CYCLES

Here's a little help for everyone else looking for some outside evidence on cycles:
http://www.timepage.org/time.html
And hey, Mark Twain was in the realistic time period (I think)! Wish I had found this site before writing that essay.. maybe would have been a little extra help?
Well to everyone, good luck making it through finals, especially with the work load of multiple finals and teachers not fully realizing how much time you DON'T have, yet are still expected to use it preparing. Good luck.

Also, Bolos/O'Connor, may I recommend a book that I came across as well, that seems to be your lives' callings? http://www.amazon.com/Cycles-American-History-Arthur-Schlesinger/dp/0395957931 I don't know what it actually is like, but enjoy.

THE FINAL

Cycles, cycles, cycles. Must everything be linked? Apparently, if you take AIS. It's either a cycle or a progression. Which I guess for the most part IS true, but how depressing to have to think like that? Anyways, life in itself pretty much is a cycle. You're born, you have your childhood, you make mistakes, learn, try to be someone different than everyone else (making you just the same as them), you go through schooling, more schooling, go into the work force, get married, have kids, retire, die. It is the same with everyone throughout the modern world. It is the ancient past and the "undeveloped" world that is the true gem - although they may have cycles of their own, there are a lot more variables that factor into the equation of life, making it more unpredictable. We are told from a young age that we can be anything we want to be, whether it be from Disney movies, teachers, or our parents. However, we soon come to realize that there are restrictions - there are restrictions on everything. So no, we can't actually be anything we want to be. There are many cycles in life: caring then not caring then being forced to care again to make up for when you weren't caring, the overall life cycle of birth and death, the cycle of dealing with drama, ect. ect. It all always has the same ending - giving up.
It's like the cycle of war too - and in the end one side is always forced to give up.

Favorites

Don't you just hate it when people play favorites? We've all seen it in all of our classes, and teachers will almost never fess up to it, but let's face the facts - it happens. So students become torn between sucking up to their teachers for that good grade and peers relenting them. As we have all seen, there are those students so good at sucking up that the teachers never notice that is their intention; but fellow students always realize. And then others that are just so pitiful that even the teacher calls them out on it. I feel like that might be the definition of a good student, anyway, just someone who cares enough and sucks up to the teacher enough to get a good grade. It's no wonder why many students, myself included, have been labeled in certain classes at least as the "slackers".
Can I give you an example? I got the same grade on every essay this year, whether I spent 20 minutes or 5+ hours on it. I don't deny that the teachers read the essays, because obviously we had a lot of marks on them. However, don't you think that they based their grade at least PARTLY upon who you are, not what your essay was? And it's like that in every class, everywhere. It's a cycle that us as humans go through - playing favorites over and over again.

Memorial Day

Although Memorial Day started out with noble beginnings, the true meaning is being lost on today's youth. I myself am pretty guilty of this as well... only viewing today as a day off of school, not remembering those who have fallen for our country. One reason could be come from how I grew up - Kenilworth traditionally holds its Memorial Day parade the weekend before Memorial Day. Why? It happens to be because a large percentage of the community goes away for the long weekend - so they decided to just move the national holiday. This promotes the insignificance of such holidays in our lives. Now I didn't say that this was right or how it should be, I believe quite the contrary actually. But in today's hectic society, who has time to stop and remember?

Politics, Politics, Politics....

Nearing the end of the Democratic primaries, will Obama pull it out the win over Clinton? Even if he does, I believe the party has been divided for too long - instead of working together, they have been splitting their group in two. So my thoughts then become, even after the Democratic candidate is decided, who knows if that candidate will get the support of fellow democrats? The elongated democratic primaries may have been the best thing to happen to McCain yet - let's just hope people are willing to look at the actual candidate and not just whomever is democrat vs republican

I have been trying to decide what I think this coming November will bring, but there are so many variables it is impossible to tell.. But two main questions that will decide the outcome are as follows:
-Will people vote for McCain just because they do not like Obama or Clinton?
-Will people vote democrat just because they do not like the Bush administration?

Junior Theme....winding down

The night before the Junior Theme is due is the night dreaded (and feared) by many. How often do you come across a student who is COMPLETELY DONE with their Theme before the last night? It's pretty rare. In fact, I'd bet that you'd be more likely to come across someone who hadn't even started it. I believe that in today's world, there are an increasing number of procrastinators, due to a number of reasons. One main reason with many subcategories is technology. Whether it be TV, facebook, BLOGGER, instant messaging, or even online shopping, the desire to do the required school work is slipping down a slippery slope. Many students will only do schoolwork when it is absolutely necessary, increasing the list of underachievers to the max. Even students who have always worked hard through most of high school or even through college get burnt out by the time it "really counts". But this raises another discrepancy: why is it that every time we start slacking off and enjoying ourselves we are told we chose the wrong time to do so? When would be the right time to have a little fun and less work? Apparently never.

In my Junior Theme research I came across the information of how the invention of the light bulb has actually increased the levels of depression, a lot because of how that invention allowed workdays to become twice as long. The work day keeps increasing, sleep is vanishing into thin air, and our society is going in a downward spiral. It's not the "global warming" that will be the end of the human race, it's simply the light bulb.