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?

My College Applications are Done

Lately my mother has been on my case with college stuff...and I'm not even a senior. I realize getting into a good college is ideal for everyone, and I too want to get a good education so that I can then get a good careeer, blah blah blah. But already my college counselor has come in and discussed our future. I'm barely 17; my future right now is what I'm having for dinner tonight. I don't want to look into colleges that I like; I'm just trying to get through the school day. For me, there's a lot of pressure to be looking at colleges already; not only from parents but from peers. It's scary to hear of students who have been preping for ACT tests or have been going on college visits since they were in junior high. What is the need to be looking into our future this much?

The First Amendment!

Today in class we discussed our opinions on citizen/student rights. One of the topics was whether or not it was okay for newspapers to publish articles that contained false information. My group was torn in half. Two said that it was false advertisement, so therefore should be limited. Another group member said, however, that newspapers have the freedom of speech and press and so this act should be protected. I feel, too, that people have the freedom to write or say whatever they want. But at the same, writing false statements about people or things could be harmful to others. So I came up with the conclusion that it should be prohibited unless causing harm to others.
There are other topics like this that have caused controversy, like wearing shirts with obscene writing on it. Do you think it's okay for newspapers to publish false advertisement or for citizens to wear shirts with obscene writing on it?

To Take the Test or Not?

Yesterday during school my advisor mentioned that I was the only one in my advisery not taking the PSAT test. I didn't think anything of it. But then later that day I realized that I was the only one of my friends not taking the PSAT. And while talking to one of my friends about the PSAT, she sounded surprised at the fact that I had opted out of it. That made me start to worry. I had always thought that this test was no big deal. Yeah, there's a possibility to earn a scholarship, but you have to be pretty dang smart to get one of those, and I knew I was not a candidate for that. But this test does give you an idea of what your SAT scores will be; kind of like the PLAN test. Which got me thinking, should I take the SAT test?

My parents have always told me not to follow what everyone else does, but it worries me considering this has to do with getting into a college. I realize that getting into a good school is ideal to everyone, but are the SATs really that important especially if less and less colleges are looking at them?