tiltjlp
PN co-founder
- Joined
- Jun 9, 2003
- Messages
- 3,403
- Reaction score
- 145
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- Favorite Pinball Machine
- Flying Trapeze 1934
From what I read and hear on the nightly news, I wonder about our future, given the attitude and disinterest many young people seem to have today in getting their education, and even in life in general. But if there are enough young folks like my 19-year-old neighbor Dia, just maybe we don’t have to worry quite so much. Dia and his family came to the US twelve years ago from Palestine, and I wish that more of my neighbors were like them. As a family, they are polite, quite, and friendly, and run a small business. But the one I really want to tell you about is Dia, who is a senior in high school.
First off, he’s a straight A student, and has a scholarship to study dentistry once he completes some courses at a local community college. I met him two years ago, just after the woman who ran errands for me moved. He knocked on my door to introduce himself, and ask if I needed help, since Carolyn had moved. He takes out my trash, does my laundry, and gets me a newspaper every Sunday, and charges me just enough so he’ll have some pocket money. Best of all, he visits for a while when he stops by for his chores, and I’ve found him to be a good humored but serious minded young man. We’ve discussed all sorts of topics, including the differences between our two cultures.
<OBeing a Muslim from the Middle East, he has been instilled with a strong sense of not only right and wrong, but honor and justice. He talks often about how many of his fellow students are wasting their chance for an education, and are disrespectful to their teachers, and each other. According to his viewpoint, the problem isn’t that teachers don’t do a good job, but that the students won’t even try to learn. For his senior essay, he wrote an excellent paper asking if teenagers should be held more responsible for their actions, and feels that peer pressure is what is causing many of the problems young people are involved in today. His essay was so well written, and cited professionals whose opinions had such an impact on me that I changed my thinking about if we should try any teens as adults, since they are still in the learning stages of their lives.
<OI’m proud to call Dia my friend, and wish more American teens looked at life as seriously as he does, with goals and ambition for the future, and a willingness to work and help others. While I’m sure he’ll be a success whatever he decides to do in life, lately he’s been thinking about becoming a social worker, which I think he would be great at, since he has such as open mind. Just maybe, with young adults like my friend Dia, America still has a chance. I wrote this to tell you about a remarkable young man I am fortunate to know, and would ask you not to turn this into any sort of political discussion. This isn’t at all about Dia’s ethnic or religious background, but about both what he has accomplished, and his potential.
First off, he’s a straight A student, and has a scholarship to study dentistry once he completes some courses at a local community college. I met him two years ago, just after the woman who ran errands for me moved. He knocked on my door to introduce himself, and ask if I needed help, since Carolyn had moved. He takes out my trash, does my laundry, and gets me a newspaper every Sunday, and charges me just enough so he’ll have some pocket money. Best of all, he visits for a while when he stops by for his chores, and I’ve found him to be a good humored but serious minded young man. We’ve discussed all sorts of topics, including the differences between our two cultures.
<OBeing a Muslim from the Middle East, he has been instilled with a strong sense of not only right and wrong, but honor and justice. He talks often about how many of his fellow students are wasting their chance for an education, and are disrespectful to their teachers, and each other. According to his viewpoint, the problem isn’t that teachers don’t do a good job, but that the students won’t even try to learn. For his senior essay, he wrote an excellent paper asking if teenagers should be held more responsible for their actions, and feels that peer pressure is what is causing many of the problems young people are involved in today. His essay was so well written, and cited professionals whose opinions had such an impact on me that I changed my thinking about if we should try any teens as adults, since they are still in the learning stages of their lives.
<OI’m proud to call Dia my friend, and wish more American teens looked at life as seriously as he does, with goals and ambition for the future, and a willingness to work and help others. While I’m sure he’ll be a success whatever he decides to do in life, lately he’s been thinking about becoming a social worker, which I think he would be great at, since he has such as open mind. Just maybe, with young adults like my friend Dia, America still has a chance. I wrote this to tell you about a remarkable young man I am fortunate to know, and would ask you not to turn this into any sort of political discussion. This isn’t at all about Dia’s ethnic or religious background, but about both what he has accomplished, and his potential.