Alcohol.

It is simple to say that almost (key word is almost) every college kid experiments with alcohol. It's common curiosity, but for many, they never knew that curiosity killed that cat. It being only my first semester at college, I can truly say that is rare to meet someone who hasn’t at least tried some form of alcohol. The more power to you if you if you stood strong throughout high school and now college without wondering once, “what if?”
Growing up in a household where your father comes home late from work and you know, at age seven, that when you walk into the living room he will have his whiskey on the rocks in the same glass he used the night before, you figure out that is not the way you want to live your life. Pushing those images from my head, and now living a few years away from his used to be bad habit, I know that is one thing I never want to become. Alcohol and I have a nature vs. nurture relationship. I was not only around it growing up, which would be the nurture aspect, but my birth mother was known to be an alcoholic as well. It honestly does not bother me at all, and I do not think that will affect me in the long run, but my decisions to and not to drink have been based around my, what I consider, real mom. Since I started high school, she knew I would be surrounded with what adults call peer pressure. She would tell me numerous times that my birth mom was an alcoholic and she drank while she was still having me. Her outlook on it is that because she still continued to drink while I was in her stomach, My body is naturally “addicted” to alcohol. Since she still tells me ‘til this day that I need to be careful for that such reason, I continue to reply that she has absolutely nothing to worry about because what I do and decided is and never will be a reflection of my birth mother. I know it reassures her but she is still going to worry.
Being around it made me curious, but hearing stories of college student dying from over consumption of alcohol, frankly scares me. It is an ongoing problem which I do not think will ever reside, ever. But with colleges like the University of Virginia, and many others taking action, the more “social norming”, the less lives taken each year.
I will be completely honest and say, yes, I have tried it and I have learned that at certain times it can be fun, but over a course of time I realized I don’t need it to have fun. I do not want to end up like my mom, relying on substances to make me happy and feel good. When the time is right I’ll have a drink, but that time isn’t now. I would never want to jeopardize my spot on my rowing team, my college career, and possibly my life.

Responsiblity.

According to dictionary.com, the definition of responsible is: answerable or accountable, as for something within one's power, control, or management. In life you need to take responsibility for your actions. You are in control of everything you do, and you need to be responsible of such things. The decisions you make reflect your ability to account for what you do in your life.
In Return to Paradise, Vince Vaughn plays a New York Limo driver just working to get by. Him and two of his friends enjoy a crazy trip in Malaysia, but when one of his friends, Lewis, stays behind to do something good for the world, he ends up getting three years in prison for drug possession. Two years later, both Tony and Sheriff are notified that their friend has been in jail for the last two years and is awaiting the death penalty for something that was their fault. It was the carelessness of the three of them that lead to this disaster, but it was their responsibility to make it right. Whether they take responsibility for what was really their fault in the first place? Or do they just let their friend rot in Malaysia to await his death? That part is for you to find out, but what would you do?
It is easy for someone to say that if their friend was in that type of situation, they would go back in a heartbeat. That is way easier said than done. Would three years in a third world prison be worth it? To me, it definitely would be. I would rather take the same punishment as my friend did and see him in 3 years rather than live the rest of my life never seeing him again. Yes, that is a true friend, but other than that, it is taking responsibility. Whether you like it or not, it was your fault just as much as your two friends, and even though reality can suck, you would never have to live your life wondering, “what if?” I know for a fact I would never be able to live life easily if I just forgot about someone. I personally think that is the right thing to do and that if you do something to that extent, you shouldn’t let other take the blame. It is only fair.

Agreeing with Sarah

Agreeing with Sarah Vowell
Although Sarah is an American, she seems to fancy the Canadian way of life. Can you blame her? They seem all kinds of perfect, and if you take a step back to realize, who are the only people you never hear about in any negative way? Yes, Canadians, or as Sarah will say, Mounties. Americans for the most part feel as if solving problems mean war, while Canada simply feels that a treaty is a decent way to handle the situation. If you think about it, they have a good way of dealing with problems, if they have any at all. Even in the earlier days, they felt that war would not solve anything and I am going to have to agree. I hate everything about war.

I don’t feel that it is completely pointless, but I do feel that it could be dealt in other ways. Resulting in a major loss of money and lives, I’ll stick with the ‘Mounties’ on this one and say three cheers for treaties. One other major difference between us and Canada would have to be the fact that they are true when they say everyone is treated the same. Everyone knows that as much as we say, “Everyone is created equal” it will never be completely true. Yes, that is an opinion, but who really feels that every single person has the same rights and is treated the same? As for their take on conformity, that is a different story. That is the only topic I will have to disagree on with my fellow Canadians. If it wasn’t for unconformity we would not have some of the things we have today. For example, how do you think women got the right to vote? If it wasn’t for individualism, women would still be house wives and house wives only. I think it is perfectly fine to agree to disagree rather than everyone having the same opinion on everything. At times it can cause problems but this country isn’t perfect, no country is, although Canada comes awkwardly close. They have their way of life and we have ours. I cannot completely disagree with Sarah because the Canadians have a good thing going but I was born and raised in American and I will stand by what my country decides.

My Boy Chris.

