Final Blog

I have a few items and people that are important to me at this time in my life. Although my friends can be real jerks I need them. I am going to miss them and my family the most when I leave for college. The only other thing more important than them is my family.

Friends seem to come and go but four specific friends always seem to stay. Brody, Jon, Steve, and Danny have been my good friends ever since I have moved to Bayville. They have been there for me for a long time. Despite the conflicts we may have had it always results in a positive. I thought I had another friend that would be there for me always but that did not work out so well. She will not be missed so much. But enough about friends my family are true significant figures in my life. They have supported me over the years and molded me into the young man I am today.

Other than friends and family being the most important things in my life at the moment I want to talk about items and one other specific person. I feel the need to talk more about material objects because everyone will be talking about how important their friends and families are. Before I go on to my material items I would like to just say how important my girlfriend is to me. Her name is Alyssa and she does not attend central she goes to Lacey. She is just different and makes me happy and I can honestly say that she is very important to me.

Now I will talk about my materialistic items. The device that I am using right now is highly important to me. Yes I am talking about my laptop. It is not just any laptop it is my Macbook pro. I got it sophomore year and it still runs like thee day I bought it. I treat it as if it was my child. I am very cautious as to who uses it and freak out on my friends when they do not handle it properly. I think this is very important to me because I love technology. I love new innovative devices. It makes me feel intelligent just to use it. I feel like I am using a device of the future.

Other than my computer shoes are my most prized items I own. I treat them with so much care it is scary. I clean them, wipe them, spray them, protect them, and deodorize them. I own over 35 pairs but they are all equally important to me. It may sound strange but they are an extension of me. I feel that shoes can really tell a lot about how a person is. I will never wear beaten up tattered shoes. I like my feet looking there best. When a nice pair of shoes is on my feet it makes others think that I like to stay clean and like to look good. This is all true. Dirty beat up shoes express that someone does not care. Not just about there shoes but about various other things. I am a very paranoid person and care about almost everything I do. It has to be perfect. This is why I see my shoes as a reflection upon myself and the way people view me.

Courage

Courage is a truly overused word. It has way more meaning then the way some people may portray it. You have to really do something courageous to receive the title of having courage. I can’t even say that I am courageous. I may have been maybe once or twice in my lifetime but I am not overall a courageous person.

            Courage can be determined in a lot of ways the one way that I have used it is standing up for myself. You do on let anyone push you around and you stand up for yourself. That is showing courage. It shows courage because not everyone is brave enough to stand up to someone else, especially if they are bigger then you. I stand up to my friends who think they are tough and get one over on me. They are sadly mistaken I show my courage my getting in there face and proving them wrong. This is just a mild expression of courage.

            The true courageous men are the men who fight for our country. I am not just talking about the men who think by going to the marine core or army are going to straighten there lives out or all of the sudden become a badass. I am talking about the men who truly love fighting for this country. They fight to keep us alive, now that shows courage. I don’t mean to offend anyone who is just going to the marines because their family members did or because they want to straighten their lives out. But that is not true courage. Yes it does take courage to join but once you are in you have to pull through and truly show your courage. For the men that run back in the line of fire to save a fellow marine deserve the title of courageous. The men who risk their lives to save others are the ones who deserve and Medal of Honor for their courage.

            I did not mean to be offensive to anyone who may be courageous for other reasons. I think many individuals with illnesses are courageous as well. They are basically guinea pigs to society and scientists. All of their treatments are trials to find the true cure. It takes a lot of courage to allow a doctor to perform various procedures on you. I especially give props to cancer patients. They are truly guinea pigs. No one knows the cure to cancer and they continue to run tests on cancer patients in attempt to find the answer.

            Everyone has a little bit of courage in them and at times it will come out. It will come out when it is needed. You may be scared and not want to jump off that bridge to save your friend but courage will kick in and you will do it. When others are in danger courage will come to the rescue. That is why our troops in Iraq are so valued for there courageous events. They show courage to save the lives of others.

Ahh college

I truly underestimated how hard college is going to be until the other day.

It hit me like a brick wall. It was a Sunday morning and I had to drive up to Rutgers for a scheduled practice. When I arrived with another one of my teammates I did not think anything of practice. I thought it was just going to be a normal practice until I got into the room. The room was over a hundred degrees and I could already sense the intensity. As we began to jog I did not suspect anything that was until our jog only lasted five minutes. Then a white board was brought into the room with a list of exercises.  For the next half hour practice was hell. Everything on that board had to be done and not one exercise was simple. Some involved doing a bear crawl while pulling sand bags in between my legs and others involved reverse walks up a wall. As soon as I thought it was over we began doing sprints for another half hour. Then after I threw up a few times I came back into the room to find out it was time to drill. Lucky me I get paired up with coach. For the next forty-five minutes I had to deal with my coach throwing me around like a rag doll. I thought to myself if practice is this hard now imagine how hard it will be when season actually starts.

