Day to Day

2009-05-26T07:43:00.004-05:00

Final Blog

I don’t know exactly how I feel about blogging, but overall, I didn’t like it. It was really hard for me to generate ideas. I couldn’t find anything that I could write multiple entries about. Sometimes I did have good ideas but it wasn’t something I wanted other people to read. When I write, I don’t like other people to read my work unless it is finished and says what I want it to say. My first drafts are not good and I’ll be the first to admit that. If I want to write something good, it takes time and effort. Words don’t just spill out of me like some people I know. Every sentence they type is a good one almost every time. Blogs are just too unedited. I don’t like that about them. It makes things more free-flowing and real, but it gets to a point were I get sick of reading it all.
I can only read peoples opinions and actually care so many times. Blogs are just too stimulating at times. There are so many different things you can do and applications you can ad that it gets to be too much. It takes away from the writing and just distracts me. I’m used to a book. It’s black and white, and its about the words and sentences that make it interesting. Maybe I am a little old fashioned, but that’s how I like it. I didn’t realize this until I saw blogs. It matches the world today. Colors and little things everywhere so we are always being stimulated. At first it is cool and fun to look at, but now I’m just sick of it and I want to write in a notebook, or read a book.
I also didn’t like how often we had to write. Eventually it was just too much. It wasn’t quality writing anymore because I couldn’t think of enough things to talk about.

2009-05-20T19:15:00.000-05:00

Should we make graduation parties such a big deal?

When you start getting graduation party invitations, it’s like a whole new season begins. For the next three weekends you don’t even have to cook for yourself because there’s always a grad party that will feed you well whether it’s a brunch, lunch, dinner, or dessert party.
I honestly think a lot of this is a big waste of money. It all starts with senior pictures. You spend hundreds of dollars going to a professional photographer and getting little wallet sized pictures to hand out to your friends. Half of the people lose them, half of them are just being nice and taking one, and the others might actually keep it for couple years.
Then you have graduation party invitations. Each year they get more and more elaborate and I’m sure consequently more and more expensive. They are filled with colored ink and some were even magnets. Others had glossy finishes or multiple pictures. The only smart thing people did this year was send out an invitation on Facebook. This is free and can reach your friends that don’t need a formal invitation.
Once the graduation parry preparations begin, the money never stops flowing out of the wallets and purses of the parents. You have to have a new outfit of course. That’s a couple hundred dollars. Then you have to buy decorations. Instead of getting a few streamers and balloons, you have to get table cloths, confetti, little paper cut-outs that say “Congrats Grad!” or some other cheesy phrase, and other unnecessary décor. This will run you fifty bucks. We don’t even have a party yet and we’re already over two hundred dollars in the hole. We need food of course. You could just have it all homemade for the most part but that only gets you so far. You still need to buy the big sheet cake and drinks. You can’t eat without sitting down. I’m assuming people don’t randomly have fifty chairs sitting around their houses, or ten tables, so you have to rent them.
All of these expenses add up and soon you realize this isn’t going to be cheep. Why not make things a little simpler. I think all of this has gotten out of hand. People are just trying to make money and they are getting exactly what they want. Simplify it and cut out things we really don’t need. It supposed to be about graduating, not who can spend the most money.

2009-05-15T06:44:00.000-05:00

Should we have to finish our physics project?

Seniors last day is Wednesday the 27th. I’m a junior and we have to keep coming until June 11th. In physics class we have a final project instead of a final test. We just assumed that our projects wouldn’t be due until around June 11th. What else would we do one the seniors leave? We might as well work on our projects. But the teacher asked on if we would have our projects done by Friday. My partner and I just looked at each other and were like a no way. We hadn’t even start and Friday was two days away. She told us she would make seniors go Friday and we could have it done by Tuesday after Memorial Day weekend.
We still didn’t like the idea of this considering we still had so many days left, but we did it anyway. Our project explained the physics behind something free-falling. For the project you have to make a video, power point, or poster board. We decided to make a power point and a video. On the power point we explained free fall and other physics concepts related to it. We also had to include equations related to it and real life applications.
The video was the best part, or at least the most fun part of the project. We went to HyVee and bought a huge watermelon, cantaloupe, squash, and tomato. We set up a ladder and a tarp. The ladder was only about ten feet tall. We dropped the tomato first and nothing really happened. We decided to try the cantaloupe next. It was a little more exciting, but didn’t explode like we expected. We decided to make things a little more interesting. My partner decided to go on his roof and drop the fruit from there. He crawled out of his bedroom window with a backpack with the fruit in it. He slowly shimmied across the roof until he got to the peak above the tarp. We started small again. We dropped the tomato and it splattered a little more, but it still wasn’t very exciting. Then we dropped the squash and cantaloupe. Still they weren’t very exciting, they just split in half. Then it was time for the watermelon. Everyone was hoping for a show. Sure enough it exploded into a million pieces and went everywhere. It made having to do the project two weeks early worth it.

2009-05-12T22:20:00.000-05:00

Should we get sick of things?

My family gets Chinese at least every two weeks. We went to HyVee, and sat down to enjoy our dinner. We were just talking and my dad posed a question. Why do we get sick of things? I didn’t really understand what he meant. He wondered why if we eat something everyday we get sick of it. It is delicious the first day and you can’t get enough, but eventually you get sick of it.
Me and my other family members all had our reasons for this. I said that it had something to do with genetics. When people didn’t have access to the variety and amount of food we do now, they needed to eat lots of different things in order to maintain a healthy diet. If they ate the same thing everyday, they wouldn’t get the right nutrients. This made sense to me but I felt like there was something more to it.
That wasn’t the interesting part of the conversation. My dad then related the question to life. He said the secret to being happy in life is variety. This is why he thinks people don’t like their jobs even if they’re doing something they love. You can’t do something everyday for years and love it by the time you retire. It is just how we are wired. We get sick of things, or bored, or something goes wrong.
I never thought of this before but this could change everything. If you can figure out a way to change your life every so often to make it novel and new than you could possibly be a lot happier.
This is easier said than done though. Our society has a very tight leash when it comes to change. People like to stay the same, and have their routines. They think they are happier this way. They feel comfortable, but really they are just getting bored and will eventually not enjoy their routine. Even if they realize this, it’ll be too late or to hard to do anything about it. You can’t just change jobs when your fifty. You would have to go back to college or start at the lowest wage. We get cornered by specialization.
I don’t know how to change up life often enough to make it continuously enjoyable, but I believe it is one of the keys to staying happy.

2009-05-09T20:42:00.000-05:00

Should people understand tennis more continued…

Individual regionals is a lot different than team regionals and is just one day long. Calling it individual regionals is a little misleading from the beginning because it includes doubles teams, not just singles players. As you should know now, there are six players on a team. When you go to individual regionals, your team is allowed to enter two doubles teams, and two singles players. It is up to the players or coaches to decide who plays what. The reason for this is so that if you are a very good singles player, but the rest of your team isn’t very good, and doesn’t make it as a team to state, you can still make it.
You go to the host teams courts and all of the coaches have a meeting. There are six teams total. The coaches decide the brackets for singles players and doubles players. They do this by nominating there players for different seeds. If your singles player or doubles team gets a top two seed, they get a first round buy. It doesn’t matter if you are a singles player or doubles team; you have to play four games in order to make it to state, unless you get a buy, than you only play three. Once you lose you are out.
The top two singles players and doubles teams make it to state. You would think that you wouldn’t have to play the final round then, but if you win the final round, you get a buy at state and get seeded in different brackets than the other regional champions.
State is three days long. The first two days is singles and the last day is doubles. For doubles you play two matches to win, one on the morning and one in the afternoon.

2009-05-07T20:28:00.000-05:00

Should people understand tennis more?

I am a tennis player and it is regional time, or sub-state, or districts, or whatever you like to call it, time. Everyone that I have talked to has no idea what’s going on or understands. I’ve been congratulated on being a state champion and state doesn’t even start for another two weeks. What makes it confusing is the fact that there is team state and individual state, and regionals for both of these.
Most people don’t even know the basics of tennis unless they have played on a team at some point. A tennis team consists of six singles players. These players are ranked one through six, one being the best and six being the worst. Every team does this. When you have a normal meet, there are two teams and you pair the corresponding numbers together and there are six singles matches. So number one from our team plays the number one from the other team, the number two plays the number two and so on. All of these matches start at the same time. Once everyone is done with singles, doubles begin. The six singles players are paired up to make three doubles teams. Usually the number one and number two are together, the number three and four are together, and five and six are together, but this can vary. Sometimes doubles teams don’t go exactly by ranking because your singles ranking can change if you challenge someone, but you would still play with the same doubles partner because you know how they play and you work well together, which is very important. The doubles teams are also ranked number one through number three, and like singles, the corresponding doubles teams from the two teams at the meet, play each other. This means that there is a total of nine matches played during a meet. The team who wins the majority, which is at least five, wins the meet. Winning a doubles or singles match earns the team one point. The team can have any combination of singles and doubles wins to make a total of at least five points to win the meet.
In order to get to state as a team, you must win team regionals. There are four rounds in team regionals. You have to win all four meets to make it to state because it is single elimination. Team regionals works like a normal meet. The only difference is that as soon your team wins five point or five matches, you stop. This means that you may only play singles matches and if you win five of those, you don’t even have to start doubles. There are only four teams that make it to state. Our team got a first round buy so we only have to win three meets to go to state. This Saturday, we played a meet in the morning and we won that meet, so we played in the afternoon, so we are in the finals. Finals will be at Washington high school against Xavier. If we win this meet we will go to state.

2009-05-04T17:24:00.000-05:00

Should we be scared of hypnotists?

I went to post prom and the main event is always the hypnotist at the end. We bowled for awhile and then at two o’clock, the hypnotist started to set everything up. He just seemed like a normal guy with a suit on. He told a few stories then began to talk about hypnotizing people and the rules and all that. Then it was time for the people that wanted to get hypnotized to come up to the stage. There was a mad rush and about fifteen chairs were filled. I definitely didn’t want to get hypnotized.
I actually tried to get hypnotized in eighth grade at our lock-in, but it didn’t work. I was a lot more courageous back then because I would never do that now. I don’t know exactly why, but for some reason I don’t trust the whole situation. I have even read about it in my psychology text book, so I basically know what is going on, but I still think it is a lot more complicated then people think. If you don’t have someone that knows what they are doing they could mess up and not get you un-hypnotized. That is what scares me the most.
It was a great show and it was really funny because of all of the crazy things people did. He told the participants that they forgot their names and when he asked them what their names were, and some of them started crying. It is really weird how people showed so much emotion without any limits and said things they would never normally say. When you get hypnotized do you show the real you? Do you say things you hold back? Are you exposing your unconscious? Or is it all just random? I’m not really sure and that is what makes me wonder whether or not this is ok.
After the show was over I thought it was a weird ending. I imagined the hypnotist would get everyone back on stage and go through a process to un-hypnotize everyone similar to the process he went through to hypnotize them, but that never happened. He just said, “Don’t follow my suggestions anymore.” There were people out in the crowd, not everyone was sitting in their chairs and some were acting like they were still hypnotized. I just don’t trust all of it because if you never got un-hypnotize, you would be a very different person.

2009-04-30T10:05:00.002-05:00

Should we be worried about the Swine Flu?
Everyone has a different reaction to hearing news like the Swine Flu or SARS. I have just observed different people and all of their personal opinions.
The first person is my dad. He becomes completely preoccupied with all of it. He talks about it every night at dinner and goes off on these crazy rants. Last night my mom and I were giving him a hard time because he had done the same thing when everyone was worried about the Bird Flu. He said that we don’t respect history. He said we should go look up 1919 and look at all the people that died from the flu. He is completely serious about all of this. He is one of those people that goes to the store and stocks up and reads about it all the time. This doesn’t seem like him at all. He is usually the calm person that keeps everything in perspective.
These issues come up in school a lot as well, since sickness can rapidly spread. One of my teachers just said it was a complete joke. She said that we shouldn’t even worry about it because there have been cases way worse.
I think that both of these reactions are too extreme. I’m really not worried we’re all going to die but at the same time we should respect it.
Also if you’re going to have an opinion, you should be able to support it with evidence. Don’t just ramble on about things that may or may not happen, go online and go to the Center for Disease Control and Prevention website and learn the real facts.
I think people should realize that being careful shouldn’t be a temporary thing. We should be washing our hands and trying not to spread germs everyday, not just when there is a Swine Flu or SARS epidemic.
I just try to stay calm when all of this happens. There really isn’t much you can do. It isn’t killing people if it is treated right away and you are healthy. It sounds like a bad problem because it started killing people in countries where there isn’t adequate health care and ways for people to get treated quickly and effectively. There is also medicine you can take for it.
People just need to keep an eye on it, but not freak out. The only thing you can do is try to minimize how many germs you are exposed to.

2009-04-26T19:36:00.000-05:00

Should we vandalize?

