Saturday, August 25, 2007

Birthday

So in less than an hour its going to be my 22nd birthday, and honestly I am completely at peace with it. I am slightly amazed because I most definitely was not at peace with my age last year. Far from it honestly... pretty sure I was majorly wigging out. I am honestly extremely excited for the next 365/366 days, because even though there are going to be highs and lows I dont think that its going to be boring. I believe that I will most definitely have a whole lot to blog about in the next year. :-D

Tuesday, August 21, 2007

cluelessness

I am sorry if cluelessness is not a word, which its looking not to be according to spell check. But in all honesty its how i feel in the next week and a half-ish i am going to be starting my final semester of undergrad work and its really scary! Everyone is always saying how exciting etc! and then they progress to ask me what i am going to be doing after i graduate (in may) and to be honest i really have no idea. i wish all of this uncertainty could be resolved but alas that is not how life works. i am trying very hard to be a go with the flow girl, but anyone who knows me well knows that is one of the hardest things to do. I just keep hoping that in time enough doors will open and i will be brave enough to take the risk of the unknown. "Life is what happens, when you are busy planning." But there are some things that are going well-- like i have great friends, a great boyfriend and family members who all care about me. Thats what really matters right? Surrounding yourself with people you care about and who care about you? I guess only time will unfold what is to be the story of my life... which makes me a little anxious.

Thursday, August 16, 2007

Frusturation With Academic Institutions

I am going to be honest, this morning as I am waiting for D2L to come back up so that I can finally take my final exam, i am wanting to express my frusturation with academic institutions. I guess these past four years of higher education has jaded me on the topic of how these places of learning should operate and how they do specifically opperate. One could potentially argue that a school is a business, which is true schools do possess a certain amount of fiscal responsiblity as well as making sure that you can provide a quality education for the students that attend said elementary, middle, or high school as well as community college, technical college and 4 year colleges/universities. if yo don't feel that as an educator your are either doing a quality job or if you dont see the value in providing quality education... then honey you are in the wrong industry because it is this mediocrcy that will in the long run get you in trouble and will cause you and the institiution that you represent to lose image points as well the trust from your students and those who are involved as well such as parents and gaurdians. While on such topics of education why is it so blooming expensive? why is it that along with everything going up the cost of higher education is skyrocketing out of control? this is not going to bode well for the future of our nation because so many people are choosing to not go to college because they cannot afford it or they do not want to go into that kind of debt.

Wednesday, August 8, 2007

Complications

Is life really as easy as everyone says it is-- and we (a collective we) as humans have this tendency or an urge to make our own lives that much more of a hassle, when they really dont need to be a hassle? To be honest I think we do. I know in my own life I have a tendencies to make things into one huge complicating and confusing mess when it really should come down to-- is it right? Now just a second while I give the criteria for whether or not its right 1) Is it going to harm and indiviual or a group of people? 2) Does it coincide with your personal ethics and morals? 3) Is it legal? Those are the basics (there are probably more, but I couldn't think of any) Simplifying life is always good but for whatever reason it seems to get lost in the day to day grind. Another reason why I think we have hassled lives is the fact that we make our lives hassled because we (once again the collective we) feel as if it is necessary to run harried lives and to be perpetually busy which is "good" because I come from a generation of instant gratifiers and people with a 5 second attention span (I admit there are times when I am like this, but not everyone is like this)- there is this need to not only keep up with the joneses but also to surpass what they have which is what puts you in the middle of the rat race.

These are just some of my thoughts that I have had lately-- because I feel like I am complicating my life needlessly and that in the long run I am only going to end up getting hurt.

Friday, August 3, 2007

Life Changes Without Warning Once Again

So on Wednesday a major artery of Minnesota traffic collapsed without any sign except for the fact that it started swaying and then just fell. I'm sure everyone has heard by now, and for those wondering I did happen to venture into the cities that day, but I didn't venture to downtown Minneapolis. It has been said that anyone who travels to downtown has taken that bridge or essentially who travels to the twin cities has taken that bridge. It is a miracle that not very many people have passed away. Yesterday that I heard was 4 confirmed dead and only 10 missing. Don't get me wrong this is a tragedy but it could have been worse considering a major road collapsed during rush hour. I received calls from friends all over the country and from my current town that i live in-- making sure that i was OK, which i am. But once again as we were all content and thinking that life was going grandly something happened that shook our world and some leaders have handled with more grace and tact then other leaders *cough Pres. Bush cough*. My heart and prayers go out to those fellow Minnesotans that are trying to find their loved ones or are waiting to hear how they are doing in the hospitals that have been bombarded by the injured.

But this causes me to wonder about how these changes impact our lives. Whether they are huge changes or if they are smaller changes that dont happen on such a larger scale. An example of this would be one day during playground duty that i heard a student say; "you can be the step-dad" it is so sad that it has become such a norm to these early elementary kids. It demonstrates the demise of American family values and is a wonder that nobody can stay together anymore. I wonder as to what big change is to happen next when dealing with the cultural fabric of the United States.