Saturday, April 27, 2013

Journal #43 - A Standardized Test to test my SANITY???

Okay. No. I have many a feeling about this, and none of those feelings are good. I come from a family and friend group of some very wacky people. If we were to take this so called "Sanity Test", we would not do so well. After reading that story in class yesterday, I actually am positive I would fail. I understand when we take tests to rate our intelligence and work skills. Although I hate such tests with a deep and burning passion unquenchable by anything, I still see why they are helpful for colleges and whatnot. However, when you want to go an test me on the way I think and observe the world? --That's when I draw a line. We were born different from those around us. That is the way of life. No two people are going to be exactly the same, especially not in the way they think. Sure, two people may think a lot alike, but it would really be lucky if they thought the same about everything. Who is to determine what the so called "standard" sanity is? What makes us unique as individuals is our different thoughts, so if we all score the same on such a test, we would all be conformed to society. Conformity is not a good thing. At least in my opinion. I am a strong believer in individual rights because uniqueness is what makes the world so exciting. To test someone on how they feel about something is to take away all of their chances to be different, and that is not okay. Standardized tests make me very angry. I will still take them, but I will not be too affected by what they tell me. I would rather such tests tell me what kind of a person I am, analyze how I think, and show me my strengths and weaknesses rather than tell me why I am so different from "the rest of society". *insert angry sigh here*

Friday, April 26, 2013

Jounal #42 - Hero who does good for bad reasons

A dark haze settled over the valley as the masked figure stood, firm and planted, on one of the towers surrounding the town. He knew where it was, the gem. Such a gem contained the energy that the town used to keep the evil spirits of the forest away. He had seen the destruction. Without the gem on its normal resting place, the spirits became restless. Night after night they came, hidden by the darkened horizon. They would tear down homes, burn fields, and they only stopped when the sun rose. He huffed out a sigh against the bitter winds that were pressing against him, bringing his black scarf to cover his nose.

He shouldn't be doing this, he tried to warn himself. He didn't care though. Afterall, they deserved it didn't they?

The town expected him to retrieve the gem and return it to its pedestal, saving the town from the spirits. They praised him for his volunteer action, but it was all just a planned out scheme by the neighboring stronghold. They had accepted him, taken him in after this town had banished him. If not for his supposed "kind action", they most likely wouldn't have let him in.

It would not be hard for him to retrieve the gem - it was quite simple actually - but no one had to know that. If they knew, they would not have let him be the one to retrieve it, and then his plans with the neighboring town would not go through. He jumped off the edge of the tower, rolling once he hit the ground to soften his fall. Stealthily he ran through the woods, dodging any of the lights emerging from the trees around him as the spirits awoke. A few minutes of running and he slid his blade from his sheath, using it to aid him in climbing up a nearby tree.

 Perching himself up in the tree near his destination, he waited, peering through the thick foliage of the the oak.

He may have dosed off slightly, but he knew he hadn't missed it. The spirit, that was. The neighboring town had only been able to get the gem this far, before the spirits had attacked him. It is safe to say the retriever was no longer with them. Another half an hour passed before the growling begun. Now well into night, the chattering of the bugs in the trees might have hidden it. However, his trained ears were able to pick it up.

He peered once more down at the hole beneath the oak across from him. Slowly, the creature emerged. One foot, then the other. He crawled out, the misty colors around him squeezing their way out of the crevices of the tree.

The time was perfect. The masked figure prepared to strike, slowly sliding his blade out of his sheath once more to take out the beast. Swiftly, without a sound, he dove down upon the beast, taking his life in seconds. As the body crumpled beside him and faded as his remains were sent who-knows-where, the figure stood. Slowly falling to his knees, he sifted his fingers through the dirt beneath the tree, claiming his prize.

He stood once more, the powerful gem in his hands, happy that he had fulfilled his job, but deep down he felt the worry and fear that plagued him ever since he accepted his task. The village he had once inhabited was about to fall.

