When I Grow Up...

When I was 5-yrs-old, I was a little ballerina, but my dreams weren't of someday becoming a professional. When I was a little kid, I knew I wanted to have a career dealing with animals. I loved everything about the idea. One of the main animal-related jobs I wanted to do was become a veterinarian. I loved animals, so of course I would love taking care of and healing them when they were sick or injured. This career thought grew in my head for years, but eventually times changed, and I became a teenager. When I was in my early teens, I was obsessed with music. I started having music-related career thoughts, but I eventually realized that the chance of having my "dream job" of writing for AP Magazine, was very slim. Now that I am 18, and in college, my train of thought has gone back to having an animal-related career. Right now I am majoring in General Biology, but I plan on transferring to main campus next year, and getting into Zoology. I love the sciences, and always have, just as I love animals. I was thinking about possibly working at a zoo or wildlife center after I graduate, but now I am starting to lean towards other ideas. I am starting to get into the study of genetics, and would love to do some lab research in the future after I graduate. Though if I did continue with the Zoology course, I could still study genetics. Because one of my course classes would be to study animal genetics. As far as being certain about my career option, I can't say that I am one-hundred percent sure. I am pretty certain, but at the same time leaving my mind open. I want to have a career that makes me truly happy, so how much money I will be making isn't that important to me. I would rather have a job that I love, and make less amount of money than I would having a job that I hated while making bank.

Terrorism a Disease?

So this whole Mosque being built near Ground Zero issue is causing a whole lot of controversy, and with that comes ignorance. Personally, I have no problem with this mosque being built. Yes it may be near Ground Zero, and I can see why some people may be upset about that. But the ignorance factor I am talking about is when you hear these grown people on the news saying things like "They're building a mosque to the terrorists." I'm sorry. I didn't realize terrorism was a disease and that since 9/11 people have been placing muslims into the "they're automatically terrorists" categories. Same thing as a church in Gainesville, Fl that decided to make burning the Quran a ceremony in "respect" to the 9/11 victims. The governor of Gainesville himself even said that the church was an embarrassment. It is ignorance and stereo-typing like this that is part of the reason there will never be such thing as "world peace." Sorry, Miss America.

out with the old, in with the new

So I'm really starting to miss my senior class. Since I went to such a small school, my class and I got the opportunity to really become like a close family. But now we have pretty much gone our own ways, which is really what graduation was all about. My classmates actually made me want to come to school every day. All day every day we would joke around with each other and find all kinds of things to do to pass the time away in school. We would play pranks on each other and even the teachers when they werent looking. Luckily most of our teachers were cool with it. I used to take my highschool years for granted, but now I realize they are what shaped me and helped me become the person I am today. Sure I may have been the class clown, but it felt good whenever I was absent and came back the next day how ppl would say they missed me and were glad I was back cuz I make their day amusing. I wasnt always that person though. I used to be so awkwardly shy that it made the people around me feel awkward. It was so embarrassing and kept me from making virtually any friends. Im glad that I went to a smaller school during my junior high and highschool years because it was a comfortable environment and I made some good friends that Im still friends with after 7 years. Now that im in college and in an unfamiliar and bigger environment, im going back to my shy ways. Many people mistake me for being stuck up, but its the exact opposite. My goal this year is to come out of my shell and hopefully make lots of new friends.

States of My Life

I have lived in 4 different states throughout my life. The first being Georgia, where I was born. I have spent a lot of my life in Georgia, even though after I was born, we only lived there for a few years. My grandma lives in Georgia and I always stayed at her house every chance that I got. After Georgia, my family and I moved to South Carolina where we stayed for about 4 years. I loved my neighborhood because I had two really good friends that lived across the street. We were always outside playing games and swinging on our swing sets. My brothers and I would go to the park that was in our neighborhood almost daily, as well as go fishing at the few ponds in the neighborhood. We always had this idea that there was a huge alligator in one of the ponds, and that if we got too close to the edge, he'd rush out of the water and get us. Part of the reason why we were terrified of that idea was because one of the older kids we lived near told us an earfull of stories. I enjoyed my life I had in South Carolina, so you can imagine I was terribly sad when my family and I moved to Virginia. When we first moved in, I HATED it. Sure we lived in a nice house and neighborhood, but it just wasn't the same. I went from having a big room, to a tiny room that looking back today, was probably about the size of the smallest dorm room you could find. My brothers had the huge room that was supposed to be a game room. They had a window seat that I always loved to sit on and peer out of the window. After I started school there and made some friends around the neighborhood, I started warming up to my new life in Virginia. We only lived there for about 2 and a half years before we finally came to our last destination- Montgomery, Alabama. I have lived in Montgomery for the past 8 years. When we finally arrived at our house I was excited because we had a pool. Later on that night, my mom drove my brothers and I around town and by the school we would be attending, Garrett Elementary. That night driving around in the car was an emotional one for me. Montgomery was way different than where I had come from in Virginia. I actually started crying because I thought that I would never grow to like Montgomery. It stayed that way for the first 2 years that we lived here. Today, I actually enjoy living in Montgomery. I have made so many friends within these past 8 years, and I even met my boyfriend of almost 3 years here. If I had never moved to Montgomery, I would've never met him or some of the great close friends that I have. I also started going to concerts and hearing a lot of the bands that I loved listening to. Music has always been a big part of my life, and I finally got to experience the music scene when I moved here. Living in Alabama is also more conveinent when it comes to visiting my grandma. When we lived in Virginia, it took us almost 11 hours to get to my grandma's house. You can imagine 11 hours in a car as a kid would be a very painful and boring ride. Overall, I think I enjoy living in Alabama the most, but Georgia will always be my home away from home.

