The Baptism Debate - 2175 Words

Often held as a rite of passage and entrance into the Christian church, baptism is much more than just symbolic ritual. Baptism was commanded by Jesus Christ in the Great Commission recounted in the book of Matthew. Even though we are simplistically called to be obedient by being baptized the Christian church has long debated the aspects of this ordinance. Denominations are divided on the basic meaning, types and modes of baptism even two thousand years after the founding of the Christian church. Just as the other ordinance, the Lord’s Supper, congregations find themselves at odd with tradition, biblical interpretation and even individual understanding. However, the simple message of this awe inspiring act can be explained out of the†¦show more content†¦Thereafter, infant baptism became the norm.† (Hammett, 2005, pg 269) Three arguments are often used in support of infant baptism. The early church used the idea of household baptisms mentioned in the book of Acts to support that entire families were baptized for the acceptance of faith by the parents of the household. Other historians point to the Gospel encounter of children being brought to Jesus for blessing and for Him to pray over the children. The last support can be found in the need of an act of covenant being established as it once was in the Old Testament. In the time of Abraham young boys were circumcised as a sign of the convent. In the New Testament infant baptism was used as that sign. (Hammett, 2005 pg 269-270). Each of these were steeped further in tradition than biblical basis. The New Testament points more specifically to believers’ baptism rather than infant baptism. As stated earlier, baptism is a symbolic act of obedience representing a choice of salvation through Jesus Christ. It is unreasonable to think that an infant would be able to make such a choice by itself. The parallel of Abraham’s covenant is also misapplied. Hammett points out, â€Å"As circumcision was applied to Abraham’s physical seed under the old covenant, so baptism is to be applied to Abraham’s spiritual seed under the new covenant. But the spiritual seed of Abraham are thus of faith, which means that believers should be baptized, which, they wouldShow MoreRelatedThe Baptism Debate Essay3011 Words   |  13 PagesLIBERTY UNIVERSITY THE BAPTISM DEBATE A RESEARCH PAPER SUBMITTED TO PROFESSOR MARSHALL WICKS, PHD IN COMPLETION OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THEO 350-B02 BY RANDY WILSON LYNCHBURG, VA MAY 28, 2011 Introduction The debate over baptism has become one that encompasses so many areas. Where most theological discussions are concerned with a primary topic, baptism debates consist of many. Debates on the purpose of baptism, the benefits of baptism, who baptism was designed for, andRead MoreIntroduction. Historically, Baptism Has Not Been Understood1659 Words   |  7 PagesIntroduction Historically, baptism has not been understood to be an optional practice. It is commanded by God. But there has often been disagreement about whom baptism is for, how it should be done, and why it is significant. This debate has divided Christians over the years, and it is mainly focused on what the purpose and merits of Baptism are; of whether baptism should be only for adults or infants as well; or on the correct mode of baptism. As any debate, there are two sides to each area. WeRead MoreIs Baptism Essential For Salvation?949 Words   |  4 PagesFor centuries, Christian believers have debated the importance of baptism to the believer’s faith. Denominational splits have occurred, debates have been presented, but the question still remains, ‘Is baptism essential for salvation?’ Today, as the Churches of Christ have started a shift away from the formerly held traditional practices of their founders, the debate has reached a new level of importance. To the beli ever, this question is not simply one which only affects present understanding, butRead MoreThe Holy Spirit Of St. Basil1292 Words   |  6 PagesThe Holy Spirit has been a topic of discovery, and debate far much longer than people realize. The Holy Spirit has been influencing people in the Bible, but also in the 4th century. The Holy Spirit like today was a topic of debate even in the 4th century. St. Basil the Great was a man of God who wrestled, defended, and lived by the Holy Spirit. St. Basil was born in Caesarea of Cappadocia in 330 where he was born into a large family, some who were also honored among the saints (Online Catholic).Read MoreThe History of the Anabaptists Essay883 Words   |  4 PagesMenno Simons (1496-1561). Anabaptists comes from the gospel of the Mennonites and those who felt that baptism should be valid with the confession of people not being baptized. A person must have been baptized because it was Scripture and weren’t allowed to fellowship unl ess otherwise done. They thought that since Jesus was baptized when he was an adult, the same should apply to everyone else. Baptism and communion was a symbol of faith, and wasn’t meaningful unless the person was of the faith. UlrichRead MoreWhat Was Ambrose s View On Free Will And Grace?1507 Words   |  7 Pagespractices, Ambrose seemed to believe it to be until baptism. Font of Life by Gary Wills includes baptisms performed by Saint Ambrose. As discussed in class, several were performed near the persons’ time of death in order to guarantee a cleansing of sins and thus a pathway to heaven. Throughout my research I found nothing about Ambrose baptizing infants, therefore I would assume he does not believe strongly in original sin. According to Wills after the baptism, â€Å"Ambrose washes each neophyte’s feet.