The Future: Hopeful or Hopeless?

I recently saw an article that talked about how our new president has been “gaslighting” America into believing what he wants us to believe. The phrase was taken from a movie where a lady by the name of Bella is being terrorized by a man named Jack who keeps blaming her for misplacing household items while he hides them himself and the only reason she doesn’t lose her mind is because she can see Jack hide the items in the light of a gas lamp. The article then goes on to talk about how Trump is doing the exact same thing. He claims news he doesn’t agree with is fake news, he constantly tweets outrageous things on twitter and posts on social media in general, and in every interview he spreads his misinformation through coercion. The main way he has done this is through putting into question what we see as the truth constantly enough that we have begun to put it into question in our own minds and, thus, are being gaslighted since we are questioning our own reality through this spread of misinformation. The article then goes on to say there’s hope as long as we don’t lose our heads and start believing everything we hear from him, but is there really? I mean, with political partisanship for the republicans followed by the easily persuaded of America spreading this misinformation, is there really hope for reclaiming our reality without the politics of the Trump administration stopping anyone who tries at every turn? I know I would never just agree with everything someone says just because of a title, but how many people become followers of anyone and just go with the crowd and don’t bother to question anything? Is there really hope as long as people remain gullible and docile about what is done in the Federal Government? Absolutely not. People need to open their eyes and see just how biased and baseless the current president is with most of his policies and actions that he doesn't even consider the repercussions for whenever he so much as moves.

Recent News

Obviously, there have been several news stories posted today with presidential controversy, foreign relations, etc.  However, one that struck me with special interest was a story about the reaction of the Ohio State football team to their rejection from the college national championship playoffs. The article starts by presenting senior linebacker Chris Worley, trying to keep calm after the fact of OSU not being selected for the playoffs. He's trying to listen to music, despite his phone blowing up and his parents ranting to him about how they should've selected his team. Instead of getting mad with them, however, Worley attempts to calm them all down by just telling them to relax and that his team was in a good position and was going to face a good team in the cotton bowl game. What Worley said next to a reporter was what really gained my interest:

"So the biggest thing, situations like this, a lot of people, they harp on the negatives, but they don't realize the blessings that God has put in front of them. I was trying to get him to realize that he's blessed, his son is blessed to be in this position. And whatever comes out the other side of it, the only thing we can do is fight."

That's what got my attention, his use of personal perseverance on others. Just by telling his friends and family that he was fine with his current conditions and giving a specific reason for them caused everyone to calm down with him. This then rubbed off on Worley's coach, Urban Meyer, who knew that his team was capable and could have made a great contender for the championship. As Urban was talking to the press about how he knew this was true, Worley was in the back. This caused Meyer to focus on not this little decision, but the big picture which allowed him to show the press his calm side on the subject and that the team was still a great team regardless of what a boardroom had to say. This spoke volumes to me, and showed me that even in the hardest of time there is still the ability to push through it.

Afterwards....

As the dust clears, you see what is left of your 'companion'. She's lost the mouth to talk you down with, the eyes to glare at you with, the thoughts to haunt you with, and the hand to stab you in the back. Her body is left in such a way that resembles what she truly is: a snake. It then gets up and slithers away, no doubt to find another all-too trusting friend to slowly murder. You look as the sword, made up of all your combined hatred, malice, and rage for the betrayer, finally break to pieces and disappear within the ground. Your wounds then start to finally heal, and you feel relief from their constant and agonizing pain. You finally feel free of the endless burden of everything that was hidden from you, yet affecting you from the beginning. When all the dust completely settles, you realize who's looking at you. It's your true friends, the ones who have not hurt you. The ones who would stand by your side in times of strife. The ones who care about you not for the benefits they get from you, but because they know how they can help you as you have tried to help them. They know you for your character, not your benefits.

However, the stress of this whole situation has tested the entire fabric of the bonds between both you and your friends. Your trust has been tested, and they can tell, for every fight has casualties. Some rush to your aid and help you on your feet again right away while others seem to linger and dawdle around the subject of what just happened. You can feel the dawdlers judging you, trying to determine if you were justified or completely unwarranted. Many know you were correct,that she was a cancerous cell to you and others, but some still waver at the idea of you actually showing your violent emotions like that toward someone you considered for a long time to be a friend. You notice a new crack in your shield where there wasn't one before, as well as several new dents. For your shield is your personal mental, physical, and emotional stability, and everyone falters when left alone.  

Bemusings on Betrayal (part 2)

Then, it happens. The epiphany sent by pure luck and chance to make things right. The reflective back of your shield catches the reflection in the dagger and sends it straight to you like a pony express messenger. The reflection reveals your back and ,most importantly, the numerous times you've been stabbed there. You see wound after wound, some still dripping blood while others are dried shut. You then remember this has happened before. The exact same event, with the exact same 'friend', and creating the exact same reactions from both of you. You then see why you had forgotten, you had become so used to the pain and suffering that you couldn't feel it anymore.

Now, you're livid. Not just because of the memories and the inaction you took, but because the dagger was never sheathed. As your 'friend' raises the dagger again, you quickly raise your sword and slice her hand off. She screams the most blood-curdling scream you've ever heard. You almost feel bad for doing the deed, until she starts spreading lies. "He cut me! He's a traitor to all of us!" She tells your other friends who you've trusted and kept watch over. Luckily, they know better, for they've seen your back much more than you have and just never had the heart to tell you. They thought you too innocent, too pure, too good-humored to see what was being done to you.

Well, who's laughing now?