We’ve probably all done it or have been victims at some point in our lives, of vandalism. It is all fun and games until you actually start damaging things. TPing is fine. You throw toilet paper all over the place and it’s gone after a windy or rainy day. This doesn’t cause any damage. You can dump food all over the place or write things with ketchup on the driveway or front door and even though this might be a little more of a hassle, it still doesn’t cause any damage. You can take plastic wrap and wind it around someone’s car so they can’t open the door, or put rubber bands all over someone’s driveway and sidewalk because they can’t sweep them up, and you still haven’t damaged anything. People have begun to cross the line.
It isn’t fun when people egg or shoot out windows. Eggs scratch up paint especially on cars and houses and are a mess. All over Cedar Rapids, windows were shot out of cars. Windows are expensive.
I wish the people actually causing damage would realize that what they’re doing isn’t just a prank, it’s serious. I think it’s just ridiculous that they can’t think ahead for more than a second. Why don’t they realize that what they’re doing cause a lot of damage, headaches, and money. I haven’t figured it out yet. Maybe they do realize all this and do it anyways.
If your about to do something to someone else’s property, think of doing it to your own first. If it would be more than just annoying and actually cause damage, don’t do it.
Think of how hard that person worked to get that, and how mad you would be if you had worked hard to get something and some stupid kids messed it up or fun.

2009-04-25T07:24:00.000-05:00

Should we just let it go?

Tennis season has only half begun considering half the time we have had to cancel a meet or practice because of the weather. We’ll get one or two nice days, then it’ll rain or be really cold. We pulled off the first two Saturday meets, but could do it last weekend or this weekend.
Last weekend was so inconvenient. We had to be at the courts by eight thirty. Right as I was stepping out of my car, it began to sprinkle. Everyone just looked at each other; we didn’t just wake up for nothing, so it better stop! It held off and we started the meet. I finished my singles match, but no one else did by the time it started to down pour. Now we had to begin following the conference rules. We had all of the girls come over to the coaches, say what the score was for their games, for the game they stopped in the middle of, and who was serving on which side. We all sat under the pavilion wondering what to do next. It was obviously going to rain for awhile longer, and the courts were already completely soaked, so the only way they would ever dry off in time was if the rain instantly stopped, and warmed to eighty degrees with no clouds in the sky. That’s a little ridiculous and everyone thought we should just go home except for the coaches who insist on following the conference rules. The rules say that we have to wait an hour and a half before we officially call it off. What a waste of time! Just use your common sense and let us go home.
If it couldn’t get any worse, it did. On Saturdays we play a team in the morning at nine and a team in the afternoon starting at one. Even though our morning meet was rained out, we might have to come back for the afternoon meet. Our coaches let us leave after only a half hour from the morning meet instead of an hour and a half, but we had to be back at the courts by twelve thirty. The coaches said they would call if the courts were too wet. I drove by at noon and they were still completely wet. I called our team captain and asked if she had heard anything and I couldn’t believe it when she said no. so I was there at twelve thirty and we ended up sqeegying for and hour and still having it canceled.
I think everyone takes this way too seriously. I say just cancel it and don’t worry about it. This is a sport dictated by the weather. Everyone insists on making up every last meet and doing crazy things like waiting an hour and a half when clearly we’re not going to be able to play. I say just let them go. I don’t like playing three meets in a row and having to reschedule my week because of a rescheduled meet.
You find quickly the weather man isn’t always the most reliable.

2009-04-23T09:39:00.001-05:00

Should we all just grow up by now?

I was sitting in the library working on some homework. Someone came up to talk to me for a little bit. I went to go get a paper that I printed and when I got back, my ipod was gone. He had taken it and given it to some other kid before I got back. The other kid walked out of the library. I never see the other kid so it would be hard to get it back. I texted him and asked him to give it to someone that was in my next class. He wouldn’t, and kept saying he gave it away or something. I never got it back the rest of the day. The next morning I was really mad and he finally gave it to someone that would see me. I got into my next class and it was sitting on my desk. I would have been happy and the whole problem would have been solved, but the cover had been taken off and the headphones were gone. I went asked all of the people that supposedly had it and all of them put the blame on someone else or denied everything. I just gave up on the headphones, I was just glad I got my ipod back.
I am just sick of times like these. They are just a waste of everyone’s time and energy. Didn’t we stop stealing things from people in fifth grade? I’ve learned the hard way many times that when someone takes something, it usually comes back broken or messed within someway. People are so inconsiderate and need to grow up. This is an ipod that is at least one hundred and fifty dollars, not just a pencil or something.
Another thing that made me really mad was that they thought I was overreacting about the whole situation. I’m the victim here. You can’t steel someone’s ipod then tell them to shut up when they ask for it back. I just can’t even talk to these people sometimes because everything that comes out of their mouth is so immature and annoying and irrational. It isn’t funny anymore when you break things or lose them or cause damage. They don’t understand that even when you try to explain it. I have just given up. Hopefully they will figure it out eventually like everyone else.

2009-04-19T18:35:00.000-05:00

Should we allow these articles in the Torch?

The Torch is our school news paper and in my opinion, they are over-stepping there boundaries. They have published some very shocking cover stories in my opinion. The first that shocked me was the sexting article. I understand that this a issue in schools, but the way they went about addressing the issue was a little ridiculous. They interviewed the two people most involved and just replaced their names with fake ones. Everyone knew who it was and some of the details they revealed made my mouth drop.
The second most shocking cover story is the most recent one about two girls at our high school that are pregnant. They share every detail for the newspaper and once again make my mouth drop.
I feel as if the newspaper is taking advantage of the fifteen minutes of fame everyone wants in high school. They need to sensor themselves a little more. It seems to me like they are just worried about the story and not about the people involved. If I were involved in either of these articles, I wouldn’t comment when asked for an interview. People don’t realize that everyone twists what you say, even when it is the truth. Letting these articles be written about you, just opens more doors for people that love to make up stories.
I think everyone involved with the newspaper needs to be a little more careful. They are beginning to get a little too far into peoples personal lives. There is live between a catchy story and a person’s privacy. They may say that it is the person’s choice to be interviewed, but it is hard for some people to realize the damage that is being done. Most high school kids get caught up in wanting to be on the front page, they forget why they are on there in the first place, and it usually isn’t good.

2009-04-17T18:23:00.000-05:00

Should you always assume it’s a Kodak moment?

This past weekend I was at a hotel. I decided to go for a dip in the hot tub before going to bed. I walked into the pool area and was worried when I saw a whole family with multiple little kids. I looked over at the hot tub and there was only one other person in it. I sat down and just leaned my head back to relax. Before I could start relaxing, I heard a commotion. I turned my head to see what was happening and I saw five little boys run to their mother and grab foam swords form her. They all ran back into the water and began being as annoying as possible. One of the boys figured out that if you slap the sword and the water really hard it makes a really loud sound. Sure enough all of the others copied and before I knew it, my nice relaxing hot tub time was over.
I was stunned to watch as the mother didn’t stop them or realize how annoying they were. My parents would have stopped us after about five minutes for sure. The mother instead began snapping pictures, endless pictures of everything. She encouraged all of the kids to be as annoying as possible because then they would get her attention and she would take a picture. The older sibling was sitting on the other side of the hot tuba and she even came over and took a picture of him just sitting there.
Now that we have digital cameras, people just take pictures of everything because they know they can just delete them later. This is great but can we go back to the good old days when you had to be careful what you tool a picture of because you didn’t have unlimited. I think we would all benefit from this.

2009-04-16T18:12:00.000-05:00

Should we all pay the price for prom?

I have two older brothers. I watched both of them go to prom and go through all of the work to get ready. I remember go to the mall with my oldest brother because he had to pick up his tuxedo. The name of the place he was renting it from was a foreign name. I really wanted him to get me something, I can’t remember what, but he said he would, but only if I pronounced the name of the rental place correct. I obviously couldn’t, so he didn’t get me what i wanted. Other than him getting a tuxedo and maybe a haircut a couple days before, guys don’t have it too hard. They do have to pay for dinner and tickets, which can get expensive.
Now I am going to prom and I don’t feel bad for them at all for the most part. Girls have to spend so much money to keep up and look as nice as everyone else. Now that I am actually going, the planning and, money seeming to disappear, has just begun. It all starts with the dress. People go all over the place to find the right dress. I ended up taking a road trip to the Mall of America to find mine. Other girls find them on vacation, so they’re unique and hopefully no other girl will have the same dress as you. Dresses are extremely expensive. My dad said he was will to pay two hundred dollars of my dress. I’m stuck paying one hundred and eighty more and it was on sale. I saw some girls trying on dresses over five hundred dollars, then walking out with them in their hand five minute later. It is all a little ridiculous after awhile.
After you pay for the dress, don’t get excited because it just gets worse. I have to get a few alterations on my dress which will run around fifty dollars if I’m lucky. There was a lady at the store that said she could do it, but when we asked for an estimate, she said it would be over seventy five dollars and then they would have to ship it to us for another fifteen. Hopefully we can find someone locally that will be cheaper.
Now that the dress is done, you have to accessorize. This includes hair, necklace, bracelet, shoes, most likely a manicure and pedicure, makeup, and tanning. Each little thing adds up. Getting your hair done is optional but it saves a lot of time and fights with your mom if you just get it done. It won’t be falling out by the end of the night or before dinner is even over. The jewelry is fairly expensive even when it is fake. A fake necklace, earrings and bracelet with most likely cost over thirty dollars. Shoes are the second worst purchase you have to make. Getting a cheap pare will still cost at least fifty dollars. Getting your nails done is a luxury in my opinion. It takes a long time and cost around fifty dollars as well to get your hands and feet done. Then you have to tan. People usually go three times a week and sometimes girls go more. Packages cost thirty or forty dollars and that it just the regular beds. These beds usually burn you so you want to upgrade of course so you get a more golden tan.
By the end of it you are looking at a very expensive night. It is honestly hard to justify spending all of this money on one night, but everyone does it.

2009-04-12T17:51:00.000-05:00

Should stores be open on Easter and other holidays?

I work at Parlor City. All of the employees turn in the hours they can work every fifteen days. I have so much going on during the week between volleyball, tennis and homework that I hardly ever work. I work once during the week and on Sundays. I usually just write down that I can work on Sundays because I’m usually always free of any commitments. Then the Monday before Easter Sunday, I was looking through my schedule and realized I had gotten scheduled to work Sunday.
My dad was pretty mad. We were supposed to go up to my grandmas and have a nice Easter Sunday with his side of the family. He told me to ask everyone and see if they could work for me. Of course everyone said no because they would be out of town or with family, or not stupid enough to not ask for the day off. I had to tell my dad no one could work. He even told me I should quit, but I knew that was a little irrational.
Everything ended up being fine. My grandma only lives an hour away, so we all woke up early Sunday and went to the nursing home where she lives. Two of my dad’s brothers and one of his sisters were there. One of my dad’s brothers has two kids. We got to see them hunt for Easter eggs and get all the candy they wanted. Then we all helped make a really nice lunch. We all chipped in helping to make the corn, mashed potatoes, salad, ham, lamb, and more. I didn’t have to work till four, so we were done with lunch and even had time for dessert before we had to head out.
Even though we managed to pull a nice Easter off, I don’t think it is right to have people working when they should be with their family. We are so busy these days that any excuse to spend time with the family is a good excuse. When we can’t even get Easter Sunday off, it is a red flag that we are all working way too hard. One day really doesn’t make that big of a difference. Just let your workers enjoy their family and the managers should too. And we didn’t even have a very busy day because it was bad weather, so maybe that is karma.

2009-04-11T09:46:00.000-05:00

Should the banks change their hours?

I hate looking at the clock and seeing that it is ten minutes until five when I get in my car with a paycheck in hand. Ever since I have had to go to the bank I have realized how ridiculous and inconvenient their hours are, Monday through Friday, nine to five, and Saturday from nine to noon. First of all people don’t even get off work until around five. So even if they do get a paycheck, they don’t have time to get to the bank to cash it.
People go to work everyday to make money and can’t get it because the bank is open when they are working and closed when they aren’t. And it’s nice they’re open on Saturdays but do they really expect a high schooler like me to get up and get to the bank before noon? ATM’s have helped but there are some things you can’t do with a machine, you need a person there.
This isn’t only the banks problem. Other businesses are equally guilty. So many places have terrible hours. Doctors, dentists, and other places require us to take time off work and school to go see them as well. The second worst place would have to be the DMVs. They have equally bad hours. It’s nearly impossible to go get a new license or new picture without sacrificing something from your schedule. Then on Saturdays you run into the biggest lines ever because that is the only time anyone can make it. The tensions begin to run high and it becomes one of the most unpleasant places to be. No one wants to be there, not even the workers and everyone is watching the clock tick away time as you sit their with a little paper number in your hand. One time we were waiting for over an hour and I saw people in line get turned away because they had to close.
I don’t know what the solution to this problem is though. It’s great that we have grocery stores and places like Wal-Mart open 24 hours a day, but that is a little ridiculous. I think they should extend their hours, but then no one would want to work at a bank. I wouldn’t want to work until seven at night when I have a family to cook dinner for and things to do.

2009-04-10T21:37:00.000-05:00

Should we have universal healthcare in the United States?