† (WillsRead MoreQuestions on Christianity Theology1408 Words   |  6 Pagesto wrestle with. The topics I have trouble fully understanding are the views of baptism, the elect, security of salvation, and the roles of women in the church. The first topic I have wrestled with is adult baptism versus infant baptism. I grew up in the reformed church, so I was baptized as an infant. When I was in fourth grade my family began attending a Wesleyan church, where they practice adult baptisms. Baptism involves identification with Christ in His death and resurrection. It is a publicRead MoreMartin Luther And The Protestant Reformation1655 Words   |  7 Pagesman. Luther noted in his Address to the Christian Nobility of German Nation that he was opposed to the idea that only the papacy is competent to expound Scripture (Spitz 338). During the Leipzig debate Luther pointed out that the popes and councils had often contradicted one another (Spitz 337). The debate led to increased radicalization and caused Luther to question fundamental points of the Church and institutions. Eventually Luther declared at the Diet of Worms that he could not trust the papacy’sRead MoreWhite People At The Beginning Of The 17th Century997 Wor ds   |  4 PagesBlacks, Indians, and other races separate from white people begs the question: What part of human nature incudes a definition of race and a separation based on race? Human race is a debate that shows no sign of being resolved. The more that we know of the genetics of human differences, ironically, the more fractious the debate seems to get, and the more entrenched the various positions seem to be of skin color. The reality remains alive, so will profound differences in black and white Americans understandRead MoreThe Powerful Gifts Of The Holy Spirit1489 Words   |  6 Pages The adversary causes plenty of division within the church over many issues. One debate in particular is the charismatic gifts of the Holy Spirit. Fortunately, it’s not the argument of whether or not the charismatic spiritual gifts were part of the first century. However, the major issue at hand is whether or not the charismatic spiritual gifts are still used in today’s church, or not? There are many beliefs of charismatic gifts, based off denominational sectors, church affiliations, personal

Atomic Bomb On Hiroshima Japan Essay - 2526 Words

In the early morning hours on August 6, 1945 the world changed, as we know it. President Truman ordered American pilots to drop the atomic bomb on Hiroshima Japan. After years of secretly experimenting and creating the atomic bombs the day had come that the President of the United State thought it was necessary for bomb to be used. At last the Manhattan Project, which â€Å"was a government program that was originally formed to secretly build and test atomic bombs to counter Nazi Germany† (The Road to Hiroshima, 2005), was no longer a secret. Four years early in December of 1941 the United Stated enter World War II. On December 7, 1941 Japan bombed Pearl Harbor forcing the Untied States to declare war on Japan. A few days later Germany and Italy had declared war on the United States. During this time President Roosevelt sought that it was best to help aid England in defeating Germany before moving on to fight the Japanese in Asia. While the allied forces finished off Germany the U.S. began to move their focus toward Japan. The Pacific war was now seeing the undivided attention of the United States. Virtually nonstop bombing claimed a number of civilian lives including non-Japanese people such as Korean and Chinese’s forced laborers, comfort women, and thousand of prisoners. Over 100 Japanese’s cities were firebombed leaving millions homeless in just one night. It was clear that Japans government had lied to its people about wartime success. Out of desperations Japans militaryShow MoreRelatedThe Atomic Bomb Of Hiroshima Japan1862 Words   |  8 PagesAugust 6th 1944. A lone bomber flies over the skies of Hiroshima Japan. Seconds later it releases what will later become of the worlds most feared and dangerous weapons of all time, the Atomic Bomb. The bomb turns the city of Hiroshima into a wasteland of death and destruction. A few days later another more powerful bomb is dropped on Nagasaki Japa n. This one flattens the city and kills at least Ninety thousand people. A few days later Japan surrenders ending the costliest and bloodiest war in theRead MoreEffects Of The Atomic Bomb On Hiroshima Japan1038 Words   |  5 PagesGirls of Atomic City August 6th, 1945 a bomb was dropped on Hiroshima Japan, forever changing the game of war and the lives of all two and a third billion(Alpha Wolfram). The atomic bomb was a new invention in like the world has never seen. This bomb nicknamed Little Boy alone killed or injured over a hundred and fifty thousand people. This followed by another bomb, Fat Man, being dropped on nagasaki, killed or injured another 75,000. These rates are just within months of the bomb being droppedRead MoreAtomic Bombs On Hiroshima, Japan, And The United States1202 Words   |  5 Pagesfirst of two atomic bombs on Hiroshima, Japan. World War Two was practically over, but Japan and the United States weren’t getting along due to Japan bombing Pearl Harbor. 