April 17th Serve

My April 10th serve was from 5:30 to 7:00

At the serving experience, I also packed seeds, but this time, it was with my mom and sister. We went in to church on a saturday from 10 to 12:30 in the morning. It was a similar set up to last saturday's pack. but this time, were were with mainly adults, rather than middle schoolers, and we packed tomatos. It was a very cold, muggy day and my family got to the church a little late, so they had to split us up into different tables, which was a little scary and it made me not to want to do it anymore, and I really wasn't in the mood to serve. But a couple of the adults were kind and talked to me and took me into the table, which made the experience better. The other times I have packed seeds, I was at a job where I was sitting down, but this time, I ran packs of seeds to the boxers. It was a new experience, so it was fun. It kind of taught me that, although, things may not go the way I thought, it's still important to have a good attitude and make the most of a situation.

April 10th Serve

On Saturday nights, my sister and I volunteer in the junior high ministry at our church. But for "Celebration of Hope," This saturday night was different. We packed vegetable seeds that would be sent to communities in developing countries across the globe. During our shift, we packed cabbage seeds. All of the leaders went to stake out a table where our group would be packing and waited for the kids to come. My sister and I had a lot of oour girls show up, so it ended up being a really neat bonding experience, but I think the coolest thing about this serving experience was the video that was shown before we started. It showed a women, who had recieved seeds from our church last year, in her garden that was just flourishing. She was able to provide food for many people in her village and her income greatly increased. Its interesting to think about how dropping one little seed into a bag can travel so far and make such a large impact, while to me, it is just a seed.

Skin-Colored Marker

Since the school year is winding down and we have been doing a lot less work in most of our classes, on of my friends started to bring a coloring book and crayons to school. Earlier this week, a was coloring a face with a pale peach colored crayon and made the comment to my sister, "Do you remember in elementary school how frustrating it was to not have a skin-colored marker and we had to use a dried to orange or brown" She responded back with, "Well, someone's skin may be a color in the set." That comment really made me think. Then the next day in class, Sal showed us the picture and article of Michelle Obama wearing a "Flesh-colored" dress. I thought back to my comment about the marker; what made a peachy color marker normal "Skin" and not another colored marker?

When I was looking for a picture of crayola markers and I saw this one of "Multicultural" washable markers. I think this is really interesting.

Gasland and Social Class

First hour today in AP Environmental Science we watched a documentary called Gasland. While we were watching our video in sociology today, I kept getting the two movies confused and I was wondering why, but I think it was because of the Gasland's emphasis on social class. The Documentary was about the impact of drilling for natural gas. Big gas companies are drilling near low-income families, causing natural gas to contaminate water supplies, but doing nothing to fix the problem, they just keep drilling new wells. It has gotten so bad that many people's water will actually catch on fire. I found this really interesting because in the movie we watched in sociology, the upper-class citizens really emphasized their superiority to those who were finantially below them. These oil and gas companies, are run by the wealthy and their profit is more important than the health of those in the lower classes.

Make-Up blog from last week

This week we talked a lot about social class, but we focused on income. Looking at the overheads of the incomes of CEOs of companies made me think a lot about the show Secret Millionare. In this TV show, millianares, who are usually CEOs of companies, for a week live at poverty level, working low income jobs, and volunteering with non-profit programs. To not give up their true identity, they tell the other volunteers they work with they they are filming a documentarary. Its really interesting because people who are used to living a comfortable, wealthy life and experience it as someone who does not have those luxeries. At first, living a lower-income lifestyle is a culture shock, because within one city, there can be such a contrast between the social classes. but from the episodes I've seen, the millionares really gain a lot from the experience. At the end of the week, the millionares donate tens of thousands of dollars to the organizations they worked with.

