Mediocrity

  I realized today that hard work doesn't pay off. Think about it, it doesn't really matter how well we do in something, it matters how poorly everyone else does. Once everyone is put into the bell curve, the bad become average, the average become good, and the great just blend in. Some work ethic, huh? We could be mediocre, but in a place where the average person is inadequate, mediocre is considered great. How could we ever reach our full potential in a culture of mediocrity??!

Questions

           So there's this kid in a few of my classes that always has a question. Actually, we call him Questions. There's always one in every class; those kids that ask when the exam is right after the professor says "Exam on Friday!" When we first hear his voice and realize that it's him who is asking the question, the class just sighs in unison. He aggravates everyone with his irrelevance. For example, in biology our professor will be explaining how two specific amino acids compare to each other, and he'll ask a question like "well, how is that amino acid related to (some random amino acid irrelevant to the course)?" or "how does this amino acid aid in fighting cancer?" It's safe to say that this kid has some form of A.D.H.D or A.D.D., but should we really consider him to be as weird as we do? Questions is an outcast in our classes because he asks about things that we aren't going to be tested on, and if its not on the test then who cares right? That's the mentality of most college students. It's not about the knowledge, it's about the grades. It's sad that this is how our generation views education, but we can't be blamed. All that teachers and graduate schools and employers emphasize is GPA and class rank. It's unfortunate that most kids cheat their way through college, or just temporarily memorize what is supposed to be learned. The only knowledge we are really attaining is how to survive in a dog eat dog world, and that the ends justify the means.

Does this Make Sense?

     From personal experience, I've come to the conclusion that compatibility isn't always the biggest factor in friendships. Some of my best friends have been people that I can be crazy with and do ridiculous things with. Those friends that you can just sit in your room with and die laughing for hours. Then one day you come to the realization that you don't actually know much about each other. So what happens when you've been "best friends" with this person for so long, and you realize that you aren't compatible at all? You have opposite opinions about love, life, people. Your goals and aspirations don't match, your work ethic is completely different. On the other hand, when they're gone, you miss them. I don't think that feelings really matter, I don't think that love is what brings us together. I think that people are tied together because of what they've been through. I think that relationships are based on experience, and the understanding that comes from these experiences is where that love roots from. Maybe this is why so many people fall in love with that person that's always been right in front of them. Or why a widow is attracted to a widower. Or why arranged marriages end in love. But then maybe its not love at all, maybe it's just need.

Silence

      There is so much more to silence that most people don't realize or appreciate; it's beautiful really. Before I got my driver's license, my dad used to drive me to my softball tournaments everyyy weekend. We'd drive for hours sometimes, without saying a word to each other, just listening to the radio. We'd listen to what i want for a while, and then what he'd want, since our taste in music is completely different. Sometimes we'd just drive in silence, and it was awesome. There's something powerful, i guess, about sharing a space with someone without needing to talk, with being completely content with just each others' presence. You don't need to communicate to connect, there's just an energy that you both feel, so you're on the same page, even though you're both lost in completely separate thoughts. It's hard to explain  it, and there aren't many people that I find I can do this with. My dad and my brother, and at times, my best friend Erica. Anyways, people need to cut down on the small talk. Stop trying to force some kind of bond, and just feeeel it.

            

Pick an Age

          So, I was walking around campus in between classes when I see a flyer that says, “Lower the Voting Age to 17!” I laughed at the thought of that, but stopped to read the flyer to learn that it is a real proposal that may be put on the voting ballads. This is absolutely ridiculous. The legal system claims that people under the age of eighteen have minds that are too undeveloped to even make decisions regarding their own well-being. Hence the fact that minors are not allowed to make their own legal, financial, or medical decisions. Yet, apparently, we are considering allowing them to participate in an event that affects the future of our entire nation? Even most adults today are uneducated about the complexities behind most political topics. How many people can accurately describe the past, current, and potentially forthcoming events in our economy, trends in the stock market, foreign policies, home-land security, etc.? Not many. What makes anyone think that the political opinion of high school students will benefit our country? 

            What we should do… is lower the drinking age. Why has this not been on the ballads yet??!! How much logic is there in the fact that people can be sent to war at the age of eighteen, but they can’t consume alcohol? None. At eighteen you can sign a DNR (do not resecitate) form, get married, get drafted for the war, vote, choose to donate an organ, gamble (the lottery), smoke cigarettes, attend sexually explicit clubs, file a lawsuit, change your name, and in six states adopt a child. But alcohol is out of the question? This makes no sense.
             Whether we lower the voting age, or lower the drinking age, our legal system needs to make a decision on which age people are able to make decisions for themselves. Lets pick one age so that at least our reasoning is consistent.