Reflection

So I was not one hundred percent positive if we were supposed to do a blog post but then I figured, I am sure we are, so here I go. I was trying to think what I wanted my last blog post to be about and I put a lot of thought into this post. I think I am going to reflect on this semester and look back.
My college search started with me having no idea where I wanted to go. I knew I wanted a big school, big name, and D1 sports. I wanted a big school so I would have plenty of opportunities to meet a very diverse group of people. I love meeting new and different people. I wanted a big name school because I do not know where I will end up living in my adult life. I want to be able to say where I went to college and no matter where I live, people will know the school. D1 sports were important to me because I think it is vital to your college life to attend big sporting events. To me that is just a main part of college. I also knew I wanted to do engineering. So with those criteria in mind, my search began.
I came up with a long list. Some were reasonable, some were outrageous. My dream has always been to attend University of Southern California, USC. I always wanted to live in California and that school just always seemed so awesome. Obviously that was not a realistic school. No way would my parents ever let me live that far away from home. I also had University of California-Berkeley on my list. Extremely hard school to get in to and obviously my parents would not let me go there but I just wanted to know if I could get in there. I think it would have been really neat to say, “Oh yea, I got in to Berkeley. No big deal.” That would have been fun. But that was just a waste of an application fee. SO that never happened. I ended up applying Early Decision to Syracuse University. I got in and thought I was going but they did not end up giving me as much aid as promised so there was no way I would pay $42,000 for college. I quickly applied to four more schools because all the deadlines were right around when they notified me of the lack of aid. I applied to Virginia Tech, Penn State, Purdue, and Drexel. I was very fortunate to get into all of them. Purdue was out because the weather sucks and it was nine hours away from home. Drexel was a no because I just did not really want to go there. Penn State and Virginia Tech were my last two. I ruled out Penn State because a lot of people from my school go there and it is in Pennsylvania. I wanted to try out a new place, so Virginia Tech it was. Over the summer I was so nervous and anxious. I did not do anything in high school. I did not need to study; I never did homework until the period before it was due. It all just came easy for me and I knew college was nothing like that. Once I got here, I realized I could do, it just took work. I gave engineering my best shot, but I was unbelievably overwhelmed and stressed for the first two months. I could not go out with my friends on the weekends or watch television. I was constantly doing work. I would have break downs, cry a lot. I could not handle that amount of stress and pressure. I talked to over twenty people in the engineering field and multiple students in the engineering major, further down in their education. All of them told me I would not have a life for the next four years and the amount of stress I was experiencing would be like that for the full four years. Also the many people I talked to in the field, I did not like any of their jobs; not one of them. They all sounded extremely boring to me and they were something I would never want to do every day for the rest of my life. The more I researched, the more I realized almost all jobs were like that to me. I started to realize very quickly engineering was not for me, and the four years of stress would not be worth it. I proceeded to explore other majors and the only one that ever possible made sense for me was math. And then I realized the perfect major for me was math education. There were multiple reasons for this. My ultimate life goal is to have a job I love but family is my number one priority. Along with the family I want to be a stay at home mom. With an engineering degree and math degree that is next to impossible. It would be very hard to have a family working forty hours a week five to seven days a week. I also could not take ten years off to raise a family and then come right back to my old job, and not have missed a beat. Being a middle or high school teacher will allow me to accomplish my goals. I will be able to spend a lot of time with them if I cannot be a stay at home because you have weekends, holidays, and summers off. But if I am able to be a stay at home mom, it is very possible to take years off and then come back, missing little to none. Being a teacher is the most perfect job for the life and lifestyle I want. Virginia Tech has helped me to figure who I want to be in my life and what I want to be. I am very thankful for everything I have gained from this University.

Thanksgiving Break!

Well the break started out on a hectic and busy start. I left on Friday via the homeride bus to James Madison University. I was going to be getting home around 5:00 that night. I had planned to go to dinner and a movie with my boyfriend immediately after I got home. We were calling it ‘date night’  it had been a long time since we were able to go on a date. To make everything even more exciting, he got his license that week. I know that sounds ridiculous but he is a junior in high school so it is a big deal that I don’t have to drive now. I keep saying we finally get to be a ‘normal couple’ haha so my dad picked me up at James Madison University at around 2:45 and we were on our way home. Immediately as we get on the high way, it is dead stopped traffic. It took us over an hour to go three miles. It was rather frustrating considering I was anxious for date night. Dinner was for sure out; there was not going to be enough time and we were cutting it close to the movie. So we finally get home and Zane immediately comes and picks me up and we are off to the mall. We get there and it is packed and we said on the way there we were kind of nervous that it may be sold out. Well guess what, it was sold out. So we walked around the mall and then went to dinner. So date night turned out to not be what we had originally thought it would be.
Throughout the week I was able to see a lot of my friends and of course hang out with Zane. The one thing was a lot people were not coming home until Wednesday. I guess Virginia Tech decides to give us extra long breaks and all other schools give short breaks. So on Wednesday I was leaving to go to Michigan to spend thanksgiving with my grandparents and other family members. So of course I was missing the majority of my friends which obviously I was bummed about. On Wednesday evening after my dad got off work we left for Michigan. It is a lovely seven hour drive which obviously I love. I drove first which was a mistake. I forgot about the curvy mountains that start out the drive. You are surrounded by concrete barriers and it is constant curves and sharp turns. It is rather scary considering you are driving at around 70 miles per hour. And there was a lot of traffic because it was the day before Thanksgiving. So after being completely stressed out driving for two hours I got to pull over and let my dad take the wheel. It was a nice relief to not have to drive anymore. So I chilled in the back seat of my dad’s truck and mainly slept the whole way. My dog, Piper was with me too. She never used to like traveling in the car but she loves it now. She loves to stick her head out the window and let the wind blow her hair. It is really funny to watch her. So after the initial excitement of being in the car, she settles down and lies around all over the car. She always manages to sleep in the most awkward and uncomfortable looking positions. So she was all over the place in the back seat with me. It was quite entertaining. We finally got to my grandparents house around midnight. The next day was Thanksgiving and I was so excited! I love being with my family and eating large amounts of food. As I get into bed that night my stomach started to feel sick. I tried to go to sleep thinking it would go away but it got really worse and then I started to shake and sweat and feel nauseous. I ran to the bathroom and started throwing up. It was awful. I have not felt that sick in a very long time. It took a while but I eventually started to feel a little better. Well enough to lie down at least. So I finally fell asleep and I was abruptly woken up at 4:30am with the strong sick feeling again. I ran to the bathroom and started throwing up again. It was awful! The first thing that came into my mind was I was not going to be able to eat thanksgiving dinner the next day. I woke up in the early afternoon on Thursday and felt much better but I was still very hesitant to eat. So I started with light foods and worked my way to dinner. And I was okay to eat! It was delicious and so awesome to be with all of my family. It was no where near the usual amount of people we have but it was actually really nice to be with a smaller group. It was really more personal with everyone and we got to spend a lot of one on one time together. We played wii after dinner and just hung out and talked. It was awesome. We considered going shopping for black Friday sales but we then decided we did not really need to and it was not completely worth it. So I got to get a full night’s sleep that night. On Friday I went with my cousin to get her wedding dress and to be the model for bridesmaid’s dresses. Her wedding is in June and I can’t wait to be a bridesmaid again! Saturday we left early to come home so I was able to be with my friends at night. That was awesome. I hung out with all of my friends and it was just sort of a random night. I loved it and break!

