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?

Newspapers vs. Websites

The blogger wisco88 wrote a very interesting blog about newspapers vs. the internet. I wrote a comment on it. Write your opinion and see what I wrote Here

Losing TV

A fellow blogger wrote a great post about TV and what happens when we lose the ability to watch it. I left a comment so see what I wrote....TV...an addition?

I'm at Lefty!

Throughout elementary and middle school, I was always very strong in English. I was very good and reading and writing; however I dreaded math and science. Math required much more studying and hard work than writing did. I used to be able to sit down and write about anything without a problem.

My brother, who is four years older than me, was the exact opposite. He was always very strong in math and science but struggled in English. He could solve any math problem that was given to him, whether or not he had seen that material before; but he had problems writing papers.

Now that we are both in college, we have traded places. He loves to write and is very good at it. In fact, he is an English major at the University of Texas at Austin. As for me, I love math. It makes sense to me because it has an exact answer and there is no room for debate. I’m looking at being an accounting or finance major.

So how did this happen? I find it interesting as we grow our thinking completely changes. I have moved from right side of the brain to the left. It is very hard for me to sit down and write this blog, for example. To be honest, I have been sitting in my friend’s room for three hours with my laptop in my lap with a blank word document open the whole time. For my friend, she is an excellent writer. It comes very naturally to her and she writes fantastic blogs.

So how do math people make a good blog? I have written other blogs but they have not been very good. I have tried but nothing seems to bring out good conversation. Any tips?

U Wanna Txt?

I find it amazing that there was such a technology boom in my generation. From the years 1989-present, technology has soared. My brother owned the very first Nintendo in about 1990 and now in 2008 my family owns the Nintendo Wii.

Texting also shows the advancement of this generation. Walking around campus, I see everyone either talking on their cell phone or texting. Don’t get me wrong, I am a texting addict. I can’t tell you how many times I have heard my parents ask me “Why don’t you just pick up the phone and call someone…it would be so much easier!” But parents don’t understand that just sending a quick text is so much easier than picking up the phone. My logic is that calling someone just to ask what time the movie starts would be a waste of a phone call and honestly an awkward conversation.

To give the older generation some credit, my parents have learned how to text message. They still don’t understand the concept of a text message but at least they know how. What I find funny is that they treat it like an email, always signing it “love, mom” or “love, dad”.

We bought my granddad a cell phone just in case of an emergency. It is a very easy phone to use considering this model isn’t made anymore. We taught him everything about the phone and he understood perfectly. However, do you think it is out of the box yet? Of course not. He still prefers to use his phone that still has a turn dial.

There are just things in life that older generations will never understand about us (texting/cell phones, for example). Maybe that is why our generation is always criticized for doing something good, as Greenberg states in his article. Critics don’t understand why we do what we do, like play on the computer or text. It doesn’t make sense to them so they criticize us for it.

Passion vs. Praticality

One of my peers, a fellow blogger, wrote a great post about pursuing her true passions in life, or pursuing a degree with more practicality. I have strong feelings about this post since I was in a situation like this myself. See what I wrote here

The Obsession with Fame

Have you ever noticed how much we obsess over celebrities? If you really think about it, it’s insane!! We buy magazines to read about famous people and what is going on in their lives. We talk about the latest gossip with our friends about who’s who in Hollywood. Now don’t get me wrong, I am very guilty about this. Just the other week, I bought a magazine because it had Matt Damon and Patrick Dempsey on the cover and I am a huge fan of both. But why do we do this?

When thinking about it, we always talk about famous people and how glamorous it must be to have that lifestyle. But in reality, how great is it? Sure, the perks tend to be lots of money, great clothes, top-of-the-line cars, huge houses, and famous friends. However, I was talking with my friends the other day and we all decided it would be a huge burden to be in the limelight 24/7. The paparazzi would follow you all of the time. There would be no privacy to this otherwise fantastic lifestyle. Some celebrities even go crazy because of this issue.

Well, after looking at the negatives, I would not want to be a famous person in today’s world. However, if we cannot become famous, we worship the famous to a very extreme extent. Take the infamous Brittney Spears for example. We have been with her every step during her mental break down because of the magazines and TV shows broadcasting the news. We sit, we watch, we gossip-it is an ongoing cycle.

I could talk about my opinion on gawking of the famous all day. However, that will not stop me or anyone else from finding out the next juicy gossip in Hollywood. So, why do we want to know so much about the celebrities’ personal lives?

The Purpose of Blogging

To me, blogging is a great experience. I blogged last semester and I learned a whole new way to write. I was forced to think very critically and open my mind to the world around me, not just my life as a college student. Posting comments to other blogs also forced me to think "outside the box". I had form opinions of subjects that normally I would ignore. Just like Andrew Olmstead, I enjoy being able to meet other people "virtually". It adds a sense of community being able to connect and share opinions with others we have not met. Sometimes, we are intimidated to say what we think due to the person’s status, looks, etc. However, through blogging, intimidation is not a factor at all.