Does exercise help combat teenage obesity Essay

Does exercise help combat teenage obesity - Essay Example At present there is a considerable level of media interest surrounding obesity as obesity is found to be as one of the largest health problems afflicting United Kingdom, and a growing concern, particularly among our children and teenagers (Clinton & Smith, 1999). The obesity epidemic is spreading to all the developed countries in varied degrees, with the prevalence reaching more than 25% in certain states of the United States and 20% in Australia. It is alarming news that in UK, about 46% of men and 32% of women are overweight (a body mass index of 25-30 kg/m2), and an additional 17% of men and 21% of women are obese (a body mass index of more than 30 kg/m2). Deirdre Hutton, who co-chairs the European Food Safety Authority opines that as many as 8.5% of 6 year olds and 15% of 15 year olds are clinically obese. Obesity is becoming an increasing problem all over the world, and the World Health Organisation (WHO) has termed obesity a global epidemic. The number of obese people in the UK is rising at a high rate, especially among young adults. Since 1980, the total number of obese adults in the United Kingdom has almost tripled. This has been termed as the ‘obesity epidemic’. According to Liam Donaldson, England’s chief medical officer, â€Å"The direct cost of obesity to the NHS is  £0.5bn ($0.9bn; â‚ ¬0.7bn), while the indirect cost to the UK economy is at least  £2bn†. This reporting reflects and confirms the fact that obesity is of course a threat and its medical, social and economic consequences are negative. More so, today’s reality of increasing levels of child obesity and the need to address the problem is high on the agenda of the political and medical world.

The problems encountered while accounting for intangibles are Essay

The problems encountered while accounting for intangibles are accurately identified and explained - Essay Example For example expenditures in research and marketing ill generate cash flows but quantifying the amount of the cash is normally difficult hence their omission in the balance sheet. Secondly, recognition of assets in the balance sheet requires the ability to measure the value or the cost reliably. In the case of intangible assets like marketing or research, reliable measure of value or cost cannot be made because of the uncertainty in the amount of cash flows to be generated is very high (Spiceland, 2009). Further, it may be difficult to determine which assets the expenditures have contributed value for. Moreover, IASB requires that for an asset to be recognized in the balance sheet, control must be determined. The enterprise must have the rights on the assets or control that gives the exclusive benefits to the organization. Skilled staff may thus not be classified as intangible assets because the organization does not own the employees. This makes it difficult to account for the intangible assets especially when there are no legal rights. Finally, assets must result from previous transactions or past events for them to be recognized and classified. This does not posed a very big problems since the purchase price can always be determined if the asset was obtained. Problems normally arise only when the assets are produced by the organization. Internally generated assets cause a problem of determining their existence from a single transaction hence difficult to measure. Organizations must therefore ensure that they account for intangible assets in conformity to the IASB so as to prevent overstating or understating the financial

