So its almost a new year, and I'm feeling a little contemplative. This year has been interesting. I graduated High School, I flew on a plane for the first time, my parents bought their first house and a teacher from high School that I was close to died to name a few. This year in the life of Barbara has seen many ups and downs and as crazy and frustrating as they have been, they have been for the best. I have learned much this year and on the eve of a new year I feel that there is more to unfold in the coming year. I feel a great sense of purpose and duty. I feel that I'm destined for something great and good I just don't know when or where or what. But to celebrate the ending of another year of life I am going to create a top ten list of moments from 2009. Counting down starting with number 10.
10. Becoming a Grandma My friend moved in with my family for a few months to finish high School and my cat got her cat pregnant. So we joked around that we were grandmas. It has been so cool to see them grow and develop.
9. Moving into the first house my parents bought
8. My first plane ride
As my graduation present from my Aunt and uncle I drove home with them and surprised my grandparents who couldn't make it to my graduation. To get home they bought me a plane ticket, my first plane ride which was quite exciting for this small town girl.
7. Watching my team win the world series!!! GO YANKEES!!!
I've liked the Yankees(that's for you Dai) for a while but I have really started to like baseball in the last two years since I have started working at a minor league baseball team. And since those two years, I haven't watched a whole lot of baseball I just kept up with how my team was doing. Until this year when a friend who is a Yankees fan told me I should actually watch a game. So I did, right at the end a few games before they started playing the Angels. I was so tired those couple weeks staying up so late watching baseball, but it was totally worth it! And on nights I had to work my friend texted me updates about the game.It is so cool to see your team win the World Series, and thanks to my friend, Kevin I got to do so.
6. Youth Beach Trip
I was finally able to go with my youth group on our annual beach trip. This year we went to the outer banks. I had a great time and grew closer to different people in the group. I got sunburned and spent the next week or so rubbing aloe on my back/shoulders. Not fun. But I absoulutly love the beach and can't wait until the next one.
5. Starting College
The begining of starting my life as an adult. The begining of a new chapter of my life.
4. Graduating high school
A huge moment in life, one of those milestones. The culmination of 13 yers of work, I graduated in the top 20 in my class, don't remember the exact number. The ending of one chapter of my life.
3. My scholarship/ My new job
I didn't get to go to a big college or university because my financial isn't the greatest, so instead I go to a community college. And for a while I didn't think I was going anywhere because I didn't have enough money to pay tuition and buy books. But thank God, I got a scholarship that covers the cost of tuition. I spent all of the money I had saved buying the first semester of books, and I had no way of getting more money because my summer job was just that a summer job. I had spent the whole summer and part of the spring applying for jobs and nothing, but at the end of August I got a job at McDonalds, ironically because I said I would never work at a fast food restaurant. Oh the irony! It's actually not as bad as I thought, and now I have a way to save for books. Just proves that God is in control and will step in and help you when you least expect it.
2. Deciding what to do with my life
I have decided to get a two year criminal justice degree, a double major in political science and economics, and go to law school. I have been trying to decide this for a couple years now and I have finally picked.
1. Chrysalis Retreat
Thursday, December 31, 2009
The Name of My Blog
I hope that most, if not all people reading this blog already know where this phrase comes from. This phrase comes from the Declaration of Independence. The whole actual sentence is as follows,
"We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness."
The three ideas are the three basic principles that founded this country and made this country what it is. The sentence from above says that every individual have inherent rights, inherent meaning something natural or inseparable. I think that these three ideas or principles are the most important and I stand by them. So for this blog post I am going to briefly look into each of these words. Later blog posts will go more in depth about these three concepts. Just so you know these will be out of order, because I feel like it.
Starting with liberty. Liberty is defined as, "1 : the quality or state of being free: a : the power to do as one pleases b: freedom from arbitrary or despotic control d : the positive enjoyment of various social, political, or economic rights and privileges e : the power of choice." Liberty is my ability to do what I want to do. Yes this means I have the liberty to kill someone, I also have to face the consequences and go to trial and spend some time in jail, but I have the freedom to make that choice. I have the freedom to choose to wear a seat belt or not, well not really because now the government says I have to. I used to have the liberty to smoke in a bar or restaurant, now I don't. The thing is that none of these laws are super bad, I think driving without a seat belt and smoking are both deadly and I will never do either, but I don't think the government has any right to tell me to do the one and not the other. I mean come on whatever happened to personal choice?
