Motivational Thoughts From The Ghost of Pre-Calc Past

"You should find something you love to do, and then figure out a way to get someone to pay you to do it. That's the recipe for happiness in life." - Brandon Sanderson

I was cleaning my room today and found a piece of paper I haven't looked at since around this time last year--a list of questions my pre-calc teacher wrote on the board toward the end of the semester for our contemplation.

1. Are you aware that your actions impact others?
2. Are there people in this world you appreciate? Do they know it?
3. Are you succeeding to your fullest potential?
4. Are you willing to step out of your comfort zones?
5. Are you seeing the change you want in your life? If not, what are you doing about it?
6. Does character count?

And I am pleased to say that I can answer "yes" to these more truthfully than I could when I first copied them down. Particularly numbers 2, 4, and 5, although in 2 there's still some notable things I need to work on.

This makes me happy.

In Which I Realize My Priorities Have Shifted

"Writer's Block - when your imaginary friends won't talk to you." -a T-shirt

Characters have the most rotten lives ever.

We make all of the worst things happen to them to invoke empathy and create tension, and then we completely abandon them for months at a time, leaving their lives at a complete standstill.

I miss writing. I have no freaking idea where the time I used to give it went.

Next weekend. Next weekend I am going to bed early and waking up early and sitting down at my kitchen table and plowing through one or two thousand words. We have two days off from school next weekend. This is going to happen. The next month of my life is going to be utterly consumed by a massive AP English project and the next big debate tournament, and then April is another big English project and the debate team is going to States, and then May is AP exams, so if it doesn't happen now, it probably won't until the summer. 

Plus, you know, all of the smaller things. Like playing Free Cell while watching mediocre science fiction TV shows.

Conclusion: There is far too much I want to do in life for the time I actually have. No one has ever come to this realization before- I'm far too profound for that.

Ain't I A Woman?

"I love my abs so much that I protect them with a layer of fat." - my sister (who is actually in pretty good shape)


I started reading a master's thesis written by the owner of Feminist Frequency, a website that focuses on feminism and pop culture, and something confused me a bit.


Quote:

"Heroic women in science fiction and fantasy television shows have done much to represent strong, successful women in leadership positions. However, these female roles that are viewed as strong and empowered embody many masculine identified traits, maintaining a patriarchal division of gender roles."

If the women are embodying "masculine" traits, doesn't there's less of a division of gender roles? I don't want to sound critical of this particular thesis, because this is something I've seen in a lot of places, and this just happened to phrase it most clearly.


If we don't want strong, successful women in leadership positions having "masculine" traits...what exactly do we want? Isn't the whole point to make those traits less "masculine" and more "characteristic of strong and successful people"?


The thesis actually looks really interesting (and it focuses on women in sci-fi/fantasy shows, so it may as well have been written just for me), and it's entirely possible she means that opening paragraph differently than how I'm interpreting it.


She seems to be writing about how traditionally "female" things need to be portrayed as equally important  as "masculine" things in media, which is all well and good, but nowhere does it talk about how it's kind of detrimental to everyone to label things in that way in the first place.


If I want to be assertive and confident and physically strong...I just want to be an assertive and confident and physically strong woman (and I don't want debate judges getting mad at my opponents when they're too aggressive towards me--which some guys on our team say is sometimes a legitimate issue). Not a woman who has decided to act like a man. Done.

Clash of the Debate Titans

"No amount of fire or freshness can challenge what a man will store up in his heart." - F. Scott Fitzgerald

I spent last week feverishly preparing for a massive two-day debate tournament at a nearby university (which totally looks like Hogwarts), so my mind has kind of been too consumed with birthright citizenship to blog. I had switched into a new current events-based event because my friend's debate partner couldn't make it, so I was filling in. Partner debate is fun (and I had a great partner), but I'll be happy to go back to my one-on-one philosophy/morality topics for Districts and States later this spring.

I've been too exhausted to think about much of anything else since the tournament (which was insanely fun but I probably got 10 hours of sleep all weekend), so this post is going to be about debate.

I've had arguments with at least two of you about the merits of our style of debating, and I heard an interesting justification for it over the weekend, and thought I'd share it with you.

