Birthdays

My birthday is on Thursday, and it has me wondering a few things. Why are birthdays expected to be perfect in our society? Birthdays are held in the highest regard. People feel like they shouldn't have to work or go to school on their birthdays. People feel like they deserve presents and to get things for free. Now, I am definitely not saying that these are bad things, but birthdays are not always perfect. When the are not perfect, we tend to feel cheated or let down. Why are birthdays so special? It is cool that you have a day that is about you, but it is because you are another year older. And actually, we continue to get older with each passing day, not just each birthday.

Difficulty of Certain Universities

We all know and understand that college is difficult. Teachers expect more of you and assign more than in high school. However, why are some universities more difficult than others? Is it the faculty or classes these schools offer? For example, I am a transfer student to Southern Methodist University from University of North Texas. UNT was a tough school, but I have done more work and put more effort into my school work in this one semester of SMU than I ever did in a year and a half at UNT. Now, this is not because I slacked off at UNT. I left there with a 4.0, and luckily I been able to maintain good grades at SMU as well, but it has been much trickier. At UNT, if you got any sort of A, from a 90-100, it was considered 4.o. But, at SMU, you can receive an A- that results in a 3.75. What makes Harvard more prestigious than a simple community college? Or, better yet what makes certain ivy league schools better than other ivy league schools, or are they all on the same level of education? What makes Cox Business School hear at SMU one of the best business schools in the country? It must be the caliber of faculty and the level of educations the institutions offer to their students.

Tattoos and Me

Max has written a good topic for argument on his page about tattoos. Are they getting more accepted in society? I have left two comments (it was supposed to be one comment, but I forgot something and added it after I had posted). Go represent:

http://beastswords.blogspot.com/

More on friendship: quality and quantity

Narcissism and insecurity are two very different things that happen to create the same behavior. People in these two situations, want to be liked (or in the narcissists case feels everyone worships them), and put others down to feel more important and special. People who are popular, are not comfortable with themselves so they have to change in order to fit in and feel well-liked. The problem is that not many people actually like popular kids. Remember that group of girls or boys in the junior high that thought they ruled the school? Of course you do because you were probably teased by them. We all were. These kids tease others and each other because they feel insecure and need to build their own self-esteem (true to narcissistic behavior as well).

Popular kids think they have a lot of friends, but how can you have friends when you’re not even expressing your true nature? And, these so-called friends are quick to turn on you when you experience any sort of weakness. They point out your flaws and use them against you. If they witness the slightest signal of vulnerability, they go in for the kill (there’s that self-esteem issue again). How can you think that people you can’t even trust are your friends?

Popular people do not know what the meaning of true friendship is. If they did, they would not be so concerned with being popular. In a study done with school age girls, popularity outranked friendship when the girls were asked to choose between the two, and these girls were willing to make any sacrifice in order to become popular. What’s the biggest sacrifice? The biggest sacrifice is the sacrifice of the self. Having quality friendships encourages growth of the self. Being popular encourages you to tuck your true self away.

My final point is people who are popular may not have experienced any tough life issues. When you have a situation that calls for social support, you will find out who your true friends are. A study with fifth grade children found that if you seek help from a friend (which popular people may not do because of expressing vulnerability), and that person reacts negatively or in a way that is not helpful, the friendship is damaged. So, if you have a lot of friends, and I use the term loosely, you may not have any lost or damaged friendships. This could mean that you’ve never experienced a situation where you had to go to someone for help. It could also mean, that when you did ask for help, your friends were helpful, but this is unlikely because you can’t form quality from quantity.

More on Friends and Money

I commented on this person's blog because their entry lead me to some more thoughts and ideas on how money and relationships work. Check it out:

http://ahdblogger.blogspot.com/

It is the post about the power of purchase.

Drugs and the Birth of Super Humanity?

CEC raises an interesting point I commented on about adderall:

http://wontrunoutofink.blogspot.com/

Friendship: Quality, not Quantity

I’ve always thought that the only type of friends I’ve had were the ones that I just saw at parties or hung out with on the weekends. I know now that I have much more that that. Recently, not just me, but people I consider to be my best friends as well, have been going through a tough time. My friends and I have been able to be there for each other, which, as everyone knows, is helpful when going through a depressing period. I’m so grateful to my girls for sticking with me, and I know they feel the same. So this raises the question in my mind of quality versus quantity.

I’ve heard people say before “oh I have twenty best friends”. But do you really? If someone in your family died, how many of those “best friends” would be there to talk to? I mean really sit down and talk to you, and not just say “Oh that sucks. I am sorry”. The number would be much less than you think. The quality of a relationship you have with someone becomes clear when you really need that person. It becomes clear when that person can offer you a perspective that you have not thought of before. Friendship is not just hanging out with someone. It is leaning on the person, learning from that person, and growing every step of the way. Life is tough, but it is a lot tougher if there is no one there when you need support.

Take a second to stop and think. Are your friends quantified or qualified?

Root of All Evil?

There has been a debate brewing at Southern Methodist University about materialism, consumerism, and if money really does buy happiness. Some discussion has lead to the point that money can buy happiness. For example, buying a new car or some new shoes might make someone happy. But once this new car or these new shoes are worn in, so is the happiness. In other words, this feeling is fleeting, and you would have to buy and spend more in order to recreate it.

