Winter Break/Christmas

I am very excited for what my winter break holds for me. Alot of Holidays are always around this time of year for me and I tend to get a little excited over it. My birthday is right around the corner, Christmas is not that far away and New Years Eve is right after that. This winter will be a good winter for me because I will be 21 years old and I get to have fun with my friends that I couldnt do before. I get to go to the city and go on vacation with all of my friends. Plus my birthday is right before Christmas so that means double the gifts for me. I love when it snows too. When you wake up every morning not having to worry about rushing for school and what homework you have to do. You wake up in your warm house with a cup of hot choclate waiting in the morning and looking out your front window to see when it will snow. For the past 7 years I have always went to the parks with my dogs when it snowed and they would run around in glory while I would sit there and have snow fights with my sister and friends. Even though I know I am getting older, Christmas time makes me feel like akid all over again. I don't think I could ever grow up around Christmas time because it is honestly the best time of the year.

Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving is one of my faviortate holiday's of the year. Its a time where family comes together and to celebrate thanks. Every year around this time my family and I always come together as one big family to forget about everything and just be one big happy family. I love Thanksgiving because you can eat so much and you don't care how full you get or if you gain a few pounds. When this festive holidays rolls around I am always in the kitchen helping my mom cook and plus I have trying to sneak a few bites here and there. Ever since I was little I would always get yelled at because my mom would always find out I was sneaking bites every one in a while. Now she knows that I will eat before we have dinner so now she just makes me a plate before everyone comes over. I love this holiday because I get to see all of my cousins and my aunts and uncles that I haven't seen in a very long time. I get to joke around with my family and just spend that quality time that we never get and plus I am very family oriented and every chance I get to spend with my family I take it.

My First Semester

My first semester at St. Johns was nothing I would have expected. I thought transferring from a Community College to a University would be the same experience. But comming to St. Johns made me learn alot about myself and about the real world. Kingsborough Community College which was the college I had previously attended was not the experience I would have expected. The people that went there and the teachers especially made the experience not so pleasent. I would have liked if the teachers showed alot more care to the students they were teaching. They would just hand out assignments and not explain them at all, and they left me clueless. The students that attended Kingsborough were rude and didn't have an intrest to get to know anyone. Comming to St. Johns I thought it would be the same because we all know when we enter a new enviroment we all tend to a little nervous. But St. Johns changed my perspective on how I portrayed it to be. The people are so much nicer and the teachers show interest on what they are teaching. If they see we are having a problem they will help us better ourselves. I have to say that I absolutely love St. Johns and I hope my stay here for the next couple of years would grow and be a better experience for me.

Music

I have always loved music any type of music for that fact. It wasn't just about the music itself but the lyrics has always moved me and always meant something to me. If you can sit there and listen to a certain song for hours and understand the lyrics and go deep beyond that certain song you can learn alot about life itself. Every song that has been created to rap, country, rock, and pop they all have a meaning behind the songs. I have always wanted to go into the music business, my friend told me she could get me a job at KTU the radio station and I was so thrilled to hear that. Music has always caught my ears. Everytime I have went through a rough patch in my life I would turn the radio on and coincidentle a song that would portray the way I am feeling would just come on, and I would listen to the words and it would give the little goosebumps you get all over your body. Music can be so moving at points but can be so confusing to. If a love song comes on they give you hope that something good will happen when the outcome is going to be bad and you get your hopes up. I know when I listen to music I tend to always compare it to my life. Music I feel is very healthy and if you get a chance to just sit back and relax and listen and understand the words it can truly change your life.

Teen Mom Pleas For Her Daughter

On August 13, 2008 at around 2 a.m. A teen mom who goes by the name Keilani Chaves who is 16 years old was arrested for leaving her 1 month old daughter at home alone with no adult supervision around. Cops said that she left around 2 am and didn't return until 11 am the next morning. She also argued saying that she didn't abandon her daughter at all, she said her mother was home at the time, but wasn't. The deal that was made between Keilani and the courts was that she would have to complete a parenting-skills class within a year. If she completes it in a year the misdemeanor concviction will be dismissed and she will be sentenced as a youthful offender. This is a very serious case to me. The reason why I say this is because you have the responsibility to carry a child for 9 months give birth and yet still be able to leave that child home alone so you can go out all hours of the night. I think it was morally wrong to leave such a young child at young without any adult supervision. Anything could happen at any time and it would be on her hands and she would have to live with the guilt that she left her child home alone. Women should think twice about having children, if they can't handle the responsibility of taking care of a child then they shouldn't have a child until they are good and ready.

