Honors English 10 2015-2016
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This generation is way too careless about what we do on the internet, especially on social media. We’ve grown up with access to the internet and we are the social media generation, and this had made us careless and irresponsible. It’s not that we don’t know how dangerous the internet can be; we grew up being constantly lectured about internet safety, we just don’t care. We think we can say whatever we want, do whatever we want, and act however we want online without any consequence whatsoever. However, the consequences for what we do online are real and we need to realize that.
All you have to do is just look at almost any teenager’s social media account, be it Twitter, Instagram, Snapchat, Tumblr or Facebook, to tell that they, most likely, do not think and do not care about what they do online. We live in a society where it’s not only acceptable but cool to post every single part of your life on some sort of social media. Rants, embarrassing pictures, inappropriate language, references to illegal activity, hate comments and much more now come standard on a lot of teen’s Twitters, Snapchats and Instagrams. The agruements of “it’s not like anyone is going to care” or “it doesn’t matter” are all too common when someone does try to confront another person about their poor choices on the internet. Looking at all the stupid things people post and do it’s hard to believe that these people sat and listened to the same internet safety lectures as I did throughout my childhood. I swear that most teens blatantly refuse to believe or listen to even the most undeniable facts about the internet if they go against what they want to do online. To be honest, the problem is the environment on social media. It’s not cool to have a private account. It’s not cool to be aware of what you’re putting out there. It is cool to constantly whine and complain and swear and talk about all the “fun” things you do even if they are illegal and you could get in huge trouble if the authority or your parents found out. It’s also extremely not cool to believe that the internet is not necessarily safe. I’ve seen so many posts on various forms of social media scoffing at the idea of internet safety: “Yeah, all people on the internet are totally sexual predators”, “Right, because the government is totally going to look at my twitter” are just a few examples of the wide array of these kinds of comments. And while the truth of the matter is that the stranger who just followed you is probably not a sexual predator and the FBI is probably not stalking your twitter, these things are possible and they are also only the most extreme cases of what can result from your internet carelessness. Too many teenagers just don’t think about the fact that what they do online can actually impact their real life as well. They don’t think before they act, they just hit post. They are so desperate to fit in that even some of the smartest, most aware people do and say stupid things on social media. I’m not saying that I am perfect, that I never do anything stupid online or that I am above all other teenagers. The truth is, I am kind of right there with them. I’ll admit that I have not always been as careful as I know I should be, but I am doing way better than a lot of my peers. As a whole, we all need to be more careful about our actions online. Because the truth of the matter is, even if they don’t come back to kick us in the rear, they could seriously hurt someone else, or they might not end up having any consequence at all, but it’s better safe than sorry.
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This past week’s weather has got me super excited; it’s finally starting to feel like fall. Key word: finally. Let’s be clear, I’ve been ready for fall to start since mid-August, and I’m not exactly the most patient of people at the moment. Fall is just my absolute favorite season; it’s literally so perfect. I love everything about it, from the colors, to the weather, to the beauty of every single thing, to the flavors, to the fashion, to the holidays and pretty much everything in between. Oh man, I just love it.