You call out to her, with the utmost rage and insanity being held back only by your morals and petty forgiveness. You denounce her for everything she's ever done to you, all the pain she caused you, all the pieces of you she cut out, all the lies and misinformation she's spread. Then, you tell her how you've forgiven her, counting the scars on your back, a total of almost 51 times and this is how she repays you. She then tells the whole truth "I was never your friend, OK? I just felt like you needed my help and I had to keep it that way!"

You raise your sword again.

"What do you think you're doing?! You still need me, especially now!"

No, you don't..... 

Bemusings on Betrayal (part 1)

There are many great pains in the world. Headaches, migraines, romantic rejection, acid reflux, anxiety, blunt-force trauma, and PTSD to name a few. However, none of these even compare to the one great pain of being stabbed in the back by someone you trusted. The strike itself comes with a bit of a surprise. No one could've expected it, especially since she was your friend. You had spent the majority of middle school talking to each other, getting to know each other, and understanding each other's interest. You realize, now, it was just manipulation. As soon as the blade is removed, there is an even sharper pain that worms and twists it's way through your body like some sort of unwanted parasite. It works it's way through your spine, past the lungs, and right to your heart. The biggest organ in your body now has a hole in it not by your actions, but another's misguided pride. You fall forward, the eternal protection you had for your friends is put on the back-foot and falters for a few minutes, the shield doing nothing but reflecting yourself with the appearance of a shattered mirror (a fitting form for the occasion). Until this point you've done nothing but sacrifice to please her, sacrifice to keep the balance, sacrifice to benefit from one another's company. Now, you realize what you've wasted on her to have her by your side only for her to find your weakest point and capitalize on it. with this in mind, you twist. Not just physically, but mentally. "How could she do this?" "I thought we were friends?" "I've done nothing but be generous and kind and helpful and this is how she repays me?!" You go from the back-foot to forward. Your shield is now upright, however, in the opposite direction. She cowers at the scene. "It was only a joke." "You'd destroy what you've built this quickly?" "It was only a little fun." After glancing into your stern eyes for a long time, realizing her petty excuses are getting her nowhere, she says the two words: "I'm sorry." Your eyes go back to how they were, your mood has shifted back to what it was, and you go to turn back to the overall threats to your friends. She thinks she's won.     

A Poem (because why not)

“If we were all made of diamonds, then no one would be able to move”

That’s what they say

“Keep your actions and soul pure, then the right one will come”

Tried that

“Why didn’t you just stay with her, then? She said she loved you”

But did she really mean it?

Does anyone really mean it?

‘I love you’ has been tossed in my face so many times

And kisses have been shoved onto me so much

I scarcely feel them anymore

For it’s only been used to betray, destroy, and harm me

In such a way that it can never be forgiven

By both family and ‘friends’

Not the good ones, mind you

The ones who know how I feel and how to make me feel better

But the ones who would rather kick me than lift a finger to help

The ones who would rather ground me than let me fly

The ones who would rather stab me than bandage me

The ones who would rather hurt me more

Than heal my broken and dismembered body, spirit, or mind

The ones who would rather push me in a hole

than dig me out of one

Why?

What have I done to deserve this kind of treatment?

When all I attempt to do is help others

To make them feel better

When all I do is work hard at my jobs

So I can get good at them

When all I do is spread happiness

Because I know what it's like to feel down...

Really down....

Almost to the point of no return....

So why, then,

Do they continue to chip away at me

As if I am trying to hurt them?

Why, then,

Do they continue to manipulate others around me

To try and plunge me back into that dark abyss?

Why, then,

Do they try to put themselves above me as if I need their help

When they know I can and have taken care of myself?

Is it really because they love me

As they always say?

Or is it more because they envy me

And try to sabotage everything I've done and will do

Just so they can laud themselves

And cast me aside like always

So it goes....

A Few Things From Q1

A few things I've learned from these past few months of working both in and outside of school are these: Life is full of downs and ups, no matter how hard you work. However, it is also emotionally profitable to keep your spirits high, even in your darkest hour. I've come to realize this in many ways and form many avenues of experience. A major way I've come to this epiphany is through marching band. In several ways throughout the season, I had both grievances and delights (as did everyone else) and the one thing that kept everyone focused and on-track after we had expressed these feelings was our combined spirit for the band's success as well as our willpower to keep the band as successful as it had been through the season. Another way I've found this is not just through events I'm an active leader in however, but also in my own personal life. There have been (and probably will be) several times in my life I've either felt really sad/depressed as well as ecstatic and overjoyed about things. While the sad and depressed parts would obviously throw me off track in life, the overly-happy parts also had the similar effect of losing focus because of things such as over-confidence and feeling excessively luxurious in my ecstatic state. Whether I was in the middle of being up or down in my mood either way would cause me to fall off-track with my overall focuses in life, which would then lead me into a seemingly almost never ending depressed state (since I would come to see this loss of focus as failure). With time, however, I gained an understanding through maturity that whether you're happy or sad does not dictate your willpower to strive for a vision and goals in life. This has lead me on what I feel is a better path than before that could not only lead to furthering my overall maturity and professionalism, but also help to 'keep my head in the game' and never lose focus of where I see myself in the next twenty,thirty,forty,or even sixty years.