True Independence Is Never Reached

This week in class, one topic we discussed was Independence, meaning, when do we truly become adults? Today, my sister and I walked into our painting class, only to realize that there was a substitute. She was an older woman, but I recognized her from previous classes. She started the video we were going to watch and I'm not sure why, but she came over to Sarah and I and started asking us about our college plans and just small talk. Then she went to her desk and grabbed a ziploc bag out of her purse and came back. She started telling us about her children and grandchildren and pulled out pictures from the ziploc bag. She gave us advice on college. saying that when we get to our school, it will be the first time we will experience independence and there is a greater importance in making the right decisions. She even gave us advice on marriage saying that it is okay to get married in your late thirties (that is what her daughter did) and just don't meet a boy the first week of school and lock in on him, not opening up to meeting any one else. She eventually went into telling us that her husband passed away in November and her eyes started to tear as she explained how her home is quiet and it has been difficult. She also told us about a conversation she had over the phone with her granddaughter as well. And how she really misses all of her kids since they live out west. Reflecting on all she said, I really started to think about what it means to be an adult. As seniors, we're all looking forward to going to college and gain independence, but we truly won't be on our own. We still will depend on our parents to pay our tuition and our friends for companionship and support. After college we will get married and that seems like a big step into independence, but we will still all be dependent on our spouse for some things. I saw this in my substitute, she has lived a fulfilling life and has been an adult for a long time, but since her husband passed away, there is a void because, a marriage is not an individual thing, it is a partnership. Since her husband passed, she has gained a greater dependence for her children, she longs for their companionship. She continually mentioned how much she loved them and how proud she was. They give her happiness. No matter how old we are or how far into adulthood we reach, true independence in never reached, but it is also never necessary. It was such a blessing to meet this women today!

We started this week by talking about Masculinity, then transitioned into Femininity, interestingly enough, in my English class, we started reading Doll House and to begin,  we made a list of characteristics of males and females. Much of what we talked about was a direct parallel to what we discussed in sociology. We read an article, "Girls will be boys, but boys can't be girls." It discussed how women are encouraged to be liberated, to be strong,  and are now allowed to take on characteristics that in the past have, by society, have only belonged to males. But men are still harassed for having any "Feminine" qualities. My English teacher shared that although he is educated on this issue, he has still caught his thoughts falling into this stereotype. For her birthday party his young niece wanted to have a Bob the Builder theme, and he really didn't think there was anything strange about that, but when at a different time, his nephew wanted to dress up like The Little Mermaid, he though "Wow, that's weird." It think the argument this article described is a very important one to be aware of.  In a country where only a couple decades ago it was taboo for a girl to wear pants, I think that it is interesting that is now completely normal for a girl to wear a t-shirt,  jeans, and sneakers, but if a boy wants to wear a skirt or clothes that are considered "feminine," suddenly that is a huge ordeal.

Celebration of Hope

Last Saturday I did my second service experience. There is a Compassion and Justice ministry at my church and every year they lead an event call Celebration of Hope. In mid spring the entire church participated in this celebration by supporting women in third world countries through the fair trade shop that is set up in the main lobby, participating in the "Five Day Challenge," and packing food and seeds with Feed My Starving Children. The "Five Day Challenge" is where the church is challenged to eat like some one in a third world country would. This includes one cup of oatmeal and one cup beans and rice a day and only drinking coffee and water. In preparation for the challenge, the Compassion and Justice ministry is giving away samples of the amount of food to eat to every family and they had 24,000 packages of food to pack. They really needed help finishing, so a group of students from the high school ministry worked from 9:00am to 3:00pm to put a can of kidney beans, two small bags of rice, and a package of oatmeal in canvas bags. Twenty bags were put into each box and 60 boxes were put onto a pallet. We stood in an assembly line at a table and rotated positions every once in a while. Some times we had to move pallets of the supplies when we ran out, break boxes, and make new boxes. It seems kind of silly, but everyone started bleeding at one point, sometimes from breaking a box, or opening a case of beans with scissors. But the killer was the oatmeal packets, they were sharp and kept giving us paper cuts as we tried to slide them into the bags. Despite the blood, it was a very worthwhile experience. It was interesting to get an understanding for all of the work that actually goes on behind the scenes to make some of these events at my church run. In addition, one of the leaders of the ministry gave all of the students a fair trade bracelet. She told us that they will be given away to all the church goers during Celebration of Hope. She said that it was such a self-esteem boost to these women that some one wanted such a big order of something they had made.