Life. I'm not quite sure where to start since I am making these shorter and will go into more detail in future blog posts. I think that most people in this country are guaranteed to this right and actually get it. I did say most. The ones that are not guaranteed this right, are unborn children. Many people like to say, it's the mothers choice. Which in some way it is, because in the end she chooses, just like if I choose to murder someone it is my choice because I pull the trigger. But the baby never gets a say, the person I intend to kill can beg and plead for mercy. It is not fair to the person for me to kill them because they looked at me funny, and it is not fair to kill a child because two people were not careful enough to prevent something they didn't want. Personally I don't think people should have sex outside of marriage, but I'm not here to tell someone how to run their life. But if a woman is single and isn't ready to have kids, then wouldn't the smart thing to do is abstain from sex so she doesn't get pregnant accidentally?
Last but certainly not least, the pursuit of happiness. This one I think is the most important. Over the summer I watched the movie The Pursuit of Happiness for the first time. And I had an epiphany. That phrase says pursuit. Which I always knew, I guess I never spent a whole lot of time thinking about what that really means. But is means we have the right to pursue happiness, no one is guaranteed to have it. It also means that we have the liberty to choose what makes us happy. Personally I don't think money will make people happy. But if my neighbor does and works hard at whatever to make a lot of money who I am to tell him that's wrong. And since we are only guaranteed to be able to pursue whatever makes us happy, that means that no one is guaranteed to actually be happy. You might get it and someone else might not. But that is why this is the best of the three. Pursuing means that some effort has to be used, I want to be a lawyer, so I have to study and get great grades to get into law school and I have to study to pass a test to get into law school. And I have to get a job to afford school. By saying people have the right to pursue happiness makes people work for something they want. And they have to work hard for it. Because anything in life worth having is going to require hard work, and that is what our country was built upon, hard work. It might me mean or cruel but to some extent there is a survival of the fittest, those that don't want to work for something will be poor or work at McDonalds the rest of their life, and while I don't want to be them, they have the liberty to choose that or by not choosing to do something else, they choose that. That is why you don't tax the rich more, what punish them for success? What kind of message are we sending. And I know some people do need help, but there are a lot of people that get help from the government that don't need it, and I have seen many. Besides people someone got along without money from the government before, why can't people do it now. I could go on about this but I will safe a more in depth discussion of these three words for later.
These three principles are the most important and that is why I named my blog what it is, because I believe to many people in this country have gotten away from these three principles and if we could all get back to them our country would not have as many problems.
"We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness."
The three ideas are the three basic principles that founded this country and made this country what it is. The sentence from above says that every individual have inherent rights, inherent meaning something natural or inseparable. I think that these three ideas or principles are the most important and I stand by them. So for this blog post I am going to briefly look into each of these words. Later blog posts will go more in depth about these three concepts. Just so you know these will be out of order, because I feel like it.
Starting with liberty. Liberty is defined as, "1 : the quality or state of being free: a : the power to do as one pleases b: freedom from arbitrary or despotic control d : the positive enjoyment of various social, political, or economic rights and privileges e : the power of choice." Liberty is my ability to do what I want to do. Yes this means I have the liberty to kill someone, I also have to face the consequences and go to trial and spend some time in jail, but I have the freedom to make that choice. I have the freedom to choose to wear a seat belt or not, well not really because now the government says I have to. I used to have the liberty to smoke in a bar or restaurant, now I don't. The thing is that none of these laws are super bad, I think driving without a seat belt and smoking are both deadly and I will never do either, but I don't think the government has any right to tell me to do the one and not the other. I mean come on whatever happened to personal choice?
Life. I'm not quite sure where to start since I am making these shorter and will go into more detail in future blog posts. I think that most people in this country are guaranteed to this right and actually get it. I did say most. The ones that are not guaranteed this right, are unborn children. Many people like to say, it's the mothers choice. Which in some way it is, because in the end she chooses, just like if I choose to murder someone it is my choice because I pull the trigger. But the baby never gets a say, the person I intend to kill can beg and plead for mercy. It is not fair to the person for me to kill them because they looked at me funny, and it is not fair to kill a child because two people were not careful enough to prevent something they didn't want. Personally I don't think people should have sex outside of marriage, but I'm not here to tell someone how to run their life. But if a woman is single and isn't ready to have kids, then wouldn't the smart thing to do is abstain from sex so she doesn't get pregnant accidentally?
