ASTI Constitution:
1.Think before you speak or act
2.Include, don’t exclude
3.Accept others for who they are
4.Build mutual trust and respect
5.Assume positive intent
6.Speak up for yourself and others
7.Strive to understand where other people are coming from; be empathetic
8.Take responsibility for your actions and words
9.Make a positive impact on the people and environment around you
10.Resolve conflict peacefully
Here is a quote I read that I can relate to on Rahni's blog.
When I think back to when I was a little kid growing up, I was never harassed by anyone and I never participated in an alliance that made anyone feel bad. I always helped and stood up for those people because I knew I would hate it if anyone bullied me or hurt my feelings in any way.
This quote relates to the first and sixth commandments on the ASTI Constitution. Speak up for yourself and others, and think before you speak or act. I also speak up for others when i see them being harassed so I can relate to what Rahni is trying to say here. This is a great example of what the ASTI Constitution represents because it is symbolizing standing up to bullies, thinking about your actions, and caring for others. As she explains, she didn't harass others because she knew that she wouldn't like it if anyone did that to her. However, the problem is bullies don't stop to think about how they would feel if someone did to them what they were doing to others because of their own insecurities. If they thought how Rahni does, there wouldn't be any bullies because all of them would look at things from a different perspective than their own. And that's also what is causing so many problems in our modern day society. People don't think before they act. It is one of the biggest flaws in human nature and I believe if more and more people begin to correct these flaws, life would be much easier for those victims who are bullied and the people surrounding them.
This speech was really inspirational and it had me thinking about where my education is going to get me in life. As a student, I feel that my responsibilities are to: ask for help whenever I need it, never give up on a subject when it starts to get too hard for me, make my own decisions, and don’t let others influence me if I know that there might be trouble following it; in order to be successful. Now my goals for high school are to maintain over a 3.0 GPA at all times and to take and pass Calculus before I graduate. When I was in eighth grade, we had to do this thing called a portfolio and pass it in order to graduate. On my first portfolio check in, I got a straight 50%, F, on it. But I kept working on it got all the materials I needed in order to pass it the next check in and I did. I still feared that I wouldn’t pass on the portfolio but in the end I ended up getting two 4’s, otherwise known as passes. I felt like that there was a weight lifted off of my shoulders because I passed my portfolio and all my hard work had paid off. This experience taught me that if I fail at first, don’t give up and try again, success will come out as a result. Perseverance, it is perseverance that will help me grow as a student and keep me on track to achieving all of my goals. But I do procrastinate a lot and I plan on correcting that and not doing it by the time I get out of ninth grade. That is one of my major goals not just as a student, but as a person.
I have bullied someone before and I myself have been bullied also. When I was in 5th grade, I was going to new school and there was this one girl that I instantly became friends with and her name was Stormie. But then there were these other girls and these two boys that had a little clique and nobody ever had the guts to stand up to them. Well about a month into the school year I became best friends with two of the girls in this clique. As a result, I basically turned my back on her to be their friend because since nobody in the group liked her, I thought why should I. Back then I didn’t really care about what if I’m really hurting her by turning my back on her, I just went with what this clique did. So throughout the school year, we started doing really mean things to her and eventually her mom got involved but we didn’t care because we were little 5th graders and we thought her mom isn’t going to do anything to us because our moms would step in. So in the end, her mom ended up taking her out of the school because we would just taunt her almost everyday, which would make her cry. I guess I liked feeling like I had power over someone else and that’s why I did that. Well when I moved to Alameda and began middle school in 7th grade at Wood, the tables turned. There was also a clique at Wood when I got there and I got into an argument with a girl in that clique, so her friend stepped in and tried to fight me. This had never happened to me, there was four of them backing her up and one of me with nobody. That girl continued to try and make my life miserable the whole time I was at Wood because as long as she was with her friends she knew I wouldn’t do anything. Well one day I decided that nobody was going to walk over me anymore. So one day in class she said something to me, I said something back and it escalated into an argument but she didn’t do anything to me at all. But this wasn’t until next year in the 8th grade. Just her and her friends being there every day made me hate it at Wood because I now knew what it felt like to be bullied. It felt like I was helpless and couldn’t do anything. I went to teachers and even my mom, but nothing really changed at all until I had to stand up to her myself. I guess she liked seeing me helpless because she felt she had power over me like I felt I did to my friend in 5th grade.
