Thesis and Rough Outline for TED Talk

     I've decided to do my talk on cross country skiing, and my goal and later a perfected thesis would be to show how skiing has shaped who I am today. To accomplish this I see myself using the purposes Narrative, Exemplification, and cause and effect. I would use Narrative to tell why I joined skiing and a few skiing memories, this also fits with Exemplification , but the focus there would be to show the different events ( and proof ) of how I was effected by skiing.  There is some carry over into Cause and Effect as well, I'm having difficulty separating them.
  
      My intro would include why I joined skiing and background info on me, so I could later demonstrate the change for cause and effect. I would like to tell you all about what skiing is and what it involves and maybe demonstrate , but I do not know where to fit it in, because I feel like it would break up my speech and make it really choppy.
      I would like to cover my experience and struggles with skiing, I would talk about races and practices, and how skiing is a very physical sport but also a mental sport, as in its not hard to deal with people passing you, and its hard to tell your self to keep going, and in my personal experience, comparison to others.
     Then I would get into how that was changed by my coaches and one of the senior captians, Bailey Drewes. I would talk about the advice and encouragement they have me, and how that gave me hope and motivation.
    My next point would focus on other races and practices and how I was able to think of myself and ski to my ablitiy and keep going.
    Next I would talk about this year being captian, and how my coaches and Bailey shaped how I decied to lead my team, and my belif, and goals.
My last and ending point would explean how its really the people who helped me discover what I can do and my own limits, and how thankful I am to all of them.


I know this needs a lot of fine tuning and reconstruction, and any advice or anyting you think I should add or you want to know feel free to post.
    Thanks

"Peope with Dirty Jobs are Happier"

     "People with dirty jobs are happier."  My initial response to this quote was this: The American dream or success is wealth and having a "good" job, like a doctor or a lawyer but these people (people with dirty jobs) are happy doing dirty and what many might think of as undesirable jobs.  They have their own success.

     The premise that people with dirty jobs are happier might be hard to prove, but one possible approach might be to point out that these people are happy in spite of their so-called "dirty" jobs.  And that they are just as successful as any doctor or lawyer.  People with dirty jobs defy the stereotype of what we define as successful and what happiness means.  Success is usually equated by how much you own, usually correlated with a professional high paying job, and we use this standard to calculate happiness.  But happiness has no one definition, and wealth is no sure sign of happiness.  So for these people with dirty jobs, happiness is doing what they want, what they know, even if its considered unsuccessful, they have their own success, happiness.

"What ever effects one, indirectly effects us all"

Talia chose the quote "What ever effects one, indirectly effects us all." This is a great example of one of Martian Luther King Jr. main points, he shows that the actions of one group can effect another.  While the white southern Christians  try to advocate for neutrality their inaction helped lead to the peaceful protests, because action should be taken against injustice.  Martian Luther tries to show the white southerners that these peaceful protests were justified. He uses appeals to their religion and shows the steps he took before the protests began. The quote may also  be alluding that the injustice done to the African American community is now indirectly and directly (through the protests) affecting American society as a whole. 

TED Talk Five Topics

• My first thought was to do my TED talk on the early release Wednesdays, it would be an argumentative piece, where I would show how they are inefficient and could be done as two hour late starts instead. This would make it easier on the students and parents with young children, and it would be better for students in athletic and academic after school activities because they would start at the same time. Parents with young kids would need to make arrangements to supervise them, because they will still be getting home at the regular time, its an inconvenience. As far s student athletes and coaches it would be more efficient for a two hour late start because there are two hours that could be spent practicing but they cannot due to regulations against this. 

• Skiing is another option for my TED Talk. I have been on the team for five years now and have loved it. I'll do it for the rest of my life,  I met quite a few new people, and got to know all of them, we are more like a family than a team, we support each other and share goals and work hard to achieve them. I will really miss everyone next year. I guess the purpose would be to show how hobbies can impact your life.

•    Yet another idea of mine involves school, it has to do with adding days on to the end of the year for going over our built in snow days.  I think it is pointless and stupid to add on days to our school year only to make them up in a different semester or term than we lost them in.  A new rule  should be made to extend the term if we go beyond our built in snow days, that way we don't loose a day, and have to cram everything in before the "calendar" term ends. I understand that we are mandated by the state to get in so many hours of school per year, but extending a semester that we did  not miss a day in is pointless.

•   I am thinking of writing on my experience with cancer, and how it has shaped me into the person I am today.  When I was ten I was diagnosed with Wilms Tumor, which is a cancer of the Kidney.  I was driven by ambulance to the cities where they removed my kidney, and the tumor, I then went through a year of radiation and chemo therapy, only to have a relapse in sixth grade. I got to know hospitals pretty well and I saw first hand what doctors and nurses do to help; anything they can.  That's what I want to do, help people and I've decided to pursue a career in oncology myself to help kids cancer.

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• My last idea involves skiing but this time I would be writing to encourage my team and thank my wonderful coach.  This year I was the captain of the girls ski team and since then I had just skied and raced, but this year was different I realized all the sacrifices and time and effort my team and coach had made, and I couldn't possibly not recognize all their support and all they have done, because in the end after all the competition and practice I know I tried and its not all about winning. Its about not giving up and being the best you, and I never would have recognized this with out that encouragement from my coach and teammates.

    

Birmingham Letter

    The main point of the Birmingham Letter was to appeal to southern whites and fellow Christians. Martian Luther King Jr. used several devices to show his argument that, there is injustice and he is justified in peacefully protesting. He explains he standing in the church and as a person, it is his belief that there should be equality, which many Christian whites also claim to agree with, showing their hypocrisy.  His use of language is also affective. "God given right" sounds powerful and appeals, again, to Christianity. He also includes the phrase "injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere" this is a strong and deep quote that makes the reader sympathize or at least see the validity to the argument to direct action, after all, aren't we all responsible to object to injustice and act upon it? Because if we don't, then this injustice will become tolerated and unchanged.  Even before this direct action he had tried to negotiate with the public, but was not heard, so he decided upon non-violent action to get attention, and show that there was injustice and it should be corrected not tolerated.