Last. Blog. Ever.

mushuooLeave a comment

Tonight, I am writing my last blog for the Ojai Valley School Journalism class.

I have has such an incredible experience here at OVS, and a part of that was being involved in this class.

Being given the opportunity to express my opinion on whatever I feel like has been amazing. Blogging has been an amazing outlet for me and writing articles has allowed me to strengthen my writing skills in a fun manner.

I would like to thank Mr. Alvarez for his incredible support for the past two years, academically and personally. He is truly one of my favorite humans in the entire world, and he is someone I would do nearly anything for.

This time is bittersweet. Leaving high school, and the journalism program, will be upsetting; but I am growing up and moving on, and that is a beautiful thing in itself.

I cannot wait to share my experiences in college with my family, friends, and former teachers. I wish everyone at OVS the best, even Harley.

I will be forever thankful for my time here at OVS.

*@KENNYROO NO PICTURE

Just Gender Things

mariethearistocatLeave a comment

From the moment a baby is born, they’re wrapped in either a pink or blue blanket. Since before they can talk, they either wear dresses or overalls. Before they can read, they’re watching Disney Princess movies or superhero movies.

A pair of siblings go to the grandparents’ house for the weekend. The grandma takes the sister to the kitchen. She compliments her dress and asks her to fetch the chocolate chips from the   pantry. While they put the cookies in the oven, the grandfather and brother yell at the football game. The ref called the play wrong.

The teacher sits down with her kindergarten class and asks what all the kids do that weekend. Most of the boys recount of their soccer games and “throwing the old pig skin” with their dad. After all the boys have talked about their weekends, the girls talk about dressing their Barbie dolls and mothering their baby dolls.

As the years go on, a pattern starts to form. The boys keep playing soccer and the girls keep dressing up. The boys can run free, while girls are trained to style themselves and look nice. These stereotypes aren’t always true, but the amount of pressure society puts on these activities really makes a difference. Children are having a skewed vision of gender. Girls are supposed to be soft and delicate, while boys are allowed to be brave and strong.

This set of societal views is better known as gender roles. Gender roles isn’t some idea feminists came up with to create a problem. Gender roles is the phenomenon that girls have to be feminine and guys have to be masculine. This is extremely harmful to everyone.

Teenage girls are ridiculed for being bad at sports, but it’s not their fault that their parents bought her new dolls instead of a new soccer ball.  Teenage boys have to be strong and are ridiculed for crying.Girls can wear jeans but guys can’t wear dresses and skirts. If a girl is domestically abused and reaches out she is seeking attention and when a guy does he should have enjoyed it. If a girl plays sports, she’s trying to get a boyfriend, but when a boy would rather go to choir he’s made fun of.

The term “stay-at-home mom” is much more common than the term “stay-at-home dad.” Men are praised for being good business men, but women in authoritative positions are called bossy. When a mother is professional she should spend more time with her kids, while a successful father is one that’s just doing his job. If two parents split, the mother is more likely to take full custody because of her gender.

These stereotypes may not even be apparent, but they sneak into conversations and are just reinforced. Grandparents are raised with these ideals and it’s reflected in how they address their grandchildren. This issue can’t be stopped unless conversation is brought up about it. Talking about gender roles, no matter how small, can have a great impact on stopping these stereotypes all together.

One instance is when Target combined the girl’s and boy’s toy sections to non-gendered toys. Even something as simple as where a toy lands on a shelf can spark great change. Now a little girl may spot a toy truck instead of picking a plastic doll and her little brother could become the father of a Cabbage Patch kid. Gender roles shouldn’t define an individual or the way they’re viewed.

Cannes Fashion

paris22Leave a comment

Cannes 2016 is coming to a close, and as the celebrities, or more likely, their assistants, pack up their designer gowns, suits, and shoes, and prepare for their next red carpet here are my favorite looks.

Sonam Kapoor

http://static.dnaindia.com/sites/default/files/styles/half/public/2016/05/07/457903-sonam-cannes-2.jpg?itok=XDeTEGgq

Kapoor announced that her Ellie Saab dress would have an Indian element to it, and this dress did not disappoint.

Bella Hadid 

While she may not have graced the red carpet in this look, that does not make it any less gorgeous. Hadid’s fresh, dewy makeup, sleek ponytail, and simple white ensemble are a perfect fit for summer. Christian Dior’s property behind Hadid doesn’t hurt either.

Amal Alamuddin and George Clooney

Power. Couple. Alamuddin’s pale yellow gown is one many could not pull off, but, obviously, Alamuddin is not one of those people.

Victoria Beckham

Posh always kills it, and this masculine inspired piece is no exception.

Blake Lively

While Lively was as Cannes promoting her movie The Shallows, she also happened to promote the Cinderella movie when she arrived on the carpet bearing a striking resemblance to the princess herself. But, Lively pretty much is a princess, so I’m not surprised.

 

Snow

whynotstayinLeave a comment

It was snowing. It always seemed to be snowing, but it had gotten worse. Now it was red. The civil war had escalated and the world weeped in response.

It had been years since the snow had been white. Years since the first generation fighting the war had died. It had been years since I’d seen them. Years since they had seen me.

I remember seeing them disappear into the haze of steaming snow, the snow had only been a faint pink then. I remember watching them turn their backs on me.

Everything seemed bloody now. Everything had taken a side. Every decomposing body became part of the atmosphere.

Photo Credit: nachtstern.deviantart.com

The world had been falling apart for far too long. I never saw a time of a white snow. But I have heard it was truly beautiful.

I just want to see the snow fall in a white blanket, once.

Maybe someday.

End of the year fun

raining17Leave a comment

I hate to be one of those people complaining about the hardship that is junior year, or all the work piling up as finals approach and the year comes to an end.

