LAST BLOG :(

I have a lot of things that I could name that are very important to me; my family, my friends, my jobs, school, having fun and living life to the fullest extent. Everything and everyone in my life is important to me, I truly do appreciate all that I have and I hope that I do not take too much for granted. To be more specific I would say that the top three important things to me are; #1 my relationship with my mom #2 my jobs and #3 having fun. I try not to take life too seriously, we only live once so I like to keep that in mind at all times. I love working so that is something I enjoy, some may think I am crazy for having three jobs but its good to be independent, I can support myself and I like having money to do the things that I want. My relationship with my mom is the only relationship that I am positive will never change, friends can come and go but if anything ever comes in between my mom and me, I will be destroyed. I am so attached to her it is not even funny, I cannot go on trips for more than two days without feeling anxious to go home and be with my mom. I went on vacation to Paris for a week with two of my girlfriends and have never felt so sad to be away from my mom in my life. My friends make fun of me for how attached I am but it’s the most important thing to me that I have. I honestly do not know what I would do without her she’s means everything to me. Generally I believe that being a nice person and friendly to everyone is very important, I try to be smiley and friendly in every situation just because I like when people are friendly to me. I like to be an approachable person or at least I hope I am when it comes to meeting new people, my mom has always taught us manners and to be polite, first impressions are a pretty big deal in my family. I am trying to think of what else is important to me, I guess the obvious, school, being successful when I grow up, having a healthy life, and being able to take care of myself. Everything in life is important but nothing should be taken too seriously. Being comfortable is also a big thing for me, not even in clothes or how I look but being in a group or at a place I always need to be comfortable otherwise I know I won’t be having a good time. Making memories is a huge part of my life; in order to do this I always have my camera with me. All of my friends know that somehow or another they will see pictures from me. Whenever I take a picture and my friends sigh and groan I say “Come on guys, it’s a memory!”

courage

Courage in my eyes is defined as something not everyone has. Not everyone is born with courage. Courage to me is when you do something that you know something bad could happen but you do it for a good reason. This could mean something as simple as sticking up for someone or yourself in a situation. To have courage is to not be afraid, showing people that you’ll do whatever it takes and there is no backing down. Courage does not just have to be in adults, anyone can have courage but I feel that it always comes with experience, for some people there are not many times when you have to be courageous but for some others it is an everyday lifestyle. Courage can be anything from a person chasing down a bank robber, because there is always a chance of getting seriously hurt, or a person who is mentally challenged going down the street and bearing people constantly staring and looking or even calling names. Everyone has different reasons to be courageous and different times when they are, it is a good thing but I think sometimes it gives people a little too much backbone. Soon they start to think that they can do anything when that is not always the case. I do know a lot of courageous people or who are in their own ways but I would have to say that my Uncle Brian is the most courageous person in my life. My Uncle is a fire fighter and he risks his life everyday a work to save other people who he does not even know. That takes a lot a strength and will power to do. Going to work everyday and having in the back of my head that it could be my last is something that I would never want to volunteer myself. He has had a really tough life but being as strong as he is, he can now give back to his community by helping out the citizens when they are in danger. It is funny but he is kind of like a super hero (or at least he thinks that way). His job is a healthy confidence booster and I am very proud of him. Living through the things that he has been through would be extremely difficult to stay positive and be so courageous. He loves what he does and would not change it for the world. I think that that is exactly what courage is, when a person does something out of the bottom of their heart for the better when the outcome could be good or bad. There is always a fifty percent chance of it going smoothly or not so smoothly. After years of experience everyone’s courage probably raises a little bit I would think. I cannot say that I have had a lot of times when I needed to be courageous, but the few times that I did it was a big deal but things worked out.