            After thinking about how hard practice was going to be made me realize how much even harder school will be. I did not pick an easy major. I am going to school to be a biology major. Now the even harder part is going to be balancing wrestling and biology. I know I have to be prepared when I enter college because I will not have very much free time. I will not have much of a life except for wrestling and school. I know it will be difficult and I have to pull through.

            As the school year is ending I become more and more nervous for college. It is not so much that I am nervous to live away from home but that I am going to have so much work to balance. I just have to manage for four years to become successful. It will most likely be the four hardest years of my life but I know I will receive a lot from the experience. A lot of knowledge and skills will be acquired. I will become a much better wrestler. Once you can survive wrestling everything else in life becomes easier. This is advice I received from previous graduates from Rutgers. They say the hard work, sweat, and tears will pay off in the end. If one individual can suffer so much then everything else seems like a piece of cake. This is why my fear is not so bad. I am scared to go to college but know that it is the best choice that I can be making.

Advice

            If I could give advice to my younger self I would have a few things to say. No drastic changes because I have achieved a lot in my high school career. One of the biggest things I would say to myself is to open up socially a little easier. I am very open now but my freshman and sophomore year I keep to myself more. I should have been my normal weird self all the time and not have worried what others would think. That is the way to find your real friends. I learned that a little late but it was not anything major. I still have all of the same friends. Another minor change would have been my work ethic. I have good work ethic now but it could have been better. I used to wait to the last minute a lot in my younger years. I did not do it as much as I grew older except for right now because I am growing tired of school and just want it to end. Senioritis has finally kicked in.

The biggest piece of advice I would have given myself is to not doubt myself. I still doubt myself now but not as bad as I used to. I always think of ideas and doubt whether they are good or not and then I later find out they are. I always doubt whether I am right or wrong. Because of my doubt it took me a long time to finally see the potential I had in wrestling. I wish I had realized this much earlier. I feel I could have placed more then once in the states if I realized this. I needed to be more aggressive. Being aggressive would have made me do much better. I would have been intimidating to my opponents I would have made them quit. If I were aggressive they would not have wanted to wrestle me. Being aggressive is how you break your opponent. It would have made wrestling a lot easier on me.

Next I would tell myself to get more involved. I am adequately involved as it is now but I should have been more involved. I wish I had stayed with the clubs that I started. It doesn’t matter how stupid the club is. In the long run being a member of so many different clubs and after school activities looks good. I was not thinking about that. I cared about what others would think of me. I now realized that that is not important. I should have stayed in all of the clubs I started they would have been great achievements to add to my resume.

Lastly I would have told myself to get more sleep. I never got enough sleep and I was always tired. To this day I still do not get enough sleep. I need to take my own advice and start getting to bed earlier. Sleep is a necessity in doing good in school and sports.

Forgiveness

This is somewhat of a tough topic for me. I say this because at times I can be very spiteful. Sometimes I do not want to forgive others. Sometimes those others don’t deserve my forgiveness. An apology does not always clear up the damage that has been done. Time does not always clear up the damage that has been done either. Accepting an apology is not always easy to accept. A lot of thought goes into an apology. Even if an apology is given 8 months later it should still be respected not necessarily forgiven.

            Forgiveness is not something that should just be handed out. To forgive you need to have some type of reassurance. The person who has done wrong needs to confront you about there wrongdoing and. If you feel that they are worthy of forgiveness they shall receive it. I am usually not easy to forgive. Being a forgiving person does not make you a push over. If someone is forgiving all of the time then they become a push over. It lets other know that they can push you around without any consequence.

            I know how this feels because I used to let it happen to me when I was younger I was to kind and forgiving. Now I don’t take any crap from anyone. No one should be too forgiving and no one should be non-forgiving. Not having any forgiveness is unhealthy. It just means you are an angry spiteful person. No one likes an angry person. Forgiveness is a key factor in society. You can not have to much of it and to little of it. I am still trying to find that healthy median that should be achieved.

            There are times in my life where I have forgiven people. I forgive someone at least one time a week. It is only human nature to mess up. There are other times in my life where I still have not forgiven people. I feel that at the moment they do not deserve my forgiveness. I actually have forgiven everyone in my life except for maybe one or two people who shall remain nameless. Sometimes an apology does not make up for the action that was done.