The idea is that when the two debaters are forced into either pro or con regardless of their personal views on the matter, you're also forced to find, confront, and present all of the positive aspects of that particular side, and so is your opponent. Over the course of the debate (if it's a good one, anyway) you clash the merits of each side together, and see which one comes out on top.

Now, what the judge decides isn't necessarily always the "better" side, of course, since you have to factor in the skills of the debaters, and there could very well be key points that neither side had the time/evidence to present, but as a debater(s) who has to prep cases for both sides, you're forced to weigh them within your own mind.

A few weeks ago I asked my dad if I should play in the pit orchestra for the spring musical or debate at Districts, which is on the same weekend. He immediately said "musical," and I launched into reasons why debate is better. My sister told me it sounded like I had my mind made up already, and I said "But I need someone to argue for the musical so I can decide better!"

She rolled her eyes and told me I definitely needed to do debate.

I know this applies to things like Ethics Bowl as well, and I'll be the first to express my appreciation for it, but that really is how my mind works--I need you to argue against me in order for me to make sure that I'm right, and that's one of the many reasons I enjoy debate so much.

The other main reason is that I love the rest of my team to pieces. (We established that I have psychologically added them to my "tribe," meaning I'll willingly share my food with them without bitterness.)

God Is Not One, by Stephen Prothero

"I am gonna tolerate and love the **** out of you." - a My Little Pony GIF my friend has


I'm reading this book--God Is Not One: The Eight Rival Religions That Run The World And Why Their Differences Matter-- that talks about why it's wonderful to imagine that all of the different religions are really just different paths to the same goal, this is a dangerous thought because they really are different, and since religion is probably one of the biggest influencers of history overall, these differences are kind of important when understanding history, current events, and individuals.


The author, Stephen Prothero, writes that a better analogy would be everyone starting out in a valley together and choosing different mountains to climb. All of the religions agree that the world has problems,  but they have differing opinions on what the main source of those problems are, and how best to solve it.


Example from the book jacket:

Islam: The problem is pride/the solution is submission

Christianity: The problem is sin/the solution is salvation

Confucianism: The problem is chaos/the solution is social order

Buddhism: The problem is suffering/the solution is awakening

Judaism: The problem is exile/the solution is to return to God

He says that it's stupid to say that all non-Christian religions are inferior because Christianity is the only way to salvation, because the other religions aren't even trying to get to salvation. They have totally different goals, so to bash them for not saving people is like saying non-baseball sports are silly because you can't score runs in them. Basketball players couldn't care less about scoring runs.


I'm still in the Islam chapter (chapter 1, which is great in and of itself because I don't know all that much about Islam anyway), but I'll let you know how it goes. I'm loving it immensely so far. (Also, that chapter starts with "Most European and North Americans have never met a Muslim," which I had to read a few times because it was such a strange thought to me. So I'm very happy with the diversity at my school now.)


I've never read anything that took this approach to religion before, and it kind of falls in line with this post about right and wrong I wrote back in July, so this book is making me very happy.

 

 

 

 

Spring Semester 2012 Day 1

"The true secret of happiness lies in taking a genuine interest in all the details of daily life." - William Morris


First day of the new semester. Kicked it off completely inadvertently at 3:00 a.m. and went to cook breakfast for my family at 5 just for something productive to do. Had it occurred to me, I might have gone out to buy some bagels, because I now have my driver's license and can therefore do that (legally, anyway- my parents have slightly different ideas).


Ridiculously happy all morning for no reason at all. This included twirling through the house and proclaiming that it was a beautiful day and the sun was shining. When it was pointed out to me that it was in fact cloudy/foggy outside, I insisted that the sun was still shining, and we just couldn't see it, and that was making me happy anyway. (This may have had something to do with the mug of coffee I'd had.)


1st Period: "Honors" US History. Notice the quotation marks, because he gave us a packet today (that I could easily complete in an hour tonight if I felt like it, even though I'd have to look things up online) that if we complete, we get 44 extra points on the final exam. Which means I could theoretically bubble (C) for all 150 questions and depending on how the actual numbers turned out, I'd still get a passing grade on the test as long as I turned in the packet. The General Knowledge Quiz included things like "how many states are there in the USA?" and "Who was the first president of the United States?" Which I'm pretty sure we covered in preschool.
I so would have taken AP, except it's a year long course.


