I'm back.

Continuing complain-about-your-high-school week. Also concluding it.

The other day, I was kicked out of where I eat, during lunch, at school. 

This wouldn't be a problem. Except that we did absolutely nothing wrong. Me and three other people. 

We were just sitting there, eating. I don't even think we were talking. But this administrator-y (I don't actually know what he does or what his title is) dude comes up the stairs and tells us that we can't eat up by our locker anymore. Why? Because a teacher complained that we (along with the others nearby us) were too loud. Mr. Sir said he didn't know if it was us, but we all had to move now. And if he caught any of us eating up there again, we'd be eating in the office. 

Now, this just pisses me off. Partially because it reinforces my theory that school is a dystopia. And just in case you didn't know, that's not what a school is supposed to be like. 

Secondly, the  poor usage of "someone else ruined the experience for you." I can assure you that my group of people were not the ones being loud. We often actually don't talk. And we aren't sitting anywhere near any classrooms. So while the theory used is good in some situations, this one has no effect. The "someone else ruined the experience for you" discipline is beneficial when other students can influence others to not act some way. They will say to themselves, "hey, I won't be able to play with blocks if that prick Johnny doesn't stop throwing them! I better tell him to stop!" But we aren't in elementary school. And there are four different lunch shifts, so I don't have the chance to interact with 3/4 of the students who ate in the hallway. Therefore, I can simply only see it as a person of higher authority being lazy, and thus abusing his power. He treats us like children, and thus has lost my respect. 

I get that yes, he does have authority. But really? That's the way you choose to use it? I really don't mean to cause trouble. I just don't like eating in the cafeteria or the band hall (where many others eat) because it's loud and nothing good ever comes from those places. I've almost been "in" two fights in the cafeteria. Meaning two fights happened veryveryvery close to me. That's not really an experience I enjoy. 

So what's my solution for this? I don't really have one that will satisfy both sides. But when is everyone completely happy anyway? 

I would suggest that they relax the law. Designate where students can eat during the lunches. If math went to lunch, it's fine if you eat by the math rooms, since no class is in session there. Yes, that will mean that someone will have to patrol the hallways during lunch. Boo hoo. I'm sorry that I don't feel any sympathy if someone has to walk around a bit more. You signed up to work with high schoolers, did you expect it to be easy? (As if walking and telling kids to move and keep it down is difficult.) Keep your side of the deal, and us kids will keep quiet. I won't invite tons of friends up to eat with me. There are maybe seven or eight of us during my lunch shift who eat in the hallway. We like it that way. We'll keep the numbers to a minimum and keep quiet and you let us eat up there. No one loses. 

Of course, the administration hardly listens to the student body as it is, never mind my blog. So I'm essentially just ranting, sorry if you got this far. But just in case you grow up to become a teacher, remember, we kids aren't out to make your life miserable if you aren't out to make ours miserable.

Welcome.

I'm just going to warn you. This is complain-about-your-high-school week. So bear with me.

Another forewarning. These are all coming from experiences I've encountered this past week.

It started one day this week as I sat in my band class. I wasn't feeling well, and I decided to go home to get drugs, since you know, it's apparently illegal for schools to give out ibuprofen. Nevertheless, I ran home. grabbed my drugs, downed them like I was an addict, and hopped back in my car. Keep in mind that it's the middle of first hour and I need to get back to class.

I return to school, pull into the parking lot, and drive around a bit. Yes. I drove around. Because it's not like I had a class to get to. Wait.

So sure, there weren't spots in the lot I have a pass to. I then had a few options.

1. I can make up a parking spot. But last time I did that, I got a pass during class saying that if I didn't move my car, it would get towed. And I got a ticket. So that's not an option.
2. I could park in another lot. But again, I would get a ticket. And that's not really something I'm interested in.
3. I could park in the visitor lot. Then again though, there would still be a risk of getting a ticket, although it would be less likely. Unfortunately, there aren't any spots open because there's like ten of them.
4. I could park on a nearby street. But there's no parking on any nearby streets and any relatively close ones are full. If I parked any further away, I'd be late to my next class, which I happen to be taking a final in. So that's not an option.
5. So my last and only option is to speed home and have my mother drive me back. So that's the option I chose.

