Current Events

There's been lots of news stories about unarmed shootings and riots across America right now. And from my little spot in Utah, I don't see many young people taking an interest in this. That bothers me. That the young people of today can be so ignorant as to what is happening in our country. I'm not just talking about the shootings and riots, I'm talking politics and government and society as a whole. We know which ex Taylor Swift's song is about, yet we don't know the causes behind the Ferguson riots. We think it's ridiculous that Kim and Kayne named their baby North West, yet we don't know why our troops are positioned where they are.
  As seniors in high school we are turning eighteen, legally able to vote, do we even know what the separate parties stand for? Probably not, because we are so consumed with how many likes we can get on our Instagram pictures.  We're about to enter the real world, but do we even know anything about it? Celebrities aren't the real world, athletics are not the real world. Riots, and wars, and political actions, that's the real world. And I'm not saying that celebrities and sports and social media are bad, I actually think they are a good thing. When used in moderation. It's interesting to watch reality shows, but what about the news? When was the last time you turned on the news?
As for the Ferguson riots and the multiple shootings, I don't know how much information these protesters have correct. In fact, I don't know how much true information I've been given. The news tends to have a way of bending the facts to make the story more interesting and controversial. So how much truth are we honestly being given? I think that's something we need to keep in mind when we are browsing the internet. Even on top news sights, are they unbiased? Are they factually correct? Or are they trying to be controversial? Are they trying to get a rise out of the American public?
The Michael Brown shooting was one of the first "racial shooting" stories that caught my attention. And then the Ferguson riots started. The issues that are being raised about these shootings is that they are racist towards the people that were shot, saying they were shot for being black. I thought in America it was freedom for all, and I believe that America as a whole does believe this. That is not to say that individuals are still prejudice.

Ban on books?

Let's take a minute to discuss censoring and banning. To censor something is to remove an material the censorer deems inappropriate, such as language, violence or death. Some companies try to censor a book before they flat out ban it. What got me thinking about banning and censoring and what not was when I read an article on how a school banned The Fault In Our Stara by John Green. The Fault in Out Stars is one of my favorite books so I was sad to see that it was banned. There are some books that I believe should be banned or taken off of print even! But The Fault in Out Stats is not one of these books. Yes it does contain some adult material such as language, death, and sex. So yes I do believe it is a book for mature readers. But there is no cause to ban it.
The school it was banned from was a middle school so the readers would be at a younger age, but I believe it is up to the parents of said children to determine if their child is mature enough to read the book. The Fault in Our Stars contains many amazing messages about life and love. So maybe some thirteen year old children shouldn't be allowed to read the book yet. The key word there is yet.
I think what banning comes down to is protection and sheltering. One of the reasons the middle school banned the book was that is contained death. Wait a minute. This school is sheltering their children from death. They know that death and cancer and deises are a part of life right? Sure we don't need to over expose our children to the realities of the world at such young ages, but they do need to learn to accept it. Death and diesels and trails are things that we are all going to experience in life. As much as we wish our lives were Disney movies, they aren't. (Don't get me wrong I love Disney just as much as anybody else. If not more.)
I believe books like The Hunger Games, Divergent, The Maze Runner and Fault in Our Stars should be reserved for more mature readers,  but they should not be banned. And it's the parent-child relationship that needs to come to the conclusion on if the child should be permitted to read the book, not the school district.
The books we've discussed are all beautifully enriching to the human minds, but there are some books that are harmful to the intelligence of humanity. These are the kinds of books that should be banned. Actually they shouldn't have been published in the first place. But books that fall into this category are far and few. But they are there.

Losing with class

On Friday my high school played it's biggest game: our rivals. And it was their homecoming to top it off. When I was a sophomore we lost for the first time in twenty-two years. A bummer? Very much so. Then my junior year we played them at our homecoming...they won again. Now it's my senior year and my class has yet to beat our cross town rivals. My friends and I showed up forty-five minutes before the game began and the stands were already packed. My school was a reputation of having a very loud student section. And Friday night was the loudest we've been. In the first quarter the other team gets a touch down. That was the only touch down the entire game.  As the final minutes of the fourth quarter ticked away, our student section went silent. And slowly we all raised our right pointer finger in the air. This is a tradition that started my sophomore year. Our theme that year was We Are One. We use the raised finger to show our team that we are one and we still stand behind them. I thought this was the classiness that my school represents. But of course not everyone sees loosing the same way. There were three kids in the crowd that decided that it'd be better to flip the other school off. Now this is what really impressed me. The students around the kids that were flipping people off told them to stop. These were high school teenagers that were telling their peers to stop disrespecting the other team. Now that can't be easy, standing up to peers like that. In the moment it's easy for us to get caught up in the emotions and the drama of the loss, but my school handled the loss classy, except for those three kids but I guess we can't expect everyone to be a good loser.  

