So Long Sophomore

As this year finally begins to conclude, I must say that it has, by far, been the most demanding of my entire life.  In fact, I feel as if many parts of my life have been temporarily suspended because of it.  I understand that this may sound a bit exaggerated and extreme; however, it has been my complete reality for the past ten months. 

This year has placed so much pressure on me.  I have been given far more homework than what is manageable; the amount assigned has been unreasonable and completely unnecessary.  Since the start of this school year, I have spent practically every single night isolated in my bedroom until the early hours of the morning in order to complete my assignments and properly carry out my responsibilities. 

Though the majority of my sophomore year has been full of anguish and stress, I would be lying if I said that there have been no highlights in this torturous epic.  Band, as always, has been extraordinary.  This is the one place that is capable of relieving me of all of my stress… all of my worries.  This place represents the single hour where I am able to completely let go of the outside world.  Without band, I would undoubtedly have given up a long time ago. 

What will be perhaps the greatest highlight of my sophomore year has not yet occurred… it is right around the corner.  In just fourteen days, I will be sixteen, and a few days after this, I will have my license.  I have been waiting so long for this moment to finally get here; with the occurrence of this event, I see myself finally being able to regain my life.  I see myself, my mustang, and endless roads of adventure just awaiting my arrival.

Now, for the words that I have dreamt of saying for quite some time now…

So Long Sophomore.

Regret

 Regret (n) – A feeling of sadness, repentance, or disappointment over something that has happened or been done.

Consider the definition above.  Given this, one would commonly deem regret to be something with no up-side… something that is completely negative and results only in an even greater darkness.  In my opinion, this widespread conception of regret is nothing more than a universal stereotype. 

Though I do understand that regret is painful and full of remorse, I believe that these words only define a small portion of what it truly is.  Looking beyond its surface, I think that regret is a necessary evil.  I say this because, as I stated at the beginning of this paragraph, regret is painful.  Regret causes one to feel guilty and remorseful… shameful, even.  This is the evil part.  As for the necessary component, I believe that the act of experiencing regret causes one to grow and learn.  I believe that becoming familiar with this feeling instills within a person the motivation to right his/her wrongs and prevent them from happening again.  I believe that regret strengthens… I believe that it has the ability to create a better, more worthy person.

One Sentence

In the world of today, every imaginable piece of information can be found with extreme ease, right at the tip of one’s fingers.  The who, what, when, where, why, and how can be established in only a few moments, with just the single click of a mouse. 

Although it seems farfetched and completely unimaginable, just suppose that all knowledge and information were to be destroyed, other than a single sentence that could remain to be passed on to the next generation of people.  This one sentence would serve as the foundation for the entire world to be built upon.  Which single, solitary sentence do you think should be preserved? Which particular sentence would present the world with the most powerful pieces of information?  If it were up to me, I would leave behind this one: With a little hard work, determination, and cooperation, absolutely anything and everything is possible.

Our present day society is programmed to believe that to live is to have more power, a higher social class, and to be recognized, as opposed to working together and encompassing the differences among us.  True teamwork, equality, and respect are virtues that have been lost through the ages, but I feel that by building an entire world based upon the words of my sentence, these merits can be regained.  Now, I know that this may seem totally impossible, but I have faith that it could happen, and I believe that it would be an absolutely phenomenal occurrence.  The sentence that I would choose to leave behind holds so much power, and an even a greater amount of potential.  If this potent dose of dignity and respect could replace even just the slightest amount of the negativity in today’s culture, there are no limits as to how much better our world could be.

Inside My Head

Each and every day is composed of so many different thoughts and feelings… narrowing all of these down into just “one head’s worth” is incredibly difficult, but here is a start.

The first thought to fill my head every single day is of Jameson; I wake up every morning and thoughts of him come instantaneously.  Jameson is the most wonderful, most important part of my life. 

