8th Grade – Sophia Elahi RPC Blog

English 8, Lesson 180 – Why Posting on My Blog Daily Will Help Me in the Long Run

A few weeks ago I posted an essay titled “Why a blog site with lots of content will help me get my first full-time job after college.” Now that I am at the end of my 8^th Grade English course I decided to touch on this topic again. But this time I am going to talk about how my blog can help me outside of getting a job after college.

School blogs for home schoolers prove that we were not at home for 12 years watching TV and eating cheese puffs on the couch. It will also be quite an impressive thing to add to your college application. Another good thing about school blogs is that other students can critique your writing and give you tips or corrections. You can also see how far you have come from when you started your blog and when you stopped posting (once you have finished high school, assuming you will home school through high school). I started this blog two and half years ago when I was 10. Now I am almost 13 and my writing has improved immensely.

If you are interested, and have the time and passion, you can start a separate blog for your interests and/or hobbies. For example, over my school break (which is starting in a few days) I plan to start a blog for my poems and stories. I have a passion for writing and I would like to post them online. Not only will this be good exposure for me, but it is very fun and will help me practice my writing skills. And like my school blog, people will be able to see my works and give me feedback. When I get older I plan to go to a college for the arts, having a blog full of stories and poems will be an amazing thing to add to my application.

Outside from job and college applications, having your own blog is really fun and gives you a sense of responsibility. I do not know about other kids, but lately I have been feeling a need to have some kind of responsibility. Starting a second blog outside of school is a great way to fulfill that need.

Who knows? Maybe handling two blogs will be enough to show my parents that I am responsible enough for a dog! (Insert puppy eyes to my Dad who I know is reading this).

As you can see, having one or more blogs can be a great thing for you. Not only will it help with your writing skills, but it is also an impressive to add to job and college applications, and will show your parents (and yourself) that you are responsible teenager.

English 8, Lesson 179 – How Should Church Members Have Tried to Find Out What Jesus Would Have Done in Their Situations?

If you have been following my blog you would know that I have posted a couple of essays about In His Steps by Charles Sheldon. If you have not read my past two essays, In His Steps is a fiction book about a group of Church goers that gets challenged to live by the phrase “What Would Jesus Do?” for a year. Reading the book has brought up the question of how they would try to find out what Jesus would have done in their situations.

Personally, if I was in the situations of the people in the book, I would read the Bible and try to follow it the best I can. In the book I feel that the people went to the extreme with the challenge. There is nothing wrong with trying to live like a prophet, but our day and age it may be hard to do so. The Bible (and Quran and Torah) were written thousands of years ago. Applying it to modern day situations may be challenging, but not impossible.

If I was In His Steps I would read the Bible and try my best to apply it to the situations I was in.

English 8, Lesson 175 – What Should Virginia Have Done Before Giving Editor Norman $500,000?

In English class I am reading In His Steps by Charles Sheldon. It is about a group of Church goers that were challenged to live by the phrase “What Would Jesus Do?” for a year. In Chapter Seventeen one of the main characters, Virginia, goes to the owner of the town’s newspaper, Norman and invests half a million dollars into his dying newspaper. In this essay I am going to talk about that incident and what Virginia should have done before handing over the money to Norman.

Norman, like Virginia, was part of the group of Church goers that were challenged to live by WWJD (What Would Jesus Do?). After accepting the challenge Norman decides to remove all crime, tragedy, and scandals from his paper. But the people want to read about crime and scandals. The newspaper starts to lose subscribers and slowly starts going out of business. Virginia gives Norman $500,000 so he can keep his newspaper in business.

Of course Virginia meant well, but I personally think she made a huge mistake in handing over the money. When Virginia went to Normans’ office he said he had ‘hundreds of ideas’ to restart his newspaper, all he needed was the funding to do so. Virginia did not even bother to ask what these ideas were and handed over the money. I find this very foolish, she obviously did not think this through. If she thought about her decision properly she would realize that giving a dying newspaper a fortune was not a good idea. She would also realize that if Norman had as many ideas as he claimed he would not be in the position he was at the moment. But being the girl she is, she handed over the money without thinking about what it might cost her.

As you can see, Virginia meant well, but she did not think about what she was doing. Yes, it was a very kind thing for her to do, but if the newspaper still ends up crashing she would have lost a fortune.

Personal Finance 8, Lesson 160 – Federal Reserve and the Economy

This week I learned about the Federal Reserve and what it does. In this essay I am going to write about how the Federal Reserve was involved in the Housing Crisis in the late 2000s.

