American Studies Blog

Progress?

2009-06-01T09:09:00.000-07:00

This is a sad picture of seven African American Couples before their African American only prom. Yes, their prom is segregated meaning they were no allowed to attend the white prom the night before. They are standing on a downward slope that represents Americas progress. It is astounding that in 2009, not 1909, not 1809, not 1709, 2009 there are segregated proms. For my final, I did a see, think, wonder model and here it is: I see 7 Black couples standing together on a downward sloping bridge. They look unhappy and defeated.
I think they are unhappy because they are forced to go to an all Black Prom; they feel defeated because they were prohibited from attending the all White prom.
I wonder if the White students who attended prom the night before care that their Black friends are going to a diferent prom.
The downward sloping bridge represents the downward path America is headed. A segregated prom in 2009 is the opposite of progress.
This relates to AIS’ Myths and Mythologies unit because there is a myth that because Obama is president, racism is dead in America. This myth is clearly only a myth because in 2009, there are still segregated proms in America.

Segregation in the United States? In 2009?!?!

2009-05-31T19:55:00.000-07:00

Only a short week ago, if I was asked if it was legal in the United States of America if there as still legal segregation in America I would have replied no; then I read this article in the New York Times (so you know it is legitimate) In the month of May, students all over the United States start to prepare for their proms. While most schools have one prom per year, some have too. On May 1st, 2009 a school in Montgomery County in Georgia had their annual white only prom. Yes, you did not misread that statement, they had a white only prom (pictured above). The following night they had their black prom (which white students are allowed to attend). While some may not believe it, there is still racism as well as racial inequality in America. One may wonder how it is possible to have a segregated prom, the answer is that the prom is not school funded, it is privately funded and that is how it has been going on for so long. I was reminded of this article when we were given our final exam question, whether we believe there is progress in America or not. I'm fairly certain most Americans would be very surprised to hear that there are segregated proms in 2009! Segregated proms have been a tradition in the Montgomery county schools in Georgia since schools were desegregated in 1971.

"'It’s awkward,” acknowledges JonPaul Edge, a senior who is white. “I have as many black friends as I do white friends. We do everything else together. We hang out. We play sports together. We go to class together. I don’t think anybody at our school is racist.' Trying to explain the continued existence of segregated proms, Edge falls back on the same reasoning offered by a number of white students and their parents. 'It’s how it’s always been,' he says. 'It’s just a tradition.'" That was a quote I found interesting from the article. It is ridiculous that these white students can call the African American students their friends, yet they do not care that their prom is segregated. While the white students do not seem to think there is a problem with this, the black students do. You can hear students and parents from both sides talk about the problem by clicking here. One of the black students, Kera Nobles, feels extremely hurt that she cannot share her senior prom with her best friend, who is white, and that her friend does not seem to care. This article relates to our myths and mythologies unit because there is a myth in America that because Barack Obama is president, racism is dead in America. That is clearly a myth, racism is not dead. However, how can these people have a segregated prom if Barack Obama is president. The myth makes sense because you would think that if we can elect a black president we can have desegregated proms.

American Progress

2009-05-30T21:09:00.000-07:00

Yes, I'll admit, as man of the other American Studies students probably should, upon being assigned our final, to find a picture of American progress, I searched 'American progress' in google images. What the results yielded were very interesting. I received, and I kid you not, three and a half pages of American Studies' very own John Gast's painting "American Progress". If you do not believe me click here. While I probably should not be too surprised at the popularity of this image, I am kind of surprised it took up three and one half pages of google images (with 20 images per page). I guess I'll have to use a different method to find the picture of American progress for my final. Maybe I'll use an image of American un-progress. I guess I'm still undecided whether America is actually progressing or not.

The Friendly Neighborhood Flag

2009-05-10T19:07:00.000-07:00

For American Studies class we were asked to take a picture of a flag, any flag and analyze our choices. I took many pictures of flags and this is the one I choose. This flag flies in my neighbor's yard. It is the only flag within a couple blocks of my house. I was trying to get a picture of this flag that made it look more majestic, but the wind wasn't right. However, I like the way it turned out. The flag isn't perfect, but it is protecting the neighborhood, just like Spider-man, thus I call it the Friendly Neighborhood Flag. When we were assigned this project, I started to wonder where flags were by my house. The first flags I thought of belonged to New Trier and Highcrest, two schools near my house. I thought it was funny that I automatically associated the flag with school, so I decided not to go straight to one of the schools and take a picture of one of those flags. I talked to my family about it and my sister reminded me that our neighbor had a flag in their yard. I hadn't really noticed it before. I guess I knew it was there, but I hadn't remembered it until my sister had reminded me. Then I took several photos of the flag from my window and ended up choosing this one. I like it because the flag is centered in with a lot of nature, but if you look closely you can see houses and power lines. It also looks like the flag is standing guard over the neighborhood, like our stars and stripes are protecting us.

