If you read my last blog, many of you will know that I am trying to get the Spanish level 3 course running in my school next year. For this I need to do a petition. Now, my blog wont let me do a petition on the website, but if anyone is interested in being involved in the petition to get this course to run next year, please sign your name underneath this blog post in the comments spot. Every signature counts!
In my Futures Forum class, we were given the task of completing a passion project. What is a passion project? Many of us have no idea to be brutally honest. We've basically been told to find out passion in life, and expand on it, by answering a question about it, researching it, and that's pretty much all I've gathered from this passion project.
Anyways, for my passion project, I have been so lost. It's crazy when we as students are given a very broad topic to do a study on, and we are completely lost whenever we aren't given set directions on how to complete this task. We go through life wanting to grow up, and become more independant as individuals, yet when we are given the chance to pursue the freedom that we crave, we have no idea what to do. Until a few days ago, I had no idea what to do for my passion project. I've always been really interested in the environment and conserving it, and I've done many projects before to try and keep the environment clean and healthy and help out in any way possible. But I figured I should try something new for my passion project. A few days ago I got called down to the guidance center in my school, and was informed that the Spanish course was not running next year. This was definately something that made me upset, because there were 11 students enrolled in the class, and smaller classes have been run before. It also bothered me because as a career, I want to persue some job that involves languages. Whether it be a translator, or a highschool teacher, languages are something I excell in and am planning on going to university to study. Basically, I need the Spanish courses to set me at a higher level of learning in university, and to give me the experience to be able to do the jobs that I want to do in life. From this, I decided that my passion project will consist of trying to get the Spanish course to run next year. If they don't run, I will end up taking college courses to further teach me the language that I need to persue the career that I want to in life. This doesn't seem fair right? Obviously the college courses will provide me with the language skills that I need, but I shouldn't have to go out of my way to find a program that could easily be offered at my own school, because I've been asking around and even though the class numbers were only 11 students, the class still could have run. A few ideas have run through my head on how to try and get this class to run next year. But my main thought is to start a petition. If I can get enough signatures maybe this will bring it to my principle's attention, the desire that students who haven't even enrolled in the course have, to get the students who desire the course to be able to participate in the class if it runs. That's my hope atleast... we'll see how this goes. "Nothing gold can stay.
Nature's first green is gold. Her hardest hue to hold. Her early leaf's a flower; But only so an hour. Then leaf subsides to leaf, So Eden sank to grief, So dawn goes down today. Nothing gold can stay." Nothing gold can stay. A captivating poem that many people ponder and wonder what the meaning to "Nothing gold can stay" truly means. This is a poem I have constantly been intrigued by since I first read it when I was 9, when I was first reading the poem in a book I read. What does the poem truly mean? In my mind, gold, is signifying youth. When we are young, we are pure, wholesome beings. We haven't yet been tainted with the problems, diseases, and disasters that comes with age and getting older. When we are young we are completely pure and our minds are valuable, just like gold. By saying "nothing gold can stay" I believe that it is referring to the fact that as we get older, we are faced with harsh times and hardships and suddenly that innocence that we used to possess that made us so pure as a child, is being broken down and slowly being tainted due to what we face in life. And no person is able to avoid the difficult times that life deals to us. Everyone faces hardships, and as Robert Frost states, this state of "gold" is nature's "hardest hue to hold." I believe that, that signifies how hard it is for us as humans to hold onto our childhood innocence. Each one of us as we grow older, at some point in our lives long to go back to our childhood, or hold on to the small bit of childhood innocence that we still have. But that is a task that is so unbelievably difficult, relating back to the fact that this is mother natures "hardest hue to hold." When Robert Frost references to Eden sinking to grief, I believe that he is trying to put across the idea that people are slowly falling and with age we are constantly losing that spark and light that made our lives amazing. When he relates to Eden sinking, it is to my belief that he is referencing to the biblical site of the Garden of Eden and the fall of man within that garden. As Eve and Adam failed to follow the orders of God, and became more tainted as people, so do we all as humans as we grow and progress as people, we begin to fall more and more and deplete our society, losing that innocence that made us so gold as human beings. In the final sentences of the poem, "So dawn goes down today, nothing gold can stay" I believe that Robert Frost is stating that another day of our lives is lost. We are now one more day closer to losing the innocence that makes us gold completely. Little by little, day by day we are continuing to lose this about ourselves, leading to the main point of this poem, nothing gold can stay. ![]() Why is hockey the only major league sport that allows fighting? That's the question that I'm wanting to figure out. Don't get me wrong, I'm a huge hockey fan. I'm a huge sports fan in general, but I feel that if the majority of sports do not allow fighting and have high penalties for fighting, that one sport should not surpass