Category: emotions

What is a future, and where can I get one?

lanative1Leave a comment

No but seriously – I’m very much lost when it comes to my future. Today, my mom asked me to come watch something in her room. Given the last thing she showed me was a video of a baby otter learning to swim, I was willing to submit. Instead, she showed me an ABC feature on college admissions.

My entire life has been geared towards my future, and more importantly, college. My parents sent me to a specific preschool because it had a high matriculation to the special elementary school I attended, which had an even higher matriculation to the prestigious middle and high school I then went to. This high school is world-renowned for its spectacular college matriculation – the reason my mother was so intent on me attending. I was so absorbed with college from a young age that I didn’t even think of what comes afterwards.

Now at a different kind of school, I am faced with a shocking change of attitude. Where I am now, college is not the main focus. It is mentioned occasionally during meetings, but the announcements are geared towards seniors, seldom juniors, and almost never sophomores or freshmen. Although I know this is the norm through most schools, I can’t help but feel lost, and even insecure.

When I went to my old school, all of the focus on college was basically done for me. College was a given – everyone thought about it all the time. It was such a recitation that I didn’t even really think about it. But here, I have to independently think about my own future without anyone prompting me. That’s the strange part that I am not used to, and it’s where the trepidation comes in.

Before now, I never thought about what I want to go to college for, and what I want to do after. It’s such a classic teenage cliché – “Where am I going, what am I doing?” I’ve never really thought about it until now, and I’m really at a loss. I have no idea what I want to do when I’m older – be a writer maybe, but of course, that’s a tough choice. Whenever I say this when people ask, they laugh in my face. I guess I don’t really know where I’m going.

All these new concerns have arisen now because someone very close to me is going through the college process, and is feeling a bit of what I’m feeling – second guessing their given goals and really thinking about the future. I want to get a head start on these decisions, so I’m not as stressed out later. But that is a curse as well as a blessing, because I am feeling the senior stress now as a sophomore.

I can masterfully edit a college essay so it fits exactly what a classic admissions officer is looking for, I can recite the top 10 schools in the world, and I can rattle off expected SAT scores and the times and number of questions in every section of the test. What I can’t do, however, is figure out what I want. And that’s something that I really should know by now. Maybe the constant college preparation hasn’t aided me, it has just brainwashed me. I can help everyone else think about college and prepare, but I can’t help myself.

 

Photo Credit: Wikimedia

Trust

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Although trust is a common trait, it’s a highly valued one. Whether it’s trusting yourself to someone, or telling a secret to a friend, it’s important that the recipient honors the trust.

Betrayal is common – more so than should be socially acceptable. Rumors are always being spread, sometimes for attention, and sometimes for fun. If one doesn’t feel good about themself, they’ll spread rumors or tell lies to put someone down, and therefore feel better, or higher up.

Photo Credit: ncbusinesslitigationreport.com

On the other hand, if someone is bored, they might feel inclined to start spreading rumors, or just gossip, simply for the sake of entertainment. Others might feed off of drama, and continue to spread rumors, and as a result, fake, hurtful information is being spread around.

None of this is beneficial, and dishonesty only ends poorly. If information is trusted in one’s hands, the secret should be kept, and neither rumors or lies should be started or spread.

Tiny Wins

kennyrooLeave a comment

“The more your praise and celebrate your life, the more there is in life to celebrate.” – Oprah Winfrey

Yes, I just quoted Oprah.

But maybe, just maybe she has the right idea about this topic.

I like to call these daily praises and celebrations “tiny wins.”

These tiny wins can really be anything, but I think it is ever so important that we at least acknowledge them.

It could be, as big as passing your license test the first time, or as small as learning all the lyrics to that new song you love. But these happy moments in life must not be wasted.

Everyday may not be great, but there is something great in everyday.

I know it is so easy to talk about all the annoyances in your life – but when we’re old and grey are all of these minuscule inconveniences going to matter?

Looking back on my life on want to celebrate my tiny, and huge wins with an enormous grin on my face.

https://i0.wp.com/deliveringhappiness.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/08/98164466848335250_C4DOB4O4_c.jpg
Photo Credit to: http://deliveringhappiness.com/

We live in a generation where so much is shared; so let’s start sharing our wins instead of our losses.

Happiness

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Can you think of one thing everyone has in common? Public school kids, lawyers, locksmiths, princesses, Canadians, Obama… We are all on a quest to find true happiness.

But what is true happiness, really?   Is it doing what you love, being with who you love, loving yourself, or helping others?   I guess it’s different for everyone. In my case, I think happiness is when you can do what you love with support from the people you love.

Others, however, are willing to give up who they love for what they love. I personally don’t think this will leave you being truly happy, for as long as you are not surrounded by people that will keep you happy, I think you will not be able to find happiness in just an activity.

It is true that happiness is relative, of course, so I extend the question to you – what makes you happy? Do you think you are a happy person? Why?

I wish you all luck on the quest to living life to the fullest.

Photo Credit: http://www.wikipedia.org

Drowning

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“Swim deeper,” they said. “You’ll be able to breathe.”

I’m drowning – the water is swirling over my head, pushing me down and shortening my breaths. I’m told that I’m doing fine, but in reality I’m plummeting.

I’ve been told that this is normal, that everyone should be able to breathe when pushed underwater. However, I know that something’s off.