After all that, I was just a bit pissed.

I get it, maybe I shouldn't have left. But I pretty much was dying.

I don't think I'm asking much. I mean, there are lots of possible solutions, but I understand that a high school has lots of limitations including economic limitations.

I think all students would agree that a parking ramp would be pretty sweet. But yeah. We're poor. So that's not a logical option.

The school could build a new/additional parking lot. But again problems. And since our school is in a residential neighborhood, we don't really have the space.

So here you go. My golden idea. Get ready. Here it is. Maybe, just maybe, the school should only give out as many parking passes as there are spots in the lot. WHAAAT. GURL U CRAZY. But yeah, seriously. If someone doesn't get a pass,sucks! They'll just have to find an alternate way to school our place to park. But if you give me a pass to park somewhere, I'll expect that a spot for me is going to be available. Otherwise, what am I supposed to do? Wait until a spot opens up? Then I'll be late to class and in even more trouble. 

Once might say, "our planning on your part does not constitute an emergency on mine." But what if a student simply had an appointment? Should they be punished for going to the doctor or getting their teeth checked? 

In conclusion, I would suggest to my fantastic school's administration to maybe take another look at the system they have place.

On "Crime is Pride"

Think: all men make mistakes

But a good man yields when he

Knows his course is wrong,

And repairs the evil: The only

Crime is pride.

For class today, we are supposed to "Take some time to think about the implications of the quotation," from Sophocles' Antigone.

So. Let's analyze.

I'll start with the first line. "All men make mistakes." I hope that there's nothing to argue about here. It's clearly true. I've done wrong. I've seen you do wrong. "I don't regret anything!" you shout. Right. Like when you were three and you bit your cousin? No, nothing wrong with that. If you take a good, honest look at your life, you'll see that you have made quite a few mistakes.

The next phrase goes on to say that "a good man yields when he knows his course is wrong." That's always a great place to start. To be considered halfway decent, you should be able to recognize when you are doing something wrong. Once you get to a certain level of development, your conscience starts to tell you, "hey, buddy, this isn't right, what you're doing right now." From there, you get to choose whether or not you want to listen to that voice in your head or not. Sophocles states that a good man would be one who chooses to stop doing what he perceives as wrong.

Sophocles addresses this choice that must be made in the next two lines, saying "... and [a good man] repairs the evil; The only Crime is pride."

Being a good person not only means recognizing that you are doing wrong or stopping doing what you believe is wrong, but also fixing whatever wrong you have done. That could mean that if you hurt someone, you do your very best to mend and heal that hurt. That could mean apologizing and doing your best to right whatever bad situation you have created, whether it was purposeful or not.

The last line is the line that I find most effective. "The only crime is pride." This phrase means to point out a major flaw that exists in all humans. Pride. It's the reason that so often, relationships are never healed. If you are prideful, you are apt to not forgive and forget. Prideful people don't like to admit that they were wrong, or even sway and say they might have been partially to blame. Most of all, if you are prideful, you won't give up and just let others be "right," whether they are or not.

I think Sophocles knew exactly what he was talking about when he wrote these lines. Sure, all men make mistakes. But that doesn't mean that we are all bad. However, what sets you apart, is being able to recognize your wrongdoings, mend them, and not repeat them. It's as George Santayana said: "Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it." As previously stated, I love the last sentence. "The only crime is pride." The only reason we don't admit we're wrong is due to our pride. We are often too prideful to let another be right and us be wrong. 

Sophocles had it exactly right in Antigone. Humans are flawed. The good ones, however, are the ones who recognize this and decide to do something about it.

“My life is a perfect graveyard of buried hopes.”

