Harriman High School

Harriman, Tennessee
Teacher: Nancy Newcomb

 

Personal Responsibilities

By Stephanie Ellison
Grade:10

 

Living in this Y2K raged world today, I can say we have faced and will continue to face many personal responsibilities.  We each have our own individual responsibilities we need to fulfill to make this world a pleasant place to live.  We have survived the big millennium change that had everyone spending an excessive amount of money thinking the world was about to end.  All that just ended up being a hoax, it was just another day.  While comparing todays parenting family skills to the skills of yesterday, I have seen that the parents of this generation have earned a lot more complicated responsibilities to try to fulfill toward their children before they can make it out in the real world on their own.  I think the personal responsibilities of each person in improving the quality of life is a very important duty to try to fulfill. 

 

As the population grows, we are going to become more like one big team and gain some unity.  We need to work hard to try to make this world more of a pleasant place.  I think a good starting place would be to try to prevent more crimes being committed, get rid of most of the pollution, and fix up the old condemned buildings for the homeless. If our communities were more peaceful and pleasant, maybe our sanity level would be much higher.  Then, each government of every country could do better at their job of running their own individual democracies.

 

Our responsibilities toward our community are often neglected.  An important responsibility for our community and town we live in would be to take care of it and keep it clean.  We treat our surroundings as though they are just one big garbage can.  If this happens then we would regret all the little pieces of trash we could have thrown in the trash can instead of on the ground, or maybe just all the times we could have recycled but did not.

 

The responsibilities of taking care of our environment are not very harsh, but there are just too many people not willing to pitch in and do their part.  In out environment today there are simple tasks that everyone needs to do to make us more healthy and our resources last longer.  Little tasks like taking one day out of your schedule to pick up litter, and to make sure you try to recycle as much as possible, or maybe just volunteer in your community for services needed.  The resources we use and maybe even over use everyday are running short and will someday end.  Before that day comes we could try to make a difference, or just hunt for something that could possibly replace the resource and do just as good of a job.

 

I feel as if our responsibilities toward our family are very important and should not be neglected.  I think it is a gift as well as a privilege to have a family that cares about you.  I also think it is a big responsibility to make sure each of your family members know you care about them.

 

The parenting of today has done a complete three-hundred and sixty degree turn around.  Back when the baby boomers generation were parenting, their jobs were to give their kids knowledge, raise them until they were  teenagers, and then marry them off.  Today we have high school, college and it is a legal right for out parents to support us financially through school.  Also, today we have laws that keeps teens from getting married before the age of eight-teen unless they have a parents consent.

 

In my opinion, I think the parents of today have really let us kids down.  Parents do not spend time with their kids anymore, they are just always busy with hardly ever anytime to spare time.   Divorce is very common for today’s families, I think that is a very hard thing for a child to have to cope with.  Before I contribute to the broken-up marriages or to the bad parenting of today, I am going to put a lot of thought into my decisions that may affect me future.

 

In conclusion, the personal responsibility of each and every person is a very important duty that does not need to be taken lightly.  I really hope the new millennium is like a whole new beginning.  A beginning that will bring all the people in the different countries down to all the people in the different communities closer together.  Being closer and working more like a big team rather than as so many separate individuals we would succeed at making this a better, less polluted, happier place to live.

 

Answers To Questions Regarding The Required Reading

 

Q1.      USA- The friends and family of the bride and groom give gifts at the Bridal Shower that             will help them get along in life.  The Brides family (parents) pays for the wedding     ceremony.

MANUS- The friends and family of the bride and groom contribute financially.  The       groom pays in dogs teeth and shell money.  The bride pays back in pigs and oil.

 

Q2.      a.  26 years of marriage; 1 time of marriage

     comment: from woman to man or man to woman the percentage is always 75%-25%

b.  29 years of marriage; 1 time of marriage

     comment: get along and be the best of friends.

c.  25 years of marriage; 1 time of marriage

     comment: keep your wife happy

d.  18 years of marriage; 1 time of marriage

     comment: always have good communication no matter the circumstances

e.  34 years of marriage; 1 time of marriage

     comment: be willing to give and take a lot

f.  2 years of marriage; 2 times of marriage

     comment: give a lot of attention to each person and always be willing to sacrifice even                though you don't want to

g.  17 years of marriage; 1 time of marriage

                 comment: make sure you are ready for it, also make sure you getting married for love                 and not for the convenience

h.  17 years of marriage; 1 time of marriage

     comment: you make a lot of sacrifices that you wouldn't make if you were single, but                  later in life you will find it was wort it to go through life sharing it with the one that              you love

i.  15 years of marriage; 3 times of marriage

    comment: start with being friends, make sure your totally compateable in every way.                  Before you say "I do" make sure you know your companions true side. Your                                   relatioship varies in the percentage, like 90-10, 75-25 and so on."I believe its immoral               to jump straight into bed with someone without truly being in love"

j.  36 years of marriage; 1 time of marriage

    comment: work together

 

Q3       I think he means that we swhouls not want so many material things that we thnk make us            happy.  We should live to change the world, then we would see we can be just as happy      with live itself and we would appreciate the material this so much more.

 

Q4.      A worthy goal for my community would to work together to clean up all the old and       condemned buildings and turn them into homeless shelters.

 

Q5.      In my opinion, todays children are being left alone too much.  The kids don't need a doll             to remind them of their mother, they need their parents to support them and help them to learn about life.