Trouble

2009-05-01T03:21:00.000-07:00

I am in trouble. This is really annoying. I exchanged a couple emails with a possible interview candidate a week and a half ago who said he wouldn't mind answering some questions. I sent him the interview questions and he still hasn't gotten back to me. I then proceeded to send out 4 more emails on Wednesday. I just got one back saying he would not have time to answer any interview questions, but gave me a link to one of his websites. This is really annoying because it would have only taken him a few more minutes than it took to answer the email to answer a couple questions. I guess my only option now is to send the questions out to the other people and as a first email to other possible people. However, I do not have a lot of time because the paper is due on Tuesday!!

Junior Theme Post 2

2009-04-24T06:50:00.000-07:00

A week from today our rough drafts are due. I'm actually feeling pretty confident in my Junior Theme because I already have two body paragraphs done and I think they're pretty solid. The main thing I have to do now is set up my interview and then I'll be pretty much set.

Junior Theme Post 1

2009-04-12T16:52:00.001-07:00

My Junior Theme question is, "Why do Americans Love Violence?" When I say violence I mean violence in movies, video games, sports, books, and other forms of entertainment. I do not mean actual real life violence. As I am writing this blog post, I am also writing the introduction to my Junior Theme. Its kind of hard to actually start writing this paper, there is so much pressure involved. This is the most important paper of the year! In fact, it could possibly be the biggest and most important paper I ever write. I cannot think of a grabber for the life of me. I've been looking for witty quotes, statistics, and real world examples, but I can't seem to find what I'm looking for... scratch that, I just found it. I'm using a grabber that relates to me. I'm using phrases such as "I love," I'm not sure if thats ok though. I guess I'll find out tomorrow in AS.

What is the Deal with Snow on the last day of Spring Break?

2009-03-29T16:36:00.001-07:00

So I woke up this morning around 11 and looked out the window. What I saw seriously annoyed me, snow. What is the deal here? Snow on the last day of spring break. Does the weather not realize its supposed to be warm and sunny? Snow is supposed to fall in winter, not spring. We can't even get excited about the snow here like you can in other places, snow is just annoying in Chicago, everywhere else it gets you out of school. There were a couple days this break where the weather was warm and the sun was out, but some of the days weren't what I would call spring. I wish the weather could just get out track because if its still cold when May rolls around I'm going to be seriously depressed, I can only take so much cold.

Should we play the best or the hardest working?

2009-03-19T16:53:00.000-07:00

The other day in SALT (student athletic leadership training) we were asked if we had any problems we wanted to talk about on our teams. I brought up the problem of who should be allowed to run (I run track) the kids who are naturally fast, or the harder workers? Sometimes, those kids are the same kids, which makes the decision easy, but sometimes they are not. For example, we have conference coming up and some of our fastest guys on our team have been slacking off and some of the kids who are not top two for the open events and top four for the relays have been working really hard because they want to race. This leaves us with an ethical dilemma because even though these kids are working really hard, the probably won't be as fast as the fast slackers by conference. So who do you allow to race? The fast slackers or the kids who work hard, but aren't as fast? I wish I could simply say the harder workers, but that would probably mean forfeiting a lot of points at the meet, which we don't want to do. This problem applies to all sports. Do you let the kid you cannot win without play if he is slacking off? If you punish the slacker, you end up punishing the whole team. It seems like this is an ethical dilemma with no right answer.

March Madness

2009-03-18T20:42:00.000-07:00

So the other day in business management we were talking about March Madness. My teacher was explaining that the United States of America looses huge amounts of money due to the NCAA tournament. There is a huge lost of productivity due to people making brackets and watching the games. We debated whether we should make the first friday of March Madness a holiday and make people work harder the next monday to make up for losses. This way, people are more open about what they are doing instead of sneaking and making brackets behind their boss' back. I heard that in Brazil they take a week off during the World Cup. One thing my dad's company did last year was called everyone into the conference rooms pretending they had some annoying meeting and instead put up TVs and let everyone watch the games for a little while. They had an understanding with the employees that afterwards they couldn't fool around and had to work hard for the rest of day/week. I think that is not that bad of an idea. However, if you allow one sport holiday people might call for the monday after the Superbowl to be a day off and then things might get out of hand.

