I'm a Fanna' my Momma'

Think about someone you admire. Write to explain the admirable qualities that this person has and why they are so impactul on your life. 

Although I have many people I look up to and aspire to be like, despite how much of a cliche it is, I choose to write about my momma. My mother is the strongest, most beautiful woman in the whole wide world, and I'm not just saying that because I'm related to her whatsoever. The best thing about my mom is she knows this about her, and she's the most confident person I ever met. Sometimes we tell her we suffocate because her ego is so big, but we just joke around. The truth is, me and my sister and a bit jealous of her strong personality. In truth, my mom has a reasons to be this proud. She has had to overcome many hardships in her life that nobody should, but came out of it strong- only slightly damaged, but you'd never be able to tell from the size of the smile on her face. My mom is carefree, relaxed and hilarious to her core, and I feel that me and my sister and reflections of that. My mom is also really social, and makes friends wherever she goes. More than that, people are always in awe of my mom and her ideas at work and are constantly telling me I'm so lucky to have a mom like her and that I should be thankful of her, or just that she's extremely hilarious and they love her. She's also very hardworking, so people respect her. My mom also rejects the status quo, like a rebel, she doesn't care what people do or think if it's wrong- she'll always just stick to what she believes. I hope and aspire to be as capable of all her accomplishments one day.

My Child Is Wild

Write a blog post as if you were your parent, writing about yourself:

If my mom were to write a blogpost about me, it would go a little something like this. Notice that she is constantly switching between a negative then a positive thing to say about me. She can never make up her mind!

My child Dalia is very smart. But irresponsible. She gives me a really hard time, but she can also be very helpful and I am thankful of her. She used to read a lot as a child and every single one of her teachers used to have really positive comments on her attitude and classwork. However, when she entered her teenage years I noticed some intellectual lazyness and decline in her efforts. However, her grades have always remained good because Dalia is a quick learner. She does not have to study a lot, although I view this as a good and bad thing. Although she thinks that it's the greatest thing to be a quick learner, I am confident that if she studied more often she would be rewarded with higher grades- she still chooses not to listen to me. Again, this has to do with her lazyness. She gets that from her father. I am not lazy I am perfect.

Dalia helps me a lot with school, since I chose to go back 2 years ago. She, unlike her siblings, is always ready to help me- even if she has a test the next day (although sometimes I really have to beg her if she's feeling mean). Dalia is stubborn. Dalia can win every argument with her father. And if I'm being honest, with me too.

All my children are outgoing and social, including Dalia. Dalia used to be shy, at least with strangers, when she was younger. I can't tell you how many people have seen my underwear, as she always used to putt my skirt up and hide under it (literally), since the number is too big. Dalia outgrew this and now, she is much more confident. Dalia is in choir and has an amazing voice in my opinion, there is no better voice than hers out there. I think Dalia is so good that we will be at a family gathering and I will ask her to sing for everyone, no matter how many times she will refuse and tell me that she thinks doing that is "lame" and just a way for all me and my cousins to brag about our children. I will not see her point and I will continue asking her to sing, and never give up, because I don't get it. She will find this annoying, and I will never understand why.

Dalia is crazy. She loves to go out, she loves to go to parties and sing and dance, etc. She has to be in the mood, as she does have her lows as well but people constantly ask Dalia "do you ever frown? You're always so happy." This isn't true, but people say that because Dalia  is so wild and outgoing and sometimes she can be complained about, but most of the time I get complimented on my parenting skills (not).

Dalia is my littlest child, my flower (Dahlia). But most importantly, Dalia is my child. Dalia is wild.

The Pollution In My Mind Is Making Me Blind

Bill McKibben wrote an essay in 2001 called "What's My Damage. A Call For Mental Environmentalism." In that essay he describes our minds as a landscape that has been polluted: "The mental environment is under siege from a particularly difficult variety of pollution." He says that things like advertising and television and the internet are changing our mental environments and we need to start practicing "mental environmentalism."

Describe your mental environment. What is the landscape like? What pollutes it? How polluted is it? What do you think of this analogy and idea? What might practicing "mental environmentalism" look like?

"Sorry, I haven't been getting much sleep lately. That's probably why", I tell my Art teacher after stumbling through the room, knocking over a bunch of art supplies. I walk quickly back to my desk and wonder why this has been happening so much to me lately. Although the sleep thing was true, I doubt it explains the fact that I can barely see anything anymore- which is what caused me to stumble. I've had to apologize to four people already, this week!

After coming home after school, I decide to tell my mother about my "predicament" and see her take on it. She totally freaks out. "You could be having an eye infection!" she yells. I roll my eyes at her ridiculous suggestion. "That's really impossible, but okay," I tell her.

We go to the doctor anyway. I sit up on a high white leathery doctor chair patient thing as he begins to perform the regular doctor checkups, you know what I mean, the heart-beat, looking into your throat with the wooden stick, etc., just the basic uge.. (usual)

As he's looking into my ear with the little microscope thing, he gasps. "What? What is it?!" my mom begins to freak out. The doctor is speechless. "It's... um, it's... unlike anything I've ever seen before," he finally replies. His facial expression has now turned from horror-stuck to awe, and then glee- as if he'd make some life altering discovery. Had he?

"Would you mind sharing with us what is so 'unlike anything you've seen before'?" my mom says impatiently. The doctors informs us that my head is filled with 'things'. "Well yes, I know that- she's a teenage girl, aren't they all?" My mom says, still unsatisfied with the doctor (Pretty sure we're never coming here again btw) No, he tells us, not normal things. My head is ltierally filled with things. "Like there are things flying around the inside of her head," he tells us in a very serious tone. My mother's face begins to chance, as I see she starts to believe him (how gullible, right?). "Describe it to us," she then says, with a story-time expression of a 3-year old on her face. And he does:

I see a large white space, filled with many different things. It's very polluted. With boys, mostly. There's also a lot of food items, floating around everywhere. Random little things too like facebook icons, pets, friends, homework, clothes; but the major items that 'dominate' the space include music, literature and memories. There are dark spaces all around the corners filled with media and celebrities like the Kardashians. The black space is growing, and taking over the white.

"Ah. I seem to have found the problem," the doctor annnouces. There seems to be a growing mass of nonesense in your brain. It's really a medical contradiction, none of this makes any sense- but it seems to be the source of your recent blindness.

"How can I fix this, doctor?" He told me I would have to start enriching myself with information, basically increasing the white positive spaces in my brain. "You need the white to overthrow the black," he informed. And so I went home, to follow his advice and read the Kardashian's new biography "Kardashian Konfidential."

The Two c's Which Lead to the Big C

collaboration and compromise are the two things needed to achieve collective Global Security. Without them, countries would remain overly nationalistic and self-involved and wars would break out because they would only be thinking of their short term benefit. Collective global security is a long-term benefit and sometimes countries don't realize this or are unable to see it. 

A collective international body, such as the UN, should eliminate the threat of nations that are a threat to collective global security. If most countries are in concord, with a minority that is in disagreement, it is important to compromise and collaborate with each other in order to get the minorities involved. It would not be wise to simply exclude a country just because it is not in agreement with others because then sides would break out and that would lead to wars. In order to achieve global security, ideally, all countries should be involved.

The UN strives to achieve collective global security, but sadly, the task has shown to be impossible. This is because it is in a human's natural state to be selfish and act in their own interest- this sometimes contradicts with the two imperative ingredientss to collective global security; collaboration and compromise.