Au Revoir, Adios, Goodbye

Goodbyes are the worst. I really do not like them. They are so final, absolute, and so brief. Whether it be saying goodbye to a friend, a classmate, a school, a bike, a car, a place, or whatever, I never enjoy it and never feel the goodbye gives the time spent with said person place or thing justice. Maybe this is why I have a problem throwing things away or letting go of things. Currently my dorm room has more things than I know what to do with, as I shove things into any nook or cranny I can find, and a lot of it consists of things I just can't seem to detach from. For example, I keep every movie/play/event stub that I go to because for me it holds a memory (right now I am looking at my Gershwin Theatre ticket stub from when I saw Wicked on Broadway for the first time with Kaley in January). Because I can't seem to part from these little gems, I have little pieces of trash essentially on my desk, in my wallet, or in my drawers. What am I going to do with these things? I don't know, but it's nice to look at them every once in a while and bring a memory to mind. Every time I try to clean my room and determinedly tell myself I am going to be relentless and throw anything I don't need away, I look at these little pieces of garbage or paraphernalia, give a small smile and tilt my head to the side as a memory comes to mind, and put it right back where I found it. By the end of it all, my room is no cleaner and I have no more extra space. Fail.

All of this attachment goes back to the fact that I just hate saying goodbye to anything. In less than a week I am going to move out of my dorm and go back home for the summer (!), and even though my freshman year of college had a lot of memories I'd rather forget and the dorm lifestyle is never the greatest, I'm going to miss my little dorm room of C210. After all, my dorm was alway there for me to come back to and gave me a place to cry or talk to my mom in peace and privacy, allowed me to study in the comfort of my own desk while other students had to deal with the sneezes, coughs, clicking, and chewing of other library-goers, and was my home away from home for the past nine months. Although I can hardly wait to go back to California, I'm going to miss this little dorm and it'll be tough to say goodbye. Not to mention saying goodbye to a year of college in general. This year tested me in just about every area and helped me discover emotions I didn't even know were words let alone existed inside of me. Although a lot of them were bad emotions, I learned from them and grew closer to the other freshmen here with me who are going through the same things. My fellow freshmen teammates would vent for hours about our terrible lives and how wonderful high school was, and in that time we shared laughs and memories and grew together. Sure we'll all still be together as sophomores, but it'll be a little sad to say goodbye to our freshmen year.

Whether it be saying goodbye to my childhood, high school and high school friends (talk about a tearfest right there), or even an old car, I've gone through a lot of goodbyes in my life as anyone has and they're all a little bittersweet. Sure goodbyes can indicate new beginnings and possibilities, but you're always saying adios to a little portion of your life and the things and people that you shared it with. I suppose that's what memories are for: so we can remember the times we shared and not have goodbyes be so absolute. Well, all I can do I guess is live life to the fullest and cherish every moment! That and practice my waving...

Lifestyles of the Young and Reckless

College is an awesome time for a young adult, don't get me wrong. The independence, a great education, new experiences, new places, and new friends, are all wonderful. It's the other side of college that is damaging. After walking in on people having sex in our hall bathroom, seeing drunk people stumble through the streets, hearing offensive music blaring all over campus, and hearing swear words roll off the tongue like they were going out of style, I start to have my doubts about the "college lifestyle." A lifestyle that is self-perpetuating and happens on basically every campus that I've heard of, with mine being the prime example because well, I see everything first-hand. Granted, I know I am conservative and definitely have a different lifestyle than most my age, but these are inherent cultural standards that are being broken here! College lifestyle and colleges themselves are promoting immoral behavior, encouraging drinking (which with young adults is usually binge drinking just to get drunk), pushing sex, and promoting experimenting with anything, everything, and everyone. If the whole world was living like this we would be in deep waters indeed! I'm all for having fun - dancing, spending time with friends, staying up late, driving around town at all hours of the day, and doing the stupid, fun things young adults do - but you have to put SOME limits on yourself. Have a little more respect for your body, your mind, those around you, and the community as a whole.

What I hate seeing the most is girls who take college lifestyle to the extreme. By binge drinking and taking shot after shot after shot, girls put themselves in very vulnerable positions. They may end up going farther than they wanted to with a certain boy, making a fool of themselves in front of a house full of people, or put themselves in incredibly dangerous situations by wandering off, walking home at late hours in a poor state, or taking off with a not so good guy. Also, whether they're drunk or not, college girls (and a lot of older girls as well) throw themselves at boys who are complete JERKS and treat them terribly, but they know they can do whatever they want and the girl will still melt for them because they have a nice body or they're on the right sports team. These boys feel no need to change their ways because why would they if they can get the girl either way? A lot of these boys will treat girls like objects, get what they want out of us, and then move on to the next girl; they feel no need to look for long-term relationships or develop values that will lead to lasting marriages in the future. I heard a quote once which is kind of disturbing but applicable nonetheless: Why buy the cow if you can get the milk for free? I do not mean to say by any means that all boys or girls are like this or that they're even the majority, but many students live this way to some extent during their college career and it just makes me sad.