My First Swimming Experience

When I was about 6 years-old, my family and I moved to South Carolina. We lived there for about 3 years. I loved my neighborhood because I had two really good friends that lived just across the street from me. There was also a playground in the neighborhood that I liked to visit frequently. My brothers and I would take the short trips to the playgound on our bigwheels. There were also a couple of ponds in my neighborhood that my dad would take us to go fishing. Everyone in the neighborhood was friendly and willing to lend a helping hand. That was the first house that I lived in that had a swimming pool. When we first moved into the house, we just had a huge backyard to play in, but eventually we replaced the trampoline with something more cool and refreshing that everyone could enjoy. I remember the day the guys came to start digging in the ground to get it ready for the pool. I would sit in the screened-in porch wide-eyed watching their every move. When I was a kid, I was fascinated by the simplest things. Then the big day came when the pool was finally ready. I saw the water in the pool and wanted to go in so bad, even though I had not yet learned how to swim. When I first began "swimming" I always stayed on the steps of the pool with my floaties on each arm. The first time I learned how to swim was actually on my own. Everybody had gone inside, and I was all alone outside. I wanted to defeat my fear, so I slid the floaties off and slid off the stairs into the deeper water (which was only 3-4 ft). Suprisingly it was not as hard as I thought it be. I was so thrilled and excited that I had gotten over my fear and was actually swimming. Me being able to swim and not being afraid meant that I could have more fun with my friends and my brothers in the pool. I could play the games that they did and do all the flips and cannon balls I wanted to. Ever since then, swimming has always been one of my favorite activities.

Don't Judge A Book By Its Cover

    I have always been a shy person and have never really been too great at making friends.  In my junior high years many people mistook me for being stuck up because I didn't really talk to anyone. I was just extremely shy and suffered from social awkwardness. When I attended Lighthouse Christian Academy for 6 years, it really helped me to open up to people--mostly because my school was so small. The first couple of years I was still my shy self, but I gradually began opening up more and more until I was pretty much friends with everyone in the highschool. My Senior and Junior year were probably my favorite years because I got along with all of my classmates and we ALWAYS had fun. There was literally never a dull day.
    Now that I am in college and in an environment where there are WAY more people than I'm used to, I am feeling a little lost and confused. I'm so used to going to a small school with familiar faces, and where everybody knows everybody.  I am going back to my old ways where I judge people on the outside, without even getting to know them first. Now this doesn't mean that I am bad-mouthing every person I see inside of my head. In fact, I am not really bad-mouthing anyone. I am just placing people into stereo-types I guess. My mom always told me not to judge someone by how they look or seem on the outside, because you never know what that person may be like. She pointed out that a girl at her work that I had seen a couple times when I came to visit thought that I was "preppy" and maybe a little "stuck up". (I can't help but to feel that she was only thinking that because I wouldn't join her sorority..) Anyway, I am probably one of the least preppy people I know, and I am not stuck up either. So it goes to show that if you are judging someone, they may be judging YOU as well. And 9 times out of 10 your perception of someone is wrong.
   

Is There Such Thing as Privacy These Days?

    Facebook once again has released a new feature that uses GPS to show you where your friends are and they are able to view where you are located as well. Facebook also automatically enables people to be able to check the places you most recently looked into or where you are right now. Of course not everyone is for this new feature, but if you want to turn it off, you have to look deep into your settings, just like every other feature Facebook has introduced.

   My take: I love Facebook and being able to keep in touch with all of my friends and see what new things are going on in their lives, but I have been questioning Facebook when it comes to these new features they have introduced. I don't even think all of these new features are even necessary. It just seems to me like Facebook keeps trying to out-do other social websites, or even themselves, but they don't seem to care about the privacy factor, which is a BIG issue with a lot of users. Another feature Facebook had introduced in the past was the "instant personalization" feature which enabled your data to be sent to other websites without your knowing or permission. Things like this can be scary, because with features like these you don't know what information is getting sent to what place. Your address, telephone numbers, and any other information you wouldn't want given out to any old stranger, could be all over the web. Facebook is getting really questionable in their actions, and will likely lose a lot of users because of these privacy issues. I think Facebook is asking to get sued because it is only a matter of time before you hear about  how easy it is for predators to find kids/teens through the new Facebook applications.  That is just one of the many things that could be likely to happen.                      

My Take On Writing

   I have always enjoyed writing, whether I am good at it or not. I started writing young, and I'm not talking about keeping a diary. I had an interest in poetry and started writing my own poems. I even entered one into a contest and was one of the finalists.
   When my brother and I were younger, we used to make silly little homemade comic books starring characters such as "Puff Piggy" or "Detective Cheeseburger". Stupid stuff like that. We were kids and had weird imaginations, but we made them come to life by writing the stories and drawing the pictures to go along. I guess you could say when I was a kid, writing was fun because I had such a broad imagination and didn't really care what ridiculousness i put on paper.
    These days I do not really write as much. I just think of things in my head instead of putting them on paper. Sometimes I will post blogs on a good site called allvoices.com. I like to express my opinions about things and certain topics. One of the main things I like to blog/write about is how corrupt society is today. You hear and see so many stories about horrifying and just plain awful things. It makes it kind of depressing to be living in this day and time. I don't even like to watch the news because I hate hearing those daily stories about kidnappings, shootings, missing children, murders, terrorism, devastating floods and hurricanes, and the list goes on and on and on. It just seems awful that these events really are almost daily. Sometimes people, including myself, are afraid to walk out their door in the morning and go to school/work because you never know what kind of craziness could happen.
    Mainly, I like to use writing as an outlet. I enjoy being able to express my opinions about topics and read other people's opinions as well and be able to relate.