Now that I'm graduating Middle School, passing on to a new school with new everything, I think it's time to reflect. In less than 5 days, I will graduate my 3 years of being a pre-teen and according to movies and books, will have the worst/best time of my life the following 4 years. I have moved schools MANY times, and I'm quite used to it, so making new friends will not be hard for me. And every time I move schools I learn something valuable. But this school has taught me the possibly most important value that grown adults still don't have, which is to be open-minded. Living in a city like D.C, you see diplomats and politicians almost everywhere you go, (it's a small city, ok!) where I would say only 1/3 of them are open-minded. I think that being open-minded can really solve some of the nation's problems. If more people in Congress are open-minded, the more agreements there will be, leading to less problems! But, there are still people who refuse to be open-minded the smallest bit, like people who believe in conservatism. But this could be a whole different post (in fact, I made one about open-mindedness), and I don't care much for politics, so let's move onto my point. This school has taught me so much, and I will appreciate and remember that when I get older. The past years I have learnt some things about the world around me, particularly myself, and to opening my mind (see what I did there?) to new ideas. Thank you, Alice Deal, for an amazing three years.
Now, being open-minded isn't only about politics, religion, or opinions. I recently started watching this anime show called "One Piece", which is surprisingly amazing, and it's one of the only anime I've ever watched, considering I'm very new to this "genre". If you're not familiar with anime, it's Japanese (or Asian? I don't know) cartoons, but they're less cartoony as Looney Tunes, and more of what I call art. Each frame is like it's own masterpiece, and the creativity as well as the character development is both amazingly well written and original. I recommend it very much, but if after 15 episodes you still don't like it, oh well, being open-minded doesn't mean you have to agree with me or others. It's about listening to other people and being understanding of what they say/do. So go out there and do something and do something different today, even if it's something extraordinary like traveling to India or as small as watching all 7 seasons of an extraordinary anime.
Peace out!
-Sam :D
Some cool links:
One Piece fo free: http://www.onepieceofficial.com
How to be open-minded: http://www.wikihow.com/Be-Open-Minded
Conservatism: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Conservatism_in_the_United_States
An open-minded article about not being open-minded (woah... meta): http://gideonz.tripod.com/articles/OpenMind.htm