Gay Women Being Artificially Inseminated

In on of my recent blog entries I discuss the issues gay people have of getting married and how I tend to deal with some of these issues because my friends are gay. I am now going to discuss the issues relating on women being artificially inseminated and how it affects the people I am surrounded with. Its hard enough for gay women to try and get married and be with that person they want to be with now women are having trouble with trying to have a baby. I think that if that child is going to be loved and be brought up in a healthy enviorment they should have no problem trying to have a baby. For example there was an article that I found talking about how doctors refused to artificially inseminate a lesbian couple for no reason. The two doctors were taken to court and they won the case. They said that is was for religious liberty in refusing to treat them because it was against their religious beliefs. Guadalupe Benitez who was the women that was suing the doctors agianst sexual-orientation discrimination. There is enough problems in the world to begin with and to deny someone from having a child is beyond obsurd. Like I have previously stated in one of my other blogs, I do have friends that are gay and they get discriminated whereever they go. Its morally wrong to deny someone from having a child just because of sexual preferences.

The Aftermath of Halloween

Halloween is the most outrageous day to party out of the whole year. On Friday October 31, 2008 at about 2:00 am a older couple Mark and Diane Dienfethaler were arrested for letting teenagers under 21 drinking alcohol in their Annadale home. Teens who attended this house party were being charged 5 bucks to get in. The married couple were arrested on Friday night after police witnessed teens stumbling in the couples front lawn. The teens were ranging from late teens into their early 20's. When the husband was confronted they acted as if they were doing nothing wrong because it is his house and he felt he had the right to serve beer to minors. Husband and wife both spent the night in jail and are to return on December 15, 2008 and if found guilty they will be sent to jail for year. For me being underage i understand it is very hard to get liquor and teenagers just want to be able to have a good time without getting yelled at when they are doing nothing wrong. I just think that the parents should have been more aware and strict about the situation instead of going about that they did nothing wrong. They should definitely get what they deserve because they have no right to have a party with alcohol being served to minors, because if these kids did get hurt it would be the parents fault automatically.

Halloween

Every year Halloween is rolling right around the corner and every year I go all out for what I want to be during that whole day. For the last couple of years I have been dressing up in something that will be different from anyone else. I don’t like to dress up into something that just came out because everyone else will be wearing that costume. It’s the only time of the year where you can dress up and not be you but portray something totally different. For instance for one year I was a pumpkin, another I was a black fairy, and a scary monster. I always like to do something different that no one will expect me to do. I get my makeup and hair done professionally. This year I will be a angel and I am going to the Halloween parade in the city with all of my friends. I don’t like to go out clubbing because everyone does that and this year I wanted to do something fun and interesting with all of my friends. I can’t wait to see what everyone’s costumes are. I have to say that Halloween is probably one of my faviorate holidays besides Christmas. This Halloween will be different for me because I am spending with friends that I can actually rely on.

My Birthday

My favorite holiday of the whole year is my Birthday. My birthday means so much to me because it’s my special day. Ever since I was a little girl my mom and I had a rough life. We were also alone the first two years of my birthday and we grew a close relationship. Knowing that my mom was able to have two beautiful children and still be able to raise us both means a lot to me. Anyone’s birthday is a special day for that one person to celebrate. I love the gifts and everyone being on top of my special day. This year I will be 21 years old and I cannot wait. All my friends are especially excited for me. They can all go out for my birthday and treat me an amazing time. Also turning 21 is a big issue for anyone for that fact. It’s the day you become an adult and you start to learn responsibility and understand the true meaning of being an adult. I can’t wait for my birthday to come and it will be a night I will never forget.

