals
are keeping me trying to be the best, but also giving me a happy life.