This is a link to the Celebration of Hope website!

1 Arthur Left

This week I did the Un-TV experiment and through out the time, I kept wondering what the purpose of this exercise was, but after this week I've come to realize the trance that TV puts us in. And as Sal said, it tricks us into thinking we are being entertained. At first, I was a little skeptical about this idea, but today at track practice today, everything clicked. We went out for a long distance run and at one point I look at my watch to see that we still had 30 minutes left. I thought, "Oh man, I don't really feel like doing this today" but then I told myself, "30 minutes is nothing, when I watch TV, 30 minutes can pass so quickly, its just one episode of a TV show." Then I became appalled at myself because I thought about what we had been talking about in class. We get so engulfed in a TV show that we lose all sense of time; and that is what I thought about to get  through a difficult run! Its embarrassing.

My parents even used to do this to us when we were younger. When we were on long car trips to Iowa, we would ask our parents how much longer, and they would answer us in a number of Arthur shows that would take up the amount of time left. They would say for 15 minutes left, "1 Arthur left," 30 would be "2 Arthurs left" and 45 would be three. Relating the time we had left to our favorite TV show made the wait seem less torturous, but now I have realized that it is actually negative and has effected the way I think today.

The Nurture and Nature of Twins

In class we talked about nature v. nurture. In regard to this subject, we also discussed the relationship between my twin sister and I. We now clearly have different personalities. Sarah is more dominant than I am, but I don't mind. I like it better that way. She is a lot more girly than I am as well. I talked to my parents and they said that they even from when we were infants, they felt that we just looked differently. The only reason that they dressed us in different colors was to help other people tell us apart. After we read articles in class about identical twins being separated after birth and raised apart, we saw the effect that the environment has on someone after birth. Oskar and Jack were identical twins that once separated grew up to develop very different social and religious views, but interestingly enough they both became very passionate about what they believed. From birth they could have had an "aptitude"to be passionate, but their environment caused them to be passionate about different things. Sarah and I are not identical, so our DNA is truly only as common as any other pair of sisters, so the differences we see between us could be a combination of genetic and environmental influences. It very clear on a physiological level. I have inherited asthma, allergies, and acid reflux disease from my dad, but Sarah managed to bypass all of those issues. We have the same group of friends, but we also each encounter separate people through out the day, and it is very possible that after thirteen years of schooling, those people have had different influences on each of, which could have effected the differences in our personalities.

Serve #1 Feed My Starving Children

Last Monday I did my first serve at Feed My Starving Children. I have done it a couple times with my church and I have always had a good time. When I signed up for the serve I reserved spots for my family and two extra for my friends also in sociology classes. For weeks in advance I tried to describe what it would be like, but it was very difficult. When we got to the site, it was exciting because I knew that this was FMSC's newest location and I was anxious to see what it was like. We started out by watching a video that showed stories of children that have been helped by the food and clips of previous volunteers serving.  Next we moved on to the tables where a women explained the process. My family moved to table #2 and another family joined us. The mom was pregnant, so she went to sit down and help put labels on the bags the groups would be filling with food. My sister and my friend were in charge on putting the vegetarian chicken flavored powder, dehydrated vegetables, soy, and rice into the bags that I held under the funnel. Next, we weighed the food to make sure it was between 380 and 400grams. Then my mom sealed the bags and handed them off to the other family. The dad was so kind and energetic the entire time, he was joking around and making us laugh. It was really sweet to see him go walk across the room to check on his wife three or four times during the serve. The kids were adorable, they were jumping up and down. At one point, I was looking over and I saw one of the kids turn to my mom and say, "I am having so much fun" Half way through we switched up the jobs and i was in charge of chicken and veggies. I guess we had gotten used to the previous positions and were all now off because I dumped a big scoop of chicken down the funnel only to see it hit the table. No one had a bag ready and I hadn't even noticed.  We all laughed, but I still felt bad because It was wasted food some one is depending on. Every time we finished a box of food, we had to shout something creative. The father of the other family had us shout "OLE!" through out the hour and a half were worked it was great to hear my friends who hadn't been there before say to me "This is so much fun, we should really do this again" or "I"m going to go home and check out the website to see what days are open." A worker told us that recently they had lost a shipment of meals. It was devastating. So, my favorite part of this experience came at the end when they placed of of the boxes the tables had made onto a pallet and all of the kids went up and placed our hands on the boxes. A little girl prayed over the food and It was moving to hear her just continually thanking God for the food, for the volunteers, and for the children that this food is going to. I opened my eyes and looked to the back of the warehouse and pallets and pallets just lines the wall. It made me think about all of the times I was hungry and said "I am starving!" or was picky about where I went out to eat. How selfish of me. Who am I that I deserve a choice in my food, while there are kids across the globe that depend on one meal a day that comes from a plastic bag in a cardboard box just to survive.