Plato Essay Essay Example for Free

Plato Essay Essay 1. a) Explain how Plato’s epistemological assumptions shape his metaphysics (Why does he think that there must be Forms? Hint: Plato says (in effect): â€Å"Since knowledge is certain, therefore the objects of knowledge must be unchanging. †). b) Define Plato’s Forms and present the theory of Forms by explaining the â€Å"divided line. † (You can use the visual image, but explain it. ) Plato was extremely devoted in answering the sophists’ skepticism about reason and morality. To do so, he spent more time than any philosopher before him studying knowledge, or epistemology. He realized that to answer the sophists’ skepticism he had to first solve the three main problems that earlier philosophers had left behind; the problems of change, the â€Å"one† and the â€Å"many†, and the problem between appearance and reality. Plato started where Heraclitus, who said that everything is changing, and Parmenides, who said that nothing ever changes, left off. He said that both philosophers were correct in their assumptions, for they were talking about different types of objects. Heraclitus is correct in terms of the sensible realm; it obviously exists, and is a flux that conforms to the â€Å"measures† as he suggested. Parmenides was correct in terms of the intelligible realm. Plato thought that beyond the world of physical objects in space and time is another world that is nonphysical, non-spatial, and non-temporal. He called this the world of ideai, or forms. These forms are nonphysical, non-spatial, non-temporal objects of thought that are more real than anything else. Whenever we are thinking, according to Plato, what we are thinking about is a form. For example, a triangle drawn on the board in class, no matter how perfect and real it may appear is merely a copy of the form of triangle; a plane figure enclosed by three straight lines. It is like a triangle and looking at it helps us think of the real triangle, but it only relates, or â€Å"participates† in Plato’s terms, to its’ true form. This theory applies to the entire sensible realm because everything changes and nothing stays exactly what it is. In the world of forms, however, everything is always what it is and never another thing. Plato believed that because the world of forms is Parmenidean, or eternal and unchanging, it is therefore possible for us to know it. To explain his theory of forms in depth, Plato used the image of the â€Å"divided line†. Take a line and divide it into two unequal parts, one part representing the physical world and one representing the world of forms. Then, subdivide these two parts in the same ratio, creating two sub-parts of the physical world (call them A and B) and two of the world of forms (call them C and D). Plato says let the first, or lowest, section of the physical world (A) stand for images, such as shadows or reflections. Let the second section of the physical world (B) stand for the actual objects that cast these shadows, like trees, humans, or desks. In the world of forms, Plato continues, let the first section (C) stand for the lower forms, or the forms of the objects in section B. The second section in the world of forms, the highest section of all, (D) then stands for the higher forms, or the science of first principles; the knowledge that, if possessed, would prove the basic assumptions of the special sciences. Plato believed that the nearer we are to the base of the divided line (A), the more conditioned our knowledge is. We can move up the line through dialectic, a process of questions and answer that utilizes hypothesis, criticism, and revision to move nearer to unconditioned knowledge. The higher we climb via this dialectic, the more we rid ourselves of conditions and the better we grasp the knowledge of the non-material abstract forms (D). According to Plato, these are the forms that possess the highest and most fundamental kind of reality. 2. a) How does the Form Man explain the existence of the many individual men? b) What is the nature of man and how is the individual man analogous to the state? c) What is virtue or justice in man and in the state? Plato’s theory of Forms led him to many assumptions, one of the most important of which is his view on the form of â€Å"man† and his relation to the state. He understood that no one man has ever been perfect and that each man participates in the form â€Å"man† to different degrees. Individual men are adequate copies of the true form of â€Å"man†. Plato believed that the men who participate in the form more fully are going to more real, and therefore  better, then the men who participate less. This is better explained by his philosophy of the nature of man and his analogous relationship to the state. Plato recognized the nature of man as a psyche, or soul, that was grouped into three main parts. Each of these three parts have motions proper to them that he believed, if harmonized, would lead to eudaimonia, a total well-being. The first, and lowest, part of the soul he called the appetites. The highest part Plato called reason. The third part, between appetite and reason, he called spirit. He saw the state as having three main parts as well, each corresponding to one of the three parts of the human psyche. Every state needs a governing body, whether kings or congress, so this will be the first part. The second is reserved for the essential producing class, which includes merchants, industrial workers, agriculturists, and so on. Third, Plato held that every state needs a group, between the governing and producing classes, to maintain the state against enemies; this is the guardian group. The analogy relates the producing class to appetite in the individual, the governing class to reason, and the guardians to spirit. Plato wasn’t just satisfied with this, he wanted to know the virtues