            No matter what someone may call me or do to me I usually forgive them. It all depends on the person who said it and if they truly meant it. I do not like it when someone says something about my family and they do not know them. Do not attack my family or heritage that will set me off. There will be no time for forgiveness. You will most likely be on the ground before you can say you are sorry. Now I have had one of my friends say something about my heritage before and he was not joking around like usual. He seemed pretty serious. I was pissed off and in the end he apologized. He did not mean to call me what he did he was angry and I forgave him for it. Someone else would not get a second chance.

Gag Gifts and Awards

For this weeks blog I am going to just write about how my day went. Well first I woke up and then I went back to sleep. But the out of nowhere I woke up again it was a crazy experience. It has never happened to me before and as you can tell I am using a great deal of sarcasm. But in all seriousness I had a very eventful day. First I had to prepare a lot of gag gifts for my wrestling banquet. At one point during the day I had to run to dollar tree buy a toy horse and then steal one of the shopping carts from dollar tree. It was the hardest gag gift to get. It was raining out and I had to try to sneak it into the bag of my truck. It was all worth it because the look on everyone’s face was priceless when we presented the gift to the wrestler. This was the best year in a long time for gag gifts. I had put a lot of thought into these gifts. Some of them were inside jokes that were completely inappropriate and others were ones that everyone could enjoy. There turned out being 13 total gag gifts. Everyone enjoyed them all as well as the wrestlers.

            Despite the merriment of the gag gifts the banquet itself was very nice. It was the best wrestling banquet I have had in my high school career. It was run comfortably. It was run as if we were all family just enjoying a dinner. Everyone was having a great time and I enjoyed especially since it was the last time my teammates and I would be together. It was a sad moment in my wrestling career but at the same time a very joyous moment.

            It almost brought a tear to my eye when my coach presented me the award for the most outstanding wrestler. I was truly honored. It was a customized award with a list of all my crowning achievements on it. It truly was something to be proud of. It felt great to have so many people support me and look up to me. I didn’t really know what to say when I received the award I felt speechless. I wanted to make a speech but at that moment I could not. I just thanked my coaches and gave them all hugs.

            Later on after the awe of the award had faded I made a speech. I talked about how I could not have done this without the help from all of my amazing coaches. It all started with my grade school recreational wrestling coach. He was there to see me accept the award so he was very happy to hear me speak about him. I also mention how the support of all the parents helped me make it so far. I also included one of Central wrestling’s alumni. His name was Mike Denver he was the one who taught me the moves I needed to make it to states. After thanking everyone and concluding my speech I handed my coaches a special gift. It was an engraved mug in which they highly appreciated. They had never received such an amazing gift. They’re happiness made me happy and ended my already good day on an even better note.

8 Weeks!

Damn… this makes me pretty sad. I didn’t realize how little time there is until my high school career is over. I can say one thing though. I do not regret anything I did in school. I had a great time so far and have accomplished a lot. I have been successful academically and even more successful in athletics. Although I had a pretty amazing and successful high school career there are a few things I wish I had done.

            First off I always worked hard in school but I wish I worked harder. I men sure I got good grades mostly A’s and a few B’s here and there but I wish I did better. I wish I put more time and effort into some of the projects, essays, and tests. I have a good class rank but I wish it were higher. I am seventeen in the class right now I would have liked to be at least in the top ten. My grades and rank were ok but I was not 100 percent happy with them. It would have been a great accomplishment for me if I could have received all A’s and no B’s. Not even an A-. Only an A or A+ would be acceptable.

            I wish I had managed my time better I had some poor time management. I hope to learn to be better at time management in College. The better I manage my time the better my grades will be and the better I will do in Athletics. As a Student going to Rutgers University for wrestling I have a lot on my plate. It is a top 20 in the nation wrestling school. On top of the wrestling I am going to be biology major. I am going to have nearly no time for myself. This is why I will need great time management. To prevent myself from going mad I need to find some free time for myself. I will have to get up early and take care of as much as I can so I do not have to be up so late doing all of my work like I am right now. I will not procrastinate on my work anymore. No matter how much I do not want to do the work I am going to force myself to do it. College is my future and I cannot mess that up. At Rutgers I want to keep up my highest GPA record for the wrestling team. I strive off of my academics. I may have had a few distractions to bring my grades down a little in high school but there will be none in college. I am going to be a strict student who does his work and wrestles. There is only a little time for fun and games. Everything is going to be mostly business. I want to make college the most informative four or five years of my life. I want to be extremely knowledgeable about my profession of choice.

Zombie Apocalypse!

This week’s blog involves using your imagination and creativity. What would you do in an apocalyptic situation (preferably zombie apocalypse)? Think about what you would do if the world were coming to an end. Who would you help save and who would you let get eaten?

