Malcolm MacMillan
8/26/18
             The three virtues I have elected to improve this school year are
forgiveness, patience and compassion. I was a homeschooler for most
of my life and I never really had to improve on these virtues. I also
compete in single sports, so I never had experience in working with
other people. I have always been a solo act. And I like being a one-man
team. I find other people just get in my way and complicate things
unnecessarily. And not having to work with other people or just not
wanting to create bad habits. Here is why I have elected to improve on
these three virtues.
             I find it hard to forgive people after they make a mistake and I
end up suffering the consequences of their mistake. Even a little
mistake frustrates me. I was born into a military family, and we take
personally. I have a habit of taking any assignment personal, even if I’m
working on it with another person. I just hate messing up so badly, it
takes me a very long time to forget the accident. I never look at them
the same way again. I begin to hesitate whenever I work with them
again. And once they mess up a second time I will do pretty much
anything to avoid working with them again. In the sports world you
need to be able to forgive your team mates or you will never be able to
work efficiently together. Taekwondo is more of a one-man sport, but
there are still group competitions that require team work and trust. Now
to the next virtue I must improve on.
                   I’m always in a rush and I hate being late or almost late for
anything. Whenever I have a deadline on a project I like to do it as soon
as possible. If it’s a partner project I will start rushing my partner to
finish so I can relax and not have to worry about it while I’m trying to
fall asleep. I start turning cold and I grow angry. It’s a contained kind of
angry. I don’t explode and yell at them, I just stop talking to them
unless it’s for the project and when I do talk to them I’m very brief in
my answers and for a while after that the person I was working with just
steers clear of me. I plan to work on understanding that other people
have problems at home sometimes and they sometimes need more
time to work on assignments. I need to have a broader view of other
peoples needs.
                   “I don’t care.” That’s my number one phrase to other people
when they complain. I’m pretty sure a lot of other people use this
phrase as a lazy way to escape a conversation with a person they’re
just too tired to listen to at that moment. I mean it in the way that I
really don’t give a crap that your offended or hurting. I really don’t. This
world doesn’t care either. Their worse things that can happen to you
decides a scolding by your parent or you get punched or you twisted an
ankle. Until the injury is a serious verbal assault on your family, like
someone lying about someone in your family assaulting them, I will not
care. And unless a physical injury you have is enough to prevent you
from walking or writing (breaking a bone.) I will not care. Now, my goal
this year is to learn to gage a persons’ pain tolerance. To be a little
more understanding with others. I need to understand that certain
people can’t take as much pain as others. But right now, I most likely
won’t care unless it’s serious.
So, there you have it. Yes, I might sound like a cold, impatient
jerk and I probably am, but I hope to improve. Archimedean will present
many challenges that I have never faced before. Though it will be hard
for most of us to improve on things we have never before tried to
improve on, I hope that together we can all work through the most
difficult parts of the year.