of these classes, in other words, he wanted to know what each could contribute best. Like organs in an organism’s body, Plato believed each part of the soul and state have a particular role to play in the whole; they were not discrete and complete in themselves. He thought that the function of the members of the producing class was to provide themselves and the nonproductive classes with the necessities of life, such as food, shelter, and clothing. He realized that if everybody were to be provided for sufficiently, some of the producers would have to put up with having less than others. They would have to be ready to â€Å"restrict one’s own consumption for the sake of achieving some sort of balance in the state as a whole†, thus their virtue is moderation or as Plato called it, temperance (Jones 169). The guardians, who make up the second class, must be courageous when defending the state against its enemies, thus their virtue is courage. The governors make the highest decisions in the state. They determine war or peace, educational and economic policies, and so on. To make correct decisions they require knowledge; this is their virtue. A state in which each class is performing its function is just state. Only when the rulers are making wise decisions that are executed with courage and loyalty by the guardians, and the rest of the population is exercising some restraint in its pursuit of material well being, will the citizens of the state be happy. Since the state’s three classes exactly correspond to the three parts of the soul, we are able to understand what Plato took to be their respective virtues. Just like in the state, every individual has producing part that keeps them â€Å"alive and active, a rational part that is intended to guide and direct the energy produced by the body, and a spirited part that is intended to help keep the body in order† (Jones 169). Just as the functions of the soul correspond to the state, so do its virtues. A virtuous man is temperate in satisfying his various appetites and lives a life of reason that is supported by his spirited elements. 3. a) Use the allegory of the cave to illustrate Plato’s political views. In doing so, you should b) explain how the theory of forms supports Plato’s favored form of Aristocracy (to begin with, recall the relation between individual men and the Form of man) and c) explain how the theory of Forms grounds his criticism and rejection of democracy (where in â€Å"the cave† are the Athenian democrats?where are they on the divided line? ) As we have seen, Plato uses myths and methods such as the divided line to explain his views on certain things; this is the case, too, with his views on politics. To understand these views we must examine his allegory of the cave. He said to imagine there was men in a dark cave that were chained by their necks and ankles in such a fashion that they could not move their legs or necks and could only see what was in front of them. These men had been in this cave since childhood. Higher up behind them is a fire that is separated from the prisoners by a sort of puppet-show screen. This fire and screen were used by people carrying various artificial objects, such as figures of men, animals, and other materials, to project the shadows of these objects onto the stone in front of the chained men. It was so dark that these prisoners had no clue they were not alone and if they spoke to each other, they assumed they were speaking with the projected images. Plato goes on to say, imagine if one of them were set free and forced up the steep ascent into the sunlight. He would realize that what he experienced in the cave was not as real as what actually existed. Nature and the sun would enlighten this man and therefore he would gain true knowledge of the world as it is. Plato reasoned that these men, the ones who make it out of the cave, are the men who should rule the rest. His politics were based on man being a social animal, with desires, not only for sleeping or drinking, but communicating with his fellow men in the community. Therefore, he thought communal life is good and all other human goods depend on it for any sufficient satisfaction; an individual, who is really part of the larger state, is neither complete nor himself in isolation. If the good life for the individual is possible only by community, then there must be some sort of government to give direction to the numbers of men and women who live and work together. Plato believed that the few who are wise and good should rule the many. As his theory of Forms suggests, all men participate to the form of man to different degrees. He thought that the few men who participate at the highest levels of the form, the most knowledgeable that have exited the cave and been enlightened, are the ones best for ruling, and doing so rationally; the many are lacking in knowledge and virtue. Plato favored an Aristocracy ruled by these knowledgeable philosopher-kings who would impose the temperance on the producers through selective education and controlled propaganda. Each person, in his view, would find their happiness by playing the part in the state that their degree of participation to the form of man best suited them for. Plato therefore criticized democracy because instead of philosopher-kings who have true knowledge, the rulers are chosen on irrelevant grounds. The art of ruling, which he thought to determine what is best, became in democracy the art of appealing to the masses with flattery. Plato believed that in a democracy it is impossible to exit the cave or rise to the highest section of the divided line because it is powered by rhetoric. Rhetoric works at the level of opinion and only invokes belief by emotional mean, rather than operating at the level of knowledge, where analyzing the forms allows us to discover the truth.