all others and allow fighting with only 2 minutes in the penalty box for fighting. In the NFL the lowest fine for physical violence on the field is $2,500, and the greatest fine is up to $25,000. Even taunting someone in the NFL can result in a fine. In soccer, fighting results in suspension and players getting kicked out of the rest of the game completely. In MLB, there are suspensions, and money fines. And these penalties are given out just for generic fighting, not just serious injuries like hockey. So why is this allowed for hockey? I understand the reasoning behind the NFL having such high fines for players fighting each other on the field. Football is made up of players with the highest crime rate records between all of the sports that I've just mentioned. Despite this, I still do not believe that any sports should be exempt from high fines for fighting. The sad thing is, people enjoy being able to watch a good fight during a game. I had front row seats at a hockey game, right behind the players bench, and there were men beside me yelling at the players telling them to get into fights, and trying to egg them on to fight in any way possible. Maybe it is because of the fans constantly craving a good fight that keeps fighting in the NHL at such a low cost. In my opinion, this isn't right at all. I understand how competitive some people can be when in game situations, especially when they are under pressure. But these players are being viewed by thousands of people, and not only setting a bad example of sportsmanship to younger children who envy them, but they also may be putting someone's life at risk with every punch that they throw. ![]() For this week’s blog, I would like to reflect on my reading of the novel “The Great Gatsby.” What ultimately inspired me to read the book, was the fact that a new movie was being released next year based on the book, and it intrigued me. So I went and asked my dad if he had read this book, and his answer was “Yes, it was a great book! You should read it sometime.” Or something along those lines. FUNNY JOKE DAD. Either way, he wanted me to read this book. Around this time my class was assigned an independent novel study, and I thought that this book would be ideal for me to read. Yeah, I was completely wrong. This book ended up being the toughest book I have probably ever read. I’m definitely a person who enjoys reading classics. You name it, I’ve probably read it. But this book was definitely difficult. And once I started reading it and telling my dad how tough it was he started apologizing to me constantly saying “he forgot that it was a tough read,” and he “screwed me over.” Yes dad, you definitely did! Basically and very simply put, the book is about a very rich man who as time goes by, he tries to reunite himself with the woman he fell in love with years ago, and basically “repeat the past” with her. The whole book is very back and forth, and by the time that you actually realize and understand what’s going on in a certain scene, you’re already half way done the book. I read the same page over and over again numerous times trying to decipher what was actually going on in the story. It was not enjoyable or easy at all. Towards the end of the book, it becomes easier to understand as events start unfolding and all of the background stories throughout the book start to intertwine and come together. The last 50 pages of the book were probably the only ones that I didn’t have to read over 3 times, and I could actually stop stressing out and enjoy the book. All in all, I thought it was a very well written book. I loved the story line to it, I loved the way that everything connected at the end, and once I eventually started to understand the book, I definitely enjoyed it. I would recommend this book for sure, it’s a classic and definitely worth the struggle. For people who may not enjoy books as much, definitely do not even attempt to read this book. For some this book may be “The Great Gatsby,” for others, I firmly believe that it is “The Not So Great Gatsby.” ![]() Writer's block. Writer's block. Writer's block. Those are the words that have been encircling my mind all day. Those are the only words that are coming to mind whenever I have thought about writing my blog today. The only words that I could think of, when I sat down at my laptop for about the seventh time today, trying to write this blog. So here I am now, actually writing about the thing that has been bugging me constantly for the past day. What is writer's block? I like to define it as a barrier in the mind that stops a person from the ability of conjuring up ideas to write about, or the inability to expand on their ideas. Personally, I love writing. Aside from blogging, I love just writing in my journal, or writing letters to people. Writing isn’t exactly something that is difficult for me to do. But I specifically write about my emotions towards a certain topic. I have somewhat of an inability to write about just anything, I have to write about a passion or be able to give my opinion on something before I am able to write something that I consider to be great. From this, I thought to myself, how can I prevent myself from getting “writers block” again? How can I come up with ways to not only help me, but other people who are facing the same struggles that I currently am? So I researched. Initially, I researched the author Stephen King, hoping that he would have some quotes that could help prompt others ability to write. He automatically came to mind, because he himself has been criticized for only being able to write horror novels, just as I struggle with the fact that I can only write about a certain topic. When I researched him, I only came up with ways to write a novel, which isn’t exactly directed to the idea of helping spark blog ideas. So, I decided to make my own list of how I believe people can prevent getting writers block, and hopefully be able to help spark ideas for others as well as myself to utilize while they are writing blogs. 1. Figure out what you enjoy most in life, whether it be sports, the environment, cars, and research that. 2. At least twice a week try to read a different article whether it be in the news, on the internet, or in a magazine that is directed to your passion, if you push yourself to inquire into one idea that you enjoy, it may be more of a prompt to write about. 