Like I said, I’ve been waiting for fall to start since the middle of August. Remember that cold spell we had for like a week? Yeah, well that’s what re-kindled my fall addiction. Every year, when that weather starts to turn cold I just get so pumped, I am ready for fall. At first I’m a little bit unhappy though, the coming of fall also means the coming of something that I dislike even more than I like fall, school. However, once I’ve jumped the hurdle of the beginning of the school year and I’ve finally accepted that I can’t avoid it forever, I’m 10000% ready for fall, and it just can’t come fast enough. The first thing I love about fall is the weather and the nature. While I may not always be the biggest fan of the cold, the weather of fall, especially the early fall, is absolutely perfect. It’s so ideal for both snuggling up with warm blankets on the couch all day with some hot cider, or for going out hiking or picking apples or whatever else. Of course, with the cool weather come the changing leaves, which are my favorite thing, especially since I love photography so much. I could spend day after day, hour after hour just walking around, taking pictures of the incredible beauty- which is, by the way, my absolute favorite thing to do. I go on so many more walks and take five times as many photos in the fall than I do in any other season, and I love it. Everything is more beautiful in fall, I swear. In addition to the splendor of nature that I love so much, every year fall brings back my absolute favorite foods, drinks, and flavors. In my opinion, the only way you can beat pumpkin spice is with apple spice. Fall foods are literally the best foods. I also happen to be an apple fanatic- fresh apples of every kind, apple cider, caramel apples apple spice tea, apple pie, apple flavored literally anything else- ugh, apples are pretty much my life. I think I could live off of apples, and when it’s fall I pretty much get to do just that. But let’s not forget about the other incredible flavors of fall, pumpkin, for example, yes please. If I can’t have apple flavored, pumpkin flavored will work almost as well. That’s not it though, there’s so much more, like candy corn and other candies and treats, pecans, pears, cinnamon and more, yum. There are so many foods and drinks that are popular in the fall that you can’t even buy during the rest of the year. Also, one of my favorite things to do is try out all sorts of different seasonal recipes and fall is one of the, if not the best season for that. It’s not just food either. What about smells? Quite frankly, apple and pumpkin themed scents are just as good as their food counterparts. Just take me into Bath and Body Works or the scented candle section of any store during the fall and give me as much time as I want and I swear I will love you forever (bonus points for actually buying me stuff). Already this year I’ve gotten my mom super annoyed with me many times because I wouldn’t stop smelling the scented candles in the store, oops. Fall scents might actually be one of my favorite things to ever exist, they make me so freaking happy. Well, I’m not even halfway done with all the things that I love about fall, but I’m already over seven hundred words and don’t want this to be too torturously long so I guess I’ll have to stop there. Maybe I’ll continue on the subject next week (and the week after) since I have so much to say about it, but I won’t keep you here forever. So, sorry that this has been really long, I just really love fall a lot and it makes me so happy that it’s finally arriving. I hope. As it always does, lately school has been taking up literally all of my time and my energy. So, that’s what I’m going to be writing about this week.
I feel like I literally don’t even have time to think or breathe because of school; there’s always something happening or something that needs to get done. It might be that I’m just over-involved or maybe school just actually asks too much of everyone, but honestly, either way, it’s just so over-whelming and incredibly time-consuming. Every day, by the time school ends, I get done with practice and get home I’m already exhausted, but there’s still so much more to be done. Firstly, I’ve got to worry about homework and studying, especially since I’m such an over-achiever and have very high expectations for myself. Then of course I’ve got to worry about taking care of myself, you know, basic hygiene and health things like eating and showering and trying my best to get enough sleep even though I never, ever can. However, as anyone can tell you, that’s not the end of it either. I swear I spend half my evenings (a.k.a. the only time I have to get anything and everything done) getting my stuff and myself ready for the next day of school; between packing up my bags, getting food ready, planning my outfit and doing whatever else needs to get done I feel like the focus of my mind and my time is always school. Let me break it down for you. Every day, I wake up at six in order to be out of the house and headed to school by 7:05. Then of course I’m in school from 7:30 to 2:40, which is bad enough in and of itself. But then I have to wait around school, trying to get as much homework done as possible until four at which point cross country practice starts. By the time practice is over we’re nearing six o’clock at the very earliest, and by the time I’m able to text my parents for a ride and wait around for them to get there, I’m lucky if I’m home by 6:15. When I get home I’ve got one thing on my mind, well really I have a million, but there’d one thing that’s a clear priority above everything else: food. So, I eat some dinner and at the same time, I get started on my homework. Depending on the day this could take fifteen minutes or it could take three hours. When I’m finally finished with that torture I’m immediately down to preparing for the next day of school. I’ve got to make sure I’ve got all my books and such packed up, I have a plan for lunch, have my clothes for practice ready, have an outfit picked out and I have to take care of a bunch of other little stuff. From there I move on to showering and getting ready for bed. Usually, by the time I finish with all that it’s at least ten o’clock and I feel like I’m dying of exhaustion. Now, I’m not trying to make anyone feel bad for me or trying to say my life sucks or anything like that; I’m simply saying that school is so draining and so time-consuming. There’s so much I would like to do and I just never have enough time to do any of it. I know that real life for most adults is much the same way if not worse and that all other students like me struggle with the same issue, but I wish it didn’t have to be that way. School is very stressful for me and takes up almost one hundred percent of my time, honestly it’s awful and sometimes I just want to relax and not have my mind constantly taken up by school. |
HayleeI write these things. |