A Microeconomic Analysis Of British Petroleum Economics Essay

A Microeconomic Analysis Of British Petroleum Economics Essay BPs (British Petroleum) origins can be traced back to 1901 when William Know tried to explore oil in Persia. The first commercial oil discovery was made in the Middle East by BP in 1908. In 1935, the company prospered and was renamed the Anglo- Iranian Oil Company. The war effort resulted in the British government becoming a shareholder of the company (until 1987). In 1950, Anglo-Iranian expanded into petrochemicals. The Iranian nationalization of the oil industry and subsequent diplomatic solution involving Britain, the US, and Iran led to the emergence of a new consortium involving Anglo-Iranian Oil called The British Petroleum Company (founded in 1954). 1.2 Company Overview BP is one of the largest vertically integrated oil and gas companies in the world. The companys operations primarily include the exploration and production of gas and crude oil, as well as the marketing and trading of natural gas, power, and natural gas liquids. BP is headquartered in London, the UK and employs about 92,000 people. 1.3 Why choosing BP for the essay The company recorded revenues of $361,143 million during the financial year ended December 2008 (FY2008), an increase of 27% over the financial year ended December 2007 (FY2007). The operating profit of the company was $36,347 million during FY2008, an increase of 9.2% over FY2007. The net profit was $21,157 million in FY2008, an increase of 1.5% over FY2007. 1.4 Business Description BP is one of the worlds largest oil and gas companies. It has presence in more than 100 countries across six continents. The company operates through two reportable business segments: exploration and production; and refining and marketing. The company also operates through a third business segment, other businesses and corporate. Upstream activities involve oil and natural gas exploration and field development and production. The midstream operations involve the ownership and management of crude oil and natural gas pipelines, processing and export terminals, and LNG processing facilities and transportation. For the FY2008, BPs worldwide network consisted of some 22,600 locations branded BP, Amoco, ARCO, and Aral. BPs retail network in the US for the FY2008 comprised approximately 11,700 sites, of which approximately 9,200 were owned by jobbers (who purchase their products directly from the refining companies and either sell them to retailers or directly to the end users) and 900 operated under a franchise agreement. At the end of FY2008, BPs European retail network consisted of approximately 8,600 sites and had approximately 2,300 sites in the rest of world. Other businesses and corporate segment of the company comprises treasury (which includes interest income on the companys cash and cash equivalents) the companys aluminum asset, the alternative energy business, and shipping and corporate activities worldwide. 1.5 What we will discuss Not a clue yet. 2. ANALYSIS 2.1 Microeconomic analysis 2.1.1 Consumer demand, price elasticity and BP revenues for FY 2008 We will take one example here to analyse the law of demand and how it applies to BP. For this specific example we will use petrol as product. In general, the law of demand states that the quantity demanded of a good falls when the price of the good rises (assuming other things equal). To represent this change, the demand curve is used. It is a graph that represents the relationship between the price of a product (petrol in this case) and the quantity demanded. demand.JPG Figure The Demand Curve (image taken from www.freeworldacademy.com) As you can see in figure1, when the price increased from P1 to P2 the quantity demanded dropped from Q1 to Q2. Changes in the demand curve can be caused by many factors such as the consumer income, the price of substitutes and others. There are 2 categories of goods though. The ones that the demand doesnt change a lot when price is changed and those that even a small price change will result in a huge change in the demand. This is called the elasticity of demand. The price elasticity of demand for petrol is inelastic (price elasticity inelastic.JPG Figure Inelastic demand You can see here that an increase in price (p1 to p2) leads to a decrease in quantity (q1 to q2) that is proportionately smaller. This results in an increase of the total revenue of the company. Lets see how BP performed. revenue.JPG Figure BP revenue in 2008 (BP annual review) BP recorded revenues of $ 361.143 million in the year 2008 compared to $ 284.365 million in 2007. This large revenue increase is partially due to the very high oil price. Peter Sutherland (BP chairman) said in his speech in February 2009: There are few precedents in history for such a rapid and dramatic change in the business environment. In the space of a few months we went from a record oil price of more than $140 per barrel, and BP reporting two consecutive quarters of record profits for the group. This profitability in 2008, in theory can be based to the price effect which states that after a price increase, product (petrol) sells at a higher price, which tends to higher revenue. The sales effect doesnt apply here because we are talking about inelastic demand. 