2nd Period: Band. My embrasure sucks after not playing at all for several months, but it'll recover quickly enough and I've missed the class.


3rd Period: AP Calculus BC. Direct continuation of the past semester, with a slightly different set of classmates.


4th Period: AP English, which despite being the most challenging course I've ever taken, is basically why I'm willing to get up at 6 (on a non-insomniatic day) every morning. I love it so, so much. (Also, it helps that she decided to say nice things about my writing today...)
The principal interrupts halfway through and decides to teach us himself for about 10 minutes. (My principal is hilarious.)


After school: hanging out with one of my closest friends for an hour or so. Went to Target, which wouldn't be significant except she also recently got her license so it's exciting to drive around together.


Now: Listening to "Modern Love" by Matt Nathanson on repeat while procrastinating from the homework I don't actually mind doing.

The Rough State of My Mind in Quote Form

"Good listeners, like precious gems, are to be treasured." - Walter Anderson


"A life spent making mistakes is not only more honorable, but more useful than a life spent doing nothing." - George Bernard Shaw


"One can live in the shadow of an idea without grasping it." - Elizabeth Bowen


Also, this.

More Quotes

"If it weren't for being so attracted to women, I would way definitely be gay." - my dad


"The time you enjoy wasting is not wasted time." - Bertrand Russell


"One cannot and must not try to erase the past merely because it does not fit the present." - Golda Meir


"I never learned from a man who agreed with me." - Robert A. Heilein


Exams this week. Yay. 
At least my Latin teacher bought us bagels today and in English we got to look over the (20 page) test, which has been customized so that all of the vocab exercises are about us. Also, I kind of adore my English teacher for entirely unrelated reasons (such as that she has in the past helped put two students through college via her second job because they couldn't afford it otherwise. That woman is amazing).

Rich & Snobby Cred

"The only man who never makes a mistake is the man who never does anything." - T. Roosevelt


...which I receive despite being neither rich nor snobby because of my fictitious wealth, because today I received a letter saying I was eligible for a summer program that will involve traveling/studying in France, Italy, and Greece. (They said they found me through CollegeBoard, so...my SAT scores? I have no idea.)


Now I assume I'll have to pay for it, which presents a bit of a problem, since "studying" implies a bit longer than a few days per country, but hey. Europe for the summer? Heck yes. We'll see if it actually happens, but at least it's a possibility!


Also, it turns out they speak Greek in Greece (which would seem obvious, but I'd thought it was a dead language like Latin). So yay, I learned something. And am somewhat more scared of said trip because I rather like understanding/being understood, and the only second language I have a grasp of is...the marvelously dead language of Latin.

Imagine...

There is no quote today. There is only the existence of Stephen Colbert and Jon Stewart, who make me smile.

I just started reading a book by Peggy Orenstein (author of Cinderella Ate My Daughter, which I read last year) called Schoolgirls, and before page 1 even begins (there's about 20 roman numerals' worth), she tells a story about a teacher who gave her 6th grade students an interesting exercise:

Imagine you were born as a member of the opposite sex. What is different?

So obviously, I grabbed my journal and immediately started a list.

If I Were A Boy:

• My mother would never have made me wear dresses when I was little (which I passionately despised at the time, although I don't anymore).
• I'd probably have had to mow the lawn at some point in my life, but I'm sure I'd still have to do all of the same chores I do now as well.
• Better relationship with my male cousins who live close by
• Different friends, and different relationships with those who would remain the same
• Less worry in general from all sides about dating (also, probably later curfews)
• Less comfortable acting in different roles. When I was little, there was never anyone or anything I couldn't pretend to be. And I feel that while in my immediate family it would have been the same is I were a guy, it isn't nearly as accepted everywhere else.

But that seems like a pretty good list, compared to what the kids in the book came up with. Most of it seems kind of "well, duh." Most of the stuff in the book was about make up or hair or sports.

The odd thing, though, is that the author then asks what's "lucky" about being a girl, and the girls she talked to didn't have an answer. I'm not going to go into it here, but I think there are plenty of things. Less obvious than the advantages of being a boy, maybe, but they're there.