as the world turns

Oh, how we love standardized testing. Honestly, the whole process of just studying, taking 3-hour long practice tests daily, running out of time on every section, finding out that you got half the questions wrong when checking, going back and trying to figure out the right answer even though you can’t, having mild anxiety attacks due to the pressure of getting into a good college, paying $60 just to take a test you don’t even want to take, waking up super early when your brain isn’t even functioning on the day of the exam, and getting your score back just to reconfirm your fricking illiteracy makes me so incredibly happy. On another note, getting a mediocre score on the SAT means being comforted by everyone around you, telling you that you can and will do better next time. They don’t judge you or make an inference about your intelligence level at all! On top of that, you keep retaking the test, paying $60 to the government each and every time, while the government spends this money on...

There are hundreds and thousands of starving children out in the world, searching for anything that will satisfy their growling stomachs. Being the generous souls that they are, Lays has given us the gift of beautiful yellow plastic bags of air PLUS a few free chips thrown in there! Other brands, such as Doritos, Fritos, and PopChips, have recognized this tactic and thought maybe instead of selling whole chip bags we can help society by giving them more oxygen to breathe. And it totally worked; lines of customers filled aisle ways to purchase these luxurious air bags for ONLY three hard-earned dollars. These brands have also made the effort to make the bags out of pure metalized  polypropylene meaning they cannot be recycled. How thoughtful of them, right? Now we don’t have to worry about finding a recycling bin; we can simply dispose of the bag whenever and wherever, whether it be on the grass of a park or the coast of a beach. Honestly the turtles and fish on these beaches are ...

The shame that blacks experienced for living in America could not be more apparent in Song of Solomon .  In a discussion between Milkman and Ms. Byrd, it is said that Milkman’s grandmother had been “too dark to pass” (Morrison 292) as a white, and that Susan Byrd “actually blushed [as] though she’d discovered something shameful about him.” This goes to show that blacks would try to pass as whites in order to escape the injustice and cruelty faced by the oppression of white citizens. The fact that these innocent people are being diminished to less of a person due to the color of their skin is truly abhorrent. America is built upon life, liberty and the  pursuit of happiness; however, when these people have been and are being stripped of their innate rights, these “unalienable” freedoms seem to contradict themselves. For example, Michael Brown, a black 18-year-old from Missouri, was shot at least 6 times and killed by a white police officer simply because he was accused of r...

Song of Solomon by Toni Morrison is a true coming-of-age story. The reader is guided through Milkman’s life as he sees it. The reader experiences his struggles and his realizations along with him throughout the novel. Eventually, he progresses from being an immature teenager to a righteous man with a sense of direction in life. In part one of the book, Milkman’s life from when he was born to when he was about 35 is depicted. Throughout these 35 years, Milkman is illustrated as someone whose life is essentially purposeless and empty. After all, he’s been living in the same city forever and everyone he knows is simply using him for his life, as Guitar puts it. He is stuck with his father's materialistic values and arrogance and his mother’s ignorance towards everyone and everything. As a result, he is greatly selfish and indifferent, lacks all respect for women, and relies heavily on materialistic goods because he perceives himself as one who is inferior to others both economically ...

Song of Solomon was written in 1977. Right now, it is 2017 (obviously). 40 whole years, and the disgusting idea of objectifying women has not budged even a bit. In Song of Solomon , when Reba and Hagar were walking in, Milkman was so awestruck with Hagar that “he had no need to see her face [because] he had already fallen in love with her behind” (Morrison 43). Within just a few seconds, he had the audacity to think he had fallen in love with her without even saying a single word to her. Sad enough, this is still the case in some situations today. Objectification of women has been, is, and will continue to be prevalent in society unless a change is made. Women are often dehumanized by men even today. Social media, TV shows, and news broadcasts often depict a misleading portrayal of women. With perfect bodies, models are seen as the ideal image of a women. They have the perfect lifestyle…right? Think again. According to a Model Alliance survey in 2012, 64.1% of models have been ask...

Something we all know is that life is hard to define. To me, metaphors are the only viable form of grasping the true definition of the word due to its unfathomable meaning. I like to think about it in this way: my swimming career has taught me something deeper…something richer in meaning than simply swimming. Standing at the blocks, ready to begin my race, is the beginning of a new opportunity, a new day in life. I get up on the block ready to dive in - head first. When I dive, momentum pulls me straight down to the bottom of the pool. But I realize I have to keep going and push myself just like one has to push through the painful aspects of life, through the obstacles, and through the hardships. Each lane is the path one takes to reach the final destination. Each stroke is each step one takes to hit the final target. Each flip turn is the change in direction, a change in your lifestyle, for the better or for the worse. Each breath is the energy radiated by the positivity and love o...