Priorities and their Problems

Priorities, the bane of every living human being's existence. A construct of finding out what's most important in our lives and executing these tasks in chronological order based upon that fact. The only problem is, everything's important to somebody (and that somebody is your boss /coach /teacher /parents /etc.).
In all, personal priorities are good to have. They allow you to sort your daily tasks based on what is the most important to you for that day. It allows us to keep on top of things and not let assignments or jobs slip through our fingers and become missed opportunities. The problem with priorities, however, is that people are going to try to manipulate them not matter what they are if you have a conflict in times tasks need to get done. This can get extremely annoying and only causes the stress that having priorities was supposed to eliminate become recreated through pressure from two people who area the heads of certain areas of your life. This has happened to me several times throughout my high school career, especially at school itself. For instance, there was one time where I had 2 advanced placement biology labs due on the same night. Not only was that in itself pretty ridiculous, but what was more ridiculous was that they were due on the soccer team's senior night (which I was still a member of). Now, in terms of priorities this wouldn't have been a problem, simply just put AP biology before soccer. However, senior night WAS MANDATORY FOR ALL PLAYERS TO ATTEND THE WHOLE NIGHT, which ended up ending at 10:30pm EST. I had literally no time to even think about what I was writing down as I tried desperately to do my science labs up until 1:00am the next morning (the only reason I had stopped was because I had other classes to attend and realized if I stayed up the whole night all of my grades would get worse).
Now, the easy way people will find around this is "Well, why didn't you just do it when it was first assigned rather than wait till the last minute?" Well I'll tell you why high school student that is smart enough to be in honors and AP level classes but takes all general or CP classes that has probably never had any problems with this kind of thing: I had five other assignments due throughout the time period I was given from all of my other classes at the school. "Well, then why didn't you use the weekend, like me?" Maybe because my family consistently plans these 'surprise excursions' to Columbus and Niles, Ohio seemingly every bloody weekend AP student who does nothing outside of school other than 1-2 things. The reason I went on this rant is to show one thing: priorities only work for people who do little or very specific things. For me, as a broad-range student who participates in various classes, clubs, and sports, EVERYTHING always clashes with SOMETHING (and it always ends with everyone screaming at me).

Why Versailles Failed (Part 2)

Because of the blame of the First World War not being able to really go to anyone else on the losing side, Germany was forced to take it even though they hadn't even started the war in the first place. This would then cause the entire country of Germany to go bankrupt due to all the massive war reparations put on it by the Allied Powers. This would then cause German politics to shift so drastically that the kaiser (king) of Germany would resign, creating a power vacuum and allowing for the popular rise of one particular German soldier who tried painting once but instead decided to lead Germany with an iron fist and plunge the world into the Second World War (I'm pretty sure you know who I'm referring to by this point). However, Versailles did not just fail in keeping Germany pacified to the point where they wouldn't want revenge. Versailles also failed in a completely different category with the League of Nations. First off, the League of Nations was basically the early United Nations. It was proposed by Woodrow Wilson, the president of America at the time, and was the one point of his famous 14 points that actually got implemented into Versailles. Wilson also wanted Germany to be treated fairly when losing, which caused the French Prime Minister to laugh as he signed the document that would create the next World War in which his country would crumble to the ground within the first 2 years. Passive aggressiveness aside, the League would be responsible for world peace at any cost. However, it was terribly corrupt and had very little power  to do anything. For one, the League had no volunteer force like the modern U.N. It instead relied solely on treaties and paperwork for promises and had no real way to enforce anything that was written down. This would be seen when Italy would use gas weapons and commit atrocities towards Ethiopia in their second invasion of it. The League was also corrupt because there were only Western Powers that were represented in it, which excluded Asian and African countries altogether. This was why the Treaty of Versailles ultimately failed: it had the ability to have and keep the world at peace, yet only ended up creating higher tensions and revealing weaknesses in diplomatic systems that would have the world go through another world war to finally fix.

Why Versailles Failed (Part 1)

 The Treaty of Versailles. A treaty that has made itself infamous for trying to solve the world's problems and spectacularly failing to do so. A piece of paper that had so much potential, yet completely flopped in keeping world peace as it was meant to and instead having the exact opposite result by sparking the fervor for World War II . So why, exactly, did the Treaty of Versailles fail at its job? Well, there are several reasons. The first and foremost reason, as most can easily find clear, is because it put all of the blame for the war on Germany. Now, any American on the street will tell you that the Germans did, in fact, start the war and they know this because it's the only major country they can remember actually being competent against the Allies during World War I. However, those who think this are sorrowfully mistaken and probably had a great grandfather by the the name of Huey Long. No, the Germans were not responsible for the war's outbreak. Instead, it was actually Serbia and Austria-Hungary who plunged the world into chaos for the first time on a global scale. When Archduke Franz Ferdinand was shot in Serbia, Austria-Hungary blamed the Serbian government and began taking offensive action. What followed next was the largest "domino effect" anyone has ever seen. Germany joined their ally's ,Austria's, cause while Russia joined their ally's, Serbia's, cause. France then wanted a piece of the action and joined Russia's cause since they were in an alliance. The Ottomans in Turkey had the same idea and joined Germany's alliance to take back their land from Russia. Later on, when Germany wanted to invade France by going through Belgium Britain was dragged in because they were allied with Belgium. It's this last bit that causes some Americans to think Germany started the war, since America loves Britain and Britain was dragged in because of Germany's inability to see this would mean more enemies. With this in mind, and France wanting to see Germany humiliated worse than they were humiliated in 5 wars against them, Germany recieved most of the blame for the war not just overall, but also in the conference room since they were the only central power still technically alive and since France and Britain were the only two allied "Big Whigs" there (Austria-Hungary and the Ottomans had split up, Russia was in a civil war with the communists, and Italy had switched sides and didn't feel comfortable showing up).

Fearful Education

There are obviously many ways to teach a person how to do something or what something is such as viewing examples, directly telling about the subject, or even listening to music. All of these are either used by teachers or students to help them commit to memory material they learn in the classroom and outside of school. There's one way to teach, however, that really doesn't satisfy anyone's method of learning or even how a teacher should think about students, and that is education through fear.

