In My Honest Opinion

            My mother’s favorite movie of all time is Dirty Dancing . I remember being around six or seven when I walked in on her watching it. She was lying on the couch, and, when she caught sight of me, she rushed to find the little grey DVD remote to pause the TV. She paused the movie at the perfect moment. Baby was carrying a watermelon into the slightly seedy, and more than slightly erotic, dance party. The frame was incredibly blurry, but I could just make out Baby’s shocked expression and the knowing smirk on the face of the guy next to her. This was enough to stir my childlike curiosity.             “Can I watch with you?” I asked my mom. She said no and turned the TV off to really drive the point home. Talk about adding insult to injury. When I asked why, she explained that the movie was inappropriate and that I could watch it when I was older. This was beyond insulting to me. As a six-year-ol...

      For as long as I can remember, my parents have loved to travel. When I was a kid, my dad used to travel frequently for work. When he returned home, he would regale us with stories of shenanigans from the airport, and tell us how much he enjoyed the different cultures, experiences, and adventures of visiting new places. My mom traveled a bit in college with her debate team, but, after she had kids, my mom's traveling came to an abrupt pause. Now, my parents take a trip together at least twice a year- they say it's good for their relationship to get away for a weekend.      At first, the travel bug that runs in my family stayed dormant within me. I've never despised traveling, but it always brought a level of anxiety that wasn't outweighed by the fun of the journey. As a kid, my family went on some small road trips to places like San Antonio, Houston, and Lubbock. Later on, we also went on road trips to Colorado, Mexico, and Wisconsin . These sho...

     I first started writing at the ripe age of seven or eight. I borrowed my parent's computer and penned my first stories on a loudly clacking keyboard. Of course, I was under grand delusions that I would be the next J. K. Rowling- an idea that I still may or may not be secretly fostering- and I wrote with a fervor that, I am sure, matched hers. My first "book" was a novel aptly titled Rhotrude , named as such after the protagonist. If you are thinking something along the lines of: "What kind of a name is Rhotrude and what the heck does this novel entail?" You are not alone. I am not sure what kind of a name Rhotrude is.      A rudimentary Google search reveals that the name is entirely made up but does, however, appear in the poems of Frederick Goddard Tuckerman. Clearly, I was not reading Tuckerman at the age of seven, so the name must have been the result of my little fingers randomly slamming on the keyboard until I found a name that suited my purpos...

     This post will be a little different from my regular blog posts. Instead of writing an opinion piece on some topic, I will be- as the title suggests- giving a small life update about what has been going on in my life recently, and what I am planning for the future - short-term at least.      As of this past week, I have become a community college graduate with the completion of my Associate's Degree. This has been a big deal for me- something that has taken me four years to achieve. I started my  illustrious community college career at the age of sixteen, taking dual credit classes in high school. Since I was sixteen, I have taken seventy-seven hours of classes. Some of them necessary for my degree; some of them not so much... Also during my stint at school, I changed my degree plan once- something that I wasn't initially planning on doing.      As some of you may remember, my initial plan was to go into Business and Advertising. ...

   Recently, New Jersey Senator Cory Booker has introduced a bill that would begin to look at paying reparations to the descendants of former slaves. This isn't a new idea; there have been a few different pushes for reparations, dating all the way back to the 1860s, 1890s, 1960s, 1980s, and, obviously, more recently as well. While this isn't a new idea, we've never gotten as close to seriously considering  and delivering   reparations as we have in 2019. Georgetown University voted on April 11th whether they should charge their students a $27.20 fee to go towards a slave reparations fund. I believe that reparations for slavery would be an unnecessary idea.      First of all, I am a huge proponent of letting bygones be bygones. I understand our country is built on the disenfranchisement of many groups of people- Native Americans, African Americans, hordes of immigrants- but that doesn't automatically mean we should begin paying them for past transgress...

     I consider myself to be a feminist. I believe that women are just as good as men, that men and women should have equal rights, and that women have been historically repressed because of their otherness in a world run by men. I do not, however, consider myself to be a proponent of this new fangled fourth wave of feminism, and that makes me feel like a bad feminist. In a world where the word "feminist" has become synonymous with women shouting out other groups to make their point, I find myself disagreeing with more and more of the things that feminists claim to stand for. Does this mean that I am still a feminist- albeit a poor one?     I was at eating dinner with some family friends when someone pointed out that the menu had three food items in a series; it was a grilled chicken meal with varying levels of add-ons and flavors. These meals were called: the Fit Chick, the Hot Chick, and the Fat Chick. While I was perturbed that a restaurant would feel the ne...

      It is so easy to hide behind the anonymity that the Internet can provide. The Internet can be one of the most dangerous places to visit, and it is a place where mob mentality completely overrides all common sense time and time again. Not only do children and teens experience cyberbullying, but adults are reporting it, too. Adult cyberbullying is deemed to be much less important than the bullying that children and teens face, so there are fewer statistics about it but a 2014 Pew Internet report said that up to 40% of adults say that they are cyberbullied. That number has only grown since then. The issues on the Internet have only become more and more egregious as people dare to have opposing views. It's almost impossible to post any kind of opinion today without getting at least one person push back; often in a negative fashion. Why is this?      Often, the issue can be boiled down to anonymity. Anonymity is a very powerful tool. We can do and sa...