3. Write down notes about interesting things that you witness simply throughout your daily life. 4. Write about things that interest YOU. The more you write trying to accustom what others enjoy to read, it will be more of a struggle for you to come up with ideas to blog about. 5. Give your complete and honest opinion on every topic that you write about, to a certain extent. Everyone is going to have a opinion, good or bad don’t worry about what other people think. This is YOUR blog, people read it to hear YOUR opinion. 6. If you run out of ideas, make a list about something like I am. Write a list about amazing things to do in the city that you live in. Or the most beautiful places in the world that you have ever been to. 7. And finally, give people tips like I am, believe it or not you are not the only one facing the problem that you are facing. Other people love to read about similar experiences that other people are facing, and figuring out how they endured them. ![]() This past week on March 26th, my family all dressed in purple for the day. By doing this we were showing our support for Epilepsy awareness. But what I noticed, was that although there were numerous tweets, facebook posts, and signs posted stating that it was Epilepsy awareness day, numerous amounts of people were not wearing purple. I think I counted 3 people, including myself wearing purple, and who even knows if they were wearing purple to show their support. This caught my attention, and I decided I would write a blog about it. Maybe this will help more people recognize not just Epilepsy, but other diseases that get overshadowed by diseases such as cancer and MS. Now I'm definately not trying to degrade those diseases and say that Epilepsy is more important, because it isn't in any way at all. But I feel as though some illnesses are being "shoved aside", and this shouldn't be the case at all. In my opinion, every disease or mental illness that anyone has to endure, is equally as important as another. So to begin, what is Epilepsy? "A neurological disorder marked by sudden recurrent episodes of sensory disturbance, loss of consciousness, or convulsions, associated with abnormal electrical activity in the brain." My brother has been an Epileptic since he was 3 years old, and that is why this disease and raising awareness is so important to me. Basically, he experiences what are known as petit mal seizures, where he loses conciousness and his body convulses for a very short amount of time, and he also experiences grand mal seizures, where he loses conciousness for several minutes. If someone has a seizure for over 5 minutes, it is considered life threatening. My brother had his first grand mal seizure when he was 3 years old. And he has had seizures for over 5 minutes. This is something that he will have to endure for the rest of his life, and something that may prevent him from being able to get his drivers license, and prevents him from doing simple things like swimming alone. When I was younger, I would host garage/bakesales to raise money for the Epilepsy Foundation. But sadly, this is the only real event that I have heard of to raise awareness towards Epilepsy. So I'm hoping with this small introduction to Epilepsy, it may spark some thoughts in reader's minds. I'm hoping it will encourage people to look further into diseases that aren't as publically displayed as others. Because there are other illnesses out there that do need to be dealt with. ![]() Within the next week, my Futures Forum class is going on a trip to see a TEDx conference, based around the idea of "chasing home." We were asked to discuss something, anything related to the theme of the conference chasing home. Pretty vague, but it gave me the opportunity to write this blog about what the idea of "chasing home" means to me, and maybe some of you can relate. So, chasing home. When I think of home, I think of a place where I am welcome. It doesn't necessarily have to be the house that I live in, or even a house at all. It may in fact be the house that you live in. It may be a friend’s house, maybe a family relative. It could be a church, group home, any place in the world. It may not even be a physical building. Home can simply be a thought or a feeling you get of complete comfort and happiness. Home is where the heart is, in my opinion. Home is a place where you are accepted for who you are entirely. Where you are able to feel love in complete fullness. Where you are able to experience happiness, and be able to dream and express your life in any way that you feel possible, because this place is your home, and no matter what you should be accepted in your home. It took me a while to figure out where my home was. I used to think it was either my mom's house, or my dad's house. The place where my family is, the place that everyone refers to as "my home". After a really rough time, I ended up leaving one of my "homes". It was when I left my one home that I realized what it means to be chasing home, and therefore what it means to find my true home. Before I left my mom's house, I didn't really understand what it meant to be home in a sense. When I was at my mom's house, I felt entrapped. I had to think every time before I spoke, knowing that anything I said could be held against me, and always in the back of my mind thinking of all the ways that my mom could twist my words. I was always the black sheep in the family, the punching bag who always had things taken out on them when times got rough at home. And I don't mean to degrade my mom or my family what so ever, I do love them. But many of these occurrences made me realize that this place isn't my home. It was a place where I can't fully express who I am without being degraded, and a place where I felt more unhappy than happy. This isn't what the description of home is, or ever should be. Throughout the past year, I have been living with my dad. And I can honestly say I have never been happier. I am accepted and feel so comfortable and constantly happy at his house. This place is my home now. And I love it. But if I'm going to be honest, in my mind, home