Now that we have a new president, there are many issues that are reconsidered. Right now universal healthcare is one of them.
It is great because everyone would be able to receive healthcare. They wouldn’t have to deal with multiple insurance companies or rates, it’s all the same. No one would have to worry about going and getting treated because they don’t have enough money. It wouldn’t matter if you were rich or poor you would all pay the same.
Some people disagree with it because they believe it decreases quality. If a doctor is always paid the same as every other doctor then they may not try as hard. When there isn’t universal healthcare, everyone is competing. They want their hospital to be picked, they want to be the doctor that does the operation, because they want the money. When there is universal healthcare, they don’t have to compete for our business. People just go to whatever hospital or doctors’ office is closest and that is that. There wouldn’t be as many specialists. Also income taxes would increase and private insurance companies would go out of business.
Canada and the UK currently have universal healthcare. The US needs to consider it or think of something else because what we currently have as healthcare is certainly not available or working for everyone. There are still millions of Americans that cannot afford healthcare. They have children that go untreated as well. This is the saddest to me. Children need to be treated when they need it because they had no choice. It’s not their fault their parents didn’t get a job or won’t pay for insurance. They don’t need to suffer for their parents mistakes. And maybe their parents are hard working, but don’t have a good enough jobs, that give them insurance, so they won’t go get their kids treated until it’s too late.
I think it would solve a lot of problems. Healthcare is healthcare. We are helping more people with universal healthcare. Even if the quality decreases, it won’t be by much. We’re still better off than third world countries or practically anywhere else.
And everyone that is worried about higher taxes should start paying attention to where our tax money is going and why most of it is being wasted, or just go to one less movie every month.

2009-04-05T14:09:00.002-05:00

Should we have to make up the snow days at the end of the year?

There is another snow storm coming in and all I can think about is another snow day. Before they were great, but now it would just be annoying. We’ve had so many this year that even after making a few up we still have over an extra week of school. We are going until June eleventh now. Not only is this ridiculous, but we don’t have anymore half days or in-service days. Instead the last four days of school will be half days. This doesn’t make sense to me at all. This cuts into my summer. Plus volleyball is starting a week earlier so I am left with only two months of summer.
First of all the days we lost were from second trimester. The teachers had to cover the same amount of curriculum anyway because of finals. Most did this by making us learn it ourselves. This means that the extra days at the end of the third trimester are pointless. The teachers will have extra days when they could easily teach it all in the normal amount of days considering that’s the amount of time they have every year. Even if that doesn’t give them enough time, they can adjust and figure out how to fit everything in.
There are also a lot of kids in AP classes. We have our tests done by the middle of May. This means that we will have a month of doing nothing in these classes. That is a waste of my time. I will have two classes everyday where I won’t do anything.
I think everyone needs to relax. Four days is not going to make a difference, especially four half days. It’s not like you can accomplish anything in a half hour anyway. I think we should just make an exception. If we have another snow day because of this newest storm, I say we just let it go. There’s no point in dragging the year out any longer. The teachers will run out of things to teach. There won’t be any children left behind and everyone will learn what they need to. A number of days is just a number. They should just pass a law that says if there are snow days, you don’t have to make them up after going past the original last day of school by more than a week.

2009-04-04T13:13:00.001-05:00

Should gay marriage be legal in Iowa?

I never thought I’d see the day when gay marriage was considered, let alone legalized, in Iowa. I think Iowa is a pretty conservative place to live. Most of the friends and family that I have, don’t necessarily agree with this new law. They don’t belive in it because of their religion, or they just think it is weird or gross. When my social studies teacher announced the news in class, someone sitting next to me couldn’t believe it and was almost disgusted. I wish I could tell those people to get a life.
People go through life everyday wanting to be happy and trying to fit in for the most part. Even when everything seems to be going right, people aren’t necessarily happy. I say anything that helps a person be happier is ok with me.
If someone is gay, it doesn’t affect me. People can say that they will go to hell or stuff like that but it’s not like they are going to hell so why should they worry about it. It’s not their choice. People need to worry more about their own lives and quit trying to control others. By now people know what they want and need so no one has the right to try and tell them what they want and need because they obviously aren’t that person so they wouldn’t know.
You don’t have to act like you agree with it, and everyone is entitled to their opinion, but give me a break. You don’t have to beat a dead horse telling everyone that you don’t agree with something. Just let people live how they want to as long as they aren’t harming anyone and you can live how you want to.
Think about how you feel when you are with your boyfriend, girlfriend, husband, or wife. You can’t explain how you feel, that’s just how it is. This is the same thing for homosexuals. It isn’t any different, or less meaningful that what you feel.
People just need to worry about themselves and quit judging others. It just creates unneeded unhappiness and tension for everyone.
Don’t forget how dumb racism was. Learn from that. Homosexuality isn’t any different. People will look back someday and realize how ridiculous we are. The color of someone’s skin doesn’t determine anything so why should their sexual preference? We are doing the same thing to homosexuals that we did to African Americans but to a lesser extent at least.

2009-04-02T09:29:00.000-05:00

Should I be mad at my parents for not taking enough responsibility?

I have always been a very independent person. I always strived to be as independent as possible with each new opportunity. I could wait to get my license, and get a job, and do things for myself. I wanted to rely as little as possible on my parents. I got sick of being late to activities, forgetting appointments and missing e-mails. I just took on the responsibility of these things and now I need help. I can’t keep up with everything, but my parents are so used to me doing everything for myself that they don’t know when to step in to help and when to stay out of it.
I’m the one that reminds them that there is a parent meeting or something and I’m sick of it. I have enough to worry about and they need to figure out a way to stay on top of things. I am in high school. I don’t know many high school students that keep track of their parents’ lives. I honestly feel like I wouldn’t succeed if I didn’t keep track of all the things they should. Sometimes they are completely oblivious to very important events. They’ll ask me if I signed them up to work at the concession stand. Is that my job, I don’t think so.
I don’t think it is my responsibility to come home and cook dinner or go do something that they should have done a long time ago. They don’t have any homework, they don’t have any practice, and they don’t have any club meetings. I am scheduled to the brim with all kinds of things and they just come home and say they’re tired. Well if they’re tried then I’m pretty much dead because I am the only one that has a reason to be truly tired.
I feel like I have kept track of them too long. I’m sick of worrying about whether they booked the hotels for my volleyball tournament, or know the directions of how to get somewhere.
They always ask me about these things, but when do they think I honestly have time to figure these things out. Sometimes don’t get home until 9:30 at night and they have been home all evening doing who knows what. I think it is time for them to check there e-mail, take responsibility, and act like parents should.

2009-03-29T20:23:00.001-05:00

Should we go to nationals?

This weekend my club volleyball team finished third at the regional volleyball tournament. The whole point of club volleyball is to win regionals. It is comparable to state in high school sports. It is only two days, but it is grueling to say the least. The first day we played five games and the second day we played four. There are two pools and you have to finish in the top three in your pool to advance the next day. The second day in non-stop whether you win or lose. It is double elimination, so if you lose, you go to the bottom of the bracket and have to fight your way back to the top. We played from noon until five with no more than a ten minute break between matches. Plus these matches are intense and close. Once you make it to the second day, the teams are good and there aren’t many blowouts. Your team can either be in the qualifying bracket or non-qualifying. If you are in the qualifying bracket and you place in the top three, you get to go to nationals. We had a terrible first part of our season and weren’t very hopeful going into it. Somehow we ended up only losing one match the first day which advanced us into the tournament bracket the next day.
We won our first match, but lost the second so we were sent down to the bottom of the bracket and had to win two games in a row in order to make top three and make it to nationals. None of us could believe it, but now there is another season that has begun. Nationals aren’t until July so we will be practicing until then instead of being done.
Some of the girls on my team weren’t that committed during the season so the question is raised whether we should go. I have been to nationals before with other teams I have been on and it is very expensive and we always get our butts kicked.
I don’t want to go all the way to Miami, spend all this money and time, and not have girls that want to be there. It is hard to play teams form places like New York and Florida because there are so many girls to choose from. We are from Iowa and we have good teams, but nothing compared to teams you see that have the shortest person on their team as the six foot setter that is left handed, and gets as many kills as their hitters.

2009-03-28T15:30:00.001-05:00

Should my parents take a vacation without me?

My family and I usually always go somewhere over spring break. My mom is a teacher so she always gets the same week of as me and my brothers, so my dad takes one of his weeks of vacation and it all works out. We went skiing most of the time. We would drive out to Colorado and ski for four days. I can barely remember the first time I skied because it was before I was even in kindergarten. For the most part we all even had our own skis and boots. My whole family are very good skiers and enjoy the trip. We would ski all morning, take a break, ski a little more and find a local place to eat. My dad would get a condo for cheap somehow and they were always really nice.
As I got older, I didn’t like skiing as much. It’s a lot of work and after four days you are completely shot. Especially in Colorado because your on actual mountains that are steep and scary honestly. The runs take a half hour sometimes compared to the places you can ski in Iowa which take five minutes and you can almost just go straight down if you’re an experienced skier.
The last trip we took was a few years ago and I realized that I really didn’t like skiing that much. It is pretty expensive to go when you add up lift tickets, rentals, over priced food, and lodging, so when my parents talked about going this year I said I honestly didn’t want to waste my time or their money. They kept asking and telling me that we’d just go for a couple days and head back home, or that we wouldn’t ski all day. I just kept telling them that I really didn’t want to go. It’s pointless for me to waste money doing something I really didn’t enjoy. It wouldn’t have been a vacation at all.
I told them to go without me. My brothers are grown up now and can’t go, and I didn’t want to, so I told them to go without me. My oldest brother who is a cop lives at home so it’s not like I’d be throwing a party.
I couldn’t convince them to go and thought they were dumb. Isn’t this what they had been waiting for, for twenty years, the day they wouldn’t be stuck with kids, the day their kids grew up and could take care of themselves? They could have taken a nice trip away from everything without the kids, but they didn’t for some reason and I can’t figure it out.

2009-03-26T17:18:00.002-05:00

Should I have a Summer Job?

I worked at the ice cream shop down the street last summer. For some reason we can legally get paid less than minimum wage so I only made seven dollars and fifty cents by the end of the summer. I honestly don’t need a job and I’m so busy it’s almost not worth it at that rate. It’s nice to have a check every couple of weeks but I feel like I’m missing out when I have to work until ten. My friends are all doing stuff by then and it’s eleven by the time I can join them because I have to take a shower so I don’t smell like French fries. The smell sticks to my hair even after I wash it and to my clothes too. Even when I don’t get stuck with night shifts I have to work during the day and people do stuff then too. I’ll get invited to the pool right as I head to work.

I have narrowed my options down to two things. First I could just quite, or second I could get a different job. If I quite I wouldn’t have an income. I would always be asking my parents for money or cutting into my savings. My dad agrees that I should quite because it is my last summer with all of my friends. Next summer people with begin to leave and begin their new lives as college students. I want to be able to do anything anytime and not worry about work. You can’t randomly do things because I have work usually. It’s so hard to find a time when everyone can do something so I’ll be one less person to schedule around. Another problem is everyone else is getting a job this year. Their parents are finally getting sick of paying for everything. So I could possibly end up bored waiting for people to get off work, when I could just be working at the same time.

I think the best thing to do would be to try and find a new job where I work form like eight or nine until the afternoon, but at the same time be able to take days off and be make more than minimum wage. This is almost an impossible task, but I might as well try because there is always a chance my dream job is out there.

2009-03-23T15:46:00.006-05:00

Should I worry about the economic depression?

I am a very busy person. I have sports practices, on top of homework, on top of a normal high school social life, and squeezing a job in between all of that isn’t always easy.

I managed to snag a possibly the best job a high school kid could have. My brother’s best friend is the son of a realtor. His mom knew another realtor that needed someone to put open house signs up. He gave her son the job, my brother’s friend. He had the job for about a year, but now goes to college. He couldn’t do the job because his college was too far away. He offered my brother the job because my brother was going to the University of Iowa which is only a half hour away. My brother didn’t think he would be able to pull it off, so he offered it to me. All I have to do is put out about twenty open house signs around Cedar Rapids every Friday night, and pick them up Sunday nights. I get one hundred dollars a weekend.

This couldn’t have gotten much better. I got so good at the route; it only took me an hour and a half to be back to my house. It worked out perfectly because I could go hang out with my friends who had curfews at 12:30, then go do signs and not have to worry about getting up or finishing homework or I could do them right after practice and then go hang out with my friends. Then on Sundays we can’t have sports practices or anything so all I have to do is signs.

I thought it was too good to be true. Everything was going great until this new economic crisis hit. The housing industry was especially hit hard. I didn’t think much of it until I was recently laid of until further notice. I never really thought the economic issues would affect me but they did. My paycheck was once just extra money, but now they need it.

This just shows how much trouble the economy is in right now. Usually I just hear about things happening on the news, but it is actually affecting me personally now. It makes the whole ordeal a lot scarier and real then it was before. I wouldn’t want to live during a time when there is a actually depression like people did in the early forties.

2009-03-19T09:05:00.000-05:00

How should I find the fire again?