Last but certainly not least, the pursuit of happiness. This one I think is the most important. Over the summer I watched the movie The Pursuit of Happiness for the first time. And I had an epiphany. That phrase says pursuit. Which I always knew, I guess I never spent a whole lot of time thinking about what that really means. But is means we have the right to pursue happiness, no one is guaranteed to have it. It also means that we have the liberty to choose what makes us happy. Personally I don't think money will make people happy. But if my neighbor does and works hard at whatever to make a lot of money who I am to tell him that's wrong. And since we are only guaranteed to be able to pursue whatever makes us happy, that means that no one is guaranteed to actually be happy. You might get it and someone else might not. But that is why this is the best of the three. Pursuing means that some effort has to be used, I want to be a lawyer, so I have to study and get great grades to get into law school and I have to study to pass a test to get into law school. And I have to get a job to afford school. By saying people have the right to pursue happiness makes people work for something they want. And they have to work hard for it. Because anything in life worth having is going to require hard work, and that is what our country was built upon, hard work. It might me mean or cruel but to some extent there is a survival of the fittest, those that don't want to work for something will be poor or work at McDonalds the rest of their life, and while I don't want to be them, they have the liberty to choose that or by not choosing to do something else, they choose that. That is why you don't tax the rich more, what punish them for success? What kind of message are we sending. And I know some people do need help, but there are a lot of people that get help from the government that don't need it, and I have seen many. Besides people someone got along without money from the government before, why can't people do it now. I could go on about this but I will safe a more in depth discussion of these three words for later.
These three principles are the most important and that is why I named my blog what it is, because I believe to many people in this country have gotten away from these three principles and if we could all get back to them our country would not have as many problems.
Ta-Da!! New Blog!!
I had this big long thing explaining my blog, and I loved it, until I tried to save it and they told me it was too long. :( So I am going to explain the point of this blog in further detail before I start posting. I ama almost 19 year old college student. I cannot stand the way my country is going and I want to stop it from its current path. But I'm not really sure how to do that. So I am going to try to do what I think I can. I decided to create this blog so that my voice might be heard, I mean reallly can anyone blam the people in Washington for not doing anything people like if no one tells them what they think. No, not reallly. So besides writing my representatives, and senators, I am creating this blog, so that my voice can be heard. I am not republican, I am not democrat, I am not libertarian, or enviromentalist, or socialist, or independent, or anything. I ahve this idea that people should vote for the person for what they say and do, and not what their party says and does. However I do lean to the right, because it makes sense.
I think I'm kind of weird, comparitevly speaking, when looking at me and other people my age. Not that this difference really bugs me. I don't mean to sound arrogant, but I think this differeance makes me smarter than other people. Really how many 19 year olds do you know that want to buy stock, invest i gold, vote(yes many 19 year olds vote, but people my age vote less than other age groups) or serioulsy get active about stopping big government? My whole life politics have attracted me and I"m not really sure why. It might have something to do with my father who has been into politics my entire life. I'm sure this influenced me. HAHA LOL, thanks daddy!! But I'm begining to think I have a purpose in politics, my destingy, for lack of a better word, lies somewhere in politics. I've always been a little confused when it comes to political sides. Growing up my daddy was a republican, and my aunt was more democratic. The first time I really got into politcs was eight, nine years ago when George Bush first ran for president. Funny story I actually broke a law in his first election. I was in fourth grade and that year the fourth grade classes had an election and me and a friend voted for Bush..... four times. And like most young children I went along with my parents. I was a republican, it honestly never crossed my mind to be anything else. I went thru a environmentalist stage, but it was short lived. I started to like democratic ideas, about helping the less fortunate, just not in the same way necessarily. I began to think for myself. I stayed a republican for a while just because I knew I didn't want to be a democrat. AS a sophmore in high school I started to work at a small Itialian restaurant that had two tvs and there I was first introduced to Glenn Beck. I saw his show and fell in love with Glenn Beck, what he said made sense, and while Glenn Beck defintly leans to the right, he didn't come out and say that. He talked about democrats and republicans and everyone. What he said was and is common sense, which isn't that commone anymore. Before I had to try to make thinkgs make sense in my mind to fit into the republican mindset. Now I realize that democrat, republican, whatever