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The radioactive material inside the bomb was only about the size of an orange, but it could wipeRead MoreIn August 1945, a uranium-type atomic bomb was dropped by the United States on Hiroshima, Japan,900 Words   |  4 Pagesuranium-type atomic bomb was dropped by the United States on Hiroshima, Japan, during the final stages of World War II. The following months after the bomb was dropped, many people we re killed by burns, radiation sickness, and other injuries. These effects lasted about 4-6 months. Around 90,000 to 166,000 people died either instantaneous or the lasting effects. On August 15th, just days after the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Japan announced their surrender to the Allies. Hiroshima and NagasakiRead MoreEssay on Atomic Bombing on Japan937 Words   |  4 PagesHiroshima: Was Dropping the Atomic Bomb a Military Necessity? On the morning of August 6th, 1945 at around 8:16 a.m., the United States dropped the first bomb on Hiroshima. This bomb was given the nickname â€Å"Little Boy.† Three days after the first atomic bomb was dropped, on August 9th, 1945 at around 11:02 a.m., the United States dropped a second atomic bomb on Nagasaki. This bomb was given the nickname â€Å"Fat Man.† These two bombs immensely destroyed these cities and took the lives of many peopleRead MoreAmerica Chose To Drop Atomic Bombs On Japan, And This Affected1314 Words   |  6 PagesAmerica chose to drop atomic bombs on Japan, and this affected the war and the country in many ways. America was trying to stop the war and make Japan surrender. Atomic bombs, which are nuclear weapons, were dropped by the United States on the cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Japan. Atomic bombs terrify everyone today, but at that time, they were considered an indispensable step for an early end to the war with minimal human losses. Some people believed the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki were necessaryRead MoreHiroshima, Japan, And Japan1352 Words   |  6 PagesAnswers Who: Hiroshima, Japan and Nagasaki, Japan Leader of Japan: Hideki Tojo, Minister of war Leader of United States: General Douglas MacArthur Hiroshima Hiroshima is a city located in Honshu, Japan. On August 6, 1945, Hiroshima became the first city in the world to be struck by an atomic bomb. (Hiroshima, britannica.com) From 1868 it was a military center, and was a target for the atomic bombing by U.S. during World War II. Nagasaki Nagasaki is a city located in KyushuRead MoreA Closer Look at the Bombings in Hiroshima and Nagasaki1485 Words   |  6 Pageshistory was changed. Two atomic bombs were dropped on the Japanese cities of Hiroshima, and three days later, August 9, 1945, on Nagasaki that ended World War II. Japan had already been a defeated nation from conventional bombs and World War II. Many innocent lives were lost, psychological scars were left on the lives of the bomb survivors, and thus many lives were changed forever. The atomic bombings caused many people to have genetic effects due to the radiation from the bombs. Revisionists have saidRead MoreWas Bombing Hiroshima and Nagasaki Necessary to End World War 2?1650 Words   |  7 Pagesthe time period when Franklin D. Roosevelt was in office, it was during WWII. Japan attacked the U.S. on Dec. 7, 1941 and was known as Pearl Harbor. When that happened, Roosevelt did not hesitate to ask Congress to officially declare war on Japan. During the wa r, there was a proposal of an atomic bomb landing over Hiroshima and Nagasaki to finalize the war. To this day there is still controversy that if that atomic bomb was actually necessary to end the war, because of the number of innocent casualties

Describe factors to consider for effective communication Free Essays

string(100) " seen as poor and intimidating \(Dixon, 2008\) and are more likely to commit crimes \(Ford, 1997\)\." Describe factors to consider for effective communication our site – CUSTOM ESSAY WRITING – DISSERTATION EXAMPLES Introduction When it comes to communication, the problem of perception takes the central stage. Varner and Beamer (2010, p. 35) defines communication as â€Å"the perception of verbal and nonverbal behaviour and the assignment of meaning to them. We will write a custom essay sample on Describe factors to consider for effective communication or any similar topic only for you Order Now † They considered perception so important that as long as the perception process takes place, communication occurs. Covey (1992) also emphasised the significance of perception by attributing perception problems as one of the root causes of communication problems. Differences in perceiving the world would inevitably lead to communication barriers because people communicate on the basis of their own perceptions and perception determines how people behave toward the world (Singer, 1998). Therefore, great stress has been put on the role of perception in interpersonal communication that Singer (p. 10) even proposed in communication â€Å"reality  ·Ã‚ ·Ã‚ · is less important than one’s perception of reality†. To discuss the crucial role of perception in communication, this essay first examines the relationship between reality and perception of reality, followed by a discussion on how perception affects communication in the stages involved. Finally, the role of three t ypes of factors in perception – physical, environmental and learned factors, will be examined. Reality vs. perception of reality Effective communication is hindered when communicators have different understandings of reality. Cognitive theorists are convinced that