I was a great student since 3rd grade. I always did my homework and studied everything the teachers said to study. Freshman and sophomore year, I was the same way. I probably spent 4 or more hours a night doing homework. This was on top of any practice I had, sometimes two practices. I was so good at managing my time and getting everything done. I would study in the car, at dinner, Friday night, or any other time I could fit it in. My parents would always tell me to put it away and enjoy dinner, or just relax and have some fun. I felt I was doing both. I would still hang out with my friends and get my work done.
My parents always said I would get burnt out eventually. I felt my study habits slipping by the end of sophomore year. I can’t get everything done anymore. I’ve spread myself thin and its hard to get everything done now and enjoy anything. I’m so sick and tired of studying things I don’t care about all the time. I’ve found outlets that allow me to be distracted. I get on the computer, go eat, call someone, text someone, just do anything but homework. I just feel like I can’t do anything.
I don’t know how to motivate myself again. I am just getting by right now. I am doing the minimum to get by. If I got a bad grade before it was ok because I knew that I had literally tried my best. Now I know I could have done better. Now that I have gotten the taste of distractions, I can’t help myself.
There’s a quote that I read once and it says the hardest part is getting started. This is so true. Once I start something I can get it done, but I can’t even do that. I don’t even know what I do for five hours each night. I waste so much time now.
I am enjoying myself more, but at the same time I am trying to maintain the same grades with half the effort and it gets a lot more stressful. I can’t truly enjoy things yet because school is always in the back of my mind.
Even when I do try to start trying, its too late and I don’t understand what I’m doing, so I just quite. I’m sick of struggling to understand everything because it is so hard and for the most part I don’t care.

2009-03-12T09:53:00.003-05:00

Should the Linn-Mar player be able to play at the state basketball tournament?

This week is the boys’ basketball state tournament in Des Moines. Everyone knows that Linn-Mar is a good team and should do very well, if not win the whole tournament. Yesterday to everyone’s surprise we found out that one of their starting players would not be playing this week. The newspaper said that he had had people over at his house and the police had been called because there were reports of underage drinking and fighting at his house. The police came and arrested him for disorderly house and arrested others at the party as well. He hadn’t been drinking; he just had others kids over that brought alcohol.

I just went to the state tournament with my team last week and I think this punishment is ridiculous. Going to state is a unique experience and not letting him play at all is a little harsh in my opinion. He is a senior so this is his last chance to have this experience.

I understand that underage drinking is illegal, but I think society makes it way too big of a deal. First of all he didn’t drink and second I don’t believe many people when they say they never drank underage in their lives.

I feel like it is a personal choice. It isn’t your life so don’t worry about it so much. I am a high school athlete and I know how much of a sacrifice it is. Once you are on the varsity team you are for the most part robbed of a normal high school social life. You practice everyday and then you have games which are now usually scheduled on Friday and Saturday nights. Not only do we have games Saturday night, but we have a shoot around in the morning. This isn’t even bad compared to guys’ teams who practice even more.

We work so hard and they punish us for everything so they can make examples of us. I feel like the more you get involved the more people want to bring you down and control your life. Students that are not involved in any extracurricular activities can do whatever they want and don’t get in as much trouble as kids that are involved in society. We make positive contributions to society everyday whether it’s by playing sports, being the president of a club or something. I believe there is a double standard and I don’t think it is right. Not only do we get tickets and fines like any other person, but we get even more taken away. I don’t think it necessarily right for kids to drink underage, but I don’t think kids involved in extracurricular activities should be punished anymore than regular kids that get caught. They either need find a way to punish those kids more, or punish us less because it isn’t fair.

2009-02-15T19:15:00.000-06:00

Blogging…

I’m going to be honest; I really hated blogging when we first started. I liked being able to write in my writing notebook and say what was going through my head. I couldn’t figure out how to make my blog that way for me. It started negatively right off the bat because I couldn’t think of a good topic. I couldn’t think of anything that I could write 1200 words a week about. I think about so many different things that I can’t just focus on one. My topic ended up being controversial issues which worked out for awhile. I talked about all of the main stream issues like abortion, the death sentence, and affirmative action, but I began to run out of those ideas. Recently I have figured out that these issues don’t have to be so main stream. They have become more personal and I am able to treat my blog more like my writing notebook. This helps me have topics to talk about because it is more personal.

Another problem I had with the blogs is that I really don’t like other people being able to read my writing. I dreaded the day we had to unlock our blogs and make it available for everyone to see. As of now I have no followers and I am actually perfectly happy with that. There are some people that really want to have followers but a lot of what I say is somewhat personal and I don’t like people reading it.

I also haven’t really found many blogs that I have enjoyed looking at everyday. Blogs seem so self-centered to me most of the time. I know that that is part of writing essays in a way, but I get bored of bloggers trying to impress everyone so that they will have more followers. At first I was like this and did keep my audience more in mind, but I don’t do that as much anymore. There are just too many different views people have and different levels of understanding of what matters to me.

As of right now it still just feels like another assignment that I have to do. I don’t really know if that will change or not. I feel like I am doing it just because I have to. I might have another realization and begin blogging with more of a purpose but as of now I’m just getting by.

2009-02-14T18:54:00.000-06:00

Should people download music illegally?

I remember when iPods first came out. Everyone got one. I saw people everywhere with one. Young people, old people, it didn’t matter. Anywhere people could listen to their iPods, I was sure to see the ear buds in and people in their own worlds. No one in my family got one until last year, and my brother got a Zune. He got sick of carrying a bulky CD player around and he had got an MP3 player before but now wanted a Zune. He got one and I found myself always taking it and listening to music every chance I got. I never felt I needed an iPod or Zune so whenever my parents asked me if I wanted one for Christmas or my birthday I always said no. After my brother got one and I realized how easy they were to use, I was hooked. I got an iPod for Christmas and I haven’t set it down since. It’s even my favorite color, purple.

The next step was getting music on it. I could go to iTunes and start my downloading and paying a dollar for every song that I wanted, put all of my current CDs on my computer, or download LimeWire. I started my getting songs from my brother’s Zune and that was going fine until I thought of all of the songs that I wanted that weren’t in his Zune. I figured out how to use LimeWire and in the past three days have downloaded almost two hundred songs. I know that this is considered illegal but I cringe when I think about ever spending two hundred dollars at iTunes. I know that I am ripping the artists off, but I think they make plenty of money without my dollar.

I can’t say that I feel bad or feel scared that the government is going to come after me. I don’t think that I am doing anything wrong really. I think that iTunes other places you can buy music is way over priced. It’s just a song. I already paid one-hundred and eighty bucks on the iPod.

The only time I feel bad is if it is new artists that aren’t as well known because they actually need the money.

I will use LimeWire as long as I can and not feel bad about it. If the government really wanted to stop it they could, but they haven’t.

2009-02-12T09:07:00.000-06:00

Should we “fake it”?

Everyone wants to fit in, in high school. They think that the more friends they have the happier they will be. Sure you’ll get invited to parties and get togethers but will you actually be having fun or just acting like it?
When I was a sophomore this is exactly what I realized. Sure I was getting invited to all of these things, but by the end of the night I realized that I really wasn’t having fun. The jokes or activities just weren’t what I considered fun. I felt like I was wasting my time hanging out with these people because I could just be with my true friends.
I realized that it isn’t worth it to fake how you feel. Only my true friends can make me laugh from the heart, laugh until I cry. In the end I can tell them my opinion and not be afraid they won’t invite me to their house the next time people hang out.
It really bothers me to see people that change themselves around different people. There’s a difference between being nice and completely faking it to fit in. One of my friends is like this. She acts one way around all of us but when we see her around her other friends, nobody likes to be around her because she’s not nice. This leads to her talking behind everyone’s backs just so she has something to agree with everyone about. She’ll talk about you with someone just so she can say she agrees with them, and then the next day she’ll be talking about the other person to you, doing the same thing.
I say just be yourself and your true friends will like you regardless. State your opinions. Don’t say something just because someone else does. If you feel you need to criticize someone, do it. Don’t act like you think something is funny if it isn’t. In the end you will find what truly makes you happy. You will enjoy being around your friends and not have to act like you enjoy it. It is so easy to think you’ll automatically be happy with more friends, but inside you know that they aren’t truly your friend so deep down you still feel alone and empty.
It’s ok to start over and figure out who you really want to surround yourself with. It might be hard for awhile, but in the end you will be happier and it will last longer.

2009-02-07T07:38:00.000-06:00

Should We Let Others Control Our Mood?

I play basketball and after a game I am either in a really good mood or bad mood. I could have an amazing game and be in a really good mood, but still not be in the best because I didn’t get any positive reinforcement. I could play what I consider a bad game but still be in a pretty good mood because I het positive reinforcement. I think my coaches have a lot to do with my attitude and I need to learn to control my own attitude and not let them affect mine. I had a very successful start to my season. I was one of the starting five and I was scoring around 8 points every game. This was really good to me. I was rebounding well and able to bring the ball up the court confidently. I felt like I was one of the leaders on the team. When I got over eight points I felt like I had an amazing game. My coaches didn’t always think so. They were never happy with eight points it seemed like which would always make me unhappy.

I am very busy and don’t get much sleep so by the time I have to playa game I am pretty drained. I was running on six hours of sleep usually. Plus I have tennis practice and club volleyball throughout the week. I just can’t physically do it all. My coach gets mad at me for going to these other practices because he knows it makes me tired, but then the others coaches get mad at me for not putting in the time during the off season like everyone else. But they don’t understand that I’m not like everyone else. I play three sports throughout the season and all of them practice almost year round. Most other student athletes only practice for one sport in their off season so they have plenty of time to do both. When I am juggling three it gets very hard. Plus I am expected to perform to my best ability at all of them.

I hate when my basketball coach only seems to like me when I am scoring a lot of points. I have a lot of very good players on my team so it is hard to get the ball and be able to score every game. I have come to understand that I cant score that many points every game and that not everyone can score twelve points a game, it just doesn’t work that way.

2009-02-05T09:25:00.001-06:00

Should we have so many schedules?

I have realized that my whole life is scheduled out. I don’t have a second to think for myself because all of the thinking has happened for me in a sense. I just go day by day, week by week, and do the same thing like a robot.
I always have a practice after school. Since high school has started I have only gone a handful of days without a practice after school. The seasons overlap so I go right form one sport to another. My team went to state in volleyball this year and that made me miss the first week of basketball practice. I was exhausted by the time volleyball was over because it is so intense when you go to state for any sport. Then I had to go right into basketball where they expect me to be just as good as everyone else who had started a week before me and who doesn’t even play a fall sport. They are fresh and ready to go and I am burnt out and just need a break. It gets old after awhile always having a practice. It is the same when I go from basketball to tennis.
Not only do I have practices for sports during the season, but I have extra practices for volleyball and tennis on top of basketball. I have club volleyball all winter. I have practice every Wednesday and either a tournament on the weekend or practice Sunday. I also have in-door tennis every Monday. Then I have to come home and do homework. I can fall asleep anytime anywhere by now because I never get any sleep. I can’t do my homework because I’m so tired I can’t even keep my eyes open. The part I hate the most is that whenever my friends want to just randomly do something I can’t. Everything for me is on a schedule. My answer is always let me check my schedule and almost always, I will have some kind of conflict. You start to lose friends because they will only reschedule their activities so many times before they just stop inviting you. All of my friends now play sports and we hang out on our free nights which are rare when all of us have a free night at the same time.
I just wish I could sit there for a day and not say I have volleyball or anything on my schedule.

2009-02-03T09:08:00.003-06:00

Should we watch reality T.V.?

It started out with Real World and Road Rules on MTV and now reality TV has exploded. These shows have been on since I can remember. My oldest brother remembered watching them in high school. There wasn’t very many reality shows but all of a sudden it’s all that’s on. You can’t watch a major network for a night without seeing a reality TV show. Some are great like Top Chef or Project Runway, but others are just out of hand.
Since the beginning they have always been shocking and that is why they have always watched and tuned in. Now they have reached a new level. I don’t consider myself prude or very conservative, but even I need to change the channel sometimes. It’s almost embarrassing to watch grown women half naked and drunk or men beating each other to a pulp. These people have no dignity.
These people aren’t real anymore they’re actors whether told to be or not. Everything they do is to get attention. You can tell that some of these shows are basically scripted now. Then you have the cut away shots where the people are just sitting in a room commenting about what happened on the show. They sound so dumb when they try to explain there actions. It used to be funny or entertaining, or whatever you want to call it, but now I can see right through it. The things they say are so dumb and stupid. It’s all just an act.
People are making a living by being the most memorable people on these shows. They make names for themselves and sell that person. It’s not really who they are, it’s there character. I feel bad for these people because they are living a fake life. They have to keep up with the fake person they have become, or at least they think they do to stay popular. I wouldn’t want to be one of these people because it’s not like they’re popular for the right reasons. They’re not Oprah by any means. They are remembered for being the most promiscuous, drunkest, b----iest, among other things.
Now that I have a more grown up perspective on these shows, they aren’t as interesting to me anymore. They’re just annoying and ridiculous. I change the channel when I see that they are. Can MTV and VH1 just go back to what they’re meant for? MORE MUSIC!

2009-02-01T13:34:00.001-06:00

There is no controversy, I just miss summer!

People always say they can’t wait until winter comes because they get so hot in the summer. I have never had the summer blues, but I always get the winter blues. I hate being cooped up in my house when it’s cold. I just don’t think winter is any fun.

I’ll admit I get excited for the first snow, but only because it gives me hope of snow days. By now I don’t as excited. I want to see snow melting, not piling up. It just depresses me to see the sides of the roads plastered with brown disgusting snow. It grimy and gross, not white like it should be. You look at every parking lot and there are mountains at either end. They might be cool at first, but eventually they just become a constant reminder of how long winter really is.

