6 - Reflective Essay on My Research Paper

As we were preparing to write our Research Paper, my teacher, Sister Steadman, gave us a well-organized, structured schedule to help us stay on track and give us plenty of time to right our paper. For about over a course of a month, we were able to choose a topic, go to the library to do some research during class time, learn how to do an annotative bibliography, prepare a rough draft, peer edit, and finish our paper due today on Halloween.  That all would have worked out just fine for me. Except I decided to change my topic last minute.

For our topic, Sister Steadman said we could write about a family story or do some research about our family history. With this family story we could research more about it from a scholarly point of view. Originally, I wanted to write a paper about the Khmer Rouge. My fiancée is part Cambodian, and her parents are refugees from Cambodia during the time the Khmer Rouge started to take over the country. My topic would have been on the effect of the Khmer Rouge and their social standing here in America. After I had collected sources and prepared a Thesis, I was stuck as to where to begin to write my paper. I realized that yes I did want to learn about my fiancée’s family history but I didn't want to write a paper about it. Tossing that idea aside, I started over last minute and wrote my paper about divorce and the affect it has on adult children while they planning on getting married. This topic was something important that I wanted to understand because I am a child of divorce.

Once I created my Thesis and found some sources, writing was much easier and I was able to get the paper done. I also was able to learn about a lot of ideas that I could implement into my relationship with my fiancée as we prepare to get married. I also learned that next time I need to write a paper I need to make sure that I have a solid topic that I am interested to write about. It would save a lot of time and a lot of hassle. Lesson learned.

5 - General Conference Oct. 2014 Analysis on "Choose Wisely" by Elder Cook

Coming into conference, I had a lot of questions. In the next year, I will be make a lot of decisions that will greatly impact my life and the lives of those around me. Decisions such as marriage, school, where to live, and many others. I really wanted to know from this conference what I could do to prepare for these life decisions. A talk that really helped me think and ponder about these questions was the talk by Elder Quentin L. Cook, "Choose Wisely." Elder Cook refers back to many great talks to help us know which decisions we need to focus on.

One of those talks that he refers to is Elder Oaks's Talk "Good, Better, Best." He referred back to this talk to help us know which choices we have are good, which are better, and then which are best. We would all like to make the best choices in life but sometimes our goals are not on tract with that best choice. Some good choices we have are to marry a spouse with the same standards as you. A better choice would to marry a someone who is a member of the church at a chapel or something. But the best choice is to marry and be sealed to a spouse in the Temple. They way that God would like us to marry. He clearly helps us see what goals we should make and the best goals are eternal goals.

Another reference in his talk was a quote by President Monson, "Decisions Determine Destiny." Every choice we make has a consequence and it is a good reminder each day to remember that sometimes a decisions not only effects our own destinies but also the destinies of others.

General conference has also been a great time of the year to reset our goals. It can be a good reminder on what goals that we have set and even give us strength do better. The best decisions we make in this life will have an eternal reward in the end. Our destiny is to become like Heavenly Father. May our decisions lead us to that destiny. 

4 - Research Topic and Thesis

Recently I started dating a Cambodian/Thai girl. She speaks both languages but she grew up mostly in the Cambodian culture. She was born here in America but her six older siblings at her parents were born in Cambodia. The reason why they left Cambodia was because of the Khmer Rouge. Some questions i have wondered:

·         How did the Khmer Rouge start? Was it because of the Vietnamese war?

·         How has it affected the Khmer (Cambodian) people that are now here in America?

·         Did Heavenly Father lead them out of Cambodia? Yes. How?

·         ? ? ?

I have no idea but interesting topic!

What are her stories of Cambodia?

That is a cool topic!  I don't know much about Cambodia.  It would be interesting to interview her and her family, as well as use a narrative about leaving Cambodia for your introduction to your research paper.

I think it would be interesting if you researched when and how the Cambodian people came to America.

Are you going to marry her?? Make sure you interview her parents, not to ask her to marry you, but to know personal stories from her parents and grandparents.

I like how dating her makes you interested in the topic! I'm not very familiar with Khmer Rouge, but I'm sure it would be a great thing to learn about! 

Thesis: Many survivors of the Khmer Rouge feel that they are stuck in the welfare system and others are content to stay where they are. Despite this, many have overcome the affects of the Khmer Rouge through the motivation of higher education, family, and the Gospel of Jesus Christ.