FREE BOOK REPORTTitle: Who Moved My Cheese?Author: Spencer JohnsonOnce, long ago in a land far away, there were four little characters who ran through a maze looking for cheese to nourish them and make them happy. Two were mice named “Sniff” and “Scurry” and two were little people called “Hem” and “Haw”. They found Cheese in Cheese Station C and they are happy. The two little people sometimes brought their friends and people around, and gave out Cheese to them, and kept eating Cheese. The two mice perceived that Cheese had reduced and predicted the change and planned for future but Hem and Haw thought Cheese Station C is forever and didn’t sense the change. One day, Cheese disappeared in Cheese Station C, and the mice ran through a maze looking for other Cheese Station. But The little people saw the empty Station, and thought: “We can’t believe it, who moved my Cheese?” While they were waiting for Cheese, the mice found Cheese Station N that has a lot of variety of Cheese. Haw thought the mice already found Cheese and suggested Ham leave from here to found new Cheese. But Ham refused, and Haw left to run through maze alone. Sometimes he was hard and wanted to go back to Ham but each time he wrote down the words that he felt in the maze to the wall. Finally, Haw found the Cheese Station N that Sniff and Scurry were in, and planned for next change and check it.“What is my Cheese?”, “Do I find Cheese now?” These questions came to my mind shortly after reading this book. And I thought: “Who am I in Sniff, Scurry, Hem, Haw?” I think I’m close to Haw who lately predicted a change but opens to be changed. And my Cheese has kept changing. When I was a teenager, I wanted to go to university and work in finance. It was my only goal. I had to double what I tried but I tried to approach to my goal moderately. I escaped from the college to work on the pretense of circumstances, and It was hard in on my job. At my first work, I was like a Haw who recognized the change and hesitated. I made the same mistake once a month, and now people thought that it was not a mistake and it was a habit. I hated myself, and I thought: ”This job doesn’t suit me and I want to quite my work.”. I was like a Haw who denied reality. I left my first job and worked in finance. I was happy. I felt like I finally found my Cheese. But this Cheese didn’t last long. The dream was different from the real. I wanted to quite everything, and I did it. I finally lost my Cheese, and I kept conflicting whether to find other Cheese or not like a Haw. I didn’t have confidence: “Can I do well?”. Then I found Cheese named “Computer Science”. Now I am trying not to lost Cheese, and I am trying to perceive and prepared the change. The change was hard to me, but I don’t regret that I was keeping to find Cheese. To find real Cheese, I will keep watch for the change, and cope with this.The book named “Present” was written by Spencer Johnson. I can summarize one word, “The most precious is now.”. There were a child and an old man. The child realized that what the present that the old man told about was. It emphasizes about how attitude we get to spend the most precious time in our life. The point connected between these books is that you should focus on the goal if you want to gain happiness and success, and you should not be complacent and should be willing to change if you want a better present and a better future.One of the many real-life examples comes from Charlie Jones, a well-respected broadcaster for NBC-TV, who revealed that hearing the story of Who Moved My Cheese? Saved his career. His job is unique and good, but the principles he learned can be used by anyone. His boss gave him a difficult work, and he was upset because he didn’t know about it. It made him feel frustrated and it affected to all of the tasks. Just then, He heard the story of Who Moved My Cheese? After that, he realized that his thinking and attitude were unwise and stupid, and he realized his boss had just “moved his Cheese.”. He adapted and learned new work. Finally, his boss knew his new attitude and energy, and he got better assignments. He went on to enjoy more success than ever and was later inducted into Pro Football’s Hall of Fame-Broadcasters’ Alley.I want to recommend this book to who is locked in reality and can’t see the change. This book will be the teachings and a better mentor than a teacher to those who are afraid of the change. Everyone likes to stay in the warm house and can’t leave the warm rice. They think that now is good, but everything has been changed. This book gives them a solution and the secret. It is a solution and a secret to dispel the fear and think: ”Where is my Cheese?”
We face many dilemmas in our life. This is because we want to make an easy choice and a right choice, but that does not make everyone happy. Whenever we have to give up one thing at two crossroads, no matter what we decide, there is no guarantee for a happy ending. And one choice can lead to another choice, so among many daily dilemmas, we judge, define, and choose with certain values and principles. The moral dilemmas that came in my life, made me think about this topic deeply and changed my attitude in life.
