Humanitarian of the Year Part 2

The other day, I was given the opportunity to volunteer at a P.A.D.S. shelter. I have been involved with so many different community service projects, but helping the homeless was an experience that left the biggest impact on me. There is a mandatory training session so people know what to expect at the shelters, but nothing can prepare you for what goes on in these shelters. I got to the shelter at 6, an hour before the guests arrived for dinner. We heated up the food and set the tables. When the guests started to come at 7, the men claimed their sleeping areas in the gym while we set up the dinner buffet. There were about 20 men and there was only one woman who stayed at the shelter that night. The men stayed in the gym while the woman slept by herself in a separate room. Obviously, my original thoughts on this issue were that I felt terrible for this poor woman who had to sleep in a room all by herself in a church. Then I analyzed the situation in greater depth. This shelter was not a one stop shot at lifting these people out of poverty. Moving from shelter to shelter every day is the routine for most of these people. However, these people were not stereotypical homeless people you'd find in front of shopping malls with coin cans and cardboard signs with spiritual messages on them to persuade people to give them money. These guests were either coming from work or coming from the streets. The gym was almost full, and the bizarre thing is I have been living in my community for over 10 years, and I have not seen a single homeless person on the streets. After volunteering and helping these people, I was left with embarrassment and remorse because I've been so oblivious all these years. My parents work hard to make a nice living for our family, and I never realized how hard you need to work in today's struggling economy to support yourself. It didn't even cross my mind that people in my community would struggle as much as these homeless people do because I have been fortunate enough to have a dad who has never been out of work. By volunteering for P.A.D.S., I definitely became more grateful for basically everything I have. From little items like a new tube of toothpaste to pocket burners like camp and college tuition, my perception of materialism has most definitely been put in to perspective. I would without a doubt recommend this volunteering opportunity to anybody.

Nursing Home

Today, I went to the Brentwood nursing home for G.I.V.E. and had a totally different experience than my previous trips to this place. I expected to do arts and crafts with your average elder, but today I was in the Alzheimer's ward with severely effected people. Each person was affected by the disease differently. Some people were really excited to see "new" faces in the home, and others didn't even realize that we were there. The lady I was working with had anxiety and wheeled herself away from the table while I was making her project! It was really awkward because there was nothing I could do to get her back to the table. I thought my camp counselor skills would work when I tried to convince her that it was fine that everyone was here, but I was wrong. Oh well! There was another lady in the ward who didn't even remember her name. I was talking to one lady who didn't remember if she had any children or siblings. It was so sad! Some of it was entertaining. This whole experience was really bizarre because the only time I've witnessed people struggling with Alzheimer's is when I've seen it on T.V. I could tell that the elders were grateful that we did crafts with them because they were all really happy while we were there. Even though it was hard to connect and make small talk with people who couldn't remember what they did 3 hours before our conversation, it was a really cool experience because it was completely different from anything I'd ever done before. I'd totally do this G.I.V.E. trip again. It was extremely rewarding!

Tough Guys Wear Pink

School shootings and other forms of school violence are rarely performed by females. Why is this? Males have a reputation to be these tough people who remain strong through thick and thin, but in reality, males are a lot more sensitive then they appear to be. When someone calls a male a "fag" or other terms that imply that the male is homosexual or feminine, the victim feels threatened because someone had questioned his masculinity. Males respond to these kind of things by fighting or even taking it to the extreme of shooting. Females are rarely the shooters. This is because females have a different reaction to "drama" than males do. Unlike males, females tend to be passive aggressive, and they work their way to the top of the social ladder by manipulating others.

Like males, females are pressured to look and act a certain way in order to be seen with the right crowd and gain respect from their peers. The movie "Mean Girls" depicts life in girl world. The video below is an analysis of the movie with the author of Queen Bees & Wannabes, the book in which "Mean Girls" was based.

What is beauty?

The Dove campaign for natural beauty is a major wake-up call for Americans to be less naive about the 'perfect image.' Americans have been brainwashed to believe that people need to look a certain way in order to fit in with others. The media is the biggest influence on the way people choose to dress themselves, etc. We, as Americans, put the fittest and prettiest people on pedestals and copy the things that they do.

