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myenglishposts · 11 years ago

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1. High school will drain you. It’s panic attacks in the hallway and crying in the bathroom and eating lunch in the back of the library because the cafeteria makes your heart beat too fast. It’s getting high and throwing up. You will learn a lot about death and how to treat your cuts. You will also learn what it’s like to get drunk and laugh at the stars and how to write poetry that makes the world hurt less. You will read books that you fall in love with. You will fall in love. You’ll get closer to your mother because you’ll need someone to help you with your math homework and teach you how to put on your makeup and wipe away your tears. 2. The first boy you fall in love will break you. He’ll tell you he loves you and convince you to fuck him in the back of his parents beat up volvo and then he’ll tell all his friends what you taste like and stop calling you before you fall asleep. Delete his number and throw away the stuffed bear he won you at the carnival three weeks before. Your carpet will be stained with tears and vomit and liquor and you’ll fight with you dad a lot more than usual. You’ll spit up pieces of your heart for weeks. You’ll burn alive when you see him in the halls. You won’t always feel like you’re cracking and a few months later you’ll be falling asleep on the phone with someone else. Let it hurt for a little while but don’t let it kill you. Never let it kill you. 3. The girl you’ve been best friends with for 9 years will stop speaking to you. One night you’ll make plans with her and she’ll cancel at the last minute because she’s sick but you’ll see her updating her snapchat story with pictures of empty alcohol bottles and blurry eyes and the mean girls who never let you sit with them. Try to forgive her. She’s going through all the bloody, broken teeth, black and blue filled nights like you are. Everyone’s trying to survive so don’t be too hard on anyone. Especially yourself. 4. Your teacher will ask the class questions and you’ll know the answers but you’ll keep your shaky hand between your knees and keep your tongue glued to the top of your mouth. Don’t bother. Speak out. Nothing bad will happen. So when your biology teachers calls on you to tell him about last nights assignment, don’t stare at the spinning ground and mumble through numb lips. You’re smarter than you think and nobody is looking at you anyway. 5. You’re not his baby girl. hen he tries to kiss your neck and pull you onto his lap, get up and leave. You don’t have to go upstairs with him. You don’t have to sleep with him because he’s begging. It’s not your job to fuck around with boys who can’t remember your name. Take care of yourself even when he’s calling you a tease and whispering just loud enough for you to hear. 6. Go out. Go to football games and sit on hard metal bleachers for hours and take shots that taste like bleach and hold hands with the cute boy from english class. Go to that dumb party and don’t complain or stand in the corner. Things are always moving. people are always falling in love and laughing and putting themselves back together. Be part of it. 7. Ask for help.You don’t have to let yourself rot. When you don’t know how to do something in math class ask your teacher to explain. When your heart falls out of your chest and shatters at your feet, ask your best friend to come over and watch bad movies with you until you both feel less dead. When the boy you’re convinced you love kisses someone else, ask your mother to help stop the bleeding. you’re not alone so stop acting like it. No more breakdowns at three in the morning locked in the bathroom screaming. Your older sister is still awake. Crawl into bed with her. 8. It all ends. High school doesn’t last forever and 6 years from now you’ll be whole again. You won’t remember the names of the boys who made you cry or the girls who fucked you over. You won’t remember the names of the teachers who made your cheeks turn red and tied your stomach in knots. You won’t remember the time you fell down the stairs in front of everyone. You won’t remember what it’s like to want to die. Try to remember the times you laughed so hard you spit out your drink. Try to remember the people who helped put you back together. Try to remember the people who bled with you when things got messy, when they call you at 3 in the morning to ask how you’ve been, answer the phone. 9. Don’t forget to breathe.

9 things to remember when you are 14 (via extrasad)

this made such a massive impact on me thank you so m uch

(via plantoiid)

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myenglishposts · 11 years ago

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Reduce, Reuse, RECONSIDER: It's Time to Throw Out Old Habits

PART ONE: Background & Launch into What the Deal Is

In 1987, propaganda forced our nation into a program on which we’d come to spend billions of tax dollars every year, a program that we’d grow to never question, a program whose moral justification is always assumed. I was pulled along in this feel-good scheme with everyone else. Earlier this year, I created a power-point presentation for my previously assumed non-green parents to convince them to let our family finally get a recycling bin. Because my power-point ensured my devotion and unfortunately single-minded goal, in addition to my nerdy ambition, they allowed me to bring in the bin to our home, but with the aid of many facts about recycling that I had never known nor had I thought that they had. This brings me back to a better story of greater relevance, a story that answers; what created this whole recycling thing?

