Growing Pains

   Whoever saw Lagniappe Potpourri 2011, (this year), knows that the theme was CHANGE. Change is hard to do. Life is never constant. These were the reoccurring messages throughout the show. And while Lagniappe is a comical variety show, the message always seems to be such a present one in our lives as we journey through high-school. The most recent change I've noticed in my life has to do with Halloween. Last year, I planned my costume a good month ahead of time and had it all laid out a week before I wore it to school. This year, when people asked me what I was dressing up as, I found myself not only not knowing, but not caring. It's depressing to admit that I don't care about Halloween anymore, but it's true. I take this to mean that I'm growing up.
   A change that I haven't yet accepted is the fact that the local Glencoe upscale drugstore, Parkway Drugs, has been bought out by Walgreens. My mom went in there today to get her monthly fix of cinnamon Altoids and found that they were gone. No, not temporarily out, just gone. While that is an unpleasant change for my mom, the biggest issue is that Walgreens actually assured the staff of Parkway that they would all be able to keep their jobs, then pulled the rug out from under them a few days later by firing the two pharmacists, who are beloved figures in Glencoe and have been working there for a very long time. This harsh change has created such an uproar in Glencoe that people are vowing to boycott Walgreens/Parkway. While change is inevitable and oftentimes a natural thing, sometimes people have control over it. And in this situation, the Walgreens administration is entirely to blame.

So You Think You Can Blog

Please assess "Race to Extreme Lack of Sleep"

   Think you can blog? It's harder than it looks. You have to walk the fine line of discussing controversial subjects while trying not to offend anyone too severely. Blogging has really increased my awareness of the world around me and how everything is connected in it. Everything we talk about and learn in class can relate to current news in so many ways. As I look back on my blogs, I see that I have been able to let loose within my writing as the quarter progressed. At first, I was writing in a very formal fashion, and not about anything I really cared about- for example, my "Titanic Once Again" post. But now I am able to break out of that constricting shell and discuss whatever inspires me. I've also learned that I don't need to write a long post in order to get my point across. The length really doesn't matter, as long as I'm effectively bringing up a point and stating my opinion on it. Something I definitely need to improve on is providing links and real-life examples to back up my statements. I usually talk about one thing, relate it to class discussion, and provide one link. In almost all of my posts you can find the phrase, "In class we talked about..." While this meets the basic expectations of our blog assignment, it's not going "above and beyond" whatsoever. I highly recommend blogging to people who don't already, because it can expand your view of the world and it's a great forum to express your opinions and even your personality. It's become something that I really care about weekly.

SHIRT

   As you may have noticed, I put this title in ALLCAPS because it is such an important issue that I think we, as consumers in the United States, choose to ignore. The fact is, so many corporations and clothing manufacturers today use sweat shops. As much as we don't want to believe that slavery still exists, it does. It's hard for us to know exactly what to buy and where it came from without spending a lot of time looking into it, but it's something that we should be able to if we don't want to encourage the use of sweat shops. As an American buyer, I know that I can be really lazy sometimes in terms of shopping. The typical American consumer is the same- lazy. But we need to start being aware of where things come from instead of just buying whatever fits or whatever we want. In class, we read the poem Shirt by Robert Pinsky. This truthful poem exploits the horrors of sweat shops and modern slavery. I think we all need to read this over and over until we really understand how important and present this issue is today. Then we can start doing something about it.

Denote This

   I've noticed that many students, including myself, in our American Studies class have been blogging about Race to Nowhere lately. I'm not surprised because many of us can attest to the ridiculously overwhelming pressure that is discussed and studies within that documentary. But today, I would like to review the topic of connotation versus denotation that Doc OC has blogged about in An American Studies. In class, we talked about, or rather, argued about the meaning of the word "housewife" in the context of American Pharaoh. This word was used to describe Florence Scala in her "grass roots" movement in which she confronts the mayor. While some argued that this word carried the implication that Florence and her female followers were useless and unintelligent, I completely disagree with that. I think back then, as Doc OC also said, the word "housewife" was generally a neutral word in terms of connotation. Today, connotation is still an issue. As a high school student, I am affected by implications of harsh words spoken about others. One such word that really bothers me is the word "gay". I know that the student body as a whole has been lectured on the negative way we use this word, and how it can hurt others. But I don't think many people listen. I still frequently hear people using this word that used to mean "happy," to say "weird," "bad," "embarrassing," and anything that you would not want to be associated with if you are homosexual. Connotations are significant in the language of young people. We have to be careful about how we use certain words because language is so powerful in our society, and we never know who we might be hurting.

Race to Extreme Lack of Sleep

    First of all, I would like to apologize for posting this so late. I've been sick for the past week and I don't think it's an exaggeration when I say that my thinking skills have been like a bowl of mush. Last night I stared at a floral place mat and laughed for 5 minutes. Who knows why. I've been diagnosed by my dad, who is an ER doc, as having a common cold. But I question that diagnosis. Maybe it's not the change of weather or sharing of water bottles with friends that has caused me to be congested and physically exhausted. Maybe it's the stress of being a student, even worse, a Junior at New Trier High School. In class, (or at least what I haven't missed in class), we've been talking about the overwhelming pressure we, as teenagers, are under. Last year, we were under some minor pressures but the switch to this year's challenges makes sophomore year seem like sitting on a cloud being served by fairies. This year, it seems as though the highest priority on all of our lists is COLLEGE. Everything we have learned about taking the "journey, not the destination," has been shot down completely. The message "Screw the journey" is hidden within every application, ACT prep course, and pamphlet that is being shoved down our throats. Just from seeing the trailer of Race to Nowhere, a documentary about the college and grades-related pressure high school students are under, I recognized myself in many of those stressed out, broken down students being interviewed. The disturbing fact that 6 kids at their school had committed suicide in one year didn't even surprise me that much. I'm sure our parents and grandparents went through many of the same stressful experiences as we are now, but I definitely think it has gotten worse as competition has increased between young people worldwide. These days, how can we even compete? And is it worth it to bust our butts so we can brag about going to Princeton?