I felt the ship had sailed on to the New World, and I was left at the docks watching it. I realized it wasn't too late yet because there were others like me who missed the ship. They were my peers who also wanted a taste of what the unknown could offer. We all plunged into the cool water swimming after the ship. The currents were too strong at times that others were being pulled underwater. With the help of other swimmers nearby, they were able to stay afloat guiding them through until they were able to swim again on their own. Those who didn't put effort in this first obstacle were swept away or forever submerged into the pit of ignorance.

There were no reports due at a certain date and I didn't even know the purpose of the datab ase that we were assigned. I didn't know the whole structure of the class. I think the whole class was surprised when we were given a final date for the midterms and amazed at how many pages were due. Just when we all thought that we could easily cruise until our master came up with something to do we realized there was already so much in store for us, many of which we weren't even aware of.

I am well aware of my capabilities and how I would use them to conquer the task at hand. When the date finally dawned upon me, and the class was given the exact requirements then I was ready for what ever came my way. The sea turned rough once again, but I was prepared to overcome this struggle. We could head in any direction we chose as long as we tackled the problems our master put upon us.

Because there was a lack of guidance at the beginning I felt a little bit of resentment for my master. I was so frustrated that I had to literally drag myself to class. What made it worse was that I had it on Tuesdays and Thursdays...there was no way out. I figured if I made this type of feeling run my life, it would only become worse. Surely, there was some way I could take control of myself again.

Sometimes I would compare my class to a mine field. I had to walk in there cautious of the criticisms that our master openly gave out. Everyone sat in there hoping that their name would not be the target of the day. I wasn't used to being criticized openly in front of the whole class and I could feel my body get warm both from embarassment and anger. As with everyone else, all their feelings and emotions were displayed the minute we walked out of class and headed straight to the lab. It was one way of relieving this anger and frustration that built up from the start of entering that class.

I was expressing my rage to one of my peers, Jasmine Chatelain when she informed me that I was to accept our master's teaching methods. She told me that was nothing new to her because it was the European style of tea ching and learning. I reasoned that we were in America, and I had the right to keep my progress and grades in privacy. Something gnawed at me, however, buried deep in my mind. Just the semester before I was taking a class on Cross-cultural psychology. I would be throwing away what I learned and the topic of my paper which I strongly agreed on if I went on thinking this way.

When different cultures come together, we must understand that each individual is influenced by the attitudes, customs, and beliefs of their culture and their personal experiences. In order to have a successful and fulfilling interaction then we have to bear in mind and look beyond these differences, so we may learn to accept one another and do away with the prejudices and stereotypes that our society places on certain different cultures.

I thought about this more and more. I am going to give myself the chance to learn from Dr. James and understand his culture along the way. I slowly felt all that anger built up crumbling down. I was a new person that day, and I was going to concentrate my efforts not at my frustrations but at defeating the barriers that stood between me and my work.

As I've mentioned earlier time proved to be a major conflict. Time management was necessary in order to get all my work done. I had to balance the schedule of my classes, as well as, the time I needed to work at the computer lab. The hours they provided at the lab did not help either. There were times when I'd get kicked out of the lab because there was a long waiting list. Sometimes the labs would be crowded especially on those days nearing our midterm dates.

The computer labs also closed too early . Also, in some labs there weren't lab monitors to help me out whenever something went wrong with the computer. I had to figure it out myself and if I couldn't then I'd get frustrated even more. The atmosphere in some computer labs weren't predictable. Some days it would be too crowded to the point where I would get dizzy, and couldn't go on working on my pages. Some labs were either too cold or hot and humid, which made it difficult to concentrate.

Even with my own computer and modem at home, there was still a barrier that confronted me. There were only certain hours of the day that was possible for me to connect with the UH server. I often got busy signals or it took a while to get connected. When the connection went through sometimes it was only a matter of minutes until I would get cut off again. I had to change my sleeping pattern again and wake up early in the morning around two or three.