Symbols

2009-03-18T18:23:00.000-07:00

Yesterday in American Studies we discussed the picture above. A lot of people had trouble believing that not only there were no symbols in this photo, because it happened in real life, but that there are no symbols in real life what so ever. I disagree with those who think that. I think there are many symbols in this photo and in real life. For one, obviously the flag is a symbol. The young man is using it as a weapon to attack a defenseless African American Lawyer. I think this is another symbol, the fact that the African American is a Lawyer, who is supposed to help serve justice is being beaten up by a teenager with an American flag. Just because all this happened in real life doesn't mean that they are not symbols. For example, in class we discussed the different symbols that identify teachers and students. The teacher sits behind a desk in the center of the room, this is a clear symbol to the students that this guy is in charge. Students carry heavy backpacks, while the teachers do not. A car or house can symbolize how successful someone is. Symbols exist all around us.

Bong Hits for Phelps

2009-02-01T19:36:00.000-08:00

Michael Phelps, the best Olympian to ever live, smoked weed out of a bong. This may surprise many people that America's greatest champion would smoke weed, which is not only illegal but bad for him as well. Phelps had this to say. "I engaged in behavior which was regrettable and demonstrated bad judgment. I'm 23 years old and despite the successes I've had in the pool, I acted in a youthful and inappropriate way, not in a manner people have come to expect from me. For this, I am sorry. I promise my fans and the public it will not happen again." I think that a lot of his endorsements will now drop him because of this making it a multimillion dollar mistake. This is not his first mistake however, he has a DUI from a couple years ago.

The Big Seventeen

2009-01-11T20:51:00.000-08:00

Why is blogging once a week so hard for me? It is a simple assignment, yet it is very hard for me to keep up with, as it is for many others. In my case, I think it is not only my procrastination that I've been struggling with since I was 6, but for the fact we are not graded once a week. These on going assignments that are only checked in bulk are for some reason very, very hard for me too keep up with. I always find myself procrastinating until the end. I mean, I try to sit down once a week to write, but for some reason whenever I do, unless if its at the last minute, I have writers block so I just say to myself, I'll make up for it next week. Seriously, what is my problem? I really hope that next semester I'll be able to stay on top of this blog once a week instead of waiting, but the damn procrastination refuses to leave me, no matter how hard I try not to procrastinate.

Witch Hunt

2009-01-11T19:56:00.000-08:00

The other day I saw a headline titled, Modern Day Witch Hunt. I have to say, it brought me back to the beautiful Crucible Days. It got me thinking, what were these little girls problems? Seriously, assuming they really weren't witches, from the begging all they had to do was say, "Guys, none of us are witches! We were just dancing in the forest, STOP HANGING PEOPLE!!!" Alas, these girls needed to have their fun by pretending to have spoken to the devils and knowingly and willingly falsely accusing innocent women. Well, I hope those girls had their fun because hopefully a group of people will never again believe something that is obviously b.s. (excuse my french) that will lead to the deaths of many people.

Another Post about TV Tokenism

2009-01-11T19:27:00.000-08:00

I have a question this time, what is more racist, having the token black character or not having any at all? I feel like its having the token black character. I mean come on, why would you insult minorities by labeling them as the token, as Doc Oc stated, a token isn't even real, it just resembles something that is(paraphrased). If I was a minority, I would not stand for this, the Television Industry needs to change, and so does it's viewers. We need to take action by boycotting shows without diversity or with the token character. Also, maybe the actors should step up. Who wants to be a token anyway? You could argue that minority actors are doing what ever they can to get a role, but if every stepped up, actors, viewers, minorities, and majorities alike, there would be a change in the Television Industry. We would see more diverse casts with minority character with more complex roles. It doesn't matter if you absolutely love a show like Friday Night Lights, which I do love, that doesn't have a diverse cast, if we didn't watch it, it would either make a change or get canceled (which would stink, maybe we shouldn't take a chance with Friday Night Lights, but that's the thinking every one does, we need to stand up to shows without diverse casts and we ought to not like shows without diverse casts). I thought that the TV Tokenism unit was actually very interesting and enlightening, and that is why I felt it deserved two posts. If only everyone had their eyes opened to what the TV gets away with, and then maybe things would change. Minorities cannot do it alone, because they are the minority and people pend to not listen to the minority.

