Into the wild by Jon Krakauer book 2nd response/ review

I continue to enjoy reading this book even though many of my group mates begin to lose interest. After reaching to the second paper clip, I thought that Chris (Alex Supertramp) McCandless lived an abnormal life but it seemed reasonable that happened to him. In the beginning of the section, Krakauer reported on a couple of other people that had also ended up similar to Alex; they arrive in Alaska to start a new life in the wild but ends in death.

I believed that Chris had lived an abnormal life because he didn't want to be successful in college but rather explore nature. He ran away from home. He enjoyed being by himself much more that hanging out with the friends that he makes. He donated all his money instead of using it on his trips. On the other hand, I also thought that it was reasonable because he had many family problems. The parents constantly yelled at each other so only his sister was close to him. If his sister wasn't there, then he would be by himself. He was also influenced by a writer named Jack London that expressed the fantasies of living in Alaska.

In our lit circle discussion, we also discussed about what would have happen if he had survived and was rescued by the Alaska state troopers. We said that he could have been traumatized by the course of events and would not go back into the wild again or at least Alaska. We believe that Chris McCandless would have settled down in Carthage and make a family. He would continue to work for Wayne Westernberg in the mills or become someone popular like his father, Walt. He might have become the veteran's adopted son and live with him for the rest of his life.

Throughout this book, our group thought that Alex actually wanted to come back and that his death was something unexpected to him even though he had entered with very little gear. He had promised many things to other people in his letters to them that he would survive and come back to meet them.

Re: What is Success by Andy Lau

So, what is success? Success cannot be defined with only a few words or that it has only one meaning. I looked upon Andy Lau's post and I thought that he defined success rather well. He wrote:

"Success means many things to people. To me success describes a positive result or wished-for ending through the achievement of goals. The key to success lies in hard work and perseverance. Ultimate success in life can only come from hard work." - Andy Lau

In his blog post, I agree with what he had said. Success can be a positive result in the end or success can a result in which you are happy with. To me, success is just getting the result that had met your goal. I have a lot of experience in which success is just meeting my goal.

In the past, I had thought that success was getting good grades. When I had ever received a bad grade in which it is probably a D or an F, I would push myself to become better to raise my grades. An example of this would be last year when I was almost failing at history when I learned that I had those grades during quarter grades. I didn't show my grades to my parents and decided to help myself by pushing myself. I began to do my history homework carefully and began to study for tests as much as I could possibly can. I ended that semester with a B in that class and I was happy that I was able to do so. To my, that would be the definition of success.

Now, I think of success as being just happy of doing something whether it was a project or an essay. As long as I believe that I did it well and that I had spent effort in it, I believe that it is success. After a hard day's work and that I am able to finish is considered success to me. These experiences of success guide me to strive to become better and not lose hope within myself.