reality is more about the things in here – in the mind, ratherthan the actual things out there (Singer, 1998). Perception, an active process by which people become aware of the world, is the window through which we experience the world .To illustrate the relationship between the two, Singer makes an analogy between the human perception process and a class assignment, both comparing and contrasting what enters and exits the mind (p. 187). Since it is impossible for a person to either experience everything in the world or have exactly the same life story as another person, no one will have absolutely right perception about the world or exactly the same perception as others’. The fact that family members of twins can often easily tell one from the other explains that even twins do not have identical experiences and perceptions. The formation of divergent perceptions As Roger asserts, nothing, neither the Bible nor Freud, is more reliable than personal experience in the perception process (as cited in Griffin, 2006, p.32) . This supports Stacks, Hickson and Hill’s (1991, p. 4) suggestion that â€Å"Communication brings us together and perceptions tend to separate us.† Clearly, the impact of divergent perceptions in interpersonal communication has gain great attention of communicators. To reduce the difficulties in communication, it is necessary to understand how the divergent perceptions are formed in the first place. Perception is a series of procedures that blend into one another. To conveniently discuss the these procedures, perception is generally divided into three stages: selection/stimulation, organization, and interpretation/ evaluation (Lane, 2010; Kelly, 2006; Dwyer, 2009). The first stage is selection, in which the world comes to us through our sensory receptors. Naturally you cannot perceive everything; rather you engage in selective perception, where you pick up some stimulation over others. Two types of stimuli are considered more likely to draw our attention: meaningful ones and noticeable ones (Devito, 2009). Things meaningful or noticeable to one person do not often mean the same to another person. Therefore, during this stage, people of different backgrounds often receive different messages from the same world. For example, when a couple attend a concert, the husband, a musician, tends to focus on the musical part while the wife, a fashion designer, pays more attention on the costume and stage design. Suppose the design of the concert is excellent but the singer is off key from time to time. It is very likely that the couple end up having different comments on the concert. In this way, differences occur in the very first stage of perception proc ess. In the next stage – organization stage, the stimuli that come into our brain will have to pass through â€Å"the filters of our censor screens† where they are rearranged and decoded in some ways we are used to or we learn to (Singer, 1998. p. 11) These ways of organizing data become the shortcuts that enable us to make connections between new information and previously gained knowledge, and thus simplify our understanding and remembering of new people and events. However, these shortcuts can be misleading if you rely on them too much. You may either add additional data which are consistent with your way of organizing or ignore those which is inconsistent, in order to make the new experience organisable. As the constructivists identifies, we often â€Å"fit over realities to bring order to our perceptions† (Griffin, 2006, p. 191). As a result, perceptual variations occur because we gain our perception not in the way it should be, but in a way every individual need s it to be. Having discussed the first two stages, we will now have a look at the third stage – interpretation/evaluation, in which we make sense out of the organised stimuli and find out the value of them. As Kelly (2006) suggests, we never have all the facts, and our interpretation and evaluation are largely dependent on the past knowledge and our own value systems. When personal experience and values are involved, differences are bound to occur. In other words, we get used to seeing some stimuli in a certain way that we don’t take others into account (Lane, 2010, p.41). A good example of this would be stereotyping. When people stereotype others, they put people into categories and assert all people in the category share the same characteristics. The consequence is that barriers in communication often occur on the basis of false perceptions of others because great deal of individual differences are not taken into consideration (Lustig, 2010). The results of two studies of stereot ypical perception of African Americans show that African Americans are estimated to earn less than they actually do, are seen as poor and intimidating (Dixon, 2008) and are more likely to commit crimes (Ford, 1997). You read "Describe factors to consider for effective communication" in category "Essay examples" Many of stereotypes are created by direct experience with only a few members of a certain group. Others may even come from second-hand materials such as mass media without any direct experience. Yet many of us still use stereotypes to make assumptions and interpretations. This is very likely to cause communication gaps between people who perceive and expect others in their own understandings. Interrelationship of the stages Above is an analysis of how perceptual differences come into being in each of the stages. However, it is helpful to