I’ve grown up in a rural town and life here is very peaceful. However, I still see generic problems, even if they are only on a small scale. I am very happy that I can leave my house everyday without feeling in danger. I can eat a filling dinner with my family every night and I can attend school every day to educate myself. I live in a pleasant community and i have a peaceful life. I plan to finish high school and then go on to college. I have always wanted to hike the Appalachian Trail and travel cross country, so I plan to do those things as well. I have always loved being outside and in nature and I hope to find a career where I can apply those topics. One thing that I see daily and that really upsets me is how people treat our earth. I really expect people in my community and this nation to think a little more about what they are doing to our surroundings. Everyone needs to pay more attention to what they do. We are destroying the rain forests at a horrifying rate, and we are polluting the air and water as a daily activity. Sometimes we talk about the quality of our environment in school, and it is alarming the number of children who don’t even care. The quality of our earth is starting to decrease and it will continue to do so unless we change something. I believe that children should be taught at a young age about the environment, and should continue to be taught up through high school. Conserving energy and fuel is not only positive for the earth, but it is also a wonderful way to save money. If more people used public transportation and drove their personal cars less, they would save large amounts of money and help our earth. The price of fuel is going up because it is in high demand and shorter supply. I am just worried about what the quality of the environment will by the time I am an adult. People just need to realize what they are doing before it is too late. I believe that a positive future is knowing that the earth will still be around for the generations that come after me. I do not think that it is correct for us to ruin the earth and then leave the problems for other people to deal with. We have to realize that we are responsible before we lose all of the beautiful things that surround us.

In most people’s lives there are several extremely important common things. These include family, friends, and community. Family and friends define themselves but what is community? Community is different to all different people all over the world. To a Mongolian yak herder their tribe defines community. Yet to a hermit who lives in the remote Alaskan wilderness, community is the environment around him or her. This might include the trees, grass, moose and other creatures that habit the surrounding plain. To me community is my family and the people who live in the surrounding area who I have gotten to know. I believe that in the world today, most people share my idea of what community is. This is essentially the friends and family that live near you, therefore community the most important thing in most people’s lives. The community that we are all part of is a supporting network for you goals If I wanted to go to Harvard there are opportunities in a community to help you get there. In school you obviously have to get excellent grades but just good grades won’t get you into Harvard. You can participate in theatre and join sports team, and join clubs like SADD that look good on your college application. You can also volunteer in chartable organizations and these days in order to get into a good school; you have to do volunteer work. All of these things are important if you’d want to accomplish your goal of going to Harvard. Helping with other’s goals is what I think a community should provide for all the members for it discriminating against no one. Goals are what make our community strong since the members will better them selves thus intern bettering the community with all the skills and talents they will bring to it.

In the point of my life right now I feel very blessed at what I have and what I have concerning the opportunities in my upcoming future. I feel that the things I have in my life are really more than what I could ask for when I think of what other less fortunate people have to live with every single day. This registers in my mind as something that I should be thankful for every waking hour, and be even just as thankful for it when I become an adult. For it is even more important to realize what you have and then give back to those who don't have as much as you do. In my community this would undoubtedly be the case. Even if I never leave my community, giving back to it for the amazing and wonderful childhood it gave to me would be a number one priority. The main factor contributing not only to my communities but to communities all over the world is the amount of poverty created by lack of jobs and education.. For me, I am lucky to get as good of an education as I'm getting, and the fact that I'm able to acquire a job to prepare me for the future, are the attributing factors for me to be in the point of my life that I'm in. Therefore to ensure that the future that I foresee in my mind is created theses would need to be the most important factors that would either need to be changed or worked on to make them as most beneficial as possible to the youth of the world. To me, fixing these problems for our future youth is the ideal future because it creates a very strong foundation for a person to grow on.

As I look at it, my life is privileged with love, care, and friendship. But when I look at the lives of others, I can't help but feel sorry that they aren't as lucky as me.