memories

I have a lot of early memories that have always stuck with me and that I remember in detail. But there is one that I always bring up, it was one time when I was maybe three or four, I have no idea why I remember this because it is not even interesting, but I was in my living room watching TV and my grandma was sitting at the dining room table. As she was sitting at the table all I remember is running back and forth from the TV to the table, and each trip she would feed me a spoonful of seaweed. Now I do not think there is much more to this memory, I think the lights were dim, so maybe it was nighttime and I do not remember anyone else. Also another time when I was really young, maybe around the age of four, and my brother and I were in my basement climbing pillows and making forts, so we brought all of our supplies upstairs and putt pillows across the stand where the lamp is and the couch. So after a few trials we were crossing the pillows like professionals, when all of a sudden my brother pulled the pillow from underneath me and I fell, and my mom’s favorite lamp broke. My mom is not a mean person, but at this moment in time I was scared for my brothers’ life. That is actually really dramatic, but being four I knew my brother was in a lot of trouble, I think his punishment was taking away his power rangers or something of that sense. I remember when this occurred my mom was in the bathroom, down the hall and when we heard her footsteps we were shaking. It was not so much that I thought we would get in trouble, but it was her favorite lamp. My mom never did anything to deserve that, it might be materialistic for most people but there was sentimental value. I am trying to think of other significant memories around this time… maybe when I was learning how to ride a bike without training wheels. This was a long process for me. I got discouraged more than two times, falling down and keep trying is not my thing. I figured why would I need to ride a bike anyways? So it was a day we were having a barbeque in the backyard and my Uncle Thommy brought me a new bike from, I don’t know, maybe a garage sale? (Yeah, “new bike”) My first bike without training wheels was black and lime green, it may have been a Ninja Turtles theme as well. So I got onto my new bike wearing a helmet, shorts and a tank top, and my Uncle Thommy was holding the back of my seat as I peddled down the dirt road. Thinking that I was able to ride alone without his help, he let go of my seat. I felt okay at first then noticed nothing good was about to happen. I live on a corner so there is a house to my right on the other side of the dirt road; I crashed right into a pile of concrete! My whole body was a bruise, I was crying as blood was gushing out of my bare legs. My uncle felt so bad and needless to say it took me a while to get my confidence back up.

privacy

Privacy is very important to me. No matter where I am I need to know that there is always a place to be private and alone if I need. Everyone deserves a little alone time without other people knowing what is going on or their business. I am a much closed person; it takes a lot for me to open up to a person, so what is my business I would rather not tell anyone and keep it to myself. In my life I feel as though I do get plenty of privacy. When it comes to getting dressed and things like that, there has to be a lock on the door. Most of my family and friends know that doors have to be locked and that when I need alone time just let me be. Whenever I get into bad moods I like to just sit in my room and take a nap, or listen to music, and in order to get out of my bad mood successfully, I need the door locked to be alone. It may sound strange but ever since I was little I always lock my doors; whether it be my bedroom, bathroom, house, car, locks are important. To me a lock reassures me that its private and some people really do not care whether a lock is on the door, or even if the door is closed. Now I do share my room with my sister, but there really is never a time when we are both home in the room, besides at night going to bed. I am not crazy about privacy, that’s the only big thing is getting dressed and what not. There is really no time in school when it is necessary to be private. I do not really have any serious secrets, but if I ever do I do not think it is anyone else’s business. There are no such things as secrets if you tell someone. The fact that someone else has the ability to let the world know your “secret” is not privacy at all. If something happens to that friendship they could always use that against you, whether it’s your best friend or boyfriend/girlfriend, I do not understand why people risk that? A secret is something that is only known by you otherwise you can’t be mad if the person you told spreads word around, it is your own fault for giving out the information. Especially in high school it is hard to keep your business only your business, rumors and stories spread like wildfire so it is much easier to just stay quiet. All in all there are times when privacy is necessary and others when it is optional, but always having the option is more comforting to those who feel this way. Also I think that it changes with age. Maybe when you’re younger you don’t care as much and you grow into a more private person or reversed. I think as I get older I am more comfortable with the people around me than when I was little.

curriculum

If I had to create a curriculum for kids my age at a school I would put classes in everyone’s schedule that they are more interested in. If a student wants to be a dentist, there is no need for history classes or cooking. This could be a positive curriculum change because having each student study specifically what they are looking to do in the future will benefit when it comes time to go to college. Instead of students going in to school undecided and spending money on classes that they may not even need for their once decided major they can jump right into necessary classes and credits. Most kids do not know exactly what they want to do as a career, so high school should be where they figure it out. In high school there should be more options and career decisions. Students should pick specific courses related to any major and see if they would like to continue it each marking period, this will be a good experience and very helpful. I would leave the school time the same, 7:15-1:30 I think this time is very convenient for all. It allows kids to have after-school jobs, or still early enough to do homework and/or hangout with friends. I think the school year should start September 1st and end in May 1st. By the time kids get to high school all of the basics are already taught. Reading and writing are two of the first things that we learn as kids. I do not think that my curriculum would involve the basics; if some one does not know how to read or write then they should not be attending high school in the first place. Gym classes should be optional because many of the kids do not participate in the first place so that is a waste of the teachers time, they should have classes of kids who really want to participate. Gym classes do not get kids in shape anyway, it is more of a free fun time, we do whatever activities we want and just enjoy it, and it’s not like going to workout. I think that there should be homework in every class. Homework really is helpful to refresh what you learned earlier in the day. A lot of kids complain about homework, but I never really get any, not that I wish I did, but I know that it is a good thing to work on. Especially going to college, it’s going to be a reality check. High school is ridiculously easy and I do not think that any of us are prepared for what is coming. College is going to be a big step from high school so I would like to make high school more focused on that transition. The homework would just be a review, nothing too crazy. I would understand that students do not have all night to do homework, they have other priorities. Actually maybe I would assign homework every other day. Kids can not have homework everyday because it gets old quick and that would not last long.