clarify, though listed in such a way, the three stages do not occur one by one. Rather, these stages often take place almost simultaneously (Lane, 2010, p. 36) and there is no way one can draw a dividing line between any of them. In addition, we should not see any stage as the start or the finish of a perception process (Russel, cited in Kelly, 2006, p. 36). It is common for people to think of these stages as a linear sequence, from gathering data to organizing the data and finally attaching some meanings to them. However, this process does not end at the interpretation stage because the result of interpretation/evaluation would affect your future sensing/selecting behaviour. In this case, some other ways of breaking down perception process would help make the point clearer. Initial three stages remaining the same, DeVito (2009, p. 64) believed two other steps take plac e afterwards: memory and recall. These two steps can lead to people’s perceptual inaccuracy in a way that people may lose or unable to recall some information. Even worse is retrieving the wrong message. Griffin (2006, p. 189) add a utilizing stage to emphasise the effect of memorized and recalled data on future communication behaviour. His suggestion of comparing the stages to the five interconnected Polemic Rings is extremely helpful in explaining the relationships of these stages of perception process (p. 187). Seeing the fact that the stages are actually interrelated and never come to an end, we can better know how we make mistakes when we think we see every aspect of an issue and make a right judgement. The truth is that previous interpretation has already had an effect on the selecting process, and we only pick up those data we want to, which further influence our organizing and evaluating process. For example: A person who experienced a destructive earthquake may notice a noise from the ground seconds before the shaking (Sensing stage). He then established a connection between the two: â€Å"A noise often comes before a big earthquake† and considered it a way to make predictions of future earthquakes (Organizing and interpreting). This interpretation inserts an influence on his future processing of information in the way that he may become very sensitive to similar sounds and more likely to link some other unusual phenomenon to an earthquake. From above we can see that differences take place in almost every step we take when perceiving the world. Just like what Ribbins and colleagues words said, the factors which â€Å"shape and sometimes distort perception can reside in the perceiver, in the object or target being perceived or in the context of the situation in which the perception occurs† (as cited in Dwyer, 2009, p. 14). These stages are like a giant filter, every information in the external world have to pass through the filter which is made of your own experience, beliefs and value systems (Bjorseth, n.d.). Again, similar to the analogy of class assignment described in the beginning of this essay, what exits your mind differentiate from what comes to your mind because your uniquely designed filter has performed its job. Nature of factors that affect perception Having identified how the factors impact on the perception process in each stage, the essay now focuses on the nature of the factors that affect perceptions. Singer (1998) has suggested three categories of them: physical determinants, environmental determinants and learned determinants. Physical determinant are commonly understood as our five sensory receptors recognized by Aristotle. Interestingly, Singer’s later research has revealed at least thirty-seven differentiate sensory inputs and even more are expected to be discovered (Singer, 1998, p.14). Apart from these, other physical differences such as body shape, skin colour, hand size that make us unique in the world can contribute to differences in perception. Just like every the uniqueness of individual’s physical characteristics, everything happens in a unique context. The unique surroundings of an event can be very powerful in forming different perceptions. For example, the result of judging whether a person is yo ung or old will probably be influenced by which age group he is compared with. The third type of determinants, learned determinants, is seen as the most important. How people acquire their perceptual constructs has been thoroughly studied. The result of an experiment on people who are born blind but later restored with their sight shows that without the visual experiences, these people cannot tell a figure or discriminate simple shapes until several months’ visual learning (â€Å"Perception – Innate and learned†, n.d.). This reveals that learning experience is necessary and powerful in shaping and changing people’s perception. Similarly, in Varner and Beamer’s (2010) perception model of choices, they explain that when you encounter something unfamiliar, you either choose not to attend to it or lose memory of it until you learn how to change your mental category to accommodate it. Singer (1998, p. 19-27) also devised an exercise to test how perceptions of the same stimuli differ in different cultures. The exercise finds out tha t perception is greatly influenced by culture, a combination of learned activities. The more specific the symbol is, the more the interpretations are alike. The more abstract the symbol is, the more various meanings are attached to it. With such findings, it is not difficult to understand that communicators from different cultures would