Maybe I can learn to live while drowning, and pretend that it’s as easy for me as it is for everyone else. But there is a solution, and it’s the realization that I’m ten feet under that helps me to get there.

When underwater, it’s easy to pretend that I’m above, and to fake it until I truly do well. I can either learn to live under the surface, or swim to the top. It is on the surface that I can succeed.

“Swim back up,” they say, “You can make it.”

Photo Credit: http://www.c2.staticflickr.com

Time to Change

kennyroo

Feminist: A person who believes in the social, political, and economic equality of the sexes.

The basic idea of Feminism revolves around the sole principle that because our human bodies are designed to perform differently in order to procreate – our intelligence, social functions, capabilities, and rights should be considered equal.

The word “feminist” has picked up a negative connotation in recent years. Why is that? How did independence turn into “man-hating”?

Men and women pay the same for college tuition. So, how does it make sense that we could leave college, get the same job, but as woman I make 75-cents for every mans dollar?

Women were, and in certain ways still are, treated as inferior to men.
Sexism began as early as Aristotle, who claimed that women were ‘imperfect’ men since they did not contain a male reproductive system.

Children are taught in princess movies that a prince has to come and save the day for everything to be okay. How about we teach our daughters that they can save themselves instead?

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Emma Watson speaking about feminism and her campaign, “He for She” at the U.N. Photo Credit: socialnewsdaily.com

Actress, model, and spokeswoman, Emma Watson, was named U.N. Women Goodwill Ambassador. She gave a life altering speech recently on this very subject, feminism. The speech left the entire room in tears and on their feet clapping – both women, and men.

We expect society to change – when as a society, we do not do enough to change it.

Sneak Peek

lanative1Leave a comment

Hi, people.  I’m writing a book right now.  I’ve gotten about 16 pages done — aren’t you proud?  Here’s a chapter.  Hopefully you can read all of them next year, maybe even in a published book.

 

8-

I am running.

Footfall after footfall, the black street disappears behind me as a I fly through the night.

Out of breath, I whip my head around. They are still following me, almost about to catch me.

The game soon becomes a chase, similar to how a cheetah chases a gazelle.

I hop over logs, stumbling but righting my balance. I launch forward onto my hands and swing my legs up and over my body. This sets them off a few paces.

I continue running.

This is true freedom.

Fighting for my survival, fighting to win, to be safe. The wind passes through my hair and keeps it upright behind me.

I do not slow down.

They are laughing, stumbling, trying to catch up. We are all full of pancakes, bacon, eggs. It is slowing them down.

I keep going, ignoring the sharp pain in the bottom of my stomach.

I turn a corner, taking it like a race car, slanting so far down that I am almost parallel to the grass on the side of the street.

I am aware of everything around me – the gas station on the corner, the yogurt store across from it, the three boys behind me, my white converse hitting the ground.

I am exhilarated.

Trapped

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All day I am stared down, laughed at and mimicked. Stuck behind bars, I try to say hello, but all they hear is a roar. I’m not as fierce as I appear, but they’re scared of me, and I’m not allowed to cuddle up to them, to show them who I truly am. I yearn to be free, to go on a long run and splash in a stream. But I can’t, for I am held captive. Day after day, it’s always the same. I wake up to see all of them laughing at me: at the way my mane blows in the wind, the way unwanted flies are always buzzing around me, and the way I carry myself as I try to escape the onlookers. To my left are the zebras, and to my right, the bears. All so different, we are placed together, for they think we relate. They believe that since we walk on the same ground and breathe the same air, we must be similar, when in reality, we couldn’t be more different. Not only do we look different, we come from different prides and we all communicate in different ways. The days continue, and I go to sleep again and again, signifying the next day where although they might move the sea lions, nothing more important than that will happen.

Photo Credit: http://www.magazinehive.com

Friends?

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Photo Credit: http://www.mynamenecklace.com

The need for true friends is becoming less relevant everyday due to the newfound possibility of online friends. Nowadays people are meeting over shared likes on Instagram, or mutual friends on Facebook. Although they will never meet and only talk online, they consider each other friends.

However nice that may be, it’s causing friendships to become less important, which makes an everyday social life sad. The concept of a genuine friend is changing. People can be less authentic in their conversations, and be more than acquaintances with people they don’t necessarily want to be friends with.

It’s important to make friends with relatable people, and if one befriends people knowing they have others to fall back on, it’s not an honest friendship.

Friends are an important aspect of life, and are usually needed to maintain a happy life. If one spends time with people they don’t truly like, it causes them to be unhappy and not live to their full potential.

Not to be Taken Lightly

kennyroo
credit to ebay for the photo
Photo Credit to: http://www.Ebay.com

Isn’t it weird how you can think yourself into a bad mood? You can spend all day talking about happy things, and putting off a “put together” front. But in reality, the way that you talk to yourself when you’re all alone is what counts.

People are on medication to get out of the very real and dark place that depression is. And on websites like Tumblr, every other post seems to be about how depression is cool and interesting. I think that as a society we should focus more of our attention on things that grow us as humans. Depression is a very real thing, not a trend.

As someone who has had the fortune of never being in that dark of a place, I sympathize with people who are, or have been. I think that these days depression is a trend. Why is that? Why are teenagers trying to act in a way that a lot of adults spend years trying to fix?