Education through fear hardly ever works in any sense. The main reason some people use it to "educate" others, however, is because of the collective thought process of years past that says "If we tell people about the truth of what we are trying to teach them, that will just encourage them to do it!" So, instead of giving people the truthful and in-depth education about a subject they will truly need, they are instead jipped by people with microphones showing up at an assembly saying "Drugs are Bad!" and then going on to show several gruesome pictures about what happens to "everyone" who has ever done drugs. That's education through fear in a nutshell, spectacularly fail to educate by not even giving full coverage of the material and forcing a specific answer out of people for a choice they may want to make themselves.

Another reason this method of educating people doesn't work is because after a certain amount of exposure to the same exact photos, videos, and whatever else the "educator" can come up with about one subject the more tolerant people become about this kind of education. If you've been dragged into the same assembly that showed people dying over and over again it wouldn't matter whether or not its about drunk driving or drugs or having sex. You end up seeing and hearing similar sob stories so much that you really don't care anymore and actually want to get back to what you were doing before because there's never any new insight into the subject or anything deeper than "Don't do this or you'll DIEEEEEEEEE!"

The correct way to approach these kinds of subjects is not through fear-based education, but through general education. Yes, there are certain risks that come with drugs, driving, and sex, but there are also risks that come with exposure to the sun and watching too much TV. It's better to be told everything there is to be told about a subject in order to make a conscious decision yourself than to have a choice made for you because "you'll die if you chose the other way."  

Amusements on Art

Art. It’s effectively anything and everything around us that holds a deeper meaning within it. Sometimes is the traditional painting or sculpture, other times it’s something less known for being artl like a movie or even a board game! Art is made to convey meanings in any way it can through certain expressions, so it’s no wonder why a certain amount of people do not really recognize the current “main-stream” style of art that is becoming more and more accepted/rejected: postmodernism (they’re getting really creative with these names, let me tell you). Postmodernism is the newest form of art style that is being used, and it’s very unlikely you haven’t at least heard of it with its very abstract shapes and almost unrecognizable form that has been countlessly parodied, reported on, and poked fun at almost constantly. However, there is more to this type of art style than what simply meets the eye on main street. This type of art requires a lot more background information than any form of art before. Believe it or not an artist, if they are to be condoned and praised for their work with this style, can’t just say “Yeah, I put those rusty stovepipes in a spiral just because they look really cool.” What an artist using the postmodernism style actually has to do is undergo a heavy research process in order to make sure his or her art has that ‘deeper meaning’ it requires to actually qualify as art. The first step in the process is basically what represents what the artist wants the best so that the audience the piece is directed at is at least given a better chance of understanding it. Then, the artist must have their own in-depth explanation of what it means so and least a certain group of people’s point of view will allow them to see the intended meaning. Finally, the artist must then find a way to convince other artists in their field that they have created a masterpiece with a specific explanation of each minor detail that an average person might ignore. As you can see, there’s a lot more to art than what most think. So, when there’s something that’s considered a new development in the profession, don’t just instantly scorn a work because you don’t understand it at first. Allow yourself to see it from another’s perspective and you might just understand and even learn something from it.  

What is Love? (reference completely intended)

Emotions are fickle. This is what everyone will tell you in some way, shape, or form if you ask them why you feel a certain way about something when you legitimately don't know. Sometimes you might feel hatred toward someone you just met for no apparent reason, or you might feel really happy at seeing the color magenta and you don't know why. While all of these emotional responses are seemingly random, there is one emotion that is most definitely not random that we also still don't have a definite answer as to why we feel it: Love.
When it comes to the emotion of love, science gives us the basic reason: we have it because it is our natural instinct as humans to want to reproduce so we can continue to exist on Earth. However, this doesn't really solve the question of why love exists, since you didn't have to love someone to reproduce back in the stone age. With science and informal literature practically out of the question because of this, we can really only turn to friends and family to find out what love truly is besides just an emotion. Interviewing people, however, gives varied responses. Some people will say love is a beautiful emotion of attraction which helps a person find their true companion that everyone needs to have in order to survive and stay sane. This point of view is reflected by many people in the United States and is relatively custom to be followed by a marriage of some sort once the pairing has happened. However, several other people speculate the love is nothing more than a chemical reaction that is worthless in the long run since all it does is lead to great pain and suffering when a person that one loves leaves their life forever, either through normal departure or death.
In all, the concept of love is entirely up to personal speculation, which can make it really hard for logic-minded people who are lacking in social skills. My personal advice to them is to have them do their research on sociability and find what kind of people best fit their interests. then they can find someone who they can truly enjoy and, quite possibly, fall in love with.  

Pompous Public Media ( and how it's incorrect)