music

To me music is always a good way to get into a great mood. Whenever I am really moody or just cranky all I need is to listen to music, I do not know why but I love listening to my music. Music helps me to concentrate during certain times, like every time I clean my room I have to have my iPod blasting, while I sing my heart out, it makes cleaning go by so much faster. I can not think of a car ride when I have not had the radio on or my favorite CD in. the music I listen to has to have, my opinion, of a good beat. I can tell by the introduction to a song whether or not I will listen through the whole thing. I love pop and anything I can dance or bop my head to. I’m not a huge fan of country but there are a few songs that can keep my vocals screeching. I do no know what it is about music that I love, may of my friends always know that if you’re in my car, the music stays on and gets turned up, it keeps me happy, which may sound strange but I do not know what I would do without it. Is there any evidence or statistic showing that music helps moods? Because I know that it helps a lot with me. I wish that I enjoyed all types of music but I tend to stay close to hip-hop and pop, fast music, I am not a fan of slow songs, it doesn’t go with my personality. I like happy songs, not sappy love songs, or anything sad. Music is supposed to be encouraging and uplifting so why listen to sad slow songs? I think music really does distract me from what is really going on. It makes cleaning fly bye, driving time goes quick, it gives me something to focus on other than what is really happening. Sometimes it can be too much of a distraction like if I am doing homework or at work it can just create more chaos. At one of my jobs we always pick our favorite CD’s for the day and just keep them on repeat, but more often then not we become extremely obnoxious, singing and playing with the radio when we should be helping customers. I guess that there are good and bad in everything that is around us, but music is one of the better things that I have in my life. Singing is a whole other story, I love to sing, it is one of my favorite things to do. All of my friends know how loud I can be and how I always sing. Whether I am working, driving, walking around a store or down the school halls I will always be singing lyrics from a song or I will be making up my own. Now this does not mean I am good, my mom diagnosed me as tone deaf, but this doesn’t stop me. Music will always be a part in my life no matter where I go and I am thankful for that. It is the only cure I have to a bad mood.

risks

I would not consider myself a “risk taker”. Most of the time when people take risks it does not turn out as planned. I have never done anything that bad in my life, maybe the biggest risk I have taken has been… coming home a few minutes past curfew to see what my boundaries are ,since then I have not come home past curfew. Some people like the adrenaline rush, not knowing what is going to happen next, while others like knowing they are safe wherever they may be. That is the type of person I am. I like having the security of knowing that I am safe and that there is no way I could be getting caught up into any sort of trouble. Trouble is not my thing, I do not enjoy testing the waters or being a rebellious kid, I like to stay in the lines and not break rules. Rules and boundaries are there for a reason and I like to stick to it. The most dangerous thing I have ever been involved in was a car accident my freshman year with six or my close friends. Being a dumb freshman a few of us decided to go for a drive with a junior boy and we ended our fun car ride around a tree, car totaled. No one, luckily, was seriously hurt, but that could have turned out horrible. None of us were wearing seat belts and I did not know if the driver had been drinking or taking pills, it was unknown. So that was the most serious risk I have ever taken, besides that it has just been silly little things like at sleepovers we would sneak out for a few hours. Socially I feel like I take risks more often than not. I am always myself and I can be very loud or quiet in different situations, depending on how my attitude is that day can be a risk. Some days I feel more carefree than others, I could care less who was around me or what anyone thinks of me, but other times it is the complete opposite, I could be the most timid girl you’ve ever met. Academically I do not take many risks, I can not be risky in that field. In most classes I either do really good and I try hard if I am interested or I am laid back. Everyone has different views on what is risky and what is not. I know my boundaries for myself and I always think before I make decisions of what my mom would think. Before many decisions or anything that I may do I always say to myself, would I do this if my mom was here? Or what would mom think about this? It is very important to me to keep my mom proud of me and I would be crushed if I ever disappointed her. I never want to let her down and she has pretty high standards to why bother risking our relationship?