This is the video they showed us!

 

A Change In Work

In Tuesdays with Morrie, we see Mitch's addiction to his work. He is always striving to pick up another job, find another story, or get to the higher position. Mitch reminded a little of me of my dad. I'm not exactly sure what his specific job is, but it has something to do with engineering, business, and computers. He has to travel often and is on the phone a lot. When involved in a job in the business world, it is common for all Americans to want to get a promotion, get a raise, and strive to be the best. This has been what we have been trained to view as "success" since we were little. My dad works hard and has never turned down a raise or promotion, but the significant difference between he and Mitch is that my dad understands healthy limits. My dad used to commute to the office, which meant coming home between seven and eight, and still having some work to do when, but a couple of years ago (I'm not exactly sure of the reason why) he decided to make a lot of changes. He chose to set up a home office, where he could still access his work computer from his office building, but on the desktop in our home. This has allowed him to significantly impact his lifestyle. Since he is always at home, if one of us kids needs something at school, or gets sick he is close by. Also, if he wants, he can take breaks when not on a call to exercise, work on the car he is building, or just relax. It is also nice because our family is together more because when we get home, he is here and we no longer wait for him. He also used to do some work on Saturdays, but he chose to log off his computer and volunteer at the C.A.R.S. ministry at our church on the weekends. Here he works to repair cars cost-free for people who can't afford to go to a commercial garage. Some cars are fixed, then sold to buy supplies and tools, while others are fixed and just given away. He is still involved in the business world, travels a lot, and must always have his phone with him, but he has found a healthy balance that is contrary to the work habits of most Americans. Ideas of what success is have been instilled in us since we were in elementary school, but in talking to other seniors, I have found that many students are choosing to take the opposite rout of their parents. Many can't stand the idea of working in a cubical or office. It is possible that this strong work effort, competition, and drive can be positive. Students that have grown up in this environment, now have choices of colleges to go to and the opportunity to make our lives what we want. Students that I have talked to have chosen unique majors in Psychology, meteorology, geology, art history, environmental science, and veterinary medicine, among others. Students say they want to work with their hands and enjoy going to work everyday.

Is This Heaven? Its Iowa.

Being from Iowa is such an important subculture that I am a part of. My family used to live their, but because of my dad's job, we moved here in august of '98. All of our extended family still lives out there so we make the drive five or six times a year. It feels like once we cross the Mississippi river, everything changes. If you look around, about 30% of people are wearing hunting camouflage. Around here, that would be odd if someone was walking around walmart in camouflage overalls, but in Iowa, its normal and even encouraged. There are places and restaurants that people recognize like, "Casey's General Stores", "Carlos 'O Kelly's". and "Papa Murphy's." Cities like "Waterloo," "Boone," and "Dyersville" are part of the common language as well.  Even in the suburban areas, many people have a slight country accent. When we stay for two long I start to notice in on my family and on myself. When driving around town it is a more that you wave to someone in the other car if you cross at an intersection. Around here people would be put off and wonder "Why are you waving at me?," but out in the country, no one thinks about it. Going to church in a more as well; my grandparents live in a town that is smaller than our student population, but there is still a church on every corner in the middle of town and even multiple of the same denomination. Around here, everything is so fast-paced, that when I'm in Iowa, everything seems so extremely calm. I've tried to explain what life is like out there, but it truly indescribable. Iowa's uniqueness has caused such a strong subculture, that if we meet someone around here that is from Iowa, it is an instant conversation starter and we automatically bond over experiences we've had.

