People like me...

I mostly try to hang out with people that are like me, but what's the real point of a clique? Wouldn't you get sick of hanging out with the same people all the time? Maybe, maybe not. But just because you hang out with the same people, doesn't mean you can't get along with everyone else. I used to be a part of a clique who now is really not the people I want to be around 24/7. I still get along with a lot of them but I'm glad I don't hang out with the same people all the time. There's nothing wrong with being friendly with everyone. Popular kids pick on nerds and nerds are scared of popular kids...for what? All the popular kids want to do is copy your homework they wont hurt you nerds! And popular kids...this nerd whose homework your copying is actually gonna get somewhere in life. Cliques are really nothing but drama, and when you get along with everyone it makes life a whole lot easier.

Upper, middle or lower class ?

Most of us at our HS are part of the middle to upper class. Some may be lower class but why does that matter? That doesn't change who you are. People always talk about how upper class people are smarter but in reality, it's not always that they are smarter, but that they have the money to get help when they need it, etc. People in the lower class can be just as smart but they actually try to get there, whereas upper class might buy their way into education. People may say there are certain "ways" to each class, but we are all the same. Money shouldn't determine who we are or who we aren't.

Prison is the new rehab for drugs ...?

When most drug users are caught with possession, they are immediately arrested and put in jail. Is this really the right thing to do though? With drawl can be pretty dangerous depending on your state of mind and jail is no place to get actual help. Once your time is up and your back out in the real world, chances are high that your going to start using drugs again because you haven't been treated properly. This is hurting our society because hundreds of people go to jail every day for drugs and when their sentence is up, they start using again. Instead of putting them in jail, they should send them to rehab because going to jail isn't fixing anything. Someone very close to me used to be a drug user. His parents kicked him out and made him live on the streets until he got help. I don't think he ended up in jail but he did finally realize after a few years that he needed to get help. Now that he is properly treated, he has a girlfriend and they are expecting a kid!

Special Olympics

A few weeks ago I finished up my last hours of community service helping out at the special Olympics. It was one of the most amazing things I have ever done. I was looking forward to it but going into that day I thought it was going to boring and long but I was completely wrong. It was such a good feeling to watch those athletes get so into boccie ball and when they got a point the level of excitement that they had got me so excited for them! Their excitement rubbed off on me a lot and before I knew it, it was over already. The feeling of helping out there is actually indescribable. I'm so lucky to have gotten the chance to go and I hope to help out again soon.

Project Dance (community service) !

Participating in project dance made me feel really good knowing that our team raised over $300. At the end of the charity event when they told us how much money we raised for Riverside Foundation, it made me feel really good to know that I helped raise a certain portion of that money to help others.

Feminine or Masculine ?

Most girls find it very attractive in a guy if they have big muscles and are handsome. Most guys find girls that look like a Barbie doll material are the most attractive. Media has shaped our society to believe that guys are supposed to be hot jocks and girls are supposed to be pretty blonde cheerleaders. They do this by adverstising action figures and Bratz dolls. The action figures for boys are very bold, brave, tough, jacked, and attractive. The way girls are advertised makes it seem like we are supposed to be some sex goddess. Media influences me because I feel like I am supposed to be at least 2 sizes too small. But to men, thats attractive because that is what media has ingrained into their heads.

Un-TV

All things on television aren't always what you think they are. When you watch a show on television, all you really are doing is watching the screen. People ask "What are you doing?" and a response could be "Oh, just watching TV". But what does it actually mean to watch TV? All your actually doing is staring the screen; your doing nothing. While I was doing this experiment, I found it to be really boring. Sitting there staring at the TV made me think about how boring it was and I found myself thinking a lot about other things going on and better things I could be doing. While I was watching someone else watch TV, I found them dozing off and "spacing out". Alissa actually started to drop her head and she looked possessed by the TV. This experiment shows how easily we can be shaped by the things around us.

