Ted Talks

http://www.ted.com/talks/marc_goodman_a_vision_of_crimes_in_the_future#t-101198

 My Ted Talk was about criminals and crime in the world today. The name of the Ted Talk was: A vision of crimes in the future. The author is Marc Goodman and the location of the Ted Talk was at Ted Global. It talks about how you can commit crime a lot more know. In the olden days, it was all about guns and knives, but know it has gotten out of control. When a new invention comes out, the criminals are all over it. They can't get enough of it and they will use it to there full advantage. 

 Another main topic that was brought up is how the narcotic world would turn into a synthetic one. All people need to do is get the DNA from the drug and duplicate it. DNA researches say that you can go attack any one individual. This is very dangerous because how are we going to protect ourselves? Trap the president in a box while he walks down the street?

 I enjoyed listening to this Ted Talk because it makes me realize that there are dangerous things going on in the world that we don't know about. Any little thing can happen to us in the world and we don't understand how dangerous these things can be. I would recommend this to other people because it is very important to know what is going on in the world.

Gratitude

When we got this assignment, I was very excited to be able to go out and express gratitude with my fellow classmates. During class Emma, Hannah, and I wrote a very loving note to the copy center lady, Mrs. Harkins. We expressed our gratitude in many ways saying how wonderful she was and how her hard work doesn't go unnoticed. She helps out the students and teachers every. If she wasn't there to make copies of everybody's work then people would have to do it themselves. The pictures below show me setting it on her desk and the actual note.

Showing gratitude makes me very happy because I enjoy making peoples day. Putting a smile on someones face is very rewarding. I feel like gratitude isn't shown a lot today and that I believe it should be shown more because people in this world do so much in this world and there actions are taken seriously or appreciated.

The act of gratitude that I did before the break was that I picked three people that mean a lot to me and I wrote them notes expressing how awesome they are. I wanted to tell them how grateful I am to have friends that care so much about me. After I wrote the notes I personally delivered them to there classes. The other thing that I did over the break was cut out little hearts and write thoughtful things for my mom. I then went around my house and left them for her to find. Once she found them, I was at school and I got a text saying how blessed she was to be my mom. That made me very happy because I there are no words to describe how amazing my mom is. I am so happy we were able to do this assignment because it made me realize that showing gratitude is very important.

Internship

Mind my horrible selfies at the bottom of the page, but these were the photos that I was able to take this past Friday we were released. The top one the left  is when I was on a ride along and we had picked up a suspect. I wanted to take a photo in the cop car because the set up in the car is very interesting. The other photo on the right is me in front of the main entrance. The police department is located in the same building as the city hall in Dublin. It is a very nice building with different sections that you are able to access once you are in the building.
  Right now I am currently interning at the Dublin Police Department. It is located in Dublin and I go there every Monday and Thursday that we are released. I am usually there from 1:00 P.M. to 4:00 P.M., so I am able to experience a lot of things during that time. 

   There are a lot of positives to interning at a police department. I have been able to experience many things and I can't wait to learn more. My favorite part so far has been the ride a longs. Overall I have been on four and I have had a different officer each time. Having the different officers gave me a different perspective on how their methods during a patrol were different. There are two different teams when it comes to patrol officers. During the day there is a team patrolling west Dublin and there is one patrolling east. Then the two teams switch with the night shift. Some days can be slow, but whenever I am there, the Lieutenant says I am like there good luck charm. Many positive things  have happened when I was on a ride along. 

   This one time we got a call that this girl was trying to commit suicide and we had to track her car down. We had tracked it using on star and the patrol officer I was with went to the scene and noticed that she wasn't in her car. There were belongings in the car but she wasn't there so we had to check out the other shops and see if we could find her. After checking about three shops, we found her sitting down in a store looking very dazed. We were able to bring her out and take her to the hospital. We had basically saved her life. It is great to realize that you are able to help people and that is what I love to do. I feel very happy when people are okay and it makes me want to continue this line in work.

  In the future, I hope to be able to work with the fingerprints. I really want to see someone get there fingerprints taken. I think that would be so awesome. I have to say that I am very happy with my internship and I am very eager to learn more about my passion!

                 

Reading

The book that I am reading for iQuest is called Human Monsters. It is by a wonderful author named David Everitt. I am about 30 pages into the book and I can't wait to read more. Human Monsters is a book about the worlds most vicious murderers. It gives you an inside scope of who they are and what they did. Most of the information is very graphic, but so interesting. Most people would think I am crazy for reading a book like this, but it excites me. They start with murderers from the 1400's and go to about the 1900's. There is also every type of crime you can imagine. I have only been able to read about 4 murderers, but I would have to say that Andreas Bichel is my favorite by far. He killed young women because he liked there clothes. That's insane! I think that some people truly are unstable. I am so excited to continue with this book and I can't wait to see whats to come!

Cal High Mentor

Catie Hawkins

My Cal High Mentor is Catie Hawkins. She is a loving, caring person and I am blessed to have her as my mentor for iQuest. Mrs. Hawkins used to teach English 12 until two years ago she transferred to help with Common Core. I have known Catie for about 6-7 years because I used to swim with her kids during the summer on a rec swim team. I picked her for my mentor because she is honestly like a second mom to me. I am able to talk to her about anything and she gives me a lot of good feedback. I hope to get a long lasting friendship during the course of the school year and after when I am off at college. Being able to have someone to go to is wonderful and I'm blessed to have her.