Election!

There was a very interesting election on November 03, 2009. It was a special election in New York State’s 23rd congressional district. The election was to replace Republican John M. McHugh. McHugh resigned from office to become United States Secretary of the Army.
There were two candidates in this race: third-party candidate, Doug Hoffman, and Democrat Bill Owens. There were three candidates until Republican state Assemblywoman, Diedre Scozzafava, decided to suspend her campaign indefinitely. She chose to endorse her competitor Bill Owens. The 23rd district has been one of the most Republican districts in the Northeast. A Democrat has not represented the district since 1871. Third-party candidate Doug Hoffman was receiving a lot of support from the Republican Party, including Sarah Palin, Fred Thompson and Minnesota Governor Tim Pawlenty. Doug Hoffman also said Scozzafava was too liberal, stating her support of same-sex marriage and abortion rights as evidence. He was painting the picture to voters that you do not want that kind of Republican she is, representing them in a Democratic-led Congress. These are all thought to be reasons why Diedre Scozzafava dropped out of the race.
For the Democratic nomination, there were initially eleven contenders however the overall winner and nominee was Bill Owens, a Plattsburgh, New York attorney. Owens has been registered as an independent voter since the age of eighteen but recently applied to become a Democrat. "Along with keeping Fort Drum strong, I'll fight to attract green jobs to Upstate New York using regional resources such as our strong workforce and local infrastructure," Owens says. Owens supports President Obama’s reform, however opposes cuts in Medicare benefits and taxes on health care benefits. For Social Issues Owens supports civil unions and abortion rights; however he opposes same-sex marriage. For the economy he wants to prohibit tax breaks for companies that outsource jobs and restore fiscal restraint with balanced budgets. “We can go backward to the Bush agenda which includes tax cuts for the very wealthy, privatization of social security and tax credits for companies that send jobs overseas, the recession, a 4.9 trillion dollar addition to the deficit, or they can move forward with us,” Owens said.
The third-party nominees included Jon Alvarez a military serviceman, Jim Kelly, a retired police officer, and Salvatore Stassi, an East Syracuse police officer from Fulton, New York. The overall winner and nominee for the third-party was Doug Hoffman, an accountant from Lake Placid, New York. He is a registered Republican but is running for the Conservative Party. "I sense the America I love is being taken away from us," he says. "I want to tell Washington: No more bailouts. No more taxes. No more trillion-dollar deficits." Hoffman opposes Obama’s healthcare reform including the public health insurance option. For the most common social issues, Hoffman does not believe in same-sex marriage, just like Bill Owens. Hoffman, however, believes abortion is wrong. When it comes to the economy, he wants to cut federal income taxes and deficit spending.
According to Whitehouse spokesperson Robert Gibbs, "This [election] is a model for what you'll see throughout the country." According to former Speaker of the House, Newt Gingrich, this is a very important election leading up to the mid-term 2010 elections. “The Republican Revolution in 1994 started very much like what we see today,” the former speaker said. “Like then, our country is reeling from misguided liberal policies, high taxes and out-of-control spending. This special election in New York’s 23rd Congressional District could be the first election of the new Republican Revolution, but we need the momentum to get it started.” This district, although it has been strictly Republican since 1871, it has shown that is it willing to break from the past. In the 2008 Presidential elections, John McCain was defeated by Barack Obama by a 52%-47% margin. According to many analysts, this election will give momentum to Democrats.
The overall winner of New York’s 23rd Congressional district was Democratic Candidate Bill Owens. I believe Bill Owens won because the 23rd district was ready for change and this is how they are going to start that change. I think this is going to have a ripple effect throughout the country.

Technology remembers everything for you?