Well Done: No Vacations

In class this week we talked about the components of culture. Mr. Salituro also mentioned that business men experience the differences in culture most often. For his job, my dad is required to work with people from over seas and travel a lot. The largest cultural differences he has noticed in the past years are those from France compared to ours. In the U.S. it is normal for someone to want to eat their meat well done, but in France, many feel that it is odd or gross. My dad always tries to tell them to overcook his food or burn it even and it still comes back to his table pink, but he is polite and eats what he can. Even a McDonald's has a different menu. Instead of disrespecting this different culture he has realized that he is lucky to have the opportunity to experirence something different. When he arrived in France for the first time it was a culture shock, but soon he learned the gestures and common words that help him get along. Also, in the States, when a business person goes on vacation, his/her phone and computer are still attached his/her side. But the people my dad works with in France go completely missing and are unable to be reached. They also take many more vacations than workers in the U.S. To Americans, choosing to take vacations this way may be viewed as laziness, but in France and other European countries, it is healthy and allows you to be a more productive worker. This relates to the issues of punctuality and laziness discussed in "Social Time: The Heartbeat of a Culture," France and The U.S. have different views on what socially acceptable, but understanding these differences and embracing them is what allows this company to thrive.

Nick's Story

Last summer I was watching The 700 club ( it is a Christian news program) and a story about Nick Vujicic came on and hearing his story caused me to gain a new perspective toward the character of humans. The internal torment that he faced as a kid was heartbreaking, but the one line that hits me every time I go back and watch his interview is when he says "I'd rather have no arms and no legs temporarily here on earth, to be able to reach someone else for Jesus Christ." Even if you are not religious, it is still fantastic to see that these three men that Mr. Salituro talked about faced such adversity, but now they use it to touch so many lives. Relating to Charon's idea, in this instance, it is good to generalize. These men have shown that when you make it through trials, you gain a greater knowledge and a story. The idea of Charon's that I really liked was that by generalizing we can take what we learn from one instance and apply it to another. The generalization I took from watching Nick Vujicic's story is the importance of looking beyond what we see on the outside of someone who is different because a fantastic and inspiring story could be hiding inside.

Here is a video of Nick's story, as a note, it is Christianity-based. I don't want to offend anyone, so there's no need to watch it if it would make you feel uncomfortable!

A Classroom Flashback

Today in class, Mr. Salituro started a clip about the documentary, "A Classroom Divided." We only got through a couple minutes, but right before our bell rang, the teacher, Mrs. Elliot began to explain the activity to her third grade class and she said, "Blue-eyed people are the better people in this room." She then went on to explain just how inferior brown-eyed people were. I had this immediate flashback to my third grade class. We had been studying a unit on civil rights and on this particular day, my teacher, Miss Hartigan, read us a book about Rosa Parks. After she finished, she asked us what we thought about it. Once we had all responded she said, "What if these bad things happened to you just because you had blue eyes?" I remember that my stomach sank and my face got flushed. I thought, "Wait, I have blue eyes, that wouldn't be fair, its not my fault that my eyes are the color that they are!" That one sentence of hers drastically changed my view, even at age eight it had a tremendous impact. She didn't end up putting us through Mrs. Elliot's experiment, she actually went silent and excused us to recess. I don't think she realized the influence she had on my little mind. My parents had always preached "Love your neighbor as yourself," but because of Miss Hartigan, I began to take those words and make them a part of my own values. I started to think about how we don't chose our features and the character of a person isn't dependent on our outward appearance. (Although, my little third grade mind probably didn't use so many big words!). It has been almost ten years and that one sentence still breaks my heart, and I hope that it never stops.