mr. mannion\

If you could be any color what color would you choose? Would you be a bright color? Or a dark color? Or in-between shades? Why have you chosen this color? What does this color represent to you? Everyone has a different taste in style and contrast but why? What certain colors look better together than others? Use your imagination to come up with something unique, do not pick any ordinary color, and try to be creative. This should be a fun blog topic try to compare the color of your choice to your personality. How do the two relate to one another? Also, what color would be opposite to your personality? And is there only one color that relates to each of us or many?

nursing

Knowing what career you want to be involved in is a very hard decision to make. It takes a lot of thinking and knowledge to even give the idea of doing something for the rest of your life. But for me this is something that I have known since I was in seventh grade. I do not have to do much thinking about the career I have chosen; it has always been my dream. I would love to be a nurse for the rest of my life, no; I know I will be a nurse one day. This is something that I know I will love doing. I figured this out at such an early age because my dad was sick so our family was constantly surrounded by nurses and doctors. Seeing the way they took care of my dad and our family really changed my life. They made the situation better for us and became a part of our family. Some of the nurses came to my dad’s benefit at the local firehouse and they lived all the way in Pennsylvania. During Christmas time they would make visits and just spend time with us or come over for dinner. One of the hospice nurses actually cooked us a really good pasta dinner and every once in a while we run into him around town. They made it so comfortable to be around and that’s how I want to make other families feel. It is so hard to be positive during such a negative time, but nurses can really make a difference. I want to help people who need it and comfort them. I definitely know that I do not want to work in a nursing home or with babies; I want to specialize in maybe cancer or hospice nursing. I also think that working in the emergency room would be very exciting. All that in know is that I am going to achieve this dream of mine and I will help families going through hard times cope with their situation because I can relate to them since I have been through it at such a young age. Nurses can really make or break a bad situation, having someone who is there that is nice, you feel comfortable with and is understanding makes a huge difference. First of all it is hard as a family, to let in other people like the nurses because have to go through the good and bad times just like the family and it is just as hard for them. It is a tough job to allow a stranger just take over, like in my case, it was hard for my mom to let nurses take care of my dad since she was so used to it. So I would love to make my patients feel comfortable enough with me to take care of their loved one. I also want to make the children in the family a big part of the help. So that is why I know that I am going to become a nurse.

wisdom

Wisdom is not something that comes from grades or high rankings, everyone has wisdom whether they know it or not. Wisdom is something that you get from having experience and you have been through all different types of situations. There is no age limit for wisdom, sometimes people say someone is wise if they are old, but that is not always the case. You do not have to be old to be wise, any situation can give you wisdom, it helps you deal with upcoming situations. I honestly do not really know the true meaning of wisdom, I could be completely wrong, but in my opinion wisdom is when a person has enough experience, or knowledge about a certain situation to make it through. A wise person has the ability to give helpful advice and has been in similar patches of their life. I think my mom is a very wise person. She has been through so much in her life that I truly trust her opinion or listen to her advice when she gives it to me. My mom has been very helpful during many times and always knows the right thing to say. I think everyone needs a person like this; someone you can always go to, vent, ask for help, or just listen to what has happened in their past, which might help you to avoid happening to you or help you become successful. My mom has been a very successful woman, not financially but she has a great family and a lot of friends that have always been here for her throughout the years, that is success to me. She is wise in so many ways and is very easy to talk to. Wisdom doesn’t have to come from an older adult, my mom is not old but I feel like she has a lot to share with me. Maybe all parents do? Parents have gone through exactly the same thing us teens have to. They know more than we think and most of us don’t allow our parents to share their experiences and what they have to say. A person can not test for wisdom. Everyone is born with it but it may not be available to all. At one time or another you share your wisdom with a fellow student, friend or family member. Advice on something that you can relate to is wisdom. We all have different stories to tell and advice to give, but that doesn’t mean someone is more wise than another. As we grow and mature we will have the ability to share our experiences and advice with people who are younger and who appreciate what we have to say.

