Richard Yang's Senior Reflection 2017

1.  Black mirror 2.  Sherlock 3.  Stranger Things 4.  Community 5.  Arrested Development 6.  Silicon Valley 7.  House of Cards 8.  The Office 9.  Blacklist 1 0.  The 100

Ender's Game

The soldier stood and faced God, Which must always come to pass, He hoped his shoes were shining, Just as brightly as his brass. "Step forward now, you soldier, How shall I deal with you? Have you always turned the other cheek? To My Church have you been true?" The soldier squared his shoulders and said, "No, Lord, I guess I ain't, Because those of us who carry guns, Can't always be a saint. I've had to work most Sundays, And at times my talk was tough, And sometimes I've been violent, Because the world is awfully rough. But, I never took a penny That wasn't mine to keep... Though I worked a lot of overtime When the bills got just too steep, And I never passed a cry for help, Though at times I shook with fear, And sometimes, God forgive me, I've wept unmanly tears. I know I don't deserve a place Among the people here, They never wanted me around, Except to calm their fears. If you've a place for me here, Lord, It needn't be so grand

I would say that my most valuable possession is my laptop. I’ve had my laptop since 7th grade and over the years have collected and stored many memories in the 128GB hard drive, whether it be photos, code, movies, or video games. Going through my laptop, I can make a timeline of the friends and interests I’ve gained and lost throughout the years. It is a scrapbook of my life that I unintentionally made. While I may replace my laptop in the future, I’ve decided to keep the files on that laptop only. I’m sure in the future when I’m going through old junk in dusty boxes, I’ll find and boot up my old laptop and use it as a time capsule for a snapshot of my teenage years.

Hello son/daughter, Hopefully I would have raised you in such a way so that you don’t need this letter to have a positive high school experience, but if for whatever reason this letter is needed here it is. High school can be an intimidating place, but it can also bring great memories and lifelong friends. I think there can be a shopping list of advice I can give, so to keep this short so you will actually read this, I’ll share what I think is my best piece of advice. I think the very first thing to realize before you enter high school is that nobody (and I really do mean nobody) in high school truly knows what they are doing. Everybody is high school is doing their best to try to fit in and not get called out by the group for being weird. Everybody is as lost as you are in many respects so you should never take what a person says for granted. Think critically about what a person says (including yourself) and why they said it. Try to be objective as previous biases can easily

If I had to narrow it down, the single most influential person these past 4 years has to be my father. When it comes to most things my father is fairly strict, and as such, I have come to grow with a “strict but fair” attitude. His father was a police officer, so it comes to no surprise that I’ve gotten some of that mentality with me today. While I have been raised with this stiff attitude, my father has also raised me with the idea of open mindedness and flexibility when it comes to rules. Thus my father has been very influential with how I view the world. Being flexible with myself and others when things don’t go exactly as planned while keeping myself and others to a certain standard is very tricky, but the advice my father gives gets me closer to balancing each side correctly. Thus, for giving and growing my world philosophy, my father is the single most influential person these past 4 years, and also in my life as a whole.