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.