2.1.2 Oil Market Structure (supply curve, market equilibrium, total surplus) Its difficult and most times inaccurate to try and analyse the supply curve for inelastic products. A supply curve illustrates firms willingness to supply at particular prices. But in the oil industry there are exogenous factors that affect the prices. When a factor changes we say we have shifts in supply. That can be anything, for example a change in the number of firm selling petrol, a change in the price of a factor input (oil exploration expenses) or a change in technology. In our case, the supply is not affected by customers willingness to buy. Someone will buy petrol at any price in order to cover their needs (e.g drive to work). But in theory, the more quantity requested, the higher the price set by the firm. In the case which the price has reached the level where quantity supplied equals quantity demanded, we use the term equilibrium. On a graph, it is the price at which the supply and demand curves intersect. The total surplus refers to the total net gain to consumers and pr oducers from trading in the market. IT is the sum of the producer and consumer surplus. But in practice the things are a little bit different. There is always need for more petrol (or oil products generally). This means that BP and other firms can produce as much petrol as they want. The boundaries here are if the petroleum firms can produce more petrol. Its clear that the firm that can sell more barrels of oil, they will generate more revenue and gain more market share. BPs performance in the last 10 years has been exceptional well. They improve and increase the production every single year and thats due to increased refining availability. In the next page (figure4) you can see some of the performance factors. performance.JPG Figure BPs performance (picture taken from BPs annual report 2008) As you can see in the photo, the production was high but a bit lower that the year 2006. This is due to the unstable economy and prices in the last 2 years. BP still managed to increase their profits by improving their processes. The highlights of the year are: replacement cost profit of $ 25.594 million (up 39%), capital expenditure and acquisitions of $ 30.700 million and share price increase. The complete table with data will be attached in the appendix. 2.1.3 Government legislation (competition policy and carbon trading) The competition policies are different from country to country. We will talk about the policies in England as the BP is a british firm. In the UK there is the role of Director of fair trading and their job is to supervise the behaviour of companies. If they think that a firm is doing something is not supposed to do then they can refer those firms to the Competition Commission for investigation. The maximum market share that a company can hold is less than 25% of the total market. If it exceeds this limit the Director of fair trading can refer the company to the Competition Commission. Also, firms are not allowed to collude because this way they restrict the competition by setting prices. Also, because many companies operate in Europe or worldwide, there are other organisations that keep an eye on firms strategy. In the oil industry the top 3 competitors are : Exxon Mobil, Royal Dutch Shell and BP. BP is the second largest refining and fuel retailing firm in the UK and third in the world. In their effort to become the largest petroleum and offer high variety of products, BP merged or acquired other firms over the past few years. The companys key products and services now include the following: Aromatics and acetyls, petrochemical products, oil and gas exploration and production, lubricants downstream derivative products, aluminum coil and other. To produce their products, firms utilise big amounts of energy. This energy usually comes from burning fossil fuels. For example, oil and coal are used to generate electricity. By burning these fuels, greenhouse gas is emitted in the atmosphere. Carbon dioxide is a pollutant and the European governments have set rules to try to reduce the emissions. The reason the firms dont care much about pollution is because they maximise profit by reducing their costs. Nowadays though, they have to pay big amounts of money depending how much they pollute the environment (surplus permits). BP is helping to meet the worlds growing demand for sustainable and affordable energy, building alternative energy businesses with the potential to grow and compete far into the future. gas.JPG It is also impressive how much money BP invests in alternative energy, $ 1.4 billion just in 1 year. The total cost they are willing to invest is $ 8 billion. Alternative sources of energy BP is experimenting with are: Wind (432MW), Solar(162MW) and Biofuels. Moreover, they are running a project called CCS that stands for Carbon Capture and Storage. What CCS does is capturing the CO2 emitted during the burning and processing of fossil fuel. Then, it is transported and stored in deep geological formations such as gas or oil fields. CCS technology is supported by the government and the target is a worldwide implementation that will help reduce the problem of global warning. 2.2 Macroeconomic Analysis 2.2.1 2.2.2 3. CONCLUSION Based on your analysis, state your recommendations describing the possible strategies that the firm can consider.