What My Future Holds For Me

As a little girl I always wanted to be something that represented me and my life, but I could never figure it out. Growing up I always had an infatuation with animals. I always put my heart out there for them and tried to always help them. As the years went on my parents knew how much I loved animals and they decided to buy me my first pet. He was a cat and his name was Keith. To our whole family we never considered him an animal, but a family member. As the years went on we bought two dogs, which also became a part of our family. As I started to grow up and enter high school I knew it was time to start thinking about my future and since I loved animals, I knew I wanted to a vetenarian. But, growing up as usual there are always people sitting there trying to put you down. Saying that you can’t be what you want to be. As I started college, I majored in vetenarian and people were still there telling me otherwise. I dropped out of college and worked for a little because then I knew I didn’t know what I wanted to be. As a teenage we all tend to get a little confused and don’t know what we want to be. Coming to St. Johns I started to think more hard about my goals and what my future would hold me and now I want to become a Psychologist. I am extremely interested in the mind and reading people very well. I think it is an interesting field and that’s what I want to pursue my goal in. For the rest of my life I hope to find a good husband and have a wonderful family. Now that I am older I always think about my future and what it may hold for me.

The Issues Relating to Myspace

What is the one thing that keeps you glued to your computer for hours? Keeps you distracted from reality? MySpace have become so popular over the past year. A company called News Corp. spent $580 million last year just to buy it. Then Google made a $900 million deal, just to advertise with it. Some students now say they are over MySpace and the new hotspot is Facebook. Jackie Birnbaum a student from Church High School says that she is over MySpace and that it is old news. She says that she spends more of her time on Facebook then anything else. MySpace has been around for about 2 ½ years and within that time it has 124 million profiles and is still growing to this day. MySpace allows you to have a profile, email, and photo album which can be shared with friends. MySpace has its advantages and disadvantages. Some of the advantages are that you can keep in touch with old friends, talk to new friends. But the disadvantages are that there are a lot of petafilers and just plain weird people. I have a MySpace account and when I first decided to become a member I was just glued to the computer for hours and hours at a time. I only joined it to see what old friends were up to and keep in touch with people I know. But now MySpace to me is just a distraction and can get very addicting on who is sending you mail and comments for your profile. People today will do anything to stalk and look at other peoples MySpace just to keep track on them. I think MySpace is good to a certain extent but after that it just becomes a distraction to reality and understanding the issues that really and truly matter in the world.

Gay Marriage: Should It Be Allowed?

Same sex marriage issues have been around for an extremely long time. The issues of people of the same sex wanting to get married have becoming a bigger issue. These days there are a lot of reason people argue about same sex marriage. One for example is that marriage should only be between a man and woman. They basically say that same sex marriage immoral and wrong. Another reason is that same sexes aren’t allowed to raise any child. They think that is you are a same sex couple, your child will be teased and bullied and therefore it is unhealthy to raise a child. Psychologists say what is the difference if a child is being raised by either and same sex couple or heterosexual couples, as long as that child is being taken care of and being loved what is the difference. Also the bible says that marriage should only be between man and woman. People for a while have always brought the Bible into argument with this situation. I believe if two people are happy and love each other whether it is same sex or opposite sex they should be allowed to get marry and be able to raise children. I also believe that the real reason people oppose gay marriage is that they are just uncomfortable with the idea or two people of the same being all over each other in that kind of way. We are all human and we all have equal rights. So why do gay people have to suffer. They put it out there basically saying that gay people are wrong. But therefore, there are still sex-offenders, racist people, robbers and murders on the street and all people care about are gay issues. I have a lot of friends who are gay and I don’t think they should be treated any less then people who like the opposite sex. People who judge are immoral and have no right to judge for no reason. I think same sex should be allowed if two people love each other.

My Significant Place

The place that is most significant to me I would have to say is the block that I live on today. The reason why my block means so much to me is because I was born and raised on my block the first few years of my life. Being a only child and living with my mom who had to play the role of being both parents was very difficult. Before my sister was born my mom and I were extremely close. I always looked up to my mom even to this day. She put her children before herself. My significant place I would have to say is our significant place. It is a bond that we have knowing that we both shared special moments there. Its is a bond that no one could break. Even though I was such a young child at the time I could remember it like it was yesterday. The smell, taste of certain foods everything. I don't even live that far away from where I use to live as a child. I could even remember how the yard looked too. I have to say that me and mom over the last few years had driven apart because of the struggle I went through. But everytime I am down she pulls out those special pictures and talks about those special moments that we use to have together. My mom is my role model and I want to be like her when I get older because she is a strong women and I want to take after her.