Before I talk about the housing crisis, I want to talk about what the Federal Reserve is. The Federal Reserve was created on December 23^rd 1913. The Federal Reserve was created “to establish economic stability in the United States by introducing a central bank to oversee monetary policy.”[i]

The stock market crashed in 2000-2002. Instead of letting the market fix itself, the Federal Reserve started pumping money into the economy. But with the stock market down, no one was buying industrial commodities which meant that there were only two areas where the money could go: real estate or bonds. The money went to real estate, causing interest rates on mortgages to go down and the bank shenanigans started. Banks combined all of their mortgages into pools and started to sell pieces of it to different investment companies. Since the economy was in a deep recession, almost everyone was out of a job and could not pay off their mortgage, making the combined mortgages worthless, putting the US into an even deeper recession than before.

While the Federal Reserve is responsible for the monetary policy of the country, it does not have control over the general economy and the tools that it uses to stabilize the economy are insufficient and often cause capital dislocation and malinvestment. The Federal Reserve was originally created to stabilize regional economies by buying or selling corporate debt however, the government has insisted that it purchase government bonds which have further errored the Federal Reserve’s initial objectives and have allowed the government to abuse fiscal policy.

[i] Beattie, Andrew. “How the Federal Reserve Was Formed”. Investopedia. 9 May 2020. Web. 30 March 2021. https://www.investopedia.com/articles/economics/08/federal-reserve.asp#:~:text=Congress%20developed%20the%20Federal%20Reserve,bank%20to%20oversee%20monetary%20policy.&text=The%201913%20Federal%20Reserve%20Act%2C%20signed%20into%20law%20by%20President,money%20to%20ensure%20economic%20stability.

English 8, Lesson 170 – Which Aspect of the Plot so Far Sounds Most Implausible?

Recently in English I have started reading a new book, In His Steps by Charles Sheldon. In His Steps is about a group of Church goers who were challenged to live by the famous line “What Would Jesus Do?” for a year. In this book many implausible things happen, specifically the decisions and thoughts of a young girl named Rachel Winslow.

Rachel is a beautiful young woman with an amazing voice and she uses her voice to sing for her Church on Sundays. She, and many other members of the Church, were challenged to live by the line “What Would Jesus Do?” or “WWJD.” While living by this phrase Rachel gets an offer to go on the road to sing for people. This offer not only pays well, but could be the thing Rachel needs to start her career. But Rachel does not take the offer because she does not think Jesus would do that. Rachel’s mother, like many readers, thinks that the offer is a good thing and tries to show her reason, but fails. I find this very implausible for two reasons. One, any sane person would take this offer. Jesus said to live modestly, not live in poverty. Two, this offer would be too hard for any human being to resist. Therefore I find it hard to believe that Rachel was not tempted by this offer.

Another implausible aspect of the plot is Rachel’s thoughts on her looks. As I stated before, Rachel is a beautiful young woman, but she feels ashamed about her beauty. She feels ‘out of place’ in her Church because of how beautiful she is. Not only does this sound completely preposterous, it also sounds like someone is manipulating her. No one feels ashamed about themselves without some negative influence.

As you can see, Rachel’s decisions and thoughts are quite hard to believe. It does not feel realistic or human like. I find it hard to believe that any human would be ashamed of their beauty. I do not think there is anything wrong in trying to live by WWJD, but I do believe that Rachel is taking it to the extreme and is not thinking things through.

Personal Finance 8, Lesson 170 – The Top Five Biggest Mistakes of Young Married Couples

Marriage is one of the biggest things that can happen to you as an adult. Of course it can bring immense happiness, but it can also bring some minor problems, especially to young newlyweds. In this essay I am going to talk about five mistakes young married couples can make.

Lack of Respect and Unconditional Love

I always thought that people get married when they find someone they love and the other person loves them back. But the thought of marrying someone for a reason that is not love has never crossed my mind, even though it does happen in real life. When this happens, it is possible that this couple does not respect each other, which means love is out of the question. No respect for each other may result in spending money lavishly without thinking about the repercussions it may cause for the other person.

Lack of Communication

You always need communication in a relationship, especially if you are sharing a bank account with this person. Lack of communication can result in fights and accidents that could land you in trouble. For example, say that you are at a mall and you see a pair of shoes you really want. You check your bank account and you see that you have enough money to buy it. You buy the shoes and go home. When you get home your spouse asks what happened to the money, you tell them you spent it on the shoes. But to your horror, you realize you spent the money that was supposed to be used for that month’s rent.