Homeschooling Essay -- Teaching Public Education

Homeschool Home schooling is an alternative to public education. It is a choice that many more parents are making today, and even more are projected to make by the year 2000. It is estimated that at the end of the year 2000 there will be 2,000,000 home schoolers in the United States (Gorder 1996). There are other alternatives to Public School education. Some examples are Catholic or Private schools or a privately hired tutor. There are many reasons why people home school their children. Religious beliefs, academic achievement, social development, moral and psychological reasons are all cited (Wade 1996). However, religious beliefs are often the main reason (Gorder 1996). Some parents feel as if their children are not learning enough academics, but that they are learning moral and social values that conflict with their own (Gorier 1996). Many parents teach their children at home because they feel they can provide a better education for them. Another problem parents see with the school syste m is the lack of control and discipline in the schools today. â€Å"In 1996 every day 35,000 children took guns to school with them† (Gorder, p.15, 1996). Parents feel that since the government funds these schools they are used as podiums for preaching. They see the teacher using the class as an audience to preach to. There are also parents who want to teach their children so that they can spend more time with them. â€Å"The average school-age child spends only fourteen minutes a week talking to their parents† (Gorder, p.16, 1996). There are others who think that parents home school their children because they get joy out of seeing them learn and discover new things (Henger 1995). There is some history to the issue of home schooling. There are also many pros and cons, which will be addressed in this paper. Home schooling has been around for hundreds of years. There are many famous and intellectual people that have had their education through home schooling. Some examp les are George Washington, Abraham Lincoln, Woodrow Wilson, Thomas Edison, Winston Churchill, Agatha Christie, Margaret Mead, Charlie Chaplin, Thomas Jefferson, Albert Einstein, Charles Dickens and Mark Twain (Gorder, p.11, 1996). Most of these famous people were home schooled when it was a common occurrence and more than acceptable. Home schooling has grown substantially over the last twenty-five years. In that... ...he people that home schooled their children were extremists. Some were about religion; some were for other topics. I realized that not many average people home school their children. This movement is going to continue to grow over the coming years. Violence and control of the kids in school is going to have a lot to do with it. Parents are not going to send their children to school if they think that they are going to get shot, stabbed, or even killed. Parents’ feel that it is their job to protect their children and they will do whatever it takes. I can not see this movement taking over, if for no other reason because today two people need to work to run a sufficient household. I think that more people are going to want their children home but not be able to afford it. Bibliography: Works Cited Dorian, T. & Tyler, A.P.(1996). Anyone can home school. Louisiana: Huntington House. Gorder, C.(1996).Home schools: an alternative. Arizona: Blue Bird Publishing. Gutterson, D.(1992). Family Matters. New York: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich. Hegener, M.(1995). The home school reader. Washington: McNaughton & Gunn. Wade, T.E.(1996). The home school manual. Mi.: Gazelle

Read and Respond to: Amy Tan’s Mother Tongue Essay

Amy Tan is a passionate writer of books such as â€Å"The Joy Luck Club† and other published works. Now that we have read her text read her text â€Å"Mother Tongue†, we learn new things about her as a writer. In my first response to Amy Tan’s passage I described her as a self-motivated author as I read what motivated her to write. She introduced readers to her mother, a woman who enjoys reading Forbes and listening to the Wall Street Journal talks. This gave us as readers a clue that Amy’s mother was used to reading more advanced pieces. Amy tan tells us about her mother’s English and how it sounded â€Å"broken† or as if something was â€Å"missing† every time she talked. While at the same time, her mother’s way of speaking English sounded natural and real to Amy, and I think this could be a reason she chose â€Å"Mother Tongue† as her title. While Amy described herself as a rebel by nature, she pursued her passion to become a great write for herself, and for her mother, while disproving all negative assumptions about her. A good example of this when she started writing fiction. She mentions in her article that most sentences although grammatically correct, had an in-authentic sound to her and unnatural. In other words she was probably writing something â€Å"mother wouldn’t approve†. I go back to when Amy Tan mentions that she enjoyed disproving assumptions made about her while she was starting out. She was told that her English was not good enough to be a writer and still pursued her goal and worked hard to become a great writer. She gives off a sense of pride and accomplishment when she writes that about how she knew she had succeeded as a writer when her mother finished reading her book and said to Amy, â€Å"so easy to read†. Mother Approved. As a personal opinion, I think most people are not like Amy Tan. In the sense of us sometimes not being passionate enough to truly follow what we want and work towards it regardless of what other may have to say. There are many influences out there and must learn to only pay attention to those that will help us get closer to our goal and ignore the rest. As a good friend of mine once told me; It’s not that don’t care about certain people, it’s just that at this very moment where our goals are constantly in our minds, we need to focus and let go and only stick to what will help us accomplish our goals.