---

Tuesday, April 16, 2013

Journal #41 - Heroes

Usually, when people think of heroes, they think of the muscular, be-caped, spandex wearing individual who swoops in and saves the day. I love those kinds of superheros. Superman, Spiderman, Batman... They are fun. However, even with the excitement of these kinds of heroes, I feel as though we need to recognize better those who are not super. Yesterday afternoon, there was a bombing in Boston, Massachusetts, at the end of the Boston Marathon. At the finish line, two bombs were exploded and then later another blew up at the John F. Kennedy Library. This kind of crime is awful. It really makes me question the future of mankind. Despite this, a lot of good deeds happened yesterday as well. Those who helped out. We can never thank enough the firemen, police, and medical technicians who are almost always there to save the day. They save lives on a daily basis, and do they get their own comic books? No. I am not saying that you have to have a comic book to be a hero. That is not what I am saying at all. I am just saying those who do step up to save the day, even if it is their job, are the real heroes. I also found out that a lot of the runners in the marathon ran straight to the hospital after they crossed the finish line in order to give blood to those who lost blood. That is the most amazing, beautiful thing I have ever heard. Those people were already exhausted. They ran twenty six miles for pete's sake! But, when they found out what had happened, they kept on running to help out. Where I heavily doubt the future of humanity due to people bombing social events for no reason, I also believe that there are still a lot of good people in the world. In the end, the good outnumber the bad, I suppose. The people like those policemen, firemen, medical technicians, and blood donating runners are the true heroes in the world - even though superheros with capes may seem to be a bit more entertaining.

Tuesday, April 9, 2013

Journal #40 - Free Write - Ranting about what I want to do with my life.

For the longest time, I have wanted to be an animator. Growing up watching a wide variety of animated Disney movies and cartoons that I have adored have given me an intense appreciation for the work that goes behind them. Two-dimensional animation is drawn, frame by frame, and it brings previously still drawings of people, animals, etc, to life. Starting with a childhood obsession with a plot-driven cartoon series, I tried to enhance my drawing ability, and I am proud to say I have. I have made small animations before, and believe me when I say it is hard. You literally have to draw 8+ frames for just one second of video for it to look connected. Despite its tasking quality, I still really want to do something involving animation with my life. I have looked up the qualifications for working at Disney Pixar or at Disney in general and it is pretty legit. You have to be the best of the best to get in there as an animator - and once you do, its not even a secure job. You sign on for one movie at a time, and once it is over, you might be rehired, but otherwise you are done. Where that is a pretty depressing thought, I still want to try my best to work there. If Disney becomes not an option, I will most likely lean towards Nickelodeon for work. They provide steady jobs. If my animation career takes off, I would want to create a cartoon. That might seem like a very silly and impossible task, but I think that would be amazing. I love to create stories, worlds, and characters. Add that to a love of drawing and animation and what do you get? CARTOONS. -but not the plotless ones like Spongebob. I am sorry, but that just does not cut it for me. I have a few ideas in mind already, but I do not know if they will take off and become more. If they do, look for a cartoon in 20 or 30 years with a good plot and sit down to enjoy it because it will be amazing.

Monday, April 8, 2013

Journal #39 - Spring Break

My spring break was rather enjoyable - though I would not consider it the most exciting week of my life. The first half of break was pretty much full of dread and misery and suffering similar to that which one experiences in an average school day - only at my house. You see, I have no problem with school. I understand its benefits and support that, but that does not make it any more enjoyable. No offense to any of the teachers, its just a bitter truth. Nonetheless, the reason why I was filled with such dread is that despite the lacking of school for one week, I was still burdened with a large sum of homework. I get summer homework. It makes sense. Over the summer, one loses so much of the information they obtained over the school year - HOWEVER - I do not fully understand the point of a spring break if all some of my teachers are going to do is assign hours upon hours upon days (5 page essay) of homework and expect me to "enjoy myself". Yeah, okay, I'll just do that. Despite my bitterness and often passive aggressiveness about this, I still did have a satisfactory second half of my break. Usually, I put of my homework until the last day (or hours) of break. This time, I decided to get everything done within the first half, so that I could truly enjoy my second half. Thankfully, that worked out well and fine and I had a great second half of my break. I spent a lot of time with my friends, playing video games and running around at the park. I even kept myself relatively productive by helping out my college friends on their stage painting and set building for their production that I cannot currently remember the name of. I also went to Cherry Berry quite a few times for some frozen yogurt and I enjoyed every bite. Then, in the late hours of the night, I found myself doodling on my art tablet, which was very contenting. Unfortunately, this break has come to an end and I can only find myself craving summer vacation all the more. I have had a taste and I just want to be able to relax and draw, but I suppose I can wait. With all of the tests I have to take in the incoming weeks, I need to get my game face on. I suppose it is only seven more weeks until school is out. That is not awful, but I bet it will go by very slowly. We'll see, I guess. ---