I have always been interested in astronomy. But science in general is my favorite. I have always had a dream to become either an astronaut or at least anything to do with astronomy. In the summer of 1999, I took a trip to Florida, and one of the sites we saw was Cape Canaveral. I was amazed in its tremendous rockets and also of the content of the museum itself. It furthered my interest in astronomy and realized how much fun it would be to study the endless universe and the contents within.

The community that I live in is very supportive, and would encourage me to do anything I put my mind to. I also found this very desirable because if I succeeded in getting a job like this I could change the world, and hopefully gain information which can help the world on an international level.

If I were to change something in our world today is the fact that we can't share between countries. It's all about me and what I can get out of it. They fail to realize that we are all equal and we are all the same beings on this earth. We can't even exist with nature, and we are constantly tearing forests down to make condos which will eventually take its toll on the world as we know it.

For me, an ideal future is one of success and of humbleness in your success. No one likes a show-off who makes others feel bad. That is why being famous in my mind can sometimes be infamous. I am planning a future that will gain me respect and possibly much credit for the knowledge that I have either discovered or made sense of, while at the same time not attracting attention from the popular culture of today's world.

Overall, the knowledge that I would like to discover would go to helping the world and its third world countries. Whether it would be in an astronomical level or any other level, this would be my contribution to the world.

As a resident of the United States I have always had freedom and felt cared for by people such as my friends to my government. I think my quality of life is perfect. I have everything I need and more in life. My parents provide me with food, love, and a house. My friends give me advices and a sense of belonging. My religion and school provide me with a sense of stability and education. And lastly my government gives me protection. When I become an adult I expect to have the same life except I will be providing myself with food and a house. My country and especially the environment that I have grown up in will make it possible to have a great future. The mind set of the culture of the United States according to life after High School is always, go to college, get a job, then start a family. My government has provided me with an education that has encourage me to be a successful adult and will get me into college. I am lucky that I am ensured a positive future through the education that I have been able to receive and the mind set that my country has enforced upon me. Hopefully nothing will ever ruin the wonderful quality of life that I have. I appreciate how perfect my life is when I hear horror stories about wars going on before my lifetime and even now. September 11th was the first time that I experienced anything close to what people in Afghanistan go through everyday. I cannot imagine having a lower quality of life than I have now and I understand that the majority of the world is worst off than I am. I am very thankful for living in the United States and I wish that people in other countries were provided with the same quality of life I have.

In my school I am often asked to tell school counselors, teachers, and friends what I want to be as an adult. This is a hard question that I can never answer, but I am asked the same thing over and over. It’s hard to imagine what could happen and what could go wrong because my life is great the way it is. I rarely have any health problems, other than minor sicknesses. I never have trouble getting food or medicine when I need it. I can always see that my physical health is good, but emotionally it is easy to get confused and self-centered. This can make people think they are in worse health than they are. But I have a great family and a good school. My life is good, especially considering what I hear about people around the country and the world who are struggling every day. Because of the general quality of life in my community, there are also many expectations. Adults expect adolescents to become responsible and succeed, by going to college, or working hard at a job, or even something like taking tough classes in school. I also expect that the adults that I know and trust, will support me and my decisions. I hope that if I thought I was making a good decision, the people I know would support my choice. If I were to go to a certain college, or choose a specific profession, people should support me whether they agree with my view or not. This is what will help to make my future positive. If I go to a college I like and try hard to succeed there, I will have a good future, as well as a good life at the time. Finding the specific aspects of life and the classes that I like will help to ensure my future. But while I am focusing on what I need to do after high school, I also have to have a good time in high school, and have fun with what I am doing at the time.

For my entire life I have lived in the same area. Southern Berkshire county isn't the most exciting place to grow up. As a child I walked to my elementary school and played in my back yard as entertainment. I feel like the quality of my life so far has been good. I feel lucky to have loving parents and a sister. My family isn't rich, but we have everything we need. I know that I am safe where I live, my friends and family will help me with anything I need. I am also fortunate to get such a good education. As a result of my education I believe that I have a good future. Along with most of my friends, I am planning on continuing my schooling at college. After that I'm not sure what I will do.