Finals

2009-01-11T19:04:00.000-08:00

As everyone knows finals are coming up and I do not think one person is excited. Seriously, who wants to try to remember a full semester worth of knowledge? The typical final is 15% of your ENTIRE grade for the quarter and it can really only bring you down. If you get a zero, you'll loose 15% of your grade, while if you get ace it you can only really go up 3%. I don't like those stakes, if it were up to me we wouldn't take any finals, however I'd bet any highschooler would say the same thing. Finals are such a pain, I wish they'd just go away.

TV Tokenism

2009-01-03T19:09:00.000-08:00

For the past couple of weeks we have been studying TV Tokenism. I feel that TV Tokenism is definitely a problem, but I feel like it is not a problem for most of America. If America truly cared about the problem, it would not exist. If people saw a cast and thought that it was not diverse enough they wouldn't watch the show, simple as that. If America did not watch shows without diverse casts, the ratings would go down and changes would be made. I feel that America is simply happy the way things are, that's why the casts are not diverse. However there are a few shows with diverse casts. One of my favorite shows, Dexter, has a very diverse cast. While the main role, of course, is played by a white male the supporting characters are very diverse. The lieutenant is a Latina and she is a pretty complex character, while in most shows the minority character is not complex. Also, the main detective is African American and is a very interesting character who gets even more complex in the episodes preceding his death. There are two more main roles with minority characters and that is one of the main reasons the show is so succesfull.

Max Rice Post

2008-12-23T17:18:00.000-08:00

This is a Max Rice post. It is a Max Rice post because it has a very clever title and it doesn't entirely concern our wonderful class American Studies. I hope Max isn't mad at me. Any way, my post is about the Baltimore Ravens. The Baltimore Ravens are a great football team. There defense is always a top rated defense and this year we finally have a good offense, that's why we are going to the AFC championship. I have to say, the game against the Titans this Saturday was extremely nerve racking. I was so scared, it was tight the whole way through and the Ravens caught a number of breaks. Ray Lewis, my man, he had 11 tackles and one forced fumble. This is why the Raven's defense has been so good for so long, the one common denominator, Ray Lewis. Also, we do have The Ball Hawk, Mr. Ed Reed. He's really good, but where was he Saturday? I didn't really see him make any plays. Flacco also, he really keeps his cool. If you've ever seen him in an interview after the game you would be able to see how cool his demeanor is for such a young quarter back. He's also the only rookie quarter back to every win not only one playoff game, but two. Thank you Max Rice for setting the precedent that its ok to sometimes write a blog post that doesn't concern AS.

iPods, and why won't the stop changing?

2008-12-09T10:22:00.000-08:00

IPods, everyone has them and everyone has had more than one. Most people at least, there are a few who are so careful that theirs haven't broken. However, I have broken my fair share of iPods. I have also tried to go without one for awhile, but its very hard. I think for a lot of people, an iPod is a safety blanket. When your in public just walking around or hanging out, it gives people the impression that your doing something. Also, how much cooler does a person with an iPod in their ear look than one without? The answer is a lot cooler, and that is why a lot of people cannot live without an iPod. When you finally convince your parents to buy you yet another iPod, you arrive at the apple store either disappointed or very enthused. The iPods have magically changed in the time you've been away. They've gotten smaller or changed shape from a wide rectangle to a very long one. Or they have grown on the inside, having more gigabytes or the capability for movies and photos. For some people, this is great news. There are no more of their old out of style iPod, their parents are forced to buy them a new and improved one. For people like me, this is devistating. I liked my old iPod, why do they have to force this new one upon me :(? Also, where did the old ones even go? Surely the did not sell all of their 2nd generation nanos. They must have disspeared, or evolved into new ones. Who knows? To me, its a mystery.

What Would You Do?