Travis Barker and DJ AM: Plane Crash

On Friday, September 19, 2008 a plane crash had occurred. The passenger’s that were on the plane included former Blink-182 drummer Travis Barker , DJ AM, Barker's assistant, Chris "Little Chris" Baker, Barker's security guard, Charles Still, the plane's pilot, Sarah Lemmon, and her co-pilot, James Bland. The four passengers’ on the plane were killed while Barker and DJ AM were in critical condition. Travis Barker and DJ AM had just performed at the free T-Mobile sponsored show in the Five Points area. Bother Barker and AM were transported to a hospital in Columbia following the crash. They were in critical condition at the hospital with extensive amounts of burns. Travis Barker had severe burns from the waist down , while AM only suffered facial burns. Travis Barker and DJ AM very extremely lucky to have survived the plane crash while the four other passengers were killed. In the past decade there were at least 13 plane crashes that included celebrities and they were all killed by plane. Luckily Barker and AM had survived this dreadful plane crash. I believe a lot of celebrities either die or are immensely hurt in plane crashes just by private jet. Private pilots don’t have a lot of training compared to pilots who drive commercial planes containing a lot of passenger’s. I think that pilots who drive private jets should go through the same training as commercial pilots. A lot of these cases containing private jets would decrease because of the training they should be getting. This plane crash took place just before midnight on Friday, September 19, 2008. While the plane was still on the ground, overran the runway, struck by an antenna array and several lights and starting sparking. It then skidded of the runway, through a perimeter fence separating the airfield from a nearby roadway, and then crossed the roadway, coming to a stop on an embankment. The plane then caught on fire through impact. I would have to say that God was surely watching over them because they had survived while the four other passengers on board had died.

School Shootings and The Consequences

On Tuesday , April 20, 1999 The Columbine High School massacre occurred. Two students who go by the names Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold who took part in the massacre , killing 12 students a teacher and wounding 23 others as well right before they both committed suicide. They said this was the fourth deadliest school shooting the United States history , right after the Bath School disaster , the 2007 Virginia Tech massacre and the University of Texas massacre. I believe that massacre's all have something in common , they are all provoked by bullying and high school cliques. Even though movies and video games play a huge role, to me bullying is number one on the list. Bullying in almost all generation take part in something we all wish wouldn't happen. If someone is being teased and criticized by color, race and gender , people are bound to retaliate. Some teenagers today take offense in how other people treat them, and judge them simply by what they wear, where they live and who they are friends with. In all of these massacre's bullying played a huge roll in all of these massacre's. The shootings all resulted in an increased emphasis on school security, and a moral panic aimed on Goth culture, social pariahs , the gun culture, the use of pharmaceutical anti-depressants by depressants and violent video games. I think that if there is a sign of bullying in any school teachers, counselors and principles should take action immediately

