Looking through the Myth of Rosa Park's

After reading the article on Rosa Park's and through our class discussions I feel that I would much rather believe in the original story of Rosa Parks, or the myth as some would say. When I was in elementary school and we first started talking about the civil rights movement and what minorities had to go through long before I was born, everyone knew the story of Rosa Park's. A tale of great courage that an old working class black woman stood up, or should I say sat down, against the injustice that all black people had to sit in the back of the bus and decided that she was tired and she was not going to give up her seat. I was always very intrigued by this bit of history because I got the impression that this spontaneous act of civil disobediance by this one woman symbolized that all of the tired working class black people had had enough. Therefore, when I learned that Rosa Parks was actually a civil rights activist and that her stunt was pre-meditated, I was kind of disappointed. Granted it is nice to know the complete story, I find that the story I was orignally told had a larger effect on me because it was more mythical. Rosa Parks was a hero nonetheless, but when I tell my children this story I think I'll keep the myth alive. 

Finals

Everyday as finals get closer and closer I can tell that people are getting extremely stressed out. Since it is junior year our grades our very important, because of that fact many New Trier students are feeling the full weight of our semester exams on their shoulders. Never before have I seen the library so packed every period of the day. It is interesting to see kids who normally just go to the scrounge or play four square during their free period actually studying. The problem is that some kids are taking their stress and frustration from finals too far. On several occasions I have witnessed students snap on one another due to that stress. I understand that our finals are important, but I am trying hard not to let the stress get to me. I just hope that everyone will take a second to catch their breath and remember that it is ok to take a break every once in a while.

New Year

I believe in new years resolutions and that it is important to try and improve your life. However when that clock strikes midnight and everybody cheers, you are the exact same person you were a minute ago. Just because it is a new year, that doesn't mean that you will be any smarter or stronger, the only thing that a person can hope for is that they are more driven. The only problem is that a year is a long time and it is very difficult to keep those promises you make to yourself. Maybe in the month of January we will all keep our resolutions, but as time goes on it is safe to say that we will all break those resolutions at least once. So this year I say don't make any resolutions. All anybody can do is live their life and try to accomplish what you want not because it is a new year, but because it is what you want.

Summertime????

Every Summer for the past eight years I have gone to Camp Kooch-i-Ching in International Falls Minnesota. This summer I plan on spending my time a little bit differently. Even though I have had many great times at camp I feel like I have been missing out on the fundamental childhood summer experience. I want to be lazy and have my mom nagging me to clean my room and spend my mornings eating lucky charms and playing video games with my buddies. However, I also want to use the time I have been given to do something meaningful. Most of my friends are some type of an athlete at New Trier and whenever I got back from camp they would tell me all about their summer school sports and how they really improved their game. I love to play basketball, however I am not the best player. So I not only want to play over the summer so that I can improve my skills but also so that I can have an oppurtunity to play because there is nooooo way I am making the basketball team.
Branching out from Wilmette is also on my list of things to do. I plan on taking a road trip to the East Coast so that I can visit some people I left behind when I came back to New Trier. Nevertheless I also want to do something extrodinary. I want to go to a foreign place so that I can experience a new atmosphere that I know nothing about. I have looked into becoming an exchange student in Equador so that I can not only see the world, but also so that I can take steps to learn spanish.
So for anybody reading this; Im not 100% on what im doing so if anyone knows something better, comment on this blog and let me know what im missing.

Scrubs

Lately I have been watching the television comedy "Scrubs" quite a lot. A few years back I set a series recording on my DVR and watched every episode, since then I would catch the occasional episode, but lately I have started recording it once again. I always thought Scrubs was hilarious for the first three quarters, however, the last quarter of every episode I felt that it was overly dramatic and sappy. When J.D (played by Zach Braff) puts the ribbon on every episode, he always speaks in this quiet breathy tone and reflects on what we all have learned in the past twenty minutes. After a while I got so feed up with the endings that I would only watch part of an episode then move on to the next one. Nevertheless, now that I am older and more mature when I watch Scrubs I am able to appreciate the subtleties of the closing of each episode. At first I thought Scrubs was a simple comedy that was funny, but tried to be too deep at the end, but I was wrong. Scrubs is a complex show that can hit the viewer in both the gut and the heart. After watching a movie like "Garden State," which was written and directed by Zach Braff, I can now fully appreciate the dramatic endings of Scrubs. So for all those people out there who say that they don't like Scrubs because of the sappy endings, they are wrong. Take a second look.

Babysitting

This Friday I decided that I was going to be responsible for the first time in a long time. I decided that I was not going to go out and have fun with my friends. Instead I decided that I was going to spend the night in some foreign house watching over some kids in an attempt to put some money in my pocket. This teenage right of passage as everyone knows is called babysitting. The night began with me running a little bit late so i was frantic to find the house, which was located on 900 Greenwood. However, in my hurry I neglected to read to street signs correctly so I ended up standing on the door step of 900 Elmwood. Coincidently this was the house of a kid I know by the name of Charlie Gilvarg. So when I knocked on the door and his mother answered I was a little bit confused. Obviously when she asked what I was doing here I didn't have much of an answer. Therefore, I just smiled and walked away heavily embarrassed. After the first speed bump I succesfully got into the right house and aquanted myself with the two kids I was going to be looking after. It did not take much time for them to become comfortable with me because instantly after their mother left they were pulling on my ears and attempting to wrestle me. Normally I would have no problem horsing around a little bit, but it seemed that a new figure in the house wrestling with the kids really threw off the Three Huge Bernese Mountain Dogs. The dogs came pilling into the room and persisted to bark at me like they were Cujo. They were slowly inching towards the couch and their massive teeth were far to close to my leg for comfort. Ufortunately I had to tell the kids that the display of WWF moves was over. After that the night went pretty smoothly. I just put the kids to bed and watched a crap load of TV. Pretty good Friday Night.

Senior Class, Tisk Tisk

As I watched the final seconds of the New Trier Football game vs Barrington I couldn't help but look around and see just how weak our student section was. The student sections, which is about 1/3 of the home teams stands was not even half full. I am normally a positive guy, so I suppose it would be easy for me to say, "oh its ok at least we have half." But after thinking about it I have decided that I am going to be a Negative Nancy. There is no reason that our student section should not be to full capacity and loud as hell at the potential last game of the season. So as I investigated this issue even further I soon found out that the reason our student section was so small was that there were barely any seniors in the stands. This is unforgivable. If its your senior year you must be bleeding Green and Blue at every football game possible. Once I started searching for information I could not stop. However, I wish I had because this next bit of information I am about to share is so gruesome that I didn't sleep a wink last night. The reason that most of the seniors weren't at the football game was because they were at the SOCCER game. Everyone knows that soccer is football and basketballs friend that neither of them like, therefore to skip a playoff football game to go to that soccer game is disgusting. Granted the soccer team is better than the football team, but there is nothing like going to a New trier football home game. Stuffing yourself full of steak sandwiches and watching your friends lay people out, even though watching your friends get hit is very fun too, I can't not think of a better way to spend a Saturday Night. So to all of you seniors out there who skipped the football game. Tisk Tisk