Other important factors come in to play as well. For example what would be your weapon of choice? Where would you station yourself or would you continuously keep moving to avoid being cornered? How long do you think you will last? Are you prepared?

           

            Have you prepared at all incase a situation of sorts were to happen? Have you had help from Call of Duty and Nazi Zombies? Think to yourself… How do I get myself out of a situation like this?

Death

Death is a part of life and there truly is no way of stopping it. No one knows when it is going to happen or how it will happen. Since no one knows when it will happen they should enjoy their life and not stress over when it will end. Fearing death is pointless because it is going to happen one way or another, you can’t fight it.

            I think death has a purpose. It serves to make room for new life in the world. The cycle of life and death repeats. When someone dies another life is born. I believe some of the newborn babies were already born once. What I mean by this is that I believe in reincarnation. Someone may be reborn into another body. There are signs of this all around us. A lot of children share the same qualities and traits as our passed away loved ones did. They even show the same interests in certain things.

If ones soul is not meant to be reborn they go to heaven or hell. This is determined by ones behavior on earth. If they behaved well they go to heaven and if they behaved poorly they go to hell. My beliefs are kind of a mixture of a few. I tend to create my own beliefs in everything I learn. I create my own beliefs, values, and morals I do not just go by what society says is ok. But I am getting off topic now            back to all this death talk.

            Despite my beliefs I do not know what to belief sometimes. There are so many different theories as to what happens when someone dies. No one will ever know the truth because no one can tell the story of what happens in the afterlife. I wish there was someway to find out what happens when you day. I am very confused as to what happens in the afterlife. I guess I will just have to wait until the day I die.

            I do not have much more to say about death. I find it to be a pointless topic of discussion. It is going to happen one day and there is no fighting it. Once it happens it happens. So many people in this world are afraid of dying. I can honestly say I am not scared. I mean I am only eighteen and have a long life ahead of but it doesn’t seem necessary to stress over something that cannot be prevented. It is ironic because if you stress over death it actually shortens your life span. Stress causes ones life span to decrease. So if anyone is afraid of death Stop it! You are only making it worse. The only way to make things better is to just live your life like everyday is your last. Do not let the little things in life upset you. Be happy all the time. Happiness will help you live longer. All I can say is death is stupid and when it is my time to go I will go. There is nothing I can do about.

Man Cave

I do believe someone’s room reflects on who they are as a person. It also expresses their sense of creativity. A lot of people have a boring simple room with not much in it but a bed and clothes. To me my room is everything.

            For the most part my room is very clean. Other then a few shirts on the floor it is pretty spotless. I have it set up so nicely that if I wanted to I would never have to leave. I have a mini-fridge in corner and a nice television set up. I also have my Xbox and a very nice sound system I put together. The way organize my room reflects upon myself. I have no closet door so I can easily access my clothes and so others can see them when they walk in. I like to keep a lot of my attire on display for others to notice when they walk in my room. I try to have my attire open for others to see but they rarely notice it. This is because every square inch of my walls and ceiling are covered with pictures and posters and paintings. It took me forever to finally finish it but I did. I found posters everywhere I could and ripped a lot of nice surfing pictures and other kinds out of magazines. It is very interesting. Many people are overwhelmed when they first walk in my room. They take a couple minutes to just take it all in. it can become a bit awkward. When I bring someone new over they sit in my room with silence and awe and just stare at the ceiling and walls. I take pride in my walls. Especially since everyone loves they way I did them.

            My room is a reflection of myself because it is very different. I have never seen anyone else’s room compare to the way mine looks. It is something someone would have to see for themselves. My room is very random and spontaneous just like I am. It is my own man cave. It is who I am when I am in there I feel safe. I feel relaxed and comfortable. I hate being disrupted and annoyed when I am in there I feel like I am in my own world with no stress.

            Another great attribute to my room is that I do not have to share it with anyone. A lot of people I know have to share their rooms with another sibling. My room is mine and only mine. I do not think I would take living with a sibling so well. College is going to be a little rough to adapt to. I will no longer have my amazing room and I will have to live with a roommate.

            As I am writing this I am in the comfortable atmosphere of my room. The doors closed, no one can bother me, and I am in my own world. I feel at one with myself and it makes writing my blogs a lot easier. There are no mindless distractions and when I get overworked and need a break I just stare at my walls. All the fascinating pictures relax when I become tense and my room becomes comfortable again. Although my room is very great it reflects me as I am now and not what I will be. I can not be a kid forever.

Curriculum

If I could design my own curriculum I would make it more interesting then the classes that are present now. Of course a student would still need to do all the normal required classes like math and English but other classes will be offered as well. Different classes would be offered as a student increases grade levels.