In the CNN article “Do digital diaries mess up your brain?” the author is discussing whether digitally chronicling everything in your life is actually hurting your brain. The author first starts out with a few little scenarios. “The meal you ate the first day you started working. The first exam you aced in high school. The shoes you wore to the prom.” Do you remember these things? If you do, it is most likely because they happened to you rather recently. However, when you are fifty years old or eighty years old, will you remember the shoes you wore to the prom? I know I will because I had to get the smallest heeled shoe I could find because my boyfriend is only an inch taller than me and I did not want to tower over him too much and to top off the fact that I had to get small heeled shoes, which I do not like, they cost me one-hundred dollars! That is entirely too much money for shoes I do not really like and shoes I will most definitely never wear again. But the only reason I will remember the shoes is because something happened involving them. Who knows, maybe I will not remember them; I just think I will now. The article continues telling you about technology we have today that helps us to remember those minute details that happen in our lives. For instance, we have Facebook, Myspace, Twitter and blogs that will help us to remember what we were doing at an exact moment in our lives or what we were thinking or feeling and through pictures, what we were wearing. All of these technological devices help us to remember. Microsoft is even developing a new camera that will automatically captures photos of everything you see and do all day. They are calling it a SenseCam.
One of the many arguments that come with all of our technology use is it cannot be good for our brain to outsource daily functions to a piece of technology. However, that argument is contradicted in this article. According to David Bucci, associate professor of psychology at Dartmouth College, as long as your brain is being stimulated in other ways it is not necessarily bad to use technology. The examples given within the article say we no longer need to memorize multiplication tables or remember telephone numbers because we now use calculators and smart phones, respectively. However, it has never been proven that not remembering these pieces of information is actually hurting our brain. Contrary to what some people believe, Bucci believes learning to use technology is as good for your brain as say doing a puzzle or learning a new language.
It is said within the article that one day there may be a microchip that could be implanted in your brain to make external copies of your memory. If this technology is actually created, it is believed it could possibly help early-stage Alzheimer’s patients. Helping these patients see their own memory could add “another 10 years of cognitive life”, says Dr. Gary Small, director of the UCLA Center of Aging and co-author of the book "iBrain: Surviving the Technological Alteration of the Modern Mind." A recent study from Small’s group at UCLA found that searching the internet for an hour a day for two weeks increased activity in key areas of the brain among middle-aged and elderly adults.
Another source within the article, Barry Schwartz, professor of social action and social theory at Swarthmore College, thinks “relying on digital documents, moreover, may take away from the learning process.” As a professor, Schwartz used to give take-home exams, allowing students to use any sources they wanted to help them on the test. He quickly realized students were not actually processing what they were doing on the test and they were not learning like he had wanted them to. This is when he quit the take-home exams and now only gives closed-book tests. "You can't walk around through life carrying all of your books under your arm," he said. "It's possible that these devices that people now rely on will discourage anyone from doing this disciplined learning that we always used to do."
It is also believed that if these documented memories are available for others to see, people may actually do things differently. "If we have experiences with an eye toward the expectation that in the next five minutes, we're going to tweet them, we may choose difference experiences to have, ones that we can talk about rather than ones we have an interest in," Schwartz said. I can definitely understand where Schwartz’s statement came from because if you know people are going to see you pictures on Facebook or your status updates on Twitter, you are much more likely to do something more interesting for personal gain.
One last important thing mentioned within the article is over time your memories start to become fuzzy but this is not necessarily a bad thing. Because you do not remember every little detail about your life, you can come up with a “coherent narrative” about what your life has been about. Being able to compress a lot of experiences and summarize them well is part of the very nature of human intelligence, said Douglas Hofstadter, professor of cognitive science at Indiana University, Bloomington, and author of "Godel, Escher, Bach: An Eternal Golden Braid."
After reading this entire article and really thinking about my personal views I had before reading this article, I think documenting everything about your life is not bad at all. I believe there is a limit to everything. I do not think you should rely on the documentations to remember everything by because just like Hofstadter said, being able to summarize your memories is part of life. I do not think you should have every detail memorized. But I think it would be a lot of fun to go back and look at things from the past and remember the experience and feeling associated with it. That is why I love taking pictures now, because they are something I can go back and look at later and help me to remember what was going on in that exact moment in my life.

Parents

I do not know if you have ever taken notice and really thought about it, but there are so many different kinds of relationships kids have with their parents. Being in college and living in a dorm has really opened my eyes to all of these different relationships. There are so many variations, it is kind of ridiculous.
First, you have the ‘I want to get as far away from my parents and really never talk to them again’ kind of kids. I have notice that the majority of these kids are all guys. Not to stereotype or to offend anyone, but I feel like all the guys have a noticeably different relationship with their parents. They always seem less connected and less likely to talk to their parents. I know some people, all guys, that have never been home since they have been at Virginia Tech. The ones I have actually talked to about it say they miss their friends but do not really miss their parents. I always wonder if these people will eventually realize how much they miss their parents, their family, and their home or if the way the feel now is always how they will feel. I really feel bad for these people in a way because they have missed out on the close relationship they could have had with their parents. I know the close relationship I have with mine is what gets me through most days.
Next, there is the ‘I like my parents and will go back and see them every once and a while’ kids. I have noticed this seems to be the majority of the people I know. They love their parents and have good relationships with them; however, they enjoy college and being on their own a little bit more. They enjoy not having their parents to tell them what to do and when to do it and if they are allowed to do. They mainly like their freedom. I think in the long run they will quickly realize how much they truly love their parents and will miss them more as time goes on.
Third we have the ‘I miss my mommy and daddy and want to go back home right now!’ kids. I have met only one of this type of person. They seem like the kind of kid, and I find absolutely nothing wrong with this, that instead of hanging out with their friends on the weekends, will hang out with their parents. They love their parents to death and have more fun with them than anyone else. These kids are kind of having trouble at school, being on their own and dealing with all the homesickness. They like where they are but would much rather be at home in their comfortable and familiar house. I can relate to these kids to an extent, because in a way I am like them. I miss my parents like crazy and I miss my home and my dog. They all mean the world to me and I would do anything to have the best of both worlds; living at Virginia Tech but somehow also living at home. Impossible I know, but it would be the perfect life.
Fourth there are the ‘I love my parents but hate my siblings therefore I will not go home so I do not have to deal with them’ kids. I think these people are so funny. They despise their brothers and sisters so much that they do not go home, ever. They love being with their parents but hate having to deal with the younger kids. It is hard for me to relate to the kind of person because I am an only child and I think having a younger brother or sister to go home to would be really cool.
Lastly there are the kids who ‘love their parents and love college the same amount’ and have found the balance of parents and school. These kids seem to be really close to their parents but are doing their best to branch out and enjoy their new and different life on their own. This is the next largest majority next to the ‘I like my parents and will go back and see them every once and a while’ kind of kids. It seems these people have mastered the what seems impossible task of managing both. I need to learn to do this a little better. I usually seem to favor my parents or school a little more than the other and neglect one. If it ends up being the parents I am neglecting, they sure let me know.
( I know this is not what my blog is about but it is just a different kind of relationship I have noticed in college)….but we have the ’I have been dating my boyfriend/girlfriend for one month and I am madly in love with him/her and I have to spend every moment of every weekend with them.’ I think these kind of people are ridiculous! I have a guy who lives down the hall from me. He has been dating a girl from home for one month…ONE MONTH! And he is apparently in love with her. My first question is why would you start dating someone after you get to college? I do not know I just find this a little bit weird. Next, I do not believe you can fall in love after one month. It is actually something I believe is lust, not love. Lastly, you are ruining your experience at college for someone you’ve dated a month. Kind of ridiculous. I understand wanting to be with your significant other but you can’t really sacrifice everything you have to gain at college for them. You once again have to find a balance.
So after explaining the different types of relationships I have noticed in college, what do you think you fall under? I personally think I am a combination of I miss my mommy and daddy and want to go back home right now!’ and ‘love their parents and love college the same amount.’