There is the myth that money can solve all your problems, and there is also the myth that money is the root of all your problems. Your perspective depends on what sort of life you live. I have lived a less fortunate life, and the fortunate life I live right now, so I’ve seen both perspectives. If you are poor, an excess of money can solve all your financial problems, but when you become wealthy, money creates a whole new set of issues. These issues can also be financial, as well as social and emotional. For example, supposedly there is a curse involved with winning the lottery. Many lottery winners go from a simple poor or middle class life to a life of insane wealth, and most do not know how to invest their money wisely. While there are the select few winners who spend a little money to better their life styles and then save rest of there money, using it over their lifetimes, most winners spend all the money pretty quickly. They get caught up in affairs, drugs, scandals, and either end up dead or in trouble with the law.

Personally, I believe that people will experience monetary problems no matter what situation you’re faced with. People will always have the need to buy and spend, and while it is a good feeling to be able to afford and have nice things, there is a point where spending becomes ridiculous. It becomes obsessive and uncontrollable. It can take over and ruin a person. Taking pride in what you own is one thing, but letting consumerism consume you is another.

It Hurt's So Much

Please forgive me if this post begins to sound like a diary entry, or if it sounds like I am feeling sorry for myself. Those were not my intentions. I need to blog, but I can’t think of a topic because my mind has more pressing issues on it. I’ve never wanted to expose my feelings on the World Wide Web, but right now this is my only available outlet.

Relationships are hard, but they are hardest when they end. There is so much fighting, pain, anger, and sadness, and then it is just over. You’re left wondering what went wrong? There is so much inner turmoil between your head and your heart. Your heart says you need that person, and your head knows they’re the worst thing for you. It’s like a drug addiction. What happens when you love someone so much, but they don’t want to love you anymore? What happens when you want them to stay and they want to go? It’s heartbreaking. It’s the worst pain in the world other than death.

Valentine's Day and the Great Debate

This person poses a great question:

http://sverrill.blogspot.com/

The Valentine's post is the one I have commented on.

A side note

This person's blog is interesting:
http://ayankeepointofview.blogspot.com/


I've commented on the relationship entry in particular.

Ch.1: pgs. 1-92

Most homework assignments for college students entail reading from your assigned textbooks. Each afternoon, when I get home from school and sit down to start my homework, I always flip through the chapter I am supposed to read to see how many pages it is. After I am done flipping, I pick my jaw up off the floor because my assignment is no longer an assignment, but an insurmountable task. Hours later when I finish reading and taking notes, I am exhausted, my head hurts, and even though I took notes, I can’t even remember most of what I read because about half way through the chapter words began to blend and ideas turned into mumbo-jumbo. My point is, that college textbook chapters are too long. I am not some college student complaining about how much work I have to do because that’s part of being in college. They really are too long. Half of what is said in these chapters is examples or extraneous information that doesn’t even go along with what the author is trying to say in the first place. So why can’t authors cut that stuff out, and make a chapter ten or fifteen pages versus forty or fifty. Reading forty or fifty huge, long textbook pages for hours on end would exhaust anyone, I don’t care who you are. And, not to mention the fact that I still have other homework to do for other classes in addition to what I’ve already read. Oh yeah, and on top of all the homework, believe it or not, I have a life. A life filled with friends and non-school related activities that I feel like I will never see again when I am just on page one of my assignment. So besides the removal of extraneous information, here are a few other suggestions. Break the chapter down into other chapters! There are many different ideas within one chapter so why not just break them down into other chapters? Also, teachers could assign accordingly with that weeks lecture. If the lecture is about something specific from the chapter, assign the pages that cover that issue. Think about your students. I know that there is only so much time that teachers can cover information in a semester, and students pay to get the most out of a class, and I probably don’t have much room to talk about teaching or authoring textbooks since I do neither, but students, real students, not the students that are in college to coast through it, are there to learn, not to be piled down with work. And, while work and stress is something that is part of college, and life in general, it doesn’t need to be so much that a student feels like burning her textbook at the end of each semester instead of selling it back. Again, I am not complaining about too much work because I have always been the type of student that does what is asked of me in every class. I’m just simply making suggestions that might make students like me feel a little less overloaded.

What a difference blogging can make

I have never really known much about the world of blogging, but it seems to me to be a very helpful tool. According to professor Anne Bartlett-Bragg of the University of technology, Sydney, when used in a university setting, blogging can encourage students to think more critically and be involved in class, which is exactly what I'm doing by creating this post. With blogging you can share information, opinions, experiences, meet new people, dispute what others have to say, or ping, which, Bartlett-Bragg says, means admiring someone else's work so much that you mention it in your own. Who do I admire? Andrew Olmstead, a soilder to the United States army who was recently killed in Iraq. After reading his final blog entry, which appears to have been posted by a friend following his death, I was moved to see how much blogging can do for someone. Olmstead had a fresh outlook on life and death, the war in Iraq, and being a soilder for his country. He states that "I'm dead, but if you're reading this, you're not, so take a moment to enjoy that happy fact." I began reading this blog feeling sorry for this fallen soilder and his loved ones, but after I finished I realized that he didnt need my sympathy. This man reminded me that "we're all going to die of something. [He] died doing a job [he] loved." I'm not sure if this made him lucky or not, but I do know how blogging affected him. He states that "blogging put me in touch with an inordinate number of smart people, an exhilarating if humbling experience." I only hope that blogging can now do the same for me.