are all wrong about a lot of stuff, that I don't have to be foreced to fit into a party. I had finally found someone I could relate to politically. :( The restaurant was bought and the got rid of the cable tv and Glenn Beck was lost to me and with no cable tv at home I could only rely on my memory of what I had heard. My junior year in high school my biology teacher called into question many of my princples that I so adamently believed in. Nothing was safe from my teachers questions, from religion ot vegatarianism and everything in between. And my political beliefs were questioned too. As frustrating as these times were they really helped me. I knew what I believed in and why, I just couldn't put it into words. I began to question these principles I believed in. Iwished so badly I could have had Glenn Beck because I knew that he would know what to say and I would learn things to say by watching his show.. I was forced to think about issues for myself. And now I can say that I know what I believe in. I believe in democracy, capitalism, a free market economy, I beleive to quote Thomas Paine, "The government is best, when governs least." I believe in lower taxes, that government spends to much money, I believe that an armed people are a free people and I beleive America is a great cou7ntry that has some problems. I am proud to be an American. ANd while these views are shared by people like Glenn Beck and Rush Limbaugh and others, doesn't mean I don't think for myself. Please don't insult my intelligence, I can and do think for myself, I just come to the same conclusions. And I will site sources at the end of my blog posts to show you where I get my information. Thank you and enjoy!!
I think I'm kind of weird, comparitevly speaking, when looking at me and other people my age. Not that this difference really bugs me. I don't mean to sound arrogant, but I think this differeance makes me smarter than other people. Really how many 19 year olds do you know that want to buy stock, invest i gold, vote(yes many 19 year olds vote, but people my age vote less than other age groups) or serioulsy get active about stopping big government? My whole life politics have attracted me and I"m not really sure why. It might have something to do with my father who has been into politics my entire life. I'm sure this influenced me. HAHA LOL, thanks daddy!! But I'm begining to think I have a purpose in politics, my destingy, for lack of a better word, lies somewhere in politics. I've always been a little confused when it comes to political sides. Growing up my daddy was a republican, and my aunt was more democratic. The first time I really got into politcs was eight, nine years ago when George Bush first ran for president. Funny story I actually broke a law in his first election. I was in fourth grade and that year the fourth grade classes had an election and me and a friend voted for Bush..... four times. And like most young children I went along with my parents. I was a republican, it honestly never crossed my mind to be anything else. I went thru a environmentalist stage, but it was short lived. I started to like democratic ideas, about helping the less fortunate, just not in the same way necessarily. I began to think for myself. I stayed a republican for a while just because I knew I didn't want to be a democrat. AS a sophmore in high school I started to work at a small Itialian restaurant that had two tvs and there I was first introduced to Glenn Beck. I saw his show and fell in love with Glenn Beck, what he said made sense, and while Glenn Beck defintly leans to the right, he didn't come out and say that. He talked about democrats and republicans and everyone. What he said was and is common sense, which isn't that commone anymore. Before I had to try to make thinkgs make sense in my mind to fit into the republican mindset. Now I realize that democrat, republican, whatever are all wrong about a lot of stuff, that I don't have to be foreced to fit into a party. I had finally found someone I could relate to politically. :( The restaurant was bought and the got rid of the cable tv and Glenn Beck was lost to me and with no cable tv at home I could only rely on my memory of what I had heard. My junior year in high school my biology teacher called into question many of my princples that I so adamently believed in. Nothing was safe from my teachers questions, from religion ot vegatarianism and everything in between. And my political beliefs were questioned too. As frustrating as these times were they really helped me. I knew what I believed in and why, I just couldn't put it into words. I began to question these principles I believed in. Iwished so badly I could have had Glenn Beck because I knew that he would know what to say and I would learn things to say by watching his show.. I was forced to think about issues for myself. And now I can say that I know what I believe in. I believe in democracy, capitalism, a free market economy, I beleive to quote Thomas Paine, "The government is best, when governs least." I believe in lower taxes, that government spends to much money, I believe that an armed people are a free people and I beleive America is a great cou7ntry that has some problems. I am proud to be an American. ANd while these views are shared by people like Glenn Beck and Rush Limbaugh and others, doesn't mean I don't think for myself. Please don't insult my intelligence, I can and do think for myself, I just come to the same conclusions. And I will site sources at the end of my blog posts to show you where I get my information. Thank you and enjoy!!
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