First off my curriculum would have its required classes. There would be four years of math and four years of English. Next I would only require two years of mandatory science. I think the other two years should be dedicated to what the individual student would like to do as there career. It would still have to be a type of science but a type of science that relates to a student’s intended career in someway. For example if a student wants to study the body they will be allowed to take two years of anatomy. So far it is fairly similar to the curriculum I am taking at the moment. Where it really starts to get different is the electives and physical education.

I believe physical education should be a class based on someone’s physical fitness. There should be a test every student needs to take every year. It will determine if they need to take physical education or not. If someone passes the test they could use that time to take a class that will better them in the long run.  Along with physical education I would change the way health would be learned. All the types of health should be learned during freshman year. It is all-important information that should be taught at the beginning of students high school career. This will leave another period for an elective of choice.

Now on to electives... there are many electives that I would make available. For starters I would keep all the basic electives like woodshop, typing, graphic arts, photography, film production, and many more. Other then the basic I would add many life skills and hands-on skills classes.  The life skills classes would teach the students how to act in everyday situations. For example I always thought it would be interesting to have negotiating skills. You never know when you’re going to be in a situation were you need to talk your way out of it. It would help when someone is trying to con there way into selling you something.

Hands-on skills would involve a different type of life skills. For example a class on mechanics would be interesting and very helpful. Not many people know what to do when they’re car breaks down having this class, as an option would help those individuals. Other great examples of hands-on classes would be computer engineering and metal shop. Metal shop would actually be on of my favorite electives. Making things out of metal seems like a lot of fun.

Lastly, language class would be required for more then two years it would be required for four years. The catch on it would be that it does not have to be the same language every year.  It is good to experience different languages and cultures. Being multilingual and multicultural is a positive.

Wisdom

Getting Straight A’s, getting your Ph. D., or rising to the top of a great corporation is intelligence. It is not the same thing as wisdom. Intelligence is some thing you acquire through studying and working. Wisdom is acquired in a similar way but has a different aspect.

            One point I would like to bring up is test taking. I dislike how colleges determine how smart someone is by a test. Some people may not be good test takers and it should not determine if they are allowed in the college or not. Wisdom is another factor colleges should take into consideration. Wisdom is not something a test can determine. It is a quality that not everyone possesses. Wisdom is more of a street smarts or everyday type of smart. It helps in the real world and not just a specific career.

            I believe the older you become the wiser you become. Age is knowledge and knowledge is wisdom. Wisdom is acquired overtime. I think wisdom is acquired because of people’s experiences. We go through our lives accomplishing a lot and along the way we make many mistakes. With those mistakes and accomplishments we learn lessons. They teach us how to become better people and how to react to different situations correctly. As a young adult I feel I do have wisdom but most of my wisdom will be helpful for those who are younger then me. This is because I have already experienced certain things that the individuals younger then I have not yet experienced. I can give them some of my wisdom and make them aware about a certain item or situation. Despite age I believe someone of my age can also inflict some knowledge on others that are older. Age plays a big factor is wisdom but in many cases age does not matter. You are never too old to learn something even if the person you are learning from is only five years old. One thing I do agree with is that our elder acquire the most knowledge. Even if the elder is illiterate and can not read they are still very wise.

.            What make these wise people wise are the things they say. It is not just the words that come out of there mouths but how they word them. Whether they realize it or not when they explain things they are explaining them in the form of a lesson. I know this from my own experience. I know many people that a very wise, most of them are fairly old. I have learned so much from them. At first I do not always realize it but there words help me out eventually along the way.

            What I am basically trying to say is that wisdom is not determined by a test or having your Ph. D., it is determined by what you know. Not just what you know in the sense of book smarts but streets smarts as well. it is all about life experiences and how to react to certain situations. Wisdom is something you acquire through your life. The older one becomes the wiser they become.

JOBS

Having a job is very important. Whether it is a janitor or a CEO of a big franchising company the job is important. Every career plays a specific role in society. Each specific job holds the world in place.

For example we have doctors but without teachers we would not have doctors. Someone has to teach the doctor to become a doctor. Another helpful career to a doctor is a nurse. Without a nurse a doctor would have an even more difficult job then they already have. In relation with the teacher a bus driver is very important as well. Without a bus driver there would be no way for students to get to school. If students could not get to school the teachers would have no one to teach. It all works as a cycle. One job supports another job and so on. Without a janitor there would not be a proper clean facility to teach the students in.

No one really thinks about the lesser jobs. Everyone always underestimates their importance. What everyone doesn’t realize is the lesser jobs are the foundation for the big important jobs. Some jobs may seem more important then others but in reality every job is important.

