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.

If I Only Knew...

Having been fifteen for a little over six months, I have been faced with many changes and challenges.  Unfortunately, these circumstances which I was presented with came with no instructions or guidance; mistakes were guaranteed to be made.  If only certain pieces of information would have been revealed in the beginning, my life would have been made much simpler.

• Value driving advice and take the criticism that you are given positively; getting frustrated and mouthing off only causes a disagreement… one that I can never win.

• Have patience with my youngest sister.  When I am assailed with what seems like fifty million questions just as I am getting home, I need to realize that she only does it because she loves me, and that one day she is going to be all grown up and I will no longer have this time with her.

• Waiting until the last minute to do things is never a good idea.  Whether there is school work to be done, or you are expected to have your room clean, regardless of what the task at hand might happen to be, just do it.

• Parents are much more observant than one may think; when you think that they don’t notice, trust me, they do.  I have tried to text at the dinner table, but evidently discreetness is not my specialty; before the first message has even been sent, I have been found out.

• Don’t take thirty minute showers and think that it will be overlooked.  In my house, there are five people, and using all of the hot water does not make for a happy night.

• Don’t forget to put back anything that has been borrowed, and never, under any circumstances, ever give it back empty.  Using my mommy’s makeup is all fine until the morning that she needs it, can’t find it, and comes to me, knowing that I have taken it.  When she sees a nearly empty compact, well, let’s just say that the rest of the morning is downhill from there.

• Lastly, my final piece of advice: when it is time to go, it is best to just go as you are.  Even though I think that I need more time to get ready, it is better to just go with the flow and not rock the boat.  Trust me, it is much better to have a bad hair day that to have a bad mommy day.

Blogging… The Thing I Hate the Most.

As you can clearly see by the title of this post, I hate blogging.  Care to know why?  Allow me to begin.

There are several reasons as to why I hate writing blogs; the number one reason, though, is probably because of the simple fact that I just absolutely hate writing.  Now, if I were in any way at all a good writer, maybe I wouldn't mind it so much… but I am far from that.  For me, writing comes as a huge struggle.  I literally spend up to an hour just trying to think of a topic, or if I am given a specific one, then that hour is spent trying to figure out what to write about this subject.  Writing is definitely not my forte.

The previous paragraph was more so concerning writing in general, so this one will be focused more specifically on blogging.  Having to write blogs, in my opinion, is a complete waste of my time.  There are so many other, more important things that I could do within the time frame that it takes me to actually finish writing a blog.  Also, I don’t exactly see the importance of writing them… I don’t understand why I have to put aside time to write them pretty much every week.  I know that the reason behind them is probably a very good one, I don’t doubt that… I’m just not able to see it yet.

Blogging is stressful.  I honestly don’t see how some people enjoy it so much… some to the extent that they will take it on as a career.  But hey, all the more power to them.  While blogging could cause people like this to rise to the top, for me… blogging will be my downfall.