North Korea, a country everybody knows about and quite frankly could care less about with it's small geographical size and censoring of any inside and outside media. However, recent events have unfolded where North Korea has been trying to "prove itself to the world" by sending threats to other countries and even going so far as to try and launch a ballistic missile at the United States (emphasis on the 'try'). Now, as anyone can imagine the media has been all over this whole scenario. Going over talks between members of the United Nations such as Russia and China, the old allies of North Korea during the Korean War, and the United States and South Korea (the other side of the Korean War). This, so far, has all been O.K. for the modern world, Russia and China have no plans to help North Korea in these endeavors and everyone's planning to basically do whatever they can to completely defuse the situation without violence but are prepared to solve it with violence if necessary (thanks Cold War arms race). The only problem in all of this is the media. The media on the subject so far has been making rapid and disproportionate claims that "This is the Next Cuban Missile Crisis except with North Korea!" and that "Trump's taking on both Kim Jong Un and Putin it's basically the same thing!!!!!!!!!!" As a rather well informed history buff on the Cuban Missile Crisis I can tell you this 'incident' is nothing like it. First of all, Putin and Russia are AGAINST North Korea and on our side (for now) so that's the alliance similarities out the window. Second is the fact that Cuba actually posed a threat and was avidly supplied by its allies. North Korea has absolutely NO ONE on their side and can't even pose a significant nuclear war scare like the Cuban Missile Crisis did since they don't and won't have nuclear missiles until at least a year from now andcan't even launch their ballistic missiles (the one they tried shooting at the U.S. crashed in the Japanese Sea). Now, that's not to say North Korea poses no threat to anyone, but they definitely don't pose a threat to the United States like Cuba did during the Cuban Missile Crisis.

Wavering Certainty

Ever since I realized what a job was, I've always wanted to be an engineer. With my natural want to build things out of my toys as a kid coupled with my fascination for the structures and vehicles in the modern world, specifically airplanes, it seemed like a very effective fit for me (also my massive amount of sarcasm, but that's a different story). However, recently I've been experiencing a certain expansion of my interests. Several of my friends have started telling me I wouldn't just be a good engineer but also a good psychologist, data analyst, public relations worker, public speaker, and even short story writer. While I think I still want to be an aerospace engineer, I can't help but agree with my friends when they tell me these things. I know I'm good with talking to a group of people on a podium without becoming a river, talk constantly about the abstracts of the human mind, love helping my friends with the problems they feel emotionally and mentally, and can explain a random jumble of numbers that no-one bats an eye to and give it meaning so that everyone looks at them. I also know that in each of these jobs I could benefit the human race just as much as I would be able to as an aerospace engineer, if not greater. This then has begun to pose a question that I've only just recently begun to ponder in my spare time: should I change my career plans and study something else in college? Currently, I think I'd be a better aerospace engineer than anything else. However, this doesn't mean my interest in the other fields is completely destroyed. I'm still going to keep getting up in front of crowds and talking my head off, discussing emotional and mental problems while theorizing about the brain's complex functions with my friends, and looking over and giving a meaning to statistics that I find in news articles. I would love it if I could find a way to explore all of these career options at once but, unfortunately, I would probably be overworked in the end, and then nothing would get done.

Transitioning Conundrum

There are many things in life that cannot be fully taught and have to be experienced by a person to know everything about them. This is true with things like having friends abandon a person, dealing with a divorce, and having to run suicide sprints at a soccer practice. Sure, you can learn things about these subjects and gain a base knowledge of what typically happens, but until a person experiences them all they will have is just that base knowledge and nothing of the true feelings that come forth in those situations when they are experienced. One experience, however, is the one that every high school senior dreads: the great transition from grade school into their early adult lives.

The reason for the concern is actually quite simple: the majority have no idea what’s next for them. Sure, there’s college, but college is the equivalent of another world for a group of people who have been together since high school. While moving up the ranks in grade school, it’s not nearly as daunting as it could be since a person has the knowledge that they’ll be in the (relative) same place, not be far from their childhood home, and have confirmed friends on the first day. The transition to college, however, completely dumps all of these out the window. Friends are more than likely going to different colleges in different areas of the nation and even the world that will most likely be miles away from their parent’s home.

This is why the transition to college is daunting, but if a person were to choose not to go to college I can only imagine how daunting it is for them. Without a higher education than a high school diploma, how will they provide for themselves and get what they’ve always wanted without having to work at a job they don’t like? Are they really confident they don’t want to deal with a couple years more of school and have a confirmed relatively well-paying job?

While both of these lists go on, the overall reason it’s so daunting transitioning from one chapter of life to the other is because of the drastic change that can be unpredictable to some and only overpredicted to others. All I wish is that, no matter what path we all choose, we all have fun and enjoy life no matter what, even if we have more research assignments or more checks to balance.

Another Psychological Conundrum

There was a recent article given to me by my professor about how friendships between adolescent boys can be more powerful and have more of an impact on those involved than what was originally thought possible. The article talked about how teenage boys use their friendships with others of their kind to not only socialize but to also share their securities and insecurities with in order to mutually boost their mental state. However, the article goes on to show that this can lead to disastrous mental consequences for both parties involved if the relationship is either destroyed entirely or is seen by some on the outside as something to make fun of and take advantage of in their pestering of any involved parties of the relationship. In the end, those involved are left with an “open hole” that shows their insecurities (and we all know how males handle signs of weakness, unfortunately). Quite frankly this article really resonated with me not just because my general demographic is concerned in it, but because I’ve found this to be true throughout my life. People in my demographic often have friends in order to share insecurities and talk about them in a way that boosts their overall happiness and, when that connection goes away they begin to feel all different types of psychological effects that can hurt them for a little while or (more often) permanently damage their abilities to socialize and carry on with life. This article also resonates with me because I’ve been there and done that before to the point where I sorta have it in my moral code as the number one thing not to do to someone, male or female (unless it’s not mutual like the article discussed, of course). In short the article is right in saying that it’s an issue when people break off their friendships or are made fun of for having them and should be addressed appropriately. 

