Blog 9

In the David Brooks article, It’s Not About You, Brooks talks about how today’s generation has been so highly guarded by the older generations that they don’t have a clue how to function in the real world. When they were children and under the control of their parents they had no freedom, and were on short leashes.  Upon graduation and being set free into the real world, they get to experience their own freedoms and make choices that are new to them. This generation of people also tend to be self-loving and worship the idea of themselves. After this generation figures out what they are doing in life they slowly begin to lead lives just like the rest of the world. In Barbara Grahams Article Confessions of a Quit Addict, Barbara talks about all the decisions that she made on her own after she enters the real world. She makes decisions to quit several things and live her life the way she wants to. Her main goal is to find happiness in the world and live for herself. Barbara says: “I was stubborn and tenacious in my devotion to the people and things I loved, disrespectful of everything else.” Meaning, things that did not arouse her passions didn’t seem worth pursuing. After a few years of living on the wild side she finally decides to stop quitting and learned that everything she was doing to find happiness was not working for her. She wrote about her journey to find happiness and decided to settle down in one place and plant her roots. Both articles talk about the transition to adulthood. The freedom that comes with graduating and being set free to go down whatever path you choose. At first most choose to go down the wrong path and lead a life of adventure. This generation of people has also been known for being very self-loving and worshiping of themselves. This is what the first few years of freedom are like for most. I believe that the connection between both is that the older generations has been so protective of their children shaping their lives and living the lives they wish they’d lived through their kids that they almost hit the ground running as soon as they are released into the real world. Negative choices that they make are part of what is to come when you have been so guarded and sheltered all your life. Eventually the excitement of freedom begins to wear off and more important life decisions begin to happen.

Word count 422

Blog 7

Everybody has a goal that they want to achieve in their life. It might be saving up for a vacation or becoming a doctor, but mine is a little different. If you could have any car in the world what would it be? Mine would be a lime green Jeep Rubicon. It has been a goal of mine for as long as I can remember to save up enough money to buy one. I know it might seem strange that of all the super cool cars out there that I chose a jeep but there is just something about them. The one I want in particular is not cheap at all its $40,485. I have been working for a long time and saving up money to get it but it’s not as easy as it sounds. I have been bar tending and doing various odd side jobs for the past four years.  The reason it costs so much is because I have added all kinds of things to it because I want it to be perfect. If I’m paying for it then I’m going all out. The inside is all black with leather seats, the outside is lime green with all black rims, it has a little bit of a lift on it as well.

            I can just see myself cruising down the sea wall in Galveston in my jeep jamming with my friends. It would be the perfect vehicle for me because it’s fun and I don’t like small cars.  I have a truck now but it’s just not the same.  When I was little I got a hot pink Barbie jeep for Christmas and from that point on I knew that jeep was the vehicle for me. my goal doesn’t have a set time limit I will get my jeep when I have saved up the money I need but I hope it doesn’t take me long. For the longest time, I didn’t know what color I wanted or what kind even. But I came across one when I was looking for different body styles and colors on google and I was sold.  I am totally one of those people that freaks out when I see one on the road or when I pass by dealerships I’m always looking. My brother thinks I have a jeep addiction but I don’t mind there are worse things to be addicted too.  I set this goal of mine when I saw the picture on google of the one I want. I hope that I can achieve my goal and get my car but until then I just have to keep working and saving until I get there.

 

Word Count:450

blog # 6

 

In our world today, students are going to school starting in kindergarten and making their way up. All the while forming some sort of plan about what they want to be when they grow up. At first you want to be a doctor so you take medical and health classes and about half way through your sophomore year you decide that you can’t do it or that it’s too hard. So you change your plan and decide to be an accountant. That sounds great until you realize how much math you have to do and how much money it will cost you to go to that big university. Again, you change your mind and this continues to happen until you finally realize that everything you want to do is either too hard, too expensive or takes too long. After all that time you wasted in school learning things that aren’t going to help you at all you start to look into a college. You decide on a community college and work toward a degree. College isn’t cheap you have to take out loans and apply for grants and scholarships. This brings us into the ever growing topic of student loans and cost of education. Students take out loans to pay for college and then work to pay them off. Or at least some do. The United States is trillions of dollars in debt mainly by college loans that never get paid back. The cost of education is sky high but unless you want to be on the bottom of the tier for the rest of your life, education is necessary. However given the lack of educated people we have today, unemployment has grown tremendously over the past few years. The average pay for somebody with only a high school diploma is $650 a week with a 8.3% unemployment rate. Those with a bachelors degree make an average of $1056 a week with a 4% unemployment rate. People tend to rely on those major companies such as, Sears or Macys for employment opportunities because they think they will be around forever, they won’t be. There is a handful of jobs out there that will never go away such as: Teachers, Doctors, Welders, Farmers and a whole bunch of others. Take Welding for example, Welders get paid very well and will always be needed. The fact of the matter is, that welding is one of those jobs that people tend to overlook because it just isn’t their thing or they think that you have to be skilled in that area. However, Welding is not a hard job to learn, most welders are off to work after nine months of schooling. That’s it. But no one looks at that as a possibility. The point here is that you should learn a useful skill and turn it into a career. Get your education and make something of yourself, and don’t ever let anybody tell you what they think you should be doing. The career path you choose to take or and the education you have to get you down that path is your choice.