Lily's Road

Once upon a time there was a young girl who goes by the name Lily. This girl always felt out of place with her own kind. She always tried to make herself fit in by always following what other people did. When she was younger she always did what her parents told her to do. They always wanted her to be perfect like she was their robot. So without any arguments she did exactly that. She would go to school come home and did that same routine for years. As she grew older her parents knew that their little girl would be all grown up soon and have to understand the meaning of love and life. They couldn’t keep her away from the world any longer. It was like an urge for her to go out into the real world and meet new people and understand new and exciting things. When she hit her teenage years that’s when Lily finally realized that she couldn’t keep her feelings hiding. She started junior high and started to make friends. She was still doing what her parents told her to do but not so much anymore. She made some new and exciting people. Her parents started to get nervous and scared because they didn’t want their little girl to grow up. They wanted to keep her hidden from the world so she wouldn’t have to experience pain, jealousy, envy, greed. They thought they were trying to protect her but they weren’t, in order to be a human being you have to go through those stages in life to understand how to deal with certain situations. Lily knew it was time to put her foot down and say something to both of her parents. She told them that it’s not fair that other kids can have fun but she can’t. Teenagers shouldn’t be put to work like Lily was, and she finally stop up for herself. When high school rolled around the corner, Lily started to rebel a little. She hung out whenever she wanted to, came and went as she pleased, and also started hanging out with the wrong crowd. As the days turned into months Lily started getting bad grades and didn’t even go to class. She couldn’t see it like her parents did so they sat her down and spoke to her about it. She did what every normal teenage would do, she ignored them and went about her business like she has been. She was blind by what the influence of her new friends had on her. Her parents then transferred her to a private school because they had enough. They didn’t want to see their little girl go down that path they were petrified of. When Lily started her knew school she was nervous and afraid to meet new people but she had to do it. When she started her new school the people there were extremely nice they included her in everything and this was new for her because she had never met anyone who was that nice to her. Her grades started going back up and her parents told her that they were going be a little easier on her since she has been making extremely good progress. As she grew up she has matured in ways nobody would think of and she became that young women that her parents are very proud of her.

My Life Growing Up

Growing up it was very hard for my family . It was my mom , my sister and I living in a small apartment . Things never came easy to us as they do now . My mom fell in love with a man who she thought she would spend the rest of her life with . My grandparents despised him but as always she followed her heart . My mom got married to him and things were going extremely good for the two . But as time went on their relationship became really rocky . Her husband started to go out more , come home at all hours of the night . On December 5, 1987 they gave birth to a little girl named Erica . She was the cutest thing in the world or so I have been told . Things started coming together , but after the birth of my sister who was born on August 22, 1989 things started to get worse . He started with coming home even later or not coming home at all . My mom started to suspect something . He gut feelings were telling her something wasn’t right that there was someone else and as always she was . My mom divorced him because she thought without him being in our lives he couldn’t hurt her and most importantly us . It was rough in the beginning but no matter what she always pulled through with us . She always made it fun . Even thought we didn’t have a lot we had one thing and that was a lot of love . It was very hard for her to support her two children . She always put me and my sister before her no matter what the case may be. So as the months turned into years my mom finally went on a date with a high school friend . He walked into her job and asked her to lunch but little did she know was that they would have clicked perfectly . She thought it was an innocent lunch date , she didn’t think it was serious or he would call . But he did , he wanted to catch up , and meet her two children . He did everything for our family , he took us places , bought us stuff . Even though money didn’t matter to her . She finally felt important for once in her life and so did her children . Our family was being acknowledged . So things started to get serious and finally he asked her to marry him and she said yes . I knew from then on out things were going to be alright . Even though he isn’t my real father I still love him like he is . I have to say he showed me how to live life to the fullest and he made me understand what the meaning of love and life is . I look up to my mom a lot . I have to say she is my role model and she showed me to be strong and to be wise on how to chose a guy . To this day I have not seen my father in over 18 years and I am going to be 21 . I don’t wish to see or speak to him he put my mom through a lot and I don’t think no women should suffer like my mom did . That is why she is my role-model she helped me become a stronger person today and I thank her and my father for raising me to become a good-hearted person .

My Future

As a young child I had so many dreams of what my future would consist of . I always use to pretend that I was getting married and how my wedding would be like . When I was born it was always my mom , my sister and I . My dad was not in the picture . He left us when I was about 2 and my sister was born . So I had no father figure in my life for a few years . I always knew that I wanted to be something to help my community and help others in need . So therefore I wanted to be a veterinarian . I loved animals and to this day I still do . As I got older into my teen years I still wanted to pursue my dreams so therefore I took action . Right around when I started to graduate high school I applied to many colleges that had my major and finally found one college . It was the County College of Morristown where I tried to pursue my goal in life . But as usual all of my friends were doubting me . Telling me that I couldn’t do it and putting negative thoughts into my head . So I started Morristown and withdrew only after a few months because I thought at the time school was not for me at least at the time . All I wanted to do was hang out and have my fun . After a few years as I grew older , wiser and became more mature . I decided it was time to go back to school and pursue my career goals . I then came to a conclusion veterinarian maybe wasn’t for me but I knew in my heart psychology was . I am very interested in the mind and want to help people with their problems because I know I am so good at it . All my friends come to me with their problems and I always find the right solution for them . I don’t mean to sound cocky but I am always right about my friends issues . I always tell them I am going to start to charge them because they always come to me . I know that when I get older I want to open my own practice and become an independent women because I feel no women should have to depend on a man . When I get older I know that I will be extremely good at what I will be doing because I basically do it now . I love helping others and I hope I can give back to my community in every way possible.

