I attended both private and public school through my eighteen years as a minor. I think both schools offer valid points.
I attended Saint Ann’s Catholic school in Midland, Texas, beginning in kindergarten through my eighth grade year. There was only limited amount of kids in each class. This gave the students the ability for more one on one time with the teacher this was important because due to our upper learning curve. Every Friday we attended church; here we stood in a perfectly straight line presenting ourselves as well behaved role models. My mind set was a lot different from most. I grew up with strict rules and no individuality. I saw everyone as being the same person, one like me. Now this could be a bad thing or a good thing depending on how you actually look at it. We were not allowed to express ourselves through our clothing or nail polish. Everyone had to wear uniforms and no finger nail polish or make-up were ever allowed nor was jewelry. Everyone even wore the same shoes! It was as if we were all robots and felt like that from time to time. But the most important thing is that I learned a life lesson. I learned from this strict private institution, that I hated at times, morals,these ere a part of life that the teachers made sure to instill in their students. Respect and ethics were taught along with perseverance. I learned to treat people how I want to be treated. I am grateful my parents gave me this gift at such a young age, but one thing that private school doesn’t do is prepare you for the real world.
When I graduated from catholic private school to public school I was terrified walking into Midland High School. I walked through those doors very naïve about life in general. I had no idea what other students where talking about or what any of their slang meant. To say the least, I grew up fast: in a matter of weeks. Public school taught me that the world isn’t always so nice that you have to watch out for yourself because no one will do it for you. It defiantly gave me tougher skin. Most important, it gave me the courage to become an individual and appreciate my uniqueness. I found who I am today through both of these intuitions and have learned a tremendous amount from both. I carried my morals from my private school to public school and found myself through my experiences that I had in pubic school.
So a thought for all you parents so determined to place your children in the best private schools; I believe we cannot protect children from the real world. No matter what, you must take the morals you are brought up on in order to survive in the real world. So in life I don’t think it matters if you attend private or public school, your experiences is what empowers your morals, either way you cannot put them to use without the real world and what it throws at you!
The day is August 5, 2010, a Thursday. It might as well be a Friday for summer II students since it is the last day of the week of classes. There are only four more days of school left and I don’t know what I am going to do with myself. I set my alarm clock for 6 a.m. but woke up at 7:30 a.m. I reluctantly dragged my feet to the bathroom to wash up. I didn’t have an appetite today, so I decided to skip breakfast and go straight to school. I had to work on some essays and talk with individuals about my stories. I couldn’t just leave without saying good-bye to my mom though. I waited for her to finish washing up before giving her a hug and telling her to have a great day. It was a typical morning, but I was not in a typical mood. I had found a new appreciation for people and especially for my mom. I realized the day before that my mother was not going to be with me as long as I would ever hope for. This scared me. No one thinks about their parents as fragile and something to appreciate and take care of until their parents are sick or in a rut with their health. I decided to make today special for my mom by being extra nice and courteous to her. I even made her a sandwich lunch for her. I enjoy doing stuff for her and showing how much I care for her. I left with a smile on my face and satisfaction in my heart. I thought about her in class today while we were completing an exercise. It will be her birthday in October and I was thinking about the different things I could do for her. She’s been trying to learn how to use a computer and especially the internet. We have an old computer that isn’t very fast and it is very bulky. She talked about getting a laptop, but she doesn’t like to spend money. I was thinking about getting her a laptop so that she can surf the web while she’s sitting around at work. She’s a hairstylist and often waits for her clients to arrive. Sometimes they’re late and she just sits around waiting. I want her to have a small laptop that she can fit in her purse and use when she’s not busy. I think she would really appreciate it. Also, I was thinking about getting some decorations and driving up from school the day before to prepare. She deserves the best. This was my day so far. I am terribly hungry and as I write this my stomach is grumbling. I am supposed to eat at 12:30 p.m., but I wish I arranged to eat at noon.
News broke out this morning on who the new owner of the Texas Rangers was going to be. And the winner is… drum roll please! Noland Ryan and Chuck Greenberg.
This decision puts a smile on my face. Who better to help run the rangers franchise, than Mr. Ranger himself, Nolan Ryan. No offense to Mark Cuban, who has been a pitbull of a business man in his ownership with the Dallas Mavericks, but when it comes to running a baseball team, you need a guy in their with knowledge of the game, like Ryan.
