JT-2

Last week, I was having difficulty starting my paper. Yesterday, however, I was able to write some of my intro and part of my first body paragraph. I decided I just needed to sit down on the computer and write something, even if it wasn't good. My why question is Why is drinking seen as a norm in college?/Why is it such a large part of college? I want my first body paragraph to be about college drinking traditions from when alcohol was sold to 18 years olds My next topic will be what is called the perceived thought of drinking: the thoughts of incoming freshmen on how much drinking goes on in college. My last topic will be based on the culture in college/why people drink in college. I'm glad I have something going, but I'm worried that the essay won't flow very well.

Junior Theme

For my junior theme, I think I am on the right track but I still am at a dead end in some things. First, I'm having trouble finding articles that go along with my topic. There are a lot of articles on the effects of college drinking, but none on why drinking is so common in college. Also, I don't understand how we can write a thesis already if we're still researching. I have a lot of information, but I'm not done accumulating it and I still need time to analyze and come up with a conclusion. I tried starting my intro but I couldn't even think of an opener or a grabber.

Does anyone have any suggestions on articles or on the introduction?

Drunk Europeans?

For my Junior Theme, I am researching alcohol drinking and why it's viewed as a norm for college. It was suggested for me to do some research on the drinking culture for European students, since the minimum drinking age across Europe is 16-18 years old. Before starting my research, I assumed that students there drink in moderation, because (as it said in the article I was to later read), "they have wine at the dinner table with their parents from an early age....alcohol is not a forbidden substance there". Here is the link to the article: http://ntesx01-lic.nths.net:2062/cqresearcher/document.php?id=cqresrre2006081800&type=hitlist&num=0. As it turned out, that article proved me wrong. It stated that youths in Europe drink nearly twice as heavily as teens in the United States, along with other statistics. This surprised me a lot. Whenever someone mentions Europe and drinking, I never think of them to have more binge drinking teenagers than the U.S. I always thought of them as sophisticated and wise when it came to alcohol, largely due to the fact that wine and other drinks are incorporated into their lives at such an early age.

Are you surprised by the article as much as I was? What were your European stereotypes when it came to drinking?

A Good Image in Sports Teams

Yesterday, my water polo team and I participated in a tournament at Fenwick High School. The last game we played was against Loyola, our biggest water polo rival. We ended up losing, which stunk, but what was really annoying and angering were the Loyola parents! Every time they scored, their parents would stand up on the bleachers and yell and scream into the faces of our parents. At the end of the game, they chanted "Every time!" which meant they win every time they play us (which, by the way, isn't true since we won last time we played them). Some of my teammates were so upset by them that they decided they were going to have a "talk" with them after the game. But, when our coach found out, he forbid them, telling us we had to have a "good image" of our team.

This made me think: what is the "good image" sports teams are supposed to have? I think coaches want to be thought of as respectful, a team when even if they lose, they congratulate the opposing team. Coaches want their team to be thought of as close-together, as well. Even if the players hate each other, the team will have to put on a good face when competing. Why do coaches want this? I think that if they can't be first place physically, they at least want to have their team be first place in sportsmanship.

Why do you think teams have to have a good image? What do you think that good image is?

iPod Loss

This past Friday, something terrible happened. As I was about to listen to my iPod, it malfunctioned and for some un-known reason, all the songs on my iPod were deleted. At first I was really mad, but I told myself that I would just have to put all the songs from my iTunes library back onto my iPod. I would be annoying, but the problem would be fixed. However, when I tried doing this, the songs wouldn't upload to the iPod. I've had by iPod fro about four years, so my parents said it was probably just old and needed to be replaced. We decided to go to the store today and I was fine with that until I had to go through all of Saturday without it. I listen to my iPod a lot and not being able to was a shock. I went into an iPod depression.

During this depression, I realized how spoiled I was. I thought of all the people who weren't able to afford things like iPods and, going even further, I thought of all the people who can't even afford food. It's sad that I couldn't even go one day without an iPod. It's also sad that in the community we live in, it's thought of as weird if you don't have one. Obviously materialism is a high value around here, but would it be possible for any of us to go without our iPods or cell phones for a week? Probably not for me.

Barbie: a Harmless Toy or a Corrupting Machine?

As I checked my email today after school, I came upon an article. It's apparently the doll Barbie's 50th anniversary. After reading most of the article, it started talking about Cindy Jackson, a 53 year old woman who was supposedly a "plain-looking" girl growing up. When she saw the Barbie-doll for the first time, she fell in love with her look. Since then, she's gotten 13 full-scale operations to achieve the "all-American beauty" she said that Barbie had. When I read this, I was thoroughly shocked. Getting plastic surgery to look like a doll? That's crazy! The image of Barbie is so fake, it's not even funny. It's said that if a Barbie doll were blown up to a human-sized figure, she'd fall down because her body would be so disproportionate. Why someone would want to look that fake and artificial is beyond me. The Barbie doll, in my opinion, is giving young girls the wrong view and image of women. If Barbies are having grown women get operations to look like them, what affect are they having on tweens?

What do you think of Barbies? Do you think they're corrupting young girls?

Harassment at the State Meet

On Friday and Saturday of this past weekend, the Boys State Swim Meet was held at New Trier. Me being a swimmer, I had to work at the meet. Although at first I was bummed, it turned out really well; although it was claustrophobic with the mass amount of people, I was right on deck and I was able to see all of the races. One of my jobs was to guard the girls' locker room door-to make sure only female officials and coaches went in. Why I had to guard it, I don't know, because those were the only females on deck. But I was sitting right next to the Evanston team, and during the whole entire meet, they were trash-talking New Trier. At first I just ignored them-I knew they didn't like us. But then one of them went off on one of my friends on the team, and that got me really upset. I was debating whether I should say something to defend him and our team, but I didn't. I didn't want to get involved and have them all hate me too. As I think back on it now, I realized I should have.

This goes back to the rules and morals stuff we learned in elementary school and junior high. That if a friend was being bullied, you should defend them. But, if you're actually in that situation, it's harder than it sounds. Would you defend someone who was being harassed? Even if they weren't your friend?