Thankful on Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving was this past Thursday and one of the things I am grateful for is the five day weekend we were given. :) I was supposed to go to my grandfather's house in Indiana for Thanksgiving day with the rest of my family, but those plans got cancelled when my sister came home a day late from college. It wasn't until I found out we weren't going tht I realized how excited I had been to go. I hadn't seen my grandpa in years and I was so looking forward to seeing him. I missed his house and the inside jokes we shared with each other. It was then when I realized how truly important family is and how much we should be grateful for them. Thankfully, my sister did come home from college this weekend and it felt really good to see her-her, too, I haven't seen in a while. Sometimes, I think, you can't appreciate someone until they've left you for a while.
What does family mean to you? What are you grateful for this Thanksgiving?

"I Want to Do Well"...No You Don't, Your Parents Do

I was at the Girls State Meet yesterday. It is the meet that concludes the swim season-all the teams from Illinois came together to compete at the natatorium in Evanston. As I was watching the girls compete, I noticed the parents' reactions to their child swim. One set of parents stuck out to me-they cried from joy after their daughter swam. Which made me think of the complete opposite reaction in some parents. Since I'm a swimmer, I've been to many swim meets in my day, and with that, I've seen a number of parents who have gotten made at their child for swimming poorly.

And my question is, why? It doesn't make sense, and it doesn't seem right, for parents to yell and punish if they're child doesn't do as well as they want. And this includes all sports, not just swimming. I think it comes down to competitiveness. Parents want their child to succeed so much, to be the best, that some I think will do anything to "motivate" their child. They want their child to be better than other children. I've seen people crack under the pressure of their parents: they'd rather do well for the sake of their parents than for themselves. And this just seems unfair. So my other question is, what is your take on over-competitive parents? Why do you think they act like this?

Being Part of History

Our 44th president of the United States was finally decided this past Tuesday and with it came a huge historical moment. Barack Obama is now our first African-American president; and I'm happy to say that he won by a large amount in electoral votes. I think it's so cool that I was able to witness this election...if only I was able to vote in it. When I'm older and have children and grand-children, I can share this historic event with them. To just think back to when slavery and segregation was around, it's amazing to see how much our country has grown and changed. I still think, though, that it will take time for our country to unite as a whole and accept that he's our president-obviously there were people that were against him.
Now it's just time to see what change Obama can bring. Starting in January, he'll start his presidency. My mom told me today that he's thought to be one of the most intelligent presidents we've ever had. It will be interesting to see how he deals with the crisis laid out in front of him.

Prayer in School

Earlier this week, I came upon an article about religion in public schools. It stated that religious ritual in public schools would be the only way to teach "values" and ethics. This article also said that the banning of practice of bible and prayer recitation is the blame of rising teen pregnancy rates, crime, drug use, and violence. I realize that everyone has their own opinion and some people are more heavily into religion than others, but I think this went too far. Putting the blame for all these terrible things on no practice of religion is just crazy.

I feel that public schools should be a "religion free zone." It wouldn't be right for teachers to promote their religious beliefs to students; especially when there are so many families who have no religious ideology at all. What is your opinion on religion in public schools?