There are two types of people in this world. Those that stand beside their team and those that trash the opposing team. Yes there's a difference. When you stand beside your team you encourage them, you stay classy in the face of defeat. Now the people that trash the opposing team do exactly that: trash the opposing team.  They're the people that flip them off, boo, and throw stuff at the field. This reveals more about their character then  they can imagine. Losing is comparable to a trail in life. There are two ways people face trails. They either accept the cards they were delt and stand strong in the face of adversity. Or they turn bitter and spiteful against the world and against those around them. We know  both kinds of people. Don't we? 

So which are you when trails come your way? Are you a classy loser? Or do you tend to stick a finger to the world? Just food for thought today. 

Put down your device

Social media is a topic that many bloggers have been covering lately. And most of these bloggers are adults, nott that there is anything wrong with adult bloggers but the social media networks are the territory of the teens. So let me say a couple things about social media from the point of view of a high school student.
I would rather have real, physical friends than followers or "friends" who I've never actually met in person. There's some connections that can only be established on a personal, face to face basis. I don't believe that our social media followers can compare to real life social interactions. One thing that has bothered me a lot this school year is the amount that other students use their phones. When a teacher gave us freetine in a class today, the kids around me pulled out their phones and got onto Instagram, Facebook, ect. There was no one around for me to talk to because everyone was plugged into their phones. My generation is slowly losing it's ability to communicate with actually physical beings instead of through a portable screen.
There is this video that I recently saw that I really likes. "Put down your device, look up from your display." Now this may seem a little contradicting coming from a blogger. But I do believe that the technology we have can be used for the benefit or harm of our world. The harm is when we let the liking and posting and status updates interfere with our real, personal relationships with family and friends.
For all the crap that social media gets there are some benefits. I have family that lives across the country and we use social media to keep in touch. We can see pictures and videos of our cousins growing up. Sites like Instagram help me to keep in touch with friends who are already in college and out in the world. I have a friend who is in Jerusalem right now and she posts on Instagram to keep us all involved in her adventures across an ocean.
Use social media, and just technology in general, carefully. Don't let them drive a wedge between you and your real life relations. Learn when you need to put down your device and look up from your display. Step away from the artificial light of a screen and go out in the sun. It's brighter than any phone, computer or tv screen you will see. Go live your life, don't post it.

Break ups and rebounds

Over the summer all my friends broke up with their boyfriends. For the first time since junior high none of us are in relationships. There's one friend that I have that we shall call Sarah for the blog. Sarah and her boyfriend had only been together for five or six months when they broke up. The reason for the break-up? He had interest in another girl. Really this is not an abnormality in high school relationships. But just because it isn't unusual doesn't mean that it doesn't hurt. When we went to the football game on Friday, Sarah's ex-boyfriend was there with his new girlfriend. They were standing in the row behind us. I was nervous about how Sarah was going to handle this. She was fine at first and then she left the bleachers in a hurry. If Sarah wants you to follow, she'll just tell you to come with her. This time she didn't say anything before she left. There's points in life where you've got to let people be alone, but there are times when you need to be there for people. Sarah looked all composed when she left. But when I found her on the grass by the parking lot, she was crying. People are like chips. The packaging can look completely perfect, everything put together. But when you open the package, the chips are broken. Now don't get me wrong. Sarah was not in love with this boy. She cared about him, she was attracted to him, but she was not in love. And she knows that. But she is hurt. She says it hurts to see him move on so quickly. He has moved on to another girl while she is alone. There's a part of her that wants her ex to see her in a happy, better relationship. This is a totally normal part of breaking up. This is where the "rebound phase" comes into play. I have never been in a relationship like my friends have so I may be biased but I do see things a little more clearly can they do after their break ups. A rebound phase is temporary relief from the problem. But after the rebound is over you'll end feeling worse than before. The thing with high school relationships is that you have to learn how to love yourself before you can love another person. Learn to be on your own before you become involved in a relationship. Sarah is learning that now. It'll be interesting to watch her grow over the next few weeks since the breakup. So for the week there's a little lesson in relationships. Little known, everything to learn.

Little known, everything to learn

Unlike most high school students I recognize that I actually don't know it all.  In fact, I know very little outside of my safe little bubble of Utah.  And lately I've been finding life lessons in the simplest moments  of my life. Maybe I want to post these moments so others can learn too, or maybe I want to post them so I feel like my words are out there on the world. And maybe  these words will just float off in cyber space to never be seen by anyone. But is that so bad? They're out there, and that's all that matters.  So dear internet bloggers and bloggies who are searching for enlightenment or humor or escape from something, welcome to my little known world.