Wednesday, March 27, 2013

Journal #38 - Job Shadowing

I have always considered the culinary arts for my potential career. Of course, my first choice will always be anything in the two dimensional arts - specifically digital art and animation - but I like to cook nonetheless. However, when I went to the St. John's Hospital cafeteria, I did not know what to expect. I guess I thought that maybe I would be cooking or just watching people cook the entire time. Truthfully, that is what I would have liked the most, seeing as though my evenings usually consist of watching the food network. When I arrived, they immediately made me put on a chef's jacket - which was rather exciting; I felt so important - and a hairnet. I was not too big of a fan of the hair net, considering it took me about half an hour to successfully get it to cover ALL of my hair, but I suppose I knew it was required. I kind of wanted a chefs hat.... Nonetheless, I got to follow around this man named Eric. He was very nice and he explained very well how he got into the field and what his job every day consists of. We made this simple yet tasty pasta from bowtie noodles, garlic, olive oil, pine nuts, and broccoli. In fact, I had it for lunch that day. It was nice. Eric allowed me to prepare the dish with his careful guidance, and then dish it out to customers. It was an okay experience, but it was not lifechanging. After about an hour and a half of this, I was then taken to go work on an assortment of parfaits that they serve in the cafeteria. Anything from jello and whipped cream to pudding to fruit and yogurt - I made it. That was pretty fun, but I could not help but think it was rather boring. I also got to prepare other containers of snacks. After lunch, my main task was grueling, but it was actually pretty fun. "Make 150 sandwiches," they told me. Great. So they prepared one for me and I got to work. It took a really long time, but I am a master at making those sandwiches now. In the end, I had an okay time, but it was not anything I would choose for my full time career. I can definitely see it in my future as maybe a summer job or a parttime job of some sort, but I would not like to be stuck doing the same thing every day. It could have been the fact that it was a cafeteria and not a 5-star restaurant that brought down my experience, but its just not for me. I like to cook, but the repetitive nature made the experience not a 10/10 in my book. More like a 6-7/10. 

Friday, March 15, 2013

Journal #37 - Our Musical Vision

We have begun listening to the song "Blue Monk" by the Thelonious Monk Quartet. It is a very jazzy tune with some fun piano and sax solos. Usually whenever I listen to jazz music, I envision a black and white silent film with the music telling the story. The story I am envisioning now goes as follows : There is a man. He is currently sitting at the counter of some saloon or tavern, sipping some drink (of course not alcoholic; milk or something) with his friends around him. He is obviously a cool kid. He is the highlight of the town, the idol. He is laughing and generally just being his cool kid self. Also, by kid I do not specifically mean he is a kid. He is most likely not a kid - especially with his hearty non-alcoholic drink of milk. Let's say he is about twenty two to twenty four years old. His buddies are around the same age. Suddenly, he spins around on his bar stool, which is of course a spinny chair. He tells the pianist to jazz it up a bit and he slides off his chair. He starts to snap and bounce step over to the dance floor. People start to join him. He is dancing around and showing off his insane moves. Everyone is awed by his talents. He scans his eyes around the room, looking for the lucky lady he is going to ask to dance with him. He locks eyes with a woman he finds appealing and grins, bouncing over to her (by which I mean he is bounce stepping). She looks up with him, taking a sip of her drink. He asks her to dance, and she says something snarky like, "Not with you, pretty boy." The man laughs and becomes determined to get her to dance with him. He starts showing her his moves. With a smirk, she is amused by his efforts, but continues to reject him. He keeps at it and still he gets the same reaction. After a while, the woman stands up and pushes the man aside, to which he laughs and watches. She goes to the dance floor and shows off her equally talented moves and the man tries to dance with her. She continues to push him away, but soon it becomes a lighthearted battle. Eventually the man is able to dance with her, and then with the end of the song, the man offers to buy the woman a drink, to which she happily complies. --- That's what I envisioned.