In a recent study, citizens who had $1 million or more in assets were asked if they considered themselves wealthy. Of 4,450 participants, only 60% considered themselves wealthy which means a whopping 1,780 citizens did not consider themselves wealthy. Although 60% is the majority, it made me curious as to why the rest opted to answer no. The words “well off” and “wealthy” are commonly associated with one another as synonyms. To me, however, these words differ significantly. To be well off in present society means to have a vast amount of money in order to live a decent life. So you might be wondering: what exactly does wealth mean then?  Wealth means the exact opposite: having a decent amount of money in order to live an extravagant and fulfilled life. Having a great amount of money does not necessarily equate to happiness as the lifelong saying says; “money can’t buy happiness.” But this is the exact opposite of the notion that citizens of the 1920s had set in their minds. E...

The extensive use Nazi propaganda had an extreme influence on the opinions of thousands of Germans. These posters glorified the Germans and advertised their higher power over the Jews in a way that seemed nonviolent and rational. The Jews were portrayed as dirty, fat, and greedy animals to manipulate the Germans into thinking that the Jews were associated with the enemies. However, this was clearly not the case as presented in Maus . Art Spiegelman, in a way, mocks these forms of persuasion by altering the way the posters were depicted to unveil the realities and the harshness of Nazi control.   For example, as seen by the chapter cover for Chapter 2 in Maus and a form of Nazi propaganda above, both portray people looking at the swastika. However, the underlying meaning of these images differ to a great extent. In the second image, a “German student” (translation of the words on the poster) is shown to be honoring the Nazi flag which demonstrates the biased way of pers...

At a swim meet a few days ago, my coach pressured me into beating a girl swimming in the lane next to me. I immediately checked her times and thought: how am I going to beat her? I am nowhere close to her time. I was nervous and knew I couldn’t rely on luck to beat her. My teammates kept comforting me and said, “Good luck!” which I knew wouldn’t help me. My coach later talked to me and said he has faith in me because I’ve been working hard at practice. I knew that I’d been working hard and finally had confidence in my abilities. In the end, it wasn’t the luck that made me push through and beat her, but my hard work and dedication to the sport. Each and every day, people in society dedicate their achievements and losses to the ever-present theory called luck. However, there is a misinterpretation with this theory. Luck is defined as “success or failure apparently brought by chance rather than through one’s own actions” ( dictionary.com ). If luck is present every single day, and all ...

On page 108 of Maus by Art Spiegelman, the Germans are shown killing a great deal of Jews in Auschwitz, especially children only 2-3 years old. They were “swing[ing] them by the legs against a wall” (Spiegelman 108) while the children were screaming and crying violently. This large number of Jews killed in just this one scene amounted to a total of 1,000 people. This overwhelming number was a struggle to depict in the comic for Spiegelman because of his strong emotional ties to the war through his father. Because of this, the way he communicated this detail through both illustrations and words is one of great importance. In the second to last box on this page, the focus is on the long white curve which depicts the motion of the swinging rather than the child being murdered. His father states that “the children never anymore screamed” (Spiegelman 108) rather than simply stating that they were dead. By doing this, he gets his point across both clearly and strongly while leaving out ...

Society is grounded on the basis of inequality, even today. The gender roles present today prevent many unique women from developing to their full potential. However, these gender roles are extremely resistant to change for the sole reason that they are matters of deeply entrenched tradition. Now, I am not here to explain the problems of the gender divisions in society and how they affect us, but rather to inform you on how the world can diminish its gender-biased way of thinking. So think about it: how many papers and TED talks and lectures have you heard about standing up for women’s rights and defying the status quo? Many, right? Then why is it that no change is being seen and the bias continues to exist? Maybe the solution lies within the women themselves. Many young girls are taught to avoid risk and failure, while boys on the other hand are taught to take risks and be confident. The underlying problem is that girls are taught to be perfect, while boys are taught to be brave. In a...

Around the world, music is the one commonplace among different ethnicities and races. Whether you live half way across the world or not, music is still a way of expressing emotions through melodic lyrics and rhythmic beats. Music is essentially the universal language. Yesterday, as I was doing homework, I was listening to an old song: Down by Jay Sean. This song has been my go to song from a very young age, but only yesterday did I discover that he is of Indian origin (although his appearance does not make this seem believable). His full name is Kamaljit Singh Jhooti, which is a common north Indian name. Upon realizing this, I came across the notion that music truly has no barriers. The fact that this music, written by someone who doesn’t even live in America, is being enjoyed and felt by the people of America, is truly awakening. Similarly, the father’s relation to Jimi Hendrix in Because my father always said he was the only Indian who saw Jimi Hendrix play ‘The Star-Spangled Bann...

          As the world turns, as it slowly revolves around its axis, as it tries to catch up with the sun, 24 hours pass. In this mere 24 hours, you are given another chance to live on this beautiful earth. Each and every day, the world holds new adventures waiting to be uncovered, but when it decides to throw poverty, famine, terrorism, economic downfall, racism, and even natural disaster at us, it affects hundreds and thousands of people all across the globe. In times like these, we must come together and unite as shown in The Partly Cloudy Patriot when the author states, "the other day in the subway at 5:30, I was crammed into my sweaty, crabby fellow citizens, and I kept whispering under my breath 'we the people, we the people,’ over and over again, reminding myself we're all in this together and they had as much right – exactly as much right – as I to be in the muggy underground on their way to wherever they were on their way to” (Vowell 106...