On T.V. shows like Desperate Housewives, the 21st century American housewife is depicted through the main characters. People who do not look like the housewives feel like outcasts because the women who are on the show are very pretty and very fit. Sitcoms like Modern Family have a more accurate depiction of today's society, and the characters lead normal lives. In America, beauty is defined by the amount of make-up a girl wears or the athletic ability of a man. This is not the case for all countries. A year or two ago, Oprah had  Mara Schiavocampo on her show after Mara went around the world in search of the true definition of beauty.  After traveling to five different continents, Mara discovered that beauty can be interpreted in countless ways. In America and Brazil, people measure beauty by the person's body. People who want to be beautiful value exercise and will use plastic surgery if that's what it takes to get their dream figure. These two countries have perform the most plastic surgeries in the world. Japanese women use collagen to improve their skin because skin is their token to true beauty. The women of the Kayan tribe near Thailand and Burma use rings to elongate her neck. These are just a few examples of different forms of beauty. For more information, here is the link to the episode's summary.

Girls Gone Wild!

Forget food, water, and oxygen! Nature and nurture are much more important! They aid in survival for all animals, mainly humans. Studies have shown that children who are neglected while they are babies develop much slower than children who receive proper care throughout their early years. Child neglect causes retardation and stunts brain development. In an episode of The Oprah Winfrey Show, Danielle, a feral child, was found in an abandoned house and she did not have the ability to communicate with the policemen who found her. After being nurtured by her foster family, Danielle has been slowly but surely gaining the ability to function in the real world. Nature and nurture are important because today's society has transformed from diverse to "survival of the fittest." If a person does not have the ability to communicate, he/she will have a very hard time fitting in society because they do not have the proper socialization basics that a majority of people receive at young ages. In the articles given in class, one can learn that people are the biggest influence that humans depend on for growth. Family, friends, and co-workers give people an identity, and the types of environments people surround themselves with affect the way their children act. Because I was raised in an upper-middle class family, I have been extremely disciplined by my parents. They set high expectations for me, and I would never do anything that would make people think less of me because I want to maintain a good reputation. I have to act a certain way around my grandparents. For example, when my grandpa asks me how I'm doing, I am expected to respond with "I'm fine thanks, how are you?" under all circumstances. I follow these guidelines subconsciously because as an obedient person, I avoid trouble when possible.

We're Tuesday people!

In class, we watched the movie "Tuesdays with Morrie." This is the story about a stereotypical businessman, Mitch Albom, whose life is taken over by his job. Mitch's Sociology teacher, Morrie Schwartz, contracts ALS and gradually dies throughout the course of the movie. After many Tuesday meetings with Morrie, Mitch learns from Morrie that "when you learn how to die, you learn how to live." Mitch puts his work and girlfriend on hold while he waits for Morrie to die. Morrie told Mitch to live his life while he's young because Mitch was lucky to have so much time and good health. Morrie gives Mitch the ultimate reality check. Obviously death tears people apart. Morrie reminds Mitch that "death ends life, not a relationship." Death could never break the strong relationship that people have with their loved ones. Although they are literally apart, people are always figuratively together in heart. You can't live your life waiting for people to die. When my nana's sister was dying, it totally drained everybody in my family because she was dying for over a year. I was not allowed to go visit after a certain point because my mom didn't want my sister or me to remember our aunt at the near-death state. Like Morrie, my Aunt Irene had high spirits until the day she died. My mom made meatballs from my aunt's recipe one day and brought it to her in the nursing home. My aunt was able to tell that my mom didn't add all of the lemons that the recipe called for. If you talked to her on the phone, you would never know that she was dying. Her memory was never impaired either. She could talk about the trip she took to Europe 20 years before she died. My family was not able to look past the good things that Aunt Irene was still able to contribute, and they were constantly worrying. The day she died, a weight was lifted off the family because remembering seemed to be a lot easier than constant caring. I don't think this is the way death is supposed to be. I believe people should spend more time living in the moment. Waiting around for death is too draining, and wishing the loved one was still living is also draining. Hopefully American culture will generate a new view of death to make it easier on people!

Cultural Confusion

After discussing American culture with my classmates, I realized that Americans do not have a culture to call their own. From the Revolutionary War to the present, Americans have valued diversity; therefore, America has transformed from British colonies to a cultural melting pot.  Although there are some classic American icons such as a hot dog or a Chevrolet automobile, there is no right or wrong way that a person can "Americanize" him/herself. People in America have the freedom to express themselves with their religion or hobbies/interests.

Like America, my high school does not have a distinct culture because there are so many different types of people who attend the school. There is so much opportunity for students, and everybody belongs do different clubs or plays different sports. The cliques formed in school make it hard to pinpoint a specific culture type for my school. Furthermore, all high schools have cliques, and people have to find where they belong in the high school society.