undoubtedly meet difficulties with the different views they hold on the same thing. From the discussions above, we have seen that misperceptions can arise when we collect information, organise it in different ways, and assign different meanings to it. In addition, differences of perceptions are determined by various factors, especially learned ones. Communications based on divergent perceptions will inevitably meet difficulties. To make communication of higher level of effectiveness, it is a good start for communicators to bear in mind the powerful influence of different perceptions on communication process, to learn the culture of other groups and to make your perceptions closer to each other. References Bjorseth, L. D. (n.d.). Improve your communication skills by â€Å"cleaning your filter†. Retrieved March 21, 2011 from: http://www.sideroad.com/Business_Communication/improve-communication-skill.html. Devito, J. A. (2009). The interpersonal communication book (12th ed.). Boston: Pearson Education, Inc. Dixon, T. L. (2008). Network news and racial beliefs: Exploring the connection between national television news exposure and stereotypical perceptions of African Americans. Journal of communication, 58, 321-337. Dwyer, J. (2009). Communication in business: Strategy and skills (4th ed.). Australia: Pearson Education Australia Ford, T. E. (1997). Effects of stereotypical television portrays of African-American on person perception. Social Psychology Quarterly, 60(3), 266-275. Griffin, E. (2006). A first look at communication theory (6th ed.). New York: McGraw-Hill. Kelly, M. S. (2006). Communication at work: Ethical, effective, and expressive communication in workplace. London: Pearson Education Inc. Lane, S. D. (2010). Interpersonal communication: competence and contexts (2nd ed.). Boston: Pearson Education, Inc. Lustig, M. W. Koester, J. (2010). Intercultural competence: Interpersonal communication across cultures (6th ed.). Boston: Pearson Education, Inc. Perception – Innate and learned. Retrieved March 23, 2011 from: http://science.jrank.org/pages/5093/Perception-Innate-learned.html Singer, M. R. (1998). Perception and identity in intercultural communication. Maine: Intercultural Press, Inc. Varner, I., Beamer, L. (2010). Intercultural communication in the global workplace (5th ed.). New York: McGraw-Hill http://www.sideroad.com/Business_Communication/improve-communication-skill.html How to cite Describe factors to consider for effective communication, Essay examples

Aftermath free essay sample

I heard my voice choke as it echoed through the building. My palms were sweating as I gripped my carefully prepared speech. January 24, 2003 at Saint Anthonys I was about to give my fathers eulogy. I thought back four days to when things were normal, before my mother and I found my father on the ground. He had been burning brush in our backyard when, as the doctor decided, he had a heart attack. I knew at that moment that my life had changed enormously, but I had no idea how much more change would follow. In the aftermath of my fathers death, one question was on all our minds: How are we going to survive? We had always depended on him for financial support and to keep our family together. Left in our hands was his landscaping business, which he had worked to build since he emigrated from Italy 27 years before. We will write a custom essay sample on Aftermath or any similar topic specifically for you Do Not WasteYour Time HIRE WRITER Only 13.90 / page I watched it grow from a small operation to a valuable entity. Working with him was my first and favorite summer job, and he taught me the value of hard work. I was inspired by his entrepreneurial spirit and, as soon as I was old enough, began my own business in pool maintenance and management. I found that, like my father, I preferred being my own boss to working at the bottom of a management chain. I saw how much effort it took to keep a business going, and respected him for those years of hard work that led to all his accomplishments. My family decided to keep his business going, with my brother at the helm. I would help after school and during summers. My family has always been important to me, and since my father passed away, it has become even more so. The time we spend together as a family is now more valuable than ever, since were all aware of how fragile life really is. Nothing can fill his void. Now it is up to all of us to pitch in around the house and make it through every day. My role as the youngest has shifted to being the only man in the house, causing me to mature overnight and take on responsibilities I had never even been aware of. I have found that the most important contribution I can make to the household is to notice what needs to be taken care of, and make sure it gets done. Instead of taking part in frivolous activities and making luxury purchases, I help my family make ends meet. Working, once an option, now is a necessity. When I lost my father, I felt I had lost my inspiration. Now I realize all my strength and inspiration come from within; he just helped bring it out. Admittedly, I find it harder to do things without him, but I have proven that I can overcome adversity myself. The support and love of my family are invaluable and I know that nothing is guaranteed. It took a lot of strength for me to give my fathers eulogy, and I find now that I draw on that strength every day. Nothing in my life is untouched by his loss, but I can honestly say that I have changed for the better.