Winter just makes everything more complicated. You have to get up early to warm up your car and scrape it off. I’m always late the first couple of times it snows because I forget that I have to scrape off my car or warm it up. Ill start scraping and it always takes longer than expected, then ill get back into my car and cold air will still be blowing in my face.

On top of all this you’re sure to get sick. The flu, sore throat and common cold are always more prominent in the winter. I have gotten two out of the three already this winter. I had a cold that lasted two months. I went to the doctor, got antibiotitics and was getting better for a couple days. It was back to getting worse sooner before later and I am just now beginning to breathe freely through my nose.

People always say they’re bored in the summer, but I vow never to utter those words. I am so busy with school and sports that I have a hard time finding time to even think. I could sit for a week and do nothing because by doing nothing I am actually doing something, recuperating, reenergizing. I like the summer because you have time to yourself. You can just sit there and when you’re good and ready, call someone up and go swimming, or just lay out in the sunshine. Summer never get olds like winter does. I can’t wait till this winter is over.

2009-01-29T09:12:00.000-06:00

Should we always be “good”?

There is a lot in life that can change how you feel. Everyday you experience things that will make you mad or sad or scared. Different people have different thresholds and different tolerance levels. As I have grown up I have learned to live a little and quite worrying about all of the little things too much. Since third grade I have strived to be perfect. I did all of my homework, always followed directions and without knowing, essentially lived life to please others.
If I did something wrong or that someone disapproved of, I always felt guilty for some reason. I always looked down upon others that just went through life not doing what society wanted them to. I always felt better than these people because I would get the rewards, good grades, and positive reinforcement from adults. I have now realized that I need to be a little more like them. I need to live a little. Most of these people are happier than I am. I strive to be perfect, which is impossible. I need to accept who I am. If I don’t I will always be unhappy.
It’s ok to not get straight A’s; it’s ok not to be the goody goody. I’m not saying that there is anything wrong with that, but I just don’t think it is worth it. Nobody really cares how many medals are around your neck at graduation, or how many points you scored in a game. People have there own lives to worry about.
I spent so much of my time doing homework and not hanging out with friends my freshman and sophomore year, but now I let myself have some fun. If my friends are doing something on Friday night, I just go with them and not worry about my homework. I would study for tests for hours. Now I study but definitely not to the extent that I did before. Now I am getting A’s instead of A+’s and I am perfectly fine with that. The extra time I spend doing things that I want to do makes it all worth it.
I’m enjoying high school more because I’m not letting the little things get to me. If I do badly on a test, I get over it, if I play a bad game, I get over it. Life is too short to be worrying about what other people think of you all of the time.

2009-01-26T21:05:00.002-06:00

Should we speculate?

I got the flu this past weekend and had to miss my basketball game. I had a Friday game and played fine and felt fine. I went to bed around one and didn’t feel very good, but thought I would feel fine in the morning. Unfortunately I woke at around four Saturday morning and threw up. I tried to go back to bed but woke up four more rimes. I texted me teammate and told her I wouldn’t be at the shoot around and was going to see if I felt any better because we had a game. I ended up puking again that morning and wasn’t able to eat anything all day. I told my team that I couldn’t make it to the game and wished them all good luck. I was really sad to miss the game because we had been talking about all week.

One of my teammates was on the bus and told me about a conversation that took place about me. One of the girls asked where I was or if I would be coming and my teammate told them no because I had the flu and then said she can’t even keep water down. Another girl said that I might have to go to the hospital and get an IV and that is what happens when you get alcohol poisoning. Someone said that I would never do that but other girls said that my parents let me do whatever I want and I could easily get away with it.

I am the victim here, I am sick and this is what is said about me when I can’t be there to defend myself? I know that this is all speculation, but it gets way out of hand. People might tell others this conversation and false rumors will be spread. One thing leads to the other and eventually things that are completely false are said.

I can’t control what others say about me or think of me but it makes me mad to know they said that stuff about me when I was truly sick. It makes me think about what I have said about other is that past when I was speculating. Now I know that I should only tell the truth and things that I know for sure. Even if people don’t know for sure that what they hear is true, it still changes how they view that person.

2009-01-21T16:15:00.000-06:00

Should parents send their children to A.K.?

I have a summer birthday so when I was little my parents had two choices for kindergarten. I could either go to preschool then right to kindergarten and I would be younger than most of the other people in my grade. The other option would be for me to go to preschool, then alternative kindergarten, then kindergarten and I would be older than most of the other kids in my grade. My parents chose the ladder of the two. Alternative kindergarten is just a buffer year. I went to class five days a week but only for a half day.

In elementary school it didn’t really matter that I was almost a whole year older than some kids. It began to show more when I got into middle school. I was always taller for my age and I was better at sports and school for the most part. I always felt more mature than most of my fellow classmates. I think it gave me an advantage for the most part. Another plus is that I get to all of the age “landmarks” first. I get to drive first, be and adult, before most of the other kids in my grade.

I don’t know if this was a good choice by my parents or not. One of the major problems it has caused is when it comes to getting onto club sports teams. When I was a sophomore, I had to play up a year for club sports because of my birthday so I was always with older kids.

I know kids that are in the same situation as me, but didn’t go to A.K. They are younger than everyone else and you can usually tell in my opinion. Some of them do fine, but other I have noticed hang out with younger kids in the long run.

2009-01-20T21:07:00.000-06:00

Should younger kids have cell phones?

I remember when my mom got her first cell phone. I was in first grade and it thought it was the coolest thing I had ever seen. I didn’t even really understand the significance of it though because I didn’t have a need for a wireless phone. Eventually my brother got one when he was 16. I remember him opening it for Christmas and seeing the biggest smile spread across his face. Even then I thought it was cool but didn’t really want one. I would have rather had a toy or something. Within a couple years, I couldn’t wait to get a cell phone. My parents made my other brother wait until he was 16 too to get a cell phone, but decided that they might as well get me one while they were at it. I use it all of the time especially since we can text now.

I see kids younger and younger with cell phones. I haven’t decided yet if it’s right for elementary kids to have cell phones. Parents use the excuse of safety but sometimes they cause more harm than good. You can get away with a lot when you have your own private phone. You don’t need your parents to use it and they never know what you’re saying. Kids can collaborate with each other so much easier. You don’t have to be at your house to talk to someone. You can be secretive about it. Not only that, but others can be secretive when they talk to you. You don’t know what that person is doing or where they are because they could be anywhere.

I have had people that I don’t even know call me and it kind of freaks me out. They leave messages or something. There’s no way of knowing who it was.

2009-01-19T18:30:00.000-06:00

Should we stand up for others?

There are so many kids that get made fun of in high school. Everyday I see kids get made fun of, sometimes right to there face or behind there backs. Some have been run down by always getting made fun of that they just look tired and exhausted.

It is easy to join in and go along with everyone else, and crack jokes, and laugh at people. It takes the attention away from yourself and makes you feel like you fit in with the group.

I have matured a lot as the years have gone by and through different experiences learned that this is wrong. Figuring this out for yourself is half the battle. You have to do something about it. Stand up for someone, or help them out. This doesn’t mean you have to be there friend, it just means you are standing up for what is right. You are standing up for diversity. With out it life would be boring. We wouldn’t have Chinese food or piñatas if we all weren’t different.

I had the perfect opportunity to exercise standing up for someone during basketball one day. There is this girl that is a sophomore and plays the same sports I do. I had seen her around during volleyball season and now she was playing basketball. She has crossed eyes and she always looks confused to be quite honest. I could lie to myself and say that we live in a perfect world and nobody makes fun of her, but in know that this isn’t the case. I don’t even want to know half the things that people have said about her.

I was going to the locker room on day and we bumped into each other on the steps. I said hi to her proceeded with some small talk, even though I don’t really remember what was said. She seemed nice and acted like she knew what was going on.

One of the following days at practice, I heard people talking about her. There was a group of girls staring at her and making fun of her. They had put a target on her and she was now the focus of all of there jokes. Seeing my opportunity, I spoke up and said she was nice and I didn’t know what they were talking about. I thought that would end the conversation and they would be done. Why were they even making fun of her in the first place? What was the point? It was only making her life more miserable than it already was. Then they brought it up again in the locker room. I was just changing, not really paying attention to what people where talking about. I heard little parts of there conversation and didn’t think much of it. Then I started listening more and I heard someone say something about Goldfish. Something clicked and I realized they were talking about the same girl. They had made a nickname for her, Goldfish.

How immature and mean can you get? I told them that they should just stop and that is wasn’t funny. At this point I had gotten passed that fact that they would be annoyed with me and the fact that I was ridiculing them. They just tried to turn it back on me. They said that it wasn’t like I hadn’t made fun of someone before. I didn’t deny that I had, but I told them that I had grown up a lot since then. Now I know better and I know that they know better too. There is no reason for us to be making fun of people; we should be positive role models for others.

2009-01-15T17:50:00.000-06:00

Should we talk about ourselves?

Being on my varsity sports teams at my high school, I am surrounded by a lot of talented people everyday. Some of these people I like, and some I don’t. There are people that can’t sop talking about themselves. The only they talk about is how well they do in a game or how many points they scored. A lot of people are successful, but they don’t have to brag about it every chance they get.

When I was a freshman, I got to play on the varsity volleyball team. There was a senior and she was amazing. She could do it all. She was one of the best hitters and passers I had ever seen. I couldn’t believe it. Talking to her I would have never known. She never bragged about herself once. She had scholarship offers, colleges looking at her everywhere. How did I know this? Not from talking to her. She never said a word unless someone asked. I found out form other people when she would do something good.

I think this is how it should be. She is successful, but she knows that she can be successful and not rub it in everyone’s face. She plays the sport because she has fun doing it and she loves the game, not because she wants to have something to brag about at the end of the day. This is truly what defines a good person to me.

This is how I try to be. It makes people feel bad about them selves when all you do is talk about yourself and how good you are at something. You can be competitive with out being mean about it.

There are two very good players on my team this year and they are opposites of each other. One has gotten the biggest head ever. She can’t stop talking about herself and trying to be the center of attention. The other is like the senior I talked about before. She has her amazing games and doesn’t make a huge deal out of it.

Sometimes you just want to scream at the top of your lungs what you did, and every once in awhile you can. But it gets old when you do it all of the time. You have to sensor yourself and who you talk to. Remember that not everyone needs to know about everything you do all of the time. They might even like you more if you wouldn’t give them every detail.

2009-01-14T06:24:00.000-06:00

Should you put your kids on competitive sports team at a young age? (Who’s to Blame?)

I consider myself to be burnt out. Everyone asks if I want to play any sports in college and I gladly tell them no. They always seem shocked or make a comment that I could if I wanted too. Then I remember all of the practices I hated, and the fun I missed out on and can’t imagine anything worse than playing sports in college considering it would be way more time consuming and difficult.

At first I blamed my parents for my feelings, but I have just realized that it is societies fault just as much, if not more, than theirs. Everyone has such a drive to succeed that it has gotten out of hand. If you want to play sports in high school, you better have played on a club team, or you won’t have a chance of being a starter. I was a starter for our volleyball team as a freshman and the only reason is because I started playing so much earlier than the upperclassman. They didn’t even have the option of club sports when they were my age. I took their spots because they had half the experience I did, even though I was 4 years younger. They got to be a normal kid and have a life when they were younger, I got the starting spot on the volleyball team; I haven’t decided who is more fortunate.

To be good at anything these days, you have to practice it all of the time and make such a big part of your life. Everyone wants to be perfect, everyone wants the attention. They want to be the next one on the news or in the newspaper.

I hate the people that have turned into stats. They only care about how many points you scored. It annoys me to see people and that’s all they talk about. I hate this so much that I have become the opposite. I hate talking about myself. I know that I can be successful and not shove it in everyone else’s faces to be happy.

I don’t think it is my parent’s fault because they got swept up in society, which is easy to do. I don’t want my kids to turn out like me though and end up burnt out. I don’t know how to do this though. It is a dilemma because in order for them to be successful in terms of society, they will have to follow the path I did, and it may be even more grueling by the time I have kids.

2009-01-13T17:36:00.001-06:00

Should you put your kids on competitive sports team at a young age? (Stuck)

Even though my sophomore coach had brought back the passion I had for the game, it didn’t last. He allowed me to not put so much pressure on myself. I let mistakes go, and if I had a bad game, so what, it happens and I can move on to the next one. I am now on the varsity basketball team but don’t enjoy it. I hate going to practice everyday, I get sick of seeing the same people all of the time, it just isn’t fun for me anymore. As soon as I am in the gym I am counting down until its time to go. When a team bonding activity is proposed, I cringe. I am around my teammates too much as it is. The last thing I want to do is spend more time with them outside of practice. It takes up all of my time. I just want to be with other people that I haven’t seen because I’ve been at basketball. My weekends get ruined because we have away games Friday nights or Saturday nights, sometime both.
The whole point of the game is to score and I don’t even really get excited anymore when that happens. Each game is just another game to me. I could honestly care less if we win or not.I am involved in all kinds of activities and get good grades, which makes high school very stressful. Last year, I told myself that I would never do something that I honestly didn’t enjoy. I realized that I shouldn’t be investing so much of my time in something that I don’t like. But now I am stuck. According to that decision, I should have quit basketball by now, but I know that I can’t. I am one of the starting five and if I where to quit it would be a lot harder for our team to make it to state, which is our goal, or even be in the championship round, which is our goal next year. I am not a selfish person and for me to quit would be very selfish to my teammates and coaches. I know that I need to do things for myself more, but this would affect a lot of people. I’m not saying my team wouldn’t do fine without me, I’m just saying I contribute a lot to the team. I can make it through one more season and hang on.

