The Teenage Life -[WBP]

I don't know what this post will count for, but I guess I'll still write it anyways.
I kinda fell asleep before doing this and that's why it's being published on the borderline. Excuse me if my thoughts are a little scrambled around.

So due to a lack of inspiration this week with a few mixed feelings I came up with this idea just spontaneously. The teenager's life. As I've said before in previous posts, this is the time to identify yourself for who you really are. The experimental phase you might call it.

During this time everything becomes more relevant to you. You realize that you are involved or related to a lot more stuff than you imagined. For example, you might start paying closer attention to the news because in one way or another, it does affect you. In better words, you become more aware. You start to question things also. Why should you believe what the TV says? Why are you doing so many math problems in one night? Why doesn't he like me? The list goes on and on. This stage in life is a crucial part of becoming more mature and entering society as an adult.

A lot of new factors are introduced as you hit this age. Besides the physical and mental changes occurring on the body, there's also the introduction of money, relationships, planning ahead, drugs, freedom, etc. A lot of things just suddenly pop up into our lives that it takes getting used to. To just get an idea of what goes on, I'll just go into some detail about a few of these things.

Money. Whether you have a lot of it or not, everybody needs it. Society is run this way. If you break it down simplistically, money is basically a substitute for a trade good. In the past people would trade items with items. Like a potato for a tomato. Society has evolved in such a way that instead of this tomato, we use a certain amount of "money" to pay for this potato. Now this idea of money is fake, somebody essentially just turned some pieces of paper/metal into this universal method of trading. Now a teenager's life involves money in a great deal. Due to this newly gained freedom, there are chances to explore new places, try new experiences and to do that, money is required. Money is used for food, hobbies, clothes, transportation, etc. Now an adult might view a teenager's spending methods as utterly ridiculous and irresponsible, but this sudden change of using money wisely takes some getting used to. Adjustment. Through trial and error we learn what to spend on for our essential needs and what to splurge on occasionally.

Relationships. During this time, friendships are created and broken. Due to this freedom, kids are able to meet other kids on a regular basis. Now friendship is a thing that needs to be valued highly. They're basically your second family. The people you go to when your family just doesn't understand you at this point in life. The people you depend on, trust and share memories with. Just like with money, through trial and error we learn who we try and stay close with. Now it is a completely different story when the topic of love comes into the picture, but I'll save that for another post. (If I remember). Through these relationships that a teenager has throughout the course of these years, they learn a lot. I mean, this is basically how a teenager learns everything they know outside of the set education system. This is real life knowledge, not some out-of-the-textbook, filling in the blank bs. This develops our communication skills, our knowledge on various subjects that the school system doesn't have to offer as well as many other little skills. Friends are a great thing to have and should never be taken for granted. Learn from your mistakes.

So, this post was pretty long, but hopefully I didn't bore you that much. And just maybe, you can relate a little bit of your life to what I'm talking about. I'm basically saying, learn how to be responsible, because whether you like it or not, you're growing up. Learn from your mistakes and hopefully you won't repeat them again. Cherish the time you have and appreciate the little things. Well, maybe I didn't mean to say that much in the post, but you get the idea.

*The thoughts above are those based off my own life and opinions. If you do not agree with these thoughts or they are completely unrelated to you, I'm sorry. Write your own post. Everyone's lives are different, it just depends on how you choose to live yours.

With love
-Alvin

What Do You Want to Be When You Grow Up? -[WBP]

Recently a friend of mine (hi Annie) asked what I wanted to do when I grew up. I have no idea what I want to do for the rest of my life when I grew up. When I asked her the same question she responded in detail of how she wanted to work to help developing third world countries and her main goal would be to someday work for the United Nations. This is great, she wants to help others who are not as fortunate as some of us and she would really be making a difference in the world. Me, I'm not really into the public service thing. I mean, I like to help people out, but it just doesn't appeal to me to do that for the rest of my life.

I don't really understand how people can know exactly what they do when they grow up. I mean, most of them don't even have any experience in the field anyways, and if so it's pretty minor. If they haven't experienced the job, how can they just know they'll want to do it? This idea baffles me. Of course there are always a few exceptions to this, but I'm sure this applies to most people.

