Skype

Skype is a way for everyone to stay in touch with people that havn't seen in a while but can it be to dangerous?

The other day while I was on my computer I logged into my skype and I had three new messages from people that didn't know. The people were asking me did I want to chat and be friends with them. Now keep in mind I have never seen or talked to these people a day in my life. Me being a responsible person I deleted them but what about those who aren't so responsible? What about those who aren't so responsible? Wha about the children that have skypes? Will they be as quick as I was to delete the people that they dont know?

End Of The Semester

Time is winding down and the end of the semester is near. My schedule is hectic and i have no room for slacking. The hardest part about the end of the semester is making a schedule. I am currently going through the process and it is stressing me out. Every class I want to take conflicts with another and it is making me very angry. I don't know what to do and my advisor is no help. I am learning now that college is not highschool and that sometimes things have to be done on your own.

Self Image

Self image is something that a lot of young girls today struggle with. The media has molded an image on how women are supposed to look and young girls try so hard today to fit that mold. I have discovered that as long as you compare yourself to others you will never be satisfied with your self.

Yesterday I read a story about a young girl who had been anorexic for six years. The girl was only 12 and weighed less than 100 pounds. She explained how her mother was always so tough on her about her fitness habits even when she was a young girl. When she hit 6 years old she began to cut back on her eating by the time she was 10 she ate one once a day and worked out vigorously.

The girl explained that many people would look at her but nothing was ever suspected because her mother was thin. Her own mother thought that the reason for her frailness was do to her exercising. A year later the girl collapsed while working out. After that point she vowed to step away from anorexia.

So many girls today don't understand that you have to love the person that you are. When you try to mold yourself into someone else you never really get the results that you hope for. There will always be someone smarter, taller, or prettier than you are but as long as you are happy with yourself no one else should matter.

Man vs. Woman

Girls can be called:
slut

whore

bitch

hoe

smut

smeeze

each of these names are used to degrade women but when it comes to a man why are there never any negative words like these?

Kool-Aid

Do you ever stop and wonder how much of an impact the people you grew up around have on you? As I was thinking back to my early middle and highschool years I can remember how much of an influence my older cousins and siblings had on me. They never let me experience things on my own and I was always told what choices to make. Sometimes peer pressure can come from the people closest to you. I never really had a chance to make friends on my own because they were made for me. What my siblings and cousins did, I did. They introduced me to new people and new activities that sometimes I didn't want to partake in.

Sometimes choices are made for you and you don't know how to say no. Peer pressure is something that exists no just amoung friends but also amoung older relatives. Many people say there are two types of peer pressure but I only had the chance to experience one.

So my question is does positive peer pressure really exist?

equal opportunity

On TV you can always expect a politician to ramble on and on about the importance of education and how they plan to reform education. The promises of equal education and better education for all students are never kept. In doing my research for my paper, I realized just how unequal the education systems in America were.

In the inner city typically the most poverty stricken area of a city education is not equal. Students go to school without the basic necessities that are needed to complete a simple day. Students go to school without running water, hand soap, up to date books and adequate teaching staff. The violence is so bad in these areas that children aren't worried about learning the square root of 100 but more concerned with staying alive.

Testing is another issue that goes along with this notion of equal education. Different states issue state wide tests to measure a students progress and ultimately their intelligence. If students in poverty stricken areas are not getting the same education as students in suburban areas it is impossible to say that they should be testing at the same level. America focuses so much time on other foreign countries and trying to help them build up their educational systems that they forget about the ones at home. Kids should receive the same amount and quality of education no matter where they live.

Is it time for America to switch to socialism? or will promises of equality continue to be broken?

Trick or Treat

In the spirit of Halloween there will be many of kids out trick or treating with an array of costumes. I can remember most of my Halloweens but there is always one that sticks out or has a special meaning. The Halloween that meant the most to me, was the year I turned 8.

There was a Cinderella costume at Wal-Mart that i just had to have. For weeks i stared at that costume dreaming about what i would look like and how much candy i would get. One day while we were at Wal-Mart I decided to pick up the costume and put it in the basket. When we got to the line my mom didn't put the costume on the belt. I didn't understand what she was doing and instantly I became angry. I couldn't understand how she didn't have the money for something that I wanted.

For weeks i stayed angry until i got what I wanted. Now that I think about it, is a costume really that important? Does America glorify holidays and other events to make money and market things to children. Are the corporations making kids impatient or are the parents just not raising their kids like they need to?

Friends

Do you ever stop and think about what you used to do as a kid? The games you used to play and the people you used to play with. When you are a child you never know that the people you meet on the play ground will become friends for a lifetime. My best friend Kiah is one of the people that I never thought I’d be friends with. We would always disagree and she never liked to play the games that I wanted to play. As the time went on we learned more about each other and discovered we were just alike.

Friends have a way of making you feel good when you’re down and they can help you through any situation. I think the one the things that are essential in life are friends. To have someone you can talk to and tell anything is one of the best feelings in the world. Friends are the people you go to whne your family doesn’t listen. Your friends are there for you to tell your deepest secrets to and tell everything and anything to. Friends are like an extension of yourself.

