Just chill out

Everyone, especially now, has been freaking out over colleges, including myself.  There’s so many choices– whether to stay in state or go out of state, private or public, East coast or West.  For the most part, I know where I want to go and what I want to do, but it still stresses me out.  The article “Don’t Worry, Be Students” helped me to see that there are more important things in college than just the reputation and student-to-teacher ratio, it’s the actual experience.  College students say that the most important thing they took away from college is the experiences they had.  Of course, the classes were important, but it was what happened outside of the classroom that helped them the most.  Being a tour guide helped one student improve her her public speaking skills, while being a dorm advisor helped her work on her crime management skills.  The things that she took the most away from were all outside of the classroom.

High school doesn’t really help us “chill out” either.  Like I’ve mentioned before, I’m in L2K, and the pressure to pick good colleges is higher than anywhere else.  It’s not like they expect you to go to a top ten school or anything, but they just really make you think about where you wanna go.  I know it’s not necessarily a bad thing, considering other juniors don’t even have a tiny idea of where they wanna go, but it’s still ridiculously stressful.  I’m writing a paper on where I want to go to college, but in order to right this paper I have to research things like the ranking and the professors.  I can’t really research what my college experience is going to be like.  I think I’m gonna start relaxing a little bit, let everything unfold for me instead of trying to unfold it for myself.

Make a difference.

Although it may seem cliche, Martin Luther King Jr. has always been a personal hero of mine.  He has done so much for our country that it almost five decades later, the words of his famous “I have a dream” speech still ring strong in our ears.  His speech almost single-handedly ended racial segregation between whites and blacks.  I am moved almost every time I hear or read that famous speech that he delivered on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial.

MLK was a black preacher from Alabama.  His first act of protest was the Montegomery Bus Boycott in 1955. King, who was strongly influenced by Ghandi, urged peaceful, nonviolent methods of protest as opposed to the brutal acts going on at the time.  He soon created the Southern Christian Leadership Conference which was a group of people who wanted to end racial injustice.  In 1961, he organized the Albany Movement. This movement attracted national attention, despite its failed effects. However, he was swept up in a mass arrest of protestors but refused to pay the bail.

His most famous movement, however, was the March on Washington in 1963.  The original intention of the march was to dramatize the conditions of African Americans everywhere, however President JFK asked MLK to change to focus of the march.  Even though the march had to be tuned down, there were still very specific demands, all regarding to civil rights and labor laws.  At the end of the march, when MLK delivered his speech, Americans finally listened, and things began to change.

To be honest, I think that if MLK would have ran for President, he most definitely would have become the first black President as opposed to Obama.  He made such a huge impact on all of America.  If it weren’t for him, there’s a good chance that we would be in the same rut as 50 years ago.

Grades

Coming from Stargate, I’ve pretty much been bred to worry about my grades.  Every grade below an A meant failure to us Stargate kids.  I carried this mentality with me into high school.  Freshmen year, I got a B first semester in L2k, and I freaked out.  This whole mountain of stress came avalanching down onto me.  I started thinking oh my gosh, I’m not gonna make it into college, my parents are gonna kill me– all sorts of little things like that.  When I think about, that was dumb of me.  I shouldn’t have stressed out about grades, especially in that class.  I would get marked down 20% if my margins weren’t exactly 1″ wide, or if I didn’t use a black binder clip to hold all of my papers together.  Now that I think about it, it is probably one of the most ridiculous classes I’ve ever taken in my life.  What does using a black binder clip have to do with learning the material?  I got a B in that class for not having a black binder clip–are you freaking kidding me??  I completely agree with Marzano’s claim that grades aren’t an accurate interpretation of how a kid is doing in a class.  They could completely understand the material and have a C in that class, or they could have an A and have no idea what they were doing.  That’s happened to me before.  I had a B in geometry in the eighth grade, and my teacher made me retake the class! Because I had a B!  He completely disregarded whether or not I understood the material and made me take geometry again!  And it was only a B; it’s not like I failed the class or anything.  What really bothered me was that I understood the material.  I kenw what I was doing, but my teacher made me do it again.  Another time,  I think it was freshmen biology.  I had no idea what I was doing the entire year.  I’d just go to class and watch my lab partner do the work.  Somehow, I managed to sustain an A in the class for the entire year.  Then came the final.  I just sat there and stared at it for like half an hour, then figured what the hell.  I’m going to fail.  And I did.  Luckily my teacher had to curve it so much that I ended up with a B on the final and an 89.98% in the class, which rounded up to a perfect 90%.  All in all, I hate grades, they just cause so much unecessary stress.

Wall Street Bailout Plan

It is difficult to say to say whether or not I think our country has the right idea when it comes to the bailout plan.  On the one hand, I commend our country for stepping up and taking action.  This situation is very similar to that of the Great Depression, which lasted almost ten years since no one decided to do anything.  That effected our country more than anything else, considering millions of people lost their jobs and couldn’t get back on their feet.  It’s good that our country is spotting how tragic this can really get before it gets out of hand.  However, on the other hand, is it really fair to the American people to have to start paying for the effects now?  What if this stock market drop isn’t as deadly as we all predicted, yet the government decides to hike up everybody’s taxes?  People already struggle enough with their taxes, and most people are especially getting nervous right about now with the election coming up since the politicians have such different tax policy plans.  I say yes.  Even though there probably will be a struggle and the population probably will react, our country needs the money.  We were already in ridiculous amounts of debt before the drop, so I think that the bailout plan is a good direction for our country.

Meanest Mom in the World?

When I first read the article, I laughed. A lot. I thought it was hilarious that a mother would actually do that and be willing to say that about herself just to teach her son a lesson.  However, shortly after I started thinking about it.  I applaud her for what she did.  A lot of kids will say things to their parents like “I hate you,” or “You’re the meanest parent ever.” I think that it takes a lot of courage for her to do what she did.  Also, a lot of parents take the matter of alcohol way too lightly than they should.  When most parents catch their kids drinking, they slap them on the wrist, then say,”Don’t do it again,” and then the matter is over.  I think that it’s noteworthy that a parent actually went this far to actually teach her child a lesson.   I probably would be okay with my parents doing something like that, but if they did I would be sure to never drink again.  Although her punishment was somewhat rash and unconventional, It definitely was effective.  As mentioned in the article, parents all over the country commended her for standing up for herself.  To be honest, if I was a parent I probably would too.

What I would like to accomplish…

There are a lot of things that I really would like to accomplish this year.  First, I want to get a lot better with my reading skills.  I am not very good at reading, and I think that it’s an important thing to master.  I also think that I need to stop procrastinating.  I woke up this morning at like five thirty to finish this paper I had to write for L2k.  That was not so good.  I also need to work on my commitment problems.  I have a really short intention span.  I am always saying that I want to do something, and end up forgetting about it or losing interest in it.  Like tennis. Tennis is a huge part of my life, and I have the potential of going pretty far with it, yet I keep talking about quitting and not playing anymore.  Even with work, I’ve been talking about quitting my job for a while now, and I’ve only been working there for two or three months.  Anyway, those are some of the things that I would like to work on this year.