 

Word count: 524

Blog #5

I believe that the world is influenced by social media. I am guilty of this because I have just about every form of social media and I am constantly checking my phone. I have a hard time sitting through class or church or anything that requires me to pay attention and not be on my phone. I think that social media has become a big influence on people by making it impossible to put down the phone and log out of the social media accounts for longer than a few minutes.  In the David Brooks article Andrew Sullivan talked about what it’s like to have “your soul hollowed by the web.” This means that in our everyday lives we have become consumed by the internet. We allow it to run our lives and we revolve our lives around it. What is the purpose though? Well I believe that the addiction to our social media accounts stems directly from curiosity. We are all so interested in what everybody else is doing. For example, when somebody posts a ten second snapchat story we get curious about it so we watch it. It entertains us for ten seconds and then its old news. But for the ten seconds that its going on its interesting. It has pulled us in. social media has that effect. That is the same thing with other accounts such as Facebook or Instagram. You post something and get reactions and then after a day it’s over with. That’s what social media is all about. It’s all based on curiosity and getting reaction from our peers. I don’t know how to explain why it has such a large grip on our lives but I know that it will only get worse from here. With as much as technology is changing, day-to-day life will be affected by the internet one way or another. It is one of those habits that we acquire that is impossible to break. Kind of like if you’re a nail biter it hard to break habits like that. Social media is the number one reason why people have such a hard time staying focused.  If your mind is on a text message your waiting for or a snapchat you don’t know how to reply too, then your more than likely not going to be paying attention to what is going on in your class. Social media is in a way harmless but at the same time it does cause major problems in your life.

 

Word Count:420

Blog 4: The Bahamas

 

Every year my family goes on a cruise for at least one holiday. Last year it was thanksgiving. We went to the Bahamas. I have been on several vacations and cruises but this one was my favorite. On November 21^st we loaded up and drove down to Galveston. My parents, little brother, and two of our family friends Sara and Justin, went with us. We always go a day or two early because the traffic in Houston can be so unpredictable. I remember getting there and being so excited to finally be on vacation. My aunt has a beach house down on Jamaica beach so we went to the house and unloaded the cars. Now you have to keep in mind that this is the end of November, its cold. There was no going to the beach in November, at least not in Galveston. It didn’t matter though because we were going to be on the beaches very soon. Saturday night we went to one of our favorite restaurants on the sea wall, it’s called Jimmy’s. it sits up high on one of the fishing piers and has an amazing atmosphere. That was the official start to our vacation. The next morning, we woke up and got everything ready to head over to the cruise terminal. I have been on so many cruises but I always get that same super happy feeling when I finally see the ship. Do you ever get that feeling when you’re so excited for something that it seems like it takes forever? Well I did. Since we are frequent cruisers we get to board the ship at 9:30 right after the wedding parties or other special guests, but it felt like forever before we finally got on. This time we were on the Carnival Magic. It is one of the newest and biggest cruise ships out there. We only cruise with carnival because there is just something about it that we like. When we got on the ship I remember it being so cold and windy that we really couldn’t do anything but wait to leave at four. We were at sea all of Monday. Tuesday we were in Key West. I had fun but I didn’t really see what everybody was raving about. Wednesday we were in Freeport, it rained all day so the beach thing didn’t really work out. Thursday morning my mom was pounding on my door and when I opened it she said you have to come see this. When I walked out onto her balcony and saw Nassau for the first time, it took my breath away. I had no words. It was the most beautiful place I have seen in my life. I’m pretty sure my heart stopped for a second when I saw the beautiful crystal clear, bright blue, water. We got off the ship and went to get on the boat to take us to our excursion which was a beach day and a dolphin swim. I have always wanted to swim with dolphins so that was pretty cool. My dolphins name was Dixon. I was sad that the day had to end because Nassau was a dream. I hope that one day I get to go back to that beautiful place. This year we are going for Christmas. I’ve never been to any of the places we are going this year except for Cozumel. I am pretty excited.