As I was searching through my food this morning something in particular just stood out to me. As I surveyed everything out one food particular stood out. I had 5 boxes of Cinnamon Toast Crunch staring me in my face. Its been my favorite cereal since I was little and I feel as though I’m growing apart from it. I think me growing apart from my favorite cereal is a metaphor for pulling away from the things in my child hood: riding bikes, throwing rocks in the lake, or just playing outside for hours.

When you grow up there is always things you leave behind and I feel that since coming to college I have left a lot of things behind and my growth has been steady. Does college make you grow up? Does the influence of a range of ages in the same place that you are influence you to become more mature? I believe that college has its way of making you into a more mature person without your noticing it.

As I was reading articles from an old news paper one article in particular caught my eye. There was an article on the role of women and how working was a “man’s” job. As I read deeper into the article I realized that women had no authoritative role in the 50’s and 60’s. Women were supposed to clean , cook, have children, and cater to their husbands.
I began to think what if the same ideas that acceptable back then were still in place today? What if women were no allowed to work and had to stay home? Personally, I wouldn’t be satisfied being a house wife. What about the women who has dreams of having a big professional career and children later?
Does being a mother means that you can’t follow your dreams? Does being a woman mean that you are not excepted in the corporate world? Aren’t women’s dreams and aspirations just as important as men’s?

I used to think that once I turned 18 things would be different. I used to think that I would be an adult and I wouldn’t have to depend on my parents. As I sat back and defined the word adult I began to see that the title was more than I could handle at 18. Being an adult entitles much more than being called “legal” by the government. An adult is one who takes on responsibilities and is able to take care of themselves without assistance.
The day I turned 18 and the title adult was given to me I was elated. I could go in the store buy tobacco products, lottery tickets, and sign for my own tattoos. I was truly an adult is what I thought. One never bodices what it takes to be an adult until things start to change.
For the first time ever I had bills coming in my name, credit card lenders trying to get a hold of me, and now I was responsible for myself. It made me wonder are you really an adult at 18? I wasn’t able to take care of myself on my own but by the governments standards I was an adult. So should the definition of an adult be redefined or should the age when you are legally an adult be moved?

A topic that has been grabbing my attention for some time now is the issue of defining academic success. In America ones level of intelligence is characterized by test scores. Often bright students get overlooked because their test scores do not show that they are "smart" enough.

I believe that tests are a way to generalize students and not focus in the different techniques and learning styles that each student may have. A student who scores a 1600 on the SAT may bee seen as smarter or more intelligent than the one who scores a 1200. What happened to recognizing individual learning styles? It seems that American education wants to generalize everyone so that every ones learning style is the same.

Is it fair to say that someone who has more math and science skills is smarter than one who has more creative skills? Is is fair to say that a student who takes AP classes and scores high on the test is smarter than the student in the "regular" class?

I believe that America is so caught up in the image of being smart and trying to show academic superiority that they forget what's most important. Everyone has different learning styles and to say that one student is better than the other because they test well or learn differently to me, is bogus. 

what do you think?

Have you ever thought about the words racist and prejudice? Many people use them interchangeably without stopping to think if the words really have different meanings. I believe that there are many differences between the words prejudice and racist. Each word defines a different type of hatred for a people or certain group.


The word prejudice comes from the idea to pre-judge. If someone is prejudice I believe that they have hatred towards a certain group because of pre-existing stereotypes or thoughts. You can be prejudice against a certain group because for so long that group has proven to live up to their stereotype. Take for instance a white person being prejudice against a black person. Many stereotypes against black people especially black men in particular are that they are angry, violent, and aggressive. Their prejudice against black men is based on what has been broad casted and known as the "norm" for so long. Therefore people pre-judge and have hatred or dislike towards a certain group.


Being racist or racism is a term for pure hatred. There is no prejudgment or stereotyping involved in racism. Racist people display hatred on another group just because of their outside. An excellent example of racism is the Klu Klux Klan. The Klan is a racist group that displays hatred for those whose skin color is not white. There form of hatred can be classified as racism because their is no prejudgment in mind. Racism is a form of hatred that requires no thought.


So my question is do you think that racism and prejudice should be used interchangeably or are they two completely different words with separate meanings?

Dreams

Dreams are something that everyone has sometime in their life. Dreams take many different forms and can be about a range of topics. As I slept he other night I dreamt something that was very disturbing. I dreamt that my grandfather had been killed and that I was the only able to prove who could have killed him. As the dream played out in my head it began to surface in my "real" life. As I woke up tears filled my eyes and my pillow was soaked. As i reminded myself this was only a dream, i went back to sleep in hopes that my next dream would not bring such horror. Low and behold the within the next hour i was up again tears filling my eyes. How could something so fake become so real? Many times i have asked myself this question. Are dreams for shadowing what is to come in the future? Was my dream letting me know that trouble was headed my way? I don't understand how something like a dream; which is often seen as a past time when sleeping have such real effects on a person. So my question is, where is the cut off line between a dream and reality or are they one in the same?