Deciding on what to do in your life while you're still a kid makes no sense. In this adolescent stage in life your mind is constantly changing, new ideas influence you and this is the stage in life where a person pretty much figures out who they are. Identity. A person's mind is pretty unstable during this time, and yet society expects kids to decide on their occupation that will impact most, if not all their lives.

The point I'm trying to make is that kids should be enjoying what they're doing right now, instead of preparing to be the next doctors and lawyers of the world. I mean, by the time you're grown you'll look back and see that childhood is a time of carelessness. A time for fun, acting social, and a time to learn. Just enjoy life more and stop stressing.

Thoughts From an Unmotivated Me. -[WBP]

I don't know what I find myself doing these days. For the past week life pretty much seemed like a motion. Something that I just did, without any thought. For school I would just mindlessly obey what the teacher's instructions were, and if I was too lazy, I'd just sit there. Doing nothing. Now I'm sure that this isn't a brand new habit that has come across students, but it's pretty new for me. I used to try and get the most out of my education while in the classroom. Participate in class discussions, ask questions, take notes, etc., but recently I felt a sudden surge in carelessness.

One day in chemistry class, my teacher told the class, "What's your reason for wanting to do good in school? Just because your parents want you to go to a good college and earn a degree? What's the point?" So I've been sort of thinking, what is the point for me to do well in school? I get plenty of pressure from my parents and I used to try and do well in school just because they said I should, but now that reasoning is pretty much dying out. I feel that I need to do good in school for me. The reason why? I have no clue. I can't really think of a legit reason for me to do well in school other than to make my parents proud. I guess this week was just a result of me trying to sort things out.
What's your reason to do good in school? Your motivation to keep you going?

“Why Are All the Black Kids Sitting Together in the Cafeteria?” by Beverly Daniel Tatum, Ph.D.

(1.) […] In almost every audience I address, there is someone who will suggest that racism is a thing of the past. There is always someone who hasn’t noticed the stereotypical images of people of color in the media, who hasn’t observed the housing discrimination in their community, who hasn’t read the newspaper articles about racial bias in lending practices[1] among well-known banks, who isn’t aware of the racial tracking[2] pattern at the local school, who hasn’t seen the reports of rising incidents of racially motivated hate crimes in America—in short, someone who hasn’t been paying attention to issues of race. But if you are paying attention, the legacy of racism is not hard to see, and we are all affected by it.

The stereotypical images, housing discrimination, racial bias in lending practices, racial tracking pattern, and racially motivated hate crimes are examples that the author gives on racism now. Racial bias in lending practices means that banks and other companies that give out loans give out loans based on racial discrimination. Examples of stereotypical images of people of color in the media are given in paragraph 4.

This paragraph is significant because it sets the book up on what it's going to be about. It identifies the main concept of the book, as well as give some subtle hints to what it the author plans on going into detail with. He also relates to the reader saying that everyone is affected by racism in one way or another.

Influence & Originality. -[WBP]

Influence: the capacity or power of persons or things to be a compelling force on or produce effects on the actions, behavior, opinions, etc.

What starts it all? Your interests, hobbies, actions. Whatever it is, chances are that you were influence by someone, or something. Influence is a heavy power that people take for granted. People can start taking drugs, listen to new genres of music, find new hobbies, etc., all through the power of influence. So what influences people? The media, friends, the environment? Anything can influence somebody.

Influence is the power that basically determines a persons' life. So, I wonder, if a person is influenced by everything around them, where does originality come from? How does it start if everything you do is based off another thing? What actions are really yours without any sort of influence? Where does originality begin in a world filled with influence?

This all leads to the main question, what is originality? Does it really exist? Honestly, I'm not so sure anymore. I think that everything you do is based off some sort of influence, whether it is obvious or not. I mean I suppose, for example, you write an essay on a certain topic for school. Your writing is yours right? Original. Well, is it really? I mean you could have been influenced by an author of a book you read to write the way you do. This type of influence is not so direct, but it's still not 100% your own writing.

I guess this only means that the only originality came from the first people on earth. The people who had nothing to influence them, their thoughts were their own, their actions, their likes and dislikes were all based off their own true feelings. Nobody else's. I guess this was true originality, this was real freedom. The power to think on your own, and act on your own.

I don't know. These are all just thoughts. Maybe I'm over-looking something really obvious.

Leave a comment on your thoughts of this?

Also, what are some of your major influences in life?

-Alvin