Losing Will Never Be A Failure

For me, this picture symbolizes Hope and Life in Faith

“Winning doesn’t always mean you succeeded, losing doesn’t always mean you failed.” I got this simple quote from my teacher that can be related to the theme of ultimate victory through defeat and terrible loss. For me, this quote means that defeat doesn’t mean a failure. It is, because true progress of success begins in knowing ways/things that won’t work to be very innovative or vice versa. At first, ask yourself what is the worst thing that can happen. Then, accept it. Then, proceed to adjust yourself and to improve on the worst.

This might what Aeneas did to have his ultimate victory. There were lots of characters who died and loss, such as Creusa, Dido, Anchises, etc, that affected him much. He never took these terrible losses negatively; instead, he took it as a great challenges/obstacles that are trying to stop him in his fate.

The more defeat and terrible loss he has, the more force to encourage him to be a better person that guides him to the best achievements. So, like Aeneas, never take negatively the bad lucks for you too much, instead, face them all, and take them as your challenges that try to stop you in following your dreams. Be Aeneas, be positive thinker. J

Blog 4.2

You Can’t Ever Be Sure What Others' Decision Will Be

“It’s time to care, it’s time to take responsibility, it’s time to lead, it’s time for a change, it’s time to be true to our greatest self, it’s time to stop blaming others.” Based on the quote of Steve Maraboli, we can relate this to the point of view of couples from Aeneid, Aeneas and Creusa, and Illiad, Hector and Andromache. This can be related on the scenes in Aeneid when Aeneas again prepares to fight the Greeks on the night of Troy's fall, his wife Creusa begs him to consider her first and her son Ascanius and in Illiad, when Andromache pleads with Hector.

Farewell of Hector and Andromache

From the two mentioned epic stories, Creusa and Andromache were the two characters who showed how much a wife must love and care for her husband. They were both very good models for the wives. At the same time, Aeneas and Hector showed how much a father, husband or warrior should be when his nation and family are in danger, such a being very brave, protective, etc. But, Hector didn’t listen to his wife, Andromache, instead, he still tried to fight against Achilles, while Aeneas followed his wife, Creusa, to be with his family, instead of fighting against the Greeks, Aeneas just escaped from Troy with his family.

The escape of Aeneas, Creusa, Ascanius and Anchises

All of the four mentioned characters were good models. There were characters that showed their true love and care, someone followed his responsibility when it comes to call of duty and someone followed his wife to be with his family. There were two epic stories, Aeneid and Illiad, that differ in some plots, but similar in the particular or mentioned scenes of the two showing which the better decision in a certain request.

Blog 4.3

What I Feel for the Fall of Troy

“Never trust anything that can think for itself if you can't see where it keeps its brain.” Based on Aeneas sorrowful story, Trojans suddenly lose their power, position, own city (Troy), king, etc. It might not happen if there was no traitor to Trojans whose name is Sinon, the Greek youth. For me, being traitor to somebody was only a part of his cleverness to defeat you, so I don’t trust anyone much.

Having highly elevated and strong walls for city of Troy was a very good idea but the problems with Trojans are being very kind-hearted and feel pity to the youth from the opponent even though they were at the middle of the war. This became one of the ways of Greeks, Trojans’ opponent, to make their plan successful. As I read the Book II of Aeneid, I felt sympathy for Trojans because they accepted and welcomed Sinon for their side very well. Because of feeling pity for Sinon, they never thought that this youth would be one of the causes why Troy will fall.

One of the problems of Trojans is also accepting the Greeks’ gift, wooden horse, easily. I believe that most of them never thought that it would be used to trick and defeat them. At this time, I wasn’t able to feel sympathy for them, instead, I felt angry to their stupidity because they took the wooden horse to display in their city as their pride without thinking that it might be a trap or something. But, as I imagine how the Troy falls and how Greeks attack the sleeping city of Troy, I really felt sympathy.

The Trojan Horse inside the walls of city of Troy

When I put myself on Aeneas’ point of view, I knew the feeling of relinquishing own native land and through encouraging myself by thinking that gods and goddesses have better plans for me, such as building a new hope by building a Roman Empire, made me to realize why I was forced to do that.

Blog 4.1

They were Wright!

     One pleasant afternoon, I was roaming around at North Carolina until I met Wilbur Wright who came from Smithsonian Institution to send his letter of request for information about flight experiment. I asked him to join them in flight experiments and he accepted my request. I went with him at the park and I met his brother, Orville Wright.

     The Wright Brothers and I spent a great deal of time observing birds in flight.
They noticed that birds soared into the wind and that the air flowing over the curved surface of their wings created lift. Birds change the shape of their wings to turn and maneuver. We believed that they could use this technique to obtain roll control by changing the shape of a portion of the wing.The Wright Brothers started to design series of gliders which would be flown as kites and can be controlled or piloted. I tried my best to help them in assembling the parts of glider until we’re done. We realized that controlling glider would be the most crucial and hardest problem to solve. Testing that biplane glider was successful. They chose Kitty Hawk, North Carolina as their test site and we had a triumph for the successful biplane glider. I tried to ride in it and I enjoyed it while it’s flying.

     I realized that having cool moments with cool inventors will be very fun and unforgettable. With the cool stuff that they invent while they trust each other, they became a very important part of the next generations for good communications. I also learned from them that being observable, hard working, positive thinker, giving your best while working and cooperating with others will bring you to a triumph.