The Value of A Life

In class on Friday, we did an activity where students in a life boat had to decide who to kick off because there was not enough room. Being an observer of the scenario, I gained and interesting perspective. The situation made me think about what makes one life more valuable than another. The group was quick to vote off the elderly couple, which is understandable, they lived a long life, and everyone else deserves that too, right? A pattern that did surface was that the people with family stayed the longest on the life boat. Maybe that's what measures the value of a life, If these people have loved ones to come home to, they should be able to make it home. One move that shook me was that the third person to go was the sailor, he would've been so experienced at sea, that he could have helped protect the lives that were there. Also, the group, for the majority of the time, considered getting rid of the medical student, quarters master, and captain. Again, these people could save lives in the end. The most influential thing I took from this activity was that not one person in our class offered to sacrifice him/herself. Humans all want to defend themselves, and it seems harsh to admit, but many of us view our lives as more valuable as the person sitting next to us.

Why Don't We Care?

In one moment, everything can change. One word, can start movement, so why don't we take our lives more seriously? I am a Christian, so I believe that there are great things to come after this life is over. Compared to eternity, this one life is so short. We here this concept the time, but that does not diminish it's validity. We are given opportunities everyday to make an impression, so why not make the best one we can?

Reading "The outliers" and "Sociological Mindfulness," got me wondering about what influences us to try and make these positive impacts on people. Mr. Salituro mentioned that at first we may dread doing the volunteer hours and in my head I questioned, "What influences do we receive that determine our likeliness to want to serve?" Is it religion? Christ calls us to help the poor, widows, and orphans, but in class, we talked about many Jewish organizations that have a heart for those in need. And there are many groups that strive to help, but are not associated with any religion. Maybe it is family, or maybe some one helped us when we were hurting, and now we feel called to continue the chain and give aid to some one else?

My biggest concern is why is there so much apathy toward others? Are we too consumed by school, grades , sports and other activities for ourselves that others are pushed to the side?  I think the effects of this apathy are even worse when we do gain a sociological mindfulness, but chose to only listen/follow when it is most convenient to us.

Growing Up Online

    I watched to PBS special on growing up online and one thing I found moving was when it said that although many adults are not happy with the new technology-based lifestyle students are living, it is not going away.
    It was interesting to see that many schools are adapting in order to keep the students engaged. As students, we have almost constant access to the Internet and technology, it is what we have become comfortable with.
   As the special showed, that comfort can be dangerous and many kids opposed restrictions there parents put on their access to technology, but I think parents still have a large influence. My parents have never let the kids in my family to go on social networking sites and that was it. There are times when I feel like it would be easier if I could have a ll facebook, but my parents want be to be safe and I appreciate that.
   Some of the stories about students finding an alternate identity were frightening. Students that were shy in reality, were bold online. That made me think of our blogs, because there are many students that do not like to speak in class or find it intimidating. This blog can allow students to give there input and participate with out fear.
    If we use our means to the Internet in intelligent ways we can channel resources that if used incorrectly are dangerous and make them productive.

Who Am I?

I have been blessed with a great family and have been given many wonderful opportunities. I have a mom, dad, little brother, and twin sister. I was born in California, but soon after,  we moved to Iowa, where my parents are originally from. A couple of years later, my dad got a new job in Chicago, and although we have been here for twelve years, we all find that back in Iowa still feels more like home. We go back to see family six times a year, but when I was younger, I would always beg my parents to let us move back. Rural Iowa is just so peaceful, calm, and inviting. So, My sister and I have decided to go to college at Iowa State, it was actually the only place we applied, but it has worked out well

In school, I'm involved  in cross country and track, and attend the club Fellowship of Christian Athletes (FCA). I have also found that I really enjoy spending time at church, My sister and I help out with the junior high ministry on Saturday nights and the nursery on Sunday morning. We're actually going on a retreat this weekend.

At college I want to study environmental science and focus on water purification. I am very excited to have a job I will look forward to everyday and  to be given the opportunity to travel to parts of the world that are such a contrast to the U.S.