Nature vs. Nurture

Could you imagine growing up strapped to a potty chair, locked in a room staring at a wall for your entire child hood? Well, Jeanie's parents did that to her and when she was finally set free she didn't know how to walk, talk, or have any kind of interaction with other human beings. The way you grow up shapes who we are as a person and what we believe in and how we act. For example, I was born into a Luthern family and those were the types of things I was raised to believe in. I basically grew up in hockey rinks all over the Chicago area, and even other states but mostly Illinois; growing up around that because of my brothers made me really enjoy the sport...not playing so much as watching it but now I am a really big hockey fan and I love the Blackhawks! How your raised and the things you are taught helps define who you are as a person. Without love, belonging and such our primal instincts come out. Because Jeanie never learned how to be "normal", she croaked like an animal and walked like a bunny. Naturally, us humans want to form relationships but we cannot do that without properly learning how.

Bemused in America: Watching joggers.

While reading this article, the author found a lot of things about joggers in Chicago to be weird to him. For example, he found it interesting that they don't care what they look like, and a lot of people run by themselves, with a pet, or with their baby in a stroller, and the time and location when they run. Compared to Germans, they prefer to run with others chasing after a soccer ball back and forth. Everyone has different values and different ways to look at things. As a runner myself, I like running on my own listening to my iPod and early in the morning when its summer but in the middle of the day in the winter...or inside.

How many languages do you speak ?

I only speak English, everyone in my house speaks English as well. But when I was in elementary school my best friend down the street was Korean and every time I would go to her house, her family would all speak in Korean to each other and it was weird for me because I just kinda sat there listening but not understanding what was going on. In class we learned that everyone has different values. For example, when I would go to her house, her parents were never home and her grandma lived with them to take care of the kids while her parents were at work. A lot of cultures live like that; with a lot of their family all living together in one home, speaking different languages.

1 trick, 2 trick, red trick, blue trick !

Sal gave us all different instructions on how to play a card game. Each group represented a different country, and when we all came together to play the game we weren't allowed to talk or make any signals to each other on what to do. For the most part the instructions were very close to the same just a little bit different. I remember I was trying to keep track of how many cards I had by using the King, Queen, Ace, and Jack cards and Sal only told our group to do that so when we got together with other groups they were confused about what we were doing. This game showed us how different our world is today and when people visit other countries they feel like they don't belong and they become really confused because everyone has their own ways of doing certain things; and when you mix that together it becomes complicated for the "outcast".

What group do you belong to ?

This week we watched the movie A Bronx Tale. We were able to relate a few scenes in this movie to when we talked about what groups we belong to and if someone you love or are a part of is in trouble, you are there to help them out. For example, in A Bronx Tale when C's friend began beating on the black kids riding by on their bikes, all of his friends joined in (accept for C) but they joined in and started beating on them too because they were following and helping out their friend. I just finished a movie on HBO called Blue Crush and there is an example of this in there too. When Ann Marie and her friend are surfing, her ex-boyfriend comes along and starts picking on them and pushing them around because they want them to leave and all of his friends join in because that's where they're "from". A personal example of this is when my older brother picks on me usually my other older brother starts picking on me too because they're older and closer in age together then with me so they kind of go together.

Snow Day ... X2

Last week, Stevenson High School pretty much made a new record in their history book for having 2 snow days in a row! As the Blizzard of 2011 hit Chicago, they still didn't let us go early; and as a senior with 8th hour free, even by the time I left it was getting pretty nasty inside. But, no such luck for those freshman, sophomores, and a handful of juniors.
On Tuesday night when they finally called a snow day for Wednesday, I immediately asked my dad if I could sleep at a friends. Of course, there was no chance he was going to let me out driving in that crazy snow, so he told me he would have to take me.
These days many teens hate being driven around by their parents and they think it's embarrassing, but what most of them don't think about--is what if I get in an accident and get hurt? Parents are a lot more experienced drivers, and they know how to be a lot more cautious on the road then us newer drivers.
Other times, as I have recently learned earlier this afternoon, we depend on our parents too much. I don't have my own car to drive to and from school. Today when I went home with a friend after school, I sent a text to my mom letting her know and almost expecting that she would be able to pick me up by 4 o'clock, as I was not thinking about her own schedule I had forgotten she had a class to attend which required her to leave the house by 4 when she doesn't get home from work until 3:30. This situation I put my mother in made me feel really bad because I screwed up which had an impact on her and her commitments. It made me realize, sometimes I have to do the things I don't like doing instead of always depending on my parents.
Having your parents there when you need them is a great thing, but I have learned not take advantage of that or get upset if they can't do me a favor here and there because I'm lucky enough to have them around when I need their help.