The Mobro 4000. In March 1987, a barge left a port in Islip, New York with 3,168 tons of trash, heading for Morehead City, North Carolina, where the trash would be turned into methane. Unfortunately, when news channels began reports on its arrival, a bedpan was viewed in a background shot of the barge, and rumors spread of the risk of hospital waste. North Carolina officials then rejected the drop-off of the garbage, and the barge had to head toward a new destination. After being rejected in Alabama, Louisiana, Texas, Mexico, and Belize (Katz, Jane), the barge was finally ordered to be allowed entry back into New York to be incinerated in Brooklyn. Although this event was purely a money-making arrangement constructed by a mob boss who works with waste management, it burst the country into an environmentalist frenzy.

(The video above shows tells the story of the Mobro 4000 featuring the masterminds who created it all, connecting it to the mass-recycling launch.)

Before the barge incident, the United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) was established in December 1970 in response to recently increased concern over pollution of our nation and in interests of maintaining a creating a "cleaner, healthier environment for the American people (EPA History)." After the Mobro 4000, the EPA became one of the governments most popular agencies. Presidents, such as Richard Nixon and Ronald Reagan, began including environmental priorities in their presidential campaigns and recycling reached its thriving point. Some cities enforced new regulations charging people for recyclable materials in their garbage cans (Langston, Jennifer) and recycling availability was made increasingly easy, with recycling bins costing close to nothing and the doubling of the boisterous and clunky Monday morning pick-up from one truck to two. "Reduce, Reuse, Recycle" wasn't just a catch-phrase, it was an anthem. An anthem that promoted what was humane, what was just, what was right.

In hindsight, this activism is nice to think about. What person wouldn't support a nation truly working as a whole with the intentions of making this world better for the generations to come? However, we must lower our high-heads and never cease our self-checking in order to maintain the correct executions of what are truly good intentions.

So, why are landfills so profoundly disgusting and discouraged by the human population? There are the obvious answers: they're ugly, gross, smelly, and all the other elementary insults. But the main concerns are that they bring our garbage into contact with our underground minerals; that they release harmful toxins into our atmosphere; that landfills are solely detrimental to our environment. False. Don’t get me wrong, these are all justifiable concerns, but there is a solution intact for every one.

Lots of qualifications must be obtained before a landfill can be properly constructed, let alone, be used. Questions about the area of land for the landfill, surrounding environment and possible impacts, the underlying bedrock and soil composition, the flow of surface water over the site, or the historical value of the area must all be answered with no harmful consequences pertaining to the landfill’s creation(Freudenrich, Ph.D. Craig). In addition, seven layers different layers for protection and drainage must be made below the old and new cells of garbage in a landfill to protect minerals underground (Freudenrich, Ph.D. Craig). Although the Earth below our landfills is well off, the upper atmosphere must be addressed as well. The anaerobic breakdown in landfills does in fact release gases during its process, and these gases contain approximately 50% methane. This methane is harmful to breathe and is also identified as a greenhouse gas, making it an unfortunate contributor to global warming. But, methane is also able to be broken down to create energy(Facts about Landfill Gas), which happened to be the primary cause of the Mobro 4000s travels back in 1987. These techniques demonstrated by innovative waste collectors to collect and create energy from methane gases are spreading to more landfills each year.

So how does the energy-efficiency of recycling factories compare? It's well-known that the recycling of aluminum is extraordinarily productive, as breaking down and reproducing an aluminum can takes about 5% of the energy it takes to make an original one from bauxite ore (Kazmeyer, Milton), but are these rates just as high for other materials, such as plastic? We aren't paying a deposit to bring plastic bottles back in, so why glass & aluminum? In order to properly evaluate the effectiveness of these recycling organizations, one must see if this re-creation process for materials, such as plastic, costs more money and energy than it would've been to make these products from scratch.

As for the problem of landfill space, there isn't one. The EPA has made several notes of the decreasing amount of landfills in our country but makes no hints at what is most important: their capacity (Facts About America’s Landfills). The landfills that we have have the space estimated to last hundreds, if not thousands of years altogether. And hopefully by then, we will have more efficient and productive recycling programs. Up until that point, more education is necessary for the proper constructive habits in the "saving" of the Earth before we are forced to save it from ourselves. Las Vegas comedians Penn & Teller produce a Mythbusters-esque tv show, called "Bullshit,"

in which they provide the facts behind commonly accepted beliefs and habits, and they recently came out with one on recycling (shown above). I plan to expand on many of their key concepts in coming posts, including the role of tree farms, the unknown redundancy taking place in recycling factories, and the plentitude of time and money wasted on recycling that should instead be out towards creating a new hobby for the American population.

Works Cited

“EPA History." EPA. Environmental Protection Agency, n.d. Web. 15 Apr. 2014. http://www2.epa.gov/aboutepa/epa-history.

