The life cycle is quite an interesting phenomenon. One day, you’re just born, random gender, random name, you’re stuck in a random place, born into a random family. You may not like your name, you may not like your gender, you spend your whole life being told you have the power to change whatever you want but then everyone tries to stop you. You get a job, you build a life, buy a home and that makes you happy, but does it really make you happy? Or are you just told that it’s supposed to make you happy?
You then have kids, and you introduce them to the same cruel cycle you were introduced to. And who even knows if you’re fit to be a parent, nobody taught you how to parent, and now you have to completely cultivate another human being. They have just as complex of a mind as you do, they question life too and they’ll likely go through the same cycle you did. Doing what you’re told is supposed to make you happy, with no direction, no real end goal.
And then, just like that one fateful day comes and that whole cycle ends for you. There are hundreds, maybe thousands of theories on what happens when we die, we’ll never know. Personally, I believe that there’s nothing, just like a sleep without dreams, a sleep you won’t wake up from. All that build-up, all that work to make a spot in society, to make yourself happy, just for it to end as fast as a computer shuts down. And that’s it. Makes it seem pointless, but for some reason, we push on, maybe we’re just trying to find a reason to live, maybe we’re just scared of dying.
Members of the Catholic Clergy in France sexually abused an estimated 216,000 minors over the past seven decades.
A CNN article suggests “the Catholic Church is the place where the prevalence of sexual violence is at its highest, other than in family and friend circles.”
There are many factors that lead to this shocking situation. Because of the Catholic tenet, children in churches are more likely to be obedient, submissive, and innocent. The Clergy or other adults linked to the church had “easy access” to these vulnerable children. Unaccompanied minors in the Catholic church are also clearly in a lower power position than church leaders because their parents or guardians are not with them. Church leaders have ultimate control over them.
It is ironic that the most degraded work has been done to children in the holiest place. And the Clergy’s position, which is expected to enlighten and save people, provided cover for the polluted immanence.
Many people dislike or even hate eggplant, but I think eggplant is good when cooked right. And the dish that I think is cooked correctly is the eggplant casserole that my grama makes.
Gretchen Schuette, my grandma, wrote down her mom’s eggplant casserole and it is delicious. It is the perfect balance of eggplant and tomato. The grated cheese on top is the perfect way to finish the dish.
Ingredients:
1 medium-size eggplant
3 tbsp. butter
3 tbsp. flour
1 can tomatoes or 2 cups of fresh tomatoes
1 chopped small green pepper
1 small onion, chopped
1 tsp. salt
1 tbsp. brown sugar
Grated cheese
photo credit: Medical News today
Recipe:
Dice eggplant and cook for 10 minutes in boiling water.
In another pan, melt butter and blend with flour.
(Cook on low heat for 3 minutes if you use whole wheat flour.)
Add the rest of the ingredients (except eggplant).
Cook sauce for 5 minutes.
Mix together the sauce and the eggplant and put in a casserole.
Cover with grated cheese and bake at 350 degrees for 30 minutes.
The mind is a dangerous place and as a former hopeless nihilist I feel I have earned the right to say that. The worst part about thoughts is that they don’t stop. It can be torturous to spend a single protracted moment in your mind when every thought is weaponized in some way to be destructive. The psychological degradation brought on by a depressed mind is exhausting. Every thought drags you deeper into the pit until your mental breaks and you give up.
I was lucky enough to break this seemingly endless loop by repressing emotion and taking away meaning and depth from every emotional outlet. My past statement of being a former nihilist was a lie, however I am no longer a hopeless nihilist. I’m just a person who copes with stress and anxiety by believing nothing should make me stressed or anxious because it lacks meaning and worth. I understand this might not sound like a valid process of thoughts as people will question my morals around every corner, however, I assure you, I have decent morals. As well as many other decent qualities. Greatest of all though, the biceps. The biceps s h r e d, and that among other things boost my dopamine levels giving me dreams and ambitions to quickly acquire. Finding something, anything interesting would lead me to want to try, learn, and quit. However some dreams in my head take a long time to learn. These thoughts of my future give me ambition to live an active and fulfilling life. I found reason along the ashes of self destruction.
So I just bough myself a car, I only had to pay half but it ended up to coming out to $2250. Which is almost all of my savings. I currently have a balance of $2500(pre-payment). It’s a pretty sick car but insurance for me is gonna be about 620 and I do not have that. Like I have to pay insurance as soon as I get my license which will hopefully be tomorrow. So basically I am in an incredible amount of debt to my parents. Basically the majority of my paychecks, which are low because the restaurant has been closed a lot so I havent been able to get good hours. I mean the head chef walked out of the kitchen and just left, and quit i guess, without telling anyone. We legit had to close that night, it was frickin awful. and The other day the fridge went out in the middle of the night due to a power outage, so all of the food was spoiled. It was bad. Anyway hopefully we wont have anymore bad luck but I guess we’ll see. Until then I’m broke.
