College

I commented on Powerade's blog about if college is really necessary in life. Read and comment href="http://myblogbybrad.blogspot.com/">Here

Soup Kitchen

Last week, I went to a soup kitchen in downtown Dallas to do some community service work. I had never been to a soup kitchen before so I didn’t know what I was going to be doing. There were a lot of volunteers there so we all split up the jobs. Some helped serve food to the homeless, clean dishes, or greet people. Along with two other girls, I cleaned the ovens and took people’s trays when they were done eating. It was so humbling to be there because I realized that the majority of kids in college have no idea what real life is like.

What really broke my heart was when the clock struck 5pm. This marked the time when ladies, families, and children came in to eat. The children that came in had no idea that it wasn’t the “norm” to eat in a soup kitchen. They had huge smiles on their faces and enjoyed their meals. It made me so sad because one day they will realize what their circumstances are. They will realize that most children in America get home cooked meals from their parents. I hope they do not get into bad things like drugs because at least they have somewhere to go. There are other people in America that don’t have a soup kitchen to go to. They literally live off of the streets, finding food in trash cans.

Seeing this made me realize how much college students take things for granted. We do not appreciate the education we are receiving. We get upset when we have trouble with our schedules. We want the most and we want the best. I think we all need to stop for a second and realize that this isn’t life. Life is the struggle. It is getting over obstacles that stand in our way to become better people. We all have troubles in our lives but some are worse than others. We need to stop taking things for granted because we are privileged to be where we are and to have what we have.

Leisure

I am writing my paper about leisure.

In high school, most teens would come home from school and want to relax. Sitting in a desk, learning new material, and trying to make good grade was simply exhausting. They grab a snack, sit on the couch, and watch TV. Hours go by and they haven’t budged. This is how the majority of teenagers spend their free time. Watching TV, playing video games, and surfing the internet are a few of the popular choices. However, this does not help us grow as an individual. I am arguing that we need speed our free time participating in active, physical activity.

Being active is helpful in many different ways. First off, the more active we are, the more we fight obesity. America has a huge obesity problem. We overeat and don’t exercise. By doing active leisure, we become healthier which improves the quality of life.

Secondly, physical activity also improves stress management. We learn to time manage which makes us focused on our day and the tasks we need to do. Our concentration improves and the flow state is inevitable.

Lastly, active leisure helps with our emotions. The more we do active things that we love, the better our attitudes are. For example, I love to dance. In my spare time, I play a song and practice my dancing. I become very concentrated on what I am doing that the flow state happens naturally. Because dance is something that I love to do, I leave feeling great and my mood has improved.

Physical activity leads to great things in our life. The flow state is inevitable and the quality of life will greatly improve with the benefits of active leisure. We don’t need to waste our psychic energy on the TV which will hinder us from growing.

Stressing too much!

I read and commented on a great post in Justin's blog about how school can get overwhelming and we get too stressed our. See what I wrote and leave a comment here

U.S. Pride: Where has it gone?

Being in the war has caused a lot of turmoil in the United States. People argue for it or they argue against. In this post, I do not want any of that argument. I want to show that no matter what, we are all Americans.

I went to New York for spring break and we went to ground zero. There was a display containing pictures from 9/11 when the tragedy struck, a time line of that day, and plans for the memorial being built. As I gazed upon the pictures of the burning towers and tears falling down innocent people’s faces, the emotions from that day came back to me very vividly. We were all upset that our country had been attacked and innocent people had been killed. After that day, the United States came together. We put differences aside and had a sense of pride and unity in one another and in our country. Every year when September 11 rolled around, almost every person wore the colors red, white, and blue. We were truly proud to be Americans.

Where has that gone? No one wears our colors anymore in remembrance of innocent workers, policemen, firefighters, or anyone who lost their lives on that dreadful day. It seems we have forgotten the day of September 11.

Presently, we have American’s throwing homemade bombs at the U.S. Army recruitment center in New York City. We have people saying they are ashamed of our country because of the war. Once again, I am not here to argue for or against the war. I am not going to say my opinion on that matter. What I want people to realize from my blog is when we put politics, republicans vs. democrats, or beliefs aside, we are all still Americans. However, we don’t show it. I think that is terrible.

We should be proud of where we come from. Maybe the war isn’t something you want and you are ashamed we are in it. However, we ARE in it and there is nothing that we can do about it as individuals. No matter if we agree or disagree with the government or each other, we need to stand by our country and its decisions. At the end of the day, we are all Americans.

Friendships

Check out Audbloggers blog. It's a great post about quality vs. quantity of friends. I wrote a comment...you should too!

Worker vs. Workaholic?

I was very bored as I waited in the LaGuardia airport in NYC to come from spring break. I had finished my book and I had nothing else to do so I started people watching. I noticed a similarity between the majority of people sitting in the gate with me. They were all concerned about their jobs.

The woman sitting next to me had her laptop out writing e-mails while talking on the phone about getting different phone numbers to contact other business people. Her husband and son were sitting next to her in complete silence receiving no attention from the woman. While talking, she told a story about how she had her son write an e-mail for her while they were on a road trip together. I think this is ridiculous. There is no reason for a mother to make her son write a business e-mail for her while they are on vacation together.

Shortly after this, a woman walked around frantically trying to find a seat at the gate while she talked on the phone making sure she had her facts correct before she presented her idea to her bosses. She spoke loudly and violently rolled her suitcase behind her, running into people as she passed by. This woman had no consideration for the people around her.

Next, I noticed a man standing against a wall clicking away at his blackberry. Not long after he stopped typing, he received a phone call. One of the first things he said was “Yes, I just sent the e-mail. Let me know in the office on Monday what you think.”

Honestly, I couldn’t and still can’t believe what I had seen. I don’t understand why people only focus on their jobs. I think it is wrong to ignore a family, run into people, or be glued to a phone all because of work. Society centers on working and money that people become caught up in it and don’t leave room for anything else in their lives. People should be able to enjoy their families, vacations, or alone time without thinking about work. So why do people only think and breathe work? How does this bring happiness in life?