Now the interesting thing, Cuban was smiling when the announcement was made. So does this maybe mean he put his hat in the race so other bidders would back off to give Ryan and Greenberg a chance? That would be quite the good deed of sports for the year.
In the end, the right owners are stepping up to the plate. Even if Cuban was named owner, none could do worst for the team than what Tom Hicks did. So, Ranger fans everywhere can rest peacefully; we have owners to go along with a team with great potential.
It seems almost as if the BP oil crisis and Lindsay Lohan get the same amount of airtime. “Lohan ‘very upset’ she didn’t see family before rehab,” “Michael Lohan: I’m to blame for Lindsay,” and “Lohan leaves jail, heads to rehab” are just a few of the dozens of headlines from today on CNN. I don’t understand the reason why her actions are so important or relevant to us that it needs to be part of our daily news. I am not sure if anyone truly cares that Lindsay Lohan’s father blames himself for Lindsay’s train wreck of events, or the fact that she needs to be in rehab. TMZ should be reporting stories like this, not Fox or CNN.
The Dry Land is a indie film which takes place in El Paso, about a man who comes back from Iraq, and has to deal with post traumatic stress from war.
One single incident that the soldier couldn’t remember, keeps the man from enjoying his return home. His wife is played by America Ferrera (Ugly Betty) who is confused about what to do with her husband who is struggling day to day.
His army buddy played by Wilmer Valderrama (That 70’s Show) who takes an adventure in the film with the Soldier to Walter Reed to visited a wounded fellow army buddy.
This film is very emotional, and really shows what some returning men and women of service might be going through after facing tough times in battle.
I’ve been dancing since before I was able to walk. I have experienced a lot through my years with starting off in a dance studio competing in Ballet, Tap, and Jazz to becoming a semi-professional dancer at the age of 20. A lot of people do not believe that dance is an actual sport but it is indeed. It is a much disciplined talent that can be taught, but this art is best executed by those individuals that were naturally born to do it. Dancing is very a competitive and disciplined form of expression. In your novice years of dance you will learn a lot about yourself as well as the limits you can push your mental and physical body. Many strengths and weakness are revealed within yourself when you are truly dedicated. Respect and awareness of your talent then follows. Once respect is experienced you are able find what kind of dancer you are. Discipline is probably the most important trait that an individual will get out of this. Practices after practices become normal as well as treating and taking care of your body well is something that discipline plays a huge part in. Usually dancers start off in the little recitals in their younger years such as the nutcracker or taking part in small local events. Following your studio dance career usually dancers begin dancing for their high school or an organization. Shortly after this phase is finished they are usually ready to spread their wings and try out for a processional team or semi-professional team. This is one of a dancer’s highest accomplishments. Most dancers spend most of their lives trying to land this dream job. But something that is often misunderstood is that dancers are paid nearly nothing for all that they actually do. A professional dancer for example someone dancing for the Dallas Cowboys or the Mavs or any major sports team will only make $100 a game and $50 for each practice. They are highly underpaid for the amount of behind the scenes work that is done appearances, performances and practices. The girls on professional dance teams have a full time jobs and dancing is only their part-time dream job. Some may wonder why they would choose this lifestyle, well in most cases it is because they receive endorsement deals and or publicity. This exposure becomes a dancer’s true friend with these under a dancer’s belt they can almost land any job in the dance world, from choreographing or being a background dancer for a famous singer in the entertainment industry, as well as being on Broadway, Which is the top of the ladder for a dancer. Most dancers sadly never reach this because the professional dance industry is so hard to break into, with its grueling tryout process every dancer must face. They must also face an age barrier; a professional dancer cannot be taken after the age 27. In dance world if you’re in your late 20’s you will not even be considered for the position; no matter how good of a dancer you are. Every tryout process is the same no matter what you are trying out for. A dancer walks in with a number on your chest and you stand in front of the judge’s table, here they look at pictures and body shots of you and cut you right on the spot if you are not the so-called look that they want or cannot mold you into what they are looking for. So, in most cases dancers do not always take what seems to be a glamorous road and never become professional. They just shift the dream by maybe owning their own dance studio and living to teach. There is a common thread in every dancer they love the way dancing makes them feel and no matter what obstacles one faces they will never stop dancing they will just shift their dream to fit their own reality.
