Christmas

Christmas has always been my favorite holiday. But the only difference now is that I love Christmas for a different reason. When I was little, I only thought about getting all those gifts that were sitting under the tree. Christmas didn't mean much to me other than the fact that it was a day I looked forward to because I would get the coolest toys. These past few years have been different for me, though. This might be a little bit of a cliche, but I've been trying to keep in the mind the reason for why we celebrate this holiday. The world only celebrates this as a day to give and get presents for each other. There's no deeper meaning to Christmas. But as Christians, it's important to remember that we're celebrating the fact that Jesus was born as a little baby to be our Savior and Lord. I pray that God will never let me forget the reason for this season.

America

The question that was asked was what we thought about America and our feelings about where this country is now. When I was little, I always thought that the rest of the world was like this country. But then I got a glimpse of what other countries are like when I visited India when I was around 7 or 8. This completely changed my mindset of America, and I have tried to never forget how great of a country America really is.
But the sad truth is that America hasn't lived up to the principles it was founded on. It started out with a strong foundation in God, and I believe that is why this country has become the nation with the greatest amount of freedom for its people. We have gotten away from the morals that made this country great in the first place. America continues to try to ignore and shut God out from our lives, and lots of prayer is going to be needed for our great nation.

Perfect?

In English, we listened to a quote from a movie that dealt with what the main character thought perfection really meant. He defined it as you and your relationships with those around you. It's about doing everything you possibly could and knowing that you didn't let your friends down. I don't really agree with this definition of being perfect. I know that God defines perfection as...being perfect. There's no one except Him who truly is perfect. We as Christians strive to be perfect, not to try to become like God, even though God originally intended humans to be perfect beings. God understands that no matter how hard we try, we can never be perfect like Him because of sin. But that shouldn't stop us from being passionate and serious with our relationship with Christ. This way, when I finally do come face-to-face with my Savior, I can know that I didn't disappoint Him when I hear him say to me, "Well done, good and faithful servant."

Favorite Bible Verse

One of our journals that we had to write was about our favorite verse in the Bible. The one passage that never fails to comfort me is Psalms 23:
¹ The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not be in want.
² He makes me lie down in green pastures,
he leads me beside quiet waters,
³ he restores my soul.
He guides me in paths of righteousness
for his name's sake.
⁴ Even though I walk
through the valley of the shadow of death,
I will fear no evil, for you are with me;
your rod and your staff,
they comfort me.
⁵ You prepare a table before me
in the presence of my enemies.
You anoint my head with oil;
my cup overflows.
⁶ Surely goodness and love will follow me
all the days of my life,
and I will dwell in the house of the LORD forever.
The thing I like about this chapter is the promises that God gives us. He promises that He'll always be with me, no matter where I go. Overall, this chapter in Psalms describes God's overwhelming love for each one of us. Whenever I'm feeling a little sad or frustrated about anything, I just need to read this passage in the Bible and I'm reminded of just how much God cares for me. If God is with me, and if He's always looking out for me, then nothing else can overwhelm me.

3 People in the World

If I had the choice to talk to any three people in the world, they would have to be the entire current New York Yankee team (I'll count that as one person), Martin Luther King, Jr., and Jerry Seinfeld. I'd love to talk to the Yankees team to find out how exactly they were able to make it this far into the playoffs, whether it was purely because of talent, luck, team chemistry, or a little of everything. I would want to talk to Martin Luther King Jr. so I could talk to him about how he had the courage to do what he did, standing up for what he knew was right. And lastly, I would talk to Jerry Seinfeld so I could talk to him about his famous sitcom "Seinfeld" and maybe share a few laughs with him, too.

Tough Choices in House

Recently there was an episode of the television show House, M.D. that had the medical team deal with treating the mysterious illness of a ruthless dictator responsible for the slaughter of thousands of innocent people in his country. One member of the team in particular, Robert Chase, has to continually deal with the conflict of trying to save a murderer. He knows that if they successfully diagnose this man, he will go on and kill thousands more. Chase finally makes the decision to trick the other members of the team into giving a wrong diagnosis that would prove fatal to the dictator. Chase apparently thought it was better to murder him before he could kill more people. After watching this episode, I thought to myself whether or not I would've done the same thing if I were in Chase's place. I know that it is completely against God's teachings to murder someone, but sometimes the line between murder and stopping someone from murdering others isn't so clear. My personal convictions are that taking the life of anyone regardless of the circumstances is wrong. The character in the show gets away with murdering the dictator (so far), but I know that if this was real life, I would have to answer to God for doing something like that.

Characters in the Great Gatsby

There were a lot of characters in the Great Gatsby that I liked, but there were some that i didn't like so much. The one that I liked the most was Nick because since the story was told from his point of view, it was easier to tell what he thought about the other characters and about the events happening in the book. Tom was the character that I liked the least because of many reasons. One is that he had almost no respect for his wife Daisy throughout the book. For one thing, he gets mad at the fact that she and Gatsby spend so much time together, but at the same time he is cheating on Daisy with Myrtle. I had some sympathy for Gatsby because after meeting and falling in love with Daisy, he doesn't see her for 5 years. Then when he finds her again, she's already married to Tom. Even though they grow close to each other again, at the end of the story she still stays with Tom and Gatsby ends up murdered. It was almost like he kept getting hope that he and Daisy could be together but it proved to be false hope each time.

The Highlight of My Summer

This past summer, me and my family did many interesting things. Unfortunately, this also meant that the summer flew by very quickly, and it felt as if school started way too early. Among the many things that I did this summer, the highlight was going to India in late August for two weeks.
My parents and I went on a very brief 17 hour flight from JFK Airport to India on August 16. We spent most of the first few days in India getting used to the 10 hour time difference between the two countries. After a week or so of relaxing and visiting relatives that we hadn't seen in almost 5 years, we went to two engagements and two weddings over the course of a very hectic week. The most memorable part of this "vacation" was getting to see cousins, uncles and aunts, and grandparents that I haven't seen in a long time.
I arrived in New York on September 4, immediately missing most of my relatives and friends I left behind in India. I can't wait for the next time I can go back there, or hopefully some of them can come here to America.