Conflicts

A good way to solving conflicts between your friends and family would be talking out any frustrations that are putting a strain on the relationship. I know that when I get so built up inside with a person I hold everything in until it is too much so I vent to my mom or Maddie. In this situation it would really be best to talk it out with the person who I have a problem with but venting is something that will always make me feel better, no matter when or where, talking out my feelings and letting out what I had that was bothering me, is always a positive thing in my opinion. I feel like you can never vent too much, I could be in a horrible mood, vent to my mom and then everything will be fine. I tend to vent to my mom because she gives the best advice I could ever ask for. She makes me put things into other perspectives and really think about what it truly is that is making me so frustrated. I can not thank her enough for always making me happy when things are not looking so good. In any situation where there is a disagreement I may become frustrated during an argument and walk away, but after I think about it from the other person’s view, it becomes a lot easier to understand why we are fighting. When I fight with my sister it is never about anything serious, I can not even think of an instance where we had a legitimate fight about something meaningful. All of our fights are about clothes, our room, what our mom says, or when I watch her she does not appreciate me passing on the message from my mom, she thinks I am being bossy, which I totally understand but when I watch her I am in charge and she does not like that one bit. I have never had a fight with Maddie, maybe because there really is not anything worth fighting over, we will not let something stupid get in the way of our friendship especially because she is going away to college soon so every minute counts when we are together to have fun. If there was any circumstance where one of became upset with the other, it would only last at most a few hours. I do not believe we have ever spent a night fighting about anything. In my life I have not gotten into many fights at all, not even a handful. I don’t take much seriously, and if someone gets upset with me and does not tell me why I won’t waste my time trying to figure it out. When someone gets upset with me I want them to tell me, I don’t like to play games, because I could really care less.

history

I would like to go back in time to the early 1900’s when women had no rights. I believe that women’s suffrage is very interesting, of course it was not a good time in history but I would like to be able to compare the differences between then and now. It must have been very frustrating to be so low compared to the men. I am sure that the women were used to it, or at least did not expect much more, but if some women today were brought back to that period, it would most definitely be outrageous to the treatment they received. I find it funny that girls were pretty much nothing in the world, we did all of the dirty work, but for no reason. I wonder why men felt they were superior back then while now women are equal in every way. While I was there in that time period I would like to do the things that women do now. For example: have a job, build things, get out of the house, have men do stuff for me a little, and not cater to their every need. I feel that women have in their minds that they need to do things for their men all of the time without anything in return. Once in a while it is nice to spoil someone you love, but there is no obligation, especially to a man. I do not feel like any man is better than me, I could be just as good as a boy in any situation and it is degrading to learn about the treatment we as women received. If there was anyway possible to turn it around and make the men go through what we had to go through, they would not be too happy. If life could only be fair.

Advice

If I could give advice to my younger self, I would focus on school and my grades. All throughout high school I am happy with the grades that I had but I could have done a lot better. I never felt stressed out about an assignment, or did any crazy studying. If I really pushed myself to the extreme I could have gotten even better grades. I honestly do not think I have read a whole book that was assigned in any grade, or did real studying. I wish that I did my assignments when they were given to me instead of procrastinating until the due date. But now I can use this advice for when I go to college. I need to do all of my work when it is given to me so it doesn’t pile up. I think advice for anyone is to live life to the fullest. I live by this advice everyday and I hope it continues. I feel that everyday is special and I am really appreciative. Looking back these past eighteen years, there’s not much I would change. I feel as though I have done a lot of fun things, never gotten into serious trouble, have made a lot of great friends, have three fun jobs, and a loving family that I am extremely close to. I do not regret anything in my past, in the moment I had fun no matter the results. There is nothing socially I would change I have made a lot of friends and only lost a few. I think that I am pretty easy to get along with so I wouldn’t know what advice to give for the social aspect. Maybe I could learn not to be so laid back and trusting. I don’t think I allow people to walk all over me, but I know that in some situations I should have stood up for myself. What ever big situations that have come up in my life I am happy with the way I have handled it. I wouldn’t have changed my behavior in any circumstance now looking back, I don’t think that I am really good at expressing my opinion, so advice from me would have to be on a topic that I am passionate about. I am only a teenager and I have a lot to learn, maybe ten years from now if given the same question I would have more advice to give. Life is just beginning and hopefully I don’t have many times where I wished I could go back in time and change how I acted. I hope in most cases people do not regret the choices they have made. You should never have regrets, because at the time it must have been fun or enjoyable otherwise you wouldn’t have put yourself in that situation. I have been through a lot of important events, good and bad, but that only makes me stronger as a person. I do look at it as a life lesson but I can’t really say that I would recommend any advice to my younger self.