Today, the quality of my life is really good. When I say its good I mean that I have really good friends, awesome teachers and really good parents. When I become an adult I expect that everyone would treat me with respect. In order to live in a good community people around me should have a good sense of humor. In order to ensure a good future I would study hard while I still have the chance. To me, a positive future consists of good relationships, a positive sense of humor and a job that can support a family and put food on the table. Things that can effect this future could be if there was a loss in the family, for example a parent. If there is a loss like this, then the child would not be able to get a head start in life, and most likely that kid would not be able to get enough love and there is a possibility that the kid could rebel. There are so many ways that the future of a person could be altered because of some aspects of life

Civilized humans are the cause of all conflicts in the world today. We are greedy, conceited, self-involved, materialistic, commercial, fake, and imposing. We destroy rainforests for our own profit and despite knowing that we endanger some of the most exotic and beautiful creatures in the world as well as destroying the homes of some of the most interesting primitive cultures that exist we still press on burning and clear-cutting and guiltlessly murdering the Earth. We squabble over land disputes, resources and countless pathetically childish things that we only want for our profit and so that we have the money to go out and buy materials unnecessary for our survival.

All the things wrong with this world and if we started them then shouldn't we end them. Lose ends only drift further apart. It will soon be perpetually impossible to correct our mistakes. Civilized humans complain constantly about conceited things, when things that are expected quantities here, are precious things in other places.

Our quality of life is extremely good compared to the other peoples of the world because we're greedy and conceited and we, instead of helping the needy peoples of the world, help ourselves become rich and fat and dominating, qualities we don't need to live, but that we think we do.

But we just push all the other problems of the world aside because we cannot face reality and see that it's our fault, that we did this and that we should be held accountable. The whole world is going down a giant polluted toilet and nobody cares.

I think I have a very good life. I have a loving family, my dad, my mom, and my older sister. I'm never truly tired, cold, or hungry, and I have enough love to last a life time. But not every child in every country does not get that kind of protection and more importantly, love. There are counties where young women, who are not that different than my self, that are forced to cover there lovely faces with veils and such. Every child deserves an education, good quality food, and love. But, you have counties filled with hatred and violence. What do I expect my community to do? I expect my WORLD to help. Make donations to funds to help those people who need that extra help. I don't expect the violence to stop, there are conflicts in the middle east that go SOOO far back in history that it is unthinkable that it is still a problem. My own hope for my children is to have a more peaceful world. One without famine or prejudices, just love.

To measure the quality of life today one has to take into consideration happiness and the opportunities one has. In today's world there is technology that allows a person's live to be improved or even lengthened, in the United States (where I live) there are opportunities through public school and hard work. But all that opportunity has a cost, many families don't enjoy a sit down meal and therefore never really have to interact with one another or even get to know each other. Yes, there are families that do sit down and have a great bond, but there are other elements that may interfere with that bond. I believe that my quality of life is very good, I have the opportunity to get a great job that I love, because public school is available to me where as in a third world country I might not be going to school right now. I am very thankful that I was adopted into the United States and my family. We aren't exactly the closest family but we eat dinner every night together and occasionally go out to the movies or some other family excursion. In my school there are, available, many theatre programs as well as sports. Which turns out very well for me because I don't play sports. Theater gives me an outlet for creativity and it gives me the opportunity to have an extracurricular that I enjoy. I am doing an internship right now at my public library, which is another plus of today's world, a library that you can read all the books you want for free. Going to school, doing an internship and being in theater give me some very different looks on job options. While I would probably love a career in theater, I want a more grounded job. I am right now in the state of mind that I would like to teach and in order to teach one must have a degree from college. I would like to go to a good college and that can be reached and thus theoretically insure that I will have a job. When I am an adult i would like not to be living in this community, it is to small really to grow, I don't know where i would live but it wouldn't be here. If I had the power to change one thing to make the world better I would change pollution to take care of the earth, because it is the only place we have. If we don't protect it we are destined to a bad end. I can't ensure that this will happen I would like for it to happen, but I don't feel I can do anything about it. A positive future can be ensured by if you can do your best to ensure that good future. The future is up to us and it is up to us to ensure that our own futures are good.