She's One of the Family!

Piper. To my grandma this is a funny and weird name. She thinks it is way too hard to say, especially when it is a dog’s name. She thinks it is difficult to call out the name Piper when yelling for a dog. To me this is the perfect name for my dog. Piper just turned two years old on September 12, 2009. As you can tell from that right there, I love my dog to pieces because I even know her birthday. She is a Yorkshire bischon mix. She is a golden-tan color and is no joke, the cutest thing ever! Obviously I am a little biased considering she is my baby but everyone says how adorable she is. She is considered one of the family and since I am an only child, she is like my sister. Sometimes my mom will say to her, “Go find Sissy” referring to me as her sister. It’s just normal for us to consider her a person. My boyfriend always says she even understands us when we say something to her. I will tell her, “Go find mom” and she will kind of look at me and then dart off and find mom. No joke, I really think this dog understands us when we speak to her. It is crazy! We also enjoy dressing her up in little outfits. Now we do not put her in the stupid, crazy, outrageous outfits but for instance, she gets cold in the winter so she has to wear a sweater. She looks so cute when she is in her sweaters. She has multiple in fact  but this weekend my mom and I were at Marshall’s and we found this little Christmas dress. It is soooo cute! Its red and has a little ruffle at the bottom with a little bell on top. You cannot say it is not adorable. So Christmas morning when we are opening gifts, she will be wearing that dress. We also always give her gifts on Christmas. We’ll wrap treats in wrapping paper and she will paw and lick and bite at it until eventually she will rip it open. Or if she is having an issue with gift opening, we’ll rip it a little and help her out. The only reason we actually ever got Piper was after years and years of me trying to get a dog we finally did. We had a Jack Russel Terrier, Lil. We had her since I was five years old and I always thought she would love to have a ‘little sister’. So we finally got Piper after my dad did thorough searching. The ironic thing is, is my dad is veterinarian and people always ask how many animals you have, thinking we have a lot. Well no, we actually only had one dog up until two years ago. On November 1, 2007 Piper came home! But unfortunately in April of last year Lil died  but having Piper definitely made the loss a lot easier. She helped all of us cope with the loss of our baby, Lil. The sweetest thing about when Lil died is right when she was about to go, Piper seemed to know. She layed her head on top of Lil’s and stayed there until she died. There are not too many things as cute as that. Although that was a sad time we have had our closure with Lil’s death and are now fully enjoying Piper’s personality. This dog has one of the biggest personalities I have ever met. She can express just about every emotion humans can and she also ‘talks’ as we call it. She will let you know exactly what she wants, when she wants it. And you can usually decipher her noises and actions to precisely what she wants. When she wants food or water, she will stare you straight in the eyes, whine, and look at you with this look. When she wants to go outside, she whines even harder and usually does a little dance of sorts. And to try to demonstrate how spoiled my dad has made this dog I will tell you a few things. When she wants to go outside she will always have a specific door she wants to go out of. Either the front or back door. If you go to the wrong one, she will refuse to go out that one and will bark and whine and basically yell at you until you let her out the correct door. Usually I will just grab her and throw her out the door I am at because I do not have the patience for her neediness  Also when she is outside in the backyard and dog is walking in the street, she refuses to run in the yard with the dog. No she has to come to the back door, scratch like crazy, and then dart to the front door and expect you to let her out there. She uses the house as a short cut. It is unbelievable that she does this. That is all my dad’s handy work. He thinks it is funny that she will do all that. I find it highly annoying. O well I still love her to death. My aunt always jokingly says when she dies she wants to come back as one of our dogs because we treat them so well.

Some people will read this and think I am absolutely nuts because I know some people who do not view animals in the same way. Some people think animals are not meant to be that involved in families and I guess maybe I can understand their point of view but I could never imagine my life without dogs and animals. I am so tempted to get a dog and somehow sneak it in my dorm room and it can live with me. It would be amazing if that could actually happen. So to everyone who is reading this, if you have animals, are they as much a part of your family as Piper is in ours and if you don’t have animals, do you wish you did?

Home :)