nature

Balance in nature is something that is not holding up to well over the past few years. Humans are destroying most of nature which in result is ruining the balance of the natural world. If humans backed off a little more, maybe animals wouldn’t be going extinct or endangered. We cause mainly all of the problems that are trying to be fixed now. All of the building and advancing of society is by far, ruining the environment and the cycle of life. Without trees, farms, or land, animals have no place to live and reproduce, which results in the endangerment of animals and plants can die off. Nature runs off of a system, everywhere you go there is a different natural system that can be adjusted at any time. The natural world is dependent on its surroundings and feeds off the help that humans give it. With every change that is made to our society, affects the natural world, some good and some bad. I don’t think that the natural world is in balance today, our society does not have as much nature as it used to. Little by little humans are destroying the natural system, which is something that can never be brought back. Once it is gone we won’t have anything. The natural world is the base for our world; it is how we survive from day to day. I think that in order for the natural system to be in balance again, we need to stop taking away from nature, pretty soon there will be nothing left to take, which means our world will be dissolving also. Too much building is knocking it out of balance. There is not enough land it the first place, and now we are taking all we can get to upgrade, its greed. There is no speaking of nature when it comes to finances and the people. Money is the only thing on the minds of businessmen, so they could care less how much land is obtained and or destroyed. Not only land occupation is ruining the natural world, but pollution. Pollution kills many plants and animals, even contaminates the waters, which are rain water. After the water is contaminated, not much use can it be. This is how animals die off, plants extinct, and even our society has consequences. We can get sick, corrosion, and having less natural supply. We need to have plants, oils, water and land to survive, without these things survival is impossible. As a world, all as one, we need to be more careful with nature, and not take it for granted. You never know when our supply will be all used up and we will be the ones to blame.

rich and poor

Having a society with rich and poor balances everything out. Nothing in life is fair, so to say that having a lot of money is unfair to the people who don’t, just doesn’t make sense. I do believe that people have money for a reason; they have worked and earned it. Sitting around all day isn’t going to get you anywhere. Money doesn’t grow on trees, to make money at least some effort has to be brought forth. It annoys me when people say they would have money if they could find a job. It isn’t that hard to get a job, you just have to look around and put out applications, sometime or another you will find something. Without different classes I don’t think the economy would survive. We need the rich, middle class, and poor to keep it in check. Some people are rich for ridiculous reasons, like athletes. Professional athletes should not make the amount of money that some of them do. Just because a person is good at baseball, doesn’t mean they deserve more money then a doctor who saves lives for a living. A professional athlete doesn’t benefit anyone. I can not seem to understand why a person who does a real career makes less than an athlete? Like I said before, life is not fair, and it will never be. In life it takes a lot to be successful, and a lot of people expect the best to be handed to them which isn’t going to happen. Not all poor people are lazy, they just don’t try as hard or care enough to be successful and have a good job. Also in many cases people are not making good money because their education is not as high as it should be. Unless you graduated from college, it will be hard to survive in the real world. Society will eat you up and you will find yourself to be miserable. Rich or poor doesn’t matter as long as you find happiness in the way things are going. I could be living in a box or in a mansion and still be happy. Rich is associated with materialistic items while poor is means not having much at all, either way happiness is free of charge and is something that everyone can have. That is one thing about life that is fair, everyone can find happiness in one thing or another no matter what social class you belong to. The social classes are more fair then not because it can always change, you could be poor one day and rich the next, or the other way around. Nothing is written in stone and that a good thing.