Tuesday, March 5, 2013

Journal #36 - Being Yourself

Have you ever had that friend whose personality changes depending on who they are with? Most people do. If you do not, then there is a possibility that you are that person. Anywho, those people probably have difficulty being themselves. This unfortunately is true of a lot of people. Most people, unless you are a perfect person, act differently around their parents or grandparents than they do around their friends and peers. It is just how it works. It is a sad truth though. When you think about yourself, you are able to picture who you know you are truly like, whether you at that way or not. Would it not be great if we could all just be ourselves to everyone? We would never have to fear that we were acting differently than we normally do because we'd always be the same! It is extremely important that we, as human beings, show who we really are to those around us. What is the point in living a lie? If we were able to be ourselves and let our true colors shine, we would most likely be more happy than if we fake our behavior. I will not start talking about how God made us all perfect since not everyone is of the Christian faith, but I will say that however you were made, you were made for a reason. Everyone is unique and I am a strong believer in having that uniqueness shine through. Being yourself brings more joy and accomplishment to your life. It can make you feel like you have a purpose in life. You. Your unique personality that it probably going to be loved no matter what at least by some people in the world. So, whenever you are with people that you like, be sure to be yourself. You are a special person, made for a reason, and if you choose to hide that, you will never feel truly fulfilled in this world.

Friday, March 1, 2013

Journal #35 - Comparing My Writing

Today the journal is based around how my writing has changed since the beginning of the year. Seeing as though it was half a year ago that I wrote the five hundred word essay on the Declaration of Independence, one could imagine that I have changed a great deal in how my literary styles are arranged. Looking at the essay now,  I see that I obviously could not fathom the concept of a five paragraph essay. Seeing as though I wrote roughly a million of them over the summer for AP United States History, you would think I would understand that. My essay from before had exactly three paragraphs and, while they were of decent length and provided a lot of information, that would just not cut it. Nowadays, my essays all contain at least five paragraphs, which is very helpful for the future. Now that I have read through the essay, I am appalled at my foolishness. What was I thinking? I put one quote in the essay. One. There was not even a second citation. I just flat out quoted the Declaration at one point and talked around it. Now I looked over at the essay I wrote last night on Walt Whitman and his search for self - I have a nice, decently lengthed essay with five paragraphs and six citations, unless I miscounted. Around each quote or reference is a detailed explanation as to why it is important to my writing. That is obviously something that I did not understand five months ago. My writing has changed a lot since the beginning of the school year. I can now elaborate my thoughts in a more detailed fashion, accurately portraying my ideas among the facts I gathered from whatever we were analyzing and the literary criticisms online. Thankfully, my writing in general - the actual sound of my sentences - has improved a lot more. Instead of sounding like a simple high school student, I am starting to sound like more of an advanced placement or honors student. For these reasons and the ones above, I have improved a lot since the beginning of the year.

Monday, February 25, 2013

Journal #34 - Describe Myself?

Well, sure! In one word, I can tell you that I'm weird. I'm strange. I use humor in response to anything unless something or someone died. I get overly excited whilst explaining things to people that I really want to explain things to and even then-!... I am very quiet. However, I am getting over this chronic silence. As my self esteem rises for whatever reason that will never be explained, I am gradually getting more sociable to those I rarely chat with. Believe me; I am anything but quiet when you are my friend. I am the chatter box of your life and you probably want nothing more than to get rid of me. Nonetheless-! I tend to enjoy being quiet more of the time. Observing others and how they act really entertains me, so it works out! After having the actual description of the journal given, I now have to talk about my spiritual self. If I was thinking of this in a simple way, I would say, "Well, I am an evangelical Lutheran and I attend church every Sunday." However, I am pretty sure I was supposed to discuss it on a more deep level. So, I will try that. I like to consider myself a good moral-ed person. I try to help whoever I can and in most cases I succeed. I stay away from things that could potentially harm me, such as drugs or alcohol, and I have good intentions in life. I want to go to college, get a degree, get a job, get married, and have a family until I finally die hopefully a quiet, peaceful death in my sleep in my late eighties or early nineties. That is pretty much all I have got. I am well off spiritually. I get constant guidance from great family and friends and my consistent visits to church. Because of this, I, in a completely non-boastful way, consider myself a good person.