Home. Home is where the heart is. That’s what the saying is, right? Do you agree with that? Is home a special place to you? Somewhere you can go to and always feel comfortable. Somewhere that you could spend forever at because you love it so much? Well that is how I feel about home. I went home this weekend for the first time in a month. To some people being away from home is not that long but for me, that is forever. I never thought I would be away from home that long for a few more years. Once I had my life a little more established at school. Well obviously I was wrong. The month actually went a lot faster than I thought it would. It only seemed to get difficult once the last week came and I think that is because I knew I was going home in a few days and I was just so anxious to get there. My roommate was in the same situation as me except she has not been home since we’ve started school, where as I have been home once. We both tried to make the week go by as fast as we could, made the days go fast by occupying ourselves. Well Thursday finally rolled around and we were so excited. We just had to get through that day and then we would pack all our stuff up that night. So as that day flew by, I tried to get all my final work done because of course I was not about to do homework while I was at home. So everything was ready and I got to bed around 1:30am that night. When my roommate and I woke up Friday morning we looked at each other and smiled and said today is the day. Man were we excited! So as they day went by my dad finally got there and picked me up around 1130am. We went and ate and then were on our way to home. All that day I had butterflies in my stomach because I was so excited to get home and see my mom and hang out with them and see my friends and my house and my dog and my car and my town and of course to see my boyfriend Zane. Never would I have thought that I would have gone to college with a boyfriend so he has only made the four hour distance even more difficult and made my missing of home even worse. This was the moment I realized how much I missed home. My dad and I just got off the highway and were cruising through town when I see an F&M sign. F&M is a local bank and apparently I miss this bank because I smiled so big and got this feeling of longing to be back home. That sign represented my life back home and where I want to be. I got home, loved on my dog Piper, through my first load of laundry in the washer and was off to see Zane because my mom was not going to be home for a while so I felt it was the perfect opportunity. Now see Zane lives in my neighborhood, but that drive from my house to his house felt like the world’s LONGEST drive. I was so dang excited to see him. It had been a month since I had seen him and touched him and given him a hug. When I saw him and finally gave him that hug, both of our eyes actually got teary because we were so darn excited to finally be together. This felt like it would be the best weekend of my life. I hung with him all that evening. The next day he had two baseball games so it was my day to hang with my parents, which I was absolutely fine with. We just sat in the living room and did nothing. We just relaxed and enjoyed each other’s company. Then that night Zane cooked dinner for me. That was special for me since he has never done that. Well we enjoyed that dinner and then went to his friend’s house. Now this was not a good thing we were going to Zane’s friend’s house. The night before when I was taking Zane home, one of his best friends called and said a girl who is a senior at my high school had been in a car accident. This was a scary moment for our entire school and community. Just five and a half months ago we lost a girl who would have been a senior this year in a car accident. She had been thrown from her jeep and was in a coma for a few days. During a school function on Thursday April 23, 2009, word quickly spread that she had passed away after going brain dead. Literally our entire school started crying and we definitely do not come from a small high school. We have between six-hundred and eight-hundred kids per grade but this still affected everyone. Sarah was a girl who everyone knew. She was friendly to everyone and was a very religious person but in a respectable way. Losing her was devastating and confusing. Back to present time, Saturday when I was hanging out with my parents, I got a text from my best friend. Kacy, the girl in the car accident the night before, had gone brain dead that morning and died in the early afternoon. I could not believe this. It had just happened five and half months before. And both of these girls are within the same group of friends so I cannot even imagine what they are going through. Now when Sarah died it was a huge deal. Her viewing drew an amazing amount of people and it said a lot for her. The entire school and community were affected. Well Kacy is also someone everyone knows and loves; she was a star golfer, had a chance to win states in a couple weeks and was also a very religious person in a very respectable way. Compared to Sarah, Kacy’s impact on our school and community is going to be absolutely huge. This is hurting a lot of people. Kacy’s impact on the community and individual people during her life was huge. They are going to have to hold multiple services to accommodate all the people. School is basically optional tomorrow because so many people will be hurt. I wish so badly I could be there this week to be with everyone and attend all the functions and memorials in her honor.

Now the reason I have decided to tell you about this is for multiple reasons.
1.) I want to see how everyone feels about home. Is it somewhere you miss and would love to go back to or is somewhere that will always be home but you do not need to be.
2.) I wanted to tell you about what I went through this weekend at home and kind of make everyone realize home is amazing but stuff still happens, good and bad.
3.) I want you to know about Kacy and I want to continue her legacy and let everyone know about her and maybe this will hit home to you. A lot of people have lost people in high school. People you were good friends with or people you just knew who there were. Regardless, it hurts to know someone that interacted with the same people you did everyday is gone. And we won’t see them until we reach Heaven.
I hope everyone loves their life and is living it to their fullest happiness. I also hope everyone loves their home and feel it is somewhere they can go. I know it is for me and I can’t wait to go back on Thursday!!

SMOOTHIES!!

Smoothies. Some people love them, some people hate them. Before I came to Virginia Tech I was not really a fan. It is not that I did not like them; it is just that if I had the choice, I would not get one. Well since coming to Virginia Tech, that has drastically changed. I have now discovered this new found love for them and I cannot go a day without having one. I crave them all day. It will be nine o’clock in the morning and I will be walking to calculus class; and what am I thinking about? Smoothies! I sit in calculus class and think about them. I get severely side-tracked during class. Maybe that is why I did so badly on the last test, I was too busy thinking about smoothies when I should have been learning, or maybe I did not do well on that test because it was freaking impossibly hard. I do not know. It is really a tossup between the two. You can make the call on that one. So when I am sitting in class thinking about this, my mouth starts to water and I begin to think about what flavor I want to get. Planet Raspberry? No, that has a little too much banana flavor in it. Strawberry Banana? No way! Way too much banana. Coconana? Possibly. It may have a lot of banana flavor in it but somehow it is amazing but I had that yesterday and I really do not want to get sick of it. Peach? Definitely a possibility however I do not know if I am really in the peach smoothie kind of mood. Pina Colada? That is definitely the right choice for today. Especially today considering it is cold out and pina coladas remind me of the beach and summer and warm weather and no school work. My mom and I had pina coladas almost every day when we were in the Bahamas. That was my graduation present to go to the Atlantis Resort for eight days. It was amazing. Anyway, getting back on the topic of my addiction to smoothies. The pina colada just brings back some really nice memories for me today so I think I am going to go with that. So I will walk out of calculus class and come back to my dorm and I usually make the decision to get the smoothie later in the day, say for lunch or dinner. I just think it goes better with those kinds of food. So I will think about this smoothie ALL day long until I get it. I am not really sure what happened to me but I suddenly became addicted to these smoothies. Now I do have to clarify. There are two places to get smoothies on campus that I know about. There is one in Owens and there is one in West End. For me these two are completely different. I prefer West End’s smoothies. I cannot really explain why so you will just have to try them for yourself. I am already running low on my meal plan money. They have those charts in the dining halls telling you where you should roughly be right about now, yea, I am a month ahead of where I am supposed to be so I should probably start cutting back on the smoothies every day, but then again I can just keep adding money to my meal plan and get smoothies every day J I feel that most people have addictions, whether they are bad or just a friendly addiction. For instance, my addiction is smoothies. My roommate’s addiction is diet coke, bran cereal, and splenda. I think all of those things defeat the purpose of trying to stay healthy. Diet coke and splenda are extremely bad for you, but I will not be the one to tell her. My dad is addicted to coke. He must have at least one every single day. His body basically goes into withdrawal without it. Some people are addicted to more superficial things such as Facebook and magazines. I have an addiction of People Magazine. I would be so excited to come home on Fridays after school because I wanted to read People. That was the highlight of my Friday every week. It has been so hard not having it here with me. Some people have to get on their Facebook all the time. They have to know everyone’s status updates, new pictures people add, they have to watch a video someone posted onto someone else’s wall. I do not know but I find this a little strange. An addiction I have only found since coming to college is Farmville. Everyone is obsessed with this. They have to get on all the time to harvest their crops or collect chocolate milk from their brown cows or transform their ugly duckling to a swan or harvest the lemons out of the lemon tree. This sounds so outrageous to someone who has never heard of Farmville however being that I am one of the many people now addicted, it is so much fun. The only thing I dislike is how you cannot speed up time. Everything is in real time so it takes a lot of patience. Some other people are addicted to what I would call bad things such as alcohol and drugs. Their bodies will not let them go a long amount of time without smoking a cigarette or chewing tobacco or having a few beers. It is something they have grown so addicted to they will do anything they can to get their hands on it and find time to do it. These addictions are completely different than my addiction to smoothies or college kid’s addiction to Farmville. They are harmless, innocent addictions that you will always find somewhere in our life. But these addictions will most likely not make you unhealthy and kill you in the long run. So when you are done reading this, tell me what your addictions are. Good and bad.

