First official blog that is not mandatory for a class...

     So basically all my previous blogs were written for an english class.  I never would have started blogging otherwise.  Also, one of my roommates that is a very influential person in my life blogs, and when I read her blog it gives me the desire to start blogging (except I have always been so avidly against it and prideful and never wanted to give into those feelings).  So this will be my first official blog written solely because I want to write it I guess.  I never thought this moment would come.  The first thing on my mind that I want to blog about is Africa.  I'll be leaving to go to Africa on May 8th with three of my very best friends in the whole world.  I've always dreamed of traveling to another country with my best friends, but I never thought it would actually happen.  But hopefully if we can raise enough money another one of my dreams will be coming true this summer.
       I was lucky enough to have the opportunity to live in Mexico for 6 months, which is another story, but because of that I know how much I will appreciate this trip to Africa and already know in advance how much it will change my life.  There is no way to explain to someone what it is like to live in another world and interact with the people of that world just enough to understand them and their way of life a little bit more.  So I know the people I'm going to be with in Africa will change my life, but I hope I can change theirs too even if it's in the smallest way.  Here I come Uganda!!! 
p.s. I know this first blog was a bit short but I didn't want to get burned out after just one blog so hopefully in the future once I become more attached to this whole idea of writing out my thoughts electronically for others to critic I will put more a little more effort into them.

Last BLOG POST!!!

Well lets see . . . English was a Little more intersting then I thought it would be.  I guess I thought I was already good enough at writing because that´s one of the only subjects that comes more naturally to me.  Surprise surprise though, I learned a ton, and it was all stuff that I had no idea even really exhisted  within a piece of writing.  Incredible.  It´s true we never stop learning.  I´m kinda sorta gunna miss sitting against that wall in class with the window sill butting into my neck.  It really wasn´t a waste of time because I was able to improve my writing a little more, and there were definitely some funny moments in class too ha.  I think it will be fun to look back when I´m eighty years old and read the papers I wrote during my sophomore year of college…if I still have them ofcourse. I mean who knows what will happen in sixty years…

Diane Rehm show

So I listened to the reader’s review “Home” by Marilynne Robinson.  It was just a discussion of this book and how it involved predestination.  The character was struggling inward with some mistakes he made in his life and how maybe his whole life was predestined.  Some of the other characters apparently didn’t believe change was possible…not really sure how anyone can believe that.  Anyway what was more interesting to me was when they were discussing more than just the book.  They talked about how our country is considered a Christian country.  Something interesting they mentioned was what it would be like if an atheist ran for president and how that is politically unacceptable.  I really liked how they talked about how there is strong discrimination against people who don’t believe in a God, but how that really is not okay to judge a person on their beliefs.  For example one man said he would rather work with an atheist that he knows who is a honest caring person trying to do good in the world than with his fellow Christians who “had” a religion but weren’t actively trying to bring anything good to the world.  It really made me think about how I judge others.  It’s just important to remember that everyone is human and everyone has the agency to believe what they want and just because someone believes something different from our self doesn’t make them a bad person.  Who knows maybe their heart has better intent then ours…

Anne of Green Gables!

So one of my favorite movies of all times is Anne of Green Gables.  If you are a girl and you haven’t seen this movie, see it.  Whenever I’m sick, or on vacation, I ALWAYS watch this movie.  I think one of the reasons why I like it so much is because it’s different.  I’m not gunna lie, I do like some of the chick flicks they make these days like 27 dresses or P.S. I love you or you’ve got mail, but they’re all the same!!!  They’re not GOOD love stories.  All the movies now a days about how the characters meet and then a week later they are living together and they have all these problems with other people involved in the relationship and it’s just not quality ya know?  So anyways Anne of Green Gables is an older film about a girl and boy that meet at a young age and their lives up through college and everything they go through and how they have this deep deep love for each other and how it grows over time.  It’s amazing and I love it because that is how true love really happens, not just after a week of dating someone.  Plus I love the setting of the movie on some random island that would be the most beautiful place to live.  Also, I like it because even though it’s like an 8 hour series of movies that make up Anne’s story, by the end of it you know her character really well, more like a book.  You find out that Anne has a really endearing personality and does some hilarious things and gets hurt and accomplishes things too, and it’s just a perfect story!! Watch it! (mostly just if you’re a girl)   

Research Paper Blog

So my paper is NOT going very well.  Basically I changed my topic four times and now that I finally have my topic, choosing a side and writing the thesis is way hard!  I have my personal opinion on something, but the other side of the argument seems more logical to argue sooo I am just sort of stuck.  Anyways I guess it will be an adventure…

Why Write reading review

So the reading was super long and I did it early in the morning before class and I was really tired ha.  I honestly don’t remember a lot of it because it was thirty pages and reading that much at once just makes me forget what I read ha.  Anyways though there were some cool pointers I guess.  I really didn’t like that last section thingy where it had an example of a research paper.  I honestly don’t like reading research papers, I mean on occasion if it’s something that really interests me I might enjoy it just a little bit, but I honestly am not a facts and info kind of person.  But it was also cool how it talked about the importance of logic, which I think is so true in this kind of paper we are going to be writing, because all the topics provoke this personal opinion inside of us, but we can just use our feelings to persuade others.  The evidence and facts are probably more important.   I thought the peanut butter and jelly analogy was pretty cool.  The bread that represents the foundation of a sandwich, or the thesis statement is the most important thing in the whole paper or sandwich.  I liked how they said if we use fallacies our paper will be like a piece of bread with holes in it, or in other words untrustworthy.  Then on top of that we need to have the logic and the ethos which is the peanut butter and jelly.   Helpful reading but just way way long.

Research Topic!

So the topic I chose to do for my research paper is gay marriage and whether or not it should be legalized.  So the position I will be taking is that gay marriage should not be legalized.  I have a feeling this is going to be a harder topic than I thought at first because my beliefs on this matter stem from my religious beliefs which can be hard to use as a strong persuasive point sometimes.  Hopefully I’ll be able to learn more about the whole matter though while I am researching and there will be other things I can discuss.  After doing some of the research on procon.org I am already more interested in the topic.  There is so much interesting criteria involved in this hot topic.  I honestly had no idea that anything more than religion and personal beliefs really went into it.  Surprisingly enough there are tons of different arguable points other than just that of religion.  There are comments on government documents and personal rights, as well as comments on how much money it will cost and make for our country.  It’s interesting because when I think of this topic, I immediately just think of my own opinion and the reasoning behind it is simply that marriage between a man and woman is a commandment.  That is the main reason why I believe the things I do, and now I will have to argue my point in many different ways not just that one.   This is definitely going to be harder than I thought.