Contemplating College

There was a recent article posted to a news website that would catch most of any high school student’s eye. The article was about whether or not college is worth going to anymore in this day in age. This question has been proposed throughout the school community for decades. With all the talk of parents and relative having massive student debt and just barely being able to scrape by despite having a college degree under their belt, it doesn’t seem at first like college is a very economical option. However, the article that I found begs to differ from this point of view. In fact, it even goes on to state how the US needs more college graduates now in order to fix the economic standpoint of most high schoolers. The reason most people see college as uneconomical is because a degree doesn’t always mean a person will succeed in life, but it does go lengths to closing the wage gap there is between college graduates with a degree and high school graduates without a degree. The reason this happens is because there are not enough college graduates to fill all of the roles open in the economy of America and thus a gap in pay is present. Another point the article made was that if someone were to get a degree in college, of any level, that the cost of that degree in the long run would balance out to be negative 500,00 dollars (meaning that a person would  get more money out of a college degree than what they paid for in the beginning). Personally, I’ve always wanted to go to college no matter the cost, but this article has even further reaffirmed my views on going to college in these times of great uncertainty amongst myself and my peers.  

Chilly Concerns

I was recently given an article involving how certain school districts close more often for certain amounts of snow and just how diversified across the nation this was for all school districts. The results told in the article were surprising to me, since it turns out that school districts in heavily-snowed areas actually close LESS OFTEN than schools in either moderate or lightly-snowed areas of the United States. Although, to a degree, this is understandable. If people live in a climate that has a particular set of weather patterns they will more than likely be better prepared to deal with those patterns than an area with less of that climate’s weather patterns. For instance, the nordic scandinavians have been dealing with an intensely snowy and blizzard-like climate since practically the beginning of time. Since those who could not survive the harsh winters died, the majority of scandinavians in the past were usually hearty and used to the cold to the point where it hardly bothered them anymore. Just like in early scandinavia, certain states are better equipped to deal with heavy snowstorms. Some have altered snowplows to make them more efficient or quicker, have developed new methods of controlling ice on the roads, and have alternate ways of getting from place to place that isn’t hampered by snow (underground metro trains, etc.). In other words, they have adapted to deal with freak snowstorms more often since that’s the climate they live in while states that live in a warmer climate will be easily hampered by snow since they aren’t use to having to constantly deal with it. This would explain why school districts in heavily-snowed areas close for the snow less often than school districts in lightly or moderately snowed areas; those in lightly snowed areas simply aren’t used to that kind of climate. 

A Series of All Too Real Events

There was a recent article I found on the web that really caught my eye. The title of the article was “In Praise of the Ordinary Child” The title alone intrigued me to a high degree, especially since I couldn’t remember the last time I had really seen an “ordinary child” in my school career. The majority of the people currently in my school either have high ambitions and aspirations to accomplish things that would be considered extraordinary to the “ordinary” child. The article then capitalized on my forgetfulness immediately by talking about how you always see students as overworked, stressed, and sometimes generally distraught human beings, with hardly anyone being 100% positive walking through the front door. The article then explains why this phenomenon happens: it’s because parents are continuously criticizing what their kids are doing in school based on their grades and extracurricular activities they participate in. Almost every parent, according to the article, strives for their kids to do their very best or better and it makes students into constantly anxious, depressed and/or all-around angry beings in school. After I finished the article I had to resonate for a minute, because everything the article said was true. Hardly anyone walks into school happy anymore like they did in middle or high school, and those that do are either on a sugar high or are dead on the inside but trying to lighten everyone else’s mood. Everyone constantly complains about their parents being too strict on them and not listening when they tell them so. Everyone’s constantly drained by the end of the day and expected to do a mountain of homework in order to keep their grades. Everyone looks ok at school but could have a mental break any second of the day. Lastly, most students usually end up being in an extracurricular activity they don’t want to be in but are pressured to stay. These points are all too true throughout America, with relatively few exceptions. It’s a vicious cycle that would end but only if parents would just let their children be ordinary and themselves instead of what they want them to be. Unfortunately for most it almost never will.

Surreal Smog

Recently I was given an article that told in great detail how China has been reacting to its massive smog/polluted air problem over the past few years. Quite frankly, I feel that the government’s actions to control the problem haven’t been enough even with the article’s talk of the new regulations that factories and coal plants in the country will face. My lack of faith in this motion is due to several key factors. The first factor is the fact that the businesses being regulated by the new sanctions are in practically complete control over politics and government legislation passage in the country. Unlike the U.S., China has only just recently been industrialized (compared with the rest of the world) and seem to have reached the major point in their country’s life over whether or not government should have power over companies in the country (effectively being the same question America faced and decided on during the first Roosevelt, Taft, and Wilson era of presidents). However, unlike the American experience, it seems that the Chinese government has already given the businesses too much power and can’t do anything to retract that power ,at least for a long time. This will undoubtedly stall any and all things relating to governmental regulation of industrial jobs and businesses, which will only lead to the current problem of smog in China to get even worse. The second factor is the fact that this issue has been going on for way longer than it should have already, so much so that it’s becoming a new norm and has been capitalized on by other commercial businesses, such as those who sell facemasks. This will even further stall legislation since fixing the problem will eliminate what is now being seen as normal in China and, while it may receive praise from the people, will give the industrialists an even better reason to stall on bills: the possibility of recession without intense government action taking place (an amount of action it seems the Chinese government is not willing to use). These are just a few of the reasons why I think the change the people of China are looking for will not come for a while now, even with governmental and industrial compromise.