A Valuable Lesson Learned from DrivingThere’s a famous saying, “Failure is the mother of success.” It gives us a strong message that we should keep endeavoring for success despite failures. However, how many people actually live by these words? Most people easily get frustrated by the smallest mistakes and finally give up moving one step backward from a bright future. I know this very well personally, as I’m a timid person myself. The lack of confidence and negativity has been what has limited my capacity and what I always have to deal with whenever I challenge anything new. Nevertheless, one little experience helped me change this negative attitude and be less afraid of failure.Back in 2015, I had a wonderful chance of training for 6 months overseas by my college. I was to study about finance at Kyoto University in Kyoto, a great opportunity to improve both Japanese language skills and my major. However, there was only one worry that was casting a dark cloud over my overjoyed heart. It was a concern about driving. Though I had had my driving license for several years already, I had not been driving since the acquisition of my license, nor did I own a car.Time had passed quickly and in November of the same year, I found myself in , a typical Japanese small town with a hint of peacefulness. I found an apartment near the school. I, at first, thought of getting by without a car. Unfortunately, I figured this was almost impossible because everything was located very far away. For example, if I wanted to go to the nearest supermarket, it took about 10 minutes by car, and in case of a pharmacy, 20 minutes. Therefore, I could not help facing the fact that I had to drive to live there, and bought an old car at a cheap price.On the day I got my car insurance, I did not know where the courage came out when I decided to drive all the way to my friend’s house by myself, which took about 20 minutes. I turned on the GPS and started the car. Nothing seemed to be peculiar for the first several minutes. It was after making several turns I began to feel something was not right. After beginning to see a strange scenery, I got a little uneasy, questioning the accuracy of GPS for the first time. However, even at that moment, I could not make up my mind whether or not I should return. Driving as the GPS directed, my mind was swirling, torn between the two options. As the car had turned to a big road, which seemed to be a highway, I felt a sudden chill. ‘What if I got completely lost or what if I went to another state?’ Then I realized I was running at an unbelievably high speed. I could not stand the enormous anxiety and pressure any longer, and at last, decided to go back. I pulled over to the shoulder to adjust the GPS setting. Though with the emergency light on, it was scary to be there seeing other cars speeding away. I was so overwhelmed that I could not help driving recklessly. Several angry beeps followed and I was morbidly embarrassed.Soon, I was on the familiar road again, and it was then I heaved a huge sigh of relief. After parking the car, I staggered home. I locked myself up in my dark apartment for a while in a shocked state. I was covered with cold sweat, trembling with fear. I must have been terribly scared with no idea how I could survive there. Six months seemed to be too long and it felt like I was very alone in the cruel world. I regretted buying a car. I was on the verge of a nervous breakdown. Yet, in the back of my mind, I knew I had to be strong and overcome this fear. At this rate, I would not be able to accomplish anything and I would live in shame. Finally, I dismissed the fear, and made up my mind to go out again. This time, I drove to a Catholic church near my apartment, for I was in desperate need of peace and prayer. Fortunately, this turned out to be quite a successful try and I felt more confident about my driving skills. I grew more and more comfortable about driving, and later even succeeded in obtaining a Japanese driver’s license.Now, looking back on the day of the first attempt, which ended up in failure was not from my lack of driving skill, it was more due to my lack of confidence. I feel very proud of myself that I never gave up and had the courage to go for the second try, which brought me success. As Thomas A. Edison once said, “Many of life’s failures are people who did not realize how close they were to success when they gave up.” If I had given up after that first failure, there would have been no success at my second try. Without it, my driving skills would not have improved and my life in Kyoto would have gotten much more difficult. This little experience taught me a valuable lesson in life. Though we may fail, it is worth challenging instead of cowering away from the fear of failure. It is true there is no success without failure.