Yet here I am.

I am beyond stressed out, to put it frankly. As finals are getting closer, teachers are assigning huge projects and cramming in tests, which are piling up and overlapping. There are two weeks until finals start, and I think it’s safe to say that for me, they will be the busiest weeks of the school year.

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

I know that everyone is complaining about the amount of work that has been assigned, as well as the chaos surrounding the end of the year, but I have legitimate reason to complain – I have so much going on.

Everyone says that junior year is the hardest year. I’ve always been told that this year brings about the most work, and is the most stressful. Well the proof is in the pudding – I have so much to do, and am a little ball of stress. I can’t wait for the year to be over!

11:11

happyrose15Leave a comment

 

It’s 11:11

A minute left until 11:12

It’s 11:11.

What do you wish for?

A new car?

Your crush to notice you?

To have everything you’ve ever wanted?

There’s 30 seconds until 11:12.

What is it going to be?

To be a billionaire?

To finally ace a math test?

Do you wish for more wishes?

There’s 15 seconds until 11:12

You’re running out of time

You stayed up this late to make this wish and now you can’t decide?

There’s 10 seconds until 11:12.

What are you going to do with these 10 seconds?

How do you possibly not know what to wish for?

There’s 5 seconds until 11:12.

You’re tired and Glee is playing in the back while you frantically try and find a wish

You close your eyes tight and wish for free gas for a year

3

2

1

It’s 11:12

Well damn you probably should have wished for the cure to cancer

Oh well just wait 12 hours and your chance will come again

Just A Thought

mushuooLeave a comment

Every day when I wake up, I find myself thinking about things that may be important to me at that moment; if my hair is straight, how my skin looks or if my outfit is figure-flattering… but in all honesty, all of this is irrelevant.

We spend so much time focused on the things that make us temporarily happy like looking skinny or driving a nice car or having the most likes on an Instagram picture, but why does any of this matter? What is the purpose?

Don’t get me wrong, I enjoy social media and feeling confident and purchasing nice things, but what REALLY matters? That is my question.

I feel like we focus too much on the superficial, rather than the necessary.

I am speaking from watching family members and friends suffer through the horrifying effects of cancer, Crohn’s, and Alzheimer’s, not through personal experience of these diseases; but when your health, your life, your comfort is threatened, all of those factors change.

You begin to focus on your comfort, your happiness, your health… unfortunately, the reality check came because of the diagnosis of an illness, but that’s when you start to realize what is sincerely important.

I experienced a drastic change in my health two years ago after I experienced a surgical complication, and I remember how things changed.

For a while after that surgery, I remained in a mood of distress, in constant physical pain. But through this, I was able to realize how strong my primal instincts were; I remember those feelings dynamically, and they will never escape me.

After reading an article surrounding the effects of cancer earlier this evening, I remembered how I felt then and reevaluated how lucky I am now.

This article hit me right in that spot that nobody wants to be touched, the one where your throat swells and your eyes throb and you breathe deeply to stop the emotions you are feeling from consuming you.

Now when I wake up in the morning, I will look at myself and think about how lucky I am to be alive, to be healthy, to be eating my breakfast, to have a family, to have a roof over my head, and to have each of the opportunities before me that I do.

I am happy, I am healthy, I feel terrific.

 

PHOTO:

 

We need nap time!

raining17Leave a comment

When I was in kindergarten, we had nap time every day. We would come back inside after recess each day, and without fail there would be mats laid out all over the classroom floor. We would each have to pick a mat, and once we laid down, that was where we had to stay for an hour without getting up.

I hated nap time. All the kids did. But now, I would give anything for it.

During that hour, we had to lay on our mats quietly – we could read if we didn’t want to sleep, but we couldn’t visit with friends. We were always so restless, watching the clock and counting down the minutes until the hour was over.

Now in high school, having an hour of nap time during the school day would be luxurious. I am constantly sleep deprived after staying up into the small hours of the morning working on homework, and I can say definitively that I would take FULL advantage of an allotted nap time.

All I can say is that as high schoolers, I think we deserve nap time.

Photo Credit: s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com

Poems for Thought

mariethearistocatLeave a comment

Almost every time I see my sister she says the same thing.

“You really should start journaling.”

And to this very day, I have resisted. I have chosen to not follow my sister’s advice, something I usually regret later on. Instead, I have developed ways to kind of journal. My newest favorite being a quote book.

I thought of making it when the storage filled up on my phone due to the massive collections of screenshots of quotes I’ve found on Instagram. So, naturally, I used a notebook my sister got for me. 

Since then I’ve been writing down quotes on what seems to be a daily basis. However I feel, I’ll pick a quote matching it. If a quote resonates with me, I’ll write it down.

The most special thing is I can write some of my own poetry or incorporate my ideas into other poems. Each page has a different layout, design, and meaning.

So, in a way, my sister’s dream has come true. I write almost everyday, but not exactly the way she likes it.

 

The Infamous Gap Year

paris22Leave a comment

Image Credit: gapyear.com

Currently I’m writing an article about a senior who is taking the path less travelled. Rather than jumping straight from high school to college, she’s taking a year in between. Before I started writing this articles I knew what gap years were, but I associated them with partying and messing around. That is not the case. Students who take gap years get to travel, do charity work, take a break from the competitive atmosphere of high school before going into even more rigorous college academics, work, and discover themselves out in the world on their own. Even Harvard recommends gap years. Just look at Malia Obama. Gap years are finally starting to drift away from the notion that they are filled with parties and are starting to be recognized as beneficial. I’m grateful I was given this article to write, because now I am aware all the benefits gap years can yield, and who knows, maybe I’ll take one now.