love

Love can not be defined. Everyone has a different type of love and shows it in different ways. Your type of love may not be the same as mine. People throw around the word love like it has no meaning. I can understand loving your friends and family, I tell my friends I love them all of the time, but it is a different type of love. The love for my friends is not the same as for a boyfriend or girlfriend. When people are in a relationship, it seems that they use the word love so soon. It takes time for love to grow and it shouldn’t be rushed. You may think you are in love, but how do you really know? How does anybody know when they are in love? I guess it is just the feeling you get when you are with a special person. This person can make you feel safe, warm, and happy, like you never want them to leave. I believe that you only find true love once, it may take a few tries, but when you fall in love that’s it. Love can be made into a job; you have to keep it alive. If there is no love, true love, relationships fail. I hear it is a hard thing to do, I have never fallen in love, I think being seventeen, love is just a fantasy. Relationships at this age are preparing us for love in the future, for when we are mature enough to work at it. I don’t think there is any specific age that you find love, and it is not impossible to find love at seventeen but I don’t think it is very common. Many teenagers will not become high school sweethearts and last forever, but for those who do it is really something special. That just means they were lucky enough to find each other at such a young age. There is a person for everyone, it may take some longer than others to find him or her, but eventually there time will come. Love is not something that a person needs, I feel as though we all want to find love, but it is not a necessity. We can all be fine without it. Love can be a comforting feeling, knowing that you will always have someone who cares about you and will do anything to please you, sure it sounds nice, and who wouldn’t want that? There is no such thing as having too much love. Love comes in unlimited amounts, you can’t measure the love you have for a person, it’s infinite. True love never fades, it has phases maybe ups and downs but there is always that chemistry between the two people. Love is complicated and people are blinded by love, or at least what they think love is. Love can camouflage someone’s flaws and portray something that is not real. I think this is also a big problem between couples, so you must always keep your eyes open when it comes to having a partner.

Punishment

If a person does something that society says is “wrong”, and then I do believe they should be punished. For example if a person murders someone, I don’t think they should be killed too. The punishment is worse to spend a lifetime in prison; if they are killed then they won’t have any suffering to live with. A thief should have all of their things taken away, depending on how serious the crime was. It would be even better to have the thief put away somewhere where it isn’t easy for him/her to take anything. I think prisons are a great idea, it is a horrible place for criminals to go, some of the people leave prison saying it changed their life and they would never want to go back. I have a cousin in prison, and he’s been there for almost five years, he gets released in April, who he couldn’t be any happier about, I think prison is a really scary place and he hopes with everything he has, that he won’t have to go back. Prison might have helped him to start over and turn his life around. I do think that if a person repeatedly commits crimes, they should be put away. They obviously don’t care enough to change what they are doing. That is what happened to my cousin. He had a build up of crimes throughout his life, since he was a teen, now he is in his twenties, so maybe he grew up a little. I think punishment is a reality check, you can’t do whatever you want, well you can but then just have to deal with the consequences. Yes people can be let out early even if there sentences aren’t up; mainly for good behavior. The better you are in prison, the greater chance you have of getting out early. Like I said about my cousin getting out in April, he wasn’t supposed to get out until the end of the summer. But since his behavior has been good they are trying to let him out. If I set the rules in prison I would be so strict. Sometimes on TV I watch the show “Locked Up” it is about different prisons in the country and gives documentaries about the prison life. I wouldn’t let people out early. I think they are in prison for a reason and need to serve their time. I would keep everyone in separate cells; there is no need for them to socialize, ever. When the prisoners get together it only starts trouble. That is how fights start, murders, drugs, tattoos. Those are not things that I would want to deal with. If everyone had their own cell I think violent activity would decrease. I would make prison hell. The food would taste horrible, nutritious, but bad. They would only be allowed outside fifteen minutes a day, and no visits. Only phone calls could be made. I would try to make it as bad as possible so that they would try to never come back.

Alone

I feel as though I am in the middle, I love being with people and interacting but then again I love to be alone. I feel more independent when I am alone, maybe not even doing anything specific, but just knowing I can be satisfied without depending on another human being makes me happy. I rarely feel scared alone, I usually get nervous when I am home alone after a scary movie, or driving down dark roads, but other than that it never tends to bother me. I look at myself as an approachable person, I like meeting new people and just being friendly to others. All three of my jobs involve interacting with customers, parents, or kids and I think I am pretty good at it. When I am alone that usually means I am home, so I like to catch up on my reality shows, watch a movie, or find something to do. Most of the time I clean the house if no one is home, I don’t know why but every time my mom goes away I find myself cleaning my room so my mom is happy when she gets back. No matter where I am or who I am with I can always find something fun to do or that keeps my interest. When people are always dependent on being with another person even if they are just running out to the store real quick, it bothers me. You can’t always depend on other people; you need to be able to do your own thing. I feel this way because it doesn’t bother me to walk in the mall alone or do anything by myself. On the other hand my brother has a girlfriend who can’t do anything without him. She is so attached to him all day- every day. It is really annoying. That is all she has, my brother and it’s pathetic to me. You need to be able to support yourself before helping others. So being alone resembles independence, and trust. When my mom goes away and leaves me home alone, it shows she can trust me and that I can’t take care of myself. I really love being alone when I am in a bad mood, or when I just wake up I don’t like to talk to anyone. Depending on how I wake up in the morning will tell how my mood will be during the say. If my brother wakes me up, rare occasions, I will most likely be in a bad mood and would like to be left alone. But, if my mom wakes me up things should be good. My brother isn’t good at waking people up; he takes the blankets off and shakes you, not a good way to start the day. That is really the only time when I need to be left alone, otherwise it doesn’t really matter. I could go either way with this question. I think everyone needs time alone, and time with others, it should be split up evenly.