Right now colleges are promoting alternative, unsustainable, damaging lifestyles instead of best preparing students to become moral members of society: stressing things like family values, respect for your body, self control, courteousness, general manners, and good old-fashioned ethics - that sometimes you don't do something not because it is against the law, but because it just wouldn't be right. Just because you CAN do something, doesn't mean you SHOULD. Colleges should promote the idea that girls are worth a little more than just their looks and that they should value their body, treating it with respect and not just giving it up to anyone. They should help boys know how to respect a woman and treat them like ladies, acting more like gentlemen than animals. Yes, a lot of these things should be taught in the home, but our communities and schools can take the bull by the horns as well! If students develop these ideas in college, we will be releasing not only smart, college-educated people into the workforce and general society, but morally righteous people. So, fellow college students, I understand we're away from our parents and have the freedom to do virtually whatever we want without them knowing, but show a little self-control and stop to think about things before you do them, thinking about the future and long-term values you have rather than tonight's party. By making good decisions now, you'll be happier with yourself, have more self-respect, and be a better all-around person. That's a whole lot better than winning a game of beer pong.

Our country is awesome. After watching America: the Story of Us on the History channel on Sunday (gosh, I'm turning more and more into my dad-Food Network, Travel Channel, next I'll be watching Modern Marvels: Concrete), I am just so into our country. I have always loved America, but this just brought it out even more. I was getting chills! It is a miracle our country is even a country and not a part of England. We were just a bunch of individual ragtag soldiers who went up against the biggest army in the world. We had no right to last a month let alone win the war! I guess it shows you what a little heart and determination will do for you. We knew what we wanted, we fought for a purpose, and we wouldn't quit. The British just got tired and were suffering too many losses for a cause that they forgot the reason of. By starting a country with a just war based on self-reliance, independence, determination, and equality, we engrained these characteristics within the very land of our nation. Even immigrants today who were not born here nor fought for our independence understand what this country is all about. That's why I hate the critics who live here and say how our country is terrible and that the "American dream" is unattainable and that people are worse off coming here. How false! Everyone here does not have a big house with a white picket fence, in fact a large majority do not have these things, but they are living the dream nonetheless. They have education for their children, a just legal system, a government that is not corrupt or completely crazy, and equal rights for all. That's a lot more than they could save from their home countries. Otherwise they wouldn't have bothered to come here. We are not perfect. We have our problems that we are continually trying to solve. But that's the beauty of it: there's room and opportunity for improvement! If we want something fixed, we can vote for it. It may be a slow process but if enough people want it, it will get done. We will always have complaints about our government, and we should because that is how change comes about, but we are truly the best place to be in the world. I don't say this in arrogance or fell that America should push other countries around as we may have done and continue to do, but just to speak up about the viewpoint that is often masked by the cloud of criticism and contempt that hangs over politics and the country as a whole: America is a actually an amazing place. Where else can you find as much diversity? Who else donates as much money to charity? Who else has such a diverse landscape and beautiful geography? No where. We should remember that next time we start to think about how awful our country is or how other countries just have it so much better. We are the land of the free and the home of the brave people! Love it

Idk, my bff rose

Blogging, texting, facebooking, or anything written through virtual means is funny business. It requires a certain rhetoric. I can not tell you how I have misinterpreted a text or had my own texts misinterpreted. For example, when I ask: "Yo Friend A what do you think about going to a movie tonight?" And they respond: "Ok." What am I to make of that? Are they excited, do they really want to go, when can they be there...I have no idea! Yes, girls analyze these things way too much (and boys are professionals at leaving vague texts or comments let me add), but come on people give me something to work with! That is why I insist on using winks, haha, jk's, lol's, or the lovable smiley face. Then people know exactly when you're coming, if something is meant to be a joke, or if you actually feel any sort of emotion about the topic you're talking about. It's just nice. Especially if it's a touchy subject or you aren't too close with the person and can't really ask for more clarification without sounding too desperate or needy. It's quite a tricky subject. So next time you text, do everyone a favor and add a little emotional abbreviation; it will make everyone happier :)