"The Facts About America's Landfills." Postcom: Association for Postal Commerce. Postcom, n.d. Web. 11 Apr. 2014. http://postcom.org/eco/facts.about.landfills.htm.

"Facts About Landfill Gas." Www.dem.ri.gov. Environmental Protection Agency, Jan. 2000. Web. 11 Apr. 2014. http://www.dem.ri.gov/programs/benviron/waste/central/lfgfact.pdf.

Freudenrich, Ph.D. Craig. "How Landfills Work." HowStuffWorks. HowStuffWorks.com, 16 Oct. 2000. Web. 11 Apr. 2014. http://science.howstuffworks.com/environmental/green-science/landfill.htm.

Katz, Jane. "What a Waste - Boston Fed." What a Waste - Boston Fed. Federal Reserve Bank of Boston, 2002. Web. 11 Apr. 2014. https://www.bostonfed.org/economic/nerr/rr2002/q1/waste.htm.

Kazmeyer, Milton. "How Much Energy Does Recycling Save?." Home Guides. SF Gate, n.d. Web. 10 Apr. 2014. http://homeguides.sfgate.com/much-energy-recycling-save-79720.html.

Langston, Jennifer. "Mandatory Recycling Program Working Well." Seattlepi.com. Seattle PI, 14 Mar. 2006. Web. 10 Apr. 2014. http://www.seattlepi.com/local/article/Mandatory-recycling-program-working-well-1198413.php.

"Municipal Solid Waste." EPA. Environmental Protection Agency, n.d. Web. 10 Apr. 2014. http://www.epa.gov/waste/nonhaz/municipal/.

"Voyage of the Mobro 4000." Retro Report RSS. Retro Report, 6 May 2013. Web. 11 Apr. 2014. http://retroreport.org/voyage-of-the-mobro-4000/.

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myenglishposts · 11 years ago

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To Be or Not To Be?

“To be or not to be…(III,I,56)” begins one of the most well-known soliloquys of Hamlet, a decision, in different extremities, that every one is forced to reference on a daily basis. This intro is synonymous with what we call our “fight or flight” mechanism. All accounts of history have begun with this question: to fight for what you regard as truth or to let it be? To argue with a classmate, a parent, a boss, or ignore the issue? To remain helpless while jumped in an alley or to decide to fight back? To allow unnecessary authoritative action or to respond with likewise aggression? Hamlet’s predicament battles between life and death, as does the case between Trayvon Martin and George Zimmerman. The relation of these two stories can help recognize what causes this “fight” in us: fear.

On the night that Zimmerman made the decision to pursue Martin individually, no evidence was found as to whether Zimmerman was looking for violence or innocently looking to protect the people of his neighborhood. But there is no possibility that Zimmerman was in “flight” mode. He was not dismissing the situation. Zimmerman was doing what he believed was right, was justifiable, was his truth. But what DRIVES these armored decisions, these offensive actions? Fear. We act when threatened and threatened is what Zimmerman was. This fear drove Zimmerman to assume and stalk and confront, while a similar fear caused Martin to respond back in a stronger force. Afterwards, Zimmerman responds with a bullet to his fear of death. Fear is a power that demands to be felt and the reaction can be the difference between life and death.

Hamlet’s threat is Claudius. The common interpretation of the book poses the threat as Claudius assuming position as Hamlet’s father and Hamlet’s suspicion of Claudius’ participation in his dad’s murder. However, there is an alternate interpretation by Sigmund Freud that the threat is created by Hamlet’s love and desire for his mother and Claudius taking that away. Either way, Hamlet's fear produces the whole plot in Shakespeare’s story. He must decide whether or not “to take arms against a sea of troubles and, by opposing, end them (III,I,59).” The evil that is fear grew to control Hamlet’s life and take away that of others, eventually including his entire family.

Zimmerman’s fear may have resulted from racism, or a “single story.” Chimamanda Adichie, an African storyteller, teaches the harms of “single stories,” which result from the assuming of an entire culture or event due to only one teaching. A single story of Zimmerman’s may have been about recent teenager misconduct, criminals dressing in black hoodies, or even just pure discriminating views of blacks. Either way, fear is the key created from all of these, and it’s the same thing that drove Hamlet to kill Claudius and drives us all to act in various measures today. But fear is not to be avoided, it is to be overcome. Brent Staples, in his essay, “Black Men and Public Space,” does not wish to ignore this misunderstood interpretation of him by others, he wishes to correct it in a progressive fashion. Adichie wishes to provide additional stories to further create an image. Obama speaks in his speech on the Trayvon Martin case on how he works to detain this mislead fear in our nation. The path is long and rugged, but its travelers are resilient.

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#ela11 #trayvon martin #george zimmerman #hamlet #relation #fear

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