Now jobs are not just important because of how they play a role in society. They are important because they give the members of society employment. Although others may think that a gas attendant or a cashier is not a “quality” job it is. It gives someone a purpose in life and teaches them how to make it in the real world. It teaches one discipline and tasks that will actually help in everyday situations.

A job is important because it has a value. Yes others bring home bigger salaries then others but that does not determine how important a job is. Money should not be a rating system for the importance of anything. Money is just an item that we use to get other items and necessities. Of course it is very important but you do not need more then the average person. I do not know how they determine what job gets how much pay and everything but I do not really like it. The one thing I do like is that ones salary increases with experience.

I mean when I really think about it I know being a doctor is much more important then a cashier but they are both still important. I can live without a cashier but I cannot without a doctor. The doctor is the one who will cure me while the cashier is the one who probably sold me the food poisoning that I ended up in the doctor’s office for but it is still important. It is easier to see it in the eyes of the cashier. I have been behind a register before so I know how it feels. It is important because without the cashier there will be no way to get the proper change for the item you purchased. It sounds stupid but it is more important then you think. What I am trying to say is that every job is important in its own way.

What Is Love?

“Love” is a very complicated word. People throw the word around all the time but without actually meaning it. It is not some word you can just throw around. I believe love is something special. Now that is saying a lot coming from me because I dislike the word. I do not like the idea of all mushy love junk. I don’t even acknowledge Valentine’s Day. I see it as a meaningless holiday. If someone truly loves their significant other they will show them everyday on there own. There doesn’t have to be a special holiday were someone gets the chance to show there so called “Love” and compassion for someone else. If they truly cared about their girlfriend or boyfriend they would show them love everyday of their life. Now keep in mind this is just my definition and perspective on love. I believe there is no true definition to word. It is how someone else sees the word. It is how someone else takes the importance of the word into there own perspective.

            Now a lot of people believe in “Love at first sight.” Now this may seem like a shallow theory. It is not all in how a person looks that strikes up love. But I do believe that the way someone looks can tell a lot about the person’s personality. I have not experienced this feeling but myself but I do believe it is possible. Two individuals can fall in love at first sight. When they first glance at each other it is as if they have known the person for years already. Other then the theory of love at first sight love can be found anywhere. I do not think it is something you physically go out and look for but something that just happens. It is almost as if it is destiny. Things have to fall into place on their own and almost everyone will find love eventually. There will be a feeling inside of you letting you know that that one person is the special one.

            Other then the love between and husband and wife or boyfriend and girlfriend there is love within a family or from friends. This is a completely different type of love. This is more of a caring love. Your family will always love you because you are an extension of them. Without you a little piece of them dies. I think this kind of love is the best. The love from a caring family keeps people happy and will always keep people happy. Love from your friends is also a form of love that is caring. Your friends care for you but not in the same way as your family. They treat you as if you were almost family but not quite. Without friends and family I would be a very depressed person.

            I think someone needs love from all three groups; the caring love from your family, compassionate love from your girlfriend or boyfriend, and friendly love. This truly is the meaning of love. Everyone needs a form of love to be happy.

Risks

Everyone has taken a risk in there life and if they say they haven’t they are lying. Whether it is something small or drastic everyone has taken a risk. In my lifetime I have taken many risks, most of them where simple. Actually I can’t really remember any crazy life or death risks I have taken. I always think before I put myself in a bad situation. If it is too crazy I simply will not do it. There is a difference between risking something and stupidity. Risking your life is always stupid.

            In my lifetime I would say most mf my risks have been taken in sports. When I am wrestling and I am losing I take a risk. Lets say I am losing the match by three points. My opponent and me are on our feet and there is less then thirty seconds left. My only option to win is to hit a big move. By big move I mean a throw of some sort. I need to get two points for a takedown and back points. At this point I usually try a move called a headlock or a lateral drop. They are both risky and do not always work. Sometimes I try them and they work and I jump up in joy and amazement that I won but other times I fail and there is not really to much of a lose because I was losing the match already. At this point there was no real fault to my risk. It was more of a last resort situation.

            Socially I take risks all the time. I am a very friendly person and am open to making new friends. The problem with this is I do not know the type of people I am making friends with. They could be the complete opposite of me and we could not get along. They may even think I am weird. I am not afraid of this because I always just act like myself. Someone should accept me for who I am and not some fake person. When I meet knew people I do not see it as intimidating I just act myself and take the risk of them judging me poorly. Along with social I have taken many personal risks like honesty. Not so much honest but I think lying is more of a risky situation. When I was younger I used to lie all the time. I took the risk of staying out of trouble or getting caught lying and getting into even more trouble. I usually ended up getting caught and into more trouble. Now I do not lie as much to my parents. Only little white lies that come out when I get scared to tell the truth.