This past week, whilst avoiding homework and impending AP exams, I decided that it was high time I watched Anne of Green Gables. I actually haven't ever read the book (I am doing that now) but I decided the movie was worth the watch. 

And it was.

But oh. My. Goodness.

Let me first say, I'm not a crier. I don't like crying, I don't cry if I can help it. 

But this movie. Man. I CRIED. Almost the whole time. 

It was just really sad. All the time. 

Anne was such a sweet girl. I wanted the best for her. You saw her almost obtain happiness, and then something would tear that away from her. 

STOP.

JUST LET HER BE HAPPY.

But alas, the poor orphan girl could not easily obtain happiness.

I mean, she did. Eventually. I think. I sure hope the book concludes better than the movie did. Dang cliffhangers. 

But yeah. 

The movie is about a poor orphan girl, Anne, and she is just a chatty little Cathy. She's a brilliant girl, but just as Don Quixote, she was an idealist. And people thought that was weird. But then a mix-up happened and Anne was adopted by an elderly brother and sister. They almost didn't keep her, but in the end decided to. The movie is essentially about her growing up with them. 

It's incredibly sweet and there are a lot of good morals in it as well. 

Also, so far, it goes along almost exactly with the book. However, that does make the movie a little over three hours I believe. 

Nonetheless. I thought it was a wonderful watch, and I would recommend it. I mean, who doesn't love hearing an eleven year old say things like "a perfect graveyard of buried hopes."  

Why do you do this to me

It's that time of year. When students' attention spans are worse than they have ever been. When teachers are for some reason still teaching new material even though students just want review. When an open window is simply tempting with what we can't have. 

Summer is just around the corner. We have a little over a month left of school, and roughly  a week or two until AP exams. 

That means STRESSSTRESSSTRESS.

I'm sure teachers don't enjoy this time of year either, but seeing as that I am a student, you get to see it from my point of view.

One of the big dilemmas is when a student takes both AP and regular classes. While (most) AP classes are into review at this point of the year, regular classes are still learning new material and assigning regular homework assignments. I don't think teachers understand how much time and effort is needed to complete all homework and to try to review all material learned in a class. Seriously. First term? Did that even happen? 'Cuz I don't remember at all. 

Another reason school sucks now is because it's getting nice outside. Really nice. Not just mid fifties, I mean "sun is shining birds are singing, sky is a perfect blue with fluffy clouds" type of nice. And those few classes one might have with a window are just torturous. You can see the wonderful day outside, but you can't feel it. All you can feel is the freezing cold air pumped out by the supposedly better "geothermal cooling/heating." Honestly. It doesn't work.

Also, AP classes just in general suck this month. Some teachers have finals that week, which means that students are expected to be reviewing all material learned in the class while also learning the last few chapters of new material. That, I promise you, is damn near impossible. Especially if one is involved in sports, has a job, or is a part of any extracurricular activity.

I just want to say this too. No offense to any teachers. I promise. I'm just saying what I see. Teachers seem to be more "crabby" this time of year. I mean, it's understandable. But it does affect the students as well. If you're teacher's pissed off and short tempered and yelling/loudly talking a lot, it tends to put you in a bad mood as well. Honestly, the best thing we can all do then is try to understand. We all have a lot of pressure and stress, so we need to be tolerant and compassionate to others. Especially since you don't know what else is going on in their life at the moment. Then again, we could all apply that to our lives all the time.

As I sit here, stressing from the impending doom of AP exams in two weeks and my AP biology final starting Tuesday, I hope that we all can just chill out a bit. Life sucks. Get over it. Get past it. STUDY YOU LAZY TWAT. Well that's mostly for me. But yeah. You don't ever want to regret what you could have done better. There are no re-dos in life, so do your best always. If you're not going to do a job right, then what's the point? 

(This has been a personal pep talk by Our Lady of Self Discipline) 

I wish I was Martha Stewart. Or Betty Crocker.