2008-12-09T10:11:00.000-08:00

Before getting sidetracked by the fact that anamericanstudies.com is blocked, I was going to respond to the Choose Your Own Adventure blog post. Because I cannot read the whole post, only glimpse the first part from my homepage, I will create a situation and ponder about what I would do in it.We will set our scene in World War II Nazi Germany. If I was a non-Jewish person, witnessing people being loaded onto a train surely going to a Death Camp, I wonder what I would do. I'd like to think I'd do anything to help, but I honestly do not know. Would I endanger myself and my family to save another? However, if I was Jewish and in a Death Camp I know I would have done everything in my power to escape. I would have tried to rally everyone up and get them to rebel against the guards. I'm pretty sure that although the Nazis had guns, the Jews outnumbered them in the Death Camps. If I knew everyone was going to die anyway, I'd try to maybe jump some of the guards, get there weapons and do my best to escape. After that I'd lead my people to other Death Camps and free those Jews as well. I know looking back, all that sounds so easy, and it probably would not have been, but I'm sure I would have tried. This situation is truly a "do or die" situation.

AnAmericanStudies.com is BLOCKED??

2008-12-09T10:04:00.001-08:00

It is 5th period and I decided that I'd get ahead on my blog posts so I logged on. I decided to first comment on one of the posts on anamericanstudies.com, but to my shock, the blog page was blocked! At first, I could not believe my eyes. I thought that I must have made a typo, but alas, I found that no typo was made. New Trier has truly blocked anamericanstudies.com by deeming it inappropriate. I do not understand why blog, made by our two fine AS teachers, could possibly be bocked. I feel like many websites that can be used as learning tools are blocked by our school. One pain in the butt is YouTube. I understand why YouTube can be distracting for students, but also is a key tool to use for many projects. Blocking YouTube deters us from learning. I think that the school should allow students working on a project to be able to use YouTube and other websites normally blocked. Also, they should really not block every website that has an inappropriate word on it. It blocks too many.

Do we Trust our own Government?

2008-12-08T20:02:00.000-08:00

Through all our discussions in American History, I feel like a people have a general distrust for the Government. Whenever there is talk about the limitations of Civil Liberties, people act like the Government is out to get us. I wonder, why is that? Isn't the Government here to protect as, are we not a Democracy, for the people by the people? If we in fact are, then why do people have a fear of our Government and what it can do? I think that if they want to wiretap our phones, why should we oppose them? Shouldn't they be doing it to keep us safe? Shouldn't limiting free speech be something to protect us, rather than being a tool to suppress and control us? My main question is, is there a reason people distrust our Government so much and are these reasons justifiable? We elect these people and they are Americans like us too, why should they be feared?

Take from the Rich and give to the Poor?

2008-10-21T20:09:00.000-07:00

We recently discussed whether or not the rich should be taxed more and the poor have more tax benefits in American Studies. We discussed whether or not a rich person should be punished for working hard or if that rich person is even working hard. There are many ways to become rich without working hard, and many ways to be poor even though one is working hard. For instance, maybe there should be an inheritance tax and tax benefits from working more than one job. I feel that it is not fair to tax a person who truly worked extremely hard to get to where they are in life. If one worked an 80 hour work weeks and made 1 million dollars a year and got taxed heavier than a person who doesn't work and lives off of welfare there is a problem. Also, if there is just one cut off deciding who is rich and poor, and that cut off is $250,000 and a person who makes less than that is 'poor' and a person who makes more than that is 'rich' that is a problem as well. If the people making over $250,000 are taxed at a 33% income tax and the person making below that is only taxed at 15% income tax a person making only $240,000 really makes $204,000 and a person making 260,000 really makes 174,200. I think that that is insane. How does a person making more money end up with less after taxes? I think the percentages for one should be closer together, however I do agree the rich should be taxed slightly less, and that there should be more categories instead of just two. People barely making enough money to live and are working should be barely taxed, so that they can make money and are not set up to fail. In an idealistic world there would be many solutions to this solution, however we live in the real world; there is no perfect solution to this problem.

Teachers and Politics

2008-10-05T18:50:00.000-07:00

In American Studies we had a discussion about teachers and whether they should or should not discuss politics. I believe that they should be able to discuss politics in the classroom, however, they should not solicit their views and opinions to the students. That doesn't mean they shouldn't tell the students their views though, because if the students aren't sure which party the teacher supports, they will be confused as to what the teacher truly means when they make a statement.