Mission Statement

Mission Statement:

 I believe my mission in life is to live everyday as its my last. To be able to be happy, caring towards others and do everything that I can before I die. Also to be able to live up to God's word and have a strong relationship with him my entire life.

Time Management Reflection

  I never thought time management was a important thing in my life, until Mrs. Gagnon explained it to us in class. I have the same routine every day and it consists of the same thing. Sleeping, going to school, and eating. My time management skills at the moment aren't the best. I usually have the thoughts in my head of what I am going to be doing once I get home from school, but it usually ends up with me falling asleep. I remind myself everyday that I would be more productive if I didn't fall asleep, but it still happens on the daily basis.
  Day by day, I strive to work on my time management. Soon enough I will be living on my own at college and I will need to know when its okay to be relaxing and when it is okay to be studying. It is important because I want to be successful and that starts with managing my time well. I think setting a schedule or putting reminders on my phone would help me stay alert and keep me motivated to get my things done quickly so I more time to myself later in the evenings. It would be better to relax in the evening's then being stressed beyond believe and staying up late to do homework all night.
  The time management tips are very useful to my daily life, I liked the tips from the college board website because it applies to most teenagers. My favorite part is how it explains that we should get a good night sleep because that could make the tasks more difficult or how it is okay to say no because somethings are more important then others.  I will be able to deal with my procrastination in this way because it is better to get your stuff done sooner then later because if a problem comes your way, you have a chance of fixing it. I believe that something I have been doing too much is spending to much time on my phone or sleeping.Taking naps after school would have to stop because I would be able to spend my time more efficiently doing college apps are homework that is due in the future. I think that know I have a better mindset on what I need to do with my schedule so that I will succeed in life.

Five People and Five Things

Throughout my life many people have influenced me in many ways. It is hard to choose five people that will help me achieve my goals, but I believe that these five people will do just that:

1) Laura Tucker (mom): My mom is the strongest person I know. She has always been there for me for everything because she is my mom and I can tell her anything. She will be able to help me achieve my goals because shes believes in me and wants me to succeed later in life.

2) Kurt Tucker (dad): My dad has my support all the time. I know he will always have my back and he will always will be proud of me and my decisions in life later on. 

3) RubenVirgen (family friend): For my entire life, Ruben has been a person that I have looked up to. He has given me and my brother so many opportunities and I know that he will support 100% of the way.

4) Jamie Orr (church counselor/leader): I met Jamie this past summer and she was able to open my mind up and make me face new challenges. She is a positive aspect in my life and I am blessed that I am able to open up to her with my experiences.

5) Mrs. Hawkins ( teacher):  Mrs. Hawkins is a teacher at Cal High and currently my iQuest mentor. She is one, out of many teachers that I have been able to open up with and talk to her about what is going on in my life. She has helped me throughout high school with classes and I couldn't be more grateful.

 I want to accomplish many things in my lifetime, but a few that I want to get done this week are:

1) Get a gym membership and make a plan to go regularly. I will be setting up pictures to my room to remind me of where I want to be with my body and to be able to be happy.
2) To start my personal essay for College applications. I will brainstorm ideas for where I want to go with my essay and work from there.
3) Study for the ACT that is coming up this Saturday. I will study each night for at least 30 minutes so I know that I am not overdoing it, but I am keeping the most important information in my brain.
4)Clean  my room and reorganize. My room gets messy a lot from time to time, but I really want to work on keeping it clean for a while because I feel like with a clean environment you are able to focus more.
5) Start looking for homecoming dresses online. Homecoming is a little more than a month away, but I want to be extra prepared. 

Aspirations for my Last Year at Cal High

 Where has the time gone? Its seems like just yesterday I was walking into Cal High for my first time!   Even though high school has been a journey of a lifetime, I am definitely ready to move forward onto bigger and better things. Although Senior Year is going to be stressful with applications and whatnot, I will hopefully succeed in getting into the college of my dreams. I really want to go out of state for college to experience a different atmosphere and to really focus on my passion. For the moment, my passion is criminal justice/forensics.  This past year, I was fortunate enough to take the forensics class at Cal and to experience what its like to be in a crime lab. We had many objectives throughout the year and sometimes the stress hit you like a brick. Overall though I realized during this course that what really interests me is being a homicide detective. Being a homicide detective is a awesome job because it gets you out there on the scene and you get to have amazing friendships with the people you work with. There are downfalls to the job as well, but I believe it makes you stronger as a person.    During the process of trying to secure my internship, I had the opportunity to have an internship at the Oakland Crime Lab, but do to complications it had to be switched to the Dublin Police Department. I am happy that it switched because it is closer to Cal High and even before you become a homicide detective, you have to be a cop first. You have to work your way up from being a cop which I think is good because you will gain more experience and knowledge. At the Dublin Police Department I will be learning how police officers do there job and being able to experience what its like to work in a police department. This opportunity is going to help me expand my passion because I am able to start from the bottom and work my way up. With only about 200 days till graduation (give or take a few), I  realize that senior year is going to be fun, but challenging.  I plan to make my senior year the best one yet because it is the last time I will be seeing my class before we part ways next June. It is unbelievable how fast the journey's gone, but I am excited to move onto the next chapter in my life. Senior year will be a blast and I can't wait for you to experience my journey with me!