The events in this story happened after my last story’s events so I suggest you read that one first. After I had healed from jumping into the hot tub. It was a rainy day in my home town, so my PE class was being held in the school gym instead of on the field where it usually was held. We got there and were instructed to take our shoes off so that we didn’t get the floor of the gym wet and slippery, this was a big mistake in my opinion because I kept my socks on. We were doing fun things like dodgeball and just passing the balls, but the problem arose when we started to throw some things in the air and catching them. As I was doing this I somehow made it over to the pile of shoes. I threw the little sheet thing in the air up and ran forward tripping over the shoes and falling forward onto my face. I just so happened to fall right on my freshly healed chin splitting it open again. I remember feeling the sting that happens when I had gashed my chin before. I grabbed it like I had before to keep the blood in but I looked and saw the puddle of blood on the ground and I knew that it was bad. I rushed to the nurses where they called my mom and told me I needed stitches. There is still blood stains on the floor from that event almost eleven years ago.
Shmicolas VS. Schmogan, a fight that has been building tension within the walls of my school for almost half a decade. Beginning as enemies perpetually at each other’s throats and now friends still perpetually at each other’s throats, still waiting to get in the ring to settle the seemingly eternal beef.
For a while now I have had my money on Schmicolas, small but scrappy, thin but still holding the power capable of knocking Schmogan on his ass, with one fell swoop. Schmicolas is quite the unfortunate adversary for Schmogan as Schmogan is easily enraged, quick to lose his cool and drop his advantage. Although I confidentially place my bet on Schmicolas, Schmogan is still quick, strong and capable of sending a punch that would even leave some fighters stunned.
If we’re talking wrestling, mixed martial arts or street fighting, the advantage is certainly in Shmicolas’ hands. He is a capable wrestler, one that has quite the record when it comes to taking Schmogan to the ground and getting him to tap. However, in a regulation boxing match, things may get a little interesting. As their builds are almost exactly the same, they throw the same jabs, same hooks and dodge with the same urgency. This fight will be a slow battle of attrition until the bell rings in the twelfth round.
However, a battle of attrition may be Schmogan’s downfall as he is impatient and is unwilling to wait too long for the final result. As the fight drags on, Schmicolas will begin to triumph as Scmhmogan loses his patience. Although it likely won’t be some jaw-dropping knockout, Schmicolas will undoubtedly take home a TKO and will be the ultimate victor of this fight.
Sometimes I just want to sock someone in the nose. I obviously mean this statement figuratively but sometimes I get so riled up over things so stupid. I don’t mean I’m a little b*!/h that cries over everything, but I feel that a lot of stupid stuff happens to me. These emotions that are evoked from my pissed off self may define who I am to some people, however to me the way I deal with said frustrations defines who I am. Sometimes I eat, other times I try to wack golf balls as hard as possible, but most importantly I “sweep it out the door”. This is my twist on the common phrase of “sweeping it under the rug,” however I changed it for myself. I feel that sweeping the dirt under the rug implies its kept there and can’t be erased or forgotten, however under my rug there is an endless pit. There’s nothing going on back there, its void, null. There is no backstage or backstage party, once I sweep it behind the curtain its gone. I simply forget my emotion and uneasiness, what better coping mechanism could there be? In retrospect this may be destructive and it is obviously stupid to neglect self reflection, but hey at least I’m happy.
I have ADHD, and a symptom that impacts my life every day is executive dysfunction. Executive dysfunction is something that neurotypical people experience too, but it’s usually strongest and most visible in people with ADHD.
Understanding executive function is the best way to get a grasp of what executive dysfunction is. As defined by Harvard Center on the Developing Child, “Executive function and self-regulation skills are the mental processes that enable us to plan, focus attention, remember instructions, and juggle multiple tasks successfully” (Harvard, 2020).
When looking at the DSM-5 criteria for diagnosing ADHD, it’s obvious that most people with ADHD lack the ability to do these things without outside help, which is where the term “executive dysfunction” comes in.
For me, executive dysfunction hinders my ability to manage my time, control my impulses, remember important upcoming events, and split my attention between multiple things. These effects have led me to miss deadlines, accidentally ditch my friends when we were supposed to hang out, and miss points from not realizing that I’ve left out key details in assignments.
Since I’m in high school, my executive dysfunction mostly affects my schoolwork and learning experience. For an adult with a job, it could cause them to get fired because of repetitive mistakes. The stakes are higher for adults, which is why learning effective strategies to combat executive dysfunction is important.
I hope that this article helps people understand ADHD and its symptoms better. Remember to look out for your friends or family who have ADHD to make sure they’re taking care of themselves.
Works Cited:
“Executive Function & Self-Regulation.” Center on the Developing Child at Harvard University, 24 Mar. 2020, developingchild.harvard.edu/science/key-concepts/executive-function/.
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