The work

So, coming into my freshman year at Tech, I was nervous. But coming in as a freshman engineering student at Tech, I was even more nervous. I always knew engineering was going to be a hard degree to achieve; however, I underestimated the workload. In high school I did not do anything. I never studied; I rarely did homework, unless it was graded. I was a slacker but I was somehow able to get away with it. I came out of high school with a 4.3 QPA, which is not too bad considering the amount of work I never did. I enjoyed high school. I was out on the weekend with my friends. I attended all the football games, soccer games, and basketball games. School spirit was huge at our school so we went to all of these games, home or away. And when I say the school spirit was huge I mean that. At least one hundred of us would attend the away games and our student section was compared to colleges. We were big and we were loud. But my point is, I had time to do all of that. This past week at Tech has without a doubt been the hardest, busiest, and worst week of my life. I literally never got up out of my desk from Monday to Thursday. For me, the slacker in high school, this was really hard. I was beyond stressed out and it was obvious. Normally, I am happy and smiling and laughing. All week everyone came into my room asking where I was. For the past three weeks I have been hanging out with my friends every night. And then all of a sudden I was forced to be a hermit, or as they call it, a turtle stuck in my shell. They referred to my room as my shell and always told me to come out. Trust me, I wanted to, but I had no choice but to stay in there and get my work done. I am the kind of person that it is hard for me to have fun if I know there are things I need to do. So as the week went on, the stress took a harder and harder toll on me. I do not handle stress well, but then again, who does? But I handle it particularly bad. And on top of the stress, I was lacking in sleep and food. That is a lethal combination. I cried a lot all this week, trying to figure out what to do. I was not enjoying the work, and it was a lifestyle I realized I could not handle for the next four years. My goal coming to college was to meet as many people as I possibly could and that has been impossible so far because I have not had time to join clubs and participate in activities. I am a person who needs to be out and about and have that balance of work and play. I understand college is supposed to be hard and a lot of work, but it is also supposed to be fun and a time for you to discover yourself and grow up. I feel that is going to be very hard for me, being an engineering student. So after much consideration, I think I may switch majors. I’m not one hundred percent sure what I may switch to, but off the top of my head, math and chemistry come to mind. If I could pick any job in the world that I could never fail at and money was not an issue, I would pick brain surgeon or teacher. My parents pretty much told me I am not allowed to be a brain surgeon because I do not handle death well and that would be a big part of being a surgeon. My dad is a vet, and I see how hard he takes the death of an animal so I cannot even imagine what it would be like to lose a person. That responsibility is huge and I do not think I am the right kind of person for that job. So, I am left with a teacher. I want to be a stay at home mom when I start a family so being a teacher could also allow me to work and be a mom. You have weekend, summers, and holidays off and you work eight am to three pm on average. Perfect for a mom. My dream is to be a high school math teacher on the Upper East Side of New York City teaching at a private school. That sounds so fun to me. It is something I want to aspire towards. This week has taught me a lot about myself. I learned that just because I always thought I knew what I wanted to do with my life, doesn’t mean you actually have to do it or that it is right for you. I learned that I am capable of anything I put my mind and time towards. It is just a matter of how much time I am willing to put towards it. For me engineering is something I could do, I just do not feel it is the right route for me to take. When I said college is supposed to be somewhere you grow and discover yourself, I guess I did discover myself a little this week. On Thursday I am attending the major fair Virginia Tech is having and I am hoping to discover myself even more there. Hopefully something will jump out at me and make me think, “hey, I want to do that.” I want to dedicate my time and effort towards something I actually want to do and engineering is not what I want to do. I just hope God helps me to lead a happy and healthy life no matter what I choose, but hopefully he will help me choose the right thing for me.