Smart Money

We recently were given an article on how people with higher grades in high school and college end up making more money than people who get low grades in college and high school. The article uses a graph showing the average yearly earnings of a number of people based on their gpa throughout college and high school. The graph makes the valid point on its own that people with higher GPAs make more money. The article then goes on to explain how this is more than likely because of how people with higher GPAs have better work ethic, a greater motivation to get more work done (leading to promotions/raises), and may have better social skills. I can see why this would be the case. The better work ethic would come from taking hard classes and pulling through them with the best grade possible and through this learning that in order to do well one must fully understand what is asked of them and how to efficiently achieve the objective. The greater motivation would come from their achievement of those grades in those hard classes and how they were rewarded for getting those grades by being put in an even better position to succeed in school and in the working world. Then there’s the social skills. Now, several people would argue that nerds/people with high GPAs are usually anti-social, outcast, timid, etc. However, even with the extensively social nerds, who’s to say that they aren’t applying their learning technique that they get through school to social lives and events, analyzing what jokes get the best response, what topics spark interest, and what just flat out doesn’t create conversation and then practicing in private (considering it’s no closely guarded secret that good social skills will get you far in this world).

Sugary Accusations

In a recent article we were given in class there was talk about how added sugars had the potential to increase the risk of death from heart disease in people. The article later explained that by added sugars it meant all non-natural sugars, such as high-fructose corn syrup and not natural sugars like those in fruit and dairy products. The high intake of these added sugars leads to several other health problems as well, such as obesity, high blood pressure, type 2 diabetes, and even stroke, heart attacks, hypertension, and heart failure. To find this, a researcher by the name of Quanhe Yang and his colleagues conducted a study on 31, 000 people who participated in a health survey that examined dietary habits based on in-person interviews. Now, most would think that this would be undeniable evidence, however the American Beverage Association (or the association you didn’t know existed until just now) has claimed that the study does not show that cardiovascular heart disease is caused by drinking sugar-sweetened beverages. Multiple people would probably be enraged, saying this is just another way of protecting big corporations like Pepsi or Coca-Cola to not go bankrupt and, while it might be just that, there’s really no way of knowing since the article says nothing in depth about the experiment other than Yang and his colleagues studied an old survey and drew conclusions. This shows absolutely no scientific method in this experiment and, therefore, causes its finding to come into question. Especially with such a large claim being made about added sugar. Even though it’s not a huge secret that excessive amounts of added sugar isn’t exactly healthy for you, to make a claim such that it increases the risk of heart disease-related death like smoking increases the risk of lung cancer, you’re going to need more in your article than just your finding on the subject.  

Oceanic Undersight

According to a recent article, the oceans of the world are slowly becoming unable to support the organisms that live within them and could have potentially drastic future effects on us humans. This is due to several factors, most of which are man made. The first factor is global warming that causes the oceans to reach unsafe temperatures for the organisms living inside them near the surface, leading to their eventual heat-related deaths. Another factor is the amount of trash that is dumped into the oceans, particularly plastic, that is able to get into the gills of most fish and around the necks of other marine life strangling them to death. Another main factor leading to the deaths of the oceans is overfishing in general. Whether for food or for sport, fishing is a major way of spending time all across the globe. Because of this there is a high chance certain populations of marine life could be fished to extinction, eliminating their presence from this Earth completely. A final factor affect our oceans is toxic chemicals from factories being dumped into them. Not only does this lead to overall marine life death, but it also poisons drinking supplies and washing water for communities. In other words, by poisoning and slowly killing our oceans with these factors that have easy alternatives, we are poisoning our future survival as a species. The worst part about this is that there are easy alternatives to every single one of these factors that would save the oceans, if we used them enough. To solve global warming have less factories producing greenhouse gases, to solve the trash recycle what is recyclable and put the rest inside the earth or burn it, to solve the overfishing put more regulations in place for fishermen (like with deer hunting), and to solve to poisons from factories going to oceans scrub out all of the toxic chemicals and dispose of them in a more proper manner.    

Ironically Ignored...Because it Should Be

There has been a new study surrounding the meat industry with a general conclusion that people who eat more processed meat are at a higher risk of getting cancer over time. While it’s not as drastic of an increase compared to other consumables that increase the risk of getting cancer, such as tobacco, it’s still said to have a profound effect. However, the majority of people should not start freaking out and going all out vegetarian from here on in. Humans have been eating processed meat for decades now and it’s not likely that you’ll start seeing the meat industry being restricted in federal courts on how the can advertise or sell their products, mainly because of the risk increase being very small. People who eat processed meat were recorded to have 2 times the chance of getting cancer than people who didn’t, but compared to tobacco increasing a person’s risk of cancer by 20 times it doesn’t really stack up as a complete endangerment to humans. In other words, you have just about the same risk of getting cancer as walking outside in the sun. We, as humans, try and avoid things that cause cancer for the most part (tobacco, radiation, etc.) ,but freaking out over every little thing that increases the risk of cancer just slightly is pointless. In fact, a lot of the things we need to have to survive as humans has a slight increase to the risk of cancer. The main contenders of this trait are sunlight and water, so to freak out over meats being identified as increasing the chance of getting cancer isn’t really much to worry about overall. It might cause people to eat a little less hotdogs and bacon, granted, but it most certainly is not worth everyone becoming a vegetarian. What should happen is everyone living their lives how they want to live them with this little fun fact simply tucked away in their minds, either to be forgotten or to remind them that they’re very much mortal beings. 