Tuesday, February 19, 2013

Journal #33 - Stress Relief

We all have our ways of dealing with stress. We have to. Stress is a naturally occurring force that has the ability to overcome all aspects of our poor poor lives. Because it affects all of us, we form ways of reducing our stress and connecting with ourselves in order to achieve optimum happiness. Such things vary depending on the person. Some people eat comfort foods from their childhood. Some watch television or play video games. Some people envelope themselves within the confines of a specific hobby that takes up obnoxious amounts of their lives. I, for one, have a very specific list of things that I do when I am overly stressed with things that usually derive from the pains of Junior year. Nonetheless, this list has never ceased to make me happy when I am down and so I will forever continue to use it. First of all, there is nothing better to ease my stress after a hard school day than a strawberry and banana smoothie with nilla wafers on the side - sorry to be so specific. It is literally the reason for any happiness that I have ever experienced in my life. Okay, that is a lie. However, I still seriously love that after school snack. It has the power to increase my happiness levels from 30% or 40% to 60%-80%, depending on how much sugar I add. In addition to this, I also like to spend a lot of my time playing video games and watching television, as I stated earlier. Though, I have noticed that I do not go to television as much as video games, unless there is something I seriously want to watch. A night of video games can bring my spirits up to 100% as long as I don't die or I make something seriously spectacular on Minecraft. Then, there's always taking a nap, but I don't always have time for that. At school, I frequently get stressed out of my mind. In order to fix that, at least before my last class in PACE, I draw. I draw everywhere. Mostly in my notebooks. Drawing is my way of expressing myself and being happy. It is an extreme stress reliever for me. In the end, many things can make me happy and help me connect with myself, and due to my constantly rising stress levels, I really need them.

Tuesday, February 12, 2013

Journal #32 - Revolution

When I think of the word "revolutionize", I think of changing the mind set of a lot of people. Hopefully, the new mindset is one that is better than the previous, leading to a better world. I imagine that it is incredible to experience a revolution. Everything around you is changing, and you can take that as a good thing or a bad thing. However, I can also imagine the hardships that one would have to go through in order to revolutionize something. It would be pretty tough to change the mindset of so many people. Everything would have to be organized in a way that works for everyone, or that the people can deal with. When I think of a revolution, I think of the American Revolution. I also think of the sequel to Avatar: The Last Airbender, The Legend of Korra, but that is another story. The American Revolution took a lot of thought and dedication. In order for it to take place, many people had to get involved and show equal amounts of dedication and devotion to the cause. That is what makes such revolutions work. Some revolutions can also be bad, in which normally only a few people are involved. In that case, I imagine that the task of revolutionizing the way people think or do things would be pretty tough. Now that I think about it, since we're talking about poetry through Emily Dickinson, It could be pretty easy to get your thoughts and ideas across. Emily Dickinson, where a lonely woman who spent her life in solitude, got her ideas across through her numerous poems. The poems spread to the people of the world and through her descriptions of her thoughts and ideas, the readers were able to see the world in a whole new way... Dickinson's way. In a way, this was a revolution, because it took a large group of people and made them think in a different way. That is quite a revolution.

Wednesday, February 6, 2013

Journal #30 - Civil Rights

As we make our way into February (its already the sixth), we can see that it is currently black history month. It is quite an interesting month if I do say so myself. However, when I look at the past, I can only think of all the trouble racism has caused in the past. Why do we have this black history month? Because so many brave African Americans fought for the right to be equal. A fight that they never should have had to fight. I am a strong believer in civil rights, especially to those of a different color. What makes them different to us as people? Nothing. The only difference is our color, and that should not even matter. We are not in control of how we look in that sense. If every African American went Michael Jackson on themselves and dyed themselves white, they would be no different than if they were black. Having a prejudice toward African Americans because of such a small fact seems foolish. Its okay to think that whites are different from blacks, but it is not okay to think any one better than the other. In the end, we are all human, and that is all that should matter. Not to preach, but God made all of us in the same form of a human, and whether the skin is darkened by the sun, or lightened by the moon, has absolutely no say in who we are as people. We all have thoughts and ideas that can be the same or different. We all think with the same kind of brain and move with the same kind of feet. People say that a blind person would be the best person to love because they cannot judge on looks, only on character. I do not wish that everyone was blind, but I understand why someone would say that. If an African American and a Caucasian person were both to speak, besides the difference between female and male voices and the different dialects, the two people would be indistinguishable as better or worse. Its sad to think that people were and still are so judgmental about people.