President Obama's Health Care Speech

Health Care Reform Speech
President Barack Obama's prime time speech Wednesday night, to a joint session of the U.S. Congress, on the issue of health care is expected to be important. It’s an important national issue and major political platform he is dedicated to pursue. The congress has been bickering long enough and the need for federal regulation of health insurance companies to prohibit them from denying coverage or charging higher premiums because of a person’s medical history or current condition needs to come to an end. All summer it was made clear that the Republicans were standing almost unanimously in opposition to the Democratic approach of health care reform. The reform bill was at a stand still and Obama believes, “it so important to get a deal”. The liberals want one kind of bill, the moderates want another kind, and the conservatives want no bill. It’s total gridlock. So, Obama is smart and plans a prime time speech that he knows all Americans are interested in and will tune in to watch.
President Barack Obama's speech on the issue of health care reform is getting lots of reaction from U.S. lawmakers, and more importantly, the general public. This very complex subject of health care reform affects everyone. President Obama said, “The current system has led the country to a breaking point, imposing hardships on middle-class Americans who struggle to pay for health care, who are unable to obtain it”. Boy, is this the truth. I have several older family members who are retired but still have work to get their medical insurance. The cost of medical insurance on their own (without an employer) is astronomical. Therefore, they are forced to work to be insured. The president was very careful in his language to clarify what reform proposals would do (and not do), promised to continue seeking bipartisan support, but said the time for playing politics with health care has ended. The entire problem with congress is their loyalty to their party. The President also stated clearly that the time for bickering is over. He states, “Now is when we must bring the best ideas of both parties together and show the American people that we can still do what we were sent here to do. Now is the time to deliver on health care." Amen! We’ll see if they can put their party loyalty aside and come together for their constituents. In his speech, he touched on many topics: It is estimated that the reform proposals could cost $900 billion over 10 years. Obama pledges that health care reform can be achieved without adding to the federal deficit? He states that savings will be achieved by eliminating hundreds of billions of dollars in waste and abuse. However, he does not go into detail on how this will be obtained? This is easy to say but often hard to achieve. Republicans complain that he failed to deliver specifics, and re-stated criticisms that Democratic proposals would impose new tax burdens on Americans and small businesses. As you can see this is very complex and will take along time to resolve. He also cleared up rumors that have been circulated about his plan. The mistruths or “scare-tactics’’ he commented on were: this does not add a dime to our deficit, no Medicare money will be used to pay for this plan, Medicare will stay as is and is doing well, and illegal aliens are not covered by this plan and that citizenship is a requirement. His ending point was clarifying that “rather than a radical shift that would disrupt health care Americans now have, he favors building on what works and fixing what doesn't.” Who knows, maybe America is inching closer to overhauling its health care system.
The immediate effect and reaction of the speech was typical bi-partisan bologna. The Republicans complained and were knocking all of his ideas and the Democrats were applauding his efforts and fortitude. The biggest effect of this particular speech was the outburst of a Republican lawmaker Joe Wilson, R-S.C when he shouted "You lie" at President Barack Obama during his speech. The incident came directly after Obama said, "There are also those who claim that our reform effort will insure illegal immigrants. This, too, is false. The reforms I'm proposing would not apply to those who are here illegally." "You lie!" Rep.Wilson, shouted from his seat on the Republican side of the chamber. Everyone was stunned and quite surprised. It was the talk on all the major networks and newspapers. He went from rude villain to a man with a passion. He was ridiculed by both sides, Democrats and Republicans, for his outburst. Everyone believed it was rude and disrespectful to shout during the President's very important, and televised speech. This is one of the few times both parties have agreed on something in a long time. When the President is giving his speech, the Vice President and Speaker of the House always sit directly behind him. When Rep. Wilson made his outburst, you could visibly see the reaction of Vice President Joe Biden and Speaker of the House Nancy Pelossi. Their mouths dropped and they turned their heads toward the sound. Their reaction summed up the rest of Congress and the American people's reaction to this outburst. He has since apologized to the President and the President publicly accepted his apology. As of today, it has been reported that Congressman Wilson has received over one million dollars in campaign donations via the internet. These funds are intended to help him win his next re-election bid for congressman in South Carolina!

As you can imagine, politicts is a prime example of "Everything an Argument". Every party has different views and therefore anything the President says, there will be arguments as to whether it was good or bad. With the President's Friday night speech, there was a lot of argument between the Democrats and Republicans.

Sources:
CNN Television News Commentary
Headline News Commentary
New York Times Online Newspaper

Fruit Loops vs. Cheerios

Fruit Loops vs. Cheerios
So a common argument found among young people today is which is better, Fruit Loops or Cheerios? In a sense, they are the same exact thing, round-shaped food. However, one is colorful and the other is rather dull-colored. To support the Cheerios argument, Cheerios are healthier for you than Fruit Loops. They have the multi-grain healthiness to them so this increases their popularity to parents. This argument definitely fits our text book title, Everything’s An Argument. In a popular poll on the first floor of Lee Hall, the numbers prove the true winner. With the ratio 10:3, Cheerios is a clear winner. Among the popular reasons for choosing Cheerios:
“They are healthier for you”
“They are multi-grain”
“They’re yummy!”
“Because, they’re just better! You can’t even compare the two.”
So based on the first floor of Lee, Cheerios is a much better cereal than Fruit Loops. So, what do you prefer? Cheerios or Fruit Loops?

Uh-Oh! D**k in a box!

After reading option number two on the Scholar’s website that states we can discuss a video or article, I had to discuss the “Saturday Night Live” video featuring Justin Timberlake. I am sure most of you have seen this video or heard about it, D**k in a box. When this clip was shown on Saturday Night Live on December 16, 2006, it made national news. The clip featured Justin Timberlake and Andy Samberg and was intended to parody R&B sex ballad videos for the early 1990’s. This was an instant success when it aired, but it was also seen as immature and inappropriate. It was accepted and rejected by many people.
The video made instant ‘viral’ status and was all over youtube.com and sites similar to Youtube. People viewed it as absolutely hilarious and saw it as genius. The song went on to win a Creative Arts Emmy for Outstanding Original Music and Lyrics. It was a popular ‘water cooler’ topic of conversation the following day. But while it was widely accepted, it was much more rejected.
Many people saw this song as a very offensive and inappropriate thing to put on national television. NBC received a lot of rejection letters and negative feedback. Families believed it was inappropriate to put something as racey as this song on national television. Children could have possibly been watching and many parents believed that was beyond inappropriate.
Although this was a risky thing to put on television, it is still a large topic of conversation and a common skit and song to be copied. Justin Timberlake even performed the song at one of his concert and of course, the crowd loved it! This skit, in a sense, demonstrates that Everything’s An Argument and can be interpreted in many different ways. It completely depends on your values and views on common topics.
Here is a link to the video. Enjoy! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WhwbxEfy7fg