Education is an extremely significant part of my life; I have such high hopes for my future, and in order to get to where I dream of being, I need a great education.  I stress all the time about school and my grades; the grades that I make now will have an enormous impact on the colleges which I will be able to attend… without the appropriate grades, I will not be able to fulfill my dreams of going to an Ivy League college.  After college, I plan to go to medical school; for longer than I can remember, I have longed to be a doctor.  How well I do in college will affect the medical school that I could have the opportunity to attend.  All in all, my education will determine my entire future.  I dream big… big dreams don’t come easily. 

Peer Pressure

Being a teenager in today’s society is challenging; everyone wants to feel a sense of belonging and acceptance.  Unfortunately, in order to fulfill these qualities, adolescents often feel forced to participate in activities outside of their moral guidelines.  In other words, we, as teenagers, are exposed to a great deal of peer pressure. 

There is obviously no good that results from peer pressure; with it comes bad decision making, bad habits, deteriorating health, and, all in all, dire consequences.  Statistics indicate that about thirty percent of teens are offered drugs as early as middle school, approximately seventy-four percent of teens in high school have tried alcohol, roughly 3.1 million teens smoke, and about fifty percent of all teens feel pressured to have sex. 

With the opinion of others weighing so heavily on the behavior of today’s youth, there is no way to completely avoid the negativity of peer pressure; however, I feel that with a strong relationship with either parents or other positive role models, there is a way to help curve this epidemic.  With guidance, achievable goals, interaction with productive, positive influences, and open communication, today’s youth will have the foundation for good decision making abilities.  With these traits, I feel like the youth of today’s world can live above the influence of peer pressure.

Sources:

http://www.familyfirstaid.org/peer-pressure.html

http://sitemaker.umich.edu/356.darnell/peer_pressure

http://blog.teenhelp.com/2011/12/peer-pressure-statistics-and-peer-pressure-facts.html

The American Dream...?

The American society has an innumerable amount of problems; however, in my opinion, one of the primary issues of our society is the welfare system. 

We as a nation have made it an acceptable lifestyle to get something for nothing.  Our government first established the welfare system as a means to help an individual through hardship and rough times… not as a “career” choice.  Citizens have abused this privilege given by our government; some people have chosen to take on welfare as a permanent lifestyle rather than allowing it to serve as a temporary aid.

I have been raised to believe that with hard work comes positive returns.  If we as a society could instill these values, then maybe this could be the beginning of a generation where all Americans believe in working for what they want, and in turn, receive. 

I know that, in order to change this way of life, patience will be necessary… changing one of society’s belief systems will be no easy process; it will be a slow transition.  For starters, though, I think that re-evaluating the criteria for receiving any sort of welfare benefits would be a good place to begin.  Perhaps more people should be available to investigate each welfare application in order to ensure that applicants are not falsifying information.  Also, for those individuals who do receive aid, there should be some amount of work required… there are always plenty of community services that need to be fulfilled.  By requiring something in return for the help which will be provided by these benefits, maybe it would instill greater values and encourage people to actually want to find a job and be successful. 

There are always exceptions, of course; there are citizens who are elderly or sick and cannot work.  People in these conditions, without a doubt, should receive any and all help needed; however, being twenty-one and lazy does not qualify.

Fear... Is It Rational?

Fear is everywhere; it is something which is possessed by all people.  Our fears vary greatly from one person to the next; some individuals are afraid of things such as spiders and snakes, while others are afraid of things like sickness and death.  Some people, myself included, fear public speaking... some have a fear of failure.  There are some people who fear rejection, and some who fear commitment.  The list is endless.

As humans, I think that what we fear is based on what we are unsure of; on things that we see as different or unusual.  Saying this, I think that what we are afraid of is more so the idea of certain things rather than the actual things themselves.

My blog question for the week was this: "Do you think that your fears are rational?."  In all honesty, I truly don't know the answer to this question... I feel like our fears are more so real rather than rational, but then I wonder how it is possible for our fears not to be rational if they are real.  This is such a controversial question... one which I believe has no right or wrong answer.  Rational or not, though, fear is fear.