Camping Trip

I have been planning my first camping trip with my friends for as long as I could remember . My three friends and I had planned this camping trip for a couple of weeks and we were all excited to go . We planned this trip for August 15 through the 17 . We all packed like there was no tomorrow . If anything I believed we over packed . It was our first camping trip so we all wanted to make sure that we had everything we needed . We had a tent , grill , blow up beds , food and much more . One of my friends had brought her video camera to capture every funny moment that was going to happen during this weekend of adventure . On August 15 we had woken up bright and early , got the car packed and went on our 2 hour drive to the campsite in Pennsylvania . When we arrived it was 12:00 in the afternoon and that's when we decided to video tape our first funny moment . It was us pitching the tent . I could actually say for four girls going camping for the weekend we did an amazing job . We made lunch and waited to see what the rest of the day would lead us , but little did we know a storm was heading our way . After a few hours of setting everything up it started to pour . we all ran in our tent and waited until the rain had past us . The rain past us and we all made dinner and relaxed played a few games and went to bed early because we had a long second day ahead of us . As we were sleeping I had heard people rummaging through our garbage or so I thought . When we woke up our food and garbage had been eaten by animals . I thought it was the funniest thing in the world . When we woke up the next morning which was bright and early we rented a few bikes and went bike riding on the trails . The scenery was so nice and it was so peaceful . I never thought nature could be so relaxing . Our second day was going perfect . We then made dinner and then went to the lake to go fishing . I could never think four girls camping would make it and have a great weekend like we all did . All I kept thinking was that I didn't want this weekend to end . We met a lot of nice people and we all bonded and got away like we all planned since we didn't get to gone vacation this year . When Sunday finally came we were a little upset that the weekend had flown by so fast , but we were also so happy to finally go home and eat a nice home-cooked meal . I have to say my experience camping couldn't have been so much fun if it wasn't for my friends to be there with me . We all had an amazing time and I would definitely do it again .

The Year 2005

I could remember it just like yesterday when the ball dropped and I was out for New Years Eve . I thought it would be the best year of my life . I had a job , great friends and it was my last year of High School . I had everything I had always wished for . On March 21 , 2005 was the day that changed my life forever . It was a stormy and gloomy day . I had just gotten out of school and was on my way to work . When I got out of worked I glanced at my cellphone and there it was , missed calls from everyone I knew . I had no idea what was going on . I was getting very nervous . I had the sweaty palms , shaking hands and nervousness . As U was driving home I got another phone call and I knew this was the phone callIi would never want to get . It was from a very close friend of mine . I picked up the phone very hesitant not wanting to know what information I was about to recieve . So as I slowly answered the phone , thinking to myself should I or should'nt I answer . I finally answered . It was about my friend Dave . "Dave got shot" "Dave got shot" that's all my friend was saying . I could'nt believe what she was saying , so I laughed and said stop playing around . But she said it again and that's when I knew she wasn't joking . I came home ran upstairs and locked myself in my room . I didnt want to be bothered , I just wanted to be left alone . He was like a brother to me and I could'nt believe this really was happening to me . I just lost my brother , my bestfriend and the only person that got me through anything and everything . Those words still to this day replay in my head "Dave got shot" . I was in denial for a very long time . I was very depressed for a while , blaming myself . The night before he had past away he had called me because he was having problems and wanted to come over and I told him no . I should of said yes , I could of prevented all of this and he would still be in my life to this day . After a while I started to forgive myself and understand that he is in a better place . I am going to be 21 in a few months and I told myself if I could go through this I could handle anything . I still visit him and the thoughts of him will never fade away .