\I wish that most schools still offered home economics classes. Mine doesn't. 

I know it's kinda silly. But I wish that we had that option. 

Iowa State University was established in 1858. In 1872, the first home economic class was taught. Eventually, an entire college of home economics was established. 

They had an entire college dedicated to it. Why is it suddenly not as important to have in schools nowadays?

Home economics isn't just sewing and cooking. It also includes other aspects of running a household. One of the major topics that would benefit us high schoolers most is money management. I will never learn how to do my taxes or balance a checkbook, unless my father teaches me.

Of course there are some classes that still contain home ec. topics. Food and nutrition teaches basics of nutrition and calories and stuff. I think we have some sort of money class. But the thing is that these aren't required, and thus, I have little-to-no time to take these classes. With so many required academics and so much emphasis on AP and core classes, any high-reaching student has no time to take such classes. 

But then you get into a different debate. Whether or not students should have required courses or what those required classes should be. It's difficult because we are still stuck focusing on creating Renaissance men. We want people well-rounded in all topics. And nowadays, that's just not a reasonable thing to ask. 

In many European countries, such as Germany, when children reach a certain age, they are put into schooling programs that are specially designed for their futures. While some might think that takes away their freedom, does it? Sure, it's great that you want to become something when you grow up. But how many people actually achieve that goal? Not that many. So when you're being helped out with achieving a good future, how it that bad?

But really. I wish I knew how to sew. I wish I had been taught the basics, and the not so basics, of cooking. I wish someone would teach me about interior design and the correct methods of home furnishing. I wish I knew the little quirks and secrets to cleaning methods. I wish I knew how to take care of my money besides not spending more than I have. 

On the Wikipedia page for home economics, it says that home ec. "teaches students how to properly run a family environment and make the world a better place for generations to come." That might just be nice wording, but it's nice. "Make the world a better place for generations to come." Who doesn't want that? 

    

I'm sorry

I really am. But I live in Iowa. So it's practically a requirement to blog about the weather.

So spring is finally here. Today anyway.

Tomorrow, it very well could snow, despite being in the sixties today. That's just how Iowa weather works. It's like a middle school girl who just drank a liter of Mountain Dew at one o'clock in the morning. Yeah. 

Today, it was sunny and reached 60. Friday, there were freezing cold gales and it was actually snowing. 

It's not all bad though. 

My absolute favorite thing about spring are the thunderstorms. 

I love them. How can you not?

Sure, when I was a youngster, I was scared of the thunder, but now I love it.

I love the way thunder can shake the ground and you can feel it. I love the flash of light and the anticipation of the booming and rumbling. I remember being a little kid and counting the seconds between the light and the noise to see how near the lightning was. 

I even love the rain. Most of the time anyway. It's the best when you're inside, especially in a trailer. If you've never been in a trailer or a building with just a metal roof during a storm, you're missing out. Hearing the rain on the roof of your house is one thing. Hearing it directly on metal is a complete other. Rain's also alright when you're outside, but only in certain conditions, like if you're wearing waterproof shoes, or it takes a long time for the water to soak through your shoes. Having an umbrella is favorable, but just a hood will be suffice if the rain is blowing towards your back and not getting in your eyes. 

I only really don't like rain or thunderstorms when I'm wearing flimsy shoes or it's cold out. Cold rains SUCK. I'm even going to say cold rain is worse than snow. Snow you can brush away, but cold water sticks to your skin. Hydrogen bonds, man. 

And for some reason, thunderstorms during the day are even better than thunderstorms at night, in my opinion. It gets dark, during the day, which is weird, but cool. If I'm at school, that means thunder gets to interrupt the teacher and I don't know, it's just great, in my opinion. Not the teacher getting interrupted, the storms. 

So the next time it's thunderstorming, just enjoy it! It's unlikely that there will be a tornado in most cases, and really, it's just the sound from the electrons in clouds being passed to the ground. Or angels bowling, whichever you prefer.