There weren't too many people trying to get through at these hours which made it easier for me to do my work. Of course, this did not last long because, my body soon grew too weary. I was restless during classes and it was causing me to lose my appetite. I was faced with another problem. I had to save my health, so I turned to an alternative plan. I would just have to endure those long hours and conditions at the school labs.

Often I would hear my friends talking about all the cool stuff in the web. What web? You could just imagine now how lost I was about the whole idea of the internet. I never really took the time to explore what I had on my computer with the fear that I would touch the wrong button and everything would disappear. To sum it up, I was technophobic or had the symptoms of computer phobia.

Overcoming this hesitant feeling of using the computer was a challenge itself. I had to keep reminding myself that I should control the computer instead of allowing it to control me. What did I have to fear, it was only a computer. Only my fear was keeping me from all those great information on the superhighway that I was afraid to enter. My friends were already rolling along and I was still debating whether or not I should enter the ramp to enter the superhighway.

Although some topics for our reports were very time consuming, I found them very helpful and worth the trouble and effort to publish them up. I found alternatives to doing searching and using different types of search engines during our quest to find mat erials related to our database. There are so much information that I found available that I never thought possible just by using the internet.

For future reference, these psychology courses will most likely give me a respectable background on computers which many employers will see as a positive note. I have learned to create home pages with graphics. With all hte effort I have taken to accomplish this task I am learning to appreciate the other home pages that I see on the internet. They too have taken the time and effort to put a part of themselves into creating that site.

I have learned an even more valuable lesson in that I am becoming more aware that a person's capabilities can extend beyond what he or she thinks. I was amazed at myself because of what I have accomplished throughout the semester. In my reports, I have clearly expressed the emotions and feelings that I have encountered throughout the course. More importantly I have shared my views and thoughts in different subject matters. I hope its purpose will reach others as they land on my site. I wanted to leave an impression of myself through my pages, so I hope that has been accomplished.

It is wonderful now how much cheaper it is to communicate through e-mail. Being on-line saves me a 32cents stamp for air mail and the high price of talking through the phone. These days prices for everything are always increasing that we must look to other ways of communicating cheaper, and I think e-mail provides this for me. Also e-mail cuts the amount of time necessary for one mail to get to another part of the world. I love the efficiency of the internet because what would normally take four days to a week for a mail to arrive would be sent in a matter of minutes.

There are also various ways to manipulate the use of e-mail. There are ways available for groups of people to talk all at once. I have tried this and I get a headache trying to figure out which one I should be reading and what I should be typing. There are ways of going into private chat rooms. My roommate loves to spend most of her time on line with many of her friends. This is what Dr. James refers to as an addict. She stays up really late, sometimes until six in the morning, just chatting away. I think that is far too ridiculous.

I see the internet in a whole new light from the first time that I discovered it existed. I've always seen computers and the internet as something beyond our time. It belonged to our future generations. Now I see that we are the future and we have managed to travel several light years into that future. I am still amazed at the efficiency and productivity of the internet and computers as a whole.

The number of people using the internet is still expanding everyday. However, there are still others who remain to be left in the dark. There is an increasing amount of need to educate our youngsters today making them start early through the introduction of computers in several schools. I think this is a great idea.

The computer is definitely a powerful technological advancement for our society. Computer users have the power to acquire resources available on line whether for entertainment reasons, up to date news, information on several topics, or just sending and receiving e-mail from anywhere in the world.As with every new invention, as more and more people get involved on-line there are certain problems that will arise.

There are certain negative effects also involved in that children may be able to access uncensored material lacking taste. The idea of telecommuting also poses a controversial issue. More time can be spent at home with working parents and their children, however, certain jobs may be eliminated and the work ethics of certain places will change. There will be a lack of social community in the workplace if businesses were done through that manner. There are also issues of hackers with illegal tampering of business and government information.

As we come closer and closer to a computer age, more laws will be set to govern that aspect of our life. We must keep in mind that we use technology for the advancement of our human race and not for the destruction of the human good. We must also be cautious that we do not allow the computer to take hold of social interaction which is the essence of humanity.