Just like everyone else that Chris has met; or should I say Alex, I like him. I think he was a smart individual who knew what he wanted in life and knew just how to achieve it. Unlike everybody else, his idea of the American dream was very non conformist. Most people will agree that their American dream is one in which you succeed to the fullest, but what makes each different is what success really means to each individual. One might say making as much money as they possibly can is one way of living the American dream while others; just like Alex’s way of thinking, is the complete opposite; Working hard and not living by anyone else’s way.
Although he says he does not want to end up like his parents, I don’t really understand why he wanted to rough it out in the wild to the extreme. A lot of people feel the same way as him but I know that is not the first thing I would think of if I just didn’t want to end up like the family. Even though I find his adventure insane; I give him a lot of credit for doing what he wanted because I don’t think I could ever be as brave as he was.
Curious as to what some people thought the definition of the American Dream was; I looked it up on urbandictionary.com, and found numerous results. One was a long, essay written definition, but the one I really liked was short and sweet. The American Dream: “Getting paid a whole lot to do not a whole hell of a lot.” I am going to have to say that pretty much sums it up. Why do people do what they do? To achieve what they feel is the American dream, and to most, that is as follows; make a lot of money by not doing a lot. Sounds easy, but not everyone gets their dream handed to them. I think it depends on the person whether or not they think they have gotten hold on their dream. I think it’s safe to say that some people have reached their, what used to be, unreachable.

student-citizen?

Is it posible to be a student-citizen? Well, you already know what a student is, you are one, but what is a citizen. According to dictionary.com a citizen is an inhabitant of a city or town. So yes, to me it is possible to be a student citizen, I consider everyone on the campus as one.

I don't think I inform myself about the world and its national affairs as much as I should. Maybe if I paid more attention, I'd know who to vote for. Right now I still stand undecided but as time goes on; hopefully gaining more knowledge of the candidates, I'll be able to make a decision. Like me, students aren't really as serious as they should be about this coming election. All elections are a piece of history, but this specific one, for it to be our first one, is a big deal and I personally don't think people realize how huge that really is. They should take advantage of it, and have their voice be heard. Too many people just stand by, they don't vote because they don't feel they really count, which is a shame.

What I wanna do..

For our assignment we were to pick three topics that we are most intrested about. I am interested in multiple things but three that I defintately want to

look into are another language, such as Chinese or Japanese, Rowing, after college of course, and photography.

I'm always fascinated by language. Whether it is Spanish, Italian, French, ect. I took Italian for three years before I moved to Florida and fell in love with it. I was a little disappointed when I found out my new school didn't teach it. Ever since then I have studied Spanish, but I want to try something new. I've heard numerous times that it is extremely hard to learn a new language as you get older, but I want to prove them wrong. Realistically, as much as I would love to learn a language such as Japanese or Chinese, I might not be able to just because of how complex it is. 私の名前はエマである (My name is Emma) I might look into learning more Italian, so I can rightfully call it my second language, and maybe Gaelic, because I would love to go to Ireland and know what they're saying haha. I just love language. period.

Ever since my dad gave me his old camera, that he's had for yyeaaarrssss, and I took photography, I absolutely adore it. For awhile I wanted to make it part of my career, just because I like the capture the moment, and when something pops out at me, I want to keep it. I mostly take pictures of objects, because I look at the different angles. I also enjoy close up photography, it just really appeals to me. Here is what I'm talking about. I always have a camera on me no matter what because I get random moments where I'm suddenly in picture mode. haha. After college, I really wouldn't mind going further with it, rather than just taking random pictures for the hell of it.

One of my favorite things in the whole wide world is rowing. I love everything about it. the aspect of the sport, the way it works, the boats, the oars, the regattas , everything. This is my 3rd year rowing, but first time collegically, and I'm thrilled to continue it in college. When I first started to apply to colleges, never really thought about not rowing. There was no question in my mind, I simply could not live without it. I know for a fact that if I have had a bad day, all I need to do is get on the water, and I forget about everything,I just row haha. After college I wouldn't mind saving up for a single or splitting the cost of a double, because I honestly do not think I could stop. Rowing - the ultimate addiction. :]

house of sand and fog.. one.

First off, I really enjoyed the book. It was interesting to see the difference in each ones lives and how they intertwined. The author did a great job in using the first person perspective and it really helped you choose between Kathy or Behrani.

Personally I cannot choose who is right, because in my opinion they both were wrong, so I don't want to nessicarily take sides, but I can atleast say i feel sypmathy for Kathy. She's had quite a rough life. Parental acceptance seemed to be an issue, and that possibly resulted in substance abuse and her easy attatchment to people. Yes she had a bad life, but that is not why I feel for her. No one deserves to have their house taken away, especially when it is the Government's mistake. You have to keep in mind that the house was rightfully hers anyway, because she mentions that it was fully paid for. How do you make a mistake like that, and then go on like it is nothing. That would probably bother me the most if I was in Kathys shoes.

Although Berhani and his family were in exile from their country, he wasn't exactly the perfect Colonel. If it wasn't for him being in the secret police, SAVAK, he never would have had to leave in the first place. Yes he has a family to take care of, but he should have thought of that. I don't understand why I am so against him, maybe it is the fact that he justlooks down to all Americans, but who knows ha ha. It also upsets me that his way of life is living a lie. He is in a fabricated world and comes off as if he was still a Colonel, which is not the case anymore.

They areso similar that they're stubborness tries to out role the others and they don't even know it. Because of the books point ofview, you're able to look at both and realize how they both do what they have to do for themselves, whether or not it hurts the other. It is in a sense that if one lives, the other must die. That is how I see it anyway, and in the end, death is the result. If one can't have their way.. they both can't.