Monday, February 4, 2013

Journal #29 - When Nature Was In Charge

Nature is a wonderous thing. Unfortunately, sometimes it decided that it is going to try and ruin our fragile fragile lives. Sometimes I think that I have a transcendentalist mindset, seeing as though I think so highly of nature and everything about it. Its so beautiful and power, especially storms. Many times, storms dictate the world around us. Oh, you had marching band practice after school? Well too bad! THERES A TORNADO OUTSIDE. Oh, your track practice was supposed to be outside? Well too bad! There is currently three feet of snow on the ground! Nature is very often in control of our lives. That, however, does not mean that it ruins our lives. I, for one believe it makes everything much more interesting. I love going outside at night whilst a lightning storm is going on. I take my blanket out onto the wooden bench on my porch and entertain myself for about an hour with the bright flashes and the rain. It is truly amazing. You see, I could have been watching television that night. I could have been lazy, staring at a computer screen as I did not admire the beauty of the world around us. But no. I took the initiative and let nature teach me wonderous things. Nature controls so many aspects of the world. A perfectly nice day can be turned into a thunderstorm. A windless day can become a fierce tornado. The gentle waves of the ocean on your nearby beach can become a frenzy as a hurricane sweeps through. The possibilities of nature are endless. Every day, something new is going on. The sky could be purple, or green, or orange, or pink, or even just plain old blue, but it is all so varied that one could spend forever trying to experience everything and yet fail. Nature, controlled by God, dictates the world around us and lets us experience every thing the world has to offer. That is how nature is in control. It always is.

Thursday, January 31, 2013

Journal #28 - Different Social Status or Culture

There are three main places I have been in my life where I have just absolutely not fit in. This one time, my family decided that it would be a great idea to go to Amish Country. So, me, being insanely interested in the Amish/non-technological world, jumped at the chance to go. However, I have a deep appreciation for all of the technological advancements of this time period... phones, iPods, pc's, laptops, etc... We drove over to Arthur, a popular Amish area. It was very neat! They had animals and corn everywhere. I could have been in the 1800s. Only, not, seeing as though there were people everywhere taking pictures of stuff with their cameras and iPhones galore. I slowly looked down at my hand. I was one of them. I was taking a picture of these poor Amish folk's goat. Backing away, I came to a realization. I am not Amish. None of these people were! Okay, some were - but I felt really out of my element. I had a great time that day, but I could feel the stares of all of the Amish folk. They liked the visitors, but they must have thought we were extremely weird. I find the Amish people very interesting, but in the end, I will never be Amish. The second time I felt out of my element was when I was at this fancy dinner party with my parents. I am not a fancy individual. If I try....REALLY hard I can pull off a higher middle or lower higher class, but not often. I'm just not like that. I felt extremely awkward then. Lastly, I felt out of place at school. I have always been in the sort of "weird" group of kids. Its not that we are weird, necessarily, but we definitely look at life differently. I have never ever seen this as a bad thing. However, the weirdness my friends and I have provokes negative thought in those of the... "more popular" groups. This has gone down immensely since middle school - everyone minds their own business now for the most part - but it had been bad. Whenever we would have group projects with assigned partner, getting put with a different social class student was pretty much the worst thing ever. Unfortunately, since the weirder groups tend to be lower on the food chain, such an occurrence was not enjoyable for me. Those are pretty much the only places where I have felt like I didn't fit in. For any situation similar to those, I tend to assert my position as being an awesome individual, so I do not notice any negative feelings of displacement.