Word count: 577  

Blog #3

Today’s test was nothing I didn’t expect. I knew it would be a lot of writing and vocabulary. The essay questions were also nothing I didn’t see coming. I have to admit that I didn’t study very much, I never have been a studier. I probably should start studying. This exam wasn’t as hard as I thought it was going to be either. I was preparing myself not to know anything. I didn’t leave anything blank so I guess that means I knew something. The one part of the test that I still don’t understand and I’m sure I got wrong is the logical and illogical stuff that we did in the book. I don’t understand that at all. Other than that I thought the test was easy. In the beginning when I looked at the vocabulary I panicked a little but once I started to think about it the definitions and discussions we had in class came back to me. I guess getting picked on every day by Mr. Still helped me out. I think that the next test will be harder but that’s expected. I think I got by pretty good today but who knows. I definitely think that from here on out I’m going to take better notes and make sure I study. That exam showed me that there’s no way to guess my way through this class or any other college class. That worked in high school but not anymore. Time to change up my approach here. Over all I think the exam was everything that was promised it would be. I hope that everybody passed it and we can all move forward onto the next topic. Which I have a feeling is going to involve more vocabulary words that I thought I knew and apparently did not.

 

Word count: 304

blog #2

Words are all around us, we use them every day. Some words have the ability to make a moment that much better or that much worse. Words can hurt and words can heal. In my life, words have affected me numerous times. I have been hurt by them and I have been motivated. A time I was impacted by words was not too long ago, during the last few weeks of my high school days. I will admit I sailed through high school, I never studied, never took anything seriously and got into trouble a lot. I will never forget that morning I got called into the principal’s office, the words that she spoke to me changed my entire outlook on life. I was told that I was not going to graduate. I failed my economics class and didn’t have a high enough average. In that moment the words that were just spoken hit me like a truck. I could not believe that after all the times I managed to skate by without any consequences and now it was finally coming back to haunt me. So in that moment I made a decision. I went to my teacher and told him that I needed to do anything I could to graduate. The words “you will not be walking with your class” kept taunting me, they would not leave my mind. Eventually I got what I had to do taken care of it wasn’t easy but I managed. It felt so good to prove everybody that doubted me wrong. I am so lucky that I got to walk across the football field that night with my class.  But if my principle wouldn’t have told me that I was not going to I might not have. Words have an incredible way of getting to you. Words get inside your head and they bother you and they drive you crazy until you do something about it. So I did. I proved them wrong, I proved myself wrong. I let words bully me for a brief moment in that office. I remembered something that my grandfather had always told me, he said “no matter how hard it gets or how badly you want to give up, remember that you are stronger than that and you can do whatever it is that somebody else says you can’t.”  Words will hurt you, they will heal you and they will always be a part of life. You just have to learn from them and don’t let anybody’s words determine what you’re doing.

 

Word count: 402

Blog #1

My name is Taylor, I am 19 years old and I was born in Denver, Colorado. I have lived in Texas most of my life, we moved to Arizona for a few years when I was nine but that didn’t last long. I have been a competitive cheerleader since I was four years old, I competed with Texas Allstar Cheer and Dance, Arizona Heat Elite and Desert Storm Elite. I also cheered in high school. I am a member of the Burleson County 4H Goat Club, I have shown goats for the past six years. I served as the president, vice president, and council delegate of the 4H Goat Club.  I graduated from Caldwell High School in June of this year and plan to be a High School History Teacher. In my life I have been very fortunate to be able to travel all over the world. I have been on 3 cruises and several other destination trips. Some of my favorite places that I have been are, the Bahamas, Mexico, and Key West, Florida. It is my goal one day to go to Australia, I want to explore the country and learn more about it. Some other things about me are, I have two older sisters and one younger brother. I love animals, I have all kinds of animals on the ranch including goats, cows, pigs, horses, and some chickens. I recently got a new baby, my eight week old pitbull puppy named Buddy, and anybody who knows me knows about Simon, my cross-eyed orange cat. Everybody has a certain thing that they grew up with that is special to them, whether it’s a book, or a TV show, or a movie, mine is Harry Potter. I am the biggest Harry Potter fan ever, I have read all the books multiple times and could tell you every scene to all eight movies.

 

Word count: 317