You always need to communicate with your partner. I do not mean ask them if you can buy certain things constantly, but to always tell them how much money you need for certain things and how much to save.

Not Having the Same Goals

Not having the same goals as your partner may be a big problem in your relationship with them. This can cause problems financially and in everyday life. A non-financial example is how you want to live your life. Maybe your partner wants to move states every few months, or maybe they want to move around a lot. But what if you do not like that lifestyle and prefer a more stable lifestyle. If this was my case I know for a fact that my relationship with this person would not last. Don’t get me wrong, I love travelling, but I like the idea of living in one place for long periods of time.

Not having the same goals as your partner may also be a challenge financially. For example, you want to save up for a vacation but your spouse wants to save up for a car. The vacation and the car cost the same and you only have enough savings to do one. I see this going into a slight disagreement and someone giving way to the other person. Of course there is nothing wrong with that, but it is always good if your financial goals align with your partner’s so at the end of the day everyone is happy.

Lack of Planning

Planning is one of the only reasons I can manage my schoolwork. I never realized how important planning can be until I entered 8^th grade and had to learn how to juggle five subjects. Every week I make a school of plan of what subjects I am doing on what days and what lessons I need to complete. If planning out my school is this important (and helpful) in 8^th grade, imagine how beneficial it will be to newlywed couples.

Everyone should plan their finances when they are adults, maybe even start as a teenager to get some practice. If you do not plan your finances it usually ends up in overspending and landing yourself in trouble.

Lack of Discipline

Discipline is something you have to have when dealing with money. I will admit, having good discipline is very hard, but it will pay off in the long run. When I mean discipline I mean not giving into temptations. All those ads you see on TV are made to tempt you to spend money on that item. Not giving into that temptation is having discipline.

Imagine a newlywed couple in their young 20s just came out of college and are enjoying being ‘real adults.’ They get married and go on a lavish (and expensive) honeymoon. After the honeymoon they go back to work and regular life, but go on expensive dates and spend their money carelessly. Before they know it they spent more than both of their incomes combined, and do not have enough money for necessary things (rent, electricity bill, water bill, etc…), which leads you to getting a loan which leads to you drowning in debt.

Not only is this lack of discipline, but also lack of planning. Do not let yourself fall into this sticky situation.

Conclusion

Now that you know some of the common mistakes newlyweds make, try not to do them when you get older. Some of these mistakes are things that teenagers do, like lack of planning and discipline. Try practicing these things while you are out shopping so when you are an adult you do not land yourself (and maybe even your partner) in trouble.

English 8, Lesson 165 – In Looking Backward, What Was the Most Believable Dream?

For the past few weeks I have been reading Looking Backward by Edward Bellamy. In this essay I am going to talk about which dream was the most realistic, waking up in 1887 or waking up in 2000.

In the last chapter of the book Mr. West’s servant, Sawyer, wakes him from his sleep in the chamber. For the next few pages, it seems like Mr. West never went to the year 2000 and it was all just a dream. West had gotten so used to the year 2000 that he had to ‘readjust’ to 1887. West was appalled that some people had riches and comfortable clothing while others had nothing and wore rags. The next morning West ‘wakes up’ again. This time in the year 2000, implying that waking up in the year 1887 was just a dream (talk about confusing).

If I was looking at the book from a non-fiction point of view, I would say that waking up in the year 1887 is more realistic. As I said in a past essay, being frozen alive and surviving without any food or water is not believable. But, this is a fiction book, therefore anything can be possible. I find that the new and improved version of the world in 2000 is quite odd. The book also never gave descriptions of how certain things worked in the year 2000, therefore I find it hard to believe certain aspects of the story.

Even though Looking Backward is a fictional novel, there are still some aspects of the story that is not very believable. Personally, I think that waking up in 1887 and finding that you had dreamt your whole ordeal is somewhat believable.

Thanks for reading!

Personal Finance 8, Lesson 150 and 155 – Economy Report

My writing assignments for Lessons 150 and 155 was to write an economy report on the US economy.

GDP:

For the people who do not know what GDP is: GDP, Gross Domestic Product, is the price of items multiplied by the quantity. The graph below is the GDP of everything in the country, food, toys, services, etc. Currently, the American GDP is at $21,487.896 billion.