Sunday, January 20, 2013

Journal #27 - Defending My Country

I can imagine that the experience of fighting for your country, miles and miles away from home, is a terrifying one. Maybe you are hotheaded. Maybe you like to fight. Maybe you are so devoted to protecting those you love that you do not even notice the hardships you are experiencing on the inside. What ever the case may be, I imagine that there is always at least some amount of homesickness in the soldiers' hearts. If I was fighting for my country, far away, not knowing if I would live or die, I would be scared. I would most likely not back down, but that does not mean that I would not be upset. To be honest, I give so many props to the soldiers who fight every day for this country. They are sacrificing so much of their time and their lives to make sure that the rest of us can live happily and peacefully. Being so far away would be awful, especially for those soldiers with families. Whenever I look on the TV around Veteran's Day, they occasionally show commercials about fathers who are soldiers. They always have those really adorable clips of them coming home in their army uniforms and finding their loved ones waiting at the airport for them. The little girl runs up to him (I'm crying at this point in the commercial) (only not) and then the mother slowly walks up with the baby that - of course - was borning during his time in the war. Sorry about the little seque there. What I am trying to say is that soldiers are amazing. They risk their lives everyday and have to live apart from their loved ones with only letters, email, and skype to bring them together. It would be awful. In the end, I believe I would hate fighting for my country because of all of the bad extra aspects of it. However, that just gives me an even stronger respect for those who everyday are out risking everything for our country.

Friday, January 18, 2013

Journal #26 - Something Particular to This Area?

Immediately, when the question said "this area", I thought "...Springfield." You see, we live in quite a boring city if you really think about it. All we have going for us is the constant presence of corn and Lincoln related trinkets. What is the pride of our actual city? Our Lincoln Library and Museum. Sure, its really nice! I love going there! Its a very nice, interesting experience that teaches us a lot about Civil War history! And, might I add, who doesn't want to learn about Civil War history? I can actually think of a few people. Then, there's New Salem, and that is pretty interesting. Nonetheless, I digress. In addition to everything Lincoln about our city/town/area/region/thing, one other thing is very prevalent. Corn. Ah, yes, corn. I have been very bored at certain points in my lifetime, so every so often, I walk outside to admire the beauty of our flat, flat land. More often than not, I am greeted by the lovely sight of corn - whether it be flourishing and green, or dead and brown. Despite my allergy to corn pollen, I love the corn around us. Always changing. It also - not that I forget - reminds be of what time of year it is. Obviously, if it is tall and green, it is summertime. Seeing the healthy stalks all around me fills me with warmth and joy! You know, only slightly. Then, as I walk out of my house in early fall, I see the once life-filled stalks slowly browning, indicating that they are ready to be harvested. Watching the corn gets me through the year, in a way. I appreciate it. I have met so many people who absolutely hate the plainness of our corn fields, but I find it fascinating. So, between the corn and all of our Lincoln themed places,  I find that Springfield, where very uneventful, is one of my favorite places to live. Not that I have lived anywhere else.

Tuesday, January 8, 2013

Journal #25 - Giving

Giving is a wondrous thing. Having just gone through the Christmas season, we all should have at least a little bit of an understanding about what giving is. Giving is willingly handing something over to someone, often for their benefit and not your own. They say the Christmas season is all about giving, and it makes sense because of how many of us celebrate it. We spend the season giving gifts, big and small, to our friends and family. And for what do we do this for? It may be because its tradition, because you do not want to be that person who did not put in the effort to give someone a Christmas gift. That could be the reason for a lot of gift giving. However, I like to see giving differently. When you hand your friend or family member that gift that you put so much effort into getting, you anxiously await the moment that they open it. That anxiousness comes from the fact that you really want to see their reaction. Obviously, you want the person to like their gift, seeing as you got it for them.When they open it up and they love it, you are immediately filled with warmth and happiness. "They like it!", you think, rejoicing. Apparently, you have received something from this gift as well. In most cases, I can refer to giving being in and of itself a benefit to both the giver and the receiver. It is a gift that keeps on giving. You have given that person a gift, and they loved it. Then, you are extremely satisfied with yourself and then are bent on always getting that reaction from your gift giving skills. Because of that, you continue to give more to more people, hoping for similar reactions. Also, the receiver of your gift now wants to give you something in return. You will probably really love the gift, so your original receiver will love the feeling they got from your happiness. It is an endless cycle of love! That is why giving is such a terrific thing, and more people should make a habit of doing so.