How I became a Nurse Essay

Have you ever thought about becoming a nurse? Growing up, becoming a nurse had never crossed my mind. I didn’t grow up around anyone who worked in the nursing field nor was I used to being in and out of hospitals; whether it be for me or because of family. Although I wasn’t around many nurses or had much experience, I knew at one time or another I would be a huge part in changing the lives of others. Even though I haven’t always wanted to be a nurse, helping others has definitely been a huge priority in my life. It never occurred to me that being a nurse would give me the opportunity to help others until the end of my sophomore year in high school. That is when I decided a career in nursing would be perfect for me. Throughout my first two years of high school, I took class after class about where I was going to attend college and what my major would be. In the beginning I thought my decision was made and I knew exactly what my plan was going to be. I was going to be a Cosmetologist. From the time I was little I was always playing with hair and I just knew that was what I would do as a career one day. However, it seemed that God had a different plan for me. At my high school students were given the choice to take 2 electives. Whether it was choir, art, parenting, band, or a foreign language the decision was ultimately up to the student. My sophomore year I decided to take the parenting class as one of my electives. This class was the type that students assumed would be an easy grade and would not be a top priority. Little did I know this course would be the one to finalize my decision about life after high school and have a massive impact on my life. Throughout the class I watched many videos and had to complete projects on what it is like to be pregnant and all the things that come with having a child. I will never forget the final project that was assigned to the class. Each student in the class was assigned a computerized baby to care for over the course of a weekend. We had to watch this baby and care for it as if it were our very own. There were a variety of keys that came with the baby and each one had a reason as to why the baby might be crying. So, as  the â€Å"parent† of this baby, when he or she started to cry we had to determine whether it was hungry, needed a diaper change, burped etcetera. This was an extremely difficult weekend for me, but even after all of the crying and staying up all night, I enjoyed the project. In addition to caring for the computerized baby, we had to wear a pregnant belly suit for a day. This belly suit was designed to help students experience the feeling of a full term pregnancy. While wearing this suit I experienced a few things that an actual pregnant woman would feel. There was a 30 pound weight gain, fetal movements, shortness of breath, bladder pressure and frequency of urination. Even though I only had to wear the belly suit for a day, I felt that it was a very good experience and I was able to get an understanding of what it is like to be pregnant. Both of these p rojects taught me a lot about caring for an infant and the importance of good parenting skills. I was also intrigued by the medical aspects of labor and delivery and I began to think of the possibility of becoming a nurse. Throughout the many weeks of this class I had numerous talks with my friends and family and by the end of the course I knew my career path had changed. I wanted to be a nurse. During my remaining time in high school I began to focus more on classes that would be an asset to furthering my education in the healthcare field. My guidance counselor also worked closely with me to explore all my options in the nursing field. After much thought, I made my final decision to become a labor and delivery nurse. At the end of my senior year I started my prerequisite classes at Butler Tech to prepare for the LPN program that I would ultimately begin in January 2011. LPN school was extremely intense from the very beginning and at times I was ready to give up. Although it was very difficult, I learned that through hard work, diligence and sometimes tears, I can accomplish mo re than I ever thought possible of myself. Even though becoming an LPN was just a stepping stone to achieving my ultimate goal, I knew it was what I needed to do. I have enjoyed working as an LPN and I will continue to use my skills and knowledge to work towards becoming a labor and delivery nurse one day. Overall, there have been many events in my life that are very special to me and will forever be a part of who I am today. I believe making the choice to take part in a parenting class back in high school is one of the major events in my life and is the reason I am where I am today. Looking back, I realized how  important this class really was to me and the significance it had on my life. Taking this class was a main factor of why I became a nurse and I may not be where I am today if I had not taken part in it. I am very grateful I took the class, and I will never forget the impact it had on my life.