2009-01-09T22:48:00.001-06:00

Should you put your kids on competitive sports team at a young age? (The realization)

In elementary school, all of this was fine. I really didn’t have any freedom to do anything else. I didn’t have a car or cell phone so my focus wasn’t the next time I got to hang out with my friends. All of the time I was investing in basketball didn’t seem like a problem. I didn’t feel like I had to sacrifice anything. I would have been sitting at home anyways bored, or fighting with my brothers. The season was over by March and we had the summer to do whatever we wanted to.

Once middle school came, things started to change. School got a little harder; friends became a little more important, and it was harder to get myself to go to basketball, even though I would still go.

By seventh grade I realized what I had gotten myself into. Not only was I playing for the Panthers, but we had school basketball as well. Middle school sports start in seventh grade. I had two hour school practices everyday, and then Panther practice. I started to hate basketball. I began to resent it more and more. In my head I began to tally each time I had to turn down a sleepover or movie night. I realized I had more choices in life, but that didn’t necessarily mean I was making them. It took a lot for me to work up the courage to tell my parents about how I really felt about basketball. I never did really talk to my dad, but every time I happened to work up the guts to say something to my mom, it usually ended with me not being taken seriously. I didn’t know how I could make her understand how much I despised basketball by this point. She thought that she was doing the best thing for me by making me continue.

I dreaded going to practices and having my whole weekend taken up. I would work hard, but since my heart wasn’t in it, I could only push myself so far. By the time I was in eighth grade I could only dream of the last game I would ever have to play with the Panthers. I just kept telling myself that it was almost over and everything would be so much better once I was done.

I looked forward to a new beginning once I started back up after a summer break playing for high school without the Panthers. My optimism only slumped a few times throughout the season, but my coach made me fall in love with the game again. I was good to go for my sophomore year, and moved up to Varsity.

2009-01-06T16:44:00.006-06:00

Should you put your kids on competitive sports team at a young age? (The details)

There were four practices a week, Monday through Thursday. We were expected to attend two, but encouraged to go to three. The practices were two hours long and all age levels were mixed together. I had never seen anything like this before. Everyone was competitive and good. There was no more, “I don’t dribble with my left hand”. Or girls that would sit out and cry to there moms if they didn't get there way.

I always looked up to the older kids. They had been going to these practices for years. They knew exactly what they were doing. We started practice off the same way every time. Everyone would get into a circle and the older kids would go in the middle and lead ball handling. This took about five minutes. Everyone had their own ball and we would pass it back and forth between our hands and do various drills like spinning it around our head then our waist, both feet, right leg, left leg, figure eight, and then go through it all again in reverse. Then we would move onto lay-ups or passing. It was all about the fundamentals. We did everything over and over. It’s amazing how good even a third grader can get at basketball if they practice as much as we did. Within a month everyone was running plays that colleges run. We could make outside shots better than most kids two years older than us. We were like little robots.

We didn’t do all this practicing for nothing. By fifth grade, we had a tournament about every other weekend. These tournaments were two days long. Saturday was pool play. There were a couple pools depending on how big the tournament was. We played all of the other teams in our pool in a round robin style. We would have two or three games. There was a couple of hours between each so it took up the whole day. If you finished at the top of your pool, you played on Sunday in tournament play. Now it was “one and done”, if you lose your out. We usually won or at least made it to the championship game. Our goal was to get first at the regional tournament in March. Most Panthers teams did. We had a monopoly on those gold medals that said AAU State Champions. There really weren’t any other “super teams” like the Panthers out there.

2009-01-05T21:47:00.014-06:00

Should you put your kids on competitive sports team at a young age?(The beginning)

I have played basketball almost continuously since 4th grade. My basketball career started off innocently enough at the YMCA. My mom signed me up for a team. I went to practice once a week and had a game every Saturday morning. Nobody really knew what they were doing but we all had fun. Most of the girls didn’t really take it that seriously. At one point we were doing a dribbling drill and our coach told us to switch hands. One girl looked up at the coach and said “I don’t dribble with my left hand.”
My dad is an athletic person and played sports in college so he started looking at more competitive basketball teams in the area. He found a team called the Panthers.
The coach of this team goes to YMCA games and watches to see who sticks out. There is usually one or two girls that are just picking up basketball faster than the others. He talks to the parents about his team. Bob, the coach of the Panthers has a team for each grade level from third to sixth. He takes girls from all over the city. He chooses ten girls for each team. He goes to every single practice and coaches all of the teams with some help from parent volunteers.

My dad did some research and found all this out and decided to try and get me on the fourth grade team since I was already in fourth grade.

If you don’t get on the team in third grade it is hard to get on because all of the spots are taken. It turns out that one of the girls was moving away and there was a post position open. Luckily I was really tall for my age so Bob agreed to let me come to a practice and see if I would fit the criteria of the team.

I have always been competitive, growing up with two older brothers. I knew that I was better than most of the girls on my YMCA team, but this was completely different. I had never seen anything like this. Since I was only a fourth grader, I still considered everything fun and games. I really didn’t have anything else to do, but I had no idea what I was getting myself into. I made the team and was soon into the swing of things with the other girls. They were all athletic and could play basketball better than anyone I had ever seen.

2008-12-22T21:50:00.002-06:00

Should the U.S. Military be able to advertise and recruit at high schools?

Everyday I go to school; I see multiple ads for the marines, army, and navy. I see adds any place they can get them. On the walls, over the TV during a news show we watch called Chanel 1, and on pencils, book bags, and other nick knacks. I have no problem with the military or people that join. There are a lot of advantages to it.

It helps kids that aren’t doing so well in school. They may not have good enough grades to get into a college, so they can join the military. It allows them to be a productive part of our society. If they actually follow through with it, they will come out a better person for the most part and hopefully have a better head on their shoulders. They can get out of the military and maybe go back to school, or get a job.

Even if you are a good student, you may not have enough money to go to college. Going into the military is a great way to get the money you need for college. You can even get experience in the military if you want to be a doctor or engineer or something.

There are down sides to it though. Right now it is a very big decision because we are currently in a war. When you join, you know that you will be going over to fight for our country. This is a very scary thing to think about. Just coming out of high school, everyone is so young and have their whole lives in front of them.

As a freshman I was in a class with some seniors that we’re going into the military. Most of them were a little over weight, and weren’t interested in school. They were the kids that loved to tinker with things, and do hands on things, not sit and listen to lecture, or read a book. They were perfect candidates for the military and were excited to join. They came back two years later and I couldn’t believe my eyes. They had been transformed into nice young gentlemen. They looked respectable and focused.

I think it is fine that the military advertises at schools because it does a lot of good things for people that need an outlet. If you don’t believe in war or don’t want to join then you don’t have to.

2008-12-16T19:26:00.004-06:00

Should we have to make up snow days?

Last year we had to make up almost another whole week of school because of snow days. We had a couple typical snow days and then a couple big snow storms. The one that hit us the hardest was the ice storm. There wasn't that much snow, but we got a lot of freezing rain that made the roads extremely slick and took down a lot of power lines. Because we have schools in our district that are all around town, we missed school when they lost power even though we we're still fine. Once we did have power and everything seemed fine, we ran into another problem. Our school had a contract with a power company. This contract allowed the company to cut power to the schools in order to conserve energy when they needed it in other places. Even though it was completely out of our control, we still had to make these days up. We ended up with four or five extra days tacked onto the end of our school year.
I don't think we should have to make these up. Seniors don't have to. They get out as scheduled because graduation and everything can't be moved. And they seem just fine. Teachers find ways of getting back on track and not falling behind too much. By the end of the term, we usually are where we were supposed to be regardless of the snow days. Plus some teachers that only teach class that last one term, have to be done by the next term. Then, since we already finished everything for the term, the next term we just have extra days. We might as well just not make them up.
If we have to make them up, I think they should move back the finals for second term. Teachers try to scrunch everything together to get things done in time and it makes the classes so much harder. If they would just move the finals back, we wouldn’t be wasting the days at the end of the year. I just think it pretty much pointless to have to make up the days if you don’t move back the finals. Teachers have a set curriculum they teach and they have planned out what to do in the number of days given. They can teach the last term without the extra days because they did it all the years before.

2008-12-14T21:42:00.003-06:00

Should we make class sizes smaller?

I haven’t ever lived in a big city necessarily, but I have always gone to schools that have been overcrowded. In my elementary school, all the desks were filled and it has been the same story throughout my schooling career. It didn’t really bother me before. I think this was because I didn’t know what smaller classes were like. I had never gotten to experience them. School also wasn’t as hard, it was more of a social thing. Now that I am in high school, I realize that our classes are way too big. Some of my classes have almost thirty students in them. I have been in a couple classes with less than twenty students and I have found that I do better in these classes, or I at least feel like I am learning more. When there are so many kids there is always a distraction. A whisper turns into a roar when there are twenty-five other people whispering at the same time. It’s harder for the teacher to get the class under control. Some teachers just stop trying to make kids listen and just teach. Once this happens, it’s even hard for the kids that are trying to listen to learn because they may get distracted for a split second, and the teacher has already gone over something without them even knowing. You can’t blame people for not listening all of the time when they are surrounded by there friends, especially in high school.
All of this is a domino effect. There are too many kid in class, the teacher gets tried of it, the kids don’t learn as well, the students fall behind and it just keeps going. Once the student is behind, it is hard to get caught up because each day, there is new material covered and it just keeps piling up. The teacher doesn’t have time to worry about these students because they have so much other things to worry about. I have had to raise my hand for ten minutes during a work time before a teacher could help me. Most kids would just do something else after a minute because they don’t care about school in the first place.
I think we need to hire more teachers so we can have smaller classes. Having over thirty kids in one class is a little ridiculous to me. Smaller classes would improve test scores and grades because kids would be able to learn better.

2008-12-11T19:21:00.003-06:00

Can people with different religious views be around each other?

I was invited to the Racism Symposium at my high school. I really didn’t know what to expect because this is the first year that they had tried it at our school. There were kids from all different walks of life there. We got to listen to two different guest speakers that talked about racism. They tried to address different problems that we could fix at school and different ways of going about doing so. One of the guest speakers had us do an activity. She put four signs up around the room. One said highly agree, one said agree, one said disagree, and the last said highly disagree. Then she showed us different statements about race at our school, like are my teachers are tolerant of everyone at this school. We would go to the sign that corresponded with our reaction to this statement. She would ask people at different signs, why they chose to stand where they were.

One of the statements was, I enjoy meeting new people that are different than me. One of the kids went to the sign that said highly disagree. He was the only one there, but there were other people at disagree. When asked why they were there, they said stuff like, they just liked being around people that enjoyed the same things they did or they were too shy. This student completely threw us a curve ball. He said that he was a Christian and that he didn’t want to hang out with someone that was for example Jewish because he didn’t believe what Jewish people did, and he didn’t want their beliefs to change his. I couldn’t believe he said that. After listening to guest speakers and learning that the whole point of this symposium was to get rid of ideas like that, he said it anyway. He must be a slow learner or maybe he wasn’t listening, but that is ridiculous. Just because you are around someone that believes something different than you, doesn’t mean you have to. Meeting new people makes you more educated about what they believe. You don’t have to think what they think, or believe what they believe, but you need to understand them if you want them to understand you. People are so ignorant and that just creates problems. You have to be educated and educate others so they don’t think like this student does.

2008-12-10T09:31:00.002-06:00

Should students get credit based on a 5.0 scale for A.P. classes?

I have taken three A.P. classes and I definitely think you should get credit based on the 5.0 scale. I see other students taking all regular classes and bragging about getting a 4.0. If they would take harder classes, this probably wouldn’t be the case. If A.P. classes were based on a 4.0 scale, then there really wouldn’t be an advantage or reward for taking them except that you could say that you learned more than other students. That really is not an incentive to take A.P. classes for many high school students that I know. You may have worked a lot harder in an A.P. class and get a 4.0 for your G.P.A. which is what a student taking normal classes could get. You would have the same G.P.A., so even if you did more work, it wouldn’t be reflected in your G.P.A. at all, which I don’t think is fair. A.P. classes have raised the bar when it comes to G.P.A.’s. Now if you don’t take any A.P. classes, it is much harder to get higher than a 4.1 or 4.2 for your G.P.A. because you would have to be getting almost all A+’s. When you take A.P. classes and do well in them, it makes your G.P.A. higher, so it is easier to get a 4.2 or above. The classes are usually a lot more involved, and harder than regular classes. I think that I deserve more credit for taking harder classes. It really helps boost your G.P.A. because an A is like an A++. If we didn’t get more credit for A.P. classes, I probably wouldn’t take as many. What’s the point if you don’t get any reward or advantage? There wouldn’t be an incentive for taking much harder classes. I am involved in a lot of activities and I honestly wouldn’t be taking A.P. classes if I didn’t get more credit for them. I was also in advanced classes for math. Even though these classes can’t be considered A.P. because they are not a class you would take in college, I still think they should be based on the 5.0 grading scale. I have talked to friends that are not in advanced math classes and it is much easier. They move half as fast and don’t cover as much on top of that.