Texas Tech was not my first choice for a college due to the fact that it is soo close to my hometown. So I ventured out five hours away to UTSA in San Antonio. I attended this college for two years, then transferred to good ole Texas Tech to be closer to my hometown. So as of now I am stuck in the tiniest town ever: Lubbock, Texas. Its not so bad, I mean I didn’t really know what school spirit really was until I attended this school. I didn’t understand what the fuss was all about until I became a Tech die hard fan! From wrapping the mascot with red and black string every night before a game to camping out days before games just to get a good seat to our raiders dominate the field. We have a dedicated fan base wearing Crabtree hats in support of out quarterback to yelling, “Raider power!” every chance we get, even if we didn’t win the game. One of my most fond memories was when we beat University of Texas. Lubbock was full of tons and tons of people roaming the streets. I will never forget Broadway Street was full of painted people running around town screaming, “Victory!” Tech is very quiet during when it’s not football season. It’s almost like a ghost town when crossing walking what seem to be miles across University Street to get to campus. Throughout all mishaps students face while living in this crazy town, the flooding being one, the fact that the town has no drainage systems and notorious 3 inches of snow every year that cause the town to shut down, as well as construction that never seems to be finished no matter how many years go by. With interesting struggles the town faces, it is still a mystery to some why some may want to attend Texas Tech and why we have such huge spirit but if you are not a student there is no way for you to understand! WE PROTECT OUR HOUSE!
If you have not watched this movie, then I suggest you go watch it before continuing to read the rest of this blog. I watched the movie Inception a couple of days ago with my friends and thoroughly enjoyed it. I was not expecting it to be a good movie, but I was surprised. It was my type of movie. There was a combination of action, thrill and suspense. I was never bored during the movie and my mind was always focused on the plot. I have retained my vivid imagination as a child and had always tried to create my own world in my head. As a result, I had become fascinated with dreams and with the ability to manipulate them. Inception was pretty much that in a nut shell. It was creating a dream for a person to steal their secrets from. Yet, it was also possible to put multiple dreams in a dream to confuse the individual from whom secrets could be stole from. It blew my mind when they were not just going to create several levels of dreams but also attempt to plant a thought inside their victim. In the end, the story was more based around the character played by Leonardo Dicaprio who has buried deep memories within him of his deceased wife. His wife had killed herself because Dicaprio’s character used a technique called inception to place an idea in her mind that she was still dreaming even though she was awake. The only way to wake from a dream is to kill yourself and that’s what she did, but in real life. Dicaprio’s character is tormented throughout the movie by memories of his wife and two children that it interferes with his job to commit inception on another individual so that he himself gets trapped inside one of the dream levels. The only way to tell if one is still dreaming is to obtain a totem or an object that only the dreamer knows about and understands. Dicaprio’s totem is a spin top. The spin top spins briefly in the real world, but spins forever in the dream world. This comes in very handy because individuals can lose track of what’s a dream and what’s reality. This leads into the end of the movie. It seems that he has revived from all of the dream levels, but as Dicaprio’s character approaches his children his totem remains in the same position spinning effortlessly without a sign of stopping. He’s still dreaming.
The famous San Diego Comic-con has been going, and several of next years comic-book adapted films were presented to the audience.
The cast of Captain America starring Chris Evans, Hugo Weaving, made an appearance alongside director Joe Johnson. Captain America hits theaters next July.
Thor’s Chris Hemmsworth, and director Kenneth Brannagh stopped by to talk about next Mays adaptation of the hit Marvel character about about a thunder god.
Also previewed Green Hornet starring Seth Rogen, a re-make of the 60’s tv series.
Walking Dead series was talked about, along with new comics from Image.
Let’s talk about something that affects us in our daily lives: Fashion!
Many people might wonder how to incorporate the summer trends for 2010. They are many things that are definitely in this summer. Here are some that are not hard to imitate.
Tying these trends in your with your own personal style is key. This will help ease you into the trends and feel more comfortable when you are out. Always remember to keep true to your personal style because that’s what makes you truly unique, but if you choose to follow in the trends hopefully these tips will be helpful. Confidence is the best fashion accessory a girl could have!
Anything of interest to community college students; please blog with care and common sense. Pretend your teachers are reading this - they probably are!
RSS 2.0