Not the Best

2008-09-26T06:47:00.000-07:00

The program we are using for our American Studies project, Voice Thread is not the best program to use. While there is the advantage of being able to do our project over the Internet, the set backs are too great. While experimenting with Voice Thread I have found that there are many things they don't allow you to do, like edit the timing on individual slides, that are really just a pain in the butt. If you want to edit the slides individually, you have to put them in power point first and then upload them to Voice Thread. When you do upload them you have to make sure that they are perfect, or you'll have to pretty much restart your project. Adding music and transitions is just as hard. However, all these things are not impossible, just really, really annoying. Mr. Bolos and Mr. O'Connor were talking about how these things set limitations artistically, however, I'd disagree. I can still edit the slides, add music, and sync the movie to my voice almost perfectly, but while using the Voice Thread, the process is absolutely tedious. Using Voice Thread opposed to another program like IMovie is like trying to do a very complex algebra problem, in which you need to employ the quadratic formula, in your head opposed to using a TI-89 Titanium calculator. In the future, I would definitely not recommend anyone using this program to complete a project.

September 11th: A National Tragedy

2008-09-14T18:30:00.001-07:00

Just recently we remembered one of our nations biggest tragedies on September 11th. Though I was only in 4th grade, I can still remember hearing the horrifying news. A little after 9 o'clock on that day, I was sitting in math class and everything was normal. Right at the start of the lesson my best friend Sean was early dismissed and we all thought he was lucky. A few minutes after Sean left another kid was called for early dismissal. Throughout the rest of the day, peoples names were called and everyone hoped that they'd be next. By lunch, the vast majority of the school was gone and it was time for the teachers to explain what was going on. So our guidance counselor decided to enlighten us. She got on the microphone during lunch and told us that the dentist would be making a lot of money that day. Nobody bought it, but that was as good as it was going to get. Right after lunch was finished our principal came on the PA and told us that some people had made some bad decisions and that we'd be going home early. Everyone celebrated, especially me, early dismissal! Who could ask for anything more? We all went to the busses and some people were curious about what happened, but most of us were just excited that we were going home early. Before I even got back to my house, I had set up a big kick ball game on my block. I ran inside to get a couple of oreos and my dad asked me if I knew what had happened. I said no, and attempted to continue out the door. He stopped me and then told me what had happened and showed me the news. He then waited for a response from me, but only got a shrug and then I continued out the door to play. Im sad to say, but when I was in 4th grade, things that didn't affect me or my family did not bother me that much. I even wonder that if I had been as old as I am now, if there would have been a similar reaction. Im not sure how I'd react, hopefully more appropriately than my 4th grade self. I actually think that this is a problem in America, sometimes people are not affected that much by someone else's tragedy. Im not saying everyone is like this, but do we not have a reputation for not responding fast enough or well enough to other nations tragedies? Such as genocides and natural disasters.

Why now?

2008-09-07T20:24:00.000-07:00

So I was sitting at my computer trying to figure out what my first blog post for American Studies would be. I started clicking randomly on others people's blogs as to help me find a topic. I even checked out CNN.com but still couldn't find anything. So then I thought: Why am I doing this? Obviously because I have to, because it was assigned to me. If I don't do it, I won't get into college. If I don't go to college, then I'll have a hard life ahead of me. I think that its crazy that everything I do now, directly effects the rest of my life. When ever I tell someone that I am a junior in high school, they say, "Wow, this is the most important year of your life." Why is my junior year the most important year of my life? I'm only sixteen, are people in the real world really going to care how did my junior year of high school when I'm 30? 40? 50? I think not, but the truth is that life is a vicious chain of events, each one leading to the next. When I'm 20, 25, and/or 30 and I am applying for a job, my employer is going to care where I went to college and how I did. When I apply for college, the college admissions is probably going to care where I went to high school and how I did. So in reality, my junior year in high school, the year I am sixteen, and young, and irresponsible does effect the rest of my life, no matter how harsh and cruel that is. The fact is that how I do this year will effect how successful I am career wise when I'm 40, responsible, and have a family. If I choose to blow off this assignment and failed American Studies my junior year, I probably would not get into a good college. By that time it would be too late, and by the time i was 20, not 40 I'd already be regretting it. So guess what, I am doing this assignment and working hard this year, because this is the year. All of us juniors need to really sit down and think about where we want to end up in life because this is the year that decides it. We have to study hard and prepare for our SATs, ACTs, and all those other Ts we're taking; Not to mention or finals and actual school work. I guess what I'm saying is why now? Why do I have to work hard now, only to work harder later? Why is life so unfair? Everyone will tell you it is, but now why.

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2008-09-03T07:14:00.000-07:00

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