Blog Assignment 1

My first wordle!

Bonjour tout le monde! My name is Mary Bishop. I am currently a sophomore at the University of South Alabama. I am from a growing city called Enterprise in southeast Alabama. I graduated from Enterprise High School in 2010 as an honor senior with an advanced diploma. I come from a large family. I have two little brothers and a little sister. My dad is a pilot for the Army and my mother stayed at home to care for the children. My Nana and Papa Joe live with my parents until we can finish repairing their house, which is taking a very long time. Some of my hobbies include fishing, sewing, crocheting, art, playing video games, camping, taking trips to new places, cooking, reading, and listening to different kinds of music. I am heavily involved with the Honors Program, Circle K, and independent volunteer work at the Mobile County Animal Shelter. I also attend AllNations Community Church on Sundays.

             Here at South, I am pursuing a dual degree in elementary education and French. I have studied French for five years and someday I hope to be fluent as well as teach others who are captivated by it; hence my fabulous french greeting. I did not always want to be a teacher. I thought that I wanted to join the military due to my experience in my school’s Junior Reserve Officer Training Corp. I also wanted to become a lawyer or an artist. However, I decided in my senior year of high school that I wanted to be a teacher for many reasons. One of the most important reasons is my relationship with my siblings. My siblings and I are all very close and I take a lot of pride in teaching them many of the things that they now know. Even though I was a kid myself, I felt like their first teacher; besides mom and dad. Babysitting also led me to my decision to become a teacher. I loved working with the kids that were entrusted to me and it was always interesting to listen to what they had to say.

  Obviously, the kids are a big part of my decision but so are my past teachers. My teachers are some of the most resilient people that I know. They undergo so much pressure from their students, parents, their families, their bosses, other teachers, and even from trying to achieve their own goals. Even when they are going through personal problems they have to put on a smile and inspire their young pupils. That is what my teachers did for me. They inspired me to ask questions and to learn for myself. Part of my success in school and life is due to them. Because of this, I want to follow in their footsteps as a teacher and inspire future generations to succeed in their education and their lives.


 Dr. Pausch's video reflects a lot of my ideas about time. For instance, when he talked about equating money with time and vice versa I thought about attending my classes and tuition. I never understood why someone would skip class repeatedly if they had to take out a loan or pay out of pocket in order to attend that class. If you pay for something you better get your money's worth out of it! I agree with his statement about doing the right things. You need to have your priorities in order. When I set my goals I always consider what is right according to my personal beliefs. My faith, my family, and my well being are huge factors when I think about how I will achieve my goals. "I don't know. Let's find out," came to my mind when Dr. Pausch talked about mistakes being a part of experience. If I wanted to find out what happens when I set gasoline on fire and I'm standing an inch away from the gasoline I would consider that a mistake once I got out of the hospital. However, because of that mistake I would have gained the experience of setting gasoline, and myself, on fire. That would be a life lesson of learning from your mistakes. Lastly, I love his comparison of the frogs to tackling ugly goals! And it makes sense, although the feeling of completing that ugly goal would be so much more rewarding than a belly full of frogs. 

I had no idea who this man was until I saw this video. Little did I know that I was watching a video of a dying man. I was shocked when I visited Randy Pausch's Home Page at  http://www.cs.cmu.edu/~pausch/. This man who seemed perfectly healthy, was very funny, and was extremely bright would die in just a short time of pancreatic cancer. But this was not the most shocking thing to me. I was reading his posts until I reached the last one that said he had died  July 25, 2008.  This whole time I had thought that this man was still fighting cancer. His time management video, properly named "The Last Lecture", was not only an informative piece on using time wisely, but a testament to his children. After learning who this man was and how he was literally in a battle against time, the meaning behind the lecture means so much more to me. Don't waste the time you're given because you never know just how much time you have.