            I also take academic risks. Sometime I go all out for a project in hope that I get a good grade. I may go all out and spend hours on the decorations and such but in reality I did all the actual work wrong so I get a C for a grade. All that hard work for a C makes me angry. Other times I do not try at all and get an A. this makes no sense to me. Despite a few bad results I usually end up getting good grades when I take a risk on my grades. I could say things work out for the best.

           

           

            

State of The Union Address

I am going to start off by saying I hate anything that involves politics and the government (as I have said in all the government based blogs). Besides that factor this is an ok blog topic. I do have a few views on were our country stands at the moment. I honestly don’t think Obama is doing the worst job as president ever has like everyone says. He was put in a bad position when he started

            Right now things are not the best in our country. They could be much better. I am not to satisfied with the way things are at the moment. We are in a state of recession and have many financial issues. Many people are unemployed and jobs are becoming scarce. We are in debt a lot. We owe more money then we can handle. Not just the individuals of America but the whole country is in debt.

            Jobs are becoming scarce because no one has the money to pay for employees. Not only are jobs decreasing but also many small family owned businesses are closing down. The business owners are not making enough money to keep their businesses open. While the small businesses continue to decrease the big corporations increase. This leads me onto my other point. The rich keep getting richer and poor keep getting poorer. It seems as if the middle class society is being wiped away. There is no high class, middle class, and poor class. Everyone is becoming either rich or poor. They are making millions or becoming bankrupt.

            The biggest issue the country has right now is financially. We are also experiencing troubles in schools because of this. Many private schools do not have the proper funding to stay open. Education all over the country is declining. Along with education transportation is beginning to become an issue. Gas prices are constantly skyrocketing. The price of tolls has gone up and the price to ride any means of transportation (bus, train, plane) has increased. We have to use even more money that we don’t have.

            I really don’t think there a positive thing going on in this country right now. Another trouble we are having involves health care. Slowly everyone is starting to lose their healthcare. This is affecting the elderly the most at the moment. The elderly are not being treated very well right now. I think this is because they are incapable of working so we find no use for them. It is truly a terrible thing. Along with not being able to afford healthcare people can no longer afford everyday necessities like food. Food stamps are decreasing in value as we speak. They mean almost nothing and for a lot of people this is tragic. A lot of American citizens relied on food stamps to get their food.

            I think it is safe to say that our country is on the verge of a state of panic. We are running out of money and time. Everything is falling to pieces and the economy does as well. As a country we need a lot of financial help.

Past Times

My memory is not very good. I can not really remember much when it comes to my past time. I have thought long ana hard and one memory seems to keep popping up. It seems like a pointless memory with no meaning to it. It was not a special day or anything just a memeory that I seem to remember. It was a happy pastime when I was a yuong child.

            I dont know hold I was but I would estimate around five or six. I was in the backyard at my old house I lived in. it was in Egg Harbor Township. My whole family was outside. Along with my family were my neighbors Ellie and Florence. They were all just hanging outside around the patio while I was playing with the dog. My sister was in the sandbox we owned playing with her toys. I distinctively remember the weather being beautiful and sunny. It was a nice spring day around mid day. I would say it was noon. I was just enjoying myself, exploring nature and chasing the dog around the yard. I think this memory keeps coming up because it gives me happiness. It brings back all my happy past times. I loved my dog. His name was bandit. He was a black pitbull and was the best dog a kid could have.

            Besides my memory sparking thoughts of my dog bandit it reminded me of how anxious I was as a child. I was always exploring nature. It is crazy how simple times were back then. I was so carefree and stress free. It makes me want to be a little kid again. I do not want to grow up anymore.

            Along with this memory a few others seemed to spark. They were all very similar but still very random. One is a memory of a place I would always go to get ice cream as a child. I can not remember the name of the place but all I know is there is a giant statue of a raisin with arms and legs. I just know it was a very strange statue. Despite the strange statue the ice cream was amazing. It makes me wonder if that place is still in business. I would like to go back there and get some ice cream again to see if it really is as good as it is in my memories. Almost all my childhood memories are from when I used to live in Egg Harbor Township. Another memory I can remember is when I got my head stuck in a rocking chair. This was not really one of my happier times. I had dropped a piece of candy and wanted to get it before the dog did. I was to late and bandit got it and when ii went to pull my head out from under the rocking chair I realized I was stuck. I started to yell and then my neighbor Florence came in with a chainsaw and cut the wood so I could get my head out. At first I thought she was going to cut my head off so I was yelling at the top of my lungs. I was terrified but in the end I was mainly upset because bandit had eaten my candy.

