The Road Less Traveled

1)           As we enter the last few stages of our high school life, counselors and teachers always seem to ask what we plan on doing after grade twelve. Or they encourage us to attend career spotlights to widen our horizons on job possibilities. This may not seem like an enjoyable task, but those teachers and counselors know how important it is to find a career that you love. Without being truly passionate about your job, it becomes greatly difficult to perform to your best ability. Such circumstances can also bring you a great deal of remorse. A strong example is my father who had to abandon his career of being a pilot in Bombay when he moved to Canada. For many years in India, my dad flew cargo planes and it was not only a job for him but also his passion. He collected miniature airplanes from all of the different airlines, which he still has to this day. Unfortunately, my dad moved to Canada after marrying my mom in hopes of bettering their future and gave up his career of being a pilot. With the education being different in both countries, my dad would have had to go back to school and spend a few more years in training. Due to financial issues, he made the brave and sensible decision of settling for a job as a construction worker after numerous days of deliberating. As i grew older and understood the circumstance more, i could detect that this was only a day to day job for him. Waking up each morning and the labor at work was strenuous but i am extremely proud of my dad for never giving up and making the best of his situation. Although, To this day, he regrets the fact that he gave up his dream job, but knew that what he did was for the better of his family. My dad stresses to me everyday to follow what i genuinely want to do in life and not let the hardships of getting there be an obstacle, because the end result is remarkable. After observing my dads life, i truly believe that finding a career one is genuinely passionate about is the answer to a satisfying future.

2)                Ever since i was five i have wanted to become a doctor and as the years went by i narrowed it down to the enthralling world of an Optometrist. I feel a great deal of satisfaction after helping someone and every aspect of the optometry field seems to fascinate me. To get a closer look at what an optometrist really does, i recently had a session of job shadowing at Waterfront and got to observe what every machine is used for and i got to propose several informative questions. I hope to go back fairly soon to take in anymore information that i can gain. My short term plans are to attend the University of British Columbia in Vancouver and study to receive my Bachelors of Science degree. I am not completely positive on what my major will be yet but i believe after taking my first year courses i will get an even better feel of what subjects interest me the most. I plan to work to my best ability in achieving high grades to get me to my long term goals of attending Waterloo in Ontario for my Optometry degree, or possibly attending university in the States. Many times i have been told that a fair amount of people change their minds about their career more than once so how can i be so sure that i will become an Optometrist? My answer to them is that i am aware my career choice may change but that just means that i will have realized Optometry wasn't my true passion and that my interest is lies somewhere else. But at this moment, being an eye care professional is what i am working towards and i will try my absolute hardest to get there.

Taming of the Shrew Vs. Ten Things I Hate About You

             The movie "Ten Things I Hate About You" is successful in capturing the essence of the Shakespeare play "Taming of the Shrew" to an extent because it has a similar story line and characters but many subtle differences as well. To start things off, love at first sight happens in both the movie and play. Bianca is shown as a very beautiful girl and has many guys chasing after her. Cameron, which is Lucentio in the play, falls in love with Bianca as soon as he sees her, and makes a plan to become her tutor. This leads to the young man becoming something he is not to woo, the cliche, girl of his dreams. Although Lucentio wears a disguise to hide his true appearance, Cameron attempts to disguise the fact that he doesn't exactly know french by preparing a little ahead of time and simply reading phrases out of the textbook. Regardless of their alternate egos, the stunning Bianca begins to show a slight interest in Lucentio and Cameron. Very much like these characters being alike, Katherine and Kat also have similar traits. Katherine is "renowned in Padua for her scolding tongue" (1.2.97) and refuses to conform to marriage just because its what her father wants. She is shown as a girl who could care less about her appearance, and what others think. Similarly, Kat is shown as an introverted, social outcast, "heinous bitch" who refuses to show her real feelings and be a "normal teenager". Kat could be called a duplicate of Katherine in terms of personalities, but the main difference is that Kat shows more modernized traits.
Although these similar aspects are seen throughout the movie and play, some subtle differences are also evident. For example, despite the fact that Patrick is paid to "tame" Kat and Petruchio to tame Katherine, they're ideas of taming were very different. Petruchio is shown rather disrespectful and mean towards Katherine by starving her and depriving her of sleep. While Patrick knows there is a softer side to Kat and persistently tries to be nice to her and even sings her a song to win Kat's heart, which many may agree is necessary to fit with the modern society's way of thinking. In the end, Katherine agrees to the taming mainly since she realizes her getting rid of Petruchio is impossible whereas Kat develops sincere feelings for Patrick as he did for her as well. Other subtle differences are that in the movie, the character of Hortensio, Joey, is shown as a self-centered jerk that is only after Bianca because of the challenge of getting her. But in the play, he is a rather likable fellow who is after her for the same reason as Lucentio, shes "the jewel of [his] life" (1.2.115) and he loves her. All in all, the movie does capture the important themes and character traits of the play, but if one was to look deeper into the plot line, there are several subtle differences which are also there.