Time Off

I do think people in our country get enough vacation time. I think having off of work or school you get into the habit of being home and that makes it even harder to get back into routine. I really don’t know what the normal time is for parents to have off; my mom doesn’t work so I am lucky enough to spend a lot of time with her. Having her home doesn’t give us a crazy amount of time together because I do work a lot and she doesn’t just sit home all day. People think that just because she doesn’t have a job she doesn’t do anything, but she keeps herself busy with things around the house, taking care of her kids and herself. It’s no walk in the park. Six weeks off paid vacation sounds pretty generous, I’m sure the workers enjoy it but here in the United States, two weeks sounds more reasonable. To have a break from the real world is always nice; it is not healthy to work nonstop all-day everyday, people need to have time for them and to have fun with their families. If students didn’t have weekends off I don’t think kids would do so well grade wise. It is good to relax on the weekends and not have to worry about school work or jobs. If family members had more vacation time then that would consist of my brother and me. My brother works almost full-time and goes to college; so he is usually busy or with his girlfriend. It would be nice to have him home more to spend time with us. We would all probably be a lot closer than what we are now. Also if I had more time off, I think I would get bored. I really enjoy working it keeps me busy and making money to support myself is very important to me. Having three jobs my friends think I have no life and just go to school and work all day, but that is not true. I don’t work as much as I could and I do get a lot of free time to spend with my family and friends. If we did spend more time together as a family I don’t think much would change. Usually we all go out to dinner, maybe once a week or at least have a sit-down dinner at home if mom cooks. This is a nice time for us to talk about our week and update one another. When I was younger we would sit down together for dinner every night, but with our schedules this doesn’t usually come together so well. So all in all, family time is very important, without time off from work, families fall apart. Everyone needs to spend time with loved ones so you don’t grow apart.

travel

If I could go anywhere in the world I would visit Greece, Australia, Tahiti, and Cabo San Lucas. None of these places are in our country, I feel like it is lot easier to stay in the country when going on vacation, so out of the country is more of an adventure, there are different sights, and cultures. I have been to a lot of places in my life, but never to these places, I love to travel and our family is all about vacations. All my life I have always wanted to go to Greece and Cabo san Lucas, Mexico. I think it would be a lot of fun and it looks so pretty. There are not any specific places in these countries that I would like to visit, just in general I would want to go there. I think it is a good experience to travel, even if it is just a different state. Staying where you grew up your whole life does not give anyone a chance to see how other people live, or what is really out there. I would not stay in any fancy hotels, most of the time spent on vacation you aren’t in a hotel. In my opinion I would stay in a not so nice hotel, as long as it has a bed and bathroom it is fine. Families spend so much unnecessary money on fancy hotels, I don’t get it. I would rather save my money for the excursions themselves, like buying souvenirs, or going on different day trips. I don’t really know what new foods I would try, I’m not a picky eater but I do tend to eat the same types of food wherever I am. If something sounded good I would try it but nothing crazy. Some places have weird foods like bugs and frog legs, that’s not my thing; I’ll stick with pasta, something that I know will always be one of my favorite dishes. I would love to stay in the towns of these places, to see how the people really live, not in the tourist parts. It might sound silly but ever since I saw the movie “The Sisterhood of The Traveling Pants” I’ve been dying to go to Greece! I know a few friends who have been to Australia and they loved it! Everyone has certain places that they would love to see I just wish it was a little less expensive to travel. I hope that when I have a family we travel as much as I do now with my mom. Every year we go on vacation and its so much fun, no matter where it is to. This year is my first trip out of the country alone, without my mom. I am happy that I get to experience Paris for the first time, but it is going to be hard doing it alone. This is a chance of a lifetime and I am so thankful that I am actually going.