I still think they should be based on the 5.0 grading scale. I have talked to friends that are not in advanced math classes and it is much easier. They move half as fast and don’t cover as much on top of that.

Basing A.P. classes off a 5.0 grading scale is the right thing to do because there has to be some kind of evidence that you took harder classes than someone in regular.

2008-12-08T21:12:00.003-06:00

Should you play sports in college?

A lot of people play sports in high school, and have the opportunity to play in college. I could play a sport in college, but I really don’t think I want to. My parents say it would be a really good experience and that it would be fun. My dad played golf in college, but college sports are a lot different now. They say I would get to travel to all kinds of places with the team. Some of the upperclassmen that I know have gotten to go to places like Hawaii and Florida for free because they had a tournament there or something. It also helps you meet new people right away because you’re with the team. It would help with academics too because they let you take minimal classes during the season.
Despite all of these perks that I could get, I don’t think it would be very fun. Playing sports in college is so serious these days. It takes over your life. It has turned into a year round commitment because when you’re not playing, you’re lifting or working out for the sport. They have leagues, tournaments, and practices even out of season. It would be all I could think about. We’d watch film and have long practices. I feel too busy even in high school; I don’t even want to imagine how crazy it would get in college. I wouldn’t ever have time to myself. I would always be with the team. This would be fine but realistically, I know that I won’t like everyone on my team. Even in high school there are certain people that I just don’t click with. I wouldn’t want to be stuck on a team that I didn’t like very much because I would have to be around them a lot.
The main reason I wouldn’t want to play a sport in college is because I think it is an empty investment. You really don’t get anything out of it in the end. Sure you might win a big tournament or game, but does that really matter? It takes up so much time and sacrifice and it really doesn’t help you in the real world. It may be fun in high school, but it’s completely different in college.
For some people, being part of a team would be fun and winning a big tournament would really make them happy, but to me all that isn’t worth the sacrifices you have to make.

2008-12-07T23:07:00.005-06:00

Should you go to a certain college just because you get a scholarship offer?

I play volleyball, basketball, and tennis at my high school. I go to a pretty big high school so many of our athletes are very talented and get offered scholarships to play sports. I’m not a big time player, but I could probably get a scholarship for one of the sports I play to a smaller college. The more you basically market yourself, the better and bigger offers you get. Kids will tape every single game they play and make highlight films for themselves. They send out letters when they are only sophomores to college coaches if they are interested in playing at that college. There are so many kids that play sports that this is the only way to get noticed. Colleges don’t have time to see everyone so letting them know you are interested and directly contacting them helps your chances of getting chosen by them. You can’t just wait for them to find you. I think all of this gets a little ridiculous.

If I ever get a scholarship I will have to decide whether it is worth it to go to that college. This is kind of a big dilemma for me because it’s not all about the money to me. I want to go to a college that I truly like. Ideally, I would like to go to a bigger college. This is a problem because I won’t be able to get any scholarship offers to big colleges because I didn’t “market” myself, and I’m just not that good. This is fine with me and I have accepted that, but I don’t want to go to a smaller college just to get a scholarship.

I feel bad for thinking this way and not taking a scholarship. Other people in my situation would die for a scholarship. They may not be able to go to college because they don’t have enough money and they see me just throwing a college education away. In a way I am, but I could rather go to a school where I was happy because college is a big part of people’s lives. I will be away from home and in a completely new environment. I don’t want to go to a college that I don’t like in the first place and just end up having to drop out or something. I hear about some of my graduated team members and some of them ended up quitting and going to a different school because they didn’t like it. I would rather just do it the right way he first time and pick the college I want to go to.

They can give the scholarship to someone else who really likes that college and needs it. I feel I will be more content choosing the college that is best for me and not just thinking about a scholarship. It’s worth the money I will have to pay in student loans later.

2008-12-03T09:12:00.006-06:00

Should we allow unions?

My dad is the manager of a trucking terminal here in Cedar Rapids and my mother is an elementary school teacher. Every once in awhile the topic of unions comes up and always leads to a heated debate. My mother like, most teachers likes unions because they help her and other people in her field immensely. She is in the teacher’s union along with many other colleagues. She knows first hand all of the good things they can do for people. They work to raise pay role which is much needed in the teaching profession. My mom makes about the same or less as much as some people that didn’t even go to college. They also defend teachers when they are wrongly accused. Students make up all kinds of crazy stories. Some try to get teachers in a lot of trouble when the teacher didn’t even do anything wrong. Kids are good at exaggerating stories so if they are mad at a teacher for some reason, they can easily say that the teacher did something inappropriate to them or something. The teacher’s union will help pay to defend that teacher in court. My mother is a special education teacher and works with kids that have behavior disorders. A lot of them can become very violent and my mother has to restrain them. My mother has been accused of harming students on more than one occasion. The kids go home and tell their parents that she hurt them for no reason, when really what happened was they acted out violently and my mom had to restrain them the way she had been taught to.

My mother has had very positive experiences with the union, but my dad sees a completely different side of it from his job. He works with truck drivers and road haulers. He has worked for different companies throughout his career and they have all had different policies as far as unions are concerned. The first few companies he worked for had unionized drivers. They are called teamsters. He hates when the companies are unionized because it causes so many problems. He feels that it just protects bad workers. When you are a truck driver, you can easily just take pit stops and no one would know. One company that my dad worked for knew that one of their drivers was going to stores and shopping half the time. They had someone follow him and they had video evidence showing the worker going and shopping. If there wasn’t a union this person would have been fired immediately and he definitely deserves that. But because of the union, they couldn’t fire the driver. The Teamsters Union took the company to court and asked why the company didn’t follow everyone, and asked why they just targeted this worker. The union just makes ridiculous arguments to defend workers that should just be fired. Another reason my dad doesn’t like the teamsters union is because they are very corrupt and shady in how they deal with different situations. A while back, the union went on strike because they wanted to get higher wages. My dad had to hear about all of the horrible things that happened to drivers that kept driving and didn’t go on strike. He wasn’t a witness, but in some big cities teamsters would sit on bridges and wait for drivers to drive by. They would throw bricks at their windshields and their were even a couple people that died because they were shot. Examples like these make him really hate the union because it gets so out of control sometimes. He hates how the teamsters always think the company is always out to get them.

I think unions can be good and bad. I think in certain professions, they work well and do what they are supposed to do which is protect peoples rights and make sure everything is fair. I don’t like when people abuse the power that they obtain when they get a union. My mom has been greatly helped by them more then once and my dad has just seen how negative they can be. Both sides have good arguments and I don’t know which is better.

2008-11-17T18:39:00.003-06:00

Should In Vitro Fertilization be allowed?

My aunt and uncle are in their late forties and had trouble having a child. They had been trying for a few years and decided to try In Vitro Fertilization. It has been around for a few years now and is becoming more and more popular with couples that cannot seem to have children. My aunt and uncle felt that this it was their best option at that point in their lives because they think thought that if they waited much longer, it will be too late for my aunt to be able to have a successful pregnancy regardless of the eggs and sperms fertility. They tried In Vitro and my aunt still didn’t get pregnant. They then had to use one of her sister’s eggs.
When I hear stories like this it makes me wonder what harm we are possibly causing to our bodies. In Vitro Fertilization just seems so unnatural. It's hard for me to ignore the fact that our bodies must be telling us something if you can't have a child. Maybe it isn't just the egg or sperm not being fertile, or not being able to reach each other, maybe it has to do with the genes. Maybe the genes aren't good and shouldn’t be passed on. I just don’t think that it is a very good idea because it is creating lives. Lives are kind of a big deal.
I also don’t like the fact that they just put a whole bunch of fertilized eggs in at once. It just seems like they are wasting some of them.
Another thing I don’t like about it is that it takes away from kids being adopted. My aunt and uncle would have adopted if the egg from my aunts sister didn’t fertilize and everything. There are lots of kids out there that need to be adopted.
Even though I don't necessarily think it is the best option, it is good for my aunts well being. In our society and in our genes, we are wired to want to reproduce. If we can’t and we want to it can makes us depressed and sad. I don't think my aunt would have truly been happy getting an adoption.
In Vitro fertilization has some advantages, but I don't think that it is the greatest thing for us to be doing and encouraging. We don't know enough about it yet.

2008-11-04T12:26:00.003-06:00

Should gay marriage be legalized?

I think that this issue has so many different views because so many different aspects affect what we think about it. If you are a very religious person, you are probably opposed to it because of what it says in the Bible and everything. But I don't think this is right. I don't think being homosexual is necessarily a choice. We don't hate people if they have brown hair because its not their choice, so why should we hate people that are homosexual? I think it is in their genes in some way.
Even if it is their choice to be homosexual, why do we care? It doesn't affect us. If it makes them happy and doesn't cause harm to anyone else, its fine with me. I think people need to quit worrying about other people so much and focus more on themselves.
People try to say marriage should be preserved as something that is between a man and a woman, but i don't think it is made any less noteworthy just because homosexuals gain the legal right to do it.
I've met homosexuals before and don't see why everyone has to put them into a category of their own. They are the same as everyone else, they just happen to like the same sex instead of the opposite. I don't treat them any differently than i would anyone else. Most of the time, i don't even know they're homosexual until i find out much later.
I just don't understand why people haven't learned from our past. We should know by now that we always do things that we later regret. We are being prejudice towards homosexuals just like we have been to African Americans, Hispanics, and other minorities throughout our history. We treat them differently and we shouldn't. It shows how naive our country is. We act like homosexuality is a disease or something. People don't like to be around homosexuals. When they are, people accuse them of being homosexual themselves. My mother has colleagues that are openly gay and she doesn't have a problem with it. A couple of them are her good friends. This doesn't mean that she is homosexual and it shouldn't matter if she were.
Gay marriage should be a non-issue in my opinion. It doesn't discredit marriage between a man and a women, and it doesn't affect anyone besides the couple getting married.

2008-11-02T22:56:00.003-06:00

When should parents stop their kids from trick-or-treating?

I love Halloween and seeing all of the little kids dressed up in their cute outfits. I love helping my parents hand out candy for a little bit before i leave the house for the night and go to my own Halloween celebrations. The last year that i trick-or-treated was eighth grade. Some of my friends had to stop in sixth grade or earlier. Their parents thought they were too old. I stopped in eighth grade simply because i grew out of it. It wasn't as important to me anymore. I got tired of thinking of a costume and running around freezing. I also realized that i could just go to the store and by way more candy a lot faster. I wouldn't even have to pick out the candy i didn't like because it would all be my favorite since i bought it.

I think growing out of it was a good way to end trick-or-treating. It was my choice so i didn't really have a problem with it. I think some parents are to over bearing and just need to let their kids make the choice. I don't really think there is an age limit. If they are dumb enough to walk around for two hours and get half a bag of candy, they can.

I would rather have them be doing that than causing other trouble. I have gotten my pumpkins smashed at least once and my mother said that she got hers stolen a couple times. Once when i was little, she heard people outside of our house and when she went outside to see what was going on, she saw some high schoolers jump into a loaded car and drive off with her pumpkins. She was so mad that she called the police and realizes that she should have just let them go and not wasted the polices time. i also hear of TPing and other pranks kids like to pull. My brother works for the Cedar Rapids Police Department and says he hate having to deal with all of the kids that cause trouble on Halloween. He said that when someone calls nine-one-one, a police officer has to respond to see what has happened. He hates wasting his time on calls about smashed pumpkins and TPing because he could be doing something else like helping someone that is really hurt.

2008-10-30T07:19:00.001-05:00

Should we continue things like Title IX and affirmative action?

Both Title IX and affirmative action have to do with ensuring equality for everyone. Title IX helps women and affirmative action helps minorities. The objective of both of them is great. I just don’t think that what they were made to do has happened. They were made to make everyone in America as equal as possible which is exactly what happened for awhile. Now it is different. Now it is creating inequality. The government and people trying to enforce Title IX and affirmative action have tried to place a number system onto them. This has resulted in quotas those companies, schools, and businesses have to meet. This is what has made them create inequality. Now in order to reach the quotas, these companies, businesses and schools have sometimes turned down applicants that don't fit the quotas. This would be fine, if all of the applicants were the same, but sometimes they are more qualified, or better for the position. I just don't think that, that is fair. If your white and you have better qualifications for whatever reason, i think you should get the job, or scholarship, or whatever is being applied for. Employers sometimes have to pick the minority even if they aren't as qualified, because they have to meet a quota for affirmative action. This creates inequality and i don’t think it is fair. This is messing with people’s lives. Getting into college and getting a job is a huge part of someone’s life. I don't think that just because of a quota people should be turned down. People may argue that it’s not the minorities’ fault they are not as qualified because of the fact that they started out worse off than the rest of us. I don't think that this can be used as an argument once that individual is out of high school. I think our society has made so much equal for people. Even as a minority, you have the same opportunities as everyone else. If you work hard in school, you can get scholarships, go to college, and get a job fair and square. I think that Title IX and affirmative action are good until they start focusing too much on quotas because then they become hypocritical. I think they need to find a different way of keeping track of things or change the rules and laws so that the most qualified person is getting chosen, even if they aren’t a minority.

2008-10-27T20:58:00.006-05:00

Should all students even in public schools have to wear school uniforms?