Courage

After reading and looking at the anti-drug campaigns in Everything’s an Argument, I had to share my thoughts and feelings about the message the campaign is trying to convey. I believe the print ads are somewhat affective. I think they use scenarios common to people who use drugs and simulate emotions they may feel. For example, the first campaign picture on page 822 has a very common issue presented. A male and a female are in a relationship where one is a drug user and the other is scared to confront them about it. This was a large issue in my high school.
I attended a very large school, over six hundred kids in my graduating class, so you can imagine we had a very diverse group of people. One specific couple comes to my mind. I met a girl in my homeroom and over time we quickly became ‘homeroom buddies’. We talked all the time and of course we talked about our boyfriends, however, our relationships were completely opposite from each other. I dated the jock of the school, someone who took school very seriously and would never use drugs. She dated a very popular guy, but he was someone that put school on the back-burner and made being the biggest drug dealer in our area his top priority. Don not get me wrong, he treated her well, but she was still very scared to confront him about all of her concerns. She did not like him using drugs but especially selling them. Selling drugs, in my opinion and her opinion, is one of the most dangerous things you can ever do in your life. I tried to convince her, in the nicest way possible, that she definitely needed to talk to him and if he did break up with her or get mad at her for saying something, then there was something wrong with this guy. He should be touched that she cares enough for him to say something. As time went on she finally mustered up the courage and decided to say something to him. She practiced over and over with me exactly what she was going to say and how she was going to say it. She wanted to come across as caring and concerned, not bossy and controlling. She finally talked to him one night and called me right after to tell me everything. She said immediately after she said what we had practiced, he started crying. He admitted that he did not like his lifestyle and was not proud of who he had become, but most of all, he said, was that he hated having to expose her to something so dangerous. In the end, it made their relationship stronger and from the last I heard, he has not used or sold a single drug in one year.
So, depending on how you interpret the anti-drug campaign on page 822, it may just inform you about drugs and situations they may put you in, or to someone it that situation, it may give them the courage to finally speak up and stand up for themselves and the significant other they are concerned about.

Meet Rachel Elyse Harris!

Meet Rachel Elyse Harris. When she is sixty-nine years old she will be running her own ranch and breeding business in Montana. She will also own her own veterinarian office that will be located on her ranch. As Rachel sees patients everyday in the office and runs her ranch, she will be thinking about retirement. Rachel would like to enjoy her ranch and be able to teach all of her grandchildren new life lessons and about “the good ole days!”
When Rachel finds the guy she wants to spend her life with in Montana, “he would be a country boy that likes to be outside and can take time to just relax, but also knows how to work hard. He would like to sit down by the river and watch the fire and listen to the crickets chirp, but would also take me out to dinner and have date nights spontaneously! He has to have a since of humor and be able to take a joke but know when it is time to be serious! He would be able to respect decisions I make and support me on them. He would love to be around family and want to have one of his own and in some way want to leave his mark on the world, and he would have to be a Christian and working on having a closer relationship with God. He needs to be cute too!”
Rachel bases her ideal husband on her close relationship with her dad Jeff. As Rachel says, “I have a lot of the same values as my dad and I seem to talk like him a lot! We say a lot of the same things and our mind set on the world and people are pretty close.” In Rachel’s eyes her dad is the best in the world. Rachel is also very close with her mom Teresa and stepdad Kevin. Also a very important person in Rachel’s life is her brother Clif who lives in Colorado. According to her best friend Alyssa, “Rachel has gone through her parent's divorce, which has made her more understanding, independent, and open. She has a great relationship with her mom, dad, and step-dad. I also think that the divorce made Rachel and her brother depend on each other more, so they have an awesome relationship as well.” Rachel has three surviving grandparents who she says “are hilarious, especially my granddad. He will just say whatever is on his mind and doesn’t care what people think.” She has a whole bunch of cousins but two of her younger cousins live near her. She counts them as her little sisters and spends a lot of time with them. She often picks the two of them up in her white X-Terra and takes them for the day to hang out.
Rachel has a lot of friends from home that have come to Virginia Tech. Her best friend Alyssa, however, attends college at James Madison University. Alyssa and Rachel know how to have a good time and call each other “b”. When asked about her friends, Rachel said, “all of my friends from back home are always together when we aren’t in school. We go hiking and go to the river and swim. We all have very different personalities but I think that is what makes us get along so well. We all really respect each other and look out for each other. It is more like a family and the guys are really protective of all the girls. They definitely bring out the best in me but at times they have seen me at my worst.” Also according to Alyssa, “She knows where she's from and is proud of it. Rach loves country music, country boys, and country back roads. She finds joy in the little things and loves the simple life. She's smart and motivated. Back home, she's known to be there for people when they need her. She was voted "most likely to lend a dollar" senior year. She's country.”
Rachel’s greatest accomplishment is, “when I was in the fourth grade, the teacher told me I was at the bottom of my class in reading, so I had to get help, and I ended up graduating in the top 7% of my class with honors, some of those in English.”
As a sophomore in college, Rachel has not changed a lot since her senior year in high school. She has, however, come to value her hometown a lot more since she has been away at college. She no longer takes the little things in life that she did when she was at home for granted; for instance, playing with her dog or just going down to the river for the day.
In high school, and since she was four or five, she rides horses and spends a lot of time at the barn. She also attended a lot of sporting events but never played because she is so accident prone. She broke her ankle for the second time while playing basketball. She also spent a lot of time at her friend’s homes who had barns. She also enjoys going hunting with her dad and brother. For the last five years she has gone into the woods at the crack of dawn waiting for deer to come into sight. She has kept most of the same hobbies since high school but has acquired two new hobbies in college. They are keeping her grades up and learning to study.
Her best friend Alyssa summed up Rachel in a perfect way, “when Rachel is around friends, she is happy. She truly loves her friends and finds joy in just being around people she appreciates. She is relaxed, comfortable, and mellow most of the time. She doesn't get worked up or caught up in the details too often; she goes with the flow and seems to know everything will work out. When she is hyper, she's loud (but not in an obnoxious way), smiling, and can usually be found singing along to a country song.”