A Mindful Imagination ...

This week we were assigned 2 different readings for homework. One was a chapter of the book "Outliers" by Malcom Gladwell, and the other an article by Schwalbe on Sociological Mindfulness.
In the first chapter of "Outliers" we learn that where you live and when you lived there shapes who you are. For example, as highschooler's we are raised in an environment were we go to school 9 months a year for 12 years so that we can get a good education, move on to college to study a career and then get a job, have a family, etc.
In the article by Schwalbe, we learn that sociological mindfulness is about paying more attention to the things going on around us, and to look past what something may look like and look into what it actually is or what it actually means. By paying attention and understanding others' situations, we become more willing to show compassion for others and give them the respect they deserve. For example, giving money to charities and helping others who are less fortunate (community service) can help decrease problems that grow in our society because others will look at you and build off of your actions influencing them to do the same.
Sociological mindfulness and sociological imagination go together because we are shaped by our environment, therefore if people are influenced by others who are trying to help society, then everyone will learn to be caring and "mindful".

Shhhh !

The first day of class, Sal started the class with "Let's get started" and proceeded to the back of the room and sat for about 3 minutes without talking. Was it awkward? Sort of, yes because as high school students we are all so used to talking all day everyday and when a teacher starts class just sitting there staring it becomes awkward; mostly because students are trained to start class with the teacher explaining what will be going on. When there are "awkward silences" many try to fill that by coughing, clearing their throats and/or making noises. People do this thinking it will break the silence but it just makes it more awkward because conversation doesn't start, it's still silent.
When your with your friends having a good time and all of a sudden it gets really quiet, there's always that one person who will say "Awkwarrrrrd..." which always makes it more awkward because it is only awkward if somebody makes it awkward. For example, say your going out with some new friends you don't know too well...you might feel it's going to be awkward, but if you just be yourself and let yourself have a good time it won't be awkward; but if you just sit there all quiet looking uncomfortable then it most likely will be awkward.
I have a friend who whenever were talking on the phone, etc. and it gets quiet, he always clears his throat until either one of us finds something to say. To me that just makes it more awkward because even though we stopped talking and it was quiet before, that was less awkward because neither one of us had anything to say. And once he starts clearing his throat it puts pressure on me to find something say but then what I say might be completely irrelevant and confusing and then it gets awkward all over again.

Who am I ??

HEY ! I'm Jackie :). I love to do cheerleading...GO ULTIMATE ! Unfortunately I will not be able to continue cheerleading in college, as much as I would love to, because I have a stress fracture in my lower back. Summer is my favorite season; I love the warm weather and hanging by the pool all day. I have no pets, my parents refuse to get me a dog--the only pet I've ever had was a goldfish. My two favorite colors are purple and orange. I have 2 older brothers... Mike (21) and Danny (23). I'm a lot closer with Mike than I am with Danny. I always go to him for advice and he is my biggest influence because he is a really hard worker and does whatever he needs to do to get things done while making others happy at the same time . He is an all around great person and I'm very happy to have him around. I love working with younger kids; right now I babysit for 5 children that live down the street from me and I help out coaching a junior team at the gym I cheer at. My goal after high school is to become an elementary teacher or middle school teacher!