is where the heart is. And my heart is stuck with one person. When this person is gone, my home is gone too. When I'm gone, it never feels like I am truly home until I am with this person again. This may sound dumb, and completely unrealistic, but it is my idea of home. The time that I feel most at home is when I am with this person, where I am completely myself, and unconditionally accepted as who I am. So that is my conclusion to this topic of “chasing home.” Find that one place, person, or mind-set that makes you feel totally alive, comforted, welcomed, and loved, and that’s when I truly believe that you have found your home. ![]() The world is becoming a scary and dangerous place. It is becoming out of control to be brutally honest. Reflecting on past issues even within the past few years, crime seems to be becoming just an everyday thing. I was sitting at the dinner table talking to my dad last night. He was telling ,me that when he was my age, hearing about kidnappers and child molestors and murders even was not something he would see every single day on tv. Now a days, every time I turn on the tv there are Amber Alerts and stories on the news of people being kidnapped, missing, murdered, etc. And this is an every day occurance. Why is this happening? Why within the past 30 years has crime increased so much throughout world? Access to technology, that's my belief. With access to technology, anyone can easily pinpoint places a person has been. I watched a video in health class where you can find out where a person lives, just from knowing their email address.. nothing else. How scary is that? They found this certain persons address in less than an hour. It's crazy to think that something as simple as an email address, with no other personal information can give people access to find out where you live. When I watched this video, I then thought how much easier it must be to locate people through Facebook, Twitter, or any other social networking sites. On those sites, your name is required, as well as your email address. If you choose to use the mobile app for these websites, there is now the oppertunity to put your phone number on the site. From there, there's even a place for you to put what country you live then. That makes it even easier for people to access where you live. Basically, you need to be extremely careful what you place on the internet. Parents and teachers try to preach us to protect our accounts and not share personal information, and we as students and society in general just brush off their comments, thinking that nothing bad would happen to us. But after watching this video, it really opened my eyes and made me realize that you seriously do need to protect your every move on the internet, because it is so unbelievably easy to get lost in the electronic world and not realize the dangers that it is potentially setting us up for. ![]() The idea of the phrase "out of sight, out of mind" is something that is coming into effect at rapid rates lately. In our developing world, more and more we are consuming and purchasing products as they are made more readily available to us. But as we are consuming more, we are also throwing out and wasting more products than ever before. We have come to this stage in our generation where the items that we possess, are not of as much value to us as they once were. We will write a few sentences on a piece of paper, and then throw that piece of paper out if we make a mistake, rather than erase the mistake and run the risk of the paper not being as neat and tidy as it once was. I know for a fact that I have been guilty of this. With our electronics, as soon as the latest IPhone or new electronic device comes out, we suddenly have the drive to buy these unnecessary devices and not think twice about throwing out our previous devices. We don't value our possessions as much as people once did, because there always is something bigger and better being developed and released to the public soon. And we definitely don't think about where all of these products we waste are ending up. When we think about throwing our possessions out, or even simple wastes such as the foods we eat or the packaging that our food comes in, we don't think about the huge impact our garbage is making on our environment. We think that we throw out our garbage in the garbage can, once a week the garbage truck comes and takes our garbage, and then it ends up in the dump. Most people don't think much past this point of garbage disposal. On average, every person produces about 400-500 grams of waste daily. For every 100,000 people, around 500 tonnes of waste is being produced every single day. That's insane. So what truly happens to our garbage? 55% of our garbage ends up in landfills, where it is buried beneath immense amounts of garbage. This thought seems fine to most people because if the garbage is out of sight, it is out of mind and we forget about it. But the truth is, this garbage rarely decomposes, because there is not enough air flow that reaches the garbage to properly decompose the garbage, leading our landfills to continue to become even more filled with trash. From this point, some of the garbage gets blown away and ends up on streets throughout cities and eventually, into the oceans and various ecosystems throughout the world. When the garbage reaches the oceans and ecosystems, it contaminates the wildlife that is living there. Garbage becomes a constant danger to animals as it can easily be confused with the food that they eat, or even end up strangling them if they become entangled in it. As population increases the more garbage is produced, and the more litter that is produced, and the more contaminated our world becomes with garbage. From my perspective, I can't even walk down the street anymore without seeing garbage on the grass or blowing around in places that it shouldn't be at all. The amount of garbage that we produce must be reduced before our world becomes comepletely entrapped in garbage. To further help our environment and find out different ways to help clean the enviroment, visit www.wwf.ca for programs throughout Canada. |
AuthorNothing but my thoughts. Archives
May 2013
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