Teenage Transcendancy

I recently was given an article that talked about how the U.S. teen birth rate has been dramatically increasing over the past few years. Now, me being a guy, I have no idea how most of that works for those of the female gender and quite frankly I don’t want to know, but there is one thing I found interesting that the researchers who wrote the article said: one of the main reasons the teen birthrate has been declining so much over the past few years is because teens have developed the ability to better respond to environmental conditions and think of long term consequences more. I found this main idea of a paragraph within the article not only interesting because it actually credited teens with having abilities to respond to certain environmental stimuli (considering all the crap we get from psychologists saying we’re forever underdeveloped) but also because it showed how teenagers can pick up on certain trends in society and change them for what they feel is best for the future. It has finally come to be known that the majority of teens do not act completely on impulses and that now the majority of teens seem to be able to act with the knowledge of the consequences of our actions. While this may have been assumed by some, many people today do not think teens act with consequences in mind. As I said earlier, we’re constantly ratted on for being inconsistent and completely impulsive by most psychologists today, especially when they want to sell a new parenting book (not to offend all psychologists, however, most do actually good work that benefits rather than work that completely regards an entire age grouping as completely and utterly ineffective at decision making) and now, with this new article being created, we’re finally given at least some credit for not being as finicky and fickle as adults used to consider us. Now, if only this would be seen by everyone...

Reprimand's Final Resolution

There are many different opinions circulating for quite awhile now about whether punishments along the likes of detentions in schools are really effective ,if at all, at dealing with and preventing future classroom disruptions. Many people say detentions are effective because of the supposed ‘fear of authority’ in all students will keep them in line if strict disciplinary rules are shown to be enforced in schools. However, I would like to think otherwise.

While I may have never really been in detention during the entirety of my educational career, I have come to know a few people whose daily schedule usually included at least one trip to the principle’s office. Usually this wasn’t because of outbursts of rage but of normal ,and seemingly regularly scheduled, pranks my friends would pull on either a specific teacher or the class as a whole. After reading the article we were given, however, and thinking back to these events in my early childhood, I can safely say that the statement on detentions said by most people is pretty much either false or a “back in my day” kind of statement. The reason for this is because if every student had the inferred fear of authority from detentions, there wouldn’t be people going to detention on a regular basis. All people are unique, this includes their thinking of the outside world. With this said, as anyone can probably tell, I do not find detentions that effective for several reasons, one of which being the scenario described earlier. The second reason I do not find detentions very effective is because of the way students are usually treated in detentions. In most detention sessions that I’ve seen/ heard of, the student is given a worksheet to do while he or she sits quietly at a desk for a certain period of time. Now, there’s nothing inhumane or anything that screams cruel and unusual punishment in that, but those aren’t the problem I find in this scenario. The problem I find is that the student isn’t socialized with to say why he/she did what they did and why they felt they needed to do it. The reason I find this peculiar is because, if a student isn’t told specifically and/or explicitly why what they did was wrong and not given options on how to better resolve the problem in the future, then how in the world to teachers expect students to never want to do what they did that got them into detention again? This is my main driving point for why most detentions are ineffective: they don’t seek out solutions to the actions of the student, only slightly reprimand them for what they have done and nothing more.   

Asimilar Aesthetics

The essay given to us in class first starts by saying how a song album titled “Lemonade”’s song lyrics could be viewed as a nicely written essay about the human condition and then goes on to talk about all the different ways writing could be altered and presented in different ways. The central point of the essay is that writing is not a static art form. It’s not just “you learned how to write and now you know everything” because writing constantly changes medium, style, and technique based on what the author wants to happen and what mark they want to leave on the reader. Under these circumstances I do agree with the central point of the essay. This is mainly because throughout history it is apparent that writing as a whole has changed in style, technique, and medium because of current events and what the authors of the time wanted to happen when someone read their work. For instance, if  a person were to read a piece of writing printed in the 1500s and compared it to a piece of writing from today, that person would observe very drastic changes in all of the aforementioned fields in comparing the two works. One of the most prominent would probably be the linguistic style and diction of the two works, considering what is considered “common slang” and word choices change as time passes as well as entire languages (i.e. English and Old English). Another one of the most prominent differences in the two works would probably be technique of the author getting what he/she wants out of the reader (with linguistic changes also comes different ways of persuading and informing). With my knowledge of the history of writing, and these examples as support, I can firmly say the I agree with this article.      

Exploration Exselsior

The exploration of planets has been a hotly discussed topic ever since NASA’s Apollo program landed a man on the moon, and with the innovation of technology and new understandings of the dynamics of space the human race is closer than ever to begin human exploration of space and all of the planets within our galaxy. There is just one main problem keeping us from exploring our entire solar system: economics.

While we currently have all of the technology and understanding necessary to begin manned deep space exploration, we as a race currently lack the willpower to spend the required amount of money to reach that goal. Spacecraft aren’t cheap, as found out by NASA, and to have enough of the necessary equipment, supplies, and materials necessary for exploring/colonizing planets just causes the bill to go higher and higher. Now, I could spend hours on how money shouldn’t be the determining factor and how without currency everything would be better, however that’s not the point I would like to get across. Even though it would cost millions of dollars to begin exploration/colonization of our solar system, there would definitely be a large advantage, and payout, for doing so.

The major advantage of these missions is the one everyone’s had in their heads for some time now: leaving Earth. It’s really no secret that we’re running out of our nonrenewable resources that are staples for our everyday life, and while these may already be on the brink of becoming useless anyway with electricity and all, Earth as a whole is running out of it’s main semi-renewable resource, land, to support our overall population of around 7 billion. Exploring Mars and other solid-state planets would definitely quell fears of eventual overpopulation and colonization would be a great fix for the problem overall.

That’s the obvious reason, now the lesser known one that makes this whole venture economically worthwhile: minerals IN SPACE! Yes, there are confirmed reports of rare earth metals being found on different planets and in other spacial structures like the asteroid belt. This would cause a great amount of these rare metals to be mined and capitalized on by corporations and other companies, paying back all funds raised with interest.

So, is it worth it to explore space? Definitely, not only for the betterment of economies, but for the betterment and continued survival of our race as humans.