Graph from https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/GDP

Unemployment Rate:

Currently, the unemployment rate is at 6.8%. The rate has been slowly been decreasing since April 2020, the beginning of quarantine due to Coivd-19.

Graph from https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/UNRATE

Inflation:

For people who do not know what inflation is: Inflation is the rising of prices of products in the country. The current inflation rate is at 2.24%, which is 1.62% more than 2020.

Graph from https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/CPIAUCSL

Thanks for reading!

English 8, Lesson 155 – What Is the Least Believable Aspect of the Novel So Far?

This week in English I have been reading Looking Backward by Edward Bellamy. The book was written in 1888 and was Bellamy’s way of trying to promote a socialist society the future. I have only read the first nine chapters and I have caught three things that are not believable at all.

The first thing I noticed was the freezing. The main character and narrator of the story, Julian West, was frozen in some kind of chamber for 113 years. When he woke up in the year 2000 he was unchanged. He obviously was not dead and his looks remained the same and during his ‘sleep’ he did not have any source of food or water. Sounds like the story of Captain America, right? This book, like Captain America, is completely fiction, so it makes sense to have impossible things happen. But if someone was frozen in a chamber for 113 years in real life without any kind of food or water, like Mr. West and Cap, I doubt they would be able to tell the tale.

The second unbelievable thing in the novel was the fact that human nature has not changed. When Mr. West woke up, his house now belonged to Dr. Leete and his wife and daughter, who informed Mr. West of how society had changed. Leete told West that men worked for 25 years (from the age of 21 to the age of 45) and they do it because it is their duty and for honor, not for their neighbor or for themselves. Naturally, West asks how human nature has changed so much that men do this willingly. To this Leete says human nature has not changed, which I find hard to believe. I doubt many people would willingly work just for honor and because it is their duty.

The final thing that caught my eye is the fact that wars do not happen anymore. This just does not feel likely to happen. Did the government stop having problems with other countries? If that is the case how can Leete say that human nature has not changed? I find it odd that wars simply stopped.

Honestly, calling this book a novel is incorrect. According to Mr. North, books have three characteristics that make it a novel: a plausible storyline, interesting challenges, and the characters must become predictable. Bellamy’s book only matches one of these criteria, the characters become extremely predictable. I am only nine chapters into the book and I already know that there will be no challenges and the whole book will be about West and Leete talking.

As you can see, some of the things that Bellamy written in this book is completely unbelievable. The technicalities of how West stayed frozen and alive 113 years and the fact that human nature has not changed, yet wars are something of the past and people work for honor and duty is completely fiction. Bellamy wrote some pretty odd things in his book, good thing he is writing a fictional novel.

English 8, Lesson 150 – Why a Blog Site With Lots of Content Will Help You Get Your First Full-Time Job After College

This week was my first week with Mr. Gary North. Throughout the week Mr. North has stressed how important the skill of writing is and how a blog site can prove that you have this skill. I never thought about how important my blog site could be. In this essay I am going to talk about why a blog site with lots of content will help me get my first full-time job after college.

In ‘normal’ schools, starting a blog is not necessary or even part of their system. This means that out of all the applicants for the job you are applying to, you may be the only one with a website. This makes you stick out, and if your writing is good, it makes you a good candidate for the job.

For example, if you start a hobby website or another website that is not for your school essays, and you update it regularly for a long period of time, that will show your future employer that you can stick to something and that you do not give up easily. Of course your school blog will be pretty impressive, but having a blog that is not mandatory is very impressive.

In my case, I want to go into the acting business and maybe the writing business. These two fields are centred around writing. Having a blog full of school essays I have been writing since 5^th grade and a website dedicated to my poems and stories is a good way to show my skills.

Having a blog will also help you in any other field you want to enter. Like Mr. North said earlier this week, writers are needed in every field.

Imagine, your blog was very attractive to your boss and they hire you. You start to work for them and manage to keep up with your blog. If your boss is following your blog, they will be very surprised and impressed that you are able to do a full time job and find time to post to your blog (or blogs) regularly.

Another good thing about blogs is that you can practice your writing skills, which you will need when you go to work. If you look through my essays from 5^th grade and compare it to one of my more recent essays you would be able to see how much I have improved.

As you can see, blogs are very beneficial to you in terms of work and skill. Having a blog since a young age is very impressive to employers, colleges, and people in general. Help yourself in the future and start a blog. Heck, start multiple, it’s easy and free!