When i was younger and i heard about private schools and the fact that they had to wear uniforms, i thought it was the worst idea ever. I just thought it would be horrible to have to wear the same dorky outfit that everyone else had to wear. Or wear shorts that went down to my knees or a collard shirt everyday. Then my brother came home from school one day and told me about an assignment he was doing for language arts class. He told me that they had to debate someone about a topic. He had to debate in favor of everyone wearing school uniforms. My reaction was the same as it always had been completely opposed. But then he told me his argument and it made complete sense. I don't agree with my brother very much but he definitely changed my mind this time. He argued that they were a good thing. It evens the playing field a little more for everyone. Imagine if you didn’t have money to get new outfits every year let alone every season. You wouldn’t have to with uniforms. You would fit in just fine with two or three pairs of khaki pants and five or six collard shirts. I think this would help out a lot of kids who don’t have a lot of extra spending money. They wouldn't stand out as much if they didn't have the name brands and this would help them in the long run i think because maybe they wouldn’t be made fun of as much or something. Wearing school uniforms may also help prevent clicks and things from forming or at least prolong this from happening. I don’t think kids would judge people as fast, and maybe get to know the person better before they do. I think all of the kids would feel more connected because they all share a common thing. People who are against the school uniform say things like it violates the first amendment or something. i don't think it is that big of a deal. You can wear what ever you want outside of school. If schools just tried to enforce a stricter dress code i don’t think that would work. They either need to switch over or don't. At this point i don't think getting uniforms would work at all because no one would want them. So many people express themselves through clothing or love to wear their designer outfit everyday. I just think it would be easier and simpler to have school uniforms.

2008-10-26T23:04:00.007-05:00

Should schools teach evolution or creationism?

When i was in middle school, we had to watch a news show called channel 1. It's just a short ten minute news clip and one day i remember hearing about a school that wanted to ban any books that had the theory of evolution in them. I never really thought about this before and it was a surprise to me that they would even think of doing this. I always just thought that schools taught evolution. I never thought that they would teach creationism because i thought that was what church was for. It then made me think about what the right thing to teach was. Since religion is extremely prominent in our society and culture, it would make sense to teach kids about it so they would have a basic understanding of it and its way of explaining how our world came to be. But i have decided that they shouldn't because none of it is proven. Also, there are so many different religions that it would make teaching it so much more complicated if not impossible because all of the different ideas would contradict each other.
The theory of evolution is a more concrete idea. I don't think public schools should teach anything that isn't necessarily proven. Many studies and experiments have been conducted to prove the theory of evolution. These are studies and experiments that can be believable and trusted. If a child is going to public school and using up tax payers money, they shouldn't be being taught things that aren't proven or that not everyone believes in. I don't want tax money to be spent on teaching kids creationism, if i did i would send them to a private school that teaches the religion of my choice. People who believe in creationism could be saying the same thing about paying taxes so students learn the opposite of what they believe in, but i don't know what to tell them. I think parents know that their child will be taught evolution and are ok with that. When i have kids i want them to be able to make there own choice about what they believe in. Schools really do influence what kids think because they are at school so much. Kids follow by example and go along with ideas and beliefs that they see their teachers and peers following. Evolution keeps things neutral in a way because it just presents the facts.

2008-10-26T23:02:00.008-05:00

Should we continue providing welfare?

Both my mom and my brother have jobs closely related to welfare. My mom is a special education teacher for an elementary school and she deals with children with behavioral disorders. Many of the students that she teaches come from families that are provided with welfare. She sees first hand the advantages and disadvantages it has. She says that the families she deals with truly do need this money. She hears all kinds of stories from her students about the hardships they face. Some of the kids talk about eating chips with ketchup and mustard on them for three meals because they have nothing else to eat in their house. These are the times when welfare is great. It allows the parents to get their children food and other tings they need. The problem come when my mom hears stories of the money being used for the wrong reasons. She'll see the parents of some of these kids driving a nicer car than we have or bragging about their new big screen tv. This is just ridiculous to me. It makes me mad to see people like this buying things they obviously don't have money for with our tax dollars. My family works hard for what we get. They should be spending the welfare money on food and things the families and children truly need.
Maybe the government should use some of that money to teach classes on how to manage money or something so people don't just throw it away buying things they don't need.
My brother is a police officer and also works with a lot of people that get welfare. He also sees that it does good and bad things. He sees the people that it helps that have done their best with the little money they have. He also sees the people that take advantage of the system. He hates to see the people that completely disregard the point of welfare. It isn't something that people should live off of. People need to use it to help them during rough times. It shouldn't replace a job.
I think the government should figure out how to enforce welfare money better. They don't keep track of it well enough. They are pulling tax dollars out of our pockets. They are taking our well earned money. It just disappoints me to see the system being abused. It may help more than it hurts and we need to focus on those cases and not let a few people ruin it for everyone else.

2008-10-25T13:06:00.007-05:00

Should the government be able to "spy" on us?

The other day in social studies class we got onto the question of government spying. Since September 11, 2001, the government has made new laws that allow them to tap our phone calls and im sure look at all kinds of things we send to people. These laws are protected under the Patriot Act. A lot of people say that this is an invasion of privacy and that it is going against the constitution and shouldn't be allowed. I say that it is perfectly fine unless you have something to hide, and you shouldn't. If you died on September, 11, wouldn't you have wanted the government to have possibly caught the terrorists before they did it? The government in doing this for our safety. They don't care about you or your secrets that you have with your friends or what you did last Friday night. They don't even know who you are. All they are looking for is a threat to the United States.
i have argued many time with many different people about this issue and have only heard many reasons against this. Most of the time people just think its weird and they "like their privacy". That just isn't a good enough reason for me. I've only heard two good reasons and one was from my aunt. She said that she wouldn't want people maybe using any information against her. Like if they disagree with her about something or she offends someone in some way, it could prevent her from getting a promotion, or affect something in her life. Now this made me stop and think because it is a legitimate reason for not wanting people to listen or "spy" on you. I have still come to the conclusion that it should be allowed. I honestly think the government officials could care less what your talking about as long as it doesn't discuss illegal activity.
The other argument ive heard is that it is a slippery slope. This means that once the government starts listening to our conversations, they'll just start doing more and more things that go deeper into our privacy. They could start reading our mail, putting video cameras everywhere, or microphones, also looking at what websites we go to. I don't think these types of spying are necessary unless they have found something suspicious. But i don't think the government will go this far.

2008-10-23T15:56:00.011-05:00

Should we drill for oil in Alaska?

When i think of Alaska i think of a very big state that is filled with cold ice and snow and very little people. My uncle lives in Alaska and tells me all kinds of stories about the snow and crazy weather they have. He lives a half hour away from where he works and in the winter it takes up to two hours to get there because the road conditions get so bad. When i asked him about what he thought about drilling for oil in Alaska he said that he wouldn't be completely against it. He thinks it would be a good thing because it would lower gas prices and decrease the demand for foreign oil. Whenever he comes to visit he notices how much cheaper our gas is and i even complain about it so it must be pretty expensive in Alaska. He explained that if we drilled in Alaska we would own the oil and not have to buy the over priced oil from other foreign countries. He said not only do we have to pay for over priced oil, but the United States doesn't really agree with some of their policies so we have to be careful what we say and do because we don't want them to raise the prices even more or not give us anymore oil.
I personally think that regardless of all of what he said i don't think it is a good idea. I think it is a slippery slope and pretty soon we'll be drilling everywhere and polluting the environment even more. I don't think we should waste anymore time or money trying to figure out ways to drill in Alaska. We need to focus all of that on alternative energy choices. We have lots of new technology already invented. We need to spend money on making these new inventions more available for the public. If we would just make everyone get at least one hybrid car it would make a huge difference on the consumption of oil and pollution that is given off by regular cars. I just don't get why the government can't propose something like that. They also need to make them cheaper so that more people can buy them. Hybrid cars aren't' the only way to help, there are windmills, ethanol, and other things in the process of being made.

2008-10-19T23:30:00.002-05:00

Should we have another amnesty?

Another hot topic that has come up, as the election comes around, is amnesty. This is an issue that i cannot decide on. I know that most of the illegal immigrants that come to the United States, are extremely hardworking people. They work harder than most of us do and get paid half as much. They live lives that most of us would not survive in for a day if we switched places with them.I also understand that some of them also bring crime and other bad things with them that we don't want in our country. I know that it is a security issue to have people unaccounted for in our country.
I have only a few things that have shaped my opinion on the issue. In social studies class i have learned about this a little. I know that we have granted amnesty before. I think it is a great idea but there are some bads things that come from it. More illegal immigrants start coming to our country becuase they think that another amnesty will be granted. We can't just keep granting amnesty otherwise we will forever have the problem of illegal immigrants.
This made me wonder why people just dont come over legally in the first place and i learned that it is because the process is lengthy, expensive, and complicated. I think they need to expediate the process. This would solve a lot of problems because more people would do it legally. This also raises a con againts amnesty. The people that did go through the legal procss aren't happy because they had to pay a lot of money and wait a long time to get the United States so it isn't really fair to them to just grant illegal immigrants amnesty. This is another reason they should take a closer look at how they process immigrants now beucase if we could just find a way that works, it would be fair for everyone.
I also read a book call "The Tortilla Curtain". This followed the struggles of a married illegal mexican couple. It told of their many struggles and hardships like having to live in ghettos where they would get robbed and never have enough food, or they would have to steal a bag of beans or rice. I don't want anyone to have to live like they did beucase they were illegal.
I don't think the issue is amnesty or not i think it is how we process the immigrants, and i think we need to focus on finding a new way to do that.

2008-10-19T23:07:00.002-05:00

Should schools teach solely abstinence for sex education?

Our school just recently had our yearly sex education talk. I think that these talks are great for everyone. In our culture, sex isn't something that most people openly like to talk about. This is a problem because it is kind of hypocritical of our society. Sex sells, but we don't like to talk about it? Does that make sense? I don't think so. Everywhere we look we see someone half naked and every movie we watch includes at least one full on make out seen. We are surrounded by all of these things and we are influenced by them consciously and unconsciously. We compile all of the things we have seen in the media and heard about, and create our version of how we value sexual relationships and sex itself. We all know that the media doesn't always tell the truth and a lot of what we think is going on really isn't. If we follwed in the foot steps of the movies and media, we'd all be pregnant by the time we were fifteen because they both intensify sex and make it seem like the normal and cool thing to do at our age.
The sex talks bring us back down to reality. We hear about actual studies and get taught valuable information. We realize that not everyones having sex. We learn about all the different kinds of birth control and how to get them and use them. I'm glad i go to a public school so i don't leave the sex talk thinking my only option is abstinence. In this day and age that is an unrealistic hope. Like i said before, we are constantly influenced by our society and it is geared toward sex, so you can't blame us for being geared for it as well.
I'm not saying people should have sex or encouraging it, i am simply saying that it is inevitable. We are animals and one of the biggest genetic goals in our lives is to reproduce. Our society has already prolonged this considering we now get married around 24 as opposed to 15. Because all odds are against us because of society and genes, we need to not just assume and dream about the perfect world where everyone remains abstinent. When people don't just face reality, more harm than good is done. There are unnecessary teen pregnancies and STD's being spread every time someone decides it is a good idea to just teach abstinence.

2008-10-16T07:25:00.008-05:00

Should women have the right to choose if they have an abortion?

Each time a new election comes around, this topic comes up. Women everywhere that believe in the right to choose, hold their breathe a little because with new presidents, come new policies, laws and beliefs. Each time a conservative republican gets in office the fight begins to defend the right to choice. I believe that women should have the choice. If they get the procedure done properly and within the correct time frame, it is fine in my opinion, for them to get an abortion. I understand that unexpected things happen. If a women unexpectedly gets pregnant and she doesn't want to keep the baby then the child already starts off on the wrong foot. The mother most likely wont take good care of the child whether intentionally or unintentionally. This could be for many reasons, like not having enough experience, not caring, not having a stable life or job etc. The child will most likely not have the best the life, and the cycle will continue. That child could grow up and because it wasn't raised very well for what ever reason, it may have a child before it is ready as well. This doesn't mean that i believe abortion is the only option for women. They can get an adoption also. I think this is a better option. There are very loving parents out there that would love to adopt and would provide a better life for that child. I have a couple of adopted friends and they are just fine and completely satisfied with their lives. I'm sure they have a better quality of life then they would have had if they hadn't been adopted, and are more successful and happier. Even if i think adoption is a better option, I still think it is should be the womans choice and they should be able to choose either option. If you haven't given birth then i don't think you should really have a final say in this debate. I'm sure it would be next to impossible to give birth and then give up that baby. Even if the mother chooses abortion, i think it is a better option then raising the baby herself, because it is better than them ending up raising that child "halfway" because it will just cause problems for everyone. When trying to make decisions about these types of very personal issues, i think politicians need to keep in mind other people and not only themselves or their particular beliefs.

2008-10-09T07:43:00.008-05:00

I have decided the format of my blog for now. I will have a controversial question each time i post and i will discuss my opinion. I am hoping that this will eventually lead me to a few topics that i really want to talk about so my blog is more focused.

Blog Uno

2008-10-01T07:27:00.003-05:00

It is 7:30 in the morning and i am blogging for the first time in my life for my AP Lang class. I am skeptical at this point and really have no idea what i want to blog about from here on out.