            Even though my memory is not the best I can still remember some things. They all relate to where I used to live before I moved to Bayville. Some bring me happiness, a laugh, and sometimes sadness. 

One With Nature

The “balance of nature” is an easily thrown around term. What exactly does it mean? People interpret it differently. To me it means a balance in the environment and its surroundings. Now when I think of nature I immediately think of Plants, animals, and all things that are naturally produced by the earth. These things all balance each other out by playing a specific role in society. For example water keeps all livings things alive and living things provide food for other living things. Everything works in cycles. Water and sunlight are taken in by a plant, then the plant is eaten by a rabbit, and the rabbit is eaten by a fox, and the fox is eaten by a bear, and then the bear is killed by a human and consumed. The chain continues for all species. Every living creature supports each other and they each have their own life cycles. Also the land gives us “creatures” something to live on. The land is our playground to live off of and experience a fulfilling life cycle.

            In today’s society I do not think nature is balanced at all. We try to keep it balanced with wildlife preserves and such but that does not work. Making a wildlife preserve is not natural. It takes away from nature taking its course. It regulates what goes on in the environment. Another corruption to the balance of nature is the production of technology. Not so much technology in the sense of phones and computers but in industry. Factories and such are creating toxic chemicals (man-made chemicals and wastes) that taint the natural world. In reality there hasn’t been a balance of nature since the first factory was made. Humans are the downfall of nature. Unless there is a way to create nontoxic chemicals or interfere with the natural world the balance will continue to plummet.

            Despite us humans taking down nature I feel there is medium that can be met. There can be a cut back of sorts to preserve the natural world. People need to care about the environment more then they should. No one seems to listen when people say that we need to make cuts on energy use and keep the earth clean. The land we live on cannot be taken for granted. It may seem like I’m getting off on a rant about the environment because I am. It is very important that we keep our and every other living thing’s world clean.

            The world is such a beautiful place and the balance of nature should be preserved. Everyone should take part in protecting nature. Instead of the saying being “treat others the way you would like to be treated” it should be “treat nature the way you would like to be treated” What no one really realizes is we are nature. We are a big part of nature, but we are at the top. Since we are at the top we rely on the other parts of the environment. We rely on the land, water, animals, and plants. They do not rely on us. The can survive with out us but we can not survive without them.

WOODSTOCK!

If I could go back in time I would go back to the 1960’s. Back then things were much simpler. To be more specific I would like to go back in time to 1969. I want to see how the hippies lived. 1969 was there biggest year. This is when Woodstock happened.

            I think it would be cool to walk around as a hippie and just do what the hippies do. Just going around basically doing as you please and throwing caution to the wind sounds pretty fun. Basically a hippie in the 1960’s is equivalent to a modern day bum. Back then it was kind of the trend. A lot of the population was considered hippies. They did what they wanted and disagreed with “The Man” or in other words the government. They would always try to go against what the government said. This is one of the main reasons I want to experience the hippie era. I despise politics and enjoy the fact of disobeying the government. It makes me feel rebellious.

            Now back to the topic of Woodstock. In modern day I love going to concerts and musical festivals. I can’t imagine how intense Woodstock must have been. It would have been awesome to be there and experience one of the biggest music festivals of all time. It was a historical moment for music and for hippies. Besides all the drugs and marijuana used at Woodstock it seems like it would have been a life changing experience. Hundreds of bands playing good music and acres upon acres of people enjoying themselves, listening to music, sounds like a good time to me.

            Other then hippies and Woodstock back in the 60’s times were much simpler. Everything was a lot cheaper and no one really cared about anything. A lot of modern day technology didn’t exist and no one really got side tracked. Everyone went to work, relaxed, and well that’s pretty much it. Also no one cared about getting diseases or cancer. Everyone did as they pleased and just enjoyed life. It was almost as if their lives were stress free. I can just imagine it now. A stress free life sounds great to me. Were is the time machine at? I want to go back to the 60’s now.

            There isn’t much more I can say about the 1960’s just that it would be great to live life the way they did. They lived their lives without worries. They were not scared of danger, disease, or death. Whatever happened just… happened. Oh Wait! I lied one of my favorite presidents was in office during this time period until he was assassinated. JFK was president and I always wanted to meet him. Okay now I can’t say much more about the 60’s. I can’t such much more because it was so laid back there isn’t much more that happened. Woodstock was one of the biggest things to happen during this era. Anyways, these are the reasons why I would like to go back to the 1960’s. it seems like an interesting time period.