Pros and Cons of AbortionAbortion has been one of the most debatable subjects of controversy like race and war for a long time. Human interaction such as ethics, emotions, and law together have been discussed. Abortion poses a moral, social, and medical dilemma that faces many people. People in favor of abortion argue that women should be allowed to make a choice, modern abortion surgery is safe and abortion reduces crime. Those who oppose this argue that abortion is murder and is used as one of the forms of contraception causing psychological damage. I support abortion when the pregnancy endangers a mother’s life or in situations where a baby is not wanted.There are three arguments in favor of abortion. First, Women have a choice to determine their future by controlling the processes taking place in their bodies. In case a woman has an unwanted pregnancy, she has to decide whether to have an abortion or not, because this choice is important to a woman’s independence and ability to detond, Modern abortion surgery is safe and usually does not cause any complications. Less than 0.3% of abortion patients develop complications that require hospitalization. Abortion virtually does not have any risk of infertility, ectopic pregnancy, spontaneous abortion or birth defects, or childbirth. US and British governments have concluded that abortion does not cause breast cancer and any other cancers through scrutiny. The mortality risk-related abortion increases with the pregnancy period. However, due to the development of abortion surgical procedures and new medications, the risk has been decreased significantly over the past 10 years (2). Also, according to a 2012 study in Obstetrics and Gynecology, “A woman’s risk of dying from having an abortion is 0.6 in 100,000, while the risk of dying from giving birth is around 14 times higher (8.8 in 100,000). Also, pregnancy-related complications were more common with childbirth than with abortion” (3).Third, Abortion reduces crime. Whe when they grow up in this environment. So, women control the time when they want to get pregnant, and thereby raise children in optimal environments, crime is reduced.There are three arguments often used against abortion. First, Abortion is murder. Killing a human being is wrong, even if the human being has not been born yet. The fetus is considered a human being by the US government, so the fetus can be protected from killing and attack as victims of federal violence. Under federal law, anyone who kills or attacks a fetus should be punished.Second, Abortion is used as one of the forms of contraception. Killing an unwanted fetus for convenience is immoral. According to the Guttmacher Institute, “Half of all women having abortions every year have had at least one previous abortion, while 8.5% of abortions reported to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in 2010 were undergone by women who had three or more previous abortions” (4). This shows that many women had an abortion asantly higher’ anxiety scores on the Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale up to five years after the pregnancy termination, and women who aborted were 154% more likely to commit suicide than women who carried to term” (5). This study shows that abortion may lead the women to become guilty and commit suicide.I support abortion because it allows women to determine their futures. Women have a right to pursue their happiness and their personal liberty. Women have a right to determine their future, and whether to give birth to a baby or not. So, whether to have an abortion or not is decided by women. When the fetus has not been born yet, the fetus is considered as a human being and some part of the mother. If I look at this from a different perspective, having an abortion is like a mother taking some part off from her body. Taking off some part of her body is not a murder. What is the standard to decide that a fetus is considered as the human being? All life is important and precious, but implish in her life. Also, in some cases such as when the fetus endangers the mother’s life, she has a right to kill the fetus as self-defense; therefore, it is not morally wrong to have an abortion. Moreover, a baby should not come into the world unwanted. This environment may lead the baby to become engaged in criminal activity due to the influence of maternal depression, increased risk of child abuse and lower educational attainment and so on. In conclusion, women have a choice to decide their future. In some cases, this can be determined by a pregnancy that endangers the mother’s life or the environment in which the baby is not wanted.Work Cited1. Hyperlink "https://abortion.procon.org/sourcefiles/gozalesv.carhart.pdf" Gonzales, Attorney General v. Carhart et al./Gonzales, Attorney General v. Planned Parenthood Federation of America, Inc., et al., US Supreme Court, lp.findlaw.com, Apr. 18, 20072. http://www.womenscenter.com/abortion_stats.html3. G. Raymond and D.A. Grimes, "The Comp2.
This is a summary of a commencement speech by Steve Jobs at Stanford University. It has three stories in his life. Keywords of this story is “A turning point in his life”, “Love and lost”, “Death”. The first story is about a turning point in his life. His parents did not have enough money for his education at Reed College, and he thought that the university was not worth his time, as he only went to classes he wanted to go to. For example, he took a Calligraphy class that did not seem practical in his life but he still took it. After ten years, when he was designing his first computer, the Mac, he was able to put wonderful fonts in the Mac. Furthermore, if he did drop out, computers might not have the wonderful typography that they do today. In conclusion, the present is connected with the future through any way possible and that we must have a belief in something, like your gut.The second story is about love and loss. Apple became a two-billion dollar company when he was thirty and he was fired. He felt that he completely failed himself and wanted to get out of Silicon Valley, but he still loved the work he had had and decided to start over. He went away from the weight of success, and felt free the same way with Apple and felt like he could work on something again. After five years, he grew two companies by the name of Next and Pixar, and fell in love with someone. In his speech, he says, “sometimes life hits us in the head with a brick, and don’t lose faith, and keep going. Don’t settle.”The last story is about Death. Remembering that we’ll be dead soon is the most important to throw away almost everything, all external expectations, all pride, all fear of embarrassment of failure, and leave only what is truly important. Death is our fate, it changes our life, and new things can be stead of old things. So do not waste your life. The most important thing is that do not let the noise of others’ opinion bring down out our own inner voice and having the courage to follow your heart and intuition.While reading Steve Jobs’ speech, I think he is a courageous man. He was confident and did not regret his choices. In order to get what he wants, he did not avoid suffering. These experiences and convictions of his life made him the CEO of the world's top companies, Apple.I admire his courage and conviction. I will take more courage living my life; also, I will not regret the past and do my best in the present life. I will keep in mind his speech and it may be the turning point of in my life. In order to do that, I will stay hungry and stay foolish. I imagine me in the future that look back on the past and heartwarming smiling.